Tan salon owner in child-porn world of hurt

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A former tanning salon owner already facing 22 county charges and numerous civil lawsuits for allegedly videotaping his customers has been indicted on federal child pornography charges.
Prosecutors on Wednesday filed a seven-count indictment charging Brett Patrick Kent, 34, formerly of Springfield, with producing and possessing child pornography.

• Found more than 14,700 images and 53 video files on CDs at his home.
• Because many of the images were of minors, they are being treated as child pornography.
• Thirteen women also have filed civil lawsuits against Kent.

Say it isn't so: Counterfeit Prada/Gucci!

This could slow down my high-end fashion shopping:

Overland Park police seized counterfeit high-end merchandise from an Overland Park store on Wednesday, thanks to an anonymous tip.

The merchandise, which carried trademark names like Coach, Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, had marketing labels and serial numbers similar in style to the authentic items

'Tis the season, win a shotgun or rifle

The police department of Princess Anne, MD (pop. 2,313), 133 miles outside Washington, 119 miles outside Baltimore, is raffling off a rifle or shotgun every day this month as a fund-raising effort for its mobile command unit.

(Photo: Princess Anne PD SWAT team)

Hat tip to reader James G.!

Hacker blown up by own "logic bomb"

A disgruntled employee infected about 1,000 networked computers of UBS PaineWebber with a file-deleting "logic bomb", then invested $23,000 expecting the company's stock price to go down.

Despite the attack, the stock remained stable, the employee lost all $23,000, and a judge Wednesday sentenced him to more than eight years in federal prison for his trouble.

8 days of Kansas City crime

These files are daily compilations, lists of all calls to Kansas City police that resulted in a case report. Files are ordered by street and house number, and cover Sunday, Dec. 3, through Sunday, Dec. 10. Key: CRN is case report number; PONUM is police officer number. REPORTAREA is the police beat. ADDRTYPE is A for address or I for intersection.

Download kccrime20061203.xls
Download kccrime20061204.xls
Download kccrime20061205.xls
Download kccrime20061206.xls
Download kccrime20061207.xls
Download kccrime20061208.xls
Download kccrime20061209.xls
Download kccrime20061210.xls

Celebrity crime news roundup

LONDON, Dec. 14 (Kyodo)- There was no plot to murder Princess Diana and she died in 1997 following a ''tragic accident,'' according to a British police report released Thursday.
That was the verdict of London's police force which was charged with investigating Princess Diana's death, when she was killed in a car accident in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.

NEW YORK (AP) _ A chauffeur accused of trying to extort $2 million from Yoko Ono said she made her accusations to head off his plans to pursue a sexual harassment case against her.

Turkish-born Koral Karsan, 50, was arrested Wednesday. Police said he had threatened to circulate embarrassing photos of her and spoke of killing her and her son, Sean Lennon.
Police said that on Dec. 8, the 26th anniversary of Lennon's slaying, Karsan dropped off the note and a photo of Ono in nightclothes at the Dakota apartment building, where the former Beatle once lived with her and where she still lives. They said Karsan talked about killing her, her son and himself during a later conversation with one of her associates, which was recorded by investigators.

Dogs aid search for missing Porter children

Volunteers with search and rescue dogs combed a wooded area today in Sugar Creek in connection with the disappearance of two Independence children who’ve been missing for more than two years.
As of mid-morning, nothing had been found.
Sam and Lindsey Porter were 7 and 8 years old when their father picked them up on June 5, 2004, for the weekend. At the time, Porter was estranged from his wife, Tina Porter, who is the children’s mother. The children haven’t been seen since.
The children’s father, Dan Porter, was familiar with the area being searched.

Florida execution takes two doses

STARKE, Fla. (AP) _ Death penalty opponents criticized the execution of a convicted murderer who took more than half an hour to die and needed a rare second dose of lethal chemicals.
Angel Nieves Diaz, 55, convicted of murdering a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, appeared to grimace before dying Wednesday, 34 minutes after the first dose.
Diaz appeared to move for 24 minutes after the first injection. His eyes were open, his mouth opened and closed and his chest rose and fell. He was pronounced dead 10 minutes after his last movement.
Diaz said to the last he was innocent.  There were no eyewitnesses, but his girlfriend implicated him.

KS child-sitter rips off soldier in Iraq

A Kansas woman who agreed to look after an Army sergeant's high school-age daughter for free while the sergeant served in Iraq instead ran up $18,313 in bills on the sergeant's accounts,  federal prosecutors said.
Rachel Lindsey Hendry, 26, was sentenced to six months home detention and eight years probation.

News release

Passel of federal indictments in Kansas

Indictments from the U.S. Attorney's office in Kansas: A couple of Wichita bank robberies, drug trafficking, Medicare fraud, immigration violations. News release

Top DUI cop charged in crash that hurt 10

PEKIN, Ill. - An off-duty central Illinois police officer honored two years ago for cracking down on drunken driving has been charged in an alcohol-related crash that injured 10 people.
Greg Heiken, 37, a 13-year veteran of the El Paso police department, was charged Tuesday with driving under the influence of alcohol, aggravated DUI and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
Heiken, honored by the Illinois Department of Transportation's traffic safety division in 2004 for making the most DUI arrests in Woodford County

• Rear-ended an SUV, triggering a chain-reaction crash.
• Two people had to be extricated; no life-threatening injuries.
• Refused Breathalyzer, so authorities drew his blood.
• Faces up to three years in prison on felony aggravated DUI.

Hat tip to reader anon123!

Take two aspirin or I'll kill you

Talk about a bad bedside manner. A California doctor has surrendered his license after being accused of:

• Engaging in sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, or sexual contact with two or more of his patients.
• Choking one of the women until she lost consciousness.
• Threatening to kill the woman and trying to persuade her to commit suicide.
• Trying to hire someone to kill her. Doctors are busy, you know.

Hat tip to reader blondie2hot7!

KC man faces multiple counts of sodomy

A 29-year-old Kansas City man is charged with multiple counts of strong-armed sodomy involving a 10-year-old girl. He told police he doesn't know why he touched her and said he needed help.

Prosecutors have requested a $250,000 cash bond.

www.jacksoncountyprosecutor.org

Mom believes daughter was targeted

The mother of an 18-year-old Kansas City high school student shot to death at a house party over the weekend believes her daughter was targeted.
Jasma Blockmon died when gunfire erupted outside a home in the 6600 block of the Paseo Saturday night.
“I think she was targeted. Nobody else in the crowd got shot or even grazed,” said Rhonda Hack, the victim’s mother. Jasma, a student at Southeast High School, wanted to be a television journalist, she said.

(Photo courtesy of KCTV5)

1 Taco Supreme, PLEASE hold the lettuce

WASHINGTON - Health officials on Wednesday zeroed in on lettuce as the likely suspect in the E. coli outbreak linked to Taco Bell, though tracing the vegetable's source may prove difficult.
The outbreak apparently has run its course after 71 confirmed cases of the disease in five states, primarily New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, officials said.

Taco Bell sales suffering from E. coli cases
LOS ANGELES - Taco Bell's sales have taken a hit since more than 70 diners at its East Coast restaurants fell sick with E. coli poisoning, but it was still too soon to determine the losses, the fast-food chain's president said.

Man gives wife stolen TV for Christmas

I missed this story yesterday, but it's still the holiday season:

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - Instead of impressing "Honey Bunny" on Christmas morning with a 42-inch plasma television, "Big Papa" is facing a charge of theft.
Richard Perez, 42,  tois charged with stealing the TV and some bedding from a hotel where he worked as a security officer.

No charges followed fatal wrong-way crash

E-mail from coolly-named reader Rebecca Z.:

• Subject: Delores Jones -July 6, 2006
• Was anything ever found out about this woman? She was never charged with going the wrong way on the ramp. Is she a retired policeman's wife?

Delores Jones, 64, was driving the wrong way on an exit ramp off I-435 in Edwardsville when she collided with a motorcycle driven by Spencer Buck, 21, Shawnee. Buck, who was wearing a helmet, died in the crash.
Assistant Johnson County District Attorney Chris Schneider told me charges were declined in the case. There were indications Buck was speeding, he said.
"There has to be more than an accident for there to be criminal prosecution," he said. Records also indicate that Jones was not issued a ticket by the Kansas Highway Patrol, which investigated the accident.

Fatal crash with wrong-way driver

Open thread: 'No, you can't see my bra'

This is the place to come for discussion of off-topic topics. It's also a good place to bring crime-related story ideas, especially with a link or hint to where I can find it. The blog is always hungry.

Update: I changed the headline in a shameless bid for blog traffic

Beware the ATM "card capture" scam

This is a nice, scary PowerPoint that shows how you can be scammed out of your ATM card and PIN number by thieves with a little X-ray film and glue:

• ATM card capture scam

A law enforcement source sent this file to a colleague of mine, but I don't know more about its source than that.