Records reveal problems in L.A. County juvenile probation office

At least 11 officers responsible for supervising youths in the juvenile justice system have been convicted of crimes or disciplined for inappropriate conduct involving probationers, a Times investigation finds.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Richard Winton

February 21, 2010

At least 11 Los Angeles County juvenile probation officers have been convicted of crimes or disciplined in recent years for inappropriate conduct involving current or former probationers, including several cases of molesting or beating youths in their care, a Times investigation has found.

Additionally, two other officers are the focus of internal affairs investigations for allegedly having sex with probationers.

The Times identified the cases through court documents, law enforcement records and department sources. Probation officials said they were prohibited by law from discussing the details of officers' misconduct.

Among the incidents:

* A probation officer had sex with three youths in the detention hall where she worked -- in laundry, supply and interview rooms. She was sentenced last year to four years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of felony sexual abuse.

* A probation officer caught on tape beating a youth in a juvenile hall recreation room was convicted last year of battery and sentenced to 24 months' probation.

* A probation officer was sentenced to a year in jail last year for directing five teenagers under her care to beat another youngster who she mistakenly believed had stolen her cellphone.

Los Angeles County probation officers are responsible for protecting 3,000 youths in 21 halls and camps, one of the nation's largest juvenile justice systems.

The department, with an annual budget of about $700 million, has been the subject of federal investigations in recent years for failing to prevent, report and document child abuse.

The Times examined records from the last four years -- a period during which county officials hired Robert Taylor to head the agency with the mandate of reforming the department, including providing better oversight of officers. At the time he took over, the department was struggling with violence in its halls and camps and persistent criticism that it was doing little to help the juvenile offenders in its care.

Probation officials have sustained 102 allegations of officer misconduct involving youths at the county's halls and camps over the last three years, according to a department source who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release the information publicly. The source said many of the sustained cases involved complaints of excessive force. Department officials did not disclose how many officers were involved in misconduct or the extent of any discipline.

Taylor retired Feb. 5. Former Ventura County probation chief Cal Remington was appointed as acting chief to assess the department before the new chief, Alameda County probation chief Donald H. Blevins, takes over April 19.

During his tenure, Taylor said he tried to be more proactive than his predecessors, coordinating undercover internal investigations with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

For example, he said a probation sting with sheriff's deputies at Central Juvenile Hall in 2008 led to the arrest of a probation officer suspected of dealing marijuana to youths. The officer was fired, but has not been criminally charged, according to county officials.

"Unfortunately, we have people who fail to meet expectations and when they do, we deal with them with a disciplinary system that is swift and sure and produces the desired outcome," Taylor said. He said he did not consider the current personnel problems any worse than what other large law enforcement agencies face.

Taylor acknowledged at least one effort to monitor staff and probationers has fallen short: Many of the more than 600 security cameras at county detention halls and camps are broken. Last month, county supervisors approved spending $1.2 million to determine how best to replace some cameras and other security equipment at a juvenile camp and three halls.

Many critics say poor oversight has hampered the department's efforts to identify abusive staff.

Two years ago, federal investigators found that the department failed to investigate and document officer abuses, including excessive use of force on probationers.

The department has eight internal affairs investigators to review hundreds of complaints leveled against 6,200 probation officers each year, including about 2,900 sworn officers working with juveniles. By contrast, the Los Angeles Police Department has 271 internal affairs investigators for 9,900 sworn officers; the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has about 30 internal affairs investigators for about 10,000 sworn officers.

A 15-member probation commission appointed by county supervisors is supposed to monitor the department and advise the probation chief. Commissioners can ask the probation chief to investigate alleged misconduct, and if probation officials fail to take action, they can bring complaints to county supervisors. But they rarely do and have never forced the department to disclose probation personnel records, said commission President Don Meredith, a retired Glendale police lieutenant.

"When we bring it up, they say they can't discuss it with us because it's internal matters, confidential," Commissioner Jo Kaplan said of the alleged misconduct. "We have no oversight."

Teachers who work at probation camps and halls are required by law to report suspected abuse but often don't because they are afraid of the consequences, said Mark Lewis, president of the teachers union, the Los Angeles County Education Assn. "There is this belief that if I report something or file a child abuse report against a probation officer, that probation is not going to come when I need them . . . or they're going to set me up," Lewis said. "So there is a tendency not to report."

Even if someone wanted to report misconduct, they may have found it difficult: The phone number on websites and signs posted in the halls and camps for the Probation Department's ombudsman was inoperable until three weeks ago, when a spokeswoman responding to calls from The Times said an "urgent work order" had been submitted to repair it.

::

Former Probation Officer Kimberly Hald, 37, describes herself as a "soccer mom" who made some bad decisions during a difficult time in her life. Prosecutors say she's a predator who had sex with three teenage boys -- ages 16 to 18 -- at a detention hall for more than a year.

Starting in August 2006, Hald had sexual encounters with the teenagers at Central Juvenile Hall where she worked as a probation officer, according to court records. She bought her victims' silence with treats, including hall passes, food from home and cellphone access, the records show.

Hald became infatuated with the probationers, prosecutors said, sending them letters with provocative photos of herself. She even got a tattoo with the initials of one of the youths.

Hald was caught when one of the youths resisted her advances in a hallway, a scuffle ensued, and he reported her, according to prosecutors. Even after she was arrested and suspended from her probation job, Hald continued to visit the youth at the jail and gave him money. She was later convicted of sexual abuse and sentenced to four years in prison.

Taylor said it would have been difficult to catch Hald because she was well-educated and showed no signs of misconduct. "She was a married mother of three children with advanced college degrees," he said.

Hald declined to be interviewed. But in a letter sent from prison in response to an inquiry from The Times, she blamed her problems on a troubled marriage and expressed remorse. "I did not take the probation job seriously," she wrote.

"I was vulnerable due to a very bad domestic violence situation, and I let myself be carried away by the endless compliments and flattery of the young men," Hald wrote. "Bottom line, I had a consensual relationship with a young man who was 17 and I stupidly thought I was in love with. Everything else I did was completely inappropriate, unethical and extremely unprofessional."

::

Ademole Turner's career as a probation officer ended when a surveillance camera captured him hitting a boy in the face.

Video footage from the July 20, 2007, encounter in the recreation room at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall shows the former college football star hitting a 16-year-old boy in the face, throwing him to the floor and kicking him at least once, prosecutors said.

The confrontation began when the boy approached another youth and asked about his gang affiliation, authorities said. Turner, 32, immediately interceded and struck the teenager. The youth had a bloody nose and bruised face, prosecutors said.

Downey police called to investigate Turner screened the tape and gave it to prosecutors, who charged Turner with assault by an officer, assault likely to cause great bodily injury, child abuse, corporal injury to a child and attempting to dissuade a witness from reporting.

Turner pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery last year as part of a plea deal. He was sentenced to 24 months' probation and 50 hours' community service. A father of three, he quit his probation job and was teaching math and coaching football at a high school in Gardena.

Turner's attorney, Charles J. McLurkin, said there were "extenuating circumstances" that led to the beating, noting that his client was not properly trained to supervise violent youths.

"This is an issue of the training the county did not provide," McLurkin said.

Probation Department spokeswoman Kerri Webb disputed that allegation, saying that all probation officials are trained consistent with state standards.

::

When Probation Officer Diane Buchanan couldn't find her cellphone, she was convinced one of the boys she supervised at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar had stolen it, prosecutors said.

Court records tell how Buchanan, 39, first strip-searched the youths. Failing to find the phone, she questioned them.

Racial tensions had been simmering for weeks between black and Latino youths at the facility, the youths testified. One of the black youths alleged that a Latino detainee, Miguel Jimenez, had stolen the phone and flushed it down a toilet.

Buchanan believed him and started planning her revenge, prosecutors said.

On her way to Jimenez's cell, she approached a group of youths and told them she would unlock Jimenez's cell, then let them run past her to beat him up, according to court testimony.

"She told us to go in there and get him for the phone," one of the youths told investigators. "If I didn't do it, I was going to be with him."

Five youths attacked Jimenez, beating and kicking him as he lay on the floor. Jimenez, then 17, was in detention for vandalism. He cowered as the youths laughed and beat him, according to court records. He said Buchanan, who he called "Miss B," refused to intervene.

Buchanan left after a few minutes, locking the door and leaving Jimenez with numerous bumps and scrapes. He was not allowed to see a doctor until the next day, when another probation officer noticed his injuries and persuaded him to report the attack.

Buchanan later found her cellphone -- in the parking lot. A grand jury charged Buchanan with child abuse. In May, she was convicted and sentenced to a year in jail.

Jimenez was being held at North County jail last week on assault charges and could not be reached for comment. But his brother Jorge Jimenez, 26, of Los Angeles said Jimenez was still upset about the beating.

"He feels betrayed," Jorge Jimenez said. "He was at a place where he was supposed to be rehabilitated, and instead this happened."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-probation21-2010feb21,0,7876032,print.story

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Supreme Court to consider another case on racial bias in hiring

Chicago firefighters say they were illegally discriminated against through test scores. A lawyer calls it the flip side to last year's case involving white firefighters in New Haven, Conn.

By David G. Savage

February 20, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The controversy over racial bias, testing and firefighters that blew up at both the Supreme Court and the Senate last year returns Monday, this time as the justices decide whether blacks who were not hired in Chicago because of their test scores are due damages for years of lost wages.

The potentially $100-million civil rights case comes before a high court that has already shown its skepticism toward such claims.

Last year, the justices ruled for white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were victims of illegal racial discrimination when the city threw out the results of a promotion test. The whites had earned high scores and would have gotten nearly all the promotions. City officials dropped the test results because they feared being sued by blacks who were denied promotions.

By contrast, the city of Chicago was sued for illegal discrimination by more than 6,000 African Americans who earned "qualified" scores on an entry-level test given by the Fire Department, but who lost out to mostly white applicants who had higher, "well qualified" scores.

"This case is the flip side of Ricci," said Benna Solomon, deputy corporation counsel for Chicago, referring to the New Haven case. "It illustrates the tension that public employers face."

The outcome of the Chicago case may well turn on whether the lawyers for the black applicants waited a few months too long to file their suit. It's likely to have a national impact, however, because most state and city agencies are required by law to use competitive tests for hiring.

It began in 1995 when 26,000 applicants jammed into Chicago's United Center sports arena to take an entry-level, paper-and-pencil test for jobs in the Fire Department. Only those who scored 89 or above were considered "well qualified" for the jobs, the city said in January 1996. Assuming they passed a physical and medical test, these top scorers stood a good chance of being hired over the next eight years.

About 76% of those in the "well qualified" group were white -- 11.5% were black even though there were only slightly more whites than blacks taking the test. Mayor Richard M. Daley called the results "disappointing." Those who scored between 65 and 88 were classified as "qualified" but were told they were unlikely to be hired.

In 1997 a group of "qualified" blacks sued, alleging racial discrimination. They relied on a part of the Civil Rights Act that says job standards, including tests, are illegal if they unfairly screen out applicants because of their race or gender.

Employers can defend themselves only if they can prove the tests were job-related and were a "business necessity." In last year's ruling, the Supreme Court's conservative bloc questioned these bias claims that rely on racial statistics.

Justice Anthony Kennedy said the suits can "amount to a sort of racial preference" if employers are forced to hire based on race rather than on "equal opportunity regardless of race." The New Haven decision became the central controversy of Justice Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings in the Senate because as a lower court judge, she had ruled against the white firefighters.

Prior to the Supreme Court's opinion, U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall ruled for the black applicants in Chicago. She said the city had failed to prove that those who scored at least 89 were more qualified than those whose scores were in the 70s or lower 80s. The "cutoff score of 89 is statistically meaningless," she said.

The city's lawyers appealed, but only to argue that the black applicants waited too long to sue. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and threw out the blacks' suit in 2008, ruling that they had missed the 300-day deadline for filing claims of job discrimination. The plaintiffs sued more than a year after the results were announced.

Last year, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund appealed to the Supreme Court on behalf of the black applicants, and it won the support of the Obama administration.

Shortly after ruling for white firefighters in New Haven, the high court voted to hear the case of the black applicants from Chicago.

The justices could rule narrowly on the deadlines, or more broadly on bias claims based on test scores.

The city also took a lesson from the legal fight. When it announced a new test for firefighters in 2006, it adopted a pass-fail approach. All those who had a passing score could become firefighters.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-court-firefighters21-2010feb21,0,3900070,print.story

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Authorities searching for family missing since Feb. 4

Sheriff's detectives are searching for a San Clemente businessman, his wife and two children who went missing from their northern San Diego County home about two weeks ago.

According to friends and family, Joseph Bryan McStay, 40, and his wife, Summer, 43, and their children,  Gianni, 4, and Joseph, 3, have not been seen or heard from since Feb. 4, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

But the family was not reported missing until Monday, when McStay's brother, Michael, called the Sheriff's Department and requested a welfare check at the family's two-story home in Bonsall.

Deputies did not find the family at the house and called homicide detectives because the family's disappearance seemed suspicious. Investigators said it did not appear that the family had gone on a planned trip. In fact, the family's two dogs were left uncared for, according to published reports .

Investigators also learned that the family's white 1996 Isuzu Trooper was found abandoned near the U.S.-Mexico border four days after their disappearance, according to published reports . Homicide detectives have notified Mexican authorities about the family.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the San Diego County Sheriff's Department at (858) 974-2321 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/san-diego-investigators-search-for-missing-family.html#more

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Lifeguard towers on L.A. County's coastline to be decorated with vibrant colors

From the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Malibu's Zuma Beach, vibrant artworks will soon sprout from the bland sands of Los Angeles County's coastline.

For five months starting in May, more than 150 lifeguard towers spanning 31 miles of beach will be enveloped in panels and rooftop canvases painted fuchsia, turquoise, orange, green and yellow by thousands of Los Angeles-area children and adults.

“Summer of Color -- Lifeguard Towers of Los Angeles” was conceived by brothers Ed and Bernie Massey, founders of Portraits of Hope . The 15-year-old nonprofit group develops large-scale, hands-on art projects for adults and children, many of whom are coping with poverty, serious illness or disabilities.

Among the projected 5,000 children and young adults preparing the lifeguard-tower artwork were 45 1st- and 5th-graders from Palisades Elementary Charter School. They arrived Friday morning with a dozen chaperons at a Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors building in Marina del Rey, which Portraits of Hope has converted into a studio.

Kneeling amid the youngsters on a paint-splattered floor, Ed Massey demonstrated the best techniques for avoiding blobs and wayward swipes. First dab the paint in the middle of one of the white spaces, then hold the sponge roller like a piece of chalk and spread the color. The children and adults then went to work on the 5-foot-by-10-foot and 4-foot-by-8-foot panels.'

Kelsey Tsuchiyama, 10, applied bright-pink acrylic paint to a panel section printed with the stylized black outline of a flower.

She said the project was “really cool,” adding: “I can look at my work if I go to the beach later on.”

Her mother, Jane Tsuchiyama, said she appreciates the program's emphasis on civic engagement. Portraits of Hope projects that 45 million beachgoers will see the public exhibit.

This is art writ large, akin to the temporary “environmental” works by Christo and his late wife, Jeanne-Claude.

Portraits of Hope's high-profile public art projects serve as creative therapy and teach students about involvement in civic activities, Ed Massey said. The group has transformed a DC-3, a blimp, buildings, tugboats, NASCAR race cars and the New York City taxi fleet. Closer to home, school students and hospitalized pediatric patients in 2000 painted the panels adorning the Beverly Hills High School oil derrick.

Each lifeguard tower will have a sponsor paying $10,000, organizers said. Ed Massey, a painter and sculptor, credited Los Angeles County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe for championing the effort. The Los Angeles County Lifeguard Assn., the union that represents lifeguards, is collaborating.

Frank Bird, a member of the union's board, said he expects that a lot of visitors this summer will be asking about the enormous flowers and other patterns. Creative locals, he said, have decorated the occasional tower on the sly. But, he added, “there's never been anything on this scale.”

For more information, visit www.portraitsofhope.org.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/lifeguard-towers-on-la-countys-coastline-to-be-decorated-with-vibrant-colors.html#more

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New push to exempt California's county jails from inmate-release law

There is a new move in Sacramento to exempt county jails from an early-release law designed to ease overcrowding at state prisons.

More than 2,000 inmates have been released from county jails in the last month in response to the law, a Times review has found.

There has been much debate about whether the law applies to county jails. This week California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown sent a bulletin to local law enforcement agencies saying the law does cover county jail inmates. The bulletin said some counties miscalculated the release times of some inmates, but it did not recommend stopping early releases.

The legislation was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year.

Officials have said that over the next year it would reduce the prison population by releasing 6,500 "low-level" offenders, including inmates incarcerated for nonviolent crimes such as theft and drug possession. The state prison system has not yet released prisoners early under the terms of the law.

On Thursday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Steven Perk blocked an immediate attempt by the union representing Orange County sheriff's deputies to temporarily prevent early releases there, where more than 400 have occurred since the law took effect Jan. 25.

Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, an author of the original law, filed amendments Friday aimed at clarifying that the law only applies to state prison. As currently written, most counties have concluded it also applies to their jails. The one major exception has been L.A. County, which has not released any inmates early in response to the law.

 "There's some chaos out there," Torrico told the Associated Press. "I can't imagine anyone is going to oppose this. We're talking about public safety."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/new-push-to-except-californias-county-jails-from-early-release-of-inmates.html#more

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From the Daily News

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Live From Washington! It's Obama health care drama

Coming soon to daytime television: America's long-running civic drama over how to provide better health care to more of its people without breaking the bank.

President Barack Obama summons anxious Democrats and aloof Republicans to a White House summit Thursday - live on C-SPAN and perhaps cable - and gambles that he can save his embattled health care overhaul by the power of persuasion.

Adversaries and allies alike were surprised by Obama's invitation to reason together at an open forum, as risky as it is unusual.

Ahead of the meeting, the White House will post on its Web site a health care plan that modifies the bill passed by Senate Democrats last year. The modification is an effort to address the concerns of their House counterparts.

The plan is important, but not as critical as the political skill Obama can apply to an impasse that seems close to hopeless in a pivotal congressional election year.

"It's a high-stakes situation for him more than anybody else," said Gerald Shea, the top health care adviser for the AFL-CIO. "If the judgment is either that it's a political farce, or if it fails to move the ball forward significantly ... that would be very damaging to the issue and to him."

A viewers' guide to the White House meeting, looking at Obama and his plan, Republicans in Congress and divided Democrats:

Obama

"I don't want to see this meeting turn into political theater, with each side simply reciting talking points and trying to score political points," the president said Saturday in his radio and Internet address. "What's being tested here is not just our ability to solve this one problem, but our ability to solve any problem."

Obama's main audience will be Democrats, who must overcome their divisions - and ease their qualms - to get a final bill. He will also tune his pitch to independents, who soured on the Democratic bills after initially being open to health care changes.

Thursday's meeting at Blair House - the presidential guest quarters across from the White House - comes nearly a year after Obama launched his drive to remake health care at an earlier summit he infused with a bipartisan spirit. The president will point out that

Republicans have supported individual elements of the Democratic bills.

But his latest plan has little chance of getting GOP support. Built on the Senate bill, it would require most Americans to carry coverage, with federal subsidies to help many afford the premiums. It would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. Regulators would create a competitive marketplace for small businesses and people buying their own coverage. The plan would be paid for with a mix of Medicare cuts and tax increases.

A Democratic source familiar with the details said the White House proposal would scale back the Senate bill's tax on high-cost insurance plans. It would also strip out special Medicaid deals for certain states, while moving to close the Medicare prescription coverage gap, and making newly available coverage for working families more affordable. The changes would cost about $200 billion over 10 years. It's unclear what the total price tag for the legislation would be; the Senate bill was originally under $900 billion. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the deliberations.

Republicans

Obama doesn't want to stop there. Republicans want to place limits on medical malpractice judgments, an approach the Congressional Budget Office says would save money by reducing defensive medicine. Obama has toyed with the idea, saying he agrees that something should be done, but thinks limits on jury awards go too far.

Some Republican leaders have questioned whether there's any reason to go to the summit, but a boycott would play into Obama's hands. To complicate matters, Democratic liberals have begun an effort to get a government insurance plan back in the bill, a nonstarter for Republicans.

"If the president's intention for the health care summit is to finally show that he is ready to listen and work in a bipartisan way to produce incremental reforms that the American people support, he is off to a rocky start," said Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the No. 2 Republican in the House. Republicans are not going to embrace a Democratic bill that's tanking in the polls, he said.

Democrats

They no longer have the 60 votes needed to overcome Republican delaying tactics in the Senate, but they still control both chambers. Yet passing anything but a very modest bill would likely mean using special budget rules that let Democrats override Republicans in the Senate with a simple majority. Using the budget route - called reconciliation - to resolve differences between the House and Senate bills probably would enrage Republicans.

That means Democrats will have to stick their necks out, and some may lose their seats this fall if they support an all-or-nothing push on health care.

Democrats are looking to Obama to give them the confidence they need to get back on track. He did it once before, with his address to Congress last September, after a summer of town hall meetings at which angry grass-roots activists attacked the Democrats on health care.

Democrats "tried to climb a taller mountain than they thought existed," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, architect of the 1994 Republican election victory that followed the collapse of the Clinton health care plan. "They went on a bigger trip than they prepared for."

Now it seems they'll be asked to give it one more try.

On the Net:

North Korea vows to bolster nuclear force as deterrent

Kwang-tae Kim

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea has vowed to bolster its nuclear force unless the United States drops its "hostile policy" toward the reclusive communist nation, adding that its atomic program could not be traded for economic aid.

Pyongyang also designated eight new naval firing zones near its eastern and western sea borders with South Korea in a move that could raise tensions.

North Korea quit the disarmament-for-aid negotiations and conducted a second nuclear test last year, drawing tightened U.N. sanctions. North Korea has demanded a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War before it returns to the negotiating table.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday urged the U.S. to make a political decision to establish peace on the peninsula and change what it calls a policy to stifle the North.

The North's "nuclear deterrent for self-defense will remain as ever and grow more powerful ... as long as the U.S. nuclear threat and hostile policy persist," KCNA said Friday in a dispatch from Pyongyang.

The North's "dismantlement of its nuclear weapons can never happen ... unless the hostile policy towards the (North) is rolled back and the nuclear threat to it removed."

North Korea claims it was compelled to develop atomic bombs to cope with U.S. nuclear threats. The U.S., which denies making any such threats against the North, has called on North Korea to return to the disarmament talks that also involve China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.

KCNA's comments came amid diplomatic efforts to jump-start the stalled disarmament talks.

North Korean envoy Kim Kye Gwan plans to attend a seminar in San Francisco before heading to New York to meet with Washington's lead nuclear negotiator Sung Kim either late this month or next month, the South Korean cable news network YTN reported Friday, citing an unidentified source in Beijing.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley on Friday denied the report and reiterated that the U.S. has no current plans to meet with North Koreans officials.

Officials from the U.S. and North Korea last met one-on-one in December, when President Barack Obama's special envoy, Stephen Bosworth, visited Pyongyang.

Bosworth is considering visiting China next month for talks on how to resume the disarmament talks as part of a trip that could also take him to South Korea and Japan, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported Friday, citing unidentified U.S. government sources.

The newly designated "naval firing zones" are effective Saturday through Monday, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday. The JCS, however, said there was no immediate signs of particular movement of North Korean troops.

Last month, North Korea fired artillery shells near its disputed western sea border, prompting the South Koreans to fire warning shots. No injuries or damage were reported.

The North has since deployed dozens of multiple rocket launchers in major bases along its west coast, Yonhap news agency reported, citing a Defense Ministry report submitted to the legislature.

The Defense Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/20/nkorea-vows-bolster-nuclear-force-deterrent//print/

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From Fox News

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Hearsay Hearing for Drew Peterson Comes to a Close

February 20, 2010

Associated Press

JOLIET, Ill. — 

A hearing for Drew Peterson ended Friday night with the same question it began with a month ago: Is there enough evidence to convince a judge that the former police officer may have killed his third and fourth wives to keep them from testifying before a jury?

In dramatic closing statements after the last of more than 70 witnesses testified, prosecutors portrayed Peterson as a cold-blooded killer who took the lives of Kathleen Savio in 2004 and Stacy Peterson three years later to keep them from getting his money.

"They are killed so they can't take the witness stand in a divorce proceeding," said Will County Assistant State's Attorney John Connor.

But defense attorneys said the case against Peterson is built on lies.

Savio's death was a tragic accident, they said, and Stacy Peterson may have vanished in 2007, but she's not dead.

"For someone to say five, six, seven, eight, nine times that she's dead doesn't mean she's dead," defense attorney George Lenard said. "The reason she is not here with Mr. Peterson is that she left, and she left with another man."

The former Bolingbrook police sergeant is charged with Savio's death, but no charges have been filed in Stacy Peterson's disappearance. Friday's closing statements marked the first time they said outright they believe he killed Stacy Peterson.

The unprecedented hearing is easily the most extensive use of a state law allowing a judge to admit hearsay evidence in first-degree murder cases if prosecutors can prove a defendant may have killed a witness to prevent him or her from testifying. The law was passed after authorities named Peterson a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, then exhumed Savio's body and reopened her death investigation.

The statements that prosecutors want Judge Stephen White to admit as testimony are those in which the women allegedly expressed to friends and family that they were afraid Peterson would kill them.

Prosecutors want friends and relatives of Savio to be allowed to testify about a threat she described, in which Peterson reportedly held a knife to her throat and allegedly told her he could kill her and make it look like an accident. They also want the judge to allow a friend of Stacy Peterson to testify Peterson had told her he killed Savio.

Defense attorneys argued that many of the statements shouldn't be admitted. For example, they pointed to statements Savio gave police after the alleged knife incident in which Savio never said Peterson had a knife.

"She describes things the way she wants in order to make people feel sorry for her," said Andrew Abood, saying Savio wasn't a credible witness.

White also must consider testimony from three pathologists. They all agreed Savio drowned, but two — including Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City chief medical examiner who testified Friday — contended Savio's death was a homicide. The other pathologist backed the original finding that her death was an accident.

Throughout the hearing, it became clear the hearsay evidence is critical for prosecutors. They presented no physical evidence linking Drew Peterson to Savio's death, and Stacy Peterson remains missing.

Abood characterized the weakness of the case against Peterson this way: "They (prosecutors) want to come in here and say it's a staged crime scene because they have no evidence."

But prosecutors said the only explanation for the deaths of both women is that Peterson killed them. Both, they said, posed a threat to Drew Peterson. They said he was worried his property settlement with Savio would wipe him out financially, and that Stacy Peterson's planned divorce from him would do the same.

What happened, Connor said, is exactly what Savio and Stacy Peterson feared would happen, as friends and family described.

"Mr. Peterson's wives are two-for-two in predicting their own murders," he said.

White did not say when he would rule on the hearsay, but he did say he would order the ruling sealed until a jury is selected. He explained that he didn't want his decision to influence potential jurors.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,587035,00.html

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Minister Under Scrutiny for Helping Runaway Christian Convert

February 19, 2010

Associated press

COLUMBUS, Ohio — 

An Ohio minister accused of driving a teenage runaway to a bus station last year has retained a lawyer as police say they're investigating whether anyone broke the law in helping the Christian convert leave home for Florida.

The minister, Brian Williams, is being represented by Michigan attorney Keith Corbett, the lawyer told The Associated Press on Friday.

"We're representing Mr. Williams in the event he's contacted by police authorities ... and asked to provide information," Corbett said.

The Columbus Police Department is investigating "any criminal wrongdoing with anyone involved in getting her from one location to another," Sgt. Rich Weiner said Friday.

The case has become a rallying point for Christian activists who say Rifqa Bary, a 17-year-old who comes from a Muslim family, is a victim of Muslim intolerance and Muslims who say the girl was exploited by outsiders. Scores of demonstrators siding with the girl rallied outside the Franklin County Court House in November.

Bary disappeared from her home in New Albany in suburban Columbus in July and was discovered in Orlando, Fla., a few weeks later living with a minister and his wife, whom she had met on Facebook.

The girl claimed she could be harmed or killed for converting to Christianity, a charge her parents, immigrants from Sri Lanka, have denied.

Bary was returned to Ohio after custody hearings in Florida and an investigation by Florida police, who found no credible threats to the girl.

Bary and her parents, Aysha and Mohamed Bary, initially agreed she would stay in foster care and they would undergo counseling instead of going to trial to determine where the girl should live.

That deal broke down when the Barys alleged that Franklin County Children Services was permitting Rifqa to communicate with Florida pastor Blake Lorenz and his wife.

Attorneys for both Rifqa Bary and her parents are under a gag order and said Friday they could not comment. A message was left with Williams on Facebook.

No charges have been filed. Williams' lawyer works for the Thomas More Law Center, which frequently represents clients in religious freedom cases.

An Oct. 15 petition filed in Franklin County Juvenile Court alleged Williams drove the girl to the Columbus Greyhound station in late July. There, Bary received a bus ticket purchased by certain "Christian Associates" the teen met on Facebook, according to the petition filed by Bary's father seeking her return from Florida.

The petition also said "conspiring adults" had planned locations around the country for the girl to run away to but that Orlando was the primary "Planned Sanctuary."

A former colleague of Lorenz's said in a December affidavit that Lorenz ignored warnings that he was breaking the law when he housed Bary for the two weeks before the state of Florida took her into custody.

Brian Smith, a former church administrator, said Lorenz first told him about Bary on July 19 after Lorenz's wife met the girl on Facebook. The following day, Smith said, Lorenz told him that he and another man had bought Bary a bus ticket under a false name, according to the December affidavit.

Lorenz's attorney Mat Staver has denied Smith's allegations and says Lorenz consulted with a dozen lawyers and a judge and contacted Florida's Department of Children and Family Services three times while the girl stayed with him.

A message was left Friday with Staver, who was traveling and could not be immediately reached.

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FBI Investigating Pa. School Webcam Spying Allegations

February 20, 2010

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — 

A suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly switching on laptop computer webcams inside students' homes says it never used webcam images to monitor or discipline students and believes one of its administrators has been "unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked."

The Lower Merion School District, in response to a suit filed by a student, has acknowledged that webcams were remotely activated 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing, lost or stolen laptops — which the district noted would include "a loaner computer that, against regulations, might be taken off campus."

"Despite some reports to the contrary, be assured that the security-tracking software has been completely disabled," Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley said in a statement on the district's Web site late Friday. Officials vowed a comprehensive review that McGinley said should result in stronger privacy policies.

Harriton High School student Blake Robbins and his parents, Michael and Holly Robbins, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday against the district, its board of directors and McGinley. They accused the school of turning on the webcam in his computer while it was inside their Penn Valley home, which they allege violated wiretap laws and his right to privacy.

The suit, which seeks class-action status, alleges that Harriton vice principal Lindy Matsko on Nov. 11 cited a laptop photo in telling Blake that the school thought he was engaging in improper behavior. He and his family have told reporters that an official mistook a piece of candy for a pill and thought he was selling drugs.

Neither the family nor their attorney, Mark Haltzman, returned calls this week seeking comment. A listed number for Matsko could not be found.

"We believe that the administrator at Harriton has been unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked in connection with her attempts to be supportive of a student and his family," the statement on the Lower Merion School District site said. "The district never did and never would use such tactics as a basis for disciplinary action."

A district spokesman declined further comment on the statement Saturday.

Lower Merion, an affluent district in Philadelphia's suburbs, issues Apple laptops to all 2,300 students at its two high schools. Only two employees in the technology department, not administrators, were authorized to activate the cameras, which captured still images but not sound, officials said.

"While certain rules for laptop use were spelled out ... there was no explicit notification that the laptop contained the security software," McGinley said. "This notice should have been given, and we regret that was not done."

The district's Web site said 42 activations of the system resulted in the recovery of 18 computers, not 28 as district spokesman Doug Young had said earlier. They reiterated that it was done only to locate lost, stolen or missing laptops.

"The district has not used the tracking feature or webcam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever," the Web site said. The site also noted that there was nothing to prevent students from covering the webcam with tape.

McGinley said the district had hired former federal prosecutor Henry Hockeimer Jr. to review past practices and suggest improvements.

The FBI is looking into whether any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws were violated, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the investigation. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman has said she might also investigate.

Andy Derrow, father of a Harriton junior, said he does not believe the district was spying on students. He said he has two other sons who graduated from the school and had substantially benefited from the computer program.

"I don't think there was any ill intent here," he said "I think we all need to take a breath and wait and see what the facts are."

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