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From the Los Angeles Times

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Charles Manson had a cellphone? California prisons fight inmate cellphone proliferation

Contraband cellphones are burgeoning among prisoners, giving them the ability to arrange crimes on the outside. Even Charles Manson was caught with one. But it's not illegal for state prisoners to possess the devices.

By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times

December 2, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento

Contraband cellphones are becoming so prevalent in California prisons that guards can't keep them out of the hands of the most notorious and violent inmates: Even Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history, was caught with an LG flip phone under his prison mattress.

Manson made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia before officers discovered the phone, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.

Asked whether Manson had used the device to direct anyone to commit a crime or to leave a threatening message, Thornton said, "I don't know, but it's troubling that he had a cellphone since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf."

Although officials say inmates use smuggled cellphones for all manner of criminal activity, including running drug rings from behind bars, intimidating witnesses and planning escapes, it is not a crime to possess one in a California prison.

In August, President Obama signed a bill banning cellphones from federal prisons and making it a crime, punishable by up to a year in jail, to smuggle one in. That law does not apply to state institutions.

The proliferation of cellphones in California prisons has been exponential in recent years, authorities say. Guards found 1,400 in 2007, when the department began to keep records of confiscations. The number jumped to 6,995 in 2009 and stands at 8,675 so far this year.

The phones show up in minimum security work camps as well as in the most heavily guarded administrative segregation units — whose residents include gang leaders confined to their cells around the clock except for brief stints when they're allowed to pace around metal cages in the prison yards.

Prisoners and supplies coming into those units are searched, but inmates sometimes hide devices in their body cavities, officials said.

There have also been state-documented cases of guards bringing phones into prisons. An inspector general's report last year noted that the phones fetch up to $1,000 each and highlighted the case of a corrections officer who made $150,000 in a single year by supplying the devices to inmates. He was fired, the report said. Criminal charges were not an option.

Examples of inmates using phones to run criminal enterprises are not hard to find. In August, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, now the governor-elect, trumpeted the arrest of 34 Nuestra Familia gang members in Visalia who had been following orders from incarcerated leaders.

Last month, two escapees from Folsom prison were recaptured after they disappeared from a minimum-security work detail. They used a contraband cellphone to arrange for a friend pick to them up, said warden Rick Hill.

Inmates also use the phones to contact each other. "We know they are communicating building to building to thwart our efforts to recover contraband," Hill said.

Prison administrators across the country have been asking for the authority to jam cellphone signals on prison grounds, but the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the nation's airwaves, has refused.

The politically powerful telecommunications industry lobby has argued that jamming is not precise enough, and legitimate customers trying to use their phones near prisons could also be denied service.

The industry is pushing a more expensive solution called "managed access," which would allow only calls from approved phones to transmit through towers near prisons. Calls from numbers not on the approved list would not go through.

Next year California officials will test such a system, similar to one begun in August near a Mississippi prison. Authorities in that state said the program blocked more than 216,000 unauthorized phone calls and text messages in the first month.

The system didn't cost taxpayers anything, said Mississippi prison spokeswoman Suzanne Singletary.

It was paid for by Global Tel Link, a national company that charges inmates to make calls from many state prisons, including those in Mississippi and California. Who will pay for California's pilot program has not been determined.

Prisoner-rights advocates argue that cellphones let prisoners avoid high fees for making collect calls from prison pay phones — the only allowed method of phone communication, with all calls monitored — and help them maintain crucial bonds with family and friends while they serve time.

But family contact can cut two ways, prison officials say. In September, an inmate at Avenal State Prison in Central California had been calling his 75-year-old mother to get her to collect drug debts owed by customers on the street. After guards found the phone, police raided the woman's La Puente home and found more than $24,000 cash, said Doug Snell, a corrections department spokesman.

The woman was arrested and charged with unauthorized communication with an inmate. A trial is pending.

In September, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have imposed a $5,000 fine on anyone caught giving a phone to a prisoner. In his veto message, Schwarzenegger complained that the bill did not make it a serious crime for a prisoner to possess a phone and did not include the threat of jail time for the smuggler.

"Signing this measure would mean that smuggling a can of beer into a prison carries with it a greater punishment than delivering a cellphone to the leader of a criminal street gang," Schwarzenegger wrote.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D- Pacoima), who sponsored the bill, SB 525, said he was caught between a governor who wants to put smugglers in prison and a Senate Public Safety Committee policy against adding new felonies to the state penal code for fear of exacerbating California's prison overcrowding.

Early this year, a panel of three federal judges ordered the state to reduce its prison population by some 46,000 inmates to alleviate the cramped conditions. Schwarzenegger appealed the decision; the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case Tuesday.

"The fact that Charles Manson had a cellphone in prison is just further proof that the situation is out of control," a frustrated Padilla said last week. "I'm not giving up. Until we have a law on the books with real consequences, this will continue to be a danger."

State Sen. Mark Leno (D- San Francisco), who is chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee and responsible for enforcing the policy against creating new felonies, said he's not opposed to creating a felony charge to deter people from smuggling phones into prison. But he warned that courts have ruled that the prison inmate population can't be increased, so some who are currently locked up in state facilities would have to be kept in county jails.

For now, the only recourse prison officials have when they find an inmate with a phone is to charge him or her with a violation of department policy.

Prison officials would not release the identities of any of the people Manson contacted. But the entertainment news show Inside Edition broadcast recordings of a voice, identified as Manson's, on March 23, 2009. Four days later, guards found a phone during a search of Manson's cell.

One of the clips features Manson's raspy, high-pitched voice singing, "I've seen the world spinning on fire, I've danced and sang in the devil's choir."

Manson, 76, who is technically eligible for parole but will almost certainly die in prison for ordering the ritualistic murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969, had 30 days added to his sentence after his phone was discovered.

"He was counseled and reprimanded, too," Thornton said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prison-cellphones-20101203,0,6638877,print.story

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Neighbors recall encounters with man involved in Chasen case

The man under surveillance in the publicist's death, who killed himself Wednesday, was described as 'strange' by one resident of his apartment building.

By Abby Sewell, Andrew Blankstein and Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times

December 3, 2010

A man who killed himself as he was confronted by detectives investigating the slaying of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen talked about serving time in prison, expressed fear that police were looking for him and vowed to die rather than return to custody, according to neighbors.

Beverly Hills police declined to provide any details Thursday about the case, including what role the man might have played in Chasen's killing and what led detectives to execute a search warrant at the Hollywood apartment building where he was living.

Several law enforcement officials and a neighbor identified the man as Harold Smith.

John Walsh, host of the television show " America's Most Wanted," said he believed detectives started to focus on Smith after the show's staff passed along a tip from the public. At the request of Beverly Hills police and people in the entertainment industry, the show recently featured Chasen's slaying and asked viewers for information that would help the homicide investigation, Walsh said.

"We have been working closely with Beverly Hills," Walsh said in a brief interview Thursday. He said his staff passed along the tip and that he has been traveling and was unaware of its details.

Law enforcement sources, who did not have permission to discuss the case publicly, confirmed that Beverly Hills detectives were led to Smith through a tip from the show.

Smith killed himself Wednesday evening, pulling a pistol from his pocket and shooting himself in the lobby of the Harvey Apartments building on Santa Monica Boulevard as detectives attempted to serve a search warrant.

Several law enforcement sources said Beverly Hills detectives privately described Smith as a suspect in the case. However, the Police Department has publicly described him only as a "person of interest."

The suicide was captured on a security surveillance tape and was witnessed by several residents, according to law enforcement officials. They said Smith's apartment had been under surveillance for at least a few days.

Some residents of Harvey Apartments, a weathered four-story brick building, said Smith was a disconcerting presence who told conflicting stories and had a quick temper. He arrived at the apartment building about three months ago but was involved in a dispute over nonpayment of rent, they said. Nevertheless, he continued to live there.

Terri Gilpin, 46, said she had contacted the police about Smith in the past, not in relation to the Chasen slaying. She said Smith once entered her apartment without permission and had to be chased off by her husband, Brandon Harrison.

Harrison said Smith described himself to other tenants as an ex-convict who had served two stints in state prison, the most recent for firearms and drug-related convictions. After his eviction, Smith would ask other residents whether police had come looking for him, the neighbor said.

Smith said he owned a gun and vowed that he would never go back to prison, Harrison said.

"He told me several times, 'If it ever came back down to me going to prison, I would die first,'" Harrison said.

He said Smith told him that he was supposed to be getting $10,000, at one point saying it was for a job he did and on another occasion saying it was from a lawsuit.

Harrison said he had no way of corroborating Smith's claims. "I don't even know if he ever was in prison, or if anything he told me was true," Harrison said. "The man was very strange."

Gilpin told reporters Thursday that she'd overheard Smith brag to her husband that he had killed Chasen but ignored the comment because Smith often told inconsistent or questionable tales.

But neither Gilpin nor her husband had mentioned Smith making such a claim in previous interviews with The Times on Wednesday evening. Harrison could not be reached Thursday to confirm his wife's account.

Building resident Robin Lyle, 44, also recalled Smith talking about a coming windfall — supposedly from a lawsuit — and his plan to leave the state.

"He said, 'I'm working on this money, and then you're not going to see me anymore,'" Lyle said. Smith told him he finally got the money a couple of weeks ago, but it was far less than he'd expected.

Lyle said he frequently saw Smith carrying a tall can of malt liquor and described him as a loner who would occasionally drop by Lyle's apartment.

Chasen was shot to death early Nov. 16 while driving her Mercedes-Benz near the intersection of Whittier Drive and Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

She was on her way home from a party after the premiere of the movie "Burlesque." Chasen is believed to have left the event about midnight and been traveling west on Sunset. Friends believe she planned to head south to her condominium on Wilshire Boulevard.

Several residents dialed 911 at the time of the attack, saying they heard gunshots. Moments later, another resident called police to report hearing the car crash into a light pole.

People living on Whittier Drive who heard the crash ran to the scene and found Chasen slumped over the steering wheel, bleeding.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1203-ronni-chasen-20101203,0,149487,print.story

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WikiLeaks cables reveal unease over Mexican drug war

The secret cables give a much starker U.S. view of the pitfalls facing Mexican President Felipe Calderon in his campaign against drug cartels.

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

December 2, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

In contrast to their upbeat public assessments, U.S. officials expressed frustration with a "risk averse" Mexican army and rivalries among security agencies that have hampered the Mexican government's war against drug cartels, according to secret U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed Thursday.

The cables quoted Mexican officials expressing fear that the government was losing control of parts of its national territory and that time was "running out" to rein in drug violence.

The cables gave a much starker view of the pitfalls and obstacles facing Mexican President Felipe Calderon, a departure from the public statements of unwavering support that have come out of Washington for most of the 4-year-old war, which has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

Two cables from U.S. Embassy officials in Mexico, one dated January of this year and the other October 2009, praise Calderon for persisting in his campaign to tackle "head on" the powerful cartels that traffic most of the cocaine, heroin and marijuana that reaches the U.S.

But the Mexican president's struggles with "an unwieldy and uncoordinated interagency" law enforcement effort have created the perception that he is failing, the cable dated Jan. 29 said. His inability to halt the violence or contain the rising death toll has become a principal political liability as his public ratings have declined, it said.

The U.S. assessment said Calderon's tools are limited: "Mexican security institutions are often locked in a zero-sum competition in which one agency's success is viewed as another's failure, information is closely guarded, and joint operations are all but unheard of," said the January cable, which is signed by the No. 2 official in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, John D. Feeley, a veteran diplomat with extensive experience in Latin America.

"Official corruption is widespread, leading to a compartmentalized siege mentality among 'clean' law enforcement leaders and their lieutenants," he said. "Prosecution rates for organized crime-related offenses are dismal; 2% of those detained are brought" to trial.

The cables are part of a massive release of thousands of classified documents by the WikiLeaks website that has turned an uncomfortable light on the workings of American diplomacy. The documents involving Mexico are said to number 2,836, and the first were made public Thursday by the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

In the January cable, Feeley goes on to describe serious tensions between the Mexican army — increasingly dogged by allegations of human rights abuse and its inability to stanch violence in Mexico's deadliest city, Ciudad Juarez — and a smaller, more effective navy whose special forces have scored some of the more dramatic victories in the war, including the killing of kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva a year ago.

"Below the surface of military professionalism, there is also considerable tension between" the army and the navy, the diplomat wrote. The army "has come to be seen [as] slow and risk averse even where it should succeed: the mission to capture HVTs" — high-value targets, namely, cartel leaders. "The risk is that the more [the army] is criticized, the more risk averse it will become."

He said U.S. officials would have to convince a demoralized Mexican military that "modernization and not withdrawal" are the way forward and that "transparency and accountability are fundamental to modernization."

The cable was apparently intended as a "scene setter," or advance briefing paper, for a meeting of the Defense Bilateral Working Group that took place Feb. 1 in Washington.

This unvarnished U.S. assessment of the Calderon government's political problems is matched by realities in Mexico that that The Times has portrayed over years of reporting on the drug war.

The Oct. 5, 2009, cable was signed by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual. It recounts a meeting with several top Calderon security officials, including then-Deputy Interior Minister Geronimo Gutierrez.

Gutierrez is first quoted criticizing delays in the U.S. Merida Initiative, a program that is funneling $1.4 billion in aid to the drug war and to the revamping of Mexico's police and courts.

Then Pascual quotes Gutierrez as saying it was too late for crucial "institution building" to take root in the remainder of the Calderon presidency.

"We have 18 months," the cable quotes Gutierrez as saying, "and if we do not produce a tangible success that is recognizable to the Mexican people, it will be difficult to sustain the confrontation into the next administration."

According to Pascual's report, Gutierrez went on to lament the "pervasive, debilitating fear" that was gripping so much of Mexican society.

"He expressed a real concern with 'losing' certain regions," Pascual wrote. "It is damaging Mexico's international reputation, hurting foreign investment and leading to a sense of government impotence, Gutierrez said."

As The Times has reported, huge swaths of important states that border the United States, such as Tamaulipas and Chihuahua, as well as central drug-producing regions, such as Michoacan (Calderon's home state) and Sinaloa, are controlled by drug cartels that corrupt police forces, dominate city halls, intimidate the public and kill anyone who gets in the way.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Mexico City declined to comment on the contents of the cables or to confirm their authenticity. He said State Department cables in general "reflect the day-to-day analysis and candid assessments that any government engages in," may be preliminary or incomplete and "should not be seen as having standing on their own or as representing U.S. policy."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-wikileaks-mexico-20101203,0,3534468,print.story

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A chaplain's ultimate sacrifice for God and country

Capt. Dale Goetz is the first chaplain killed in combat since the Vietnam War. Recalling the night before what would be his final mission in Afghanistan, his wife says, 'It was like he knew he wasn't coming back.'

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

December 2, 2010

Reporting from Colorado Springs, Colo.

When Christy Goetz's husband, Dale, told her at the outset of the war in Iraq that he wanted to join the Army to become a chaplain, she rebelled.

"I told him: 'You're not going over there and getting killed,' " Christy Goetz recalled. "I mean, he's my honey. I love him. I don't want anything to happen to him."

Dale Goetz, a Baptist minister, signed up anyway in January 2004. Before long he was Chaplain Goetz, ministering to troops in Iraq later that year and the next. He volunteered for a second combat tour last summer, in Afghanistan.

"I prayed on it and realized that this is what God wants him to do," Christy Goetz recalled. "Who am I to stand in God's way?"

She knew what every chaplain's wife knows: They may carry holy books instead of rifles, but they're still soldiers, and they still tread in harm's way.

On Aug. 30, a chaplain and another soldier knocked on the door of the tan split-level Dale and Christy bought here last year — the first house they had ever owned.

Capt. Dale Goetz was dead at 43, the first chaplain killed in combat since the Vietnam War.

He was on a trip that day to conduct services and counsel soldiers at several remote combat outposts in Kandahar province when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle. Goetz and four other soldiers were killed.

His soldiers say the chaplain died doing what he loved — talking to them, praying with them, helping counsel them through long days and nights of fear and dread. He had been carrying CDs for them to record personal messages to their families.

"He was committed to his soldiers — that was his gift," said Pastor Jason Parker of High Country Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, which Goetz and his family officially joined the day he left for Afghanistan.

Goetz had told his wife that the soldiers who needed him most were under fire at small, exposed outposts. He felt compelled to visit them, said his chaplain's assistant, Spc. Joshuwa Clare. "Circulating the battlefield," Clare called it.

"Chaplains don't sit around the big bases waiting for soldiers to come to them," said Chaplain Carleton Birch, a lieutenant colonel with the Office of the Chief of Chaplains. "They go out to where the soldiers are."

It is an article of faith among the small community of military chaplains that the job provides great rewards and blessings — but also sorrow, sacrifice and loss.

Just a week earlier, Goetz had presided over the memorial service of a soldier killed in action, his wife said.

"He said, 'Honey, today was a hard day.' He kept praying that there would be no more loss of life," she said.

Goetz had been in Afghanistan just 2 1/2 weeks. He died before he could receive a T-shirt his wife had mailed him. It was printed with a photo of the two of them, arm in arm and smiling.

There are just 280 chaplains to minister to nearly 100,000 U.S. troops spread across Afghanistan, and 200 in Iraq. Chaplains deploy, and their families, like those of all service members, dread the knock at the door.

"As a chaplain's wife, you have that fear of the unknown," said Christy Goetz, who met Dale at a Baptist Bible college and includes "thechaplainswife" in her e-mail address. "But I was giving my husband to God."

Shortly before he left to visit the outposts, Goetz called his wife and told her, "This place is dangerous."

"He never said things like that," she recalled. "I got down on my knees and prayed."

A fellow soldier later told Christy that on the night before departing, Goetz said he believed his family would be well taken care of if he did not return.

"It was like he knew he wasn't coming back," she said.

Goetz left behind soldiers with distinct memories of small kindnesses.

Staff Sgt. Randall Rowlands recalled asking the chaplain how soldiers could justify killing the enemy when the Bible says they should not kill. Goetz spent parts of the next two days discussing the issue. He believed in self-defense but also in praying for his enemies, his wife said.

Whatever their questions, "I don't think any of the soldiers ever went away without an answer, and almost always went away with a smile," Clare said.

The chaplain spent personal time after work counseling one soldier with marital problems. "My soldier says that it saved his marriage," Rowlands said.

Another soldier, Pfc. David W. Lawrence, 20, became so close to Goetz that he was traumatized by his death, according to the soldier's father. Lawrence was subsequently charged with killing a Taliban prisoner in Afghanistan. Lawrence's parents and lawyer say combat stress, including Goetz's violent death, brought on Lawrence's depression and mental instability.

Before his unit left for Afghanistan, Goetz ministered to troops during their training in the U.S. In the days before deploying, Staff Sgt. Lizbeth Garcia said the chaplain insisted that any soldier who hadn't called his or her family use his personal cellphone to call home.

Goetz also admonished any soldier he thought was stepping out of line. "He was lovingly assertive," his wife said.

Pastor Parker said his friend and fellow minister embodied the chaplain's creed: Pro Deo et Patria, for God and Country.

"He asked us to pray for his enemies," Parker recalled. "That was the God part. But he was also serving his country. For Dale, this was his mission, not just his job."

Goetz volunteered to go to Afghanistan because he knew soldiers who were on their third or fourth deployments, and he had deployed only once. He considered it his duty to go, his wife said.

The day he left, she said, the last hymn the family sang at church was "Take My Life and Let It Be." The last verse says, "Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee."

In the weeks since her husband's death, Christy Goetz has struggled to cope as a single mother to their three boys, Landon, 10, Caleb, 8, and Joel, 1. But she said her faith had sustained her, along with support from her church and from other chaplains and their spouses.

Inside the family's home at the foot of Pike's Peak, the living room mantle is lined with five small American flags — for Dale and the four soldiers who died with him: Staff Sgt. Jesse Infante, 30; Staff Sgt. Kevin J. Kessler, 32; Staff Sgt. Matthew J. West, 36; and Pfc. Chad D. Clements, 26.

Even on the day the soldiers came with the news of her husband's death, Christy Goetz said she knew that somehow God's will was being done.

"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away," she told them.

Then she had to summon the strength to tell her young sons. First she asked them to tell her the best possible place anyone could be.

"Home," they said. Asked where home was, they replied, "Heaven."

"That's where Daddy is," she told them.

For the first time since the Vietnam War, the military had to adjust its memorial service when it was time to pay last respects to Goetz. Soldiers killed in battle are honored by placing their helmets, dog tags and boots next to their rifles, but chaplains are unarmed.

For Chaplain Goetz, a wooden cross took the place of the weapon.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-chaplain-20101202,0,1891421.story

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iPhone app used to help revive youth basketball player

Quick-thinking coaches follow real-time CPR instructions on cellphone after La Verne Lutheran High School student collapses and his heart stops beating.

By Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times

December 3, 2010

Xavier Jones ran across the middle of the basketball court, ready to receive a pass from a La Verne Lutheran High School teammate. He first stumbled, then stopped, and finally keeled over motionless on the hardwood.

His heart had stopped beating.

After Jones crashed to the floor, head coach Eric Cooper Sr. and assistant coach John Osorno sprinted to his side and administered CPR to the 17-year-old high school senior.

The quick-thinking coaches — with the help of an iPhone — were able to revive him and probably saved his life.

The night before, Cooper had fortuitously downloaded an application to his cellphone that gives real-time instructions on how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Jones remembers nothing of his collapse last week, but when he awoke from a medically induced coma 24 hours later, family and friends explained that he suffered from cardiac arrest.

"I'm just thankful and happy to be here," Jones said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed. "Things could have been a lot worse."

Cooper had purchased the $1.99 application, called PhoneAid, as a sort of refresher course on CPR.

"It was really fresh and clear in my brain," he said. "We are trained in CPR, but the iPhone app was a stabilizer for us."

Linda Jones, Xavier's mother, said that when she first saw the coach after the Nov. 22 incident, she broke into tears: "I can't thank him enough for being there for my son."

Jones is the starting center on the La Verne Lutheran team that won a state championship last year and is ranked seventh in the Los Angeles Times' high school boys basketball rankings.

Jones, whose teammates call him "X," is a coach's dream, Cooper said.

He described him as a kind, yet tough leader, with aspirations far beyond the basketball court.

Instead of listening to music or dozing off in the back of the van on road trips, he sits in the front seat with a book seemingly attached to his hand.

"He's the guy you want your daughter to marry," Cooper said.

Jones said he has wanted to become a doctor since he was 5 years old and was planning to accept a scholarship offer to play basketball at West Point, the U.S. Military Academy in New York.

Jones, who has a 4.0 grade point average, said he was interested in West Point because it will pay for tuition through the completion of a doctorate. He plans to enlist and serve as a military doctor.

"I'd ask him, 'Are you going to be an NBA player?' and he would say, 'No, I'm going to be a doctor,' " Cooper said. "The decision was going to be based on his career, not just basketball."

At 6 feet 8 and 220 pounds, Jones is a defense-minded player, but also has a soft jump hook and a bit of a mean streak, Cooper said.

"He's a nice kid and mild-mannered off the court," Cooper said. "But on the court, he's our enforcer."

Doctors have diagnosed Jones with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle becomes hardened, making it more difficult for it to pump blood. They have told him that his basketball days are numbered and he needs a defibrillator implanted in his chest.

Though his basketball career may not turn out as expected, Jones said he is undeterred in achieving his other goals.

"I'm just happy to be alive," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-iphone-cpr-20101203,0,487379.story

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Judge appoints an additional psychologist to examine Phillip Garrido

The expert will evaluate the suspect in the kidnap and rape of Jaycee Lee Dugard ahead of a March competency hearing. The judge will also consider media requests to unseal documents in the case.

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times

December 3, 2010

Reporting from Placerville, Calif.

An El Dorado County Superior Court judge Thursday appointed an additional psychological expert to examine kidnapping suspect Phillip Garrido in advance of a March proceeding on whether he is competent to stand trial for the abduction and rape of Jaycee Lee Dugard.

The expert specializes in "malingering," said Judge Douglas C. Phimister, who did not elaborate on what the doctor's role in the competency trial would be and why such expertise was necessary. Garrido is already undergoing psychological evaluation.

Phimister also agreed to examine about 25 sealed court documents at the heart of the widely followed case. Several media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and the Sacramento Bee, are pushing to have the documents released to the public.

Garrido has been charged with kidnapping and rape in Dugard's 1991 disappearance. Dugard was 11 at the time of the abduction. When she resurfaced in 2009 after being held captive for 18 years, she had borne two daughters. According to court documents, Garrido is their father.

Garrido and his wife, Nancy, are being held in El Dorado County Jail. Since their arrest, Dugard has testified before a secret grand jury about what happened during her captivity. The transcript of that hearing remains under seal.

"I have examined hundreds of transcripts that vividly describe murder, rape, pillage, but nowhere in my experience have I seen a transcript that describes evil, as it is contained in the grand jury transcript in People v Garrido," wrote Stephen A. Tapson, Nancy Garrido's attorney, in opposing the unsealing.

In court Thursday, Tapson described the media as "sniffing, snarling, whining .... hounds" and argued that unsealing the transcript "screws up Phillip and Nancy Garrido's right to a fair trial."

But media attorney Karl Olson said there are ample means for the court to ensure that an impartial jury is seated to weigh in on Garrido's competence and both defendants' guilt or innocence. Jurors can be questioned carefully before being selected and then admonished to ignore publicity about the case.

"Yes, there has been publicity," Olson said Thursday. "All of the cases which gave rise to the right of public access had great media interest. The question is simply whether you can find 12 jurors who can give the defendants a fair trial. The answer is, 'Yes.' "

Phimister said he will examine the documents and rule on unsealing them at a later date.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dugard-trial-20101203,0,278398,print.story

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Connecticut man gets death penalty for home invasion killings

Steven Hayes is formally sentenced in the slayings of a woman and her two daughters. He apologizes and says he was 'a monster so full of rage it was impossible to control.'

Associated Press

December 3, 2010

Reporting from New Haven, Conn.

A Connecticut man sentenced to death Thursday in the killings of a woman and her two daughters said his execution would be "a welcome relief," while the only survivor of the gruesome home invasion told a judge he had struggled with suicidal thoughts, nightmares and flashbacks.

Steven Hayes made his first public comments about the case before being formally sentenced by New Haven Superior Court Judge Jon Blue. A jury last month determined Hayes should receive the death penalty.

"I am deeply sorry for what I have done and the pain I have caused," Hayes told the judge. "My actions have hurt so many people, affected so many lives and caused so much pain. I am tormented and have nightmares about what happened in that house."

Hayes, 47, who did not testify during his trial, said he wanted money for drugs but made no excuses for what he did.

"But this was not the real me; this was an angry monster I have never known, a monster so full of rage it was impossible to control," Hayes said.

Hayes said he wished he had been successful in his suicide attempts before the crime.

"Death for me will be a welcome relief, and I hope it will bring some peace and comfort to those who I have hurt so much," Hayes said.

Hayes sexually assaulted and strangled Jennifer Hawke-Petit. Authorities said he and codefendant Joshua Komisarjevsky tied her 11- and 17-year-old daughters to their beds, poured gasoline on or around them and set fire to their home in 2007. Komisarjevsky, 30, will stand trial next year.

"This is a terrible sentence, but is, in truth, a sentence you wrote for yourself in flames," the judge told Hayes.

Dr. William Petit, who was severely beaten with a baseball bat but survived the attack on his family, told the court he had seriously considered suicide many times after the deaths of his wife, whom he called his best friend, and their daughters. Petit fought back tears as he talked about his family.

"I miss my entire family, my home, everything we had together. They were three special people," he said. "I lost my entire family. I lost the records of our shared lives together due to the fire. Thus I lost my past and my future."

The killings, which drew comparisons to the 1959 slayings portrayed in Truman Capote's book "In Cold Blood," were so unsettling that they became a key issue in the death penalty debate in Connecticut's gubernatorial race and led to tougher state laws for repeat offenders and home invasions. Gov. M. Jodi Rell cited the case when she vetoed a bill that would have abolished the death penalty.

Hayes will join nine other men on Connecticut's death row. The state has executed only one man since 1960, so Hayes will probably spend years, if not decades, in prison.

Defense attorney Thomas Ullmann said the crime caused unimaginable loss, but he condemned the death penalty.

"Today when the court sentences Steven Hayes to death, everyone becomes a killer," Ullmann said. "We all become Steven Hayes."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na-home-invasion-20101203,0,4185100.story?track=rss

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From the New York Times

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Indian State Empowers Poor to Fight Corruption

NAGARKURNOOL, India — The village bureaucrat shifted from foot to foot, hands clasped behind his back, beads of sweat forming on his balding head. The eyes of hundreds of wiry village laborers, clad in dusty lungis, were fixed upon him.

A group of auditors, themselves villagers, read their findings. A signature had been forged for the delivery of soil to rehabilitate farmland. The soil had never arrived, and about $4,000 was missing. The bureaucrat, a low-level field assistant who uses the single name Sreekanth, was suspected of stealing it.

“I am a very rightful person,” he declared. But the presiding official would have none of it. He ordered that the money be recovered and that Mr. Sreekanth be promptly disciplined.

That simple verdict was part of a sweeping experiment in grass-roots democracy in rural India aimed at ensuring that the benefits of government programs for the poor actually go to the poor.

It empowers villagers to act as watchdogs and to perform “social audits” like the one that meted out quick justice to Mr. Sreekanth. Their success or failure could have broad implications for India's quest to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

India is home to more poor people than any country in the world, a fact that stands in mute challenge to its ambitions as an emerging world power. In decades past, fraud and waste have sapped efforts to help the poor. Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister, famously estimated that only 15 percent of every rupee spent on the poor actually reached them.

The social audits seek to fundamentally change that equation. In many states, the audits have been perfunctory or hijacked by local officials. But the results here in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, home to 76 million people, have been remarkable.

Social audits statewide have found $20 million worth of fraud over the past five years, and 4,600 officials have faced administrative or criminal charges, said V. Vasanth Kumar, the minister for rural development in Andhra Pradesh.

The results of the audits, down to the tiniest details, are available online for anyone to study. With the Indian government planning to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars to help the rural poor over the next five years, such audits will be crucial to reducing waste and fraud.

Much of that cash will go to a program created in 2005 to provide people in the countryside with 100 days of work at minimum wage on small-scale village infrastructure projects. This year, the government has budgeted $9 billion for the program, potentially ripe pickings for corrupt businessmen, politicians and bureaucrats.

To safeguard their efforts, the officials who drafted the law required the social audits, in which the beneficiaries themselves ensure that the program is run cleanly.

Villagers scour records and look for fraud, then hold public hearings. Officials like Mr. Sreekanth — whose punishment has not been determined, but who could be suspended or fired from his job or charged with a crime — are held accountable.

The concept has been around for decades, championed by influential social activists like the author Aruna Roy.

In Rajasthan Province, the social movement she helped found, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, popularly known as M.K.S.S., has conducted social audits for years. But Andhra Pradesh is the first state that has put its full political and bureaucratic weight behind them.

“It is not something being done exclusively by a people's movement — the government has embraced it,” said Sowmya Kidambi, formerly of M.K.S.S., who now runs the social audit program in Andhra Pradesh. “It is not just lip service.”

Officials embraced the audits in part because they realized it was good politics to keep programs for the poor free from corruption. India is the world's largest democracy, and the rural poor represent the nation's largest pool of votes. Programs like the one that guarantees 100 days of work for people in rural areas are credited with helping the Congress Party win last year's election.

“Politicians in Andhra realized there was a lot of political mileage to be gained by keeping this program clean,” said Yamini Aiyar, a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, who has tracked the state's use of social audits.

Auditing the records, which run to thousands of pages, is painstaking work that would tire the sharp eyes of even a seasoned forensic accountant. Most of the auditors are village youths who have been trained, but who also rely on their knowledge of village life to spot fraud.

Zamiruddin, a 24-year-old auditor from Rangareddy, a rural district, explained how he detected fraud in the mountain of documents he examined. Flipping to a muster roll from February, he pointed to a list of names that he found suspicious.

“These names are in different handwriting than the ones above,” he said. “That is the first problem.” All the workers also had signed their names rather than giving thumbprints, which was unusual for rural laborers. And they reported perfect attendance, together earning about 6,400 rupees for five days of mulching.

Zamiruddin went to the village, Manthati, and interviewed the people whose names were high on the list. None of them recalled seeing the workers whose names appeared below theirs in the different handwriting. Indeed, one of those workers was a 16-year-old who was ineligible to work in the program.

In all, Zamiruddin found that more than 139,000 rupees worth of wages had been paid to such ghost workers. At the hearing, the field assistant who filled out the roster was suspended, and the wages were ordered recovered.

“People fear these meetings,” said one local official, Adiba B., who uses her father's initial rather than a surname, which is common in southern India. “Those who eat money, they cannot speak with their heads high any longer.”

But the audits are far from trouble-free. Here in Nagarkurnool, a senior Congress Party politician elbowed himself onto the dais next to the official who was supervising an audit, trying to take control of it and repeatedly interceding to defend local politicians and contractors.

A contractor, himself a government leader in a nearby village, was called up for falsifying measurements on a project. He disputed the ability of the auditors to take such measurements.

“These people are not qualified,” the contractor, B. Sardharkar Reddy, complained. Besides, he added, “If it is a 10 percent deviation, what is the big deal?”

A ruckus ensued. Dozens of Mr. Reddy's supporters rushed to the front, trying to attack the village auditors. The police were called.

“These vested interests remain very powerful,” said Kavita Srinivasan, a former activist who now helps lead social audits. “They do not give up easily.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/world/asia/03india.html?_r=1&ref=world

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Arizona Cuts Financing for Transplant Patients

PHOENIX — Even physicians with decades of experience telling patients that their lives are nearing an end are having difficulty discussing a potentially fatal condition that has arisen in Arizona: Death by budget cut.

Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state's version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients, who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them.

“The most difficult discussions are those that involve patients who had been on the donor list for a year or more and now we have to tell them they're not on the list anymore,” said Dr. Rainer Gruessner, a transplant specialist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. “The frustration is tremendous. It's more than frustration.”

Organ transplants are already the subject of a web of regulations, which do not guarantee that everyone in need of a life-saving organ will receive one. But Arizona's transplant specialists are alarmed that patients who were in line to receive transplants one day were, after the state's budget cuts to its Medicaid program, ruled ineligible the next — unless they raised the money themselves.

Francisco Felix, 32, a father of four who has hepatitis C and is in need of a liver, received news a few weeks ago that a family friend was dying and wanted to donate her liver to him. But the budget cuts meant he no longer qualified for a state-financed transplant.

He was prepared anyway at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center as his relatives scrambled to raise the needed $200,000. When the money did not come through, the liver went to someone else on the transplant list.

“I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can't cut human lives,” said Mr. Felix's wife, Flor. “You just can't do that.”

Such high drama is unfolding regularly here as more and more of the roughly 100 people affected by the cuts are becoming known: the father of six who died before receiving a bone marrow transplant, the plumber in need of a new heart and the high school basketball coach who struggles to breathe during games at high altitudes as she awaits a lung transplant.

“I appreciate the need for budget restraints,” said Dr. Andrew M. Yeager, a University of Arizona professor who is director of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program at the Arizona Cancer Center. “But when one looks at a potentially lifesaving treatment, admittedly expensive, and we have data to support efficacy, cuts like this are shortsighted and sad.”

State Medicaid officials said they recommended discontinuing some transplants only after assessing the success rates for previous patients. Among the discontinued procedures are lung transplants, liver transplants for hepatitis C patients and some bone marrow and pancreas transplants, which altogether would save the state about $4.5 million a year.

“As an agency, we understand there have been difficult cuts and there will have to be more difficult cuts looking forward,” said Jennifer Carusetta, chief legislative liaison at the state Medicaid agency.

The issue has led to a fierce political battle, with Democrats condemning the reductions as “Brewercare,” after Gov. Jan Brewer.

“We made it very clear at the time of the vote that this was a death sentence,” said State Senator Leah Landrum Taylor, a Democrat. “This is not a luxury item. We're not talking about cosmetic surgery.”

The Republican governor has in turn blamed “Obamacare,” meaning the federal health care overhaul, for the transplant cuts even though the Arizona vote came in March, before President Obama signed that bill into law.

But a top Republican, State Representative John Kavanagh, has already pledged to reconsider at least some of the state's cuts for transplants when the Legislature reconvenes in January. Mr. Kavanagh, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he does not believe lawmakers had the full picture of the effect of the cuts on patients when they voted.

“It's difficult to be linked to a situation where people's lives are jeopardized and turned upside down,” he said in an interview. “Thankfully no one has died as a result of this, and I believe we have time to rectify this.”

Across the country, states have restricted benefits to their Medicaid programs, according to a 50-state survey published in September by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. But none have gone as far as Arizona in eliminating some transplants, which are considered optional services under federal law.

Before the Legislature acted, Arizona's Medicaid agency had provided an analysis to lawmakers of the transplants that were cut, which many health experts now say was seriously flawed. For instance, the state said that 13 of 14 patients under the state's health system who received bone marrow transplants from nonrelatives over a two-year period died within six months.

But outside specialists said the success rates were considerably higher, particularly for leukemia patients in their first remission.

“Something needs to be done,” said Dr. Emmanuel Katsanis, a bone marrow transplant expert at the University of Arizona. “There's no doubt that people aren't going to make it because of this decision. What do you tell someone? You need a transplant but you have to raise the money?”

Just before the Oct. 1 deadline, Mark Price, a father of six who was fighting leukemia, learned he needed a bone marrow transplant. But his doctor, Jeffrey R. Schriber, found donor matches for his transplant the very day the new rules went into effect, and Mr. Price no longer qualified for coverage by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the formal name for the state's Medicaid program.

What happened next was at once inspirational and heart-rending.

Out of the blue, an anonymous financial donor quickly stepped forward and agreed to cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed for Mr. Price's surgery. But Mr. Price died last weekend, after his cancer returned before the operation could be done. He was buried on Thursday, next to his grandfather.

“It's not correct to say that he died as a result of the cuts,” said Dr. Schriber, who is active in lobbying for the financing to be restored. “Did it prey on his mind? Did it make his last days more difficult? No doubt.”

Elsewhere, the fund-raising is already under way.

Mr. Felix and others are now trying to raise enough for new organs through NTAF, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania formerly known as the National Transplant Assistance Fund that helps transplant patients pay for their medical costs. National coverage of their plight has already led to more than $100,000 in donations for some of the patients affected by the budget cuts. The Felix family is also planning a yard sale this weekend so he does not lose the chance to get another liver.

There has been a flurry of lobbying to persuade the state to reverse the decision. Dr. Gruessner said he and others met with state health officials recently to propose other cuts associated with transplants, like eliminating tests typically conducted before surgery.

If the Legislature does decide to reconsider the cuts, one of the affected people, a plumber and father of three named Randy Shepherd, 36, who has an ailing heart and needs a transplant, plans to attend the debate.

“I'm trying not to take it personally,” he said of being cut out of the program. “None of the politicians had heard of me when they made their decision. They didn't say, ‘Let's kill this guy.' ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/us/03transplant.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the Washington Examiner

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Border drug tunnels put warehouses under scrutiny

In San Diego's Otay Mesa industrial area, these are signs that warehouses may be housing cross-border tunnels used to smuggle huge amounts of drugs from Tijuana, Mexico.

After two major underground passages were discovered last month less than two blocks from one of nation's busiest border crossings for cargo, federal authorities are knocking on doors of warehouse owners and tenants to ask for help.

They hope to learn more about the 12,000 businesses that occupy Otay Mesa's nondescript warehouses and low-slung office parks. The streets hum with cargo trucks by day and fall silent on nights and weekends.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who visited two offices Thursday peppered managers with questions before asking to look around: What line of work are you in? Who is your landlord? How many neighboring suites are leased?

"We're trying to get as many eyes and ears in the community as we can," Jonathon White, the Drug Enforcement Administration's San Ysidro agent in charge, reassured one manager, a customs broker.

The tunnels discovered last month ran about 2,000 feet and were equipped with rail car, lighting and ventilation systems. According to U.S. authorities, both were the work of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, headed by that country's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The discoveries produced some of the largest marijuana seizures in the United States.

A passage discovered Nov. 2 that ran between warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego resulted in seizures of 30 tons on both sides of the border. A tunnel found on Thanksgiving Day resulted that ran from a Tijuana home to two San Diego warehouses produced seizures of than 20 tons on both sides of the border

Outlets for the tunnel found last week were in bustling office parks, only 800 feet part. Looking back, neighbors said they missed clear warning signs.

One next-door neighbor remembers hearing voices through the walls at night and rarely seeing anyone during the day. The front door was spray-painted to prevent anyone from looking inside.

Mario Rodriguez, who worked next door to the tunnel's other outlet, said he never saw anyone come or go.

"We don't realize until it's too late," said Rodriguez, 46. "Look over there, across the street. I have no idea what they do."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/nation/2010/12/border-drug-tunnels-put-warehouses-under-scrutiny

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Trial delay granted for Miss. rape suspect

Although authorities suspect 38-year-old Ricky Franklin in the deaths or disappearances of other women, he is not facing charges in those cases because of a lack of evidence.

The Clarion-Ledger reports Franklin is facing charges of forcible rape, sexual battery, kidnapping and aggravated assault of a then-21-year-old woman.

Franklin's attorney has said his client had consensual sex with the woman.

Assistant District Attorney Jamie McBride says a new trial date likely will be set after Judge Malcolm Harrison's replacement takes office in January. Harrison lost a special election in November

http://washingtonexaminer.com/crime/2010/12/trial-delay-granted-miss-rape-suspect

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Judicial Watch sues DHS for report on drunk-driving illegal immigrant who allegedly killed nun

Carlos Martinelly-Montano was allegedly driving drunk again on August 1 st when his vehicle slammed into a car full of nuns heading for a retreat. Sr. Denise Moser was killed, and two other nuns were critically injured.

Martinelly-Montano, who entered the U.S. illegally as a child - and would therefore be a beneficiary of the DREAM Act if it passes Congress during the lame duck session - had been scheduled for deportation, but his hearing was inexplicably delayed three times.  In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement released him on his own recognizance pending a deportation hearing that never took place.

The only correspondence Judicial Watch received from DHS was an Oct. 21 acknowledgement of its FOIA request, which included a 10-day extension. To date, the department has not provided any of the requested records, or explained why they should be withheld, as required by federal law.

“My guess is that the report is embarrassing, which is why they don't want to release it,” Juidicial Watch president Tom Fitton told The Examiner .

“The American people deserve to know why a repeat criminal illegal alien scheduled for deportation was allowed to roam free in the United States for almost two years and ultimately kill a nun. Once again, Judicial Watch is forced to go to court to force the ‘transparent' Obama administration to follow the open records law,” he added.

Prince William Board chairman Corey Stewart told The Examiner that DHS stonewalling has led the county to file a separate FOIA request seeking the same information.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2010/12/judicial-watch-sues-dhs-report-drunk-driving-illegal-immigrant-wh

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From the Toledo Blade

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Dive teams join search for the Skelton brothers

Vicinity of U.S. 15 and Ohio Turnpike canvassed

Dennis Wisniewski, Williams County divemaster and head of Sheriff Kevin Beck's scuba team, said dive teams from Williams County, Lenawee County, Toledo, and Angola, Ind., were "hitting every body of water" within the vicinity of Holiday City.

He said they were focusing on that area Thursday only because evidence from cellular telephone calls and an eyewitness report suggests John Skelton, 39, may have been in the vicinity of U.S. 15 and the Ohio Turnpike with the boys shortly before they were reported missing last Friday. The dive teams were not sent there because of any statements that may have been made by Mr. Skelton, he said.

"It's kind of like a shot in the dark," Mr. Wisniewski said. "Obviously, we hope the kids are alive and safe. However, if there is a tragic ending, we would like to provide some closure."

The teams canvassed four or five bodies of water Thursday. They found nothing.

Nobody actually suited up. Boats equipped with devices known as "side-scan sonar" scoured each site. The sonar is highly reliable in detecting any anomalies in the water, such as sunken bodies and sunken boats. Divers were on standby in the event of a positive finding by sonar, Mr. Wisniewski said.

The search continued despite a second consecutive day of freezing weather. At the Lazy River campground, which was searched by foot on Monday, a thin layer of ice had to be broken up by one of the boats before sonar was deployed.

"The elements are definitely working against us today," said one member of the search team.

The waterborne search was augmented by crews walking the shorelines, as well as an estimated 300 volunteers in the woods, Mr. Wisniewski said.

Luis Santiago, Toledo assistant fire chief, said authorities were huddling at a command center in Kunkle, Ohio, Thursday night to map out their strategy for search teams Friday. The dive teams are working in consultation with Sheriff Beck and the FBI.

Both he and Mr. Wisniewski said they did not know whether the FBI had received any additional information, including leads from Mr. Skelton, who is fighting extradition to Michigan. He is being held in the Lucas County jail in Toledo on three counts of child abduction.

"It's just a long, tedious process," Mr. Santiago said of the search. "There are a lot of possibilities. We're just trying to eliminate as many of them as we can."

At some point -- possibly as early as Friday-- dive teams may search Nettle Lake and Mud Lake, two of the largest in western Williams County, near the Indiana state line. Nettle Lake may take two days to search, Mr. Wisniewski said.

http://toledoblade.com/article/20101203/NEWS16/12030337

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Search for siblings from New Hampshire parallels Morenci

Authorities struggled in 2003 to find murdered children

Mr. Strelzin said Gehring had driven from New Hampshire to California. Eventually, investigators were able to narrow the search area to Ohio and Pennsylvania based on statements Gehring made about the burial site as well as forensic evidence. Investigators took soil and pollen samples from his van and from the implements he used to bury the children.

Mr. Strelzin said it was frustrating that Gehring would not just tell authorities where he buried the children.

“I'm convinced he knew exactly where those kids were, but he was going to use it as a bargaining chip,” Mr. Strelzin said. “It's not unusual in those types of cases for the perpetrator to try to trade the location of the bodies for a reduced sentence.”

Gehring ended up killing himself in jail before revealing the location of the bodies. Because there was no longer a criminal case to prosecute, Mr. Strelzin said, his office did not need to protect the information it had.

“After Gehring killed himself, we put all the information we had on the Web, and private citizens just started going out and doing their own searches,” he said. “In hindsight, that is what allowed the Gehring children to be located, that sharing of information, which you can't do with an active case — at least not to the extent we were able to do it. As callous as it sounds, if those children are dead, the most important thing is to bring the perpetrator to justice first.”

Mr. Strelzin said he was often frustrated and frequently wondered if the Gehring children would be found. Finally late in 2005 a woman walking her dog near Hudson, Ohio, found the graves in an area that looked just the way Gehring had described. The dog had keyed in on their scent.

“If anything our case gives hope. If indeed these three kids have been killed … there is some hope they will be found and they will be given the disposition they deserve and the peace the family deserves,” Mr. Strelzin said. “I can't imagine. As frustrating as it is for law enforcement, it's just absolutely horrific for those family members.”

http://toledoblade.com/article/20101203/NEWS16/101209934

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From the Charlotte Observer

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Zahra Baker Archive: History of Zahra Baker case		Bakers lose their state-appointed lawyers Absence of murder charge in Zahra Baker's death leads to move to discharge attorneys. by Franco Ordoñez Charlotte Observer The absence of murder charges in the death of Zahra Baker has led the state capital defender to remove two attorneys assigned to represent the 10-year-old's father and stepmother. Bob Hurley, the N.C. capital defender, appointed Lisa Dubs to represent Elisa Baker on Oct. 18 when, he said, murder charges appeared "imminent." He then appointed Mark Killian to represent Adam Baker. Hickory police announced on Oct. 12 they believed Zahra was dead. Her remains were later found in two different rural locations. But eight weeks after they declared the case a homicide, charges have yet to be filed. On Wednesday, Hurley removed the lawyers, citing the lack of charges.

The Indigent Defense Services Act of 2001 allows the capital defender to appoint a lawyer on a provisional basis "upon learning that a defendant has been charged with a capital offense." They're paid about $85 an hour.

Neither Dubs nor Killian returned calls for comment.

Hurley said Thursday he appointed them after Gaither told him of intentions to seek an indictment in the case from a grand jury on Nov. 1. Hurley also said Elisa Baker was being "interrogated" in connection with Zahra's death and he wanted to make sure Baker had proper counsel. Adam Baker's attorney on unrelated charges also requested that his client receive provisional counsel on what appeared to be a murder case, Hurley said.

"All you have to do is read the paper and listen to comments of law enforcement and follow their investigation," Hurley said. "Everyone in the state knows that Elisa Baker and Adam Baker are the leading suspects of the investigation."

Zahra Baker was reported missing on Oct. 9. The search for the freckled 10-year-old girl who lost part of her leg to bone cancer drew worldwide attention.

Elisa Baker is now in jail, charged with obstruction of justice, after police say she admitted writing a phony ransom note to mislead investigators.

Adam Baker was arrested Oct. 25 and later released on bond for unrelated charges, including assault and writing bad checks.

Court document unsealed this week revealed that Zahra may have been sexually and physically assaulted by two men before she died, according to an unnamed source. The source told police he got the information from talking to someone else. Police wouldn't say whether they consider the men suspects in Zahra's death.

It's unclear why no charges have been filed. Police have said only they will file charges when the investigation reaches the proper point.

Duke University Law School professor James Coleman said there could be a number of reasons for the delay.

The documents and police don't say how Zahra died. Coleman said if prosecutors seek a murder conviction, they will want a cause of death to argue that their defendant was responsible.

Coleman also said Zahra may not have been murdered.

"You don't know whether the death was the result of criminal act or whether the death may have been caused by something else," he said. "And then, for whatever reasons, the person tried to hide the body or prevent the detection."

This week's unsealed court documents include an account from Elisa Baker describing that latex gloves were used while Zahra's body was dismembered. They also describe how Elisa Baker rode around with police to locations where evidence had been discarded. Speaking through her attorney, Baker said she and her husband had thrown Zahra's prosthetic leg into a dumpster at an apartment complex in Hickory.

In a letter purportedly from Elisa Baker to the owner of a crime memorabilia website, Baker says her husband did something "horrifying" to the girl after her death.

"We didn't really kill her but what he did after the fact is kinda horrifying," says the letter, made public by the website owner.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/03/1883153/bakers-lose-their-state-appointed.html

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From ICE

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Third conspirator sentenced in 55 million dollar visa fraud scheme

ORLANDO, Fla. - Eduardo Dozzi Barbugli, 31, was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison Wednesday for his involvement in a $55 million visa fraud conspiracy, following an investigation led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Barbugli was convicted of conspiracy, visa fraud, and alien smuggling in relation to an elaborate scheme which allowed illegal aliens to work at jobs that normally would have been filled by U.S. citizens. As part of his sentence, the court also imposed a money judgment in the amount of $55 million, which represents the illegal proceeds generated during the course of the conspiracy.

He pled guilty on Sept. 9.

Barbugli is a citizen of Brazil who has been living and working in the United States illegally. He will be removed from the United States after he serves his sentence.

His parents, Valeria and Wilson Barbugli, were sentenced on Oct.14 for their participation in the conspiracy.

According to court documents, the Barbuglis used a temporary labor staffing conglomerate that supplied workers to more than 160 hotels. Through their complex visa fraud and alien smuggling activities, the defendants allowed more than 1,000 illegal aliens to enter and remain in the United States using fraudulently obtained H-2B employment-based visas.

An H-2B visa is granted to certain qualified foreign workers seeking temporary employment in the United States. As part of the conspiracy, the Barbuglis submitted false documentation to the government and manipulated the H-2B visa process.

The Barbuglis submitted altered hotel contract agreements to conceal their activities and falsely reported that U.S. workers had been hired when they had not. The Barbuglis also falsely claimed that no payments were being collected from the alien workers, when in fact the workers had actually paid between $350 to $750 each to be placed on the fraudulent H-2B visa petitions.

The Barbuglis used shell companies in successive petitions to create the illusion that new bona fide companies had temporary labor needs. This was done to deceive authorities and hide the fact that all of the workers were employed by the same corporation, namely VR Services, without interruption.

This elaborate deceit enabled VR Services to establish a permanent foreign labor pool, which employed illegal alien workers across the United States.

This case was jointly investigated by the Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, a multi-agency task force that coordinates investigations into fraudulent immigration documents. The task force is led by ICE HSI and also includes the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

It was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie E. Gorman.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1012/101201orlando.htm

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3 plead guilty in harboring illegal aliens at Korean room salon

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - On Wednesday, the owner and the managers of a room salon in Falls Church, Va., pled guilty to conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens for commercial advantage and financial gain. This investigation was led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations.

"Those profiting from the employment and harboring of illegal aliens will be aggressively pursued by ICE," said John P. Torres, special agent in charge of the ICE HSI office in Washington, D.C. "Companies whose business models incorporate the use of illegal alien workers will be held accountable."

According to court records, the defendants admitted that they had employed female, Korean illegal aliens to serve as waitresses and hostesses of the room salon. The defendants admitted that since December 2007, at least 24 illegal aliens worked at the club and were harbored by the conspiracy.

"This office is committed to the vigorous enforcement of our immigration laws, which are vital to our national security and well-being," said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride. "We bring these cases to hold employers accountable and ensure that they abide by laws designed to protect both foreign and domestic workers and the citizens of the United States."

Sang Bun Surh, a/k/a" Chung Madame," 52, of Annandale, Va., owns a bar known alternatively as "High Society" "Tomato," and "Tomato Garden." Advertised as a room salon, the bar contains several private rooms where customers, primarily Korean men, consumed liquor. Provocatively dressed Korean women then serve the drinks to the customers and drink, flirt, sing, and dance with the customers. A bottle of liquor at High Society/Tomato typically costs $300 and customers were required to purchase at least a bottle. The defendants admitted that the establishment grossed in excess of $4 million since December 2007.

Since December 2007, dozens of female employees that investigators encountered at the High Society/Tomato were illegal aliens from the Republic of Korea. The conspirators admitted that they used apartments in Annandale, Va., to harbor the illegal aliens who work at High Society/Tomato and that they or co-conspirators sometimes booked flights for the aliens.

The three defendants who pleaded guilty are:

• Sang Bun Surh, a citizen of Republic of Korea and a lawful permanent resident of the United States, who was the owner of High Society/Tomato.
• Young Mi Kim, 41, a citizen of Republic of Korea and a conditional resident of the United States, who is a manager of the High Society/Tomato. In addition to the conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens charge, Kim also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit marriage fraud based on her own fraudulent marriage to a United States citizen.
• Hyeon Chul Kim, 55, a citizen of Republic of Korea who is unlawfully present in the United States and who was also a manager of High Society/Tomato.

If convicted all three defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. They will be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2011. The defendants have also agreed to cooperate with authorities in the continuing investigation.

ICE HSI was assisted in this investigation by Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Fairfax County Police Department and the Falls Church Police Department.

Columbus pediatrician pleads guilty to possessing child pornography

Columbus, Ohio - A 58-year-old former Columbus-area pediatrician pleaded guilty in federal court today to one count of possession of child pornography following an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Philip T. Nowicki, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography after investigators found that he used a computer at the Columbus hospital where he worked to subscribe to an illegal international child porn website that gave him access to thousands of images and videos of child pornography.

"Every time an image of child pornography is viewed, an innocent child is exploited," said Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Ohio and Michigan. "ICE and our partners will continue the fight against those who steal the innocence of the innocent."

At the plea hearing, an HSI agent testified that agents investigating an illegal international child porn website identified Nowicki as a subscriber to the website. In June 2006, agents searched a computer in his office and found that he had subscribed to the website from that computer and also that he had used the computer to access child pornography videos with an external media device such as a thumb drive.

Agents executed a search warrant at his Canal Winchester, Ohio, home in October 2006 and seized a personal computer that a forensic analysis found contained approximately 120 images of child pornography in temporary internet files.

Nowicki's credit card records show that he paid $79.99 a month for four consecutive months in 2005 and 2006 to subscribe to the website.

Possession of child pornography is punishable by up to ten years imprisonment. Judge Sargus will set a date for sentencing.

Following the execution of the search warrants, the hospital terminated his employment. Nowicki moved to Webster, Mass., where he currently lives.

"If people know they can make money trafficking images of children being sexually exploited, that puts all children at risk," said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Carter M. Stewart. "Prosecuting those who jeopardize the safety and well-being of children will continue to be a priority for the office."

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE . This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com .

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1012/101202columbus.htm

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From the DEA

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Nine Houston Residents Arrested in Largest PCP Seizure in DEA History

DEC 01 -- (HOUSTON) – A four-count federal indictment charging Houston area residents with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute phencyclidine (PCP) and three counts of possession with the intent to distribute PCP has been unsealed following the arrest of nine charged, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Thomas Hinojosa and United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today.

The indictment, returned under seal by a Houston grand jury in November 2010, was unsealed today after a combined task force including the DEA, United States Marshals Service, Houston and Pasadena Police Departments, Harris and San Jacinto County Sheriff's Offices and the Department of Public Safety arrested Andre Smith, 52, Samuel Joseph Jackson, 35, Tyrone Dewayne Roberson, 38, Michael Ardion, 50, Archie Deneshe Harris, 34, Cameo Deshawn McAfee, 24, Joseph Lamar Broussard, 37, Karola Johnson-Gant, 43, and Chatela Jackson, 32, all Houston residents.

Smith was arrested in Mississippi and will make an initial appearance there. Broussard was arrested in Louisiana, waived his initial appearance and is being transferred to Houston. The remaining seven defendants are expected to make their initial appearances tomorrow afternoon, Dec. 2, 2010, before United States Magistrate Judge John R. Froeschner in Houston. 

“The success of the investigation leading to today's arrests is a result of the close and sustained cooperation between DEA and our law enforcement partners to target and remove drug trafficking organizations operating in and around the Houston metro area,” said Hinojosa. “This investigation highlights the ability of law enforcement agencies in Houston to work together to make our communities safer.”

Today's arrests and the indictment are the result of an 18-month Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Operation dubbed Scratch Off. During the course of the investigation, task force agents seized a total of 57 gallons of actual PCP, that is, the controlled substance itself rather than the chemical components used to manufacture the controlled substance, constituting the largest seizure of actual PCP in DEA history. 

All defendants are charged in the first count of the indictment with conspiring from July 20, 2009, through the present to possess PCP with the intent to distribute it. 

Samuel Jackson is charged in count two of the indictment with possession with the intent to distribute PCP on Dec. 9, 2009. Samuel Jackson along with Harris and McAfee are charged in the third count with possession with the intent to distribute PCP on March 2, 2010; while count four alleges Smith possessed with intent to distribute PCP on Aug. 24, 2010. All four of the charges alleged in the indictment carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in federal prison and a maximum fine of $10,000,000 upon conviction. There is no parole in the federal system. 

With the arrest of the nine today, Operation Scratch Off brings the total to 11 persons charged. Two of the 11 were previously arrested, have pleaded guilty and are pending sentencing. 

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ted Imperato.

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