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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 29, 2005 10:54:29 GMT -5
FREDERICA, Del.
The apparent suicide of a woman found hanging from a tree went unreported for hours because passers-by thought the body was a Halloween decoration, authorities said.
The 42-year-old woman used rope to hang herself across the street from some homes on a moderately busy road late Tuesday or early Wednesday, state police said.
The body, suspended about 15 feet above the ground, could be easily seen from passing vehicles.
State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Oldham and neighbors said people noticed the body at breakfast time Wednesday but dismissed it as a holiday prank. Authorities were called to the scene more than three hours later.
"They thought it was a Halloween decoration," Fay Glanden, wife of Mayor William Glanden, told The (Wilmington) News Journal.
"It looked like something somebody would have rigged up," she said.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 26, 2005 14:50:15 GMT -5
A Dallas cab driver is in big trouble for getting caught on tape sprinkling dried feces on pastries.
49-year-old Behrouz Nahidmobarekeh is on trial for allegedly throwing fecal matter on pastries at a Fiesta grocery store.
Police said they found a pile of human feces by his bed.
He would dry it, either by microwave or just letting it sit out and grate it up with a cheese grater and then sprinkle it at the store, officials said.
Neither attorneys in the case is clear about a motive or why the defendant would resort to something so repulsive.
Prosecutors will show a surveillance videotape of the defendant, which shows him sprinkling a substance on the food.
The FBI arrested Nahidmobarekeh but turned the case over to local prosecutors after they determined it was not a national security issue.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 21, 2005 13:07:08 GMT -5
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A 93-year-old driver apparently suffering from dementia fatally struck a pedestrian and drove for three miles with the man's body through his windshield, police said.
Ralph Parker was stopped after he drove through a tollbooth on the Sunshine Skyway, Traffic Homicide Investigator Michael Jockers said. The toll taker called police, he said.
Parker was not likely to face charges because he did not appear to know what happened or where he was, said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney's Office.
"He may have somewhere in his mind have realized it was a crash, but immediately forgot about it," Jockers said.
The victim's leg was severed in the Wednesday night crash, police said. The man, whose name was not released, was 52.
Parker had renewed his license in 2003.
"That was the one thing he had, to get in his car and just drive for the sheer enjoyment of driving," Jockers said. Parker lived alone after his wife died in 1998, authorities said.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 28, 2005 15:54:07 GMT -5
MEDFORD, Oregon (AP) -- A woman bought a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million with a stolen credit card and could wind up with nothing if convicted, police said.
Christina Goodenow, 38, of White City in southern Oregon faced numerous theft-related charges, forgery and possession of methamphetamine, said authorities, who searched her home Thursday. The card belonged to a deceased relative, they said.
If convicted of any of the charges, Goodenow will not be able to collect prize money from the winning ticket, said police Lt. Tim George.
Oregon Lottery officials refused to discuss specifics of the case because an investigation is still under way.
"I'll be fascinated to see how this shakes out," Lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann said. "In my 12 years with the Oregon Lottery, this is the first time I've encountered something like this."
Goodenow purchased the winning ticket October 9 using a credit card that had belonged to her mother-in-law, who died more than a year ago, police said.
Goodenow traveled to Oregon Lottery headquarters in Salem on October 12 to accept an installment payment of $33,500. The $1 million grand prize is paid out over 20 years.
Detectives began tracking Goodenow on Wednesday after learning that she had used the credit card to purchase several items, including the ticket.
A search warrant served at her home Thursday turned up some methamphetamine, but little money, George said.
"Our investigation is still trying to determine what happened to the $33,500," George said.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 17, 2005 18:48:01 GMT -5
FARMINGTON, Connecticut (AP) -- Charles Rocket, a comedian and actor who appeared on "Saturday Night Live" and had roles in a variety of movies and television series, committed suicide, the state medical examiner has ruled.
Rocket, 56, whose real name was Charles Claverie, was found dead in a field near his home in Canterbury on October 7. His throat had been cut, the medical examiner said.
"An investigation determined there was no criminal aspect to this case," State Police Sgt. J. Paul Vance said Monday.
Rocket was a cast member on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" during the 1980-81 season, a tumultuous year that followed the departure of the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" and founding producer Lorne Michaels. Rocket gained notoriety when he was fired from "SNL" for swearing on the air.
He went on to appear in numerous TV shows, including "Moonlighting" and "Max Headroom," and provided voices for cartoon series.
His movie credits included "Earth Girls are Easy," "Dumb and Dumber" and "Dances With Wolves," according to the Internet Movie Database.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 18, 2005 14:46:41 GMT -5
ROTHERHAM, England - Buster the German shepherd could have had a great career as a British police dog had it not been for one flaw: His complete lack of interest in fighting crime.
The canine cop took early retirement after bosses at South Yorkshire Police noted his poor motivation — and a fondness for making friends with rowdy drunkards, his former handler said Monday.
Buster, who spent some six months on the beat, has been placed with a family in Sheffield, near this town in northern England, Police Constable David Stephenson said.
"He has a lack of drive and motivation when asked to do operational work," Stephenson told The Associated Press. "He's just a lovely pet."
Two-year-old Buster performed well at the start of his 14-week training program, but his work gradually deteriorated and the problem worsened once he started patrolling the streets, he said.
Buster’s priorities On one occasion, Buster walked straight past a suspected criminal hiding in the garden of a house late at night and went off to c*ck his leg.
"I searched the garden myself and found the bloke. The dog had walked past the spot where I found him," Stephenson said. "You would have expected him to use his nose to locate him."
During a separate tracking operation, also in the early hours of the morning, Buster gave up while in mid-chase across a golf course. "He just downed tools," Stephenson said. "He just lay down and there was nothing we could do. He has got a very low drive for finding people."
‘No fire in his belly’ When patrolling Rotherham at pub closing times — when the streets are often crowded with drunken revelers — Buster wagged his tail when people came up to him and ate their fries, instead of deterring potential trouble makers, his former handler said.
"He just showed no interest in doing the job," Stephenson added. "He had no fire in his belly."
South Yorkshire Police employs some 50 German shepherds for tracking criminals, searching buildings and helping maintain public order at soccer matches and other events.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Sept 22, 2005 3:15:06 GMT -5
Associated Press Sept. 19, 2005 08:10 AM
BEIRUT, Lebanon - A hand grenade kept as a souvenir from Lebanon's civil war exploded in a Kuwaiti government office as a worker played with it, killing the man and injuring two other people, the ambassador said.
The dead and injured were all Lebanese employees of the Kuwaiti Information Office.
Speaking outside the 15-story building where the explosion occurred, Ambassador Ali Suleiman Saeed said: "Regrettably, it happened when one of the employees, with the knowledge of his colleagues, was playing with some old explosive materials left over from the (1975-90 civil) war. It exploded, hitting him and two of his colleagues."
Ayas al-Alayli, 36, took the grenade from a shelf and threw it to the floor to show Mirna Mugharbel, a secretary, that it wouldn't explode, an employee in the office said.
Al-Alayli was killed and Mugharbel and another office worker, Hussam al-Jamal, were injured.
Mugharbel suffered shrapnel wounds to her legs, said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak to the press. Blood stained the floor as well as the desk and chairs in Mugharbel's office.
The explosion was the second in four days in Beirut, but it had nothing to do with the series of mysterious bombings that have occurred in the Lebanese capital since a massive bomb killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 20 other people on Feb. 14.
On Friday night, a bomb exploded in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafiya, killing one person and wounding 23 others.
The Kuwaiti ambassador stressed the explosion should not be seen as an attack on Kuwait and was unrelated to the string of bombings in Beirut.
Lebanese troops and police cordoned off the building after the explosion. The building, which also houses the official Kuwait News Agency, is near the Interior Ministry.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 13, 2005 9:52:40 GMT -5
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese man who raised bears to tap them for their bile, prized as a traditional medicine in Asia, has been killed and eaten by his animals, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.
Six black bears attacked keeper Han Shigen as he was cleaning their pen in the northeastern province of Jilin on Monday, Xinhua said.
"The ill-fated man died on the spot and was eaten up by the ferocious bears," it said, citing a report in the Beijing News.
In practices decried by animal rights groups, bile is extracted through surgically implanted catheters in the bear's gall bladders, or by a "free-dripping" technique by which bile drips out through holes opened in the animals' abdomens.
More than 200 farms in China keep about 7,000 bears to tap their bile, which traditional Chinese medicine holds can cure fever, liver illness and sore eyes.
Bear farming was far more widespread before the cruelty involved came to light and Beijing introduced regulations to control the industry in 1993.
Animal welfare groups have called on China to completely ban bear farming, arguing that traditional herbal medicines can serve the same purposes as bear bile.
Xinhua said police sent to the scene of Monday's killing injected one of the bears with tranquillisers "but failed to tame the mad animal".
Police then threw meat into the bears' pen to distract them so they could recover Han's remains, it said without elaborating.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Sept 19, 2005 20:13:49 GMT -5
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Investigators said a Scooby Doo character was attacked at Universal Studios and the man charged with the crime is a corrections officer in Hillsborough County. Witnesses said the man maliciously beat the character for no reason.
The officer bonded out of jail, but now the case is with the State Attorney's Office. The character alleges he was hit in the head and suffered head injuries.
It was supposed to be just a regular theme park photo with Scooby Doo. When Eddie Bronson arrived at Universal Studios, he saw Scooby and stopped so that his daughter could take a picture with the dog and shaggy. But witnesses said that was not the only thing that happened.
"According to witnesses, they indicated he was manhandling Scooby," said Sgt. Barbara Jones, Orlando Police Department.
Bronson told police he was only petting Scooby. But, according to a statement, Bronson grabbed the character's head and was shaking it. The statement then said Bronson started to grab the character's snout and pull him down.
When a Universal Studios employee saw it happening, she walked up to Bronson and said, "Please be gentle, Scooby is a dog and he might bite."
Scooby pushed Bronson away and then he tried to walk away.
"He turned to try to talk to another guest and Mr. Bronson, according to witnesses, used a fist and struck the back part of the Scooby costume.
Investigators said person who was inside the costume suffered a head injury and the costume was damaged. The Department of Juvenile Justice, Bronson's employer, said it was not take any disciplinary action until the department reviewed the facts in the case.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 8, 2005 9:35:23 GMT -5
October 7, 2005 (BELLEVILLE, Ill.) - Demarco Cortez Whatley of East St. Louis remembered he had to pay a 500-dollar fine at the St. Clair County courthouse.
But the 24-year-old says he forgot he had six baggies of marijuana in his pockets. Bailiff D'Wayne Sargent says he and his colleagues discovered the marijuana when they searched Whatley after a courthouse metal detector sounded when he walked through.
They found marijuana in one of Whatley's back pockets and both front pockets
Sargent says Whatley told them he forgot is was there.
Whatley now is charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. It's punishable by a thousand-dollar fine and up to a year in prison.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 13, 2005 9:57:00 GMT -5
A man sentenced to nine months house arrest begged a judge to jail him instead because he couldn't stand his wife's nagging.
Algerian Ahmed Salhi, 24, was sentenced to a nine month curfew at home with his Italian wife in Ferrara, northern Italy.
But he went back to court after a week and begged the judge to jail him because he could not bear her nagging.
Salhi was sentenced to nine months house arrest after breaching immigration regulations.
But he turned up at his local courtroom and begged to be taken into custody because he said he could no longer stand living with her, and would rather be behind bars, Corriere della Sera reported.
He said: "I need some peace."
A local court agreed to the Salhi's request and he has been jailed for the rest of his sentence.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Aug 28, 2005 10:36:47 GMT -5
August 25, 2005
By Alex Eliseev
Johannesburg: The hunt is on for three women who ambushed a 30-year-old man and forced him to have sex with them at gunpoint.
According to police spokeswoman Paula Nothnagel, a case of indecent assault had been opened and identity kits would be released soon. The man cannot be named because of the nature of the offence.
Nothnagel said that on Saturday night the man was walking through Roodepoort when the women pulled up next to him in their maroon BMW.
They asked him for directions to the Savoy Hotel and he got into the car to show them the way.
At the hotel the women persuaded him to join them for a drink, before asking him for directions to yet another hotel.
While on the road to the Station Hotel the women suddenly changed direction and drove to a dark and empty field near the Durban Deep mine.
"One woman produced a firearm and held the man at gunpoint," Nothnagel said.
"The women got undressed and all three took turns to have intercourse with him."
The man was then ordered back into the car and dropped off along Main Reef Road.
Nothnagel said the man then went home before opening a case at the local police station. The West Rand Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit is investigating. They suspect the women were all aged between 20 and 30.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Sept 10, 2005 10:01:12 GMT -5
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An inebriated Belgian woman died in a freak accident when she ended up beneath a heavy grave stone at a cemetery, local news agency Belga said on Wednesday
The 33-year-old was on her way home from a bar in the Belgian town of Pulle in the early hours of Saturday when she took a short cut through the cemetery.
But she urgently needed to relieve herself and crouched down between two gravestones. As she lost her balance, she grabbed one of the stones which gave way and landed on top of her.
The public prosecutor's office said she died of suffocation as she was unable to lift the heavy stone.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Aug 5, 2005 12:38:36 GMT -5
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- A man who got angry with his wife because she wanted to cuddle after sex when what he really wanted to do was watch sports on television was sentenced to death for killing her with a claw hammer.
Christopher Offord, 30, was sentenced Wednesday by Circuit Judge Dedee Costello, who said the brutality of the crime outweighed any mental problems Offord may have had.
"The defendant struck his wife approximately 70 individual blows after spending a happy interlude with her," the judge said. "Her desire to cuddle after sex does not justify the extremely violent, brutal response of the defendant."
Offord pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2004 slaying of Dana Noser, 40, at his apartment.
He confessed to a bartender at a sports bar before his arrest. He told investigators that his wife had been nagging him to come back to bed.
Offord did not speak in court but said in a jailhouse interview in June: "I figured I killed her so I deserve to die."
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Aug 23, 2005 11:14:53 GMT -5
The former frontman of the Bay City Rollers Les McKeown will appear in court today to answer drug charges.
The 49-year-old was arrested in London on June 1 and charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine.
He will appear at Harlow Magistrates court later today, reports ContactMusic.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Jul 4, 2005 20:20:01 GMT -5
GEORGETOWN, GA. - As hard as it was to spend 35 years in prison for stealing a black-and-white television, Junior Allen has found freedom frustrating, too.
Despite extensive prison records in North Carolina, where he has spent more than half his life as inmate No. 0004604, Allen has been unable to establish his identity in rural Georgia, where he now lives with his sister, or in Alabama, where he was born 65 years ago to sharecropper parents.
The monthlong effort to get a birth certificate and photo ID only hints at the new challenge he faces — that of transforming himself from less-than-model inmate to average senior citizen.
"It's like I never existed," Allen said. "I went to Columbus, Ga., and they said I had to go to Alabama. I went to Alabama and they said I had to go to Georgia."
His most immediate goal is to get a driver's license. He has already revived a 1984 Dodge Aries that had been parked in his sister's yard.
"I'd like to live the rest of my life at peace, maybe get some of the things I need — transportation and a job and maybe a hobby like fishing," he said.
A troubled past Allen was a strapping 30-year-old in 1970 when he walked into the unlocked home of an elderly North Carolina woman and took her $140, 19-inch black-and-white Motorola. He hid the set in the woods and never watched it. Police quickly arrested him at his labor camp by following his footprints.
When Allen emerged from the Orange Correctional Center in late May, he had a slight stoop, prison bifocals on his nose, and flecks of gray in his mustache and protruding from beneath his Muslim skull cap.
But he acknowledges that the Allen who entered the North Carolina prison system 3 1/2 decades ago was "sort of wild," a young tough who worked a moonshine still.
When Allen arrived in the Tar Heel state, he had already been hardened by years as a migrant farm worker and itinerant construction laborer. By then, his rap sheet already included burglaries and a violent assault.
State records say Allen roughed up 87-year-old Lessie Johnson and stole her TV. Allen was not convicted of assault and denies he hurt the woman.
"Back in those days, if you roughed up a white woman and you were black, nine times out of 10, you wouldn't make it to jail," he said.
A jury sentenced him to life in prison for second-degree burglary — a crime that today would carry a maximum punishment of three years. Bitter, Allen admits he was not the best-behaved inmate.
"When I went into prison, in order for you to keep your manhood, you had to fight every now and then," he said. "So I got into quite a lot of fights."
He got in trouble for "going by my rules," not prison rules, he said. He had 47 infractions from 1972 to 2002, including gambling, weapons possession, lock tampering, misuse of medicine, profane language and making a verbal threat.
He was denied parole 25 times.
Freed on his 26th try About three years ago, Allen's case caught the attention of University of North Carolina law professor Rich Rosen. "What first struck me was the ridiculous amount of time for the crime he had committed," Rosen said. "It was an absurd amount of time. The prosecutors thought it, too."
Rosen persuaded Allen that his best chance of getting out was to put away his anger and bitterness.
Allen laid bricks and blocks in prison, drove a dump truck and forklift, attended barber school and worked as a cook's assistant through a work-release program.
With no infractions for three years, Allen's case went before the parole commission last year, for a 26th time, and he was finally ordered released.
"I've got a lot of catching up to do because I'm way behind," says Allen, who hopes to find work as a forklift operator as soon as he can obtain the photo ID required to apply.
"I feel like I'm sort of free in a way, but I ain't free until I get status, get myself together," he said.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Jun 19, 2005 10:59:07 GMT -5
Associated Press Jun. 17, 2005 10:23 AM
BANGKOK, Thailand - A young Thai man with a history of moodiness has killed himself by gluing his mouth and nose shut with super glue.
Bangkok police say the young man's body was found this morning in his bedroom, apparently after suffocating overnight. They say a small amount of cash and a note saying "Here is all that I have, take what you please" were also found on the bed.
The man's family told police he had argued with his sister Thursday over some money she'd borrowed and not repaid. He went into his bedroom, where his body was found 10 hours later.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Jun 23, 2005 9:46:35 GMT -5
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A man accused of holding up a pizza parlor left behind a job application with his real name and address, authorities said. "I would chalk it up to either inexperience or plain stupidity," Clark County prosecutor Frank Coumou told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Wednesday report.
Alejandro Martinez, 23, of Las Vegas, was being held Wednesday at the Clark County jail pending a Monday appearance in Clark County District Court. He faces felony burglary and robbery with a weapon charges in the May 25 heist.
Authorities said Martinez ordered a pizza and started filling out the application before displaying a gun and demanding money. The clerk handed over $200.
Outside, a witness wrote down the license plate number of a getaway car, leading police to Martinez' home.
Martinez' lawyer, Deputy Public Defender James Ruggeroli, said authorities have the wrong man. He said said the pizza shop clerk couldn't identify Martinez as the robber, and the job application was not presented as evidence at a preliminary hearing.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Jun 23, 2005 9:49:51 GMT -5
USA Today Jun. 22, 2005 08:19 AM
Lollipops that are touted as tasting like marijuana are causing a ruckus among drug abuse specialists and a Michigan lawmaker, who say the candies are encouraging kids to try pot.
Two companies, Chronic Candy and ICUP Inc., sell hemp-flavored candies. California-based Chronic Candy, which sells two lollipops in $5 "nickel bags" - lingo for a $5 bag of marijuana - advertises its flavored pops with the tag line: "Every lick is like taking a hit."
ICUP, a New Jersey company whose "Stonerware" line includes clothing, glassware and pot-leaf molds for ice cubes, says its Pot Suckers "taste like the real deal." Neither candy contains THC, the ingredient in marijuana that causes a high.
Both companies say their marketing campaigns target young adults, ages 18-24. Drug-prevention groups such as the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, however, say the candies are becoming popular among younger people, and that they glorify an illegal drug.
The group of anti-drug coalitions, based in Alexandria, Va., is urging its 5,000 local organizations to inform parents about the candies and to pressure stores to take such products off their shelves, Chairman Arthur Dean says.
"These products create a false impression among kids that marijuana is safe and fun," Dean says.
In Michigan's legislature, Democratic state Rep. Dudley Spade has proposed a state ban on the sale of candy that contains hemp or hemp flavoring. Hemp-flavored candies are "the wrong message to be sending to our children," Spade says. "The last thing we need is for kids to be acquiring a taste for a drug that's illegal."
Spencer Gifts, a chain of novelty stores that specialize in funky home decor and T-shirts for young adults, has sold Pot Suckers since August 2004, Spencer spokeswoman Heather Golin says. Last year, Spencer sold more than 110,000 of the pops for $1.99 each.
"A lot of people buy it as a novelty, they are curious to see what it tastes like," Golin says. "It's a very unique palate that does enjoy the taste of hemp."
The pops, she says, are legal, safe and in demand among the store's core customer group. She says the store does not market the candies to children.
"The pops are not intended for kids. We try to keep them in venues that are not kid-friendly," says Steven Trachtenberg, president of ICUP Inc. in Trenton, N.J. "It's up to parents to police their kids."
Trachtenberg says the lollipops, flavored with hemp oil, are THC-free and kosher: "You can't get high from them."
Chronic Candy in Corona, Calif., also markets to young adults, primarily from a website and stands at liquor stores and music festivals, owner Tony Van Pelt says. He describes himself as a pot smoker who travels the USA in his "Chronic Candy" van to promote his lollipops. Van Pelt, who began importing the pops from Europe six years ago, says he sold 200,000 to 300,000 last year.
"There's nothing in it to get you high," he says. "My mom thinks she gets a buzz from it. I don't have the heart to tell her it's just the sugar."
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on May 31, 2005 16:23:51 GMT -5
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A mother faces criminal charges after she hired a stripper to dance at her 16-year-old son’s birthday party.
Anette Pharris, 34, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and involving a minor in obscene acts. The boy’s father, the stripper and two others also face charges.
“I tried to do something special for my son,” Pharris said. “It didn’t harm him.”
About 10 people under the age of 18 were at the birthday party in September, including minors who were not related to the family, authorities said.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said minors are not permitted in adult establishments.
“A person shouldn’t be allowed to circumvent that law by hiring a stripper, a lady who took all her clothes off and spent a good amount of time dancing around minors,” he said.
Anette Pharris took photos at the party and tried to have them developed at a nearby drug store. Drug store employees notified authorities, police said.
“Who are they to tell me what I can and can’t show to my own children?” the mother said.
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