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Mass. Reservoir Trespassers Cleared of Terrorist Suspicions

Becket Adams — Sat, 18 May 2013 04:31:38 +0000

Getty Images.

Seven alleged chemical engineers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore were arrested Wednesday morning trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts, TheBlaze reported.

Given that the Quabbin Reservoir, located about 65 miles east of Boston, is one of the largest man-made public water supplies in the county, and the fact that the seven individuals cited their backgrounds as “chemical engineers” and “recent college graduates” as reason for trespassing, some were a little nervous about the news.

Was this really just a simple case of trespassing or was this something more sinister?

As it turns out, it was just a case of trespassing, according to the FBI and Massachusetts police.

“David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police, said that following an extensive investigation, officials believe the seven people, recent college graduates who were originally from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, were not engaged in any criminal activity, other than trespassing after dark at the reservoir,” masslive.com reports.

FBI added that there was never any threat to the water supply.

“Following a thorough investigation into the seven people who were observed Tuesday in a restricted area of the Quabbin Reservoir in Ware, the Massachusetts State Police and the FBI have determined that the subjects have no connection to any other criminal activity or groups,” said Procopio.

The only crime the seven individuals, five men and two women, committed was trespassing.

“The original incident triggered a terrorism alert across the state of Massachusetts. State police notified the FBI office in Springfield and the Commonwealth Fusion Center, the state’s central hub for collecting and analyzing data related to terror threats,” the masslive.com report notes.

“State police also increased patrols at the Quabbin and other water supply regions across the state,” the report adds. “An FBI official said earlier the agency conducted background checks on the seven people and found nothing suspicious.”

Law enforcement officials have not yet released the trespassers’ names to the public.

Procopio said the state police probably won’t release the names unless the court “determines the evidence against them warrants proceeding with a trial.”

–

RELATED:

Mass. Police Catch 7 ‘Chemical Engineers’ from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, & Singapore Trespassing Major Reservoir

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Burglars Force Homeowner Into Closet – And it Turns out Very, Very Poorly for Them

Liz Klimas — Sat, 18 May 2013 03:15:10 +0000

Police outside the home Tuesday after a homeowner defended himself against intruders with a firearm. (Image: KTRK video screenshot)

Three suspected burglars on Tuesday broke into Texas man’s home, beat him, and then forced him into an upstairs closet.

Luckily for the homeowner, his assailants made a huge mistake: they put him into same closet where he keeps his guns.

Houston Police Department Sgt. Jerry Brandon told an ABC affiliate the homeowner thought the three men had left his home after a few minutes and headed downstairs, firearm in hand.

This is where he confronted one of the burglars and exchanged fire, wounding the intruder. The two other men escaped, according to authorities, while their compatriot has been hospitalized.

Here’s the KTRK’s report:

“Guess what? The owner had a gun,” neighbor Craig Gaddis told KTRK. “He did exactly what he was supposed to do — with the gun, that’s what they’re made for — protect his home.”

(Image: KTRK video screenshot)

The Houston Chronicle reported Gaddis saying a similar robbery occurred a couple weeks ago in the same area and neighbors believe they are connected.

Charges are expected to be brought against the wounded intruder, but not the homeowner, according to the report.

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(H/T: Gawker)

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Graphic New Details About Gosnell’s Filthy and Flea-Ridden Home and Clinic Emerge: ‘The Smells Were Just Unbearable’

Billy Hallowell — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:38:27 +0000

Editor’s Note: This story contains disturbing and graphic descriptions.

Now that the gag order has been lifted in the Dr. Kermit Gosnell case, new details are beginning to emerge. While gruesome in nature, they also tell us more about the doctor’s “house of horrors,” shed light on the filthy conditions inside of his home and highlight authorities’ unsuccessful quests to locate additional corpses.

Police investigator John Taggart is now sharing details about what he saw when he searched the doctor’s properties. It was Feb. 2010, as the Daily Mail notes, that Taggart and his team began looking into Gosnell’s homes and clinic to search for fetal remains and other related evidence; their quest came following revelations made during a raid on the Women’s Medical Society.

Philadelphia police officer John Taggart, right, accompanied by District Attorney Seth Williams with crime scene unit speaks with members of the media Wednesday, May 15, 2013, in Philadelphia. Credit: AP

Taggart described Gosnell’s home as being riddled with filth. While WCAU-TV reports that the doctor had high-end appliances and televisions inside the house, the overall conditions were unbelievably dirty.

“He just lived in squalor. He would leave plates of food on the floor,” Taggart told WCAU-TV. “There was stuff everywhere in the bedroom. You couldn’t see the bed.”

Adding to the bizarre details, the investigator claims that Gosnell played Chopin on his piano, while police searched portions of the home wearing bio-hazard suits. The most shocking element of the story is what happened to authorities when they went downstairs.

“As soon as they went down into the basement, they were covered in fleas,” Taggart told the outlet. “He actually gave us a bottle of flea repellent and said, ‘See what a nice guy I am? I told you there were fleas in the basement.’ He said ‘I didn’t have to tell ya’s.’”

In this May 1, 2013 file photo, letters are missing from the directory of Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s former facility, the Women’s Medical Society, in Philadelphia. Credit: AP

Police also went to Brigantine, New Jersey, to visit the doctor’s shore home. The Philadelphia Police Crime Scene Unit was in search of possible fetal remains, as WCAU-TV reports that some of the babies were — and still are — unaccounted for. They found nothing at the property. And while Taggart said that it was not well-kept, the land was described as beautiful.

“I believe they are either buried out there or I don’t know where they are. We’ve looked, we’ve looked for three years,” the investigator said of babies that are unaccounted for.

As for the clinic, Taggart said he will remember what he saw for quite some time to come. In addition to dead babies stuffed in a refrigerator, police found severed feet and other horrific conditions. TheBlaze has reported about these elements throughout Gosnell’s grisly trial.

And then there is one of the more graphic revelations. When police plunged the break-room sink, he said “an arm popped out on Lancaster Avenue,” as Taggart said that staff at the clinic were putting body parts down the garbage disposal (this corroborates details that were shared by witnesses in the courtroom).

“The smells were just unbearable. You could tell there was death somewhere,” the investigator said. “Opening up the cabinet and seeing all the feet. I’ll remember that for a long time.”

Watch the investigator describe the conditions, below:

Gosnell was convicted of first-degree murder on Monday and given three consecutive life sentences. TheBlaze’s extensive coverage of the case can be found here.

(H/T: WCAU-TV)

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Remember ‘Kai’ The Hatchet-Wielding Homeless Hitchhiker? He Has Been Arrested on a Murder Charge

Mike Opelka — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:59:12 +0000

This story falls into the category “who saw this one coming?”

In early February, TheBlaze featured a story about this unlikely hero named ‘Kai.”

Image: KMPH/Fox26

Kai was a homeless man who became a hero in the eyes of many after he used a hatchet to stop a crazy man from attacking two women. The video of Kai telling his story became something of a viral sensation. And as with most viral video stars, Kai seemed to have drifted back into obscurity. Until today…today he’s a murder suspect. Police in New Jersey have just arrested Caleb Lawrence McGillvary (Kai’s real name). He is the prime suspect in the bludgeoning death of 71-year-old North Jersey attorney, Joseph Galfy.

According to Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow, “Kai” was identified from video captured on a Times Square surveillance camera. The local police also say that Mr. McGillvary had cut his hair in an attempt to alter his appearance.

At a press conference on Wednesday, law enforcement officials shared details about the murder of Mr. Galfy and said Kai had actually posted on his Facebook page a possible explanation for the violent attack on the elderly lawyer. The suspect claimed that he was raped. According to ABC 7 in NYC, the Facebook post stated;

what would you do if you woke up with a groggy head, metallic taste in your mouth, in a strangers house… walked to the mirror and seen … dripping from the side of your face from your mouth, and started wretching, realizing that someone had drugged, raped…? what would you do?

Late Thursday night, police in Philadelphia captured the suspect at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Philadelphia. He has been charged with murder and bail was set at $3 million.

New York’s ABC 7 has the story.

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Follow Mike Opelka on Twitter (@stuntbrain)

Follow Mike Opelka on Twitter

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‘Scandalous Hat Trick’: Sarah Palin Shreds Obama & His Scandal-Embroiled White House

Becket Adams — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:37:49 +0000

Associated Press.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a lengthy message to her Facebook wall Thursday criticizing the Obama administration for its handling the Benghazi, IRS, and Associated Press phone records scandals:

Scandalous Hat Trick

Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas. Today in the Rose Garden you dismissed the idea of a Special Counsel to investigate the IRS scandal. With that, your galling political hubris shined bright in the midst of today’s dark clouds.

Mr. President, how can we trust your Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation when there is a systemic violation of the Hatch Act throughout your administration?

Surely you are aware that the Hatch Act prevents certain federal employees from engaging in political activity. Specifically, it’s illegal for these federal employees to engage in action in support of or in opposition to a political party, a candidate for partisan political office, or a partisan political group.

Yet that is exactly what’s happened within the IRS, the Justice Department, and in the Benghazi cover-up. This scandalous hat trick is on your watch. It is not believable that you knew nothing about Obama administration actions in dealing with these scandals. And in regards to Benghazi, when you should have taken appropriate action to save American lives – for instance by calling in the Marines – you were AWOL. Just weeks before the election your team scrubbed the Benghazi talking points in 12 different versions, lied to the American people about some YouTube video being to blame for the deaths of brave Americans who put our country first, and you prove Michael Barone right when he writes, “What actually happened in Benghazi was out of sync with the Obama campaign line.” That’s why you all did what you did. Pure raw politics were at play during a horrific time of loss.

For more evidence of Hatch Act violations right under your nose, simply consider DOJ’s “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into the free press. Do you think they picked up some political talk when tapping the phones in the House press gallery?

Your team is out of control. Those who cannot remember the past and learn from it are doomed to repeat it, and that is exactly what is happening. Look back exactly 40 years ago this week and apply that disheartening chapter of American history to the team you’ve chosen and lead today.

Some of us warned America; we cautioned voters in 2008 that a community organizer with no executive experience and no sense of accountability would be a very poor choice for the nation’s top management position.

Mr. President, you said today that you have “complete confidence” in the Attorney General. America doesn’t. Eric Holder needs to appoint an unbiased Special Counsel to investigate the illegal political action of this administration. And then Eric Holder needs to resign.

Most Americans see ominous dark clouds looming beyond the White House Rose Garden, Mr. President. They’ll roll away only when light is shined on the Obama administration’s antics, and America will only recover when you cease avoiding responsibility in this mission of yours to fundamentally transform America. For that to happen, the press had better learn from their experiences of being duped and provide a deserving public fairer, more intelligent coverage.

Speaking of coverage, glad you finally called in the Marines… shame it was just to hold your umbrella.

- Sarah Palin

Well then. Tell us how you really feel.

–

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

(H/T: Right Scoop). Featured image Getty Images.

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Gym Goers Stunned by Armed Bounty Hunters While Showering — ‘Thought… I’m Going to Be Shot’

Liz Klimas — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:51:13 +0000

A look inside David Barton Gym’s Miami locker room. (Photo: David Barton Gym)

Men who had just finished working out at a Miami gym and were showering were stunned when six to eight armed bounty hunters wearing bullet-proof vests burst into the locker room.

WFOR-TV reported Scott Linnen saying he feels that his privacy rights were violated by the bondsmen seeking fugitives in the shower room.

“I was standing in a shower relaxed after having a good workout and the next thing I know I’m seeing a gun in my face,” Linnen said of the incident that occurred Tuesday night. “My first thought was I’m going to be shot.”

Although the bondsmen eventually told the shocked, naked patrons of Miami Beach’s David Barton Gym what they were searching for, Linnen says he is surprised “pulling a curtain aside and revealing me naked is apparently not breaking any kind of law.”

And according to Florida law, the bondsmen, believing a suspect was inside the gym, were within their rights to enter it. WFOR-TV reported Sgt. Bobby Hernandez with the Miami Beach Police Department saying “they work under whole different set of rules than police.”

Police would have needed a warrant to enter a third-party establishment, such as the gym.

The gym said in a statement it had “no control” over the situation, but it believes the bondmen “ignored our normal security measures.”

Watch WFOR-TV’s report:

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Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

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What Phone Records Can Actually Reveal

Liz Klimas — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:07:43 +0000

(Photo: Shutterstock.com)

The revelation that several weeks worth of Associated Press reporters’ and editors’ phone records were obtained in a federal investigation regarding a leak has outraged many in the media sphere, but an Oregon attorney as a message for them: you’re not the only ones.

“As much as I sympathize with the media … it’s kind of ‘welcome to the party guys,’” Kevin Sali, an attorney at Angeli Law, told TheBlaze in a phone interview Thursday.

“We’re seeing outrage now because it’s the media, but this sort of thing happens to people across the country everyday.”

But what would such records reveal?

As you can imagine, records reveal phone numbers called as well as date and duration. Sali said it would look very similar to what you would see on your own monthly statement.

What investigators are looking for are specific numbers, how often certain calls might be made, and sometimes certain timeframes in which communications are being had. It all depends on the case.

Atlanta-based Constitutional Attorney Page Pate said such information can also be used as leverage.

“If you have stuff I don’t want you to have, it makes me more likely to do what you want me to do,” Pate said, explaining how investigators could let suspects know they had already obtained their phone records.

Pate also said that in addition to incoming and outgoing calls, cellphone records would include text messages as well. Although content of the message would not likely be provided, the number associated with the conversation, when the conversation was held, and its duration would be recorded.

“These days, a toll request gets you more than 20 years ago, or five years ago,” he said.

Government investigators, following the appropriate guidelines, are legally able to obtain such phone records. Sali said he believes the breadth of the government’s “immense power” allowing it to obtain these records is what has some upset.

Pate said that some of the protocols that should have been followed to allow the government to subpoena the AP records do not appear to have been followed properly.

“Initially, I was amazed at how unprecedented and invasive this request was,” Pate told TheBlaze.

Not only were records for more than 20 AP phone lines obtained, but personal phones as well.

Pate noted how there is a provision in the Attorney’s Manual that requires the media be offered the opportunity to comply before a subpoena is issued. In the AP’s case, that doesn’t seem to have happened.

Pate acknowledged there is a provision that would allow the news organization to remain in the dark regarding its records being sought, but it would only occur if telling them would “pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation.”

“But that’s just the point of it,” Pate said. “We don’t know because no one has provided documents.”

He said no reasoning has been provided to show how the investigation could be harmed if someone at the AP — not even those whose specific records were being sought — knew these subpoenas were coming. Pate also noted the lack of documentation regarding Attorney General Eric Holder being recused.

Here’s more from TheBlaze’s report of Holder’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday:

“On what date did you recuse yourself?” [Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL)] asked.

“I’m not sure, I think it was towards the beginning of the matter,” Holder responded.

“Isn’t that sort of an unacceptable procedure? The statue says that the attorney general shall approve the subpoena. There was no memorandum, no email — when you recused yourself, was it in writing, was it orally? Did you tell someone, did you alert the White House?” Bachus probed.

“I would’ve told the deputy attorney general,” Holder replied, though he said there would be no record of it in writing.

Holder also said Tuesday that he wasn’t sure how often he had approved subpoena requests for phone records of the media, but noted he took them “very seriously.” Holder, since he recused himself of the investigation to avoid a conflict of interest, said he did not sign off on the subpoena request for AP phone records.

Attorney General Eric Holder is questioned about the Justice Department secretly obtaining two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press, during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Tuesday, May 14, 2013. (Associated Press)

In his experience with such cases, government investigators usually seek phone records for about half of their investigations, even if it doesn’t intend to use the information, Pate told TheBlaze.

Going forward, Pate said he first hopes the Justice Department will “not be so sloppy in the way they follow their own requirements.” He continued, adding that he thinks the department needs to make sure that it actually follows guidelines that have long been in place.

“If you’re going to approve a subpoena like this, go through the process and have documents available …for whomever wants to review” it later, Pate said.

And while this would be helpful for news organizations, there is no requirement that private individuals or businesses whose phone records are being requested be notified or negotiated with for voluntary compliance prior.

Pate said it would be nice to see the same protection rights for news media provided to individuals and businesses as well.

–

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(Updated) Feds Lost Two ‘Known or Suspected Terrorists’ Formerly in Witness Protection, Report Says

Dave Urbanski — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:44:16 +0000

Two “known or suspected terrorists” formerly in the federal Witness Security Program are missing.*

The U.S. Marshall Service is “unable to locate” them, according to the public summary of an interim Justice Department Inspector General’s report obtained by CNN and reviewed by TheBlaze.

Excerpt from page 5 of the public summary of an interim Justice Department Inspector General’s report obtained by CNN.

CNN’s Jake Tapper breaks down the particulars:

The news comes from an audit of the Witness Security Program by the IG’s office, which states that “the Department did not definitively know how many known or suspected terrorists were admitted into the WITSEC program,” among other “significant issues concerning national security.” The report makes 16 recommendations.

Excerpt from page 5 of the public summary of an interim Justice Department Inspector General’s report obtained by CNN (continued below…)

Excerpt from page 6 of the public summary of an interim Justice Department Inspector General’s report obtained by CNN.

You can read the report below:

Public summary of IG report on Witness Protection program

*UPDATE (3:07 pm ET):

In addition to the initial news, it’s now being pointed out that the report faults the Justice Department for failing to provide the names of some terrorists in the witness protection program to the government’s Terrorist Screening Center. That means some in the witness protection program who were on the government’s no-fly list were allowed to board commercial flights once they received their new identities.

Additionally, the Justice Department has responded to the news and is trying to minimize any alarm.

“The Department has identified, located, and minimized the threat of all former known or suspected terrorists admitted into the WitSec Program,” Justice said in a statement to CNN.

“To date, the FBI has not identified a national security threat tied to the participation of terrorism-linked witnesses in the WitSec program,” it added.

That statement would seem to clarify that the former witnesses’ whereabouts are completely unknown at this time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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IRS Accused of Stealing 60 Million Medical Records That Could Include Every Calif. State Judge and Hollywood Execs

Liz Klimas — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:29:10 +0000

Yesterday, the founder of one of the conservative groups targeted by the IRS brought up his concerns regarding if the agency could be trusted to handle health care information under Obamacare if it is known already to disclose information that it wasn’t legally allowed.

(Photo: Shutterstock.com)

At the same time, the IRS is already being presented with a case from a company that claims it stole more than 60 million medical records of more than 10 million Americans.

The complaint filed by John Doe Company against 15 John Doe IRS agents (this is how the plaintiff and defendants are identified) states that these records could include those of every California state judge, state court employees, members of the Screen Actor’s Guild and the Directors Guild, and “prominent citizens in the world of entertainment, business and government, from all walks of life.”

Court House News reported that the records were obtained while the IRS was investigating a tax matter with a warrant for a former employee of the company. The warrant authorized the IRS to obtain financial records of the employee in question, “not seizure of any health care or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties completely unrelated to the matter.”

“[...] none of the 10,000,000 Americans were under any kind of known criminal or civil investigation and their medical records had no relevance whatsoever to the IRS search,” the complaint stated. The amount of records seized in March 2011 is “roughly one out of every twenty-five adult American citizens.”

It also says that executives at John Doe Company warned the IRS agents about the privileged records — records that included “psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual or drug treatment, and a wide range of medical matters covering the most intimate and private of concerns” — but these warnings were “ignored and discarded.”

What’s more, the complaint states that while the IRS agents were obtaining these records, they used a media system at the company to watch the NCAA tournament.

“Adding insult to injury, after unlawfully seizing the records and searching their intimate parts, defendants decided to use John Doe Company’s media system to watch basketball, ordering pizza and Coca-Cola, to take in part of the NCAA tournament, illustrating their complete disregard of the court’s order and the Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights,” the complain states.

The company tried to reobtain the records but that the IRS refused.

The lawsuit being led by the plaintiff’s attorney Robert E. Barnes seeks $25,000 per violation per individual, a judgment that would “protect the proprietary and privileged information of the medical records seized,” and an injunction to prevent the information from being shared.

Read more about the complaint in Court House News here.

(H/T: Healthcare IT News)

–

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The Cutest Police Chase You May Ever See: Cop Halts Pursuit for…Duck Crossing

Liz Klimas — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:22:10 +0000

A Portland, Oregon, police officer was recently pursuing a traffic violator with lights on and sirens blaring, but put his mission on hold to — wait for it — help a mother duck and her ducklings in the middle of the road.

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

The dashcam on Officer Mark James’ cruiser captures the chase and the interruption by what one commenter called “duck accomplices”:

“The duck family was escorted safely to water in a ditch and swam away,” the video stated.

Then James was back to work but the violator likely was long gone.

(H/T: Gawker)

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Baby Dies After Man Allegedly Tricks Girlfriend Into Taking an Abortion Pill

Billy Hallowell — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:23:14 +0000

A man in Tampa, Florida, is being accused of secretly slipping his girlfriend an abortion drug, an act that killed the couple’s unborn baby. The alleged details of the troubling story are ghastly.

Prosecutors claim that John Andrew Welden, 28, switched the label on an abortion pill bottle to make it look like Amoxicillin, a common antibiotic. After the woman, identified as 26-year-old Remee Lee, took the drug, she purportedly miscarried, reports The Tampa Tribune.

In March, Welden apparently found out that the woman was pregnant. While he purportedly wanted her to have an abortion, Lee decided to keep the baby and allegedly said that she would care for the child on her own.

Below, she speaks out about the shocking story:

Since she didn’t have medical insurance, Welden sent her to his father, Dr. Stephen Welden, an OB/GYN physician. Lee was told that the baby was healthy, Assistant U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow said during a hearing on Wednesday.

But, according to prosecutors, Welden decided to step in to prevent the pregnancy from coming to term.

“In my years as a prosecutor, this case is one of the most shocking and premeditated cases I’ve seen,” Muldrow told Judge Anthony Porcelli.

Authorities believe that Weldon forged his father’s name in an effort to obtain Misoprostol (Cytotec), an abortion drug that is used for termination purposes. WebMD describes the drug as, “a prostaglandin medicine used to terminate a pregnancy by starting labor.”

Remee Lee and John Andrew Welden (Photo Credit: YouTube)

It is alleged that Welden told the woman she had a bacterial infection and then gave her the drug. Lee later took the pill, subsequently had stomach pain and bleeding and, upon going to the hospital, realized that the baby had died, Muldgrow claims.

Here’s how WPTV-TV recaps the story:

Lee said when she learned she was pregnant, Welden took her to see his father, who is an obstetrician in Lutz. A sonogram and blood test confirmed Lee was six-weeks pregnant.

The next day, Welden called his girlfriend with bad news. Her blood test apparently showed she had a bacterial infection and she would need to take Amoxicillin to clear it up.

On Good Friday, Lee said Welden showed up at her Tampa home with a care package that included the bottle of antibiotics. The label said the pills were A moxycillin .

“He told me to keep taking them. I was supposed to take three a day for days,” she recalled of Welden’s instructions.

Welden could face life behind bars without parole if he is found guilty of murder under the “Protection of Unborn Children Act,” a federal statute. He also faces ramifications for tampering with a prescription, the Tribune reports.

The prosecution claims that Welden admitted to giving the woman cytotec during a phone call that authorities recorded. The Tribune adds more accusations, as highlighted by Muldrow on Wednesday:

“He admits throughout the recording that he knew the pills were going to cause contractions,” Muldrow said. He also “confesses to the premeditated nature of the crime.”

Muldrow said Welden “confesses that he had tampered with the pill bottle, that he put a fake label on the bottle.” Muldrow said Welden said he used a label maker to make the bogus label.

Muldrow said Welden at some point tried to retrieve the bottle, claiming there was a problem with the medicine and he wanted to get his money back. Muldrow said this was an attempt by Welden to tamper with evidence.

In addition to the criminal charges against him, Lee is also seeking at least $15,000 in damages. The prosecutor told the judge that the case “shocks the conscience.”

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Read the Ad One Mother Posted on Craigslist in Attempt to ‘Adopt Out’ Her 3-Year-Old

Liz Klimas — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:08:45 +0000

(Image: Craigslist screenshot)

A pregnant Texas mother with a 3-year-old son was “not in a good place” in her life and felt like she couldn’t care for her son. Not knowing what else to do, the woman posted an ad on Craigslist to “adopt out” the boy.

The ad posted by 29-year-old Stephanie Redus of Huffman, Texas, according to KTRK, read:

Hi, I’m trying to adopt out my 3yr old son. I’m not in a good place in my life and don’t feel like I can care for him properly but I don’t know where to start. If you or know anyone who is interested in caring for him, please let me know. I’m a single mom and can’t do this.

Thanks, Desperate.

(Image: KTRK)

Child Protective Services became aware of the post and Redus was arrested and will face charges, according to prosecutors. But just what charges might be difficult to assess. Advertising a child in general is a misdemeanor, but KTRK reported the charges could be upgraded.

Stephanie Redus (Image: KTRK)

“If you’re putting it on Craigslist, anybody — the highest bidder or whoever the mother deems appropriate to give the child to — that’s where the kid goes,” Harris County Assistant District Attorney David Abrams told KTRK. “There’s no government regulation on it.”

“New technology, the Internet, is creating these types of cases that we have to deal with now,” Abrams said.

Watch the report:

When Redus was taken into custody, she told police she was depressed and has anxiety but couldn’t take medication due to her pregnancy. She also admitted to posting the Craigslist ad and authorities found record of it on her cellphone.

(H/T: Gizmodo)

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CBS: Police Found Note Claiming Responsiblity Inside Boat Where Boston Bombing Suspect Was Hiding

Jonathon M. Seidl — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:55:11 +0000

Police found a note inside the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding and eventually captured — a note written by the suspect and claiming responsibility for the destruction, CBS News is reporting.

The note said the bombing was retribution for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the actions that have killed Muslims.

“When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims,” the note — which CBS reports was scrawled with a pen on an interior wall — apparently said.

According to CBS, the note is significant because it is an admission of guilt outside of the questioning administered to Tsarnaev before he was read his Miranda rights. Any admissions made during that questioning would not be admissible in court.

Get the full report below:

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Texas May Have Its Own Gosnell: Houston Doc Accused of Gruesome Illegal Abortions

Becket Adams — Thu, 16 May 2013 02:56:38 +0000

Although Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist found guilty this week of three counts of first-degree murder, has been successfully removed from civil society, another abortion practitioner like him may be on the loose in Houston, Texas.

“Harris County authorities and the Texas Department of State Health Services are investigating a local doctor accused Wednesday by an anti-abortion group of performing late-term abortions in 2011,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

The abortionist, Douglas Karpen, has been accused by three former staffers, Deborah Edge, Gigi Aguliar, and Krystal Rodriguez, of performing several illegal abortions. Their testimony, and alleged photographic evidence, was brought to light by Operation Rescue, a pro-life watchdog.

There’s a fourth informant working with Operation Rescue, filing an affidavit about her experiences, but she prefers to remain anonymous.

“We have several people looking into the allegations,” said Sara Marie Kinney, a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

DSHS spokeswoman Carrie Williams said in an email that the agency, which monitors Texas abortion facilities, is “aware of the allegations, and we are investigating.”

“This is a very high priority for us,” she said.

DSHS became aware of the allegations after Operation Rescue released a report containing the staffers’ testimony and photos. The cellphone photos the staffers provided the pro-life group with seem to back up their gruesome claims.

“The photos show babies that are huge, with gashes in their necks, indicating that these babies were likely born alive, then killed, just as Kermit Gosnell did at his ‘House of Horrors’ clinic in Philadelphia,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

“In fact, there are numerous similarities between Karpen and the Gosnell case, including the disregarding of complaints by the authorities that allowed both men to continue their illegal operations,” he added.

The photos are extremely gruesome, entirely sickening, and graphic. If you have the stomach for it, LifeSiteNews.com has copies of them here. But be warned.

Here’s a reported video of Karpen’s former staffers:

“In a week when serial murderer Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of killing babies, I read with disgust about the allegations of Houston-based abortionist Douglas Karpen performing illegal late-term abortions surrounded by appalling sanitary conditions in his clinic,” Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, mindful of Gosnell’s “house of horrors,” said in a statement.

“The Harris County authorities should perform a full-scale investigation and take action against those who broke state law,” the statement adds.

The possibility that Texas may have its own Gosnell has the Texas Medical Board on alert.

Leigh Hopper, a spokeswoman for the group, said the reports on Karpen’s three clinics “raises concerns, for certain.

However, she adds, Karpen’s license is “free and clear currently.”

“Hopper declined to say whether there have been complaints lodged against Karpen; such information is not available to the public,” the Houston Chronicle notes.

“But in its online post, Operation Rescue links to a February letter that appears to show the medical board dismissing an investigation into Karpen,” the report adds.

Hopper offered a possible explanation: It “doesn’t look fake to me, and it reads like the sort of letter TMB sends out routinely.”

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Mass. Police Catch 7 ‘Chemical Engineers’ from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, & Singapore Trespassing Major Reservoir

Becket Adams — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:47:34 +0000

UPDATE 5:17 p.m. ET — State officials have given the all clear: “State Police say there was a thorough investigation of the seven Quabbin trespassers and the only crime they committed was trespassing.”

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A group of individuals from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore were caught early Wednesday morning trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts, one of the largest man-made public water supplies in the county, CBS Boston reports.

The trespassers, five men and two women, were caught in one of the no-trespassing zones of reservoir, according to Massachusetts state police.

Police also said that the trespassers “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area and claimed they are “chemical engineers” and “recent college graduates,” CBS Boston reports.

The Quabbin, located about 65 miles from Boston, supplies several Massachusetts communities, including the state’s largest city, with clean drinking water.

“State Police say there were no warrants or advisories on any of the individuals and ‘there was no evidence that the seven were committing any crime beyond the trespassing,” the CBS Boston report notes.

“All seven were allowed to leave and will be summonsed to court for trespassing. The FBI is investigating and routine checks of public water supplies have been increased following the incident.”

The seven individuals reside in Amherst, Cambridge, Sunderland, Northampton, and New York City.

“Police have not released their names because a court date has not been set,” the report adds.

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Holder to House Committee: I Don’t Really Know Anything About AP Scandal (And I’m Not Sure When I Recused Myself)

Erica Ritz — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:29:09 +0000

Attorney General Eric Holder, the nation’s top law enforcement official, is sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 15, 2013, prior to testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Justice Department oversight hearing. (Photo: AP)

Attorney General Eric Holder appeared for the sixth time before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, asked to speak about the IRS’ admission that it has been targeting conservative organizations and the Department of Justice secretly seizing two months of phone records from the Associated Press.

Unfortunately, though, Holder divulged almost nothing.

The attorney general’s opening statement consisted of an overview of the Department of Justice’s “achievements” and “priorities,” before saying they could be “threatened” by budget cuts related to sequestration.

But in response to repeated questions by Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) about the DOJ seizing phone records from the Associated Press, Holder said: “I was not the person involved in that decision…I am not familiar why the subpoena was constructed in the way it was because I was not involved in the case…” etc.

He also often noted that there is an ongoing investigation that prevents him from commenting.

Lawmakers then attempted to determine who authorized the subpoena if not Holder, and the attorney general said he would “assume” that the deputy attorney general did after he recused himself from the case, and received confirmation during the hearing that Deputy Attorney General James Cole indeed did authorize the subpoenas.

Watch video of the scene via Mediaite:

Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL) was one of the lawmakers to glean some new information from the attorney general.

While we know Holder has recused himself from the case, Bachus’ questions reveal that apparently Holder doesn’t know when exactly he did so.

“On what date did you recuse yourself?” Bachus asked.

“I’m not sure, I think it was towards the beginning of the matter,” Holder responded.

“Isn’t that sort of an unacceptable procedure? The statue says that the attorney general shall approve the subpoena. There was no memorandum, no email — when you recused yourself, was it in writing, was it orally? Did you tell someone, did you alert the White House?” Bachus probed.

“I would’ve told the deputy attorney general,” Holder replied, though he said there would be no record of it in writing.

Holder said the FBI’s criminal investigation of the IRS could feasibly include civil rights violations, false statements, and potential violations of the Hatch Act, though he couldn’t say by or for whom.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) was particularly disturbed by Holder’s actions, saying “the actions of the department have, in fact, impaired the First Amendment.”

To this, as with the rest, Holder provided a limited explanation.

Video via Mediaite:

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) was one of several lawmakers to suggest Holder and other administration officials travel to the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and reflect on the phrase “the buck stops here.”

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) held up a picture of Tyrone Woods, one of the four Americans killed in Benghazi, then a photo of Brian Terry, a U.S. border patrol agent killed with an illegal gun tied to Operation Fast and Furious, asking whether there was anything the government could have done to prevent the loss of life.

When Holder prevaricated, Forbes grew agitated and said the only way we can prevent equal corruption in our health care system is for our personal health information never to be sent to the IRS in the first place. Because once the government inevitably overreaches, there is a clear precedent that no one will be held accountable.

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Family Probes Death of 8-Year-Old Daughter Believed ‘Murdered’ to Harvest Organs

Liz Klimas — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:46:43 +0000

(Image: Shutterstock.com)

A Birmingham, U.K., family believes their 8-year-old daughter was murdered while on a trip abroad to India by physicians wishing to harvest her organs.

The Birmingham Mail reported that Gurkiren Kaur Loyal was brought to a clinic in Punjab to be treated for dehydration. Her mother, Amrit Kaur Loyal, said the girl was given an injection and “within a split-second Gurkiren’s head flipped back, her eyes rolled in her head, and the color completely drained from her.”

“I knew they had killed her on the spot,” Amrit said, according to the Mail. “I knew my innocent child had been murdered.”

The child was transported to a nearby hospital but the Mail reported that she could not be resuscitated.

The family was then told a post-mortem examination in India was required before the body could be brought back to the UK. The grieving mother insisted on a respectful autopsy, but said when she returned to the mortuary, the scene showed her daughter’s blood-stained clothes, ripped near an incinerator.

“It was medieval.”

Things got worse when they received the girl’s body back in the UK with plans to have it examined by a coroner, hoping to learn what really happened to their daughter.

“He said it was impossible to come to a conclusion for the cause of death,” Amrit told the Mail. “They had nothing to work from, she had no organs in her body for them to take samples.”

All that was left of her internal organs were her eyes, according to the report.

A family friend, Coun Kooner, said he believes the girl was killed so her organs could be harvested and sold.

In a separate article, the Birmingham Mail reported that local politicians have launched a campaign to figure out what happened to Gurkiren and prevent it from happening to travelers in the future.

This story has been updated to fix a typo.

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Barbed Wires, Chains, & a Wading Pool: Eerie Photos of Cleveland Kidnapper’s Backyard Emerge

Becket Adams — Wed, 15 May 2013 02:29:30 +0000

Screen grab.

Ariel Castro has been accused of holding three women captive in his Ohio home for nearly a decade.

The 52-year-old Cleveland resident actually held the women as his personal sex slaves, according to law enforcement officials, even fathering a child with one of the three (Amanda Berry).

Castro has been charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

And although the police have worked around the clock to get to the bottom of Castro’s story, very little information regarding the accused rapists’ “house of horrors” has been made available to the public.

But we do have a little:

Screen grab.

“[P]hotos have emerged showing barbed wire, chains, and a bizarre assortment of discarded items,” Business Insider explains. “A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, took photographs of Castro’s yard and gave them to CNN.”

–

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White Family (Including 14-Year-Old Daughter) Reportedly Attacked for Being in the ‘Wrong Neighborhood’ of Baton Rouge

Erica Ritz — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:49:22 +0000

Donald Dickerson (Photo via WAFB-TV)

A white family getting gas in Baton Rouge, La., was attacked by three people who said the family was in the “wrong neighborhood,” police say.

The altercation occurred Sunday night at a Chevron gas station.

WAFB-TV provides the shocking details:

[Cpl. Tommy Stubbs, a spokesman for the Baton Rouge Police Department] said a man wearing a pink shirt was in line trying to pay for gas when Donald Dickerson, 41, started making fun of him, leading to an argument.

“The defendant (Dickerson) approached the white male victim,” the police report stated.

It went on to read, “the defendant told him he was in the wrong neighborhood and he was not going to make it out.” The victim said that’s when he “was punched and knocked to the ground.”

At this time, his wife got out of the car and ran to help her husband. The victim said, “he continued to struggle with the defendant and was eventually knocked unconscious, which later he awoke in the hospital.”

His wife told police, “after running to help her husband, she remembers falling to the ground and (being) knocked unconscious.“

According to a close family friend, that’s when the couple’s teenage daughter got out of the car to check on her parents and, “observed a female punch her mother in the face, when her mother then fell to the concrete, hitting her head on the surface.”

The daughter was also punched in the face.

“There were only three suspects but there were multiple people in the parking lot,” said Stubbs. [Emphasis added]

The couple’s teenaged daughter is only 14-years-old, according to WBRZ News.

WAFB-TV reports that while the father suffered “a broken eye socket, broken nose, and several lacerations to the face,” only Dickerson was arrested and charged with second-degree battery.

The two other alleged attackers — 24-year-old Devin Bessye and 22-year-old Ashley Simmons — received a summons for simple battery, but were never even taken to the police station.

All three have had prior run-ins with the law.

Reports indicate the attack has not yet been categorized as a hate crime, but it remains under investigation.

Watch WAFB-TV’s complete report, below:

WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
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(H/T: RightScoop)

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Gosnell Is Spared the Death Penalty, Gets Life in Prison (Plus: Here’s the Deal He Made to Avoid Death Row)

Billy Hallowell — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:45:28 +0000

PHILADELPHIA (TheBlaze/AP) — A Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three babies who were born alive in his grimy clinic agreed Tuesday to give up his right to an appeal and faces life in prison but will be spared a death sentence. The news comes just one day after Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of the babies who were delivered alive and killed with scissors.

In a case that became a flashpoint in the nation’s abortion debate, former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants dispatched the newborns by “snipping” their spines, as he referred to it (read TheBlaze’s full coverage here, including information on the victims).

Dr. Kermit Gosnell (Photo Credit: AP)

Prosecutors agreed to two life sentences without parole, and Gosnell was to be sentenced Wednesday in the death of the third baby, an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty because Gosnell killed more than one person, and his victims were especially vulnerable given their age. But Gosnell’s own advanced age had made it unlikely he would ever be executed before his appeals ran out.

Gosnell has said he considered himself a pioneering inner-city doctor who helped desperate women get late-term abortions. Defense lawyer Jack McMahon said before the sentencing deal that his client’s bid for acquittal was a battle.

“The media has been overwhelmingly against him,” McMahon said. “But I think the jury listened to the evidence … and they found what they found.”

The gruesome details of Gosnell’s operation came out more than two years ago during a grand jury investigation of prescription drug trafficking. Authorities raiding Gosnell’s clinic for drugs instead found bags and bottles of fetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained furniture, dirty medical instruments and cats roaming the premises.

Partisans on both sides of the nation’s polarized abortion debate were quick to weigh in after the verdict. Abortion foes said the case helped to illustrate the disturbing reality of abortion.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell is escorted to a waiting police van upon leaving the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia, Monday, May 13, 2013, after being convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies who were delivered alive and then killed with scissors at his clinic. Photo Credit: AP

“This has helped more people realize what abortion is really about,” said David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. He said he hopes the case results in more states passing bills that prohibit abortion “once the unborn child can feel pain.”

Supporters of legalized abortion said the case offered a preview of what poor, desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.

“Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty and will get what he deserves. Now, let’s make sure these women are vindicated by delivering what all women deserve: access to the full range of health services including safe, high-quality and legal abortion care,” said Ilyse G. Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Pennsylvania authorities had failed to conduct routine inspections of all its abortion clinics for 15 years by the time Gosnell’s facility was raided. In the scandal’s aftermath, two top state health officials were fired, and Pennsylvania imposed tougher rules for clinics.

During the trial, Gosnell proved a solitary figure from beginning to end, with no friends or relatives in the courtroom, despite the fact he’s been married three times and has six children, nearly all of them adults.

Gosnell did not testify, and called no witnesses in his defense. But McMahon branded prosecutors “elitist” and “racist” for pursuing his client, who is black and whose patients were mostly poor minorities.

“I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community,” Gosnell told The Philadelphia Daily News in a 2010 interview. “I believe in the long term I will be vindicated.”

Shown is the directory at Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s former facility the Women’s Medical Society, where prosecutors allege he killed five people, including a patient and four viable babies allegedly born alive, Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in Philadelphia. Photo Credit: AP

Gosnell was also convicted of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s abortion laws by performing third-term abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance.

Prosecution experts said one of the babies was nearly 30 weeks along when the abortion took place, and was so big that Gosnell allegedly joked the baby could “walk to the bus.” A second baby was said to be alive for about 20 minutes before a clinic worker snipped the neck. A third was born in a toilet and was moving before another clinic employee severed the spinal cord, according to testimony.

A fourth baby let out a whimper before Gosnell cut the neck, prosecutors alleged. Gosnell was acquitted in that baby’s death, the only one of the four in which no one testified to seeing the baby killed.

Gosnell’s attorney argued that none of the fetuses was born alive and that any movements were posthumous twitching or spasms.

The defense also contended that the 2009 death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar of Woodbridge, Va., a Bhutanese immigrant who had been given repeated doses of Demerol and other powerful drugs to sedate her and induce labor, was caused by unforeseen complications and did not amount to murder, as prosecutors charged.

Bernard Smalley, a lawyer for the woman’s family, said he now hopes to bring “some sense of justice and quiet to this family that’s been through so much.”

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The Bizarre Reason a Texas Pastor Is on Trial

Billy Hallowell — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:06:40 +0000

The Rev. Rick Bartlett, a Texas-based faith leader, is at the center of an odd case surrounding the death of a cat named Moody. Bartlett, 56, is accused of abusing the feline and taking actions that purportedly led to its demise. Mainly, it is believed by some of his critics that Bartlett threw the cat off of a bridge. He has been charged with animal cruelty.

This bizarre case has been going on since Jan. 2012, as UPI notes. It was at that time that Bartlett was arrested after the cat passed away. Moody’s owners are Bartlett’s neighbors, Sarah and Eddie Bell; they have filed a lawsuit over the matter.

KHOU-TV has more about the curious story:

Rick Bartlett, pastor of the Bastrop Christian Church, is facing animal cruelty charges. Bastrop Police Chief Michael Black said Bartlett admitted that he caught the cat, named Moody, in a trap on Sunday, Jan. 15. Bartlett told them that he was having a problem with feral cats in his garden.

Moody also told police that he had the cat in a cage in the back of his pick-up truck for three days and forgot about him until Tuesday, Jan. 17., when Bartlett brought the cat to police. An animal control officer noticed a name tag including the phone number of Moody’s owners, Sarah and Eddy Bell, on the cat’s collar. The officer offered to take Moody back to his owners but police said Bartlett told them he’d take the cat back himself since they were his neighbors.

Later on the same day, a park visitor discovered Moody’s near lifeless body on the bank of the Colorado River, some 40-50 feet below a bridge.

The prime allegation is that the pastor, who has since resigned from the church he was presiding over, either was negligent or deliberately took actions that led to the cat’s injuries and subsequent death. A separate lawsuit claims that the animal fell 40 feet from a bridge onto a walking trail, UPI adds.

Photo Credit: KVUE

Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for “Justice for Moody.” And the Bell family is having a difficult time understanding why the family’s cat of 11 years was lost. The couple’s five-year-old daughter has apparently struggled profoundly in coping with the incident.

“She also asked me where Moody is now and I said, ‘Baby he’s in Heaven,’” explained Sarah. “She knows the man who did this is a pastor at the Bastrop Christian Church and she said, ‘I don’t believe in Heaven anymore, Moody’s just dead.’”

During the trial, which began on Monday, Bartlett’s attorney maintained that he had nothing to do with the cat’s death. The jury that will decide the misdemeanor case consists of five men and one woman. Testimony will resume on Thursday. Read more about the odd case over at the Austin American-Statesman.

(H/T: Religion News Blog)

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See What Happened When a Suspected Burglar Returned a Second Time to 98-Year-Old Grandma’s Home

Liz Klimas — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:34:28 +0000

A suspected burglar was shot by a grandson defending his grandmother’s home when the intruder tried to run over him with a car. The suspect was identified by police when he checked himself into a hospital for treatment for birdshot wounds. (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

The grandson of a 98-year-old Michigan woman feared something was amiss when he saw while at his own home that the monitor, which he used as a caregiver to stay in touch about her well-being, was disconnected.

MLive reported the 49-year-old grandson, who was not identified by name, headed over to her home Sunday and found she had been burglarized. The grandmother didn’t notice she was being burglarized when it initially happened because of her poor eyesight and hearing.

Thieves had entered forcibly through the backdoor of the Buena Vista Township home and taken the laptop and an ATV. The grandson contacted the police regarding the burglary.

But the story doesn’t end there. For safety reasons, the grandson stayed at his grandmother’s home overnight and even told the authorities earlier in the day that he had brought his gun for security, MLive reported. In the early morning hours, the grandson heard a scuffle outside the house and sounds of someone trying to force their way in.

MLive stated the the grandson saw a car in the driveway with a female in the passenger seat. He went outside to record the license plate number but then the person who he had heard trying to break into the house — possibly for the second time that day — returned to the car and proceeded to attempt to run over the grandson.

At this point, the grandson fired shots. He called for police just after 4 a.m. and reported the incident.

According to MLive, the perpetrators drove away but the man was hit with birdshot and drove to a local hospital. Police learned the suspect was on the run for violating parole.

Sgt. Greg Klecker said the suspect, who was still in the hospital Monday for wounds from the birdshot, is being cooperative and that he expects the man will be presented with charges of first-degree home invasion, according to MLive. Klecker also said the timeline of events is being reviewed to see if the grandson who shot the suspect will face any charges as well.

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‘Real News’ and ‘Wilkow’ IRS Scandal Coverage Highlights

Christopher Santarelli — Tue, 14 May 2013 02:18:39 +0000

A bombshell report released Friday that the IRS admitted to targeting conservative groups in 2012 has dominated the news-cycle to start the week, with the president even addressing the controversy, characterizing the admitted act as “outrageous.”

As reported by TheBlaze Friday:

The Internal Revenue Service “inappropriately flagged” conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.

Organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

In February 2012, TheBlaze received emails from several Tea Party groups alleging partisan and almost thuggish behavior on the part of the IRS. By March, several Republican senators and The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) were starting to ask questions about the IRS’ treatment of Tea Party groups, with 12 GOP senators sending a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Schulman questioning the nature of the relationship between the IRS and Tea Party.

Following the revelations over the last four days, at least a half dozen conservative groups are already lining up to sue the IRS. The Wall Street Journal reports that the inspector general’s office has been conducting an audit of the IRS’s handling of the applications process and is expected to release a report this week.

The discussion of the scandal opened up each show on TheBlaze TV’s Monday evening lineup.

On ‘Real News’ Monday the panel was joined by David French of the ACLJ to discuss the bombshell IRS revelations and subsequent reactions by the White House and Republicans.

Andrew Wilkow’s opening monologue focused on the report, and was joined later on the show by leaders from Tea Party groups targeted by the IRS: Eric Wilson from Kentucky 9/12 Project and Tom Zawistowski, former president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition.

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The Most Transparent Administration Ever: This Redacted Freedom of Information Request Is Unbelievable

Becket Adams — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:39:13 +0000

In response to reports that the Federal government may be spying on private citizens’ electronic communications, the American Civil Liberties Union decided to get to the bottom of the story by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

And their request didn’t go unnoticed. Oh, they got a response alright — but probably not what they were expecting.

Here, let’s play a game. After reading through the following FOIA request, head on over to the comments section and tell us know how many pages of actual information you count.

We’ll keep score:

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Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

(H/T: Reason). Featured image screen grab. This post has been updated.

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N.Y. Man Arrested for Gun Violation in NY — His Offense? Two Extra Bullets

Liz Klimas — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:04:29 +0000

(Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Gregory Dean, Jr. was pulled over in New Lebanon, N.Y., Sunday for a light on his license plate being burnt out. But what began as a simple traffic stop ended up with Dean being arrested over two bullets in his registered firearm, which put him in violation of the state’s new law, the Journal News reported.

Last month, a provision in New York’s strict gun control laws went into effect, making it illegal to have more than seven rounds in a magazine unless said firearm was being used at a range or in a competition.

The state troopers saw a .40-caliber pistol on Dean’s passenger side when they approached his window. Although it was lawfully possessed by Dean, they discovered nine bullets within the magazine, putting him two bullets over the seven-bullet max set by the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act.

Dean was arrested for this violation and charged with unlawful possession for the number of bullets in the ammunition feeding device and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, according to the Journal News. Both are misdemeanor charges that went along with infractions he received regarding the light outage on his vehicle as well.

Dean was released without bail and has a court date for later this month.

Update: It has also been reported that Dean was found to be driving with a suspended license.

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Horrifying: Australian Woman Gang Raped in Dubai – Then Jailed 8 Months for Sex Outside Marriage

Erica Ritz — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:33:42 +0000

Alicia Gali grants her first public television interview since being raped and imprisoned in Dubai. (Photo: Yahoo 7 News)

Alicia Gali of Australia was excited about her new job in the “desert paradise” of Dubai. American-owned Starwood Hotels, one of the world’s largest hotel groups, even offered to pay for her plane ticket and accommodations as part of the contract that she become a manager.

The United Arab Emirates had been aggressively targeting Australia for tourists when she took the job in 2008, portraying itself as “really progressive and forward-thinking and the ‘new’ Middle East,” Gali said. But when she got there, she found another world entirely.

After being drugged and gang-raped by three of her colleagues, Gali says she found no help from her superiors at the hotel. After she took herself to the hospital, she was thrown in jail for eight months for sex outside of marriage.

Gali’s Australian attorney explained that, as far as she understands, the crime is only considered rape under the country’s strict Islamic laws if there are “four adult, male Muslim witnesses that can provide evidence that the sex was non-consensual.”

Years later, Gali has granted her first television interview to Yahoo 7 News’ Ross Coulthart, and the news organization traveled all over the world to get to the bottom of the story.

(Photo: Yahoo 7 News)

According to the report, it was discovered that the assault was planned well in advance, down to the criminals putting a shirt and a plastic bag in Gali’s drain so it would flood, leaving her no real place to go late that night but down to the hotel bar.

She brought her laptop, ordered one drink, and some of her colleagues came over to put some more ice in it.

“I don’t even remember finishing the drink. The next thing I know I woke up at 4:30 in the afternoon the next day,” she said. “The door to my apartment was ajar. I was completely naked with just my bra hanging off my shoulder. I woke up in pain. I had broken ribs and massive bruising on a lot of my body.”

There were reports of screams near her room that night, but Alicia doesn’t remember what happened. Security was dispatched and three naked men were seen in the room, but it is unclear exactly what action was taken.

When Gali asked a senior manager how she could get home — the hotel was hanging onto her passport, presumably for safekeeping — she was allegedly told that she had a “debt” to them since they had paid for her flight and accommodations, and had not yet fulfilled the contract that would allow them to recoup their costs.

The interviewer repeated incredulously: “You’ve been raped. You’re asking for your passport so you can get medical assistance. And they’re saying you owe them money?”

With no idea what to do, Gali called the Australian consulate.

“All [the representative] said to me is reconsider your need to be in the country at this time, and that if I had been drugged there could be issues with drug laws in the country and that I could face life imprisonment. I explained to her that the hotel was holding my passport and I couldn’t go anywhere,” but the representative did not offer to give her an emergency passport, Gali says.

According to Yahoo 7 News, ” the Australian government was actively trying to suppress [Gali's] story” at the time, telling her family not to speak with the media.

Alicia Gali’s mother describes the moment she found out her daughter was coming home. (Photo: Yahoo 7 News)

Eventually the pain of what turned out to be four broken ribs became too much to bear, so Gali took herself to the hospital.

“[The hospital staff] said, ‘Do you want to tell the police so that the men can be arrested?’” Gali recalled. “And I said the hotel told me that I might have some issues with the fact that I had a drink, they said no don’t worry about it you’re Christian, you’re not Muslim, it’s fine. Report the rape.”

They didn’t tell her that if she couldn’t provide the four male, Muslim witnesses, reporting a rape is essentially an admission of sex outside marriage.

Gali was quickly sentenced to a year in jail — 11 months for sex outside of marriage and 1 month for drinking alcohol — and 2 of the accused rapists got the same sentence. The third got an extra month.

“I was petrified…I was absolutely terrified,” she recalled.

For eight months, Gali shared a “disgusting” cell with thirty other women where she says they sometimes didn’t turn the water on for days at a time during the middle of summer.

She was pardoned at eight months and allowed to go home. So were her rapists.

Since that time, Gali still struggles with what she has endured. She has been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and, according to various reports, is taking legal action against the Commonwealth of Australia for its role in the matter.

Both Starwood hotels and the Australian consulate in Dubai reject Gali’s accusations that they acted improperly, the former saying it provided “support and assistance” and that the safety of its employees is a “paramount priority,” the latter claiming she was provided with “extensive consular assistance” but adding that consular officers are not responsible for administering legal advice.

Watch Yahoo 7 News’ entire two-part report on Alicia Gali’s story, below:

Click here to read the complete report by Yahoo 7 News’ “Sunday Night.”

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Gosnell Found Guilty of First Degree Murder in ‘House of Horrors’ Abortion, Murder Trial

Billy Hallowell — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:16:06 +0000

Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic descriptions.

The court case that has both horrified and gripped the nation is coming to a close. A verdict in the Dr. Kermit Gosnell trial has been reached: The abortion doctor is guilty in three of four first-degree murder counts (these were three of the more than 250 criminal charges against him). The penalty phase of the case is expected to begin on May 21, as Gosnell may receive the death penalty for his crimes.

Phila abortionist Kermit #Gosnell guilty 1st degree murder in 3 of 4 babies.

May 13, 2013 3:09pm via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

@jdmullane

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The emotion surrounding the case has been intense, as abortion continues to be a monumentally-contentious issue in America, specifically terminations past the 20-week mark. Throughout the six-week trial, defense attorney Jack McMahon attempted to paint the abortion doctor as a victim of racism and elitism who is being targeted by the judicial system.

Conversely, the prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron, dubbed him a heartless killer who murdered babies outside the womb. For the most part, the jury agreed with the second descriptive.

The charges against Gosnell included 258 counts in total. As stated, the three first-degree murder counts could yield the death penalty. In addition to these and an additional third-degree murder charge, the abortion doctor faced 24 counts of conducting third-trimester abortions (an illegal act) and 227 counts of failing to counsel patients a day before doing the procedure.

According to the Associated Press, “Gosnell was also convicted of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s abortion laws by performing third-term abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance.” More specifically, he was convicted of 21 counts of abortion past the 24-week mark and 211 counts of failing to comply with a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before providing an abortion, among other charges.

Lila Rose, the Founder of Live Action, a pro-life group that has been releasing undercover videos in an effort to expose abortion practices, is naturally reacting favorably to the Gosnell verdict. In a release, she decried the “gruesome and inhuman” conditions at the clinic and said that “justice has been served.”

Dr. Kermit Gosnell (Photo Credit: AP)

“Even as we celebrate this verdict, we honor and mourn as well those innocents who did not receive ‘their day in court’ – and we must remember that Gosnell is not an outlier within the abortion industry,” she said. “We cannot allow these ‘guilty’ verdicts, welcome as they are, to make us complacent when it comes to the continuing abuses happening even now in abortion facilities throughout our nation.”

Even Planned Parenthood welcomed the verdict. Spokesperson Eric Ferrero called Gosnell a butcher and, as USA Today notes, said the doctor’s punishment is warranted.

“This was horrifying and he should be punished,” he said. “This was not an abortion provider. This was someone preying on women.”

Perhaps the battle — one that has created new-found interest in discussion and debate surrounding late-term abortion — can best be summarized by looking back at the closing arguments that were advanced by both McMahon and Cameron. On April 29, TheBlaze was in the courtroom to hear these appeals; both sides pointedly defended their viewpoints, providing a look-back at key testimony in the troubling case.

THE DEFENSE’S CLOSING ARGUMENTS

McMahon offered a fiery diatribe, defending his client against the first degree murder charges for four infants allegedly killed after birth and a third-degree charge for the death of Karnamaya Mongar, an immigrant who died following an abortion. While admitting that the clinic, the Women’s Medical Society, wasn’t perfect, the lawyer launched into a major defensive, railing against the notion that it was a bloody “house of horrors,” as prosecutors, pro-life advocates and the media have maintained.

He defended Gosnell as an asset to the community who provided low-cost health care and an opportunity for young females in the neighborhood to learn. Rather than rooting its arguments in fairness, the attorney accused the prosecution of prejudice; he called the case against Gosnell “elitist” and “racist” and said that the charges and claims have been blown out of proportion.

“This isn’t a perfect place by any stretch of the imagination — but it’s not what they say it is,” McMahon continued, going on to claim that Gosnell was singled-out because he is an African American.

Of particular frustration to McMahon was the use of the aforementioned term — “house of horrors.” While he noted that it “sounds good” and “makes for good press,” he rejected the label and said that it has been manufactured to convince people to come alongside the prosecution’s concocted vision of what unfolded.

From showing images of a clinic that was clean and well-organized (to contradict the prosecution’s claims that the Women’s Medical Society was a dirty and disease-ridden establishment) to continuously berating the prosecution over its tactics and purportedly untrue statements, McMahon was candid.

“That, ladies and gentleman, is not a house of horrors,” he said, after showing the jury images of a clean and organized clinic environment.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s defense attorney Jack McMahon walks to the Criminal Justice Center, Monday, March 18, 2013, in Philadelphia. Gosnell, an abortion doctor who catered to minorities, immigrants and poor women at the Women’s Medical Society, goes on trial Monday on eight counts of murder. Credit: AP

After tackling the conditions within, McMahon moved on to denying that any babies were killed after birth. In making this case, he relied upon the testimony of witnesses that the prosecution called. Considering that the defense attorney didn’t call any witness of his own to the stand, he moved line-by-line through transcripts in an effort to both discredit statements and to poke holes in any indication that Gosnell might have delivered live babies and murdered them once they were outside of the mothers’ womb.

Kareema Cross, a former clinic worker who delivered some of the more disturbing testimony about what purportedly unfolded at the hands of Gosnell, was dismissed by McMahon as having a grudge against the doctor (read details about her testimony here). Other clinic workers, he alleged, were seemingly intimidated by the government into admitting crimes that they truly did not commit.

And all of the neck-snipping, McMahon maintained, was done after the babies were dead. While this theory was advanced, there wasn’t much credence given to critics’ notion that spinal cords would not need to be severed if the babies were truly delivered deceased, as is the claim.

Interestingly, McMahon did leave the door open to the idea that Gosnell may have conducted abortions past the 24-week cap that is currently embedded in Pennsylvania law. He wasn’t explicit and he didn’t devote much time to tackling the subject.

In sum, the defense delivered compelling arguments, but not compelling enough to relieve Gosnell of the murder charges against him. The attorney did find many areas of exploitation and holes in the narrative against Gosnell — vacancies he was able to fill with questions, curiosities and his own counter-theories.

THE PROSECUTION’S CLOSING ARGUMENTS

The prosecution delivered an equally compelling case, going through, one-by-one, all 54 witness testimonies to paint Gosnell as disorganized and murderous. Going into gruesome detail, the prosecution outlined the notion that the doctor slit babies’ spinal cords and essentially forced women to go through delivery, later terminating the children after birth.

Cameron wasted little time in responding to many of McMahon’s counterpoints, painting Gosnell out to be a doctor who kept poor records, who used untrained staff and, through witness testimony, a medical professional who put his patients at risk.

The assistant district attorney also appealed to the jury, noting that this case has been a turning point — one in which people will likely think twice before merely trusting their doctors’ qualifications and policies. Seeing as many of Gosnell’s patients were unaware of what was allegedly going on, Cameron attempted to use the case as a call for the jury to be more aware of whom they trust with their medical care (especially considering the charges against Eileen O’Neill, a clinic staffer who is also on trial for allegedly pretending to be a doctor).

“This case is not about abortion, he stressed, noting that the procedure is legal so long as it is conducted before 24 weeks and in a safe location.

“This case is not about racism or elitism. It’s not about a rush to judgment…it was conducted, held before a grand jury,” Cameron continued, replying directly to the charges that McMahon had waged against the prosecution during his closing arguments.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell (Photo Credit: AP)

Cameron’s diatribe followed a similar layout. He noted the importance of having basic standards for clinics, regardless of whether they are in urban, suburban or rural areas. Citing Steven Massof’s testimony (another unlicensed doctor who worked in the clinic), he noted that the office was purportedly flea ridden and dirty.

The district attorney added that the women who saw Gosnell trusted him and that, by the prosecution’s assessment, the doctor failed to live up to the Hippocratic Oath – and to his responsibility to patients. Then, he proceeded to go through the testimony of all 54 individuals, using their words to highlight the prosecution’s belief that Gosnell killed babies after birth and that his clinic was, indeed, a “house of horrors.”

In addition to allegedly killing the four babies after birth, Cameron accused Gosnell of hitting patients during procedures. Of Baby A, who he said would have had a 70 to 80 percent chance of survival (the prosecution estimates that he was killed at 29.5 weeks), he said that, “It had scissors jabbed into its neck and it slowly suffocated to death” (Baby A’s full story can be found here).

Cameron also argued that, at the least, it was Gosnell’s responsibility to keep the babies comfortable. He said, “Whether that baby’s going to live or not, you’ve got to make them comfortable,” claiming that, in the cases of these children, that simply didn’t happen.

Previously, Massof had said that “it would rain fetuses” at the clinic and that neck snipping was done to ensure that babies would die. If Massof’s claims are correct, then Cameron’s case is compelling.

For the jury and those in the packed courtroom, many of the gruesome details that were heard earlier in the case were recounted, including the notion that fetal remains were put through the clinic’s garbage disposal. Also, the assistant district attorney claimed that, according to testimony, Gosnell would eat cereal and talk on his bluetooth while performing abortions — bizarre allegations, to say the least.

The prosecution also mentioned Ashley Baldwin, a 15-year-old girl who apparently started working at the clinic after she completed the eighth grade. Now 22, Baldwin recounted helping in the abortion process — something clearly not appropriate for a young teen at the time. Baldwin also said during testimony that she saw babies breathe and move — obvious signs of life. A number of employees also heard noises coming from babies after birth.

“A baby making a noise has to have air, has to be alive,” said Cameron.

Later, while closing, Cameron turned to Gosnell, pointed and asked, “Are you human?” For those angry over the charges against the doctor, this statement will certainly resonate. But for those who agree with McMahon and believe that this entire scenario has been a witch-hunt, Cameron’s accusatory words will surely be met with disdain.

GOSNELL’S VICTIMS

Throughout the case, TheBlaze brought you information about the victims at the clinic. Before today’s verdict, five murder charges remained against Gosnell. Previously, Judge Jeffery P. Minehart dismissed three counts of first degree murder on the grounds that there was not enough proof that those three babies were born alive.

Thus, the original eight murder charges were decreased to five (four counts for babies and one for an adult woman who died after having an abortion at the clinic). Considering that the infants did not have names and were intended to be dead upon arrival, the court gave each child a letter (i.e. Baby A, Baby B, Baby C, etc.) to differentiate each circumstance. Now, let’s explore information about the victims:

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Baby A: According to Operation Rescue and LifeSiteNews.com, Baby A was delivered to Shaquana Abrama at 29.4 weeks gestation (this is based on an ultrasound record). Kareema Cross, one of the clinic workers, testified that the baby was the largest she had ever seen delivered at Women’s Medical Society. He apparently was so large that he didn’t fit into a plastic shoe box that Gosnell placed him in.

And according to Cross, the baby moved his arms and legs (signs of life), but his neck was allegedly cut, regardless. Cross was so shocked by the baby’s size that she, along with other clinic workers, took photos on a cell phone.

As TheBlaze and the AP highlighted, the mother of Baby A testified in Gosnell’s trial as well:

The mother of “Baby A” testified Tuesday afternoon, describing a painful three-day abortion process that started at Gosnell’s clinic in Delaware. She was 17, had an infant daughter and was told by Gosnell she was 24 weeks pregnant — the legal limit in Pennsylvania, but not in neighboring Delaware, where abortions are banned after 20 weeks.

The Chester woman said she was given abortion drugs in Delaware and sent home the first two days, then was directed to the West Philadelphia clinic the third day. She was in severe pain by then, pain that only worsened the following week, she said.

Her aunt had taken her to the clinic and paid the $1,300 fee, and they had not told her mother.

“I never felt pain like that, ever,” the woman said. “I couldn’t talk to anybody and tell anybody.”

But the teen ended up being hospitalized for two weeks with a large abscess and a blood clot near her heart. Prosecutors say she is one of countless patients injured during botched abortions or unsanitary conditions.

And that’s just one of the many alleged stories.

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Baby C: Cross also testified that she saw another baby breathing for 20 minutes before it, too, was purportedly killed. Baby C apparently also responded when a clinic worker lifted its arm. But later, the clinic worker testified to seeing fellow employee Lynda Williams use scissors to snip the infant’s spinal cord. Even more shocking, Gosnell was allegedly in the room when this all unfolded.

In sum, Cross testified that she saw at least 10 babies breathe before they were murdered. She has already plead guilty to administering drugs at the clinic and is hoping for probation after cooperating with prosecutors. “I thought they were breathing. He would say they’re not really breathing,” Cross testified, according to the Associated Press.

She apparently worked at the clinic from 2005 until 2009, but was so disturbed by its practices that she took pictures and called authorities and gave a relative’s name instead of her own. In addition to her claims that babies were breathing, she also purportedly saw three move, including one that was born in a toilet, the AP reports. A fourth purportedly let out a “soft whine.”

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Baby D: This baby was delivered into a toilet and, according to Cross, the child immediately began struggling and “swimming” once outside of the womb. Another clinic worker, Adrienne Moton, apparently snipped the baby’s neck while the infant’s mother purportedly watched this all unfold. According to LifeSiteNews.com, the baby was estimated to be 12-15 inches long (based on testimony).

As previously reported, in March, Moton provided sickening details about her alleged actions at the clinic, claiming that she snipped the spines of at least 10 babies; she said that another worker — and Gosnell himself — did the same. Moton plead guilty and has been in prison since 2011.

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While not necessarily a victim in the court’s eyes (Gosnell was found not guilty of murder), Baby E was one of the infants included in the first-degree murder charges. This baby was estimated to have fallen within the legal time frame and was said to be in utero for about 23 weeks before an abortion took place (abortions are legal up to 24 weeks in Pennsylvania).

According to LifeSiteNews.com, Ashley Baldwin, a teenager who was working at the clinic, heard the baby cry after birth, so she called Cross for help. Cross apparently confirmed this story in testimony and said that it sounded like a “whine.” Gosnell then allegedly snipped the baby’s neck.

TheBlaze highlighted Baldwin’s story earlier this year, noting that she started at the clinic at the age of 15 (she’s currently 22). According to her testimony, she saw a number of babies move, squirm — and one even “screech” — after birth.

As we previously noted, former employee, Sherry West, shared yet another horrifying story about after-birth noises. She claims that she was once called to the back room at the clinic, where aborted babies’ bodies were apparently kept on a shelf. Once there, West heard a live baby among the bodies cry out. The screaming child “really freaked” her out, she told the court.

“I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,” she said, noting that she previously referred to the babies as “specimens,” because it was easier to mentally handle what was going on at the clinic.

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Karnamaya Mongar: Karnamaya Mongar, an immigrant from Bhutan in South Asia, is the sole adult victim in the Gosnell trial. The 41-year-old woman survived a refugee camp for two decades before coming to America, but her fate was inevitably met after a visit to the embattled doctor’s clinic. In 2009, she died after undergoing an abortion at the Women’s Medical Society.

Relatives are claiming wrong-doing and, in addition to the criminal trial, a lawsuit is also pending against Gosnell. The Associated Press reports that the woman’s daughter, Yashoda Gurung, 24, recently testified through a translator, recapping the events that unfolded on the evening and day after her mother underwent the procedure.

In addition to labor inducing drugs, Mongar was purportedly given painkillers, as she waited for Gosnell to arrive. The prosecution charges that unlicensed staff gave Mongar a lethal combination of oral and intravenous drugs. And the Inquirer reports that too much Demerol is purportedly what led to the woman’s death (read more about her story here).

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Now that the case has come to a close, Gosnell’s fate will soon be decided. For TheBlaze’s full Gosnell coverage, click here.

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Report: Traveler From Saudi Arabia Arrested With Pressure Cooker at Detroit Airport

Billy Hallowell — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:46:49 +0000

A traveler from Saudian Arabia was reportedly arrested after arriving at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with a pressure cooker. On Saturday, Hussain Al Kwawahir, who flew from Saudi Arabia through Amsterdam, allegedly told authorities that he was in the U.S. to visit his nephew who attends the University of Toledo.

But The Detroit News also claims that he will be arraigned on Monday in federal court for purportedly lying to a Customs and Border Protection Agent about the pressure cooker and for allegedly using an altered passport.

When asked about the passport, which had a missing page, Al Kwawahir apparently told authorities that he did not know how the section was removed. As for the pressure cooker, when he was asked why it was in his baggage, he purportedly said that he brought it for his nephew, as the devices are not available for sale in the United States (however, they are both available and common here).

This image from a Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security joint bulletin issued to law enforcement and obtained by The Associated Press, shows the remains of a black backpack that the FBI says contained one of the bombs that exploded during the Boston Marathon. Credit: AP

Later, though, the Detroit News reports that the suspect claimed his nephew had bought a pressure cooker in America, but that it was cheap or broken. The change to his story was reportedly curious to officials.

Pressure cookers were used in the Boston Marathon bombing last month, which has purportedly led to more caution if and when these devices are observed. This was at least the second alleged issue in the past few days concerning pressure cookers. On Sunday, the Daily Mail reported the following about a separate incident:

A Saudi student living in Michigan was questioned in his home by FBI agents after neighbours saw him carrying a pressure cooker and called the police.

Talal al Rouki had been cooking a traditional Saudi Arabian rice dish called kabsah and was carrying it to a friend’s house.

According to reports in a Saudi newspaper on Friday, the FBI are increasingly vigilant about ‘pressure cooker’ home-made bombs after the Boston bombers used one to make an explosive.

TheBlaze will provide more details on Al Kwawahir and the allegations against him as they unfold.

(H/T: The Detroit News)

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Father Dies After He ‘Begged for His Life’ While Cops Struck Him With Batons — Cellphone Videos Seized

Liz Klimas — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:36:31 +0000

A California father of four died after being beaten by police outside of a Bakersfield hospital, while witnesses say he begged for his life. A couple witnesses filmed the gruesome scene, but say they were later forced to give their cellphones to authorities and have yet to receive their devices back.

David Sal Silva (Image: KERO-TV video screenshot)

The Bakersfield Californian reported 33-year-old David Sal Silva died early Wednesday morning in the hospital after he was struck an unknown amount of times by nine authorities seeking to subdue him. Silva was considered possibly intoxicated and an autopsy is expected to reveal if he was killed by injuries sustained in the beating or other complications.

Police and county sheriffs were responding to a call regarding a possibly intoxicated man outside Kern Medical Center Tuesday night and say Silva resisted them.

The 911 call of witness Sulina Quair records her telling the operator that she witnessed the officers “beating him up with sticks.” In the call, Quair says she taped the entire ordeal and that she planned on “sending it to the news.”

“These cops have no reason to do this to this man,” Quair said, witnessing the incident as she was leaving the hospital after visiting a relative.

Listen to the 911 recording in this KERO-TV video:

A nearby security camera, according to KERO-TV, picked up grainy footage of the incident showing Silva lying on the ground while someone appears to walk up to him, tries to pick him up and then hits him with a baton:

Here’s the raw footage:

Silva’s brother, Christopher, said he has spoken with other witnesses and he believes his brother “spent the last eight minutes of his life pleading, begging for his life.”

Witness Ruben Ceballos ran outside when he heard commotion around midnight, the Bakersfield Californian reported.

“When I got outside I saw two officers beating a man with batons and they were hitting his head so every time they would swing, I could hear the blows to his head,” Ceballos said, noting that he could hear Silva screaming for help.

A few days after the gruesome event, Quair said the scene still haunts her.

“I sit there and I can still hear him choking in his own blood, trying to gasp for air,” she said Friday.

No video from the cellphones have been released, but this grainy security footage does show officers beating a man. (Image: KERO-TV video screenshot)

Quair also, at the operator’s request, gave gave her phone number in case more information was needed.

Soon thereafter though that Quair said authorities seized the phones of her mother, Maria Melendez, and boyfriend, whose name was not released, which were used to take video of the events. Here’s more regarding the seizure of the phones from the Bakersfield Californian:

“We had stopped by Taco Bell to get something to eat, and we were eating and at about 3 a.m. two detectives showed up, barged in without my permission and demanded to see my boyfriend for his phone,” Melissa said.

[...]

She said she and her boyfriend were essentially kept captive inside their own home until they released their phones.

As was reported earlier, the boyfriend eventually gave up his phone without a search warrant being presented because he had to be at work at 8 a.m. and didn’t want to be late, she said.

“They lied to us and said that they would personally deliver the phone back to us the next day but when we called they said they were keeping the phone until the investigation was over,” she said.

Later in the morning, Melendez showed up at Melissa’s house and was immediately confronted by the same two detectives who told her she had to turn over her phone, she said.

Melendez said she wasn’t going to give up her phone without a search warrant and was then again told that the search warrant was on its way.

In the report, the sheriff’s office states it is currently unable to release the phones because they were taken with a warrant. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said after a judge orders the release of the phones, they plan to “share everything with the public, including the videos.”

Still, a debate regarding how the phones were taken has been fuming since. There is a growing debate about “citizen journalists” that stretches well beyond this incident. TheBlaze has recently reported about knowing one’s rights while filming law enforcement performing public duties — and also how to recover deleted pictures and video that might not be lost forever.

Attorney John Tello is representing the two witnesses whose phones were confiscated and told the Bakersfield Californian in a separate article Saturday that his clients were intimidated into giving up their phones.

“Officers have the right to freeze a scene, to not allow anybody to leave for a reasonable amount of time, until a search warrant arrives,” Tello said, noting this can happen when there is fear that evidence could be destroyed. ”But this was different. This was not a crime scene. There was no sense that people were going to destroy evidence. These officers literally held them in that house for close to 10 hours against their will.”

Yaman Salahi, an attorney with the ACLU-Southern California, spoke to the Californian regarding the potential violations of First and Fourth Amendment rights.

“If police intended to prevent them from publishing the video … that’s an affront to their First Amendment rights,” he said.

Other attorneys worry over the amount of probing authorities could do with the cellphones while they’re in their possession, among other concerns for civil liberties:

Will investigators examine the witnesses’ call history, personal photos, email messages, or postings on social media?

“There’s nothing to stop them,” [a Bakersfield defense attorney not connected to the case, Arturo] Revelo said. “I’m not saying that it’s legal, but there are no safeguards.”

Local attorney Daniel Rodriguez said there’s nothing in the law preventing the sheriff’s department from returning the cellphones once they’ve downloaded information pertinent to the case.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘What could the sheriff’s department possibly be hiding from us?’” Rodriguez said Friday.

Here’s a video of the Silva’s family sitting with attorney David Cohn:

As of Friday Sheriff Youngblood was asking the public for patience as they conducted their investigation into the situation. Family of Silva held a vigil Saturday.

“One of my biggest regrets in his entire life and in this entire situation is not telling him that I love him and this is what this is for, my ability to say I love you David. I love you more than anything in this life,” the victim’s father said, according to KERO-TV.

(H/T: Digital Journal via Reddit)

–

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Cops Release Surveillance Video of New Orleans Mother’s Day Parade Shooting Suspect

Liz Klimas — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:36:20 +0000

NEW ORLEANS (TheBlaze/AP) — Video released early Monday by New Orleans police shows a possible suspect in the Mother’s Day gunfire that wounded 19 people during a neighborhood parade.

The grainy surveillance video shows a crowd suddenly scattering in all directions, with some falling to the ground. They appear to be running from a man who turns and runs out of the picture. The person is wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants. The image isn’t clear, but police say they hope someone will recognize him and notify investigators with a reward of $10,000 on the table for information leading to an arrest or indictments.

In this image taken from video and provided Monday, May 13, 2013, by the New Orleans Police Department, a possible shooting suspect in a white shirt, bottom center, shoots into a crowd of people, Sunday in New Orleans. The possible suspect may have two accomplices in the Mother’s Day gunfire that wounded 19 people during a New Orleans neighborhood parade. (Photo: AP/New Orleans Police Department)

Police posted a series of still images showing the suspect opening fire and then fleeing the scene. Take a look in this CNN report:

Police believe more than one gun was fired in the burst of Sunday afternoon violence – the latest to flare up around a celebration this year – and they have vowed to swiftly track down those responsible. Detectives were conducting interviews, collecting any surveillance video they could find and gathering evidence from the scene. Cellphone video taken in the aftermath of the shooting shows victims lying on the ground, blood on the pavement and others bending over to comfort them.

(Photo: AP/New Orleans Police Department)

At least three of the victims were seriously wounded. Of the rest, many were grazed and authorities said that, overall, most wounds were not life threatening. No deaths were reported.

The victims included 10 men, seven women, a boy and a girl. The children, both 10 years old, were grazed and in good condition.

It’s not the first time gunfire has shattered a festive mood in the city this year. Five people were wounded in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. Two teens were arrested in connection with the MLK shootings; three men were arrested and charged in the Mardi Gras shootings.

“The specialness of the day doesn’t appear to interrupt the relentless drumbeat of violence,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at a news conference outside a hospital where victims were being treated Sunday night.

Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, characterized the shooting as street violence.

(Photo: AP/New Orleans Police Department)

As many as 400 people came out for the second-line procession – a boisterous New Orleans tradition – though only half that many were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said. Officers were interspersed with the marchers, which is routine for such events.

Second-line parades are loose processions in which people dance down the street, often following behind a brass band. They can be planned events or impromptu offshoots of other celebrations. They trace their origins to the city’s famous jazz funerals.

Police saw three suspects running from the scene. No arrests had been made as of late Sunday.

Outside the hospital Sunday night, Leonard Temple became teary as he talked about a friend who was in surgery after being shot three times during the parade. Temple was told the man was hit while trying to push his own daughter out of the way.

“People were just hanging out. We were just chilling. And this happened. Bad things always happen to good people,” said Temple, who was at the parade but didn’t see the shootings.

A social club called The Original Big 7 organized Sunday’s event. The group was founded in 1996 at the Saint Bernard housing projects, according to its MySpace page.

The neighborhood where the shooting happened is a mix of low-income and middle-class row houses, some boarded up. As of last year, the 7th Ward’s population was about 60 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina level.

The crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the HBO TV series “Treme.”

Sunday’s violence comes at a time when the city is struggling to pay for tens of millions of dollars required under federal consent decrees to reform the police department and the city jail. The mayor initially backed the police reform agreement and had sought a comprehensive civil rights investigation of the department when he took office in 2010. However, he is trying to put the brakes on the reform plans. In January, he said the city can’t afford to spend millions required under the police reform agreement and the jail agreement reached separately between the Justice Department and Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who runs the city-funded jail.

The agreement to reform the police department came after a scathing Justice Department report in 2011 said the city’s officers have often used deadly force without justification, made unconstitutional arrests and engaged in racial profiling. A series of criminal investigations focused on a string of police shootings in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Shootings at parades and neighborhood celebrations have become more common in recent years as the city has struggled with street crime, sometimes gang-related.

But police vowed to solve Sunday’s shooting. Serpas said it wasn’t clear if particular people in the second line were targeted, or if the shots were fired at random.

“We’ll get them. We have good resources in this neighborhood,” Serpas said.

—

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Kevin McGill in New Orleans and AP Radio reporter Jackie Quinn in Washington.

This story has been updated to fix the video.

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Gosnell Jury Is Hung on Two Counts in Abortion Doctor’s Murder Trial — Here Are the Details

Billy Hallowell — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:06:11 +0000

This morning, Bucks County Courier Times columnist J.D. Mullane tweeted from the courtroom that the jury in the Dr. Kermit Gosnell case is hung on two charges, noting that they were not specific about which counts were included in this designation.

The announcement came on the 10th day of deliberations in a contentious court case that has created new calls for a comprehensive late-term abortion debate in America.

#Gosnell jury says it is hung on two counts, but don't say which ones.

May 13, 2013 10:17am via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

@jdmullane

jdmullane

Around 11:20 a.m. ET, Mullane noted that Judge Jeffrey Minehart had instructed the jury to return to deliberations on the two counts in question. At this point, the counts are still not being disclosed. The columnist also noted that Gosnell had entered the courtroom smiling and then shaking hands with defense attorney Jack McMahon.

The jury, comprised of five men and seven women, is examining more than 250 charges against Gosnell, who is accused of conducting abortions past 24 weeks (the legal limit in Pennsylvania), four counts of first degree murder for babies purportedly killed after birth and one third degree murder count, among other charges.

This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.

–

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Did Boston Bombing suspects use welfare to fund terror?

Meredith Jessup — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:55:28 +0000

According to the Boston Herald, investigators are poring over the Tsarnaev brothers’ EBT receipts to see if they used their public assistance to fund terrorism:

A mountain of new welfare records shows numerous EBT card cash withdrawals made by the Tsarnaev family, but so far there is no information about how terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev and others may have spent the money.

The EBT receipts were handed over by the state to the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee as part of its probe into the Russian family’s $100,000-plus taxpayer-financed life in the Bay State. The committee met yesterday behind closed doors to review Medicaid and welfare awards. [...]

The purchases show specific stores, but not the items bought. But further details could be available to investigators. [...]

It is still unclear from the records whether any welfare cash was used to finance slain bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s journey to Dagestan from January to July 2012. The 26-year-old, who was finally entombed yesterday in an undisclosed cemetery, left his wife and child behind for the trip during which he made contact with Islamist extremists, authorities said.

The Herald was told the welfare records show the Tsarnaev family all using taxpayer-paid benefits. That help included Mass Health, housing assistance, food stamps and more.

State Rep. David P. Linsky, chairman of the oversight committee, said his goal is to make sure the welfare cash was “properly authorized and all the oversights were in place.” He declined to go into further detail, but said he hopes to make as much public as he can.

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Sex Offender Shot Dead by Police After 37-Hour Hostage Standoff — 2 Bodies Found in N.J. Home

Dave Urbanski — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:20:16 +0000

TRENTON, N.J. (TheBlaze/AP) — Police stormed a New Jersey home early Sunday and fatally shot a registered sex offender who had held his girlfriend’s three children hostage, ending a 37-hour ordeal and recovering the bodies of the girlfriend and one of her children, authorities said.

As TheBlaze reported yesterday, officers initially went to the South Trenton home Friday afternoon and found a man was barricaded inside. A relative Carmelita Stevens, 44, said she hadn’t spoken to her in weeks and was worried, authorities said at a news conference Sunday. Upon further investigation, authorities then discovered her children hadn’t been to school in 12 days.

A state police swat team member readies a robot to enter a home where an armed man had barricaded himself on Friday, May 10, 2013 in Trenton, N.J. Gerald “Skip” Tyrone Murphy, 38, was in an upstairs bedroom and told police he was armed with a gun and explosives and had three children with him. (Credit: AP)

Police entered the home through a rear door and smelled an odor consistent with that of a decomposing body, Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said. The officers also noticed maggots throughout the residence.

They found 38-year-old Gerald “Skip” Tyrone Murphy in an upstairs bedroom and he told them he was armed with a gun and explosives and had three children with him, Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. said. Officers noticed one of the dead victims before they retreated from the second floor and rescued Stevens’ 19-year-old son from the basement, who said he hadn’t seen her or his siblings since about April 24.

Homes on the surrounding block were evacuated as a precaution, and police tape cordoned off the street in front of the house. A SWAT team was called, and an arson bomb unit was also on the scene. Police said Murphy could be seen from a window holding a black handgun.

Police remained in contact with Murphy throughout the standoff and passed food into the home through an upstairs window, state police Col. Rick Fuentes said. Murphy kept the captives with him inside the roughly 10-foot-by-11-foot bedroom throughout the standoff, authorities said.

As the standoff stretched into a third day, officers entered the home around 3:45 a.m. Sunday after noting Murphy’s “deteriorating state of mind” and deciding it was necessary to enter to help ensure the captives survived, Fuentes said. An officer shot Murphy because he was threatening one of the children, he said.

Gerald “Skip” Murphy (Credit: AP)

Murphy was taken to a hospital and later died of his injuries. No law enforcement personnel were injured during the standoff or the confrontation with Murphy.

“This was a very complex matter, considering the space (where the hostages were) and that three children were involved,” Fuentes said. “Our mission over those 37 hours was to save innocent lives.”

Authorities found the bodies of Stevens and her 13-year-old son in separate bedrooms. Stevens’ body was in an advanced state of decomposition, and police said she and her son may have been killed two weeks ago. Police didn’t say which of the bodies they had seen inside the home Friday afternoon.

Three of Stevens’ children – an 18-year-old woman, a 16-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy – were rescued and taken to a medical center for evaluation and treatment. Murphy had abused and assaulted the captives, Bocchini said.

Murphy and Stevens had been dating for a few months, and both lived in the house, police said. He was not the father of any of her children.

Authorities wouldn’t comment on a possible motive or say how the victims died, citing the ongoing investigation. They also would not say whether any bombs or other explosives were recovered at the residence.

Attempts to contact the victims’ relatives and neighbors were unsuccessful on Sunday.

Murphy had a long criminal history including convictions for aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy, Bocchini said. He had previously been arrested for robbery and weapons offenses and child endangerment. He also had an arrest warrant in Pennsylvania for failing to register as a sex offender.

Here’s a video report on the standoff and its aftermath from NBC10:

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Shock: At Least 19 Injured as Gunmen Open Fire at New Orleans Mother’s Day Parade

Erica Ritz — Sun, 12 May 2013 21:39:34 +0000

Editor’s note: This post contains graphic photos and video.

–

Superintendent Ronal Serpas, left, supervises as New Orleans police officers investigate the scene at the intersection of Frenchmen and N. Villere Streets after authorities say gunfire injured at least a dozen people, including a child, at a Mother’s Day second-line parade in New Orleans on Sunday, May 12, 2013. (Photo: AP)

NEW ORLEANS (TheBlaze/AP) — Gunmen opened fire Sunday as dozens of people marched in a Mother’s Day second-line parade in New Orleans, wounding at least 19, police said.

A spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, Mary Beth Romig, said the shooting doesn’t appear to be linked to terrorism, but is ” strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans.”

Many of the victims were grazed and most of the wounds weren’t life-threatening, according to a police news release. No deaths were reported.

The victims included 10 men, seven women, a boy and a girl. The children, both 10 years old, were grazed and in good condition. Police said at least two people were in surgery Sunday night.

Officers who were interspersed with the marchers saw three suspects running from the scene in the city’s 7th Ward neighborhood. As many as 400 people joined in the procession that stretched for about 3 blocks, though only half that many were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, Serpas said.

No arrests had been made as of late afternoon.

“I heard ‘pop-pop’ and I ran…” one woman said, according to WPIX-New York video. “Innocent people was hurt. Half of them didn’t even know they was shot, you know?”

Bystanders comfort a shooting victim while awaiting EMS at the intersection of Frenchmen and N. Villere Streets after authorities say gunfire injured at least a dozen people, including a child, at a Mother’s Day second-line parade in New Orleans on Sunday, May 12, 2013. (Photo: AP)

Second-line parades are loose processions in which people dance down the street, often following behind a brass band. They can be impromptu or planned and are sometimes described as moving block parties.

A social club called The Original Big 7 organized Sunday’s event. The group was founded in 1996 at the Saint Bernard housing projects, according to its MySpace page.

The neighborhood where the shooting happened was a mix of low-income and middle-class row houses, some boarded up. As of last year, the neighborhood’s population was about 60 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina level.

Police vowed to make swift arrests.

“We’ll get them. We have good resources in this neighborhood,” Serpas said.

In the late afternoon, the scene was taped off and police had placed bullet casing markers in at least 10 spots.

WPIX-New York has more on the story, including horrifying cell phone video from the scene (warning: extremely graphic content):

This is a breaking news story. Updates will be added.

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Police: Armed Man With Multiple Hostages Has Been Barricaded Inside New Jersey Home Since Friday

Madeleine Morgenstern — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:21:33 +0000

Police are negotiating with an armed man who has taken hostages in a Trenton, N.J. home since Friday afternoon. (Image source: The Times of Trenton)

TRENTON, N.J. (TheBlaze/AP) — An armed man who took hostages Friday afternoon remained barricaded in a home in New Jersey’s capital on Saturday as authorities work to negotiate his surrender and his captives’ safe release, police said.

The man, whose identity has not been released, was holed up in a brick house in South Trenton more than 18 hours after the standoff began, authorities said Saturday. Trenton police Lt. Stephen Varn declined to give any details on the number of people being held, their ages or relationship to the armed man, but The Times of Trenton reported the man killed his girlfriend and her child, and was barricaded with other children.

Police were called to the home before 3 p.m. Friday on reports of a barricaded suspect and reportedly discovered the body of a decomposing, according to The Times.

Authorities said police entered the home and found the man brandishing a gun. Police retreated safely, and a SWAT team was called in. Police continued to negotiate with the suspect Saturday morning, Varn said.

Homes on the surrounding block have been evacuated as a precaution, and police tape cordoned off the street in front of the house.

Lt. Mark Kieffer told The Times of Trenton that police had not been called to the home before.

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Report: ‘Mounting evidence’ Tsarnaev brothers have killed before

Meredith Jessup — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:25:54 +0000

A new report suggests that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, alleged Boston Marathon bombers, may have more of a murderous past than we knew…

(AP)

Via ABC News:

Massachusetts investigators have developed what they call “mounting evidence,” bolstered by “forensic hits,” that point to the possible involvement of both Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar in a gruesome, unsolved triple homicide in 2011, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The officials cautioned that until more definitive DNA testing is complete, it is still too early to consider bringing an indictment against the younger of the two brothers, who officials said has admitted his role in the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and injured 260 more on April 15. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police days after the Marathon bombing attack, but Dhzokhar survived and was captured. [...]

Now law enforcement officials tell ABC News that some crime scene forensic evidence provided a match to the two Tsarnaev brothers. The officials also said records of cell phones used by the Tsarnaevs appears to put them in the area of the murders on that date. Several officials confirmed the new findings but declined to be identified because they are not authorized to comment on the ongoing investigation.

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Seems Like There Is a New Gov’t Surveillance Story Every Day — Here’s an Update on One That Has Privacy Advocates Troubled

Liz Klimas — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:30:35 +0000

(Image: Shutterstock.com)

There’s been a lot of talk lately regarding the FBI’s proposal seeking to require companies to create a way for law enforcement to intercept online communications for investigations. But another bit of technology the bureau has used in the past to track suspects, which some question the legality of, has made its way into the news again.

The technology is a Stingray, or an IMSI catcher, which acts like a cell tower, tricking cellphones to connecting to a fake network and allowing law enforcement to track a device’s location.

An Arizona court denied a request to suppress evidence gathered by such a device in a case of identity theft by suspect Daniel David Rigmaiden.

Wired has the reasoning behind the judge’s ruling to allow the evidence:

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge David Campbell based his decision on whether Rigmaiden had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the use of the air card inside his apartment, as well as in the apartment itself and the storage unit that was discovered through the search of the apartment.

Judge Campbell concluded that Rigmaiden did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in any of these because he had obtained the air card and rented the apartment and storage space through fraudulent means — that is, using identifications that he had stolen from other people.

Campbell wrote that even if Rigmaiden had a subjective expectation of privacy in these items, “the Court cannot conclude that his expectation is one society should be prepared to recognize as objectively reasonable.”

Rigmaiden is accused of purchasing the wireless internet card and maintaining it through a Verizon account under a stolen identity in 2006. He is also suspected of opening a Visa credit card under the name of a dead individual. With this card he purchased a laptop on which he used the wireless card to file fraudulent tax returns, Wired reported. In addition, he allegedly rented an apartment under the name of a dead individual as well.

Stingrays are usually used with cellphones. The wireless card was not a phone but used cell towers to access the Internet much like a cellphone would. Wired reported that the FBI had Verizon reconfigure the card to answer secret calls made from an FBI landline so they could find its location.

Rigmaiden believes the evidence obtained through the use of the stingray should not be allowed as it involved a search of his apartment without a warrant. The government’s actions to track Rigmaiden were done with a court order, which privacy advocates say is not enough, citing a need for a warrant.

With regard to the judge’s decision, the ACLU of Northern California stated that it “trivializes the intrusive nature of electronic searches and potentially opens the door to troubling government misuse of new technology.”

Part of the issue privacy advocates have with the use of stingrays to track location — aside from advocating the need for a warrant — is that it traces not only the suspect but whomever else is in the area on the same network.

“This means that when the government uses a stingray to conduct a search, it is searching not only the suspect, but also tens or hundreds of third parties who have nothing to do with the matter. When the FBI sought court permission to use the device to locate Mr. Rigmaiden, it didn’t explain the full reach of stingrays to the court,” the ACLU’s Linda Lye wrote.

The ACLU explained further that if the government suspected a criminal lived in a 100-unit apartment, they would need to get a search warrant from the court to search all 100 units.

“Law enforcement should be held to the same standard when they conduct electronic surveillance,” Lye wrote.

Judge Campbell disagreed, saying in his ruling that the intrusion was not a “severe intrusion.”

“The evidence in this case suggests that Defendant used the aircard and laptop computer to perpetrate an extensive scheme of fraud through electronic communications. The Court cannot conclude that the government’s corresponding use of electronic communications to find the aircard violated any legitimate expectation of privacy,” he wrote.

Addressing the ACLU’s stance that when requesting a court order to use the technology, the government didn’t explain how it would work — that it would pick up information from other third parties in the area as well — Campell said it was “detail of execution which need not be specified.”

Rigmaiden is expected to go to trial later this month, according to Wired.

–

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Will the Cleveland Kidnapper Face Murder Charges, Death Penalty for Abuse That Caused Five Abortions?

Liz Klimas — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:26:39 +0000

(L-R) Onil Castro, Pedro Castro and Ariel Castro stand in the courtroom during Ariel’s arraignment on rape and kidnapping charges May 9, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. Ariel Castro is accused of abducting Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus and holding them for about 10 years. (Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

While in captivity for a decade, one of the three kidnapped Cleveland women–who just this week escaped from captors–conceived several children as a result of rapes but suffered miscarriages due to abuse. Ariel Castro, who was accused of raping and imprisoning the women, has been served charges and now some prosecutors think murder should be also added to the list.

Ohio Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty said aggravated murder charges could be filed related to pregnancies terminated by force. And Ohio law calls for the death penalty for the “most depraved criminals who commit aggravated murder during the course of a kidnapping,” McGinty said.

Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, is being held on $8 million bail under a suicide watch in jail, where he is charged with rape and kidnapping for allegedly abducting three women and holding them against their will in his home for a decade.

A police officer walks past the house where Ariel Castro allegedly held captive Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight on May 9, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. Castro was arraigned on rape and kidnapping charges for abducting Berry, DeJesus and Knight and holding them for about 10 years. No charges were filed against Ariel’s brothers, Onil or Pedro and they were released by the judge. Bail was set at $8 million for Ariel. (Photo: Getty Images/Matt Sullivan)

WKYC reported police reports stating that one of the women who was impregnated five times was ”starved [...] for at least two weeks, then he repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried.”

Samuel Casey, the general counsel for the Law of Life Project, also thinks murder charges could be brought against Castro for these actions.

“If as reported Ariel Castro starved and then kicked a pregnant Michelle Knight resulting in her miscarrying five children, Castro should be charged with aggravated and felonious assault against Knight and aggravated murder of her children. I trust the grand jury will be investigating all such possible charges,” Casey told LifeNews.

Here’s more from LifeNews on the laws Casey believes could allow for murder charges to be brought against Castro:

Casey says Ohio adopted a state law in 2002 that includes unborn children under murder, manslaughter, and assault statutes in non-abortion cases where they are killed, such as in this case.

Casey also thinks the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which recognizes the “child in utero” as a legal victim if he or she is injured or killed during the commission of any of 68 existing federal crimes of violence, could also come into play.

McGinty said that Castro would be charged for every single act of sexual violence, assault and other crimes committed against the women, suggesting the charges could number in the hundreds, if not thousands.

In court Thursday, authorities laid out more of their case against Castro, saying he lured the women into his car, beat them repeatedly over a decade and used them “in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit,” as prosecutor Brian Murphy put it.

During his brief arraignment, Castro tried to hide his face, tucking his chin inside his collar. He appeared to close his eyes during the hearing and awkwardly signed documents while handcuffed. He did not speak or enter a plea.

Ariel Castro(podium-L) is arraigned at Cleveland Municipal Court in front of judge Lauren Moore in May 9, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Kathleen DeMetz, a public defender assigned to represent him at the hearing, didn’t comment on his guilt or innocence, or object when prosecutors recommended bail be set at $5 million. The judge, instead, ordered Castro be held on $8 million.

Castro has been in custody since Monday, when Amanda Berry, who was 16 when she disappeared, broke out of his run-down house and called 911. Police found the two other women inside. The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

Berry gave birth to a daughter, now 6, while in captivity. The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reported Thursday that this birth occurred in an inflatable swimming pool. A police report obtained by the newspaper said Castro forced another of his alleged captives, Michelle Knight, to deliver the baby and threatened to kill her if the infant did not survive. The baby stopped breathing, and Knight resuscitated the child by mouth-to-mouth, the report said.

Berry was the first to escape Monday, leading the authorities to the other women who were then still captive. But how did Berry do it? According to a police report obtained by WKYC, Castro had forgotten to lock the “big inside door.”

A house where three women escaped is shown Tuesday, May 7, 2013, in Cleveland. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who went missing separately about a decade ago, were found Monday in the home just south of downtown Cleveland and likely had been tied up during years of captivity, said police, who arrested three brothers. (Photo: AP/Tony Dejak)

Berry had to get beyond a still locked storm door without breaking it, fearing she was being tested by Castro. It was while she was banging on this door that she was noticed by neighbors, including Charles Ramsey, who has been hailed as a hero for coming to her aid.

Ramsey is the one who kicked in the door, according to WKYC. Watch the report with Ramsey’s account from earlier this week:

Investigators said that the women could recall being outside only twice in the past decade and that they were apparently bound with ropes and chains.

Balloons and presents sit outside the home of kidnap victim Amanda Berry on May 9, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. Ariel Castro was arraigned on rape and kidnapping charges for abducting Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight and holding them for about 10 years. No charges were filed against Ariel’s brothers, Onil or Pedro and they were released by the judge. Bail was set at $8 million for Ariel. (Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

Berry, 27, and the third captive, Gina DeJesus, 22, went home with relatives on Wednesday. Knight, 32, was reported in good condition at a Cleveland hospital.

—

Associated Press writers Mike Householder and freelance reporter John Coyne in Cleveland; and Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.

–

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Stunning, Just-Released Footage of Wild Shootout That Left Gunman Dead and Police Officer Wounded (Warning: GRAPHIC)

Madeleine Morgenstern — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:03:20 +0000

Florida prosecutors on Thursday unveiled shocking surveillance footage of a deadly police shootout that left the gunman dead and an officer seriously injured.

The Miami Herald reported the shooting happened outside a marijuana growhouse in Westchester, Fla. last July, but it’s the first time the footage has been made public.

According to the newspaper, police had arrived to search the house, unaware that the homeowner, Gerard Delgado, had just stepped outside and into his tinted BMW moments before. When officers began speaking with another man from the house, Luis Estevanell, Delgado burst out of the car and started shooting.

As the officers returned fire, Delgado, behind a tree in the driveway, was shot in the head by a police bullet. The gruesome footage captures him in the last moments of his life. Miami-Dade Detective John Saavedra was shot three times in the stomach, but was treated and released from the hospital.

According to the Herald, police discovered 80 pounds of marijuana in the house.

Prosecutors played the footage during a bail hearing for Estevanell, who is charged with cocaine possession, marijuana trafficking and second-degree felony murder — applicable because of a state law that makes anyone who commits a felony in which a death occurs eligible for murder charges.

Watch the surveillance footage below. ***CONTENT WARNING: GRAPHIC***

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Man Goes Ballistic on News Crew, Pulls Knife, and Starts Slashing Equipment: I Will ‘Beat You down!’

Jonathon M. Seidl — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:28:32 +0000

“I will rip that thing off your shoulder so quick and beat you down with it.”

Those are the words that preceded an tense, knife-involved tirade between a Florida man and a local news crew on Tuesday. The man was upset that a crew from WPLG-TV was broadcasting outside his house, despite the crew being on public property. The man was caught on camera threatening the team, and when it didn’t leave took out a knife and started slashing lights and cords:

“Local 10′s Ross Palombo was reporting on a home owner who skipped out on paying taxes when a man came up to the Local 10 crew armed with a knife,” the video’s description says. “The whole thing played out on camera.”

The news station said the man even released his dogs at one point. The crew did call police and an hours-long standoff ensued. But believe it or not, the man was not taken into custody. Instead, he “struck a deal” to turn himself in the next day.

According to separate WPLG report, the man is Louis Dominic Paolino III. He was released from jail Thursday morning after the police report says he was “threatening to cut [the reporter's] throat.”

Police wouldn’t say on camera why they simply left the man’s house after SWAT was called in and the standoff ensued. However a subsequent statement said they wanted “to minimize the likelihood of escalating the incident.”

The crew was originally doing a story on $100,000 in unpaid property taxes at Paolino’s residence. He was charged with aggravated assault, criminal mischief, and grand theft, and the damage to the crew’s property was estimated at about $1,400.

You can watch the video here.

(H/T: Mediaite)

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See the Graphic High School Beatdown Video Involving Chairs That Led to 5 Arrests

Jonathon M. Seidl — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:00:31 +0000

“It was like the devil was in there.”

That’s how the dad of a 16-year-old Philadelphia high school student who was brutally beaten, including with chairs, described what happened Tuesday to his son. And now, five of the attackers involved have been arrested and charged.

The beating occurred inside the Chester High School library. One of the attackers took video of it and posted it on Facebook. But it wasn’t the school that alerted police — a fellow student did. The school was unaware.

When the local CBS station in Philadelphia asked the school how it went undetected, they said they were unsure.

“We don’t know that yet but we’re investigating and the proper action will be taken when we know,” an official said.

“The kids are really taking over the school there,” the dad — who spoke to the local station and asked to remain anonymous — said. “I think security really needs to be stepped up in there.”

The five attackers, who are all being charged as adults, have been hit with simple assault, aggravated assault, conspiracy, robbery, recklessly endangering, terroristic threats and possession of instrument of a crime.

But police say they are not done with their investigation and more people could be charged.

“We’re going to treat each incident individually,” Chest Mayor John Lindner said. “We’re going to investigate it thoroughly and obviously we don’t like having our school district painted in this color or our city in this color.”

It’s still unclear what prompted the incident, but a full video posted on the local NBC Philadelphia affiliate appears to show it was random. That outlet has more on how it unfolded:

On Wednesday, police arrested five teens who they say were involved in the attack. Omar Davis, 19, Citerrah Gomillon, 16, Jordan Morales, 16, Clayton Newman, 18, and Edward Stanley, 18, were all charged as adults. All five teens are charged with simple assault, aggravated assault, terroristic threats and other related offenses. Each teen is behind held on $100,000 bail.

Sources close to the investigation tell NBC10′s Nefertiti Jaquez that Davis threw the first punch, Morales picked up a chair and slammed the victim’s back, Newman repeatedly kicked and punched him before taking his cell phone while Gomillon kicked the victim after he was already knocked unconscious.

The source also says that Stanley is the teen who recorded the fight and posted the video on Facebook. While Stanley isn’t seen attacking the victim, investigators say he did nothing to stop the fight and could be heard laughing throughout.

You can watch the full video here.

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Jodi Arias Says She Wants to Die

Madeleine Morgenstern — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:25:03 +0000

In this image made from pool video provided by APTN, Jodi Arias reacts during the reading of the verdict at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Wednesday, May 8, 2013. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend in Arizona after a four-month trial that captured headlines with lurid tales of sex, lies, religion and a salacious relationship that ended in a blood bath. (AP)

PHOENIX (AP) — The jury has rendered its verdict – Jodi Arias is guilty of first-degree murder – but the trial is far from finished.

The same jury now returns to the courtroom Thursday to decide whether she deserves to die for killing her one-time boyfriend on June 4, 2008 at his suburban Phoenix home.

The sheer brutality of the attack and previous testimony from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner that Travis Alexander did not die a quick death will be at the heart of the prosecution’s argument that Jodi should receive the ultimate punishment for her crime.

Alexander was stabbed and slashed nearly 30 times, shot in the forehead and had slit his throat from ear to ear, leaving the motivational speaker and businessman nearly decapitated. His decomposing body was found in his shower about five days later by friends.

Arias spoke out about the verdict minutes after her conviction Wednesday, telling a TV station that she would “prefer to die sooner than later.”

“Longevity runs in my family, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my natural life in one place,” a tearful Arias told Fox affiliate KSAZ. “I believe death is the ultimate freedom and I’d rather have my freedom as soon as I can get it.”

Arias, 32, fought back tears as a court clerk read aloud the highly anticipated verdict after a four-month trial in which the jury heard 18 days of testimony from the defendant, saw a series of gruesome crime scene photos and heard a raunchy phone sex chat between Arias recorded with Alexander just weeks before he died.

The next portion of the trial is called the “aggravation phase,” and it will focus on whether the jury believes the crime was committed in an especially cruel, heinous and depraved manner. If jurors find the aggravators exist, the next step will be the penalty phase during which the panel will recommend either life in prison or death. The process could take several more weeks to wrap up.

The trial quickly became an Internet sensation and transformed Arias from a little-known waitress to a morbid curiosity and a star of a real-life true-crime drama that the public followed incessantly. The presence of cameras in the courtroom, the advance of Internet streaming video and social media, the salacious details of the case, and the attention it got on cable networks like HLN gave the trial the feel of a celebrity proceeding.

The jury heard all about the stormy relationship between Alexander and Arias after they met at a conference in Las Vegas in 2006 and he persuaded her to convert to Mormonism. They began dating but broke up five months later, at which point prosecutors said she began stalking him and became increasingly obsessed with Alexander.

The 30-year-old victim was a rising star at a legal services company called Prepaid Legal, where he gave rousing motivational speeches to colleagues and was a beloved co-worker to people across the organization.

Arias sought to portray him as an abusive sexual deviant in her trial, hoping that the jury would buy her claims that she killed him in self-defense after being unable to take the abuse anymore. She claimed he attacked her and forced her to fight for her life. Prosecutors said she killed out of jealous rage after Alexander wanted to end their affair and planned to take a trip to Mexico with another woman.

Alexander’s family members wept and hugged each other after the verdict. They thanked prosecutor Juan Martinez and the lead detective on the case, but declined comment until after sentencing.

Alexander’s friend Chris Hughes said he was happy with the verdict, pointing out a bold proclamation Arias made in one of her jailhouse interviews that she wouldn’t be found guilty.

“She said, `No jury would convict me. Mark my words.’ This jury convicted her,” Hughes said. “Luckily we had 12 smart jurors. They nailed it.”

When asked about Alexander’s family, Arias told the station, “I just hope that now that a verdict has been rendered, that they’ll be able to find peace.”

Arias seemed to cry silently when asked about her mother. With tears falling, she said her mom “has been a saint and I haven’t treated her very well.”

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said no more media interviews with Arias would be granted. She has been placed on suicide watch.

Outside court, more than 200 spectators and reporters watched for the verdict on their smart phones. A ripple of relief spread as people learned the result. The crowd cheered, with some people jumping, waving, high-fiving and dancing in approval.

Hughes said it was frustrating to hear the defense besmirch his friend’s reputation during the trial, but praised the jurors for the verdict. He said he and the Alexander family were shocked by the international attention the case had received.

“Travis was grandiose, so it’s interesting how this played out … it is a bit of a circus. We were all surprised that it’s like this,” he said.

Testimony began in early January. The trial quickly snowballed into a made-for-the-tabloids drama, garnering daily coverage from cable news networks and spawning a virtual cottage industry for talk shows, legal experts and even Arias, who used her notoriety to sell artwork she made in jail. She also sent out tweets via an intermediary, attracting tens of thousands of followers.

Arias said she recalled Alexander attacking her in a fury after a day of sex. She said Alexander came at her “like a linebacker,” body-slamming her to the tile floor. She managed to wriggle free and ran into his closet to retrieve a gun he kept on a shelf. She said she fired in self-defense but had no memory of stabbing him.

She acknowledged trying to clean the scene of the killing, dumping the gun in the desert and working on an alibi to avoid suspicion. She said she was too scared and ashamed to tell the truth. However, none of Arias’ allegations that Alexander had physically abused her in the months before his death, that he owned a gun and had sexual desires for young boys, were corroborated by witnesses or evidence during the trial. She acknowledged lying repeatedly before and after her arrest but insisted she was telling the truth in court.

Arias spent 18 days on the witness stand describing an abusive childhood, cheating boyfriends, dead-end jobs, a shocking sexual relationship with Alexander, and her contention that he had grown physically violent in hopes of gaining sympathy from jurors.

But aside from her admitted lies, Arias had yet another formidable obstacle to overcome.

Her grandparents had reported a .25-caliber handgun stolen from their Northern California home about a week before Alexander’s death – the same caliber used to shoot him – but Arias insisted she didn’t take it. Authorities believe she brought it with her to kill him. The coincidence of the same caliber gun stolen from the home also being used to shoot Alexander was never resolved.

Meanwhile, the entire case devolved into a circus-like spectacle attracting dozens of enthusiast each day to the courthouse as they lined up for a chance to score just a few open public seats in the gallery. One trial regular sold her spot in line to another person for $200. Both got reprimands from the court, and the money was returned.

Many people also gathered outside after trial for a chance to see Martinez, who had gained celebrity-like status for his firebrand tactics and unapologetically intimidating style of cross-examining defense witnesses.

The case grew into a worldwide sensation as thousands followed the trial via a live, unedited Web feed. Twitter filled with comments as spectators expressed their opinions on everything from Arias’ wardrobe to Martinez’s angry demeanor. For its fans, the Arias trial became a live daytime soap opera.

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‘I Am a Sexual Predator. I Need Help’: Chilling ‘Confession’ Letter Allegedly Found in Kidnapping Suspect Ariel Castro’s Home

Billy Hallowell — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:00:25 +0000

As the bizarre details continue to emerge surrounding Ariel Castro’s alleged kidnapping of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, a new revelation is captivating attention: A letter that was purportedly written by the suspect in 2004 and discovered by police in his home. In it, Castro reportedly confessed his crimes and expressed a desire to kill himself and give his savings to the victims he purportedly held against their will for nearly a decade.

The Daily Mail notes that the letter was apparently given by police to WOIO-TV reporter Scott Taylor. The journalist subsequently shared lines from the purported “confession” on his Twitter feed. Among the sentiments present in the letter, Taylor claims that Castro wrote, “I am a sexual predator. I need help.”

Ariel Castro (Photo Credit: AP)

Additionally, he purportedly admitted that Berry, DeJesus and Knight were in his custody “against their will because they made a mistake of getting in a car with a total stranger.” Castro is said to have also expressed surprise at himself over the fact that he inevitably looked for a third victim when he already had two in his custody.

Here are the tweets that provide Taylor’s transcriptions and various portions of the suspect’s alleged letter:

I just got a copy of a letter written by Ariel Castro in 2004. Cops found it in his house. He says "I am a sexual predator. I need help"

May 8, 2013 11:06pm via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

Scott Taylor

Castro writes "They are here against their will because they made a mistake of getting in a car with a total stranger."

May 8, 2013 11:08pm via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

Scott Taylor

Castro continues "I don't know why I kept looking for another. I already had 2 in my possession."

May 8, 2013 11:09pm via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

Scott Taylor

Castro writes about wanting to kill himself and "give all the money I saved to my victims."

May 8, 2013 11:10pm via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

Scott Taylor

Castro writes he was surprised how young Gina Dejesus really is cause he thought she was a lot older.

May 8, 2013 11:58pm via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

Scott Taylor

On Wednesday, Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. His brothers, Pedro and Onil, have not been charged with any crimes, but are still being held. Read TheBlaze’s continuing coverage of the Cleveland kidnapping here.

(H/T: Daily Mail)

–

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Ohio Man Charged With Kidnapping, Rape in Case of 3 Rescued Ohio Women

Jason Howerton — Wed, 08 May 2013 21:21:40 +0000

CLEVELAND (AP) — Authorities have filed kidnapping and rape charges against a Cleveland man arrested after three women missing for about a decade were found alive at his home.

Homeowner Ariel Castro was charged Wednesday. Brothers Pedro and Onil Castro are held but face no charges right now.

This undated photo released by the Cleveland Police Department shows Ariel Castro. Three women who disappeared in Cleveland a decade ago were found safe Monday, and police arrested three brothers, including Castro, accused of holding the victims against their will. Credit: AP

The men are in custody and can’t be reached for comment. Their brother-in-law has said the family is “totally shocked” after hearing about the women at the home.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004 and were found Monday after one of them screamed for help to escape and contacted police.

Police say ropes and chains were among evidence collected inside the house. A city councilman says the women were subjected to prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and suffered miscarriages.

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Unusual Jodi Arias First-Degree Murder Trial Closes With Guilty Verdict

Liz Klimas — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:54:41 +0000

After nearly five years, the unusual first-degree murder case involving Jodi Arias, who was accused of killing her one-time boyfriend, closed Wednesday when jurors issued a guilty verdict.

Arias just after learning of her first-degree murder conviction. (Image via live stream screenshot)

Travis Alexander, a motivational speaker and salesman, was killed June 2008 at his suburban Phoenix, Arizona, home. Authorities said Arias planned the attack in a jealous rage after being rejected by the victim while he pursued other women.

Arias initially denied involvement and later blamed the killing on masked intruders. Two years after her arrest, she said she killed Alexander in self-defense.

Alexander suffered nearly 30 knife wounds, was shot in the forehead and had his throat slit before Arias dragged his body into his shower. He was found by friends about five days later.

Jurors got the case Friday afternoon. They reached a decision late Wednesday morning. The guilty verdict was announced after 4:30 p.m. EST.

Those in the gallery awaiting the verdict. (Image via live stream screenshot)

After hearing of her conviction, Arias opened her mouth and blinked in a look of disbelief.

Alexander’s family smiled and hugged each other. Outside, people cheered and hugged, then began chanting “USA, USA, USA.”

This video has the reading of the verdict and Arias’ reaction:

Testimony in the trial began in early January, with Arias later spending 18 days on the witness stand. The trial quickly snowballed into a made-for-the-tabloids drama, garnering daily coverage from cable news networks, and spawning a virtual cottage industry for talk shows, legal experts and even Arias, who used her notoriety to sell artwork she made in jail.

Here’s a look at pictures of the reactions to the verdict and proceedings leading up to the jury’s decision:

USA Today has more from court documents regarding the details surrounding the case:

According to court testimony, Alexander told his friends that Arias was a stalker, among other less-kind names, but he still invited her to his house for sex and asked her to accompany him on vacations. At one point early in the trial, jurors heard an hour-long audio tape in which Arias and Alexander talked about their travels, their many trysts and then indulged in loud and lurid phone sex. Alexander said he wanted to zip-tie her to a tree and commit a deviant sex act on her. Later in the hearing, Arias said she was searching for a suitable spot in the forest near her grandparents’ northern California home to act out that fantasy, and she said that Alexander wanted her to dress as Little Red Riding Hood.

Arias acknowledged trying to clean the scene of the killing, dumping the gun in the desert and working on an alibi to avoid suspicion. She said she was too scared and ashamed to tell the truth.

USA Today also reported that “odd occurrences” have given the trial a more national audience. For example, a strange cellphone ringtone sounding like a braying donkey going off during the proceedings in March and a spectator that same day vomiting in front of her seat. In addition, three jurors were dismissed, one for making prejudicial comments and the others for undisclosed reasons.

With a conviction of first-degree murder, Arias faces either life in prison or a death sentence.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The Viral Video of a Gutsy 12-Year-Old Calling out a Motorcycle Cop for Parking on the Sidewalk

Becket Adams — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:05:49 +0000

UPDATE — From the Huffington Post:

A spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department confirmed to The Huffington Post that the police officer in the video used to be with the department but said he has been retired for many months now. Since he is no longer with the department, there will be no investigation into this incident.

She also added that the video recorded by Jeremy could have been recorded earlier than September 2012. She said the uniform the officer is wearing is from over a year ago.

–

No one likes the “do as I say, not as I do” attitude. Not you, not me, and certainly not 12-year-old Jeremy.

In fact, Jeremy dislikes this attitude so much, that in a video from 2012 that has just now gone viral he called out a Las Vegas metro cop for parking his motorcycle on the sidewalk. And why was that police officer parked on the sidewalk? Well, it appears that he wanted to grab a soda.

No emergency. Just a soda.

“Is there a reason for you to park on the sidewalk?” Jeremy asks. “Is it like an emergency or anything?”

The officer refused.

“Can I see your badge number?” the kid asks.

“Why?” the officer responds.

“Because I have the right to.”

“What are you, a junior lawyer?”

“No I just want to see your badge number.”

The officer refused and simply took off:

But here’s the thing: Some people think the kid was being a “brat” while others think he’s was being “model citizen.”

“Brat” or good citizen, we can all agree that a 12-year-old calling out a police officer is at least kind of gutsy, right?

–

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Featured image screen grab. This post has been updated.

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FBI’s ‘Most-Wanted Terrorist’ Laughs at U.S. Justice From Cuba

Humberto Fontova — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:23:23 +0000

Joanne Chesimard, 57, was convicted in 1973 of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster as he lay on the ground. (Photo: AP)

This week the FBI announced a $1 million reward for “information leading to the apprehension” of Joanne Chesimard also known as Assata Shakur who they named a “Most Wanted Terrorist.” Chesimard is the first woman to make the FBI’s list. The New Jersey State Police also wants her and added another $1 million to the pot.

Convicted cop-killer (of a New Jersey State-Trooper) and “domestic terrorist” Chesimard has been living in Cuba since 1984 as a Castro-coddled celebrity of sorts. And it’s not like bounty hunters can operate freely in a Stalinist country. So the $2 million may be symbolic, as in the U.S. Justice Department is putting on a game face and saying: “Look Castro, we’re serious here!”

In the early 1970’s Chesimard belonged to a Black Panther offshoot known as the Black Liberation Army. “This case is just as important today as it was when it happened 40 years ago,” according to a recent press release from Mike Rinaldi, of the New Jersey State Police. “Chesimard was a member of the Black Liberation Army, a radical left wing terror group that felt justified killing law enforcement officers…This group conducted assaults on police stations and murdered police officers.”

More than a mere member of these domestic terrorists, Chesimard was described by former assistant FBI director John Miller, as “the soul of the Black Liberation Army.”

In 1973, while wanted for multiple crimes from bank robbery to murder, Chesimard and two accomplices were pulled over for a tail-light violation on the New Jersey Turnpike. As the troopers were routinely questioning them, Chesimard (who was in the passenger seat) and her pals opened up on the lawmen with semi-auto pistols (no word on whether these were properly registered.)

As trooper Werner Foerster grappled with the driver, Chesimard shot him twice–then her gun apparently jammed. As Foerster lay on the ground wounded and helpless, Chesimard grabbed the trooper’s own gun and blasted two shots into his head, much in the manner of her Cuban idols Che Guevara and Raul Castro murdering hundreds of their own (always defenseless at the time) “counter-revolutionary” enemies.

“This crime was always considered an act of domestic terrorism,” stresses Mike Rinaldi.

She escaped but was captured in 1977, convicted of murder and sentenced to life plus 33 years. Then in 1979 she escaped from prison–with some ultra-professional help, probably by Cuban or Cuban-trained terrorists. “Two men smuggled into the prison, took guards hostages and broke her out,” explained John Miller to CBS News.

Chesimard’s 1979 escape from prison was well planned, Rinaldi explained. “Armed domestic terrorists gained entry into the facility, neutralized the guards, broke her free, and turned her over to a nearby getaway team.”

“In 1984, they smuggled her to Mexico. Using a network of Cuban intelligence officers who worked with American radical groups, they got her into Cuba,” adds former Asst. FBI Director John Miller.

Since then, according to New Jersey State Police Col. Rick Fuentes, Chesimard “flaunts her freedom….To this day from her safe haven in Cuba Chesimard has been given a pulpit (by Castro) to preach and profess, stirring supporters and groups to mobilize against the United States by any means necessary. She has been used by the Castro regime to greet foreign delegations visiting Cuba.”

“Joanne Chesimard is a domestic terrorist,” declared FBI agent Aaron T. Ford, during a recent news conference. “She absolutely is a threat to America.”

Along with coddling Chesimard, Castro’s fiefdom provides haven for over 70 fugitives from U.S. law, including several on the FBI’s most wanted listed. Cuba harbors convicted cop-killers Michael Finney and Charlie Hill, along with Victor Gerena, responsible for a $7 million heist of a Wells Fargo truck in Connecticut in 1983, as a member of the Puerto Rican terrorist group, Los Macheteros. All requests by U.S. authorities for these criminals’ extradition have been rebuffed, often cheekily by Fidel Castro himself: “They want to portray her as a terrorist, something that was an injustice, a brutality, an infamous lie!” Castro answered a U.S. request for Chesimard on May 3, 2005.

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WATCH LIVE: Guilty Verdict Reached in Arias Murder Trial

Liz Klimas — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:37:26 +0000

Earlier Wednesday jurors in the Jodi Arias murder trial said they had reached a verdict. They are minutes away from issuing it.

Watch the live stream for the announcement:

Jodi Arias was been charged with first-degree murder of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

Aleander, a motivational speaker and salesman, was killed June 2008 at his suburban Phoenix, home. Authorities said she planned the attack in a jealous rage after being rejected by the victim while he pursued other women.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.