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Blind justice: Alleged killer drawn for grand jury
Computer picked name, not knowing man was in jail on murder charges



THIBODAUX, La. - A man charged with nine murders — and suspected in many more — was listed among potential members of a state grand jury to be seated next month.

Terrebonne Parish Clerk of Court Bobby Boudreaux confirmed that serial killing suspect Ronald Dominique's name was on a computer-generated list in early June.

There's no chance of Dominique actually serving. State law forbids anyone indicted for a crime to serve as a juror.

"The fact that he is charged, that his case is in the courts, the computer doesn't know that," Boudreaux said Thursday.

Police say Dominique has confessed to killing 23 men over nine years. He has been indicted on nine counts of murder, and District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr. has said he will seek the death penalty.

Prospective jury members are drawn from a variety of sources, including voter registration lists and motor vehicle records.

The first person to notice Dominique's name was District Judge Randy Bethancourt's secretary, Frankie Clements. She said she starred it to draw the judge's attention.

Bethancourt was not in when a reporter called Friday.

Jennie Callahan, 32nd Judicial District Court coordinator, said she has dealt with incarcerated prospective jurors before, but never for a grand jury.

"When it has happened to me, I have called to confirm that they are in jail," she said. "They can't get out of jail to serve on a jury so I put a note that the person is currently incarcerated."

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Man beats peacock he says was vampire  
  
Associated Press
Sunday, July 1, 2007

NEW YORK -- A peacock that roamed into a fast-food restaurant parking lot was attacked by man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said.
  
Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city's Center for Animal Care and Control.

"It's just unbelievable that someone would do something to a poor, defenseless animal and do it in such a cruel fashion," he said.

The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Staten Island Burger King parking lot and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees had been feeding him bread when the man appeared.

He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19.

"He was going crazy," she said.

Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, "'I'm killing a vampire!'"

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them. Authorities were looking for the attacker, described as being in his teens or early 20s.

It was not clear how the bird made his way to the Burger King, but a Staten Island resident who raises peacocks said he had given some to a person who lives near the restaurant.

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Woman sues over
co-worker’s scent
   DETROIT— An employee in the Detroit planning department who claims she is severely sensitive to perfumes and other cosmetics has sued the city, saying a co-worker’s strong fragrance prohibits her from working.
   Susan McBride’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, says the work environment is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. She wants a ban on such scents at work plus unspecifi ed damages.
   City spokesman Matt Allen declined to comment, telling The Detroit News that the city does not normally comment on litigation or personnel issues.
   McBride, who joined the planning department in 2000, says problems started a year ago when the co-worker, who isn’t identifi ed in the lawsuit, transferred into her department.
   “This employee not only wore a strong scent but also plugged in a scented room deodorizer,” the lawsuit states. “Ms. McBride was overcome by the smell almost instantly, causing her to go home sick.”  

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Kidnap saga ends with a wedding
Charles Adams marries fellow Rotarian who invited him to Dominican Republic after abduction  
  
By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, July 15, 2007

It takes a special person to transform a kidnapping into blessing. Charles Adams is that person.
Adams, 71, was abducted in July 2006 during a trip to Haiti. An active Rotarian from Queensbury, Adams was in the country to promote clean water systems in rural areas.

  
As he was riding through a slum of Port-au-Prince, a gang of hoodlums grabbed Adams and his driver. The kidnappers manhandled Adams, tearing his clothes, until Adams dug in his heels and yelled "Stop!" He pulled aside his torn shirt to display fresh bandages on his chest from surgery to implant a pacemaker. From then on, his captors slowed down and every few minutes asked "Mr. Adams" if he was OK.

Adams sailed through the kidnapping with similar aplomb. His driver escaped and Adams was released in less than 24 hours of gentle treatment. American officials told him he was the only captive ever released without paying a ransom.

The experience didn't discourage Adams, who has returned to Haiti several times.

"To me, it was like an automobile accident," he said. "You wouldn't let a fender bender prevent you from returning to a country, would you?"

He wasn't a target, he said. He was just caught in a popular scheme for making money. He estimates that the gangs make $30,000 to $50,000 a week by holding people for ransom.

"I happened to be a fish in the sea and I got caught in the net," he said.

Adams continues to travel to Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Honduras to take low-cost filtration systems to the developing countries. After malnutrition, water-borne disease kills the highest number of people worldwide every year, he said.

His kidnapping adventure, however, caught the attention of the Rotary and energized the initiative. Adams also was honored with a Rotary International Service Above Self award.

Shortly after his kidnapping, a high-ranking Rotarian in the Dominican Republic invited him to her island nation to recuperate. He accepted the invitation, and last month, he married her. Adams and Alexandra Lourdes (Martinez) Adams, 43, a dentist, were married in Las Vegas on June 15. After their nuptials, they began their honeymoon at the Rotary's annual conference in Salt Lake City. F. Crowley can be reached at 454-5348, or by e-mail at ccrowley@timesunion.com.

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WARSAW, Poland(AP) A Polish bus driver has been fired for sending 38,000 text messages on his company cell phone in a losing effort to win contest jackpot, a spokesman said Thursday.

Leszek Wojcik, a bus driver in the northwestern Polish city of Slupsk, ran up a tab of some 94,000 zlotys ($34,000) with his text messages while trying to win a 100,000-zloty ($36,000) SMS contest that ended June 30, Slupsk city transport spokesman Hubert Boba told The Associated Press.

Boba said a city bus drivers' monthly company phone bill is supposed to be limited to 15 zlotys ($5).

Wojcik sent an average of 1,200 SMS text messages a day, each costing 2.40 zlotys ($0.86), on his work cell phone.

Wojcik told TVN24 television he wanted to buy a second car with his possible winnings.

"Now I'm without work," he said.

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Armless man gets 5 years for driving
Associated Press
Last updated: 5:13 p.m.,

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. -- A man with no arms and one leg who wouldn't stop driving despite a long list of traffic violations was sentenced to five years in prison Friday on felony driving and drug charges.
  
Michael Francis Wiley, 40, also was sentenced to 15 years of drug offender probation. He pleaded no contest in June to the charges.

"I'd just like to say I know what I did was wrong," Wiley said in court Friday. "I am truly sorry your honor. I am."

Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He has already spent more than three years in prison for habitually driving without a license, kicking a state trooper and other charges.

He once had a valid license, but it has been suspended several times since 1985, according to his attorney. He starts the car with his toes, shifts with his knee and steers with the stump of his left arm. He turns on the lights with his teeth.

In his most recent brush with the law last May, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, officials said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, police said.

Defense attorney John Hooker pleaded for leniency and a minimum sentence of 2 1/2 years. He cited his client's need for treatment for his many physical and mental health problems, including anxiety, panic attacks, depression and a pain disorder related to his amputations.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Wiley said he's done driving.

"I'm beat. The white flag is up," he said. "You can only bang your head against the wall so long before it hurts."

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Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He has already spent more than three years in prison for habitually driving without a license, kicking a state trooper and other charges.

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Woman who registered dog to vote avoids jail
Owner was protesting law that she said made voting easy for noncitizens

Sept 6, 2007
SEATTLE - A woman who faced up to 90 days in jail for registering her dog to vote has agreed to a deal that could remove the charge from her record.

Jane Balogh, 66, won’t be prosecuted on the charge of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant if she does 10 hours of community service, pays a $250 fine and avoids violating the law for the next year, District Judge Mariane Spearman said Wednesday.

Balogh registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix, Duncan M. McDonald, to vote in April 2006 by putting her telephone bill in the dog’s name and using that as identification when she mailed the form to election officials. She said she did it to protest a change in the law that she believed made it too easy for noncitizens to vote.

In November she wrote “VOID” across the first ballot sent to the dog and returned it with an image of a paw print on the signature line. An election official called and she admitted what she had done, but the dog still was sent absentee ballots for school bond elections in February and May.

Duncan M. McDonald was removed from the voter rolls in July, three weeks after the charge was filed against Balogh, who pleaded not guilty.

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Garlic-stomper
caught on cellphone
   NANUET — Stomping on garlic with your shoes on is apparently not the correct way to prepare takeout food.
   The Rockland County health department hit the Great China Buffet restaurant with two violations after a patron took pictures of an employee who was wearing boots while stomping on a huge bowl of garlic in the alley outside.
   Health inspectors went to the Chinese restaurant after an employee at a nearby store, Dan Barreto, alerted them to the unsanitary act, which he had recorded on his cellphone.
   “I go back there, and the guy’s stepping on garlic,” said Barreto, who used to eat at the restaurant. “There he was just jumping up and down on it, smashing it up, having a good time.”
   The health department does not consider a person’s shoe or boot a proper instrument to use in food preparation, senior public health sanitarian John Stoughton said Tuesday.
   “It was a novel way to prepare food,” he said.
   Great China Buffet owner Jiang Shu said the worker caught in the pictures had been fired. He said that’s not the way his restaurant cooks its chicken with broccoli in garlic sauce and other dishes.
   The health department said it would inspect the restaurant again.  

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Man robs woman,
then licks her feet
   ST. PAUL, Minn. — A man who robbed a woman of her keys and cellphone took off her shoes and licked her toes, police said.
   Commander Kevin Casper called the attack “weird sexual behavior.”
   The 24-year-old woman was leaving work around 1 a.m. Saturday when the 27-year-old suspect approached her and demanded her keys and phone, authorities said. After that, he removed her shoes.
   The woman was not hurt, police said.
   Police arrested the man a few minutes later about four blocks away. The woman identified the suspect, and police were able to recover her keys and phone.  

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Phony obituary trips up sentencing  
  Associated Press

MUNCIE, Ind. -- Prosecutors are investigating whether a phony obituary was placed in a newspaper in an attempt to keep a convicted forger out of prison.
  
The obituary reporting the supposed death and cremation of Shawnda K. Hatfield was faxed to Delaware Circuit Court Judge Robert Barnet Jr.

But Hatfield, 41, was later found at her home in nearby Dunkirk and arrested. Barnet sentenced her Thursday to four years in prison for altering a check drawn on the account of White Feather Farms, where she formerly worked.

Hatfield said she had no idea how her obituary ended up in The Star Press.

Kathy Whittenburg, an employee in the newspaper's classified advertising department, said the obituary appeared after a caller purporting to be Hatfield's niece phoned The Star Press and later provided a telephone number she said belonged to a Florida crematory.

Deputy Prosecutor Joe Orick told Hatfield that if an investigation showed her relatives were involved in the fake obituary, "You can have a family reunion upstairs" -- in jail.

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Woman who registered dog to vote avoids jail
Owner was protesting law that she said made voting easy for noncitizens

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Bird eaten whole is a traditional, illegal meal
BY JENNY BARCHFIELD The Associated Press

   PARIS — On the world’s list of weird foods, ortolan — a bite-size songbird roasted and gulped down whole — can claim a place of distinction.
   It’s an illegal place, though, since the ortolan is a protected species and hunting it is banned in France. Now the government is out to get poachers of the coveted fowl.
   Thought to represent the soul of France, ortolan was reportedly on the menu at late French President Francois Mitterrand’s legendary “last supper” on New Year’s Eve 1995, eight days before he died.
   Though cancer had diminished his appetite, Mitterrand saved room for the piece de resistance, roasted ortolan, downing the 2-ounce bird, bones and all, according to a detailed account in Esquire magazine and Georges-Marc Benamou, a journalist who was a Mitterrand confidant. Some of the late president’s associates, however, insist the bird-eating never took place.
   According to tradition, the French shroud their head in a napkin to eat ortolan: Tucking into the bite-sized bird — which is killed by being drowned in Armagnac, then plucked and roasted with its yellow skin and skeleton intact — can be a messy business.
   It’s also an illicit one.
   A 1998 law banned hunting the ortolan, a copper-breasted bird that migrates from Africa to Europe, because of its endangered status. Ortolan hunters — who trap the birds alive and keep them in cages for several weeks to fatten them up — face fines of up to $12,460 and six months in prison, if caught and convicted.
   But environmentalists complain that the law is rarely enforced.
   Earlier this month, the minister in charge of the environment, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, pledged to step up inspections of the ortolan’s habitat in the Landes region in southwestern France.
   The increased inspections have already born fruit, she said.
   “The more you inspect, the more violations you find,” Kosciusko-Morizet told The Associated Press. Four hunters were caught redhanded and two seizures were made over the past two weeks, she said.
   At one hunter’s house, inspectors found about 30 live birds being fattened in cages and another dozen in the freezer. The man had set more than 100 traps in a nearby forest, Kosciusko-Morizet said.
   Environmentalists blame the poaching on continued demand for roasted ortolan, which aficionados say is satisfyingly crunchy, with a subtle hazelnut taste.
   No longer on restaurant menus in France because of the ban, ortolan is eaten at home or served secretly to special restaurant clients. A single bird can fetch between $138 and $210 on the black market, said Allain Beaugrain Dubourg, head of the League for the Protection of Birds.
   He said hunters kill as many as 30,000 ortolans each year in France alone, contributing to an estimated 30 percent decline in their numbers over the past decade.
   The League says there are an estimated 600,000 to 750,000 ortolan pairs in Europe, including 23,000 in France. Those that are caught are mostly migrating between eastern Europe and Africa, it says.

BOB EDME/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A male ortolan is being used as bait to capture other ortolans.

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Man allegedly smuggled iguanas in fake leg
The Associated Press

   LOS ANGELES — A man accused of stealing three endangered iguanas from a nature preserve in Fiji and smuggling them into the United States in his prosthetic leg has been indicted.
   Jereme James, 33, of Long Beach, faces a single count of smuggling, according to a federal indictment returned Friday in Los Angeles. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
   Prosecutors say James stole the Fiji Island banded iguanas while visiting the South Pacific island in September 2002. He then brought the reptiles to the U.S. by hiding them in a special compartment he had constructed in his prosthetic leg, prosecutors said.
   James will be summoned to appear for his arraignment next month.
   James, who was not taken into custody, could not be located for comment. Authorities believe he had not yet retained a lawyer, and a call to a J. James in Long Beach was not immediately returned.
   James came under scrutiny several years ago when someone told U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials that he had several of the neon green iguanas, which are protected under an international treaty regulating trade in endangered species.
   During an undercover probe, James told investigators he sold three of the iguanas for $32,000, prosecutors said.
   When a search warrant was served at his house on April 26, Fish and Wildlife agents seized four iguanas. Authorities suspect James may have bred the creatures to sell them.
   The seized iguanas will end up in a breeding program in the United States, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph O. Johns said.  

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Russian mom has
17-pound baby boy
   MOSCOW — A small Russian city just got a really big addition: a 17-pound, 1 ounce baby whose mother had already delivered 11 other children.
   Tatiana Khalina, 42, delivered the girl by Caesarean section at a maternity clinic in Aleisk, a town of 30,000 people in the Altai region in southern Siberia, a nurse at the clinic said Thursday.
   Nurse Svetlana Gildeyeva also said the Sept. 17 birth went smoothly and mother and the child were fine. She said the baby, Nadezhda, was transferred from the small clinic to a maternity hospital in Barnaul, a larger city.
   The girl was feeling well and developing normally, said Irina Kurdeka, a doctor at the Barnaul hospital.
   The daily Moskovsky Komsomolets quoted the local social services chief, Marina Alistratova, as saying the family had modest means. She said Khalina’s husband was on contract with a local military unit.
   “We have presented them with a good washing machine, a food package and a card,” Alistratova told the newspaper. “We will keep supporting them in the future.”
   An average weight for newborn babies is around 7 pounds, 1 ounce, according to international

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Man Kills Himself At City Council Meeting
Tennessee Barber Shop Owner Puts Gun To His Head After Losing Zoning Vote
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 5, 2007

(AP) A business owner shot and killed himself during a City Council meeting after members voted against his request to rezone his property, witnesses said.

Ronald "Bo" Ward, owner of Bo's Barber Shop, had told the council his business would go under if he could not get his home rezoned as commercial. After the 5-7 vote Thursday night, Ward stood and walked toward the council.

"Ya'll have put me under ... I'm out of here," he said before shooting himself in the head with a small handgun.

Fire and police officials attending the meeting immediately ushered the audience of about 50 into the hallway, where several people were sobbing.

At least one police officer is always on duty during council meetings, officials said. However, visitors are not required to go through a metal detector or any other screening.

"When a gun gets whipped out like that, someone is going to get shot, but I didn't know who," Councilman Bill Summers said. "You could've been right next to him, and I don't think you could have stopped that."

Mayor Johnny Piper said Thursday's council meeting would be the last held in that room.

Ward had said the rezoning would increase his property value, allowing him to secure a loan to offset debt he incurred when he expanded his shop.

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Woman seeks rich husband, banker says "crappy" deal
Wed Oct 10, 10:39 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Deal or no deal? An online exchange between a woman looking for a husband who earns more than $500,000 a year and a mystery Wall Street banker, who assessed her potential for romance as a business deal, has cause quite an Internet stir.

The anonymous 25-year-old woman recently posted an ad on the free online New York community Web site Craigslist, http://newyork.craigslist.org/, appealing for advice on how to find a wealthy husband.

"I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all," the woman, who described herself as "spectacularly beautiful" and "superficial," wrote.

"I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. $250,000 won't get me to Central Park West," she said, asking questions like "where do rich single men hang out?"

The mystery banker, who said he fit the bill, offered the woman an analysis of her predicament, describing it as "plain and simple a crappy business deal."

"Your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity ... in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!" the banker wrote.

"So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset," he said. "Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!"

"It doesn't make good business sense to "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease," he said.

While the woman has since removed the ad from Craigslist, it -- along with the response -- has become a popular email joke that, bank JPMorgan Chase says, led to one of its bankers mistakenly being credited with writing the response.

Brian Marchiony, spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, said the banker did not write the response and that his email signature accidentally became attached to the ad and response when he forwarded it to friends and it then wound up on blogs.

Craigslist was not immediately available for comment, but a spokeswoman told The New York Times that "it does look as if the post was made sincerely."

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Hospital gives man drip-feed of vodka
Wed Oct 10, 7:39 AM ET

BRISBANE, Australia - Doctors plugged an Italian tourist into a drip-feed of vodka to save him at a hospital in Australia that ran out of the medicinal alcohol it would normally have used for treatment.

The 24-year-old Italian, who was not further identified, was brought to Mackay Base Hospital in northeastern Queesland state and was diagnosed as having ingested a large quantity of ethylene glycol, a common ingredient of antifreeze that can cause renal failure.

Pure alcohol is often given in treating such cases because it can inhibit the toxic effects of ethylene glycol.

Mackay Base Hospital Dr. Pascal Gelperowicz said the man was given pharmaceutical-grade alcohol when he arrived, but that the hospital's supplies soon ran out.

"We quickly used all the available vials of 100 per cent alcohol and decided the next best way to get alcohol into the man's system was by feeding him spirits through a naso gastric tube," Dr. Gelperowicz said in a statement.

"The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit," he said. "The hospital's administrators were also very understanding when we explained our reasons for buying a case of vodka."

The patient, was believed to have ingested the poison in an attempt at self-harm, made a successful recover. The incident occurred about two months ago, though the hospital just released information on the case.

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S&M death raises questions about legal responsibility
BY DENISE LAVOIE The Associated Press

   LYNN, Mass — Adrian Exley was wrapped tightly in heavy plastic, then bound with duct tape. A leather hood was put over his head with a thin plastic straw inserted so that he could breathe, and he was shut up in a closet.
   That, apparently, was the way Exley liked it. But the way it ended — with Exley suffocating — was not what he had in mind when he traveled from Britain for a bondage session with a man he had met through a sadomasochism Web site.
   Exley’s body was discovered in the woods last year, two months after he was bound up in the bondage “playroom” Gary LeBlanc had built in the basement of his suburban Boston home. LeBlanc, a 48-year-old Gulf Oil sales executive, detailed his responsibility in the fatal bondage session in a five-page suicide note, just before he put a gun to his head and killed himself.
   Now the question is: Since Exley consented to the sex play, can LeBlanc be held responsible for his death?
   Exley’s family is suing LeBlanc’s estate for unspecified damages, claiming wrongful death. Many bondage enthusiasts are watching the case closely, seeing it as lesson in where to draw the line of responsibility on consensual but dangerous sex.
   “There’s definitely the whole spectrum of thought on what really happened — whether it was a consent issue, or negligence or misunderstanding,” said Vivienne Kramer, a board member of the New England Leather Alliance. “Everybody has their own ideas on what should have happened.”
   Exley and LeBlanc met through an online forum for gay men into rubber, leather and bondage. Exley, a 32-year-old stripper, used the screen name “Studpup,” while LeBlanc called himself “Rubrman” and built a chamber with rubber mats on the floors and walls, chains, leather restraints, rubber suits and a hospital gurney.
   Exley arrived at LeBlanc’s house in Lynn in April 2006 after the pair had exchanged e-mails in which they discussed plans for LeBlanc to play the “master” and Exley his “slave,” according to the lawsuit.
   John Andrews, a lawyer for LeBlanc’s estate, said Exley knew the risks going in. “What occurred was an act or actions between two consenting adults, both of whom knew what they were doing, and it had a tragic end,” he said.
   The lawsuit describes a threeday bondage and discipline session that ended when a third man, Scott Vincent, discovered Exley was not breathing. Exley had been put in a closet while bound in plastic up to his neck and left alone for several hours, according to the lawsuit.
   In his suicide note, LeBlanc admitted that Exley at one point had trouble breathing. But he said that after “cooling him down,” Exley improved. LeBlanc said that he went to sleep about 3 a.m. but was woken up a few hours later by Vincent, who told him Exley was not breathing and was turning blue and cold. LeBlanc said he panicked, and he and Vincent drove to Rhode Island, where they buried the body and threw away Exley’s clothing and identification.
   The Rhode Island medical examiner determined that Exley suffocated. Vincent said in a sworn statement that the straw had fallen out of his mouth in the closet.
   Vincent, a flight attendant who is also being sued, is charged with failure to report a death in Rhode Island. But he has not been charged in Massachusetts.
   In his note, LeBlanc said he was “responsible for a horrible tragedy,” adding: “Had I dealt with the first crisis responsibly, he would likely have returned home safely.”
   Lawyers for Exley’s estate acknowledge that Exley wanted to participate in a bondage session, but say he did not know about LeBlanc’s reputation as an “extreme edge player” in the world of bondage and sadomasochism.
   “Just because you are agreeing that you will allow someone to tie you up temporarily as part of role-playing doesn’t mean that you are consenting to be killed or to be left alone or to be abused,” attorney Randy Chapman said.