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Bank of America agrees to pay $410 million for charging excessive overdraft fees www.privateofficer.com
Charlotte NC Feb 7 2011 Bank of America has agreed to pay $410 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging the bank charged excessive overdraft fees.
The suit is one of several filed against several banks from plaintiffs in 14 states, which were consolidated in a federal court in Florida. Other banks named in related suits include Wells Fargo and Citibank.
The nation’s largest bank said in a court filing Friday that it has reached a memorandum of understanding to settle the claims in the suit by paying $410 million. The settlement is subject to court approval.
Consumers alleged the bank processed the payments in a way that caused more overdrafts.
Customers pay overdraft fees when they spend more money than remains in their accounts. The fees can reach $35 apiece. Before federal law changed this summer, banks frequently charged overdraft fees on numerous transactions in a single day.
Anne Pace, a spokeswoman for the Charlotte, N.C., bank, said Saturday that BofA is “pleased to reach a fair resolution” to the case. BofA has already has addressed many related customer concerns, she said.
Wells Fargo is appealing a $203 million judgment in a separate California case
Ohio gym teacher indicted for having sex with multiple students www.privateofficer.com
Warren County OH Feb 7 2011 A gym teacher in Ohio who allegedly had sex with several high school football players now faces multiple counts of sexual battery.
Stacy Schuler, who has been on paid administrative leave since mid-January when the claims first surfaced, was indicted Friday on 16 counts of sexual battery and three misdemeanor counts of offenses involving underage persons, the Dayton Daily News reported.
The 32-year-old is accused of having sexual relations with students on five different occasions in 2010, officials with the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office told the newspaper.
Most of the incidents involved members of the Mason High School football team, authorities said.
Schuler turned herself in on Friday and bail was set at $50,000. She has been ordered to stay away from the victims, as well as any other students.
Mason principal Mindy McCarty-Stewart told The Associated Press that none of the alleged incidents occurred on school grounds.
An anonymous tip given to authorities in January triggered the investigation into Schuler
Source:www.nydailynews.com
Ohio police officer arrested for felony theft at Wal-Mart www.privateofficer.com
SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP, Ohio Feb 7 2011 – An Ohio police officer is in serious trouble after being arrested by Wal-Mart security agents for felony shoplifting.
Sugarcreek Township police arrested their fellow officer Friday, after they said surveillance cameras captured him stealing thousands of dollars worth of DVDs, said Sgt. Mark White, Sugarcreek Township Police.
West Carrollton police officer Joseph Purnell and his wife Ashley were arrested at the Walmart on Wilmington Pike after store security agents stopped them for the theft.
Both have since been released from jail. Charges are pending, and they’re both expected to appear in court February 16, 2011.
Home Depot shoplifter faces life in prison www.privateofficer.com
MURRIETA, Calif. Feb 7 2011 —A Riverside County man facing a potential life sentence for shoplifting has denied he took about $21 worth of merchandise from a Home Depot store.
Scott Hove testified Tuesday that he put some gloves and wire in the waistband of his pants at the Lake Elsinore store in 2009. Hove says he intended to steal the items but changed his mind before he got out the door.
However, a Home Depot worker testified that he stopped Hove outside the door.
The 44-year-old Lake Elsinore man is charged with felony petty theft and faces 25 years to life under California’s three strikes law.
The North County Times says he has been to prison seven times and has previous convictions for burglary and selling methamphetamine.
Source:Mercury News
Target security agents nab employees in theft scheme www.privateofficer.com
Braintree MA Feb 7 2011 After several weeks of monitoring three Target employees who stocked the shelves overnight, security guards at the store alerted Braintree police, who arrested the men on Friday for allegedly stealing more than $2,200 worth of electronics.
Loss prevention officers at the South Shore Plaza told police that they watched the men – Jesse R. Hester, 22, of Randolph, Eroll Sanon, 23, of Mattapan and David O. Foster, 24, of West Roxbury – take iPods while working the late shift. On Friday morning, officers saw them work together to steal several iPod touches, according to Deputy Police Chief Russell Jenkins.
All three were charged with larceny from a building and larceny over $250 by scheme.
Charlotte police arrest BP gas station owners on drug-alcohal violations www.privateofficer.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Feb 7 2011 – Police have had their eye on a north Charlotte gas station for months, suspicious that more than just gasoline was being sold from the store. Police believe the owners of the BP gas station at Brookshire and Honeywood had been contributing to the problems in the neighborhood.
“If you have a business that is providing items for people to use for drug use or are committing violations of ABC laws that is not acceptable,” said Capt. Bruce Bellamy with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Thursday night police arrested Ho Shin and his wife Jennie Shin and charged them with selling drug paraphernalia and breaking ABC laws.
Investigators say an undercover officer asked to buy a rose tube, which can be used to smoke crack. The officer allegedly said he was going to use it for that reason, and it was sold to him anyway.
“It’s obvious that the owner felt comfortable enough to sell drug paraphernalia,” Bellamy said.
Three months ago police raided the Brookshire Inn next door and made numerous drug and prostitution-related arrests, since then the community has been burning up the phone lines.
“We’ve been able to build trust,” said Dave Nichols. “The police are at every one of our community meetings, they are always helping folks with particular issues.”
Nichols heads the Lakewood Association. He says he’s noticed a difference since the raid. Police say they hope this latest arrest has the desired effect.
“It’s our hope and belief that everyone would get the message and say if we are doing something illegal we need to stop,” Bellamy said.”If that message is not getting across, we are going to continue on, we’re going to continue pushing.”
Ho and Jennie Shin are now out of jail and police say the charges are not enough to shut down the station. Police say if issues continue they will approach BP about pulling the franchise.
Source:WCNC
Retired teacher arrested in KY airport in sex sting www.privateofficer.com
Lexington KY Feb 7 2011 A retired Florida teacher was arrested Friday night at Blue Grass Airport after investigators said he flew to Lexington to have sex with what he thought was a child he had met online.
An investigator with Attorney General Jack Conway’s Cybercrimes Unit arrested Dale Chisena Sr., a retired second-grade teacher from Orange County, Fla., at Blue Grass Airport following a weeklong undercover investigation and sting operation.
According to a news release, cybercrimes investigators found the Florida man soliciting sex with minors online on Jan. 28. The attorney general’s office then used its partners with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to track the online user name.
Florida law enforcement officials confirmed that the user name belonged to Chisena, who had already been charged in April 2010 with two counts of child pornography. After posting a $60,000 bond on the Florida charges, Chisena was placed on home confinement and ordered to have no contact with children.
During the sting operation, Chisena began to chat with an investigator with cybercrimes, thinking that the investigator was a child.
Source:www.kentucky.com
Court orders Chattanooga police to reinstate officer www.privateofficer.com
CHATTANOOGA TN Feb 7 2011 (AP) – A Tennessee court has ordered an Iraq war veteran reinstated to a police force, two years after he was dismissed for having post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Hamilton County Chancery Court ordered Chattanooga to give Mickel Hoback his job back with back pay. City attorneys have 30 days from Tuesday to file a response to Chancellor Jeffrey Atherton’s decision.
Hoback, named the “Officer of the Year” in 2007, also has a $1.5 million federal lawsuit pending against Chattanooga for alleged violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Act.
Hoback’s attorney, Phillip Lawrence, told The Chattanooga Times Free Press that the suit could bring the U.S. Department of Labor into the case to prosecute Chattanooga.
Drug mule arrested at Logan International Airport www.privateofficer.com
Luisa Gill, of Union City, N.J., swallowed the cocaine in the form of 50 small pellets and admitted to be a drug courier after being questioned by state troopers and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force officials.
Gill, flew from the Dominican Republic in a JetBlue flight and is being charged with trafficking in a Class B substance over 200 grams. She was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital and is being held at the airport’s State Police barracks. She will be arraigned tomorrow in the East Boston Division of the Boston Municipal Court.
Seminole casino security officer struck by DUI driver www.privateofficer.com
IMMOKALEE Fla Feb 7 2011 A 38-year-old man was arrested after deputies say he struck a Seminole Casino security guard with his vehicle while he was drunk Saturday.
Timothy David Garza of Immokalee was charged with DUI and Aggravated Battery.
According to an incident report, security at Seminole Casino Immokalee noticed that Garza was drunk as he walked out to his vehicle early Saturday morning.
A security guard tried to convince Garza to walk back inside to sober up, but he refused and got into his car, the report said.
As the guard tried to stop Garza from driving away, he reportedly accelerated and hit the guard.
Garza was arrested a short time later.
The security officer was not injured.
Woman charged in Fla CVS store robbery www.privateofficer.com
PORT CHARLOTTE FLA Feb 7 2011 Charlotte County deputies arrested a Port Charlotte woman in connection to the robbery of a CVS pharmacy.
Deputies say on Saturday, 19-year-old Aubrey Tia Lyn Hight went into the CVS, located at 2480 on US-41, and demanded Oxycodone pills and also told employees that she had a gun.
The pharmacists put 12 bottles of Oxycodone into a bag and gave it to her before she turned and fled.
Deputies sent out surveillance photos showing the woman robber getting out of an older model tan car, go into the pharmacy, and leave the store in the same car.
Friday, detectives stated an anonymous caller said they were positive the suspect in the armed robbery was Aubrey Hight.
The tipster also said Hight was addicted to prescription narcotics and named the man she was recently living with who had a tan Mazda.
Detectives ran a check on the car, a tan 1994 Mazda MX-6. They went to his home on Catherine Avenue and confirmed Hight had been living there.
Detectives then found Hight at her mother’s home and took her in for questioning.
Based on video surveillance and other information, Hight was arrested and charged with Robbery with a Firearm (Implied), and Grand Theft.
She was taken to the Charlotte County Jail where she remains on no bond.
Deputies say this was her fourth booking. On January 10 she registered as a convicted felon.
Detectives said the owner of the car involved was not charged.
