‘London’s police force was found guilty Thursday of endangering the public during a frantic manhunt for four failed suicide bombers that led to the killing of an innocent Brazilian man on a subway train [..]
The manhunt unfolded with the British capital already on edge after four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters two weeks earlier.
The officers watching the building trailed Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, out of the apartments, suspecting he was one of the bombers. They followed him onto two buses, into a subway station and finally into a train. There, officers, believing he was a bomber, shot him seven times at close range in front of morning commuters.
On Thursday, a jury found police guilty of breaking health and safety laws. Judge Richard Henriques ordered the Metropolitan Police to pay a total of $2.1 million for breakdowns in the operation.’
‘Passengers on a German train mistook a Halloween reveller dressed up as a gore-covered zombie for a murder victim and called the police.
The 24-year-old man fell into a drunken slumber on his way home from a Halloween party in Hamburg, police in the northern town of Bad Segeberg said on Monday.
Believing his hands and face were smeared with blood, passengers alerted police after getting no response from him. [..]
“Bad Segeberg is in a rural area and Halloween isn’t very well known there,” police spokeswoman Silke Tobies said. “So people weren’t expecting anyone to be dressed up in the train.”‘
‘A man was arrested after a government agent allegedly found him in an office building restroom lying next to an inflatable, anatomically correct doll with his pants down.
Craig S. McCullough, 47, was charged Wednesday with indecent exposure, a misdemeanor. [..]
McCullough’s criminal record includes a 2004 conviction for burglarizing Just For Me bridal boutique. Shortly after the burglary, police officers found McCullough in a nearby alley, carrying a mannequin wearing a bridal dress.’
‘Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s jaunt to France was interrupted today by an unscheduled itinerary item — he was slapped with a criminal complaint charging him with torture.
Rumsfeld, in Paris for a discussion sponsored by the magazine Foreign Policy, was tracked down by representatives of a coalition of international human rights groups, who informed the architect of the US invasion of Iraq that they had submitted a torture suit against him in French court.
The filed documents allege that during his tenure, the former defense secretary “ordered and authorized” torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military’s detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.’
‘After a holiday you expect to find a few bills waiting for you – but not another person living in your house.
But that’s exactly what Beverly Mitchell from Douglasville in the US found after returning from 2-½ weeks in Greece. When she saw the lights on and a strange car in the driveway, she called the police. They found another woman, Beverly Valentine, in the house, the news website IOL reported.
Authorities say they don’t know why Valentine, 54, broke into the home and acted like it was her own, even going so far as ripping up carpet, changing utilities into her name and painting rooms.
“In 28 years I’ve never seen something this strange,” said Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Stan Copeland.’
‘A burglar in Montgomery chose the wrong family to mess with, literally. Adrian and Tiffany McKinnon returned home on Tuesday after a week away to find that thieves had emptied almost everything the family of five owned, Tiffany McKinnon said through tears.
“Tears just rolled down my face as I walked in and saw everything gone and piles of trash all over my home,” she said. [..]
“My husband Adrian caught the thief red-handed in our home,” she said. “And what is even crazier, the man even had my husband’s hat sitting right on his head.”
Adrian McKinnon held the suspect, 33-year-old Tajuan Bullock, at gunpoint and told him to sit on the floor until he decided what to do.
“We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabinets onto the floor,” Tiffany McKinnon said.’
‘A dentist accused of fondling the breasts of 27 female patients is trying to keep his dental license by arguing that chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases. Mark Anderson’s lawyer says dental journals discuss the need to massage the pectoral muscles to treat a common jaw problem.
Police say Anderson said during recorded phone calls that he routinely massaged patients’ chests to treat temporo-mandibular joint disorder, or TMJ, which causes neck and head pain. [..]
Zaro said Anderson, 48, of Woodland, needs to keep seeing patients so he can feed his seven children and pay for his defense.
The judge made no immediate decision.’
‘Two Army colonels are accused of switching identities to try to fool a paternity test, authorities said.
Bruce S. Adkins, 44, is accused of trying to take a paternity test in the place of Scott M. Carlson, 51. Both were charged Thursday with tampering with public records, tampering with evidence, forgery, theft and obstruction of justice, District Attorney David Freed said. [..]
Both men had been members of the class of 2007 at the Army War College in Carlisle. Freed said Carlson appeared at the Cumberland County domestic relations office in March to arrange for a paternity test.
Carlson had been paying a Virginia woman child support for her 9-year-old daughter and she was seeking an increase, Senior Assistant District Attorney Derek Clepper said.
County domestic relations employees became suspicious when another man showed up in April, claimed to be Carlson and wanted to take the paternity test.’
‘The 22 members of the Patriots — ages 11 to 14 — were working out again Thursday afternoon. They were in the park Wednesday evening when they saw the crime take place.
“I just seen these two guys walking up to an old man and pull him down from his camera strap, and the old man started hitting him [and] called us to help,” remembered 13-years-old Patriot team member Lafaele “Junior” Siliake.
Police say two teenage boys, 15 and 17 years old, knocked down a 71-year-old man and ran off with his camera. Taylor Leota led the charge as the whole football team took off after the two suspects.
“At first they were jogging,” explained the 13-year-old Leota. “After they see the team coming, they started sprinting. I would have been scared too seeing a football team chasing me; especially one of us.”‘
‘According to Brook Park police, a couple of pranksters could face felony charges after spraying “Fart Spray” into a local restaurant.
Two men pulled up to the drive-thru window at the Rally’s on Snow Road in Cleveland and sprayed a bottle of the offensive product.
The manager of the restaurant wasn’t sure what the substance was.
As a precaution, he threw away more than $1,000 worth of food, and three of his employees wound up going to the Southwest Medical Center to be checked out.’
‘Three out of four people arrested and detained by police in Darwin are under the influence of illicit drugs, research shows.
Australian Institute of Criminology data reveals 73 per cent of Darwin detainees tested positive to cannabis in July and August, steadily increasing from 46 per cent in January last year.
Another 8 per cent tested positive to methylamphetamine, the drug commonly known as speed.
The data, compiled under the AIC’s Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program (DUMA), shows a steady increase in the number of offenders testing positive to cannabis.
Drug Free Australia executive officer Jo Baxter said there was a common misconception that cannabis was a “soft” drug.’
‘A woman who spent 70 years in institutions after she was wrongly accused of theft has been reunited with her long-lost family.
Jean Gambell, now 85, was working as a cleaner in a doctor’s surgery when she was accused of stealing 2s 6d – equivalent to twelve-and-a-half pence.
The cash later turned up but by then Jean had been sectioned.
Her two brothers found the sister they had thought was dead when a care home questionnaire came to their house.’
‘A Glendale couple said they couldn’t afford a baby sitter, so they strapped their 14-month-old son in his stroller at home while the couple went out, police alleged.
Rachel Anderson and her live-in boyfriend, Mitch Laputka, were ordered to stand trial Thursday on charges they neglected baby Gabriel so badly that his body was covered with diaper rash, his body temperature was 12 degrees below normal and he stopped breathing, requiring 21 minutes of CPR to revive him. Police said the couple admitted to leaving the boy home alone because they wanted to party.’
‘A Chinese woman who killed her lover with a rat poison-laced kiss when she suspected him of being unfaithful has been sentenced to death, a newspaper said today.
Xia Xinfeng, from Maolou in the central province of Henan, passed a capsule with rat poison from her mouth to her long-time lover, Mao Ansheng, during a kiss, the Shanghai Daily said.
Mr Mao swallowed the capsule and died soon afterwards.
“The couple had said that if either one of them cheated on the other, he or she would have to die,” the paper said in explaining the mouth-to-mouth assault.
Ms Xia found Mr Mao had been “talking” with another woman, and deemed that he had broken their promise.’
‘Detectives are baffled by a brazen daylight attack at Newmarket, in Brisbane’s inner north on Monday, in which a woman had her underpants ripped off and bag stolen.
“It’s pretty strange. I haven’t heard anything like it before,” Det-Sen-Sgt Brad Rix said.
He said the 23-year-old was grabbed from behind as she walked home from Newmarket train station about 4.30pm (AEST).
The offender then lifted her dress up, and pulled off her underpants before grabbing her bag and taking off.
“It was absolute daylight, not far from a train station. This person must have felt sure he was going to get away with it,” Det-Sen-Sgt Rix said. He said there was no attempt to sexually assault the woman, who did not realise her bag had been stolen until some time later.
“It’s possible he may have stolen her underpants as a trophy, or perhaps he intended taking the attack further. We don’t know,” he said. ‘
‘Some volunteer firefighters in Vermont have been accused of using Jaws of Life during a vandalism spree, WPTZ-TV in in Plattsburgh, N.Y., reported.
Firefighters usually use the tool to help victims of serious car crashes escape the mangled wreckage. [..]
Police said the four started the spree at the Berlin Mall and Central Vermont Hospital, pulling hubcaps and windshield wipers from cars. The four then headed to the Montpelier park and the town of Northfield, damaging pay phones and stealing street signs, police said.
Police said they got a break in the case in mid-September when someone came forward with information into the case, including that the vandalism may have been part of a dare.
Police said they aren’t sure who dared the four, and the Berlin Fire Department said it never had any involvement in the crime nor did it know the equipment had been used.’
‘They may have committed a high crime, but a former Dearborn cop and his wife are only going to be charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly smoking pot in Dearborn Heights.
Edward Sanchez, 30, and his wife, Stacy, 27, are expected to turn themselves in for arraignment on one charge each of using marijuana, according assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Maria Miller.
On April 21, 2006, Sanchez, who lives in Dearborn Heights, called 911 in a panic after he and his wife ate brownies laced with marijuana he said he took from criminal suspects.
Dearborn police allowed Sanchez to resign from his job on May 23, 2006, even though investigators said he admitted to taking the marijuana from his police car and using it to make the brownies. Dearborn police reports the Free Press obtained said Sanchez told investigators he planned to use the marijuana to train his police dog.’
Followup to Cop Avoids Charge for Pot Brownies.
‘School security guards in Palmdale, CA have been caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old girl and breaking her arm after she spilled some cake during lunch and left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning it up.
The incident occurred last week at Knight High School in Palmdale and was caught on a cell phone camera by another pupil who was then also assaulted by the security guards. [..]
The girl, Pleajhai Mervin, told Fox News LA that she was bumped while queuing for lunch and dropped the cake. After being ordered to clean it up and then re-clean the spot three times, she attempted to leave the area out of embarrassment but was jumped on by security who forced her onto a table, breaking her wrist in the process.
Pleajhai also says that the security guard in the picture yelled “hold still nappy-head” at her, which at the time she did not know was a racist comment.’
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‘De’Andre June told police he woke up Wednesday morning to find the charred outline of a cross burned in the lawn of his home. June now is accused of burning the cross in the lawn himself.
The 47-year-old Anoka man was charged Friday with falsely reporting a crime. He also is charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process stemming from an altercation when police arrested him Thursday afternoon on a felony warrant from Hennepin County in connection with a financial fraud case. [..]
“Inmates from the Anoka County Jail saw the news story on TV and recognized Mr. June,” said Capt. Phil Johanson of the Anoka Police Department. “(They) said that when he was in jail with them last week, he had made comments that he was going to do something like this to get sympathy from the community and the church for financial gains and otherwise.”‘
‘It’s said the powerful write their own laws but, in New Zealand, now everyone can.
Due to a new wiki launched by the New Zealand police, members of the public can now contribute to the drafting of the country’s new policing act.
NZ Police Superintendent Hamish McCardle, the officer in charge of developing the new act, said the initiative had already been described as a “new frontier of democracy”.
“People are calling it ‘extreme democracy’ and perhaps it is,” he said.
“It’s a novel move but when it comes to the principles that go into policing, the person on the street has a good idea … as they are a customer,” he said.’
‘A volunteer worker at the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter has been suspended as a result of accusations that he engaged in sexual activity with a dog, a city spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday.
The alleged incident happened Saturday afternoon behind the building, and the man was partially naked when another shelter employee saw him.
The witness said Gustavo Castanon, 33, was having a bassett hound perform a sex act on him, according to a police report.’
‘About a hundred times a day, from anywhere in the world, a phone call comes in that sounds something like this: I think I’ve got a terrorist suspect here, can you check it out?
Answering those calls are dozens of operations specialists in a highly secure center in a classified location in northern Virginia. With access to the government’s secret terror watch list, their job is to make sure nobody on the list falls through the cracks.
CNN got a firsthand look inside the Terrorist Screening Center recently — but not until a security officer who accompanied the TV crew at all times bellowed to the hub of the center’s operation, “Unsecure!” to make sure any classified information was protected from view.
For the first time publicly, officials told CNN the consolidated watch list has 300,000 names.’
‘A Federal Way woman accused of poking hypodermic needles into her foster daughter’s eyes pleaded guilty to assault.
Thirty-four-year-old Chornice Lewis faces more than ten years in prison when she is sentenced November 16th in King County Superior Court at Kent.
The Tacoma News Tribune reported the foster child was left blind in one eye and that foster care workers failed to follow through on a decade of complaints about Lewis. She also was accused of beating the girl with an umbrella and burning her tongue with a hot fork.’
‘The Church of Scientology has been granted access to a confidential psychiatric report tendered as evidence in the trial of a Sydney woman accused of murdering her family earlier this year.
The 25-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was diagnosed with a psychotic illness last year but allegedly discouraged by her parents from taking her prescribed medication because of their Scientology beliefs. [..]
Cyrus Brooks, community relations officer for the church, said it had sought access to the document after media coverage linking Scientology to the alleged murders, although access was granted on condition that the church not release the report to the media.
Despite this, Mr Brooks has emailed excerpts from the report to journalists to “correct” their reporting of the case.’
Followup to Scientology ‘stopped accused killer getting help’.
‘Two mobile homes were badly damaged by fire in Center Township, Beaver County, and a couple who lived in one of the trailers is facing charges Tuesday — even though they are also victims of the fire.
Crystal Adams, 31, and James Chandler, 33, are accused of reckless endangerment, because police say the two grabbed their pet dogs and fled the fire at Center Manor Court but left Chandler’s young son behind on Friday night.
The 4-year-old boy was treated for smoke inhalation after a firefighter ran inside and pulled him out, township Fire Chief Bill Brucker said.’
‘Police were called to break up a weekend fight among a rowdy group of teenage girls at the family-themed pizza restaurant, Chuck E. Cheese.
The more than a dozen girls, between 13 and 16 years old, went berserk in the restaurant’s lobby Saturday night, police said.
Witnesses said the fight erupted with two girls using profanities near the front entrance and ended with several girls involved in a physical fight.
The group had apparently been dropped off and left alone at the restaurant, known for its singing and dancing animatronic rodents.
Assistant Police Chief Alfred Sexton said the incident wasn’t the first time Chuck E. Cheese was nearly overrun by unruly teens.’
‘Criminal gangs are trafficking hundreds of children into Britain and forcing them to work in cannabis factories, with at least one child per week being found by police, a report said today.
Campaign group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) said there had been a five-fold increase in the practice in the last year alone.
Children as young as 13, many from Vietnam, were being brought to Britain to work as “slaves” for organised criminals to push production of the drug here to record levels, it said.
They are forced to tend cannabis plants grown in suburban houses and often forced to sleep in cupboards, with little chance of escape for fear of being caught.’
‘A mum-of-three was “devastated” today after sickos apparently killed and pushed her family’s much-loved pets through letterboxes.
Two rabbits and five guinea pigs – four of them pregnant – were stolen from Paula Beard’s back garden in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
Animal remains were later found smeared over cars, in gardens and pushed through letterboxes a mile away in Wath-upon-Dearne.
South Yorkshire Police believe the two incidents may be linked and are appealing for witnesses in the area.
Mrs Beard, 37, said she was “absolutely devastated” when she found the runs and cages empty on her patio.
“My pets are my life – they’re like my kids,” she said.’
‘Three Mexican minors detained in California on suspicion of smuggling drugs stole a U.S. Border Patrol car while still wearing handcuffs and drove it back across the border to Mexico.
Police in the Mexican border city of Mexicali said on Tuesday the three boys had been driving a pick-up truck on a remote Californian highway when a Border Patrol agent stopped them.
Suspicious they were carrying marijuana, he handcuffed them and put them in his patrol car while he searched their truck.
“As the agent was doing his search, he left the vehicle running and the keys in the ignition, so one of the lads, still wearing handcuffs, grabbed the steering wheel and they headed back to Mexico,” a police spokesman said.’
‘A man has been arrested for allegedly downloading child porn in a first-class airport lounge in view of other passengers.
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg said the 44-year-old man had been downloading child pornography in the first-class lounge at Melbourne Airport on Friday.
He was using a free access computer at a desk and was overseen by passers-by.
The commissioner said the man had IT expertise and had been able to circumvent the lounge’s computer firewalls.
His home in Naremburn, Sydney, was searched and a computer and CDs were seized.’
