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Monday, January 25, 2010

Stacy Petersons neighbor Bychowski testifies in Hearsay Hearing



chicagobreakingnews.com
Erika Slife and Steve Schmadeke
January 25, 2010


Shortly before she disappeared, Stacy Peterson told a neighbor that if she did disappear, it was because husband Drew Peterson had killed her, the neighbor testified this morning. "He's going to kill me," Sharon Bychowski quoted Stacy as telling her about a week before she was reported missing.
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...Bychowski said she came home from a trip to find Stacy sobbing outside her home..."She told me Drew wouldn't go," Bychowski testified. "She wouldn't leave and that having sex with him would make her skin crawl."


...She said Stacy then talked again about divorce and said she definitely would take the couple's two youngest children, which were biologically Stacy's, but wasn't sure about what would be best for the two oldest children.
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...Bruce Zidarich, 45, Cassandra's then boy friend from Downers Grove, testified...

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read article here

Casey Anthony pleads guilty to check fraud charges

Orlando Sentinel
By Amy L. Edwards and Bianca Prieto
via orlandosentinel.com
January 25, 2010

Casey Anthony was found guilty this afternoon after she entered a plea to Orange Curcuit Judge Stan Strickland...

The judge found her guilty in six of the charges and withheld adjudication in seven. She was given credit for 412 days of time served in jail and one year of probation.

Casey Anthony was also ordered to pay $348 in court fees and $5,517.75 in investigative fees...

Anthony was accused of stealing hundreds of dollars from a friend, Amy Huizenga, in July 2008. Investigators have said Casey Anthony used Huizenga's checks to buy more than $400 worth of clothes and groceries at area Target and Winn-Dixie stores...

read entire article here
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I wonder who is selecting her clothing for her now. That green shirt is, ah, well...I'm thinking someone picked it up from a second hand shop. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but not exactly what Casey was used to. Today it looked like she had on one of Jose's old shirts (that boy-friend shirt look.)

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Coffeyville couple sues SRS worker after granddaughter Brooklyn Coons is beaten to death


Left: Brooklyn's murderer, Melissa Wells, received a guilty verdict and is awaiting sentencing
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
January 24, 2010
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A family's lawsuit accuses a state social worker of gross negligence, saying she failed to protect a 23-month-old Coffeyville girl beaten to death by her father's meth-addicted girlfriend.
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The lawsuit, filed in federal court Tuesday, accuses SRS social worker Linda Gillen of not taking steps to remove Brooklyn Coons and her brother from a dangerous household after the maternal grandparents repeatedly raised concerns about injuries to Brooklyn...
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The lawsuit — brought by Brooklyn's maternal grandparents, Larry and Mary Crosetto — contends Gillen "failed to act to protect their grandchildren because of a pre-existing grudge..."
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Gillen could not be reached for comment. (I'll bet not. read the rest of the story and the time line below. Gillen should be charged with criminal negligence. I wouldn't want her looking out for my family.)
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Right: Brooklyn, Angela and Christian Coons
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The litigation is filed in federal court because of the argument that Brooklyn and her survivors were denied their constitutional rights by the state, said Randy Rathbun, a Wichita lawyer and former U.S. attorney for Kansas who is representing the Crosettos in their lawsuit.
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The Kansas Attorney Generals Office prosecuted the girlfriend in Brooklyn's death, which occurred on Jan. 20, 2008. The girlfriend later married Brooklyn's father. On Dec. 30, 2009, a judge sentenced Melissa Wells Coons to life in prison for the murder of Brooklyn.
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The same day the judge sentenced Melissa Coons, Brooklyn's father, Randy Coons, was charged with aggravated child endangerment, said Ashley Anstaett, spokeswoman for the Attorney Generals Office.
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The lawsuit against Gillen seeks more than $75,000 in damages.
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The first loss
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The Crosettos had dealt with a tragic loss less than six months before their granddaughter's murder. On Aug. 9, 2007, Brooklyn's mother, Angela Coons, died of a sudden illness at a Wichita hospital. She was 24...and was separated from Randy Coons...
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Angela was busy completing her degree at Pittsburg State University, the Crosettos had "practically raised" their grandchildren, Larry Crosetto said.
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The weekend after they buried their daughter, their son-in-law, Randy Coons, showed up on their front porch with two Coffeyville police officers and demanded to take the children, Crosetto said. The son-in-law moved the children in with him and his girlfriend, Melissa Wells.
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"Within a week of the kids being put into that home, Brooklyn showed up on a weekend with her lip stitched together," Crosetto said.
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The lawsuit provides this timeline:
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In the fall of 2007, the Crosettos started seeing bruises on Brooklyn, and their granddaughter
received medical treatment twice for suspicious injuries.
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On Nov. 5, 2007, school officials told Gillen, the SRS social worker, that Christian had bruising that looked suspicious, the lawsuit says.
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Nov. 6, 2007, Larry Crosetto tried to reach Gillen about the bruising, but got no return call, so he tried to contact her again on Nov. 14, 15 and 16, eventually reaching her on Nov. 20. Gillen said she had interviewed a school official, the children's father, his girlfriend and Christian...
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The situation got worse.
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On Dec. 10, 2007, the lawsuit says, Crosetto called Gillen again because the "bruising and marks were beginning to escalate...
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On Dec. 12, 2007, Crosetto sought help from school officials. "Their position was that SRS had taken control of the situation and it was out of their hands," the lawsuit says.
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On Sunday Dec. 23, the Crosettos' doctor noticed bruises on Brooklyn's face while she was at church, and he thought SRS should be notified. The doctor recommended that Larry Crosetto have another doctor examine Brooklyn the next day. On Dec. 24, the second doctor saw the girl, called police and sent a letter to the Coffeyville SRS office asking that "they investigate the situation and get back to him."
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Gillen did not respond to the letter, the lawsuit says. But that same day the doctor called police, a Coffeyville police officer took a report from Crosetto in the doctor's office and said he would contact the prosecutor's office when it opened after the holiday, Crosetto said.
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"I was under the understanding that the Police Department was trying... to intervene, that the roadblock was SRS," Crosetto said.
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The grandparents met with Gillen at her office on Dec. 28, [begging her to act to protect their grandchildren, with no resulting actions on Gillen's part.]
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And then the worst happened. On Jan. 17, 2008 — 20 days after the Crosettos expressed their fears to GillenCoffeyville police responded to a 911 call about Brooklyn. She was unresponsive, and she was in the care of Wells. Police saw head trauma and bruises.
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Doctors found that Brooklyn's brain was bleeding as a result of her being struck on the head, and she had brain damage from being shaken, the lawsuit says.
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The day after the 911 call, it says, police put three other children from the home of Wells and Randy Coons into protective custody because of "deplorable" living conditions and because of the fatal injuries to Brooklyn.
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The lawsuit says that the Police Department didn't take more steps to protect Brooklyn and the other children before Jan. 18, 2008
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The lawsuit argues that Gillen's "conduct increased the danger to (Brooklyn) from the meth addicted girlfriend."
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Read more: kansas.com
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Good for them. They can raise Christian in peace now. I'd like to see Linda Gillen in jail.
For background story:

Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe: Lawyer argues against death penalty in slaying of Carnation family


Left: Joseph McEnroe

Defense lawyers for a man and woman charged with killing six members of the woman's family on Christmas Eve 2007 said the death penalty shouldn't apply in their cases during a hearing Thursday in King County Superior Court.
By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
originally published December 17, 2009
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Defense lawyers for Joseph McEnroe and Michele Anderson, right, charged with killing six members of the woman's family on Christmas Eve 2007, said the death penalty shouldn't apply in their cases during a hearing Thursday in King County Superior Court.
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The defendents, both 31, are each charged with six counts of aggravated murder...They will likely be tried [in 2010].
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Their attorneys are hoping to persuade a judge to rule the death penalty is unconstitutional in the case...
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Under state law, a county prosecutor can file an aggravated-murder charge only if a defendant commits premeditated first-degree murder and "one or more aggravating circumstances exist." Aggravating factors can include...if multiple victims were killed in a "common scheme,"...
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Anderson and McEnroe are accused of fatally shooting Anderson's parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson, during a holiday gathering at their home. When her brother Scott Anderson and his wife, Erica, and their children, ages 5 and 3, arrived later that evening, they, too, were shot, prosecutors said.
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In June 2008, Anderson told The Seattle Times during a jailhouse interview that she and McEnroe, her former boyfriend, killed her family in a fit of rage, claiming she had suffered years of physical and emotional abuse.
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During a court hearing in October, Anderson said she alone was responsible for the slayings. She has sought to have prosecutors drop charges against McEnroe and also charge her with kidnapping for forcing him to participate in the killings.
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also read:
all from seattletimes.nwsource.com

It's becoming a routine for defense attorneys to first file motions to declare the death penalty as unconstitutional. If ever there was a case that should qualify, it is this one. This woman cold-bloodedly murders her entire family on Christmas Eve. Three generations of her own blood are destroyed and her pathetic self is receiving three meals a day and a bed. and cable tv.

Hearing for Mike Inman, Inman Kansas police chief rescheduled

Right: Inman Police Chief Mike Akins

by Darcy Gray
January 24, 2010
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The preliminary hearing for the Inman police chief accused of molesting four children has been rescheduled for 9 a.m. March 26 in McPherson County District Court, according to court records.
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Michael L. Akins Jr., 38, who remains in the McPherson County jail on $250,000 bond, was charged last week with 19 criminal counts and is accused of sexually abusing three girls and one boy between the ages of 9 and 14, according to the complaint filed against him by the Kansas Attorney Generals Office.
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Akins has hired McPherson-based attorney David Harger to represent him, district court staff confirmed Wednesday...
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The crimes are alleged to have occurred between December 2008 and December 2009...
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Akins was arrested Jan. 12 on a warrant after McPherson County Sheriff's deputies forcibly entered his home in Inman.
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Inman city officials have suspended Akins without pay and named police officer Bob Herron as acting police chief.Inman Mayor John O'Brien said Wednesday that no action was taken in Monday night's City Council meeting regarding Akin's job status. City officials "will not convict him until he's convicted," O'Brien reiterated Wednesday...
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Couple of things. Comments left on the previous Prairie Chicken post (above link) are very supportive of Mike Akins. Don't know the guy, so I have no opinion one way or the other. What I do wonder, though, is why did they have to go to his house to arrest him and break in the door? He was/is the Police Chief--I would think he would walk right in to the station and turn himself in and make a statement on his innocence.
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The comments also seem to hold an idea that if the abuse accusations are from step-children, it is less believable than if the children were strangers. I don't understand this logic, unless the posters are saying the children and ex-wife are in cahoots to have Akins falsely incarcerated. Dangerous game, if true. Step-children are in greater danger than random victims, because they are very accessible and under the control of their abusers.
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These are just general statements. I'll wait for the court to figure it out.
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The Drew Peterson case: Hearsay Hearing


Two wives to have major roles in pretrial hearing into drowning.
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Chicago Tribune at chicagotribune.com
By Steve Schmadeke
Tribune reporter
January 17, 2010
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Former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson is charged with drowning estranged wife Kathleen Savio, but much of the information likely to be presented at a unique pretrial hearing that starts Tuesday will involve the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy.
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For Stacy's family, the hearing will provide their first detailed look at what was uncovered during the massive investigation launched after she vanished in 2007. Her disappearance and the exhumation afterward of Savio's body and reclassification of her death as a homicide helped turn the case into national tabloid fodder...
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also read:
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Cop admits mistakes in ruling Savio's death an accident (Chicago Breaking News)
Patrick Collins, retired Illinois state police sergeant, admitted there were numerous shortcomings in his investigation that led to the conclusion that the death of Drew Peterson's third wife was an accident...Collins admitted he broke with normal protocol and allowed Peterson to sit in on an interview with Stacy Peterson, who gave Peterson his principal alibi for his whereabouts in the days before Savio was discovered...Peterson, a Bolingbrook police officer at the time, asked for "professional courtesy" and sat about a foot away from Stacy while she was interviewed, Collins said...
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Other shortcomings he admitted to:
Not examining or saving a glass of orange juice in the kitchen or a cup in the microwave;
not specifically asking about the position of Savio's body in the bathtub; not asking if the people who had discovered her had touched the body...Steve Schmadeke
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Ex-Savio co-workers tell of Drew Peterson threats (Chicago Tribune)
One colleague said Savio, with a bruised arm, detailed a home invasion in which Peterson held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her right there, but it "would be too bloody." Another told the judge that Peterson stalked Savio at the office, sitting in the parking lot for hours — at least once in a Bolingbrook squad car, other times an unmarked vehicle — and waiting for her to leave...
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Thomas Morphey has told police that Peterson used him to concoct a fake alibi for that day..Prosecutors also quizzed a cell phone company representative over records detailing cell phone calls made on the day she vanished. And a police lieutenant testified that Peterson punched him in the head after a round of locker room horseplay at the Police Department.-- Stacy St. Clair, Steve Schmadeke and Erika Slife
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Drew Peterson's stepbrother recounts night he helped Peterson remove blue storage container
In a hushed Will County courtroom, Morphey testified that the two carried a heavy, blue container — containing what he thought was Stacy Peterson's body — out the front door of the house and into the back of Peterson's GMC Yukon Denali. Afterward Peterson turned to him and said, "This never happened"... Morphey, 42, is believed to be one of the prosecution's star witnesses because of his claims he helped Peterson dispose of his fourth wife, Stacy...
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He acknowledged he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and battles manic depression. He admitted to being treated for drug and alcohol abuse, but he said his memory was clear about the morning of Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007...
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He said Peterson told him he would give him $200 to rent a storage unit under Morphey's name and store a container there."I said, 'What about the smell?'" Morphey said. "He said (the container) would be airtight."Peterson allegedly said Morphey would check on the unit "from time to time to make sure there was no odor." Peterson would return in six months after the "smoke cleared" to take care of it. If something happened to Peterson during that time, Morphey testified, Peterson allegedly told him to "drop it in the canal..."-- Erika Slife and Steve Schmadeke
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Drew's son speaks...
The older of two children born to Peterson's first wife, Carol Brown, who is neither missing nor murdered, Eric Peterson, 31, recounted a savage tale of domestic abuse he says Drew Peterson perpetrated on Savio in 1993.
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Eric Peterson and his younger brother, Stephen Peterson, were visiting their father and Savio for the weekend when Drew hauled his wife through the front door by her hair.
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"She was being dragged and fighting to stop being dragged," Eric Peterson said, adding that Savio was shouting obscenities at her husband, begging the children to call the police and "screaming for help."
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Eric Peterson said his father ordered his sons upstairs and pulled Savio down to the basement. He said the commotion downstairs sounded like a train ran through the house.
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One of Savio's sisters and the police later showed up. The next morning, Eric Peterson said, there was no sign of Savio, but the house was strewn with broken glass and overturned furniture.
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Eric Peterson said it was apparent that Savio was drunk the night Drew Peterson dragged her around.
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Eric Peterson said he has not spoken to his father since January 2003.
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"I don't love him or hate him," Eric Peterson said of his father. "It's separate of emotion. It's indifference."

Friday, January 22, 2010

HaLeigh Cummings' father, former stepmom arrested on drug trafficking charges


Right: Tommy and Misty Croslin. Doesn't look like they are having much fun now. Photo from staugustine.com.
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January 22, 2010
by Chad Smith

The father of HaLeigh Ann-Marie Cummings, the 5-year-old girl who has been missing since she was reported missing from her Putnam County home nearly a year ago, and his ex-wife were arrested Wednesday on drug trafficking charges after a monthlong undercover investigation, police said...
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Ronald L Cummings is facing three counts of trafficking prescription medications, and his bond would be posted at $500,000, according to a statement from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office released late Wednesday.
Misty Janette Croslin, 18, Cummings’ live-in girlfriend when HaLeigh disappeared, is facing six counts of the same charge. Croslin’s bond was set at $950,000.
The Sheriff's Office said that on seven different occasions, undercover investigators purchased the painkillers Oxycodone and Hydrocodone from the suspects and estimated the "street value" of the drugs at $3,900.00...
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Three others were also arrested in the ring.
Croslin’s brother, Hank "Tommy" Croslin Jr., 23, of Satsuma, is facing one count of the trafficking charge. His bond was $100,000.

Hope A. Sykes, 18, of Satsuma, and Donna Brock, 44, of Orlando, were also arrested.
Sykes is facing one count and will be held on a $150,000 bond. Brock is also facing one count but will be held on a $250,000 bond...
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Information was obtained that these individuals were unlawfully selling prescription medications in the community,” the release said. “Sheriff (Jeff Hardy) assigned detectives from the Drug/Vice Unit to the investigation. An undercover Putnam County Detective infiltrated this group, gaining the trust of these drug dealers.”
While the Sheriff’s Office did not connect the alleged drug ring and the disappearance of HaLeigh, the following was added to the bottom of the release..:

also read:
The Bald Truth, Art Harris
Misty Croslin, Ron Cummings Arrested

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Elderly women raped in Texas; Serial rapist on the loose


January 19, 2010
By Paul J. Weber, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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YOAKUM, Texas — ...A sexual predator has been assaulting elderly women in central Texas over the past year, terrifying residents and frustrating investigators who have only a vague description of the suspect...
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Beginning with the rape of a 65-year-old woman in Yoakum last January, authorities have linked eight sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults to the suspect, who has been dubbed the “Twilight Rapist” because most of the attacks occurred around dawn...
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The victims have all been women, ranging in age from 65 to 91...an 81-year-old woman scared off an intruder with a gun, firing several rounds for good measure...

The attacks occurred in seven rural towns, the largest of which has 6,000 residents. Two women were attacked — one of them twice — in Yoakum, a quiet town about 100 miles east of San Antonio...

Authorities say the attacks appear to have been planned — phone lines were cut and porch lights were unscrewed outside some of the victims’ homes. All the victims lived alone, and one had money stolen...
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Just across the interstate in Luling, where the last attack occurred in November, a neighbour said it’s no coincidence the victim was the only woman in his retirement village with a job. (?)
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A year into the case there is still no sketch of the suspect, only a vague description of a thin, young and dark-skinned man who is between 51/2- and 6-feet tall...
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more on the Net:
Yoakum municipality: http://www.cityofyoakum.org/

Friday, January 15, 2010

Mitrice Richardson's Family Files Claim Against L.A. County


January 14, 2010
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LOS ANGELES -- The family of a 24-year-old woman who mysteriously vanished after walking out of the Lost Hills sheriff's station nearly four months ago has filed a multi-million dollar claim against the county.
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The claim, filed last week, alleges that sheriff's department personnel acted negligently in releasing Mitrice Richardson from custody Sept. 17. Attorney Leo Terrell filed the action on behalf of Richardson's mother, Latice Sutton; her father, Michael Richardson; the missing woman; and her estate. Terrell plans to follow the claim with a lawsuit, according to the Los Angeles Times...
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L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca has ordered a homicide investigation into Richardson's disappearance, despite having no evidence that she is dead. In doing so, the sheriff's department can put some of its "top investigators" on the case, according to Steve Whitmore, a department spokesman.
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Mitrice Richardson is African American with brown hair and hazel-brown eyes. She is about 5 feet, 5 inches tall and about 125 pounds and has tattoos on her lower abdomen and on the back of her neck. She was last seen wearing a brown Bob Marley T-shirt and blue jeans.Police are asking anyone with information about her whereabouts to call Los Angeles detectives at 213-486-6900. A $25,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to her being found.

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I'm glad to hear they are finally going to make a showing of checking it out--still can't shake the notion that a Sheriff's officer knows exactly what happened, though. Few people knew there was a lone woman stumbling around in that remote an area. It was the middle of the night. Who was working the Sheriff's office at Lost Hills that night? What time did each of them go on and off duty? Who was "on patrol?." Will California State Police get involved? Shouldn't they if an LA County agency is being sued? Anyone know how it works out there?
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UPDATE--a little research showed that On July 12, 1995, the California State Police, which was a separate agency, was merged into the California Highway Patrol... In addition to safety on the state highway system, it is now responsible for the safety of all elected state officials and all people who work in or are utilizing a state building in California, such as the State Capitol Building in Sacramento. Looks like it's useless for a murder investigation. FBI would be appropriate then, when suspected County misconduct is involved.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Police Officer used stun gun on students during friendly demonstration, one hospitalized.

January 13, 2010
chicagobreakingnews.com
posted by --Joel Hood and Andrew L. Wang

Kankakee, Illinois-- A police officer is on leave, students are puzzled and parents are outraged as the fallout from a Taser demonstration gone awry rippled through the halls of Kankakee Junior High School on Wednesday.

Kankakee police said an officer assigned to the school zapped three male students who had volunteered to be part of an unsanctioned, classroom demonstration on Tuesday. Police said the Taser was used on the students for about a second, but long enough to send at least one briefly to a hospital.

The officer has been placed on administrative leave while the Police Department and school district investigate...

The boy's mother, Alta Young, told Channel 7 that Maiden has a heart murmur and that when she found out about the incident, she took him to the emergency room. He was released soon after...

Although police and school officials would not confirm it, Young said this wasn't the first time the officer has used a Taser on students in class...

read entire article here

Drew Peterson; pretrial hearing will be open to public


Chicago Sun-Times
via suntimes.com
January 9, 2010
posted by JOE HOSEY, Herald-News

The bid by Drew Peterson's lawyers to bar the public from a landmark hearsay hearing failed Friday, setting the stage for potentially explosive testimony to air in a proceeding that could last longer than a month.

Judge Stephen White rejected the arguments of Peterson's attorneys Joel Brodsky and Andrew Abood that keeping the hearing open might bias potential jurors against their client, who is accused of drowning his wife.
The hearing will determine what, if any, hearsay evidence will be allowed at Peterson's murder trial. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow countered Peterson's lawyers and called sealing the hearing un-American...

At the upcoming hearing, Peterson could face up to 60 prosecution witnesses -- ranging from a man he allegedly solicited to kill his third wife, Kathleen Savio, to his stepbrother Thomas Morphey, who claims he was asked by Peterson to kill his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, and that he later helped carry her body out of the family home in a blue barrel.

Peterson is charged with drowning Savio in 2004. State Police suspect he also might have killed Stacy Peterson, who vanished in October 2007. Peterson has not been charged in connection with her disappearance...

Inman police chief arrested, accused of child sex crimes


BY STAN FINGER
The Wichita Eagle
via kansas.com
January 13, 2010

Michael Akins, Inman, Kansas, police chief, has been charged with more than a dozen sex crimes and two counts of battery after he was arrested Tuesday night...

Michael Leland Akins Jr., 38, has been charged in McPherson County District Court with 19 counts that include abusing three girls and one boy under the age of 14. The alleged crimes reportedly occurred between December 2008 and December 2009, Attorney General Steve Six said...
The town's one remaining full-time officer was named acting police chief at a special City Council meeting called this morning, Mayor John O'Brien said...The Police Department has two half-time officers and one part-time officer.
...Six said Akins has been charged with one count of rape, 12 counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, two counts of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child, one count of indecent solicitation with a child, two counts of battery and one count of lewd and lascivious behavior.
The preliminary hearing for Akins has been set for 3 p.m. on Jan. 15.

This is a fairly good size police force for a town of 1,200. I'm waiting to hear if these were his children or step-children.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Missing Baby Gabriel Johnson: Couple Who Hoped to Adopt Ariz. Baby Took Lie Detector Test

CBSnew.com
written by Edecio Martinez

PHOENIX--Scottsdale couple Jack and Terri Smith, who briefly took care of missing baby Gabriel Johnson, say they know nothing about where the 8-month-old is now. Arizona police are trying to determine if the baby was given to strangers in San Antonio, as Gabriel's mother Elizabeth Johnson told them, or murdered, as she told the boy's father.

They are also trying to understand what exactly Jack and Terri Smith know. The couple had hoped to adopt Gabriel and police asked them to take a polygraph test last Friday.

The couple has said they befriended Gabriel's mother Elizabeth Johnson, 23, at an airport and that she wanted to give her son up for adoption. The child briefly stayed with them, but the boy's father, Logan McQueary, did not want to give up parental rights...

She had also sent McQueary a text message saying she had killed the infant.

"She never ever gave specific details. Whether it be a domestic violence shelter, the underground, whether it be a hotel. Whatever it was that she continued to tell me and now I feel like a fool because knowing more stuff now after all the facts have been laid out in front of me, I see that she was lying to us and playing us," said Terri Smith.

...She was taken into custody Dec. 30 after failing to show up for a custodial hearing in Phoenix. Elizabeth Johnson has been charged with kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference.

read entire article here

MORE ON CRIMESIDER
January 8, 2010 - Couple Who Hoped to Adopt Baby Gabriel Johnson Now "Persons of Interest" In His Disappearance

Friday, January 08, 2010

Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo undergoes prostate surgery

Asuncion, Paraguay (CNN) -- Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo underwent prostate surgery early Friday, his spokesman said. The surgery, which was performed at the Italian Hospital in Asuncion, had been scheduled for weeks, spokesman Augusto dos Santos told reporters.
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The surgery involved nine doctors and three nurses and took about an hour, Martinez said at a news conference. Lugo arrived at the hospital at 4 a.m. ( 2 a.m. ET), was wheeled into surgery at 5 a.m. and was in the recovery room by 5 a.m., Martinez said.
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...Lugo is a former priest who has been involved in several paternity controversies in the past year.
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He is expected to remain in the hospital until Saturday afternoon and then recuperate for three to four days in the presidential residence, spokesman dos Santos said...
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read article here
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Paraguay's military commander fired
November 6, 2009
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Asuncion, Paraguay (CNN) -- Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo continued to purge the top ranks of the nation's military Friday, removing the armed forces' commander. Lugo fired the commanders of the country's army, air force and navy on Wednesday. The armed forces commander, Rear Adm. Cibar Benitez Caceres, had been the only top official to survive Wednesday's dismissals.
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Lugo has given no reason for the firings, publicly denying rumors of a coup plot.
Benitez Caceres will be replaced as armed forces chief by Brig. Gen. Juan Oscar Velazquez Castillo, the president's executive order said. The handover ceremony was scheduled to take place Friday afternoon...
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Paraguay's history is filled with unstable transitions of power since it emerged in 1989 from Gen. Alfredo Stroessner's 35-year dictatorship. There were attempted coups in 1996 and 2000, and President Raul Cubas resigned amid controversy in 1999...
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Friday's military shakeup is the fourth since Lugo took office. The former Catholic bishop was elected to a five-year term last year, bringing an end to six decades of one-party rule in Paraguay. But the goodwill did not last long...
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In April, Lugo admitted that he fathered a child while he was still a priest and that he may have fathered more. Three women have accused him of fathering a child. The revelation, which came as a shock to most, hurt his political image...
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read entire article here

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Susan Powell update


by Melinda Rogers
January 7, 2010

The grisly discovery in the Pilot Valley area northwest of West Wendover, Nev., around noon spurred speculation, as Susan Powell's husband, Joshua Powell, reportedly went camping in western Utah with his two young boys the day she disappeared.

.Joshua Powell has said he and his boys left for Simpson Springs, in the west desert, around 12:30 a.m., while Susan remained at home. He is the only person of interest named by police in the case.
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..."The [West Valley City Police Department] is doing a great job. The press is as anxious as we are to have Susan found, unfortunately due to time lines, competition, and the needs of those investigating to build a legal case, the press is forced to speculate," Cox wrote, around 6 p.m.
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...We appreciate all of your prayers and support...
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Meanwhile, plans for Joshua Powell's departure from West Valley City to his hometown of Puyallup, Wash., continued Thursday. Powell's brother, Michael Powell, has been spotted at the home and called West Valley City police Wednesday after Susan Powell's friend Tim Peterson arrived to retrieve a playground set he'd given to the family.
Peterson left the home after police officers asked him to.
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Friends of Joshua Powell have said he plans to sell his home and was forced to leave Utah after losing his job in Utah. He plans to live with his father near Puyallup.
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Larry Richman, a bishop in the Hunter 36th LDS Ward in West Valley City, which Joshua Powell attends, said several members of the ward will help Powell load a moving truck on Saturday...
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"He is moving out on Saturday. There are some members of the ward who are going to help him move," Richman told The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday.
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She disappeared one month ago today. He has had precious little to say except for an outrageous story about snow camping with a two and four year old, leaving the house at 12:30am. After midnight. Smore's. Then he quickly retained an attorney.
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And now, after one month, he's moving from their home Washington State.
Unfortunately, this reminds me of Stacy Peterson and Laci Peterson. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid he's done something to his wife.

Body found at West Wendover, Utah NOT Susan Powell

January 7, 2010

WEST WENDOVER, Utah (ABC 4 News) -

Police confirm that a body has been found in the desert west of Wendover wrapped in duct tape and plastic.

Elko County Undersheriff Doug Gailey told ABC 4 News that an initial investigation shows the body is an hispanic male.

There was speculation that the body may belong to Susan Powell who has been missing since late early December.

The body was found in Pilot Valley, about 15 miles from the Utah border near Interstate 80.

[Go to] ABC4.com for more on this story.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Adam Herrman not forgotten in Butler County, Kansas


Tim Potter, The Wichita Eagle
January 2, 2010

TOWANDA — The mystery began here. In 1999, 11-year-old Adam Herrman disappeared from his adoptive parents' mobile home on the south side of town.
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But investigators didn't discover the boy had been missing until about a year ago — after his older, adoptive sister told authorities she was concerned about him...
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A year later, the mystery remains unsolved. Authorities say they continue to work on the case.
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In a recent interview, Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield said she expects to make a decision on charges within the next year. Nearly a year ago, she said Adam's adoptive parents were suspects in his disappearance. In some ways, Satterfield said, the case gets stronger with time. "There is no statute of limitations on murder,'' she said...
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Satterfield said that within the next year, she expects to file charges or submit the case to a grand jury so it could consider bringing indictments.

She declined to say what charges might be filed...

Warner Eisenbise, the lawyer who represents Adam's adoptive mother, Valerie Herrman...
Laura Shaneyfelt, lawyer for Adam's adoptive father, Doug Herrman...
The Herrmans continue to assert that they are innocent, their lawyers say.

In an interview with The Eagle last January, Valerie Herrman, then 52, said that in early May 1999, when Adam was 11, he ran away from their Towanda mobile home and didn't return after she spanked him with a belt. She said she didn't report him missing because she feared it would cause her and her husband to lose custody of Adam and their other children.

Relatives said that Valerie Herrman told them that Adam, who was being home-schooled, was no longer at home because he had been returned to state custody...
Adam's biological father, Irvin Groeninger...thinks authorities are doing everything they can. He said he hopes that charges will be filed. "I'm hoping that there will be justice served on this." And he said he would welcome renewed media attention on the case.
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...Court records show that the Herrmans continued to list Adam as a dependent in court documents. Valerie Herrman told The Eagle that they continued to accept $700 monthly adoption subsidy payments for Adam until his 18th birthday in 2005 — six years after he disappeared. Adam would be 22 now...
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Sunday, January 03, 2010

Stockbroker Susan Powell Disappears in Utah while Husband Camps with toddlers


Dec 18, 2009

...Stockbroker Susan Powell, 28, has been missing since December 7. Her husband Josh says he last saw her getting ready for bed about 12:30 a.m. and left her sleeping while he went camping with the couple's two young sons.

Powell's purse, cell phone and car were found at their home in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Valley City.
...Her parents say Powell, who works as a stockbroker for Wells Fargo Financial, wouldn't have left her family of her own accord.

[Her father] said some of his son-in-law's story "didn't sound normal" to him — like his explanation of taking the camping trip with the boys while Powell stayed home in bed...

Powell is 5 feet 4 inches, 130 pounds, with long, brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call West Valley police in Utah.

Also read:


...Josh Powell said he went camping with their boys, ages 2 and 4, in subfreezing temperatures about 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 7 and returned in the evening.

But Josh Powell has been uncooperative in providing any details that might explain what happened to his wife, Black said. Among other things, Josh Powell hasn't specified where he went camping or where he was all day on Dec. 7, he said.
"That would be awesome if he would be willing to cooperate on that level and take us to his camp site," Black said.

Powell has told police he went camping in Simpson Springs on the historic Pony Express Trail in Utah's west desert — an area of thousands of square miles — that is now covered in snow...


...West Valley City Police Capt. Tom McLachlan on Thursday said the 4-year-old boy was interviewed within "a day or two" after his mother was reported missing. The son told police his family went camping — an event his father has said coincided with her disappearance.

"I think the verification of the camping trip is important to the timeline on this," McLachlan said, cautioning against placing too much importance on the child's statement.

Investigators searched the Powell home for a second time...but would not disclose what was taken. Police have also searched Josh Powell's van...


...McLachlan declined to comment on whether police had obtained a notebook or journal from Susan Powell's office, which reportedly detailed an alleged threat made by her husband about a year ago. Cox said police found a wet spot in the home being dried by two fans, but police have declined to comment on that.

Investigators said there were no signs of forced entry at the home and they found Susan Powell's purse and cell phone there.
Gifford said friends and family members weren't surprised authorities named the husband a person of interest "given the events and his reactions to them in the past week."

"We know that Susan is an excellent mother and would not have tolerated her children being taken out of the home after midnight to go camping in dangerously cold conditions," Gifford said...

I don't think ole' Josh thought this through. Taking two little guys camping can be daunting in good weather, it's just not done in bitter cold snowy climates in this way... got up and had smore's. So, kids who are too little to venture too far from the tent (if there was one) are all sugared up. It doesn't cut it with me. I'm afraid Josh loaded up his wife's body in the vehicle before he loaded up the kids. My 4-year-old would pay no attention to what was packed. And once the kids are asleep in their warm beds, he thinks it makes sense to get them up and take them out to the freezing woods. BS, I say, BS.

Where is Haleigh Cummings?



The Prairie Chicken
January 3, 2010

It's been a few months since there was any news in Putnam County Florida concerning Haleigh Cummings and her extended family. Leave it to Ron and Misty, though, to kick it up a notch to usher in the New Year.

Misty has reported to authorities that she has been receiving threatening phone calls and it is reported that has had at least one boyfriend since The Ronald.

Ron, in his usual fashion, tried to run a guy off the road (possibly Misty's boyfriend) and then threaten HIM with a gun; a gun Ron swears is locked up at the house.

Haleigh is still missing. Bless her little heart.
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Ronald Cummings, Misty, Questioned in Road Rage Run-in
From Bald Truth Staff, http://www.artharris.com/
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...According to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Cummings was driving a pickup truck that hit another vehicle on Wednesday night on a county road in Welaka, a small community near Satsuma...
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JaxNews4 reports “the rear of Cummings’ pickup struck the front of Charles Jones III’s vehicle. Deputies said Jones told them Cummings stuck a gun out his window and said, “I will kill you.”
According to the police report, deputies said Cummings, 26, and his ex-wife, Misty, said they were riding back to his trailer to pick up clothes she’d left behind before their divorce, when Jones’ tried to run them off the road...
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Haleigh's Mom Holds Onto Hope
December 31, 2009
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --
...Talking on the eve of a new year, Crystal Sheffield told Channel 4 she'd give anything to go back to the way things were before the worst day of her life. "Like your heart has been ripped out of your chest," Crystal Sheffield said. "I really don't know how to explain the hurt I feel."
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...Sheffield said she still talks to Haleigh's dad, Ronald Cummings, about the search for their daughter... "I just want everyone to keep searching," Sheffield told Channel 4's Adam Landau. "I don't want anybody to give up on her. She's only 6. She's not worth giving up on."
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If you know anything about where Haleigh may be, call Crime Stoppers at 888-277-TIPS. You can also text your information to investigators. Text TIP-231 plus your message to CRIMES (274637).

Georgia Couple Arrested For Tattooing Children

By AP Exchange
via wrbl.com
January 2, 2010

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. (AP) A Chattooga County couple was arrested for tattooing six of their children.

WAGA-TV reports that PattyJo Marsh and her husband 34-year-old Jacob Edwards tattooed themselves and six children using a plastic pen body with a needle made from a guitar string connected to an electric motor.

Five children got a cross-like tattoo on their hands and a sixth had "mom and dad" inked on his arm.

The pair were arrested after the biological mother of two of the children complained the tattoos wouldn't wash off. Marsh tells WAGA that they did it because the children asked them to.

Marsh and Edwards are charged with three counts each of illegal tattooing, second degree child cruelty and reckless conduct. Both bonded out of jail Friday evening.
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Information from: WAGA-TV, http://www.wagatv.com/index.shtml

What in the world would make these people think it would be ok to tattoo their children? From the looks of the hardware mama wears in her face, it's obvious she's not thinking all that clearly, but that leads to...these idiots have spawned seven children between them? omg.
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I wonder what kind of damage those face studs cause when they get in fist fights? You know they do. Neither of them appear to be church-going tee-totalers, not that religion makes one passive. Just a thought.