‘Drive high, get a DUI’: Police are cracking down on drivers celebrating 4/20 behind the wheel
ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) — Police are cracking down on drivers getting behind the wheel while high this weekend.
MoDOT is launching its campaign “Drive high, get a DUI” for April 20, or 4/20 by cannabis enthusiasts.
All weekend, law enforcement and drug recognition experts will be on lookout for what they say is a growing problem in Missouri. In 2018, 78 people were killed and 142 seriously injured in crashes involving a drug-impaired driver.
Police say while medical marijuana is legal in many states, it’s still illegal to drive under the influence of it in all states.
Student Set on Fire After Reporting Sex Harassment
“The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime ’til my last breath,” Nusrat Jahan Rafi spoke into a cellphone as she was taken to a Bangladeshi hospital with burns covering 80% of her body.
She would die four days later, and now her case has gained international attention. In late March, Nusrat told police the headmaster of her school in the small town of Feni had called her into his office and touched her inappropriately, reports the BBC.
He was arrested, but a police video of Nusrat making her complaint surfaced, and soon she became a target of harassment. When she returned to school for her final exams on April 6, authorities say a female student lured her to the roof on a false pretext.
There, a small group confronted Nusrat and demanded she clear the headmaster. When she refused, they set her on fire, per the Guardian.
“None
of the culprits will be spared from legal action,” Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina says, per the BBC, which notes 15 people have been
arrested along with the headmaster.
The Dhaka Tribune reports he had a known “history of condemnable behavior.” In the police video, Nusrat, who was 18 or 19, can be seen trying to keep her face covered as the officer orders her to remove her hands from her face and tells her the allegation is “no big deal.” The case “shows how badly the Bangladesh government has failed victims of sexual assault,” a rep for Human Rights Watch says, per Sky News.
“It leads the victim to give up on seeking justice,” a human rights lawyer adds. (Gay people aren’t safe in Bangladesh, either.)
Ku Klux Klan killing: Wife admits murder of Missouri leader
Article via BBC
The wife of a Ku Klux Klan leader in the US state of Missouri has admitted shooting him dead two years ago.
Malissa Ancona, 47, was sentenced to life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.
She had initially said her son, Paul Jinkerson, carried out the killing but in court on Friday said this was not the case. He still faces trial.
Frank Ancona, a self-styled “imperial wizard”, was shot dead in a bedroom and his body dumped next to a river.
In a deal with prosecutors, Ancona pleaded guilty on Friday at St Francois County Circuit Court to second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and abandonment of a corpse, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“I fired both shots that killed my husband,” Ancona told Judge Wendy Wexler Horn, the paper reported.
She admitted cleaning the walls of the room in Leadwood, Missouri, and removing bedding before dumping the body in nearby Belgrade in February 2017.
She then reported her husband, 51, missing and appealed for his return on Facebook. He had asked for a divorce, court records said.
She had initially said Mr Jinkerson fired the shots and agreed to testify against him.
Mr Ancona was a member of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (TAKKKK), which describes itself as a “White Patriotic Christian organisation that bases its roots back to the Ku Klux Klan of the early 20th Century”.
Seagram’s liquor heiress pleads guilty to crimes related to New York sex cult, pyramid scheme case
Article via CNN
Two women who were part of an alleged pyramid scheme that involved sex trafficking and racketeering each pleaded guilty to related charges Friday in a New York federal court. Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor people who were not in the United States legally for financial gain and fraudulent use of identification. Kathy Russell pleaded guilty to one charge of visa fraud.
Bronfman and Russell were indicted in March on racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges as part of the cult-like organization known as Nxivm, founded by Keith Raniere, who also was indicted and is now in federal custody. He faces sex trafficking and forced labor charges.
Bronfman was a member of the Nxivm executive board, according to a US Justice Department news release, and faces between 21 and 27 months in prison. Russell is Nxivm’s former bookkeeper and faces between six and 12 months in prison. Bronfman, who will be sentenced July 25, tearfully read a statement in court during her plea hearing.
“Your honor, I was afforded a great gift by my grandfather and father. With the gift comes immense privilege, and more importantly, tremendous responsibility,” Bronfman said. “It does not come with an ability to break the law, it comes with a greater responsibility to uphold it. I failed to uphold the following laws set forth by this country, and for that I am truly remorseful.”
Russell, who will be sentenced July 31, said in court that she knowingly provided visa documents with false information in order to bring a woman into the US for work. “I know what I did was wrong and I am very sorry for the trouble that I’ve caused,” Russell said, tearfully.
Five Nxivm members were indicted and charged last year for crimes that included identity theft, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Bronfman, Russell and actress Allison Mack were among the five indicted and charged last year.
Nxivm touted itself as a professional organization
Prosecutors allege Raniere created the organization Nxivm (pronounced NEX-ium), which touted itself as a professional business providing coaching and educational services to “corporations and people of all walks of life.” The organization, prosecutors say, actually operated like a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme, and encouraged its members to continue taking pricey classes and recruiting other members in order to rise in the ranks of the organization. The organization also acted as an umbrella for other groups like “The Source,” described as a private arts academy, and the secret society DOS, which was founded in 2015 and is the subgroup where sex trafficking activities allegedly took place.
Under the sub-group DOS, prosecutors allege. women were designated as “slaves” until successfully recruiting others, at which time they became “masters.” All so-called slaves were at the service of their own masters as well as those above them in the pyramid.
The indictment claims many so-called slaves were branded on their pelvic areas with a symbol which, unbeknownst to them, incorporated Raniere’s initials.
Documents describe “branding ceremonies,” in which women were held down by others while naked and filmed as they were branded with a cauterizing pen. Raniere was the only male in DOS and the leader, according to court filings.
Prosecutors believe Mack, known for her 10-season run on the television series “Smallville,” was near the top of the pyramid with Raniere and “directly or implicitly required” her slaves to engage in sexual activity with Raniere. She also allegedly received financial and other benefits from Raniere in exchange for the women’s cooperation with their demands.Mack was released from jail on $5 million bond after being indicted last week. She pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering relating to her alleged role in a sex trafficking case.Raniere remains in federal custody in Brooklyn. If convicted, Raniere and Mack each face mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years imprisonment, and up to life imprisonment.His attorney, Marc Agnifilo, had no comment on the remaining co-defendants. “We’re going to trial,” Agnifilo said. The trial begins May 7.
Woman avoids $85 overweight baggage fee by wearing 9 pounds of clothing on plane
MANCHESTER, England — How far would you go to avoid paying an overweight baggage fee?
One woman decided to layer up after being told her suitcase was too heavy.
She wore 9 pounds of clothing on a plane instead of forking over the $85 overweight baggage fee at an airport in England, according to The Sun.
We don’t have video of the resourceful passenger, so we are getting creative with a re-enactment.
The woman had booked an all-inclusive vacation and did not bring along enough money.
“I didn’t want to be using the little amount I had just so I could get my bag on the plane,” Natalie Wynn told The Sun. “I literally said, ‘I’m not paying it’, and started putting my clothes on…I was boiling, absolutely boiling.”
She ended up wearing nearly half of the clothes she had packed including seven dresses, a skirt, two pairs of shoes, two pairs of shorts and a cardigan.
Ventura Music Teacher Suspected of Giving Flutes Tainted With Semen to Children Indicted Again
State prosecutors have indicted a music instructor from Ventura accused of distributing flutes contaminated with bodily fluids to Southern California school children, following a federal indictment alleging child molestation last year, officials announced Thursday.
John Edward Zeretzke, 60, was arrested Tuesday and booked into jail in Orange County on Tuesday, county booking records show.
He faces six charges of committing lewd acts on children under 14 years old, the California Attorney General’s Office said in a written statement.
The state charges are separate from a five-count federal indictment filed against Zeretzke in September alleging he coerced a minor to produce child pornography, attempted to entice a minor to send him sexually explicit images, received child pornography online and travelled to the Philippines with intent to engage in sex with minors, U.S. Attorney’s Office Thom Mrozek said at the time.
But allegations that flutes distributed to area students through his organization, “Flutes Across the World,” had been tainted with semen by Zeretke, were not part of the federal case, authorities said. That investigation is being handled by by the California Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The California Attorney General’s office obtained an indictment last month charging Zeretzke with a half-dozen counts of child molestation.
“Attorney General Becerra’s indictment alleges that between January 1, 2017 and April 30, 2017, Zeretzke targeted five victims under the age of 14,” the California DOJ said in a written statement. “The charges against Zeretzke are not based upon allegations that he personally had physical contact with any child.”
Through his organization, Zeretke worked with school districts including the Los Angeles Unified, Saugus Union, Capistrano Unified, Fountain Valley, Culver City, Newport-Mesa and Fullerton, the L.A. Times reported.
He would make two flutes with students out of PVC pipe. The students would keep one, and the other was to be donated to children in need, according to the organization’s website, which has since been pulled offline. Many of the flutes were sent to the Philippines, where the organization maintained a presence.
Schools dropped the program once allegations began to emerge that some of the student’s flutes had been contaminated with semen.
Zeretzke was released from custody on bond five days after his Sept. 13 arrest in the federal case, federal booking records show.
Bail was set at at $600,000 following his arrest Tuesday in connection with the state-level indictment, according to county records.
“Crimes against children are despicable,” Becerra said in a written statement. “Schools must represent a safe environment for our students. No parent should fear for the safety and security of their child at school. We will work relentlessly to hold people who exploit our children criminally accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Mom left ‘unrecognizable’ by attack as cops hunt ex-boyfriend
A mother in England was left gravely wounded and “unrecognizable” after being beaten in bed – and cops are now on the hunt for her ex-boyfriend, according to reports.
Britney Salim, 23, suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw, fractures on her face and a collapsed lung from the heinous assault at her home in the South Yorkshire city of Sheffield on April 12, The Sun reported.
Salim remains in critical, but stable condition in the intensive-care unit at a local hospital.
Police believe that Salim’s attacker climbed up the balcony to her home and busted in through French doors before going after the mother-of-one.
Salim was found unconscious in bed by a family member and was rushed to the hospital.
Authorities are now trying to track down Salim’s ex-boyfriend, 31-year-old Shaka Williams, who is reportedly the father of Salim’s 9-month-old daughter, Priya.
“We have got a big family, and we are all distraught,” said a cousin, who did not want to be named, according to The Sun.
“[Salim] was found by our auntie because [Salim] was babysitting her daughter,” the family member saying, adding that the aunt “went to the house to take her daughter back and as she got there she found Britney practically on death’s door.”
“When her auntie went in, [Salim] was unrecognizable. Her face was black and blue,” the cousin said.
According to the cousin, Salim “has seven broken ribs, internal bleeding in her liver, swelling on her brain, a broken jaw, fractures on her face and a collapsed lung, and she has had to have a blood transfusion.”
“Doctors have said at the minute she isn’t getting any worse, but she is still in an out of consciousness and remains in intensive care,” the cousin said.
The family member noted that Salim has woken up several times and “had outbursts of screaming.”
“She is on morphine to deal with the pain. Her mom is just broken,” the cousin said. “Police have not been able to get a full statement from Britney yet because she isn’t able to speak.”
Police have asked locals if they see Williams or know where he is to get in touch with authorities.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/19/mom-left-unrecognizable-by-attack-as-cops-hunt-ex-boyfriend/
Elderly couple kill themselves so they don’t have to live without each other
A devoted elderly couple in Wales decided to take their own lives after learning that the terminally ill husband had only a short time to live, according to a report.
“Neither one of us wishes to live without the other,” Howard Titterton, 80, and his 78-year-old wife Jacqueline wrote in one of several jointly signed letters they left behind for friends, police and their lawyer, North Wales Live reported.
They said they had had “a great life” and agreed to end their lives without putting pressure on each other as they planned their suicides meticulously, an inquest heard in Ruthin.
The Tittertons left a key with their next-door neighbors for the police to enter their home and put labels on items with the names of the people whom they wanted to receive them.
Assistant Coroner David Pojur recorded the conclusions of the double suicide after hearing details about the couple, whose bodies were found in their home in St Asaph on Nov. 13.
Howard, a retired research and development officer with glass manufacturer Pilkington, had been suffering from bowel cancer and was receiving palliative care at home from his wife, a former nurse.
Their neighbor Andrew Thomas said in a statement that Titterton had begun looking frail but appeared “OK” a few days before his death.
His wife Susan Thomas described the elderly couple as “lovely people” and said the tragedy came as a shock – though she had thought it strange that Jacqueline had given her a park-and-ride ticket the previous day, telling her she would not be using it.
On the morning of Nov. 13, Andrew Thomas found an envelope through his door containing money and a note indicating that they had killed themselves and asked the neighbors to call authorities.
“I wondered if I was reading what I was,” he said.
Police found Howard lying in an empty bath covered by a blanket and a dressing gown. His wife was lying on the bed.
Dr. Brian Rodgers, a pathologist, said the couple died of suffocation.
The Tittertons, who had no children, enjoyed traveling and shared the same hobbies of music and photography.
Teacher allegedly took vodka shots during school
Police say a tipsy teacher was arrested in Kentucky for giving a class lesson after taking vodka shots.
Brook West, 32, was charged with public intoxication after she got drunk Monday morning at Royal Spring Middle School in Georgetown, news station WKYT reported.
Deputies were called to the campus that afternoon on reports the substitute teacher was demonstrating “erratic behavior,” the school district said.
Responding officers said West reeked of alcohol and had trouble keeping her balance when they arrived.
She allegedly admitted to taking four vodka shots while filling in at the school as a substitute teacher.
West took a breathalyzer test which revealed she had 0.317% blood alcohol content, authorities said.
Scott County Schools said West was removed from the premises and will no longer be employed there.
“School staff acted immediately upon learning of this behavior,” the district said in a statement. “Scott County Sheriff’s Department escorted the substitute off school grounds later charging her with alcohol intoxication. The individual is no longer employed by Scott County Schools in any capacity.”
She was booked into Scott County Detention Center, where she also faces charges for endangering the welfare of a minor, according to court records
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/18/teacher-allegedly-took-vodka-shots-during-school/
Man who raped teen on FaceTime call busted thanks to screenshots
A brutal rapist who attacked a teenager while she chatted to her boyfriend on FaceTime was caught thanks to him taking screengrabs of the attack.
Samuel Fortes, 27, followed the 19-year-old victim through the England city of Leeds before dragging her under an overpass and raping her during a 15-minute attack.
Although horrified by what he was seeing, the victim’s boyfriend took a screenshot of Fortes stamping on the girl – which was later used by police as evidence.
He called the police and his girlfriend was found a short time after at the scene of the attack, battered and bruised and naked from the waist down.
The victim’s heartbroken dad later said: “It is like you have been growing and protecting a flower for 19 years and all of a sudden somebody just comes and stomps on it.”
The student was returning from a night out with friends when Fortes, who had been lurking in Leeds city centre, spotted her at 3:15 a.m.
He walked alongside the teenager and asked her for her number.
She politely refused and tried to walk off, still chatting to her boyfriend on the mobile phone app.
As she was about to cross a footbridge to walk home, Fortes grabbed her from behind, Leeds Crown Court was told.
Prosecutor David Gordon said: “The victim struggled and told Fortes to get off her.
“He was smirking and she asked him why. His reply was to punch her in the face six times.”
He dragged her from the footbridge to underneath an overpass where she was savagely attacked.
Most of her clothes were ripped off. She suffered a fracture to her face, a broken tooth and extensive swelling to her face and body.
PUNCHED HER SIX TIMES IN THE FACE
The victim feared she was going to die but Fortes was disturbed when three passers-by on the footbridge found her handbag, phone and keys.
They went to look for the victim and found Fortes attacking her. Fortes fled and police were called.
One officer said: “I was also shocked by the injuries to her face. They were some of the worst I have seen in my 11 years of service.”
Fortes spent an hour hiding behind a bush before fleeing back to his home city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
But he was caught after a painstaking forensic examination of the scene revealed a single piece of hair which was linked to his DNA.
CCTV also showed him wandering around Leeds city centre before the attack, following his victim, and catching a train afterwards.
He was arrested – with the teen’s blood still on his sneakers.
Fortes admitted rape and wounding with intent at Leeds Crown Court on Monday and on Thursday was jailed for life with a minimum of eight years to be served.
Judge Rodney Jameson QC described the victim’s statement as “the most remarkable I have ever encountered,” adding: “I salute her extraordinary courage.”
The victim, now 20, said in the statement read to the court: “I was and still am sickened by the thought that one human could do that to another. I thought I was going to die. It is a feeling that no words could ever describe.
The court heard Fortes, who came to the UK from Portugal in 2010, has previous convictions for domestic violence against an ex-partner in 2017.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/19/man-who-raped-teen-on-facetime-call-busted-thanks-to-screenshots/