Last year Sean Lanigan was accused of molesting one of his students. After 47 minutes of deliberation, a jury of his peers acquitted him. Not guilty. They felt there was no evidence.
His accuser has been using her patrol position to bully other students. Lanigan corrected her and warned her that she could lose her position. That was it. The patrol decided that Lanigan had to pay. And pay he did. The story of the downfall of this Fairfax PE teacher can be found in the Washington Post. Sean Lanegan was set up. There were missteps made by Fairfax County Schools and by the Fairfax County police.
Once acquitted, Sean Lanigan’s life still hasn’t gone back to normal. He has over $100,000 worth of legal fees and he isn’t in his old school. He works 5 days out of 10 but is paid for 10. Fairfax County still appears to want him removed. By all accounts an excellent teacher, this man has been victimized by a vengeful student. It can happen to anyone.
The dreadful story of the neglected children in Bristow continues. Interviews with the father of the first set of neglected kids reveal even more information. Apparently the mother, Christina Dawn Moore, does have visitation with the twins who were found wandering in diapers at a junk yard when they were toddlers. Their father is Daniel Tinchard who now has custody of his children. He reported that he has made several calls regarding abuse and neglect,
In the past few years, Tincher estimates he made three or four complaints to Social Services – including one alleging physical abuse – regarding his twin boys. The boys live with their father in Bealeton but go to Moore’s house on selected weekends due to a visitation agreement.
A friend of the family has also made numerous complaints.
The family friend, who attended Brentsville High School with Moore in the early 2000s, said she made close to 10 calls from 2007 to 2010 to the Prince William and Fauquier Social Services departments regarding the situation. She said she heard nothing from anyone other than a brief phone conversation with a social worker.
As VA Tech continues to heal from the worst massacre in US history, they got dealt another blow, this time by the US Department of Education. According to the Washington Post:
The federal government said Tuesday that it plans to issue the maximum possible fine against Virginia Tech — $55,000 — for violations of a campus safety law in connection with the 2007 shooting rampage that left more than 30 students and teachers dead.
A federal official wrote in a letter to Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger that the penalty for failing to provide timely warnings about the threat to the campus on the day of the massacre should be greater.
Today the News and Messenger reported a very disturbing story. A Bristow couple had boarded 3 children ages 4 months, 2 and 4 years, up in a room with a sheet of drywall, amongst all sorts of filth. The oldest of the children escaped and ran to a neighbor’s house for help. The police were called and the children were placed with social services and the couple was arrested and jailed without bond.
The story is quite nasty. Perhaps nastist of all is the fact that Christina Moore has been arrested for criminal child neglect before. She was arrested in 2005 because her 22 month old twins were wandering around a junk yard in just diapers, while she slept in a camper. She lost custody of those children. So it appears that she just had herself some more kids to abuse and neglect.
At what point do the courts simply get tired of renewable kids and force this woman into either surgical or chemical sterilization? This is not a victimless crime and these victims are defenseless and unable to fight this monster mom back. Ordinarily I believe in innocent until proven guilty. I don’t feel that generous over this situation.
If it isn’t legal to sterilize habitual child abuse offenders, then it ought to be. Meanwhile, serious jail time is in order. Thank goodness the child escaped and ran for help. That is a pretty self sufficient 4 year old. I suppose the poor little thing has had to be.
The Prince William County Police along with police from other jurisdictions solved the East Coast Rapist case last week which had been an open case since 1997. The alleged rapist is originally from Berryville, VA, where his mother still lives. He raped women in Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island before being apprehended. His latest victims were 3 Dale City teens who were walking home after trick or treating over in Dale City in 2009.
A police effort recently put up a series of roadway graphics along the interstates on the east coast in hopes on finding this criminal. Thousands of tips came in and one paid off. Aaron Thomas, 39 was arrested late last week. PWC police connected the dots that he was probably a truck driver. They also cashed in on capturing his DNA from a carelessly discarded cigarette while he was appearing in court over something unrelated.
These attacks have been linked through DNA. Police have looked at and cleared over 700 suspects. Call police if YOU have information; with DNA it’s easy to rule out innocent people. Your tips are vital and may be the information police need.
Last week, anti-immigration activist Shawna Forde was convicted of murdering nine-year old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul Flores. On Tuesday she was sentenced to death by an Arizona jury.
Forde and her accomplices led a group of anti immigrant vigilantes on a raid of the Flores home where they pretended to be immigration agents and barged through the door. The father was shot and then the child. The mother faked death and survived.
The case was not designated as a hate crime, despite Forde’s long history with anti-immigrant organizations. She once maintained a Tea Party blog, was a member of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and has presented herself as a representative of Federation for American Immigration Reform. (All three have since distanced themselves from her.) After being cast out from the Minuteman group due to erratic behavior, she formed her own vigilante group, called Minutemen American Defense, which also patrolled the United States-Mexico border trying to detect illegal immigration.
This is an example of what happens when a person just goes too deep into their ideological. How sad that hatred can turn anyone into a murderer. Hopefully, Forde will not become a martyr.
How do we know when anyone has gone into ideology too deep? When does interest become cult-like? What has become of her accomplices?
The electric chair continued to be solely used until 1994, when legislation was enacted giving inmates the choice of lethal injection or the electric chair, with lethal injection the default method if no choice was made. Six inmates have since opted for the Virginia electric chair; the most recent was Paul Warner Powell March 18, 2010. Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has also stated that he opposes the option of the electric chair, but he did not move to drop it as an option while in office.
Many of the world’s great archaeologists and art scholars fear they are about to relive a nightmare.
Eight years ago, they watched in horror as looters raided Iraq’s National Museum in Baghdad and carted off thousand of artifacts representing much of the archaeological heritage of the Arab world.
Now looters and vandals are threatening a museum that holds treasures that are among the most iconic on earth—the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo, home to the golden death mask and gem-encrusted jewelry found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen, among tens of thousands of other priceless items that capture 4,000 years of Egyptian history.
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Arizona Public Media reported Saturday.
Giffords, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting her first “Congress on Your Corner” event at the Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.
At least five other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.
Giffords was talking to a couple when the man ran up firing indiscriminately, and then ran off, Michaels said. According to other witnesses, the was tackled by a bystander and taken into custody.
Fox News reported that she was shot at point blank range in the head by a gunman who was firing indiscriminately.
She is the only member of the U.S. Congress whose spouse, astronaut Mark E. Kelly, is an active duty member of the U.S. military.
Giffords is known as a strong proponent of solar energy as well as for her work to secure the border with Mexico
This is the third time she has met at this type of community event in Tucson. She is 40 years old. 11 others, including local staff members, were also shot. Our thoughts and prayers are with Rep. Giffords.
Fox News is reporting that there are multiple fatalities and that the congressman has died. They are trying to get official confirmation.
The above information was incorrect. Gabrielle Giffords is out of surgery. She is alive, in critical condition, but the doctor who just spoke said he was optomistic about her recovery.
Basketball Coach Marlon Dorsey of Murra High School in Jackson, Mississippi has been temporarily suspended from his job for beating students with a 5 pound weight belt when they failed to run basketball plays to his satisfaction. Nearly all the students have been beaten at one time or another. One student received belt beatings almost daily.
The students did not rat out the coach for fear of being benched or removed from the team. The team discipline was discovered by a parent (seen in the video) who stopped by the gym to watch practice. The father was outraged.
Coach Dorsey has submitted a written explanation, but not an apology. According to the Washington Post:
“I took it upon myself to save these young men from the destruction of self and what society has accepted and become silent to the issues our students are facing on a daily basis. I am deeply remorseful of my actions to help our students.”
Would apologizing really even help? Three of the sets of parents have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of their sons. Other parents have defended the coach and are working to help retain his job:
“He has made them go to study hall, makes them turn in their homework and makes them give weekly reports of their school work,” Gary Love, whose son plays for Dorsey, told the paper. “It’s been all positive with one bad incident. He made a huge mistake, but he is human.
“It was poor judgment, but he is an outstanding person, determined and driven to make those kids better. I think we all need to step back and give him his job back”
Poor judgement? Were Coach Dorsey coaching in this area, he would be a goner and would probably have had criminal charges filed against him by now. Should he lose his job, even if he were trying to ‘help’ the boys?
Robert Fred Mejia will probably be going to jail for about 10 years. Someone else will be driving his Ferarri. Mejiea tooled all over Montgomery County while trying to impress others. According to the Washington Post:
Stretching over at least two years, Mejia would slip into the disguise of federal immigration agent “Jimmy Rico.” He wore combat boots, a thigh holster, and a shirt and hat bearing the letters ICE, for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He used a different car, one that looked like a police cruiser.
And for the right price – generally thousands of dollars – he and his conspirators offered citizenship and legalization papers to at least 90 people who thought they were getting the real thing.
Old “Jimmy” Rico seemed to forget his roots. Judge Weinstein reminded him of what he had done to his own people. This scumbag will be put on hold for 10 years and he will have time to think about his misdeeds. A fake ICE agent indeed! Actually I have heard several people laughingly suggest they get T-shirts made up that say I.C.E. Perhaps these jokesters might want to reconsider that dumb idea.
Convicted sex offender Kevin Ricks who taught at Osbourn High School until his arrest told the court that he was not a pedophile. According to the News & Messenger:
“I never have been. I am not a predator. I never have been,” he said.
Ricks, 50, pleaded guilty in July to taking indecent liberties with a minor for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy.
Thursday, Prince William Circuit Court JudgeWilliam D. Hamblen sentenced him to five years in prison, with four suspended. He will get credit for the eight months he has already served.
The sentence exceeds Virginia’s voluntary sentencing guidelines, which recommended between one and 90 days in jail.
Hamblen said he thought the guidelines were not appropriate because they did not “take into account the breech of trust” involved in the crime, he said.
Ricks was accused of having two sexual encounters with the teen boy, who was a student in his English class during the 2008-2009 school year.
What part of predator and sex offender does this pervert not get? He is 50. His victim is 16 years old. He rented a room from this boy’s father. He was entrusted with teaching kids. Ricks tried to explain that his indecent liberties were consensual. He still doesn’t get it. That doesn’t make it ok. He is 50. If he were 19, maybe. But 50?
It looks like this sexual predator will spend 4 more MONTHS in jail. Why is this person getting out of jail? He lived in someone’s home and he molested the owner’s child. Consensual my foot! Sex between an adult that age and a minor is NEVER consensual. He taught in a school system. He taught this boy. He betrayed the City of Manassas, the boy, the parents, the public. And he spends 4 more months in jail, goes on the sex offenders list, and can’t work around kids. UFB.
I guess it is a good thing I am not a judge. He would have gotten 20 years from me or until his urges to do this left him completely. Our legal system as it relates to child molesters and all sexual predators needs to grow some major fangs and get these creeps out of society where they can no longer harm anyone. It sounds like Judge Hamblen’s hands were somewhat tied and he would have given him more time if he could have. These predators are getting by with what amounts to a slap on the wrist.
Chandra Levy was a young California woman working as an intern in Washington. She became a missing person in 2001. Unfortunately for one congressman–Gary Condit, it became public knowledge that the 2 were having an affair. Condit was married which complicated things.
Condit was in the hot seat and a suspect in Chandra’s disappearance. It appeared that he was almost rescued by 9/11. The focus went off him. More than a year after she went missing, her remains were discovered in Rock Creek Parkway. The Levy family of Modesto, California hired their own investigators when DC investigations proved to be inept.
In 2009, Ingmar Guandique, a 29-year-old Salvadoran immigrant was charged with her murder. Guandoque was apparently linked to her murder after he and other gang members ran on at the mouth. Ingmar Guandique was in prison for other crimes when arrested for the murder of Chandra Levy. Condit will testify at the trial.
Condit was trounced in the primary that fall and is no longer a congressman. Had the Levy family not kept the pressure on, he might still be. Condit is writing a book. It will be interesting to see what he has done with himself.
More on the story at the Washington Post. There is a very heart-rending video from the Levys as well as a time line. Meanwhile, the Levys go on each day without their daughter.
The cable news channels are full of the sad story of Tyler Clementi. Tyler was a freshman at Rutgers University and committed suicide last week by jumping off a bridge to his death in the Hudson River. What caused this young man to go to such drastic measures to end his life?
Tyler had a sexual encounter in his dorm room. Apparently he asked for the room until midnight. Unbeknownst to him, the roommate left his computer open and the web cam streamed the entire episode onto the Internet. The roommate and a friend tweeted the information. Tyler’s encounter was with another man.
One has to ask what kind of monsters would do something like this? Recording this young man’s personal sexual encounter was just another form of bullying. Bullying goes on all the time. In fact, there is an epidemic going on in this country and it isn’t just against gays. Phoebe Prince of Massachusetts wasn’t gay. She was basically tortured to death by her peers, who have been charged in her death. Tyler’s bullies, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, have been charged with invasion of privacy. They can receive punishment of up to five years in prison.
People don’t send their children to public school or to college to have them bullied by others to the point they take their own lives. Suicide with gay youth is 4 times that of straight kids. Yet, is bullying just a phenomena with young people or can it happen with any group? Does it happen at the office, in the neighborhood, in our political dealings, on the blogs? Bullying can and does happen everywhere.
We all need to look to see if our behavior involves bullying. We also need to watch for bullying behavior with our kids. Some of the most serious bullying starts with older siblings. However, experts say that today’s technology allows bullying to be carried to new levels. No longer are kids just beaten up on the playground or jumped on the way home and their lunch money stolen like in the good old days. Now people can sit behind a computer, such as happened with Tyler Clementi, and create situations that make someone’s life no longer worth living. Some folks survive and laugh at their tormentors. Others, like Tyler, decide to end it all.
