Mom arrested after reportedly taking video of her daughter licking tongue depressor at doctor’s office, putting it back
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Florida mother was arrested Thursday and charged with a felony after a video she took reportedly showed her daughter licking a tongue depressor in a doctor’s office and then putting it back in with unused medical supplies, KWESreported.
Cori E. Ward, 30, faces up to 30 years in prison if she is found guilty of tampering with consumer products without regard for possible death/bodily injury, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Video surfaced online showing Ward’s daughter at All About Kids and Families Medical Center. In the video, the girl is seen touching multiple tongue depressors before taking one out, licking it and putting it back under a sign reading “PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH MEDICAL SUPPLIES! THANK YOU”.
Ward reportedly posted a defense to Facebook before deleting her profile, saying the incident was not part of a “licking challenge” in which people lick things and returning them to shelves, posting video evidence of it on social media, according to KWES.
Ward’s post continued, saying the video was supposed to be sent only to a few close friends on Snapchat; according to KWES, one of those friends posted the video online.
The medical center released a statement saying it had removed all materials from the room in the video and sanitized the entire facility.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Man arrested after wife allegedly walks in on him raping 9-year-old girl
SLIDELL, La. – A Louisiana man has been arrested for first-degree rape after his wife walked in on him raping a 9-year-old girl, according to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Glenn Mills, Jr., 41, of Slidell, fled his home July 10 after his wife walked in on him “actively involved in a sexual act with a nine-year-old girl that was left in his care,” according to the STPSO.
A St. Tammany deputy assigned to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force found Mills just before 1 p.m. July 11 at a home just off of 2nd Avenue in Harvey.
Mills was arrested on the scene and booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on one charge of first-degree rape and one charge of aggravated crime against nature.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
NYPD catches man using dummy to sneak into HOV lane
BROOKLYN — The NYPD caught themselves a real dummy this time. No, really.
The department’s Instagram posted about an officer who stopped a motorist in Brooklyn for trying to get into the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane using a homemade dummy in the backseat.
“While we appreciate the creativity (and the seatbelt), he still got a ticket,” the NYPD Instagram account wrote.
The violation typically comes with a fine of $100 and points on your license.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/07/11/nypd-catches-man-using-dummy-to-sneak-into-hov-lane/
Photo Credit: instagram
NorCal Baby Sitter, Camp Counselor Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Producing Child Porn
Federal officials say a Northern California baby sitter and camp counselor has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for producing and conspiring to distribute child pornography.
United States District Judge Charles R. Breyer sentenced 21-year-old Ryan Michael Spencer Wednesday.
Spencer pleaded guilty in October to producing child pornography of children he took care of as baby-sitter, camp counselor and teacher-in-training in Aptos.
Federal prosecutors say Spencer molested at least two of the children he babysat, including one boy who was younger than 10 years old. They say investigators found a video on Spencer’s iPhone that shows him molesting one child.
Detectives with the FBI started investigating Spencer after they found child pornography in a computer belonging to Spencer’s co-defendant, Bryan Petersen, a chess coach and tutor in the Tiburon area.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Victorville Man Tried to Hide Loaded Gun by Handing It to 11-Year-Old Daughter During Traffic Stop
A Victorville man was arrested after allegedly handing his 11-year-old daughter a loaded handgun in an apparent effort to hide it from deputies during a traffic stop on Wednesday, authorities said.
Around 10:35 a.m., Gerardo Mora was pulled over by two deputies on Village Drive near Tawney Ridge Lane, according to a Victorville Police Department news release.
The deputies were approaching the car when they witnessed Mora reaching toward a rear passenger compartment, police said.
Mora allegedly handed a loaded gun to his daughter, who was in the back seat, and then directed her to hide it, according to the release.
Deputies found the gun and discovered it had been stolen, police said.
They also recovered about 15 grams of suspected methamphetamine.
The suspect, who is a convicted felon, was booked on suspicion of several offenses, including possession of a controlled substance while armed, carrying a stolen firearm and child cruelty.
His bail was set at $100,000, according to jail records. A court date was set for July 12.
Photo Credit: ktla.com
Ex-Deputy in Florida Accused of Planting Drugs on 11 Drivers Is Arrested
Florida authorities have arrested a former Jackson County deputy accused of making false arrests after planting drugs on drivers, police said in a statement.
The allegations have prompted prosecutors to drop charges in scores of cases.
Zachary Wester, 26, was taken into custody at his Crawfordville home, about 20 miles south of Tallahassee, on Wednesday, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He is being held in Wakulla County Jail without bail, the FDLE said.
He stands charged with felony counts of racketeering, official misconduct, fabricating evidence, possession of a controlled substance and false imprisonment. He also faces misdemeanor charges of perjury, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, the FDLE said.
At least 11 people are suing Wester in federal court for alleged civil rights violations as well.
100+ cases tossed out
At the request of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Wester’s former employer, the FDLE began investigating the deputy in August after bodycam video from a February 2018 arrest appeared to show Wester planting methamphetamine in Teresa Odom’s pickup truck during a traffic stop, FDLE spokesman Jeremy Burns told CNN in September.
At the time, the FDLE was reviewing 254 of Wester’s cases, prosecutors said.
“The investigation shows Wester routinely pulled over citizens for alleged minor traffic infractions, planted drugs inside their vehicles and arrested them on fabricated drug charges,” the FDLE said in its Wednesday news release, adding that it had reviewed more than 21 hours of footage in its investigation.
It added, “Wester circumvented JCSO’s body camera policy and tailored his recordings to conceal his criminal activity.”
Wester’s attorney did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
State Attorney Glenn Hess’ office said in September that 119 cases had been dropped and about 10 people had been released from prison. CNN could not immediately reach Hess on Wednesday, but local media reports indicate the probe has widened since then.
Wester was fired September 10. He had been with the department since 2000, according to Hess’ office.
‘It damned sure ain’t mine’
Bodycam video from Odom’s February 2018 arrest in Cottondale shows Wester approach the car in a friendly manner and explain to the woman that her brake lights are malfunctioning.
He leaves with her license, and as he returns to her vehicle he jokes that his hip almost gave out. Odom tells him her mother is in the hospital and she’s expecting a call from a doctor. Wester tells her that a drug dog is on its way, but Odom says she has nothing in the car and gives him consent to search it.
Wester appears to hold something in his left hand as he dons black gloves before the search. His hand moves out of the frame for a few seconds and returns empty. He finishes putting on the gloves and commences with the search.
After “finding” a bag of white powder in her truck, he places it on the driver seat but doesn’t alert two other deputies on the scene. Instead, he moves it around, first placing it on a spoon and then moving it to the passenger seat. All the while, he continues the chummy banter with Odom.
After searching the passenger side of her vehicle, where he had just placed the baggie, he returns to Odom and another deputy with the spoon and powder. Odom says the spoon is for her yogurt but seems surprised by the bag of powder.
“That is not mine. No, sir. No, sir,” she says.
After the powder tests positive for methamphetamine, Wester tells Odom she’s under arrest as she speaks on the phone with a relative.
“He says it tests positive for amphetamine, so I guess I’m going to go to jail,” Odom tells the person on the phone. “It damned sure ain’t mine.”
Case remains open
Three federal lawsuits have been filed against Wester. Eleven people arrested by him claim the ex-deputy framed them, planting some combination of marijuana, methamphetamine, prescription pills or drug paraphernalia, including syringes and scales, in their vehicles after pulling them over for minor infractions. Two lawsuits were filed in December, and another was filed in May.
In the most recently filed case, Lora Penn, one of nine plaintiffs, says she was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over June 7, 2018. During the stop, she alleged, Wester placed methamphetamine and a hypodermic needle in her purse.
Penn was charged with drug and paraphernalia possession and spent 12 days in jail before “her mother posted bond exhausting her meager financial resources. Penn’s mother was thereafter unable to afford medical care and died due to lack of such care,” the federal lawsuit says.
The FDLE, whose investigators have already logged 1,400 hours on the criminal case against Wester, says the probe remains open and encourages anyone with information to come forward.
“There is no question that Wester’s crimes were deliberate and that his actions put innocent people in jail,” said Chris Williams, the FDLE’s assistant special agent in charge of the Pensacola office.
Prior to his time with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Wester worked in Liberty County. Jack Campbell, the state attorney there, told CNN affiliate WCTV in May that investigators were in the process of “resolving” some cases involving the former lawman. He would not elaborate on how many cases, the station reported.
The station has previously reported Campbell was reviewing 26 cases.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
17-Year-Old Girl Killed By Officers Was ‘in Possession’ of Replica Gun; Bodycam Video to Be Released
Fullerton Police said Thursday they plan to release bodycam video showing the incident that ended with a 17-year-old girl thought to be “in possession” of a replica handgun, being shot and killed by officers on a freeway in Anaheim last week.
Hannah Williams, of Anaheim, was pronounced dead at a hospital after being shot on the eastbound 91 Freeway near Kramer Boulevard on July 5, in an incident involving Fullerton Police Department officers, authorities said.
Police initially said the fake gun “designed to look identical to a Berretta 92 FS handgun” was found next to her.
The details of what happened leading up to the shooting remain unclear, and police have not clarified how the teenager was connected to the fake gun.
The Fullerton Police officer involved in the shooting was wearing a body camera that captured the incident, police said.
Bodycam footage and photos from the shooting will be released in the coming days, authorities said.
Police said information about what led up to the shooting will also be made available.
On Thursday, Williams’ family and their attorney spoke to members of the media to renew calls for information and demand the release of the bodycam footage, and the name of the officer involved.
“The narrative that has been released by law enforcement is completely void of details” civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt said. “The law enforcement officer did not say that she even wielded a gun.”
Merritt alleged that police had not discovered a replica gun until they were given permission to search the car on Monday— three days after the shooting.
“We don’t believe that the weapon had played any role in that incident,” Merritt said.
The family believes that a child may have left the toy gun in the car since the family was sharing it over the holiday weekend
The attorney said the family knows of two witnesses who described seeing the teenager waving a phone around, and one witness, a bystander, who said he saw her waving a gun around. The family believes that witness could not have seen what was happening on the freeway.
“A 17-year-old girl is dead with no explanation,” Merritt said.
Williams, who family members say just got her driver’s permit, is believed to have taken the rental car out to practice driving at about 6: 30 p.m. when she accidentally ended up on the freeway and was involved in a car accident.
The teenager was described as an inexperienced driver who had never driven on a freeway before. Merritt said the earthquake that struck that day may have also contributed to a car crash.
The District Attorney’s Office provided little information on what happened on the road, only saying that an officer saw the car traveling at a high rate of speed and “at some point, the two vehicles made physical contact.”
Williams’ family did not know that their daughter had been shot when police officers showed up at their home asking about the teenager’s state of mind before leading the house, Merritt said.
The family found out several hours later that their daughter had been killed after she had an “argument” with officers, according to the attorney.
The teenager was in a happy and in a good mood the day she was shot because family members were visiting for the holiday weekend, and they were planning on a trip to Hollywood that night, Merritt said.
The family requested that the teenager’s body be turned over to them for an independent autopsy, but authorities had not released the body as of Thursday morning.
Merritt said the family believes Williams was shot three times, but won’t be able to confirm this until the autopsy is performed.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Anaheim Police Department are investigating Williams’ actions leading up to the shooting and the officer’s actions “to determine if his use of deadly force was reasonable and justified,” Fullerton Police said, adding that the department is also investigating the incident.
“We don’t trust law enforcement officers to simply investigate themselves,” Merritt said, pushing for the release of her body within the next 24 hours.
At the news conference Thursday, standing with family members outside the District Attorney’s office in Orange County, the teenager’s older sister described her as a kind and loving person who loved helping people.
Williams was a lifeguard at Knott’s Berry Farm and wanted to save people, her sister said.
“She deserved everything in this world and all the stars in the sky,” 19-year-old Nyla Williams said.
Photo Credit: ktla.com
Couple Arrested For Driving Stolen Car Filled With Uranium, A Rattlesnake And Whiskey
Police officers in Guthrie, Oklahoma, who thought they were carrying out a routine stop of a car whose tag had expired came across a rather unusual stash.
Stephen Jennings was driving with Rachel Rivera in the passenger’s seat of a stolen Ford vehicle when they were stopped by officers at around 11 a.m. on June 25. Officers found there was another passenger in the car—a timber rattlesnake.
Bodycam footage shows one officer spotting the serpent in a storage box on the back seat and exclaiming: “That sucker is huge,” KFor reported.
Jennings admitted to police that he also had a pistol in the console and officers then found an open bottle of Kentucky Deluxe whiskey—but that was not all.
A search of the vehicle also unearthed a canister of radioactive powdered uranium.
With classic understatement, Guthrie Police Sgt. Anthony Gibbs said, “There’s quite a few unanswered questions. So now he’s got a rattlesnake, a stolen vehicle, firearm, and somebody under arrest,” he said.
Police are investigating what the purpose of the uranium was. The dangerous substance has not yet resulted in any charges. “When that happens of course, we call in a company that deals with that specifically and it’s taken safely into possession. The uranium is the wild card in that situation.”
Because Jennings had a valid lifetime hunting and fishing license, possession of the rattlesnake was not illegal.
“It happens to be rattlesnake season at the time, so he can be in possession of this rattlesnake,” Gibbs added.
What Jennings has been charged with, so far, is possession of a stolen vehicle, transporting an open container of liquor, operating a vehicle with a suspended license, and failure to carry security verification form.
His companion faces a charge of possession of a firearm after a former felony conviction.
The timber rattlesnake is one of America’s most dangerous snakes, and their venom contains neurotoxins which can cause muscle necrosis and internal bleeding, although they are afraid of humans, according to SnakesForPets.com.
In May, a woman in Georgia died after being bitten by a rattlesnake in a friend’s garden. Priscilla Meridith, 62, of Brunswick, suffered a heart attack and multiple organ failures following the attack, after she had a severe allergic reaction to the serpent’s venom, according to WJAX-TV.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Mississippi politician tells female reporter she can’t interview him unless she’s with a man
A Republican candidate for Mississippi governor told a female reporter that he couldn’t be interviewed by her unless she was accompanied by a male colleague — later claiming that he was following “the Billy Graham Rule.”
“We just wanted to keep things professional,” said GOP hopeful Robert Foster in a radio interview on Tuesday.
The female reporter, Larrison Campbell of Mississippi Today, had been asking to go on a “ride along” with Foster when his campaign director reportedly refused on his behalf.
“In two phone calls this week, Colton Robison, Foster’s campaign director, said a male colleague would need to accompany [Campbell] on an upcoming 15-hour campaign trip because they believed the optics of the candidate with a woman, even a working reporter, could be used in a smear campaign to insinuate an extramarital affair,” Campbell wrote in a column Tuesday.
“The only reason you think that people will think I’m having a (improper) relationship with your candidate is because I am a woman,” she reportedly told Robison, to which he said: “Can’t risk it.”
“Perception is everything,” Robison added, according to Campbell. “We are so close to the primary. If (trackers) were to get a picture and they put a mailer out, we wouldn’t have time to dispute it. And that’s why we have to be careful.”
Foster, a first-term state lawmaker, corroborated Campbell’s claims in a tweet late Tuesday — saying he was only trying to be respectful to his wife.
“Before our decision to run, my wife and I made a commitment to follow the ‘Billy Graham Rule,’ which is to avoid any situation that may evoke suspicion or compromise of our marriage,” Foster said. “I am sorry Ms. Campbell doesn’t share these views, but my decision was out of respect of my wife.”
Vice President Mike Pence used a similar excuse back in 2002 when he reportedly told The Hill that he refuses to eat alone with any woman other than his wife.
“In our case, it was a female reporter asking to ride along, and my campaign director is in and out and gone sometimes,” Foster explained in his radio interview Wednesday. “It’s just going to be a lot of opportunities for an awkward situation I didn’t want to put myself in.”
The gubernatorial candidate added, “There’s only one person that comes to mind more than anyone and that’s my wife. I’ve always had the same practice in business. I’m not alone with a female employee and put myself in a situation to have a ‘he said, she said moment.’”
Foster was receiving backlash Wednesday in response to his decision, and issued multiple statements in response.
“As I anticipated, the liberal left lost their minds over the fact I choose not to be alone with another woman,” he tweeted. “They can’t believe, that even in 2019, someone still values their relationship with their wife and upholds their Christian Faith.”
Hours later, he added: “I will not be intimidated into a corner of silence by a group of radical Socialists and Communists whose goal in life is to dismantle America. In fact, I’m looking forward to fighting their radical, left-wing agenda.”
Photo Credit: AP
Crazed DMV customer opens fire over slow-moving crowd
A crazed woman was so angry about the slow line at a Kansas City DMV licensing office that she opened fire in the parking lot — injuring no one, but sparking panic during the broad-daylight blow-up, according to new reports.
The woman, whose name was not released, visited the Parkville License Office around 11:25 a.m. Tuesday and quickly became irritated by the large crowd — including mothers with babies and senior citizens with walkers, witness Patricia Zick told the Kansas City Star.
She was very belligerent and used foul language, according to Zick.
“Something was wrong, I don’t know what it is — drugs, mental or whatever — but she just insisted on getting taken care of immediately,” Zick told the paper. “The president’s security was in danger, she said.”
The woman insisted that office workers call their boss, who was not there at the time, according to the report. One of the workers said she’d call the police — to which the woman responded that she had better not.
The banter between the woman and the employees lasted about 10 minutes — until she announced that she’d take care of it and walked out, Zick told the paper.
Then she started digging in her purse, retrieved a gun and blasted in the air, the witness said.
“That’s when we all ran,” Zick told the outlet, noting that she tried all the door handles of local businesses before she finally escaped into a dentist’s office.
“We all ran into the building and they were scooting us out the back door,” Zick added. “We didn’t know if she was coming back in or she had more ammunition or she had been on the phone calling a friend to come back up or what was going on.”
The woman had fired the rounds into a mulch bed outside the office, Major Erik Holland of the Platte County Sheriff’s Office told the outlet.
“We’re still early on in the investigation, but it is to my understanding that she didn’t make it into the DMV,” Holland said. “People saw the gun before she got in. The doors were locked and she fired the shots before she got into the DMV.”
Three police cars sped around the corner into the parking lot — before the officers “jumped out and jumped a woman who was trying to get into her car,” witness Kathy Coulter told the outlet.
“They took her down and handcuffed her right away,” Coulter added.
Witnesses told FOX 4 KC that two men, one of them possibly an undercover cop, wrestled the gun away from the woman.
“I think it could’ve been a warning,” Zick told the station. “It could’ve been the beginning. I don’t know, you can’t judge.”
Zick was taken to the hospital as a precaution, and no one was hurt, according to the reports.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/10/crazed-dmv-customer-opens-fire-over-slow-moving-crowd/
Photo Credit: Platte County Sheriff’s Office