Archive
Centerville police Sgt. Hudgens funeral scheduled today www.privateofficer.com
WARNER ROBINS GA June 14 2011 — The funeral service for a Centerville police officer killed last week in a two-vehicle crash in Warner Robins is scheduled for Tuesday.
The service for Sgt. Woody G. Hudgens Jr., 45, who was with the Centerville police force for three years, is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Southside Baptist Church, 1040 S. Houston Lake Road, according to his obituary. Interment will follow at Macon Memorial Park Cemetery, 3969 Mercer University Drive in Macon.
Centerville police Sgt. Woody Hudgens Warner Robins police issued a traffic advisory Monday afternoon about the funeral procession for motorists traveling in the area to expect traffic delays.
The procession is expected to leave the church at 3 p.m. and travel down Houston Lake Road to Ga. 49 where it is expected to proceed west to Interstate-75 and then north on Interstate-475, the advisory stated. The procession is then expected to end by going east on Mercer University Drive to Macon Memorial Gardens.
Hudgens served Centerville police as a patrol sergeant, a bicycle officer and a certified police instructor with a specialization in defensive tactics, according to his obituary.
He previously served 17 years at the Warner Robins Police Department as a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics team and as a bicycle officer, according to his obituary. He was a member of the Fraternal Order of Police and the Georgia Tactical Officers Association.
Born in Macon, Hudgens was a 1984 graduate of Gilead Christian Academy.
“Woody loved his church, his family and his community,” according to his obituary. “A cyclist, he rode his bicycle across the state of Georgia for six years in a row, raising funds for the Special Olympics.”
A member of Southside Baptist Church, Woody is survived by his wife, children, step-children, other family members and friends.
Hudgens was killed in a 11:03 a.m. accident Thursday between his motorcycle and a sport utility vehicle at the intersection of Russell Parkway and Corder Road. His passenger, Ginger Palmer, 29, of Warner Robins, who sustained multiple injuries, was in stable condition Monday at The Medical Center of Central Georgia, according to a hospital spokesperson.
Hudgens was driving his 2006 Harley-Davidson Sportster west on Russell Parkway when Paula Pender, 59, of Warner Robins, attempted to turn her eastbound 2005 Chevrolet Suburban left onto Corder Road and the vehicles collided, according to a Warner Robins police news release. Pender was not injured.
Charges are expected in the accident, which closed portions of Russell Parkway for nearly three hours and snarled traffic, according to the news release.
“The Woody Hudgens’ Memorial Fund” has been set up for his family, according to Warner Robins police. Contributions can be made at any Robins Federal Credit Union branch.
Visitation is from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at McCullough Funeral Home, 417 S. Houston Lake Road.
Source:www.macon.com
SC police officer files wrongful termination lawsuit www.privateofficer.com
The lawsuit names the city and Steve Thomas, the assistant city manager, as defendants along with John Smithson, the former city manager, and William Bailey, the city’s former public safety director.
Fisher is asking for an unspecified monetary judgment that would include lost wages and benefits, punitive damages and attorney’s fees. No trial date has been scheduled.
Fisher — now a police lieutenant with the Atlantic Beach Police Department — and Smithson did not respond to a request for comments. Fisher’s lawyer, Bonnie Hunt of North Charleston, was out of the office Monday and could not be reached for comment.
City spokesman Pat Dowling said the city has not been served with Fisher’s lawsuit, which was filed Monday afternoon. Dowling said it is city policy not to comment on legal matters.
Bailey said he has not been served with the lawsuit but had no role in Fisher’s termination.
“That was decided over at City Hall by John Smithson,” Bailey said. “Any decision to terminate was done by the city manager.”
Fisher says in the lawsuit that Thomas failed to address concerns he raised during a June 2009 meeting in which Fisher complained about perceived mistreatment of public safety employees, including discrimination against female officers. Fisher followed up with an August 2009 letter to Thomas which outlined many of the same complaints.
“As a result of my complaints the city of North Myrtle Beach created a hostile work environment,” Fisher said in the lawsuit.
Fisher said in the lawsuit that he also complained to Thomas about what he considered to be harassment by Bailey.
That harassment, according to the lawsuit, centered around Fisher’s contacts with Barefoot Resort residents who were critical of the city’s preparation for and response to an April 2009 wildfire that destroyed dozens of homes in the development.
Fisher said in the lawsuit that he felt it was his responsibility to bring residents’ concerns to his bosses, including Bailey. Fisher has said his supervisors did not want to hear about those concerns.
Fisher said he told Thomas that “other officers were being informed that they needed to stop talking about the wildfires or they would be terminated and someone else could do their job,” the lawsuit states.
On Nov. 12, 2009, Thomas accused Fisher of providing confidential information about the wildfire to city residents. Thomas told Fisher that he could either resign from his job or be fired, and Fisher chose to resign.
Fisher — who was a lieutenant with 12 years at the city’s public safety department — has said he did not provide any confidential information to residents. Fisher said he was forced to resign because he complained about treatment by Bailey and others.
Following his forced resignation, Fisher provided The Sun News with copies of recorded conversations he secretly made during a two-year period when he worked at the public safety department. Those conversations included descriptions of Bailey and others making police decisions based on political alliances, officers making crude sexual remarks about female co-workers and crime victims and officers afraid to report alleged misconduct for fear of reprisal.
The city fired a longtime police detective and the department’s second in command after the recordings were made public. The city also provided mandatory training to prevent sexual harassment and hired a group to survey public safety employees about the department’s morale and needs.
Fisher said he started recording conversations after he suspected that Bailey was targeting him for firing because he complained about perceived unethical and improper behavior in the department.
Bailey survived the Fisher recordings but was fired last year after Smithson said Bailey lied about the storage of his police handgun, which was stolen from his unlocked truck. Smithson retired shortly after firing Bailey, who said he did not lie to city officials and has filed a separate pending wrongful termination lawsuit against the city.
Source:www.thesunnews.com
Man overdosed in bathroom of Maryland mall www.privateofficer.com
Frederick MD June 14 2011 Police have arrested an Emmitsburg man after security officers found him overdosing on heroin in a restroom at the Francis Scott Key Mall.
At about 6 p.m. Sunday, Maryland State Police troopers responded to the mall for a report of an overdose. Witnesses said they saw a man, identified as Gage Alexander Caudle, 21, lying in a bathroom stall who appeared to be unconscious and had a spoon and a needle in the stall with him.
Mall security personnel treated Caudle until paramedics arrived.
Caudle was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital, and upon his release was arrested for possession of heroin, possession of drug administration equipment and possession of paraphernalia, police said.
He was taken to Central Booking for processing.
Mother and daughter charged in grusesome ax murder of father www.privateofficer.com
Hawthorne Fla June 14 2011 Like mother, like daughter?
Authorities have arrested a 19-year-old Florida woman in connection with her father’s gruesome murder, charging she and her mother plotted to kill the man with a pickaxe for his social security benefits.
Guenevere Lynn Hudnall and her mother, Stephanie Lynn Hudnall, 41, are accused of masterminding the gruesome murder of 51-year-old William Arnold Hudnall at his trailer home Thursday.
Investigators say Guenevere told her mother she would be willing to kill her estranged father if her mother drove her to his home.
Stephanie reportedly dropped her daughter off at her husband’s house around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, and father and daughter proceeded to chat for several hours.
When her father finally nodded off to sleep, Guenevere reportedly drew a pickax from the back porch and stabbed him multiple times in the head and chest.
“The victim [Hudnall] continued to make noise so she [Guenevere] struck him with the axe until he was quiet to make sure he was dead,” Sheriff’s Detective Sandra Myers wrote in a report.
Before fleeing the scene, Guenevere tried to make the murder look like part of a break-in by strewing mail around the living room, investigators said.
She then hopped in her father’s car, drove home to her mother, and destroyed all other evidence.
Myers said the two women drove back to the murdered man’s trailer the next day and called authorities, claiming they found Hudnall dead in his bed.
Just days prior to the murder, Guenevere took to Twitter to express herself in an ominous post.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire. ~St. Catherine of Siena,” the troubled teen wrote.
Just a few weeks earlier, she tweeted about her job hunt as well.
“keep up the prayers…really need a job!!!” she wrote.
Both Guenevere and her mother were unemployed and their trailer park home was reportedly going to be foreclosed on around the time of the gruesome murder.
They are currently in separate holding cells and are being held on $1 million bail.
Source:AP
San Antonio security officer shoots at attackers www.privateofficer.com
SAN ANTONIO TX June 14 2011 — A security guard was forced to open fire on a moving vehicle after a confrontation at a southwest side park, Bexar County sheriff deputies said.
Officials said it happened Sunday evening at Salas Family Park in the 9300 block of Nelson Road just after 7 p.m.
Deputies said there was a disagreement at the park between two groups when the security guard intervened and asked the parties to leave.
Part of the group left, but the others refused, deputies said.
Officials said someone then tried to hit the security guard with their vehicle, and that’s when the guard opened fire.
Officials said the people inside the SUV then got out and attacked the guard, and even tried to take the gun away from him.
Deputies arrived, and no one was seriously hurt.
Three people were arrested after the altercation, deputies said. They have been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges and trying to take the security guard’s gun.
Source:ksat.com
Alert K Mart security agent aids police in drug busts www.privateofficer.com
Tallmadge OH June 14 2011 – Four Akron residents are due in court later this month after they were arrested in April near the South Avenue Kmart for allegedly producing meth in a vehicle.
Tabatha Karam, 29, Bryan Adkins, 21, Steven Semuga, 23, and Ashley Warner, 20, have all been charged with the illegal manufacture of drugs, a second-degree felony, and the illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs, a third-degree felony. Karam was also charged with driving under suspension, a first-degree misdemeanor.
According to Summit County court records, the four pleaded not guilty after their May indictment. They all have their next court dates scheduled during the week of June 20 at the Summit County Court of Common Pleas.
Lt. Ron Williams, Tallmadge Police public information officer, said police were initially tipped off about the suspects by Kmart security.
He said a security officer became suspicious of two men April 11 after they purchased a slew of products associated with the production of methamphetamine, including large quantities of pseudoephedrine.
“Then what really got his attention was the way they walked straight across the street to CVS,” said Williams.
Police confirmed the suspects purchased the chemicals via the MethCheck software program, then went to the scene and began observing the suspects.
Officers observed the men leave the drugstore and return to their vehicle still parked at Kmart, where the two women were.
Considering the circumstances and the two men’s behavior, officers initiated a traffic stop based on “reasonable suspicion” of the suspects, Williams said.
When officers pulled the car over, the chemicals they were looking for were in plain view.
A search of the vehicle turned up other materials used for making meth in the trunk including: coffee filters, several boxes of pseudoephedrine, drain opener, aluminum foil, 32-ounce plastic bottles, lithium batteries, lantern/ camp fuel, tape and rubber gloves.
The materials, said Williams, are used for “smurfing” meth — the street term for preparing the drug. The plastic bottles are used to make methamphetamine via the “shake and bake” method, he said.
Williams said police also recognized at least one of the men for prior meth convictions — according to court records, Semuga has been convicted of meth-related charges in the past.
Williams praised Kmart security for tipping off police, which led to the arrests.
Source:Talmedge Express
Museum guard charged with enticement of teenage girl www.privateofficer.com
Douglas John Lopez, a 45-year-old from the Kaneohe area, is accused of arranging to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex at a restaurant in Kaneohe last month, Louie said.
The arrest shows that predators lurking in online chat rooms and sending cellphone text messages intend to prey on actual underage children, Louie said. Undercover police who pose as underage children help stop these kinds of criminal acts, he said.
“They are not entrapping people. Entrapment occurs when you entice somebody to do something that they would not otherwise do,” Louie said at a news conference. “Unfortunately, these chat rooms and the Internet is filled with sexual predators who are intent upon coming after our children.”
Lopez, who used online aliases including “Uncle Doug” and “Dogiefresh,” was a part-time elementary school lunch supervisor and museum security guard. He was arrested Monday and posted $40,000 bail.
Attempts by The Associated Press to find whether Lopez had an attorney were unsuccessful, and the Hawaii public defender’s office said it couldn’t be assigned to the case until after Lopez’s arraignment June 20.
If found guilty, Lopez would face a mandatory 10-year prison sentence. A grand jury indicted him last week.
The attorney general’s office said it has prosecuted 34 electronic child enticement cases since 2002, but previous cases were handled by undercover officers posing as a child, often in chat rooms where predators lurk.
One previous enticement case on Maui in 2006 involved an actual child victim, but that case was handled by county authorities.
Police pursue child predators based on online interactions and phoned-in tips, said Honolulu Deputy Police Chief Dave Kajihiro.
“As more and more children use the Web, unfortunately there will also be more and more victims,” he said.
Law enforcement officials wouldn’t comment about whether Lopez contacted the girl by phone, website or chat room while the investigation is pending.
Nightclub shooting-police chase leaves 2 dead www.privateofficer.com
Columbus OH June 14 2011 Two men were killed yesterday when the car they were in crashed after a chase that began with a shootout with Columbus police officers who were working off-duty at a North Side club.
Willie Montes and Orasio De Larosa Jr., both 19, died at the crash scene. Police did not say who was driving.
Police said the two men were kicked out of the La Cabana Lounge about 2:20 a.m. yesterday. The North Side bar is at 5690 Kathy Run Lane just north of E. Dublin-Granville Road (Rt. 161) and west of Cleveland Avenue. The two then fired shots at two Columbus officers who were on a special-duty job in uniform there.
The officers fired back, followed the two by car and called in cruisers and a police helicopter. The car carrying Montes and De Larosa crashed into a pole at a bend in W. Dublin-Granville Road at Sawmill Place Boulevard on the Northwest Side, police said. The chase covered a distance of 7 miles on Rt.161.
The two were thrown from the car in the crash, and the car caught fire.
Investigators said they found a handgun among the wreckage yesterday afternoon.
No officers were hurt.
A police spokesman said yesterday that investigators don’t know why the two shot at the officers.
“They were upset” at being forced to leave the club, Sgt. Rich Weiner said, and then “they opened fire.”
La Cabana has operated for 18 months and caters to a Latino crowd, said manager Alain Gutierrez. The club admits customers between 18 and 21, but they are not permitted to drink.
Gutierrez said his security staff patrols the club’s interior, and he hires two off-duty police officers to patrol outside on Fridays and Saturdays.
About 180 people were in the club when the incident began.
“It was the last song, and my security staff asked them to leave,” Gutierrez said. The two young men ejected were acting rowdy, he said. He said he had never before seen them in his club.
While police were at the crash scene, more shots were fired outside the club. Other officers responded, and, while checking for victims, another officer was shot at by another set of suspects. That officer did not return fire and also was not injured.
However, Gutierrez said that the second report of shots being fired did not occur outside his place but at another nearby club.
No arrests have been made.
Montes lived in an apartment on the Northwest Side of Columbus. His extended family, which was gathered at the apartment, declined to comment.
Police did not provide an address for De Larosa.
Source:Columbus dispatch
Security guard caught with drugs arrested www.privateofficer.com
CHALMETTE, La.June 14 2011 ― A strong hunch by an off-duty St. Bernard Sheriff’s deputy turned into the arrest of two people – one a security guard – for possession of drugs with the intent to sell.
Zanthony Reese, 23, of Gretna and Marcus Triplett, 23, of Baton Rouge are charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute after officers discovered seven bags of the substance in Reese’s car.
Both were arrested at the construction site of one of four mixed-income housing complexes in Chalmette.
“I hope this isn’t a bad omen that the Sheriff’s Office has already made two drug arrests at one of the sites and there is the indication an employee was selling to others,” Chief Deputy Sheriff James Pohlmann said in a news release.
“I’m not trying to make a bigger point about these complexes. Just pointing out that already we have a problem is someone guarding the place is bringing drugs into St. Bernard Parish and bagging them up for sale.”
Pohlmann said an off-duty officer driving passed the complex rising on Virtue Street believed he saw “suspicious” activity and called in what he saw.
Special Investigations Division agents went to the construction site and found the two men inside Reese’s car smoking marijuana. Reese is a security guard at the complex.
“The good news is the Sheriff’s Office responded quickly and made two arrests, seizing the marijuana,” Pohlmann said.
Both have been released from jail on bond.
Source:wwltv.com
Convicted killer escapes prison www.privateofficer.com
HARRISON COUNTY, MS June 14 2011 – A convicted killer with ties to the coast has escaped from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl. And it’s not his first time escaping from behind bars.
Mark Kee Brown escaped around 10pm Sunday night, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections. MDOC officials said the 36-year-old was last seen wearing the standard inmate issued black and white striped pants and a white shirt with “MDOC Convict” printed on the back. Brown is described as a black man, 5’8″ tall and weighing around 155 lbs.
He was serving a life sentence for the capital murder of a D’Iberville resident. Larry Darnell Turner was shot to death during a home invasion in 2005. Last week, a state Court of Appeals upheld his conviction.
Prison officials have not said how Brown escaped this time.
In 2008, Brown was one of the inmates that used a door to smash through a cell block wall and break out of the Harrison County Adult Detention Center. He was captured three days later.
Anyone with any information of Brown’s whereabouts should contact the Mississippi Department of Corrections at (601) 359-5600.
Source:WLOX
$50,000 reward offered in security officer murder www.privateofficer.com
Jaime Villacorta, 24, was shot while on duty at an apartment complex on the 1400 block of South Townsend Street just before midnight.
Police still don’t know what led to the shooting and are continuing to search for suspects.
If you have any information call Santa Ana police at 714-245-8390.
Source:KABC
