‘I’m a white, clean girl’: DUI suspect is the picture of entitlement
A boozed-up South Carolina woman pulled over for blowing past a stop sign at 60 mph told cops she shouldn’t be arrested because she’s a “very clean, thoroughbred, white girl,” according to a police report.
But Lauren Elizabeth Cutshaw’s lecture didn’t convince officers from the Bluffton Police Department — who arrested her on charges of speeding, disregarding a stop sign, simple possession of marijuana, driving under the influence and possession of drug paraphernalia, a police spokesman confirmed to The Post.
After getting pulled over at about 1:45 a.m. Saturday near Bluffton and May River roads, where she was spotted speeding through a four-way stop sign, Cutshaw told cops she had had just two glasses of wine, according to the police report obtained by the Island Packet.
“I mean I was celebrating my birthday,” Cutshaw, who turns 33 on Thursday, told the cops when they asked her how big the glasses were for her alleged two drinks, according to the report.
But she didn’t stop there. Cutshaw gave the officers a litany of other reasons why she deserved to be let off the hook: She maintained perfect grades during all of her school years, was a cheerleader and a member of a sorority. Her partner is also a cop, Cutshaw said.
“I’m a white, clean girl,” Cutshaw said, according to the report.
When the officers asked what exactly that meant, she replied, “You’re a cop, you should know what that means.”
The police report indicated how surprised the officers were by the comments.
“Making statements such as these as a means to justify not being arrested are unusual in my experience as a law enforcement officer and I believe further demonstrate the suspect’s level of intoxication,” according to the report.
The officer also noted that Cutshaw, who had a blood alcohol level of 0.18, failed sobriety tests and had bloodshot eyes. She was also slurring her words, according to the report.
Cutshaw was later booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center. She was no longer in custody as of Tuesday, according to online jail records. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.
Trump’s star voted off Hollywood Walk of Fame
The marker has been pummeled by a pickax and a sledgehammer, but now the West Hollywood City Council has voted to remove President Trump’s star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The panel unanimously approved a resolution urging the Los Angeles City Council and Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to remove the star, Mayor John Duran announced in a tweet late Monday.
The council will send a formal letter to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles City Council and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to consider removing it.
But, according to a statement from the chamber, it’s unlikely it will act.
“The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a registered historic landmark. Once a star has been added to the Walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Because of this, we have never removed a star from the Walk,” said Leron Gubler, the organization’s president and CEO.
Council members John D’Amico and Lindsey Horvath introduced the resolution to remove Trump’s star, which was awarded to him in 2007 for his work on the Miss Universe Pageant, because of his “disturbing treatment of women and other actions that do not meet the shared values of the City of West Hollywood, the region, state, and country.”
“Having a ‘star’ on the Walk of Fame is a privilege that is highly sought after by those in the entertainment industry, allowing Mr. Trump to continue to have a star in light of his behavior toward women, particularly in the #timesup and #metoo movements, should not be acceptable in the Hollywood and entertainment industry communities,” the resolution said.
Because the Walk of Fame, which holds 2,500 stars, is the property of the City of Los Angeles, the city has the final decision.
Trump’s marker has taken a beating.
A man attacked it with a sledgehammer a month before the 2016 election, and last month a protester took a pickax to it
via: https://nypost.com/2018/08/07/trumps-star-voted-off-hollywood-walk-of-fame/
Dead fetus found on plane was left by teen who suffered a miscarriage
The dead fetus found on an American Airlines flight at LaGuardia Monday was left there by a pregnant Brooklyn teen, who suffered a miscarriage inside a lavatory as her twin sister stood guard outside that bathroom, law enforcement sources said late Tuesday.
The 18-year-old East Flatbush woman left the fetus behind on American Airlines Flight 1942 after it touched down in Queens on Monday night from Charlotte Douglas International Airport, sources said.
The flight landed and all the other passengers had deplaned when the pregnant woman rushed to the bathroom with her sister telling crew it was an “emergency,” law enforcement sources said.
A flight attendant told police the woman came out of the bathroom and looked ill, sources said.
The teen checked into Kings County Hospital at 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday and a cleaning crew made the gruesome discovery inside the Airbus A321 at about 7:30 a.m. at Hangar 5, sources said.
Police want to interview the twins, but believe this was a miscarriage and not a criminal act, law enforcement sources said. The foot-long fetus was between three to six months along, sources said.
The City Medical Examiner is working on determining how the fetus died.
“The OCME can confirm we’re investigating what we believe to be a human fetus found deceased on an airplane,” the agency said.
A rep for American Airlines said employees are “working with law enforcement on an investigation.”
The airline later said in a statement: “As we continue to learn more about this tragic and sensitive situation, we are actively cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/08/07/dead-fetus-found-on-plane-was-left-by-teen-who-suffered-a-miscarriage/
15-year-old girl charged with murdering parents
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 15-year-old girl has been charged in connection with the fatal shootings of her parents in their Kansas City home.
Daejona M. Holmes faces two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and tampering with physical evidence. Prosecutors have requested a bond of $150,000.
Certification for Daejona to stand trial as an adult has been submitted.
According to court records, Kansas City police responded to a home in the 5000 block of Belmeade Road regarding a reported shooting on April 9. They found victims Kinderly Holmes and Brian Starr fatally wounded by gunshots inside.
The daughter had called police from a different location, records state. She told the call-taker that a robbery had occurred at the home and her parents were shot. Later she told police her father had shot her mother and she shot her father.
A neighbor reported hearing three shots that evening of April 9. A search of Daejona’s phone, subsequent to a search warrant being obtained, showed recent searches including “Scary movies where kids kill parents,” and rap lyrics about wanting father dead. Also, the search showed a video with Daejona holding a gun and dancing in her bedroom, court records states.
Police also found a hand-drawn depiction of stick figures, one labelled “me.” That stick figure was shooting another labelled “dad.”
A witness told police that he received calls from Daejona saying she needed help. When he met her at McDonald’s, she told him her parents had been shot. The witness added he had to talk her into calling 911.
According to court records, Daejona made nine phone calls with her mother’s phone following the shooting and she waited one hour to call 911.
Bystander shoots gunman who opened fire at back-to-school event
Shocking video shows pandemonium breaking out at a Florida back-to-school event as a gunman opens fire.
A bystander shot the gunman, who was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Saturday after the incident at the “Peace in the City” event in Titusville, police said.
Facebook Live video shot by Dwight Harvey shows women and children rushing frantically into a park pavilion as rapid gunshots ring out.
People can be heard crying and shrieking and one woman in a red shirt can be seen shaking as she clutches a child’s hand and says: “It happened right where we were standing, right there.”
Police said the gunman got into a fistfight at Isaac Campbell Park and returned with a weapon several minutes later, unleashing 12 rounds, WFTV-9 reported.
The good Samaritan, an unidentified vendor, drew his licensed, concealed handgun and fired at the assailant, who was running toward the crowd, according to Florida Today.
The bystander waited for police and was cooperating with the probe, officials said. He was not expected to face any charges.
“We are extremely grateful that nobody else was injured in this incident,” said Deputy Chief Todd Hutchinson. “This suspect opened fire at a crowded public park, this could have been so much worse.”
“Peace in the City” was a backpack giveaway event organized by Harvey’s son, to honor a cousin who was found dead in a burning car in Mims in July.
In Harvey’s video, children can be seen rummaging through backpacks filled with school supplies shortly before the shots erupt.
“We were just trying to do something positive for the community,” he said.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/08/06/bystander-shoots-gunman-who-opened-fire-at-back-to-school-event/
Woman accused of giving birth in car, leaving baby in trash bag
LEXINGTON, S.C. – A South Carolina woman is accused of giving birth in her car Friday, then abandoning the newborn baby in the vehicle.
Brennan Hailey Geller, 21, faces a charge of homicide by child abuse.
The arrest warrant says Geller failed to provide any medical care for the child and “placed the newborn in a trash bag and drove home with the baby in the floorboard,” according to a press release from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office.
“We became aware of this tragic case after Geller was treated at the hospital Saturday morning for blood loss,” Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said. “The medical team caring for Geller told investigators she never told them the baby was in her car.”
The baby’s body wasn’t found for several hours.
Authorities arrested Geller Monday afternoon and booked her into the Lexington County Detention Center to await a bond hearing.
via: https://pix11.com/2018/08/06/woman-accused-of-giving-birth-in-car-leaving-baby-in-trash-bag/
Video captures Brooklyn nail salon brawl, prompting calls for business to close
EAST FLATBUSH, Brooklyn — Calls to close a Brooklyn nail salon are growing louder Monday, days after video was shared online apparently capturing employees attacking patrons with brooms, dust pans and, allegedly, acetone.
The brawl happened at New Red Apple Nail at 1426 Nostrand Ave. in East Flatbush after a customer refused to pay either part of or all of her bill following an apparently botched eyebrow treatment. The customer said she paid something, but the store’s owner said she refused to pay any of the money she owed.
Dozens of protestors gathered outside the salon Monday afternoon demanding the business be closed, and asking that locals take their business elsewhere. Several people held signs stating “Black $$$ matters” and chanted “black dollars matter.”
The protest happened after video was shared on Facebook Friday night showing a group of women in smocks surrounding a woman as a second woman whacks her with a broom. The woman being hit is beaten on the back as she walks out of the salon. That’s when the video shows the women in smocks turn toward two black women huddled against a wall. The groups yell at each other, and one employee throws a liquid at the women.
Surveillance video given to PIX11 Monday shows the beginning of the brawl. It is unclear which party started the fight.
An activist who protested over the weekend claimed the liquid thrown was acetone, the primary ingredient in nail polish remover, and that the altercation began because a woman at the salon with her two grandchildren did not want to pay for a poorly done eyebrow treatment.
“So because she did not want to pay the $5 for her messed-up eyebrows, they attacked this grandmother and her two granddaughters with sticks, threw acetone on them and then called the police on them,” activist Jasmine Johnson alleges.
The woman who initially posted video of the incident also said a patron refused to pay the salon because she felt the employee did not do a good job, prompting the fight. The video has so far been viewed more than 720,000 times.
“Share this cause the cops decided to arrest the black people but not the Chinese people who ganged up on them,” Mercy Maduka stated on Facebook.
Police on Monday confirmed the incident resulted in two arrests.
Employee Huiyue Zhing faces charges of misdemeanor menacing, misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon and harassment. She allegedly beat customer Christina Thomas with a broom, causing a laceration to Thomas’ neck and injuring her back.
Thomas faces charges of misdemeanor assault, misdemeanor menacing and harassment, police said. She apparently punched and slapped someone, dragging them over the floor.
Zhing was hospitalized with visible injuries to her face and body, and Thomas refused medical attention, according to police.
Officers had gone to the salon to arrest a second employee, but that worker was not there at the time.
Police have not confirmed any other details in the case, but a spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office confirmed they are examining all the evidence and will evaluate charges based on that.
Over the weekend, Johnson organized a demonstration in front of the salon.
“We don’t need to protest, we need to financially castrate this business. They cannot survive and we cannot feed them,” Johnson said in Facebook video capturing the protest.
Since the fight, hundreds of negative reviews, often referencing the incident, have been left on the salon’s Yelp page. Many demand it be closed, and tell locals take their business elsewhere.
Police had to escort the salon owners out of the business today as furious community members shouted around them. One person at the protest threw a bottle, hitting an NYPD officer in the back.
9-Year-Old Boy’s Lemonade Stand Held Up at Gunpoint
(Newser) – Deputies in North Carolina say they’re seeking a teenager who robbed a 9-year-old’s lemonade stand at gunpoint, per the AP. The Union County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday that the stickup happened near a traffic roundabout in Monroe, about 30 miles southeast of Charlotte. Deputies say the young drink vendor reported that a male teenager with a camouflage hat and black shirt placed a black handgun to the boy’s stomach Saturday, demanded money and then fled on foot. Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Underwood tells The Charlotte Observer less than $20 in cash was stolen.
According to a statement the sheriff’s office posted to Facebook, authorities found a camouflage hat, a black BB handgun and a stolen metal tin along a trail in some nearby woods. Deputies believe the suspect left a bicycle in the brush for his getaway. Authorities said they’re unsure if the BB gun they found is the same weapon used in the holdup, but that is appears to likely to be the case because of where it was recovered along with the other items.
via: http://www.newser.com/story/262924/9-year-old-boys-lemonade-stand-held-up-at-gunpoint.html
Ku Klux Klan trying to recruit in New York with candy
The Ku Klux Klan has embarked on a recruitment campaign in upstate New York in recent months, dropping off packets of white supremacist propaganda and sweetening the material with bars of Snickers in an initiative seemingly aimed at young people.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday ordered state police to investigate and directed the state police Hate Crimes Task Force to kick off a “public awareness campaign” to counter hate.
The flyers were distributed in Oneida and other counties, the governor’s office said.
“While President Trump and Republicans in Washington sow divisiveness and hate that is spreading like a cancer across the country, in New York we say not here, not now, not ever,” Cuomo said in a news release.
“New York has zero tolerance for intolerance.”
The state police are offering help to local police and county sheriff’s offices. The task force plans a town hall in Oneida County to discuss the issue and send teams to the region to conduct an educational outreach campaign. Oneida’s county seat is Utica and the county is near Syracuse, in the middle of the state.
‘Stand up and come together’
The flyers shocked residents of all ages and prompted them to mobilize against the group and its apparent effort to target children. Residents described the outrage in the town of Westmoreland and their determination to stand together.
“The KKK is a terrorist organization, and even dropping off these materials itself is terrifying, especially when you find something like this in your driveway in the morning,” said Ron Klopfanstein, a teacher, journalist and president of the local historical society.
“It requires a response, and the only way to get through that fear is to stand up and come together. I think the worst part is that a lot of kids found it on the way to the bus in the morning.”
Klopfanstein said community members gathered in Westmoreland to denounce the group.
“We’re a good town, we’re good people, and when something like this happens, sometimes you have to make a statement to remind people that we won’t have this here,” he said.
“Westmoreland stood up to this, and we stood with (the nearby city of) Rome the first time they were faced with this. We are all in this together and ready to stand together to keep hate groups out of Central New York.”
‘Naive’ to think Klan isn’t here
Denise Szarek, a member of the Westmoreland Board of Education, said the Klan campaign with its candy bars seemed to be targeting youths. Most alarmingly, she said, the material contained “recruiting information” and not just propaganda.
“They come between 4 and 6 in the morning so the candy bars and packets are at the end of the driveway when kids are getting on the school bus. The community they hit was a mobile home park so there were a lot of kids in the area, and they hit on some of the side roads, too. Our feeling was that the children (were) being targeted — at least the high school and middle school kids in that age group,” Szarek said.
Klan materials, she said, are easy to retrieve from the web.
“My theory is that it’s someone local who’s downloading them, printing them out and passing it around,” Szarek said. “I mean, it really could be anyone. But I think we’re naïve if we think that KKK members aren’t here, aren’t present in our communities.”
Cuomo’s office urged state residents who have experienced bias or discrimination and want to file a complaint to call the Division of Human Rights toll-free hotline at (888) 392-3644 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, or text “HATE” to 81336.
via: https://pix11.com/2018/08/05/ku-klux-klan-trying-to-recruit-in-new-york-with-candy/
Teen Allegedly Threw Boy, 8, Off 31-Foot-High Waterslide Platform Because Line Was Moving Slowly
An 8-year-old boy suffered multiple broken bones when an 18-year-old allegedly picked him up and threw him over the safety railing of a water slide in Minnesota, causing the boy to plunge about 30 feet, authorities say.
The teenager, 18-year-old Roman Alexander Adams, of Maple Grove, Minnesota, was arrested and charged with third-degree assault in the incident last Tuesday, PEOPLE confirms.
Adams was behind the boy in line at the water park but the individuals did not know each other, police say.
Questioned at the scene by police, Adams, who was in the park accompanied by a female professional personal care attendant, exhibited “some developmental disabilities,” Apple Valley Police Capt. Nick Francis tells PEOPLE.
“The male gave a statement that the line was moving too slow, and so he picked up and pushed the 8-year-old over the top of the slide platform,” he says.
“He understood that doing that was going to cause harm to the individual, he knew that by throwing him over he knew the individual was going to be hurt, he shouldn’t have done it, and he admitted to picking this kid up and pushing him over,” Francis says.
Adams has not entered a plea and will make his first court appearance on Sept. 17, a spokesman for the County Attorney’s Office in Dakota County tells PEOPLE.
PEOPLE’s call to Adams’ attorney, John J. Leunig, was not immediately returned.
The incident at the city-owned Apple Valley Family Aquatic Center occurred just before 1:35 p.m., when police were dispatched in response to an 8-year-old boy with a broken leg, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The boy’s injuries, later diagnosed at a hospital, include the broken femur in one leg, numerous fractures to both feet and shattered bones in a shoulder, the affidavit states. He remains in the hospital and his identity has not been made public, says Francis.
“The family is focusing on the care and recovery of their child, and they have asked that none of their personal information be released,” he says.
The attendant who accompanied Adams to the water park on that day did not witness the incident and was not in the area of the water slide when it happened, he says.
The platform at the top of the slide is 28.1 feet above the ground, according to the affidavit; the top of the safety railing that surrounds the platform, and over which Adams allegedly lifted the younger boy, is 31.9 feet above the ground.
Speaking to police at the water park, Adams “stated that he was waiting in line to use the slide and that it was taking a long time,” according to the affidavit. He “admitted that he threw the child from the platform. Defendant was later interviewed by a detective with the Apple Valley Police Department during which he stated that the line was too long so he ‘pushed’ the child over the railing and saw him fall.”
Francis says the water park has been run by Apple Valley, a municipal suburb of the Twin Cities, for 20 years. “This is absolutely unusual for them,” he says. Emergency calls to the park typically involve “skinned knees, someone takes in too much water, minor medical situations,” he says. “Never do they expect to have someone thrown over the top of the platform down to the ground.”
Adams was booked into Dakota County jail on a $50,000 bond with conditions, and released after posting bond.
The felony assault charge against him carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and fine up to $10,000.