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Seminole teacher arrested for having sex with student www.privateofficer.com
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. Aug 15 2010 A Seminole county teacher has been arrested and charged with having sex with one of his students in his classroom while he was teaching at Seminole High School.
According to investigators, Craig Meyer, 42, allegedly had as many as 17 sexual encounters with a female student four years ago. The victim told detectives that the encounters occurred at her residence and inside Meyer’s classroom at the high school during the 2006-2007 school year.
The victim was 15 at the time the alleged acts occurred. She came forward in June.
Meyer, who was arrested and jailed on an $11,600 bond, is currently assigned as a teacher at Millennium Middle School in Sanford.
Source: WOFL, FOX 35
Martial Arts teacher arrested for molesting student www.privateofficer.com
LA MESA CA Aug 15 2010 — The owner of a martial arts school has been arrested on suspicion of repeatedly molesting one of his 13-year-old students, La Mesa police said Friday.
Eric Protas, 38, was arrested Thursday morning on numerous counts of child molestation. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Protas, who is also an instructor at the Allied Gardens School of Martial Arts, is accused of abusing the boy over a one-year period.
No one at the studio could be reached for comment Friday.
A Facebook page for Protas’ supporters was launched shortly after news of the arrest broke, with many claiming his innocence.
“I cannot believe that this is true and am heartbroken for Eric, his family and most of all for the young boys and girls who look up to Eric for whom he is a mentor, role model and friend,” wrote one commenter. “Without total, definitive, non-deniable proof, I will never-ever believe these charges.”
One student wrote: “He is not the man he is accused of being.”
The school, on Waring Road, also supports after-school martial arts programs offered in elementary schools throughout the county, according to the studio’s website.
Protas began taking martial arts lessons in 1991 when he was a student at San Diego State University and later quit his job at a public relations firm to teach children karate in the after-school program, according to his testimony on the website.
“I have the opportunity to be involved in so many peoples lives, to help them develop strong minds and bodies,” Protas writes. “I get so many parents coming up to me saying how much they have seen their son or daughter benefit as a result of taking lessons either at our main school or through the elementary school program.”
Detectives are still working on developing leads on any other potential victims or witnesses to this case. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Jason Sieckman at (619) 667-1439.
School guard gets probation in porn case www.privateofficer.com
Christopher Bosak, 26, was placed on probation for two years after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Stanton said Bosak, of Salem, Wis., worked at the school for Per Mar Security Services.
Police were called to the school last Nov. 6 when a CD containing lewd photographs of the girl was found on a computer in the school’s computer lab.
Officers interviewed the girl and she told them Bosak had asked her for pictures of herself naked and she had sent him one.
Bosak, who was fired shortly after his arrest, told police he had given the girl a ride home from school and she had sent him a photograph he kept on his cell phone.
Stanton agreed to drop a charge of solicitation of child pornography in exchange for Bosak’s guilty plea to the possession charge.
Associate Judge George Bridges also ordered Bosak to complete sex offender counseling and to perform 200 hours of community service.
Bosak, who will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, is also banned from any contact with people under 18 while on probation.
He could have faced up to five years in prison if convicted after a trial
Concord High School Teacher Arrested www.privateofficer.com
WEST HARTFORD CT Aug 15 2010 — A Conard High School music teacher, who resigned earlier this month after allegations surfaced of sexual contact with one of his students, was arrested this afternoon and charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, police said.
West Hartford police said 42-year-old Joseph Marino of Wethersfield, an employee with the West Hartford school district since 1998, allegedly had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student during the 2009-2010 school year. The alleged relationship lasted for several months, according to police.
Police began investigating Marino on August 2, after the minor’s diary was reportedly found in Wethersfield outlining her relationship with the teacher. “The student has graduated,” said Lt. Donald Melanson.
The school district brought the allegations to Marino’s attention and asked him to either resign or face termination. He resigned his position as the school’s choral director, effective Aug. 9.
“The safety and well being of our students is our highest priority. We take these allegations extremely seriously,” said Rick Ledwith, executive director of human resources for the school district.
Marino, of 15 Oakdale St., was released on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 26.
Source:Middletown Press
Security shoot-kill armed man at Fla. strip club www.privateofficer.com
RIVIERA BEACH FLA AUG 15 2010
A fight inside a Palm Beach County strip club spilled into the street after a group of men were tossed out by club security, only to have one of the men pull a gun and start shooting. Police say the man refused to drop the gun when ordered by a security guard, who then shot him dead.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies say two groups were asked to leave Goldfinger Gentlemen’s Club on Resource Road in Riviera Beach early Saturday morning after a fight broke out. Once outside, an unidentified man grabbed a handgun from a car and began shooting at people in the other group. police said.
A security guard saw the shooting and ordered the man with the gun to drop his weapon. Deputies said the guard gave that order a number of times, but say he claims the man refused to get rid of the gun.
Deputies aid the guard, whose name was not immediately available, then fired a single shot that killed the gunman.
Investigators have not made the name of the gunshot victim available. Nobody else appeared to have been hit by the gunman’s shots.
Investigators are still truing to determine what the fight was about.
Source:CBS4
Texas security officer shot-suspect at large www.privateofficer.com
Montgomery County TX Aug 15 2010 Early Saturday morning around 1:15 a.m., Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the Taqueria Arandas Restaurant at 25598 I-45 in South Montgomery County in reference to a shooting.
Patrol Deputies arrived and found that a private security guard, Jose Maximino Benitez (34 -years-old) of Spring Texas that had been working at Taqueria Arandas Restaurant had been shot. Witnesses described the suspect as a Hispanic male and said that the suspect walked up to the counter and began shooting at the security guard.
The suspect fled the restaurant and got into the passenger-side of a white Chrysler 300. The victim was taken by ground ambulance to Herman Northwest Hospital where he died around 2:30 a.m. this morning. The vehicle that the suspect left in was reported stolen from a nearby apartment complex.
There were numerous witness and detectives from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit learned that the victim had confronted the suspect sometime within the last month about the suspect parking illegally in a handicap zone in front of Taqueria Arandus Restaurant. Witnesses told investigators that the suspect had threaten the victim.
Investigators have identified the suspect as Fidencio Martinez Maravillo Dob 12-19-1983 (26 Yoa) of Spring and a warrant has been issued for murder. Maravillo should be considered armed and dangerous.
Detectives and Crime Scene Investigators worked throughout the night and into the afternoon conducting interviews and examining evidence. The Sheriff’s Office is following up on all leads available in order to track down and arrest Maravillo.
Anyone with information about this crime should contact the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 936-760-5876 or Dispatch 24 hrs at 936-760-5800.
Off-road race kills 8, injures 12 www.privateofficer.com
The crash came shortly after the start of the California 200, a Saturday evening race in the Mojave Desert, said San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman.
Bachman said eight people died and 12 were injured, several of them seriously. Seven ambulances and 10 emergency aircraft responded to the scene. Most of the injured were airlifted from the area to Loma Linda University Medical Center or St. Mary’s Medical Center.
“There was dust everywhere, people screaming, people running,” David Conklin, a photographer covering the event for off-road magazines, told The Associated Press.
Conklin said the Prerunner truck was among the first 20 off the line in the race, which began at about 8 p.m. It had just gone over a jump known as “the rockpile” about two miles into the race, and he said he watched the truck sail through the air. Then he turned to watch for other vehicles when he heard the commotion caused by the crash.
“When I got up to the vehicle I could tell that several people were trapped. There were just bodies everywhere,” he said. “One woman with a major head wound (was) lying in a pool of blood. Someone else was crushed beneath the car.”
The truck came to a rest upside down with its oversized wheels pointing toward the sky, dust swirling in the meek light of the setting sun. Spectators rushed to the truck and about half a dozen people flipped it upright to try to help at least one person pinned underneath.
Officials said the driver wasn’t hurt but had to flee the scene to escape angry spectators.
The 200-mile race is part of a series held in the Mojave Desert’s Soggy Dry Lake Bed near the city of Lucerne Valley, 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Tens of thousands of people attend the California 200, in which a variety of off-road vehicles take jumps and other obstacles and reach speeds up to 100 mph on the 50-mile off-road course. The race had been scheduled to last through the night.
The crowd was standing within 10 feet of the track with no guard rails separating them from the speeding vehicles.
“There were no barriers at all,” Jeff Talbott, inland division chief for the California Highway Patrol, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
He said that the driver, who wasn’t named, was forced to run from the scene when the crowd grew unruly and some began throwing rocks at him. It was not clear why he lost control of the truck.
The CHP does not normally investigate crashes at organized races, but took the lead on this probe because of its scope and had set up a command center at the starting line of the race.
The federal Bureau of Land Management was assisting in the investigation.
The event was sponsored by the South El Monte-based Mojave Desert Racing. No one picked up the phone at a number listed on the group’s website early Sunday, and its message mailbox was full.
The crash was the latest in a series of race accidents that have proved deadly to spectators.
A car plowed into a crowd that had gathered to watch an illegal drag race on a suburban road in Accokeek, Maryland, in February 2008, killing eight people and injuring five. The two racers were charged with vehicular manslaughter. Darren Bullock, 22, was sentenced to 15 years in prison; Tavon Taylor, 20, is awaiting trial.
In Chandler, Ariz., in February, a female spectator was killed by a tire that flew off a crashing dragster at Chandler’s Firebird International Raceway for the NHRA Arizona Nationals.
In Selmer, Tennessee, a dragster went out of control and smashed into spectators during a fundraising festival in June 2007, killing six people and injuring 22. Driver Troy Critchley, 38, was convicted of misdemeanor reckless assault charges and sentenced to 18 months probation
