San Jose elementary schoolteacher arrested on child porn charges www.privateofficer.com
San Jose CA June 1 2012 A San Jose elementary schoolteacher was arrested at his home on Wednesday on suspicion of possessing and manufacturing child pornography, but school officials said they’ve been told there’s no indication any students in the district were victims.
Milpitas police arrested Johnny Urias, 50, at his home on Merry Lane in San Jose after a nine-month investigation that saw computers seized and scrutinized when police received a report that Urias was in possession of child porn.
Last September, the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District where Urias taught placed him on leave when told about the investigation.
The district issued a news release late Wednesday that said Milpitas police are “actively investigating the possibility that the same staff member committed lewd acts with students.”
However, it added that according to San Jose police, who are helping with the investigation, “there are no known incidents of reported sexual abuse by the staff member at Will Rogers Elementary.”
The release states that the district is working closely with police, looking at the chance there may be unreported victims, but have previously not made a public statement in order not to compromise the investigation.
According to the district’s website, Urias taught first and second grades at the school.
Alum Rock Union school board President Esau Ruiz Herrera said the district “took the allegations very seriously” when they were brought to light.
“We took immediate action pending further investigation,” he said.
Herrera said that while “we’re pleased that law enforcement moved ahead” with the investigation, “we didn’t wait on them. We took action on our own, and there is no indication that the safety of any of our kids was compromised.”
He said nothing indicated Urias was “anything other than a good individual.”
“Regretfully, he seems to have made some sad and unwise decisions,” he said. “We expect the legal system to run its course.”
Search warrants were served at Urias’ previous home in Milpitas, his current home in San Jose, his classroom and vehicle. Several computers were held as evidence and sent to the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for examination as the investigation continued.
This month, Milpitas detectives developed the cause they needed for arrest. He was booked at the Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose.
Another search warrant was served at Urias’ home in search of further evidence.
Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call Milpitas police at 408-586-2400. Anonymous tips can be made at 408-586-2500.
source-mercury news
Exempt or non exempt boils down to simple facts www.privateofficer.com
Were Security Guards Exempt or Nonexempt?
Four New Mexico security guards, all classified as executives exempt from coverage under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sued, challenging their classification. They have a mix of managerial and nonmanagerial duties, and sorting out their proper classification isn’t easy. No surprise—all wanted overtime pay.
The guards work for Day & Zimmerman and SOC, contractors that provide security at Los Alamos National Laboratory. They are organized in a hierarchical, military-style structure, with supervisors carrying such ranks as major, captain, and lieutenant. The lowest-level guards are unionized, nonexempt, and wear uniforms.
Field supervisors also wear uniforms and must maintain the same certifications as the lowest level, including training as first responders, on respirators, and on hazardous materials. But they also need some supervisory experience and training in leadership, management, and administration.
A judge in federal district court granted SOC’s request for summary judgment, thus rejecting the field supervisors’ claims of misclassification. They appealed to the 10th Circuit, which covers Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming.
What the court said. Appellate judges reviewed the duties of the supervisor with the rank of major, finding that he led the daily briefing of subordinate officers, spent about 3 hours a day distributing and collecting weapons from subordinate officers, and spent the bulk of his time in headquarters, supervising the entire shift. Judges ruled that “it is clear that his management duties are primary,” and agreed with the district judge that he deserves the executive exemption.
Regarding the other three plaintiffs, however, they said, “Because the primary duty determination is a factual one, summary judgment is appropriate only if all reasonable factfinders would conclude that the managerial portions of plaintiffs’ jobs are their ‘primary duties.’” And, that was not the case, in judges’ view.
For example, the lieutenant ensures daily that all posts are staffed properly and fills in if one is empty. He visually inspects and assesses subordinate officers. He must also respond to any alarm. Are those his primary duties, and are they managerial? Judges directed the district court to carefully explore and answer those questions about each of the other three plaintiffs. Maestas et al. v. Day & Zimmerman and SOC, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, No. 10-2280 (2012).
Point to remember: For proper classification, judges stressed, questions often cannot be answered based only on FLSA language. Instead, each worker’s duties must be analyzed.
Man Says He Was Beaten in Greektown Casino Parking Garage ww.privateofficer.com
Tracy Hamilton and his girlfriend, April, say they had just driven onto the twelfth floor of the Greektown Casino parking structure about 1:30 Sunday morning. They had planned to go into the casino.
“We never made it in there. We were just arriving. We’re on the twelfth floor. We pull in. First there [were] two guys that [came] up and they’re urinating in front of the car,” said Hamilton.
“He asked them to have some respect and go somewhere else,” said April Grifka.
The couple says the two guys began pummeling Hamilton with punches and kicks. Then approximately eight other men also jumped out of cars and quickly joined in beating Hamilton.
“I got a broken knee. My face is fractured. It’s going to be a long recovery. I got to get surgery.”
“I’d say like five of them were kicking him everywhere, in his head, in his back, in his legs, and the other three or four [were] down on his face just pounding on his face over and over,” Grifka explained.
The couple says there were other people in parked cars who did not get out.
“I tried to hit them with my purse. I poured pop in one of their eyes. I tried to do everything to stop them and at the end I just started begging and screaming at the top of my lungs, ‘Please just stop. Please just stop. You’re killing him.’”
Finally the men left. Hamilton and Grifka say casino security, Detroit Police and Detroit Fire-EMS arrived after the incident. EMS took Hamilton to Detroit Receiving Hospital. He was admitted and spent two days there.
“When the cops came and the ambulance came, one of the ladies from the casino came out and said, ‘I found your purse, but it was empty laying on the third floor.’”
The couple’s wallets, cash and credit cards are all missing.
The couple told police the ten guys were all white and approximately 25 to 30 years old.
We contacted Greektown Casino and Detroit Police. They are looking into this matter.
The couple believes there is surveillance video from the casino that will support their story.
source-myfoxdetroit.com
Baltimore college student accused of killing roommate, eating his heart and brain www.privateofficer.com
BALTIMORE MD June 1 2012 (AP) — A 21-year-old college student accused of killing a housemate told police he ate the victim’s heart and part of his brain after he died.
Alexander Kinyua hid the head and hands of the dead man in his family’s basement laundry room in a suburb of Baltimore, according to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. Kinyua, a student at Morgan State University, was charged earlier in May in another attack in which the victim was brutally beaten but survived.
Kinyua, a Kenya native, is charged with first-degree murder and other charges in the death of 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie. He was ordered held on no bail.
His public defender did not return a call seeking comment, and a voicemail left at Kinyua’s home was not returned.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Monica Worrell said the chief medical examiner had not yet officially identified the body parts, but that authorities believe they are those of Kodie, who was reported missing May 25. His cellphone and wallet were left in the home and police were initially told he had gone for a run.
On Tuesday, Kinyua’s father, Antony Kinyua, called detectives and reported that another son, Jarrod, found what he thought were human remains in the house where they all lived in Joppatowne.
Jarrod found two metal tins, which held a human head and two human hands. Police say Jarrod confronted his brother, who said the remains were animals.
According to charging documents, Jarrod and his father went to the basement, where Jarrod “observed that the items he observed were gone and Alex Kinyua was cleaning the container he observed them in.”
Detectives obtained a search warrant and found the head and hands in the house. Police say Alexander Kinyua admitted to killing Kodie by cutting him up with a knife and eating his heart and part of his brain.
Authorities say Kinyua told detectives the rest of the body could be found in a trash container at the Town Baptist Church in Harford County where they discovered remains.
The attack comes in the same week as a man in Miami chewed away another man’s face along a busy highway and wouldn’t stop until an officer shot him to death. Witnesses say 31-year-old Rudy Eugene growled at the officer and continued to chew away. The victim, identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, a homeless man who lived under the causeway, was in critical condition and will be permanently disfigured.
On May 19, Kinyua beat a man with a baseball bat on Morgan’s campus, fracturing his skull and making him lose sight in one eye, according to Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Kinyua was arrested May 20 and released on $220,000 bail.
Morgan officials say Kinyua studied electrical engineering and was also in the ROTC.
According to court records, the victim, Kodie, a native of Ghana, was convicted in November 2008 in Baltimore County of sex offense and assault in September 2007 and harassment, stalking and telephone misuse for making repeated calls in 2007 and 2008 to a woman.
He was sentenced to at least a year and a half in jail.
Methamphetamine and alcohol charges ends Alabama teachers career www.privateofficer.com
Houston County sheriff’s deputies say 32-year-old Jason Allen Andrews was arrested on drug charges after being pulled over during a traffic stop. He’s also charged with possession of moonshine.
The Dothan Eagle reports (http://bit.ly/LMtnPG) that Andrews is a science teacher at Ashford High School in southeast Alabama. But Houston County Superintendent Tim Pitchford says Andrews is now on leave and likely won’t have his contract renewed after a review on Friday.
Pitchford also says a county background check didn’t detect Andrews’ past arrest on theft charges in 2005 because that case was dismissed.
Court records don’t show whether Andrews has hired an attorney.
Violent teenage shoplifter attacks security, injures others www.privateofficer.com
ELYRIA OH June 1 2012 — A determined juvenile shoplifter bit two security officers and injured others while trying to flee police about 3 p.m. May 28 at the Target store on Market Drive, according to a Elyria police report.
The 16-year-old Elyria shoplifter stuffed clothes in her purse and tried to leave without paying for them, police said. When approached by security, she ran and pushed Loss prevention officer Brandon Sprague into a concrete trash can. As officers handcuffed her, she bit Sprague and Target Protection Specialist Adam Delestathis on the arm, police said.
Loss prevention officer Brent Krumrei had a minor scratch to his left hand and an abrasion to his left elbow when he tried to help restrain her, the report stated.
She was taken to Lorain County Detention Home and advised of her court date.
Officers found shorts, a tank top, T-shirts, tube top and bikini in her purse. The total of the items is $68.96. The trash can the officer was pushed into was destroyed and will cost $700 to replace. The incident was caught on a security video.
source-morningjournal
Former Secret Service agent arrested for trying to hire someone to kidnap a judge www.privateofficer.com
Oconee County SC June 1 2012 The race for sheriff in Oconee County took a bizarre turn Wednesday with the arrest of Republican candidate James Bartee for trying to hire someone to kidnap a retired S.C. circuit judge. Bartee is one of four candidates competing June 12 to be the Republican nominee in November for Oconee County sheriff.
The former Secret Service agent’s qualification for the office was challenged by retired S.C. Circuit Judge James C. Williams Jr. Williams had sued to get Bartee off the ballot, arguing Bartee is not a “certified law enforcement officer” under S.C. law and therefore can’t run for sheriff. A court hearing was to have been held Wednesday on the case in Anderson. The hearing was under way when Bartee was arrested by State Law Enforcement Division agents at the courthouse, according to The Independent Mail of Anderson.
Bartee was charged with “solicitation to commit a felony.” According to the arrest warrant, Bartee tried to “encourage and solicit an individual” to kidnap Williams. He allegedly gave that individual money to purchase items needed in the kidnapping. SLED said evidence includes audio of the solicitation.
Bartee’s campaign website touts his 25 years as an agent with the U.S. Secret Service. He retired in 2000 after stints with the Presidential Protection Division during the George Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations, the site says.
Under a section titled “Questions and Concerns,” Bartee has posted a letter purportedly from the general counsel of the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy that spells out how former federal law enforcement officers “in almost all cases can become certified in South Carolina” as required by law. Candidates can’t receive the training until they are employed by a law enforcement agency in the state, the letter states.
Bartee posted the following on his FaceBook page:
James Bartee wants all to know that he is legally on the ballot and deserves to be on the ballot. He was certified in 1983 when he graduated from two of the finest law enforcement academies in the world, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, GA and the US Secret Service Academy in Washington, DC and Beltsville, MD.
Bartee, who has lived in Oconee County since 2000, owns a private investigator business and a martial arts studio. He announced his candidacy for sheriff in September 2011.
Bartee was being held in the Anderson County Detention Center Wednesday night.
Source:www.thestate.com
