Legal Juice

I guess technically it's a burglary, since the home was broken into, and something was stolen. But really, jellybeans? And nothing else? As reported by the Erie Times News:

Police said the burglar broke the window in the front door of a home in the 12000 block of East Lake Road in North East Township sometime between 7 and 11:59 p.m. on April 24. Once inside, the burglar took some jellybeans sitting on the dining room table and left.

Police said no other property inside the home was missing or moved.

Nutty. Here's the source. (In the same vein, check out this post.)

This takes BFF to a whole nother level. As reported by WKBW - TV in Buffalo, New York:

City of Tonawanda Police tell us of a most bizarre scene on Longs Avenue early Monday morning.

It started with a call to law enforcement, after Longs Avenue Resident Jenny Stickles reported her car stolen. Once officers arrived and started taking a report, her son, 25-year-old Elisha Stickles and his friend, 23-year-old David Goss arrived back home with the car.

The men told police they took the car because they had to rush their friend to the hospital, but the officer on duty thought something with the boy's story didn't add up. After investigating further, the officer found blood on the floor in the basement. The men later admitted to cutting their fingers and told police they burned a picture of the virgin mary inside their hands as part of a bonding ritual.

"He's hanging around with the wrong kids," said Elisha's Mother Jenny Stickles. "I never heard of someone doing something like that, never in my life."

Both Stickles and Goss are now charged with falsely reporting an incident.

Son of a biscuit! She did crash that funeral. As reported by FoxCarolina.com:

According to a[n] incident report, Nicole Leonard walked into the church while the funeral was going on and started dancing near the casket.

Sure, that's weird, but read on.

The report said that Leonard then started waving a wand around the casket before opening it and laying her hands on the deceased. Leonard then started tapping the deceased man’s head with the wand, which was described as a car antenna.

You might be wondering, as I did, what her connection was to the deceased. None!

“(It’s) kind of ironic and weird in its own right, especially for someone with no connection to the family or the deceased in any way that we can find,” [Laurens County Sheriff Ricky] Chastain said. [He happened to be at the funeral.] “(She) just picked this funeral at random to stop in and do what she did.”

Surely Ms. Leonard can clear this up.

According to the incident report, when Leonard was asked why she did it, she said that she thought it was the right thing to do at the time.

See? It all makes sense. (She was charged with "disrupting a funeral.") Here's the source.

Everyone in Valentine, Nebraska can now breathe a huge sigh of relief because the Butt Bandit has been arrested. It's not clear why they call him the Butt Bandit since neither his butt, nor any other part of him, ever stole anything. To the contrary, he actually leaves something behind [bad pun, I know], his butt (and/or groin) prints in vaseline or lotion. As reported in The North Platte Bulletin:

The rash of bizarre behavior began in May 2007. Valentine police already had fielded about 20 different reports by this time a year ago.

Rewards offered through Crime Stoppers failed to provide any leads. No physical structure has been damaged, although producing the printings probably involved indecent exposure, officials believe.

The charges? They haven't been filed yet - perhaps because they're tring to come up with the crime? Criminal vaselining? First-degree buttprinting? Here's the source.

For a skull bong, at least in part. True, gruesome, and bizarre. Here's the story, as reported from Texas by The Tribune:

A Kingwood teenager that took part in a grave desecration earlier this year, was sentenced Aug. 25 to 240 days in county jail for abuse of a corpse. Kevin Jones, 17, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge, according to court documents.

Jones, along with companion Matthew Gonzalez, 17, also from Kingwood, were under investigation for area burglaries of motor vehicles and credit card fraud, when Jones volunteered information that led law enforcement to the Old Negro Cemetery in Humble. During questioning, the teen admitted that he, along with Gonzalez and an unnamed juvenile, dug up the 87-year-old grave of Willie Simms, an 11-year-old boy, and used his skull as a bong – a device used to smoke marijuana.

The bizarre incident, which brought nationwide attention to the Kingwood/Humble areas, prompted Grace Church of Humble to restore the desecrated gravesite.

Jones pleaded guilty to credit card fraud Aug. 13 and was sentenced to six months in state prison.

Creepy. Very creepy. Here's the source.

So it was for Mark Pannell of Buffalo, New York. Here's how his day went, as reported by The Buffalo News:

... at about 8:45 a.m. Saturday ... deputies stopped Pannell's car on Grand Island Boulevard near Staley Road for what is being described as minor traffic violations.

Okay. A routine stop, then ...

When Deputy Shaun Hediger returned to his patrol vehicle with Pannell's driver's license, Pannell stripped down to his underwear and fled into the woods.

Shazam! Surely he was quickly apprehended? Nope.

Deputies pursed Pannell, but lost site of him in the dense underbrush. Even bringing in state troopers, a Border Patrol helicopter and K-9 dog didn't initially help. After about three hours, the search was suspended.

You gotta figure that he's gone, at least for a while. Nope. He was spotted at 11:30 p.m., fully clothed. When the police chased him, he jumped into the river. He soon ran out of gas, though, and surrendered. What had he been doing all day - since 8:45 a.m.?

Pannell told police he was in the woods throughout the day, and even took a nap in a tree house at one point. When it got dark, Pannell told police, he returned to the south Grand Island Bridge.

Perhaps this is why he was running (though the stripping down to the underwear part remains unexplained): He was driving on a suspended license, and had outstanding warrants for marijuana possession and traffic offenses. Add charges for "obstructing government administration" to that list. Here's the source.

Okay, so I'm overstating it a little bit. Sanchez Brumfield was charged with killing a man in Louisiana. He's being tried for first-degree murder. While in a holding cell in the courthouse basement, he was seen masturbating by the deputies who were monitoring him by camera. How is this relevant in the murder case? It's not, but the prosecutor argued that, if Brumfield is convicted, the jury should consider it in deciding whether to give him life in jail, or the death penalty. What what what? What possible relevance could masturbating have in the life or death decision? Here's what prosecutor Aaron Brooks said, per The Advocate and WBRZ News 2:

“He will make a lousy prisoner if he’s given a life-sentence,” Brooks said. “And this stunt proves that.”

Huh? What do you do with that kind of reasoning? Just what the judge did - he rejected it. Here's the source.

This one is just really strange. Per wtol.com:

Bellevue Police Captain Matt Johnson says Art Price, Jr., 40, was seen on four occasions between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and noon having sex with his picnic table.

Holy shiznit! So what charge is Mr. Price looking at? A felony!

What makes this a felony, Johnson says, is that it took place in close proximity to a school, which made it likely that children could have seen Price.

And if all that isn't bad enough, a neighbor videotaped the latest incident. Said Police Captain Johnson,

Once you think you've seen it all, something else comes around.

Here's the source.

And that headline is not hyberbole. As reported by the AP:

Law officers in western Kansas are investigating the bizarre case of a woman they say sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years.

TWO YEARS! What would you think happens to your body under those circumstances?

The sheriff said the woman's muscles had atrophied and that medical personnel had to remove her from the toilet because she was bound to it by "natural means."

So, the obvious question: What kind of boyfriend would let his girlfriend sit on a toilet for 2 years without getting her help? Answer: A dude who said that, hey, she stayed in the bathroom of her own free will. Legally, what's going to happen to the "worst boyfriend over a two-year period" ever?

Sheriff Whipple said his office may charge the boyfriend with mistreatment of a dependent adult.

Sitting on his toilet for 2 years? I'd say that definitely made her "dependent" on him. If you are really bored, you can read the Kansas statute here to see what you think. Click here for the story.

I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that compares to what brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke were planning on doing. They saw a young lady's picture with her obituary (I think you have an idea where this is going), and thought she was attractive. So, naturally, they decided to dig her up and have sex with her corpse. Fortunately, things did not go as planned. As reported at investigation.discovery.com,

On the night of Sept. 2, 2006, a concerned citizen called the Grant County Sheriff's Department and reported a suspicious vehicle that was parked by the St. Charles Cemetery. When Officer Brent McDonald arrived on the scene, he observed Alexander Grunke walking towards the vehicle. According to the criminal complaint, Grunke was sweating profusely and appeared to be nervous.

Oh, and somehow, the brother managed to convince a friend, Dustin Radke, to help them.

"Complainant is informed by Sgt. Kopp's report that Radke informed him that he had brought Nicholas Grunke to the Cassville Cemetery the first part of the week, that Nick wanted to come down and locate L.T.'s grave, that Nick asked him to help him dig up L.T.'s body so that he could have sexual intercourse with her, that Nick wanted to take her back to a pre-selected location behind his house, that he did assist in digging up L.T.'s gravesite, and that they had stopped at Wal-Mart in Dodgeville on the way down and bought condoms because Nick wanted to use them when he had sex with a corpse," reads the Sept. 5, 2006 criminal complaint filed by Chief Deputy Jack Johnson.

The charges? Attempted theft and attempted sexual assault. The defense? No sexual assault because the victim was already dead. Did the Judge agree? He did, and his decision was upheld on appeal, but the state appealed that decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Guess how many states have a law that specifically bans necrophilia? Just 16 (and Wisconsin isn't one of them). You can read more (a fair amount) here.

If your dog is looking over your shoulder, be warned that this story may really disturb her. Hell, it really disturbs me. As reported by Kansas station KAKE:

Police make an unusual arrest Tuesday evening. A woman in the 3700 block of E. Clark heard someone break into her garage. When she went to check on the noise, she says she found a man sexually assaulting her four year old female rottweiler.

Police arrested Josh Coman, 20, for aggravated burglary of a home and criminal sodomy. Coman pleaded guilty last year to a similar crime involving a dog in Reno County. Police say the state's new Magnum's Law, designed to protect animals from abuse, does not cover sexual assaults. However, state law prohibits sexual contact between humans and animals.

Authorities say Coman knew the family of the dog he reportedly attacked. Investigators plan to present their case to the District Attorney later this week.

A serial dog cornholer? Dude has some serious issues (not that a one-timer doesn't ...) Here's the source.

That would be Steven Saleh's Washington, DC apartment. Via Craigslist, Mr. Conklin came down from New York to crash there. Two days later, he was lying dead on Mr. Saleh's living room floor. The cause? Acute intoxication - a mixture of alcohol and oxy.

Several days later, per The Washington Post, Dean Johnson arrived from New York to comfort Mr. Saleh. The next day, Johnson died in Saleh's apartment of ... acute intoxication. Per the Post:

As for Johnson, the office said, the tests showed that his fatal intoxication was caused by a combination of oxycodone and four other prescription drugs: clonazepam, an anti-anxiety medication with the brand name Klonopin; amitriptyline, an antidepressant sold as Elavil; ramelteon, a sleep aid marketed as Rozerem; and tramadol, a painkiller sold as Ultram.

What have the authorities concluded? No evidence of wrongdoing by Saleh. And his life's not going so well, either. He suffers from a disabling illness that causes chronic pain and fatigue. You can read more here.

Megan, a 13-year-old St. Louis girl, was being harassed online. Turns out the 16-year-old harasser, "Josh Evans," who initiated things by contacting Megan on MySpace, was the creation of the parents of Megan's former best friend. Over the course of 6 weeks, "Josh" said some nasty things, including that Megan was "fat" and a "slut." The last posting was too much for Megan, who suffered from depression. It said: The world would be a better place without you. Soon thereafter, Megan hung herself.

So is it a crime, what these wicked folks did to a young girl? Apparently not. Investigators are still looking for a crime a year later. Seems that the federal law enacted to prevent cyberharassing punishes direct messages, not postings. And in case you weren't outraged enough, The Chicago Tribune reported "another neighbor as saying the parents encouraged their daughter 'to join in the joke' of the Josh Evans ruse. These 2 were meant for each others. On the bright side, though the paper hasn't identified them, everyone in town knows who they are. So they will pay some price, even if not at the hands of the law.

Call Guinness Book. At least I've not read about an older streaker. As reported in the Irish Independent:

Police in Duisburg, Germany are becoming rather irked with a serial streaker.

They hauled him into court after he streaked during a girls' football match. But they were rather surprised when, during the adjournment the man removed his clothes again.

It appears he views himself as a living work of art. Given that he is 60, it’s presumably abstract art.

(My sources tell me that the man received funding from President Bush's abstinence program.)

The store, that is. I don't understand what drives a foot fetishist, though when I think about the sweet, gentle curve of the arch, the juicy meat of the big toe ... oh, sorry. Anyway, I don't know what Robert James, Sr. of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania was thinking when he went to Target, posing as a podiatrist. He identified himself as a doctor, and asked a woman what kind of shoe she was wearing because he was concerned about her arch support.

In furtherance of his Hippocratic oath, Dr. James got on his knees and "began to manipulate her toes and touch her foot" according to Officer Patrick Malloy. Then the jig was up. The woman told Target's security about the good doctor. They found Mr. James in his car. He was [cover your kid's eyes] playing with himself. What did the fuzz do? "Um, sorry to interrupt you, doctor..." No, they hit him with charges of indecent exposure and open lewdness. And surely he was charged with foot fondling? Nope. It's not a crime in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania! Perhaps coincidentally, next year's FLAP convention (Foot Lovers and Podiatrists) will be held in ... Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. [not]

Choppers, choppers, choppers. Eric White, 42, of Edinburgh, Scotland, just can't get enough of the pearlie whites. He roamed the city streets, telling women that he worked for a dental company, and wanted to photograph their teeth. And he didn't just roam the streets in search of worthy teeth. In 2004, he drove alongside a woman, flashing his lights and beeping his horn to get her to pull over. As reported in The Scotsman:

When she did so, he told her about his work for a dental company, commented on her "beautiful teeth" and asked if he could photograph them for a dental magazine. She initially agreed, but became suspicious and left when he told her she had a "sexy mouth" and a "beautiful tongue". He repeatedly approached her until she finally reported him to the police in March 2006 when he reappeared at her new home in Newtongrange.

Although he wasn't prosecuted for that one, there were plenty of others. Mr. White was arrested for breach of the peace by placing three women in a state of fear and alarm. He pleaded guilty, and is awaiting sentencing. You can read more by clicking here for The Scotsman article.

It's Valentine's Day, and your girlfriend wants to tie you up. What the hell, you figure, and you agree. If your girlfriend is Tiffany Sutton, you have just made a huge mistake, as Robert McDaniel learned - the hard, bloody way. No worries for her, though, because she had him sign a release beforehand! Brilliant! It probably didn't help that they had both smoked meth and consumed a 6-pack of beer, and 1/2 a bottle of whiskey.

Back to the blood. After tying him up, she cut his leg, and [ouch!] stabbed him in the back, neck, abdomen and ... through his arm! Then, as reported in The Arizona Republic, she drank some of his blood. When McDaniel escaped, Sutton chased him with a pickax. Then he passed out.

What happened to McDaniel and Sutton? He was okay. She got busted. And what did she have to say to the court? "I'm sorry for everything. I didn't mean to hurt anybody." Really? Was that the pickax of love you were carrying?

You won't hear Dwayne Goff talking about the "spirit" of the law. The letter of the law will do just fine, thank you. See, he used to work in a hospital, for a company that disposed of, among other things, body parts. Using his cell phone, he took a picture of some toes, and made a video of a co-worker manipulating a leg. As reported in The West Australian:

Police alleged that during the footage of the leg, which was played to Magistrate Elizabeth Woods but not the rest of the court, Mr Goff was heard to say “It’s a f…… knee-cap. Meaty”. Mr Goff claims he said “a bit of meat”, not “meaty”.

The charges? Interfering with and making indignant comments about human remains. The charges seem pretty solid, right? Nope. Goff's lawyer argued that the law deals with a "dead human body or human remains." Since the toes and leg were most likely amputated from a live body, argued the lawyer, the statute doesn't apply. Did the judge agree? He did, saying that the law must be construed strictly, else it could be applied to donated blood, sewage, or a baby's tooth. Me thinks that's a bit of stretch, Meaty, though I do agree with the judge.

Why would Mr. Goff, whose employer said he was a good worker, do this? He wanted the photo and footage as "memorabilia," and to see if his friends could stomach what he does. Crikey! You can read more here.

This Thomas Blacine is one weird dude. (Though that is apparently urine in the photo below, it's not Mr. Blacine.) He has been breaking into women's homes, naked, and tickling them while they sleep. And videotaping them while they sleep. And peeing in at least one woman's milk container!

Now he obviosly likes the way Linda Combs looks while she's sleeping - because he's hit her house twice! "I felt something on my leg and thought it was my cat and I look up and it was this naked guy, and he ran again," said Ms. Combs. Surely she must be able to describe him?

"Well, not really. I would recognize him more if there was a shot of his skinny, white butt. The second time he was naked as could be."

I doubt a butt line-up would withstand judicial scrutiny. What was Mr. Blacine charged with? Tampering with a consumer product (yummy) and burglary. For more on the naked, urinating, tickling burglar, including a photograph of Mr. Blacine, click here.

So Shelley Gallant was approaching the 12-mile mark of the Chicago Marathon last Sunday when, out of the blue, a man she didn't know "came out of nowhere" and sucker-punched her in the face! And she crumbled to the ground. She stopped running right? Nope. She sat down, dazed, for about 30 minutes, and then ran another 8 miles before the race was terminated due to the heat. Oh, and she vomited 4 times. Tough lady. Does she want revenge? Nope. Said Ms. Gallant:

I don't want to press charges. I just want to know what happened. Was he out of his mind? Why did he do that to me?

And what did police tell Mr. Gallant, who was at the race but did not see the attack? Only that the attacker "was apparently low on electrolytes." Gee, thanks officer. Here are a few comments from runners who witnessed the attack:

We were running on the left side of the course when, suddenly, a runner on the other side of the course turned around and starting running in a curve towards our side of the course. He was wearing a red top and looked to be in his 20's. He was yelling and screaming, and, without warning, ran up to a young woman, running nearer our side of the course, and punched her in the face. It was a wild hay maker that connected. She had no chance to defend herself and anyone with her would have had no way to protect her. She went down. In the few seconds it took for us to reach her, some runners had grabbed the berserk young man and others were giving aid to the young woman, who was in tears and utterly distraught. We saw no sign that she could have done or said anything to him that would trigger such a violent reaction...Pat Dooley, Cleveland

It was pretty appalling. What I distinctly recall is that he was running against the crowd as if to find someone behind him. He looked angry and was zigzagging around the runners. It seemed like this poor woman got in the way and within a second of crashing into her, he just punched her and she went down. He kept running and was tackled within 10 seconds or so. Once the cops arrived and the guy was restrained, he was crying....Martha-Victoria Diaz, South Loop

It was extremely strange...Either the guy lost his mind because of the heat, was off his meds, or was upset about something this woman did and attacked her. Anyone know what happened to this guy?....Ryan McQueeney, LaGrange Park

To read more, click here.

(The above scene from "Diner" involves something else that ended up in some movie popcorn.) Sagrado Martinez took her kids to a movie in Tucson, Arizona. Little did she know that this would be a movie experience she would never forget - but not because of the movie. Everything was good, until she took a bite of popcorn, and bit into a razor blade! She was treated at the hospital for a cut to the palate of her mouth, and had to get a tetanus shot. Now - how the hell did a razor blade end up in a bag of popcorn? Is she going to sue? She's thinking it over. There's more (not much) here.

Remember the neighborhood kid who used to stick a firecracker in a tadpole's mouth and light it? Or the kid who smeared lightning bugs on each fingernail and proudly held up his hands? No? (And no, it wasn't me!) Anyway, that kid would have felt right at home at the annual fiesta in Sagunto, Spain. The fiesta featured one strange tradition. In honor of the local patron saint, revellers would fight over specially-bred ducks that have had their wings clipped and can't fly. Guess what happens to the ducks? They are torn to pieces, literally. The Supreme Court has banned the tradition, calling it a "bloody spectacle." You can read more (not much) here.