U.S. Marshal: Judges get the most threats

By Greg Reeves
Beset by computer changeover problems, the U.S. Marshal's service has finally answered our request for a breakdown of threats to the federal judiciary.
Threats against federal judges have been in the news, most recently a grim threat to a Kansas federal judge. We also posted earlier some background about threats to and attacks on other federal judges.
Last year the U.S. Marshal's office - which handles such threats - counted 825 "inappropriate communications" by 674 persons. As you might expect, judges got the most, followed by prosecutors and AUSA's - assistant U.S. attorneys.

Here's the breakdown:

Worst-named group has best stats on federal prosecutions

By Greg Reeves
Long ago, in the 1970s, there was a couple that got audited by the IRS. The couple asked the IRS what triggered the audit. The IRS said ha-ha. The couple sued, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The high court said ha-ha, IRS audit triggers are none of your business. But it also said that almost every other measure of IRS operation and of other federal agencies should be open public record.
The woman, Susan B. Long, went on to form one of the most valuable public resources for data about the workings of federal government agencies.
That resource, sadly, is called the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Is there a group or agency anywhere, in or out of government, with a more tongue-stumbling, indecipherable name?
Oh well. TRAC, at Syracuse University, bills itself as "Your source for comprehensive, independent and nonpartisan information about federal enforcement, staffing and spending."
That about covers it. We'll post later about TRAC's new findings about federal prosecutions 1986-2005.

Got crack. Got AK-47. Got 24 years 7 months

By Greg Reeves
We were all set to use Deandre J. Scroggins as a poster child for the ongoing debate over the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity in federal courts.

Prison terms for crack are a lot longer than prison terms for powder cocaine, for a lot less product, or so the argument goes.

Scroggins, 25, of Kansas City, was sentenced Tuesday to 24 years and 7 months in prison without parole, not for selling crack, but just for having it and intending to sell it; and for having an AK-47, which is illegal if you're selling drugs.

But evidence at his trial seems to remove Scroggins from any debate over sentencing:

• He dealt multi-kilo amounts of cocaine in Kansas City 1999-2002
• He cooked these kilos into crack on a two-burner hot plate, and that's a lot of cookin'
• He sold 15 kilos of cocaine, one witness said, for $20K-$22K/kilo
• His loaded AK-47 wasn't his only weapon; he kept two other weapons loaded - a .40 caliber Glock under his mattress, and a .357 Glock handy on his bedroom end table

U.S. Attorney's press release on Scroggins case.

Mail carrier goes postal: No one hurt

By Greg Reeves
A federal grand jury in Kansas City has indicted postal worker Tahron Montane Howse, 35, of Kansas City, for allegedly stealing a credit card from the mail, U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said Tuesday.

Howse took the card on Feb. 24, according to the indictment.

Here's the press release.

As far as "going postal" goes, there's a government study out there that says:

• Postal workers are less likely to be victims of homicide on the job than workers in other industries.
• Actually, we missed some cases, postal workers are about as likely as workers in other industries to be OTJ homicide victims.
• When postal workers are killed on the job, it's more often a coworker or former coworker holding the gun. That's true in only 4 percent of non-postal industries; usually it's a robber pulling the trigger.

Sources: NIOSH and the CDC

All The Star's crime stories today

This blog is meant to be your one-stop resource for all crime-related news from The Star. Here are links to crime news today:

Funds sought to hire 100 police
Insurer must pay $800,000 to pair
Scouts pull priest’s name from camp
Kansas crimping meth labs
Metropolitan digest
Delay denied in murder hearing
Nurse convicted of stealing prescription drugs intended for patients

Ouch! A bill for a porn site we never visited!

By Greg Reeves
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon is going after a recent high school graduate in New Hampshire  who has allegedly been hijacking control of people's computer modems, then billing them for pornographic Websites they never visited and international calls they never made.
Nixon wants thousands of dollars from Michael Walczak, a 2000 high school graduate in Bedford, N.H., whose name appears on various consumer-complaint Websites, usually along with angry complaints of people who say they were falsely billed.
Nixon filed suit today against Walczak in Jackson County Circuit Court, accusing him with deception, fraud and unfair trade practices. Walczak billed at least 59 Missourians on the phony charges.
Here's the Better Business Bureau on one of young Mr. Walczak's companies, National One Telecom (link leads to company with the logo above left, but has no further identification).

Broncos edge Chiefs 5-3 in drunken fan arrests

By Greg Reeves
Denver police rounded up 21 fans during the Monday Night Football game between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs.
Only five of those persons were actually arrested, Denver PD Det. Virginia Lopez (below right) tells Crime Scene KC:

• Two persons for felony assault
• One person for selling counterfeit tickets
• One person for misdemeanor assault
• One Invesco Field employee for theft

Eight others were ejected from the stadium without being arrested, and eight more were sent to a detox center because they were drunk, Lopez said.
Those sent to detox have to stay there until the detox center staff decides they're sober enough to go home, Lopez said. And the trip's not free -there's a fee for your stay.
The five Denver arrests compare to three arrests during the Chiefs' Sept. 11 home opener against the New York Jets; and to 38 arrests in Oakland during the Sept. 18 Chiefs-Raiders game.
Lopez said Denver police were bracing for their own visit from the Oakland Raiders:
"Let me tell you, that’s coming up for us Christmas Eve, as a matter of fact," she said. "And we always know that that’s a big one."

 

Sobriety checkpoint coming up in Indy

From Star police and courts reporter Linda Man:

Independence police are planning to set-up a sobriety checkpoint at 11 p.m. Friday on a major roadway.
Police said they hope the checkpoint will deter drunk drivers and are asking patience from other motorists.

Jackpot winners busted on warrants at Missouri casinos

By Greg Reeves
Missouri state troopers served nearly 600 arrest warrants to customers at the state's casinos last year - including jackpot winners who had just raked in $1,200 or more, according to the 2005 annual report of the Missouri Gaming Commission (left).
Commission spokesman Harry Bailey tells us that arrest warrants are categorized as "Obstruction of the Judicial Process" - a question we posed earlier in our list of top Missouri casino crimes.
Only winners of $1,200 or more are subjected to computer checks, which occasionally uncover the warrants, troopers tell Crime Scene KC. Phony IDs, credit card misuse and similar scams can get you checked for a warrant just as fast, they said.
What proportion of jackpot winners were wanted by police? That figure is hard to come by. The Missouri Department of Revenue doesn't break it out, DOR spokesperson Maura Browning tells Crime Scene KC; only the casinos know for sure.

(We also asked what the two "invasion of privacy" charges were - turns out those were self-banned gamblers who turned up on casino property and were charged with trespassing, Bailey tells Crime Scene KC.)

Before it's too late: September is National Preparedness Month

Talk about tardy - we just learned September is National Preparedness Month. We weren't ready, but Missouri was: Here's the state Department of Safety all about it.

Announcing KC homicide #88 for 2005

From Kansas City police 10:42 a.m.

• "This morning at approximately 6:30am, KCMO Police were called to the area of 82nd and Forest in regard to a dead body.  Upon arrival officers observed a white male deceased in the grass behind the bus stop.  The victim has signs of severe trauma to the upper body and detectives are investigating the death as a homicide.  An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.  A witness states that the victim was observed last night at approximately 6:30pm near the bus stop and appeared to be intoxicated.  The victim has not been positively identified and detectives are asking that anyone with information to please call the TIPS Hotline at 816.474.8477." 

Miracle Cars scam: God wants you to do time

By Greg Reeves
How do you punish two smooth-talking guys who bilked churchgoers out of $21 million for nonexistent cars from the estate of a nonexistent Christian?
Well, more than 21 years in prison each for starters. That's how long Robert Gomez and James Nichols are serving for their "Miracle Cars" scheme.
But federal prosecutors want to make sure Gomez doesn't profit from a planned movie about the scam (there's already a book about it, "God Wants You to Roll").
They have asked a federal judge to garnish any funds coming Gomez's way from the film. We asked Star federal courts reporter Mark Morris, who has been following the case, whether the feds needed any special laws to seize those funds.

Q.  Did the prosecutors have to use a "Son of Sam" law preventing convicts from profiting off their crimes?
A. In 1991 the Supreme Court ruled that New York’s Son of Sam law was unconstitutional. About 40 states have “Son of Sam” laws, but there are so many other ways for prosecutors and victims to get at money, that really nobody uses "Son of Sam" laws anymore.

Q. Your story says they’re ordered to pay back their victims more than $12.5 million. Is there word on whether they’ll be able to do that?
A. When I was talking with lawyers in this thing, when you get into really huge judgements assessed against people who have no assets and are in prison for impossibly long periods of time, there really is no huge expectation that they’re going to pay back anything. Even these kinds of huge judgements against normal people, about the only time they ever get paid is if somebody wins the lottery or they inherit money.

Top Missouri casino crimes

By Greg Reeves
Crime is up slightly at Missouri casinos over last year, the state gaming commission says in its 2005 annual report.
Gamblers write bad checks, carry drugs, steal and sometimes break stuff, the report says.
But what is "Obstruction of the Judicial Process"? And how do gamblers invade privacy? We've got a call in. Meanwhile, here are the stats:

All The Star's crime stories today

This blog is meant to be your one-stop resource for all crime-related news from The Star. Here are links to crime news today
Dead man found in KC
Five similar carjackings investigated
Run-in with rivals leads to killing
Parole Board hears input on Hobson case
METROPOLITAN DIGEST
Prints point to murder suspect
Former Teacher of the Year arrested after violating probation
Man accused in double slaying found fit to stand trial
Motorcyclist dies after collision with deer
Stottlemyre sentenced for corruption
Murder conviction overturned in case highlighted by documentary

Embezzle $73K = 15 months prison, repay $73K

By Greg Reeves
You're sitting at your job entering rebate information for thousands of people who are waiting for their $10 CD player rebate, their $50 DVD rebate, whatever.
What if, just once in a while, you made up a name and stuck it in there for a rebate? What if this plan was wildly successful and you collected $73,106.07 in phony rebates?
Such a plan went wildly wrong for Marlyn Wilkes, 45, according to federal prosecutors. Wilkes pulled the scam while working for a St. Joseph client of DataCore, a database marketing company in Kansas City, in 2000 and 2001, they said.
She pleaded guilty to fraud and money-laundering conspiracy charges and was sentenced today to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay the money back, said U.S. Attorney Todd P. Graves.
Our question: Did she have to include the UPC symbol from the box? The original receipt? The rebate form filled out in full? Did it take 8-12 weeks for her rebate to arrive?

Full details and a press release on this case available at Graves' Website.

Stick-challenged carjacker not alone

By Greg Reeves
A Johnson County would-be carjacker who couldn't drive his victim's stick-shift car is not alone - manual-transmission cars are on their way out, Detroit automaker figures show.
The fellow in the picture (above, left) is not the carjacking suspect - he's just some guy with an automatic transmission that the Detroit News used to illustrate its story about the demise of the stick shift.
From the Detroit News: “One more generation and you’ll probably have people who have absolutely no idea what a three-pedal car does,” said Bill Visnic, senior technical editor of Ward’s AutoWorld, an automotive trade magazine.
Here are the numbers to prove it:

Poor nearly 3 times more likely to be hit by violent crime

By Greg Reeves
Violent crime in this country varies directly by income - the more money you make, the less likely you are to be a victim of violent crime.
The difference is stark - persons making less than $7,500 a year are nearly three times more likely to be assaulted, robbed or raped than someone earning $75,000 or more a year, according to new data from the National Crime Victimization Survey.
Here are numbers comparing different income groups, with percent changes for each between two recent periods (2003-2004 and 2001-2002). (Chart may appear far below in some browsers).

                                                                                   

Violent crimes per 1,000 persons
Poor are victimized   more
Income	2001-02	2003-04
Less than   $7,500	46.0	44.0
$7,500-$14,999	34.3	34.8
$15,000-$24,999	30.9	25.3
$25,000-$34,999	28.1	23.5
$35,000-$49,999	25.9	21.5
$50,000-$74,999	19.9	22.5
$75,000 or   more	18.8	17.2
Source: NCVS

Latest homicide count

From The Star this morning:

Crime at 30-year low: Part II

By Greg Reeves
There's a wealth of new crime data in the Bureau of Justice Statistics weekend release of 2004 numbers from the National Crime Victimization Survey.
We posted previously the new numbers show crime rates at a 30-year low. The BJS offers 35 spreadsheet-ready crime tables for understanding how crime has changed in the U.S.
A sample:
Click on picture for larger image
Download this data as an Excel spreadsheet (14KB) if you want to play with it

KCPD identifies homicide victim #87

From Kansas City police, 10:05 a.m.:

• "The man who was killed at a residence in the 2000 block of Cypress on September 25th has been identified as Terrell Barnes, black/male, 12/01/1984, of Kansas City, MO.  Mr. Barnes was on the front porch of the residence when he was shot.  A second male shot at the same time is expected to live.  There are four suspects in custody related to the shooting, an 18 year old male, and 3 juveniles.  This was the 87th homicide for 2005 compared to 68 at this time in 2004."

Crime still at 30-year low

By Greg Reeves
The incomparably useful National Crime Victimization Survey data for 2004 is out. Highlight: Crime's at a 30-year low, but unchanged since 2003.
The new data at the Bureau of Justice Statistics was published over the weekend; The Star carried the AP story today:

• The nation’s crime rate was unchanged last year, holding at the lowest levels since the government began surveying crime victims in 1973, the Justice Department said Sunday.
• Since 1993, violent crime as measured by victim surveys has fallen by 57 percent and property crime by 50 percent. That has included a 9 percent drop in violent crime from 2001-2002 to 2003-2004.

Most measures from the new data start at 1993 because the victimization survey was redesigned in 1992, BJS victimization stats chief Michael Rand tells Crime Scene KC. For a longer view since 1973, he points us to the chart above left (click on it for larger image), which shows four trends of violent crime over 30 years.

All The Star's crime stories today

This blog is meant to be your one-stop resource for all crime-related news from The Star. Here are links to crime news today and over the weekend.
(Warning: Clicking on a link below will take you to The Star's registration site, unless you've already registered in the past)

METROPOLITAN DIGEST
Maker of bulletproof vest may face charges

Saturday
Suspect in hoax will face charges
Child abuser to get a new sentence
Police steeled for long pursuit of homicide suspect
METROPOLITAN DIGEST
Intruders with hammers, guns steal cars from two households
Movie income of ‘Miracle Cars’ cheater disputed
KC eyes new site for police station

Sunday
Man sought by FBI dies in stakeout
Case calls attention to sexual slavery
Metropolitan digest
Crash kills teenager
Miami County wreck kills two

DARE to be hoaxed? Part II

By Greg Reeves
An Olathe police sergeant was apparently the victim of one of the most durable hoaxes ever invented, involving the Bloods street gang, headlights and a gang initiation rite of murder.
An e-mail over the name of Sgt. Brian Wessling, Olathe PD school resource officer supervisor, spread widely today:

• "Police Depts across the nation are being warned that September 23rd and 24th is the "blood" initiation weekend. Their intent is to have all the new bloods nationwide drive around on Friday and Saturday nights with their headlights off. In order to be accepted into the gang, they have to shoot and kill all individuals in the first auto that does a courtesy flash to warn them that their lights are off."

Sgt. Wessling is far from alone in being taken in by the hoax, which has been traced to 1993 and once caused the Canadian defense minister to issue an emergency proclamation warning members of Canadian Parliamant. The hoax is also key to the plot of a 1998 film, "Urban Legend".

Our earlier post linking to hoax hunter snopes.com, which ranks this as 13th biggest urban legend.

Internet dating safety tip: Don't con the police

By Greg Reeves
If 18-year-old Kentuckian Laura Crews had just followed these Internet safety dating tips, she might be more like the happy Yahoo Personals couple to the left.
Instead, she decided not to fly to KCI to meet her online boyfriend, who was waiting at the airport for her. When he called to ask where she was, the correct answer was A) I decided not to come.
Laura, unfortunately, allegedly gave the wrong answer B) I was kidnapped from the airport and was raped, stabbed, shot and dumped in a ditch).
An (expensive) 90-minute search followed by police helicopter, fire rescue and other police personnel. Now Laura, who never left her Jassamine County, KY home (right) has been charged with filing a false police report. Police want their money back!
(The story also made the local TV news in Kentucky.

 

DARE to be hoaxed?

By Greg Reeves
Yikes! Are the Bloods after us? The Crips? If we see a driver at night without headlights, we're nice KC folks, we'll flash ours - and, word is, THAT's the sign for lights-out gang-bangers to turn around and kill us!
Trouble is, that word is a hoax. In fact, it's the 13th most popular urban legend of all time, according to hoax-hunter Snopes.com.
We raise this frightening matter because we received an e-mail today warning of this alleged danger. The message had DARE all over it and the names of an Olathe police sergeant and a Kansas SRS official. Today and tomorrow, the email said, the Bloods will use lights-out killings as an initiation rite!
We're waiting for calls back from the OPD and SRS on this. Meanwhile, the DARE home page top item today is about the hoax.