A man has appeared in court accused of killing his wife in an arson attack after spying on her with secret cameras and posting sexually explicit images of her online.

Denise Michelle Keane-Barnett-Simmons, 36, was found fatally injured in the bedroom of her home in Alric Avenue in Brent, north-west London on April 16.

Neighbours called the fire brigade after a blaze broke out in the early hours of the morning.

Ms Keane-Barnett-Simmons died in hospital later that morning from burns and inhalation of fumes.

On April 29, her estranged husband, Damion Simmons, 44, of no fixed address, was charged with her murder.

He was charged with arson with intent to endanger life in relation to Ms Laigle and criminal damage endangering life.

Mr Simmons was also charged with disclosing private and sexual photographs with intent to cause distress, and voyeurism.

They relate to allegations that before the fire, Simmons had set up covert video cameras in his wife’s home to spy on Ms Keane-Barnett-Simmons and spread a sexual image on social media.

Ms Keane-Barnett-Simmons’ friend, Maureen Laigle, in her 60s, who had been staying at the house, managed to escape through a window leading on to a flat roof after the fire started.

She was rescued by firefighters and treated in hospital for non life-threatening injuries.

Ms Keane-Barnett-Simmons was the niece of the singer Eddy Grant.

On Monday, Simmons appeared at the Old Bailey by video-link from Wormwood Scrubs before Judge Anthony Leonard QC.

He spoke to confirm his identity and gave his nationality as Trinidadian.

The judge set a plea hearing for July 20, when a provisional eight-day trial will be set, and remanded Simmons into custody.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating in relation to previous police contact with the victim a few hours prior to the fire.

via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/man-accused-secretly-filming-wife-152558444.html

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A man in California was arrested three times over the course of 12 hours on Wednesday — including for allegedly leading officers on a pursuit — and was only given citations and released each time due to the statewide zero-bail policy amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to officials.

The Glendora Police Department said Friday on Facebook that 24-year-old Dijon Landrum from Monterey Park racked up three citations between 8:28 a.m. and 8:50 p.m. on Wednesday after three incidents in the city located about 23 miles east of Los Angeles.

“We want to thank all of the citizens that helped with this investigation, particularly those that called when they noticed something suspicious,” police said.

According to police, the first incident happened around 8:28 a.m. when officers responding to a call of a man who was attempting to break into a vehicle on the 1400 block of South Grand Avenue.

When officers arrived at the scene, they contacted Landrum, who was attempting to drive away in a stolen vehicle from the East Los Angeles area. In addition to driving a stolen vehicle, police said the 24-year-old had stolen property and narcotics with him.

“Landrum was arrested,” police said. “Due to the California Zero-Bail Policy, he was issued a citation and released.”

One hour after Landrum was released, officers received a call around 2:20 p.m. of an unknown man carrying a box and walking through the front yards of homes.

“It appeared that the male was placing items in this box as he was walking through the properties,” police said.

When officers arrived on the scene, they encountered Landrum for the second time, reportedly with a box of stolen property. He was issued a second citation and released.

Several hours later around 8:50 p.m., officers received a call of a vehicle that had been stolen out of a parking lot on the 1300 block of South Grand Avenue.

Officers tracked the vehicle and located it heading along the westbound 100 freeway in La Puente, with assistance from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office and California Highway Patrol.

A pursuit eventually ended in Pasadena, where Landrum was once again arrested, this time for allegedly being in possession of a stolen vehicle and for evading officers.

“Due to the California Zero-Bail Policy, Landrum was released with his third citation of the day,” police said.

The zero-cash bail emergency mandate in California, which has lead to reduced prison populations to reduce the spread of COVID-19, is continuing to be a challenge for law enforcement as alleged criminals are released back into the public, according to FOX11.

Last weekend, a man in Chino Hills was arrested four times over the course of two days for allegedly trespassing on the same property, only to be released due to the zero cash bail policy.

Cindy Bachman, the Public Information Officer for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, said Saturday there have been complaints from the community about the new mandate.

“We hear from people and they’re disappointed that someone can commit a crime and they go to jail, we go through the whole process with them and book them for the crime because there is probable cause to do that, and then because of this order, they’re released,” Bachman told FOX11. “People are disappointed, they’re angry, but this is an order. We have to follow it, but we don’t have to be happy about it.”

As the coronavirus pandemic has worsened, concern shifted to crowded prisons in some communities, where inmates not only live in close proximity to one another, but share laundries, baths and communal eating areas.

The United States has 2.3 million inmates in about 5,000 jails and prisons across the country — believed to be the largest prison population in the world. According to the Bureau of Justice, nearly 200,000 people 55 and older are behind bars.

Officials in California, for instance, responded by releasing thousands of non-violent inmates to open up space in facilities to prevent the spread of the virus.

Orange County, Calif., District Attorney Todd Spitzer told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday he was “outraged” after the state ordered the release of seven high-risk sex offenders from the county’s jails over concerns they could contract coronavirus.

“We’ve all been told that during the pandemic we needed to release people early, you know, with less than 30 days on their sentence and things like that because of the underlying health pandemic and the fact that we needed to exercise social distancing within the custodial facilities,” he said Saturday. “However, as you know, in the United States today there is a social justice agenda to end bail for those who are incarcerated and this has gone too far.”

There are 13 exceptions for the zero-cash bail emergency mandate for serious offenses, but child abuse is not one of them.

As of mid-April, over 16,000 inmates had been released nationwide, due to the virus.

There were 53,655 cases of COVID-19 in California as of Sunday, with at least 2,194 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/03/man-arrested-3-times-in-a-day-released-over-coronavirus-fears/

Photo Credit: nypost.com/Glendora Police Department

ALTON, Ill. (KMOV.com) — An Alton woman said her COVID-19 test came back negative, but said she and her doctor are confident she had the novel coronavirus. She blames the negative results on the delay in the Madison County Health Department getting her tested. 

Nancy Hultz said she started getting symptoms on March 18. 

“I got a major headache on the right side of my head that was different than any headache I had and I had that dry cough. I thought ‘do I have mono, do I have a sinus infection, what is going on here,'” said Hultz. 

Hultz said she was also extremely fatigued and was having difficulty breathing. She decided to call her doctor. 

“She said, ‘no sweetie, you don’t have any of that other stuff, you have the coronavirus,'” said Hultz. “She gave me the health department’s phone number. She said ‘you call them, you report it, and you see what they want to do about sending you for testing.’”

Hultz said it took a week before she got a call back from the health department. By the time she was sent for testing, Hultz said she was in her fourth week of symptoms. 

Her test came back negative, though Hultz believes it’s because the virus was already out of her system. 

“I asked the health department why it took so long for me to get tested and they said ‘because we don’t have enough tests.’ They said ‘we are only testing the people who actually go to the hospital and check themselves in,'” said Hultz. 

As of Saturday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 299,896 COVID-19 tests had been performed. Of those, 58,529 were confirmed positive. Still, Illinois lags behind other states in testing. 

“If we have thousands of people at home with this that we don’t even know about then how can we keep track of it?” said Hultz. 

Dr. Alex Garza with the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force called the lack of testing a ‘supply chain issue.’

“It does impact our ability to decrease transmission because we’re missing some of those cases that we might have gotten if we had more supplies to do testing,” said Garza. 

Hultz is hoping to do the antibody test to confirm whether she had it so she can help someone else fighting the virus. The CDC says the antibody tests are slowly becoming available through healthcare providers.

News 4 reached out to the Madison County Health Department and is waiting to hear back. 

via: https://www.kmov.com/news/metro-east-woman-says-health-department-took-weeks-to-get-her-tested/article_9807ec3a-8c16-11ea-92d0-63dd25ed1040.html

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The forecast was ruff for a Florida weatherman whose hungry dog sabotaged his live report by hopping up on his lap and knocking into his computer.

FOX WTVT’s meteorologist Paul Dellegatto was filming the segment at his home near Tampa Bay when his adorable golden retriever, Brody, jumped up to beg for snacks, according to orlandoweekly.com.

“The map’s not gonna move because he just whacked the computer with his head, so let me just verbalize the forecast, OK?” Dellegatto says in the footage, trying his best to continue.

“That wasn’t very smart,” he scolds, wagging a finger at the pooch, who then climbs up onto his lap.

As he finishes the forecast — “clouds overnight tonight” — the pup lets out a big, rude yawn.

The four-legged saboteur then disappears off camera, only to stick his furry head into the final shot.

Oh boy,” Dellegatto groans. “That’s not good.”

Observers quickly took to social media, calling the report un-fur-gettable.

via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/30/dog-interrupts-weathermans-forecast-in-the-most-adorable-fashion/

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NEW YORK (CBS) — Ida Acconciamessa has survived stage 4 melanoma, faced two broken hips, and lived through the Spanish Flu. Now, at 104 years old, she just beat the coronavirus.

“We really didn’t think she was going to be able to pull through this,” her daughter, 77-year-old Barbara Senese, told CBS News. “She wasn’t even able to speak. She was lifeless. And now she’s eating. She’s talking.”

Senese said both she and her sister Johann Giordano, who both used to visit their mother almost every day, last saw her in person at the Sheepshead Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn on March 26, where they were able to see her outside of her window on the first floor, both wearing masks and gloves.

“They brought her to us in a wheelchair by the window. The window was open just a tiny bit so she could hear our voices,” Senese said. “She didn’t move a muscle and she stared at us. Just a stare. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that — ever. We were begging her for 10 to 15 minutes to say something. She said nothing. When we walked away, I said to my sister, she’s sick. She has the virus.”

A week later, on April 4, Senese said she got a call from a social worker at the nursing facility, saying Acconciamessa had tested positive for COVID-19.

“It was a really rough go. I used to just break down and cry,” Senese said.

She said for her mother, coronavirus started with a very bad cough, “and then after that she went strictly downhill.” Acconciamessa became very weak, was put on oxygen, and could barely speak or eat.

“If we tried to call, she didn’t have the strength to take [the phone] off the cradle to speak to us. She sometimes would just say, ‘Too weak, too weak. can’t talk.'”

Other times, when the family tried to video chat with Acconciamessa through a service the nursing facility provides, “ninety percent of the time, my mother was out of it, totally. Eyes closed, in a bed no response,” Senese said.

The family was afraid that due to her age, and recently recovering from both a fractured hip and another highly contagious infection called c.diff, that it was unlikely for her to pull through the coronavirus. The virus can be particularly deadly for elderly people who already have compromised immune systems.  

“My mom made me promise her seven months ago, that when it was her time to be called home back to God, that she would die in her own home,” Senese said. “I said of course, mom, of course. So that tortured me because I remember how she made me promise her… I never thought that if she did pass away, that I would not be with her holding her hand or comforting her during her final days. And that became, for my sister and myself, mental torture,” she said.

But on Friday, April 24, the family received a call from the head nurse caring for Acconciamessa, saying that she was doing “much, much better” and that they might consider letting her go home. On May 1, when CBS News spoke to Senese, she described her mother as “very chatty.”

“At 104 years, I think it’s a miracle to survive through COVID,” said Marco Perrone, the Nursing Administration Supervisor at the facility. “We have people 40, 50 years old, passing due to COVID. So, 104 years old it’s amazing she was able to survive through this.“

Acconciamessa’s daughter describes her as a woman who is a “fighter,” and has always had a positive attitude in life, which she believes has given her “an underlying strength to conquer things.”

Until the age 95, she walked five miles a day in Marine Park, Brooklyn, which she called the “health park,” because she loved to exercise, Senese said. She also ate a red McIntosh apple and drank a glass of red wine every single day until age 102. 

“She always used to say, ‘I was born under a lucky star.’ That was her mantra in life. And you know what? To be able to get through this virus, those words often come to my mind,” Senese said.

via: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-104-year-old-woman-beats-virus/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=87764481

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