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Pennsylvania priest accused of embezzling nearly $385,000 www.privateofficer.com
NJ bounty hunter pleads guilty in scheme www.privateofficer.com
Women Arrested for Stealing Thousands in Clothes www.privateofficer.com
Johnson City, NY July 29 2012 Four women are sent to jail without bail after police say they stole nearly $2,700 worth of stuff from the Oakdale Mall.
On July 25, Johnson City Police arrested a group of females for shoplifting. Police say they acted as a group and stole a large amount of clothing from the GAP store and The Children’s Place in the Oakdale Mall
Arrested:
Isophine Butts, 36, Syracuse
Anotya Dixon, 26, Syracuse
Maria Clark-Ensley, 27, Syracuse
Tamika Ensley, 25, Sayre, PA
The women are facing multiple charges including felony grand larceny.
Investigators say the women had foil-lined bags to deflect store security alarms on clothing security tags and say the group had special tools to take off those tags.
The females were charged with stealing more than $1,100 from the GAP and more than $1,600 from The Children’s Place.
Butts is also charged with assault and resisting arrest. Police say she caused minor injury to a police officer. The officer had a sprained hand and had to be treated at Lourdes Hospital.
All of the women were arraigned in Village Court and sent to the Broome County Jail without bail.
Binghamton Police Department, Broome County Sheriff’s Office and the New York State Police assisted.
Source:WBNG
Father and son busted on charges of running multimillion-dollar sex ring www.privateofficer.com
Manhattan NY April 24 2012 A father-and-son pimp team were busted for running a multimillion-a-year sex ring – branding women with degrading tattoos and employing livery car drivers to shuttle them around, according to an indictment from the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
“This as not your typical father-and-son business,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, whose department partnered with prosecutors to crush the ring.
Vincent George Sr. (“Vee), 55, of Queens taught his son Vincent George Jr. (“King Koby”), 33, of Allentown, Pa., the ways of the flesh trade over the last 10 years, prosecutors charge.
The pimp daddy and his pimp son set up a phony business, Grip Entertainment, to launder their illicit money.
The two ventured out in the city night after night offering business cards to men on the street and in hotels, bars and the back of their livery cars.
The women were kept subservient with degrading tattoos, according to a source. One woman had a bar code inked on her neck; another had a crown with a $ tattooed on her pubic bone.
The women earned $200 to $500 per customer, but were given only enough money a night for food and essentials and were forced to turn all their earnings over to the Georges.
One prostitute earned half a million dollars last year alone, according to court records. Some of the money was transferred to offshore accounts, according to prosecutors.
They were threatened with violence if they failed to bring in big money, according to the district attorney.
“Prostituted women, men and children are often physically abused, psychologically coerced, and fearful of reporting their abuse to authorities,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.
Investigators, using tapped phones at Rikers Island, were able to identify three woman, who agreed to cooperate.
The two men were busted on April 5, driving through Allentown from Buffalo en route to the city with a woman they had recruited.
A joint taskforce of NYPD, prosecutors and the feds seized 10 cars and more than $200,000 cash.
The two Georges were charged with sex trafficking, promoting prostitution and money laundering.
In addition to the father-and-son team, livery car drivers Oabari Gaber, 57, Theo Jones, 52, David Lombardo, 56, Assaf Nahomove, , Sokol Perkaj, 41, and Ausama Ahamad, 37, were also charged with promoting prostitution.
Jones’s lawyer, Bob Walter, said his client was just trying to help his passengers.
“What livery car driver doesn’t know where you can get a girl?”
Source:www.nydailynews.com
Philadelphia man arrested with homemade bomb at airport www.privateofficer.com
Philadelphia PA March 30 2012 A 29-year-old man faces a maximum 10 years in prison for attempting to carry homemade fireworks on a plane Thursday morning at Philadelphia International Airport, officials said.
Joseph A. Picklo, of Dallas, Pa., attempted to get a on flight bound for San Francisco carrying two homemade M-80s, a plastic bottle filled with a powdery mixture, a test tube with a powdery substance and a wick, and a cigarette lighter, according to his arrest warrant.
Picklo was carrying the items in a back pack as he tried to get through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint for Terminals D/E around 6 a.m., the warrant said.
The discovery prompted the checkpoint to be shut down and passengers were moved to the security check-in at Terminal C, said airport spokewoman Victoria Lupica.
The closed checkpoint was reopened at 6:18 a.m., Lupica said.
The Philadelphia Police Bomb Squad neutralized the fireworks. Police said early in the day that Picklo told authorites that forgot he was carrying the fireworks.
Picklo was charged with with attempting to carry on an explosive device on a plane, said a spokeswoman for the United States Attorney’s Office.
Picklo appeared before a federal magistrate and had a federal defender appointed to represent him.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Source:philly.com
Man arrested speeding 100 mph down Philadelphia’s airport runway www.privateofficer.com
Philadelphia PA March 3 2012 The man who disrupted Philadelphia’s airport darted onto the runway in his car and reached speeds up to 100 mph as a plane was about to land, according to an affidavit filed by an arresting FBI agent.
The affidavit was filed along with the federal arrest warrant for Kenneth Richard Mazik, 24, of Chadds Ford, Pa.
Mazik has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia in a criminal complaint with an act of violence at an international airport for driving onto the airport and then allegedly injuring two officers as they tried to put him in a holding cell.
The affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Megan MacDonald states that Mazik was seen watching the airport runway in a black Jeep Grand Cherokee next to an airport gate.
“As an airplane approached the airport in a final descent for landing, the driver suddenly accelerated, then charged the gate in the perimeter fence in his Jeep Grand Cherokee. The driver crashed his Cherokee through the locked gate as the aircraft approached the runway,” MacDonald wrote.
“As the driver did so, the approaching airplane was still descending for landing from behind the Cherokee on that same runway,” the affidavit said.
The incoming plane was quickly told to abort its landing.
“Airport personnel have estimated that the airplane was approximately 500 feet above the runway when it was diverted and placed in a holding pattern,” MacDonald wrote in the affidavit.
After a pursuit of over five minutes which caused havoc and concern among air traffic controls and pilots, Mazik was stopped by Philadelphia Police Department officers on a taxiway adjacent to runway 27R at the airport.
“Seventy-five aircraft were placed in a holding pattern and 80 aircraft were prevented from departing at their scheduled times. This caused significant disruption to the operation and services of the airport and caused financial expense and losses,” the affidavit states.
“I further submit that by driving his Cherokee onto the runway in front of an approaching aircraft, Mazik endangered the safety of the passengers and crew of that aircraft,” the federal agent wrote.
Mazik allegedly injured two officers after he was detained and attempted to be placed into a holding cell.
“When police officers later attempted to place the subject in a holding cell at the airport, the subject became combative and resisted the officers, causing injury to two of the officers.” The affidavit noted.
If convicted Mazik faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.
Chief Financial Officer of former Pennsylvania design company guilty in bank fraud www.privateofficer.com
NEWPORT NEWS VA Jan 27 2012
The Chief Financial Officer of a former Pennsylvania design company pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud charges that left a Gloucester bank with losses of more than $700,000.
At an hearing at the U.S. District Court in Newport News, Bernard Stromberg Jr., 40, of Morrisville, Pa., admitted to the charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Stromberg was indicted on Oct. 13, 2011, by a federal grand jury on conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud charges, engaging monetary transaction in proceeds derived from unlawful activity and false statement on a loan application. He faces a maximum penalty of 30 years when he is sentenced on May 1.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office referred to court documents that stated Stromberg was the Chief Financial Officer of Atomica, a Pennsylvania design company that had a working relationship with Chesapeake Bank of Gloucester.
“In 2009, at Stromberg’s direction, over 250 false invoices were submitted to the bank to cover various Atomica shortfalls. These invoices related to fictitious entities, entities that had no business relationship with Atomica, and entities for which Atomica had not completed work. Stromberg also submitted false financial information to the bank in an effort to increase Atomica’s line of credit,” the statement from Neil MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said.
Atomica dissolved in December, 2009, resulting in losses to Chesapeake Bank of more than $700,000.
Source:Daily Press
TSA finds knives, handgun at upstate New York airport www.privateofficer.com
BIG FLATS, N.Y. Dec 15 2011 AP — Authorities say they’ve arrested a man who had a loaded handgun and two knives in his carry-on baggage at an upstate New York airport.
The Transportation Security Administration says the .38-caliber revolver, a 9-inch knife and a utility knife were found in the man’s bag during screening at the Elmira-Corning Regional Airport in Chemung County.
Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss says 53-year-old Michael Rinehart of Tioga, Pa., was charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon and may also face federal charges.
Moss says Rinehart told deputies and FBI agents he forgot the gun and knives were in his bag when he went to board a Detroit-bound US Airways flight Monday morning. Authorities have ruled out terrorism.
Rinehart was released on $100,000 bail. He’s due back in court Jan. 3.
Two employees of local department stores charged in thefts www.privateofficer.com
RARITAN TWP.NJ Dec 4 2011 — Two employees of local department stores were arrested last week on charges of stealing money and jewelry in two separate incidents, police said.
Flemington Department Store employee Tara L. Ryan, 31, of Phillipsburg, was charged with stealing money from the store for the past four months, police said.
She was arrested at around 11:21 a.m. on Nov. 23. The day before, store employees discovered that Ryan had indicated that a customer returned flooring materials for a $106 credit and then allegedly kept the cash for her own use, police said.
Ryan is alleged to have processed 25 similar fraudulent transactions over the past four months, police said.
Kohl’s employee Nicole J. Gallaway, 22, of Erwinna, Pa. was charged with shoplifting jewelry valued at $2,965 from the store, police said.
Police were called to the store at around 4:20 p.m. on Nov. 23 after a manager reported that Gallaway had been stealing jewelry from the store for the past year while she worked in the jewelry department, police said.
Source:nj.com
PA. school official charged with rape www.privateofficer.com
mccall.com – An eastern Pennsylvania school official has been charged with raping a boy.
State police say 38-year-old Gary Snyder of Franklin Township, Carbon County had sex with the boy for several years. The boy, now 16, told police the relationship started when he was in sixth or seventh grade.
Snyder was the head of security, transportation and other departments at the Palmerton Area School District. The district has suspended him without pay.
Police say Snyder met the boy through an acquaintance, not through school.
Snyder was charged Monday with rape and related offenses. He’s free on $100,000 bail.
Snyder’s phone has been disconnected and it’s not clear if he has a lawyer.
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School system ripe with sexual predators www.privateofficer.com
But the school board president has a hard time explaining how so many faculty members have strayed into forbidden territory and had sexual relationships with students.
Since March, two former employees – the band director and an assistant – have been convicted of corruption of minors and sentenced to jail time or probation. A science teacher resigned last month, but no charges were filed because the student was 18, according to authorities.
And Troy R. May, a former coach of the Warwick girls’ basketball team, is serving an 81/2- to 30-year prison term after pleading guilty in 2005 to more than a dozen sex crimes, including statutory sexual assault.
From July to October 2003, police said, the coach, then 36, had sex with a girl younger than 16 in the middle school athletic fields.
“I don’t get it,” said Flickinger, a Realtor in the Lancaster County borough, tucked into what some people call Pennsylvania’s Bible Belt. “Young people are throwing their lives and careers away. They’re just not thinking.”
In a town founded as a Moravian religious enclave more than 250 years ago, residents insist the cluster of teacher-student sex scandals is an anomaly and not any kind of scarlet letter on its civic character. But the disclosures are the whispered talk of this town of Victorian homes, pretzel makers and chocolate factories, population 9,000 – named a “distinctive” U.S. destination this year by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“I haven’t seen anything like it, and I’ve been here since 1991,” Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said. “It’s obviously extremely disturbing to see this kind of betrayal of trust. You put kids in school and you want to know that they’re going to be safe.”
School administrators are not speaking publicly about the incidents, and calls to acting Superintendent Robert Lombardo and Warwick High School principal Brian Ginter were not returned.
Some parents are circling the wagons, too. Nancy Sweigart, with the Warwick Band Parents, said the group had opted not to speak out, noting “it certainly has been a sensitive subject for all of us.”
Other parents and local officials said they were satisfied with the district’s hiring procedures and handling of each case, even as they questioned what could be done to ensure abuse did not recur.
“We’re not doing anything wrong. We’re doing everything that we can within the legal parameters,” Flickinger said.
Joe Kane, a borough councilman and parent of a Warwick high schooler, acknowledged the scandal “doesn’t reflect well” on the community.” But called the spotlight “unjust,” saying that “because of our diligence it’s been brought to light.”
On March 3, high school and middle school band director Todd N. Sheerer, 30, was sentenced to three to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to corrupting a minor by engaging in a two-year affair with one of his students.
Sheerer, a married father employed by the district for five years, began the relationship in January 2006, when the student was 15. He was arrested after police got a tip about a couple in the backseat of a car parked behind a restaurant in Manheim Township, police said.
Sheerer’s jeans were unzipped, and he told the officer that the girl was 19. The couple also met in the band room, according to police.
After his arrest, Sheerer posted $25,000 bail and was ordered to stay away from the student. While awaiting trial, he twice violated the bail agreement by calling her and meeting her behind her house and was returned to prison. He was fired in April 2008.
Last month, Michael David Gottier was sentenced to five years of probation for a misdemeanor charge of corrupting a minor.
The 22-year-old assistant band director was arrested in November after a two-month relationship with a 16-year-old female student with whom he communicated through Facebook, text messages, and phone calls throughout the day, according to police.
The two also met several times at a nearby lake, where they kissed and touched but did not have sex, police said. The student told authorities that she thought he loved her.
Also in April, science teacher Donnie Thornton, 25, resigned after state police investigated allegations of a relationship since December between the first-year teacher and a high school student.
Thornton was not charged because the student was 18, county prosecutor Karen Mansfield said.
Doug Bomberger, a Warwick High graduate with two sons in the school, said he wanted the board to create a committee of community volunteers to investigate rumors about teacher-student romances that may swirl through school hallways.
“When people talk, that’s the first hint that something needs to be checked out,” said Bomberger, also a councilman.
Warwick spokeswoman Lori Zimmerman declined to discuss whether Warwick was altering hiring policies, staff training, or student-education programs.
After the first arrest, that of Sheerer, the district brought in a lawyer to speak to the staff about professional conduct, said Rob Sperry, president of the school’s faculty union.
“Right now, I’m just as shocked as everybody else,” he said.
In 2008, Pennsylvania’s Professional Standards and Practices Commission revoked or suspended, pending court decisions, the licenses of 14 teachers who had inappropriately touched, kissed, embraced, or had sex with students 17 or younger. Ten of the cases involved sex.
Last week a female teacher at North Penn High School in Lansdale was charged with having sex with a 17-year-old student and sending sexually explicit messages to another 17-year-old.
While federal data indicate that reported sex crimes against young people have fallen since the 1990s, there are no specific data for what goes on in schools, said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
Warwick’s cases “certainly seem like a lot,” Finkelhor said.
Colleges, he said, should do a better job preparing young teachers for the sometimes highly charged sexual atmosphere in high schools. Others say school districts need to do more teacher training.
Warwick school board president Flickinger is open to suggestions. “If anybody has solutions, I’m all ears.”
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Man arrested for fondling child at IKEA store www.privateofficer.com
The suspect, 27-year-old James Groesbeck of Belmont Avenue, was arrested after police say he grabbed the girl’s buttocks.
Investigators say it happened around 4:20 p.m. on Monday as the victim, a friend, and the victim’s mother were shopping at IKEA. They told police they noticed a man, later identified by police as Groesbeck, who seemed to be following them around the store.
The mother said she moved the girls around the store to avoid contact with Groesbeck.
The victim says he was shopping near the registers when Groesbeck walked past her and grabbed her buttocks. She alerted her mother, who was standing next to her.
Investigators say Groesbeck then asked the mother, “Do you want me to touch you, too?”
Police say the mom then alerted an IKEA sales associate, who called police. A store security officer tried to keep Groesbeck from leaving, but he allegedly pushed the officer out of the way, and fled the scene in a silver Honda. However, police say security was able to get the vehicle registration.
A warrant was issued, and Groesbeck was arrested.
Groesbeck was arraigned, and bail was set at $100,000. He was unable to post bail, and was sent to the Montgomery County Correction Facility until his preliminary hearing scheduled for April 7th.
Police want to know if there are more victims out there. Anyone with information is asked to call the Plymouth Township Police Detective Division at 610-279-1900
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Police Chief indicted for forgery, theft in scam www.privateofficer.com
Police Chief indicted for forgery, theft in scam http://www.privateofficer.com
The defendant is identified 47-year-old Booker T. Wilson of 18 E. 17th Street in Chester.
The arrest comes after evidence and testimony regarding the case was presented to a statewide investigating grand jury, which recommended that criminal charges be filed.
The investigation began in January 2008 after the Department of Treasury was notified that several SWIF checks, which had been issued from June 2007 through December 2007, were never received by the intended recipient.
The grand jury found that the checks were mailed to a minimum security corrections facility, located at 201 East 12th Street in Chester and intended for one of the facility’s former inmates, Vaughn Moore.
Corbett said that Wilson was a part-time weekend security guard at the facility and allegedly had access to any mail left at the security desk during those weekends.
The charges state that three SWIF checks were sent to Moore at the location, despite him not residing at the facility since 2006. During the time that Wilson worked at the facility, at least three checks were allegedly forged and cashed, including a check in Moore’s name, dated June 1, 2007 for more than $6,600.
According to the grand jury, this check was used by Wilson in July 2007 as a down payment on a 2007 Cadillac Escalade, purchased by Wilson.
Corbett said that the check did not include Wilson’s signature but did have Moore’s forged endorsement on the back.
Wilson is charged with one count of forgery, one count of theft by unlawful taking or disposition, one count of theft by deception, one count of theft of property lost, mislaid or delivered by mistake, one count of receiving stolen property and one count of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received.
Wilson faces a maximum penalty of 51 years in prison and a $120,000 fine.
Wilson is scheduled to surrender and be arraigned at noon today before Thorndale Magisterial Judge Charley, 47 N. Bailey Road, who will set bail and schedule a preliminary hearing date.
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