OH YES SHE DID: Middle School Teacher Jennifer Caswell Gets 10 Years In The Pokey For Sex With 15-Year-Old Male Student
Posted: August 17, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Bullhead City, Cannabis (drug), Daily News (New York), Jennifer Caswell, Mohave High School, Mohave Valley Daily News, Plea, Rape, Sexual Misconduct, Student, Teacher, Track and field 1 CommentCaswell also faces a federal lawsuit from the victim’s father who is seeking $1 million in damages saying he faults the school for not notifying him or police when allegations first surfaced.
HOLLIS, Okla. (CBS Houston)– A former Oklahoma middle school teacher was sentenced to 10 years behind bars after admitting to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.
“I was in a very unhappy marriage and I received little to no attention from my husband… While working at Hollis Public Schools I started receiving attention from a student. I reacted poorly and irresponsibly.”
The attorney for 29-year-old Jennifer Caswell said he was surprised that the former teacher and mother was handed down a “severe” sentencing of 15 years in prison and eligibility for parole only after 8 1/2 years, as reported by New York Daily News.
“I’m not a monster and I’m not a predator…I made a stupid decision.”
Caswell pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree rape, child enticement and forcible enticement, in addition to having to register as a sex offender upon release.
The former teacher appeared on an episode of Dr. Phil in May to defend her relationship with the teen, going as far as to say she envisioned walking down the aisle with him someday. Read the rest of this entry »
Hello Kitty, Minnie Mouse Duke It Out in Ghastly Times Square Ass-Whooping
Posted: June 5, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Comics, Crime & Corruption | Tags: Costumed character, Daily News (New York), Hello Kitty, Minnie Mouse, New Jersey, New York City, New York City Police Department, New York Post, Spider-Man, Times Square Leave a commentThe brawl occurred after cash was handed over to Hello Kitty and she was supposed to split the earnings with Minnie but didn’t, sources said.
Hello Kitty and Minnie Mouse were slapped with cuffs after they toughed it out over tip money in Times Square, police sources said.
Jiovanna Melendez, 40, who was dressed as Hello Kitty, and Sandra Mocha, 34, aka Minnie Mouse, got into a brawl around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, according to police.
Melendez, of Passaic, NJ, suffered a cut to her upper lip and Mocha, 34, of Corona, Queens, had an abrasion to the right side of her face, police sources said. Read the rest of this entry »
NYC Stop-and-Frisk Plunges as Crime Climbs
Posted: June 5, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice | Tags: Adrian Schoolcraft, Arraignment, Arrest, Brooklyn, Crime, Daily News (New York), Federal Firearms License, Gun control, New York City, New York City Police Department, Police commissioner, Police officer, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, William J. Bratton 3 CommentsNew York City Murders Are On The Rise
Rocco Parascandola, Kerry Burke, Larry McShane report: A dramatic drop in stop-and-frisk encounters has emboldened criminals and made cops more reluctant to take proactive police action, even as murders and shootings are on the rise in the city.
“Everyone is afraid to make stops. No one wants to get jammed up. They’re telling us the stops have to be quality stops. But if you make a stop, and you think it’s a good one, and the guy has nothing on him, is that a good stop?”
— Brooklyn police supervisor
The frightening message — echoed by police supervisors and union leaders — comes as stop-and-frisk encounters are on pace to plunge by 42% this year, with 20,000 fewer street stops.
“What you’re seeing now are the perps carrying their guns because they’re not afraid to carry them. We’ve created an atmosphere where we’ve handcuffed the police. We are sitting back, taking a less proactive approach.”
— Ed Mullins, head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association
There were 11,652 stops across the city through June 3 — projecting to roughly 28,000 for the year, records obtained by the Daily News show. As the number of stops fell, the number of murders spiked 19.5% during the first five months of the year, the number of people shot is up 9.2% and the number of shooting incidents jumped 9%.
“Based on this year’s drop…absent any other factor, you have to ask the question: Are the cops now reluctant to engage?”
“What you’re seeing now are the perps carrying their guns because they’re not afraid to carry them,” said Ed Mullins, head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association. “We’ve created an atmosphere where we’ve handcuffed the police. We are sitting back, taking a less proactive approach.”

Joe Marino for New York Daily News
“Stop-and-frisk activists say criminals are no longer afraid to carry guns because cops are afraid to make stops.”
Mullins said the city’s criminal element has been operating without fear while cops have been somewhat neutered in the last two years — and he wasn’t the only one to raise the issue.
“Based on this year’s drop . . . absent any other factor, you have to ask the question: Are the cops now reluctant to engage?” wondered one high-ranking police source.

Seth Wenig/AP
Critics of the NYPD told The News there was no correlation between the two sets of numbers — while stop-and-frisk supporters said the lower frisk numbers led to the higher crime figures.
City cops, citing increased scrutiny from the NYPD’s inspector general, the state attorney general and City Hall, say the cutback on stops is about self-preservation. Read the rest of this entry »
Oh Hell, Everybody in Media Donated to the Clinton Foundation: Here’s a List
Posted: May 16, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: BANKING, Boston Properties, Cablevision, Carlos Slim, Clinton Foundation, Daily News (New York), Gary Myers (writer), George Stephanopoulos, James Murdoch, Mexico, NBCUniversal, News Corporation, Newsday, PBS NewsHour, Telmex, The New York Times, Tom Brady 1 CommentClinton Foundation donors include dozens of media organizations, individuals
Josh Gerstein, Tarini Parti, Hadas Gold and Dylan Byers report:
…The following list includes news media organizations that have donated to the foundation, as well as other media networks, companies, foundations or individuals that have donated. It is organized by the size of the contribution:
$1,000,000-$5,000,000
Carlos Slim
Chairman & CEO of Telmex, largest New York Times shareholder
James Murdoch
Chief Operating Officer of 21st Century Fox
Newsmax Media
Florida-based conservative media network
Thomson Reuters
Owner of the Reuters news service
$500,00-$1,000,000
News Corporation Foundation
Philanthropic arm of former Fox News parent company
$250,000-$500,000
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publisher
Richard Mellon Scaife
Owner of Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
$100,000-$250,000
Abigail Disney
Documentary filmmaker
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Howard Stringer
Former CBS, CBS News and Sony executive
Intermountain West Communications Company
Local television affiliate owner (formerly Sunbelt Communications)
$50,000-$100,000
Bloomberg L.P.
Discovery Communications Inc.
George Stephanopoulos
ABC News chief anchor and chief political correspondent
Mort Zuckerman
Owner of New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report
Time Warner Inc.
Owner of CNN parent company Turner Broadcasting
$25,000-$50,000
AOL
HBO
Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Presenters of the Golden Globe Awards
Viacom
$10,000-$25,000
Knight Foundation
Non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting journalism
Public Radio International
Turner Broadcasting
Parent company of CNN
$5,000-$10,000
Comcast
Parent copmany of NBCUniversal
NBC Universal
Parent company of NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC
Public Broadcasting Service
$1,000-$5,000
Robert Allbritton
Owner of POLITICO parent company Capitol News Group
$250-$1,000
AOL Huffington Post Media Group
Hearst Corporation
Judy Woodruff
PBS Newshour co-anchor and managing editor
The Washington Post Company
Rachel Lehnardt Loses 5 Kids Over ‘Naked Twister’ Sex Party with Daughter’s Friends
Posted: April 16, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, U.S. News | Tags: Alcohol and sex, Alcoholics Anonymous, Captain Steve, Daily News (New York), Georgia, Georgia (U.S. state), Naked Twister, Rachel Lehnardt, Sex toy, Sexy Party, Twister, Twister (game), USA TODAY 2 Comments35-year-old Georgia mother has lost custody of her five children after being arrested for allegedly hosting a ‘naked Twister’ party for her teenage daughter and joining in the festivities
Michael Winter reports: A 35-year-old Georgia mother has lost custody of her five children after police say she hosted a sex party for her teenage daughter. Rachel Lehnardt is accused of joining the teens in sex, drugs and naked Twister.
A 35-year-old Georgia mother has lost custody of her five children after being arrested for allegedly hosting a party for her teenage daughter and joining in the festivities, which featured booze, pot, sex, a hot tub and naked Twister.
Rachel Lehnardt was charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for the party at her home in Evans, an Augusta suburb. She was arrested Monday after her new Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor alerted the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday following a meeting with Lehnardt, who is divorcing her husband, an Iraq war veteran.
The sponsor said Lehnardt told her she had lost custody of the children — ages 4, 6, 8, 10 and 16 — at an emergency hearing April 6 after her husband learned about the party. The sheriff’s report did not indicate when it occurred.
[Also see – OH YES SHE DID: Georgia Mom Rachel Lynn Lenhardt Accused of Hosting ‘Naked Twister Party’ for Teen]
The children were with their father one night when the 16-year-old daughter texted her mother to ask if she and some friends could come over “to party,” according to the sponsor’s account.
“Come on, let’s party,” Lehnardt replied.
The teens drank alcohol and smoked marijuana, Lehnardt said she joined them playing naked Twister, her sponsor told investigators. She then had sex in the bathroom with an 18-year-old boy, and afterward used sex toys in front of the teens before everyone piled into her hot tub, where “the party continued.”
The sponsor said Lenhardt later recounted waking up at 3:30 a.m. to discover her daughter’s 16-year-old boyfriend having sex with her. She said her daughter “felt guilty,” explaining that if she could have accommodated his large penis “he wouldn’t have needed to rape her mother.” Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: Cop Execution ‘Revenge’ for Garner
Posted: December 20, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, U.S. News | Tags: African American, Baltimore, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Daily News (New York), Execution-style murder, Myrtle Avenue, New York City Police Department, New York Post, Police car, Police officer, Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center 1 CommentTwo uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead Saturday afternoon as they sat in their marked police car on a Brooklyn street corner — in what investigators believe was a crazed gunman’s assassination-style mission to avenge Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
“We’re all in this together.”
Mayor De Blasio, to grieving cops
“No we’re not.”
One of the grieving cops
“It’s an execution,” one law-enforcement source said of the 3 p.m. shooting of police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
The tragic heroes were working overtime as part of an anti-terrorism drill in Bedford-Stuyvesant when they were shot point-blank in the head by the lone gunman, identified by sources as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who had addresses in Georgia and Brooklyn.
Moments after killing the two officers, he too was dead, having turned the gun on himself on a nearby subway platform as cops closed in.
“I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today,” a person believed to be the gunman wrote on Instagram in a message posted just three hours before the officers were shot.
“They Take 1 Of Ours…Let’s Take 2 of Theirs,” the post continued, signing off with, “This May Be My Final Post.”
The Instagram page included an image of a silver automatic handgun with a wooden handle. Another image showed the same camouflage pants and distinctive blue sneakers worn by the gunman as his body was carried from the scene on a stretcher.
He used the hashtag #ShootThePolice, along with two other hashtags referencing Garner and Brown.
Brinsley walked up to the cops’ patrol car at the corner of Myrtle and Tompkins avenues, approaching from the sidewalk. Read the rest of this entry »
Officer Down Memorial Page: Police Officer Wenjian Liu, New York City Police Dept.
Posted: December 20, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, U.S. News | Tags: Baltimore, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Daily News (New York), Instagram, New York, New York City, New York City Police Department, New York Post, Police car Leave a commentPolice Officer Wenjian Liu and Police Officer Rafael Ramos were shot and killed from ambush while sitting in their patrol car at the intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Thompkins Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Both officers were participating in an anti-terrorism drill when a subject walked up their patrol car and opened fire with a handgun, striking them both in the head and upper body multiple times. Other officers immediately pursued the the subject into a nearby subway station where the man committed suicide.
The subject was a gang member from Baltimore, Maryland, who had traveled to New York City specifically to ambush police officers. The man had published his intentions on social media prior to the shooting.
Officer Liu had served with the New York City Police Department for four years. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: Two NYPD Cops Shot Dead in Patrol Car in Brooklyn
Posted: December 20, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, U.S. News | Tags: Bill de Blasio, Daily News (New York), Grand jury, Internal affairs (law enforcement), New York City, New York City Police Department, New York Post, Police, Police officer, William J. Bratton 7 CommentsTwo uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead — execution style — as they sat in their marked police car on a Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, street corner.
“I saw an officer being put on a stretcher…There was lots of chaos and confusion.”
According to preliminary reports, both officers were working overtime as part of an anti-terrorism drill when they were shot point-blank by a single gunman who approached their car at the corner of Myrtle and Tompkins avenues.
“It’s an execution,” one law enforcement source told The Post of the 3 p.m. shooting.

photo by William Farrington
The gunman just started “pumping bullets” into the patrol car, another source said.
The suspected gunman fled to a nearby subway station at Myrtle and Willoughby avenues, where he was fatally shot. Preliminary reports were unclear on whether he was shot by police or his own hand.
“They engaged the guy and he did himself,” one investigator said.

Two police officers are believed to be shot at 3PM on Myrtle avenue and Tompkins avenue in Bed Stuy Brooklyn. Both officers were rushed to nearby Woodhull Hospital, a perp was found inside the Myrtle avenue train station with self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. He was rushed by medics in likely condition. Ongoing investigation.
“I heard shooting, — four or five shots,” ear-witness Derrick McKie, 49, told The Post. Read the rest of this entry »
Window Washers Trapped on 1 WTC
Posted: November 12, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Daily News (New York), Ebola virus disease, New York, New York City, Observation deck, One World Trade Center, WCBS-TV Leave a comment
Rex Sorgatz/via Twitter Crews are responding to hanging scaffolding at One World Trade Center.
Possibly two window washers were reported stuck on scaffolding at 1 World Trade Center Wednesday afternoon.
Inside look: FDNY working to rescue workers trapped on scaffolding hanging off 1 World Trade Center (Photo: @FDNY) pic.twitter.com/jwQP2kNvlE
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) November 12, 2014
The shaky scaffolding, which is suspended around the 50th floor, was seen dangling at an unstable angle, according to images that surfaced of the scene.

EarthcamOne World Trade Center.
The terrifying incident began about 12:45 p.m. on the south side of the building, according to CBS New York.
Emergency rescuers rushed to the scene and are currently trying to secure the scaffolding. Read the rest of this entry »
NYPD Sends Out Official Memo Telling Officers They’re Allowed to Be Photographed
Posted: August 13, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere | Tags: Chief of police, Daily News (New York), First Amendment to the United States Constitution, New York City, New York City Police Department, NYPD, Photography 2 CommentsPhotography, the Law and Photographers Rights
NYPD Cop Attacks Man for Video Recording Him
Cop Harasses Photographer, Steals His Cellphone Battery
The NYPD has sent out an internal memo that tells officers they aren’t allowed to take action to stop someone from photographing or filming them. This comes a whopping two years after Washington DC’s police chief sent out an almost identical memo.
“A Victory in the War on Photography”
— Glenn Reynolds
According to the New York Daily News, the chief of department’s office sent out the memo to the various command centers across NYC on Wednesday. And the memo doesn’t mince words. Here’s a relevant section:
Members of the public are legally allowed to record police interactions. Intentional interference such as blocking or obstructing cameras or ordering the person to cease constitutes censorship and also violates the First Amendment.
However, while the cameras can keep snapping, this memo doesn’t give license to a free-for-all. As common sense would dictate, photographers and videographers are still prohibited from interfering with police operations…(read more)
NYPD Sends Out Official Memo Telling Officers Theyre Allowed to Be Photographed
John Allen Gay: The Crumbling Cultural Foundations of American Democracy
Posted: June 18, 2014 Filed under: Education, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Daily News (New York), David Brat, Democracy, Eric Cantor, John Allen Gay, Jonah Goldberg, Max Weber, National Interest, State (polity), Wall Street Journal 2 Comments“The government holds a monopoly on violence. Any law that we vote for is ultimately backed by the full force of our government and military.”
For The National Interest, John Allen Gay writes: There was a minor kerfuffle in the press last week when reporters began picking through the academic writings of David Brat, the Virginian economics professor who bested House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Republican primary. Brat had written that “If you refuse to pay your taxes, you will lose. You will go to jail, and if you fight, you will lose. The government holds a monopoly on violence. Any law that we vote for is ultimately backed by the full force of our government and military.” That sentence, “The government holds a monopoly on violence,” was held up by a number of publications—the Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News among them—as a sign that Brat was some sort of extremist. Of course, that phrase is actually a rather standard definition of a successful government: that there are no forces in the polity other than the government that use force in an organized manner. Governments without a monopoly on the use of force have trouble providing the basic social goods of government—security, order, some semblance of justice—or protecting their citizens’ rights.
A MONOPOLY ON IGNORANCE
French writer and entrepreneur Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry was dismayed by the media misread of Brat’s remark, seeing the failure of professional political reporters to recognize a basic political-science concept as symptomatic of a broad and dangerous trend. He writes:
In the understanding of both the great Ancient philosophers and, taking after them, of the thinkers who gave us the Enlightenment and the intellectual scaffolding for our prosperous liberal-democratic society, including the Founding Fathers, democracy did not simply happen. Democracy depended on a robust citizenship, and this citizenship, in turn, was a struggle of all the men (and, now, women) of the polity; it conferred rights as well as responsibilities. In particular, two of the most fundamental requirements of citizenship were virtue and a liberal education.
Liberal education, he says, “helps make us free” by showing us “not only the empirical scaffolding of our Universe–a.k.a. science–but also its conceptual scaffolding, a.k.a. the ideas, concepts and history which shape the world we live in.” Erode that education and you’re eroding freedom, citizenship and ultimately democracy itself. When the political elite doesn’t know politics, that’s a sign that liberal education is indeed being eroded. And Gobry suggests that the erosion is only going to continue as America retools its education system to produce more science and technology degrees: “Nobody stops to ask what education is for, because the answer is implicitly accepted by all: an education is for getting a job. It is, in other words, for being a cog in the giant machine of post-industrial capitalism. It is, in other words, for the opposite thing that our forefathers wanted for us.”
Gobry’s remark that “democracy did not simply happen” is an understatement. Read the rest of this entry »