Culpeper VA police officer charged with murder www.privateofficer.com

 

Culpeper VA May 30 2012 A Culpeper police officer was indicted Tuesday on a charge of murder in connection with the fatal shooting of a female motorist during a confrontation earlier this year.

The indictment, handed up by a special grand jury, is highly unusual. There have been few cases in the United States in which an officer has faced so serious a charge in connection with actions taken on duty.

In addition to the murder charge, the special investigative grand jury indicted the officer on three other counts: malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in a death and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.

The woman was identified as Patricia A. Cook, 54, of Culpeper, and the officer as Daniel Harmon-Wright, 32, of Gainesville.

In an unusual twist, the officer’s mother was indicted Tuesday on three counts of forgery of public documents. Virginia State Police said evidence had come to light concerning efforts by the woman, Bethany P. Sullivan, 56, of Orange, Va., to purge negative information from her son’s personnel file. She had been a Culpeper police employee but left in 2010.

The charges against the officer stem from an encounter between him and Cook on Feb. 9 in Culpeper, a town of a little more than 16,000 about 70 miles southwest of Washington.

A statement issued Tuesday by state police said that during the incident, “the officer became engaged with” the driver of a Jeep Wrangler. “During the encounter,” police said, Cook was shot, and she died at the scene.

In an interview Monday night, Cook’s pastor, the Rev. Randy Orndorff of Culpeper United Methodist Church, said he had talked with family members about what happened and had seen reports in the news media.

For reasons that have not been determined, Orndorff said, Cook was apparently parked in the lot of a Catholic church. That apparently prompted a call about a suspicious vehicle. When she was asked to provide her license and registration, the pastor said, it was reported that Cook rolled up her window and began driving away.

“The story was [the police officer] got his arm caught” in the window “when she rolled it up,” Orndorff said. It has raised the question, he said, as to whether the officer was dragged by the moving vehicle, possibly causing him to believe that his life was in jeopardy.

A story this month in the Culpeper Star-Exponent quoted a lawyer as saying he would defend the officer in “whatever came up.” The newspaper said the lawyer denied in a blog post that the officer claimed to have been dragged. But he was also quoted as calling the matter “pretty much a clear case of self-defense.”

Neither the officer nor Cook’s husband could be reached Tuesday night.

Orndorff said Cook worked with children at his church, and volunteered with cooking and making quilts for the needy.

Calling the matter tragic, Town Manager Kimberly Alexander said the officer had been on paid leave but is now suspended without pay.

Noting that state police had done the investigation, she said town officials “really don’t” know what happened and are waiting to hear the evidence.

Jim Fisher, the Fauquier County commonwealth’s attorney, was special prosecutor in the case. Police quoted him as saying the grand jury heard from more than 45 witnesses and received a good deal of other evidence.

Source:Washington Post

CT Deli owner scammed senior citizens out of $200,000 www.privateofficer.com

 

Fairfild CT May 13 2012 Police Detective Jason Takacs has two thick files filled with paperwork supporting charges that a local deli owner bilked three elderly siblings of more than $200,000.

Takacs credits cooperation among police, People’s United Bank, the Fairfield Probate Court and a forensic accountant from the chief state’s attorney’s office with the Thursday arrest of Carmella Jamshidian, 54, of Madison Avenue, Trumbull. Jamshidian, who owns CJ’s Deli on Kings Highway, was charged with first-degree larceny by scheme.

According to Takacs, Jamshidian befriended the three Fairfield seniors — a brother and two sisters, who were not identified by police — after overhearing a call they made from a phone at the deli to a lawyer regarding an inheritance in 2009. The deli owner soon befriended the three, who all lived together in a house within walking distance of the deli. The siblings don’t drive, Takacs said, and lived simple lives. They never had a checking account, always paying bills with money orders. The sisters also had been appointed as conservators for their brother.

“The siblings inherited a substantial amount of money from a wealthy cousin,” Takacs said. “It should have supported them for the rest of their lives.”

But “under the guise of friendship, [Jamshidian] helped them with their bills, food, transportation,” according to Takacs, driving them to the bank and setting up a tab for them at her deli. The inheritance was paid out to the siblings in several installments and Jamshidian offered to store the checks in the deli safe. She was able through the friendship to gain access to their newly opened bank account, and eventually told the seniors they no longer needed to sign the checks because she could do it for them, police said.

A bank employee noticed that “money was flying out of the account,” Takacs said, and because there was a conservatorship in place, contacted the Probate Court, where Judge Daniel Caruso put a freeze on the account and contacted police.

“It was an astounding number of checks,” Takacs told the Fairfield Citizen. “In a one-year period there were 373 checks drawn on their account. Out of the 373 checks, 356 were written to [Jamshidian], the deli or to cash.”

The checks made out to cash were endorsed by Jamshidian. In total, police allege, Jamshidian stole $218,408 from the siblings.

Takacs said Jamshidian declined to be interviewed by police. “I’m pretty sure there are other residents out there who might be victims” of Jamshidian, he said, and urged anyone who believes they may have been taken advantage of by Jamshidian’s to call him at 203-254-4840.

A lawyer has been appointed by the Probate Court to file a civil suit to recoup the scammed money for the siblings, who have all been relocated to new living quarters with the assistance of the town’s Social Services Department, Tackacs said.

“This was definitely a cooperative effort here,” said police Sgt. Suzanne Lussier, a department spokeswoman. “Not only with the criminal element, but the human aspect as well.”

Jamshidian was released on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear May 24 in Bridgeport Superior Court.

 

source-fairfiledcitizenonline

Estranged husband’s father kills daughter-in-law at Walmart www.privateofficer.com

 

MORGANTOWN WV April 23 2012- One woman is dead after a shooting in a Morgantown Walmart parking lot around 9:45 a.m.

Morgantown Police responded to the Hornbeck Road Walmart, just off of Interstate 68 after reports of a shooting in the parking lot.

Larry Mitchell, 54, of Shinnston allegedly shot Shannon Stafford, also known as Shannon Mitchell.

Mitchell is Stafford’s estranged husband’s father, according to Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston.

Stafford, 29, is now a Bruceton Mills resident. She was meeting family at the Walmart, but did not know Mitchell was there, Chief Preston said.

Mitchell allegedly confronted Stafford as she pulled into the parking lot, shot her while she was in the vehicle and continued to shoot at her after she exited the truck.

No other passengers are believed to have been in the car with her.

At this time, no total number of gunshots is known.

When officers arrived, a large group of people was standing around the female victim and another group of witnesses had the suspect in custody, Preston said.

Monongalia County Emergency Medical Services tried to revive Stafford, but she was pronounced dead on scene.

A divorce between Stafford and Mitchell’s son is pending, but not finalized, authorities said.

Police believed the shooting was the result of an ongoing domestic situation.

Stafford has a child with Mitchell’s son. The child lives full time with his father in Shinnston.

Mitchell has been charged with murder and will be arraigned by video once he is booked and processed. Police did not specify which degree of murder with which he is charged.

Norfolk, Va. firefighter died on duty at fire station www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Norfolk VAMarch 20 2012 A Norfolk, Va. firefighter died while on duty Monday morning.

According to WAVY.com, fire department spokesman Chief Harry Worley said fellow firefighters found Jonathan Myers, 54, unconscious on the floor of a bunk room at station 13.

Fellow firefighters immediately provided CPR and Myers was transported to DePaul Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Myers was a 20-year veteran of the department.

Two fired Metro DC employees pleaded guilty in federal court to thefts www.privateofficer.com

 

 

 

Washington DCMarch 20 2012 Two fired Metro employees pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to stealing $445,000 in cash from fare machines.

Horace Dexter McDade, 58, of Bowie, a revenue technician, and John Vincent Haile, 54, of Woodbridge, a Metro Transit Police officer, stole the money and hid it in a spot near the Capital Beltway. They would collect the bags of coins and bills when their shifts were done. According to court documents, Haile would use bags of stolen money to buy lottery tickets.

The two men were arrested in January. They appeared Monday before Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

McDade and Haile both agreed to waive indictment and plead guilty to two counts: theft concerning federal funds and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each faces up to 30 years in prison, potential fines of $750,000 and payment of restitution. Prosecutors said that they are still working with Metro to figure out how much money was stolen and that the figure could rise to $600,000.

Sentencing was set for June 15.

Prosecutors said the thefts had been underway since at least 2010.

The pair systematically worked stations on Metro’s rail lines in the District, Maryland, and Virginia, according to prosecutors. Investigators found that Haile would often switch his security assignment with other officers so he could work with McDade.

According to court records, surveillance teams observed McDade and Haile over three days in December and January. The two would ride through a hotel parking lot on Eisenhower Avenue to an overpass, unload bags of money from a van and hide the cash. Later, each man would return separately — Haile in a gray Jaguar, McDade in a green Ford — to retrieve the money, according to court records and those involved in the case. Investigators placed Global Positioning System tracking devices on their cars and the Metro van.

The underpass is about a quarter-mile from Metro’s revenue-collection facility and is in the opposite direction of Haile’s route home to Woodbridge, authorities said.

Court records described the pair’s “taking, hiding, retrieving, and ultimately stealing” Metro funds as a frequent pattern.

On the night they were arrested, Jan. 18, McDade and Haile took and hid four bags of money in the brush underneath the overpass in the hotel parking lot. They came back later that evening, and each took two bags. The men were arrested as they were driving away.

On a nearly nightly basis, court records said, Haile used stolen money to buy Virginia Lottery tickets, authorities said. Sometimes he would bring in bags containing $500 worth of stolen coins. Between October and December, he used more than $28,000 in coins and paper money to purchase tickets, according to court records.

And Haile won frequently. In 2011, he won 29 times, totaling $32,000, records show. He also won amounts under $600, but the Virginia Lottery doesn’t require retailers to document personal information for those lesser amounts.

Prosecutors said that Haile’s bank records show unexplained cash deposits of more than $150,000 since 2008.

McDade used his portion of the stolen Metro funds to make “numerous cash and coin purchases” at Home Depot and Lowe’s home improvement stories and to pay off account balances at Zale’s jewelers and Sprint, according to the statement of facts in the case.

Haile lied to law enforcement officers after his arrest, saying he did not possess any keys to Metro property, court records said. But he had keys on his key ring to machines that held cash and coins.

At the hearing, prosecutors said Metro kept “careful control” of the keys. Brinkema responded, “Couldn’t have been that carefully controlled.”

McDade had worked for Metro since 1979 and was assigned to service broken fare-box machines. Haile had served as a Metro Transit Police officer since 1997 and was responsible for providing security as money was transported to and from the revenue collection facility in Alexandria.

When asked by Brinkema at Monday’s hearing who came up with the idea for stealing the Metro money, McDade said, “Both of us.”

Weren’t you worried someone would steal it? Brinkema asked, referring to hiding the money under a bush near a hotel.

“Yes, your honor,” McDade said. “Sometimes that happened.”

Haile told the judge he was being treated for a gambling addiction.

After the hearing, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said the two were “caught red-handed” when they were arrested and with more than $8,000 stolen from Metro. He said that those stolen funds were the “tip of the iceberg” and that the men “ripped off the very Metro system they were sworn to protect.”

Peter Carr, spokesman for the U.S. District Court, said the two would be required to pay restitution after their release from prison.

The men’s defense attorneys — Steven Bullock and Robert Whitestone — declined to comment.

Dan Stessel, Metro’s chief spokesman, said McDade and Haile were fired in January.

The transit authority declined to comment on the plea deals, Stessel said. Metro’s inspector general and Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn are conducting investigations into Metro’s procedures, he said. According to Stessel, some Metro revenue collection procedures have already been changed, but he would not elaborate because the issue concerned internal security.

Metro also brought in auditing firm Deloitte to look “for ways to tighten up” processes at the agency’s revenue collection facility in Alexandria and “make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Stessel said.

Source:Washington Post

Boynton Beach sisters killed in home invasion www.privateofficer.com

 

 

BOYNTON BEACH Fla March 19 2012— Two assailants threw open the door of a home late Saturday and gunned down two sisters with high-powered semi-automatic rifles with two small children nearby, police said today.

“This was a senseless, horrific shooting of innocent people,” city spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said in a release.

The “brutal” murders of Janice Rahming, 54, and Daphne Clemons, 41, took place around 10:45 p.m. Saturday at Clemons’ home in the 1600 block of Northeast Second Court, where Rahming had been visiting Clemons, a mother of three, police said.

The women died at the home.

A third woman, who was across the street, was shot in the leg. She was being treated at a local hospital.

The two young children were in another room at the time of the shooting; neither was harmed, and both are now with relatives, Slater said.

She said the police department’s victim advocate is in touch with family members.

There is no indication that anything was taken from the home, south of Gateway Boulevard and between Seacrest Boulevard and Federal Highway.

“Daphne was afraid something terrible would happen,” Clemons’ sister-in-law, Helen Clemons, said today. She said a teenage relative may have been involved in gang activity.

“They were real friendly. They always helped other people out,” said David Lopez, a neighbor who said he knew Clemons for five years.

Only a few days ago, he said, Clemons had been teaching a young child to ride a bike.

“She was a wonderful woman,” Lopez said.

Anyone with information is urged to call Detective Chris Crawford at (561) 742-6139, First Sgt. Paul Sheridan at (561) 742-6133 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 458-TIPS (8477). Callers may remain anonymous.

Source:Palm Beach Post

Ohio man arrested in security-police assault www.privateofficer.com

 

 

MARLBORO TWP.OH March 13 2012 — Police say a Lexington Township man threatened a security officer guarding an oil and gas drilling site, then later assaulted the Marlboro Township policeman who was called to investigate.

David Walker, 54, of 13540 McCallum Ave. NE was scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon in Alliance Municipal Court on charges of felony assault and felony resisting arrest. He is being held in the Stark County jail.

Police Chief Ron Devies said Marlboro received a call just before 9:30 p.m. Sunday that a man was trying to drive his pickup truck onto the hydraulic drilling site on Edison Street in the township. The security guard at the site stopped and questioned the man.

“He said ‘I’m here to video tape,’ ” said Devies. “Then he made a veiled threat,” telling the guard he was going to return the next day “and deal with all of you.”

Officer Donald Worthy responded. He tracked Walker to his home on McCallum, where he was attacked by Walker in an abandoned building on the property, Devies said.

“Walker struck (Worthy) in the face twice and stuck his fingers inside his mouth,” cutting the officer’s mouth, according to Devies.

Worthy called for backup and used pepper spray to subdue Walker. Devies and a Stark County sheriff’s deputy came to assist.

Walker was arrested. He would not tell police why he wanted to take video at the drilling site.

Devies said Walker twice more struggled with officers — once at the Marlboro station and again with deputies at the jail, where he was sent after a psychiatric and medical evaluation at Mercy Medical Center.

Worthy was released from Alliance Community Hospital after treatment for face, mouth and knee injuries. He’ll spend about a week recuperating before returning to duty, Devies said.

San Diego real estate agent and mortgage broker charged with fraud and money laundering www.privateofficer.com

 

 

SAN DIEGO CA Feb 2012 — A San Diego real estate agent and mortgage broker, his wife, and seven others were charged Tuesday with conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme that prosecutors said targeted low-income immigrant home buyers.

Realtor Eric Elegado, whose smiling face is a fixture on outdoor advertising around Mira Mesa, pleaded not guilty to a 12-count indictment in federal court. He was arrested Friday and was ordered held on $100,000 bond. Elegado, 47, is the owner of E Real Estate & Loans and E Real Mortgage Inc. in Mira Mesa.

Also charged was Charmagne Elegado, 47, the wife of Eric Elegado. She worked as an account executive at New Century Mortgage.

The indictment says that the defendants obtained mortgages for unqualified buyers by submitting false loan applications. The applications lied about the employment and earnings of the applicants.

The scheme also included creating bogus W-2 forms, bank statements and other documents to support the phony loan applications, according to the indictment.

The loan applications were then submitted to mortgage lenders, including New Century Mortgage, to secure about $50 million in loans.

In all, the scheme led to $15 million in losses for the lenders, the indictment said.

The bogus applications were submitted from 2002 to 2007, but the indictment was not returned until Feb. 2.

“We don’t know what has been going on for the past five years,” said Paul Pfingst, the lawyer for Eric Elegado, who lives in Escondido with his wife. “We don’t know why it has taken so long to get to court.”

Pfingst said that one reason for filing the case now could be that the statute of limitations — the legal deadline for prosecutors to file charges — expires in this case on Thursday.

The chief financial officer for the E Real companies, Theodore Cohen, 54, of San Diego, also was indicted along with Regidor Pacal, 51; Alexander Garcia, 38; Roman Macabulos, 38; Ramin Lofti, 36; and Roderick Huerto, 34, all of San Diego; and Minh Nguyen, 28, of San Marcos. They were all real estate agents and loan officers.

Nguyen was being detained without bond until a hearing set for Friday. Bond amounts between $35,000 and $75,000 were set for the other defendants.

Pennsylvania Sewer Employees Arrested for Theft Scheme www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Burlington County PA Feb 19 2012 Police arrested several employees of the Cinnaminson Sewerage Authority on Wednesday after they allegedly stole authority equipment. Police also say the employees created fraudulent invoices to order items such as televisions for personal use and operated a private business that used materials and supplies paid for by the authority.

Police also arrested a CSA mechanical subcontractor and his father, along with the employees.

Police say an investigation revealed that Paul Phillips, 54, William Yannarella, 53, Jeffrey Lehman, 22, and Carmelo Colon, 26, were all involved in the operation of J&B Environmental Services. Police say it was a private environmental company that provided sewer maintenance to the Wyndham Hotel in Mount Laurel.

Police say in some cases the maintenance was performed by CSA employees under the direction of Phillips, the CSA Superintendent, during regular work hours for the sewerage authority. Parts and supplies were ordered by Phillips and paid for by the CSA that were specifically intended to be used at the Wyndham Hotel, according to investigators. In one case in November 2011, police say a CSA employee took a 55-gallon drum of more than $1800 in chemicals from CSA’s stock and used it to service the hotel’s system.

Police also say Phillips used CSA funds to fraudulently order items for his and other CSA employees’ personal use from Contractor Services, a business in Camden. Investigators say a sales manager at the business helped with the fraud though no charges have been filed yet against that person.

Police say the items included GPS units, speakers, vacuum cleaners, televisions and George Foreman grills.

Police say Phillips illegally received around $44,000 in merchandise and services ordered through Contractor Services.

Phillips is charged with falsifying/tampering with records, conspiracy, theft and other related offenses.

CSA Assistnat Superintendent William Yannarella, CSA employee Carmelo Colon and CSA employee Mike Colon are all charged with theft, conspiracy and other related offenses.

In addition, CSA employee Jeffrey Lehman, 22, CSA Mechanical subcontractor Joseph B. Lehman, 26, and their father, Joseph L. Lehman, 62, are all charged with illegally taking possession of a CSA backhoe and taking it to their home for personal use and work-for-hire purposes.

Police say the defendants who are unable to post bail must appear in Superior Court in Burlington County on Thursday.

Cource:NBC Philadelphia News

Plane leaving Sioux Falls Regional Airport crashes killing 4 people www.privateofficer.com

 

 

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. Dec 10 2011 — A plane leaving the Sioux Falls Regional Airport nosedived into the ground Friday and burst into flames so powerful that there was never a chance the four people trapped inside could survive, officials said.

Witnesses described a bloody and charred scene.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said the Cessna 421-C departed Joe Foss Field for Rapid City at 2:24 p.m. Shortly after, the small, two-engine plane began experiencing problems and started circling back to the airport before it slammed into the ground, killing the pilot and three passengers.

Sioux Falls police identified those killed in the crash as pilot Brian Blake, 54, of Sioux Falls, and passengers Kevin Anderson, 50, of Sioux Falls; Joshua Lambrecht, 30, of Brandon; and Daniel Swets, 47, of Sioux Falls.

According to Augustana College in Sioux Falls, Swets, a computer science associate professor at the school, was headed to Rapid City for a robotics meeting. He was president of the South Dakota Robotics Association. Anderson, an alumnus of the school, was a staff member of the Sioux Falls School District.

Sioux Falls Fire Chief Jim Sideras said investigators do not yet know what problems the plane was experiencing or whether the pilot radioed for help. The plane was a charter, and Sideras said he did not know who the owner was.

“Right now, it’s a shell of a plane. It’s essentially just a charred area right now,” Sideras told reporters gathered in a parking lot overlooking the crash site. “That amount of fire is not survivable.”

FAA records indicate it was registered to an Ipswich, S.D., business. Attempts to reach that business were unsuccessful Friday.

John Dahlin, 28, of Sioux Falls, was driving to work when he saw the plane out of the corner of his eye. Dahlin said he thought the pilot was performing a stunt before he realized the plane was out of control.

“It was a spinning, straight-nosed dive into the ground,” he said.

A split-second later, the plane burst into flames, he said. Dahlin drove closer to the site to try to help as he called 911.

Jack Sundet, 54, a retired Sioux Falls firefighter who used to work at the airport’s crash center, said he pulled over after seeing smoke billowing from a field near the airport as he drove home from the grocery store.

Sundet said he pulled out a pair of binoculars and spotted the tail of a plane. The wreckage was compact on the ground, meaning there was no debris for emergency responders to sift through — and likely no survivors.

“It’s like the plane went from nose to tail right into the ground,” he said. “The tail was the only thing that was still intact. Everything else was engulfed in flames.”

Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether said ambulances responded quickly but there was “no chance for survival.”

Molinaro said the FAA would investigate and forward its findings to the National Transportation Safety Board. According to NTSB data, the last aviation crash it investigated in Sioux Falls was in 1984.

Former government worker dangled from NY Tappen Zee bridge www.privateofficer.com

 

TARRYTOWN, N.Y.Nov 8 2011 – A former government worker dangled for hours from New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge with a protest sign on Monday, backing up traffic for miles before police lowered him safely to the water.

Michael Davitt, 54, of Garnerville, N.Y., had been angry about losing his job with the Rockland County mental health department, Sheriff James Kralik said.

The man swung from a rope from the midpoint of the bridge, a major crossing north of New York City that connects suburban Westchester and Rockland counties. He was hanging from a harness attached to a rope ladder about halfway between the Hudson River and the bridge roadway. According to CBS affiliate WCBS, the sign partially reads “Rockland Executive Legislature Coverup Retaliation.”

Rockland County spokesman Ron Levine said the man was let go from his job because he was unable to perform his duties. Levine said he was unsure of the man’s complaints. He said the man had applied for disability payments and had been approved.

“This is bizarre,” Levine said. “This is a very strange way of making a point.”
Sheriff’s Department Capt William Barbera told The Journal News that Davitt was a frequent protester at Rockland Legislature meetings. According to The Journal News, Davitt frequently complained at the meetings that he was unfairly fired from his county mental health job, where he worked as a substance abuse counselor. The Rockland Legislature had requested county sheriff’s deputies be present at the meetings after Davitt began acting strange, but he was never arrested for his activities.

Sheriff James Kralik told the Associated Press that Davitt had also sent the legislators letters “which some people considered threatening.”

“We decided to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t step over the line, and he never did,” Kralik said. “Today he not only stepped over the line, he jumped over it.”

Source:AP

Shoplifter arrested after pushing security agent into glass window www.privateofficer.com

 

AIRMONT NY Aug 24 2011 — A Pomona man is in jail today after police said he pushed a grocery store security guard through a window while allegedly trying to steal $15 worth of meat and cheese.

Ramapo police were called to the Shop-Rite supermarket on Route 59 in Airmont at 12:30 p.m. Sunday to investigate a report of a theft.
Store workers told police that a man identified as David Butterfield, 54, of Brevoort Avenue, Pomona, was seen trying to steal the items.
When a 56-year-old guard tried to stop him, the two men got into a fight and Butterfield allegedly pushed the worker into a glass window pane, causing it to shatter. The guard suffered a laceration to his hand.

Source:lohud.com

Maine teacher found with child porn arrested www.privateofficer.com

 

NORTH MONMOUTH ME June 12 2011 — The educator arrested Thursday on charges of possessing child pornography is “sensitive, hard working and compassionate,” according to a neighbor whose children attended school in his classroom.

According to Maine State Police, Christopher B. Brown, 54, of North Monmouth, a fifth-grade teacher at Monmouth Middle School, had sexually explicit images of minors on school-issued laptops stored in the woods behind his house.

The minors do not appear to be children from the school, police say.

Angela Krehbiel-Vancil, who lives across from Brown on Back Street and has an 11-year-old daughter in his homeroom, said Friday that Brown was one of her favorite teachers.

Another of her daughters, now 15, had Brown as a teacher as well.

She said her younger daughter’s class was out of the school Friday on a trip, and that Brown’s class was being covered by another teacher.

“I will say I have never felt unsafe living across from them,” Krehbiel-Vancil said. “It is a very shocking piece of information to gain.”

Police say they were tipped off when a school technical administrator reported close-up pictures of girls’ faces stored on a classroom computer. Upon further questioning, police said Brown admitted he took the pictures and morphed those girls’ heads onto other bodies.

Krehbiel-Vancil said Brown and his family have been supportive neighbors since she has known them. Brown has a wife and two grown children, according to police.

“He has a wife and children and a grandson. Those are the people we need to support,” Krehbiel-Vancil said. “Up to this point, we’re choosing to be neutral.”

In a comment attributed to her on the Bangor Daily News website, Krehbiel-Vancil said she was leery of initial news reports about the alleged crime.

“We need to remember how many times the media has misled us and that at the very least, we should NOT gossip about this for the sake of his family, our community and even for Chris,” she wrote.

In an interview, Krehbiel-Vancil said she stood by the comment and referenced two other commenters who said they were former students of Brown.

“How confusing for them,” Krehbiel-Vancil said. “Mr. Brown is one of my daughter’s favorite teachers.”

Brown was released on bail shortly after the arrest, according to police. The bail bond expected to reach court by next week. Meanwhile, Brown has been placed on administrative leave from the school.

According to Maine Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin, Brown was first licensed to teach in 1983. His current certificate is valid and expires July 1, 2013. He is licensed to teach general elementary school and special education in grades kindergarten through 12.

Connerty-Marin said individuals convicted of offenses similar to what Brown is accused of surrender typically their certificates voluntarily.

A court procedure is available for the department to take the certificate, but that option is rarely used.

According to police, Brown’s bail conditions stipulate that he not have any contact with children younger than 18, and he has been served with a trespass notice preventing him from returning to Monmouth Middle School.

“We could go to court tomorrow, spend a lot of money and duplicate what’s already going on,” Connerty-Marin said. “But we’re not going to do that.”