Florida man oversleeps for jury duty, sentenced to 10 days in jail
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Deandre Somerville, 21, learned the hard way, why you can’t miss jury duty.
“After going through that, my life will never be the same again,” he said.
In August, he was sworn in as a juror on a civil case. He understood he was to return the next day for the continuation of the trial, but he overslept.
“I woke up and I was like, ‘Oh shoot, it’s past the time,’” said Somerville.
Mistake number two: he didn’t call the jury office to let them know what was going on. Days later, he was served with a subpoena to go before the judge.
“I talked to my grandad for a while and he said the best thing you can always do is honesty, so I went for the hearing,” said Somerville.
Somerville lives with his grandparents and helps look after his grandfather by taking him to therapy.
“My grandma was saying, ‘I think you should dress up,’ and I said, ‘Nah, I’m going to wear my work clothes cause I felt like at least he can see that I’m doing something, cause a lot of times people get stereotyped ‘oh he’s just another black boy out here doing something he’s not supposed to be doing,’” said Somerville.
But the 21-year-old man could not imagine what was coming next. The judge asked him to explain why he did not show up to court when he was supposed to.
“I said, ‘Sir, honestly I overslept and I didn’t understand the seriousness of this.’ He asked me if I had a criminal record. I said, ‘Sir, I’ve never been arrested,’” added Somerville.
Court transcripts show Somerville apologized, but the judge sentenced him to 10 days in jail. Somerville said all he could think about was his grandfather.
“Like he depends on me, so it’s hard for him,” said Somerville.
Fifteenth Circuit Civil Judge John Kastrenakes’ order said Somerville’s failure to appear delayed the trial by 45 minutes. The court also tried to reach him and could not.
WPTV’s criminal analyst Michelle Suskauer said these cases are not common.
“This is going to show others you have to take this very seriously, but this 21-year-old with no prior record now has a misdemeanor conviction,” said Suskauer. “Could there have been other alternatives to be more instructive and less punitive? It’s possible.”
Somerville served 10 days in jail, is on probation for a year and has to complete 150 hours of community service as well as write a letter of apology. He said he wants to apologize to the parties from the civil case that were delayed because of him.
“It hurts, but it’s a lesson learned. It could have been worse. He could have given me 365 days in jail,” added Somerville.
The judge’s order found, based on Somerville’s explanation, there was no good reason to explain why he didn’t appear in court. We reached out to Judge Kastrenakis’ for more information. Judge Kastrenakis said he cannot comment because the case is still pending.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/10/04/floria-man-oversleeps-for-jury-duty-sentenced-to-10-days-in-jail/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
California HS football team cancels season after sexual battery allegations
Football players at a California high school decided to end their season early following allegations that a player was sexually assaulted by teammates.
The Gilroy Unified School District announced Wednesday that “most of the varsity players” at Gilroy High School “have chosen not to finish the season and therefore, at this time, the season will not continue.”
Four players were issued citations for sexual battery after allegedly assaulting a player in the locker room after practice on Sept. 26, per the Mercury News. All of the accused individuals are minors and therefore further information has not been released.
Gilroy police captain Joseph Deras told the Mercury News:
“We investigated the allegations and determined there was evidence to support a criminal complaint. The aggravating circumstance was the number of suspects involved, and the use of force or fear played a role in our arresting decision.”
The school district announced the investigation in a bulletin posted Sept. 30. In an update the next day, it wrote it hoped the incident “will not affect” the football season. In announcing the students’ decision to cancel, the district wrote it was still “fully committed” to the program and finishing the schedule.
The program won it first section championship two years ago with a 13-0 record, per the News, but switched coaches and have gone 1-13 since.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office will determine if students are prosecuted. Gilroy is approximately 70 miles south of San Francisco.
Article via YahooSport
Woman steals $20 from 9-year-old boy in Queens pizzeria
BRIARWOOD, Queens — Police are looking for a woman they say snatched cash right out of a young boy’s hand at a Queens pizzeria in September.
Authorities said it went down at Natalie’s Pizza on Parsons Blvd. in the Briarwood neighborhood, on Wednesday, Sept. 25 just before 4 p.m.
The 9-year-old boy was standing in the restaurant when the unidentified woman took $20 in cash out of his hand and fled the pizza shop, running southbound on Parsons Blvd., police said.
The NYPD has released the above surveillance image of the woman they’re looking for, describing her as an adult with a medium build, last seen wearing a black t-shirt.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/10/03/woman-steals-20-from-9-year-old-boy-in-queens-pizzeria-police/
Photo Credit: NYPD
Cheerleader jumps off homecoming float to save choking toddler
Cheerleader Tyra Winters is Rockwall High School’s homecoming hero and it wasn’t for anything that happened on the field.
The 17-year-old senior was riding on a float in the homecoming parade when she saw a desperate mother and a little boy who needed help.
“I see the kid. I see a little bright red face and his mom’s holding him up, begging for help, screaming, asking ‘someone help me someone help me,’ Winters told CNN affiliate KTVT.
She told the station that her first thought was “Oh my God, I’ve got to help this child.
“Her kid’s turning purple, so I immediately jumped off the float and I ran down to the kiddo and I said ‘I got him,’” Winters said.
She held the little boy and gave him three strong back thrusts that made him spit up the candy he was choking on.
The incident happened on September 18, but 2-year-old Clarke and his mom, Nicole Hornback, came to Winters’ school on Tuesday to thank her.
Hornback told KTVT she was sitting right next to Clarke when it happened.
“I just happened to look over to him and there was no noise, there was no coughing, there was no breathing,” she said. “And at that moment that’s when I tried to give him the Heimlich, and I’ve never taken a class. To feel so useless as a mother was the most terrifying thing in my life.”
Fortunately, Winters had gotten CPR training in eighth grade because her mom is in the medical field. Winters plans to be a pediatric surgeon.
“I commend her for being a teenager and being trained,” Hornback said. “She saved my baby.”
Hornback told the station that her family is going to get CPR and first aid training right away.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/10/03/cheerleader-jumps-off-homecoming-float-to-save-choking-toddler/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
NC mother, stepfather arrested after 7-year-old boy ‘covered from head to toe in bruises’ found dead
Fayetteville, NC (WGHP ) — A North Carolina couple was charged with child abuse after a 7-year-old boy died, according to police.
At about 4:42 a.m. Wednesday, police responded to a report of an unresponsive person in a home on the 1500 block of Sisal Drive.
At the scene, police found 7-year-old Ethan Bates, who died at the scene.
The boy’s mother, Evie Loretta Bates, 24, and his step-father, Saint Michael Edwards, 23, were both charged with felony intentional child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury.
According to arrest warrants, the boy was “covered from head to toe in bruises” and “appeared to have broken bones in his hand and foot.”
They are both being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center under a $1 million secured bond.
Police are waiting for an autopsy report to determine the child’s cause of death. More charges may come when the autopsy comes through.
Photo Credit: WGHP
Oregon doctor claims sperm was improperly used to father at least 17 kids
An Oregon doctor got a big surprise when he submitted his DNA to Ancestry.com — the test revealed he had 17 children he’d known nothing about.
It turned out a fertility clinic may have used his sperm without his permission to father the children — and now he worries he could have even more rugrats running around without his knowledge, he claims in a $5.25 lawsuit reported by The Oregonian.
Bryce Cleary, now 53, donated his sperm to the Oregon Health & Science University 30 years ago as a medical school student, under an agreement that only allowed for it to be used to conceive five children, he claims in his suit.
“I wanted to help people struggling with infertility and I had faith that OSHU would act in a responsible manner and honor their promises,” Cleary told reporters.
After graduating, Cleary married and had three sons of his own and adopted a daughter. But in March 2018, two sisters contacted Clearly looking for information about their biological dad.
After submitting his DNA to the genealogical website Ancestry.com, Clearly says he discovered he was the father to those girls — as well as to 15 other people.
But “there could be a huge number of kids out there,” he said.
At least two of the offspring conceived through OSHU went to the same schools, church or social activities as the children he had with his wife, Cleary claims.
That means the clinic breached another promise: that Cleary’s sperm be used only for couples living outside Oregon, in order to lessen the chances the offspring would meet or become romantically involved, states the lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
“The idea that you can produce that many children from one donor and throw them all in the same region?” Cleary asked. “There has got to be some reforms.”
Also, Cleary says the clinic was supposed to keep his information private, but didn’t.
All of the promises OSHU allegedly made, “were a lie,” Cleary said, adding that his donation was “distributed locally and in a largely irresponsible manner.”
The lawsuit claims that Cleary “incurred extreme mental and emotional pain, anguish and suffering, which have all had a significant and negative impact on his personal, parental and marital relationships.”
OSHU said it couldn’t comment on the case for confidentiality reasons.
Photo Credit: AP
Teacher says he was fired for refusing to use male pronouns for transgender student
(CNN) — A Virginia teacher has filed a lawsuit saying he was wrongfully fired for refusing to use male pronouns for a transgender student.
In 2018, a student at West Point High School began identifying as male. He and his mother asked for him to be referred to with his preferred name and pronouns: he, him, his.
French teacher Peter Vlaming said he couldn’t “in good conscience” comply, citing his religious beliefs, according to the complaint. He consistently used the student’s preferred male name and attempted to avoid the use of any pronouns at all, his lawsuit says.
The school, according to the lawsuit, gave the teacher an ultimatum: Use the student’s preferred pronouns or lose your job.
School officials suspended the teacher for insubordination. Vlaming was ultimately fired after he refused to use the male pronouns and for repeatedly ignoring orders from his bosses.
“Mr. Vlaming’s conscience and religious practice prohibits him from intentionally lying, and he sincerely believes that referring to a female as a male by using an objectively male pronoun is telling a lie,” the lawsuit argues.
CNN has reached out to West Point Public Schools for comment and has not heard back. The school is about 40 miles east of Richmond.
A spokesperson for West Point Public Schools said in a statement to The Washington Post that its board denies any wrongdoing. “West Point Public Schools’ primary focus is on students, staff, and instruction,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to direct our energy toward maintaining a high-quality learning environment in our schools.”
Vlaming worked with the district for seven years. The decision to fire the teacher came after a virtual reality exercise in the classroom, where Vlaming called out, “Don’t let her hit the wall!” as the transgender student walked in that direction, the lawsuit states.
The student waited for all the students to leave class that day before approaching the teacher, the lawsuit says.
“Mr. Vlaming, you may have your religion,” the student said, according to the suit, “but you need to respect who I am!”
Vlaming said it was an unintentional slip of the tongue.Save on DeliveryThis New Grocery Delivery Service Might Be the Best One Out ThereAd By WalmartSee More
School officials said the educator was insubordinate and failed to follow directives from administrators. And, officials said, the teacher could not be allowed to treat the transgender student differently.
“That discrimination then leads to creating a hostile learning environment. And the student had expressed that,” Superintendent Laura Abel told the Richmond Times-Dispatch late last year. “The parent had expressed that. They felt disrespected.”
The firing led to petitions as well as a student walkout in support of Vlaming. Students held signs saying “men are men and women are women” and “facts don’t care about your feelings,” CNN affiliate WWBT in Richmond reported at the time.
The former teacher is now suing the school district officials, saying they breached his contract and discriminated against him, violating his right to speak freely and his religious freedom. He is seeking $500,000 in lost wages and benefits, plus $500,000 for loss of reputation, pain, suffering and emotional distress. He is asking to get his job back or another position at equal or higher pay.
“This isn’t just about a pronoun, it’s about what that pronoun means,” Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, said in a statement. “This was never about anything Peter said or did; only about what the school was demanding he say. Nobody should be forced to contradict his core beliefs just to keep a job.”
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center has previously talked about the importance of pronouns in referring to transgender people. “It is a privilege to not have to worry about which pronoun someone is going to use for you based on how they perceive your gender,” its website says. “If you have this privilege, yet fail to respect someone else’s gender identity, it is not only disrespectful and hurtful, but also oppressive.”
CNN’s Phil Gast contributed to this report.
Photo Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom
Mom charged with 1st-degree murder after shaking 5-month-old son to death
Palm Harbor (WFTS) — A 5-month-old baby boy has died after authorities say he suffered a severe brain bleed from abuse.
The baby’s mother Burgandie Marquez, 30, was arrested Saturday afternoon by detectives with the Crimes Against Children Unit.
On Tuesday night, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office charged Marquez with first-degree murder.
During an interview, Marquez gave contradicting statements before admitting she was too “rough” with her son, according to detectives.
Marquez told authorities that on Thursday, after she became enraged during a phone call with the baby’s father, she intentionally jerked the 5-month-old up from the ground twice causing his head to snap backward. She told detectives she then picked the child up and ran up and down a set of stairs, allowing his head to bounce without support.
On Friday morning, Marquez says she noticed the baby was having seizures. Detectives say instead of seeking medical attention, she tried consoling the baby.
Later that day, Marquez traveled to Pasco County with the baby to meet with his father. She stopped at a gas station when his condition got worse and he was airlifted to St. Joseph’s for life-threatening injuries.
Staff at the hospital told detectives the child suffered a severe brain bleed caused by head trauma.
The 5-month-old boy was placed on life support, but taken off of it Monday afternoon, according to detectives.
Witnesses told detectives the baby appeared to be fine on Wednesday. Marquez was the infant’s only caretaker between Monday and Friday, according to detectives.
Marquez was arrested and taken to the Pinellas County Jail, where she remains.
Photo Credit: WFTS
When an 8-year-old boy lost all his toys in a house fire, his classmates surprised him with a toy drive
Daniel Hunt watched as flames engulfed his family home, taking all his toys with it. But then, a week later, the devastated 8-year-old was surprised by his third-grade classmates with the results of a toy drive.
They had worked in secret to resupply his collection. Daniel was overjoyed.
“We live in a small community in Tennessee. Word of the fire traveled quickly and by Monday, everyone just wanted to help,” Hunt’s homeroom teacher Casey MacKintosh told CNN of the heartwarming effort.
That’s when the teachers at Philadelphia Elementary School in central Tennessee decided to hold a secret toy drive, where the students would bring in a toy of their choosing to share with their classmate in need.
“It was very sweet and a lot of fun for the kids. They needed to keep it a secret, so they would walk in every morning that week whispering, ‘I have this toy for Daniel hidden in my backpack,’” MacKintosh explained.
The children kept the growing stockpile hidden from Daniel all week. Then on Friday, a teacher sent Hunt on an errand outside the classroom.
“When he came back, we yelled ‘surprise!’ and instead of rushing to the toys, he just held his arms opened and asked his classmates for a hug,” MacKintosh said of the touching moment.
Daniel said the feeling left him crying happy tears with the feeling of “joy in his stomach.” His mom, Kristen Wilburn, said he’s been smiling ever since.
“It was a kitchen fire. I’m not sure how it happened, we found some bits and pieces that were salvageable — my wedding ring made it– but nothing else made it,” Wilburn told CNN. “Daniel has been in awe on how many people have been willing to help us without being asked.”
Although they lost their home, Hunt and his parents are thankful no one was hurt. They are now living with family members until they figure out their next step.
Photo Credit: Philadelphia Elementary School