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Parent ignores trespass orders arrested at school

Parent ignores trespass orders, arrested at Grayson school

 

D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Starling Elementary School parent was arrested on several charges, including felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer and criminal trespass, after she came to see her child’s Field Day competition, ignoring school edicts to stay off campus.

 
Patricia Swilley
 
Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office Patricia Swilley
 
Patricia Swilley was sent criminal trespass warnings on May 10 and 13 informing her not to come to the Grayson school because she had repeatedly violated visitation rules, according to Gwinnett school officials.

“The school had had multiple issues with her in terms of not following directions,” said Sloan Roach, Gwinnett Schools spokeswoman. “The parent has a history of disrupting the school. She would attempt to enter the building without signing in. The principal has attempted to address this with this parent throughout this year.’’

A mugshot of Swilley showed her with a bloodied lip. Swilley's husband, who wouldn't identify himself when reached at home, said the family had no comment. 

Roach said arrests and trespass warnings are rare at Gwinnett Schools. Last fall, however, a Lawrenceville mom was issued a similar warning after she aggressively advocated for her Mason Elementary student with disabilities and violated school rules.

Swilley faces charges for criminal trespass, remaining on school property without cause, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and disruption of a public school, according to Gwinnett's Roach.

Swilley had appealed to Gwinnett school board members that she needed help during public comment at the monthly board meeting. She said her daughter was having trouble at Starling. Swilley also said she had had problems with the staff, but still wanted to attend school events.

On Wednesday, Swilley dropped off her daughter at school and was told she could not be on campus, but the woman returned at 9 a.m. and went to Field Day anyway, Roach said.

“Both the principal and police … provided multiple opportunities for her to leave without incident and she refused,” Roach said. “When a police officer asks you to do something, you need to do it.”

A scuffle ensued as police tried to arrest Swilley, and the woman and officers who tried to arrest her received minor injuries, Roach said.

“She resisted arrest,” Roach said. “She was transported to jail.”

Swilley later was released on a $9,600 bond, Gwinnett County Detention Center officials said late Wednesday.

Starling Principal Donna Ledford sent out a note to inform other parents of the public Field Day incident.

In her statement, Ledford said, "I am dismayed that students and parents had to witness this parent's behavior, her disregard for school officials and law enforcement officers, and her subsequent arrest. Both I and the police officers attempted to handle this situation in a manner that would have allowed this parent to leave the school on her own."

Entry #4,697

Woman calls 911 to report fake mugging so she could party

Burlington police investigate a mugging that wasn't

 

6:05 AM, May. 25, 2011
 

A woman called 911 Saturday and lied about being mugged to draw Burlington police away from a friend’s party, according to police.

Christina Macaulay, 21, made the false report at about 1:30 a.m., while Officer Kimberly Edwards was issuing Macaulay’s friend a ticket for unreasonable noise at a party on North Union Street, police said.

Several officers responded to the intersection of North Street and North Union Street — where Macaulay said she had been mugged — found no one and presumed Macaulay may “have been incapacitated or even abducted by her so-called attacker,” police said in a prepared statement.

Police said when they located Macaulay an hour later, she claimed a man stole her purse and dropped it when she gave chase. When interviewed later by investigators, Macaulay said she lied about the mugging, police said.

Macaulay pleaded not guilty to one count of obstruction of justice during her arraignment Tuesday in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington.

Her friend, Benjamin Eddington, 22, of Waltham received a ticket for unreasonable noise.

Edwards responded to the party after someone called police to report loud music coming from the North Union Street residence.

Christina Macaulay, 21, of Burlington pleaded not guilty to an obstruction of justice charge at Vermont Superior Court in Burlington on Tuesday.

 

Christina Macaulay, 21, of Burlington pleaded not guilty to an obstruction of justice charge at Vermont Superior Court in Burlington on Tuesday. / EMILY McMANAMY, Free Press

Entry #4,696

Truck driver nearly explodes when air hose lodges in his...

New Zealand truck driver Steven McCormack nearly pops after getting air hose lodged in buttocks

Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, May 25th 2011, 7:19 AM

Truck driver Steve McCormack says he could do nothing after the freak accident but lay there while his body blew up 'like a balloon.'
 
Samantha Motion/AP
 
Truck driver Steve McCormack says he could do nothing after the freak accident but lay there while his body blew up 'like a balloon.'
 
A truck driver in New Zealand nearly popped after an air hose accidently got lodged in his buttocks.

Steven McCormack says he is "lucky to be alive" after the bizarre accident on Saturday landed him in intensive care at a hospital in Whakatane, on the North Island's east coast.

"I felt the air rush into my body and I felt like I was going to explode," he told 3News in New Zealand on Tuesday.

The 48-year-old was at Waiotahi Contractors where he worked, standing on the rigging between his truck and the trailer when he slipped and fell.

He landed on the hose connected to the semi's airbrakes and broke it. The nozzle pierced his left buttocks and air from the tanks pumped into his body at 100 pounds per square inch.

"I was blowing up like a football," he said. "I had no choice but just to lay there, blowing up like a balloon."

The air separated his fat from his muscles, doctors said. It quickly filled his body, inflating his leg, chest and face. The pressure also caused his lungs to fill with fluid and compressed his heart.

"He became more and more distressed, and his whole body... started to swell," said Robbie Petersen, McCormack's boss.

McCormack screamed for help, and co-workers removed him from the nozzle after nearly half of the air in the tank had been pumped into him.

Emergency personnel arrived nearly an hour later, but his condition made helping him difficult.

"They went to put a drip in me, but when they put the needle in, [the air] spit the needle out," he said.

The freak accident left McCormack's skin crackling with air bubbles. Although doctors were able to extract the excess fluids, the truck driver was forced to release the air in the only way possible.

"You can't turn a tap on and let it out," he told 3News. "You just have to burp it out, or fart it out."

McCormack as since recovered, but it took nearly three days for him to return to his normal size.

Entry #4,695

Disabled man crawls from jail after wheelchair is lost

Disabled man crawls from jail after his wheelchair is lost

 
Carla Castaño
Published: 7:25
Updated: 4:16 pm

 

Multnomah County deputies are investigating the case of a disabled inmate who wound up crawling from the downtown Portland jail when he was released because his wheelchair could not be found.

Portland police arrested 37-year-old Scott Hamilton on Sunday evening for sitting--drinking a beer on public property. He was wanted on an earlier arrest warrant for the same offense, so officers took him into custody, giving him a receipt for the wheelchair.

Hamilton is missing a leg after a car accident. He said he is also a Navy war veteran.

When he was released early Monday, his wheelchair was nowhere to be found. The Oregonian says Hamilton wound up scooting on his rear out through the jail lobby doors.

Wednesday aftrnoon, Hamilton was personally picked up by sheriff's deputies and reunited with his wheelchair.  Hamilton says he deserves at least an apology and credit for time served.

Sheriff's chief deputy of corrections Mike Shults says it's not common practice for someone to crawl out of their custody.

Police spokesman Pete Simpson says the wheelchair was eventually located at the police property warehouse.

LINK TO PHOTO: 

http://www.koinlocal6.com/mostpopular/story/Disabled-man-crawls-from-jail-after-his/fT56ssC6ikWSA4-h6fGBpw.cspx

Entry #4,693

Wanted man caught when ceiling caves in

Wanted man caught when ceiling caves in

Athens Banner-Herald

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

 

An Athens man who hid in an attic to avoid officers with a warrant for his arrest literally fell into their arms when the ceiling collapsed early Monday morning, Athens-Clarke police said.

Officers went to a home in the 100 block of Martin Court about 1:40 a.m. on information that 41-year-old James Vernard Smith was there, police said. A woman who answered the door at first denied Smith was there, but said he was in the attic after a witness reported seeing him smoking a cigarette on the back porch just before officers arrived.

The officers climbed up into the attic to get Smith, but he kept scuttling away until he was cornered, then broke out a roof vent to escape, according to police.

An officer subdued Smith by pepper-spraying him, and he was crawling toward the officers when the plasterboard below him gave way, and he fell partially through the ceiling. Officers helped lower Smith the ground and arrested him, police said.

Smith was charged with burglary, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, failure to appear in court, several motor vehicle violations and two counts of violating probation.

Entry #4,691

Report Finds Obama Policies to Blame for High Energy Prices

Report Finds Obama Policies to Blame for High Energy Prices

May 23, 2011 7:10 P.M.
Andre Stiles          National Review On Line                                                                       
 

A new report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform details a disturbing “pattern of evidence” indicating that not only are the Obama administration’s energy policies responsible for higher oil and gasprices, but that the administration’s energy policy, in fact, is higher gas prices. 

The report’s findings are the result of an extensive committee review of public records, policy analysis, statements and e-mails from administration officials, and reveal “a pattern of actions [that] shows the Administration is, in fact, pursuing an agenda to raise the price Americans pay for energy,” according to a copy of the report obtained by National Review Online.

“What President Obama failed to accomplish through the so-called ‘cap and trade’ program, his administration is attempting to accomplish through regulatory roadblocks, energy tax increases, and other targeted efforts to prohibit development of domestic energy resources,” the report concludes.

Among the report’s key findings:

  • Key administration officials, including President Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu have gone on record in support of higher energy prices as a means to promote “green” technology by making it more economically viable. The failed “cap and trade” legislation is a prime example of this approach. “The result of this government action is less production, higher costs for producers, and more expensive energy,” the reports states.
  • The United States currently boasts the largest domestic energy resources on earth — “greater than Saudi Arabia, China and Canada combined.” Newtechnology has allowed for greater access to these resources — with the potential to increase domestic production by up to 40 percent — but government regulations threaten to severely limit or restrict development.
  • Despite the fact that the United States relies on carbon-based fuels for more than 80 percent of its energy needs, the Obama administration has been “aggressively suppressing” the utilization of these fuels.
  • Current administration policies have limited the domestic production of oil by restricting access to resources located along the outer continental shelf. Many of these restrictions were put in place before the disastrous Gulf oil spill.
  • Government agencies have stepped up efforts to regulate energy production indirectly through environmental restrictions, for example, by placing on the Endangered Species list certain animals that live in resource rich habitats, or “targeting independent energy producers for environmental concerns not related to their operations.”
  • President Obama’s proposal to increase taxes on the energy industry (and transfer some of the money to “green” energy) will severely impact the independent operators responsible for 95 percent of domestic oil and gas production. The proposed tax hikes would cost these firms a combined $12 billion in the first year alone.
  • Independent operators are responsible for 95 percent of domestic oil and gas wells and they currently invest 150% of their domestic cash flow back into future projects development. Tax increases proposed by President Obama, some of which would be transferred to “green” energy producers, would cost energy producing firms a combined $12 billion in the first year.
  • Many of the “green” energy sources promoted by the administration “create unintended environmental, security and economic consequences,” for example, by increasing the demand for Chinese “rare earth” materials, which subsequently boosts harmful coal production because that’s where more than two-thirds of China’s energy comes from.

According to the report, the administration’s “concerted campaign” to keep energy prices high extends “across government agencies” and constitutes a complete disregard for governmental transparency, much less the pocketbooks of all of those affected by the increased cost of energy. “An effort to intentionally raise the costs of traditional energy sources is a dangerous strategy that will harm economic recovery and job growth,” the report asserts. “If past statements of key administration officials are indeed reflections of the policies they are pursuing, this strategy is playing a quiet but significant role in the higher energy prices Americans are currently paying.”

The committee is releasing the report in conjunction with a hearing Tuesday morning titled “Pain at the Pump: Policies that Suppress Domestic Production of Oil and Gas.” Members will hear testimony from Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and David Hayes, Deputy Secretary at the Department of the Interior. The hearing, designed to examine the harmful effects of government regulation on economic productivity, is part of the House Republican majority’s recent efforts to promote the “growth” portion of its “cut and grow” agenda.
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