truesee's Blog

Ex-inmate suffers serious injuries trying to get back into Brevard jail

 

BY KAUSTUV BASU • FLORIDA TODAY • September 1, 2009

The concertina wire that surrounds the Brevard County Detention Center in Sharpes is designed to prevent inmates from escaping.

But Monday night, someone tried to break into the jail compound by climbing the fences and suffered severe injuries.

The sequence of events began about 8 p.m. at the Camp Road facility when, according to the sheriff's office, 24-year-old Sylvester Jiles of Cocoa showed up at the front gate and asked to be taken into custody.

"He told the people at the jail that he was fearful for his life," said Maj. Greg Purden of the sheriff's office.

Jiles had been released from jail Friday after accepting a plea deal on a manslaughter charge. He pleaded guilty to fatally shooting Dustin Prouse, 19, in February 2007.

On Monday, jail officials told Jiles they could not take him in. They told him to file a police report about the threats he was receiving.

Instead, Jiles climbed the 12-foot wire fence at the west corner of the jail grounds, then ran to a second fence topped with razor-sharp concertina wire. While attempting to do so, he fell and severely injured himself.

"Anything that touches those wires is ripped to pieces. He suffered severe, life-threatening injuries," Purden said.

Jiles was taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, where his condition is unknown at this time.

CINDY STAUFFER

Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era

September 2, 2009

Staff Writer

 

 

A bank robber offered an unusual explanation Monday for why he held up an Ephrata bank in 2007.

 

He did it to get away from his abusive wife, he told a judge during his sentencing in Lancaster County Court.

In fact, Anthony Miller, 39, wanted so badly to escape his wife — even if it meant going to jail — that he repeatedly asked tellers during the robbery, "Did you call the police yet?"

"She was very abusive to me," Miller told Judge Louis Farina. "I was scared. She threatened to commit suicide if I ever left her."

Miller's defense attorney, Robert Beyer, said that when the woman, now Miller's ex-wife, came to pick up his car after he was taken into custody, she met with the arresting officer.

After 20 minutes with her, the officer said, "I was ready for jail, too," Beyer dryly noted.

Farina sentenced Miller to 3 to 6 years in prison, a little longer than Miller had wanted. Beyer asked the judge to give Miller, who has already spent 31 months in prison, a sentence of time served.

The judge, however, said Miller committed a serious crime and used a BB gun that looked like a real gun during the robbery, even though it wasn't loaded and he never threatened anyone with it.

Farina said, "I accept he may not have wanted to hurt anyone. He made a very bad decision under a period of stress."

Turning to Miller, the judge said, "We have to make sure you don't do that again."

Miller pleaded guilty in June to the robbery of the Ephrata National Bank on Martin Avenue in February 2007.

The day of the bank robbery, Miller purchased a BB gun at Wal-Mart, took it out of the box and went to the bank, Beyer said.

Miller stayed at the bank for four minutes, as tellers collected money. A witness said, "He wanted someone to call the police."

An employee did trigger an alarm and police, who were nearby, arrested Miller as he left the bank.

When he walked out of the door, Miller hesitated for a moment, Beyer said, thinking that he might want police to kill him and "have this be over with," but then changed his mind.

Miller, who has no criminal record, decided to rob the bank after a series of problems — marital, financial and emotional, Beyer said.

Miller met his wife through a Christian dating Web site. She moved to the county from Washington state and the couple was married in 2004.

The pair soon had problems and Miller wanted to end the marriage, but his wife threatened to overdose on pills, he said.

During this time, Miller also struggled with depression. A welder, he had a job that did not offer health insurance and he said could not afford the medications he needed for his condition.

Feeling desperate, he saw the bank robbery as a way to get away from his wife.

Farina listened and then noted a very curious thing: When Miller was arrested, he asked police if he could call his wife.

Beyer said, "He didn't say what he was going to say."

"Goodbye? It's your fault?" Farina asked, his eyebrows raised. "So it's her fault?"

Beyer responded that Miller doesn't blame anyone but himself.

"His wife's actions drove him to it?" Farina asked. "He saw this as his way out?"

"Absolutely," Beyer said.

Miller weighed in, saying, "I certainly wasn't thinking straight. That's not the way I normally act. I believe I had a nervous breakdown that day."

Farina told Miller that he traumatized people in the bank with the gun.

The judge said he wanted to give Miller more than just the time he had already served in prison so he could get evaluated and counseled.

"You need enough time and supervision so we can identify what are your problems," he said.

LINK TO CONTEST:

http://eyeonthe100k.com/

(CCSD)

 

Tuesday, 01 September 2009 8:01PM Man arrested after wearing 'wrong belt' into Daley Center

CHICAGO (STNG/AP)  -- A southwest suburban man is free on bond Tuesday after he was arrested for allegedly trying to bring weapons into the Daley Center by hiding them in his belt.

 

Jamie Busk, 38, of Evergreen Park was stopped about 2 p.m. Monday at the Daley Center entrance near Randolph and Dearborn, according to a release from the Cook County Sheriff's office. While Busk was going through a security X-ray machine, courthouse Deputy David Nowacki noticed several metal objects that appeared to be inside his belt. He stopped Busk and inspected the belt, finding a built-in zipper with several objects tucked inside. Among the items found in the belt were a pocket knife with a 2-inch blade and handcuff keys, while the buckle was fashioned so it could also be used as a weapon, the release said. Busk, who told the deputy he “wore the wrong belt today,” was charged with unlawful storage of a weapon.

The Chicago Sun-Times

 

Man arrested after wearing 'wrong belt' into Daley Center

Jamie Busk, 38, of Evergreen Park was arrested for allegedly trying to bring a pocket knife, handcuff keys and several other weapons into the Daley center through his belt.

Weapons Belt

(The buckle of Busk's belt was fashioned into what appears to be a small cutting or slicing weapon. (CCSD))

Weapons Belt

(This small bladed tool was hidden inside the zipper pouch of Busk's belt. (CCSD))

 

Weapons Belt

(A zipper pouch used to conceal the weapons ran much of the length of Busk's belt. (CCSD))

Weapons Belt

Man arrested after wearing 'wrong belt' into Daley Center Jamie Busk, 38, of Evergreen Park was arrested for allegedly trying to bring a pocket knife, handcuff keys and several other weapons into the Daley center through his belt.   Weapons Belt (A handcuff key as also hidden inside the belt with the bladed tool. (CCSD))   (A pocket knife was also among the weapons allegedly hidden inside Busk's belt. (CCSD))     (The small tools and weapons fit easily inside the zipper pouch. (CCSD))

LINK TO PHOTOS AND AUDIO:

 

 

http://www.cantonrep.com/homepage/x1886195990/Canton-judge-orders-silence-in-the-court-with-duct-tape

69-year-old Missouri woman fires gun on airport runway

KMOV-TV

09:04 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 1, 2009

FULTON, Mo. (AP) -- Police say a 69-year-old woman forced a plane to abort its landing Saturday night when she went onto the runway and fired a gun.

 

Judy Davis of Fulton was being detained when police arrived and found a loaded .22 caliber handgun in her pants pocket. Mexico, Mo., radio station KXEO reports that she was arrested on a charge of unlawful use of a weapon and released after posting $4,500 bond.

 

Police say Davis walked into the terminal and said she was planning to shoot down a plane. She told investigators she was upset because the plane had repeatedly flown to close to her house.

Officials say federal authorities have been contacted and will be helping with the investigation.

http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=11019506

FBI: Fort Lauderdale bank robber also tried to steal a kiss from teller

 

 

Fort Lauderdale police investigators, along with bank security guards at the Bank of America on the 3000 block of Davie Boulevard after the bank was robbed last week.

Alexia Campbell

South Florida Sun Sentinel

3:25 p.m. EDT, August 31, 2009

FORT LAUDERDALE - First, he tackled the Bank of America security guard. Then, he punched the manager in the face. And before fleeing with $9,000, the armed robber asked a teller for a kiss, authorities say.

Police found Deatrick Daniel, 27, moments later in a nearby yard Friday with the help of a bank customer and employees, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI.

Daniel, of Fort Lauderdale, is accused of robbing the bank at 3030 W. Davie Blvd. around lunchtime Friday.

On Monday, he appeared at the federal courthouse and was charged with bank robbery.

According to the criminal complaint:

Daniel allegedly fought with the bank security guard in the parking lot and tried to take his gun away.

He then ran inside while the bank manager tried to call 911 and got in a scuffle with him, too. Daniel punched the manager in the face, pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and jumped over the counter.

He forced one of the tellers at gunpoint to open the cash drawers for him. Before fleeing with $9,000, Daniel took the teller into the breakroom and asked her to kiss him. The complaint didn't mention whether she did.

The bank guard, manager and a customer followed Daniel and told police he went into a neighborhood nearby. Police found him about 50 yards away hiding in a backyard.

Police were able to recover $2,000 from the yard, plus some cash scattered between the bank and the home.

Daniel was charged with bank robbery and is being held at the Broward Main Jail. He will later be taken to the Federal Detention Center in Miami

Bank wants thumbprint from man with no hands

Mike Deeson

10 Connects

August 31, 2009

6:48 pm

Tampa, Florida -- While most banks require a thumbprint to cash a check from someone who doesn't have an account, a Tampa man says that policy was impossible to comply with.

Steve Valdez says he was shocked when he was told he had to put his thumbprint on a check written on his wife's Bank of America check. Valdez says the check was written to him with the same address he has on his driver's license. Although he had two forms of identification both with pictures, the bank still required Valdez to give a thumbprint before it would cash the check.

But that was impossible, because Valdez was born without arms and wears prosthetic devices.

According to Valdez, when he gave the teller the check, she said "Obviously you can't give a thumbprint." But Valdez says the manager refused to cash the check unless he did.

When Valdez told the manager giving a thumbprint would be impossible, she suggested he either bring in his wife or open an account. Valdez says that's not the way the bank would treat someone without prosthetic arms, and he refused.

Valdez says he asked the bank if it had ever heard of the American with Disabilities Act and he says they told him they were accommodating him by offering the choices. But the ADA says businesses must comply with basic nondiscrimination requirements that prohibit exclusion, segregation, and unequal treatment.

A spokesman for Bank of America says while the thumbprint is a requirement for those who don't have accounts, the bank should have made accommodations.

 

LINK TO PHOTO AND VIDEO:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=112587&catid=8

http://www.mixx.com/videos/7337639/youtube_drunk_vegas_lawyer_part_3_arrested_by_judge

Victim uses GPS to track robbers

 

 

                        RELATED STORY

 

Pittsburgh police track down, arrest robbery suspects

By The Tribune-Review
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Pittsburgh police say they used the GPS service on a stolen cellular telephone to track down and arrest a pair of robbery suspects.

The incident began at about 1 a.m. on Saturday morning when officers from the city's Zone 4 station responded to a report of an armed robbery in the 400 block of Amberson Avenue in Shadyside.

The victim, whose name was not released, told police that he was walking home when two men approached him and demanded his wallet. One of the robbers displayed a gun and asked him for the personal identification number for his bank card while the other robber took his wallet and cell phone out of his pockets.

While police were at the scene, the victim logged onto his computer and was able to identify the location of his stolen telephone.

The man was able to tell police that his credit cards had been used to buy items at the Wal-Mart in North Versailles and then at the Eat n Park restaurant along Lincoln Highway.

North Versailles police were contacted and given a description of the suspects and the weapon that was used in the robbery.

North Versailles police arrested the suspects in a 2004 Dodge Caravan in the parking lot at the BP gas station across from the Eat 'n Park.

Police confiscated a black pellet gun in the van along with the victim's identification and credit cards.

Bryant Rather, 22, of West Mifflin, and Brent Ray Potter, 22, of Swissvale were charged with robbery. Also arrested was Myron Knox Jr., 22, of Homewood, who was charged along with Rather and Potter with two counts each of access device fraud, criminal conspiracy, receiving stolen property and possessing instruments of crime.

Man accidentally shoots himself in road-rage incident

 

A road-rage incident late Wednesday night in Lancaster led to a scuffle that ended when one of the combatants pulled out a gun and accidentally shot himself in the leg, Lancaster police said today.

The man who was shot was scheduled to undergo surgery in Erie County Medical Center, but police said the wound was not considered life-threatening.

Detectives believe the incident started at about 10:30 p.m., when someone reportedly cut someone else off in traffic on Ransom Road. A chase ensued, involving two individuals on motorcycles and one in another vehicle.

A short distance away on Ransom, at least one of the motorcyclists and the motorist confronted each other, and the motorist pulled out a gun.

"The one male points the gun at the second male," Capt. Timothy R. Murphy said. "The second male punches him in the face. As the first male is falling backwards, he discharges the gun and shoots himself in the left leg."

Police have not identified either of the combatants, both of whom are in their 20s. While no charges have been filed, detectives are considering possible charges, including weapons possession, against the man with the gun.

Capt. Murphy, Lancaster's chief of detectives, used the violent incident as a reminder of what can happen when people try to settle disputes with someone they don't know.

"If you have a problem on the road, call the police," he warned. "Don't confront an individual. You don't know what's going to happen. The individual without the gun is lucky that he didn't get shot."

20-year-old dream taking shape in backyard

Tyler Treadway

Sunday, August 30, 2009

GIFFORD — That thing in Dennis Schaller’s back yard off 45th Street looks like:

A. A scaled-down version of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon from “Star Wars.”

B. An Airstream trailer on steroids.

C. A DeLorean sports car from the early ’80s on some really serious steroids.

D. Absolutely nothing else at all.

“Most people think it’s a spaceship,” Schaller said of his silver creation that measures 56 feet long, 20 feet wide and 17 feet tall. “It was originally designed to be a hovercraft. Now it looks like it’s going to end up as a houseboat. I won’t live long enough to get enough money to make it a hovercraft — not unless I went back to work full time; and then I wouldn’t have the time to work on it.”

 

 

 

 

 

Given Schaller’s background, the spaceship guess isn’t so far-fetched.

Schaller started building rockets when he was a kid. He made a solid-fuel jet engine in high school shop class and, at age 15, took first place in the engineering division of the 1960 Georgia State Science Fair for a rocket he’d built.

He was a rocket engine mechanic in the Air Force before becoming an electrical engineer with North American Aviation, where he worked on several Apollo missions, including the Apollo 11 craft that landed on the moon, and the early Space Shuttle program. He’s lived in Gifford since 1989.

That’s about the time he started working on his hovercraft/houseboat.

“It’s been a 20-year project,” the 65-year-old Schaller said. “So far.”

At the center of the craft is a travel trailer Schaller found in the woods in Fellsmere and bought for $100.

“I put a deck around the trailer, then a roof on the deck,” he said, “and then, well, it just kind of took off. Unfortunately, my dreams are bigger than my life is long and my pockets are deep.”

The vessel, for lack of a better word, is a mixture of the practical and the fanciful. The front door, for example, opens hydraulically like the alien spacecraft from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

“Not being a rich man, I’ve had to build a lot of it out of junk,” he said, noting the lifeboat is made from a former acid dipping vat from the Piper Aircraft plant in Vero Beach and an old satellite dish.

Schaller said he’d like to float the boat in Lake Okeechobee.

“I’ve got two more years to go if I keep working steady every day,” Schaller said. “Of course, I’ve been saying ‘two more years’ for about 10 years now.”

 

 

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.tcpalm.com/videos/detail/space-ship

Bernanke personal bank account struck by ID theft

(08-27) 17:05 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

No one is safe from identity theft, not even the chairman of the Federal Reserve

Ben Bernanke's personal checking account became entangled in an elaborate identity-theft scheme after his wife Anna's purse was stolen last August at a Capitol Hill Starbucks. According to a District of Columbia police report, it contained her Social Security card, checkbook, credit cards and IDs.

It's not been revealed how much money was stolen from the Bernankes' account. But someone started cashing checks on their bank account just days after the purse was stolen from her chair. The thefts helped fuel an ongoing investigation into a sophisticated ring.

Losses from the fraud totaled more than $2.1 million and involved at least 10 financial institutions, court document said. Clyde Austin Gray Jr. of Waldorf, Md., a suspected ringleader in the scheme, pleaded guilty on July 22 in Alexandria, Va., federal court.

The banks bore primary responsibility for the losses and the victims' accounts, including the Bernankes, were most likely made whole.

"Identity theft is a serious crime that affects millions of Americans each year," Bernanke said in a statement. "Our family was but one of 500 separate instances traced to one crime ring. I am grateful for the law enforcement officers who patiently and diligently work to solve and prevent these financial crimes."

Prosecutors wrote that Gray hired pick pockets then made counterfeit IDs for the participants. The coconspirators conducted the bank transactions, and Gray took a cut of the proceeds.

At least one check from the Bernanke account for $900 was deposited Aug. 13, 2008, into the account of another identity theft victim at a Bank of America branch in suburban Maryland, according to an affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court. Authorities alleged that George L. Reid, 41, of Washington, cashed checks that day amounting to at least $9,000 in a string of transactions after the fake deposits inflated the related account balances.

Bank of America spokeswoman Tara Burke said Thursday, "We're looking into it. We're still gathering facts."

Brian Lapidus, an identity theft expert with Kroll Fraud Solutions, said it's not unusual to hear of high-ranking officials caught up by identity theft. His firm has worked with celebrities, senators and others who have been victims.

"To an identity thief, we're all just names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth," Lapidus said. "Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America."

Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearing House in San Diego, agreed, saying some Fortune 500 executives have been targeted because they have considerable financial resources. Still, she said, the Bernanke case sounds unique.

"I find this case interesting because it's a crime ring engaged in activities that have been primarily the purview of petty individual criminals — purse snatching," she said.

Ten defendants, including Reid, have been identified in the investigation conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Secret Service and D.C. police. The scheme involved using stolen IDs, bank records, personal checks and other items to impersonate victims at bank branches, according to an affidavit signed by Postal Inspector William J. Aiello.

Victims were targeted in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Illinois and elsewhere. Part of the scheme involved checks stolen from the Combined Federal Campaign for the National Capital Area, an official federal government-sponsored charity.

Court filings show Reid has confessed to depositing checks from an account that belonged to someone named "B.B." He was first charged in D.C. Superior Court for identity theft and had confessed to law enforcement officials, according to the June 8 affidavit filed in Alexandria, Va., federal court where the case was transferred.

An arrest warrant for Reid, though, is outstanding in the current case, according to court records. Sylvester Vaughn pleaded guilty on July 6 and is scheduled for sentencing with Gray in September.

A message to an attorney who represented Reid in the D.C. case was not immediately returned. Court records didn't show an attorney for Reid in the current case.