JuristMail - Legal News » crime

FBI Review LA Shooting Security Video

John Fiore — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:58:10 +0000

The FBI is currently reviewing security camera footage for clues in the hunt for the gunman that shot and wounded two men at a Los Angeles synagogue. LAPD detective Rich Wheeler said that federal authorities are enhancing and clarifying the rather grainy footage, which was taken Thursday in the parking garage at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Orthodox synagogue in North Hollywood.

The victims of the shooting are Mori Ben-Nissan, thirty-eight, and Allen Lasry, fifty-three. They were both shot in the legs upon arriving for their morning service. As of Friday they were in good condition. Detective Wheeler said that several motives are being considered, and thinks the shooter knew one of the victims.

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Police Say Dozen People Observed Gang Rape

John Fiore — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:37:44 +0000

Members of the Richmond Police Department reported that roughly a dozen people watched a fifteen-year-old girl get beaten and gang raped outside her high school homecoming dance, and did not report it. Two suspects have been arrested as of Monday, though police say that as many as five others attacked the girl over a period of two hours Friday night.

“She was raped, beaten, robbed and dehumanized by several suspects who were obviously OK enough with it to behave that way in each other’s presence,” Lt. Mark Gagan said. “What makes it even more disturbing is the presence of others. People came by, saw what was happening and failed to report it.”

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Jury Selection in First Polygamist Trial

John Fiore — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:33:55 +0000

Members of the jury continue to be selected in the first criminal trial as a result of the raid of a polygamist cult’s ranch in Texas last year. Over one hundred potential jurors have been asked to come back on Tuesday. Lawyers are seeking twelve jurors and two alternates for the criminal trial of Raymond Jessop, age thirty-eight.

Jessop is the first person to go on trial from the Yearning for Zion Ranch since authorities raided the compound in April 2008. Jessop faces up to twenty years in federal prison if convicted of charges of sexual assault of a child due to his alleged marriage to an underage girl. His alleged wife, according to court documents, gave birth to a child at age sixteen.

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Man Charged for 1989 Killing of Ex’s Child

John Fiore — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:28:09 +0000

A San Diego attorney has been charged with murder for allegedly killing his girlfriend’s daughter twenty years ago so that she could take custody of her granddaughters. Eric Fagan was charged with premeditated murder and attempted murder on Thursday, a day after being arrested at his home in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista. He is being held on a two million dollar bail.

The District Attorney’s office of San Bernadino County alleges that Fagan, now seventy-four, shot and killed Cathy Lynn Paternoster, who was thirty-two at the time. They also allege that he shot and wounded her boyfriend Carl Fuerst, then forty-one, on an evening in October in 1989.

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Two Teens Admit Involvement in School Shooting Plot

John Fiore — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:27:44 +0000

Two teenagers have admitted to being involved in a plot to shoot students and administrators at schools in the farming town of Turner, Oregon. A fourteen-year-old girl admitted to conspiracy to commit assault in a juvenile court hearing on Thursday. A teenage boy also confessed to a similar charge, and has been ordered to serve five years on probation.

Authorities say that four students plotted to shoot several administrators and students at Cascade Junior High School and Cascade High School in April.

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Teen’s Hidden Camera Catches Locker Thief

John Fiore — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:27:12 +0000

An adult hall monitor at a New York high school is currently facing charges of petit larceny after being caught on video breaking into school lockers. The video camera on which the thief was caught was planted by Newfield High School senior Tiana Rapp, who says that she had been stolen from on two occasions for a total of almost two hundred dollars.

Rapp said that officials at the school had told her a student was likely responsible, but she was suspicious. She and a friend set up the camera, which captured the hall monitor going through her belongings. The school has reassigned the woman.

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DA: Arson-Related Heart Attacks are Murder

John Fiore — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:26:35 +0000

Five men were victims of heart attacks during the 2003 blaze that swept through the foothills of San Bernadino, including 70-year-old James McDermith. McDermith was a church deacon who was camping when he noticed smoke, attempting to pack together his things, and suffered a fatal heart attack. Prosecutors charged the suspected arsonist this week with five counts first-degree murder, which could set a new standard for fatalities in arson cases in the future.

Under state law, any death that occurs during the commission of a felony, including arson, can be charged as first-degree murder – but a conviction will hinge on how much time elapsed between the crime and the death and if any other factors contributed.

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Woman Says She Lied About Being Tortured by Whites

John Fiore — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:18:22 +0000

An African-American woman who was at the center of a torture case in 2007 says she lied about being a victim. The case raised many questions about racism in West Virginia at the time. Attorney Byron L. Potts said that Megan Williams will be attending a Wednesday afternoon news conference, during which Potts and Williams will discuss why she lied about being attacked by a gang of white people in Logan County.

Seven people pled guilty to various crimes in her case, and six were convicted to long-term prison sentences. Brian Abraham, the prosecutor who oversaw the 2007 cases, said that Williams’ new claim is absurd. He said that the seven people were convicted based on physical evidence and their own statements.

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Ohio Children Caged by Adoptive Parents Sue

John Fiore — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:17:57 +0000

Two Ohio teenagers that were forced by their adoptive parents to sleep in cages have sued. The lawsuit is against both their adoptive parents and the caseworkers that arranged the adoption. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, on behalf of eighteen-year-old Sharen Gravelle and seventeen-year-old Michael Gravelle.

The adoptive parents, who are also named Michael and Sharen, are currently serving two-year prison terms for abusing several of their eleven special-needs children. The lawsuit contends that the Gravelles were unfit to be parents, and should not have gotten custody of the children.

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Burglar Gets Prison in Cop-Shoots-Cop Chase

John Fiore — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:17:40 +0000

A man has been sentenced to one and a half years in prison for breaking into the car of an off-duty New York City police officer who was later killed in a friendly fire shooting. Miguel Goitia was sentenced on Wednesday in a court in Manhattan. He pled guilty to criminal mischief in September.

Officer Omar Edwards was killed on May 28th, when officer Andrew Dunton saw Edwards chasing the thief with his gun drawn. Dunton mistook Edwards for an armed suspect and fired, killing him. The shooting raised some questions about racial profiling during an internal investigation, as Dunton is white and Edwards was black. A grand jury later voted not to indict Dunton.

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