Teacher pleads guilty after having baby with student she adopted
A former teacher in Ohio pleaded guilty to charges stemming from giving birth to her student-turned-foster son’s baby.
Laura Lynn Cross, 37, appeared in court Friday on sexual battery charges in connection with a three-year relationship with the male teenager, the Beacon Journal reported.
Prosecutors alleged that she and the then-16-year-old allegedly became sexually involved in 2013 while he was a freshman at Buchtel High School.
Their relationship reportedly became more complicated in 2015 when the English teacher resigned from the school and asked his mother to be his legal guardian.
Cross allegedly told his mom that she wanted to “mentor” him and was granted partial custody, according to authorities.
Under the court-approved arrangement, Cross and the teen moved in together to her Tallmadge home, officials said.
In June 2015, the boy’s mother filed a police complaint about the alleged affair. No charges, however, were filed until authorities learned that Cross gave birth to the teen’s baby in December 2015.
“First of all, she’s a schoolteacher,” the teen’s father, who didn’t identify himself, told news station WEWS-TV. “To get aroused by a child, basically you have to be a sick individual.”
She was arrested in August 2017 on sexual battery charges after authorities obtained a recording of the teen confessing to his father, according to news site MyTownNeo.
“It was a straight failure from the system,” the teen’s father told WEWS-TV. “From the school and definitely from the police.”
Cross is set to be sentenced May 24.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/03/28/teacher-pleads-guilty-after-having-baby-with-student-she-adopted/
Teacher’s aide arrested for bringing loaded gun to NY school
WEST NYACK, N.Y. — A teacher’s aide was arrested Wednesday for bringing a loaded firearm to a West Nyack-area school, officials said.
Police were called about 9 a.m. about a teacher’s aide possessing a firearm at Jesse J. Kaplan School, located at 65 Parrott Road, the Clarkstown Police Department said. The school educates children and adults ages 5 to 21 who have disabilities, and offers education, nursing services and therapy, its website states.
Gillian Jeffords, 24, was taken into custody after a colleague spotted a handgun in Jeffords’ purse, which was stored inside a classroom closet, and notified the principal who in turn called police.
No students were in the classroom at the time.
The school resource officer, who also works for the Police Department, responded and secured the weapon, police said.
The campus was temporarily locked down and buses taking students to school were re-routed, school officials said.
After being questioned, police said Jeffords was arrested. She has a license to carry in both New York and Pennsylvania, but bringing a loaded weapon to a classroom is a felony, officials added.
Investigators don’t believe the gun — a .9-mm Ruger — was ever taken out of the aide’s bag or used in a threatening manner, according to police.
Jeffords has been suspended with pay, school officials said. She was released on an appearance ticket and is set to appear in court in May.
The ordeal comes more than a month after President Donald Trump promoted the idea of arming teachers in the wake of a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida that resulted in the deaths of 17 people.
It is not yet known why the teacher’s aide was armed.
DMX ordered to serve year in prison in New York tax fraud case; judge plays his hit ‘Slippin’ in court
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge has heard a DMX rap song before adding his own lyrics to a court proceeding, ordering the rapper imprisoned for a year.
Federal Judge Jed Rakoff took requests Wednesday, accommodating DMX’s desire to hear his hit “Slippin’” before DMX faced the music over his admission he committed tax fraud.
The 47-year-old rapper known to law enforcement and the courts as Earl Simmons has been incarcerated since his bail was revoked in January. He sobbed during the proceeding as his lawyer, Murray Richman, recalled his nightmarish childhood.
Richman says DMX has been a model prisoner. Still, prosecutors sought five years in prison for him, citing a lengthy rap sheet and drugs.
Richman wanted him free to support his 15 children and pay back more than $2 million in taxes.
An IN mother accused of leaving her three young children in a burning apartment
A Gary mother accused of leaving her three young children in a burning apartment was denied bond in a court appearance Wednesday morning. Two of the children died in the fire on Sunday.
According to court documents, 33-year-old Kristen Gober’s oldest son, 6-year-old Justen, said the fire started after he and his 4-year-old half-brother, Kristopher, put a blanket on the stove. Justen told police all three kids hid under a blanket before he ran away leaving Kristopher and 2-year-old Kailani alone in the apartment.
Police said their mother left the kids by themselves the night before to be with her boyfriend. She is now charged with three counts of neglect and one count of possession of marijuana
Just last week, Christopher Hardin was in court fighting for full custody of his son, Kris, who did not survive.
“It broke me apart to know that my son was actually calling out for help and she refused to do it,” Hardin said. “I felt like I failed him as a father, because I tried to do it the right way by going through the system and the system failed me and I failed him and it’s tearing me apart every day.”
The father shared his son’s last words with ABC7 Eyewitness News.
“The last words he told was, ‘Daddy I want to come, can I come with you? Daddy I come with you?'”
The court document also revealed that Gober told police she went back to apartment to try to save her children. She said she heard the kids, but the flames kept her back so she left.
Gober was found at a McDonald’s down the street. She said she never asked for firefighter’s help. Instead she told police that she thought it was a lost cause. Gober claims she was doing laundry.
This was the same fire where an 8-year-old boy jumped from his burning fourth floor apartment, ultimately saving his own life.
The fire displaced more than 100 people in the 5800-block of Forest Court.
The Gary Police Department asks that anyone with additional information contact the Lake County/Gary metro Homicide Unit at 219-755-3855 or the Crime Tip Line at 866-CRIME-GP (274-6347).
via: http://abc7chicago.com/mother-charged-after-fatal-gary-fire-denied-bond/3272582/
Priest accused of groping teen, calling her ‘sexy’ indicted
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — A recently ordained Roman Catholic priest accused of groping a 13-year-old girl under her skirt last summer has been indicted on criminal sexual contact and child endangerment charges.
Morris County prosecutors say the Rev. Marcin Nurek touched the girl’s buttocks over her underwear and told her she was “sexy.” The indictment was recently handed up by a county grand jury.
The 37-year-old priest was put on administrative leave by the Diocese of Paterson following his Aug. 3 arrest. He is an emigrant from Poland and was ordained into the priesthood in July.
Nurek’s lawyer, William Ware, declined comment on the indictment on Monday.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/03/27/priest-accused-of-groping-teen-calling-her-sexy-indicted/
Woman in ‘romantic’ relationship with brother charged after giving birth to his baby
A Florida woman reportedly in a “romantic sexual relationship” with her brother was charged after giving birth to his baby, officials said.
Pauline Elizabeth Martin, 33, told investigators she and her brother were living as a couple in Groveland when she became pregnant with his child, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Authorities said they began investigating the woman, who is a McDonald’s cashier, after the baby was born Nov. 21 with “severe medical problems.”
The newborn was immediately transferred to get specialized care at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, where genetic testing revealed the parents were related, the Daily Commercial reported.
Neither parent completed the information on the baby’s birth certificate, according to authorities.
Deputies interviewed the mom at her workplace last week in Leesburg, and she allegedly admitted she has been romantically involved with her brother for the past five years. The siblings reportedly last had sex March 21.
“She said she was going to end her relationship with her brother because she knows it is wrong,” the police report stated, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Martin was arrested Friday on charges of incest and resisting without violence, according to court records. She was released the following day from Lake County Jail on $3,000 bond.
The mom is next scheduled to appear in court April 16.
Officials said they plan to speak to her brother but have been unable to track him down, the Daily Commercial reported.
Ohio Woman Arrested After Allegedly Making Lewd Comments to Easter Bunny
A 54-year-old Ohio woman was arrested Saturday afternoon after allegedly making lewd comments to an Easter Bunny at a carousel park in Mansfield.
According to Mansfield Police Department officials, LaDonna Hughett appeared to be drunk when she made the comments to the Easter Bunny while having her picture taken with it at the Richland Carrousel Park. She then began riding the carousel, KTLA sister station WJW in Cleveland reported.
Police say that Hughett had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, an odor of alcohol on her breath and unsteadiness.
She was arrested on suspicion of drunkenness and taken to the Richland County jail.
via: http://ktla.com/2018/03/27/woman-arrested-for-making-lewd-comments-to-easter-bunny/
Nursing Assistants had sex with psychiatric facility patients
Two licensed nursing assistants are accused of having sexual relations with patients from an Iowa psychiatric facility.
An investigation began when the Prairie View Management Facility in Fayette reported two patients had absconded Feb. 21.
Four days later, deputies with the Fayette Sheriff’s Office learned the missing patients were seen with two nursing assistants from the facility, the Des Moines Register reported.
Authorities soon determined Megan Penney, 26, of Clermont and Paige Johanningmeier, 23, of Elgin, “had developed a relationship with the two patients and once they had left the facility it became sexual,” the sheriff’s office said.
The patients were at Prairie View under court order due to mental illness, the Register reported.
Penney and Johnningmeier were arrested Tuesday on a felony sex exploitation charge related to their position as counselors.
Each woman posted $2,000 bond and were released on the day they were booked.
Deputies took one of the patients back to Prairie View; they took the other to a hospital.
A woman who answered the phone at Prairie View told Fox News Friday that staff cooperated with investigators. She said the facility had no further comment and she declined to identify herself.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/03/09/nursing-assistants-had-sex-with-psychiatric-facility-patients-cops/
Mom allegedly killed son, buried him with sheep heads over $3M inheritance
A cancer-stricken mother allegedly killed her 29-year-old son in his sleep and buried his body in a pit with sheep heads to settle a feud over who should inherit the family’s $3 million ranch in Colorado, authorities said.
Deborah Sue Rudibaugh, 68, confessed in July to killing her son, Jacob Henry Millison, and burying his body by herself more than two years earlier, according to court records in Gunnison County obtained by the Denver Post.
But investigators at the time considered Rudibaugh’s confession to be an attempt to shield her daughter and son-in-law from being connected to the gruesome murder.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported that Rudibaugh, of Parlin, was arrested on first-degree murder charges in Grand Junction on Friday, one day after her daughter, Stephanie Jackson, 33, was arrested on the same charge. Investigators believe Jackson killed her brother in order to gain control of the family’s 700-acre ranch in Quartz Creek Valley.
Jackson’s husband, David Jackson, 34, was also arrested Tuesday on charges of accessory to first-degree murder and tampering with the body of Millison, the Denver Post reported. All three remain held in the Gunnison County jail.
The family, according to arrest warrant affidavits obtained by the newspaper, was quarreling over an inheritance from Rudibaugh’s second husband, who left behind sums ranging from $35,000 to $45,000 to four children from his first marriage and $30,000 to Stephanie Jackson.
Rudy Rudibaugh, who died in 2009, left the ranch to Deborah Rudibaugh in his will. The Jacksons then returned to the ranch in 2012 after renting out their Denver home.
Millison filed for a restraining order against David Jackson after he pulled a gun on him in January 2013. Millison later disappeared in May 2015, leaving his vehicles and dog, Elmo, behind at the ranch. An investigation into his disappearance was later launched after several people filed missing-person reports.
Rudibaugh then claimed to investigators that her son went on a motorcycle trip to California and hung with an unpredictable group of friends while he used drugs ranging from cocaine to steroids. She also claimed he took with him a book called “How to Disappear Without Leaving a Trace,” the Denver Post reports.
Rudibaugh later told police Millison “deserted” the family after she tore up a will that split the ranch between him and his sister, replacing the document with a will that left everything to her.
One month later, in July 2015, Rudibaugh admitted killing her son and took deputies to the spot where she said she buried him after claiming he tossed her in a ditch and threatened to kill her if she didn’t authorize a new will excluding the Jacksons.
Rudibaugh, who is now battling breast cancer, told investigators she shot her son in the head as he slept and later wrapped the body in plastic before using her “Yankee ingenuity” and a front-end loader to bury his body in a pile of horse manure in a livestock pen. Rudibaugh said she later moved the body to protect it from being disturbed by animals.
Rudibaugh, according to the affidavit, said she planned to leave behind prior to her death a letter detailing why she killed her son and where authorities could locate his body.
Teacher tells his class not to date African-Americans ‘because they are not worth it’
A Florida teacher has been suspended after his school district concluded he repeatedly used the N-word in class, and told his 7th and 8th graders not to date African Americans “because they are not worth it,” among other violations.
David Swinyar, who says he is white in his personnel file, teaches math at Kernan Middle School in Jacksonville. The school has 1,148 students — 22.6 percent of whom are African American.
Just after lunch on Oct. 6, 2017, a student told a school board investigator that their teacher, Swinyar, and students were discussing relationships.
“If your boyfriend says bad things to you and/or treats you wrong, that means he’s acting like a n—–,” Swinyar said according to student testimony in a school district investigative report. “You all should not be dating all these different African American boys because they are not worth it.”
In what appears to be a separate incident covered in the investigative report, students said Swinyar made other racist remarks in August 2017.
According to the report, Swinyar also used the N-word during an argument with a student.
“If my daughter was dating someone who used the ‘f’ word, I wouldn’t have any respect for that n—–,” a student recalled Swinyar saying, according to an investigative report. Another student then confronted Swinyar about using the racial slur; he denied using it.
The school counselor, quoting a student, reported that Swinyar said, “If [Swinyar’s daughter] was dating someone and that ‘n’ said the ‘f’ word, I would beat him up.”
After he was confronted by a student, other students said Swinyar said, “I would never say that , but if I did, I am sorry.”
Swinyar reportedly said he attended an African American church, and students said he made fun of the preacher’s preaching style. The district also concluded in the report that Swinyar made inappropriate comments to students, such as calling some of them “dumb.”
CNN reached out to Swinyar for comment, but has not yet received a response.
Florida’s teacher union, the Florida Education Association, declined to comment on the situation Thursday.
“One of the FEA’s core values is to ‘value and respect the diversity among all individuals,’” said FEA communications director Sharon Nesvig, when asked for the organization’s general policy on racist language in the classroom. “So, clearly FEA is opposed to using racial slurs and derogatory language inside or outside the classroom.”
Swinyar received a 10-day unpaid suspension for the behaviors documented in the district’s investigation. CNN affiliate WJAX reports Swinyar will also get a letter of reprimand and a mandatory referral to the Employee Assistance Program.
Records indicate Swinyar has taught in the Duval County School Board system since 2012.