Attorney claims he was detained in case of ‘lawyering while black’
A Maryland attorney claims he was mistaken for a suspect and briefly detained by a sheriff’s deputy during a court proceeding earlier this month — a case of “lawyering while black,” according to his attorneys.
Rashad James, a staff attorney for Maryland Legal Aid’s community lawyering initiative, alleged in a complaint obtained by the Baltimore Sun that he was mistaken for his client, who is also black, during his court appearance representing defendants in Harford County District Court on March 6.
“This is actually the first time this has occurred to me, and I do not know of any colleagues who have had a similar experience,” James told the newspaper. “In the moment, it was sort of surreal in the sense that I guess it was just one of those unexpected things that I just did not anticipate.”
James, the only black attorney in the courtroom at the time, said the deputy briefly detained and questioned him on the basis of his race. James’ client, who did not attend the proceeding, had an open warrant out for his arrest, according to the attorney’s complaint.
James provided the deputy with his driver’s license, but the officer didn’t think it was valid. He was released about 10 minutes later, the complaint alleged.
Maryland Legal Aid staffers said in a statement that they were troubled by the “deeply disturbing incident,” which they characterized as an instance of “lawyering while black.”
“If Mr. James were white, the officer would not have doubted that Mr. James was an attorney, would not have questioned his identity, and certainly would not have detained Mr. James after seeing his driver’s license,” said Andrew Freeman, an attorney who is representing James. “There is no plausible explanation other than racial bias.”
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler confirmed in a statement obtained by The Post that his office is investigating James’ claims.
“As with all complaints, the complaints filed on behalf of Mr. James was promptly assigned to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office-Office of Professional Standards for a complete and thorough investigation,” Gahler said. “We take all complaints seriously.”
Gahler also criticized James’ attorneys for releasing the name of the deputy before the investigation has been completed.
“Releasing it without cause, and on speculative accusations alone, can destroy a law enforcement officer’s reputation and threaten their safety,” Gahler’s statement continued. “Noting the need for a thorough investigation and the often incorrectness of premature rushing to judgment that is all too common in our society today, it is disappointing that anyone associated with our legal process would intentionally work to malign the character of another person.”
James, who was not available for an interview early Wednesday, said he’ll now carry business cards with him in the courtroom to prevent a repeat occurrence.
“At no time did I feel in danger,” he told WBAL. “I knew, regardless, that I wasn’t in the wrong.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/03/27/attorney-claims-he-was-detained-in-case-of-lawyering-while-black/
Teacher accidentally played porn during history class: district
A substitute teacher in Michigan showed pornography for at least 30 seconds during a middle school history class, district officials said.
The unidentified teacher at O.L. Smith Middle School in Dearborn had intended to play footage about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but mistakenly aired pornographic material to an entire class of startled seventh-graders on March 13, WJBK reports.
“This event was a very unfortunate and rare occurrence,” the school’s principal, Zeina Jebril, wrote in a letter to parents of the 29 students in the class. “Our district has very powerful and proven filtering software to prevent this type of event from happening. Each day thousands of students log on to the internet throughout the district without incident.”
Jebril said school officials were investigating how the incident occurred and what steps are needed to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
David Mustonen, a spokesman for Dearborn Public Schools, said the substitute teacher was “unaware that the video was there,” blaming the in-class peep show on a technological glitch.
“In this particular instance, it appears that there was some type of loophole,” Mustonen said. “One time too many, but very isolated.”
Police and district officials told WJBK there’s no evidence that a student was responsible for playing the footage, perhaps as a prank.
No criminal intent was found on behalf of the teacher, but the educator won’t be invited back to schools in Dearborn because district officials can’t confirm where the video originated, WJBK reports.
Woman with 2 wombs gives birth twice, nearly a month apart
(CNN) – A 20-year-old Bangladeshi woman gave birth to twins, 26 days after giving birth to her first child.
Arifa Sultana gave birth to a boy in late February, according to Dr. Sheila Poddar, a gynecologist at Ad-Din hospital in Dhaka. After a normal delivery, the mother and baby were released from a different Dhaka hospital. Less than four weeks later, she was admitted to Ad-Din hospital.
“She came to the hospital complaining of lower abdominal pain,” said Poddar. Doctors performed an ultrasound and realized Sultana was pregnant with twins, Poddar added.
Sultana had two uteruses, a condition called uterus didelphys. Her first baby and the twins were conceived and grown in separate wombs.
She did not get an ultrasound before the first delivery. So, it was missed, said Poddar.
“It is not very common to have two uteruses. When the uterus develops, it comes from two tubes and those tubes fuse together. For some women, the fusion does not occur and the dividing wall does not dissolve,” said Dr. S.N. Basu, head of obstetrics and gynecology at Max Healthcare hospital in New Delhi.
Poddar was able to quickly perform a C-section to deliver twins: a boy and a girl. “All three children are safe and healthy,” Poddar said. “The mother is also fine.”
A uterus didelphys is a rare congenital abnormality and the occurrence of twin gestation has an overall incidence rate of one in a million, according to the National Institute of Health.
For it not to be discovered before the birth is even less common.
“From rural areas, people don’t know what is wrong with them, they don’t know how many children they are pregnant with and sometimes whether they are pregnant also,” said Basu.
Florida man faked robbery to get out of work at Hardee’s, police said
DUNDEE, Fla. (AP/Meredith) — Authorities say a Florida man didn’t want to show up for his shift at a Hardee’s restaurant, so he called 911 and reported he’d just been robbed.
WFTS-TV reports that 32-year-old Brian Anderson of Dundee told dispatchers Tuesday that two gun-carrying men took his necklace, money and his phone before jumping into a car and driving away.
Polk County sheriff’s deputies went to the scene and quickly realized that a robbery never happened.
In a Facebook post, the agency said Anderson confessed, adding that “on the bright side, Brian didn’t have to go to his 11 a.m. shift at the restaurant.”
Anderson is charged with misusing the 911 system and knowingly giving false information to law enforcement.
Florida Woman Allegedly Stabbed Husband, then Swiped on Dating App as He Lay Dying
At 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 12, Danielle Redlick called 911, her voice shaking and broken, to report that her husband, Michael, 65, had suffered a “tragedy” in their upscale home in Winter Park, Florida.
“He’s stiff, and he might have had a heart attack,” she told the dispatcher.
But soon, the 45-year-old mother of two’s story changed: “We had an altercation, and he stabbed himself, and I ran into the bathroom,” she said, sniffling. “And I tried to help him, I saw him lying in blood.” When the dispatcher asked her to clarify what killed Michael — a heart attack or the stabbing — Danielle said, “Probably the stabbing triggered it, I guess. I don’t know.”
Upon arrival at the couple’s home, officers found a bloody scene that appeared to have been tampered with, according to an arrest affidavit.
Michael Redlick, an executive at the University of Central Florida who once worked for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, was dead on the floor near the home’s entrance. He was surrounded by a pool of blood, with bloody towels beside him and a trail of blood leading to the master bedroom.
One officer noted that the home smelled like bleach.
The Medical Examiner declared her husband’s death to be a homicide, the affidavit states, noting that his stab wounds were not self-inflicted and that he suffered injuries that appeared to be defensive.
Authorities also noted Danielle waited 11 hours to call 911. During that time, police allege she checked messages on a dating app on her phone.
Three weeks after Michael’s death, Danielle was arrested on charges of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.
“They didn’t have a perfect marriage . . . everybody knew that,” a neighbor tells PEOPLE in is current issue. “But murder? Nobody saw that coming.”
Friends told authorities that there have long been signs of trouble. One friend told police that Danielle was allegedly violent, according to the affidavit. Another friend said that before his death, Michael had described his marriage as “rocky” and would hide his steak knives, saying, “as long as I hide the steak knives everything will be fine.”
A judge ordered that Danielle be held without bond. She has pleaded not guilty.
Her attorney did not return PEOPLE’s message for comment
Man who raped his neighbor, then offered to do yard work to make it up to her gets 50-year sentence
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A 20-year-old convicted of raping his neighbor and then offering to do work around her house to make it up to her is being sent to prison for 50 years.
Jurors in West Palm Beach found Timothy Walding guilty of sexual battery, false imprisonment and armed burglary in October. On Monday a judge sentenced him to a mandatory minimum sentence of 50 years.
Prosecutors say Walding broke into his 35-year-old neighbor’s house in Oct. 2017, and sexually assaulted her for 90 minutes. She said she was tied up and threatened with a knife.
The SunSentinel reports he offered to do landscaping or fix something around the house, which she declined. Prosecutors say he asked her not to tell what happened and they shook hands. When he left she called 911.
Woman wakes up to man in her Manhattan apartment licking her face
LENOX HILL, Manhattan — A 28-year-old woman woke up in her Manhattan apartment building to a man licking and kissing her face, police said.
She confronted the man in her building, which is near East 65th Street and 1st Avenue, during the early morning incident on Sunday, officials said. The woman forced the man out of her apartment and the men fled the scene on foot westbound on East 65th Street.
He appears to have gotten into the apartment through the unsecured front door. Police have asked for help finding the man
Officials described him as balding, but with a beard and mustache. He was last seen wearing a dark colored jacket and blue jeans.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting http://www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
via: https://pix11.com/2019/03/27/woman-wakes-up-to-man-in-her-manhattan-apartment-licking-her-face/
Australian Man sues for $1.3 million over boss’s ‘stinky’ farts
Can regular farting equal bullying?
An appeals court in Australia will have to decide based on a nearly $1.3 million lawsuit filed in 2017 by the former employee of a construction company, who refers to his ex-boss as “Mr. Stinky.”
David Hingst, a 56-year-old former engineer of Melbourne’s Construction Engineering, says supervisor Greg Short would enter Hingst’s small, windowless office to fart “five or six times a day” as part of a larger conspiracy to terminate his employment, the Washington Post reports.
Before Hingst was eventually laid off, “I would be sitting with my face to the wall and he would come into the room … fart behind me and walk away,” the engineer says, per News.com.au, adding he eventually sprayed deodorant at his superior.
“I may have done it once or twice, maybe … but I can’t recall,” Short told the Supreme Court of Victoria last year.
He said if he had farted on or near Hingst, it was not with bad intentions, per the New York Daily News. The court also heard of alleged phone calls in which Short called Hingst “an idiot,” per the BBC, but ultimately Justice Rita Zammit dismissed the suit last April, noting there was “some inappropriate behavior in the office, including passing wind,” but that it “would not necessarily amount to bullying.”
Hingst appealed, and the Court of Appeal heard his claims of harassment, psychiatric trauma, and “severe stress” on Monday. “[Short] thrusted his bum at me while he’s at work,” he told the judges, per News.com.au. A ruling is expected Friday. (This lawsuit claimed a US man was fired for farting too much.)
via: http:// https://pix11.com/2019/03/27/man-sues-for-1-3-million-over-bosss-stinky-farts/
Body of infant found buried in flower pot at Texas cemetery
CARROLLTON, Texas – Police are trying to identify the body of a dead baby girl found in a flower pot in a Carrollton, Texas cemetery March 3.
On Wednesday, detectives asked for the public’s help in the investigation, which began after a worker at Perry Cemetery noticed an “out of place” flower pot and made the grisly discovery after emptying the dirt, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The Dallas County Medical Examiner determined the child’s mother was at least 34 weeks pregnant when she gave birth, according to KXAS. The infant weighed 6 pounds and still had the umbilical cord attached.
The child’s race couldn’t be determined and it’s still not clear whether or not she was born alive pending further tests.
Police believe the flower pot was placed in the cemetery between Feb. 27 and March 2.
Anyone with information about the child’s identity is asked to call police at (972) 466-3324.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/03/27/body-of-infant-found-buried-in-flower-pot-at-texas-cemetery-police-say/
Man recorded women at Long Island tanning salons
LEVITTOWN, N.Y. — A man was arrested after he allegedly recorded women at several tanning salons on Long Island.
Police allege Jake Gabler-Colotti, 22, used a camera to record a customer while she was in a private tanning room at the Beach Bum Tanning salon on Hempstead Turnpike.
Gabler-Colotti is accused of placing a Sony video camera on top of a 7-foot divider pointing it down into the tanning booths.
After police were contacted, Gabler-Colotti was taken into custody.
Investigation revealed Gabler-Colotti videotaped other female customers in Levittown, Seaford and Plainview Beach Bum Tanning salons.
At least 3-5 women were affected and police encouraged other victims to step forward.
He faces charges of unlawful surveillance.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/03/27/man-recorded-women-at-long-island-tanning-salons-police/