A judge has tossed out one of the felony charges against a former mayor of the city of Bell, and two felony charges against a former council member.
According to an earlier LAT piece, Robert “Ratso” Rizzo was also asking for the charges against him to be dropped; I can’t tell from this article if the judge turned down that request, or simply hasn’t ruled yet.
Edited to add: Update: Ratso and Angelia Spaccia lost their bids to have the charges dismissed.
Tommy Tuberville, head football coach at Texas Tech, is being sued for investment fraud:
The linked HouChron article doesn’t add much beyond that. As always, please keep in mind that these are just the plaintiff’s allegations in a law suit, and that there are two sides to any lawsuit. But this comes at a bad time for Tech, no matter what turns out to be true.
I generally don’t blog recent book acquisitions. While doing so would probably give me fodder for at least one post every three days or so, most of what I purchase wouldn’t be of interest to other bloggers; I do buy some SF and mystery firsts, but not as many as other people I can name. Most of what I do buy is primarily of interest to me.
That being said, I did pick up a couple of books recently that might tickle the fancy (or the funny bones) of some folks; I’m thinking specifically of Lawrence and Tam here.
Yes, you are reading that correctly: the title of the book is They Were Murdered In France. This is a fairly old (1957) true crime book consisting of 15 vignettes involving British citizens who were….murdered in France. I haven’t started reading it yet (I just got it out of the PO Box) but judging from the jacket copy, it appears that Mr. Harry J. Greenwall did not have a high opinion of the French police, or of Interpol.
A few weeks ago, there was an interesting discussion over at Tam’s place about gun porn in adventure fiction. On the one hand, you have the guy carrying a generic revolver. On the other hand, you have Tam’s Jock Studright example. (Stephen Hunter falls in the “just right” position for me. For example, in Havana
Anyway, the two most notorious exemplars of the way over the top weapon description school of writing are Jerry Ahern in The Survivalist
The Executioner’s War Book
…and pretty much right in the middle, a catalog of Bolan’s weapons and equipment, including lovely line drawings of such things as his “War Wagon” and the scope-sighted Marlin 444 lever action, a paen to the AutoMag, exploded drawings of the M2 and the Uzi, and so on. This works out to about 45 pages of weapons porn in a 201 page book. I’ve never been a huge Bolan fan, but this was just so weird I had to pick it up.
We previously noted New York City’s “roll your own tobacco shops” which were not much more than a blatant attempt to get around cigarette taxes. (I thought I linked to this at the time, but I can’t find the link now; the shops reached a settlement with the city and closed down, last I heard.)
Well, now the Indian tribes have gotten into the act. You see, the tribes used to buy smokes wholesale from distributors and resell them, tax free. But the state of New York went to court, and got a ruling that requires the wholesalers to collect taxes.
Now the Indian tribes are making their own brands of cigarettes.
And there’s rent seeking:
There are two things that amuse me about the NYPD’s secret “Newark, New Jersey Demographics Report”:
Sorry, folks. I had to go to the eye doctor this morning, so I’m getting off to a slow start.
In the latest Scott Henson news (previously) APD has released the video. You can find it at the Statesman‘s site, where it autoplays. (Idiots.)
I haven’t watched it yet, primarily because I got the full monty from my eye doctor, including the drops in my eyes. My pupils are now the size of Rhode Island; thank ghu for those silly sunglasses like things. In addition, work has me in a full-on “Hulk smash!” mode. More later. Maybe.
Today’s Statesman reprints a lengthy AP article by Kristen Gelineau about the Azaria Chamberlain case, tied to a new coroner’s inquest starting Friday. (This will be inquest number four.)
You remember Azaria Chamberlain? And her mother Lindy Chamberlain? Right?
This one goes out to my friend A.T. Campbell, the world's biggest Meryl Streep fan.
Yes, this is the famous “Dingo ate my baby!” case. For the younger set and the non-true crime buffs: the Chamberlain family was camping at Ayers Rock when Azaria (who was nine weeks old) disappeared. Lindy Chamberlain said she heard a cry, went to check on Azaria, and saw a dingo leaving their tent. Azaria’s jumpsuit was found in the desert; dingo tracks and blood were found in and near the tent.
There was considerable doubt at the time (and for that matter, today) that a dingo could carry off a baby. There was also some forensic evidence that, at the time, suggested Lindy Chamberlain had killed her daughter. (That evidence has since been debunked; details are in the linked article.) Lindy was convicted of murder, and her husband Michael was convicted as an accessory.
Three years after the conviction, Azaria’s jacket was discovered near a dingo den. (Azaria’s body has never been found.) Lindy and her husband were released from prison days later.
This is a pretty complicated case, with strong elements of prejudice. (The Chamberlains were Seventh-day Adventists.) I’ll admit to not having read Evil Angels
I was busy much of the day yesterday (and chained to my desk doing schoolwork much of the day today) so this is the first chance I’ve had to blog the Statesman‘s followup to the Scott Henson story.
Basically, Chief Acevdeo showed a Statesman reporter video of the incident – video that hasn’t been released to the public – that he claims contradicts Henson’s story. As far as I can tell, the contradictions amount to:
I’m glad I waited, since Henson now has a response to Acevedo and the Statesman up at his own blog. In his response, Henson acknowledges the non-drawn Taser error, but disputes the handcuff issue.
Henson also makes another good point by way of an apology:
To me, that’s sort of the key issue: why did nine APD officers stop, detain, and handcuff someone the deputy constable had already spoken to and cleared?
I missed this last night: the Texas Rangers are asking for a special prosecutor to assist in their investigation of the Harris County District Attorney’s office.
I learned of the HouChron article by way of The Hon. Murray Newman, who points out this is the fourth special prosecutor appointed to investigate the HCDA’s office since October.
Also, just to make things a little easier, I added a “HCDA” sub-category to the law category, and edited posts appropriately. Now everything I’ve posted (AFAIK) related to the Harris County District Attorney’s office is in one place, for easy review. Just part of the full-service blogging experience here at WCD, no need to thank me.
That’s interesting. To me, he was making it more of a “why did it take 9 APD officers to sort this out, especially given my previous interaction with a deputy constable?” thing. But that’s just me.
Michelle Gish was fired for punching a woman (who was restrained on a gurney) for spitting on her. Jose Robledo was suspended for giving “false and inaccurate statements during the investigation” of the same incident. Sgt. Mark Breckenridge was suspended for 20 days for failing to “adequately investigate the use of force” in the same incident, and Cpl. Steve Jones was suspended for 10 days “because he witnessed the incident but did not submit his report about it until told to do so by a superior, and he approved reports related to the incident that were inaccurate or incomplete”.
Gish and Robledo can appeal. I have seen reports elsewhere indicating that Breckenridge can’t, because suspensions over 15 days require the agreement of both the officer and the city. I’m not sure about Jones and his ability to appeal.
Gerhard Albert Becker has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
The charge against him is the result of a fire in January of last year that killed Glenn Allen, a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department. Allen was killed, and several other firefighters injured, in a ceiling collapse while they were fighting a fire in what the LAT describes as a “Hollywood Hills mansion”.
Okay. So why is this odd? Well, Becker isn’t the homeowner. Becker isn’t an arsonist. He didn’t start the fire. But it had not always been burning since the world’s been turning: the home had recently been rebuilt.
No, Becker is the architect who designed the home. I’ve never heard of a case where an architect has been charged as a result of a fire death. But when you read the article…
Wow. That’s…interesting. In the “tragedy waiting to happen” sort of way. More:
I’m not familiar with LA building codes. Is plastic pipe considered acceptable for sprinkler systems?
(The comments on this story are interesting as well. Apparently, the home was given a certificate of occupancy. Doesn’t that imply an inspection by the building department? I can see that they may not have gone into the attic to look at the sprinkler system: you’d expect that, but maybe the inspector was pressed for time? Or lazy? Or that’s not a standard part of inspections? But wouldn’t an 18-foot indoor “fire trough” have made them say something?)
Edited to add: Longer article from the LAT. If the accusations in this article are true (and please keep in mind that this is just the prosecution’s case), they’re damming.
Building inspectors said Becker had told them there were no plans to build fireplaces in the home, and none were spotted during a final inspection. After the fire, investigators discovered that he had installed four outdoor fireplaces inside the home, a violation of city building codes.
…
One of the fireplaces, prosecutors allege, actually vented into the room where it was located. The fireplaces also included combustible materials, like drywall, and lacked required firebreaks to keep flames from spreading out.
DA Lykos says she asked the Rangers to investigate, and promised full cooperation.
More on this when we know more. Don’t hold your breath; you’ll just turn an unattractive shade of blue.
I just do not understand this. I get that prisons in other countries are overcrowded and not up to US standards. But I just can’t wrap my mind around that many people dying in a fire in the modern era.
Some stuff from the NYT:
They caught Edward Maher in Missouri last week. Who?
His wife and 3-year-old son had already left for the United States. The money was never found.
Coach Susan Polgar is leaving her championship program at Texas Tech and going to Webster University in St. Louis. Worse for Tech, she’s taking the top ten players on her team with her to Webster’s program.
By the way, Coach Polgar is the chess coach.
Donna Lee Kelly was killed in 2004. Her body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car.
No arrests were made until a few days ago, when the LA County Sheriff’s Office arrested Richard Allan Munnecke. According to LACSO, they have DNA evidence that links Munnecke to the murder.
This would ordinarily be a cold case of the type I don’t usually cover, but there’s two things that make it interesting:
Edited to add 2/11: Longer followup story in the LAT, which goes into more detail about the evidence and the DA’s rejection.