Nov 3, 9:11 AM (ET) WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish burglar had to ask the police to save him after an axe-wielding night watchman attacked and chased him until he crashed his vehicle.
The watchman in the western city of Katowice took the 25-year-old burglar by surprise after he had broken into a house, hitting him three times in the head with the blunt end of an axe, cracking his skull, Polish media reported Thursday.
"The dizzy burglar fled to his automobile and managed to lock the door and start the engine," a police spokesman told PAP news agency.
The watchman gave chase, shattered the driver-side window and yanked the steering wheel, sending the van, which was starting to accelerate, into a mound of dirt.
Trapped, the burglar phoned police for help.
A court will now determine whether the watchman's actions went beyond self-defense and constituted a crime, PAP said.
The burglar's head injuries were not life threatening. He faces 10 years in jail for breaking and entering, while the watchman could face eight years in jail if charged with fighting with a deadly weapon
Nov 2, 7:30 AM (ET) WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. Nov 1 (Reuters Life!) - Jail officials feared an escapee was on the loose on Halloween night when a former inmate was spotted trick-or-treating in his orange prison jumpsuit, authorities said.
A corrections officer spotted the former inmate, Oscar Aponte, 32, going house to house with his son in his hometown of Peekskill, north of New York City.
The officer alerted the Westchester County Jail and the prison was locked down while all inmates were accounted for, said Susan Tolchin, chief adviser to the county executive.
Authorities believed the former inmate smuggled the orange jumpsuit out of the jail when he was released in September after a four-month stay for a probation violation.
"It was a really poor choice of costume," Tolchin said. "We're investigating how he got it out because when they are discharged they leave with their belongings in a clear plastic bag."
Aponte has been charged with petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property for taking the jumpsuit.
Nov 3, 9:09 AM (ET) KOLKATA (Reuters) - Hundreds of people protested in a remote village in eastern India after police arrived to arrest a three-month-old boy for robbery, police and witnesses said Friday.
The infant's name was subsequently dropped from a list of people accused of robbing bus passengers last week, according to Sunit Kumar, senior police officer in the town of Muzzafarpur in the poor and lawless state of Bihar.
"We will conduct an investigation to find out how this happened in the first place," Kumar told Reuters by telephone.
Villagers were angered when a police team arrived with a list of accused, including the boy.
"How could our little Praveen be named an accused?" said Shakila Devi, the child's mother.
Kumar said the boy may have been named by the complainant "with a malicious intent."
Nov 3, 9:10 AM (ET) VIENNA (Reuters) - Four urinals shaped like a woman's lips went on sale on eBay Thursday after being removed from a public toilet in Vienna following protests from women's groups who said they were sexist.
Designed by Viennese artist Rudolf Scheffel for the "toilet-bar Vienna" next to the National Opera, the urinals featured lips covered in red, orange or blue lipstick, a bright red tongue and gleaming white teeth.
The urinals were in the toilets for three years but raised an outcry in the run-up to Austria's October 1 parliamentary election when they were used by political party supporters attending rallies nearby.
Women's rights campaigners described the urinals as sexist and misogynist. They will be restored to their original condition before being sold, the toilet's operator said on auction Web site eBay.
"Each urinal will, of course, be meticulously cleaned," the seller said. "The artist himself will sandblast it, brush the mouth's teeth, and give them a new varnish."
Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/460/drug_police_corruption
A Virginia sheriff and most of his department goes down for reselling seized drug and guns, a Border Patrol guard gets caught turning a blind eye in exchange for sex and cash, dope is missing from the Boston Police evidence warehouse, a small town police chief pleads guilty to protecting crack dealers, and two cops are going to prison for dealing drugs.
Two of our stories this week are from Mississippi, but there are a lot more crooked cops down in the Mudcat State, as the Jackson Clarion-Ledger noted last Friday in an article simply -- and aptly--titled "Accused-Lawmen List Grows." Let's get to it:
In Henry County, Viriginia, Henry County Sheriff Harold Cassell was indicted for covering up the sale of seized guns and drugs by 13 of his deputies. The sheriff's department crew made up 14 of 19 people indicted on charges including racketeering conspiracy, weapons offenses, narcotics distribution, obstruction of justice and perjury. The crew is accused of stealing drugs and guns being held by the department; distributing cocaine, marijuana, and "a date rape drug; money laundering; and obstruction of justice. Virginia state police have been sent in to patrol the county now that a substantial portion of the sheriff's department is behind bars. Cassell himself is out on $25,000 bond. He is accused of failing to take action after being notified of corrupt activities, helping to launder money, and lying to federal investigators.
In Seattle, a US border guard made bail Tuesday after being accused of letting drugs get through the border in return for cash and sexual favors from a female drug smuggler. Desmone Bastian allegedly allowed the smuggler, who is also a brothel madam, to make repeated trips into the United States carrying marijuana and Oxycontin. He came under suspicion when he was observed leaving his post at the Blaine, Washington, border crossing to approach her car, which was found to contain 3,000 Oxycontin tablets when it was searched. A review of border crossing records revealed she had made repeated trips through the border checkpoint, often in Bastian's lane, but had never been subjected to close inspection.
In Boston, the Boston Police Department's anti-corruption unit is investigating whether police officers stole drugs missing from an evidence warehouse. Earlier this month, police announced that some seized drugs could not be accounted for, but suggested they might only have been misplaced as they were moved from one section of the warehouse to another. Now, however, Boston police admit the drugs are missing, although they won't say which drugs or how much. As the investigation continues, local prosecutors are pondering how they will prosecute criminal cases without the evidence.
In Oxford, Mississippi, Ruleville Police Chief Ronald Durelle Robinson pleaded guilty October 26 to extortion for accepting cash payments to not file drug and gambling charges against a crack cocaine distributor. Robinson, 46, and Ruleville Assistant Police Chief Larry Mitchell, 33, were indicted by a federal grand jury in July on charges they provided protection to crack dealers and people they thought were crack dealers between December 2003 and June 2006. Robinson was originally charged with two counts of extortion and four counts of attempting to aid in the possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute, but the feds dropped all but one extortion count in exchange for the guilty plea. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
In Biloxi, Mississippi, a veteran Biloxi Police Department officer was sentenced Monday to 5 years in prison for selling Ecstasy. Officer Darrell Cvitanovich Jr. pleaded guilty earlier this month after he was arrested when a June raid of his home turned up several Ecstasy tablets. Circuit Court Judge Robert Clark sentenced Cvitanovich to 15 years in prison, but suspended 10. Cvitanovich has until noon on November 15 to turn himself over to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
In Milwaukee, a former Milwaukee Police Department detective was sentenced last Friday to four years in prison on federal cocaine distribution and conspiracy charges. Detective Larry White, a 10-year veteran of the force, transported cocaine from Illinois to Wisconsin for his then brother-in-law in 2004 and 2005, earning $1,000 per trip, according to court records. During sentencing, White's lawyers played for sympathy, arguing that White had become addicted to cocaine because of job stress and the killing of a nephew. The sob story must have worked because US District Court Judge Lynn Adelman sentenced him well below the advisory federal sentencing guidelines. Under the guidelines, he should be doing 5 to 6 years.
