USEC IM USA Edition

Jets running back Mike Goodson arrested on drug and gun charges

ollado — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:36:26 +0000

By Morgan Winsor, CNN

(CNN) — New York Jets running back Mike Goodson was arrested on drug and gun charges in New Jersey early Friday morning, New Jersey State Police said.

According to the NFL, Goodson, from Spring, Texas, signed a three-year, $6.9 million contract with the Jets this offseason.

A tow truck driver called police at 3:15 a.m. Friday when he saw a vehicle stopped in the left lane on the westbound side of Interstate 80 in Denville, police said. Goodson, 25, was the passenger in the GMC Yukon. Police found a loaded handgun, hollow-point ammunition, drug paraphernalia and a small amount of marijuana in the vehicle, said Lt. Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman.

Goodson appeared to be intoxicated, Jones said, and was taken to St. Clare’s Hospital in Boonton Township, where he was evaluated and treated. He was sent to state police custody upon his release, Jones said.

The driver, Garant Evans of Roselle, was arrested at the scene and faces the same charges, in addition to a DWI allegation and motor vehicle tickets. Evans, 31, was a convicted felon before Friday’s arrest, Jones said.

Jones said Goodson and Evans are being held on full-cash bail at the Morris County Jail. Goodson’s bail was set at $50,000, and Evans’ was set at $150,000.

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Break-in that left student from NY’s Hofstra University, intruder killed under investigation

ollado — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:35:12 +0000

Associated Press

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Police are investigating after a New York college student was killed in an off-campus house during an early morning break-in, casting a pall over the campus and commencement ceremonies.

Police say Hofstra University junior Andrea Rebello was shot and killed early Friday during the home invasion. A masked gunman was also killed. Authorities have described it as a police-involved shooting, but it is unclear who fired the fatal shots or how many rounds were fired.

Rebello was killed during an attempted robbery in the home she shared with her twin sister and several other Hofstra students, who were unharmed.

The university says its weekend commencement ceremonies will continue as scheduled.

The 21-year-old Rebello was a junior and a public relations major at the New York college.

Source: foxnews.com

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Majority of Colorado sheriffs file suit against new gun laws

ollado — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:32:38 +0000

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Sheriffs in Colorado filed a federal lawsuit Friday ahead of the implementation of new state gun laws that broaden background checks and limit the size of ammunition magazines, saying that the bills would be nearly impossible to enforce.

The laws “severely restrict citizens’ rights to own, use, manufacture, sell, or transfer firearms and firearms accessories,” the sheriffs said in their complaint in the U.S. district court.

“This is a bipartisan effort,” said Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith. “These are Democratic sheriffs and Republican sheriffs who came together.”

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, magazine-maker Magpul Industries, and the Colorado State Shooting Association were among other groups that filed suit alongside sheriffs against the laws, which are set to take effect June 1.

Scarred by some of the deadliest incidents of gun violence in American history, including last year’s Aurora movie theater shooting and the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, the state’s gun control bills gained national attention as various states and the federal government debated new gun restrictions.

The sheriffs said in the filing that their ability to enforce the laws, particularly the ban on magazines that hold more than 15 rounds, will be constrained by other concerns.

“The Sheriffs have limited resources and limited public funds to spend on investigations,” they said in the court documents. “They cannot expend those resources to conduct investigations that would be necessary to monitor compliance with the new magazine restrictions. No documentation has ever been required for the retail or private purchase of magazines, making it a practical impossibility for the Sheriffs to determine whether one of the many magazines already in existence was obtained after the effective date.”

The sheriffs also said that Coloradans would find it difficult to comply with expanded background check regulations that would require transfers between individuals to be conducted through a federally licensed firearms dealer. That’s because many licensed firearms dealers in the state “are unwilling to conduct the transfer under such conditions,” they argued.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers released a statement on Friday saying that his office would pursue court rulings on the gun legislation “as expeditiously as possible.”

“Colorado citizens, and law-abiding gun owners in particular, deserve such clarification,” Suthers said in the statement.

The state has 64 sheriffs, said Chris Olson, executive director of the County Sheriffs of Colorado. The lawsuit is being brought forth “by individual sheriffs” and his organization is not a party to the suit, he said.

At least one lawman has said that deciding which laws are constitutional should stay out of the hands of Colorado’s sheriffs.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, whose county includes the Aurora movie theater where 12 people were killed last year, released a statement in January pushing back against sheriffs who said they would not enforce new gun laws.

“Public safety professionals serving in the executive branch do not have the constitutional authority, responsibility, and in most case, the credentials to determine the constitutionality of any issue,” Robinson said in the statement. “Law enforcement officials should leave it to the courts to decide whether a law is constitutional or not.”

Robinson identified himself as a supporter of Second Amendment rights in the statement, and said he would like to see better mental health services and stricter penalties for people who commit gun crimes.

Source: usnews.nbcnews.com

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60 injured, five critically, as trains collide in Connecticut

ollado — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:31:26 +0000

By M. Alex Johnson and Carlo Dellaverson, NBC News

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy gives details on the collision of two Metro-North trains, which injured 60 people and shut down rail traffic between New York and Boston.

Sixty people were injured, five of them critically, and rail traffic from New York to Boston was shut down after a Metro-North commuter train derailed and plowed into a second train Friday in Fairfield, Conn., Gov. Dan Malloy said.

An eastbound train derailed at 6:10 p.m. ET and struck a westbound train between the Fairfield and Bridgeport stations, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority official told NBC News.

“We have no reason to think it was anything other than an accident, but that has to be explored,” Malloy said.

“We came to a sudden halt. We were jerked. There was smoke,” Alex Cohen, a Canadian passenger on the westbound train en route to New York, told NBC Connecticut.

“People were screaming; people were really nervous. We were pretty shaken up. They had to smash a window to get us out,” he said.

Malloy said 60 people were transported to area hospitals, most of them with only minor injuries. Five, however, were critically injured, one of them very critically, he said.

The Metro-North train that departs New York City’s Grand Central Station for New Haven, Conn., at 4:41 p.m., with an estimated 300 passengers, derailed near the I-95 overpass in Bridgeport, MTA said in a statement. The train that leaves New Haven’s State Street station for Grand Central at 5:30 p.m., carrying about 400 passengers, struck the derailed train, the statement said.

There was no immediate word on what caused the derailment or how fast either train was going. That will be determined by the National Transportation Safety Board, which will lead the investigation.

Michelle McLoughlin / Reuters

A woman is transported to the hospital after two commuter trains collided Friday, May 17, in Fairfield, Conn. Sixty people were injured, five of them critically, Gov. Dan Malloy said.

Metro-North, which runs between New York City and its northern suburbs in New York and Connecticut, is one of the busiest commuter rail services in the U.S. There are four tracks on that segment of the New Haven Line, MTA’s statement said, but two are out of service for replacement of overhead wires.

There was “extensive damage” to the track and the wire from the collision, MTA said. The train cars will remain in place until the investigation is completed. MTA gave no estimate for the duration of the investigation or subsequent repairs.

Passengers should expect sharply curtailed service through the weekend and beyond, Malloy said. “We have a very old system on our Connecticut section. We’re involved in hundreds of millions of dollars in replacement of that system.

“It will slow the recovery,” he said. “Obviously, we don’t have alternative tracks to go to.”

And the delays could ripple well beyond Metro-North. Amtrak said all service on its Northeast Corridor from New York to Boston was suspended Friday night because of the obstruction.

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2 shot and killed in NJ park

ollado — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:48:25 +0000

MYFOXNY.COM -A man and a woman have been found shot dead inside a municipal park in Montclair, N.J., said police.

The bodies were discovered near a bench in Canterbury Park at around 10 p.m. on Thursday.

A man FOX 5 News spoke with says his daughter and the female victim are cousins.

“She used to go to church religiously. She’s highly educated and just a nice person. This is sad,”said Kurt Holloway.

The female victim was in her 20s and lived in East Orange, according to Holloway.

The victims’ names have not been released pending family notification.

This is a developing story.

Check back for updates.

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Soldier sentenced to life without parole for killing 5 at combat stress clinic in Iraq

ollado — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:47:25 +0000

An Army sergeant was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for the 2009 killings of five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.

A military judge, Army Col. David Conn, found Sgt. John Russell guilty of premeditated murder on Monday and imposed the sentence Thursday morning. The only other possible penalty for Russell would have been life in prison with the possibility of release.

Russell will be transferred within the next several days to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield said late Thursday.

The 14-year veteran from Sherman, Texas, had previously pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table. Under the agreement, prosecutors were allowed to try to prove to an Army judge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state that the killings were premeditated. A streamlined court-martial ended Saturday.

The shooting was one of the worst instances of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war and raised questions about the mental stresses of serving repeated tours of duty.

Killed in the 2009 shooting in Baghdad were Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, of Wilmington, N.C., and four Army personnel: Pfc. Michael Edward Yates Jr., of Federalsburg, Md.; Dr. Matthew Houseal, of Amarillo, Texas; Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, of Paterson, N.J.; and Spc. Jacob D. Barton, of Lenox, Mo.

Russell’s lawyers argued that he was deluded by depression and despair at the time. An Army mental health board found that Russell suffered from severe depression with psychotic features and post-combat stress.

Russell had long sought help with sleep troubles and was stammering and crying for help in the days before the shooting. His commanders were so alarmed that they disarmed him and sent him for repeated visits to mental health clinics, said attorney James Culp.

However, prosecutors argued that Russell was trying to paint himself as mentally ill in an attempt to win early retirement — just as he was facing a sexual harassment complaint that could derail his career and his benefits.

The day before the killings, psychiatrist Michael Jones told him that a mental disability retirement would require “some kind of suicidal psychotic crisis,” Maj. Daniel Mazzone said during closing arguments, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But when Russell saw Jones again the next day, the psychiatrist said he had no intention of giving him “a golden ticket” out of the Army.

When Russell returned about an hour later, prosecutors say, he was looking for Jones, but wound up killing two patients, a bystander and two other mental health workers, including Navy Cmdr. Springle, who had also briefly treated Russell in the days before the shootings. Jones escaped injury by jumping out a window.

The Associated Press

Source: worldnews.nbcnews.com

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100 Victims Sought After Man Is Arrested on Suspicion of Secretly Filming Up Women’s Skirts

ollado — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:45:30 +0000

By Samantha Tata

Authorities are asking for the public’s help after a registered sex offender was arrested on suspicion of secretly filming up hundreds of women’s skirts, including one instance in which he allegedly pretended to be a security guard and searched one of his victims.

Mylyn Johnson was arrested in March after a Target shopper in Lancaster noticed the man allegedly using his cellphone to take video under another customer’s skirt, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Thursday afternoon.

Detectives found some 3,200 videos on Johnson’s cellphone and media-storage devices he had with him at the time, authorities said. A search warrant of Johnson’s home turned up more videos.

After reviewing the footage for two months and contacting 10 victims they could identify, investigators said they are still looking for more than 100 teen girls and women. The victims range in age from teen to about 50 years old.

One of the videos allegedly recorded by Johnson show him at a K-Mart in Lancaster. He allegedly tells a female shopper that he is a security guard and detains her for shoplifting, then orders her to expose part of her buttocks under the guise that he needs to search her, according to sheriff’s officials.

A registered sex offender, Johnson often would speak with the women he was recording, authorities said. He would identify himself as a tattoo artist, being with “Loyal Luck Television,” or as a rapper.

Detectives believe Johnson secretly recorded women at several locations in the Antelope Valley and Los Angeles.

Videos obtained by authorities show unsuspecting women at a Salvation Army Store in Antelope Valley and the Lancaster International Shopping Mall.

Johnson is also alleged to have secretly recorded women on a Metrolink train – most likely as it traveled from the Antelope Valley to Union Station in LA, at Union Station and nearby Olvera Steet.
Some of the videos are dated as far back as August 2012, authorities said, and they believe Johnson allegedly may have recorded at other locations.

The LA District Attorney’s Office has filed 15 counts against Johnson, including felony counts of false imprisonment and burglary, and several counts of unlawful recording of undergarments.

Women and girls who think they may have been victimized in this case are urged to call the LA County Sheriff’s Department Lancaster Station.

Source: nbclosangeles.com

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Disabled students injured when bus rolls over on Indiana highway

ollado — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:44:21 +0000

By Charles Wilson, The Associated Press

A school bus carrying severely disabled students home from a trip to the zoo rolled over Thursday on a highway near Indianapolis, injuring a dozen people, including five children, state police said.

A truck was changing lanes on Interstate 65 near Zionsville about 2 p.m. Thursday when it cut in front of the special-needs school bus, Sgt. Rich Myers of the Indiana State Police said.

The bus driver, Audrey Kitchel, 55, of Lafayette, veered left into the grass median to avoid the collision and lost control of the bus, which rolled over and came to rest on its wheels in the median, Myers said.

All 12 passengers, seven adults and five children ranging from kindergartners to fourth-graders, were transported to Indianapolis hospitals where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, including neck and back pain, Myers said. All were wearing seat belts or other restraints.

None of the 12 was expected to be held overnight, hospital representatives said.

An inspection of the bus after the accident revealed no mechanical failures that would have contributed to this crash, Myers said.

Tippecanoe School Corp. Superintendent Scott Hanback said the bus was a Lafayette School Corp. bus carrying special-needs students from Mintonye Elementary School in southern Tippecanoe County. The students had gone to Indianapolis Zoo for a field trip.

“The bus was filled with students from the life-skills class,” Hanback said, meaning they had severe and profound disabilities and multiple impairments — physical as well as developmental. At least one was in a wheelchair, he said.

All five students were elementary age, from 4 to 10 years old, Hanback said. He also said most of the seven adults were parents.

The truck that caused the crash did not stop, Myers said. The truck was described as either a white box truck or a white semitrailer, he said. The vague description of the truck made locating it difficult, Myers said.

Source: usnews.nbcnews.com

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Compton Firefighter Arrested on Suspicion of Arson

ollado — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:42:46 +0000

By Samantha Tata

A Compton firefighter is expected to appear in court Friday to face charges he allegedly set his fire department’s headquarters ablaze in an effort to destroy evidence of his suspected theft.

Marcel Melanson, 37, was arrested at his Torrance home Wednesday morning on suspicion of arson and grand theft, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Thursday evening.

A former deputy chief, Melanson was taken into custody in connection with a suspicious fire at the Compton Fire Department Headquarters (map) on Dec. 11, 2011.

Investigators believe Melanson stole thousands of dollars in Motorola radios from his employer and sold them online. Then, authorities said, the 15-year veteran of the department is suspected of setting fire to the department headquarters to destroy the evidence.

Melanson is being held on $250,000 bail. His arraignment is set for Friday morning at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

In 2009, Melanson was featured on a realtiy show about the Compton Fire Department that aired on BET.

NBC4′s Jane Yamamoto contributed to this report.

Source: nbclosangeles.com

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Man Sentenced For Throwing Fatal Punch at Beach Party

ollado — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:40:45 +0000

An Chicago man was sentenced Thursday morning in connection with a beach party fight that turned deadly.

James Malecek, 19, waived his right to a trial and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

A judge accepted the plea agreement, and Malecek will serve 145 days in jail beginning July 1.

Malecek punched Mt. Carmel high school student Kevin Kennelly during a July Fourth disturbance in Long Beach, Ind., in 2011.

Malecek had just graduated from Loyola Academy and was set to begin college at Texas Christian University in Forth Worth. Both families owned second homes in Long Beach.

A teary-eyed Malecek apologized to the victim’s family in court, saying, “Mr. and Mrs. Kennelly, I never intended to injure your son, Kevin. It truly was a terribly accident.”

But the Kennelly’s aren’t happy with the plea deal.

“He’s been given a gift,” Kevin Kennelly, Sr. said outside the courtroom. “He did it, he’s been very lightly sentenced for it, he believes it was an accident, I don’t know how anyone could believe that.”

Malecek will have to wear an electronic monitoring device for up to three-and-a-half years after he’s released.

Source: nbcchicago.com

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USEC IM USA Edition

Jets running back Mike Goodson arrested on drug and gun charges

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Break-in that left student from NY’s Hofstra University, intruder killed under investigation

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Majority of Colorado sheriffs file suit against new gun laws

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60 injured, five critically, as trains collide in Connecticut

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2 shot and killed in NJ park

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Soldier sentenced to life without parole for killing 5 at combat stress clinic in Iraq

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100 Victims Sought After Man Is Arrested on Suspicion of Secretly Filming Up Women’s Skirts

By Samantha Tata

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Disabled students injured when bus rolls over on Indiana highway

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Compton Firefighter Arrested on Suspicion of Arson

By Samantha Tata

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Man Sentenced For Throwing Fatal Punch at Beach Party

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