A slew of salacious pictures and sexually explicit cell phone messages have prompted the demotion of a Payson police officer, for the second time in a year.

Josh LaManna, a veteran officer, was demoted from a narcotics officer to a patrol officer in May and given a 10-percent pay cut for a string of violations, including sending a photograph of his genitals to a confidential police informant.

Chief Don Engler said in a report that LaManna had brought dishonor and discredit to the department.

The demotion comes just months after then-Lt. Donald Garvin was demoted to sergeant after carrying on several relationships, including an affair with the wife of a Department of Public Safety officer and another with a woman applying for a job with the police force. Engler warned Garvin to end both relationships.

LaManna’s behavior raised some of the same issues, according to a police report acquired by the Roundup through a Freedom of Information request.

The detailed investigations of Garvin and LaManna paint a picture of a police force plagued by drinking incidents in bars, affairs and questionable judgment.

Payson Mayor Kenny Evans said “I think the personal impact on the families ought to make it pretty clear to anyone who is considering something like this, that the town standard is going to be enforced.”

Evans said he hoped the two cases would prove to be isolated incidents.

“There seems to be a wider, general public perception that certain behaviors utilizing social media that would never be accepted in another form seem to be OK. Maybe it’s a generational theme, but as long as I’m here, that old-fashioned approach is going to be the standard,” he said.

While Garvin was single at the time of the alleged relationships, LaManna is married.

Sometime in early April, LaManna met a 28-year-old Payson woman who had agreed to work as a confidential informant for the department after getting in trouble on undisclosed charges, according to a police report.

The woman would buy drugs and then turn them over to LaManna and Sgt. Jason Hazelo who worked on the special enforcement unit.

One Sunday evening, she met LaManna and Hazelo and turned over drugs she had purchased. As LaManna was patting the woman down, Hazelo stepped off to the side to take a phone call. LaManna continued his search, making several flirtatious comments, according to Engler’s report.

Later that night, the woman received several text messages from LaManna, one instructing the woman to contact him on his personal cell phone and not his work line because he could get in trouble, the woman later told Engler.

“I just got to be careful not to get caught,” LaManna texted, adding, “…when I reached into those front pockets I was hoping to slip a bit. Maybe, holes in your pockets.”

The woman maintained she told LaManna to stop texting her repeatedly. However, a phone record revealed the woman “was more of an active participant in this matter than she had initially reported,” Engler said.

In fact, every message the woman sent telling LaManna to stop, failed to go through, according to the report. A record of LaManna’s text messages shows that they carried on a conversation for at least several days. LaManna texted the woman that he imagined her while he slept with his wife and could not wait to see her breasts.

He repeatedly asked her to send a picture of her breasts and sent her a photograph of his genitals. He assured the woman that he could “pull off just about anything” and was “excessively secret.”

When questioned, LaManna admitted to the relationship, saying the text messages had “evolved into very illicit sexual messages.”

However, LaManna argued that the conversations occurred when he was off duty and were consensual, since the woman also sent flirtatious messages.

Regardless, Engler found that LaManna’s inappropriate relationship with a confidential informant not only violated the code of ethics, but also put criminal cases at risk.

In addition, Engler learned LaManna had discussed classified information with his wife, which was shared in the community.

LaManna was also delinquent in completing police reports, although he led supervisors to believe that they were current.

This came on top of the five other times LaManna was disciplined.

On Aug. 3, 2010 supervisors wrote up LaManna for drinking excessively at the Buffalo Bar. On Sept. 14, he received a reprimand for requesting time off and then attending a barbecue with a potential informant and on Sept. 28, for “his lack of understanding the trust of the public, his consumption of alcohol and reports.”

On Feb. 1, 2011 supervisors again reprimanded him for “lack of activity and use of his personal phone.”

LaManna will now serve a year of disciplinary probation, during which time he can have no outstanding reports or disciplinary action. As a patrol officer, he will make $24.45 an hour, a $2.55 cut.

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Entry #5,074

July 20, 2011
9:20 am

Fight Over $2 Lands Woman In Jail

http://www.news4jax.com/news/28582160/detail.html

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Entry #5,073

July 20, 2011
6:19 am

Police Officer Arrested For Leading a Heroin Distribution Operation

Baltimore police officer charged in heroin conspiracy

Records: Officer conducted suspected drug deals at Northwest District station

Justin Fenton

The Baltimore Sun

7:49 p.m. EDT, July 19, 2011

City officer Daniel G. Redd has been arrested and charged with leading a heroin distribution operation

A Baltimore City police officer was arrested and charged Tuesday with leading a heroin distribution operation, including allegations that he arranged drug transactions while on duty and met conspirators in the parking lot of his district station, records show.

The officer, Daniel G. Redd, 41, was taken into custody Tuesday at the Northwest District police station, officials said. Several law enforcement sources say Redd had been under suspicion for years, but within the past six months city police asked the FBI to investigate.

The ensuing wiretap investigation, according to records, showed that Redd was at the top of a "significant drug trafficking" organization that "flooded the streets of Baltimore with heroin," FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard McFeely said in a statement.

The arrest is the latest black eye for the city Police Department, which in the past six months had more than 50 officers implicated in a kickback scheme involving a towing company and saw an on-duty officer fatally shot by other officers as they responded to a disturbance outside a nightclub. The kickback scheme has resulted in a slew of guilty pleas, while Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake appointed a commission to study the fatal shooting of Officer William H. Torbit.

Police said Redd's arrest shows that the agency is determined to root out corruption.

"The allegations against Daniel Redd are an affront to and undermine the integrity of the hard-working men and women of the Baltimore Police Department," Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said in a statement. "We will not tolerate corruption among our ranks."

Redd is believed to be the first city officer charged with having a role in drug trafficking since city police officers William King and Antonio Murray were charged in 2005 with shaking down drug dealers and re-selling their product on the street. The officers were each sentenced to 100 years in prison.

On his Facebook page, Redd lists "Training Day," a movie in which Denzel Washington plays a corrupt police officer in Los Angeles, as one of his favorite movies.

Despite the investigation into Redd's alleged activities, he remained on the street making arrests. Court records show Redd is listed as a police witness in a handful of cases that are still pending, including attempted murder and robbery charges against two men.

But according to one source familiar with personnel matters, the department prevented him from ascending the leadership tree by repeatedly passing him over on the agency's promotional list.

At a brief afternoon court hearing, Redd, who is charged with firearms violations in addition to heroin distribution charges, was ordered held pending a detention hearing, with Assistant U.S. Attorney James Wallner citing "dangerousness and risk of flight."

Redd did not respond to the allegations during the hearing.

Documents show the drug organization was headed by Redd and a man named Abdul Zakaria, also known as Tamim Mamah. A search warrant affidavit alleges that Zakaria, 34, of Owings Mills, and others obtained heroin from suppliers in Africa and distributed heroin to Redd and two other men named in the indictment: Dyrell Garrett, 33, of Randallstown, and Malik Jones, 40, of Owings Mills.

Redd is accused of distributing heroin to others, including Shanel Stallings, 32, who is named in the indictment.

Conversations intercepted on wiretaps show that on March 2, Redd, who was on duty, made a series of calls to Mamah in which FBI agents say the pair used heavily coded language to arrange a drug deal. Stallings called Redd and said simply, "40," which FBI Agent Craig Monroney wrote referred to 40 grams of heroin.

"Alright … let me .. let me make a call," Redd said, according to records.

Redd then phoned Mamah, and said, "Hey, I need 40."

About an hour later, Redd told Stallings to meet him "at the district," which authorities say refers to the Northwest District police station.

That belief was reaffirmed on March 31, when Redd was overheard telling Mamah to meet him "at my station." Video surveillance from the Northwest District police station obtained by agents shows Redd retrieving something from his vehicle and walking out of view, records show. A short time later, Redd is observed climbing out of Mamah's white Lincoln Navigator.

Police believe Redd was giving Mamah heroin, and that Mamah turned the drugs over to Garrett.

Officers then attempted to stop Garrett to retrieve the heroin, but Garrett fled, prompting a high-speed chase in which he was able to escape. Police later found his vehicle abandoned, with a cell phone and a BG&E bill with his name inside.

Authorities wrote in documents that they also captured Redd arranging deals for 500 grams of heroin, and in another instance offering protection for Stallings as she completed a drug transaction for him.

"I'm a have my phone open on the side and I'm a scroll down to your name so that way … I'll just hit the talk button," Stallings told Redd during the March 6 conversation.

At another point, Redd complains that he is losing customers, according to records. "I need some <snip> money. I ain't getting no phone calls, ain't no nothing, it ain't looking good," he said. "You start losing people if you keep, people gotta keep waiting, they go to somebody else."

Mamah was arrested on May 13 after getting into a foot chase with a city police detective assigned to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, records show. The detective, Brian Shutt, wrote in documents associated with that arrest that officers recovered 205 grams of suspected heroin from his vehicle, and documents unsealed Tuesday show another 400 to 500 grams was recovered from his home in the 8300 block of Church Lane.

Court records show Mamah is from Ghana. Last week the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that they had broken up a drug ring in which couriers smuggled heroin from Ghana into the United States through Dulles International Airport, which officials said highlighted West Africa as a "major hub for international drug trafficking."

A search warrant also names Redd as a supplier to other, unindicted men.

Redd joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1994, but was fired in 2002 after being found asleep on the job at the reservoir at Druid Hill Park, where he was supposed to be on anti-terrorist duty, The Sun reported in 2004. Redd sued and was rehired under a court order, and the city had to pay him $75,000 in back pay.

"This is not what taxpayers of Baltimore expect from police officers," the Police Department's then-legal counsel said after Redd and another officer were disciplined. "You have to send a message to troops that gross neglect of conduct will not be tolerated."

Garrett was convicted in 2008 of marijuana possession and in 2005 received two years supervised probation for drug distribution charges. Jones, Stallings and Zakaria did not appear to have a prior record.

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Entry #5,072

July 20, 2011
6:06 am

U. S. students did worst when it comes to geography

New study shows U.S. students miss boat on geography

Tara Malone

Tribune reporter

10:32 a.m. CDT, July 19, 2011

Ask a group of twelfth-graders how the Great Lakes formed, and about half can pinpoint the primary cause: glaciations.

Quiz eighth-grade students about the geography of the Southwest, and a third will identify from a multiple-choice listing that arid conditions make water a scarce public resource.

Such responses to a national exam released today reveal the tenuous command that many U.S. schoolchildren have on basic geography, including knowledge of the natural environment, how it shapes society and other cultures and countries.

Fewer than a quarter of high school seniors scored proficiently on the geography test, down from 25 percent in 2001 and 29 percent in 1994, when the national geography exam first was administered. The decline seen in the twelfth-grade scores was the most dramatic of any grade tested.

That means only 21 percent of 12^th-graders had at least a solid grasp of geography and could, for instance, explain why Mali is considered overpopulated or explain why the economies of developing countries often are limited to a few agricultural products or raw materials.

Students in grades four and eight fared better.

An estimated 23 percent of fourth-grade students scored at the proficient and advanced level, virtually flat with the 22 percent in 2001, while the performance of eighth-graders was mixed.

More eighth-grade students scored at the proficient level – 27 percent as compared with 29 percent in 2001 – but slightly fewer students placed in the top advanced tier, with 3 percent of test-takers as compared to 4 percent in 2001 earning the highest designation, results show. To score in the top level, students had to show an extensive knowledge of geography that included everything from explaining urban population changes based on a graph or pinpointing a similarity between Los Angeles and San Antonio.

The geography test marks the third social studies exam released this year. Civics and history results previously were released. Across all three disciplines, high school seniors fared the worst.

“The pattern of disappointing results for our twelfth graders’ performance across all three social science subjects should be one of great concern to everyone,” said National Assessment Governing Board Chairman David Driscoll in a statement.

The test results, on a scale from 0-500, also showed:

Boys outscored girls across all grades tested. They scored four points higher in grades four and eight and five points higher among high school senior.
The achievement gap narrowed as African-American students improved their performance in grades four and eight. In fourth grade, for instance, black students earned an average score of 192, up from 180 in 2001. Such gains closed the test-score gap between black and white students to 31 points, the narrowest margin since 1994.
The academic divide between Hispanic and white students also closed slightly. This was most pronounced in fourth grade, where Hispanic students scored an average 197 points on the exam, 27 points lower than the score earned by white students. But the margin was narrower than that recorded in 2001 and 1994, results show.
Across the board, students in fourth-grade earned an average 213 points, up from 208 in 2001.
The average score of eighth-graders remained virtually flat while 12^th-graders earned an average 282 points, down from 284 in 2001.

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Entry #5,071

July 20, 2011
5:55 am

Government Spent $300M On Navy Ships They Never Finished Or Used

http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/159204/158/300M-On-Navy-Ships-Never-Finished-Or-Used

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Entry #5,070

July 20, 2011
5:50 am

Married couples happier when wives are thinner

Married couples happier when wives are thinner, study finds

7/18/11 11:12 a.m.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (ABC News Radio) - Marriages are more satisfying for both partners when wives are thinner than their husbands, according to a new study.

The four-year study of 169 newlywed couples found that husbands were more satisfied initially and wives were more satisfied over time when the fairer sex had a lower body mass index -- a common measure of body fat. The study was published in the July issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science.

"There's a lot of pressure on women in our society to achieve an often unreachably small weight," said Andrea Meltzer, a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee and lead author of the study. "The great take-home message from our study is that women of any size can be happy in their relationships with the right partner. It's relative weight that matters, not absolute weight. It's not that they have to be small."

Just how relative weight impacts marital bliss is unclear, but Meltzer has a theory.

"One idea is that attractiveness and weight are more important to men," she said. "That might be why we see this emerging at the beginning of the marriage for husbands, and their dissatisfaction might be affecting wives' satisfaction over time."

The finding held up even when other marital stressors, such as depression and income level, were ruled out. But relative weight is not the only factor that affects marital satisfaction, Meltzer cautioned.

"Obviously a lot of things play into relationship satisfaction and this is just one of them," she said. "It's not a guarantee to be happy in a relationship."

Men and women tend to be happier in a relationship when the men are "more powerful in a benign way," according to Susan Heitler, a couple's therapist in Denver and author of PowerOfTwoMarriage.com.

"The good news is there are many dimensions that symbolize power for men," she said, adding that height, weight, earning capacity, intelligence, education level, personality, even a big smile are all empowering traits. "Those signs of bigness lead to a subconscious feeling within the woman of more security and, in turn, more marital satisfaction."

1 Comment

Entry #5,069

July 20, 2011
5:40 am

Paranoid meth suspects call 911 on themselves

Paranoid meth suspects call 911 on themselves

Posted: July 19, 2011 - 4:13pm | Updated: July 19, 2011 - 4:18pm

DeAnn Komanecky

Savannah Morning News

Brian Austin, 25, of Bloomingdale. (Effingham County Sheriff's Office)

SPRINGFIELD — A pair of apparently paranoid Effingham residents suspected of making methamphetamine called 911 for help early Tuesday morning, and, instead of assistance, the two men ended up in jail.

Effingham sheriff’s deputies responded to a call on a home invasion at residence on Interstate Circle in Faulkville about 4 a.m.

“When the deputies arrived, the two came running to the door and reported they could hear people in the back bedroom who had broken into the home,” sheriff’s spokesman David Ehsanipoor said.

A quick check of the residence found no intruders.

“They pointed out to the deputies outside where the ‘suspects’ were, climbing into a boat and getting away,” Ehsanipoor said. “There was no one there, and deputies realized the two men were hallucinating.

“They were so high they called 911 on themselves.”

Investigators who later arrived discovered a meth lab at the residence.

Arrested were Brian Johnson, 28, of Bloomingdale, and Brian Austin, 25, also of Bloomingdale.

Austin was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, and crossing a guard line with a controlled substance after deputies found he had the additional drugs in his possession as he was being booked into jail.

Johnson was arrested and charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, and conspiracy to commit a drug related offense.

Neighbors Sherry Horton, 32, of Bloomingdale, and William Hendrix, 35, also of Bloomingdale, who were already under investigation also were arrested. They were charged with manufacturing methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine.

All four suspects were being held in the Effingham County jail.

1 Comment

Entry #5,068

July 19, 2011
5:39 pm

Bride arrested after her wedding

Bride arrested after her wedding was a no-show today for a hearing in district court

Published: Monday, July 18, 2011, 3:21 PM

Updated: Monday, July 18, 2011, 10:53 PM

Danielle Salisbury | Jackson Citizen Patriot

A Leoni Township bride arrested in dress and veil Saturday afternoon was a no-show today in Jackson County District Court.

Tammy Lee Hinton, 53, was scheduled to appear for her arraignment at 1 p.m.

If she does not see a judge before the end of the business day, a warrant was expected to be authorized for her arrest.

Blackman-Leoni Township Public Safety Deputy Director Jon Johnston said, if the bench warrant is issued, the department will work with the court to locate Hinton.

Public safety officers from the township arrested her on a 2009 felony warrant immediately following her wedding at City of Zion Ministries on Cooper Street, an officer earlier reported.

She went to jail, had a mug shot taken, and was bonded out of jail, presumably in time to continue the celebration.

Booking photos provided by the Jackson County (Mich.) Sheriff's Office via the Jackson Citizen Patriot shows Tammy Lee Hinton.

Jackson County (Mich.) Sheriff's Office

Booking photos provided by the Jackson County (Mich.) Sheriff's Office via theJackson Citizen Patriotshows Tammy Lee Hinton.

2 Comments

Entry #5,067

July 19, 2011
5:29 pm

Mom Arrested for Trying to Sell Newborn at Taco Bell

Heidi Lynn Knowles, Vancouver Mom, Arrested for Trying to Sell Newborn at Taco Bell

Curtis Cartier

Mon., Jul. 18 2011 at 7:00 AM

Myspace

Heidi Knowles.

?Taco Bell's "Why Pay More Value Menu®" offers more than a dozen ways to help folks save money on "food." Unfortunately, it's difficult to Beefy 5-Layer Burrito one's self to financial stability when there's a screaming 3-day-old infant diapering up the equation.

Police say Heidi Lynn Knowles (aka Heidi Gasaway), a 36-year-old mom from Vancouver, Wash., attempted to get even more value from her menu by trying to sell her 3-day-old son for $500 to a woman at the Taco Bell at 7006 Highway 99, in Vancouver.

The Columbian:

About 9:30 p.m. Thursday, officers were called to Kay's Motel, 6700 N.E. Highway 99. A woman had called 911 to report that Knowles approached her in the restaurant, handed the newborn to her and offered to sell him to her.
Deputies found Knowles at the motel with the infant, who appeared to be in good health. They called for officials with Child Protective Services who took custody of him, Sample said.

Answering a call from Seattle Weekly on Sunday, a Taco Bell employee asked permission to "just hang up on his <snip>in' ass" and did so.

As for Ms. Knowles, she has denied trying to sell her kid, and also apparently claims that she has no idea when he was born or who his real father is.

Regardless, she's now facing pending felony charges of child-selling.

That's right, the Evergreen State's law books come equipped with a statute that directly addresses the act of selling one's offspring or buying someone else's.

There are, however, a rather large number of exceptions to the law, including parents selling children to one another.

1) It is unlawful for any person to sell or purchase a minor child.
(2) A transaction shall not be a purchase or sale under subsection (1) of this section if any of the following exists:

(a) The transaction is between the parents of the minor child; or

(b) The transaction is between a person receiving or to receive the child and an agency recognized under RCW 26.33.020; or

(c) The transaction is between the person receiving or to receive the child and a state agency or other governmental agency; or

(d) The transaction is pursuant to chapter 26.34 RCW; or

e) The transaction is pursuant to court order; or
(f) The only consideration paid by the person receiving or to receive the child is intended to pay for the prenatal hospital or medical expenses involved in the birth of the child, or attorneys' fees and court costs involved in effectuating transfer of child custody.

(3)(a) Child selling is a class C felony.

(b) Child buying is a class C felony.

Not among the exceptions: "If the transaction takes place within 50 feet of a Nacho Cheese Chalupa."

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Entry #5,066

July 19, 2011
10:09 am

Dogs can read your mind, study says

Dogs can read your mind, study says

Amanda Gardner

Jul. 18, 2011 10:07 AM
HealthDay

To anyone who is familiar with the eerily human-like qualities of man's best friend, the news that dogs can read your mind shouldn't come as any surprise.

The latest research adds to growing evidence that dogs can interpret both human body language and general behavior, and use it to their advantage.

"Dogs and (human-raised) wolves are capable of distinguishing between a person looking at them, someone who's paying attention and someone who's not," said Monique A.R. Udell, lead author of a study published recently in the journal Learning & Behavior. "They're more likely to beg (for food) from someone paying attention to them."

Researchers have been learning more and more about the surprising capabilities and intelligence of Canis lupus familiaris, better known as the domestic dog.

One recent study found that dogs have the developmental abilities of a human 2-year-old, with the average dog capable of learning the meanings of 165 words.

"Over the last five years or so, we've been trying to understand how dogs and relatives of dogs such as wolves respond to social companions," explained Udell, who was a researcher at the Univerity of Florida in Gainesville when the study was conducted.

"The idea behind this particular study was to try to understand how it is, for example, that dogs can use cues of attention to predict what we're going to do next and use that information to decide to beg for food from one individual and not another?" she continued. "How is it that dogs make us feel that they know what we're thinking?"

The study involved groups of pet dogs, stray dogs from a shelter and hand-raised wolves (named Tristan, Miska and Marion, among other monikers) who were comfortable around humans.

Two people stood about 6 meters apart, one of them looking directly and continuously at the dog or wolf. The other person had their vision blocked, either with a bucket over their head, a book obscuring their face or because their back was turned. Both humans held a piece of food.

"On average, both dogs and wolves were significantly more likely to be begging from the person looking at them when the other person's back was turned," said Udell.

But levels of sensitivity did vary by how domesticated the dog or wolf was.

"Domesticated dogs were more likely to beg from someone paying attention to them, but shelter dogs and wolves who don't often see a person reading books were not likely to get that cue," Udell related. "So it does seem like specific life experiences really do matter in this context."

The findings, said Udell, are "important because previous research suggested that something happened to dogs during genetic domestication that made them begin to think like humans. This shows that wolves are capable, if reared with humans, of (picking up human cues)."

"Animal people in the scientific community have known for some time that dogs are pretty smart and very good at reading our body language," said Adam Goldfarb, director of the Pets at Risk Program of the Humane Society of the United States. "This shows that something about dogs or wolves inherently allows them to read humans far better than other animals can."

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Entry #5,065