LINK TO STORY AND VIDEO:

http://crimesearchersonline.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=83-year-old-Dad-had-enough.html&Itemid=60

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6338303/50-most-annoying-things-about-the-internet.html

Mother, man charged in Oklahoma City teenager’s ‘torture’
53 counts filed against mother, her friend in case of 15-year-old allegedly locked in closet

A mother "tortured” her son in Oklahoma City for years, locking him in a closet, setting him on fire, beating him and forcing him to stand barefoot in the snow, prosecutors alleged Thursday in a child abuse charge.

A friend of the woman also is charged with abusing the boy.

The case attracted national attention after the malnourished boy left his apartment Sept. 25 and reported to police his mother "would lock him in a closet and not feed him for several days at a time.” The boy also told police he had never been to school in the four years he had lived in Oklahoma.

Police originally reported he was 14. Prosecutors Thursday described him as 15. The boy is identified only by the initials B.M.

The mother, LaRhonda Marie McCall, faces 29 child abuse counts. Her friend, Steve Hamilton, a taxi driver, faces 27 child abuse counts.

Prosecutors filed 53 felony counts in all. They are charged together in some counts and separately in others.

"We think it went on pretty consistently ... We could have filed 150 counts,” said Gayland Gieger, an Oklahoma County assistant district attorney. "They seemed to punish him if they felt like he had stolen something, or something like that. It’s pretty shocking ... allegations. It’s hard to figure out why just him and not the other children.”

Both could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

The two are being held in the Oklahoma County jail. Police report the mother admitted beating her son and locking him in the closet. Police report Hamilton also admitted he beat the boy.

Prosecutors allege the abuse began in March 2006 after the boy, then 11, began living with his mother again. Prosecutors allege in the charge that McCall and Hamilton beat him with their fists, bike chains, cables, extension cords and boards. Prosecutors describe the boy as permanently scarred.

McCall, 37, and Hamilton, 38, kept the boy locked in a closet for such "extended periods of time ... that he was forced to urinate and defecate in the closet wall,” prosecutors alleged. The two also are accused of repeatedly tying up the boy naked.

The mother is accused in one child abuse count of pouring rubbing alcohol on the boy and setting him on fire. Another time, she allegedly tied him naked to a ladder in a garage and poured sugar water "on his body in order to attract biting insects.”

She allegedly once forced him to stand barefoot in the snow for more than 45 minutes and another time stand barefoot on a patch of ice in a garage for more than two hours. This year, she allegedly stabbed him in the shoulder with a knife.

Both allegedly forced him to stand on one foot with a cord around his neck and around his raised right ankle so that he would choke if he put his right foot down. Police reported the mother admitted the boy "was left like this for about an hour.” Hamilton also allegedly once hit the boy in the head with a tire iron.

About the fire, Hamilton on Oct. 1 told police "he saw LaRhonda purposely pour rubbing alcohol all over B.M.’s body,” according to a court affidavit. "Steve stated LaRhonda had a lighter in her hand and when B.M. moved he was lit on fire. Steve stated B.M. ‘had a blue flame over his entire body.’ Steve stated B.M. was burned on his butt and his ear. However, B.M. was not taken to a hospital.”

Police reported McCall said she accidentally poured rubbing alcohol on her son and he caught on fire when she lit incense.

Police earlier reported the boy and McCall’s other minor children were placed in the custody of the Department of Human Services.

Oklahoma prosecutors said Thursday that McCall was convicted in New York in 1996 of second-degree murder. New York officials earlier said the conviction was for second-degree manslaughter for the death of a 2-year-old daughter.

LINK TO COURT DOCUMENTS:

 http://www.newsok.com/article/3409480?searched=%20LaRhonda%20Marie%20McCall&custom_click=search#ixzz0U6m0YlPh

LaRhonda Marie McCall

Steve Hamilton

                                     ORIGINAL STORY:

Okla. teen claims he was held in closet for years

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A woman was arrested after her 14-year-son told authorities he escaped from a home where he'd been kept for 4 1/2 years, spending most of his time locked in a bedroom closet, police said Monday.

 A security guard at a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City called police on Friday after the teen showed up malnourished and with numerous scars and other signs of abuse, police Sgt. Gary Knight said.

"He was hungry. He was dirty. He had numerous scars on his body," Knight said. "It was very sad."

The boy was taken to a hospital to be examined and then turned over to the custody of the Department of Human Services Knight said.

After police interviews, officers on Saturday arrested the boy's mother, 37-year-old LaRhonda Marie McCall, and a friend, 38-year-old Steve Vern Hamilton, on 20 complaints each of child abuse and child neglect. Formal charges have not been filed, and both were being held on $400,000 bond, according to jail records.

Jail officials were not sure wheter either had retained an attorney, and no one answered the phone at McCall's home. A police report listed McCall as a pharmaceutical company employee and Hamilton as a cab driver.

The teen, wearing only a pair of oversized shorts held up by a belt, walked up to a security guard at the Guard facility around 5 p.m. Friday and asked where a police station was located so he could report being abused, according to a police report.

He told police that scars on his stomach and torso were from where alcohol had been poured on him and set on fire. Other scars were from being tied up, hit with an extension cord and choked, the boy told police.

"He had scars covering most of his body," Knight said. "They were basically from head to foot."

The teen told police he moved to the Oklahoma City area from New Jersey about 4 1/2 years ago after his mother was released from jail. Since arriving in Oklahoma, he said, he had never been to school and spent most of his time locked in a bedroom closet.

He told police the closet door was mostly blocked with a stepladder or a bed and that he managed to push the door open enough to escape and leave the house.

Knight said six other children living at the home were taken into DHS custody, but none showed signs of abuse. McCall had lived at several different addresses in the Oklahoma City area, he said.

A DHS spokeswoman said she could not discuss specific cases but generally an investigation would be conducted before any of the children are returned to the home or placed with other family members.

"There may be family members, but we do a diligent search, and we're very careful about placing kids in a safe environment," DHS spokeswoman Beth Scott said.

Poison gas may carry a medical benefit

Hub research focuses on carbon monoxide

Daniel Doberer measured proteins yesterday during research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The hospital believes it has found protective properties in carbon monoxide. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

Carolyn Y. Johnson 

Boston Globe Staff

October 16, 2009

For more than a century, carbon monoxide has been known as a deadly toxin. In an 1839 story, Edgar Allan Poe wrote of “miraculous lustre of the eye’’ and “nervous agitation’’ in what some believe are descriptions of carbon monoxide poisoning, and today, cigarette cartons warn of its health dangers.

But a growing body of research, much of it by local scientists, is revealing a paradox: the gas often called a silent killer could also be a medical treatment.

It seems like a radical contradiction, but animal studies show that in small, extremely controlled doses the gas has benefits in everything from infections to organ transplantation. Research is now beginning in people, who are given the gas at very low concentrations, and while many doctors remain skeptical, the National Institutes of Health recently gave the idea a vote of confidence: The federal agency awarded a $1.4 million grant to a researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to study the underlying biology of how the gas works.

“Carbon monoxide essentially suffocates the red blood cells - that’s the way we learned it in school,’’ said Dr. Patty J. Lee, an associate professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, who has done work with the gas. Scientific opinion of the idea has “gone from completely skeptical to moderately skeptical. . . . Therapeutically, I think it has incredibly great potential.’’

Much of the driving force behind scientific interest in carbon monoxide has come from Leo Otterbein, an associate professor at Beth Israel Deaconess who first began considering the possibility that the gas was beneficial a decade ago, as a graduate student.

Otterbein was studying an enzyme that plays a critical protective role in the body, but worked in unknown ways. That helpful enzyme breaks down a substance in the body and creates carbon monoxide as a byproduct, so Otterbein began working on experiments to see whether the gas was providing a benefit.

Positive experimental results began to trickle in, but Otterbein faced skeptics.

“I went to a conference and said, ‘Wait ‘til they see this data, they’ll be amazed.’ Guys stood up and made an absolute fool of me,’’ said Otterbein, who said he persevered anyway, relying on the accumulating data and ignoring the gut reactions of colleagues. “It’s been a hard sell, but in 10 years it’s evolved dramatically.’’

Since that time, Otterbein and other scientists have found that breathing the gas for an hour at about 5 to 10 percent of a fatal exposure has beneficial effects in animals with a range of illnesses, from malaria to cardiovascular disease. While its actions are only partly understood, the gas seems to play a role in controlling inflammation, regulating cell death, and promoting repair and renewal.

The most research has been done with organ transplantation. In one study, carbon monoxide showed promise in reducing organ rejection in rats given heart transplants from mice. In unpublished research on kidney transplants in pigs, the gas was found to improve the function of transplanted kidneys immediately after surgery.

Such findings paved the way for low doses to be administered to 31 kidney transplant patients. Results have not been disclosed and the trial was put on hold for a review, but there were no negative effects, said Otterbein, a consultant to the gas company, Ikaria Holdings Inc.

Dr. Jerzy W. Kupiec-Weglinski, director of the Dumont-University of California, Los Angeles Transplantation Research Center, said that the research might explain anecdotal reports from the 1980s that kidney transplants seemed to work better in smokers than expected, since cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide.

But given the deeply entrenched fear of carbon monoxide as a toxin, he said it is unlikely that the gas would be directly given as a therapy to many people. Instead, research into the mechanism by which carbon monoxide works could allow scientists to design a drug that could act in the same way.

That is the thinking behind Alfama, a company with its US headquarters in Cambridge that is working on a drug to release carbon monoxide into the body. Otterbein also is a consultant for Alfama.

Dr. Claude A. Piantadosi at Duke University Medical Center has administered the gas to a small group of healthy people and found that it increases the activity of genes involved in making mitochondria, the cell’s power plants. But Piantadosi said sick people may respond differently.

He and other scientists cautioned that their work is at an extremely early stage, and that it should not encourage people to think of carbon monoxide casually.

“Carbon monoxide is a deadly poison. . . . It scares physicians like myself, and I’ve treated a lot of carbon monoxide poisonings,’’ Piantadosi said. “But it’s also made normally by the body. . . . So the issue is how does that all work.’’

In Boston, Otterbein hopes the grant will help him answer that question. His research will look at whether the gas binds to DNA to regulate which genes are active in the body.

When he proposed the idea, he said it seemed so far out, he was sure it would be laughed at instead of funded.

But Michael Bender, a program director at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, said it was an innovative and risky hypothesis that, if true, could transform current thinking. He pointed out that it follows in the footsteps of Nobel Prize-winning work showing that nitric oxide played an important signaling role within the body.

Understanding this gas has led to drugs that are not inhaled, including Viagra, that work on the same biological pathway.

“It’s probably a risky kind of science to do,’’ Bender said. “It is a novel idea. . . . But what’s been amazing to me is, even though many basic biological processes are very well worked out, there are still surprises to be found.’’

Police: Lebanon man gave new meaning to term 'pothead'

Lebanon Daily News

Updated: 10/14/2009 09:06:49 PM EDT
     

A 29-year-old Lebanon man was arrested on drug charges over the weekend after a police officer saw him with a bag of marijuana stuck to his forehead in a city convenience store.

The officer entered the Turkey Hill Minit Market at 716 E. Lehman St. at 3:25 a.m. Saturday, police said Monday. While inside, he saw a man walking away from the restrooms. The man held a ball cap in his hand and was looking in the interior of the hat, near its sweatband.

When the man approached the officer, he looked up, and the officer noticed a small plastic bag stuck to the man's forehead that appeared to contain marijuana, police said.

The officer retrieved the bag from the man's forehead and asked, "Is this what you're looking for?" the police news release states.

The man, identified as Cesar Lopez, was charged with possession of a small amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.

Police said it is not uncommon for people possessing illegal narcotics and paraphernalia to store the items inside the sweatband of a cap.

http://www.miamiherald.com/video/index.html?media_id=6708530

Joe Lamb

Log Cabin staff writer

UPDATE: Vilonia police chief fires officer. Story updated at bottom.

A Vilonia policeman was arrested early this morning at a Conway private club on suspicion of disorderly conduct and public intoxication, both misdemeanor offenses.

The Conway Police Department released reports from three CPD officers today describing the arrest of 32-year-old Jeremy Smith, a patrolman with the Vilonia Police Department, at the Conway Veterans of Foreign Wars post off Old Morrilton Highway. According to these reports, the officers were dispatched to reports of two men fighting, one of whom was still on the scene and being combative with staff and customers. The three arrived at about the same time — around 1:35 a.m. — and saw a group of VFW employees and patrons restraining Smith against an outside wall.

"As I approached, they began backing away from the subject, continuing to tell him to calm down," Lt. William Keller wrote in his report. "(Smith) had blood on his face and hands. I told him to chill out, turn around and put his hands behind his back. He refused."

Lloyd Smith of CPD was riding with Matthew Edgmon, a rookie officer, for field training purposes when the call came in, and according to his account of the incident arrived at the VFW just behind Keller.

"As Keller approached ... the citizens let go of the man," Lloyd Smithwrote. "I saw the man was my brother, Jeremy Smith."

At this point, according to Lloyd Smith's account, he told the rookieofficer that, due to his relationship with the suspect, "we shouldn't beinvolved with this situation. ... but Jeremy only escalated the situation, challenging Keller to try and cuff him," Lloyd Smith's report continues. "When Keller tried to cuff him, Jeremy jerked away and took a defensive posture as if he was about to throw a punch at Keller. I decided I had to intervene."

According to Edgmon, "Ofc. L. Smith also began instructing J. Smith to calm down and stop fighting.

"J. Smith then continued to make threatening comments and gestures toward Lt. Keller," Edgmon's account continues. "At that time, Ofc. (Lloyd) Smith drew his taser and turned it on."

Smith wrote that when his brother continued to "raise his fists as if he was ready to fight, I pointed my taser at Jeremy and pled with him, 'please don't make me tase you.'"

Jeremy Smith continued to be uncooperative, according to the three officers, and was tased by his brother, handcuffed and taken to the Faulkner County Detention Center for 12-hour detox.

Vilonia Chief of Police Brad McNew declined to comment on the incident this morning, but told Vilonia correspondent Linda Hicks that he will issue a statement later this afternoon.

UPDATE:

By Linda Hicks

Log Cabin staff writer

Patrolman Jeremy Smith, 32, arrested in the early morning hours on Wednesday and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct at a Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Conway,  has been terminated according to Police Chief Brad McNew. 

McNew said he was waiting at the Faulkner County Detention Center for Smith when he was released Wednesday afternoon at about 2:30 following a standard 12-hour detox period. 

“I picked him up and took him home and I terminated him. While there, I picked up property belonging to the Vilonia Police Department including his weapon, badge and vest,” McNew said.

Smith, McNew said, was officially terminated for violating state law and department policy.

“In this incident, he used poor judgment,” McNew said, adding that he holds all of his officers to high standards. Regarding Smith’s past performance, McNew said, “there’s no disciplinary action of any kind in his files.”  

During the arrest, Smith was tased by his brother Lloyd Smith, a Conway police officer. When questioned concerning that action, McNew said, “That’s sad that he put his brother in that position. But, the Conway Police Department acted responsibly — as it should have acted.”

Should officers from the Vilonia department have been making a similar arrest, McNew said, he would have expected a similar response.

Smith was hired Feb. 19 and was still on probation with the Vilonia Department. He had been a member of the Fairfield Bay Police Department for about a year prior to his employment with Vilonia. Smith completed police academy training in September 2008.

The alleged crimes are misdemeanors. Jeremy Smith is set for a court appearance next month.

LINK TO STORY AND COPY OF POLICE REPORT:

http://thecabin.net/news/local/2009-10-14/vilonia-policeman-tased-arrested-conway

Cortland County deputies accuse man of eating pot leaves to destroy evidence

Charley Hannagan

The Post-Standard

October 14, 2009, 6:59AM

Willet, NY--Cortland County sheriff’s deputies Sunday arrested a father and son after they found 116 marijuana plants growing in the son’s home.

Deputies say the son tried to eat some of the evidence.

Deputies accuse Jeremy L. Wheeler, 29, of 323 Fish Hill Road, Willet, of tampering with physical evidence, unlawfully growing marijuana and resisting arrest. His father, William J. Wheeler, 51, of 6090 Rt. 26, Whitney Point, is accused of unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful growing of marijuana.

Deputies said more charges are pending.

Both were released on tickets to appear in the Town of Willet Court at a later date.

Here’s what police said happened.

At 10:30 p.m. Sunday deputies arrived at Jeremy L. Wheeler’s home and confronted him about growing marijuana. Wheeler was taken into custody after a brief struggle.

Deputies found the suspect’s father, William J. Wheeler, inside a marijuana growing room in the house.

Deputies found 116 marijuana plants, several pieces of marijuana paraphernalia, a loaded gun and a large amount of cash.

Deputies then took the Wheelers to the Sheriff’s Department for booking. As deputies were bringing the marijuana plants into the building, Jeremy Wheeler took some leaves off one of the marijuana plants and ate them.

Couple tries to trade children for exotic bird

Accused to testify against guardian

Robber Loses Wallet, Asks Victim To Return It

Man Asked Victim To Meet At Service Station

POSTED: 3:30 pm EDT October 14, 2009
UPDATED: 3:44 pm EDT October 14, 2009

Mother chooses pet crocodile over husband

An Australian woman, Vicki Lowing, says she divorced her husband after he asked her to give up her pet crocodile, Johnie, which she says is "like a child" to her.

11:14AM BST 14 Oct 2009

Vicki Lowing watching a film with Johnie, her pet freshwater crocodile at her home near Melbourne Photo: REXFEATURES

Mrs Lowing, 52, who has hand-raised the one-and-a-half metre reptile for 13 years, gives it the run of the house and even lets it sleep with her son Andrew in his bed.

The trained nurse from Melbourne, Victoria, who had looked after ill and abandoned animals for decades, adopted the crocodile after it was left on her doorstep in 1996 by an anonymous person.

Her husband Greg said she spent too much time with the pet and asked her to give it up in a bid to save their marriage, but she refused and the couple divorced in 2005.

Mrs Lowing, a trained nurse, said: "Husbands can look after themselves but my crocodile can't make his meals.

"As soon as I started looking after Johnie, Greg and I started having problems. We did nothing but fight. There was a lot of tension in the house.

"He said I devoted all my time on the crocodile instead of him. I felt like Greg was asking me to put him ahead of one of my children.

Mrs Lowing raised Johnie in her home with Andrew, who is only 18 months older than the crocodile, and said the experience was "like having two children to look after."

She said: "They were like brothers, following each other around. And as Andrew learnt and grew his curious side, so did Johnie. I would find Johnie emptying the cupboards, just as Andrew had done a few weeks earlier.

"They also had their sibling rivalry. I once heard Andrew screaming 'mummy, mummy.' I ran in to discover Andrew crying, saying Johnie had taken his toy. Sure enough, there was Johnie in his water tank, with the toy in his mouth.

Johnie now sits on Mrs Lowing's lap while she watches television and behaves "just like any cat or dog".

It was only after the crocodile stopped growing at one-and-a-half metres that Mrs Lowing realised it was female, because the species has no external sex organs.

She said: "I had to tell Andrew his brother was actually his sister. We've stuck with the name Johnie though, because its what we, and she, is used to. And I was secretly thrilled - I've always wanted a daughter."

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/woman-keeps-pet-crocodile-inside-home-walks-it/3647844805/?icid=VIDLRVNWS02

Police: Child forced to eat soap

J.D. GALLOP

FLORIDA TODAY

October 13, 2009

Wilfredo Rivera, left, 41, and Adriyanna Herdener, 32, were charged with neglect of a child and child abuse after police were called to a home in the 2300 block of Shenadoah Drive to investigate the incident.

A mother and her boyfriend were jailed over the weekend after Palm Bay police said an 8-year-old girl was forced to eat soap after uttering an obscene word.

The girl, who police said suffered an allergic reaction, has been removed from the couple’s home by the Department of Children and Families, along with her 18-month-old sibling.

Wilfredo Rivera, 41, and Adriyanna Herdener, 32, were charged with neglect of a child and child abuse after police were called to a home in the 2300 block of Shenadoah Drive to investigate the incident.

Both were arrested Friday and face court hearings in early November.

“(The girl) used an expletive and the boyfriend had her eat soap,” said Yvonne Martinez, spokeswoman for the Palm Bay Police Department.

“It caused the girl’s mouth and throat to swell. But they didn’t provide immediate medical care.”

Police said the pair became concerned after the child continued to complain about the pain in her throat after chewing on the soap for 10 minutes.

The mother told police her boyfriend took the girl to a hospital because she, “didn’t want to deal with DCF,” police reported.

The mother also told police that the child wanted to wash her mouth out after eating the soap but that she, “made her clean up the mess first,” according to reports.

Police said the mother initially gave the child a dose of cough medicine and sent her to bed. Hospital staff members contacted police about the case. Police arrived at the home and found the child, who also suffers from asthma, wheezing and with a swollen lip.

The mother and boyfriend were taken to the Palm Bay Police Department for questioning before being transported to the Brevard County Detention Center

http://torontosun.autonet.ca/autos/search/galleries/2009/08/19/pf-10514326.html

Stolen pot report gets Saginaw County woman busted

10/13/2009, 7:10 p.m. EDT

The Associated Press  

(AP) — BRANT TOWNSHIP, Mich. - There are limits to being a crime victim, as a woman who called Saginaw County sheriff's deputies to report the theft of marijuana found out.

Detective Sgt. Randy F. Pfau (FOW) says the 54-year-old woman was arrested early Sunday after reporting two men had broken into her home in Brant Township, 80 miles north-northwest of Detroit.

Pfau says the woman told deputies the men fled after one of them demanded her marijuana plants. He says the woman then was booked on charges of manufacturing and delivering marijuana.Pfau tells The Saginaw News the woman claimed the drug was for personal use but didn't possess a medical marijuana card. He says police will seek charges pending test results on the marijuana they did confiscate.

Fugitive busted after Facebook friend request

October 13, 2009

SEATTLE (AP) — Maxi Sopo was living the dream of a fugitive abroad, kicking back on the beaches of Cancun by day, partying in the clubs by night.

Then he did two things that are never a good idea when you’re on the run from authorities: He started posting Facebook updates about how much fun he was having — and added a former Justice Department official to his list of friends.

Because of that indiscretion, the 26-year-old native of Cameroon is now in a Mexico City jail awaiting extradition to the United States on bank fraud charges. Federal prosecutors say he and an associate falsely obtained more than $200,000 from Seattle-area banks and credit unions.

“He was making posts about how beautiful life is and how he was having a good time with his buddies,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Scoville, who helped find Sopo. “He was definitely not living the way we wanted him to be living, given the charges he was facing.”

Even in the hold-nothing-back world of social networking, where police search Facebook photos for evidence of underage drinking and watch YouTube videos to identify riot suspects, it’s rare that a fugitive helps authorities this much.

In status updates, Sopo said he was “loving it” and “living in paradise.”

LIFE IS VERY SIMPLE REALLY!!!!” he wrote on June 21. “BUT SOME OF US HUMANS MAKE A MESS OF IT...REMEMBER AM JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN PARTEEEEEEE.”

Sopo, who came to the U.S. in about 2003, made a living selling roses in Seattle nightclubs until, according to prosecutors, he moved on to bank fraud. He apparently drove a rented car to Mexico in late February after learning that federal agents were investigating the fraud scheme.

Investigators initially could find no trace of him on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and they were unable to pin down his exact location in Mexico.

But several months later, Secret Service agent Seth Reeg checked Facebook again — and up popped Maxi Sopo. His photo showed him wearing a black jacket decorated with a white lion as he stood in front of a party backdrop featuring logos of BMW and Courvoisier cognac.

Although Sopo’s profile was set to private, his list of friends was not, and Scoville started combing through it. He was surprised to see that one friend listed an affiliation with the Justice Department and sent him a message requesting a phone call.

“We figured this was a person we could probably trust to keep our inquiry discreet,” Scoville said.

The former official told Scoville he had met Sopo in Cancun’s nightclubs a few times, but did not really know him and had no idea he was a fugitive. The official learned where Sopo was living and passed that information back to Scoville, who provided it to Mexican authorities. They arrested Sopo last month.

The fugitive had been living at a nice apartment complex, working at a hotel and partying at Cancun’s beaches, pools and nightclubs, Scoville said.

Sopo does not yet have a lawyer, and it was not immediately clear how to contact him.

Prosecutors say he masterminded the bank fraud scheme with Edward Asatoorians, who was convicted by a federal jury in Seattle last week. Testimony at trial indicated the pair persuaded young co-conspirators to lie about their income to obtain loans for fabricated auto purchases, and then used the money to prop up Asatoorians’ business and to take an expensive trip to Las Vegas.

Asatoorians is expected to face at least five years in prison when he’s sentenced. If convicted, Sopo could face up to 30 years.

Citing privacy concerns, the former Justice Department official declined an interview request left with the U.S. attorney’s office.

Scoville said it was someone who left the department when the Obama administration arrived, and who had been taking some time off and organizing student trips to Cancun.

Facebook was not Sopo’s only computer activity during his time on the lam. An affidavit contains details from an instant-message conversation in March between Sopo and a low-level conspirator in the case. Sopo explained that he had fled to “the one safe place where i can actually think.”

This image taken from facebook.com shows the facebook page of Maxi Sopo, who is accused of being part of a bank-fraud ring in Seattle. (AP/facebook.