11-year-old getaway driver busted with 10 teens in violent crime spree
A group of 11 juveniles, including a suspected 11-year-old getaway driver, were arrested after three high-speed pursuits stemming from a series of violent robberies, carjackings and burglaries in California, police said.
San Jose police announced Wednesday that the male and female suspects — ranging in age from 11 to 17 years old — were booked into Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall on charges of armed robbery, carjacking, possession of a stolen vehicle, reckless driving and resisting arrest.
The suspects are accused of committing more than a dozen robberies, carjackings and burglaries, including some at gunpoint, over the weekend in San Jose. The alleged spree started at 11 p.m. Friday, when a woman was carjacked, and continued for the next six hours, the Mercury News reports.
At least 15 victims have been identified, according to the newspaper, and investigators believe there may be others who have yet to contact police.
“I have a lot of concern about the rise of juvenile crime in the city, and the violent crime that has been occurring,” San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia told the newspaper. “We’re not talking about graffiti or knocking down garbage cans or having loud parties. These are adult crimes. These are not kids crimes.”
Investigators are still working to piece the alleged crime spree together. The suspected drivers in the high-speed pursuits with cops were ages 11, 14 and 17, police said.
The rash of crime marked the second high-profile arrest of a group of teens in San Jose in as many months, according to the newspaper. Police in October arrested an 18-year-old man along with four minors after a 12-hour crime spree that allegedly included a homeowner shot during a botched burglary, several home invasions and a carjacking.
“This is happening almost every other week,” Lt. Paul Joseph told the newspaper. “It’s different groups and different kids each time. Another group springs up as soon as we arrest the last group.”
Couple accused of putting infant son in microwave
A Missouri couple is facing felony child abuse charges after investigators determined their infant son was assaulted and put in a microwave for a “short period of time,” court documents show.
Derick Boyce-Slezak and Mikala Boyce-Slezak, both 22, of Park Hills, were charged Tuesday in St. Francois County with felony abuse or neglect of a child after their son — who was younger than 4 months at the time — was taken to a hospital in April for a rash on his face that was actually a wound, according to court papers obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
While at the hospital, both Derick and Mikala Boyce-Slezak claimed the second-degree burn was caused by a cleaning agent. Tests also revealed, however, that the boy had a fractured skull and a subdural hematoma, a head injury that can cause swelling on the brain, according to the documents.
Mikala Boyce-Slezak then invoked her Fifth Amendment right during a hearing on Monday. Derick Boyce-Slezak, meanwhile, did not testify.
But an employee from the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services said during the hearing that Mikala Boyce-Slezak previously stated that she intended to testify that the head wounds were from Derick Boyce-Slezak dropping the boy during an attempt to imitate a television commercial.
The employee also testified that Mikala Boyce-Slezak believes Derick Boyce-Slezak placed the baby boy inside a microwave and turned it on for a “short period of time.”
Additional testimony also revealed that the infant had another fracture that was later found, the Daily Journal reports.
Derick and Mikala Boyce-Slezak, who remain jailed on $500,000 bail, also had a baby girl in January 2016 but waived custody of the girl shortly after she was born, the Post-Dispatch reports.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/11/30/couple-accused-of-putting-infant-son-in-microwave/
Babysitter tells NJ mom he’s taking her 6-year-old daughter to movie, sexually assaults girl instead
ELIZABETH, N.J. — The former baby sitter of a 6-year-old girl has admitted he sexually assaulted her at a motel after telling the child’s mother he was taking her to a movie.
Union County prosecutors said Tuesday Jonathan Tavara-Nima pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault. The 31-year-old Elizabeth man faces a minimum of 25 years in prison when he’s sentenced Jan. 26.
Authorities say the victim’s family had hired Tavara-Nima through a website. But he continued to show up at the girl’s home after his employment ended, sometimes uninvited.
Authorities say Tavara-Nima told the girl’s mother in May that he was taking her to a movie. But he instead bought her a new dress and stockings and took her to a motel, where the assault occurred.
Woman killed Thanksgiving guest for smoking crack at dinner table and not offering her any
A Thanksgiving dinner ended in horror when a Minneapolis woman allegedly killed her dinner guest for doing drugs at the table — and not offering her any.
Anenia Marie Hare, 47, told police that she invited 69-year-old Edward Caliph over to her apartment on Thursday to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.
Hare said before “they started to eat, she looked over and saw the victim lighting up a crack pipe,” the Star Tribune reports.
She allegedly told authorities she became angry because Caliph did not ask her permission to do drugs in her apartment and never asked her to participate.
Hare said she grabbed an antenna and butcher knife, stood in front of the apartment door and told Caliph he wasn’t allowed to leave. She told detectives she was only trying to appear intimidating.
Caliph started yelling for a neighbor to call 911, and allegedly broke a window in the living room with a vacuum cleaner trying to escape.
Hare allegedly grabbed her guest by the shoulders and fell on top of him as he fought to get the knife from her. “I just grabbed him by the front and he went down,” she told police. “To me it just felt like I put him in a deeper hold or something.”
Hare said after the struggle, Caliph fell face down on the ground and “he started snoring.”
Hare claimed she called 911 four times about the incident.
Police said the man was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy showed he died of homicidal violence.
Hare was charged with second-degree murder and is being held on $500,000 bail at the Hennepin County Jail.
Welfare employee stole $225K in food stamps, other benefits
An employee of the city’s welfare agency used inside knowledge to create fake accounts and steal more than $225,000 in food stamps and other benefits over seven years, the state inspector general said Tuesday.
Omar Jaata, 42, of The Bronx, and his wife, Nyima Jaata, 37, were arrested on multiple federal charges.
Omar Jaata was hired by the Human Resources Administration in 2010 — eventually reaching the rank of “eligibility specialist” — and almost immediately began overriding administrative safeguards to steal food stamps and benefits, officials said.
“The theft of welfare benefits meant for New York families most in need is egregious at any level, but these defendants’ actions, particularly with the husband’s position as a public employee entrusted with administering these funds, makes this case particularly abhorrent,” said state Acting Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/11/28/welfare-employee-stole-225k-in-food-stamps/
Brooklyn hospital illegally charged rape survivors for rape kits, sparking statewide A.G. investigation
FORT GREENE, Brooklyn — When a woman or man is sexually assaulted and then undergoes the administration of a rape kit — a lab test that collects DNA evidence that identifies the attacker — the procedure is free of charge, by law.
That law was violated by The Brooklyn Hospital Center for at least two years, affecting many dozens of women, according to an investigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office. It’s now probing to see if other hospitals across the state may have made the same violation by billing survivors repeatedly for rape kit administration.
“To seek that care and then have those essential services billed, and then keep getting that reminder of that time and that assault, it’s unconscionable,” said Josie Torielli, assistant director of the New York Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
Her organization received a complaint earlier this year from a woman who had survived a sex assault in 2016 and had a rape kit administered at Brooklyn Hospital.
“After her visit, she was billed seven different times for her rape kit,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday.
When the woman contacted the New York Alliance Against Sexual Assault, it enlisted the help of the state’s Office of Victims’ Services. It, in turn, contacted the hospital, which assured the state agency that it would stop billing the woman for the rape kit administration. It did not.
Not only that, said Attorney General Schneiderman, “When she didn’t pay the bill, they actually sent it to a collection agency. This is intolerable conduct.”
The average cost of a rape kit, including ones administered at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, according to the attorney general’s office, is $900.
“Nine hundred dollars?” exclaimed Syltasha Coby, a local resident, when told about this news. “For people to get charged, and they’re a victim, I think that’s unfair, to be honest.”
She was not the only person outraged.
“Us women, we’ve gotta suffer,” said an outraged Tarina Wyatt, a general patient at Brooklyn Hospital. “It’s just not fair.”
Eighty-five women were illegally billed for rape kits by the hospital between mid 2015 and early 2017, according to the attorney general’s investigation. Now, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, in a settlement with the state, will have to reimburse those women, with interest, and pay a $15,000 fine. No criminality was found in the case, Schneiderman said.
For its part, The Brooklyn Hospital Center issued a statement, that read, in part:
“The State Attorney General’s office brought this issue to the hospital’s attention in February 2017. We deeply regret the inadvertent breakdown in our billing processes related to sexual assault victims.
“We appreciate the efforts of the Attorney General’s office and thank them for their collaboration and advocacy. Working closely and transparently with their office, the hospital designed interdisciplinary processes and protocols to ensure that these billing issues do not occur again and to reflect not only our compliance with the law, but also our longstanding commitment to victims of sexual assault.”
Still, the case raises further questions, according to Attorney General Schneiderman.
“Our investigation into this issue has only just begun,” he said at a news conference Tuesday morning. “Today, we’re sending letters to other hospitals across the state, seeking billing data and other information on their policies and procedures in this area.”
Schneiderman said that his office is strongly interested in hearing from anyone who may have ever been billed for a rape kit. His hotline number is 800.428.9071, or online contact can be made here.
Rev. Al Sharpton visits Meek Mill in prison, says rapper represents victims of the justice system
PHILADELPHIA — Rev. Al Sharpton said a broken criminal justice system is responsible for Meek Mill’s imprisonment and called Monday for the judge who sentenced the rapper to reconsider or step aside.
Sharpton said he met with the 30-year-old musician in a Pennsylvania prison and told reporters outside the facility that Mill has become a symbol for the thousands of people who have been “victimized by abusive probationary and parole systems.”
“He’s representative of many people in institutions like this that do little or nothing, they’re violated and their lives, their businesses are ruined,” Sharpton said.
Mill was sentenced this month to two to four years in prison for violating probation on a roughly decade-old gun and drug case. The ruling came after both Mill’s probation officer and a prosecutor recommended that the Philadelphia-native not be jailed.
Before sentencing Mill, Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley said he wasted several chances to clean up his act after his original conviction. She cited a failed drug test, his failure to comply with a court order restricting his travel and two unrelated arrests before giving her ruling.
“You basically thumbed your nose at me,” she said.
The decision to imprison Mill has been criticized as heavy handed and has attracted attention through rallies, newspaper opinion pieces, billboards and buses in Philadelphia carrying the message “Stand With Meek Mill.”
Mill’s legal team has asked for his release and for the judge who sentenced him to be recused from the case.
10-year-old crashes truck into home, reportedly tells police ‘I wanted to kill people’
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Police are investigating after a 10-year-old girl crashed into a home in Kentucky and allegedly told police she “wanted to kill people,” according to WDRB.
Homeowner Joshua Pate had just returned home from work on Friday when the crash happened. Five children were in the living room when the crash happened. He said the couch likely saved their lives.
“The loveseat slid around and made kind of like a barrier … the back of it is kind of high and I think the kids just slid with the loveseat,” Pate said.
Pate told WDRB he overheard the 10-year-old driver talking to police after the crash.
“(The officer) couldn’t believe what she said. He was like ‘excuse me?’ and she said, ‘I wanted to kill people,’ and he said ‘I’m sorry, what did you say?’ and she said, ‘I wanted to kill people,” Pate said.
Pate said they plan to take legal action against the girl’s family, according to WDRB.
Police are still investigating the incident.
Man has 200 coins, 100 nails and glass pieces removed from stomach
An Indian man complaining of stomach pains was found to have approximately 15 pounds of foreign metal objects in his stomach.
Maksud Khan of Satna, Madhya Pradesh in India, arrived at the hospital experiencing stomach pains that doctors presumed was food poisoning, but an endoscopy revealed the cause to be metal objects.
Those objects — 236 coins, 100 nails, dozens of razor blades, a 6-inch piece of a rusted iron shackle, four needles, and a few glasses pieces — were found in the man’s stomach.
Priyank Sharma, who led the surgical team, told International Business Times, “We were shocked to discover coins, nails and nut-bolts in his stomach. We come across such a case for the first in our career.” Khan’s relatives said he was suffering from depression, which may have triggered the habit.
“Usually, people start eating abnormal things under certain psychological conditions. He had been eating metal for a year but did not tell anyone,” A.P.S. Geharwar, head of surgery, told Times of India.
Another doctor said the condition was caught in the nick of time. “Some of the nails lodged had pierced his stomach, caused bleeding and resulting in loss of hemoglobin,” the doctor told International Business Times.
Doctors said Khan was in stable condition, with no lasting damage to his internal organs and a promise from Khan that he wouldn’t do it again.
A 2010 study looked at 33 adult patients who were responsible for 305 cases of medical intervention because they ingested foreign objects, including batteries, knives and razor blades.
Youth pastor allegedly kills family on Thanksgiving
CHESTER, Va. —A man was arrested after police say he shot and killed his wife, her daughter, and the daughter’s boyfriend in their home Thanksgiving night.
Chesterfield County Police were called to the home around 11:30 p.m. When they arrived, police found 58-year-old Jeanett Gattis, her daughter, 30-year-old Candice Kunze; and Kunze’s boyfriend, 36-year-old Andrew Buthorn, dead of gunshot wounds, police said.
Chesterfield County Police said in a statement that officers were called to the home in Chester late Thursday for a reported alarm. Officers found 58-year-old Jeanett Gattis; her daughter, 30-year-old Candice Kunze; and Kunze’s boyfriend, 36-year-old Andrew Buthorn, dead of gunshot wounds.
Authorities found Jeanett Gattis’ husband, 58-year-old Christopher R. Gattis, at the scene and arrested him.
Gattis was a youth pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, where he served as a ministries coordinator for high school and middle school students, the NY Post reported.
Gattis is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bond. Police described the crimes as domestic-related.
Online court records don’t list a lawyer for him.
It is not yet known as to why Gattis shot his family. Investigation is ongoing.
PIX11 News contributed to this report.
via: http://pix11.com/2017/11/25/youth-pastor-allegedly-kills-family-on-thanksgiving/