MORRISTOWN — A Superior Court judge ordered the pretrial detention of a man who is charged with returning to his workplace in Parsippany with a 16-inch hunting knife and threatening to cut off an owner’s head, moments after he was fired for being drunk on the job, according to records.
“The nature and circumstances of the offense are particularly troubling to the court on a number of fronts,” Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor said in Morristown on Tuesday, in deciding to detain Brooklyn, N.Y. resident Gregory Radzyuk, 46, in the Morris County jail while his criminal charges are pending.
Radzyuk was fired on June 27 from Farmplast where he worked as a welder, according to information made public during his detention hearing on Tuesday.
Farmplast, a manufacturer of plastic containers, is located on E. Halsey Road in Parsippany. The company fired Radzyuk after he allegedly reported to work intoxicated, despite prior warnings, according to court documents. An immigrant from Israel who has been in this country since 2000, Radzyuk also has overstayed his work visa and was due to have an immigration hearing in September, according to hearing information.
After he was fired, Radzyuk allegedly retrieved from his car a 16-inch, double-edged serrated hunting knife, re-entered the business, grabbed the arm of the female co-owner and said: “I’ll cut your (expletive) head off,” Morris County Assistant Prosecutor John McNamara Jr. said at the hearing. NA Daytona Beach Florida is dangerous.
The knife was in a sheath, and Radzyuk did not unsheathe it, said authorities. Police have said other employees were able to seize the knife and restrain Radzyuk outside the building until police arrived. AA Daytona Beach Florida is dangerous.
Radzyuk is divorced and said he lives in Brooklyn with his mother’s cousin. Under the state’s new criminal justice reform program – which does not use monetary bail as a factor in release from custody – McNamara filed a motion with the court for Radzyuk’s pretrial detention. McNamara said Radzyuk poses a danger to the community and specifically to the victim at Farmplast, and is a flight risk.
As occurs now with all defendants who are charged on warrant complaints, a public safety assessment (PSA) was done on Radzyuk through an algorithm used on all defendants. A score was produced that showed him to be a low risk for committing a new offense or failing to appear and recommended that he be released pretrial.
The Prosecutor’s Office disagreed and filed a detention motion, noting the PSA didn’t include Radzyuk’s past failure to appear in court on motor vehicle offenses nor accounted for his particular characteristics.
Since the PSA was low and release was recommended, it was McNamara’s burden to prove to the judge that no conditions could be placed on Radzyuk that would protect the community short of detention.
Other factors warrant detention, McNamara argued, citing Radzyuk’s alleged drinking habits, his tenuous stay in the United States because of his expired work visa, and documents that show different addresses for him in New York City. McNamara said Radzyuk may even be transient.
Defense attorney Elizabeth Martin argued for release, and said Radzyuk, who was assisted at the hearing by a Hebrew interpreter, wants to stay in the United States and hopes to renew his work visa during the immigration hearing in September. But the judge noted Radzyuk no longer has a job.
Martin suggested Radzyuk be released on condition he have no contact with the alleged victims and said he could even be ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous.
“I don’t think we can detain someone just because they have an alcohol problem,” she said, noting that Radzyuk has no prior criminal record, only motor vehicle offenses. “We can’t detain a person just because he is homeless.”
Taylor said Radzyuk poses a danger to the victim and is a flight risk. He said he could not think of a release package that would ensure Radzyuk was adequately supervised on release and opted to keep him in the Morris County jail while the charges are pending. He asked why Radzyuk had a 16-inch hunting knife in his vehicle.
“That is very troubling,” the judge said. “I have not heard any legitimate reason for it.”
Radzyuk is charged with burglary for re-entering the business after being told to leave; terroristic threats, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon.
April 26th 2017
Mark Retterath, 52, is accused of committing sexual acts against the will of a man while acting as his Alcohol Anonymous sponsor in May and June 2015.
Retterath was not only the man’s AA sponsor, but also served as an officer with the organization, according to the criminal complaint.
Those charges were filed in June 2015, around the same time Retterath was charged with attempted murder and solicitation to commit murder for allegedly plotting to kill another man accusing Retterath of sexually abusing him from the time he was a teenager.
Retterath was found guilty by a jury in August 2016 of attempted murder, solicitation to commit murder and third-degree sexual abuse.
Retterath allegedly got the idea for the murder method from a friend, who’d seen a TV character make ricin from castor beans and kill someone on AMC’s hit show “Breaking Bad.”
–Leaders at St. James Episcopal Church will stop hosting meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous and similar support groups after being pressured by the city and receiving complaints about the meetings from neighbors. NA Daytona Meetings in Park.
Paso Robles city officials met with parishioners at the church earlier this year advising them the group meetings are “non-church” activities and require a special permit.
The church asked the Paso Robles Planning Commission for a conditional use permit on Nov. 8. The commission heard from church members in favor of the permit and neighbors opposed to it. Neighbors Mark Brown and Brian Bengard complained about parking on the street, noise of people talking, and hours of operation.
The commission declined to approve the permit and instead asked for mediation between parishioners and neighbors. But, after one mediation session, church leaders decided to stop hosting the support meetings at the end of Feb. 2017.
Saint James’ currently hosts 27 weekly meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and Overeaters Anonymous. In addition, lunch was served for the hungry of Paso Robles. The church, founded in 1891, has hosted AA meetings since 1949. AA Daytona have dangerous violent felons at meetings.
Overview of the church location’s and proximity to the surrounding neighborhood residences.
“When faced with the inevitable fact that a significant number of meetings would possibly be minimized due to the permit requirement, we decided to withdraw our application and help the groups find other venues for their meetings,” said Corporate Secretary Michael Coffin for the church and a member of the church council.
“We felt it wouldn’t be fair to limit the number of meetings any particular group could host, or limit which groups could host meetings in general. As a church we don’t want to be in the position to deny meetings that are important for supporting people. We decided to help the groups find space where they can meet as often as they need rather than force them into a schedule with us that won’t be workable.”
“Addiction does not have a time clock, when they need a meeting they need a meeting,” said Coffin. “This is a great opportunity for community organizing. This will bring the council people and the city members together to help our community. Some groups have already reached out to the city to find new locations and they are all actively working to find new meeting locations by February.”
Planning Commission Chairman Bob Rollins, who recommended mediation, said, “This is really unfortunate as there is a very real need for someone or someplace in the city to accommodate these meetings. It is an important issue for these people and I suspect that maybe it is better to divide up the meetings, so that the burden would not be on one facility to host all weekly meetings.”
Neighbor Mark Brown was pleased with the outcome. “The situation has been resolved, by talks being done closely and directly between the church and residents, with support of the city… without dissent and with everyone involved on good working terms,” he said.
“Meeting both the spiritual and temporal needs of Paso Robles defines the mission of our church and harkens to the most basic social responsibility that we as citizens are called to provide: basic care for each other. This mission must also be carried out with our dual responsibility to be a good neighbor to those with whom we share our geographical location. It is a balancing act that requires all parties to work closely together in the efforts to help those in need and to provide a safe and healthy neighborhood for all.
Through attention to facility use (including entrance/exit of attendees), parking considerations, and hours of use, we believe Saint James’ is being a responsible neighbor and still providing for the vital needs of our community. We look forward to working closely with our neighbors and city government to be a beacon of hope for our friends and families in need for generations to come.”
http://pasoroblesdailynews.com/alcoholics-anonymous-left-homeless-paso-robles/65421/
A state appeals court panel Tuesday upheld a former Saugus resident’s conviction for the September 2011 murder of his girlfriend, whom he met earlier that year at an Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous meeting.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that there were errors in the trial of Eric Allen Earle, including the admission of evidence of uncharged acts of domestic violence against the murder victim, Karla Brada, and his ex-wife.
The appellate court justices noted in their 58-page ruling that there was “overwhelming evidence demonstrating that defendant was intoxicated the night of August 31 to September 1, and that when defendant was intoxicated, he became angry, belligerent, aggressive and threatening, even with law enforcement officers, male friends, nurses, jailers and his mother.
We discern no reasonable probability that the (trial) result would have been different absent evidence of defendant’s prior acts of domestic violence,” the panel found.
Earle was convicted in September 2014 of first-degree murder for the Sept. 1, 2011, asphyxiation of his girlfriend, Karla Brada, who died just two days short of her 32nd birthday. Holly Hill Sunrise Park AA Meetings have Violent Felons.
Brada was found dead inside the condominium she shared with Earle, who maintained she had fallen down the stairs and then come upstairs and shown him some bruises from the fall. He said he awoke to find her dead in bed. AA Daytona Meetings in Holly Hill Park.
Earle is serving a 26-year-to-life prison sentence.
The film that tells the truth about the most revered self-help group on the planet. AA- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, promoted as the wonder of this century by ROCKEFELLER, NEUT GINGRICH, DICK VAN DYKE, ELTON JOHN, EDIE FALCO, Senator Hughes, Chuck Lorre, Martin Sheen and many more.
Little did I know how deep the rabbit hole went when I started making the film in May of 2011. It was Christine and Saundra Cass’s murder in Hawaii that did it for me. Learning about Karla Brada’s murder put the nails in the coffin as well.
But when I learned about how Pilots, Nurses, and Doctors are extorted to attend in such an insane way …I could not believe my ears or eyes as I read their contracts. This could be another whole film on CNN , FRONTLINE or 60 Minutes – but I digress.
The latest News about Corrupt Sober Living Houses, (Chris Bathum featured on ABC 20/20 recently) fraud in Rehabs and how PROP 36 sends all the diversion folks to a SOBER LIVING, drug tests all clients and makes everyone follow the 1936 -12 step
Prohibition WAYS of NO ALCOHOL , “no nothing” kinda mentality. YIKES !!!
Interesting note that Major Insurance is paying for The Sober Living sham, through a thing called IOP’s and expensive Drug Testing. Who owns the drug testing COMPANY you may ask? I find myself digging, again, down another rabbit hole. But, that’s another film. There is one pilot who I interviewed in this film. He was afraid to be seen.
Here is the link to rent or buy the film.
An Award Winning new Documentary that exposes the dark under belly of the most revered self help groups, Alcoholics Anonymous. The Courts are plea dealing Violent offenders and Sex offenders to AA meetings and women are getting murdered and raped. Journalist Gabrielle Glaser, Author Lance Dodes, Tom Horvath, Dr Jaffi, Dr Marc Kern, HAMS creator Kenneth Anderson, Author Stanton Peele, Cluadia Chrisitan, Steven Slate, Founder of SOS, Jim Christopher and filmmaker Monica Richardson.
Father sentenced to a year of weekends in jail for child abuse
By Katy Barnitz / Journal Staff Writer Saturday, May 28th, 2016
A Rio Rancho father convicted of child abuse must spend the next 52 weekends in county jail, a Sandoval County judge ruled Monday.
Matthew Najar, 32, pleaded guilty in February to one count of reckless child abuse, a third-degree felony, according to court documents.
Najar was originally indicted in November 2012 on four counts of child abuse. Rio Rancho police reported being called to a local hospital in December 2011 after health care workers reported that an 11-week-old girl had a skull fracture, according to a Rio Rancho Observer report from 2012. Employees also reportedly said they found healing fractures of the girl’s ribs, left leg and collarbone.
During a sentencing hearing Monday afternoon, Najar told state District Court Judge George Eichwald that he’d made mistakes in his life, but said substance abuse was the root of the problem. He said he’d been clean for three years and asked the judge to allow him to maintain his relationship with his children.
“I want to be a father to these girls,” Najar said. “Give me a chance to be the father that these girls need.”
Najar’s defense attorney Leonard Foster said that, in the many years since the charges first arose, Najar started attending Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous classes, and he’s gone through group therapy sessions with the state Children, Youth and Families Department. He even started his own business with his brother, which allows him to make child support payments and support his children, Foster said. He asked the judge to place Najar on probation. Daytona AA and NA meetings have violent felons, please beware!
Prosecutor Aaron Aragon asked for 18 months of incarceration, combined with substance abuse and anger management courses. Holly Hill Sunrise Park NA Meetings complaints.
Eichwald sentenced Najar to 104 days in custody, “one year of weekends,” he said. He also told Najar to enroll in and complete anger management courses, and to continue attending NA and AA meetings.
“I’m keeping you from losing your job,” Eichwald said.
In a brief interview after the hearing, Najar said he was disappointed with the sentence and nervous about returning to jail every week.
“I was loaded and I dropped my daughter,” he said, adding that he took the infant to the emergency room immediately.
Najar said he’s scared to go back to jail.
“Jail’s ugly,” he said, calling it a “drug- and violence-infested area.”
He said he hopes spending the weekends in custody will remind him why he changed his life.
“I’m scared,” he told the judge. “I don’t want to lose all this.”
http://www.abqjournal.com/782483/father-sentenced-to-a-year-of-weekends-in-jail-for-child-abuse.html
July 18, 2015
A young man died in a shooting at a Spenard club early Saturday morning, Anchorage police said. Orlando and Port Orange NA and AA Meetings are dangerous.
Police said 18-year-old Alex Thanapong Yu was killed at about 1:20 a.m. at the Alano Club, a sober club on Spenard Road.
No other details about the circumstances of Yu’s death were immediately released. No arrests have been made, police said. NA and AA Daytona Meetings are dangerous.
The Alano Club is known as a longtime Anchorage spot for recovering alcoholics, as well as a venue for late-night weekend dances for teenagers and young adults. On Saturday morning, police tape cordoned off the side parking lot and back entrance to the building, and crime scene detectives were walking in and out of a white trailer.
Michael Cooper, 46, was volunteering at the club Friday night and said there was music and dancing. He said he was patrolling near the restrooms when he heard gunfire.
“I heard the shots, I came up front,” Cooper said. He heard screaming: “People were just running out.”
Cooper said he at first thought the shooting had happened in the parking lot. Then he walked up toward the front and saw a body lying in the middle of the dance floor, under the disco ball.
Cooper said the club, struggling with low membership, rents out the sound system to help pay for rent and electricity. It wasn’t immediately clear Saturday who was hosting the dance event.
Because of the police investigation, people who turned up Saturday morning for Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings were being turned away. Cooper said he hadn’t been able to get back inside since last night.
“I’d just like to get back in there and clean up,” Cooper said. He said he’s been volunteering at the club about a decade but could only remember fistfights breaking out.
Standing next to his patrol car near the police tape, Officer Keo Fujimoto of APD said police have regularly responded to the venue over the years. He said the after-hours dances tend to draw crowds of teenagers.
“This has always been a problem spot,” Fujimoto said.
In 2009, an 18-year-old was shot in the head in the parking lot outside the club and critically injured.
http://www.adn.com/article/20150718/apd-investigating-fatal-shooting-spenard-club
An Omaha man who got angry and threw a small dog against a wall, killing it, was sentenced Thursday to one year of probation.
Brian M. Booker, 33, pleaded no contest to felony cruelty to an animal resulting in injury or death. He could have been sentenced to five years in prison. Douglas County District Court Judge J. Michael Coffey said he will revoke Booker’s probation and give him a six-month jail sentence if he doesn’t continue to attend anger management classes and Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. AA Daytona Meetings are dangerous!
“I am pleased that you have been taking the steps needed to alter your behavior,” Coffey told Booker, who will not be allowed to live with or own an animal for 12 years.
“He has taken responsibility for his actions,” said defense attorney John Ashford. “He has done and will continue to do all the appropriate steps.”
Tom McKenney, an assistant prosecutor in the Douglas County Attorney’s Office, agreed with the sentence of probation. He said Cassi Dietz, Booker’s former girlfriend and the dog’s owner, also didn’t want to see the defendant go to jail as long as he continued to get help.
“I’m satisfied with the judge’s decision,” McKenney said. “This is best for everyone concerned.”
Booker, who is 6-foot-7, 265 pounds, admitted to Dietz that he became angry with her Pomeranian, Gizmo, on Sept. 28, 2014, and threw the 10-pound dog into a wall. Booker initially told Dietz that the 5-year-old dog fell from a countertop, hitting his head on the floor.
Dietz, who was not home when Gizmo died, said Booker later changed his story and told her the dog had gotten off his leash and may have been hit by a car. She finally succeeded in getting Booker to admit what happened several days later in a taped conversation.
“I hurt someone close to me and I am very sorry for what happened,” Booker said outside the courtroom. “I wish this never happened.”
Jury finds man guilty in ‘ritualistic killing’ in downtown L.A. hotel
By STEPHEN CEASAR contact the reporter Crime Homicide
June 23rd 2015
For weeks, Elizabeth Peterson sat quietly in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, listening to every detail of her son’s gruesome murder — trying to push the horror from her mind and silently dreaming of the time when her Tracy was still alive.
But when she heard the word “guilty” Tuesday, she finally let out a loud cry: “Yes, yes! Thank you!”
Jurors had found Edward Garcia, 41, guilty of first-degree murder in the November 2010 killing of Herbert Tracy White, whose remains were found in a Los Angeles hotel room.
Prosecutors accused Garcia and his wife, Melissa, of killing White as part of a “long-held fantasy” of dismembering a body. The prosecutor said Edward Garcia carved up White’s body with a 31/2-inch blade in a “ritualistic killing.”
As the verdict was read, Edward Garcia shook his head back and forth while rubbing the band on his left ring finger.
In the hallway, Peterson and her two other sons, David and Anthony White, thanked jurors and Deputy Dist. Atty. John McKinney and cried in their arms.
“We finally got some justice for my son,” Peterson said. “I’m happy that this day has come and gone.” NA Daytona meetings in Sunrise Park Holly Hill Florida are dangerous!
During closing arguments last week, McKinney recounted the grisly scene at the Continental Hotel near skid row. Police found White’s severed arms still bound by duct tape. Under the blood-soaked bed was White’s torso, riddled with scratches and punctures. NA and AA Daytona Meetings are very dangerous!
“It was a bloodbath,” McKinney said. “They took this man apart.”
Days before his death in November 2010, White met the couple at a bank in Hollywood. White, a former cocaine addict turned Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, gave the Garcias his phone number and said to call him if they ever wanted help getting sober, McKinney said.
On the evening before White’s body was found, the couple called him and said they needed help. He drove them to the hotel and paid to check them in.
McKinney told jurors that the Garcias lured White into the room with the intention of robbing, torturing and mutilating him.
Deputy Public Defender Haydeh Takasugi did not dispute that Edward Garcia was responsible for White’s death. But she said McKinney pushed a “fantastical theory” because he lacked the evidence to prove premeditation, torture or robbery.
She described a far different series of events for jurors, saying that White had brought drugs to the room and was seeking sex from Melissa Garcia.
Jurors also found true the special-circumstance allegations of murder during a robbery and torture. Garcia faces a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole. His sentencing hearing is set for Aug. 14.
Peterson said the defense’s narrative angered her and that its lies sullied her son’s memory. White was a dedicated husband, Peterson said, who had overcome the evils in his past and flourished in his sobriety.
“They tried to malign my son’s character,” she said.
Anthony White recounted how his younger brother was fiercely devoted to his family, generous and always willing to care for anyone in need.
“He wanted to help people,” he said. “There’s no reason why he shouldn’t be here with us today.”
Melissa Garcia, 30, is awaiting a separate trial.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-dismemberment-trial-verdict-20150622-story.html
Jail alternative is no free pass
By Kim Palchikoff, Special to the Sun
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Like thousands of Las Vegas students, 25-year-old Kara VanderEyk could hardly wait for graduation day. Both her parents flew in from Michigan because they understood their daughter’s struggle to get to the wooden podium.
VanderEyk proved on graduation day that she was a survivor, a quiet warrior who earned her day in court.
It was there, in the 8th Judicial District Court in downtown Las Vegas, where she graduated from mental health court, a growing nationwide program for mentally ill people often charged with repeated crimes.
Here’s the short version of how she got the court’s attention: “I wanted to see Las Vegas. I was 18 when I came out here. My grandma died, I spiraled into a deep depression, I got hooked on meth, I ended up homeless, on the streets, I wouldn’t talk to anyone, I was scared.”
With her addiction and Las Vegas’ warm weather, VanderEyk slept behind Dumpsters and restaurants, in alleys. In 2013, she was arrested on suspicion of lewd and gross misconduct, and, unable to post bail, she spent 65 days in jail.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality and depression, she was offered a plea deal: instead of more jail time, she could plead guilty and check into Clark County’s Mental Health Court — a misnomer because it is much more. It is a free, voluntary outpatient day program with psychiatrists, detox programs and therapists.
It also comes with housing.
She was dubious but took the deal.
“I figured I’d try it for three months,” VanderEyk said. “If I didn’t like it, I’d leave.”
She stuck with the program.
• • •
As in other specialty courts, the goal of mental health court is to help those who’ve committed nonviolent crimes stay out of crowded jails and prisons and get well.
“Jail is the most expensive bed in the community,” said Nevada Supreme Court Justice Michael Douglas, a proponent of mental health court.
“In the past you were found guilty or not guilty for your actions, liable or not liable for problems committed on a semi-regular basis. They weren’t necessarily serious problems, but we began to think about how to prevent people from becoming permanent repeat offenders,” he said.
Participants must have a severe psychiatric medical diagnosis and plead guilty. In lieu of incarceration, they commit to a highly structured, yearlong program. Some are given community service, put on probation or given a reduced sentence. All must regularly visit a psychiatrist and follow the professional’s recommendations.
• • •
Sitting in a Starbucks in downtown Reno, 62-year-old Mark Burchell explained how he went from working as a corrections officer in a California prison to being on suicide watch while confined in a Nevada jail.
“When I worked as a correctional officer I was living the American dream,” he said. “I rode motorcycles in my free time. I drove a Lincoln Continental. I was married. My wife was a police officer. ” As Burchell puts it, the money was good and life was great.
But in time he became delusional, thinking he was a military general destined to save the United States from foreign powers. He started ordering his superiors around. At 38, he was fired and taken to a psychiatric hospital, where he was diagnosed with bipolar and schizoaffective disorder.
Two months later he was dealing with a growing alcohol problem and sleeping in strangers’ unlocked cars, in bus stations or on the street.
Finally in 2004, during court appearances while he was spending four months in jail, his psychotic mental state caught a judge’s attention and Burchell joined the mental health court program, hoping for help.
• • •
Across 44 states there are 367 mental health courts.
Nevada has three (along with 41 courts working with drunken drivers, addicts and veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder).
Some DUI court programs require participants to pay several thousand dollars. Mental health court programs are free.
Services include medication management, group-therapy individual counseling, Alcoholics Anonymous groups, case management, drug testing, housing and food stamps.
At any given time there are about 250 mental health court participants in Nevada, said Sharon Dollarhide, a licensed clinical social worker and a state coordinator for the mental health court program.
In Las Vegas there are 69 participants, including VanderEyk. Sixty-four receive money for housing, food and transportation in addition to medical and therapeutic services.
The cost per person per month ranges from $1,250-$2,575. By comparison, the average monthly cost of caring for an inmate at the Clark County Detention Center runs upwards of $4,000.
Over a year’s time participants learn mental health and life-coping skills while attending up to 20 group-therapy sessions a week. They are prescribed psychiatric medication, get clean and sober, and ultimately try to get jobs and a normal life back.
Attendance at all activities is closely monitored. Dropping out before a sentence is finished, testing positive for drugs or missing meetings can send participants to jail.
It’s a grueling regimen; only 60 percent make it to graduation day. The rest stop showing up, are kicked out for violations or decide they’d rather serve time.
For VanderEyk, a medication problem last summer almost sent her back to the streets.
“I can’t describe how depressed I was,” she said. “No matter what medication I took, nothing seemed to work. I started thinking more and more about going back to the streets and using (drugs) again.”
Fortunately for her, her mental health court training kicked in. She checked herself into the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital and life got better.
• • •
For all the social service programs in which Nevada lags, it is one of five national models for mental health courts.
That’s due largely to Peter Breen, a longtime Washoe County judge who in 2001 founded the state’s first mental health court, in Reno. Clark County followed in 2003.
Breen fields phone calls from judges across the country. Some come to Reno to observe a crucial part of the program — the required weekly court appearances during which participants recount their ups and downs to a judge trained in mental illness issues.
“Participants see that mental health court has a big payoff,” Breen said. “The good that we do is needed and obvious. People are grateful that we change the lives of Nevada’s most vulnerable. For many, their time in mental health court is the best they’ve been in their lives. We’re glad to see that they are truly rehabilitated.”
A big draw for many participants, apart from getting mentally stable or avoiding jail time, is that when they complete the program their court records may be sealed or the charges dismissed.
But while this may sound to outsiders like a get-out-of-jail-free card, to participants, many who have struggled with their mental health for years and lived on the streets, it’s a demanding year of full-time rehab that nearly 40 percent simply can’t handle.
• • •
Many mental health advocates say the courts program is fine for addressing problems that have landed people in jail but argue that more resources should be dedicated on the front end, helping the mentally debilitated before they begin a downward criminal spiral.
Every Friday morning, dozens of mental health court defendants wait their turn in a crowded courtroom to eagerly explain how life is going.
Some have good news: they are three weeks drug-free or have a job interview. Some recite poetry they’ve written and even rap songs they’ve penned.
Many who have earned tokens from AA for their sobriety proudly show them off.
“How are we doing today; how’s that job hunt looking?” Senior Judge Archie Blake politely asked one.
“Well, I put an application in to Wal-Mart,” came the reply.
“Great! Don’t let success spoil you. As long as you’re good, we’re good. We’re here for you.” Holly Hill City Commissioner complaints from citizens.
Few studies have been conducted on the success of metal health courts in reducing recidivism, in part because the strategy is relatively new.
The Urban Institute in 2012 found that mental health court participants in New York were significantly less likely to return to criminal habits than similar offenders with mental illness who did not go through the specialty court system.
Justice Douglas said that for Nevada, the bottom line is economics.
“You’d think it’s a no-brainer, but not everyone gets it. States are slowly realizing that it’s cheaper to treat someone than it is to incarcerate them.”
The state’s funding of the speciality courts was increased by the 2015 Legislature to $13 million a year, from $10 million, to expand services to another 800 or more people.
A year in the Washoe County mental health court program changed Burchell’s life. Medication rid him of his psychotic episodes, weekly AA meetings helped him get sober and a volunteer gig in 2005 at a state mental health complex turned into a state job as a peer mentor for mental health court participants. When clients despair or feel like dropping out, the once-homeless Burchell goes to the rescue.
He attributes the graduation numbers to the high prevalence of drug and alcohol addictions that many can’t break. Ormond Beach and Port Orange AA Meetings.
“It’s such an intense program, some clients will run (from mental health court) and stay on the run until they’re caught. Many want the freedom to use and abuse (drugs); that’s usually what gets them in trouble.”
So part of Burchell’s week as a mentor is spent leading dual diagnosis groups to help prevent addiction relapse.
VanderEyk isn’t sure what she’s going to do now that she has graduated. Now two years drug-free, she’s thinking about a part-time job or volunteering at a women’s homeless shelter. Dangerous AA Daytona and NA Daytona meetings in Holly Hill parks.
Despite taking medications these days, she said, voices in her head come back to haunt her on occasion.
“It’s hard,” she said. “Every day I battle depression.”
Still, she remains hopeful. And excited after her hard-earned graduation.
“The public doesn’t understand,” VanderEyk said. “They think of mental health court as a place for crazy people. But just give us a chance; we can succeed.”
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/jun/07/alternative-jail-no-free-pass/
Thursday, May 21, 2015
“I was really intoxicated,” said Jordan T. Cosgrove, 24. “I didn’t mean to do the things that I done.”
“I’m ashamed of myself,” he told Judge Christopher Feliciani. “I embarrassed my family, and I’m terribly sorry.” NA and AA Daytona Meetings are dangerous with felons!
Cosgrove entered a guilty plea Thursday to 17 counts against him, including aggravated assault and disarming an officer. He was sentenced to eight to 23 months in the Westmoreland County jail, followed by seven years of probation.
Penn Township police were called to Cosgrove’s home on Aspen Drive at 2 a.m. on Oct. 2 for a reported domestic argument.
Upon arrival, Cosgrove was arguing inside with a woman and became verbally and physically abusive toward the three officers, police wrote in court papers.
Cosgrove threatened to kill and burn down the homes of two of the officers and attempted to remove one officer’s duty weapon from its holster. The officers suffered various minor injuries during the scuffle, including cuts and a dislocated thumb.
Cosgrove suffered a cut lip as officers subdued him and began spitting blood on them and inside the police cruiser, according to court papers. He attempted to crawl through the security partition separating the front and rear seats of the police cruiser, police said.
Prosecutors requested a sentence of two years’ imprisonment.
Cosgrove wore yellow prison garb to his hearing, which indicates that an inmate is being disciplined. Volusia County Drug Court mandates AA and NA Meetings.
Cosgrove told Feliciani that he has gotten in a few fights during his eight months in jail, most recently defending himself over a pizza.
“I need a second chance,” he pleaded before sentencing.
Feliciani ordered that Cosgrove complete an anger management course and undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation.
“This is a very serious offense that you’ve committed here,” Feliciani said. “I’m going to give you a chance to redeem yourself.”
Another requirement is that Cosgrove attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least five times weekly, the judge ordered, calling that the “most important” piece of the sentence.
“You have to go to AA meetings,” Feliciani said. “You have to take things seriously.”
Cosgrove pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault, terroristic threats, obstruction of justice, reckless endangerment, simple assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, institutional vandalism and attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer.
Renatta Signorini is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/8414773-74/cosgrove-police-officers#ixzz3av0WOCHC
Rachel Lynn Lehnardt, 35, was arrested Saturday night and charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The charges stem from a wild party allegedly held a few weeks ago in her home, according to police reports. The suspect also has lost custody of her five children, ages 4, 6, 8, 10, and 16.
Lehnardt allegedly told her sponsor that her 16-year-old daughter texted asking if she could have friends over “to party,” according to a sheriff’s report obtained by the Augusta Chronicle.
Lehnardt reportedly agreed and allowed her daughter and friends to smoke pot and drink booze in her home. In addition, the sponsor told investigators that Lehnardt participated in naked Twister with the teens, and showed them photos of herself having sex with her boyfriend. Volusia County Drug Court Mandates Criminals To AA and NA Daytona.
The sponsor told authorities that Lehnardt confessed to having sex with an 18-year-old male in the bathroom during the naked Twister game.
According to the sheriff’s report, Lehnardt allegedly went to bed alone, but awoke around 3:30 when she felt someone having sex with her.
“She stated at first she thought it was the 18-year-old from earlier, but then realized it was the 16-year-old who was in fact her daughter’s boyfriend,” Lehnardt’s sponsor told deputies.
The sheriff’s report then goes into shocking detail:
“Mrs. Lehnardt told [the sponsor] she and her daughter had spoken and that her daughter ‘felt guilty because the 16-year-old was 10 inches long and huge, and if she had just been able to take it, he wouldn’t have needed to rape her mother.'”
This allegation sounds like rape but Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Steve Morris said no charges are pending against the teen. AA Daytona And NA Daytona Complaints.
“Based on the investigation, there’s no evidence the 16-year-old committed a crime,” Morris told The Huffington Post.
The report states the sponsor goes to the same church as Lehnardt. The suspect allegedly belongs to a sexual addiction support group where she admitted to being a “sexual deviant” who is addicted to pornography.
A Sheriff’s spokesman told AugustaCrime.com that Lehnardt was arrested partially based on the account given by her AA sponsor.
No sexual crime charges are being filed because 16 is the legal age of consent in her state. Lehnardt was released from the Columbia County Detention Center after posting a $3,200 bond, according to the Augusta News-Times.
UPDATE: This version of the story includes quotes from Capt. Steve Morris about whether the 16-year-old who allegedly had sex with the suspect will be charged for rape.
Posted: Mar 26, 2015 6:43 PM EDTUpdated: Mar 26, 2015 7:09 PM EDT
A convicted sex offender could end up back in prison for lying about his name and trying to reunite with one of his victims.
Prosecutors in Waukesha charged 52-year-old Jack Moore this week with illegally changing his name, a class H felony for registered sex offenders.
“We believe that he sought [his victim] out,” Waukesha Police Sergeant Jerry Habanek said Thursday. Dangerous AA Daytona meetings have court mandates.
Back in 1989, the then-27-year-old Moore and his accomplice, Lisa Farkas, lured women back to their apartment. Moore tied one victim up for 10 hours while Farkas sexually assaulted her. A judge sentenced the pair to prison in late 1990.
“It is not a normal crime, but it was a very serious crime,” Habanek said.
Police say Moore got out on parole in 2009 and started going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at a local church in 2010. There, Moore found his victim from about 20 years prior. Dangerous Daytona NA Meetings in Sunrise Park.
“They became friends, they were both battling the same disease, working on it together,” Habanek said. The victim did not recognize him… He looked different. It was 20 years later.”
Moore invited his victim over to his apartment using the alias “Jack Winters.” For several months the victim had no idea who Moore was. The criminal complaint says they exchanged phone numbers and spoke 72 times on the phone in one month.
“The victim was at his apartment and saw a tattoo that was on his arm,” Habanek said. “That tattoo was something she remembered from the sexual assault.”
The victim confronted Moore, but court documents say he explained, “He had done time, referring to prison, with Jack Moore… And that Moore “was not getting out… for a long time.” The victim didn’t believe Moore and contacted Waukesha police.
“Not only that 20 years ago he had sexually abused her, there was also a secondary betrayal,” Habanek said. “Because he had gone through alcoholics anonymous with her, pretended to be someone he wasn’t.”
Moore claims he didn’t realize who his victim was until several months into their friendship, telling police he figured it out after seeing her name on a utility bill. Moore said he “decided it would not be good to tell her who he was.”
“As you would imagine, she is terrified,” Habanek said of the victim.
Waukesha police couldn’t say why it took four years for charges to be filed, but Moore faces up to six years in prison. He’s due in Waukesha County Court April 6.
Habanek says the victim is even more scared of Farkas, who is currently free on parole. The sergeant warns all abuse victims to always be aware of their surroundings and the people they choose to interact with.
The 12-step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous has little basis in science, critics allege.
Author and award-winning journalist Gabrielle Glaser has a message for people who struggle with alcohol dependence: It might be time to abstain from Alcoholics Anonymous.
The 12-step program has little basis in science, she says, after having done extensive research on the program and reporting her findings for a story in The Atlantic titled ” The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous.”
“I assumed as a journalist that AA worked,” Glaser said at an Atlantic-hosted event Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. “But then when looking at the empirical evidence I found there wasn’t any.”
The effectiveness of AA’s approach has long been debated. But addiction treatment is likely to be even more carefully scrutinized as payment for programs materializes under coverage provided by President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act.
Obamacare provides alcohol and substance abuse treatment to 32 million people who didn’t have it before by requiring state Medicaid programs to pay for it and by requiring private insurance plans to cover it, extending coverage to an additional 30 million people. Obamacare also allowed for behavioral health treatment, which encompasses addiction and mental health services, to be reimbursed in a similar way as primary care.
A recent analysis by U.S. News showed that the law has not yet resulted in adults going in droves to behavioral health providers.
The AA program involves admitting powerlessness over alcohol, believing in a higher power, apologizing and making amends to those wronged and abstaining from drinking. Television helped popularize the program – which had risen out of the Prohibition Era – during the 1950s. The organization has about 2 million members, and inpatient treatment facilities use many of the tenets of its 12-step program as part of their approach.
Data of its effectiveness, however, aren’t tracked.
“There is no other realm of medicine that is so segregated,” Glaser said of addiction treatment and the research around it. NA Daytona Meetings Have court mandates.
She points to other approaches that have worked and are based in scientific analysis, including therapy and medication. Glaser said she hopes people are able to find other approaches to treatment. ” Yoga works for a lot of people, Catholicism works for a lot of people … but it isn’t based in science,” Glaser said.
The National Institutes of Health estimates that 11.2 million men and 5.7 million women had an alcohol use disorder in 2012, the latest year for which data are available. Among teens, that number is estimated at 855,000. Beginning to drink at a young age can be a risk factor for developing dependence later in life. Genetics are also thought to play a role, and people who have anxiety or depression can turn to alcohol for self-medication, though it often makes symptoms worse. Excessive use of alcohol is a risk factor for cancer and heart disease. Of adults in need of treatment for alcohol abuse, 8.4 percent are admitted to a facility, according to the NIH 2012 data.
A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that six people a day die of alcohol poisoning – the majority of whom are middle-aged, white men.
Officials with AA said the organization does not comment on reports like Glaser’s and declined to address other approaches to treatment. AA Daytona Dangerous Meetings.
“Alcoholics Anonymous is guided by its Twelve Traditions, one of which suggests that AA express no opinion on outside issues, in order to avoid being drawn into controversy,” the public information coordinator at the General Service Office of AA said in an email. “This includes expressing opinions on what others may say about AA.”
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the NIH, points to various approaches to treatment, including support groups like AA, behavioral therapies, medication or a combination of these. The same is true for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“SAMHSA does not advocate one program over another, since we believe there are many paths to recovery,” an agency representative said in an email.
Other methods of treatment for addiction, such as medication or cognitive behavioral therapy, have shown some empirical evidence for success. In reporting her story, Glaser decided to try naltrexone, a medication that prevents endorphins – the feel-good hormone – from reaching the brain, making the experience of drinking alcohol unenjoyable. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug in 1994 for the treatment of alcohol abuse.
Glaser, who said in her article that she did not have a drinking problem but that she bought the drug online and tried it for research purposes, found it to be effective. “[A glass of wine] was about as appealing as drinking a glass of Dimetapp,” she said.
Doctors prefer not to prescribe naltrexone because it can result in liver toxicity if someone drinks heavily and takes more than the recommended dose, she told U.S. News after the event. “Fewer than 1 percent of people who have alcohol problems are on any form of medication, and so few doctors prescribe it,” she says.
Scott Stossel, editor at The Atlantic magazine who interviewed Glaser at the event, pointed out that alcoholism appears to be on a spectrum.
There is a problem with the one-size-fits-all approach, Glasser said of AA’s abstinence rule. “Some need to learn to moderate better, others can’t drink again,” she said.
U.S. health officials recommend typical adults over the age of 21 limit themselves to no more than one drink a day for women, and two for men. “I think our safe guidelines make people feel worse. They say, ‘What the hell!’ and people drink more,” she tells U.S. News.
Glaser points out that other countries, such as Italy, have different alcohol guidelines – as well as better health outcomes.
A Spring Hill man who “was horrified with himself” for allegedly having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl was arrested and charged with aggravated statutory rape.
Ronald Clinton Worrell, 45, 4021 Willford Way, was released on $20,000 bond several hours after his arrest Tuesday, according to Maury County Jail records.
He was arrested by Columbia police, who initially investigated a report of possible child sexual abuse on Oct. 31.
Because of the sensitive nature of the charge, few details of the case were made available.
A heavily expurgated copy of the police report said the assault on the teenage girl happened after she and Worrell watched a movie together at her mother’s home one night in July. Violent dangerous felons at NA Daytona and AA Daytona meetings.
Before the alleged abuse was disclosed to police, “Ron was horrified with himself (for) what he had done and he put himself back in counseling and started AA meetings again,” according to the report. “Ron had been in counseling previously for something and he has been in recovery.” Holly Hill Florida Commissioners and Daytona AA Meetings.
The report said it is not known what Worrell “was recovering from.”
(Lander, Wyo.) – Impressed with the way Brandon Conard has chosen to fight his addiction, Judge Norman E. Young gave the man a suspended sentence for felony aggravated assault and battery.
Back in June, Conard pleaded guilty to assaulting a pregnant woman as well as misdemeanor possession of methamphetamine. Those charges stem from a Feb. 7 call to his home where he allegedly struck a pregnant woman with a wooden paper holder. While officers were investigating the alleged assault, they reportedly found a silver spoon with a crystal residue on it which was sitting next to a hypodermic needle with a clear fluid and blood inside, the affidavit states.
Per the plea agreement, the state kept its argument for a maximum prison sentence of 3-5 years. Deputy County Attorney Tom Majdic said that while Conard has been going through treatment for his addictions, he needs to serve time for assaulting a pregnant woman. He also said that the victim had also wanted Conard to serve time.
But words from Conard himself and his public defender Terry Martin persuaded Young to allow for supervised probation. Martin noted that on top of already spending about eight months in jail, Conard also spent three months in substance abuse treatment in Casper. For the last two weeks, Conard has been out on an unsecured bond and going to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Conard said he goes to at least one meeting a day. NA Daytona Beach harassing citizens in Holly Hill.
He said he was an addict who was trying to put his life back together for his children. “My son was born while I was in jail, and that’s something I’ll never forgive myself for,” he said.
Young said that in reviewing the case, he had felt Conard should spend time in prison, especially after he allegedly violated bond by causing a scene at a local restaurant and was found with a sizeable number of prescription medications. However, Young said that unlike many defendants, Conard had taken real steps to address his addiction issues prior to being sentenced. He called it “appropriate and admirable.”
Therefore, Conard will serve three years supervised probation. However, if he fails probation, he will likely serve the full 3-5 year prison sentence. He was given credit for 323 days served already in jail and in treatment. A term of his probation will be to continue to attend AA and NA meetings. Daytona AA and NA meetings in Daytona.
December 18, 2014 •
A 19-year-old Onalaska woman who drove her car into a driving school and a police car while on probation for fleeing cops was sentenced Dec. 10 to three years probation with the threat of prison if she does not comply.
In November 2013, just two months after being sentenced for attempting to flee police while driving drunk, Abrianna Marr was reported for driving erratically while high on methamphetamine. Daytona AA and Daytona AA Meetings in Holly Hill and Daytona.
When police attempted to talk to her, Marr started her car and drove away, striking a squad car and a tree, plowing into the side of Zimmerman Driving School in West Salem and eventually hitting a garage. NA Daytona Predators in Holly Hill Parks.
Marr told police she had been up for five days using meth, heroin and “every drug under the sun.”
Since the second arrest, Marr racked up charges for sexual assault, theft, forgery, bail jumping and stealing a car. She eventually pleaded guilty to attempting to flee an officer and a single count of bail jumping; the remainder of the charges were dismissed.
Marr’s grandparents told the judge they’ve seen a dramatic change in her behavior in the past month: She has enrolled in college, is attending AA and NA meetings, and has cut ties with most of her drug-using friends. AA Daytona Predators in Holly Hill Parks.
“She’s acting like a good kid again,” said Ethan Marr. “She’s following the rules.”
As part of the plea agreement, the state did not recommend a sentence, but prosecutor Edward Minser said Marr’s behavior is concerning for public safety.
Judge Scott Horne gave Marr 1½ years in prison and another two years on supervision, which he stayed for three years; he withheld sentencing her on the auto theft charge, adding that if her probation is revoked he would impose the maximum 1½ year term on top of her other sentence.
“In no way, shape or form can any society condone or accept that type of behavior,” Horne said. “I would be fully justified in sending you to prison.”
A Must watch tonight, AA finally being exposed on a national level for the dangerous organization that they are and how Karla Mendez Brada lost her life because of it at the hands of AA member Eric Earle.
|Correspondent Maureen Maher takes you behind the reporting of this week’s all-new “48 Hours” and discusses the sensitive, but serious topics of addiction and domestic violence. Watch “The Sober Truth” Saturday, Nov. 29 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. NA and NA Daytona meetings in Holly Hill, Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, Port Orange are very dangerous and full of predators.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/reporters-notebook-addiction-and-domestic-violence/
Here is the full length now online!
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-sober-truth-investigating-the-death-of-karla-mendez-brada/
Another Shooting at an AA Meeting after verbal altercation. Victim has not been identified.
Yerington man jailed after Friday shooting at AA Meeting
A 74-year-old Yerington man is in custody in Lyon County Jail after he allegedly shot a man after an altercation on Friday. Daytona AA and NA meetings in Holly Hill Fl.
The Yerington Police Department says it was called to The Methodist Church, 121 N. Main St., at 6:40 p.m. for a fight involving a gun. The investigation showed Jimmy Moss, 74, of Yerington was involved in a verbal altercation at an Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting that turned into a fight and ultimately resulted in a shooting.
The victim, who has not been identified, was taken by ambulance and later flown by Care Flight medical helicopter to Renown in Reno. NA Daytona Meetings in Daytona Beach Fl.
Moss was booked into jail on suspicion of battery with a deadly weapon and attempted murder. Bail is set at $80,000.
Witnesses or anyone with information is asked to call the Yerington Police Department at 775-463-2333 or Secret Witness at 775-322-4900.
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/13957587-113/yerington-altercation-department-fight
Eric Earle, left, and Karla Brada met at Alcoholics Anonymous. Brada’s parents claim AA and the couple their lawsuit names as sponsors are responsible for their daughter’s murder at the hand of Earle.
Couple named in wrongful-death lawsuit deny AA sponsorship
Lawsuit alleges responsibility in death of murdered daughter
November 17th 2014 Jim Holt
Joanne Fry is among the defendants named in a wrongful death civil suit filed last month by Sylmar residents Hector and Jaroslava Mendez, whose daughter Brada was murdered in August 2011.
More than three years after the murder, a San Fernando Superior Court jury found Brada’s boyfriend, Eric Allen Earle, guilty of murdering her in the Saugus home they shared. Earle wilfully and deliberately smothered Brada to death, the jury determined in September. Earle was sentenced in October to 26 years in prison.
The same month the Mendezes served their wrongful-death lawsuit. It named Joanne Fry as an AA sponsor and her husband, Patrick, as an AA sponsor. The suit was also served on the local AA office in Santa Clarita and on Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc. based in New York City, said attorney John Noland, who represents Brada’s parents.
In the lawsuit filed against them, the Frys are described as “sponsors” who “provided counseling to members attending meetings and specifically became sponsors for Karla H. Brada and Eric Allen Earle.”Daytona AA and NA meetings in Holly Hill Florida.
The lawsuit alleges the Frys were aware of Earle’s “violent criminal history and specifically his violent history as to violent crimes against women.”
Joanne Fry disagrees.
In a prepared four-page written statement delivered to The Signal in response to the lawsuit, Fry states:
“Many reports have referenced us as ‘sponsors’ for the couple through the AA program but this needs to be made very clear. We were not, ever have been, nor intended to be or become sponsors for Earle or Brada; we simply knew them.
“In addition, the time frame that we knew them was relatively six months. There has been an allegation that ‘jail time’ was spent between Patrick Fry and Eric Earle and this is not true.
“Patrick Fry and Eric Earle were roommates at (the live-in 12-step program) Eden Ministries. This is not a program where you pick your roommates; you are placed into a residence by the reverend of the program.
“Approximately March 2011 was when I, Patrick Fry, became roommates with Eric Earle. Within about two months, Earle was removed from the program for reasons unknown to me. I still resided at Eden Ministries.
“Sometime in the early summer months of the year 2011, I, Patrick Fry, saw Eric Earle again in the mandatory AA program. This is how we knew of each other. I was not a sponsor for Eric Earle or for Karla Brada.
“A sponsor for the program usually goes through and completes the 12-step program of which we did not do. We obtained our sobriety through other resources.
“A sponsor also is implied to be a person the addict can call upon in any situation for help or assistance with their addiction; this was not and never was a method for us knowing Earle and Brada, we simply just knew them through the program.
“The context of us as ‘sponsors’ have only been made in light of the lawsuit and this was never a view point from the AA program or how we viewed ourselves in reference to Earle and Brada or how Eric Earle and Karla Brada looked at us.”
As Joanne Fry left the newsroom, she said in parting: “We were just four people trying to stay sober.”
jholt@signalscv.com
661-287-5527
on Twitter @jamesarthurholt
Another sick sob going to AA meetings!
A FORMER primary school principal found in possession of 10,000 images of children as young as six having sex, has received a two-and-a-half year suspended jail sentence. Former principal of Arklow Boys School, Padraig Branigan, was also found with 200 short films and 100 stories where children were portrayed in a series of sickening and horrific poses.
A FORMER primary school principal found in possession of 10,000 images of children as young as six having sex, has received a two-and-a-half year suspended jail sentence.
Former principal of Arklow Boys School, Padraig Branigan, was also found with 200 short films and 100 stories where children were portrayed in a series of sickening and horrific poses.
A former Christian Brother with an address at The Rise, Mountain Bay, Arklow, the 41-year old pleaded guilty at Wicklow Circuit Court yesterday to one charge of possession of child pornography.
He viewed the images for an hour every morning, and for up to three hours per day at weekends.
They were downloaded from the internet over a three-month period in early 2004. But when gardai called to his home in October 2004, he immediately showed them a laptop computer on which the images were stored, and a sports bag which contained DVDs and videos.
The computer and bag contained images of naked Thai boys aged between 6 and 16 years in a series of sexually-explicit poses, having sex with each other and with adults.
“I don’t have a solicitor, but I want to put my hands up,” Mr Branigan told gardai. The accused, wearing a green suit, blue shirt and gold patterned tie, said nothing during yesterday’s hearing.
“All of the images show the victimization of vulnerable children,” Detective Sargeant James Madden told the court, adding there was ‘no evidence whatsoever’ local children were abused.
Mr Branigan was described as being “very popular” outside his home, but once inside his door he drank heavily and one third of his bedside locker was full of empty painkiller packets.
A psychotherapist working with him, Bridget Hussey, told Judge Michael O’Shea that her client was one of nine children from a staunchly Catholic background. He had been abused by a priest when he was aged 10, and for most of his childhood had lived a ‘lonely and isolated’ life. He was emotionally and sexually immature, and was not as developed as his peers.
“I think at 17 he realized he was a gay person but his family background and thinking of the church, which said it was evil, meant he never owned up to the fact he was a gay man,” she said.
Summing up, Judge O’Shea said that while the images were “horrific”, he would take into account the early guilty plea and the fact that the accused had made attempts to sort out his life.
“His fall from grace must have been humiliating. He is in disgrace and will be for the rest of his life. He was a chronic drinker at the time, a loner and unable to face up to his sexuality. He retired to his room, probably badly influenced by his sexual orientation, and does that put him in the category of a cold-blooded pedophile? I don‘t think so.”
He sentenced him to two-and-a-half years imprisonment, suspended for three years, on condition he continue receiving treatment and attending Alcoholics Anonymous. He must also sign the sex offenders register.
A St. Charles man was ordered Wednesday to pay restitution to a child pornography victim, videos of whom are among the most downloaded worldwide.
It was part of the sentence for Gary L. Harris, 53, who pleaded guilty in March to aggravated possession of child pornography of a victim under age 13, and to possession of marijuana.
Harris will have to pay $5,000 to the victim, who was featured in several of the videos police found on his laptop computer and a DVD in 2012. Circuit Judge Karen Simpson also sentenced him to sex-offender probation for six years. Gaeke requested six years in prison. Harris could have been sentenced to as many as 14 years in prison.
The victim, who lives on the West Coast, was raped by her father repeatedly between 2000 and 2001, when she was 10 and 11, according to news reports. He videotaped the sessions and put them on the Internet. Her father pleaded guilty to production of child pornography and transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes in federal court in 2008, and he is serving a 50-year prison sentence. He also pleaded guilty to state charges of rape of a child.
The victim has spoken publicly about the effect of child pornography on victims, including the helplessness she feels knowing the videos are still being distributed and watched. She has sought restitution in federal and state courts, and her situation was cited in a Supreme Court case about the liability of child-porn viewers to pay restitution.
“Hundreds of people nationwide have been prosecuted for disseminating the images and videos of this victim,” Gaeke said after the sentencing.
Gaeke said the victim has bills for psychological and psychiatric counseling of at least $10,000 a year. He asked for $5,000, since evidence indicated Harris owned the pornography for about six months.
According to St. Charles police detective Andrew Lamela, Harris downloaded files off a peer-to-peer file-sharing site to which he subscribed. Police found 25 videos on the laptop computer and five others on a desktop computer. They also found 300 thumbnail images of child pornography leftover from deleted files, he said.
After Harris pleaded guilty in March, Gaeke asked St. Charles police to submit the videos to a child sexual exploitation unit of the federal National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The center identified at least 11 victims.
Harris’ attorney, Kathleen Colton, argued against restitution, saying he couldn’t have caused the victim harm because her exploitation happened years before he was arrested. There was no evidence he knew the victim or that she was being harmed, she said.
Gaeke argued ordering restitution would “impress upon offenders that child pornography, even simple possession, affects child victims.”
Harris began sex offender counseling in January and has been attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings, according to a court-ordered pre-sentence investigation report. In counseling, he said, “I have learned there are victims. To them I also apologize.”
Simpson said: “The statement is really, it’s very moving and it brings home to myself the seriousness of this offense.”
The judge likened child pornography distribution to a pyramid scheme: “Some real live human beings are raping these children” on the videos, which are then promoted via the Internet and downloaded by voyeurs. She noted that the victim has been stalked and that people still seek her out.
She also said not enough attention is paid to the matter.
“It winds up being a paragraph maybe in the local paper, when really it (the news) ought to be posted online, maybe on YouTube,” Simpson said.
A Washington State AA Member goes on a shooting spree at the Seattle Pacific University killing 2 students. He had been attending 12 step meetings for sometime. They obviously did not address this man’s mental problems. Maybe doing his 4th step sent him over the edge.
By
By Ryan Gorman and Michael Zennie Published: 7 June 2014
A friend of the 26-year-old gunman who opened fire on a Seattle university says the shooter is a’ sweet kid’ but is haunted by his struggle with addiction.
One student died and three others were wounded after Aaron Ybarra stormed the campus of Seattle Pacific University Thursday night with a shotgun – and a friend who had dinner with the suspect the night before the rampage says he is ‘shocked’ the recovering alcoholic is involved. Daytona Beach AA and NA Meetings in Ormond Beach.
Nate Flesch told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that he and Ybarra attend the same Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and that the troubled man has been sober for about one year. He spoke with the paper only hours before the suspected shooter was led into court in shackles. Holly Hill commissioners and the Mayor race 2014.
‘For the past year and a half or so he’s been trying to turn his life around,’ Flesch said. ‘He attends the same (Alcoholics Anonymous) classes as I do in the Lynnwood area. He’s a kid that I think has been sober now for a little bit over a year.’
Flesch called Ybarra ‘socially awkward,’ but ‘sweet.’
‘He’s a sweet kid, he’s a nice kid, very thankful, very appreciative, and I’m just kind of shocked to hear it was Aaron who was involved in this.’
Ybarra would often go to the bar where Flesch works as a bartender and order a soda or juice – never alcohol.
The suspected shooter also just started a new job, Flesch told the paper.
‘He was proud that they were starting to like him at his job. They were giving him more hours, and he was excited that he would have more money.
Flesch insists he has no idea ‘what set [Ybarra] off,’ and that he is ‘flabbergasted by the sequence of events.
‘He was trying to turn his life around, that he was trying to be a better person, and he was kind of working on his social skills, too,’ Flesch continued, adding he had lunch with Ybarra the night before the assault. 
Solemn: Students and other supporters form a prayer circle Friday on the campus of Seattle Pacific University ‘It’s a little eerie, a little scary,’ said Flesch. ‘To be honest with you, I’m a little heartbroken. It breaks my heart to see a kid like this, who was turning himself around, kind of just go off the deep end. I don’t know what triggered it. ‘For this to happen is mind-boggling, and I don’t know what else to say.’ The friend spoke not long after the identity of the hero who brought the onslaught to an end with a can of pepper spray was identified by police.
Students at Seattle Pacific University say Jon Meis saved countless lives when he sprang into action as the shooter stopped to reload his weapon Thursday afternoon.
The heroic engineering student reportedly hit Ybarra with the pepper spray as he ran at and tackled him, saving countless lives.
Meis, 26, is engaged to be married and has ‘everything to live for’ friends said. But he risked his life and ended the murderous rampage.
‘I’m proud of the selfless actions that my roommate, Jon Meis, showed today taking down the shooter. He is a hero,’ tweeted Matt Garcia.
A victim is loaded into an ambulance on the campus of Seattle Pacific University after a shooting Thursday afternoon 
A victim is loaded into an ambulance on the campus of Seattle Pacific University after a shooting Thursday afternoon
Classmate Briana Clarke told the Seattle Times that Meis, who was on duty as a hall monitor, sprayed the attacker in the face, grabbed him around the neck and then wrestled him to the ground.
‘There were a lot of shells on the ground..it looked like he was planning to go the distance and Jon stopped him,’ another student told KOMO-TV.
Several other students then piled on the attacker and held him until police arrived.
‘But for the great response for the people at Seattle Pacific this incident would have been much more tragic,’ assistant police chief Paul McDonagh said Thursday night.
A 19-year-old male student was shot in the head and died at a nearby hospital. A 20-year-old female student was shot in the neck and remains in critical condition. Two other students, both males in their 20s, were wounded but are in good condition after sustaining minor injuries. The gunman has been identified as Aaron Ybarra, 26, according to KIRO-TV. Authorities say he is not a student and has no connection to Seattle Pacific University or to any of his victims. Detectives are still trying to determine why he targeted the college.
Witnesses said the gunman barged into Otto Miller Hall – the science and engineering building for the university – about 3.30pm on Thursday. One witness told KIRO-TV that the gunman held his weapon on three students and told them not to move, when they did, he shot and wounded two and shot another student in the face. The victim who was shot in the face was rushed to the hospital, where he died. ‘The shooter began to reload his shotgun and a student that is the building monitor inside the hall confronted the shooter, was able to subdued the individual, and once on the ground, other students jumped on top of him and were able to pin the shooter to the ground until police arrived,’ Seattle Police Captain Chris Fowler said in a press conference. Seattle Pacific is a small Christian college associated with the Free Methodist Church with a student body just of about 4,370
The university was placed on lockdown and the administrators advised students to stay inside and lock their windows and doors and close their blinds. Students were sent an email blast that warned: ‘THIS IS NOT A DRILL.’
It’s unknown whether the gunman is a student at the university or whether the victims were random strangers or targeted.
Some students told KCPQ-TV that they recognized the shooter, indicating that they might have recognized the gunman.
Video from KIRO-TV showed a young man who appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s being led away in handcuffs.
– See more at: http://www.ablxboston.com/national/60674-friend-says-seattle-pacific-university-shooter-is-a-sweet-kid-haunted-by-his-past.html
