ATLANTA — A suicidal man wanted in the death of his ex-girlfriend climbed an 18-story crane at a construction site and remained perched high above a bustling neighborhood Thursday as authorities desperately tried to talk him down.
The man got onto the crane around 5 p.m. Wednesday and was about 160 feet above the ground, telling police negotiators he was thinking of killing himself by jumping.
He spent most of Thursday sitting on a metal grate on the crane's arm, and tried to stand at one point but his legs were shaking so badly he quickly sat down again. At another point, he appeared to be sleeping. He inched away from officers when they tried to get closer to him.
The drama unfolded in Atlanta's trendy Buckhead neighborhood in clear view of lunch crowds who packed restaurant patios on a sunny spring afternoon. Authorities closed the busy intersection where the crane is located, disrupting traffic in the city.
The man was identified as Carl Edward Roland, 41, who was wanted by the Pinellas County, Fla., sheriff's department in the slaying of his former girlfriend, said Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington. The body of Jennifer L. Gonzalez, 36, was found Tuesday in a pond behind the apartment complex where she lived.
Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley was not sure how the man got onto the crane, saying it was possible the construction crew had left for the day.
The fire department set up large air bags on the roof of the building being constructed below the crane. Police also called Roland's younger sister, Towana, who lives in Atlanta, to the scene to help in the effort.
She was not allowed to go up the crane to speak to her brother. A nearby hair stylist loaned her a mirror, which she used to reflect the sun and try to get his attention high above, shouting "Sugarfoot, it's your baby sister!" She said it had been eight years since she had seen her brother.
Roland had talked to negotiators but refused food and water, Pennington said.
Associated Press
PORT RICHEY, Fla. — A music store manager was charged Thursday with exploiting a woman with Alzheimer's disease who authorities say bought 11 organs from him over 18 months — including four on a single day.
Scott L. Heyder, 36, sold the 79-year-old a progressively more expensive string of the instruments beginning in 2003 — even after her family pleaded with him to stop, Pasco County sheriff's detectives said Thursday.
Heyder was charged with felony exploitation of the elderly and was held on $10,000 bail at the Pasco County Jail.
The woman spent about $25,000 on organs and ended up with one worth only about half that, said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll. He said she has not received any money back from the music store, Fletcher Music Center at Gulfview Square Mall.
"I think it's unconscionable, especially after the family confronted this salesperson and said, `Our mother has mental failings due to Alzheimer's, she doesn't know what she's doing,"' Doll said.
A telephone message seeking comment was left at Heyder's home and not returned Thursday. Officials at Fletcher's Music also did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Detectives requested that the woman not be publicly identified, fearing she might become the victim of another financial scam.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, a landscaper was charged with exploiting a 79-year-old Jacksonville woman who authorities say paid him more than $90,000 for yard work. David B. Phillips, 26, was released from the Duval County jail on $50,000 bail.
Police said the woman suffers from memory loss, and was supposed to pay Phillips only $80 a month. Police said she told investigators she paid the additional money because "at that time I didn't have anyone else to do my work."
No telephone listing for Phillips could be located Thursday.
By: Associated Press
CHICAGO — Six years after a sixth-grader choked to death while stuffing her mouth with marshmallows as part of a classroom game, a lawsuit blaming her suburban school district went to trial Thursday.
Francis Patrick Murphy, a lawyer for the girl's family, argued that a lack of supervision led to the death of 12-year-old Catherine "Casey" Fish. But an attorney for the Glenview School District contended the youngsters were never out of teachers' sight.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
Murphy told the jury that teacher Kevin Dorken had walked out of the room to talk to a janitor when Casey and her friends started playing "chubby bunny" — a race to stuff as many marshmallows in their mouths as they could and still say the words "chubby bunny" three times.
Casey choked on four marshmallows and collapsed. She died at a hospital a few hours later.
"You have to make sure that when children are doing something that might be dangerous you are there to protect them," Murphy told the jury in opening statements. "Effective supervision timely acted upon would have saved Casey. Casey's parents would be sitting at her high school graduation next week."
Thomas DiCianni, an attorney for the school system, said the children were in a room in the middle of a group of open classrooms with sliding doors and a low wall between the rooms and the hall. Two teachers had a view into that room, so at no time were the children unsupervised, he said.
DiCianni also raised questions about the medical examiner's ruling that Casey choked to death, saying unknown health problems could have been involved and were missed in the autopsy. He declined to elaborate after Thursday's court session.
Casey's former sixth-grade teacher, Jamie Tighe, testified the girl was excited to play the marshmallow game as part of the school's "Care Fair," in which students played games to raise money for charity.
When Tighe learned from another student that Casey had "fainted," she said she hurried to that classroom, and saw the school's health care provider holding up Casey's head. A white liquid "dribbled" from the girl's nose and mouth, she said.
A paramedic testified he did not see a marshmallow or anything else blocking the girl's throat when he tried to insert a breathing tube. However, a "pink, frothy" foam came from the tube during treatment, indicating she may have had fluid in her lungs.
Paramedics shocked her heart twice to try to get a normal rhythm, he said.
The trial is expected to last a week or more.
By: Associated Press
SAN JOSE — The woman charged in the Wendy's chili finger case has received about a half-dozen hate-mail letters, her attorney said Thursday.
Frederick Tait Ehler said his client, Anna Ayala, received five or six letters addressed to her home in Las Vegas over the past month, mostly from different writers. He would not say where the letters were postmarked.
One advised Ayala, a 39-year-old Mexican American, to "go back to where you came from," Ehler said. Another said Ayala deserved the death penalty for what police say was a hoax to defraud the fast-food chain of millions of dollars.
"She's having a hard time understanding the depth of the hatred," Ehler said Thursday outside a San Jose courtroom, where Ayala's husband was arraigned on conspiracy charges in the Wendy's incident.
Ayala, who is at the Elmwood Correctional Center for Women in Milpitas on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud, attempted grand theft and grand theft, visited in-laws in Mexico shortly before her arrest in the Wendy's incident. Prosecutors said Ayala told police that she recently considered selling her house in Nevada and moving back to Mexico, where her husband's relatives live.
In his most detailed comments about the case since Ayala's arrest last month, Ehler also warned that prosecutors' case against his client may not be credible. He's investigating events surrounding the incident and said it's "very conceivable" that new evidence will vindicate his client.
"We think more will come out of the man who owns the finger, Mr. Digit," Ehler said of Brian P. Rossiter. According to DNA tests, the digit that Ayala plucked from her bowl of chili in a San Jose Wendy's on March 22 belongs to Rossiter, a 36-year-old Las Vegas resident who lost the end of his right ring finger in December in an accident involving an electronic lift near Las Vegas.
Rossiter allegedly fell on hard times and gave the finger to Ayala's husband, Jaime Placencia, to pay off a debt.
Ehler said that prosecutors and police have been "very stingy" about sharing evidence against his client and that he believes Rossiter is likely more involved in the incident than prosecutors say.
Rossiter is not charged in the incident and has been cooperating with the police for several weeks.
Santa Clara County Prosecutor David Boyd refused to comment on the case.
Also on Thursday, Placencia was arraigned on felony charges for allegedly buying the finger to create a lawsuit against the fast food chain, authorities said.
Placencia, 43, is charged with conspiracy to file a false charge and attempted grand theft with excessive damages, meaning he sought to extract a large amount of money from Wendy's. He was arrested May 4 in Las Vegas on child support charges and is at the Santa Clara County Jail.
If both are convicted of all counts, they could each face nine or more years in prison and might have to reimburse Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's Inc., which claims to have lost at least $2.5 million in sales because of bad publicity.
By: Associated Press
FORT PAYNE, Ala. — A 57-year-old great-grandmother who gave birth to a set of twins last month said Thursday she danced with her husband only hours after the delivery.
"I was feeling absolutely great, almost like I hadn't delivered," Rosee Swain said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "It was just a good birth and I felt great and I was hungry. It went great."
Christian Kaczur Hart and Diana Rose Angelina, conceived through in vitro fertilization, were born April 20 at UAB Hospital in Birmingham four weeks premature. Swain and her husband, Jay, brought the babies home to Fort Payne on Friday.
The couple, whose youngest child, Jimmy, is 6, said they did not want Jimmy to grow up as an only child.
"There are lots of options out there for older women like me," Rosee Swain said. "And women shouldn't give up hope without exploring all their options."
In addition to the twins and Jimmy, the Swains have two grown children; two other children are deceased. They have six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Jay Swain told The Associated Press on Thursday that having the twins at home has been "very, very enjoyable, exciting. It's like a renewal to do it all over again."
Rosee Swain, a special education teacher, said she's ready to care for the twins, who will likely graduate from high school when she is 75.
"Being a mother again at 57 isn't for everyone, but we felt it was right for us," she said.
But there will be no more new babies after this.
"Our kids have family names, and we're out of family names, so this will be it," she said on ABC.
Her husband added that more children could also become a financial burden.
"I would love to but I always worry about my wife's health and financially, it can get rather pricey. We are not necessarily wealthy," said Jay Swain, who works in the plumbing department at a Home Depot store. He wouldn't specify his age but said he's about his wife's age.
In 1998, an Indiana woman gave birth to twin girls, also at age 57. And last November, a woman in New York City gave birth to twins just days before her 57th birthday.
By: Associated Press
STEVENSON, Wash. — A woman who shot her two daughters in an abandoned rock quarry and promptly led police to the bodies pleaded guilty to murder Thursday in a deal with prosecutors that will send her to prison for 63 years.
Charlene Dorcy, 39, killed the girls, 2 and 4, with a rifle last June in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic, she had stopped taking her medication in favor of herbal remedies about four years before the slayings because of concern about the side effects, her husband said.
In October, a judge ordered her committed to a hospital and treated with medication for six months, after which doctors pronounced her competent.
During Thursday's court session, Dorcy delivered a rambling statement that did not mention her children. "Unless you are a vegetarian, every time you eat meat you're a murderer," she said.
Prosecutor Peter Banks said Dorcy knew that killing her daughters was wrong. "One thing we've never heard from her is that she's sorry," he said.
Banks said the earliest Dorcy could be released is at age 95.
"She did shed tears — the cause of those emotions only she can know," said Dorcy's lawyer, Chris Lanz.
The woman's husband, Robert Dorcy, had held out hope the county might show leniency, said Ell Loney, a county-appointed chaplain. "He had some false hope that through a miracle of prayer, she would get off," the chaplain said.
By: Associated Press
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Preliminary DNA tests showed no traces of the blood of two missing children in the home where three other people were slain, raising hopes that Dylan and Shasta Groene are still alive, officials said Thursday.
Only the blood of the three murder victims — the missing children's mother and older brother and the mother's boyfriend — was found at the scene, according to initial analysis by the FBI.
"There is no indication that any of the blood is from the children," Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. "It bolsters our feeling the children are alive and we'll recover them and bring them home."
"We are not looking for bodies," he added.
Dylan, 9, and Shasta, 8, have been missing since the three bodies were discovered in the rural home on May 16. Investigators believe the children were in the house as the victims were bound and bludgeoned, and may have been abducted by the killers.
Officers Thursday began searching a landfill about 10 miles south of Coeur d'Alene for evidence, such as a weapon, tool, or bloody clothing that may have been discarded in large metal trash bins near the Groene home, Wolfinger said. He said the search might take five to 10 days.
The trash bins were checked the morning after the bodies were found inside the home, and since then the dump's operator has isolated daily trash pickups from the area, he said.
The FBI has placed a high priority on the case and has been rushing the processing of evidence from the home, located eight miles east of Coeur d'Alene. More results were expected Friday, Wolfinger said.
Authorities still do not have a suspect or motive for the crimes, and have said they have no idea where the children are. But they are convinced the missing children were home at the time of the slayings.
"We've never thought anything else," Wolfinger said. "These are 8- and 9-year-olds. You don't let them out by themselves."
A public memorial service was held Wednesday for the children's mother, Brenda Groene, 40, and their 13-year-old brother Slade. The other person killed was Brenda Groene's boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, 37, who will have a private service.
Brenda Groene and other members of the family had been mixed up in drugs and petty crime over the years, but investigators have not publicly connected any of that to the slayings.
Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson has speculated there was more than one killer because all the victims were bound. Officers also suspect the killer or killers were known to the victims, because there was no sign of forced entry.
The children's father and Brenda Groene's ex-husband, Steven Groene, 48, is not considered a suspect in the case, sheriff's investigators have said.
Because the home was close to Interstate 90, just west of a pass in the Rocky Mountains, investigators have said it is possible a motorist committed the crimes at random and then jumped onto the highway heading toward Montana or Seattle.
By: Associated Press
ROCKVILLE, Md. — A woman just out of prison stabbed two shoppers in an upscale department store before an off-duty FBI agent arrested her, authorities said. The woman's arsenal allegedly included two butcher knives taped together to form a double-bladed weapon.
One of the women Antoinette Starks is accused of injuring in the apparently random attacks Wednesday night was released from a hospital Thursday, while the other was in stable condition, police said. One victim was stabbed eight times in the back.
The stabbings took place in the Westfield Shoppingtown mall. According to court papers, Starks attacked one woman in the shoe department of the Nordstrom department store, another on the escalator, and chased a third woman who escaped.
The attack was broken up when an off-duty FBI agent drew his gun and ordered Starks to drop the two taped-together knives. She complied and the agent arrested her. Two more knives were found in the store where Starks allegedly dropped them.
The attacks were "a random set of events," Montgomery State's Attorney Douglas Gansler said.
Starks, 48, of Greenbelt, faces 16 counts, including attempted second-degree murder and assault. Prosecutors said she had been released from prison only a day before the attacks.
In 2004, she received a 3.5-year sentence in 2004 on vandalism charges for spray painting homes and cars in the Rockville area. She was released early.
In a hearing Thursday via closed circuit television, corrections officers held Starks by the arms as she mumbled responses to the judge's questions and barely looked up. She was denied bail and ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation.
The store was reopened Thursday, with more security guards and counselors available for employees.
By: Associated Press
NEWPORT BEACH — Former NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich was arrested for investigation of violating his probation after being found in a public bathroom with apparent drug paraphernalia.
Marinovich, who has acknowledged that drug addiction derailed his once-promising football career, was being held in an Orange County jail and was not eligible for bail. He was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Superior Court in Santa Ana, police Sgt. Bill Hartford said Thursday.
A police officer found Marinovich in the bathroom May 20 with a bent spoon and syringe. The former quarterback fled on a bicycle but was arrested 15 blocks away, police said. On the police report, he listed his occupation as "unemployed artist."
Marinovich, who lives in Balboa, was first arrested on drug charges when he was a student at the University of Southern California. He earned nearly $2.3 million as a first-round draft pick of the then-Los Angeles Raiders in 1991, but was removed from the roster after two seasons due to his drug problem.
He later played football in Canada and the Arena Football League. He was arrested on drug charges in 1997, 2001 and last August. In last year's arrest, he was caught skateboarding in a prohibited area carrying methamphetamine and three syringes, police said.
He pleaded guilty to those charges and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years' probation.
By: Associated Press
LONDON — The son of Roxy Music rock star Bryan Ferry and seven other men were convicted Thursday of penetrating security at the House of Commons to protest a ban on fox hunting.
Justice Timothy Workman gave Otis Ferry and each of his fellow protesters an 18-month conditional discharge, meaning they remain free on condition they abide by the law during the period. Each must pay $630 in court costs.
Ferry, 22, Nicholas Wood, 41, John Holliday, 42, Robert Thame, 36, and Luke Tomlinson, 28, a professional polo player, managed to enter the legislative chamber on Sept. 15 before being arrested.
Horse breeder David Redvers, 34, auctioneer Andrew Elliott, 43, and surveyor Richard Wakeham, 36, were intercepted outside the chamber.
All eight had pleaded innocent to a charge under the Public Order Act that their behavior caused "harassment, alarm or distress."
Lawyers for the eight had argued their action was protected by the Human Rights Act, which allows freedom of expression.
"These were their true opinions, rightly or wrongly," lawyer Edmund Vickers told Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London.
"This was an honest attempt to have the voice of the countryside, as it were, heard and to express the feelings of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of law-abiding members of the public."
The bill to ban hunting with hounds, which finally was passed late last year over the objections of the House of Lords, has aroused intense and emotional opposition in rural Britain. Opponents of hunting say it is a cruel pastime, but supporters argue it is economically vital.
The court was told the protesters entered the Parliament complex dressed as builders. Once inside, they discarded their disguises, which covered suits. Before entering the chamber, they took off their shirts and ties to reveal T-shirts with pictures of Prime Minister Tony Blair and a slogan opposing the hunting ban.
By: Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Somali immigrants who work as cab drivers at the Cleveland airport say police are ticketing them when they step out of their cabs for traditional Islamic prayer.
Police say they are enforcing a requirement that all drivers remain in their vehicles outside the terminal and are trying to maintain order in an increasingly competitive airport cab scene.
A sign warns taxi drivers not to leave their vehicles within 300 feet of the terminal or their car will be towed. Police are not towing, but they are issuing tickets that carry a $150 fine, plus $69 in court costs.
Members of the Islamic religion are required to have five formal prayers daily, which must be done facing the direction of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, considered the most holy city in Islam.
Muslims are recommended to be freshly cleaned with water, and they also must recite the prayers in various positions, including standing and kneeling on the ground.
The cab drivers say this is why they must leave their cars to wash up in the airport restrooms and to pray in certain areas.
Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said police ticket only law breakers, regardless of their cultural background. "Our only concern is the safety and security of the airport," he said.
The USA Taxi company says a third of its drivers have quit in recent months over the enforcement. They say the ticketing has hurt efforts to attract Somali cab drivers to Cleveland from the big Somali immigrant community in Columbus.
"Nobody wants to work in an environment of harassment," said Abdifatah Samatar, 25, the manager of the Somali-owned company. "Everyone came here to work. Instead, everyone feels unwanted."
By: Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Four state lawmakers, including a member of one of Tennessee's most powerful political families, were indicted Thursday on charges of taking bribes from FBI agents posing as representatives of an electronics-recycling company.
In a sting operation dubbed "Tennessee Waltz," the FBI set up a bogus company called E-Cycle Management Inc., then doled out payoffs to lawmakers to sponsor a bill that would allow the business to buy and sell used electronic equipment from the state. The bill was withdrawn Wednesday.
One of the lawmakers charged, state Sen. John Ford, allegedly received payments totaling $55,000, beginning last year. "You are talking to the guy that makes the deals," Ford boasted to the undercover agents, according to the indictment.
Ford was also charged with attempting to threaten or intimidate potential witnesses by telling an undercover agent that "if he caught someone trying to set him up he would shoot that person," prosecutors said.
The other defendants — state Sens. Kathryn Bowers and Ward Crutchfield, and state Rep. Chris Newton — were charged with accepting lesser amounts. A former state senator, Roscoe Dixon, was also charged, as were two non-elected officials.
Ford's brother is Harold Ford, who served 11 terms in Congress. His nephew Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has served five terms in Congress and said Wednesday he would run in 2006 for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Over three decades in the Tennessee Senate, John Ford has lost paternity lawsuits, given a political job to a girlfriend and been successfully sued for sexual harassment. The Senate Ethics Committee and a federal grand jury are also investigating the $429,000 Ford received from 2002 to 2004 from a consulting company with financial ties to the state's Medicaid program.
The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance earlier this month fined Ford $10,000 for spending $15,000 of campaign money on his daughter's wedding.
The controversies have done little to hurt Ford among voters in his inner-city Memphis district.
Newton is a Republican; the others are Democrats.
Calls to the legislators' offices were not immediately returned. Bowers, Newton and Crutchfield had no comment after a court appearance.
U.S. Attorney Terry Harris said the investigation began two years ago.
The arrests came as the Tennessee General Assembly was trying to wrap up debate on the state budget and adjourn the session by Friday.
"Today is a sad day on many levels," Gov. Phil Bredesen said. "I think all of us feel that the important thing to do is keep a steady hand."
State law allows the lawmakers to continue to serve even though indicted. After they were released, Newton, Crutchfield and Bowers returned to their jobs on Capitol Hill.
Posted in Backpage on Friday, May 27, 2005 12:00 am
© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA | Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
