Robbery suspect turns out to be police applicant

7:50 p.m. February 27, 2009

February 26, 2009

A New York City firefighter has been arrested on charges that he was growing more than 100 pounds of marijuana in the basement of a home in Queens, according to court records.

The firefighter, Patrick Murray, 33, was arraigned Wednesday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on charges of manufacturing and possessing a controlled substance with the intent to distribute, according to Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District. Investigators said that Firefighter Murray belonged to a larger drug-trafficking ring.

Firefighter Murray did not enter a plea and was released on $250,000 bond, Mr. Nardoza said. If convicted, he faces 5 to 40 years in prison.

Firefighter Murray came under scrutiny during a broader investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

For about a year, the agency has been investigating a narcotics trafficking organization that grows marijuana in houses in Queens and sells it throughout the New York region, according to a complaint filed in court.

On Tuesday, the complaint said, federal investigators received a tip that Firefighter Murray was taking high-intensity discharge lights from so-called grow houses in Queens and loading them into a rented truck. The lights are used to grow marijuana indoors, the complaint said.

The tip led investigators to 88-23 237th Street, in Queens Village, the complaint said. There, they found Firefighter Murray sitting in a parked truck in the driveway, and he told investigators he was just making a U-turn, the complaint said.

Investigators searched the house and found a room in the basement with about 100 marijuana plants, the complaint said. The investigators recovered keys from Firefighter Murray that unlocked doors to the house and the room in the basement where the plants were found, the complaint said. It did not say who owned the house.

The agent investigating the house estimated the value of the marijuana found in the basement at $500,000.

Firefighter Murray, a five-year veteran of the department, has been suspended without pay, said James Long, a department spokesman. Firefighter Murray was based at Engine Company 292 in Woodside, Queens, Mr. Long said.

      LAPD probes drug sting run by school

Three Porter Middle School administrators were removed from the Granada Hills campus after L.A. Unified learned they had asked a student to buy pot from another student.

Jason Song
February 26, 2009

Porter Middle School administrators believed a boy was dealing pot on campus. So they allegedly sent a student to buy some.

The sting worked -- to a point. The student successfully bought drugs and the administrators at the Granada Hills campus reported the incident to authorities.

But although Los Angeles Police Department officers are investigating the suspected marijuana dealer, they also are scrutinizing the three administrators who allegedly orchestrated the buy, said Michel Moore, an LAPD deputy chief, on Wednesday.

It is a felony to ask a minor to buy drugs.

The administrators have also been reassigned by the Los Angeles Unified School District to positions away from the Granada Hills campus, which was named a California Distinguished School in 2007, while the investigation is ongoing. In a letter to parents, Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said the school's principal, an assistant principal and dean had been removed.

Nobody has been arrested in the case, although the investigation is ongoing. The student who allegedly bought the drugs is not under criminal investigation, Moore said.

"We wouldn't expect an administrator to act this way with a student," he said.

A student told administrators Feb. 18 that a boy was selling marijuana on campus, according to police.

Three administrators, without consulting police or other Porter officials, then asked a student to purchase some drugs. Moore declined to say the amount of marijuana the student bought or how much he paid for it.

After the sting was completed, school officials then reported the incident to the district's Police Department, which investigated the incident.

Once L.A. Unified officials realized that a student had been involved in the drug buy, they immediately removed the administrators from the campus.

City police began investigating the incident Monday.

The district will pursue all legal measures against the administrators if the allegations are true, said David Holmquist, the district's chief operating officer, who said he had never heard of a similar situation.

"There is nothing more important to us than the safety of our students," he said.

District officials also said Wednesday that four male Taft High School students have been suspended for their alleged hazing of other students in the locker room shower late last month.

District officials reassigned six administrators Tuesday for possibly not reporting the incident in a timely manner.

Police say the victims were allegedly held down by other students and assaulted. Investigators are still trying to determine whether they were injured.

District sources said some of the alleged suspects were members of the boys volleyball team.

Investigators also believe that the hazing in Woodland Hills might be part of a series of similar incidents, Moore said.

"Every time we pull one layer back, we find another layer," he said.

The incident is similar to others in Ventura and Orange counties during the last dozen years in which student athletes were hazed as part of initiations.

Published: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 3:52 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 3:52 p.m.

The identity of man found dead inside a car in College Park on Monday afternoon has been confirmed as that of a Gainesville engineer missing since Feb. 11.

 AARON DAYE/The Gainesville Sun

 

Now city employees are answering questions about why the man's car was ticketed seven times by city employees, beginning the day after he was last seen alive.

Gainesville police said that a preliminary autopsy on the body found in the backseat of the 2001 silver BMW 330i confirmed that it was John Waldo, 42, an engineer at AvMed, who was last seen alive Feb. 11 at Calico Jack's Oyster Bar, 3502 SW 2nd Ave., in Gainesville.

"But the autopsy was inconclusive — there was no obvious cause of death," said Gainesville Police spokesman Keith Kameg. Investigators are awaiting toxicology results, which may take up to six weeks, before they will likely narrow their focus in trying to determine the cause of Waldo's death.

At 4 p.m. Monday, a resident of College Park called police about a car that had been parked in the 1900 block of NW 2nd Avenue for several days and had been ticketed seven times by city employees.

Police detective Bennie Smith said Waldo was seated face-forward on the passenger side of the back seat, was fully clothed and had the car's ignition key in his possession when he was found. A loaded pistol was found inside the trunk of the car.

"We don't expect the cause of death to be foul play," Smith told The Sun on Wednesday afternoon.

City records show a ticket officer issued seven tickets to Waldo's BMW, with the first ticket being issued Feb. 12, the day after Waldo was last seen alive.

According to Kameg, Smith said the reason the ticket officers apparently did not notice someone slumped over in the BMW may have been because the window tint on the car was illegally dark.

"Even the person who called this in was not real sure if they had seen him clearly," said Kameg.

Bob Woods, spokesman for the city of Gainesville, said that the city's ticket officers are not trained police officers but work out of the city's public works department. The police department had been charged with enforcing parking in the city until January 2008, when the duty was assigned to public works.

Woods said that after three parking tickets are issued, a car is flagged for additional enforcement such as booting or towing, However, Woods said it could take several days for the system to register the tickets, which was apparently the case for Waldo's BMW.

According to Woods, the city will now make a point of alerting ticket officers about specific vehicles that police are looking for.

A 19-year-old Mesa father was arrested after he allegedly turned on the clothes dryer his year-old son was playing in, police said Thursday.

Mesa Police responded to a home in the 10900 block of East Flossmoor Avenue about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday after family members reported that Jose L. Rocha closed the dryer door and turned it on, causing the toddler to tumble in the machine. The toddler received a large bruise on his back, according to police reports.

Rocha and his girlfriend, the child's mother, fled before police arrived but later returned.

 

The incident allegedly began when the child was sitting in the dryer and Rocha and the child's mother wanted to take a picture.

The mother told police she heard the dryer turn on and the child scream as she was grabbing the camera. Another family member told police she had witnessed Rocha remove the child from the dryer after hearing the dryer turn on and the child scream.

Police said Rocha denied shutting the dryer door. Instead, he told police he spun the dryer with his hands, causing the child to land on his back and bruise.

The child was treated at the scene and remains in the custody of his mother, said Steve Berry, Media Relations Detective for the Mesa Police Department.

Rocha was arrested on two outstanding warrants and booked into jail on suspicion of child abuse.

 

Police apparently disagreed and arrested him about 3:50 a.m. Monday after pulling packages of the candy known for melting in your mouth, not in your hands, from his pockets at the Pilot truck stop in the 7100 block of Okeechobee Road, according to a recently released arrest affidavit.

It wasn’t the first time Ambrose, 31, had been arrested this month — on Saturday he created a “spectacle” at a Super 8 Motel and was arrested and charged with disorderly intoxication and causing a public disturbance, police said.

In the most recent case, in addition to the three packs of peanut M&Ms, Ambrose reportedly absconded with two black T-shirts, a 20-ounce Bud Light and single packages each of Circus Peanuts candy, chewing tobacco, Wonka Nerds candy, Planters cashews, Reese’s Pieces and Sour Patch candy. Also allegedly taken were two each of large Snickers candy bars and beef jerky packages.

An officer approached Ambrose at the cashier counter, and initially he denied taking anything.

“This officer could clearly see the pocket on the right side of the defendant’s pants were bulging and M&Ms packages could be seen,” the affidavit states. “This officer started removing the candy from his pocket and (another officer) started removing more candy and a T-shirt from his left pockets.”

Ambrose said he bought everything but had no receipt. A clerk and a supervisor said they’d rung up no purchases for Ambrose, who appeared to have been drinking. Ambrose, listed as homeless in Fort Pierce, faces a retail theft charge.

“While in the patrol vehicle the defendant was screaming out the window that he had served in the military over in Iraq so he could steal all the M&M’s he wanted,” the affidavit states.

Ambrose’s claim of military service could not be immediately verified. He was held Wednesday in the St. Lucie County jail on $5,000 bail, a jail official said.

In the earlier case, Ambrose had “thrown himself onto the ground and was curled up to a black handbag,” at the motel when officers arrived, according to a police report.

Officers noticed a strong odor of alcohol coming from Ambrose. He said “he had nowhere to go and he can’t go back to his home state because they have methamphetamine.” Ambrose then stated that Fort Pierce “only had crack,” which keeps him high for a little while and was “safer for him.”

Officers placed him under arrest for disorderly intoxication after a fifth warning. He was released Sunday on $250 bail. Ambrose also was arrested in April on charges including disorderly intoxication, simple assault and panhandling, a jail official said.

Had Diego Jose Feliciano been satisfied with merely flipping off a motorist on Florida;a Turnpike Friday morning, it's possible he could still be a free man..

Instead, he allegedly waved a revolver at the driver who, unlucky for him, happened to be a Miami police officer. The Hollywood man wound up on his knees on the highway with his hands behind his head as a Miramar police officer placed him under arrest.

Feliciano, 56, was charged with aggravated assault, according to Miami police.

His excuse, according to police: He said he ``was under a lot of stress because his father died yesterday and was going to be buried tomorrow at 11 a.m.''

According to an arrest affidavit, Feliciano was driving a 2002 Ford pickup north on the turnpike at about 7:40 a.m. when he began to yell and make obscene gestures toward Miami Officer Joseph Amaya, who was driving to a shooting range in Medley.

Amaya, who was in an unmarked unit, said he noticed Feliciano after changing lanes near Northwest 41st Street in order to move into a SunPass lane. ''As I was next to the defendant's vehicle, he put his window down, leaned his torso out of the window [while yelling] and proceeded to show me his left middle finger,'' Amaya wrote in the report.

Amaya said Feliciano then grabbed a revolver and held it up in his right hand so that he could see the gun. Amaya then called 911 and backed off, said Officer Jeff Giordano, a Miami police spokesman.

The Florida Highway Patrol and Miami-Dade County police were notified.

Feliciano was pulled over near Northwest 52nd Avenue in Miramar, where he was arrested by Miramar police.

A loaded Colt .32 was found in his truck.

Feliciano was being held Friday in Broward County's main jail. He was to be transferred to Miami-Dade.

Miami Herald staff writer Jennifer Lebovich contributed to this report.

 

What is girl holding on to? [PIC]

Lisa Rogers
Gadsden Times

Staff Writer

Published: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 10:02 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 10:03 a.m.

A Gadsden funeral home owner has been charged with abuse of a corpse after a decomposing body was found in the back of a hearse Tuesday night.

Harold Watson, Sr., 76, owner of Watson and Sons Funeral Home was taken into custody Tuesday night and charged this morning with the felony, Gadsden Police Sgt. Mark Henderson said.

Forensic tests are expected to confirm the identity of the body found in the back of Watson’s hearse, parked on his property with several other junk vehicles in a lot of East Broad Street.

The body is believed to be that of a 52-year-old woman who died of natural causes on Nov. 13, 2007, Etowah County Coroner Michael Gladden said.

Gadsden police officers were called to investigate a suspicious odor coming from the hearse just before 5 p.m. The parking lot is about a block from the intersection of Hood Avenue and East Broad Street and a couple of miles from Watson’s Funeral Home on West Meighan Boulevard.

The body was in a shipping container, common in the funeral industry, he said. A death certificate for the woman states she was cremated on Nov. 20, 2007.

After the woman’s death, her family requested that she be cremated, but never signed a form authorizing Watson to have her cremated, and did not pay, Henderson said. Watson kept her body at the funeral home at the intersection of Sixth Street and West Meighan Boulevard.

“They were supposed to come back but never did,” Henderson said. “He just kept her there, thinking they might.”

Henderson said Watson told police that the odor became so bad a few weeks ago that he decided to move the body to another location.

“He put her in the hearse and took it over to this property,” Henderson said.

The hearse was parked against an abandoned building.

After someone noticed the odor coming from the hearse, they saw the shipping box and called police.

"If this who we think it is, we know why she died," Gladden said. "If it's not her, then we'll have an autopsy."

The woman's body will be transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences lab in Huntsville today for tests to determine her identity.

Jailed: Lisa Walker was sent to prison for the second time after failing to ensure her daughter went to school

Stuart, Fla (AP)  A uspected robber in his physical prime thought he saw an easy target outside a Stuart Best Buy. But police said that the 75-year-old victim chased down 29-year-old man, who had just snatched the victim's brand new laptop computer and printer on Sunday.

The victim told police he was waiting in front of the store for his wife to pick him up when the man grabbed the packages and ran.

Authorities said the suspect made it about 8 feet before the man grabbed him. Moments later, an off-duty deputy saw what was happening and joined the struggle.

The man was charged with robbery by sudden snatching and battery on a person over age 65. He was being held on $12,500 bail.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Police said a 58-year-old man stabbed his teenage son after he refused to take off his hat at church earlier in the day. The father and his 19-year-old son got into an argument on Sunday afternoon. That's when police said the father went to a car, got a knife and stabbed his son in the left buttock and fled.

The son was taken to University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment. The father's name was withheld pending his arrest.

Paul Liberatore

Bay Area News Group

02/23/2009

05:54:46 PM PST

A Danville woman won a $2 million house in Marin County with a raffle ticket she bought as an anniversary gift for her husband, who had just been laid off from his job.

"I'm floored," said Susan Wells, who hadn't told her husband she had purchased the ticket. "I can't even believe this has happened. Needless to say, my husband is very surprised."

On Wednesday, Brad Wells, who is in his early 50s, was laid off from his job as a sales executive for a high-tech Silicon Valley electronics company. Susan Wells also is unemployed.

"I got laid off on Wednesday and the company went bankrupt on Friday," he said. "It's been a really rough ride for the last year. This gives us an unbelievable lift."

Susan Wells said that she bought the raffle ticket on a whim to secretly celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary.

The couple, who do not have children, own their home in Danville and said they would have to think about whether to take the Marin house or the alternative prize, about $1.2 million in cash.

"We're discussing that right now," she said. "We're still trying to make that decision."

After getting the winning phone call Saturday, Brad Wells immediately went to the Community Action Marin Web site to look at the 4,400-square-foot home on a hilltop in San Rafael.

"The views are spectacular," he said. "We really love the house. But the cash sounds good, too."

They planned to celebrate by having dinner with their neighbors.

 

Community Action Marin netted about $1.3 million from the raffle, the second year it has held the event, down from $2 million last year, according to Russ Hamel, Community Action Marin's director of development.

Incorporated in 1966 as the county's official antipoverty agency, nonprofit Community Action Marin is now Marin's largest private social services organization. More than 4,000 people benefit from its services every day.

In the current recession, however, Hamel said the agency has seen a 25 percent to 30 percent increase in demand for its services.

"These are from middle-class people who have lost their jobs," he said. "Like the people who won the house."

Man Loses Job Then Wins This $2 Million House [PICS] (nbcbayarea.com)