On Monday, the state of Indiana sentenced 33-year-old Purvi Patel to 20 years in prison on charges of feticide -- an act that causes the death of a fetus -- and neglect of a dependent. She received a 30-year-sentence on the felony neglect charge, 10 of which were suspended. A six-year sentence for feticide will be served concurrently.
Patel is the first woman in the U.S. to be charged, convicted and sentenced on a feticide charge. Reproductive rights activists are outraged.
"What this conviction means is that anti-abortion laws will be used to punish pregnant woman," says Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director for National Advocates for Pregnant Women.
Patel was arrested in July 2013 after she went to the emergency room, bleeding heavily, at St. Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana. Despite initially denying the pregnancy, Patel eventually admitted to medical authorities that she had a miscarriage and threw the stillborn fetus in a dumpster.
According to Sue Ellen Braunlin, doctor and co-president of the Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice, Purvi was most likely 23-24 weeks pregnant, although prosecutors argued Patel was 25 weeks along in the state's opening argument. The prosecution confirmed on Monday that the baby died within seconds of being born.
Patel's lawyers argued that she panicked when she realized she was in labor. Patel comes from a conservative Hindu family that looks down on sex outside marriage, and the pregnancy was a result of an affair Patel had with her co-worker.
"Purvi Patel's conviction amounts to punishment for having a miscarriage and then seeking medical care, something that no woman should worry would lead to jail time," said Deepa Iyer, Activist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland's Asian American Studies Program and former director of South Asian Americans Leading Together.
Despite Patel's claim that she gave birth to a stillborn child, prosecutors argued that Patel gave birth to a live fetus and charged her with child neglect. Prosecutors also claimed that Patel ordered abortion-inducing drugs online and tried to terminate her pregnancy, but a toxicology report failed to find evidence of any drugs in her system.
Patel is the first woman to be sentenced under Indiana's feticide laws but she isn't the first woman to be charged. In 2011, Bei Bei Shuai, a Chinese American-woman, was held in prison for a year before feticide charges against her were dropped as part of a plea deal. Shuai was reportedly suffering from depression and tried to commit suicide while pregnant. She survived, but the fetus did not.
"Instead of receiving the medical support and counseling [Shuai] so desperately needed, the state charged her with murder and attempted feticide," said Iyer.
Iyer says that the fact that the only two women charged with infanticide are Asian American is important to note because women of color often lack access to basic health care, counseling, and other reproductive health resources.
"Immigrant women of color, such as Bei Bei and Purvi, remain vulnerable to the exploitation of laws like these in a myriad of ways, as we have seen in how they have been treated by the state of Indiana," said Iyer. "The cultural issues that the prosecution decided to drag into this case reflect stereotypes about Asian-American women and reproductive health which may not necessarily be true in this case."
The Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law's 2013 study on arrests and forced interventions on pregnant women in the U.S. found that approximately 71 percent were low-income women and 59 percent were women of color.
"For these women, the additional fear of arrest may altogether prevent them from seeking critical and necessary physical or mental health care during their pregnancy," said Miriam Yeung, Executive Director of National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.
Yeung believes that the Asian-American community needs to be more intentional and open about having conversations around reproductive and mental health. Asian-American youth, says Yeung, report the strongest amount of stigma around sex and reproductive health of any group. Asian-American women also have one of the highest suicide rates in the country.
"We know that our community is very progressive on the issue of abortion. Seventy-eight percent of AAPIs [Asian American Pacific Islanders] believe in some form of legal abortion," said Yeung. "However, despite our supportive values, we are not openly discussing reproductive health. As a community, we need to begin taking steps to de-stigmatize reproductive health and mental illness and integrate care and service around these issues into routine medical care."
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
http://ift.tt/eA8V8J INDIANAPOLIS: First woman in US sentenced for killing a fetus - "20 years in prison on charges of feticide ... Patel was arrested in July 2013 after she went to the emergency room, bleeding heavily. ...[T]he baby died within seconds of being born." via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1FeVpy3
A 10-year-old Ohio girl died in a house fire early Monday just hours before a trial she was set to testify in against her accused rapist was supposed to begin, officials said.
Robert Seman Jr., 46, was scheduled to be tried in Mahoning County on four counts of gross sexual imposition Monday, but the start of the trial was delayed when the Youngstown home of the 10-year-old he is accused of raping caught fire around 3:45 a.m. ET, according to NBC affiliate WKYC. The girl died along with two others.
Seman had been out on bond pending the rape trial, but Mahoning County Commons Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney revoked his bond Monday. She made the decision based on related bribery allegations, and not the fire, Mahoning County prosecutor Paul Gains told NBC News. Seman's lawyer, Thomas Zena, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Seman had been electronically monitored on house arrest since last April when he was indicted, Gains said. He was booked Monday in the Mahoning County Jail, according to sheriff's office documents.
One of the other two who died in the fire was identified as the 10-year-old girl's grandfather, William E. Schmidt, 63, the Mahoning County Coroner's Office told WKYC. The third person is unidentified, but believed to be the girl's grandmother.
Gains said the cause of the fire had not been determined and the Youngstown Fire Department was investigating. "We have to wait," Gains said. "If it's natural causes, it's a hell of a coincidence," he added.
— Elisha Fieldstadt
First published March 31 2015, 10:25 AM
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
http://ift.tt/XOaV3d Ohio Girl, 10, Dies in House Fire Hours Before Rape Suspect's Trial Begins via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1MuJK4M
Latest to join the Indiana boycott: Jay Inslee.Governor's Office
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee followed the lead of Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and others today, banning any state administrators from spending state money to travel to Indiana after that state passed a controversial "religious freedom" law that could make it easier for businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers.
"I find Indiana's new law disturbing, particularly at a time when more and more states and people in America are embracing civil rights for everyone," Inslee said in a statement today. "Washington will join other states and cities in opposing this law and I will impose an administration-wide ban on state funded travel to Indiana. ... We in Washington stand for equality. I applaud those companies and organizations that have spoken out against the law and said they would not locate or expand operations in Indiana. I want to invite all those organizations, and anyone interested in a state that promotes equality and opportunity, to come visit Washington. We are open for business, and open to all people."
Indiana isn't the only state with such a "religious freedom" law, but there are some important differences that make this one particularly troubling. Republican leaders in Indiana's state legislature say they're thinking about clarifying that the law isn't meant to allow discrimination, but, as the Indianapolis Star reports, "after several hours of private meetings with their fellow Republican lawmakers Monday afternoon, there seemed to be little consensus about how to proceed."
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
http://ift.tt/1DmWTsm Washington Gov. Bans State-Funded Travel to Indiana. In response to controversial religious freedom law, Washington will boycott Indiana. via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1OSQyrH
Floyd Dent never felt pain like he did the night of 28 January.
At about 10pm, the Detroit native says he went to visit a blind friend in the neighboring city of Inkster, to deliver a bottle of Rémy Martin and a 40oz of Bud Ice. He stayed for a few minutes, then left to drive home.
Moments later, a police cruiser behind him flipped on its overhead lights. According to a police report on the incident, Dent, 57, had failed to use a traffic signal and disregarded a stop sign. He continued to drive at roughly the same speed for about three-quarters of a mile, to a well-lit area where he says he felt comfortable. There, near an old police station, he pulled to the side of the road.
The police say Dent was driving with a suspended license. According to the office of Dent's attorney, Greg Rohl, his driving record indicates the suspension was related to an unpaid driving ticket from several years ago.
Dent opened his door and put both his hands out of the window.
"I wanted to let them know I'm unarmed," he told the Guardian.
But officer William Melendez – believing Dent was reaching for a gun – approached with firearm drawn. What happened next was captured on a patrol car camera.
No audio of the incident exists. According to Dent, one of the officers told him to "get out the car, before I blow your fucking head off".
Dent opened his door and was dragged out of his Cadillac; almost immediately, Melendez put him in a chokehold. Melendez then proceeded to deliver 16 blows to Dent's temple. This all took place in about 15 seconds. Another officer arrived moments later and proceeded to use a taser stun gun against Dent, three times. In the video, Dent, with blood dripping from his forehead and cheek, appears not to be resisting Melendez's efforts to arrest him.
In the police report, Melendez contended that as he had approached Dent's open car door, the 37-year veteran Ford employee, who had no criminal history, looked at him "with a blank stare as if on a form of narcotic" and plainly stated: "I'll kill you."
Dent says Melendez choked him so tightly he couldn't breathe.
"At one point, I just gave up," he said in an interview on Sunday at his attorney's office. "I thought that was it for me."
At a later hearing, Melendez testified that even before any traffic violation occurred, he planned to investigate Dent simply because he had stopped to visit someone in a part of Inkster known for problems with drugs.
Melendez, 46, claimed Dent was immediately combative and bit his forearm, though he would later testify there were no marks because he was wearing several layers of clothing. Dent denies the accusation. Melendez said the bite was enough reason to begin repeatedly punching Dent.
"I was afraid that I might contract something," Melendez testified, earlier this month. "I needed to assure that Mr Dent would not do that again."
For that, Dent says he spent two days in hospital for a fractured left orbital, blood on the brain and four broken ribs.
'Not all cops are bad, just the ones I ran into'
Inkster, with a population of about 25,000, is 73% black. Melendez is Hispanic; the other eight officers who arrived to the scene on 28 January were white.
While Dent was sitting in the back seat of a cruiser, police say they found a small bag of cocaine underneath the passenger seat of his vehicle.
Dent, whose post-arrest drug test came up negative, says police planted that evidence. Rohl, Dent's attorney, contends that a close review of a video released this week shows Melendez pulling a bag of drugs from his pocket.
"I saw [an officer] with drugs in his hand, and I thought, 'Look at them dirty dogs,'" Dent said. "After that I just held my head down."
Dent has two children, including a 30-year-old son who says he is now unsure if he wants to pursue his dream of being a Michigan state trooper.
"He told me, 'If cops are like this, I don't wanna be a state police officer'," Dent said. "I told him not all cops are bad, just the ones I ran into."
Hilton Napoleon, a former Inkster police chief, said the allegations levied by Dent came as no surprise.
Citizens told him during his three-year tenure that officers planted evidence at a crime scene, he said.
"I tried to get them to come forward and make an official complaint … but they're scared," said Napoleon, who resigned in 2014. "And rightfully so."
Police departments across the US have "bad apples", Napoleon said, but officers often fail to report their actions.
"People are up in arms, everywhere," Napoleon, who is black, told the Guardian. "And they're looking at the police with a jaundiced eye now."
According to local activists, the incident involving Dent is just one among a number that have pointed to a larger problem of police brutality nationwide. Following the deaths last year of two unarmed African Americans, Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Missouri, protests have spread across the US.
In the wake of the video showing Dent's beating, demonstrations took place in Inkster – where the police force is estimated to be 80% to 90% white.
Bishop Walter Starghill, president of the Western Wayne office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said he immediately met officials in Inkster, seeking ways to engage the community and let residents know the incident involving Dent would not be "swept under a rug".
"I was shocked," Starghill told the Guardian, when asked what he thought of the video. "It wasn't a pretty sight; it brought a lot of concern to see somebody to be actually treated that way."
Starghill compared the clip to the infamous beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police in 1991, saying it afforded the public an opportunity to witness what took place. King's beating, captured on camera, sparked serious riots.
"We realize there's two different kinds of justice," Starghill said. "There's American justice and then there's black justice. And America says that you are innocent until proven guilty; in black America we feel we are guilty until we are proven innocent."
Inkster's police chief, Vicki Yost, who is white and did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Guardian, told other media outlets Melendez had been taken off street patrol. A criminal investigation by Michigan state police is under way, with no timeline for completion, said spokeswoman Shannon Banner.
"The investigation will include a review of all video evidence and interviews," Banner told the Guardian. Its report will be forwarded to the county prosecutor's office for review, she said.
The only person who has been prosecuted since the incident is Dent.
Initially, he faced charges of assault, resisting arrest and possession of cocaine. Upon viewing the patrol car video at a preliminary hearing earlier this month, a district court judge tossed out nearly all the charges. A court date on the drug charge is scheduled for Wednesday.
Regardless of this, said Rohl, the kind of treatment Dent received is unacceptable.
"I don't care if he's got a kilo of cocaine and two dead bodies in that car, I don't give a shit," he said. "It's never appropriate ever to see that kind of brutality visited upon someone being arrested."
In the case of Inkster, the question of a financial settlement with Dent comes at a difficult time for the city. Since 2012, Inkster has been under a consent agreement with the state of Michigan to address its dire financial problems. During Napoleon's short stint as police chief, the number of officers in the department dropped from 73 to 24.
"You have a city that can barely keep its doors open, and now they're gonna have to come up with a bunch of money and throw it on the backs of taxpayers," he said.
'RoboCop'
Melendez's record shows he has faced similar allegations before. At one point, he garnered more citizen complaints than any officer in Detroit, where he started his career in 1993 and served until his resignation in 2009. He entered Inkster's police force a year later.
Over nearly two decades, Melendez has been named as a defendant in a dozen federal lawsuits, accused of planting evidence, wrongfully killing unarmed civilians, falsifying police reports and conducting illegal arrests. Some suits were settled out of court. Others were dismissed.
In 1996, Melendez, who was known in Detroit as "RoboCop", and his partner shot and killed Lou Adkins. While Adkins was on the ground, several witnesses said the officers shot him 11 times, according to the Detroit Free Press. The case was settled for $1.05m, court records show.
Later, in 2002, Melendez and a group of officers arrested Detroit resident Darrell Chancellor, a convicted felon, for possession of a firearm. Chancellor testified that he was sitting in a car with a group of friends when Melendez drove by with his partner. Chancellor and his friends exited the vehicle quickly "because it was RoboCop", Chancellor testified.
Accounts of the incident between Chancellor and Melendez vary wildly. The officer claimed Chancellor threw a gun; Chancellor denied he had one. About 15 minutes later, according to Chancellor's testimony, Melendez put a gun on top of the vehicle and said: "Chancellor, this is your gun." Chancellor denied the accusation.
While Chancellor was being transferred to the police precinct, an argument broke out. Melendez, Chancellor said, told him to "shut the F up" or he would also plant drugs on him.
Chancellor spent 213 days in jail. When federal prosecutors reviewed the case, the firearm possession charge against him was dismissed.
The US prosecutor's office examined Chancellor's case as part of an investigation into allegations against Melendez, who was cited as the ringleader of numerous officers indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 on civil rights violations. The officers were acquitted in 2004; jurors who spoke with the Detroit News explained they didn't believe the government's witnesses, many of whom had criminal records.
Around the time Chancellor's case was concluded, in 2007, the city of Detroit settled another suit involving Melendez for $50,000. The lawsuit alleged Melendez and his partners knocked on Ernest Crutchfield III's door in November 2003. When they received no response, they entered the premises without a search warrant and, in the kitchen, shot Crutchfield dead. According to the case, the officers planted a gun near his body before falsifying statements and lying under oath.
Between 1987 and 2004, more than 3,400 Detroit officers were named as defendants in a lawsuit, according to a 2005 city report on police settlements. By that time, court records indicate, Melendez had been sued nine times. Only 26 officers in Detroit had been involved in as many cases, the report stated.
Melendez, who could not be reached for comment, is currently named as a defendant in one case related to conduct in Inkster. In July 2011, he is alleged to have assaulted Deshawn Acklin, choking him until he lost consciousness. Acklin was using the bathroom at a friend's house when Melendez and other officers arrived, on suspicion of an alleged shooter being inside.
Melendez – who would later contend Acklin resisted arrest – is alleged to have beaten Acklin until another officer said "that's enough". While being treated in hospital, Acklin testified that Melendez asked him how he liked his "wrestling moves" while he was choked. Melendez denies ever saying that.
Eventually, a court filing stated, Acklin "succumbed to the pain and lack of oxygen and passed out while defecating on himself".
After he was treated at a hospital for a closed head injury, a left foot sprain and bleeding from his eyes, Acklin spent three days in custody, according to the case. He was never charged with a crime.
'People can have a collective voice'
Dent says the video of his incident is a painful reminder of treatment he never expected to receive.
"My hope with him having the courage to step forward is that people who have not been heard can come and have a collective voice," said Rohl.
A demonstration is scheduled for Wednesday – the day Dent will be back in court on the drug charge – at 4.30pm, outside Inkster police headquarters. Protesters also plan to convene on 3 April at the spot where Dent was pulled over, and then march to Inkster police headquarters.
Dent is a spiritual man. "Sometimes I just wanna be by myself and think, 'Why did this have to happen to me?'" he said.
"But then again, I thought, the man upstairs wanted me to expose him."
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
http://ift.tt/1CpVkq7 While Dent was sitting in the back seat of a cruiser, police say they found a small bag of cocaine ... a video released this week shows [the officer] pulling a bag of drugs from his pocket. via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1Evq7Fo
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
http://ift.tt/1GIM0R7 Ariz. governor vetoes bill shielding names of officers via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1OSpoRF
We're super excited about NBC's announcement that the network's next televised musical will be the broadway classic "The Wiz."
▶Video
VIDEO: 4-foot tall weightlifter finds love in 6-foot transgender woman
Four-foot, four-inch weightlifter Anton Kraft is 52 years old and currently holds the record for being able to lift four times his own body weight. For his weight class, he's considered the strongest man in the world. In his personal life, Kraft, 52, is known for dating women who are over a foot and for the past six months he's been dating 43 year-old China Bell – a six-foot, three-inch transgender woman. RELATED: 12 transgender celebrities and public figures you should know The two met online...
7Photos
Spring must-have: The bucket bag
Halfway between a tote and a backpack, the bucket bag is playful and practical for toting all your daily necessities.
2Photos
FlyBarre turns 4: Is the burn still intense?
It's been four years since FlyBarre began in New York City; since then the class has spread to Flywheel studios nationwide. To mark the occasion, we checked out a class to see how it holds up among the increasingly crowded field of fusion fitness. Program director and master instructor Kara Liotta says don't worry about bulking up with the muscles you'll build at FlyBarre. "It's about lengthening muscles and body sculpting," she says. "The fundamental shapes are dance. But it's not dance. It's...
▶Video
VIRAL VIDEO: Chipmunk enjoys clean bed sheets more than anything
We all love the feel and the smell of fresh bedding. Nothing compares to the feeling you get when you're lying on a bed with clean and fresh bed sheets - especially if they've just been washed and have come out the dryer. Apparently, there's a chipmunk somewhere in the world that accurately describes that feeling when you have clean sheets. Here is a cute video uploaded by YouTube user Karol CZ featuring a chipmunk named Alvin enjoying the feel of freshly cleaned sheets and making us all...
7Photos
OMG: Couple plans to get married 38 times around the world
A professional acrobat couple from Los Angeles are taking the plunge and getting married – 38 times across the world. Rhiann Woodyard, 32, and her fiancée Cheetah Platt, 30, are traveling around the globe to take their vows in 12 different countries in 83 days. The newlyweds claim that the adventurous – and enviable – worldwide tour costs less than a traditional wedding in the U.S. Metro spoke to Woodyard about their globetrotting nuptials. Why are you getting married in as many places as...
More News from Metro
NHL Power Rankings: Rangers stumble, Ducks climb
1. Anaheim Ducks (49-22-7; last week-5) – The only top team that had a good last week was the Ducks. Anaheim has won its last three straight games and they have the most points (105) in the NHL. The Ducks only have four games left in the regular season in their quest for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and Presidents' Trophy (for best record). 2. Montreal Canadiens (47-21-8; last week-2) – With the Rangers' back-to-back losses over the weekend, Montreal was able to slide...
Model accuses Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault
A young model has accused Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse. The unnamed 23-year-old model from Italy told NYPD that Weinstein touched her genitals and breasts on Friday evening at 6 p.m. at his office at the Tribeca Film Center, reports the Daily News. A police source told the Daily News that Weinstein, 63, invited the model into his office for a business meeting. "He initiated the contact," the source said. "He saw her and spoke to her. She didn't know who he was until he...
Kristian Dyer: Chris Mullin will need to 'keep it local' at St. John's
It could be argued that he was the greatest player ever to come out of New York City, the one player who went from being "Mr. Basketball" in New York, to a star at St. John's and then into a five-time NBA All-Star. And now, St. John's head coach Chris Mullin must convince the area's top talent to follow the same path he did and to stay home and play for the Red Storm. Mullin inherits a St. John's team that likely won't be very good next year, at least on paper. The program loses D'Angelo...
Feds: Boston schools underserving English language learners
About one fifth of all Boston public school students whose first language is not English are not receiving adequate educational services, according to the district. A letter from the federal government – signed by attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education earlier this month – highlighted the district's shortcomings regarding English-as-second language (ESL) instruction. The letter, dated March 2, states that just under a quarter of so-called English...
VIDEO: Jamie Foxx makes transgender jokes about Bruce Jenner
Comedian Jamie Foxx set Twitter ablaze after he made an off-color joke about Bruce Jenner's rumored transition at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on Sunday.
Surviving wedding season on a budget
When the fancy papered wedding invites start piling up, getting inviting to a friend's wedding can be more stressful than exciting. C.K. Alexander, wedding expert and creator of "Love Ink" and "The Single Bride Blog" shares her tips for getting through spring's wedding season without going into debt. Start a wedding season fund Prepare your bank account for the wedding season by starting to save as soon as you can. Alexander suggests making a wedding fund, putting $10-20 each week or month so...
'The Daily Show' keeps late night male-dominated with Trevor Noah
The search is over: South African comedian Trevor Noah will be your new "Daily Show" host. But when Jon Stewart first announced in February that he'd be stepping down from his post this year, speculation about his successor ran rampant, with a lot of attention going to current correspondent Jessica Williams, who quickly excused herself from the running. "Thank you but I am extremely under-qualified," she tweeted. But even without Williams as a contender — and as good a fit for the job as Noah...
Authorities: Peabody man arraigned for allegedly killing his wife
A 46-year-old Peabody man was arraigned Monday on charges he bludgeoned his estranged wife to death. Essex County prosecutors allege Joseph Buonanduci killed Donna Buonanduci, 45, of Marblehead when she came to his home Friday to retrieve personal items. The couple's son, after not hearing from his mother for a while, went to his father's Putnam Street home with his grandfather. When the two noticed signs of a violent struggle in the home, they left and called police. Police found Donna...
DA: JP woman allegedly swindled Boston Marathon bombing charity
A 41-year-old Jamaica Plain woman was arraigned Monday on allegations she tried to swindle the One Fund by falsely claiming to be a victim of the Boston Marathon bombings. Joanna Leigh was arraigned on five counts of larceny by false pretense and one count of making a false claim to a government agency. She stands accused of receiving about $40,000 in cash and services from the One Fund and other services by falsely claiming to have been hurt in the 2013 bombings. Leigh was released on her own...
World News
Philadelphia
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
http://ift.tt/1EXHaLg Five of the six officers face life sentences for their participation in what authorities say is a corrupt organization whose members dangled a drug dealer from an 18th story balcony to get him to divulge the password to his computer via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1EsMhbl
Two federal agents who helped lead one of several investigations in the case allegedly decided they wanted some of the money for themselves, according to a new federal court documents.
The two now-former agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Secret Service are charged with wire fraud, money laundering and other offenses for allegedly stealing Bitcoin during the federal investigation of Silk Road, an underground illicit black market federal prosecutors shut down in 2013.
The charges in a criminal complaint filed in San Francisco federal court paints a picture of corrupt federal agents trying to enrich themselves as they tried to bring down one of the Internet's top cybercriminals.
The charges against the agents could end up causing complications for the government's case against Ross Ulbricht, also known as "Dread Pirate Roberts", the Silk Road founder. Ulbricht was found guilty last year of aiding drug trafficking with his site. He is awaiting sentencing. As a result of the case against Ulbricht and others, the federal government seized bitcoin that it said at the time was valued at more than $33 million.
The agents now facing charges led a Baltimore-based murder-for-hire case against Ulbricht, separate from the drugs-related charges on which he was found guilty. The murder-for-hire case remains pending. Prosecutors identified the agents as Carl Force, 46 years old, of Baltimore, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Shaun Bridges, 32, of Laurel, Maryland, a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service.
Force was a lead agent in the case and was the main investigator communicating with Ulbricht. Force is charged with wire fraud, theft of government property, money laundering and conflict of interest.
Bridges was the computer forensics expert on the case. He is charged with wire fraud and money laundering.
Force allegedly set up fake online personas and tried to extort money from Ulbricht, including once trying to get $250,000 from him in exchange for not providing information to federal investigators, the criminal complaint says.
Using the online persona "French Maid," Force did succeed in getting $100,000 in Bitcoin from Ulbricht, which Force deposited in his personal accounts, the federal complaint says. He later used a series of Bitcoin and personal U.S. dollar transactions, including a $235,000 wire transfer to an account in Panama, to launder the stolen money, prosecutors allege in the complaint.
According to prosecutors, Force also used his position as an executive at a digital currency exchange called CoinMKT, in which he was an investor, to seize accounts of customers. He transferred $297,000 in illegally-seized digital currency to his personal accounts, prosecutors allege in the criminal complaint.
Bridges allegedly stole $820,000, using a series of wire transfers to move Bitcoin that earlier had been stolen from Silk Road in early 2013 and deposited in a Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, according to prosecutors. Two days later, Bridges signed the government's warrant to seize millions of dollars in bitcoin from Mt. Gox accounts.
Later, when he learned the FBI was investigating suspicious activity in the Silk Road investigation, he transferred $250,000 from his personal account to one he shared with someone else, according to the complaint.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
http://ift.tt/eA8V8J CNN: 2 former federal agents charged with stealing Bitcoin during Silk Road probe via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1HXoSA3
Drivers appear to be catching a break from cops, who are writing fewer tickets of late. But don't think for a second the decrease is because police have become softies all of a sudden.
The Nevada Supreme Court says it could be completely broke by May 1. The primary reason the court won't have enough cash to operate? Not enough people are breaking the law. Or rather, not enough people are being caught breaking the law.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently reported that the number of traffic and parking citations has plummeted in Nevada, from 615,267 in 2010 to 484,913 last year. That's a dip of more than 21% over five years. The state court system's budget relies on millions of dollars in funding from such citations, so when significantly fewer tickets are issued, it can wreak havoc on the court's ability to do its job, and even just keep the lights on.
In mid-March, Nevada Chief Justice James Hardesty raised the problem to a group of state lawmakers, asking the legislature to provide emergency funding to make up for the shortfall in citation revenues. The court's budget is currently running $700,000 short. As for why the number of tickets issued by police has steadily declined, Hardesty doesn't think it's simply because a broad swath of drivers has suddenly seen the error of their ways and stopped speeding.
"With all due respect to the citizens of Nevada, I don't think anyone is driving better," Hardesty said to lawmakers. "I think the truth is that we're seeing less traffic violations because law enforcement's priorities have changed and it has changed dramatically."
What, then, are the new priorities? The Review-Journal noted that police have put new "emphasis on violations that could cause crashes," with citations up for drunk driving and cellphone use behind the wheel. Understaffing may be a factor as well.
In any event, the decrease in traffic citations is hardly limited to Nevada. Speeding tickets are down sharply in Wisconsin, from 294,000 convictions in 2004 to 156,000 in 2013. In Washington, D.C., police officers issued 76,832 traffic tickets last year, down from 81,161 in 2012 and 116,509 in 2010. Citations issued on interstates in Ohio are down as well, especially on busy I-70, where the monthly number of tickets is down 25%. Over in Pennsylvania, the number of tickets issued by state police was down 22% in September 2014 and 11% in October compared with the same months the year before.
Speed Limits Up, Revenue Down
What's to explain the decline in tickets? In some cases, it's a matter of not having the funds to keep police out on patrol looking for violators. Police in Wisconsin, for instance, say that federal grant money that used to support anti-speeding campaigns has dried up.
What's interesting—or perhaps sad, in a which-came-first, dog-chasing-its-own-tail sorta way—is that budget tightening is often blamed for why ticket issuance is down, at the same time a decline in citations is pointed to as a prime reason for budget shortfalls in the first place. Understaffing due to budgetary constraints has been blamed for the sudden and dramatic decline in ticket revenues in Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York as well in recent years.
Higher speed limits that are more in line with how people actually drive also appear to have handcuffed the need to issue speeding tickets. When Ohio upped its speed limit to 70 mph in 2013, it became the 37th state to OK speeds of 70 or above. In light of that, it's no coincidence that speeding tickets have dropped 7% on Ohio's 70 mph stretches, and they're down 25% on rural areas of I-70 where the limit is 70 mph.
In some cases, especially in D.C., there are indications that police are writing fewer traffic tickets because automated red-light camera systems are doing the job for them. In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, traffic tickets were supposedly down steeply last fall partly because police were occupied in a seven-week manhunt for alleged cop killer Eric Frein. What many drivers might find alarming is that even as citations were down during this period, ticket revenues were up significantly compared with the year before. How could this be? The average traffic fine simply got more expensive, hitting $125 in 2014, up from $114 the year before.
The cynics among us may think that police are writing fewer tickets mainly because they have little incentive to write more tickets. This certainly seems to be the case in parts of Illinois, where police issue traffic tickets at a tiny fraction of the rate their citation-happy brethren in law enforcement do across the border in Missouri. The most infamous example of this is Ferguson, Mo., where the killing of an unarmed Michael Brown by police inspired months of protests, and where police are known to write more and more tickets to fund local budgets. Nearly 12,000 traffic tickets were issued in Ferguson (population: 21,111) last year. Across the border in Illinois, where municipalities see very little of the money taken in from traffic fines, police in cities of similar size like Alton (population: 27,690) and Edwardsville (population: 24,663) handed out only 6,653 and 3,128 tickets, respectively, in 2013.
"None of us want an officer to have a financial incentive to write citations," Edwardsville Police Chief Jay Keevan said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
For that matter, traffic tickets aren't supposed to be about money, right? They're supposed to exist in order to incentivize drivers into behaving better behind the wheel and keep roads safer. The purpose of lower speed limits is supposed to be to save lives as well. With that in mind, one might assume that since speed limits have risen, and since police seem to have grown lax in their approach to writing tickets, roads would become more dangerous. But the statistics don't bear this out.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there were 30,057 car crashes in which someone died on American roads in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available. That's the second-lowest fatal car crash total ever (2011 had slightly fewer), and it marked an all-time low for the death rate per 100,000 vehicle occupants.
In other words, roads today are safer, not more dangerous, and it's hard to argue that writing more tickets is going to make anyone safer.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
http://ift.tt/1EuvgO7 Speeding tickets are down nationwide and fine-dependent courts are having financial trouble. via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/19pyAfI