Peruvian mayor poses as corpse to avoid arrest for flouting lockdown
The mayor of a town in Peru posed as a dead coronavirus victim — by lying in a coffin while wearing a face mask — to avoid being arrested for violating lockdown rules that he should have been helping enforce, according to reports Thursday.
Jaime Rolando Urbina Torres was out drinking with friends in Tantará on Monday night when he allegedly played dead to throw off cops who arrived to bust them for defying public health orders amid the pandemic, according to the UK’s Evening Standard.
The mayor — who has already faced criticism for being absent for much of the time during the outbreak — is shown in a photo released by local police lying in a coffin with his eyes closed.
Torres was detained for violating curfew and social distancing laws, the paper reports.
Police claim the mayor staged the macabre scene to appear as if he was a victim of COVID-19, according to The Times. It wasn’t immediately clear where he and his pals were drinking or why open caskets were nearby.
Torres has also come under fire by officials in recent weeks for failing to open emergency quarantine shelters and failing to implement safety checks, according to local media.
Like the rest of Peru, the town of Tantará was placed on lockdown on March 16.
Peru has seen at least 104,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 3,024 deaths linked to the virus as of Thursday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/21/peruvian-mayor-poses-as-coronavirus-corpse-to-avoid-arrest/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Kristen Bell says 5-year-old daughter Delta still wears diapers
Kristen Bell revealed that her and Dax Shepard’s 5-year-old daughter, Delta, is still wearing diapers.
“My oldest daughter at 21 months, we merely suggested that she use the toilet in the other room and [she] never wore another diaper beyond that,” Bell, 39, told Maya Rudolph and Casey Wilson of Lincoln, 7, in Wednesday’s “Momsplaining with Kristen Bell” episode.
“We were lying in bed giggling about this, my husband and I, like, ‘Why does everyone make a big deal out of this potty training? It’s so easy. Just tell the kid to use the toilet.’”
Unfortunately, the couple wasn’t as lucky with their younger daughter Delta.
“Currently, my youngest is 5-and-a-half, still in diapers,” she shared.
“It’s real relative, isn’t it?” Rudolph, who has four children, replied.
“Yes,” Bell agreed, “because every kid is so different.”
Bell and Shepard, 45, began dating in 2007 and married in 2013 in a secret courthouse ceremony.
They welcomed daughter Lincoln in 2013 and Delta in 2014.
Photo Credit: pagesix.com
NJ woman charged with fatally beating wife with wine chiller
A New Jersey woman allegedly beat her wife to death with a wine chiller — a week after gushing about the “uncountable ways” her partner has changed her life, authorities said.
Mayra Gavilanez-Alectus, 48, is being sought by Brick police in the death of 32-year-old Rebecca Gavilanez-Alectus, who was found lifeless Sunday in an upstairs bedroom inside the couple’s Creek Road apartment, Ocean County prosecutors and Brick Township police announced Tuesday.
Cops responded to the residence after getting a report of an unresponsive female. An autopsy conducted the following day determined that Gavilanez-Alectus died by homicide, authorities said.
“The investigation further revealed that a cylindrical container used for the purpose of chilling wine was utilized in the commission of the murder,” the joint statement read. “The injuries sustained by Rebecca Gavilanez-Alectus were consistent with the implementation of this item. Further investigation ultimately determined that Mayra Gavilanez-Alectus did, in fact cause the victim’s death.”
Mayra Gavilanez-Alectus, who was not in custody as of Tuesday, is now wanted as a fugitive on charges of murder and unlawful possession of a weapon, authorities said.
“Our focus now is to find Mayra Gavilanez-Alectus and bring her into custody,” Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said in a statement.
Mayra Gavilanez-Alectus fled the couple’s apartment after the slaying, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office told the Asbury Park Press.
“It is our understanding,” spokesman Bryan Huntenburg told the newspaper when asked if the pair was married.
Mayra Gavilanez-Alectus, meanwhile, praised her partner in a Mother’s Day Facebook post, thanking her for the “uncountable ways” she improved her life.
“Mi amor gracias for all the uncountable ways you make this little crazy family … and my entire life better with every moment,” the post read. “[I’m] truly blessed that you are my wife.”
Calls seeking comment from Brick Township police early Wednesday were referred to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. A message left there was not immediately returned.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/nj-woman-charged-with-fatally-beating-wife-with-wine-chiller/
Photo Credit: Facebook
Doctor dies of COVID-19 after delaying retirement to treat coronavirus patients
(CNN) — Dr. James “Charlie” Mahoney, a physician in Brooklyn for over 30 years, is another front line casualty in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic. But to those who knew him, he lived every day serving others and fought the virus with his endless positive spirit until he physically couldn’t.
Mahoney devoted his entire career to the University Hospital of Brooklyn, SUNY Downstate, where he began his medical schooling in 1982 and eventually worked as a pulmonary and critical care attending physician until COVID-19 sidelined him.
“He was the first one on the front lines taking the onslaught. He was our backbone,” Dr. Robert Foronjy, the Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at SUNY Downstate, told CNN. “He saw this as his calling.”
Mahoney’s family thought he should retire when it became clear just how serious a threat COVID-19 would be, The Washington Post reported. Instead, he put his retirement plans on hold so he could help as many COVID-19 patients as possible.
His daughter, Stephanie Mahoney, said she was worried when he decided to stay on the front lines, especially given his age and health.
“I know the rest of our family was also worried, but there was never a question of was he not going to do it,” she told CNN. “He wasn’t going to step back and he was going to try to help people, and as many people as he could.”
His patients could always reach him. He always gave them his cell phone number.
“He was almost like the mayor walking the halls of Downstate,” Foronjy said.
He even had family on campus. His older brother Dr. Melvin Mahoney is an internal medicine physician at the hospital. They’d often get each other’s hospital pages, his daughter said.
Known best as “Charlie”, Mahoney was also a clinical assistant professor at the academic hospital. He supervised and mentored countless medical students throughout his career.
“Sometimes he did it by giving someone a pat on the back and sometimes when they needed a dressing down, but they were always getting the truth from him and they always knew that he cared,” Foronjy said.
‘My dad was a big story teller’
Vytas Vaitkus, a pulmonary critical care fellow, trained under Mahoney for seven years during his time at SUNY Downstate.
Vaitkus was nervous to present a patient to Mahoney his first year as an intern in 2013, because his excellent reputation preceded him, but Mahoney took care of that quickly.
“Before I started he cut me off and started talking about a story. He made me feel completely at ease right away,” Vaitkus recalled.
Mahoney’s kids agreed.
“My dad was a big story teller,” Stephanie said. “He would always tell these stories and he would be so vibrant and so funny and he would be really truly like a character.”
Mahoney brought that energy to the physically and mentally taxing treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients at the beginning of the pandemic.
New York City is considered an epicenter of the virus, with more than 191,000 cases since March, according to city data.
All the patients at SUNY Downstate have suffered from COVID-19 — it’s one of three hospitals in the state ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to dedicate itself entirely to dealing with the pandemic in late March. Four patients died of the virus in one hour that CNN visited SUNY Downstate in early April.
“One of those days in the early kind of beginning, he called me and just was like, ‘you know Steph, this has been one of the hardest days I’ve ever had in in medicine,'” his daughter said.
‘My number one guy, my best friend and my hero’
Though he worked day shifts at SUNY Downstate, nights at Kings County Hospital Center and served an outpatient practice, Mahoney’s kids saw him as ubiquitous.
Mahoney has three children, Jamie, 31, Stephanie, 27, and Ryan, 25.
“You would’ve thought he had more hours in the day than anybody,” Stephanie said.
Mahoney managed to coach his kids in several sports as they grew up.
“No matter how hard he worked, how long he was at the hospital, he was always there for me growing up. One day he’d be at Downstate, next night at Kings County and during the day coaching my teams and picking me up. He was always here,” his son, Ryan Mahoney, told CNN.
Like his dad, his son Ryan played collegiate baseball and is now pursuing a medical degree at Rutgers University.
“He got me through everything I did — my number one guy, my best friend and my hero.”
His daughter, who’s in law school at Howard University, said he’d even talk to her about medicine.
“Even through his stories he was always teaching us things and teaching us how to be,” Stephanie said. “He would explain a procedure or something like that. And I’d be, like, ‘I mean, I wasn’t calling about this, dad, but sure, you can tell me about that.’ He kind of was unbelievable in that way.”
He was a work-hard, play-hard kind of guy, his kids said. Mahoney loved to travel and usually with his family.
“He loved to cruise,” Stephanie said.
They’d go on family vacations once or twice a year — he and his kids and their extended family since he’s one of five. He’d play Craps in the casino and teach anyone the game if they’d let him. They hoped to go on a trip together when the worst of the pandemic passed, according to Stephanie.
“He worked hard but he also liked to enjoy his life. Even when coronavirus hit he was saying, ‘I had to cancel my trip I’m sad about it,'” she said.
‘He was a doctor right up until the end’
Doctors at Downstate were starting to see the number of critically ill patients shrink by the end of April around the time Mahoney caught the virus, Foronjy told CNN. The hospital has since closed several expanded ICU units no longer needed.
“As soon as we thought we were getting over it, this happened,” Vaitkus said. “It was a gut punch. It sucks your spirit to know you’re trying to do as much as you can for these patients.”
Mahoney checked himself into the emergency department at his own hospital after suffering a week of fever and mild symptoms, according to his family.
“He was a doctor right up until the end,” Foronjy told CNN.
Mahoney was eventually admitted to the ICU and was directing his own medical care up until he was sedated and intubated , according to Foronjy.
“He embodied excellence. The level of skill — that’s a real loss,” Foronjy said.
Unlike thousands of others who died of COVID-19 without loved ones near due to visitor restrictions, Mahoney was surrounded by people who loved him at the hospital in his last days.
His long-time student, Vaitkus, visited Mahoney a few times each day during his final week in the ICU in the hospital they shared for nearly a decade.
“He was so gracious and humble and kind and made you feel warm visiting even when he was critically ill,” he said. “He was so humble even, the fact that he trained all of us and then he’s an ICU patient and thanked all of us for coming to visit” Vaitkus said.
A small army of SUNY Downstate healthcare workers transferred Mahoney to an NYU Langone Hospital that was planning to treat him with a more sophisticated oxygenation treatment. Just as they settled him into the facility, he succumbed to the virus on April 27 — his own colleagues performing chest compressions.
“I think that spiritually he felt us there. It shows you how much people love him. It shows you how much he meant to the institution,” said Foronjy, who was in the room in those last minutes.
“I couldn’t fathom losing him, and it’s still something that everyone here is still having a difficult time processing. I have literally witnessed a village of people die in the past month or two and on top of that you lose someone who was such a good human being,” Foronjy said.
Foronjy, with the hospital organization, has raised more than $30,000 in a GoFundMe campaign that will sponsor a scholarship for a student of diversity at the medical school, in Mahoney’s memory.
In the weeks since his passing, his kids have been flooded with memories and words of support from friends and strangers who knew their dad, Stephanie told CNN.
“It reminds us how many people cared for our dad and how many lives that he touched. It’s almost overwhelming. I couldn’t be more proud to be his daughter.”
Photo Credit: kmov.com/SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Nurse disciplined for wearing bra and panties under see-through PPE gown
A nurse in Russia was suspended from the hospital where she worked in Tula, 100 miles south of Moscow, after she arrived at her shift in the all-male coronavirus patient wing with no clothing save for her skivvies under her transparent personal protective equipment.
The unidentified staffer told her managers at Tula Regional Clinical Hospital that she was “too hot” to wear clothing underneath the head-to-toe vinyl gown, which protected her from contracting COVID-19. The incident was first reported by a local news outlet, the Tula Pressa newspaper.
While there were reportedly “no complaints” from her patients, hospital chiefs punished the nearly nude nurse for “non-compliance with the requirements for medical clothing.” The nurse claimed she did not realize that her underwear was showing through the PPE.
However, the regional health ministry confirmed that “a disciplinary sanction was applied to the nurse of the infectious diseases department who violated [uniform] requirements,” the Sun reports. They did not elaborate on what exactly the disciplinary measure would be.
The hospital administration originally claimed the woman in her 20s had been wearing “lingerie” — but later clarified the two-piece ensemble was possibly a “swimming suit.”
The overheated health care worker has yet to make a public statement on the incident. However, readers of the Tula Pressa had plenty to say.
“At least someone has a sense of humor in this gloomy, gloomy reality,” said Sergey Ratnikov.
Marina Astakhova added, “Well done, she raised the mood of the patients.”
And Valery Kapnin asked, “Why punish the nurse? You need to reward her. Seeing this outfit, no one wants to die.”
As of Wednesday, there have been approximately 309,000 cases of COVID-19 reported in Russia, and nearly 3,000 deaths.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/nurse-disciplined-for-wearing-only-bra-and-panties-under-ppe-gown/
Photo Credit: Tulskie Novosti
Woman charged with assaulting black girl she accused of stealing mail
A white South Carolina woman is facing charges for allegedly assaulting an 11-year-old black girl she accused of stealing her mail – a confrontation her attorney claims was racially motivated.
Elizabeth Shirey, 38, is accused of “aggressively” approaching Skhylur Davis, of Aiken, as the girl picked up her grandmother’s mail with three other friends on May 11, the Augusta Chronicle reports.
“Mrs. Shirey happens to see this young child by her mailbox and proceeds to come out of her home, yell at this 11-year-old girl,” the girl’s attorney, Justin Bamberg, said Tuesday during a news conference. “Mrs. Shirey runs aggressively towards this 11-year-old child accusing her of committing a felony, stealing her mail.”
Shirey grabbed the girl by her arms and tugged on them, according to Aiken Department of Public Safety report obtained by the newspaper.
Shirey’s husband, Justin Shirey told Skhylur the incident wouldn’t have occurred if she was a different “type,” she said during Tuesday’s news conference.
“You don’t have to think about what type he meant,” she said.
The woman apologized to the girl after seeing the address on the mail, the report states.
She then offered her cookies, “as though that makes things better,” Bamberg said.
Elizabeth Shirey has been charged with third-degree assault and battery in the incident. Her husband hung up when reached by a reporter Tuesday, the Augusta Chronicle reports. No racial slurs were said during the confrontation, the newspaper reports.
Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon declined to comment on the case, saying prosecutors will pursue criminal charges.
“All people deserve to be treated justly, all people deserve to be treated fairly and all people deserve to be treated equal,” Osbon told the newspaper. “No one should be treated differently because of race, gender or any other reason.”
Skhylur, for her part, said she hopes Shirey grows from the alleged assault.
“I hope she learns that you can’t do that to people because I’m just as much a human being as you are, too,” she told WACH. “So, this isn’t right.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/woman-assaulted-black-girl-she-accused-of-stealing-mail-cops/
Photo Credit: Bamberg Legal
Florida woman busted for trying to kiss strangers at bar, calling 911 about social distancing
A Florida woman was busted after repeatedly trying to kiss strangers at a bar and also calling 911 five times to complain patrons were not remaining socially distant inside the establishment, according to a report.
Audra Adams, 32, wound up getting arrested for trespassing after she refused to leave Monkey Bar and Grille in Indialantic, reported WKMG ClickOrlando, citing arrest records.
Cops showed up after Adams’ fourth 911 call. Before then, customers at the bar complained to the owner that she tried to kiss several people, according to the report.
At the owner’s request, she reluctantly left the bar, which is serving booze and food under phase one of Florida’s reopening plan. But she refused to leave the parking lot.
“I’ll sit in the parking lot all night,” Adams allegedly told cops who warned her she was trespassing.
She was charged with trespassing after warning, disorderly conduct, resisting an officer without violence and misuse of a 911 system, the report said.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/18/florida-woman-busted-for-trying-to-kiss-strangers-at-bar/
Photo Credit: Brevard County Sheriff’s Office
Virginia family finds bags stuffed with $1M in cash lying on road
A Virginia family reportedly stumbled upon nearly $1 million in cold hard cash lying in the middle of the road.
Emily Schantz, of Caroline County, told a local CBS affiliate that she was driving with her family Saturday when she ran over what they initially thought to be bags of trash on the road.
The family stopped and threw the bag — along with another one about 15 feet away — into the back of their pickup truck.
It wasn’t until closer inspection at home did the family realize they had motored away with the incredible amount of cash in tow.
“Inside of the bag, there were plastic baggies and they were addressed with something that said ‘cash vault,’” Schantz said.
The family said they rang the local deputies after making their discovery.
“For someone so honest and willing to give that almost a million dollars back, it’s exceptional on their part,” Maj. Scott Moser told the outlet.
It’s not clear how all that cash ended up on the road. Authorities are still investigating, but the deputies believe the mailbags full of cash belonged to the postal service and were intended to be dropped off at a bank.
Schantz said she was simply doing what was right.
“Do the right thing and return it,” she said. “Because it didn’t belong to us.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/19/virginia-family-finds-bags-stuffed-with-1m-lying-on-road/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
82-year-old charged with killing lover in violent sex game gone wrong
An 82-year-old Texas man has been charged with killing his secret male lover in a sadomasochistic sex game gone terribly wrong, according to court documents.
Alan Bischof was busted for felony aggravated assault over the death of lover Craig LaMell, 65, who died almost a month after claiming he had been jumped by several strangers near his home in Houston.
The octogenarian was only found out four months later when he was fired from work at Chevron — and his manager found a confession on his work computer, according to an affidavit.
In emails and documents, Bischof went into “great detail” about their “sexual relationship,” which they appear to have hidden, according to the papers.
He wrote about how “they engaged in sadomasochistic behavior” — and that “LaMell had requested Bischof to assault him,” according to the court records.
Bischof described his lover as a “helpless baby” during the attack — and even took a photo of him lying on the ground bloodied with injuries to his face, upper body and arms, the papers say.
The pair agreed on the “mutual plan” of claiming it was a mugging — yet LaMell also gave conflicting excuses to friends, even claiming he was battered by the jealous husband of a woman he was seeing.
Despite initially being discharged from Houston’s Methodist Hospital — including almost a week in the ICU — LaMell died on Dec. 2 after being readmitted for emergency surgery for bleeding on the brain. His death was ruled a homicide from blunt force head trauma, the papers say.
Bischof’s alleged confessionals only came to light on April 29 — almost five months after his lover’s death — when his former manager found them on his work computer after he was fired from Chevron, the papers say.
During his employment, Bischof had signed away any right to privacy on the computer and it was “company policy to monitor soon-to-be terminated employee’s computer activity,” the papers say.
It included a document titled “Confession” — in which Bischof said he planned to kill himself over the accidental death of his lover, the court docs say, with suicide notes to his family also on the computer.
During police interviews, he said that “everything in the letter was correct” — and that they had mutually planned the brutal beating “for several weeks” beforehand.
Bischof, who was 81 at the time of the attack, told officers that “while the blows were hard, they were not as hard as he could possibly punch someone,” the documents state.
Bischof was charged with aggravated assault of a family member because of their relationship. He was released on $50,000 bond.
“I don’t have anything to say right now,” he told KPRC2 on his doorstep Tuesday.
An attorney listed for him, Mike Russo, did not immediately respond to messages Wednesday.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/82-year-old-charged-with-killing-lover-in-sex-game-gone-wrong/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Facebook rolls out new avatar feature, 50-person video messenger
Say goodbye to the days of only being able to express your emotions through the generic sad, happy, angry or thumbs up emojis on Facebook.
Facebook rolled out its Avatar feature to users in the US this week, after launching it last year in other countries.
Similar to Snapchat’s Bitmoji, the feature allows Facebook users to create a cartoon avatar of themselves. They can use the avatar in comments, Facebook stories and messenger.
“So much of our interactions these days are taking place online, which is why it’s more important than ever to be able to express yourself personally on Facebook,” Fidji Simo, the head of Facebook’s app, said in a post.
“With so many emotions and expressions to choose from, avatars let you to react and engage more authentically with family and friends across the app,” Simo added.
If you can’t wait to try out the new feature, follow the steps below to create your own Facebook avatar. These screenshots were taken in the Facebook app on iOS, but the steps are similar in the Android version.
Step 1: Open up the Facebook app on your iOS or Android phone. Then tap on the three horizontal lines in the bottom-right of your screen.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap “See More.”
Step 3: Tap on “Avatars.”
Step 4: Tap “Next” then “Get Started.”
Step 5: Choose a skin tone that best fits yours and then tap “Next.”
Step 6: Now go through each section of hairstyle, hair color, face shape, eye shape and color, makeup, eyebrows, nose shape, facial hair, body shape, outfit, etc. and customize your avatar to your liking. There’s even a section for face lines and complexion if you want to get down to the extreme details.
If you need to a reminder of what you actually look like, just tap on the mirror icon at the top right of the screen to open your phone’s front-facing camera.
Step 7: When you’re done customizing your avatar and are happy with how it looks, tap the check mark in the top right corner of your screen.
Step 8: Once the screen finishes loading, tap “Next.”
Step 9: Tap “Done.”
Yay! Now that you’ve finished making your avatar, you can tap on the arrow sign in the top right to share it to your Facebook feed or set it as a temporary profile picture.
To see the different Avatar stickers, tap on the sticker icon (the smiling square below the arrow) or if you’d like to make any changes to your avatar, click on the pencil icon.
To use your avatar when making comments, simply tap on the smiley face next to the gif icon, and then tap on the avatar icon on the bottom of the screen (fourth from the left).
Article via News4Jax