Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Nude Man Attacks Mo. Police Officer

A naked man attacked a Cape Girardeau police officer and tried go to grab his gun before officers used a stun gun to subdue him.

The incident happened Sunday afternoon as police responded to a call of an attempted break-in at a trailer park, police spokesman Jason Selzer said. At the scene, police spotted the naked man walking.

As an officer was getting out of his car, the 52-year-old man walked toward the squad car and grabbed the officer, slamming him into the side of the vehicle.

The officer fired his stun gun, but the assailant kept attacking, grabbing at the officer's neck. When the two fell to the ground, the man attempted to grab the officer's handgun, Selzer said.

The officer struck the man's face with his forearm and was able to put the suspect's arms behind his back. A second officer arrived, fired his stun gun at the suspect and handcuffed him, Selzer said.

The man was suspected of being under the influence of drugs, and was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Charges have not been filed. The officer was not seriously hurt.

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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

UGA student accused in McDonald's 'road rage' case

Police arrested a University of Georgia student Tuesday for allegedly running into two other McDonald's customers with her car after a dispute over who was next in line.

Ruth Driscoll-Dunn, 24, was taken into custody at her home and charged with two counts of aggravated assault, Athens-Clarke County Police Detective Jeff Clark said.

Melinda Ann Thomas, 34, and her mother, Linda Ann Thomas, 51, were standing in a crowded line around 8:30 a.m. Saturday as they waited to order breakfast, police said. A cashier opened a new line and they stepped to the front of it — a move that angered another customer who was waiting to order.

The Thomases said that as they left the restaurant, the woman pulled out of her parking space and struck both of them with the passenger side of her Jeep. Neither woman was badly injured, the police report said.

Clark said a partial license tag reading and videotape from inside the McDonald's led them to Driscoll-Dunn, who was questioned Monday afternoon.

"Basically, she admitted to hitting the victim. However, she said there were other circumstances relating to the collision," the detective said. He said the suspect claimed the others "provoked the incident."

Driscoll-Dunn will be jailed pending a bond hearing Wednesday morning, Clark said.

The restaurant incident attracted more attention than usual because it came within three months of a fatal attack at a McDonald's in Covington, about 30 miles southwest of Athens. On May 23, a man ran over two women and their three children, killing a 2-year-old. A suspect is facing murder and aggravated assault charges in the attack, for which authorities have said they had no motive.

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Woman Tells Police She Tossed 69 Tickets

A Chandler woman is facing $11,000 in fines and possible jail time after telling Scottsdale police that she threw away 69 unpaid speeding tickets.

Francesca Cisneros told detectives she thought it was perfectly fine to throw away the tickets mailed to her house.

Since March, the 32-year-old Cisneros was photographed 69 times on Scottsdale streets and the Loop 101 by Scottsdale's speed-enforcement cameras.

Five of the citations were criminal speeding violations.

Cisneros also was caught once by a red-light camera, and she faces two counts of driving on a suspended license.

All but five of her 69 speeding tickets were on the Loop 101; her top speed was 86 mph.

A City Court judge released Cisneros on Thursday on a promise to appear at a later date.

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Sunday, August 13, 2006

Police: Mother gives daughter to boyfriend for sex

A woman who feared she would lose her boyfriend while she recuperated from surgery arranged for her 15-year-old daughter to have sex with him, authorities said.

Police said the three signed an agreement specifying the sexual services the girl would perform and the compensation she would receive, including clothing and body piercings. The 37-year-old man and the girl had sex about 20 times over two months, police said.

"It's incredible that any parent would be involved in such a blatant case of abuse against her own daughter," prosecutor Tony Tague told The Muskegon Chronicle for a story published Thursday.

Authorities investigated after the girl talked to another adult, said police Detective Calvin Mahan.

The woman was freed on $25,000 bond after being arraigned on three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The boyfriend, Michael J. Fitzgibbon, was being held without bail. He was arraigned last week on six counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

It was unclear Thursday whether Fitzgibbon had an attorney.

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Thursday, August 10, 2006

ATM robbers yank out the wrong machine

Three would-be thieves broke into a bank in northern Malaysia but failed to make off with any cash as they yanked out the wrong machine -- a check deposit machine instead of an automated cash dispenser, the national news agency Bernama reported Wednesday.

The three men broke into the entrance area of the bank in the northern town of Bukit Mertajam early Wednesday, and tied a rope -- attached to two vehicles -- around a machine, police district investigation chief Chor Ah Sing said, according to Bernama.

They jerked the machine off its hinges, sending it crashing to the ground floor, Chor added.

The crashing sound alerted a security guard to the breach who chased them away, it said.

The three men had already managed to open the machine, but found no cash as it was a check deposit machine, the national news agency said. It is not immediately clear if they made off with any checks.

Local police officials could not be immediately contacted for comment.

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Wis. man dies after pounding on window

A 32-year-old man banging on a window to get people's attention died when the glass shattered and cut a major artery in his arm, the Sauk County Sheriff's Department said.

Jerry Baruffi, of Pleasant Prairie, was at a family reunion at Devil's Head Resort, said Jim Schmidt, a relative from Chicago. He pounded on a window next to the indoor pool about 10:30 p.m. Saturday when the glass shattered, he said.

"The young lad was pounding on the glass, apparently to get more people to join him in the pool, and he pounded too hard and the glass broke," Schmidt said. "It wasn't shatterproof and it came down in big hunks."

Family members, including a nurse, tried to save Baruffi, Schmidt said.

Paramedics arrived about 15 minutes after the glass broke. Baruffi died on the way to the hospital.

The Sauk County Sheriff's department said he died due to bleeding from a major artery in his arm. The department said it does not suspect foul play but continues to investigate.

Schmidt questioned why there was no shatterproof glass next to the pool.

"It's a real tragedy and an unusual situation," he said.

Devil's Head Resort spokesman Rob Scheibel said this was the first time, to the best of his knowledge, a guest died in an accident at the resort. He said Wednesday that the resort was investigating.

He did not know the window's size. It was already being replaced but Scheibel said he would not comment on whether the new window would have shatterproof glass.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to his family and friends," Scheibel said.

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Police: Kids stole jewelry on orders from mom, grandma

A woman turned herself in to police Wednesday after a store surveillance video captured footage of two children sneaking behind display cases to steal thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, allegedly on instructions from their mother and grandmother.

Bedford police made the video public this week and started getting tips minutes after it aired on local television.

Police Chief David Bailey said the woman, whom he declined to identify, was not arrested because there was no warrant. She promised to return when one was prepared, which Bailey said could happen by Thursday.

The woman said she lives in the area and has four children, one age 14 and three younger than 10, Bailey said. All are suspected to have been involved, he said.

The video, taken August 2 at a store called the Consignment Gallery, shows one woman, possibly the children's mother, directing them to pocket certain items. An older woman, believed to be the grandmother, stuffs items down her shirt.

A woman who identified herself as the older woman on the video talked with WMUR-TV on Wednesday and denied stuffing merchandise down her shirt, saying that is where she carries her cell phone, money and other belongings.

She said she was shopping for a bed with her daughter when her grandchildren began to misbehave. The woman, whom the station did not identify, said her daughter was not stealing jewelry but rather trying to get her children to put back items they had taken.

"I was browsing around the store and the children were wild in the store," she said. "My granddaughter did take a ring, but we didn't realize it until we saw the news."

Detective Matt Fleming said more than $2,000 in jewelry was stolen from the store.

"It's pretty upsetting," Fleming said. "Watching the children methodically move through that jewelry area and take the items out for the mother is just astonishing."

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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Drunken German Hands Out Savings

A drunken man withdrew more than $16,700 from his bank account and then started handing out the money to passers-by in a western German town Tuesday, police said.

Police in Darmstadt said they were alerted at lunchtime to a man sitting on a bench in front of a bank and handing out notes. He had the money stuffed into plastic bags and his pockets, and some of it blew away.

Officers took the 63-year-old back into the bank and counted the money.

They said in a statement that he had handed out $1,935, but that he "didn't care because he had enough."

Police decided to hold on to the rest of the money temporarily. They told the man, whose name was not released, to come back and collect it once he sobered up.

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Woman Sentenced for Bible Coke Smuggling

There was more than Good News in Amy Duckworth's Bible. Duckworth, 28, was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for smuggling cocaine to her jailed husband inside two Bibles.

Judge Pro Tem Tom Hakes gave her four years each on two charges of trafficking with an inmate, and ordered her to serve 90 days on each count. The remainder of both terms will be served as probation.

Duckworth, who has three children, does not have a criminal history.

"When I committed this offense, I wasn't thinking about my children," she said, reading from a written statement. "It only took one time to learn a lesson."

Duckworth had admitted to placing bags of cocaine in the spines of two Bibles and having them delivered in March to her husband, Anthony Duckworth, who was in jail on a misdemeanor charge of visiting a common nuisance.

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Monday, August 07, 2006

Woman finds frozen dog in her fridge

A German woman found a frozen dead dog when she opened the refrigerator freezer compartment in her new apartment in the southwestern town of Trossingen, police said Saturday.

The previous tenant later told police in the town near Stuttgart that his greyhound pup had died of natural causes several months earlier but he did not have time to give it a proper burial before moving out of the apartment.

Police said the man faces prosecution for violating the "Tierkoerperbeseitigungsgesetz" (animal cadaver removal law).

Soucre

Bizarre stand-off ends peacefully



When police responded to a public disturbance report on Main Street and Russell Hill Road Tuesday morning and found a man on top of an electrical pole, swinging his machete and screaming obscenities, they didn't think it could get any worse.

Then he took off all his clothes. For another hour or so, officers tried to disarm the man, while at the same time preventing him from harming himself or bystanders. They were finally successful, forcing him to jump from a utility pole on to mats usually used by high jumpers from the BVI High School track team.

Police then took Jean "Coochie" Corum into custody. "I believe the officers handled the situation reasonably well," Police Chief Reynell Frazer said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Mr. Corum was taken to Peebles Hospital, but emerged from the episode relatively injury-free. He was taken to the Road Town Police Station while police and officials from the Mental Health Unit decide how best to handle his case.

"He won't be back on the streets anytime soon," Mr. Frazer said.

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Woman Seeking 'Cute Cop' Gets Probation

A woman who called 911 in hopes of getting another look at "the cutest cop I've seen in God knows how long" won't go to jail for misusing the emergency system, a judge decided.

Instead, Lorna Dudash was sentenced to serve two years of probation and 100 hours of community service, and pay $693 in fines and fees.

"People who are, oh, say, older than 7 know not to use 911 except when where is an emergency," Washington County Judge Marco Hernandez told Dudash, of Aloha.

Dudash's dream deputy came to her door June 15, along with another officer, to tell her to turn down her music. Afterward, Dudash called emergency dispatchers.

"I'm 45 years old and I'd just like to meet him again, but I don't know how to go about doing that without calling 911," she said.

The deputy went back, to arrest her.

Dudash was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty. She faced a possible yearlong sentence a fine of more than $6,000.

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Nude Man Leads Police to Marijuana Farm

Robert Ferranti probably has more than the usual regrets of someone found rolling around naked on a neighborhood street, babbling, immune to pepper spray and accused of punching a police officer.

Investigators following up on the Monday fracas said they discovered a well equipped marijuana growing operation in the house Ferranti rented with another man in a normally quiet community in southern Orange County.

"They were growing so much and storing so much, the odor was overwhelming," Woodbury Police Sgt. Clifford Weeks said. "For this town, it was a good-sized operation."

In addition to public lewdness, resisting arrest and assault charges, the 35-year-old Ferranti faces a felony count of second-degree criminal possession of marijuana. The other residents of the house — Michael P. Cody, and Cody's children Deirdre, 26, and Michael, 25 — were each hit with the same felony drug possession charge, police said.

A 911 call about Ferranti's antics touched off the events that led police to the house, which was set up to grow, dry and package marijuana, police said. Five pounds of the weed packaged for sale, $10,000 in cash, a 3-foot-tall hookah and a cache of martial arts weapons were found at the house, Weeks said.

After treatment for minor injuries and a mental health evaluation, Ferranti was ordered held on $10,000 bail at the Orange County Jail. The Cody's were released from jail on $5,000 bail each.

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Basement lipo proves fatal, police say


Luiz Carlos Ribeiro and his wife, Ana Maria Miranda Ribeiro, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment on Monday.


A couple who authorities say performed liposuction in the basement of a home has been charged with practicing medicine without a license after the female patient died.

Luiz Carlos Ribeiro, 49, a native of Brazil, and his wife, Ana Maria Miranda Ribeiro, also 49, were arraigned in district court on Monday following the death of a 24-year-old woman Sunday.

The Ribeiros pleaded not guilty. Ribeiro was ordered held on $250,000 cash bail. His wife was held on $50,000 cash bail. Both were ordered to surrender their passports.

The Middlesex District Attorney's Office, which is investigating the case, would not release the identity of the patient. An autopsy was to be performed Monday.

Authorities said the woman was unconscious when she was brought to the hospital Sunday. She was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.

The district attorney's office said authorities believe that Ribeiro and his wife administered illegally obtained drugs and performed the surgical procedure on the woman. Neither Ribeiro nor his wife are licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts.

Police charged Ribeiro with unauthorized practice of medicine, drug possession and distribution, and illegal possession of a hypodermic needle. His wife was charged with unauthorized practice of medicine and drug distribution.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said she did not know what type of drugs.

Framingham, a town of about 67,000 about 20 miles west of Boston, is home to an estimated 14,000 Brazilian immigrants.

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Pizza worker fights back, robbery suspect arrested

Indianapolis police say a 24-year-old Domino's Pizza worker twice fought off a man who tried to rob the Eastside pizza restaurant Monday night.

Samantha Richardson was working at the Domino's Pizza, 2522 E. Washington St. just after 6:15 p.m. when police said a man walked into the kitchen gesturing under his shirt as if he had a gun.
"This is a robbery," the suspect said, according to a police report.
Richardson began wrestling with the would-be robber and soon realized he was not carrying a gun, police said. Richardson pushed the suspect out of the employee door into the customer area of the restaurant and locked it, police said.
The suspect then jumped over a counter to get back into the kitchen. Richardson again fought with the man, police said, this time pushing him out of the business.
Richardson suffered bruises during the struggle and gave a detailed description of the suspect to officers who captured him in a nearby alley.
Police arrested John Willis, 43, on initial charges of robbery, criminal confinement and battery. Willis, records show, was held this morning in the Marion County Jail with bond set at $100,000.
Richardson was the second woman this week to stand up to a robber.
On Sunday, a robber took a purse from Bridget Kephart, Indianapolis, while she relaxed at the Starbucks at College Avenue and Fall Creek Boulevard.
When Kephart chased him, the robber fired two shots, one striking her in the leg. He fled in a minivan. Kephart was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Police typically suggest that it is safer for robbery victims to comply and not confront bandits.

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