Man charged for murdering Ferguson woman after meeting on Facebook for sex in exchange for money
FERGUSON, MO – A man has been charged with shooting a Ferguson single mother, Sharae Bradford, 25, last Saturday. Stassie Greer, 20, of Jennings has been charged with 1st degree murder, 1st degree robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action.
Greer arranged to meet the victim for sex in exchange for money at her apartment, according to the probable cause statement from St. Louis County Police. There was evidence of a sexual encounter found near the victim’s body.
A witness identified Greer as a man entering the victim’s apartment in a photo lineup. Surveillance video also shows Greer entering Bradford’s apartment complex at around 4:50pm. Video shows Greer, attempting to conceal his appearance, leaving her apartment complex at around 5:30pm.
A relative found 25-year-old Sharae Bradford`s nude body face down at around 6pm on her bed Saturday night in her Versailles apartment. The complex is located in the 1500 block of Northwinds Estate Drive. The victim was killed by a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.
The medical examiner also found seminal fluid on swabs applied to many parts of the victim’s body, according to the probable cause statement.
Family members say Bradford was lying in a pool of blood. They believe the person responsible for Bradford`s death is Stassie Greer. Bradford met him on Facebook last week. He dropped by her home for the first time Saturday night.
Investigators from the Major Case Squad have been working on this case. The victim’s phone and rent money was missing from her apartment. A search warrant was conducted at the Greer’s house and Bradford’s phone was found.
Family members tell FOX 2 that Bradford was an aspiring nurse and mother of a 6-year-old girl. They say they’re glad her daughter wasn’t home when she was killed.
The major Case Squad says Greer is being transferred to St. Louis County Jail. He will be held on a $1,000,000 cash only bond.
via: http://fox2now.com/2015/12/01/man-charged-for-murdering-ferguson-woman-after-facebook-meeting/
Wife Was Strip Searched, Penetrated And Asked Where Did She Get Her Implants While Visiting Husband at Rikers
THE ACTUAL INTERVIEW IS IN THE LINK DOWN BELOW
A regular visit to her husband in jail turned into a nightmare for 26-year-old Jeannette Reynoso. The Bronx woman claimed that she was strip searched during her visit to Rikers Island last month and then violated by two female correction officers.
“I’m very scared that they did that and I’m afraid that they would do that to me again…or do it to anybody,” Reynoso said.
She said she had already cleared two metal detectors with no problem. The I-Team learned that the Department of Correction has a zero tolerance policy with regard to the mistreatment of visitors, yet Reynoso experienced the contrary.
“They told me to take off my clothes,” Reynoso said. “One correction officer took off my bra and my shirt first. Then she told me turn around to the wall and took off my pants and panties.”
In a civil lawsuit just filed, Reynoso claims the officers threatened to pull her visits for 45 days if she didn’t agree to take off her clothes.
“I started asking questions like, ‘Why do I have to take off all my clothes?’ They said, ‘You’re not here to ask questions. You just got to do what you’re asked to do,'” Reynoso said.
Reynoso broke down as she detailed how her experience got worse.
“I was shaking and that’s when I felt the other officer. She was like down on her knees and that’s when I felt her penetrate me. I turned around crying saying, ‘What are you doing? Why are you doing this to me?'”
In a bizarre twist, she says one of the officers then hugged her, and asked a question.
“One of the officers wanted to know when and where I got my plastic surgery,” she said.
The Bronx District Attorney’s office, which covers Rikers, is now looking into the case. Reynoso’s attorney Alan Figman said this amounts to detaining someone illegally.
“I think it’s outrageous,” Figman said. “I think that this woman is damaged for the rest of her life.”
We reached out to the union that represents correction officers but did not hear back.
Manhattan Dentist Is Arrested on Drug Trafficking, Child Pornography Charges, and punching holes on condoms to spread HIV.
John Wolf, a dentist in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, is well known in the neighborhood — not only for his popular, light-filled offices, but also for his AIDS activism. He studied the disease in dentistry school, according to his Google profile, and as a practicing dentist in the 1980s he brought, and won, a prominent lawsuit against a landlord who did not want him to treat patients with AIDS
On Friday, federal authorities painted a darker picture of Dr. Wolf: They arrested him at his West Village residence on charges that he had done dental work for a drug dealer in exchange for methamphetamine, and that he possessed child pornography videos.
A criminal complaint prosecutors filed also states that he is H.I.V.-positive and that, according to an informer, he said he had punctured holes in condoms “in an intentional attempt to spread the H.I.V. to his sexual partners.”
Neighborhood residents and one of Dr. Wolf’s brothers, Robert Wolf, said they were shocked at the allegations. Even federal prosecutors referred in a memorandum to Dr. Wolf’s life having a “bizarre duality.”
Dr. Wolf, 59, moved to New York from Michigan decades ago, according to Robert Wolf, who was reached by phone on Friday. He attended college and dental school in the city, and lives with his husband in the West Village, his Google profile says. The partner has worked as an administrator at the dental practice, according to court papers. Dr. Wolf wrote in the Google profile about his love for bicycling, his Chihuahuas and singing. A video posted on his profile page that was filmed in 1985 shows him singing in a gay men’s chorus and discussing AIDS and homophobia.
Dr. Wolf appeared in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday. He is charged with conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it, and with possession and distribution of child pornography. Asked by Robert M. Levy, a federal magistrate judge, if he understood the charges in the complaint, Dr. Wolf said, “I think so.”
After searching Dr. Wolf’s home and office on Friday morning, federal agents found methamphetamine and a flash drive filled with 246 files, mostly child pornography, according to a memorandum filed by prosecutors. He admitted to possessing child pornography, “denied having sex with minors and indicated he was unwilling to discuss his drug use or distribution or whether he had drugged anyone unwillingly during sex,” according to the memorandum.
Dr. Wolf’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said after his client’s initial court appearance: “He was woken up at 5 o’clock in the morning, and woke up into a day where his life is going to be completely different. These are charges that are very hard to weather, and I think he’s understandably shaken.”
Federal authorities said they began looking at Dr. Wolf as part of a standard drug case.
“Drug investigations have taken us down dark roads before, but nothing darker than the office practices of Dr. Wolf,” James J. Hunt, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York division, said in a statement.
A drug dealer arrested at Kennedy International Airport in March told the authorities that he had been swapping methamphetamine for Dr. Wolf’s dentistry, according to a complaint filed by Aaron Spivack, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The dealer, who was charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics, is cooperating with the government in the hopes of leniency.
The dealer also said that Dr. Wolf had shown him videos “of infants and toddlers being sexually abused by adults,” including images of infants and toddlers being raped by men, according to the complaint.
According to the dealer’s version in the complaint, Dr. Wolf also told him “that he was actively involved in underground sex parties at various locations in New York City, including in Brooklyn, where participants would engage in sexual intercourse with animals.”
In October and earlier this month, the dealer made recordings of Dr. Wolf for the government. In those, according to the complaint, the dentist discussed having sex with animals; said he continued to use and hand out drugs; said he continued to poke holes in condoms during sexual encounters; and discussed drugging an adult man with a “slam of K” before sexually assaulting him, referring, apparently, to ketamine, a drug used illegally as a hallucinogenic.
The drug dealer then offered to introduce Dr. Wolf to his “roommate,” saying that the roommate was interested in child pornography as well. The “roommate” was an undercover F.B.I. agent.
The three met at Dr. Wolf’s office in Chelsea. Last week, the undercover agent recorded Dr. Wolf saying he used the basement for sex parties. Dr. Wolf then plugged in a flash drive and showed the agent about 35 minutes of child pornography, the complaint said.
As recently as Thursday, according to the memorandum, the undercover agent recorded Dr. Wolf. In that recording, Dr. Wolf said he had given drugs to “willing and unwilling adults during drug-fueled sex parties,” said it would be “hot” if he and the agent abused children together, and talked about how they might arrange that, among other things.
Robert Risko, an artist who lives near Dr. Wolf’s office, said the office environment was “wacky,” and “loose, friendly, fun.”
“He has a huge clientele because people like him,” Mr. Risko said.
Robert Wolf, who lives in Tennessee, said he was “absolutely floored” by the accusations. He said he did not know of any drug or addiction problems in his brother’s past.
In court, Moira Kim Penza, an assistant United States attorney, cited the “safety of the community” and the “overwhelming evidence in this case” as she asked Judge Levy to hold Dr. Wolf without bail. The judge set a hearing for Tuesday to discuss bail.
At Dr. Wolf’s office on Friday morning, a man at the front desk said that Dr. Wolf was not in, but that two other dentists were still seeing patients. He declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Mentally handicapped black worker rescued after 4 years of torture and enslavement by SC restaurant owners
Two brothers in Horry County, South Carolina are facing charges that they treated a mentally handicapped black employee like a slave for years, beating and overworking the man, who lived in squalor on property owned by their restaurant.
According to the Charleston Post and Courier, two Charleston attorneys filed a civil suit on behalf of Christopher Smith, who worked at the J&J Cafeteria in Conway for 23 years, but was hideously abused and exploited from 2010 to 2014.
The suit lists 14 counts against J&J owner Ernest J. Edwards and manager Bobby Paul Edwards, including false imprisonment, discrimination and exploitive labor practices. Bobby Edwards, 50, was arrested a year ago in connection with the case. Those charges are still pending.
Last October, Smith was rescued when social workers received a tip from an anonymous source who expressed concern for the man’s safety. Attorneys Mullins McLeod and David Aylor said that while the civil suit cannot change the past or rectify the harm done to Smith, hopefully it will “bring about positive change in the future.”
The Post and Courier explained that Smith worked at the Edwards brothers’ business for more than two decades, but it was when Bobby took over as manager in 2010 that Smith’s situation turned ugly.
Smith was routinely called the N-word, according to the suit. He was savagely beaten with a frying pan, hot tongs, butcher knives, belt buckles and fists. He worked 18-hour shifts Monday through Saturday and 11-hour shifts on Sundays with no breaks, receiving little pay. His total wages for each year added up to less than $3,000.
The complaint against the Edwards said that Smith was often abused on the job, dragged into the walk-in freezer where he could be heard screaming in terror and pain by other employees and begging his abusers not to kill him.
Smith told social services workers that he was too afraid to run away or leave his job at the J&J Cafeteria because he believed the Edwards brothers would hurt him even worse or murder him.
When he wasn’t at work, Smith lived in a filthy, cockroach-infested apartment owned by the Edwards brothers. The lawsuit described Smith’s living conditions as “subhuman.”
McLeod and Aylor reported that when Smith was examined by medical professionals and the Conway, SC police, he was covered in scars and other evidence of prolonged, brutal abuse.
He was targeted for abuse by the Edwards brothers, they said, because he is black.
Mother Charged With Throwing Newborn Baby With Umbilical Still Attached From Chicago High-RIse
A 19-year-old woman charged with murdering her newborn daughter by dropping the infant out the window of an Chicago high-rise building was ordered held without bail Saturday.
Mubashra Uddin, facing a first-degree murder charge, was not in court because she was hospitalized. The infant, now being called Baby Jane Uddin in police reports, landed in a grassy parkway with her umbilical cord still attached late Wednesday night.
The Cook County Medical Center ruled the infant’s death a homicide from blunt force trauma. Prosecutors said the girl suffered complex skull fractures, a fractured spine, a broken left shoulder, fractured left and right ribs and a lacerated aorta, lacerated liver and lacerated bowel and suffered from blood in the abdomen.
Prosecutors said Uddin, a student at DeVry University, hid her pregnancy from her family because she knew her Pakistani Muslim parents would not approve, the Chicago Tribune reported, and covered up her pregnancy by wearing baggy clothes.
Uddin went into labor Wednesday evening in the apartment where the teen lives with her family. Prosecutors said Uddin gave birth around 11:20 p.m. to a full-term, 7-pound, 11-ounce baby girl in the bedroom she shared with her younger sister.
When Uddin heard her mother coming down the hallway, prosecutors said she panicked and dropped the girl out the window. A man visiting his girlfriend at the building in the 800 block of W. Eastwood Avenue in Uptown spotted the newborn baby in the grass, thinking it was a doll.
The baby was still apparently breathing when brought to Weiss Memorial Hospital, mere blocks away from the high rise building where Uddin lived with her family. The infant died around 12:25 a.m. Thursday.
Police located Uddin from talking to neighbors who told them the teen may be pregnant. Prosecutors said police found blood in the bedroom and bathroom of the family’s apartment, as well as bloody sheets and bloody scissors, the paper said.
Uddin is due in Cook County Violence Court on Monday.
via: http://patch.com/illinois/lakeview/teen-mom-hid-pregnancy-secretly-gave-birth-bedroom-prosecutors
Man wearing GPS ankle bracelet (house arrest) rapes, impregnates and imprisons girl
Cody Lee Jackson was arrested October 8 at a Greyhound station in Salt Lake City, Utah, on federal charges of production of child pornography and coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, according to an affidavit written by an FBI agent and unsealed this week in federal district court in Cincinnati.
State charges in connection with the latest abduction include rape, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and kidnapping, the FBI said in a statement.
Jackson allegedly reached out to a 14-year-old girl on Facebook in early February — just months after prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ohio, had charged him with counts of interference with custody, abduction and kidnapping in a separate case in Blue Ash, Ohio, according to the affidavit. The previous charges involved two females — an adult and a minor — who accused Jackson of holding them against their will at a Blue Ash hotel in 2014.
He pleaded not guilty in that earlier case, posted bond and was ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor under the supervision of the sheriff’s office, the court affidavit said.
While residing in Norwood, Ohio, in an apartment rented for him by his father, Jackson had a taxi bring the girl to his home, where they had sex, according to the affidavit.
The encounters continued for weeks, with Jackson at one point destroying the victim’s phone and changing the passwords to her Facebook and email accounts as a way of controlling her, the court papers said.
By March, Jackson was allegedly arranging for a taxi to deliver the girl to his home after school each day and imposing strict rules on her behavior, according to the affidavit. She was verbally and physically abused when the rules were broken, the court papers said.
It’s unclear whether Jackson has an attorney in the current case. His former attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The alleged abduction and abuse occurred while Jackson was required to wear the ankle bracelet and to be visited at home by a sheriff’s officer.
Mike Robison, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, told CNN on Saturday that Jackson wore the monitoring device between January 22 and July 31. It’s unclear whether Jackson was under any kind of court supervision prior to January.
Robison said there were at least six “unscheduled and unannounced home visits,” and that Jackson reported to his officer each week. Robison said he doesn’t believe the conditions of Jackson’s release included restrictions on the use of social media.
“He complied with all his conditions,” Robison said of Jackson, adding the the sheriff’s office “did everything we were required to do.”
At one point during the teen’s abduction, the affidavit said, the 20-year-old mother of one of Jackson’s children moved into the home to help keep an eye on the alleged victim and run errands for him.
That woman also was verbally and physically abused by the defendant, according to court documents. The woman sometimes took the minor out of the apartment before visits by the sheriff’s office, said the affidavit, which doesn’t explain how she knew about visits that were supposed to be unannounced.
The alleged teen victim learned she was pregnant with Jackson’s child after more than a month under his control, according to the affidavit.
“After Jackson found out [she] was pregnant, he was nicer to her … even buying her a giant stuffed animal and gifts from Bath and Body Works, and allowing her to take prenatal vitamins, but eventually he started yelling at her and smacking her again,” the affidavit said.
The rapes and abuse continued while the girl was pregnant, according to court documents. And she was prohibited from contacting her family or returning home.
On July 31, Jackson was taken off electronic monitoring after agreeing to plead guilty to a count of interference of custody in connection with the 2014 case, the affidavit said. The abduction and kidnapping charges were dropped as part of the plea deal. Jackson fled Ohio before his scheduled sentencing one month later.
On the same day of his plea, the minor and the mother of Jackson’s child managed to escape after he left the apartment during an argument, according to the court papers, which did not provide details about the victim’s condition.
Jackson then allegedly contacted the teen girl by cell phone and threatened to kill her and her family if she didn’t send him sexually explicit photos of herself on Facebook, according to the affidavit.
After Jackson missed his August sentencing, authorities tracked him through Texas and South Carolina via money transfers from his father.
On October 8, Jackson was arrested after giving a false name and trying to run away from drug task force officers during a check at a Utah bus station, according to Salt Lake City authorities.
Coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity carries a sentence ranging from 10 years to life in prison, the FBI statement said. Production of child pornography is punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison.
Local veteran missing after going to buy car via Craigslist
ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – A local Army veteran’s family fears the worst after he goes missing. They suspect Craigslist may have played a role in the disappearance.
According to investigators with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, 22-year-old Robert Polk went missing Saturday. Polk’s family believes something went wrong after he left home looking for a vehicle he saw on Craigslist and never returned.
“I fear that he got on Craigslist looking for a car. I’m thinking he met up with the wrong person,” said Hayleen Jones, Polk’s mother.
Polk was last seen around 7 p.m. on October 3, wearing a black sweatshirt and black sweatpants.
His family said he worked through a temp agency and had been saving his hard-earned money to buy a car. Polk’s mother said he was very excited after searching various Craigslist posts and finally found a car he liked.
“Went to go meet the person that to buy the car, he’d been talking to someone about a black Mustang and has not been back since,” she said.
Polk was considered a standout football player at Hazelwood East High School. He served two years in the Army and remains on reserve list. His mother said he loved serving his country.
“He had traveled places before he never been. He was just proud. I was a proud mom that he went into the Army and did something with his life,” Jones said.
“He’s been missing too many days. He’s not a child to be gone 24 hours without calling.”
Anyone with information on Robert Polk’s whereabouts should call 911.
via: http://fox2now.com/2015/10/08/local-veteran-missing-after-going-to-buy-car-via-craigslist/
800-pound man says hospital kicked him out for ordering pizza
PROVIDENCE, RI – A Rhode Island man who weighs just under 800 pounds has been kicked out of the hospital for ordering a pizza.
Steven Assanti, 33, says his eating addiction is what led him to here, the trunk of his father’s SUV, with no place to go.
For the past 80 days, Steven was getting the help he needed at Rhode Island Hospital, where he lost twenty pounds. But after Steven violated his care plan by ordering pizza, Steven says the hospital told him he could no longer stay.
“I was supposed to stay there and lose all my weight and get down to 550lbs, to get the gastric bypass. That was their plan.” said Steven Assanti.
A spokesperson for Rhode Island Hospital tells NBC 10 they can’t speak about Steven or any patient’s treatment.
“And if he comes home and I do get him up the stairs some how, some way, he’s gonna go right back to his eating habits.” said father Steven Veillette.
Steven’s father says taking his son home will be death sentence. So the two men say they will continue to drive until they find a place that can help.
via: http://fox2now.com/2015/10/07/800-pound-man-says-hospital-kicked-him-out-for-ordering-pizza/
Nursing home worker admits to fondling 93-year-old woman 100 times
HILLSBORO, MO (KTVI) – A Jefferson County nursing home worker is accused of fondling a 92-year-old woman’s bare breast about 100 times. Robert Leensvaart, 36, is charged with first degree sexual abuse. The victim is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s.
Leensvaart is a nurse’s aid at the Crystal Oaks Nursing Home. He was caught lying in bed with the victim on February 19th, according to the probable cause statement. He told investigators that he found her attractive. Police say he admits to fondling the elderly woman’s breast many times before he got caught.
Crystal Oaks Nursing Home Administrator James Amold tells police that the victim would not be able to give or refuse consent. The victim’s condition is described as being, “retracted.” She is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and curled up almost in a fetal position.
via: http://fox2now.com/2015/10/07/nursing-home-worker-admits-to-fondling-93-year-old-woman-100-times/
Former pastor charged with stealing money from church to pay off mistress
FLORISSANT, MO (KTVI) – A Florissant church pastor is charged with stealing from his own congregation. Police said the married man confessed he did it for his girlfriend. Detectives said Ralph Sawyer, he goes by Drew, used the church’s ATM card at Florissant bank to steal tens of thousands of dollars from the churches savings account. Sawyer is charged with one count of felony stealing.
One of Sawyer’s neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said, “Oh gee, I’m not going to judge anybody that’s for darn sure but I am shocked that the man, he’s just so kind.
Sawyer pastored at the Lindsay Lane Missionary Baptist Church in Florissant. In June and July police said Sawyer stole a lot of money from his own congregation. Sawyer was suspended of his duties, he later resigned. Florissant Police Detective Andy Haarmann added, “Several withdraws were made by Sawyer’s ATM cards amounting to over 21 thousand dollars.”
There were 35 withdrawals from a bank on Howdershell Road and from an ATM at this downtown St. Louis hotel, detectives say Sawyer told them had met a 20-year-old girl online. Haarmann said, “He said he initiated a relationship with a young lady as a result of that relationship he withdrew the funds to help continue the relationship. Madden: was she blackmailing him? It’s unclear how their relationship progressed he made some statements to indicate them and he made others to refute that.”
Police said the girlfriend is not being charged. Neighbors said recently men’s clothes were strewn across the front yard of Sawyer’s home. They witnessed Sawyer’s wife and children moving out.
Sawyer’s neighbor said, “All religions have problems I’m sure, this just happened to come out in the open, when you steal from the church that’s serious very serious.”
Detective Haarmann said, “He is devastated, just the whole incident, he’s embarrassed of the incident the shame it’s brought his family his wife and his children. He’s very remorseful.”
The church’s web site indicated members were rallying around Sawyer’s wife and children.
In a statement church members said they are saddened by the actions of their former pastor. They believe the situation is between Ralph Sawyer, God and the judicial process.
Lindsay Lane Baptist Church sent this release to the media:
The members of Lindsay Lane Baptist Church are saddened by the actions taken by our former pastor. We believe this situation is between Ralph Sawyer, God, and the Judicial Process. We respectfully request for privacy as our church tries to heal during this very difficult time.