Marital rape is no longer legal in Minnesota with new law
(CNN) — Jenny Teeson accused her husband of drugging and raping her while she slept two years ago.
The Minnesota woman found videos of the incident on her computer, according to the Star Tribune newspaper. However, when the couple went to court, Teeson’s husband agreed to a plea deal, was convicted of invading her privacy and received only a 45-day jail sentence.
That’s because until Thursday, a statute in Minnesota law referenced “the voluntary relationship defense” for criminal sexual conduct crimes that essentially allowed for marital rape. The statute protected people from prosecution if the sexual misconduct they committed was against a partner in an “ongoing, voluntary relationship.”
Gov. Tim Walz made the repeal of the statute official Thursday during a signing ceremony. The new law to eliminate the voluntary relationship defense is set to go into effect July 1.
“The concept of a pre-existing relationship defense should’ve never been part of our criminal statutes. It’s reprehensible and because of Jenny it is now going to be repealed,” Walz said Thursday.
Rep. Zack Stephenson, who sponsored the bill, said the signing ceremony made history in Minnesota as the state moved its laws “out of the 19th century.”
“All Minnesotans deserve to be safe, regardless of who they’re married to,” he said.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said the bill is “a testament to the hard work of victims, survivors and advocates” such as Teeson.
“This journey has definitely been a long one and today is a pivotal moment in Minnesota history,” Teeson said. “Today victims, former victims and people who are still in very difficult situations can know that if they are in an unsafe place, in an uncomfortable place, and things are happening to them that if they do go to the authorities that justice will be served.”
Photo Credit: Steve Karnowski/AP
Former priest who impregnated teen girl will keep his job as middle school teacher
(Meredith) — A man who impregnated a 16-year-old girl when he was a priest will be allowed to keep his job as a middle school teacher in New Jersey, a state arbitrator ruled.
Joseph Michael DeShan was a priest at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1988 when he engaged in longterm sexual abuse with the then-14-year-old girl. Church records list DeShan’s birth year as 1959, which would make him 29 when the abuse started.
The girl worked in the church rectory, according to the Connecticut Post. She became pregnant less than two years into their relationship when she was 16.
According to church records obtained by the Connecticut Post, the girl was fired from her rectory job and DeShan was removed from the ministry in 1989. The police were not informed of the situation, according to church records.
DeShan is included on a list of current and former clergy members credibly accused of sexual abuse released by the Diocese of Bridgeport. The church lists him as having one single allegation.
According to NJ.com, DeShan said the relationship with the teenager was consensual, and he was never prosecuted in Connecticut due to the statute of limitations law on sexual abuse.
In 1990, DeShan was hired as an elementary school teacher in the Cinnaminson School District in New Jersey. Now age 60, DeShan works as a sixth grade reaching teacher at a middle school teacher in the same district. He is listed as having a master’s degree in elementary education.
In 2002, school officials learned of DeShan’s previous sexual abuse allegations with the teen during his time as a priest. He was placed on leave for three weeks while the school investigated, according to NJ.com. But the website reports that DeShan was allowed to return to the classroom after parents and students rallied to his defense.
The issue came up again earlier this year when parents of current students found out about DeShan’s past. They complained to the school board, and tenure charges were filed against him in January.
But arbitrator Walt De Treux for New Jersey’s state Department of Education ruled April 2 that DeShan’s past was not enough to stop him from teaching because “he did not engage in inappropriate conduct while holding public employment [teaching].”
The Cinnaminson School District said they were not happy with the arbitrator’s ruling.
“The district is disappointed with the decision and currently exploring options to resolve the matter. However, it is our district policy to refrain from comments regarding open personnel and legal matters. The well-being of our entire school community is always our highest priority,” Stephen Cappello, Cinnaminson’s superintendent of schools, said in a statement to NJ.com.
The school district’s board of education can appeal the decision to the state Department of Education.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/Cinnaminson Middle School website
Man sought in Bronx robberies, steals $1 from 13-year-old boy
The BRONX — Police are looking for the man wanted in robberies in the Bronx, stealing $1 from a 13-year-old boy.
Around 1 p.m. Thursday, police said a 13-year-old was walking at the corner of East 233 Street and Laconia Avenue when he was approached by man.
He demanded cash from the teen as he simulated a firearm in his waistband, cops said.
The teen complied, and the man fled with $1 before fleeing.
An hour later, police received a report that a 19-year-old was robbed of his Apple Airpods in the corner of Holland Avenue and East Gun Hill Road.
According to cops, the alleged thief stated “If you say something funny, I will shoot you” while simulating a firearm in his waistband.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/05/04/man-sought-in-bronx-robberies-steals-1-from-13-year-old-boy-police/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
For the first time, Miss USA, Miss America and Miss Teen USA have all crowned black women
Get a room … in jail!
A horny “couple” were caught having drunken sex — right outside a Florida police station, according to reports.
Gary Hill and Crystal Frances were “actively engaging in sexual intercourse” when officers found them just steps outside their own police HQ in Key West, according to NBC Miami.
“I’m horny,” Hill, 46, told cops, according to the police report. “She was giving it up to me right then and there.”
Arresting officer Brian Leary said he found Hill with his “shorts down around his ankles” and his female companion wearing no pants or underwear, with a half-empty bottle of vodka beside them.
“I asked both parties what they were doing. Hill said, ‘It was a Key West moment,’” the officer wrote in his report, according to The Smoking Gun.
Hill was arrested and faces a charge of lewd and lascivious/indecent exposure and having sex in public.
Frances was so intoxicated that police took her to the hospital with officers planning a warrant for her arrest when she was fit to be interviewed, according to the police report.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/05/couple-caught-having-sex-outside-florida-police-station/
Photo Credit: Monroe County Sheriff’s Office
Woman’s scalp burned during salon appointment to get hair lightened, lawsuit alleges
HOUSTON, Texas — A woman claims her trip to the salon back on March 19 left her severely disfigured after she went to an appointment to get her hair lightened.
“One of the reasons why I came to do this interview is because many women, we get this done and we have to be very careful,” said Idania Rivera, the plaintiff, who spoke at a press conference on Wednesday through an interpreter.
Rivera’s head was bandaged and she claims an entire section of her scalp was destroyed after sustaining third-degree burns. She said a stylist applied a hair product and then allowed her to leave the salon to go pick up her daughter.
After she left, she claims her scalp started to burn.
“I felt like someone was pulling my hair and I could feel my head burning,” she said.
The woman claims she went back to the salon and told the stylist, who she says washed out the product and gave her pain medicine.
In the days and weeks that followed, Rivera claims she made multiple trips to the emergency room, and a large portion of her scalp was damaged and no longer has hair follicles.
The lawsuit filed in Harris County on Wednesday morning alleges negligence on behalf of the salon owners, the manufacturer of the hair product that was used and the parent company, Henkel.
“Nobody expects to go in to a hair salon and come out of there scalped, which is essentially what happened to our client,” said Hilda Sibrian, one of Rivera’s attorneys.
ABC13 reached out to Henkel for comment just a few hours after the suit was filed. The company responded with this statement:
“We care deeply about people who use our products. We have not been contacted by this individual or either of the two law firms. Therefore, we have no information about this situation and cannot comment on this person’s experience. We welcome contacts through our call line to address questions and comments.”
Attempts were made to speak to the owners of the salon, but were denied.
Medical scientist Dr. Noreen Kahn-Mayberry is not connected to this situation, but says generally speaking, anytime the word “lightener” is used with hair products, consumers need to pay attention.
“Hair lighteners are bleach and I think people tend to forget that,” Dr. Kahn-Mayberry said.
She explains hair procedures involving chemicals need to be left to licensed professionals to handle and says clients need to make sure their stylist has proper training.
“You definitely want to be monitored by a professional the entire time you have that on your hair, because you have a lot of strong oxidizing agents that are irritants,” Dr. Kahn-Mayberry said.
via: https://abc7chicago.com/health/womans-scalp-burned-during-salon-appointment-lawsuit-alleges/5281981/
Photo Credit from Video Still: abc7chicago.com
Gang Knocks out Black Man, Tries Carving Racist Tattoo, Gets Spelling Wrong
When the a black gang member allegedly violated the group’s rules, white members decided to administer punishment by covering one of his tattoos with a racial slur.
However, they were let down by their spelling and ended up writing what looked like an insult to an African country instead.
According to Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Lucian Evans told them that he, Brandon Hayley, Brett Singleton and Mary Elizabeth Durham were trying to discipline Michael Hart.
The incident unfolded on January 28 in Salt Springs, a town approximately 80 miles north of Orlando, Florida.
Hart told the police the quartet showed up at his house one night intent to forcibly cover his CWB tattoo with a knife. Hart initially tried to resist, before being knocked out by Hayley.
Once he woke up, however, instead of the intended racial insult, Hart’s neck carried the message “F*** you, Niger.”
Niger is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordering Lybia, Chad, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin and Algeria.
According to the Miami Herald, while it happened between members of a gang, this kind of incident violates rules in every U.S. jurisdictions.
The police report stated Hart passed out from the pain and when he woke up he felt he had been sodomized.
“When he woke up, his pants were twisted and his ‘butt’ hurt,” the arrest report read. “[Hart] stated he was wearing blue jeans and felt something wet in his pants. [Hart] stated when he looked at his pants, he saw what he believed to be blood. Michael stated he felt like he’d been sodomized, but could not provide any more details.”
While Hart told the police Evans carried a sheathed, fixed blade knife , the latter insisted it was Singleton who used the weapon to cover the “patch” as tattoos are also known in the gang world.
According to the report, the old tattoo remains visible underneath the new one.
The oldest of the foursome at 45, Singleton is yet to be charged for his role in the incident, while the other three members of the quartet are well-known to local law enforcement agencies.
Evans was jailed for a combined two-and-a-half years for theft with a firearm and possession of cocaine and robbery. Durham, meanwhile, has been arrested eight times in the last decade and was apprehended on account of armed robbery and aggravated battery.
The police arrested Hayley for his role in the incident on two counts of battery, one count each of aggravated battery and armed robbery, marking his seventh arrest in the last nine years.
Photo Credit: start.att.net/newsweek
Florida Man Accused of Bashing 3-Year-Old Girl’s Head With Brick, Leaving Her in Trash Bin
Police say an 18-year-old Florida man beat a 3-year-old girl with a brick inside a community recycling bin, leaving her critically injured.
Miami Gardens police charged Tristan Tavares Bernard with attempted second-degree murder and other felonies Friday in connection with the Thursday night attack.
Police say Bernard’s mother was babysitting the girl. Neighbors told reporters they went outside after hearing screams and saw the girl in the bin as Bernard smashed her head with the brick. They said he ran off when they approached. The girl was taken to a Miami hospital for surgery and was in critical condition.
Police say Bernard told detectives he hit the girl because she left the house and wouldn’t listen to him.
Bernard’s family members told reporters he has a history of mental instability.
Photo Credit: Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.
Florida Man Allegedly Tortured Girlfriend’s 2-Year-Old Daughter With Dog Shock Collar, BB Gun, Werewolf Mask
“It’s the thing nightmares are made of and no child should ever be subjected to this.”
Those were the words of Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan as he described the way 37-year-old Andrew Ross Celaius would allegedly torture his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter after she fell asleep.
Morgan said video evidence from surveillance equipment found inside the home, as well as Celaius’ cellphone, shows him burning the girl with a blowtorch, shocking her with a dog collar and throwing a full water bottle at her as she slept.
“We had a number of instances where this individual, the suspect would use an airsoft gun to just shoot a sleeping child, for no other reason but to wake the child up and hurt the child,” Morgan said at a news conference Wednesday.
Morgan said that Celaius also appeared in the video wearing a werewolf mask while tormenting the child.
“The level of terror that this child was put through, our abuser would wear a mask, a werewolf mask and the collar that the chief described is a tasing collar for dogs,” Morgan said. “If you want to think of something you could do to a child to terrorize her, this child lived through that.”
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation after Celaius’ girlfriend brought her daughter to the hospital for treatment of what she thought was ringworm.
“When she took the child to the ER, the ER physicians who are well versed in spotting child abuse quickly determined that that was not any form of ringworm, it was abuse,” Morgan said. “In this case it was burn marks.”
The girl’s mother is cooperating with investigators and has not been charged.
Authorities arrested Celaius and are now working to determine whether or not there was sexual abuse involved, and if others witnessed the videos.
“It goes far beyond just a child being abused,” Morgan said. “Some of this evidence may have been shared in the cloud and shared with other people.”
Deputies also arrested a suspected accomplice, 36-year-old Eric Furnans, who allegedly destroyed evidence for Celaius while he was behind bars.
WEAR-TV reports that Celaius was rushed to the hospital Wednesday night after he was found hanging in his cell, but is still alive.
He is charged with probation violation, possession of a weapon, marijuana possession, drug equipment, drugs-health-safety, six counts of aggravated child abuse, four counts of child abuse and three counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Records show Celaius was charged in the murder of a young child in 2006 but was found not guilty, WEAR reports.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for over 30 years and when I looked at the evidence that I saw here, me and members of my staff were speechless,” Morgan said. “We are comforted to some degree that this precious child will not be harmed tonight.”
Photo Credit: ktla.com/Escambia County Sheriff’s Office
Man takes laptop to Best Buy after spilling gravy on it, gets arrested for child porn
(Meredith) – An Iowa man was arrested after he spilled gravy on his laptop and took it to Best Buy, where employees discovered images of child pornography on the computer, police said.
Robert Leo Watson, 54, allegedly took the laptop to the repair desk in an attempt to save his files, the Des Moines Register reported.
As Geek Squad employees were transferring the files to a new device, they found several disturbing images, according to a criminal complaint. The workers contacted police, who collected both computers as evidence.
Watson was arrested Wednesday on 10 counts of child porn possession.
Police said Watson described several images that detectives found on his computer. He also allegedly admitted to saving the images under file names such as “13 year old” and “14 year old’s.”
Watson remains at the Polk County Jail on a bond of $50,000. His next court appearance is set for May 10.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/Polk County Jail
Woman poisoned boyfriend with Drano so he could enter ‘an eternal sleep’
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Police have arrested a woman in South Salt Lake on suspicion that she fed her boyfriend drain cleaner with the intention to kill him.
A jail booking report shows that 43-year-old Elle Yoshio Weissman was arrested Tuesday after telling investigators she had given her live-in boyfriend Drano so he would enter “an eternal sleep.”
Police were called to a local urgent care center where the man was being treated after Weissman told medical staff that she had slipped her boyfriend Drano. She said her boyfriend thought she was giving him medicine.
South Salt Lake police detective Gary Keller says the 50-year-old victim survived and is being treated at a local hospital.
Weissman is booked in jail. It’s unknown if she has an attorney.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/Salt Lake County Jail