White Supremacist Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Role in 2016 Melee in Sacramento That Injured 14 People
The only white supremacist charged in a 2016 melee at the California state Capitol that injured at least 14 people was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison.
William Scott Planer, 36, pleaded no contest in April to assault likely to produce great bodily injury. Sacramento County prosecutors say he knocked a defenseless person unconscious with a pole during a fight between members of the white-nationalist Traditionalist Worker Party and anti-fascist counter-protesters.
A social media video shows the counter-protester trying to rise to her feet from the Capitol lawn after losing a fistfight with another member of Traditionalist Worker Party. Planer runs up behind her and hits her in the head with a pole, using a full baseball bat-like swing. She fell unconscious before three other counter-protesters dragged her away.
He was previously convicted of a Placer County robbery in 2001 and was arrested in 2017 on suspicion of pasting stickers reading “Fight Terror, Nuke Israel” on the front door of a Colorado Springs, Colorado, Jewish center.
Three counter-protesters are preparing for trial this fall on charges from the same confrontation.
At least 14 participants were stabbed or had cuts and bruises, with two surviving critical stabbings. Police also recovered a loaded gun after about 20 white nationalists were confronted by at least 200 counter-protesters.
Independent observers and participants alike criticized police for not moving more quickly to separate the groups.
The Traditionalist Worker Party had a permit to rally at the Capitol, and a California Highway Patrol investigator previously testified that police knew for weeks that a group called By Any Means Necessary and other counter-protesters calling themselves anarchists, anti-fascists, socialists or communists planned to disrupt the gathering, likely using violence.
More than 100 law enforcement officers were caught off guard when the two groups began battling earlier than they had anticipated.
Prominent San Francisco Bay Area anti-fascist leader Yvonne Felarca is among the three counter-protesters facing charges including assault and inciting and participating in a riot. She goes by Yvette Felarca while leading and speaking for the group known as BAMN. Her attorney previously said she was among those stabbed during the confrontation.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Missing Toddler’s Remains Believed to Have Been Found at Trash Incinerator in Virginia
Remains believed to be those of a missing 2-year-old Virginia boy were found Wednesday morning in a steam plant that converts trash to energy, ending days of searching in a case where the boy’s mother is charged in his disappearance, police said.
The remains, suspected to be Noah Tomlin’s, were found at the city-owned steam plant in Hampton just before 9 a.m., nine days after his mother reported him missing from their Hampton mobile home, Hampton Police Chief Terry Sult said.
The plant is where city waste goes to burn. The combustion interacts with a water supply, creating steam that is piped to the nearby NASA Langley Research Center, which uses the steam for power.
City police officers — suspecting the boy’s body may have been taken to the plant or a landfill — spent days sifting through about 2 million pounds of garbage by hand, Sult said. The remains were not incinerated, said Sult, who declined to otherwise describe the remains’ condition or say how they arrived at the plant. A medical examiner will examine the remains for formal identification, he said.
“Make no mistake: This has taken a toll on our community and our first responders,” Sult told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “It will take time for all involved to recover and to heal.”
The mother was arrested four days after she reported the boy missing
The investigation began June 24 when the boy’s mother, Julia Leanna Tomlin, reported him missing. She initially said her son was last seen when he was put to bed around 1 a.m.; she reported him missing that day at 11:36 a.m., Sult said.
Initially, police said no explanation was being ruled out, including the chance he walked away.
But on Friday, Julia Tomlin, 34, was arrested on three counts of felony child neglect in connection with the boy’s disappearance, police said without elaborating.
Investigators still are trying to determine how Noah died, Sult said.
Prosecutors will determine whether more charges will be filed in the case, the chief said. Asked whether anyone else would be arrested, Sult said Wednesday: “We’re not excluding anything.”
Officers picked through trash in awful conditions
Sult didn’t say why investigators started searching the landfill and the steam plant, except that “information gained through the investigation helped focus the search efforts.”
City police officers waded through trash in terrible conditions for days, the chief said.
“You’re dealing with conditions that are high humidity, high temperature. In this case, at the steam plant, they’re in a confined space,” Sult said.
Firefighters monitored carbon dioxide and methane levels while officers searched, and called the officers back when the levels rose too high.
“When you get into that and you smell the odors and you’re in the midst of everything, then you realize what you’re there for, and you’re going through literally millions of pounds of garbage,” Sult said. “It takes tolls.”
Photo Credit: ktla.com
New York may soon require sex abuse awareness in school
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York could soon join 35 other states in requiring schools to teach sexual abuse awareness.
The bill would mandate age-appropriate lessons to help children understand the difference between inappropriate and appropriate touching, and how to report abuse to a trusted adult.
Lawmakers passed the bill, known as Erin’s Law, before adjourning last month. It was blocked for several years after critics said curriculum questions should be left to education officials.
Businessman Gary Greenberg, a child sex abuse survivor, created a political action committee to push for the bill, which he says will empower and protect children.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t weighed in on the measure.
It’s named after an Illinois woman who has lobbied for the law throughout the U.S. after being abused as a girl.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/07/02/new-york-may-soon-require-sex-abuse-awareness-in-school/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
7-year-old boy saves sister who was having a seizure, drowning in pool
BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. – Morgan Smith, 20, was on the bottom step of the pool in her family’s backyard in Brantley County, Georgia when she said black spots started to take over her vision.
Smith has no memory of what happened next.
Luckily for Smith, her 7-year-old brother, Aiden McCullough, was nearby when she had a seizure and fell backwards into the pool.
When he saw his sister fall into the pool, McCullough told CNN affiliate WJAX, “I was thinking, like, ‘Oh, my god. Oh, my God. She’s going to die.’”
McCullough quickly sprung into action, and he said that his instincts kicked in as he grabbed Smith by her hair and held her above the water while he screamed until help came.
“He has never been taught how to help me,” Smith told CNN. “He just knew I needed to be helped and did it.”
Smith said that she would have drowned if not for her brother.
“I know that there are real life angels because I’m lucky enough to call him mine,” Smith said of McCullough. “I have an everyday superhero in my life.”
Smith said she was having seizures two to three times a day, but she recently started taking an anticonvulsant medication and has not had any seizures since.
This was the first swimming incident in which she suffered a seizure, she said and now she plans to always have an adult with her when she goes swimming.
“I love you and I’m so thankful for you every day,” Smith said to McCullough. “You are forever my hero and every day I’m only more thankful that I get to call you my little brother. Sissy always loves you.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images
12-year-old girl arrested for gang assault at Staten Island Mall
NEW SPRINGVILLE, Staten Island — A 12-year-old girl has been arrested in connection with a gang assault at the Staten Island Mall, police said Wednesday.
The attack happened on June 21.
The victims, two 15 and two 16 year old girls, said they were approached by three unknown females who began to punch, push and kick them.
The 12-year-old was arrested on Tuesday on four counts of gang assault charges.
Security has been increased at the mall since the attacks, but many Staten Island parents are on edge and say they don’t feel comfortable having their teenagers at this mall without their supervision.
Staten Island mom Stacey Sobel said she’s afraid to bring her children to the mall, especially her 14-year old daughter.
“I’m here with my two kids and they were afraid to come,” Sobel said. “I had to convince them that I would keep them safe because they don’t feel safe here right now.”
Councilman Steven Matteo said he’s doing all he can to make sure the mall remains a safe haven for families to go to.
“A couple of moms emailed me very concerned and rightfully so,” Matteo said. “I talked to a father yesterday of one of the girls hearing it makes my stomach turn hearing his daughter had to go through that and recover physically mentally.”
Police say they don’t believe the assaults were committed by the same group of girls and say they are actively looking for more suspects.
PIX11 News reached out to mall management, but have not received a response.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Georgia boy dies in 116 degree car as drugged parents slept
DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — Alabama police said the parents of a 2-year-old boy were under the influence of marijuana when the toddler left the house, got trapped inside a hot vehicle and died. News outlets report Melinda and Robert King were arrested Tuesday on charges of manslaughter and first-degree marijuana possession. Dothan Police Capt Will Benny says Castiel King slipped out of the home Friday while both parents were asleep under the influence of marijuana. The toddler managed to get himself into the car but couldn’t get out.
The temperature in Dothan Friday was about 94 degrees, making it about 116 degrees in the vehicle. Benny said there were other children in the house as well.
It is unclear whether the Kings have lawyers.
Photo Credit: Dothan PD
Judge says teen accused of raping girl, filming assault at party deserves leniency because he comes from ‘good family’ and ‘good school’
NEWARK, N.J. (KMOV.com) — A New Jersey family court judge is under fire after his comments arguing for leniency in a rape case became public.
According to a report from the New York Times, Judge James Troiano of Superior Court said the 16-year-old would not be tried as an adult, and said pressing criminal charges in adult criminal court could ruin the teen’s life.
The Times reports the suspect allegedly had sex with a girl who was heavily intoxicated, and filmed the entire act on his phone.
He then shared the video with his friends with the message, “When your first time having sex was rape.”
Judge Troiano’s reasoning for leniency was the teen “comes from a good family who put him in an excellent school where he was doing extremely well.”
He also said the suspect was a candidate to get into a good college and the victim should have been informed that pressing charges could ruin the teen’s life.
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A Hawaiian man wore blackface to court, where he was jailed for life — claiming the offensive get-up was a protest at being “treated like a black man.”
Mark Char stunned the court in Honolulu on Monday when he arrived to be sentenced for a vicious road-rage attack wearing standard orange prison fatigues but with his head completely blackened.
“I prepared myself to play my part in your kangaroo court, treating me like a black man — so today I’m gonna be a black man,” he told Judge Todd Eddins in an almost three-minute rant complaining about unfair treatment and his “incompetent” lawyer, according to Hawaii News Now.
Char is believed to have used a permanent marker for the vile stunt, law enforcement sources told the TV station.
“This continues a pattern of disruptive behavior designed to undermine the administration of justice,” the judge complained.
Char was found guilty in March of attempted murder and assault for stabbing three men when he was cut off on a freeway in 2016. One of the victims was stabbed five times and almost died, the court heard.
However, Char always maintained he only acted in self-defense after being chased and beaten up by the younger man he ended up stabbing.
He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, based on prosecutors’ recommendations, according to the report.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/02/road-rage-nutcase-shows-up-to-court-in-blackface/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
A Wisconsin man was sentenced to 150 days behind bars on Monday for intentionally clogging the toilets in the women’s bathroom at his workplace
Patrick D. Beeman was handed the jail sentence plus three years of probation for repeatedly using a water bottle to create a blockage in the women’s bathroom at the community center where he worked, according to the Sheboygan Press.
Beeman told police “he could not explain this behavior, but simply that he would get very strong urges to do this.”
The man apologized for his behavior in a statement he read during the sentencing hearing.
“I need to make things right and pray forgiveness every day,” he said.
The toilet caper was uncovered when officers discovered an overflowed toilet at the Deland Community Center last March.
Cops then discovered that similar incidents had taken place at least 10 times at the location since April of 2017.
When cops interviewed the manager at Beeman’s temp company, he told them that he received complaints about similar incidents at another location where the toilet clogger had been employed.
Beeman told cops he stopped once he realized there was a criminal investigation.
Judge Kent Hoffmann sentenced him to 30 days for each of the five counts of criminal damage to property, citing the need for a more severe punishment, according to the Sheboygan Press.
n addition to the sentence, the man must pay $5,500 in restitution for the damage he caused from the toilets overflowing.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/01/bizarre-toilet-clogging-obsession-lands-wisconsin-man-in-jail/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Florida man arrested for pelting girlfriend with McDonald’s sweet and sour packets, which prompted her to rip off part of his beard during fight
A Florida man pelted his girlfriend in the “head and face area” with sweet and sour sauce packets Sunday because he was angry she had “bought the wrong food from McDonald’s,” a felony battery complaint said.
Jesus Oscar Ferrer Jr., 30, attacked his girlfriend — with whom he has a child — in the couple’s motel room in Tampa, police said.
A struggle ensued and Ferrer allegedly pinned his girlfriend to the ground. He “placed his palm on her face and pressed her head into the ground using his body weight,” which prompted the woman to rip off part of his beard, the complaint said.
By the time officers arrived, Ferrer had fled the motel, according to the complaint. He was arrested and booked into the Pasco County jail on a charge of felony battery. He made his initial court appearance Monday, according to the Smoking Gun.
Ferrer was charged with battery earlier this year involving the same woman at another motel, the report said. He pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge, was sentenced to time served, and paid $750 in fines and court costs, according to the report.
Photo Credit: Pasco County Jail