Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category
(SHOCKING) READ: Chicago Day-Care Home Used for Dogfights…
(Newser Summary) – Chicago police raided an Illinois day-care center that apparently doubled as a brutal dogfighting operation. Ten children were being watched at the private home at the time of the raid. A swing set used by the kids was only 10 feet from a bloody garage where a “vicious” pit bull was found, said the county sheriff. Three people were arrested and nine abused dogs recovered.
Source: Chicago Tribune And Newser
(CRIME) READ: Australian Man Charged With Raping Daughter For 30 Years…
An Australian man accused of raping his daughter almost daily for 30 years and fathering her four children has been charged by police.
The man, who has been called “Australia’s Fritzl” after the notorious Austrian incest case, allegedly began raping his daughter in the 1970s when she was 11 years old, and had threatened her with violence if she ever revealed the abuse.
According to a report in Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper, the man was arrested in February after the victim approached police and said that she had been kept a virtual prisoner in the family home in a country town in the southern state of Victoria.
The newspaper said that all of the woman’s four children were born with birth defects in Melbourne hospitals. One of them died.
According to the report, the woman had reported the abuse to police in 2005 but then refused to co-operate further because she feared for her safety.
However, she went to police again in June last year and gave a statement against her father. Police conducted DNA tests on the father and laid 83 charges of sex abuse against him in February.
The case has been likened to that of Josef Fritzl, who was jailed for life in May for imprisoning and raping his daughter for 24 years and murdering one of the seven children he had with her.
The Victorian Premier, John Brumby, to demand an immediate investigation into how the case had gone unnoticed for so long.
The Herald Sun interviewed the woman’s mother, who is still married to the alleged rapist, and who lived with them in the house in rural Victoria. She claims that she was not aware of any abuse, despite sharing the house with her husband, daughter and grandchildren until 2005. READ MORE
(ENVIRONMENT) READ: Informant: Italian Mafia Sank Ship Carrying Nuke Waste…
(Newser Summary) – Italian authorities are investigating an informant’s claim that the mafia sank a ship containing nuclear waste off the country’s southwest coast, the BBC reports. Underwater cameras show the ship intact, with barrels nearby marked as containing toxic contents; the informant says that organized crime has gotten into the nuclear waste-disposal business, but rather than go the usual routes, sank the ship, and two others, off the Calabrian coast.
Source: BBC
(CRIME/WORLD) READ: Peru Flooding US With Counterfeit Bills…
About $8 million in fake greenbacks found in U.S., another $18 million in Peru
(Newser Summary) – American officials have seized some $8 million in high-quality counterfeit US bills made in Peru, reports the Los Angeles Times. South American raids have uncovered another $18 million. The massive number of fake bills costs businesses and individuals millions, and threatens to undermine confidence in US currency, warn officials. “It’s a form of economic terrorism,” said a Secret Service agent.
Early this year, US officials launched a special task force to train Peruvian police and bankers to identify and capture counterfeiters. Columbia used to print about 70% of fake dollars passed in the states until a similar crackdown cut production to about 5%—which still accounts for millions of fake bills. Police action may have driven some Columbian counterfeiters to Peru. Human “mules” bring the money across borders, often with it strapped to their bodies.
Source: Los Angeles Times
(CRIME) READ: FBI Opens Probe Into ‘Stolen’ Jackie O Letter…
(Newser Summary) – The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into a condolence letter written by Jackie Kennedy on the day after Robert Kennedy died, the Dallas Morning News reports. Sent to Ethel Kennedy, the two-age letter soon disappeared—and turned up 10 years ago in the home of the Kennedy family plumber. The plumber’s son ended up selling it to a dealer for $6,000.
The letter changed hands three more times, for prices up to $30,000, until a buyer consigned it for sale at an auction house—where it sat for 3 years until the FBI seized it with a search warrant. Now buyers and sellers of the letter are deflecting blame, and Max Kennedy, Robert and Ethel’s son, wants a prosecution if laws were in fact broken. “The efficient running of society requires that criminals be prosecuted,” he said.
Source: Dallas Morning News
(ECONOMY) READ: Cash-Strapped States To Set Inmates Free…
Mandatory sentencing laws are relaxed, parole is accelerated, and time off for good behavior is increased as states scramble to save money.
Reporting from Denver – After decades of pursuing lock-’em-up policies, states are scrambling to reduce their prison populations in the face of tight budgets, making fundamental changes to their criminal justice systems as they try to save money.
Some states are revising mandatory-sentencing laws that locked up nonviolent offenders; others are recalculating the way prison time is counted.
California, with the nation’s second-largest prison system, is considering perhaps the most dramatic proposal — releasing 40,000 inmates to save money and comply with a court ruling that found the state’s prisons overcrowded.
Colorado will accelerate parole for nearly one-sixth of its prison population. Kentucky has already granted early release to more than 3,000 inmates. Oregon has temporarily nullified a voter initiative calling for stiffer sentences for some crimes, and has increased by 10% the time inmates get off their sentences for good behavior.
The flurry of activity has led to an unusual phenomenon — bureaucrats and politicians expressing relief at the tight times. “The budget has actually helped us,” said Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Corrections Department in Michigan, which increased its parole board by 50% this year to speed up releases.
“When you’re not having budget troubles, that’s when we implemented many of these lengthy drug sentences and zero-tolerance policies [that] really didn’t work,” he said.
Though prison budgets grew steadily over the last 20 years, a recent survey found that 26 states cut their corrections budgets this year. The reductions range from the small-scale — such as putting in energy-efficient lightbulbs — to sweeping changes like the early releases.
“States are saying, ‘We can’t build our way to public safety, especially when budgets are tight,’ ” said Adam Gelb, head of the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project. “For the most part, state leaders are not holding their noses and making these changes just to balance their budgets. They’re beginning to realize that research-based strategies can lead to less crime at far less cost than prison.”
Many states have expanded credit for good behavior. Others have made legal tweaks, such as raising the minimum amount of damage required for a property crime to be a felony. Some, like New York, have overhauled long-criticized mandatory sentencing laws that sent nonviolent, first-time drug offenders to state prison. READ MORE
(CRIME) READ: Dying Manson Killer Pleads Today for ‘Sympathy’ Parole…
(Newser Summary) – The Charles Manson cult member who held down pregnant actress Sharon Tate and stabbed her 16 times will plead for sympathy today at her 13th parole hearing, reports CNN. Susan Atkins, 61, is suffering from brain cancer and is 85% paralyzed, according to her husband. The hearing may be held at her bedside at Chochilla prison in central California, officials said.
Gov. Arnold Schwazenegger earlier this summer denied Atkins’ request for compassionate release. Tate’s sister, Debra, wants Atkins behind bars. “The Manson Family murderers are sociopaths, and they can never be rehabilitated,” she said. “They should all stay right where they are—in prison—until they die.”
Source: CNN
(NOT SURPRISING) READ: Pfizer Pays Record $2.3B Fine for False Marketing…
(Newser Summary) – Pfizer will shell out $2.3 billion—a record for a health care fraud settlement—over deceptive marketing of its drugs, the Los Angeles Times reports. Pfizer and one of its subsidiaries marketed four drugs based on off-label uses specifically prohibited by the FDA. The settlement with the Justice Department includes a $1.3 billion criminal fine and $1 billion to settle civil claims.
As part of the settlement—which resolves allegations that Pfizer gave doctors kickbacks to prescribe the drugs for the unspecified off-label uses—six whistleblowers who brought the fraud to the government’s attention will receive $102 million. Pfizer will also have to enter an HHS program designed “to avoid and promptly detect” criminal conduct. The four drugs in question were Bextra, Geodon, Zyvox, and Lyrica.
Source: Los Angeles Times
(READ): Bernanke Victimized by Identity Fraud Ring…
Source: Newsweek
If ever there were living proof that identity theft can strike the mighty and powerful as well as hapless consumers, look no further than the nation’s chief banker: Ben Bernanke. The Federal Reserve Board chairman was one of hundreds of victims of an elaborate identity-fraud ring, headed by a convicted scam artist known as “Big Head,” that stole more than $2.1 million from unsuspecting consumers and at least 10 financial institutions around the country, according to recently filed court records reviewed by NEWSWEEK.
Last summer, just as he was dealing with the first rumblings of the financial crisis on Wall Street, Bernanke learned that a thief had swiped his wife’s purse—including the couple’s joint check book. Days later, someone started cashing checks on the Bernanke family bank account, the documents show. “It’s fair to say he was not pleased,” said one close associate of Bernanke, who asked not to be identified discussing what the Fed chairman considers a private matter. Read More
(READ): 9 men in tuxedos charged in Boston beating death…
Source: AP, TBO.com
BOSTON (AP) — Nine men who had just attended a funeral and were wearing tuxedos when they beat a man to death outside a nightclub were charged Monday with assault and battery, prosecutors said.
Jose Alicea was beaten Friday after an argument and died of his injuries Monday, police said. Nine of his 12 attackers were wearing black tuxedos with red vests and red ties because they had been to the funeral of a friend killed last week in a motorcycle accident, they said.
The 12 men had gone to the club to celebrate their friend’s life, and Alicea was there with a small group of his friends.
There was no problem inside the club, but as it was closing Alicea had a conversation with some of the men, prosecutors said. The conversation escalated into a verbal altercation, with shouting and cursing from both sides, and then turned physical, they said.
Alicea, 22, was set upon by the men and was severely beaten, Assistant District Attorney Cory Flashner said during the men’s arraignment Monday in Municipal Court. Significant portions of the incident were captured on video from security cameras on nearby buildings, Flashner said. Read More
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