Archive
Woman shoplifters arrested after fighting officers www.privateofficer.com
GRAND CHUTE Oct 31 2010 — Two Milwaukee women were jailed on eight charges of retail theft each, plus resisting an officer, after being caught with a carload of stolen clothing Friday at Fox River Mall.
Jewal Thomas and Heather Wiley, both 30, were both being held in the Outagamie County Jail on bonds of $1,900 for the theft and resisting charges.
Wiley has another $100 bond for possession of THC.
Sgt Randy Reifsteck said police were called about 3:30 p.m. when mall public safety officers located a vehicle used by the women.
He said public safety had been alerted by a store operator the women were shoplifting, and had been at the mall previously.
Reifsteck said the two are suspects in incidents at the mall about three weeks ago when about $3,500 worth of clothing was taken.
He said officers found clothing valued at more than $2,000 from multiple stores in the vehicle Friday.
Reifsteck said other people apparently were working at the mall with the women, but they were not apprehended.
He said the women did not admit to taking and reselling the clothes.
“That is what happens typically,” he said. “They will have an outlet for it, either if they are selling it out of their house or they are in cahoots with another small merchant.”
He said the two would probably get about $400 or $500 for $2,000 worth of clothes.
Police say baby died in 135 degree daycare van www.privateofficer.com
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Oct. 31 2010 — A day-care van where a 2-year-old died in August reached 135 degrees inside, police in Florida said.
The police report on Haile Brockington’s death was released Friday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Haile died Aug. 5, strapped into a car seat in a van of the Katie’s Kids Learning Center in Delray Beach. Days later, Delray Beach police reconstructed the incident by creating the same conditions in the van.
Around 4 p.m., the time of day the girl was found, 6 hours after being left in the vehicle, temperatures reached 135, rising from 115 an hour after the air conditioning in the van was shut off at 10 a.m.
Police said the driver, Amanda Lee Inman, 31, of Boynton Beach, accidentally left Haile in the back of the van but still checked her name off among the children she transported.
She was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and has pleaded not guilty. The day-care center has since shut down.
Source:UPI
Church leader-teacher arrested for sexual assault of teenager www.privateofficer.com
AUSTIN MN OCT 31 2010
A Cambridge Young Life leader accused of sexually assaulting a teenager also worked as a substitute teacher.
Fifty-four-year-old Mark Holm was arrested Wednesday and is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Holm is the director of Minnesota’s East Central Chapter of Young Life, an international Christian ministry group aimed at teenagers.
The Cambridge-Isanti School District confirmed Friday that Holm is also currently working as a K-12 substitute teacher at the school. School leaders issued a statement saying, “The safety and security for our students at Cambridge-Isanti is our main concern. Our thoughts go out to those involved.”
School leaders say Holm will remain an employee until the investigation is complete.
Holm is accused of assaulting a young person who attended Young Life. 5 EYEWITNESS News has learned the alleged victim is a 17-year-old girl from Cambridge-Isanti High School. Police have not said whether they believe other people may have been victimized.
Court documents allege Holm and the teen had been text messaging back and forth, often sending naked pictures of each other. The documents also allege the two had talked about running away together, getting married, even creating a suicide pact.
The teen’s parents called police after discovering some of those text messages. The girl claims she tried to end her relationship with Holm at one point, but says he wouldn’t let her.
Young Life issued a statement Friday morning saying, “We are deeply saddened to learn of allegations against Mark Holm, a Young Life staff member in Cambridge, MN. Mr. Holm has been placed on immediate administrative leave. Young Life expects to cooperate fully with authorities in their investigation of the case.”
Holm was held on $500,000 bail with no conditions, or $100,000 bail with conditions.
The case remains under investigation.
Source:KAAL.com
NC detention officer charged with theft of credit card info to buy pizzas www.privateofficer.com
Greenville, N.C.Oct 31 2010 — A detention officer at the Pitt County Detention Center was arrested Thursday on charges of stealing credit card numbers to buy pizza.
Benjamin Mathew Whaley, 25, of 2203 Old New Bern Road in Chocowinity, was charged with six counts each of financial card fraud and obtaining property by false pretenses.
Greenville police said that a two-month-long investigation determined that Whaley used two credit card numbers to make purchases totaling $183.66 at a Domino’s Pizza store.
Police identified the victims as a 27-year-old fellow detention officer and 66-year-old Georgia man. It wasn’t clear how Whaley knew the Georgia man.
Whaley was released from the Pitt County Detention Center after posting an $85,000 secured bond
Source:WRAL.com
Manassas teacher jailed for sexting student www.privateofficer.com
MANASSAS, Va. Oct 31 2010 – A high school teacher and football coach was arrested Friday after police say he sent inappropriate text messages to a 16-year-old girl.
Prince William County Police charged William Hayes Dignan, 42, with indecent liberties by a custodian and use of a communication device to facilitate an offense with a minor.
Police says Dignan, a teacher and coach at Stonewall Jackson High School, has sent numerous messages to a student since early October.
A second coach, Nicholas Brandon Rosser, was arrested at Dignan’s home when police executed a search warrant.
Rosser, 31, was charged with marijuana possession.
Dignan is being held on $15,000 bond
Source:WTOP.com
KY deputy sheriff charged with assisting wife’s suicide www.privateofficer.com
HARRISON COUNTY, Ky. Oct 31 2010 — A Harrison County Sheriff’s deputy facing charges has turned himself in to police.
A grand jury indicted John Britton on criminal charges of assisting a suicide in the death of his wife.
Christine Britton was a former jail commander in Harrison County.
She was found dead from a gunshot wound in her home in March of 2009.
In a police interview, Britton said they were arguing moments before the shooting.
He said he tried to stop her from committing suicide but then told officers he left his handgun on the bed and walked out.
Moments later, he said he heard the gunshot.
Lafayette teacher charged after underage releationship www.privateofficer.com
Police have arrested a Lafayette middle school teacher on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student and sending her as many as 140 text messages of a sexual nature per day.
Michael Merrick was being held Thursday in county jail on $3.05 million bail.
Police Chief Mike Hubbard said the 47-year-old teacher was arrested Wednesday, two days after the female student made the allegations.
Merrick is accused of having sexual contact with the student during private tutoring sessions at Stanley Middle School. Lafayette School District Superintendent Fred Brill said Merrick is a wood shop teacher and a youth sports coach who has worked for the district for at least a decade.
It’s not known whether he has retained an attorney.
Source:www.sfgate.com
DUI dentist kills two Marriott Hotel workers www.privateofficer.com
TAMPA Fla Oct 31 2010— Doug Kozar was working toward a career in law enforcement. Kate Kohlier was about to graduate from college.
Kozar, 23, and Kohlier, 24, both died early Saturday after leaving work at the Marriott Waterside Hotel. A car veered off the road and hit them as they walked across the Harbour Island bridge. Police say a drunken driver is to blame.
Matthew R. Moye, 34, a south Hillsborough dentist, was speeding on the bridge in a black 2001 Cadillac coupe at about 2 a.m. when he hit a curb and spun out of control, according to Tampa police. The southbound car crossed into the bridge’s northbound lane and onto the sidewalk. It slid down a guardrail and over several planters while hitting Kozar and Kohlier, police said.
Kohlier was killed instantly. Kozar was pushed over a guardrail and into a planter. He was pronounced dead in an ambulance at the scene.
A third Marriott employee, Joao Armando Fonseca Barbosa, 47, suffered a broken ankle after jumping out of the way of the vehicle. He was treated at Tampa General Hospital.
Police later arrested Moye on two counts of vehicular homicide, two counts of DUI manslaughter and one count of driving under the influence with injury.
Moye, his wife Kelly, and another female passenger were temporarily trapped inside the vehicle before a Tampa Fire Rescue crew freed them, police said. No one in the vehicle was injured.
Officers noted the odor of alcohol on Moye’s breath, slurred speech and bloodshot eyes. Moye refused a breath test, but police took a sample of his blood for testing, records show.
His arrest report says he became combative when police pulled him out of his car. He hit an officer’s hand, resulting in an additional charge of battery on a law enforcement officer.
Moye practices at Big Bend Dental on Vail Ridge Drive in Riverview, according to jail records. He was being held Saturday without bond.
A woman who answered the door Saturday morning at Moye’s home on S Ferdinand Avenue in Tampa declined to comment.
Moye pleaded no contest on Oct. 21 to a charge of driving 90 mph in a 55 mph zone after being cited by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in August, according to court records. A judge withheld adjudication and ordered Moye to attend advanced defensive driving school by Dec. 20.
Court records also show Moye’s driving history includes charges of driving without a seat belt and speeding in two 2005 incidents, speeding in Polk County in 2007, driving without proof of insurance in 2008, and two speeding cases in 2009. The seat belt, insurance, 2005 and March 2009 speeding cases were dismissed. Adjudication was withheld in the August 2009 speeding case, with Moye paying a fine and court costs, records show. He also paid a fine in the Polk County case.
His wife, Kelly, was arrested on a DUI charge in 2009, according to sheriff’s records.
Friends and relatives of the victims expressed shock Saturday at the news of their deaths.
“All I can say is she was a great person,” said Jose Comparini, a co-worker of Kohlier’s. “I lost a good friend and a partner at work.”
Kohlier’s Facebook page indicates that she graduated from Largo High School in 2004. She was scheduled to graduate from USF in December with a degree in psychology.
Kozar was a graduate of the University of Tampa who came to Florida from Upstate New York to study business, but liked criminal justice better after taking some criminology classes.
After graduating in December 2009, he looked for jobs in security as a first step toward a career in law enforcement, his family said. He found work in the catering department at the Marriott, hoping he could eventually switch to hotel security.
Kozar’s girlfriend, Ashley LeBlanc, said he usually parked his car in lots or on the street downtown to avoid having to pay to park in a Harbour Island garage.
“He was a real personable kid,” said his father, Russ Kozar, of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. “We were very happy he was working and making his own way.”
When he wasn’t working, Kozar enjoyed fishing. His father recently mailed him a fishing reel that belonged to Doug’s grandfather.
“My wife and I are heartbroken that his life was taken by a drunk driver,” Kozar said. “We’re also upset he had to walk over the bridge to get there anyway. We wish there had been a shuttle that could have taken them there. That would have saved two lives. But it’s easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback.”
Source:TampaBay.com
Fla. teacher fired for watching porn on school computer www.privateofficer.com
MELBOURNE, Fla.Oct 31 2010 — Authorities said a teacher at a Brevard County school was fired for watching porn on his district-issued computer.
No crime was committed, so the teacher was not arrested or charged, officials said Friday.
School officials accused Gregory Azcueta of watching porn on his district issued computer, but said that no children were present or involved at the time of the incident.
The 42-year-old fifth-grade teacher has 15 days to request a hearing to appeal his termination.
Azcueta taught at Harbor City Elementary School in Melbourne.
It is not clear whether the teacher watched the pornography at the school.
Source:WESH.com
Former Prince George County teacher charged with rape of student www.privateofficer.com
Washington DC Oct 31 2010 A former Prince George’s County private school teacher was arrested early Thursday and charged with second-degree rape of an underage female student after the victim approached police last month to report the crimes, which allegedly occurred between 1999 and 2001.
Fernando Antonio Asturizaga, 44, of the unit block of School Street in Montpelier, Vt., was arrested early Thursday morning in Montgomery County after county police, working with the victim, set up a sting operation to arrest him, said county police spokesman Cpl. Dan Friz.
“It was part of the investigation; it was a sting,” he said. “[The victim] assisted in the investigation, but I don’t know anything more about the arrest.”
The abuse, which police say included everything from vaginal intercourse to digital penetration and oral sex, began around 1999 while Asturizaga was the victim’s teacher at an as-yet-undisclosed private school in Prince George’s County, Friz said. At some point, Asturizaga began to babysit the victim at her Silver Spring home and at a second residence in Bethesda where the abuse took place, police said.
The victim, who was born in 1988, was anywhere from 10 to 12 years old during the period of abuse, Friz said, adding that the victim approached police on her own last month to report the crimes.
“That was the first that we were made aware of the situation,” Friz said. “From there, Det. [Katie] Leggett initiated an investigation into the case, and … in the statement of charges she had gathered quite a bit of evidence to secure an arrest warrant for Asturizaga.”
Many details and precise information regarding the nature of the investigation are not available, largely due to the fact that Family Crimes investigators intentionally wrote a vague and general statement of charges in the case so as not to risk revealing the identity of the victim or jeopardizing the case, Friz said.
Further details of Asturizaga’s past are also unavailable, but an online search of court records reveals he was previously arrested and charged with three counts each of third-degree sexual offense and fourth-degree sexual offense, as well as one count each of second-degree assault and child abuse in Prince George’s County stemming from an incident that occurred in March 2003.
Asturizaga was found not guilty of each of the charges in Prince George’s County Circuit Court in July 2003, the documents state. Asturizaga was listed as living at a College Park address in the 2003 court documents, but his name and date of birth match the current case.
Police were not certain at this point if the cases were related, but police are urging anyone who may have any information about the abuse or who may have themselves been abused by Asturizaga to step forward and contact Det. Leggett in the Family Crimes Division at 240-773-5426.
“We are looking for additional victims,” Friz said, adding that police usually expect additional victims to step forward once the initial charges have been made in a sexual abuse case because abusers often relocate frequently and can target victims in different areas.
Asturizaga has been charged with two counts of second-degree rape, six counts of second-degree sex offense, and two counts of child abuse by a lawful custodian in this case so far, according to police and court documents. He is being held on a $100,000 bond in Montgomery County Detention Center at 1307 Seven Locks Road in Rockville, Friz said.
No attorney information has been listed for Asturizaga at this time.
Source:The Gazette
Missing elderly security guard found in Canada www.privateofficer.com
By all accounts, Pete Severt of Detroit is not your average 88-year-old. The security guard still works full time patrolling the Fairlane North parking lots from 4:00 p.m. to midnight.
“My dad is old fashioned, old school,” said Diana Richards. “He believes in hard work. He’s worked all his life.”
However, Thursday night, Severt failed to show up and the end of his shift and his security vehicle was nowhere to be found. His worried family called police. Little did they know Severt was apparently disoriented and driving in the Windsor Tunnel over to Canada. They think he was trying to get to the hospital, and when he made it to the Canadian border, that’s exactly where agents sent him.
“They (were) saying that something was wrong with him and they rushed him to the hospital,” Richards said.
Doctors at Hotel-Dieu Grace tell the family it appears Severt suffered a mild heart attack. They plan to have him transferred to a hospital in the United States until he’s well enough to go home.
Friday, family members grabbed their passports and headed to Canada to check on Severt. They’re not even sure if he knows he left the country, his whereabouts or that he caused such a scare.
“God was watching him because he didn’t get into (an) accident,” said Richards.
While the search for this missing man ended in an unlikely place, his family is relieved he’s safe and they were able to find him.
Jackson Ms. battles with AMR ambulance to enter crime scenes alone www.privateofficer.com
JACKSON, Miss. Oct 31 2010
There’s a debate raging in Jackson about the role paramedics and emergency responders play in responding to a crime scene.
City Councilman Kenneth Stokes has threatened to reverse the contract American Medical Response has to serve in the area if the company doesn’t send its workers into violent crime scenes, even before police arrive.
On any given night, police will respond to a crime scene and an AMR ambulance will be found nearby — waiting for an all-clear to respond and provide medical attention. It is a practice and a policy that has irked some city of Jackson leaders who now argue that AMR shouldn’t wait for anything.
Ken Walters is an AMR paramedic who said he’s seen enough dangerous situations, just waiting to go into them in Jackson. He provided 16 WAPT News with an example.
Ward 3 City Councilman Kenneth Stokes
“We’re just standing there. Two guys came up and robbed us at gunpoint and shot at us. One of the bullets hit right here,” Walters said.
“Isn’t there implied risk as an EMT that you are supposed to assume some forms of risk?” WAPT’s Scott Simmons asked Walters.
“Yes, but not where your life is in danger, because we are there to provide aid, comfort and aid, and take someone to the hospital. You know, this isn’t the military,” Walters said.
Stokes has been the loudest critic. He said if AMR is going to take taxpayer money to provide service, that service should not come with restraints.
“If you are concerned about safety, put on a bullet proof vest,” Stokes said. “I think the contract is what we’re going to get because you can’t sit up here in the capital city of Jackson, Miss. and say, ‘We’re going to let people die.’”
Stokes may have a problem with AMR, but there is little city leaders can do about its contract for service in this area. That is something the city of Jackson gave up to Hinds County in 1990.
AMR spokesman Jim Pollard defended the company’s policy.
“We have letters from two national organizations,” Pollard said.
Nowhere does it say that paramedics are supposed to go into crime scenes before police do, Pollard said.
“In the national standard material, it says very simply, regarding violent scenes, scenes should always been secured by law enforcement before EMTs provide patient care,” Pollard said.
“We’re there as part of the solution,” Walters said. “We go in there and we get hurt, we get injured, then we become part of the problem.”
Stokes said the argument is not over.
“I think we have got a fight. That is just round one of a heavyweight bout,” Stokes said.
Walters and others at AMR are hoping they can continue the policy of letting police go into a violent crime scene before they do.
