Society's Child

US: PTA Mothers Charged with Stealing Millions in Ponzi Scheme

Fox 8
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:00 UTC

Approximately $14 million was collected during the scheme which involved more than 40 victims

Three mothers who were on the PTA at Diamond Bar elementary are accused of stealing millions of dollars from dozens of victims in an elaborate Ponzi scheme.

Two of the suspects, 41-year-old Maricela Barajas (aka Maricela Torres) and 50-year-old Juliana Menefee were arrested Tuesday at their homes in Diamond Bar.

The third suspect, 51-year-old Eva Perez, is currently behind bars, serving an 11-year sentence at the Central California Women's Facility on prior felony grand theft charges.

They were charged on Wednesday with 22 criminal counts each of grand theft of personal property and securities fraud, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

If convicted on all counts, the women could get up to 13 years in state prison.

US: TSA to Woman: 'We're Going to Have to Examine Your Hair'

Allen Schauffler
King 5 News
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:36 UTC

Laura Adiele wasn't expecting any trouble when she put her hair up, packed her bags, and headed for SeaTac to catch a flight to Texas. So, she was quite surprised when she was pulled out of the security line after having gone through the Advance Imaging system (that see-through technology) and told she needed a pat-down.

"When I first heard her say, 'We're going to have to pat you down,' I thought she was talking about my body. I was turning around and putting my arms out and she said, 'no, we're going to have to examine your hair,' and I said, 'no, we're not going to do that today and you're going to have to get security or your supervisor,'" said Adiele.

Adiele claims she looked around, saw plenty of other women with "big hair, ponytails" who weren't being searched, and it made her mad. She felt it was discrimination, that she as a black woman with an afro tucked up into a curly bun, was being selected for hand-screening when women of other races weren't. She had nothing to hide but just didn't want strangers feeling her hair.

"It's just totally a violation of my personal space and my biggest question is if I'm going through a full body X-ray what more do you need to find, after that?" Adiele said.

US: Grizzly Kills Hiker in Yellowstone National Park

Associated Press
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:59 UTC

© AP Photo/Yellowstone National Park, James Peaco
In this 2005 file photo, a grizzly bear moves through the brush at Yellowstone.

It's the first such fatality in 25 years

A man out on a hike with his wife in Yellowstone National Park's backcountry was killed by a female grizzly after the couple apparently surprised the bear and its cubs today, park officials said. The attack was the first fatal bear mauling in the park since 1986. "In an apparent attempt to defend a perceived threat to her cubs, the bear attacked and fatally wounded the man," said a park statement. "Another group of hikers nearby heard the victim's wife crying out for help, and used a cell phone to call 911."

UK: News of the World Phone Hacking: Police Review all Child Abduction cases

Amelia Hill, James Robinson, Sam Jones, Nick Davies and Dan Sabbagh
The Guardian
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:39 UTC

© AFP/Getty Images
Madeleine McCann, which is expected to be the first case to be re-examined in the wake of Milly Dowler phone hacking allegations.

Detectives to examine every case involving attacks on children since 2001 in response to Milly Dowler phone hacking

Police officers investigating phone hacking by the News of the World are turning their attention to examine every high-profile case involving the murder, abduction or attack on any child since 2001 in response to the revelation that journalists from the tabloid newspaper hacked into the voicemail messages of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The move is a direct response to the Guardian's exclusive story on Monday that a private investigator working for the News International tabloid, Glenn Mulcaire, caused Milly's parents to wrongly believe she was still alive - and interfered with police inquiries into her disappearance - by hacking into the teenager's mobile phone and deleting messages.

News of the impending police action capped a dramatic day of unfolding developments in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

Last night, it emerged that News International handed to the Metropolitan Police details of payments made by News of the World to senior police officers between 2003 and 2007, the period when Andy Coulson was the paper's editor.

The development brings the crisis closer to the door of prime minister David Cameron who appointed Coulson as his director of communications when in opposition and then staunchly defended him until Coulson quit in January 2011.

US: Rockefeller Imposter Extradited to LA for 1985 Murder

ABC 7 News
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC

A German man accused of posing as a member of the Rockefeller family has been extradited to Los Angeles to face charges connected to the murder of a Southern California man more than 25 years ago.

The man calls himself Clark Rockefeller, but his real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter.

The L.A. Sheriff's Department says Rockefeller is en route from Boston, where he was serving a prison sentence for kidnapping.

He was charged in March with killing 27-year-old John Sohus of San Marino in 1985. Sohus' body was discovered nearly a decade later.

An investigation determined he was killed by blunt force trauma to the head. Sohus' wife, Linda, is still missing.

Authorities won't disclose which jail he will be sent to due to safety reasons. He is due in a Alhambra courtroom Friday and is being held on $10 million bail.

Source: KABC-TV/DT.

Mass Grave with 900 Corpses Found in Iraq

Agence France-Presse
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC

© Agence France-Presse
The Iraqi press and military gather at the site of a mass grave in February 2011, close the northeastern city of Baquba. Iraqi authorities uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of Diwaniyah on Wednesday, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, an official said

Iraqi authorities uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of Diwaniyah on Wednesday, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, an official said.

The corpses were found in the Shanafiya region, 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Diwaniyah.

"The corpses were buried in a trench. There were 900 bodies," said Dakhil Saihoud, provincial head of the Justice and Accountability Commission which investigates issues related to Saddam's regime.

"Initial indications show the remains are those of Kurds. They were transferred to laboratories in the city of Najaf to help in identification," Saihoud said. He said the corpses apparently dated back to the 1980s.

Last April, authorities said they had found another mass grave in Anbar province of western Iraq containing the bodies of more than 800 people, including women and children, executed during Saddam's regime.

US North Dakota: Fireworks Accident Decapitates Fargo Man

Heidi Shaffer
GrandForksHerald.com
Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:37 UTC

© Chris Franz / The Forum
Passersby view the exact area on Kelly street in north Fargo Tuesday, July 5, 2011, where a man died from a firework accident Monday night.

Neighbor: 'I'm never going to light a firecracker again in my life'A 41-year-old father of two was killed when he lit a commercial-grade firework, an explosive that is federally regulated.

Fargo - An eyewitness here says a Fourth of July fireworks accident decapitated a Fargo man Monday night.

Police identified the victim as Jesse William Burley, a 41-year-old father of two, who enjoyed life to its fullest, said Burley's stepfather Chuck Asplin of Fargo.

Chris Hanson, Burley's neighbor who saw the accident, was packing up his car to leave north Fargo's Riviera Heights mobile home park as tornado sirens sounded just before 9:30 p.m.

Burley was getting ready to set off a second round of what Hanson said he believed was either a homemade or illegal artillery shell firework.

"He went over into the middle of the street, and within 10 seconds of us talking to him, he lit it and all we saw was a cloud of smoke, a bang," Hanson said.

What Hanson saw next immediately sent him into shock, he said.

"When I walked up to his body, it was nothing but his shoulders down," Hanson said Tuesday.

Police Lt. Joel Vettel said Tuesday police are confident the device was a commercial-grade firework, which are federally regulated.

The area Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting Fargo police to investigate whether this type of firework was illegal and how it was obtained, Vettel said.

Elderly Australian woman's remains found in her Sydney home, years after she was last seen

The Associated Press
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC

© unknown
Skeletal remains believed to be those of an elderly woman last seen in 2003 have been found in an inner Sydney unit

When an elderly Australian woman apparently vanished from view eight years ago, no one bothered to call the police. Not her relatives, her neighbours, or government officials, who kept paying her welfare benefits into a bank account that sat untouched.

New South Wales state police said Wednesday that they discovered the woman's skeletal remains on the floor of her Sydney home on Tuesday, after her sister-in-law finally called them to report that she had not heard from the woman - who would have turned 87 next month - since 2003.

"It's sad that the woman appears to have died several years ago without anyone noticing," said police Acting Superintendent Zoran Dzevlan.

Police were trying to determine exactly when the woman died, but said they didn't think the death was suspicious.

The woman, whose name was not released by police, was a recluse who had no relatives except for her sister-in-law, Dzevlan said. The two had a fight in 2003 and never spoke again. Police have not said why the sister-in-law waited years to report the woman missing, or what prompted her to call now.

UK - Jilted husband built electric chair in garage in attempt to kill wife

Telegraph.co.uk
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:04 UTC

© Cavendish Press
The home of Andrew Castle who built an electric chair in his garage with the intention of using it to kill his wife.

Andrew Castle, 61, was so furious at the crumbling of his 18 year marriage he planned to rig a metal armchair to the mains - and invited wife Margaret in ''for a chat.''

Castle asked unwitting Margaret to sit in the chair so he could knock her her out with a cosh and throw on the switch.

But Margaret, 61, got up out of the seat and the couple then got caught up in a violent struggle. Castle landed several blows on his wife's head with the rubber cosh but she escaped through a side door.

The fight then carried on outside their £110,000 seaside bungalow in Knott End-on-Sea in Poulton-Le-Fylde, Lancs, before a passer-by intervened and called police.

Margaret was taken to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary to be treated for minor head injuries. Her husband was found in the back garden with self inflicted knife wounds to his wrists after grabbing a blade from the kitchen in a bid to commit suicide.

UK - Phone hacking: families of war dead 'targeted' by News of the World

Mark Hughes, Duncan Gardham, John Bingham and Andy Bloxham
Telegraph.co.uk
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:45 UTC

The bereaved relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan may have had their phones hacked by a private investigator working for the News of the World.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the personal details of the families of servicemen who died on the front line have been found in the files of Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective working for the Sunday tabloid.

The disclosure that grieving relatives of war dead were targets for the newspaper prompted anger among military charities, who said it was a "disgusting and indefensible assault on privacy".