Karate teacher admits sexually abusing boys

By Calvin Palmer

A Long Island karate instructor has admitted molesting boys and today pleaded guilty to 60 counts including sex abuse, possession of child pornography and endangering the welfare of children.

James Bonfiglio, the former owner of Excel Karate Academy in Ronkonkoma, molested the boys from 2003 until his arrest in October 2007.

Suffolk County Court Judge Barbara Kahn indicated she accepted Bonfiglio’s guilty pleas so the victims would not have to testify in open court.

Detectives found graphic video on Bonfiglio’s computer and cameras hidden in the bathroom of his Ronkonkoma apartment and karate school.

He is due to be sentenced on April 3.

I take it from this report that the reporter covering the story was asleep when the age of the defendant was given or simply could not be bothered to find out.

[Based on a report by newsday.com.]

Stratford man wades into marsh to keep elderly driver alive

By Calvin Palmer

A passing motorist braved the cold murky water of a Connecticut marsh last night to come to the aid of an injured elderly driver.

Peter Procyk was driving along what is known by locals as “The Burma Road” in Stratford, when he saw an overturned sport utility vehicle.

He waded out to the vehicle and stood in the four-foot deep marsh, keeping the SUV driver’s head above the water until help arrived.  The act probably saved the motorist’s life, police said.

The driver, 78-year-old Robert Hoods, of Stratford, was listed in a stable condition in Bridgeport Hospital. He was suffering from hypothermia and broken bones.

His SUV had rolled down a steep 12-foot embankment near the entrance to Sikorsky Airport and landed on the passenger side, said assistant fire chief Daniel Ross.

Firefighters tied a ladder to the guardrail and, after placing the injured man on a backboard, pulled him up to a waiting ambulance, Ross said.

Hoods was in the marsh for around 20 minutes.

Procyk, who police said also lives in Stratford, could not be reached for comment.

I would guess Procyk probably would not want to talk about the incident even if he had been available.

Actions speak louder than words and Procyk’s action last night speaks volumes.

Well done, sir.

[Based on a report by The Connecticut Post.]

Austrian incest father expects to spend rest of his life in jail

By Calvin Palmer

Josef Fritzl, a 73-year-old Austrian who locked his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, expects to spend the rest of his life in jail, his lawyer said today.

Fritzl goes on trial on March 16 for the murder of a child who died shortly after being born in the cellar, as well as five other charges including incest.

“He is 73 years old. The length of the sentence is of no importance to him,” Fritzl’s lawyer Rudolf Mayer told the APA news agency, adding that his client expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Fritzl has not appealed the charges.

He will plead guilty to the charges of deprivation of liberty, rape, incest and coercion but will contest the murder charge, Mayer said.

Josef Fritzl is not a “sex monster,” Mayer said, referring to media headlines, and “loved Elisabeth in his own way.”

State prosecutors say Fritzl could serve 10-15 years or a life sentence in prison. The trial’s verdict is expected on March 20. He has been in investigative custody since the case was exposed last April.

Fritzl lured his daughter into the cellar of his house in Amstetten in 1984, drugging and locking her up for most of her adult life, according to police. He claimed she had disappeared to join a sect.

Three of Elisabeth’s children were raised by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie in their home after he pretended that his daughter had left them on his doorstep with a letter saying she could not care for them.

The other three children remained locked in the windowless, sound-proofed basement with their mother.

Elisabeth and her children are now living in a secret location under new identities.

[Based on a report by Reuters.]

Six people shot in domestic dispute

By Calvin Palmer

Police in Cleveland are hunting a 33-year-old newlywed after a domestic dispute last night turned violent and ended up with six people being shot.

Authorities said they were searching for Davon Crawford, suspected of killing his wife, sister-in-law, three children and wounding another child.

Crawford left the scene on foot and was believed to have at least one semi-automatic handgun. He was considered extremely dangerous.

The victims have been name as Lechea Crawford, 30, who married Davon Crawford on Monday; Lechea Crawford’s sister Rose Stevens, 25, and her three children – Destiny Woods, aged four, and two-year-old twins Dion and Davion Primm.

Another child, who has not been named, was being treated at MetroHealth Medical Center.

The victims were found last night on the top floor a two-family home on West 89th Street north of Detroit Avenue. Police say a two-month-old baby was also found unharmed.

A fifth child was wounded and was being treated at a hospital, while an older boy around 12 or 13 who was shot at but managed to flee unharmed and call 911, officials said.

A police helicopter assisted in the search and authorities were checking transit system buses. SWAT teams were on hand in case they were needed to help in an arrest.

“He’s made it clear he’s not going back to prison,” Lt. Tom Stacho said at a midday briefing. “We don’t know if that mean’s he’s going to kill himself, or go out fighting, or keep running. He expressed that to family members and friends.”

Cleveland police chief Michael McGrath said: “It’s probably one of the worst multiple shootings that I’ve seen in a long time.”

Crawford served almost five years in prison for voluntary manslaughter, according to prison records. He was released in 2000, returned to prison on a felonious assault conviction and released again in 2007.

Outside the home, Lamar Arnold said Davon Crawford was the man who had married his daughter on Monday.

Arnold said his daughter had sent him an unusual cell phone text message at 7:47 p.m. last night saying “Call me, live your life, love it.”

“Then I tried to call her about 12 times, and there never was an answer,” he said.

[Based on reports by The Plain Dealer and Associated Press.]

Police discover cast on man’s broken leg made of cocaine

By Calvin Palmer

Spanish police said today they arrested a 66-year-old Chilean at Barcelona airport after discovering the cast on his broken leg was made of cocaine.

The man also had cocaine hidden in six beer cans that had been emptied, packed with drugs and resealed, and inside the legs of two small folding stools. Altogether, he was carrying about 11 pounds of the drug.

The arrest was made on Wednesday as the man arrived from Santiago, Chile.

The man’s leg was broken and investigators are looking into the possibility that he deliberately broke it in order to smuggle in the drug.

Police spokesman Jose Antonio Nin said he knew of cases in which smugglers had concealed cocaine underneath casts but this was the first time officials had seen a cast made entirely of compressed cocaine. It weighed about 2.2 pounds.

Police detected the drug by spraying the cast with a chemical that turns bright blue when it comes in contact with cocaine.

The man was taken to hospital after the cast was removed.

Spain is a major European gateway for cocaine from Latin America and airport officials pay especially close attention to passengers on flights from Peru, Colombia and Chile.

A UN report in 2008 revealed it had become the biggest consumer of cocaine in continental Europe, and is one of the world’s top users of the drug.

[Based on reports by the Associated Press and AFP.]

Earthquake shakes Melbourne

By Calvin Palmer

An earthquake has struck the state of Victoria in Australia, shaking buildings in Melbourne and sending shockwaves across a 125-mile area.

Police were flooded with calls from hundreds of worried residents from north of Melbourne to Sale in Gippsland after the earth shook for a few seconds just after 9:00 p.m. local time.

The epicentre of the 4.6 earthquake was just north of Korumburra in South Gippsland, some 59 miles southeast of Melbourne, at a depth of six miles.

Some homes around Korumburra and Leongatha lost power for up to 10 minutes.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said there were no reports of any injuries or property damage.

Phil Cummins, duty seismologist at Geoscience Australia, which monitors earthquake activity, confirmed the tremor measured 4.6.

“It was certainly a moderate earthquake that was likely to be felt across a wide area but is unlikely to have caused any damage, except possibly some minor damage near the epicentre,” Cummins said.

Victoria State Emergency Service spokesman Allen Briggs said the service had been inundated with phone calls from the public but there had been no reports of any damage immediately after the tremor.

“It was certainly enough to rattle windows and we’ve had reports it was felt in metropolitan Melbourne and as far down as Warragul and Leongatha in Gippsland,” Briggs said.

Korumburra Hotel bar worker Kylie Luttrel said she thought the pub had been hit by a truck.

“We get lots of trucks through here, so when the earth started shaking, my first thought was that a truck was about to smash through,” Luttrel said.

But she said patrons remained calm, and nothing had been damaged.

Korumburra resident James Carter said the quake shook books off the shelves in his family home.

“There were also paintings falling off walls, power out, and the phone network down,” Carter said.

Endeavour Hills resident Davide Andreotti said the episode was frightening.

“The room and coffee table started shaking for about 10 seconds,” he said. “I never thought to feel something like this in Melbourne.”

[Based on reports by the Melbourne Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph.]

Craigslist “largest source of prostitution in America,” says sheriff

By Calvin Palmer

An Illinois county sheriff has filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to force Web site Craigslist to remove its erotic services section, which he calls a public nuisance that knowingly facilitates prostitution.

At a news conference in Chicago yesterday, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said his office has made hundreds of prostitution arrests, many of them based on ads found on Craigslist.

The sex-for-sale ads still proliferate on the site five months after San Francisco-based Craigslist promised new safeguards to settle a nationwide lawsuit by the top state prosecutors from Illinois and 39 other states. Dart said Craigslist continues to be “the largest source of prostitution in America.”

He said: “Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they’re being pimped on Craigslist.”

Dart said his officers have seen no change in the number or type of postings in the “Erotic Services” section since the Web site’s owner promised “sweeping changes” and said “no amount of criminal activity is acceptable.”

In the past two years, Dart’s department has made more than 200 arrests linked to the website on charges that include juvenile pimping, human trafficking and endangerment of a child.

The people arrested have ranged from heroin addicts to suburban soccer moms, a former reality TV star and teenagers as young as 14 years old.

Dart said street gangs are now using Craigslist to pimp out prostitutes.

An FBI investigation found last year that more than 2,800 child prostitution ads had been posted on Craigslist and a recent nationwide sweep for child trafficking and prostitution netted hundreds of arrests, he added.

“Pimps are preying on the most vulnerable members of our society and taking advantage of our struggling economy,” Dart said. “The worst part is Craigslist’s owners know their Web site is still being used for illegal purposes and they’re doing nothing to stop it.”

Dart has asked a federal judge to order Craigslist to eliminate its Erotic Services section. He is also seeking reimbursement for tax dollars spent paying the salaries of officers who investigate and arrest those responsible for trafficking prostitutes on the Web site.

Dart has circumvented the usual channels for such lawsuits.  Instead of referring the matter to the Illinois Attorney General or the Cook County state’s attorney, he turned to the law firm of Querry & Harrow to represent him free of charge.

Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for state attorney Anita Alvarez said the office supports prosecutions that target prostitution but stopped short of backing the lawsuit because it had not been able to evaluate its merits.

In a written statement, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said he had not seen Dart’s lawsuit, but he said it was “extremely unwise” to conduct crimes on the site because police keep close track and the company cooperates with authorities.

Since its settlement in November of the lawsuit by 40 states, Craigslist now requires ad posters to pay a $5 fee with a credit card, a measure intended to allow law enforcement to track users’ identities.

The agreement has had some impact, reducing postings by almost 40 percent consistently since early November, said Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan who signed off on the deal.  But ads offering sex for money fill the site.

“Spend three minutes on there and you’re going to see 50 ads that violate their terms of use,” Smith said. “So we have a growing list of issues for Craigslist in areas where we don’t think that the agreement that they reached with the attorney generals is being complied with.”

[Based on reports by the Chicago Tribune and AFP news agency.]

Buffalo Bills running back Lynch pleads guilty to gun charge

By Calvin Palmer

Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch was put on probation for three years and ordered to do 80 hours of community service after pleading guilty yesterday to a misdemeanor gun charge.

Lynch, 22, was arrested Februrary 11 after Culver City police smelled marijuana coming from a parked car and found a loaded gun and four marijuana cigarettes inside. No drug charges were filed.

Attorney Gerald Schwartzbach entered the plea for Lynch in a Los Angeles court. Two other gun charges were dismissed. Lynch was not present.

Schwartzbach said Lynch could have pleaded no contest but chose to plead guilty.

Lynch said in a statement that he is embarrassed and regrets placing himself in the situation. He apologized and said he is committed to being “a more responsible citizen”.

And it just goes to show what money, celebrity status and a good lawyer can do.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]