Tag: LAS VEGAS
Passenger Accused of Sexually Assaulting Sleeping Woman on Spirit Flight Out of Las Vegas
Investigators arrested a man they say unbuttoned the shirt and pants of a sleeping female passenger and put his hand down her pants during a flight, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.
Prabhu Ramamoorthy faces a charge of aggravated sexual abuse after a 22-year-old woman accused him of assaulting her on a Spirit Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Detroit on Wednesday morning.
The case is just one alleged example of what some women have said is a hidden reality of commercial air travel. Though it’s difficult to track how frequently assaults occur on flights, FBI investigations into midair sexual assaults have increased by 66% from fiscal year 2014 to 2017.
The federal public defender’s office declined to comment on the Ramamoorthy case. Richard O’Neill, Ramamoorthy’s appointed attorney, did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
A detention hearing was held Thursday. According to the Detroit News, O’Neill said, “I have a hard time with some of these allegations but that’s what a trial is for. There have been no allegations from anywhere that his behavior has ever been inappropriate prior to this incident.”
The woman said she fell asleep leaning against the window, the complaint states. She woke up to a hand down her pants and noticed that her pants and her shirt were unbuttoned and the passenger next to her was fondling her, according to the complaint.
The passenger stopped when she woke up, and she immediately reported the incident to a flight attendant, the complaint states. Two flight attendants told investigators that the woman was visibly upset and was crying, the complaint states.
Ramamoorthy was taken into custody when the flight landed. He said in a written statement that he was in “deep sleep,” the complaint states. He also said that the woman fell asleep on his knees and he is “not sure where [he] kept the hand on her.”
“Through my knowledge I didn’t [sic] anything to her,” Ramamoorthy said, according to the complaint.
He gave a further statement in an interview with an FBI agent, saying that he “might have” undone the woman’s bra while playing with it, and that he had cupped her breasts over her clothes, the complaint states. He indicated that he unzipped her pants part way and put his finger into her pants and tried to fondle her, the complaint states.
Ramamoorthy was ordered detained pending trial, based on the evidence against him and because he has significant family or ties outside the US, according to court documents.
Spirit Airlines said it is fully cooperating with law enforcement and referred questions to them.
via: http://ktla.com/2018/01/05/man-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-sleeping-woman-on-spirit-flight/
Beware These Hoaxes Circulating After Las Vegas Mass Shooting
After a gunman opened fire from the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino in Las Vegas in what would be the one of country’s deadliest mass shootings, internet trolls have been hard at work spreading bogus information on social media.
Among the hoaxes was a series of posts identifying the gunman as comedian Sam Hyde. It’s become a disturbing routine for online trolls who have identified Hyde as a suspect in the 2015 San Bernardino shooting and again in a shooting at UCLA last year.
A number of troll accounts on Twitter pushed out phony missing victim photos, asking for retweets to “spread the word.” The “missing” included a suspect linked to a murder case in Mexico, an adult film actor and former Vine star Lil Terio.
And there wasn’t a shortage of conspiracy theories either.
Primarily disseminated by far-right blogs, a news story claimed the shooter was a man named Geary Danley, a mutual friend of Marilou Danley, who has since been identified as the companion of the actual shooter, Stephen Paddock.
Citing Geary Danley’s left-leaning page “likes” on Facebook, which included Rachel Maddow and MoveOn.org, trolls quickly convicted Geary Danley, with some linking him to the antifa movement.
One bizarre story that has yet to be debunked was the claim that an emotionally disturbed woman warned many concertgoers of what was going to happen.
“There was a lady who pushed her way through the front of the crowd … and she started messing with another lady and told her we were going to die tonight,” a witness told a TV news crew.
It’s still unclear if that mystery woman had any ties to the shooting. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office, which covers Las Vegas, did not immediately comment on the incident, which could have been a bizarre coincidence.
How to spot a hoax
There are many ways to investigate for yourself whether a report you’re seeing online is legitimate.
According to experts, one of the first giveaways is a shady domain and URL.
If you’re visiting a site with a questionable news story, an immediate red flag is a domain with an ending like “.com.co.” Most established news sites own their own domain like CNN.com and NYDailyNews.com. Reputable news outlets would almost never opt out of the .com family.
While there are a number of popular blogs written and maintained by journalists, there are also blogs operated by those who identify with radical ideologies. An easy way to sift through this content is by simply searching for the site’s About Us page, where missions and goals are usually stated.
To that end, it’s important to note: reputable news sites almost never speak in the first person.
If a questionable photo is used in the story, take advantage of Google’s reverse image search. This tool has become incredibly useful for those looking to debunk hoaxes and stories that seem too good to be true.
You can learn how to perform a reverse image search, here.
Another easy way to verify whether a story is true or false is to Google it.
If a story sounds shady, searching a few terms on the topic should pull up other related news stories from different outlets. Chances are if other reputable news outlets haven’t reported on this story, it’s probably not true or it’s loaded with inaccuracies, which may be the reason why other outlets opted out.
Finally, look at the comments section.
It’s likely that others already sniffed out the story, deeming it fake news. Readers usually take advantage of the comment section to sound off on the validity of the story in question.
via: http://ktla.com/2017/10/02/beware-these-hoaxes-circulating-after-las-vegas-mass-shooting/