KC area state rep arrested for DUI

Missouri State Rep. Ray Salva, a Sugar Creek Democrat, was arrested for drunken driving early Wednesday in Jefferson City.

E-mail from reader Steve M.:

• I heard that  Missouri State Representative  Ray Salva ( D -51)  was  arrested this week in Jefferson City, MO for DWI.
• I wish that you would post this and let us comment on it ..

AP story

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, Feb. 11, through Sunday, Feb. 18. 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 kccrime20070218.xls
Download kccrime20070217.xls
Download kccrime20070216.xls
Download kccrime20070215.xls
Download kccrime20070214.xls
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Download kccrime20070212.xls  
Download kccrime20070211.xls

A cornucopia of crime links today

Thanks to everyone who sends or posts crime-related story links for this blog, and sorry that I  sometimes miss one!

From reader The_Golfer:

DNA clears rape suspect

Balkan serial killer suspect in 1990 NYC murder
A man from the tiny Balkan country of Montenegro is suspected of killing and dismembering an elderly New York City woman when he was a cabdriver in that city in 1990. He is suspected of similar killings in Europe.

From reader blondie2hot7:

GI gets 100 years in Iraq family rape-slaying

A woman has been charged with drowning her son 30 years ago, mostly because she said she was sorry for hurting the boy when recently questioned.

Don't visit porn sites at work. Duh

A tiger killed a 6-year-old girl posing for a picture with it at a Chinese zoo. (There are many beautiful things in China. The Beijing zoo isn't one of them)

A man and a woman, 7 months pregnant, were shot to death in front of two children, 4 and 2, in Indianapolis.

The Massachusetts governor apologizes for a Cadillac GTS and $12,000 in drapes. So he's not a smart shopper.

25 employees of the Boston Police Department earn more than $200,000 a year.

Woman (photo) admits keeping grandson in dog cage.

Bar drunk shot dead after assaulting waitress.

Teen mom hides baby in entertainment center, baby dies.

Teens making out in 3-D chat rooms?

Florida sheriff's deputy dispatcher ignores child-abuse call.

From reader kmb:

Accused killer blames nonexistent twin brother

MESA, Ariz. - The night manager of a Christian bookstore foiled an armed robbery by slamming the man's hand in the cash register drawer, then wrestling with him before he fled.

Two apparently really stoned Nevada men (photo) called police to report burglars locked in their bathroom, but were busted for having pot and 10 bongs instead.

Boy, 14, shot with lawmaker's gun

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Blood droplets around the body of a 14-year-old boy who was shot to death with a lawmaker's gun show the boy could have shot himself, an investigator said at a coroner's inquest Thursday.
No charges have been filed in the shooting death of Louis Farrell, who lived next door to state Sen. Robert Regola and was friends with the Republican lawmaker's 16-year-old son, Bobby.
The teenager was found dead July 22 from a single gunshot wound to the head, but authorities have yet to determine if he committed suicide, shot himself accidentally or was shot by someone else.

Hat tip to readers blondie2hot7, The_Golfer

Today's huge pot bust: Houston Lake

Reymundo Gonzalez, 24, Houston Lake, has been charged with possessing more than 350 pounds of marijuana. In a search of his Platte County home, investigators confiscated $8,900 in cash, digital scales, 3 metal homemade boxes and 155 pounds of marijuana.
Investigators went to the home after they confiscated about 200 pounds of marijuana they said was being delivered to Gonzalez's residence.

Pet store name under fire: 'H.M Bitch'

SEATTLE - A newly opened store catering to very pampered dogs, especially female dogs, is getting more than questioning looks for its name, High Maintenance Bitch.
"I am probably the most progressive liberal person in the world and I am personally offended by the sign," said Janet Stillman, executive director of the local neighborhood office.
Featured products:

• Gel-ous Bitch bath gel
• Street Walker paw cleanser

Porn CD players in church detonated

Now, that's a rockin' church service:

• SANTA FE, N.M. - Three CD players hidden under a cathedral's pews blared sexually explicit language in the middle of an Ash Wednesday Mass, leading a bomb squad to detonate two of the devices. Authorities determined the music players were not dangerous and kept the third one to check it for clues.

Hat tip to reader kmb!

Ouch, my back! Ouch, I'm guilty!

Thomas W. Bradley, 61, Kansas City, faces up to three years in prison for collecting more than $30,000 in Social Security disability payments for a bad back while continuing to work at Metropolitan Transportation Services. Bradley pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to Social Security fraud.

News release

2 life terms in 1984 KC rape-murder

A 47-year-old Kansas City man has been sentenced to two consecutive life terms for a rape-murder he committed in 1984 - one of the oldest local "cold cases" solved by DNA technology.
The slaying of Shelley Rosted, 21, went unsolved until 2004, when investigators could match a semen sample with Blake D. McMilian. A jury convicted McMilian in December.

Charges and probable cause statement

Cop unbecomingly helps prostitute

No good deed goes unpunished, especially when the person you're helping is a prostitute and you're a cop:

• A Mesa police officer who maintained a Web site for a known prostitute was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer.

Mom beats son, 9, in front of class

A mother in Indiana showed up at the classroom of her son, 9, told the teacher she beats him but it doesn't do any good, then "slapped the boy and pounded his head repeatedly into a brick wall" and "dragged the boy into the classroom and invited students to make fun of him," police said.
The boy's in protective custody. No charges have been filed.

New York City dancing ban upheld

Possible theory: Bar and restaurant owners don't like the plaintiffs, because all they do is dance, not drink.

• A New York court has upheld a Prohibition-era anti-speakeasy law banning dancing in bars and restaurants in that city.
• The plaintiffs claimed that in the 1960s, about 1,000 places legally allowed patrons to dance, but fewer than 300 such places exist now. They also had challenged the city's application of zoning laws, arguing it was arbitrary and capricious.

RFID chips now size of speck of dust

You can't stop technology:

• TOKYO - Tiny computer chips used for tracking food, tickets and other items are getting even smaller. Hitachi Ltd., recently showed off radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips that are just 0.002 inches by 0.002 inches and look like bits of powder. They're thin enough to be embedded in a piece of paper.
• Invisible tracking brings to mind science-fiction-inspired uses, or even abuses, such as unknowingly getting sprinkled with smart-tag powder for Big Brother-like monitoring.
• "We are not imagining such uses," a Hitachi spokesman said.

Senior tourist kills would-be mugger

Three men armed with a knife and a gun tried to rob a busload of American senior citizen tourists in Costa Rica, but one passenger, a retired military man about 70 years old, killed one robber with his bare hands and other passengers drove the two other men off.

Drunks staggering to cars hugged, robbed

For the past decade, a 200-pound woman has preyed on drunks coming out of bars in Buffalo, NY, hugging them, then lifting their wallets. Finally, she's gotten what she deserves: A news story calling her the Hugging Bandit.

Hat tip to reader blondie2hot7!

Cell phone fees, spam protested

I've always had a theory that the Mafia, now seemingly defunct, has actually moved into the telecommunications business. That's probably unfair, but now this:

• Cell phone companies and third-party vendors, eager to pry more money from subscribers' wallets, are marketing extra services like ringtones, games, music, and more. But an increasingly angry chorus of cell phone customers complain that they're getting mysterious bills for monthly services that they did not intend to sign up for, and that then take months to cancel.
• Customers are also upset about paying for spam text messages to their phones. And lawsuits and consumer groups are targeting the huge early termination fees most companies charge and the seeming myriad of taxes that can make up as much as a fifth of monthly phone bills.

Successful drug-selling guard charged

A guard at the federal detention Center in San Antonio, TX, was "very successful" at selling drugs to inmates, but now has been arrested and faces drug charges, authorities said.

Hat tip to reader blondie2hot7!

Chimps getting smarter, more violent

Researchers in west Africa have observed chimpanzees routinely fashioning deadly spears and using them to hunt small mammals -- the first time regular weapon-making has been observed in animals.

Get your stinking hands off me, you damn dirty human!

Hat tip to reader Danny B.!

Latest beating leaves woman paralyzed

Her sister urged her to leave her common-law husband, but Vanessa Bibiano stayed for one beating too long. On Sunday, he beat her, dragged her down a flight of concrete steps and left her for dead behind a fence, police said. The attack broke her neck and left her paralyzed; the family is trying to raise money for her care.

Hat tip to reader blondie2hot7!

Open thread Friday

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.

An eco-crime and 682 pounds of pot

Highlights of indictments by the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas:

• Sand-and-gravel business owner Hugh Barker, 50, faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine for creating a dam made of broken concrete, woody debris, rebar and lumber fragments to divert water illegally from the East Sand Creek in Harper, KS.
• Lenny A. Horton, 34, Brighton, Colo., is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute approximately 682 pounds of marijuana. The crime is alleged to have occurred Dec. 18 in Wyandotte County.