Prosecutor caught having ‘intimate relationship’ with cop accused of raping teen
A Brooklyn prosecutor was caught having an affair with one of the NYPD cops accused of raping a handcuffed teenager, The Post has learned.
Assistant District Attorney Nicole Manini, 34, is under investigation for potentially violating professional conduct rules for New York lawyers, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Manini’s illicit relationship with now-former Detective Richard Hall, 33, was uncovered when investigators with her office reviewed his cellphone records as part of the rape case, sources said.
The phone logs revealed multiple calls between Manini and Hall, who is married with two kids, sources said.
The calls began before the alleged Sept. 15 rape and continued afterward, sources said.
The DA’s office referred Manini for investigation to the court system’s Grievance Committee for the Second, Eleventh and Thirteenth Judicial Districts, which prosecutes cases of professional misconduct by lawyers.
“During our investigation of this case, we learned that a junior assistant district attorney in our office was engaged in an intimate relationship with defendant Hall and knew [second] defendant [Eddie] Martins socially,’’ a spokesman for the DA’s office told The Post Monday.
“This ADA had no involvement in or access to the investigation or prosecution,’’ the rep said. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have disclosed this information to all relevant parties.”
Michael David, the lawyer representing Hall’s rape accuser, said he plans to use the former cop’s affair with Manini in his client’s pending civil rights suit against Hall, Martins and the city.
“It’s completely relevant to this case. It goes to [Hall’s] credibility,” David said.
Hall and his former partner, Martins, are accused in a 50-count indictment of raping and sexually abusing the 18-year-old woman inside an NYPD van after she was picked up in Calvert Vaux Park for allegedly having illegal prescription pills.
Hall is accused of watching in the rear-view mirror as Martins allegedly raped the woman. Hall then allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him.
The cops — who claim the entire incident was consensual — were fired over the allegations, which DA Eric Gonzalez has called “conduct that boggles the mind.”
Manini, who received her law license in 2012, previously worked as a defense and family court lawyer in New York City and as a correction officer in Lehigh County, Pa., according to her LinkedIn profile. She was hired by the DA’s Office in 2015 and is paid an annual base salary of $65,000, payroll records show.
Manini didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. Hall’s lawyer, Peter Guadagnino, declined to comment.
5-year-old killed 7-year-old brother after finding gun while looking for Easter candy, family says
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – A 7-year-old boy died Saturday after his younger brother shot him with a gun they found while hunting for Easter candy, his family told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Jermon Perry, a 7-year-old who was shot in the head around 2 p.m. in the 3100 block of California Ave. in south St. Louis, police said. He died late Saturday night.
Detectives say Perry and his brothers were on the second floor of their home and their parents were downstairs when one of the boys retrieved a gun from another room.
Police say the three children were playing and somehow the gun accidentally went off. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the family believes Jermon’s younger brother accidentally shot him while he sat in a chair while playing a video game.
Jermon’s mother, Michelle Lawson, was too devastated to speak with reporters, but her god-sister, Erica Jones, told the paper Jermon’s brother may have thought the gun was a toy.
“(Jermon’s father) never thought the kids would get to the gun,” Jones told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “They were in a upstairs bedroom and their mother was in the kitchen cooking. She normally hides candy from them so they don’t go in there and eat it all.”
The paper also reports that the gun belongs to Jermon’s father, Jericho Perry, who did have a license to carry.
Firefighters told KTVI that the child was barely conscious and breathing when they arrived on the scene. Perry was transported to the hospital where he later died.
Police say that homicide detectives are working on this case. Investigators are trying to figure out who was taking care of the kids, who the gun belongs to, and how the kids accessed the gun.
Mother used stun gun to wake teen for Easter church service,
PHOENIX – An Arizona mother has been charged after using a Taser to get her teenage son up for an Easter Sunday church service, according to police.
Investigators arrested 40-year-old Sharron Dobbins, of Phoenix, Sunday morning and booked her into jail on a felony child abuse charge, according to Maricopa County court documents.
Dobbins is accused of using the stun gun on her 16-year-old son’s left leg.
“Ms. Dobbins stated that she only sparked the Taser to get the kids up for church on Easter and that she never Tased anyone,” the arresting officer wrote in an arrest report obtained by KPHO.
Another of Dobbins’ sons, 17, and an 18-year-old nephew witnessed the incident, according to the document.
The 16-year-old did not complain of any pain but had two small bumps on his leg where Dobbins allegedly shocked him.
Dobbins, who appeared in court and was ordered not to have any contact with her sons, said that both of her sons are on probation.
“He has an ankle bracelet on,” Dobbins said of the 16-year-old. “He’s under my custody and everything.”
Dobbins said she would make arrangements for the boy to live elsewhere as she awaits her next hearing on April 16.
Dobbins was released to pre-trial services on her own recognizance.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/04/02/mother-used-stun-gun-to-wake-teen-for-easter-church-service-police-say/
Parents force child to drink toilet water, sleep outside with no blanket; teeth haven’t been brushed in over a year
MILLINGTON, TN (WMC) – Millington parents are behind bars, accused of abusing their 9-year-old daughter after the girl was caught trying to steal food from her teacher.
She confided in her teacher about the abuse; her teacher reported it to authorities.
‘Affluenza Teen’ Ethan Couch Released from Texas Jail After Serving Nearly 2 Years for Probation Violation
Ethan Couch, known for his “affluenza” defense in his deadly drunk driving case, was released from a Texas jail Monday after serving nearly two years behind bars for violating his probation.
Couch, 20, first made headlines as a teenager when he was sentenced to probation for a drunken driving crash that killed four people and seriously injured two others.
Prosecutors in that 2013 case sought 20 years in jail, but Couch received no prison time after a psychologist testified that Couch was a victim of “affluenza,” a product of wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for him.
The decision by the juvenile court judge to put him on probation for 10 years outraged victims’ families and anti-drunk driving advocates.
In 2015, Couch violated the terms of his probation and fled to Mexico with his mother, Tonya Couch. They were found and sent back to the US, where a Texas judge ordered nearly two years of jail time for Couch.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving described the two years Couch has spent in jail as “a grave injustice to the victims and their families.”
“The 720 days Ethan Couch served for his crimes shows that drunk driving homicides still aren’t treated as the violent crimes that they are,” the organization said in a statement.
It vowed to keep monitoring the case because it “brought to light that there is so much more work to be done to hold drunk drivers accountable.”
As part of Couch’s current probation, he will be required to wear an ankle monitor, an alcohol detecting patch, submit to drug testing, abide by a 9 p.m. curfew and have a video interlock ignition device installed in his vehicle, according to Mike Simonds of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
Couch’s mother is currently facing charges of money laundering and hindering apprehension of a felon for helping her son flee to Mexico. Tonya Couch recently had her bond revoked after failing a drug test and is behind bars in the Tarrant County Jail, the sheriff’s office said last week.
In June 2013, the pickup truck that Couch, then 16, was driving plowed into four pedestrians on a road in Burleson, Texas, authorities had said.
Hollie Boyles, and daughter, Shelby, had left their home to help Breanna Mitchell, whose SUV had broken down. Brian Jennings, a youth pastor, was driving past and also stopped to help. They were all killed.
Two people riding in the bed of the pickup were tossed in the crash and severely injured. One of them suffered a brain injury and filed a lawsuit against the Couch family, which was settled.
Three hours after the crash, tests showed Couch had a blood alcohol content of 0.24, three times the legal limit, according to the district attorney’s office.
Teen ‘Condom Challenge’ Is Risky, Parents Warned
A teenager stuffs a condom up her nose and pulls it out her mouth, all on video to garner online attention. What could go wrong? That’s what media outlets are asking after educators in San Antonio, Texas, visited schools to warn parents about the “Condom Snorting Challenge,” Forbes reports.
“Because these days our teens are doing everything for likes, views, and subscribers,” Texas education specialist Stephen Enriquez tells KMPH. “As graphic as it is, we have to show parents because teens are going online looking for challenges and recreating them.” Forbes asks why it’s risky to inhale “an object made of latex rubber and covered in lubricant and spermicide,” and digs up stories to make a parent shudder.
A 2004 report from India tells of a 27-year-old woman who gave oral sex to a man wearing a condom, swallowed it into her lungs, blocked an airway, came down with pneumonia, and suffered a partial lung collapse.
Another medical report chronicles the woe of a 26-year-old African woman who swallowed a condom for the same reason and got appendicitis when a condom fragment got stuck in her appendix.
Not to mention the possible choking hazard involved in condom inhalation, Inquisitr notes. In America the “challenge” dates back to at least 2007, when a YouTuber uploaded herself snorting a condom, but YouTube pulled the video for containing “harmful or dangerous content.” As Kens5 puts it, “There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity, but the line isn’t so fine when people snort condoms.”
Lawsuit Claims CVS Unintentionally Revealed HIV Status of 6,000 Customers in Ohio
CVS Health is being sued for allegedly revealing the HIV status of 6,000 patients in Ohio.
A federal lawsuit claims CVS mailed letters last year that showed the status of participants in the state’s HIV drug assistance program through the envelopes’ glassine window.
The complaint, which was filed March 21 in federal court in Ohio, also names Fiserv, the company that CVS hired to mail the letters. On the envelopes used by Fiserv, the patients’ HIV status could be seen through the clear window, just above their name and address, the documents states.
The letters included the patients’ new benefits cards and information about a mail prescription program.
The companies are being sued by three unidentified plaintiffs, according to the complaint.
The first plaintiff, only identified as John Doe One of Delaware County, Ohio, says he “feels that CVS has essentially handed a weapon to anyone who handled the envelope, giving them the opportunity to attack his identity or cause other harm to him.”
Another plaintiff identified as John Doe Two of Defiance County says he lives in a small town and fears the stigma stemming from the disclosure of his HIV status.
He is also concerned that his “friends and family run the risk of being stigmatized just by being seen with him.”
The third plaintiff says he also lives in a small town in Gallia County, where “everyone knows everyone” and has experienced “significant distress as a result of this disclosure.”
He is scared to leave his home and has “experienced complications and health issues since this disclosure, up to and including just in the past several days.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a class-action suit and a jury trial.
The attorneys claim that CVS failed to announce the breach of privacy data and did not contact all the patients whose status was revealed.
In a statement to CNN, CVS Health said the envelope window was intended to show a reference code for the assistance program and not the recipient’s health status.
“CVS Health places the highest priority on protecting the privacy of those we serve, and we take our responsibility to safeguard confidential information very seriously,” the statement said.
“As soon as we learned of this incident, we immediately took steps to eliminate the reference code to the plan name in any future mailings.”
A representative for Fiserv told CNN the company does not comment on pending litigation.
The Ohio Department of Public Health did not reply to a request for comment Saturday.
Remembering Selena 23 years after her death
Saturday marks 23 years since Tejano star Selena was killed.
She died just a couple weeks shy of her 24th birthday.
Since then, her star has only continued to rise with her memory being commemorated in an array of forms from a MAC makeup collection to rumors a new TV show inspired by the late singer is being developed.
Items bearing her image tend to sell out instantly, which speaks to the hold her influence still has on fans.
We’re celebrating her life with a look at five of the things we still love about Selena.
Her Talent:
Considered the Queen of Tejano, Selena started singing at a young age in her family’s band Selena Y Los Dinos.
Fast forward to 1989 when her self-titled album was released.
She captivated audiences with her vocal range and how she incorporated cumbia dance into her music.
But she also proved she could crossover with ease to any genre.
During what would become her final show before her death, Selena performed a disco medley at the Astrodome in 1995.
Her style:
Nicknamed the Mexican Madonna for her dazzling stage outfits, Selena designed her own costumes.
Who can forget that iconic purple jumpsuit she wore during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo?
From crop tops and boleros to bedazzled bralettes and belt buckles, the star also donned hand-beaded bustiers, including one worn at her 1994 Houston Astrodome Concert.
Selena opened two boutiques, one in Corpus Christi and another in San Antonio.
The stores, equipped with full-scale beauty salons, eventually closed.
Her legacy:
Selena continues to be recognized for her work.
On Nov. 3, 2017, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Los Angeles’ mayor also declared Nov.3 Selena Day.
Fans can explore Selena’s career anytime at the museum built by her family in Corpus Christi.
The Fiesta de la Flor music festival is also held in Corpus Christi.
Her love for her fans:
Fans love Selena, but she also loved them back and not just because they listened to her music.
According to her father Abraham Quintanilla, Selena loved kids and visited schools to tell them how important it was to have an education.
She even had a stay-in-school campaign in 1994.
Today, her family runs the Selena Foundation, which helps children with their education and contribute to their lives personally and professionally.
How her success broke barriers
Selena hit many achievements during her career, including winning the Grammy Award for best Mexican-American album for Live in 1994.
This was the first time a female Tejano artist won the category.
Her 1990 album Ven Conmigo was the first Tejano record to reach gold status, selling 500,000 copies.
Despite her success, Selena also had to overcome the challenge of breaking into the male-dominated industry of Tejano music.
In an interview on her official Twitter page, she said her father had a hard time securing gigs because “many male promoters didn’t think a female artist could attract huge crowds like men do, but…. wrong.”
Her English-language album Dreaming of You was released posthumously. It was a hit, and also inspired the Selena movie.
via: http://abc7ny.com/society/remembering-selena-23-years-after-her-death/3286796/
Museum slammed after hiring white curator for African art exhibit
The Brooklyn Museum has sparked outrage in the black community after tapping a white woman to curate its vast African art collection.
On Monday the museum appointed Kristen Windmuller-Luna, 31, who has a Ph.D. in African art history from Princeton University, lectures in Columbia University’s department of art history and archaeology, and once worked as an educator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she was “responsible for adult and college gallery tours in the African galleries.”
Despite the stellar résumé, her hiring left some wondering why a qualified person of color did not get the post.
“Seriously, @brooklynmuseum? There goes the neighborhood for good,” opined Philadelphia journalist Ernest Owens on Twitter.
“People from the African Diaspora are frustrated w/white people being gatekeepers of our narrative,” tweeted Kimberly Seldon.
The museum defended its decision.
“Kristen is the perfect choice to build upon the Brooklyn Museum’s track record as an innovator in the collection and exhibition of the arts of Africa,” said Jennifer Chi, the museum’s chief curator, in a statement.
The museum said it was “committed to equity” but would not discuss the hiring process with The Post.
Following days of criticism on social media, the museum tweeted Thursday: “We have been listening closely to the debate about our recent appointments to our curatorial team. We’re listening and we hear you. As we think about ways to engage in this conversation with the care it deserves, we want to assure you that you can count on us, as ever, to continue working deeply on equity within our institution and beyond.”
African-Americans make up just 4 percent of all “curators, conservators, educators, and leadership,” according to a Mellon Foundation demographic study in 2015. The same report said that people of color occupied 42 percent of “intellectual leadership” positions at the Brooklyn Museum.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/03/31/museum-slammed-after-hiring-white-curator-for-african-art-exhibit/
Bus driver turns into hairdresser for students: ‘You treat them like your own kids’
ALPINE, Utah — Each morning, 11-year-old Isabella Pieri gets ready on her own. Her father leaves for work early, and her mother died after years of battling a rare illness, according to KSL.
Over the years, Isabella’s father has taught her to take care of herself, but there is one area that’s difficult for most dads: hair.
“I originally just gave her a crew cut because I didn’t know how, and it was all tangled and I couldn’t get it out for anything,” Philip Pieri said.
After the crew cut, Isabella took matters into her own hands.
For a long time it was a quick brush, pony tail and then off to school. But a few months ago, something happened.
Better yet — someone happened: Isabella’s bus driver, Tracy Dean.
“You can’t be shy, you’ve got to talk to them. You treat them like your own kids, you know,” Tracy says.
One morning as kids were getting off the bus, Isabella noticed Tracy fixing a classmate’s braid and got the courage to ask if she would braid her hair too.
Now, Tracy styles each girl’s hair almost every morning.
“Seven years ago, I found out I had breast cancer, and that’s one of the things that went though my head — who is going to take care of my little ones? Not that my husband couldn’t do it, but you know, that’s what mom’s do. They do their kids’ hair.”
“It makes me feel like she’s a mom pretty much to me,” Isabella said. “And it makes me excited for the next day to see what she does.”
As we thanked Tracy for this special act of kindness, it was hard not to get emotional because what she’s doing is making a difference.
Isabella’s dad is noticing.
“Tracy didn’t have to step up, but she stepped up to help out, I was amazed.”
And Isabella’s teachers are noticing.
“I just noticed her head was a little higher that morning,” her teacher, Mrs. Freeze said, “and she had a little more of a step.”