Tag: HATE CRIMES
The Tawana Bradley The Hate crime that never happened 1987
I remember this case. And I knew then Tawana Brawley was faking this hate crime.
Family forced autistic relative to eat her mom’s ashes
A family in Louisiana held an autistic relative captive for nearly 11 months in a backyard cage and subjected her to shocking abuse, including forcing her to eat her mother’s cremated remains mixed with milk, federal authorities allege.
Department of Justice officials announced Thursday that a federal grand jury in New Orleans returned a six-count human trafficking and hate crime indictment in connection with the vile and twisted abuse sustained by the 22-year-old woman — identified only as D.P. — in Amite.
Details of the depraved allegations were outlined in an indictment obtained by the Times-Picayune, including accusations that the five family members shot the woman with a BB gun and covered her “from head to toe” in feces and urine.
Federal prosecutors also allege the woman’s relatives forced her to eat her mother’s ashes from a cereal bowl after mixing them with milk and to take meth and prescription painkillers under the threat of being reported to police if she stopped obeying the family’s orders to work at the home without getting paid.
The abuse, according to the indictment, began in August 2015, one day after the victim’s brother died, and continued through June 2016. The family members charged in connection with the allegations were identified as Raylaine Knope, 42; Terry Knope II, 45; Jody Lambert, 23; Taylor Knope, 20; and 21-year-old Bridget Lambert, who was charged separately for allegedly taking part in the forced-labor conspiracy.
It’s unclear how the victim is related to the suspects, who moved from a home in Kentwood they shared with the woman’s late mother to a mobile home in Amite in August 2015, according to the Times-Picayune.
Federal prosecutors also allege the family took extreme measures to make sure the woman didn’t try to escape, including regular death threats and holding her captive in a cage with no electricity or running water. They also forced her to make sexual advances to several men as part of a sex trafficking scheme, according to the indictment.
During one alleged incident, prosecutors said Terry Knope and Jody Lambert dumped a bucket of human waste onto the woman, leaving her entire body covered. She then began screaming as Jody Lambert laughed, according to the indictment.
The woman’s relatives were arrested in June 2016 after police received calls about a caged woman in the area, the Times-Picayune reports.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/07/27/family-forced-autistic-relative-to-eat-her-moms-ashes-feds/
Butcher accused in noose incident blames fired employee
A famed West Village butcher accused of handing a noose to a black delivery man claims he didn’t make the racist gesture — and now blames a fired employee.
Joe Ottomanelli, of Ottomanelli & Sons Meat Market on Bleecker Street, sent the longtime employee packing this week, his lawyer, Ron Kuby, told the Post Tuesday.
“Joe Ottomanelli on Monday terminated the employee who had given a makeshift noose to a delivery person,” Kuby said. “Ottomanelli stores have zero tolerance for racism. It’s unfortunate that this ugly and stupid act occurred.”
The incident occurred April 4 at the market on Bleeker Street, where Victor Sheppard had been making deliveries for months.
Sheppard, 36, insisted that the 60-year-old white butcher handed him the noose, fashioned out of yellow rope.
“Here’s your present,” Sheppard said the business owner told him. “You can use it when you’re stressed and need to end it all.”
During a prior delivery, Ottomanelli allegedly cracked to Sheppard, “If this was years ago, you’d be on the back of the bus.”
Sheppard reported the incident to the local police precinct, and the NYPD’s hate crimes task force initiated an investigation.
Meanwhile, Sheppard shared his feelings about the exchange at the National Action Network’s Harlem headquarters Saturday.
“Yeah, other co-workers were there. They just laughed along with it. It’s a laughing situation over there,” Sheppard said. “They just laughed at me,…after they gave me the noose they was just laughing at me and I felt threatened.”
But Kuby said “the problem has been rectified” now that the employee has been fired.
Kuby wouldn’t share the name of the employee. Nor could he say with certainty who made the “joke” about the noose.
“My investigation has not gotten to the point of determining every word that everybody spoke,” he said. “The point is the guy got fired.”
The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is still investigating, a police source said.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/04/11/butcher-accused-in-noose-incident-blames-fired-employee/