Rich’s Cup of Tea

Carlie’s Crusade is on a mission to teach kids how to be safe. “We know that if someone is really intent on hurting us they will. But we really feel that if we can teach you how not to be an attractive target, then maybe you won’t be a victim,” said Dominick Magistro.

He was speaking to a group of kids attending the BJK Basketball Camp. Asked by Coach Robert McMillian, Dominick Magistro and John Jenerose spoke to the youth and taught them some safety skills.

The duo first explained how the organization, Carlie’s Crusade, began. Named after Carlie Brucia, a 14-year-old Florida girl (Rich’s note: she was 11 when she was abducted) that was abducted and murdered, the group shares their knowledge of child abduction prevention.

Stating that 2,000 children are reported missing each day, the children perk up to hear more. “We know the statistics,” Magistro said. “One in five girls and one in ten boys will be sexually victimized before adulthood.” He further shared the profile of a typical sex offender: “He is typically male, engages in a variety of deviant behavior and molests an average of 117 youngsters.”

The duo emphasize to the children not to live in fear, but rather to be cautious of their environment, stay focused and alert.

Magistro told the children their best weapon was their own head and ability to avoid certain situations. “Don’t be the last one in the park. Walk in well lit areas. Use the buddy system if you can.”

Next they show the children how to react if someone approaches them. “Yell as loud as you can. These people don’t want attention,” Jenerose said. Bringing attention to an abductor may be all that is needed to prevent the abduction.

The children line up and begin to practice. They learn this technique works, as it draws the attention of people in the park at a baseball game. One curious man even came for a closer look.

If that doesn’t deter the abductor, the children learned open hand techniques to fend off an abductor while continuing to yell to draw attention to the scene. “We’re not teaching you how to fight. But how to get away [from an abductor],” said Magistro. The children then practiced this technique on dummies.

“We don’t want another child to end up like Carlie,” Coach McMillian said. That’s why he continues to invite Carlie’s Crusade to speak at his basketball camp. “BJK Sports wants all our kids to be well rounded and that includes being safe. These guys teach the kids the skills they need to survive an abduction.”

Rich’s Note: It’s good to see Carlie’s Crusade is still going strong. See their site at http://www.carliescrusade.org. Thank you to all who are a part of or support this organization!

Source: HVPress.net, July 23, 2008.

Tags: Education and Prevention by Rich
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Oklahoma authorities on Monday urged the public to help find a pair of killers, playing a dramatic segment of a frantic 911 call from a relative who reported two girls had been found dead in a ditch.

The 911 tape was released six weeks after the bullet-riddled bodies of 13-year-old Taylor Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker were discovered along a remote country road in the town of Weleetka.

A breathless woman, identified only as a member of a family, can be heard on the tape. Her voice is raw with emotion.

“Somebody killed two young girls.” she says. “They are both down here dead. My granddaughter and her friend. … Help me. Please!” Listen to authorities play the dramatic tape. Warning: Not for the faint-of-heart.

Jessica Brown, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman, said she hoped someone would hear the tape and be inspired to identify the killers.

“We know someone knows what happened,” said Brown. “Hopefully if they hear the tape they will understand what happened and come forward.”

Brown said investigators have run down about 500 leads and have eliminated 100 possible suspects but have not been able to crack the case.

“Someone has to come forward,” she said.

Police are asking members of the public with more information about the case to call (800) 522-8017.

The two girls had planned a sleepover at Taylor’s house on June 8, the night they were killed. They left the house about 5 p.m.

Less than 30 minutes later, Taylor’s grandfather discovered the bodies in a ditch on the side of a road, near a bridge that is a popular gathering spot in the area.

The killings have rattled the community of Weleetka, a town of about 1,000 residents 75 miles from Tulsa. Taylor and Skyla were the only girls in their sixth- and fifth-grade classes,

Investigators don’t have any suspects or motives, but a forensic examination of the bodies indicated that two guns had been used. Police have said they are looking for two shooters.

There has been speculation the girls’ slayings were “thrill killings,” and police investigators have said they hope one of the shooters will turn against the other.

Several witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man on the same dirt road where the girls were shot, Brown said last month.

She said authorities believed that the man, “who didn’t look like he should have been there,” was on the road before the girls were shot multiple times in the head and chest and left in a ditch.

Witnesses described the man as having a black ponytail, about 6 feet tall and 35 years old. They said he was standing in front of a white single-cab pickup with chrome striping, possibly a Chevy or Ford model, with Oklahoma tags, Brown said in a press conference on June 13.

“He acted a little suspiciously but we don’t know what he was doing,” said Brown, stopping short of calling him a suspect. “We just want to talk to him. We think he might have seen something.”

Brown said other witnesses reported hearing gunshots near the crime scene.

Taylor’s uncle, Joe Mosher, described his niece as an intelligent girl who loved animals.

“She rescued turtles on the highway and wrote her name on them and turned them loose in the country,” Mosher said Wednesday.

Mosher said Taylor was at the top of her class in public school after being homeschooled most of her life.

“She was very smart,” said Mosher, who last saw Taylor at a family reunion two weeks before her death.

Skyla’s grandmother, Claudia Farrow, described the girl as “a typical tomboy. She lived out in the country. She loved animals, loved to fish.”

“Every time she`d come over here in my yard, which they just lived about a hundred yards from me, all her animals would follow her over here,” Farrow told CNN last month. “She’d have five or six cats following her, her little dog and her goat. I’d get on to her daddy, I said, ‘Now, don’t you let that goat eat my flowers,’ because she’d always eat my flowers. I will miss that. I will miss her.”

Rich’s Note: This was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to listen to. Probably ranks a close second to Carlie’s surveillance video for affecting me emotionally. I sure hope some progress is made on this case. Someone has to be held accountable, and with their life.

Source: CNN.com, July 21, 2008.

Tags: Crime and Punishment by Rich
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Tags: Miscellany by Rich
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TAMPA, Florida–The crime scene and autopsy photos of 13-year-old strangulation victim Stephen Tomlinson are lasting images of what this young boy went through before he died. They are now evidence in the prosecution’s case-in-chief of first-degree murder against youth minister Joshua Rosa here.

I looked closely at these photos, shown one after the other to the jury, and saw that Tomlinson was severely strangled. As Medical Examiner Dr. Leszek Chrostowsky testified, the contusions and abrasions to his neck and lower jaw, show by their redness in color, occurred at or near the time of death. Stephen was fighting to live. This young man consciously knew during those last moments what was happening to him.

Stephen’s family wasn’t in the courtroom for this explicit testimony. The defendant’s family bowed their heads or shut their eyes as the photos of Stephen were displayed to the jury one after the other.

Jurors were taking notes and listening seriously to the medical reasoning behind every injury. The defendant Joshua Rosa showed no emotion. We see that so often in trials…what it means is individual…no one can be programmed to act in a certain way.

Stephen Tomlinson was found with his black belt undone, and his blue jean shorts down to his ankles but his sport shorts (used as boxers) were still on. There is one photo that shows the elastic waistband of those shorts left a deep fence-like pattern impression in the skin of his hip area. The medical examiner believed blunt trauma to Stephen’s hip caused the permanent marking. The pathologist hypothesized that Stephen may have been pushed to the ground so hard the impact to his hip created the pattern markings from the elastic band.

His other injuries were to his back, inside his lip, and his right shoulder and it was not a single hold which caused the strangulation death. Dr. Chrostowsky testified the assailant’s hands changed positions several times and could have even used karate moves. Was Rosa trained in karate? A rape kit performed at autopsy showed no evidence of sexual assault.

Prosecutors are not required to prove a motive in their case. The defense maintains Rosa is not guilty, and was only trying to help Tomlinson after he found him lifeless in the park.

There are many unknowns in this circumstantial case that truly is a murder mystery.

Rich’s Note: Just like my June 12 post, does this sound at all familiar? The suspect is a YOUTH MINISTER. Tragic.

Source: InSession.Blogs.CNN.com, July 17, 2008.

Tags: Not again... by Rich
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‘World’s Greatest Dad’ Arrested As Sex Predator

LANSING, Mich. — A man whose shirt proclaims him as the “world’s greatest dad” was arrested Tuesday on charges he tried to use the Internet to arrange a sexual encounter with a minor.

Daniel Allen Everett, of Clarkston, Mich., was caught in one of Attorney General Mike Cox’s cyber stings, NewsChannel5’s sister station WXYZ reported. Everett was accused of arranging a meeting for sex with a minor. “Today’s arrest is a reminder that a parent can pose a threat to our children,” said Cox. “And no matter how great a criminal thinks they are, if you intend to harm or solicit children, my office is coming after you.” Investigators arrested Everett, 33, for chatting online with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl that he met in a chatroom. Everett allegedly engaged in graphic sexual conversation with an undercover agent and propositioned the agent. The father was arrested in Novi, Mich., where he is alleged to have appeared to meet the minor for sex. He was arrested wearing a T-shirt with the words, “Worlds Greatest Dad” on the front. Everett was arraigned on one count of child sexually abusive activity, and one count of using the Internet to commit child sexually abusive activity. Judge Andra Dudley set bond at $50,000 cash. Parents are encouraged to check their children’s “buddy lists” for the screen name(s) Everett used including “danmichelle2004.”

Rich’s Note: I don’t think this one deserves any more commentary from me, except for maybe wondering why the shirt doesn’t say “World’s Biggest Idiot”.

Source: NewsNet5.com, July 16, 2008.

Tags: Criminal Stupidity by Rich
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A man said he was so consumed by the spirit of God that he fell and hit his head while at a Knoxville church.

Now he wants Lakewind Church to pay $2.5 million for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering he said he’s endured from his injuries. Matt Lincoln, 57, says he decided to sue the church after its insurance company denied his claim for medical bills. Lincoln has had two surgeries since the June 2007 incident but said he still feels pain in his back and his legs. The Sevier County man said he was asking God to have “a real experience” while praying at church. He said he has fallen from the force of the spirit before but has always been caught by someone. Lawyers for the church said other congregants saw him on the floor laughing after his fall. They said he failed to look out for his own safety.

Rich’s Note: You’re kidding, right? I never cease to be amused by some of the ridiculously frivolous lawsuits I see from time to time. I suppose if he DIDN’T fall and hit his head, he would still sue the church for “failure to provide a worship service of such magnitude that it made me fall down and go boom”.

Source: NewsNet5.com, July 11, 2008

Tags: ...huh? by Rich
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Came across an amusing typo this morning on www.newsnet5.com:

I wonder how they were able to squeeze LCDs into something the size of a cookie.

Tags: ...huh? by Rich
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Well, the Cleveland Indians traded what I would consider to the be one of the best acquisitions in the past 10 years, C.C. Sabathia. A survey on NewsNet5.com this morning speaks volumes, as the Indians are in dead last and only sinking deeper with every game.

…I really love living in Cleveland. Good thing I’m not a sports fan (yes, the quality of our teams is part of the reason).

Cheers!

Tags: Miscellany by Rich
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Big Brother Watching? Cities Add Cameras

Three years after London’s ubiquitous hidden cameras helped capture the July 7, 2005, London subway bombers, Washington, D.C., is modeling the United States’ largest and most elaborately networked city surveillance system on that British network.

Surveillance cameras are now nearly inescapable, capturing baggage handlers who moonlight as thieves in Phoenix and elsewhere, in businesses like the Sarasota, Fla., car wash where Joseph Smith was captured on tape abducting 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, whom he was convicted of murdering. And most famously, in London, where surveillance video helped track down the subway bombers of 2005.

When George Orwell wrote “Big Brother is Watching” in the presciently dystopic novel “1984,” he wasn’t paranoid — just early.

Some 20 years after 1984, there are half a million government surveillance cameras in Orwell’s one-time home of London, the most monitored city in the world. Other cities are now following suit. There are 3,000 in New York, 2,000 in Chicago, and in Washington, D.C., there are some 5,200 surveillance cameras trained on citizens, and more on the way.

The camera systems have become more popular because cities can put up as little as 10 percent of the cost — federal Homeland Security grants pay the rest. But Washington’s city council is locked in a vigorous debate over whether to accept the $9 million federal contribution to the city’s proposed $10 million program, due to privacy concerns.

With thermal imaging and powerful zoom lenses that can peer into windows, civil libertarians fear abuses, like the time police, monitoring the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, repeatedly trained a thermal imaging camera away from the convention and onto a couple in a passionate embrace on a nearby rooftop.

“There is no other system in the U.S. that has that extensive network of cameras,” said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union.

City surveillance cameras have been positioned on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in the nation’s capital for years. The city now links its cameras in a centralized network as no American city has ever done before, from schools, housing projects, public buildings and city roadways. Some worry it’s gone too far.

One reason for the concern is the finding in a London study that the cameras help catch criminals, but fail to cut crime.

“Cameras don’t work,” Steinhardt said. “They don’t prevent crime, they rarely solve it.”

“We can’t let the genie back in the bottle, we just have to figure out how to manage and control it, and do it in a way that addresses those concerns,” said Washington City administrator Dan Tangherlini.

Washington officials say that, by having all the city’s cameras centrally monitored, they’ll be better able to track criminals across town. They also hope to prevent abuse — by watching the watchers.

Rich’s Note: I can only hope that these new cameras are full motion video, not motion-activated still cameras. Those are better than nothing, but precious time could still be lost trying to make out minute details in the images if they are not of sufficient resolution.

Source: ABCNews.com, July 6, 2008.

Tags: Miscellany by Rich
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North Texas Man Gets 4,060 Years For Sex Assaults

WEATHERFORD (CBS 11 News) ― A 43-year-old Springtown man was convicted of 43 child sex abuse counts in Weatherford on Tuesday. He was sentenced Wednesday to 4,060 years in prison, to be served consecutively, and a fine of $430,000.

The Parker County jury found James Kevin Pope guilty of sexually abusing three teenage girls in 2006 and 2007. He was convicted of 40 counts of sexual assault of a child and three counts of sexual performance by a child.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors showed evidence that Pope had abused the three teens over the course of 20 months, starting in May 2006. A calendar detailing the dates of sexual acts was admitted into evidence, as well as sexually explicit photographs of the victims.

During the trial, prosecutors played a phone conversation between Pope and his mother, recorded in March 2008. He can be heard explaining, “They were never forced. I treated them like adults. We discussed it. We talked about it, and the decision was made. It was never forced.”

In another phone call, Pope is heard saying, “I have totally screwed myself. They wanted me to incriminate myself and I’ve already done that.”

Authorities became aware of Pope in February 2008, after he made inappropriate comments to a friend who then contacted Child Protective Services.

Prior to that, according to Parker County Sheriff’s Investigator Robert Pawley, one of the victims reported the abuse to her mother in December 2007, however, no action was taken.

In addition to the cases with the three teens, an examination of Pope’s home computer found hundreds of sexually explicit photographs of children in suggestive poses, according to a United States Secret Service agent who testified during the sentencing portion of the trial.

The jury deliberated for three hours before returning the guilty verdict, and for another 90 minutes before returning the sentence.

The lengthy sentence includes the maximum life sentence for each of the sexual assaults and 20 years for each sexual performance case. The fine is also the maximum for these crimes.

Pope will be eligible for parole in the year 3209, according to Texas law.

“This sentence sends a strong message that the citizens of Parker County will not tolerate these types of sex crimes,” said District Attorney Don Schnebly.

Rich’s Note: …and I thought 1,330 years was a lot. Dang!

Source: CBS11tv.com, July 2, 2008

Tags: Crime and Punishment by Rich
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