Harlem teacher accused of lewd conversations with 18 students
A former Harlem charter school teacher allegedly had lewd communications with at least 18 students, claiming he did it “to be the cool teacher,” according to prosecutors and court papers.
Jeffery Bryant, 25, was busted in March for asking a student for a threesome, sending two other girls sex videos and sexting a fourth teen.
But ADA Melanie Soberal said Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court that the charged conduct is just the tip of the iceberg.
“Since the defendant’s arrest, approximately 18 students have reported receiving inappropriate communications from him, and we’re continuing to investigate that,” Soberal said.
Bryant — who was formerly a middle school history and music teacher at Democracy Prep Endurance — pleaded not guilty Wednesday to five counts of disseminating indecent material to minors and endangering the welfare of a child.
He’d only been at the school for seven months when he was fired in March for sending explicit photos and videos to students as young as 13.
In an interview with cops, he allegedly confessed and said, “I did it to be the cool teacher.”
He allegedly admitted, “I sent male and female pornography and twerking videos. I spoke to them about their personal lives and relationships and told them about my past sexual experiences.”
Defense lawyer Melanie Dearth asked Justice Curtis Farber to lower his bail from $50,000 bond to $10,000.
But Soberal successfully countered that Bryant is unemployed, no longer lives with his wife and is a flight risk.
DA Cy Vance Jr. released a statement urging other victims to come forward.
“As alleged, Jeffery Bryant took advantage of his position as a middle school history teacher to send graphic videos and messages to children in his care,” Vance said. “If you or someone you know has been a victim of abuse, I urge you to call our Child Abuse Unit at 212-335-4308.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/02/harlem-teacher-accused-of-lewd-conversations-with-18-students/
Photo Credit: Facebook
Ohio man raped now-pregnant 11-year-old girl
An Ohio man is accused of having sex with an 11-year-old girl — who is now pregnant, according to local reports.
Juan Leon-Gomez, 26, was arrested early Wednesday when the child was discovered hidden at his Massillon home, about 60 miles south of Cleveland, the Canton Repository reported.
The suspect’s roommate allowed police to search their home after the girl’s mother filed a missing person report, police said. When cops entered the residence, the 11-year-old was found in an upstairs bedroom closet.
Leon-Gomez was already the subject of an ongoing sexual assault investigation involving the girl, according to the Repository.
He was charged with rape, obstructing official business and contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a child.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/02/ohio-man-raped-now-pregnant-11-year-old-girl-authorities/
Photo Credit: Stark County Jail
Burger King spoofs McDonald’s with not-so-happy meals. The options include the “Pissed Meal”, “Blue Meal,” “Salty Meal,” YAAAS Meal,” and the “DGAF Meal.”
(Meredith) — Burger King is rolling out a new box meal called the “Real Meal.” It’s designed as a play on McDonald’s happy meal, and a way to bring attention to mental illness.
In a press release the company said it understands “that no one is happy all the time,” and encourages customers to order a Real Meal to match whatever mood they’re in. The options include the “Pissed Meal”, “Blue Meal,” “Salty Meal,” YAAAS Meal,” and the “DGAF Meal.”
The company also released a promotional video with the tagline “Feel Your Way” — instead of the usual “Have it your way.”
Photo Credit: kmov.com
8-month-old girl dies after being pulled from toilet at Phoenix home
PHOENIX, AZ (3TV/CBS5) — On Wednesday afternoon a baby girl died after being pulled from a toilet at a Phoenix house.
It happened around 1 p.m. at a home near 24th Street just north of Indian School.
Investigators say a 16-year-old called 911 and said her 8-month-old half-sister had wandered out of her sight and she found her in the toilet.
The baby wasn’t breathing when her sister pulled her out.
Firefighters said they moved as fast as they could.
“So we made contact with the child, initiated all of our advanced life support, had that child in back of the ambulance and on their way to Phoenix Children’s under one minute,” said Capt. Rob McDade with the Phoenix Fire Department. “In fact I think it was 42 seconds.”
Phoenix Fire said the little girl was in extremely critical condition on the way to the hospital, but she died at the hospital.
Firefighters say it’s possible the baby may have pulled herself into the toilet.
A homicide unit from the Phoenix Police Department has been conducting interviews to figure out how it happened.
“There’s not any type of crime that I can confirm to you,” police spokesman Luis Samudio said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s under investigation. We have to speak to the babysitter and her parents.”
Several people on the street where it happened literally gasped when they heard the news.
“I think we’re all used to hearing about pools and ‘watch your children around pools,’ but maybe not so much in the confines of your home,” neighbor Ondrea Barber said.
According to Phoenix fire officials, the parents were not at home at the time. Investigators have yet to figure out how long the baby was in the toilet.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
FL Mom threatens to shoot up elementary school after son was suspended for fighting
OCALA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida mother is accused of threatening to shoot up an elementary school after her son was suspended from riding the bus for fighting.
Ocala police officials say 29-year-old Melissa Giddens was arrested Wednesday after officials at College Park Elementary School alerted them to a threatening voicemail she left.
The Ocala Star-Banner reports school officials told officers Giddens’ son had been suspended from the bus three days for an April 29 fight.
An officer went to Giddens’ home and played her the recording of the message. An arrest report says Giddens told investigators she was frustrated with the school and the bus driver.
She was charged with making a threat to kill, do bodily injury or conduct a mass shooting.
She remains in jail. A lawyer isn’t listed on records.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
93-year-old Manhattan doctor still works and has no intention of slowing down
HARLEM, Manhattan — Most people would relax as they celebrate a 93rd birthday, but Dr. Melissa Freeman has no intention of slowing down.
She’s practiced internal medicine for nearly 65 years and still works several days a week at her own medical practice. Freeman specializes in treating opioid addiction. That may sound like a lot for most, but not for Freeman.
“I do intend to do some other things,” she said. “I have to do more.”
She told PIX11 she’s only doing what she’s “supposed to do.”
“That’s to reach out and help,” Freeman said. “As long as I have the opportunity, I know that I must continue to do it.”
Freeman is the granddaughter of a freed slave who, following the Emancipation Proclamation, moved to New York City to start a family.
She continues that tradition of excellence.
Photo Credit: Q13fox.com
Man arrested for repeatedly raping girl at wife’s Bronx daycare center
A man was arrested for allegedly raping a young girl who attended his wife’s Bronx daycare center, police said.
Alberto Hernandez, 60, allegedly perpetrated the sick sex attacks over the course of five years while the victim was 6 to 10-years-old, cops said.
The victim, now 13, recently came forward to police with the horrifying allegations that took place while she attended Maria Cortez Daycare in Kingsbridge Heights.
Hernandez was hit with 13 charges, including rape, predatory sex assault against a child and forcible touching and was awaiting arraignment.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/01/man-arrested-for-repeatedly-raping-girl-at-wifes-bronx-daycare-center/
Photo Credit: Christopher Sadowski
Woman sentenced to die for starving her 10-year-old stepdaughter to death
ATLANTA (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to die by lethal injection for starving her stepdaughter to death in an Atlanta suburb in 2013.
Tiffany Moss, 36, showed no emotion as the Gwinnett County jury delivered the death sentence Tuesday morning, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
On Monday, Moss was found guilty of all counts, including murder, cruelty to children and trying to conceal the death of 10-year-old Emani Moss by burning her body in a trash can.
Moss represented herself at trial and mounted no defense. She made no opening statement or closing argument and called no witnesses.
Her death sentence was the first handed down in Georgia in more than five years.
At trial, prosecutors painted a damning picture of Moss, who they said kept her young stepdaughter confined to a bedroom in their Lawrenceville-area apartment, slowly starving her to death.
A medical examiner described how Emani wasted away without food or water and lived in waste in her own bed because she’d become too weak to move. Authorities say she weighed just 32 pounds when she died.
All the while, the woman fed and cared for her own two children who lived in the same house.
Prosecutors highlighted text messages sent by Tiffany Moss to her husband, Eman Moss, during the time when Emani was being starved. At least twice, Moss sent her husband pictures of meals she had prepared for him and the children that the couple shared.
Prosecutors said it likely took weeks for Emani to die of starvation.
After the girl’s death, Tiffany and Eman Moss stuffed her emaciated body in a trash can and set it on fire.
Eman Moss is serving life in prison without parole for his role in the crime, after pleading guilty to felony murder in 2015 in exchange for testifying against his wife.
Late Monday, jurors asked Gwinnett Superior Court Judge George Hutchinson if they could go home to “sleep on” the sentencing decision after reaching an impasse. The jury of six men and six women agreed to the death sentence after resuming deliberations 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Photo Credit: Bob Andres/AP
Texas bill would ban people from using food stamps on soda, candy, other ‘junk food’
(Meredith) – A new bill in Texas would ban food stamp recipients from using their benefits to buy soda, candy and other junk foods.
State Representative Briscoe Cain (R-Baytown) filed the bill, titled HB 4364, on March 8.
The proposal would prohibit the use of food stamps on drinks that contain 54 milligrams of caffeine per 8 fluid ounces, including energy drinks, KVUE reported.
It would also ban certain potato chips, cookies, and sweetened or carbonated beverages.
Coffee, fruit juice and vegetable juice would not be included in the ban.
Cane said people who utilize the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are “often the most susceptible to diabetes and the serious complications associated with it.”
“HB 4364 seeks to curb the spread of diabetes and other health complications among Texans in at-risk populations by eliminating sugary drinks and snacks from the state’s nutrition assistance program,” he continued.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Amputee Left ‘Crawling Across the Floor’ After Airline Security in Canada Confiscated His Scooter Batteries
A Canadian amputee is petitioning to have his case heard by the Canadian Human Rights Commission after officials at a Calgary airport confiscated the batteries needed to power his portable scooter, according to CNN affiliate CBC.
Stearn Hodge lost his left arm and right leg in a workplace accident in 1984 and uses a scooter powered by lithium batteries to get around. He can wear a prosthetic leg, but not for long because of the risk of infection, according to the outlet.
In 2017, Hodge was traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with his wife for their 43rd wedding anniversary when a security agent at the Calgary International Airport and a representative from United Airlines told him it was unsafe to fly with his scooter’s $2,000 battery and its spare.
Hodge was prepared and presented documents he’d printed from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), that said that while there is a risk of fire hazard with Lithium-ion batteries, the association’s global standards make exceptions for the medical devices of travelers with disabilities if the airlines gives prior approval, the outlet reported.
He had that approval, he told CBC.
But Hodge told the network that no one would listen to him or read the documents.
“I still remember the CATSA agent saying, ‘Well, you could get a wheelchair.’ How’s a one-armed guy going to run a wheelchair?” Hodge told the outlet. “How am I going to go down a ramp and brake with one hand? But that shouldn’t even have to come up.”
The Canadian Air Transit Security Authority declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
When Hodge asked a United Airlines representative to confirm for security that he had gotten permission to bring the batteries on board, CBC reported, the agent sided with security.
Airline: Experience ‘falls far short of our own high standard’
“We are looking into the allegations, and because of the pending litigation, we are unable to provide further comment,” Andrea Hiller, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, told CNN. “That said, the experience described falls far short of our own high standard of caring for our customers. We are proud of the many steps we have taken over the past few years to exhibit more care for our customers and we are proud to operate an airline that doesn’t just include people with disabilities but welcomes them as customers.”
Without the batteries to power his scooter, Hodge told CBC he spent much of his three-week vacation confined to his bed and was left to crawl when he needed to get around.
“An anniversary is supposed to be all about remembering how you fell in love … and keeping that magic alive,” he said, according to the network. “And those things were denied. I’m crawling across the floor and it is pathetic.”
On May 9, Hodge’s lawyer, John Burns, will ask a Federal Court judge to compel the Canadian Human Rights Commission to review the case.
The matter was previously presented to the commission, but last September it was was referred to the Canadian Transportation Authority, which has no power to award general damages, according to CBC.
The Canadian Human Rights Act allows for up to $20,000 in damages for each count of pain and suffering, and up to another $20,000 if the discrimination is “willful or reckless,” CBC reported.
“People with disabilities should be taken seriously. You don’t take away somebody’s legs and then describe it as an inconvenience. No, this is an injury,” Burns told CBC.
Photo Credit: Getty Images