Fake Doctor: Oregon Man Charged With Performing Surgery Without a License

Mother Defends Jailed Son, Says Police and Media Have Blown Case Out of Proportion

McNaughton said Hanson told his patients -- both male and female -- that he was a resident physician at Mountain View Hospital in Madras, about 25 miles away from Redmond.

"One of the victims knew him for years, hadn't seen him for years," McNaughton said. "Came back and said, 'I went to medical school and became a doctor.'"

But Mountain View Hospital spokeswoman Christine Smith told ABCNews.com that the hospital didn't even know who Hanson was until the media started calling for comment.

"The only thing I know is he's never been employed by the hospital nor has he been part of our medical staff," she said.

Renee Hanson's public records list her as being a registered nurse at Mountain View, but Smith said she could not comment on whether Renee Hanson has ever been on staff there.

McNaughton said police understand that Renee Hanson works at an area hospital, but have received conflicting reports about which one.

She, however, denied to ABCNews.com having anything to do with her son's alleged crimes. "I'm having to leave town because of it," she said.

McNaughton said Hanson told police the medications he gave to patients included morphine. Police are now investigating where he got the drugs and what they actually are. "Some of the stuff we seized had the labels changed," he said.

A search warrant of Hanson's house, where he was arrested, also turned up various medical supplies and other evidence.

Hanson is now being held at the Deschutes County Jail on $50,000 bail.

Third-grader expelled for making ‘hit list’

Clinton J. Gordon

FORT PIERCE — A 39-year-old man was arrested after a security officer determined he had something unusual among the items to be checked at a security checkpoint at the downtown courthouse.

“As the items were checked (the security officer) determined that one item was a marijuana smoking pipe,” an arrest report states.

A deputy checked out the pipe and concluded that, indeed, it was a pot smoking pipe by the smell and residue, the report states.

Clinton J. Gordon, of the 2700 block of Wildwood Lane, faces a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia charge in connection with the 10:30 a.m. Tuesday incident.

The private security officer had reported to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office deputy that Gordon came in the courthouse and “surrendered his items at the security checkpoint.”

Gordon was released Tuesday from the St. Lucie County jail on $500 bail, a jail official said.

Brotherly love lands Circle man in jail

Chris Freiberg

Published Thursday, April 30, 2009 

FAIRBANKS — Authorities say that a Circle man assaulted a Fairbanks police officer so he could go to jail with his brother.

David Jacob Ginnis, 35, has pleaded guilty to one count of assault or battery on a police officer. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, with the full sentence suspended.

The officer was patrolling the downtown area Monday night when he noticed a small crowd had gathered to watch two men fighting near the Lacey Street side of the courthouse. One of the participants in the fight was arrested on a criminal trespass charge.

The man was sitting in the back of the patrol car when Ginnis, who appeared intoxicated, approached the officer and asked if he could speak with his brother. The officer allowed them to speak for five minutes, but when he told Ginnis he had to take the man to jail, Ginnis asked if he could come as well if he assaulted the officer, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

The officer told him that would “not go well” for him, but Ginnis shoved the officer with his fist. The officer took Ginnis to the ground and arrested him without further incident, according to the complaint.

By MURRAY WEISS, WILLIAM J. GORTA and LUKAS I. ALPERT

Last updated: 2:09 am
April 30, 2009
Posted: 1:56 am
April 30, 2009

What a gold digger!

A larcenous longtime employee of a major Queens jewelry manufacturer walked off with a staggering 500 pounds of gold she smuggled out piece by piece over six years -- in her handbag, prosecutors said yesterday.

Teresa Tambunting, 50, of Scarsdale, sneaked the hoard out of a Long Island City vault by stashing "a few ounces" at a time in a false bottom she created in the lining of her pocketbook, authorities said.

"I am a very sick woman. I took the gold," she told her stunned bosses once the jig was up, according to sources.

Officials at Jacmel Jewelry caught on that they were being bled dry after doing an internal audit in January and noticing they were missing as much as $12 million worth of gold, which now trades for around $900 an ounce.

"The defendant is accused of establishing a virtual mining operation in Long Island City which siphoned off millions of dollars' worth of the precious metal," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Tambunting had worked for Jacmel for 28 years, joining the company shortly after emigrating from the Philippines, and had been made a vault manager in 1991. She was paid $160,000 a year and was one of only a handful of "highly trusted" employees who had access to the company's safe, sources said.

But even those people were subject to searches by security -- which Tambunting got around with the makeshift hole in a beaten-up black leather, banana-shaped purse she carried for years.

A few days after company officials started going over their books to see if they had made an accounting error, Tambunting walked into work wheeling a piece of luggage containing 60 pounds of "fine gold" -- or buck-shot-sized pellets of unrefined precious metal.

When asked if that was all she had taken, she said yes, but days later, she changed her tune and came in with her lawyer --and a couple of dozen five-gallon paint buckets filled with 447.8 pounds of gold necklaces, rings, earrings and other jewelry. There was enough gold to fill 12 large storage bins.

The size of Tambunting's haul stunned employees.

"When they walked in the first time, they were shocked and their jaws dropped," a source said. "When she came back three weeks later, their jaws dropped even heavier."

The stash took company officials nearly three weeks to inventory. During that period, they discovered some pieces that dated back to early 2004. Then they went to the DA.

In all, the value of the returned gold is roughly $7.3 million, meaning $4.7 million remains missing. Some of that, sources said, could have been lost in routine manufacturing processes.

They said Tambunting and her husband, Edgardo, a director at Cantor Fitzgerald, appeared to be living within their means, but probers were still investigating their finances.

The couple lives with their three children in a million-dollar home.

Jacmel Jewelry President Jack Rahmey called Tambunting "a longtime employee and a trusted one," but declined to comment any further.

She was released Tuesday on $100,000 bail. She faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Her lawyer did not return messages.

Officials say as much as $12 million worth of gold -- which trades at roughly $900 a troy ounce -- disappeared. With a single gold bar weighing 400 troy ounces, or 27 pounds, that's the equivalent of 833 pounds of gold, or just shy of 31 gold bars.

Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli

HEAVYWEIGHT SCHEME: Prosecutors say employee Teresa Tambunting took 500 pounds of gold from a Queens jewelry manufacturer (bottom) to her Scarsdale home (top).

Fla. deputy resigns after his wife, mother-in-law take patrol car out for a joyride

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) -- A Polk County deputy has turned in his badge after his wife and mother-in-law took his patrol car out for a joyride. Officials said the 44-year-old deputy resigned Monday after serving 21 years with the sheriff's office.

The arrest report said his wife and mother-in-law face charges of vehicle theft, theft of a firearm and impersonating a law-enforcement officer. His wife also faces charges of possession of a firearm of a convicted felon.

A third person riding in the back seat also was arrested.

Witnesses reporting seeing the patrol car driving erratically in Lakeland on Sunday morning. The deputy apparently didn't know the car was taken.

Baskin-Robbins Offering 31-cent Scoops to Honor Firefighters

SAN ANGELO - A woman has been charged with aggravated assault with a weapon , her teeth , after allegedly biting off part of her boyfriend's lip in a domestic dispute. Aubrey Joyce Garcia, 27, was accused of biting Antonio Zaragoza, 33, during a fight Sunday night.

She was arrested after police were called to a home where the two were fighting, police said.

Garcia remained in the Tom Green County Jail on Tuesday. Her bail is $30,000. Bradley Miles, her attorney, could not be reached for comment.

Zaragoza was treated at a hospital and released.

Teeth are considered a weapon because they allegedly were used to disfigure a person, officials said.

If convicted, Garcia faces up to 99 years in prison.

Cop robs bank, uses police vehicle as getaway car

April 28, 2009 • 10:23 am

Diana Fasanella

A German police detective faces charges of armed robbery after he allegedly walked into a bank without a mask, held up tellers with his police-issued pistol and made his getaway in an unmarked patrol car. 

Bungling and bumbling

Juergen Richter got away with close to $12,000 before a closed circuit TV recording led police to the 55-year-old man who they say robbed the Baden-Wurttemberg bank, Ananova reported. 

A police spokesman Norbert Schaetzle said Richter was having severe financial problems and wanted to solve them quickly. 

“He may as well have just walked into the bank, told them his name and where police could find him afterwards,” Schaetzle said. The inept robber had dealt with failed criminal plans over the years and should have known better, he added.

 Inspector Clouseau strikes again

Woman Sues Chase For Telling Hubby About Secret Cash

April 27, 2009

A Chase bank employee is being blamed for dropping the dime about a Long Island dentist's $800,000 individual account to her husband. The NY Post reports that while Nazita Aminpour and David Shamash "have a joint account at a Chase branch in Kew Gardens, Queens," Aminpour also had the secret account. Well, secret until a bank employee cold-called Shamash, "telling him he should take his small fortune out of the low-interest account and make other investments with Chase."

Aminipour's suit says that once Shamash heard about the money, he "began harassing [Aminpour], asking for money from the funds that he can invest in the stock market and to cover a margin call he had on his stock account." The suit adds that Shamash "alienat[ed]" Aminipour until she gave him $155,000 "to save her marriage and restore order in the marital home." Aminipour says Chase violated non-disclosure laws and wants the bank to pay her the $155K plus legal fees.