Archive for the ‘Crimes and Trials’ Category
Sorry in advance for ruining a lovely Friday morning. There’s pretty disturbing news coming out of Thailand where authorities have arrested a man for smuggling six roasted human fetuses in his luggage. (We said sorry!)
RELATED: Horrifyingly, Ground Baby Pills Are a Real Thing
According to The Independent’s Rob Williams and other news reports, the fetuses had been roasted and covered in gold leaf as part of a ritual. Chow Hok Kuen, a British citizen, was planning to sell them to people looking to get rich. “[P]olice said the suspect bought them for $6,500 several days ago from a Taiwanese man in Thailand and planned to smuggle them into Taiwan and sell them there for up to six times that amount, according to The Global Post. Had he not been stopped, Kuen could’ve made nearly $40,000 from those six fetuses. “He said he planned to sell the foetuses to clients who believe they will make them lucky and rich,” Colonel Wiwat Kamchamnan of Bangkok police, told the AFP.
RELATED: A Deluge of Twins; College Is Healthy
What’s perhaps more disgusting is that there appears to be a market for fetuses and dead babies. if you recall we had our gag reflexes tested earlier this month when we noted pills containing ground up dead baby remains found in South Korea.
RELATED: Baby Drug Addicts; Religion Does Not Breed Compassion
Photo by: michaeljung via Shutterstock
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-arrested-smuggling-roasted-human-fetuses-131604941.html
DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Spanish-language television anchor and producer Frank Cairo faces grand theft charges after police in South Florida say he stole a patio chairs and carpet from a neighbor.
Doral Police Chief Rick Gómez told The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/M0TpNG ) that 48-year-old Cairo “admitted” to the theft. But he says he took the items because he thought the apartment had been abandoned.
Police say apartment owner Roberto Xacur lives in Mexico.
Surveillance video shows Cairo — whose real name is Ivan Valdes — and 47-year-old Jorge Acuña Arias during the April 29 theft. Police say Xacur looked at the video after noticing the items were missing. He showed it to neighbors, who identified the men as residents of an upstairs apartment.
Cairo’s website says he most recently worked at TV Azteca.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/spanish-language-tv-anchor-arrested-south-fla-145649851.html
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Jurors deliberating in the John Edwards campaign corruption trial are asking to see several exhibits and they say they need office supplies to help with their discussions.
The request came about two hours after they started discussions Friday. The jurors asked for eight specific exhibits as well as a complete list of the exhibits. They also need a board and markers to write on it.
Edwards is accused of masterminding a plan to use money from wealthy donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the 2008 White House. Defense attorneys say Edwards did not knowingly break campaign finance laws. They also say the payments were a gift, not a campaign contribution.
He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/jurors-edwards-trial-ask-look-exhibits-165310990.html
PHOENIX (Reuters) – An Arizona wildfire threatened two more towns on Friday, with high winds on the way, as firefighters made progress against the largest of several fires spreading across the U.S. Southwest. More than 1,000 firefighters in Arizona and Colorado were battling five major blazes that have consumed more than …
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-arrested-blockupy-frankfurt-protests-175210394.html
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A jury deliberating whether John Edwards broke campaign finance laws made a request for evidence and office supplies Friday, suggesting they are settling in for detailed talks about the money from wealthy donors that was used to hide the candidate’s pregnant mistress during his 2008 White House bid.
After about two hours of discussions, jurors asked to see several exhibits and wanted a complete list of the exhibits, which the judge said would take a clerk at least an hour to compile.
Jurors heard about 17 days of testimony, a lot of it focusing on the details of the lurid sex scandal between the Democratic candidate, his mistress Rielle Hunter and his once-trusted aide Andrew Young, who initially claimed he was the father of his boss’s baby. But they also reviewed phone and financial records from a period of about two years.
Edwards is charged with six criminal counts including conspiracy to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act, accepting contributions that exceeded campaign finance limits, and causing his campaign to file a false financial disclosure report. He faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if convicted of all charges.
Jurors asked for eight exhibits and all of the notes from a wealthy heiress who provided about half of the money at issue. They also wanted a transcript of the heiress’ lawyer’s testimony, but the judge told them to rely on their memory. They said they need markers and a board to write on, too.
Jurors will have to weigh whether to believe Edwards, who argued that he didn’t knowingly break the law, or his aide, Andrew Young, who said Edwards recruited him to solicit secret donations in excess of the legal limit for campaign contributions, then $2,300.
The choice before them comes down to choosing which liar to believe.
Young, the prosecution’s star witness, falsely claimed paternity of his boss’s baby in December 2007, after tabloid reporters tracked a visibly pregnant Hunter to a doctor’s appointment.
Edwards repeatedly denied having a relationship with Hunter, only to go on national television in August 2008 to admit having a brief affair with Hunter but that it was physically impossible he was the father of her baby girl. In fact, his relationship with Hunter had lasted more than a year. A recording of that interview was played for the jury last week as the prosecution rested its case.
The bulk of the alleged illegal campaign contributions flowed to Young, including $725,000 in checks from heiress Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, who is now 101 years old. Young spent some of the money to care for Hunter, but financial records introduced at the trial showed the aide siphoned off most of the money to help build his family’s $1.6 million dream home near Chapel Hill.
Another $400,000 in cash, luxury hotels, private jets rides and a $20,000-a-month rental mansion in Santa Barbara, Calif., were also provided by wealthy Texas lawyer Fred Baron to help cover up the affair. Baron served as Edwards’ campaign finance chairman.
Prosecutors say Edwards knew about the money and directed the cover-up, showing the jury phone records indicating he was in constant contact with Hunter and Young while they were in hiding.
The defense countered that it is Young who should be on trial, not Edwards, accusing the aide of using Edwards’ name without his knowledge to bamboozle Mellon out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal use. Young received immunity from prosecutors.
During closing arguments Thursday, lead defense lawyer Abbe Lowell admitted that Edwards had lied to his wife and the American people. But his client didn’t violate federal campaign finance regulations, Lowell said.
“This is a case that should define the difference between a wrong and a crime … between a sin and a felony,” Lowell told the jury. “John Edwards has confessed his sins. He will serve a life sentence for those. But he has pleaded not guilty to violating the law.”
Meanwhile, prosecutor Bobby Higdon used Edwards’ old stump speech against him, saying the presidential candidate violated laws meant to protect “the two Americas” in an attempt to avoid a sex scandal.
“Campaign finance laws are designed to bring the two Americas together at election time,” Higdon said. “John Edwards forgot his own rhetoric.”
___
Follow AP writer Michael Biesecker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mbieseck
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/jurors-ask-look-exhibits-edwards-trial-170738021.html
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — After more than a week of fear that an impostor police officer was pulling over motorists and killing them, police in northwestern Mississippi said Friday that a suspect in two roadside slayings was arrested.
James D. Willie, 28, was arrested on Tuesday in Tunica by police responding to a domestic disturbance. Police said ballistics tests of a pistol in his possession confirmed it was the same weapon used in both killings.
Willie was being held on charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault and rape and was expected to be formally charged with two counts of capital murder.
Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain told The Associated Press that the suspect had not been posing as a police officer and it was too early in the investigation to say why both slain motorists were on the side of the road. He declined to give a possible motive.
News of the arrest brought relief in the Tunica area, which stretches along the Mississippi River south of Memphis, Tenn., and is known for its casinos.
Lottie Hubbard, 58, is a blackjack dealer at Hollywood Casino and usually travels to work at 4 a.m. She hoped she and others could get back to their normal routines.
“I’ve been taking the long way around the world instead of the back roads,” she said. “I try not to get out at night if I don’t have to.”
Thomas Schlender, 74, of Raymond, Neb., was found dead in his car on Interstate 55 in Panola County on May 8 around 1:30 a.m. Lori Anne Carswell, 48, of Hernando was found dead near her car on Mississippi Highway 713 in nearby Tunica County about 2:15 a.m. on May 11.
Carswell had just left work from Fitzgerald’s Casino in Tunica County when she was killed, authorities have said. Schlender’s was driving from Nebraska to Florida to pick up his grandson.
Authorities developed several theories during the investigation and one was that someone could be posing as an officer to pull people over because there was no apparent reason for the victims to pull over.
“If we’re going to err, we’re going to err on the side of public safety,” Strain said. “The fact is that we got him off the street and people can go back to a level of comfort.”
Fears that a fake cop may have been behind the shootings prompted authorities to urge drivers to use caution when approached by any vehicle with flashing blue lights, even telling people they could call 911 if they were being pulled over.
Anita Shaffer arrived in Tunica on Thursday with her mother, Cheryl Ross, from Ann Arbor, Mich., to try their luck at the casinos, but first they prepared themselves.
One of the first things they did was to locate the police station in case someone tried to pull them over. They breathed easier Friday morning after learning a suspect had been arrested.
“It was scary,” Shaffer said. “I was freaking out.”
Gov. Phil Bryant and Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Albert Santa Cruz said in a statement early Friday that investigators spent hundreds of hours working the case and the state Bureau of Investigation and state crime lab used all the resources it had available.
“Our citizens have been terrorized by these murders and we worked tirelessly to resolve them,” Santa Cruz said.
Willie was arrested Tuesday morning when authorities responded to a disturbance at an apartment. Tunica police found Willie with a woman who claimed he had raped her. Ballistic testing later found that his 9mm Ruger pistol was the same gun used in the two highway shootings, authorities said.
Strain said Willie is a convicted felon, but he did not have details about his previous arrests.
___
Follow Mohr on Twitter at http://twitter.com/holbrookmohr
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/1-arrested-miss-highway-shootings-no-fake-cop-171033029.html
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek voters are returning to the establishment parties that negotiated its bailout, a poll showed on Thursday, offering potential salvation for European leaders who say a snap Greek election next month will decide whether it must quit the euro. The poll, the first conducted since talks to form a government …
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/several-hurt-arrested-mauritania-opposition-protest-191210821.html
LONDON – British police say they have arrested 3 senior Irish dissidents and charged them with a range of terror offences.
Northern Irish police said the three men were charged Friday with offences such as conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion, preparation of terrorist acts and collecting information of use to terrorism. The men were arrested in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland on Monday as part of a “proactive investigation” into dissident republican terrorist activity.
A British official says the operation was intelligence-led but is not thought to be connected to the Olympic torch relay, which is due to pass through northern Ireland next week. It also is not believed linked to the London Olympics or Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee celebrations.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
The men will appear in court Saturday.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-3-irish-dissidents-arrested-terror-offences-ahead-192314926.html
GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) – Jurors weighing whether former U.S. Senator John Edwards illegally used campaign funds to conceal an extramarital affair when he ran for president headed home on Friday and will resume deliberations next week.
A judge let the jury go for the weekend after 5-1/2 hours of discussions. Earlier Friday, jurors asked to review more than a dozen prosecution exhibits.
Among the evidence they requested were notes from Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a wealthy donor to Edwards’ campaign, and testimony from her lawyer, Alex Forger.
The jury must decide if Edwards, 58, orchestrated a cover-up to keep voters from learning of his pregnant mistress during his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The jury is to resume deliberations Monday morning.
Prosecutors said the plot resulted in more than $900,000 from two wealthy donors being secretly funneled to Edwards’ mistress, Rielle Hunter, and his aide Andrew Young, who during the campaign falsely admitted to paternity of the baby Edwards fathered.
The defense said Edwards, who maintains his innocence, did not seek or accept the money and that the payments were personal gifts meant to keep the affair and Hunter’s pregnancy concealed from Edwards’ cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth.
The former senator from North Carolina faces a total of six felony counts on charges including conspiring to solicit the money, receiving more than the $2,300 allowed from any one donor, and failing to report the payments as contributions.
Each count carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
(Reporting by Wade Rawlins; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Kevin Gray and Bill Trott) Follow us on Twitter: @ReutersLegal | Like us on Facebook
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/jury-set-deliberate-case-ex-senator-edwards-103629077.html
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A jury deliberated for about five hours Friday in John Edwards‘ campaign corruption trial involving money from wealthy donors that was used to hide his pregnant mistress during his 2008 White House bid. Talks will resume Monday, but the jury has already made several requests for evidence and office supplies, a sign they may be settling in for detailed discussions.
Jurors heard about 17 days of testimony, a lot of it focusing on the details of the lurid sex scandal between the Democratic candidate, his mistress Rielle Hunter and his once-trusted aide Andrew Young, who initially claimed he was the father of his boss’s baby. But they also reviewed phone and financial records from a period of about two years.
Edwards is charged with six criminal counts including conspiracy to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act, accepting contributions that exceeded campaign finance limits, and causing his campaign to file a false financial disclosure report. He faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if convicted of all charges.
Jurors asked for eight exhibits and all of the notes from a wealthy heiress who provided about half of the money at issue. They also wanted a transcript of the heiress’ lawyer’s testimony, but the judge told them to rely on their memory. They said they need markers and a board to write on, too.
Jurors will have to weigh whether to believe Edwards, who argued that he didn’t knowingly break the law, or his aide, Andrew Young, who said Edwards recruited him to solicit secret donations in excess of the legal limit for campaign contributions, then $2,300.
The choice before them comes down to choosing which liar to believe.
Young, the prosecution’s star witness, falsely claimed paternity of his boss’s baby in December 2007, after tabloid reporters tracked a visibly pregnant Hunter to a doctor’s appointment.
Edwards repeatedly denied having a relationship with Hunter, only to go on national television in August 2008 to admit having a brief affair with Hunter but that it was physically impossible he was the father of her baby girl. In fact, his relationship with Hunter had lasted more than a year. A recording of that interview was played for the jury last week as the prosecution rested its case.
The bulk of the alleged illegal campaign contributions flowed to Young, including $725,000 in checks from heiress Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, who is now 101 years old. Young spent some of the money to care for Hunter, but financial records introduced at the trial showed the aide siphoned off most of the money to help build his family’s $1.6 million dream home near Chapel Hill.
Another $400,000 in cash, luxury hotels, private jets rides and a $20,000-a-month rental mansion in Santa Barbara, Calif., were also provided by wealthy Texas lawyer Fred Baron to help cover up the affair. Baron served as Edwards’ campaign finance chairman.
Prosecutors say Edwards knew about the money and directed the cover-up, showing the jury phone records indicating he was in constant contact with Hunter and Young while they were in hiding.
The defense countered that it is Young who should be on trial, not Edwards, accusing the aide of using Edwards’ name without his knowledge to bamboozle Mellon out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal use. Young received immunity from prosecutors.
During closing arguments Thursday, lead defense lawyer Abbe Lowell admitted that Edwards had lied to his wife and the American people. But his client didn’t violate federal campaign finance regulations, Lowell said.
“This is a case that should define the difference between a wrong and a crime … between a sin and a felony,” Lowell told the jury. “John Edwards has confessed his sins. He will serve a life sentence for those. But he has pleaded not guilty to violating the law.”
The eight-man, four-woman jury includes a retired firefighter, a plumber as well as a corporate vice president and retired accountant. One juror recounted handing out pamphlets supporting Democratic President Barack Obama in 2008, while another said he had put out signs supporting Republican candidates.
___
Associated Press writer Allen Reed contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP writer Michael Biesecker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mbieseck
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/jurors-edwards-trial-resume-talks-monday-194257078.html
