crime

NBC4 Washington
Possible Juror Misconduct in Former Culpeper Police Officer Murder Trial
NBC4 Washington
The jurors in the murder trial of former Culpeper Town Police Officer Daniel Harmon-Wright were sworn in and questioned one by one Wednesday about possible misconduct. A clerk found two dictionaries and a thesaurus in the deliberation room, prompting ...
Possible Misconduct Investigated In Culpeper Murder TrialW*USA 9
Ex-Culpeper officer's murder trial nears endSan Francisco Chronicle

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Independent Online
Pussy Riot's cathedral video banned
Independent Online
Members of the female punk band "Pussy Riot" (L-R) Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage before a court hearing in Moscow. Related Stories. Court denies Pussy Riot appeal. Footage of feminist ...

Inquirer.net
Aquino warns unabated corruption breeds 'corrupt' leaders
Inquirer.net
Speaking at the 5th Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC) in Pasay City, Aquino acknowledged that the “greatest challenge for any modern society” was how to “stem the corruption” that he said feasted on the moral fabric of ...
Fight against corruption to continue: Aquinogulfnews.com
Aquino: True public service 'a key in fighting corruption'Sun.Star
PNoy highlights anti-corruption efforts in 5th GOPAC conferencePhilippine Information Agency
GMA News
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17-year-old charged with murder in Park Manor shooting Tuesday afternoon
Chicago Tribune
The shooting happened about 12:20 p.m. in the 7400 block of South Champlain Avenue - the 41st murder of the year, surpassing the monthly total from 2012, which was an increase over 2011. Quovadus Mahomes, of Dixon, is accused of killing 27-year-old ...

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China says 14 protesters plead guilty to encouraging mass riot against ...
Fox News
BEIJING – Fourteen people pleaded guilty to encouraging a riot in eastern China last year where scores of police were hurt and the local Communist Party chief was stripped half-naked in a mass protest that ultimately forced the scrapping of a ...

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Kansas City Star
Crime sweep goes after members of loosely allied groups
Kansas City Star
In Tuesday's predawn darkness, the distant flash of lightning portended a nasty change in Kansas City's weather. At the same time, more than 100 police officers and federal agents gathered to unleash a different kind of storm on the city's criminal ...
Kansas City Murder Burst Contrasted With New Crime Fight JobKCUR

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Press Herald
In Egypt, calls to halt riot violence
Press Herald
CAIRO - A key Egyptian opposition leader Wednesday called for talks with President Mohammed Morsi, ultraconservative Islamists and military officials to quell days of rioting that have killed more than 50 people and left the country edging toward anarchy.
Fatalities Reported At Mass Funeral For Riot Dead In EgyptNPR (blog)
Clashes erupt after Egypt court sentences 21 to death in football riotCNN
22 killed as death sentences in Egypt soccer riot spark clashesLos Angeles Times
TIME -Christian Science Monitor
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3 killed in suspected murder-suicide, Oxnard police say
Los Angeles Times
Two women were shot to death and a man was also fatally shot in an apparent murder-suicide in Oxnard, police said Wednesday night. The women were found after officers responded about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to reports of shots fired in the 1200 block of ...

Emotional John Kerry slams 'corruption' of system
Boston Herald
Outgoing U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry was overcome with emotion yesterday as he delivered his farewell speech before the U.S. Senate — a body he said is being corrupted by campaign cash. “I believe it is the honor of a lifetime, an extraordinary privilege ...

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Q13 FOX
Police: WA inmate's murder-for-hire plot foiled
San Francisco Chronicle
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle police have outlined what they say was a murder-for-hire plot organized by a jailed felon who wanted a man he suspected of being a police informant to be doused with gasoline and dried "with a match." Detective Mark Jamieson ...
Police foil murder-for-hire plot orchestrated from KC JailKOMO News
Police foil murder-for-hire plot that started in jailKING5.com
Police: Murder-for-hire plot like something out of the moviesQ13 FOX
MyNorthwest.com -KIRO Seattle
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Romania-Insider.com
Romanis'a anti-corruption methods not up to EU standards
European Voice
Romania is still failing to meet European standards in fighting corruption, more than six years after it joined the European Union, the European Commission has found in its latest progress report on the rule of law in the country. The Commission is ...
EU report: Romania still needs progress on judicial independence, battle ...Windsor Star
Romanian judiciary remains “major source of concern”Europolitics.info
Romania Has Lots to Do on Judicial Reform, EC Interim Report SaysNovinite.com

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Sky Valley Chronicle
Police: WA inmate's murder-for-hire plot foiled
The Seattle Times
Police: WA inmate's murder-for-hire plot foiled. Seattle police have outlined what they say was a murder-for-hire plot organized by a jailed felon who wanted a man he suspected of being a police informant to be doused with gasoline and dried "with a ...
Police foil murder-for-hire plot orchestrated from KC JailKOMO News
Police foil murder-for-hire plot that started in jailKING5.com
SEATTLE POLICE FOIL MURDER-FOR-HIRE PLOTSky Valley Chronicle
MyNorthwest.com -Q13 FOX -KIRO Seattle
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Newsday (subscription)
In corruption trial, dad says he pleaded with principal
Newsday (subscription)
A one-time Nassau police benefactor said he "begged and pleaded" with the principal at his son's high school not to press charges after he discovered the teenager had stolen campus electronics equipment. Days later, the principal, Lorraine Poppe ...

Man seeks sentence reduction in 2009 Pa. murder
San Francisco Chronicle
SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) — A judge says he will consider reducing the sentence of a man who pleaded guilty to a murder charge in the slaying of a man found shot in the kitchen of a western Pennsylvania apartment more than three years ago.

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Getty Images
Feds targeting Medicare fraud, political corruption in probes of eye doctor ...
MiamiHerald.com
The FBI is separately examining the ties between Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and Melgen in a parallel corruption investigation launched last year, The Miami Herald has learned. FBI agents are investigating the allegations of a shadowy tipster who ...
FBI Raids West Palm Doctor's Office With Possible Corruption Ties To NJ ...Getty Images

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Washington Post
China says 14 protesters plead guilty to encouraging mass riot against ...
Washington Post
BEIJING — Fourteen people pleaded guilty to encouraging a riot in eastern China last year where scores of police were hurt and the local Communist Party chief was stripped half-naked in a mass protest that ultimately forced the scrapping of a ...

and more »

Dave Wheeler, whose son Benjamin died at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, quoted a founding father at a public hearing in Newtown, Conn., on... Saki Knafo http://www.huffingtonpost.com/saki-knafo/

A man is dead and a woman is in critical condition Monday after a possible domestic altercation at an Annapolis business, police said.At 1 a.m., officers responded to a shooting in the 300 block of Harry S. Truman Parkway where they found Tracy Lynn West, 43, and her estranged husband, Calvin Cofield, 50, suffering from gunshot wounds, said Anne Arundel County Lt. Francis Tewey.

Sources inside the Riverside County District Attorney's Office contend that under the leadership of Paul Zellerbach, the agency is compromising domestic violence victims in a drive to slash caseloads, limit jury trials and chalk up easy wins.But Zellerbach fired back that such allegations are "politically motivated." He told City News Service his office is meeting its public safety obligations and doing so more efficiently than under his predecessor.The ramifications of the district attorney's approach to case management has come into focus in the aftermath of the slaying of Kathryn Rose Sanchez, a 34-year-old mother of three killed in her Riverside apartment on June 15, 2012.Sanchez was stabbed and strangled by 36-year-old Antonio Carreon Jr., who immediately took his own life by lying in front of an approaching train, according to police.Carreon had a history of domestic violence and was alleged to have assaulted Sanchez on multiple occasions, spawning a police investigation that ended without any charges being filed.Some career agency employees wonder why.Sources who have served under three -- and in a few cases, four -- district attorneys contend that the way the Sanchez case was handled reflects a top-down change in values at the D.A.'s office that has resulted in a dismissive attitude toward domestic violence cases."Our district attorney has established a culture where victims of domestic violence are not important," according to a veteran Riverside County prosecutor, who spoke to City News Service on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation."That's clear in the statistics and in the filing decision in this case," the prosecutor said. "There have been orders, straight from the top, to maximize conviction rates regardless of the effect on victims of crime."The prosecutor maintained that the order of the day in the D.A.'s Office is to dispose of cases with an eye to attaining easy wins, even if it means giving defendants "sweetheart deals," or rejecting -- on dubious grounds -- cases submitted by law enforcement."And you end up with tragic situations like this, where the woman is dead, and her children have been orphaned," he said.A Riverside Police Department investigation into Sanchez's domestic violence allegations was completed before the murder-suicide. But the case was closed and no charges were filed in what remains a murky decision-making process. Police say the D.A.'s Riverside domestic violence unit decided not to proceed; the D.A.'s Office maintains that investigators never submitted the Carreon case for formal review.Two former Los Angeles County prosecutors consulted by CNS for their assessment of the handling of the case said that, based on the police report alone, there appeared to have been sufficient grounds to file felony charges against Carreon in December 2011."Under Rod Pacheco and my first boss, Grover Trask, we had a deep commitment to victims of domestic violence," according to the deputy district attorney who spoke anonymously. "We knew they were the toughest cases. But we were OK with that because we understood that it's the tough ones where you prove you're a real prosecutor. Grover and Rod expected us to fight hard for victims. That standard doesn't exist under Paul Zellerbach."Zellerbach said any suggestion he would seek to curtail the prosecution of domestic violence cases or other crimes to lengthen his office's win column is "personally offensive" and "makes absolutely no sense.""The emphasis here is on trying to achieve justice and fairness and at the same time protect the public," he told CNS. "To say I'm soft on a particular kind of crime -- what's the basis for that?

RACINE — At a county jail in Tennessee, a Racine man reportedly became emotional with a task force investigator who was explaining some paperwork that would send him back to Wisconsin.Ryan G. King had turned himself in on Jan. 17 to the 18th Judicial District Drug Task Force investigator who stopped his sport utility vehicle in Millersville, Tenn. The convicted felon allegedly had confessed to having a gun beneath the driver’s seat.But at the Sumner County Jail, King uttered “words to the effect of ‘my baby — I killed my baby,’ ” according to the criminal complaint, which Racine County prosecutors released for the first time on Wednesday.King, 46, of the 1400 block of West Sixth Street, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a firearm by a felon in the Jan. 17 death of his girlfriend, Lucinda White, 44.King sat silently Wednesday, at times with his head in his hand, as Court Commissioner Alice Rudebusch set his bond at $500,000 cash during his initial appearance on those charges.Racine County District Attorney Rich Chiapete said King chased White down on the night of Jan. 16 and shot her in the street, execution style.“Mr. King basically hunted the victim down in a busy Downtown street,” Chiapete said in court.King tried to shoot his girlfriend with one gun, Chiapete said. But “when that gun jammed up, he used the other gun to basically execute her.”White’s death marks Racine’s first homicide of the year.The Racine woman called one of her sisters at about 10:30 p.m. Jan. 16, saying she and her boyfriend “were getting into it,” according to the complaint. When White’s sister arrived at her home, in the 700 block of Villa Street, the residence was dark and White didn’t respond when she honked the horn. So she left.But when police later arrived to check on White, officers found her lying in the middle of Sixth Street, suffering from a gunshot wound to her forehead, according to investigators. A witness reportedly told police that before they arrived, she heard two loud noises and a woman yelled “I (expletive) love you” before a man put a gun to the woman’s head and fired.Autopsy results show White died from a gunshot wound to the head.Assistant State Public Defender Ahmed Jenkins asked for “a reasonable cash bond” on Wednesday, saying King has worked at Racine Community Action for two years and has a degree in early childhood education.Authorities extradited King back to Racine, and he only arrived at the Racine County Jail Tuesday morning, jail booking records show. Millersville, Tenn., is 531 miles from Racine.White was shot near the 600 block of Sixth Street, according to Racine police. Officers responded at about 10:45 p.m. for reports of a person who was down and found White lying in the middle of the road — with the gunshot wound to her head and two in her arm, the complaint said.She was pronounced dead the next day, at about 7:30 p.m., police have said.King’s arrest in Tennessee came just a handful of hours before White died from her injuries, reports show.King’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 7. Rudebusch ordered him to “have no contact whatsoever” with White’s family.About a dozen people attended King’s initial appearance, but none wanted to comment after the hearing.Chiapete said White’s domestic violence-related death is too familiar, similar to other recent cases.“It’s obviously concerning to us that it’s another domestic violence-related homicide,” Chiapete said after the hearing. “We take these matters as seriously as any cases out there.”But he said he couldn’t comment on whether police have ever been called to either of their homes for domestic-related incidents in the past.