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Movie-goer slugs 10 yr old boy for talking too much www.privateofficer.com
Kent WA May 24 2012 (AP) — A Washington state man fed up with a group of noisy moviegoers behind him stepped over the seat and punched a 10-year-old boy in the face.
The man, who told police he thought the person he hit was a grown man, was watching “Titanic” in 3-D with his girlfriend and had asked the people sitting behind to quiet down and stop throwing popcorn, but they laughed at him, he said.
“I got so mad that it just happened,” Yong Hyun Kim, 21, told police who arrested him the night of April 11 at the AMC Kent Station 14, in Kent, a south Seattle suburb.
The 10-year-old lost a tooth and had a bloody nose in the confrontation.
Kim spent a night in the Kent city jail and appeared April 12 in King County District Court and was released, said county prosecutor’s spokesman Dan Donohoe.
Kim was charged May 16 with second-degree assault. If convicted, he could be sentenced to three to nine months in jail, Donohoe said Tuesday.
The Auburn man will be arraigned May 31 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.
A phone number for Kim could not be found, and it’s unclear whether he has a lawyer.
The boy, identified in the police report as KJJ, was at the theater with three friends. They met police in the lobby. They said they were watching the movie and talking when Kim told them to be quiet. They quieted down, but KJJ says when he whispered something, Kim jumped over the seat, threw an iced drink at them and punched KJJ in the face.
Kim said something to the effect of “You know what, I paid a lot of money to see this movie,” the police report said.
Kim told police the boys’ behavior was worse than talking. He says they were hitting him and his girlfriend with popcorn, running back and forth in the aisle and bumping him with their arms.
“At one point Yong stepped over the seats and confronted the subjects behind him,” the police report says. “Yong said he was talking to the subjects when they started laughing at him. Yong said he became so angry and swung his arm at one of the subjects and him in the face.”
A manager at the theater referred a request for comment to a corporate spokesman.
“We strongly encourage guests to be respectful of their fellow moviegoers, and to report any disturbance to an AMC associate, so that we may handle it directly,” AMC Theatres spokesman Ryan Noonan said in a statement. “The safety and security of our guests and associates is important to us, and we want everyone to enjoy the moviegoing experience.”
Noonan said the theater’s management told him no one had complained about audience behavior prior to the incident.
Woman banned for life at Walmart-caught shoplifting again www.privateofficer.com
Madison WI May 24 2012 - A 23-year-old Madison woman already banned for life from Walmart stores was arrested Monday night after store security officers spotted her using three children to steal alcohol and other items, Madison police said.
Shequilla Y. Hollingsworth and three girls were seen by employees at the Walmart at 7202 Watts Road placing more than $180 worth of vodka, tequila, garments and other items in two big bags they brought into the store and two other bags they obtained inside the store, Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said.
Police have referred the case to the Dane County District Attorney’s office and are seeking charges of contributing to the delinquency of a child, retail theft, resisting/obstructing an officer, bail jumping and unlawful trespass.
The three girls, ages 12, 13, and 14 and all of Madison, were cited for retail theft and released to their parents or guardians, according to a police incident report.
Hollingsworth initially identified herself with a false name and it wasn’t until she was being booked into jail that authorities learned her real name, DeSpain said in the incident report.
She also was wanted on a warrant for failure to appear in court for a February hearing in connection with retail theft and contributing to the delinquency of a child charges that were filed against her in early January in Dane County. In that case, the court barred her from being at the JC Penney’s at West Towne Mall, according to online records.
When police arrived at the Walmart on Monday to take Hollingsworth into custody, a Walmart loss prevention officer told police that he recognized Hollingsworth because Walmart had banned her for life from all store properties due to past retail thefts and a physical altercation, DeSpain said.
Source:jsonline.com
SC elementary school employee accused of threatening to shoot his class www.privateofficer.com
SUMMERVILLE, SC May 24 2012 – Police say an elementary school employee accused of threatening to shoot his class quit after authorities say he possibly threatened one of his accusers.
On Monday, a Summerville police officer spoke with a 43-year-old man who said his 10-year-old son was threatened by his teacher at Spann Elementary. The boy said his teacher told his class that he was going to shoot them.
A police report states that the boy also reported that his teacher said,”that the kids were stupid and that the school was a terrible place to work.”
The father said he spoke to the director of the extended day care program at Spann Elementary who told him that the incident had been reported to the principal and the school district.
In an incident report, the police officer said that he was contacted by another concerned parent in reference to the same incident. The parent said her child also said that the teacher was going to shoot them. The officer then asked the parent to provide her and the child’s information, but the parent declined.
On Tuesday, a police officer received a case involving a possible threat made by the school employee to the 10-year-old boy. The officer said he then received information that the employee accused of the threat had resigned from his position.
According to police, the employee told the coordinator of the after school program that the children had refused to follow directions after repeated requests to do so. Police then contacted Dorchester District 2 Security Coordinator Mike Turner who said he spoke with the employee who gave a different version than what was reported.
Turner told officers that at this time there is no credible threat to the victim or anyone at the school. Turner further said that employee was placed on trespass notice for the school’s property. School officials say that the employee was not, nor has never been a school teacher with the district but worked part-time in the after school program for a few hours in the afternoons.
According to school officials, after the alleged threat, the employee “ceased employment” after telling the coordinator of the after school program that some of his students refused to follow directions after repeated requests to do so.
Source: WCSC
Escaped Texas prisoner commits suicide after police chase in NC www.privateofficer.com
CANDLER NC May 24 2012 — An escaped inmate from Texas shot and killed himself in western Buncombe County on Tuesday after a high-speed chase with police.
The chase reached speeds up to 100 mph and involved Haywood County sheriff’s deputies and N.C. Highway Patrol officers. It began on Interstate 40 in Haywood and ended on Smoky Park Highway near the Haywood line.
Donald McFaden Orange, 29, turned a shotgun on himself as deputies closed in late Tuesday morning, Haywood Sheriff Bobby Suttles said.
The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating, Suttles said. He said his officers did not fire their weapons.
“Since our people were involved in the chase, we felt it would be better to get an outside agency to investigate,” Suttles said.
Police closed that section of Smoky Park Highway for several hours as officers, including SBI agents, processed the scene.
Officers were able to stop Orange, who was driving a Ford pickup truck stolen in Texas, by using stop sticks. With a front tire flattened, Orange pulled off the road.
Haywood deputies who pulled in behind Orange got out of their cruisers with weapons drawn, but Orange shot himself before officers could get to the truck, authorities said.
Homer Pitts, who had just finished mowing grass across the highway from the shooting scene, witnessed the stop and shooting.
“They (deputies) were approaching him on each side with their guns,” Pitts said. “Then I heard a pop. At first I thought they shot him.”
Dozens of officers converged on the scene.
“I didn’t think there was that much law in the country,” Pitts said.
Buncombe deputies were on the scene but did not take part in the chase, Lt. Randy Sorrells said. The case will be handled by Haywood County and the SBI.
Orange, who had been jailed since last year on burglary and drug charges, escaped from a Parker County, Texas, inmate work crew Friday by stealing keys to a county-owned pickup truck and driving away.
He abandoned the truck in adjacent Jack County, then broke into several homes, stealing clothes, a shotgun and the Ford pickup truck he drove to North Carolina. Parker County is west of Fort Worth, about 1,000 miles from Asheville.
Suttles said Haywood deputies began pursuing Orange after he broke into a home in the Jonathan Creek area of northern Haywood. A woman returned home to find him in her house. When she confronted him, he fled. The woman was able to provide officers with a description of the pickup.
Haywood deputies spotted the blue and white truck on eastbound Interstate 40 near Lake Junaluska and pursued Orange at speeds up to 100 mph, Suttles said.
Orange got off the interstate at Exit 44 in West Asheville, then sped west on Smoky Park Highway toward Canton. Highway Patrol officers used stop sticks to flatten a tire on the pickup about a mile from where Orange pulled off the road.
Source:citizens-times.com
Five dead including three children in Oregon murder-suicide www.privateofficer.com
SALEM, Ore. May 24 2012— Police were investigating the deaths of three Oregon children and their parents as an apparent murder-suicide Wednesday after authorities found the bodies of the children and their mother at a burned home and their father’s in a car hours later.
Authorities have not identified the victims, and police say they don’t have other details about the parents’ relationship.
The woman and children were discovered early Tuesday when Salem firefighters responded to a house fire in a working-class neighborhood of old homes, small apartment complexes and mature trees.
A neighbor reported awaking about 5:30 a.m. to the fire. Dan Grove told the Salem Statesman Journal that he “saw dark, black smoke pouring out of the house. I heard people screaming and yelling. It was for real.”
About five hours later, the father was found dead in a vehicle about 75 miles south of Salem, in Cottage Grove.
Salem, the state capital, is about 50 miles south of Portland along Interstate 5.
Firefighters who came to the house found evidence of violence, said Salem police Lt. Dave Okada. An hour before that, Okada said, a driver making deliveries found the body of a sixth person on the street a quarter mile north of the house.
The body was identified Wednesday afternoon as 21-year-old Devin Matlock of Salem. Police listed head trauma as his cause of death. Okada said police are treating Matlock’s death as a separate investigation from the bodies found in the house.
Clara King, who lives in an apartment about 50 yards from the home that burned, said she was awake in the middle of the night and heard a woman screaming, “like she was being hurt.”
“I thought it was the neighbor lady having a party or something,” King said. “I went out there to say something, but nobody was there.”
Some residents say it is a rough neighborhood. King said it’s not unusual to hear screams or fights in the middle of the night.
People in the neighborhood are shaken by the deaths.
“We’re worried because we don’t know what happened inside,” said Magdiel Perez, who lives two doors down from the home that burned.
On the lime-green home where the children and their mother died, black soot coated the edges of window frames. The home has a green lawn, with pink and white flowers growing by the front door.
The family was quiet and kept to themselves, said Jose Quiroz, who lives across the street. The father would frequently play with the children in the yard, and last summer, the kids splashed in a pool on the lawn, Quiroz said.
There were no outward signs of conflict between the couple, he said.
“It’s unbelievable that someone could hurt their own kids,” Quiroz.
Ballagio Casino Security tackles man stealing $115,000 worth of casino chips www.privateofficer.com
A hapless bandit lost his wig, sunglasses and $115,000 worth of casino chips when security wrestled him to the floor during a botched weekend heist at a posh Vegas Strip resort, authorities said Monday.
Two men attempted to rob the Bellagio on Saturday night by spraying a blackjack dealer and others with a caustic eye-burning chemical, police said.
With the distraction in the air, Michael Q. Belton snatched up nearly two dozen high-value chips and took off for the door, according to a police report.
The man who sprayed the noxious gas escaped, but Belton was tackled to the floor and held until police arrived.
Belton struggled at first, according to the police arrest report, but then suddenly stopped fighting back against casino employees and surrendered.
He dropped 23 red, white and blue chips, valued at $5,000 each, police said.
“How long am I going away for?” Belton asked detectives during a recorded interview following his arrest, according to the report.
Investigators said Belton, of Nuevo, Calif., about 65 miles east of Los Angeles, told them he needed the money because he is unemployed and his grandparents are ill.
He told police he didn’t know the man who got away. Bolton told investigators he responded to an Internet posting for a job repossessing cars. But he said when he reached Las Vegas, the man who posted the job ad said he wanted him to help another man rob the Bellagio.
Belton was held Monday on $60,000 bail at the Clark County jail pending an initial court appearance Tuesday on felony robbery, conspiracy and burglary charges. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
Officer Jose Hernandez, a department spokesman, said the investigation was ongoing and Belton would not agree to a jail interview.
The suspect who got away apparently did not take any chips as he fled. Police said all chips were recovered, and casino officials say they sustained no financial loss.
Authorities said they were still searching for the second man in the heist, which they said was recorded by casino security cameras. The video was not made public.
No serious injuries were reported.
The last bandit to make off with casino chips from the Bellagio, in December 2010, was sentenced to three to 11 years in state prison for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. Anthony Michael Carleo wore a motorcycle helmet as he waved a gun and made off with $1.5 million worth of chips. He was arrested trying to redeem a $25,000 chip.
He was sentenced to an additional six to 16 years for another armed robbery at another Las Vegas casino.
He blamed addictions to drugs and gambling.
Source:AP
Man arrested for DUI with Zebra, Parrot riding shotgun www.privateofficer.com
DUBUQUE, Iowa May 24 2012 - It sounds like the beginning of a joke. A man, a zebra, a parrot walk into a bar.
A Cascade man was arrested outside of a Dubuque bar on Sunday night with a pet zebra and a macaw parrot in the front seat of his truck.
Officers charged Jerald Reiter, 55, with OWI. Police reports say officers stopped him in the parking lot of the Dog House Lounge as he drove away in his truck. According to police, field sobriety tests showed Reiter had a blood alcohol level of .14. The legal limit in Iowa is .08.
Reiter tells KCRG.com that he and his girlfriend, Vickey Teters, see the animals like their kids and often take them for rides. On Sunday night, they say they took the zebra and the macaw to the bar because it often lets people bring their animals inside.
Reiter says the owner told him they were serving food that night and he couldn’t bring a zebra inside the bar. Bar owners tell KCRG.com that no animals are ever allowed inside the establishment.
At that time he went outside to put the animals in his truck and several people were in the parking lot taking pictures. He believes one of those people called police.
Reiter disputes the charges and says he realized he was too drunk to drive and was about to let a passenger in the truck to take the wheel when he was arrested.
Online records show Mr. Reiter was released from the Dubuque County Jail May 21, 2012.
Richland County deputies revived a burglary suspect overnight www.privateofficer.com
A spokesperson with the sheriff’s department says the incident started around 2:30 a.m. when they responded to a burglary call at Momma’s Market on South Beltline Ave. Once on the scene, deputies spotted the suspect fleeing from the store.
Deputies then brought in the K-9 team to track him. The presence of the dogs likely scared him from his hiding spot and he ran across the street and jumped into a pond.
After he didn’t resurface, deputies were eventually able to find him and pull him out of the pond. They were able to revive him by performing CPR.
He was taken to Palmetto Richland Hospital, but there is no word on his condition.
His name and probable charges have not been released.
Source: WIS
Wheeling Middle School teacher arrested for sending nude pictures of herself to students www.privateofficer.com
Ohio County Magistrate Patricia Murphy on Tuesday arraigned Bennett, 35, of Wheeling on a charge of “employment or use of a minor to produce obscene matter or assist in doing sexually explicit conduct.”
Bennett resigned from her teaching position at Wheeling Middle in February after learning she was the target of a police investigation.
According to a State Police report, Bennett was the boy’s seventh grade teacher at Wheeling Middle School, where she taught reading and language arts. The boy, now 17, said Bennett started sending him text messages in August 2009 when he was a 15-year-old high school freshman, and their communication continued into February, when police interviewed both the victim and Bennett. The messages reportedly turned sexual, and the boy and Bennett started exchanging pictures of their genitals, police reported. The boy said he and Bennett exchanged approximately 20 sexually explicit pictures, the report states.
The boy’s mother reportedly discovered he and Bennett were communicating and confiscated his cell phone in early 2011. It is unclear if she was aware of the alleged sexual nature of their exchanges.
The boy’s mother then suspected he and Bennett were communicating via social media, the report states, and consequently discovered their online conversations.
“Yeah I’m not good at goodbyes and I guess I didn’t know that meant forever,” Bennett told the boy, according to the police report.
He responded, “If I say bye it means bye … Like that’s how it is.”
“I don’t know what to say … It’s not like I did anything to cause you to say goodbye forever …” Bennett reportedly continued. “Considering everything you know about my past I just never figured (you would) be so (callous) to just throw me away but I guess it’s whatever.”
During a February in-home interview with State Police, Bennett reportedly admitted to exchanging sexually explicit cell phone pictures with the boy. On Feb. 7, she submitted her resignation from her teaching position, which the Ohio County Board of Education accepted during its Feb. 13 meeting.
“Jennifer Bennett is no longer employed by Ohio County Schools,” Superintendent George Krelis said today, “and the school system followed all of the proper procedures in reporting the matter to the appropriate agencies when allegations were brought to our attention.”
Murphy issued a warrant for Bennett’s arrest Monday, which state police served on Tuesday.
Bennett remains free on $10,000 bond while awaiting a preliminary hearing before Ohio County Magistrate Joe Roxby. If convicted, she faces 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Bennett has two children.
Las Vegas police arrest ROTC advisor for sexual misconduct with student www.privateofficer.com
LAS VEGAS NV May 24 2012 – Las Vegas police have arrested an ROTC advisor for sexual misconduct with a student.
Police say 49-year-old Douglas Young was arrested on Wednesday. Young is an ROTC advisor at Sunrise High School. Police say the investigation into this incident is ongoing.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact Metro’s Sexual Assault Detail at (702) 828-3307, or Crime Stoppers at (702) 385-5555.
Judge denies bound for brothers charged with killing Fla security officer www.privateofficer.com
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.May 24 2012 - A judge this morning denied bond for one of the brothers who allegedly murdered a Palm Beach Gardens security guard last year with a shovel.
Joseph Frisbee, 28, of suburban West Palm Beach, was arrested yesterday on charges of first-degree murder, robbery with a firearm, dealing in stolen property and fraud.
This morning, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Krista Marx ordered he be held without bond.
While holding Frisbee’s probable cause affidavit in her hand, Marx said sternly, “I find proof evident, presumption great.”
As of this morning, Frisbee’s brother – 33-year-old Stephen Frisbee, of Jacksonville – has not been booked into the Palm Beach County Jail.
The brothers allegedly murdered Jacques Novembre, a father of five and grandfather of 11, July 14. The 61-year-old security guard was found beaten last summer behind Promenade Shopping Plaza on Alternate A1A. The tall, bespectacled Novembre never awoke. He died in Kindred Hospital in Riviera Beach on Sept. 29.
On Tuesday, the day after Jackie Novembre graduated from John I. Leonard High School, the 18-year-old watched police officers announce the arrest of the two brothers in the brutal murder of her father.
“I wish he was there to watch me yesterday. But he wasn’t,” sobbed Novembre, tightly gripping a white tissue.
“There is no joy today. Our dad was our life,” said daughter Frantzcesse, balancing her three-year-old son Quentin on her knee.
The Frisbee brothers could get the death penalty if convicted of the first-degree murder charges. The brothers tried to steal a brass backflow device from behind the shopping center. The water-control devices can be sold to scrap dealers for cash, police said.
Novembre, who was on duty, interrupted them. The brothers beat him with a shovel. They stole his necklace, bracelet and wallet. Novembre’s nose was broken, and he suffered severe facial and skull fractures, police said.
The brothers took the backflow device and left Novembre unconscious behind the plaza.
That same day, Stephen sold the bracelet for $435 at a Lantana pawn shop. He sold several backflow devices the next day to a scrap metal dealer for $300 in Pompano Beach. The store owners called police.
“Various witnesses also called Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County and provided information,” said Gardens Police Chief Stephen Stepp at the press conference at the Gardens police station called to announce the arrests.
Frantzcesse said the arrests were a great relief to her family.
“I’m glad justice is served. But it does not bring my dad’s life back,” she said, trying not to cry.
Source:www.wptv.com
Chelsea bouncer charged with stabbing patron www.privateofficer.com
Chelsea MA May 24 2012 A bouncer at a Chelsea strip joint is being held on $50,000 cash bail on charges he stabbed a club-goer 10 times in the head, neck and chest after clocking out and tailing the drunken victim when he was booted from the club, authorities said.
Jody Lassiter, 49, of Everett, had argued with the victim, a 33-year-old Somerville man, earlier in the night on May 15, and then started a fight with him steps from the front entrance of King Arthur’s Lounge, according to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office.
The bloody brouhaha sent the victim to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he remained in critical condition before being released five days later, authorities said.
Lassiter, meanwhile, had “fled into the night,” Chelsea police said. The victim had been kicked out of the club after he became “visibly drunk and belligerent,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Lassiter, a “floor man” at the club, was arraigned yesterday in Chelsea District Court, where Judge D. Dunbar Livingstone imposed the hefty bail, authorities said.
The situation sparked memories of past violence at the Beacham Street club, including a brutal shooting spree in 2008 when authorities said 280-pound “Fat Jesse” Camacho unleashed a hail of bullets, killing 28-year-old Jeffrey Santiago as he lay face down on the floor.
Camacho, who also injured two others during the bullet-laden barroom brawl, was sentenced in 2010 to life in prison without parole, but only after authorities tracked him down in Mexico.
Police were also called to the club in December for an alleged dancer-on-dancer attack. Eva Jimenez, 30, is facing charges she slashed a 21-year-old co-worker in the face with a box-cutter when she accused Jimenez of stealing money from her, costing Jimenez her job, authorities said
Shoplifter charged with murder after store security guard dies www.privateofficer.com
TAMPA Fla May 24 2012 - It could have been a simple shoplifting charge, but a man accused of stealing goods from a Target may face serious time in prison.
That’s because the security guard who chased and tackled him collapsed and died of a heart attack.
Now the accused shoplifter faces a third-degree felony murder charge, and a minimum of 10 years in prison.
It all unfolded at the Target store on West Hillsborough Avenue on May 27, 2011.
Security cameras zeroed in on Mervin Bettis almost immediately. You see him looking around; then he reaches for the shelves.
Hillsborough detectives say he’s shoplifting more than $1,100 worth of merchandise. Moments later, the video shows him walking right past the checkout lines and out the door.
He doesn’t get far. First, a loss prevention officer grabs him; then, the store’s security guard rushes up.
All three fall to the ground in the struggle. This is where it might have ended: a simple shoplifting bust. But just seven minutes later, the security guard you see in the video collapses from a heart attack and dies, turning this into a case of third degree murder.
Store employees say the security guard, 65-year-old Russell Horner, was out of breath and walking oddly. Just as he steps out of the camera’s view, investigators say he collapsed.
“If you’re going to commit a crime and somebody dies, we’re going to hold you responsible for that, and that’s what we have here. It’s a death that occurs in the commission of a felony,” said Tampa defense attorney Jeff Brown.
Brown is not involved in the case, but has handled several high profile trials. He says if he were defending Bettis, he would question connecting Bettis’ actions with the guard’s death.
“I think my first defense might be, well, this death didn’t occur as a consequence of it. It happened afterwards. And I think we fight the whole battle as to how remote is too remote,” Brown said. “Is it seven minutes, as in this case? What happens if that night he went home and had the heart attack? Is it five or six hours? I think that’s where you fight the battle.”
Brown says prior medical problems don’t matter in the eyes of the law, and neither does intent. Even if the suspect didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt, he’s still on the hook.
“It doesn’t matter. The law says look, this is what happened as a consequence of what you did and that’s where you fight the battle when this goes to trial. If it goes to trial, that’s what the jury will be wrestling with,” he said.
If Bettis had just stolen the merchandise, with a clean record, he could have gotten off with just probation.
But instead, because someone died, he’s facing hard time: a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, if not 15.
Source: FOX 13
Ohio woman charged with assaulting court security officers www.privateofficer.com
The woman, 52, was released from jail Tuesday after posting 10 percent of a $2,500 bond.
Court papers show the woman became combative and slammed her belongings down after officers directed her to walk through a metal detector around noon Monday. Security officer Norm Woods asked the woman to leave when she began swearing at officers.
As the woman was being escorted to an elevator, she struck Woods in the face with her purse and kicked him in the leg, police reported. Woods and security officer Mark Johnson restrained the woman and forced her to the floor.
During the struggle, the woman dug her fingernails into Johnson’s wrist, causing a small laceration. Woods and Johnson held the woman down until Massillon police officers responded and handcuffed her.
The woman is to be arraigned today in Municipal Court on two first-degree misdemeanor counts of assault. The Independent generally does not name suspects charged with misdemeanors.
Source:independent
