Packing Heat in High School

     Bullying victims are sneaking hundreds of thousands of firearms, knives and clubs into U.S. high schools, according to a new analysis that carries the echoes of one recent mass school assault and two potential near misses.

     Extrapolating from a survey of American high school students by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers found that bullied students who are threatened or injured by a weapon on school property were eight times more likely to choose, themselves, to carry a weapon to campus. More alarming: Bullying episodes have a cumulative effect, vastly boosting the likelihood that a chronically harassed student will pack a weapon before returning to a high school….

     Specifically, bullied students who have endured four types of aggressive clashes at school--being verbally tormented, sustaining a physical assault, suffering personal property theft or damage, and cutting school due to safety concerns--are nearly 49 times more likely to have recently carried a weapon to school and 34 more times more likely to have recently smuggled a gun into school….

     By examining the responses of high school students in a biannual, national survey conducted by the CDC, the researchers estimated that more than 200,000 victims of bullies had secretly lugged weapons such as firearms, knives, or clubs into their high schools at least once during a previous month….

Bill Briggs, "Bullied Victims Take Weapons Into High School," NBC News, May 4, 2014 

Bomb in Aile 9!

     A judge sentenced a former employee at the Home Depot store in Huntington, New York to 30 years for planting a pipe bomb in the lighting department and threatening three other stores in 2012…David Sheehan tried to extort $2 million from the company…He had sent an anonymous letter saying he'd put a bomb in the store to show that he could plant one without being detected, and that he would set off  bombs in three other Long Island Home Depot stores on Black Friday that year if not paid…

     Prosecutors said the company spent $1.5 million for additional security guards and other security measures…

     Police found the device in the Huntington store, took it away and detonated it. After Sheehan sent a second extortion letter, lowering the demand to $1 million, investigators identified and arrested him…Sheehan's defense attorney argued the device at the Huntington store was not really a bomb because it didn't have a detonator. [Another example of how trial lawyers are paid to embarrass themselves.] The jury found the defendant guilty in 2013.

     Speaking before his sentencing, Sheehan noted that no one was injured and he had abandoned the plot before his arrest. His lawyer said he will appeal the sentence.

"Former Home Depot Employee Gets 30 Years For Bomb Scare," Associated Press, February 7, 2015 

The Maryville, Missouri Rape Scandal

     Two girls, 14 and 13 years old, sneaked out to join a group of older football players at a party last year [2012] in Maryville, Missouri, the Nodaway County Seat. After the girls became drunk, a 17-year-old boy had sex with the 14-year-old, while another boy stood by with an iPhone video camera running. Afterward, the boys left the girl on her front porch, nearly unconscious in subfreezing temperatures. The 13-year-old told police that she too had been assaulted by another older boy.

     Nodaway Sheriff Darren White told the Kansas City Star that his [investigators] swiftly compiled the evidence and he expected to see the boys in court. But county prosecutor Robert Rice dropped the charges, saying the evidence was inconclusive. The 17-year-old--the grandson of a former state representative--went to college rather than to prison.

David Von Drehle, Time, October 28, 2013 

The NumChuck Panic of 1974: Legislative Stupidity in New York State

     Legislators in New York State, in 1974, passed a ban on a weapon made famous in movies starring Bruce Lee. These martial arts devices are called NumChucks. The law also made it illegal to possess electric dart guns, switchblades, brass knuckles, stun guns, and cane swords. These legislative mental giants, for some reason, failed to ban sawed-off  baseball bats. throwing stars, roller pins, and iron frying pans.

     The New York state lawmakers, concerned that the popularity of "Kung Fu" films would cause young people in the state to turn into bands of marauding, murderous barbarians. So, to prevent this dystopia before it started, they declared NumChucks contraband. Brilliant.

     In 2000, a New York state resident named James Maloney was charged with possessing NumChucks in his home. As an amateur martial arts athlete, practicing attorney, and adjunct professor at the State University of Maritime College, this man was an obvious threat to the peace and stability of the Empire State. After police officers seized this dangerous contraband, Maloney's neighbors could retire at night with unlocked doors.

     In 2003, Maloney challenged the NumChuck ban on grounds it violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms.

     United States District Court Judge Pamela K. Chen, in December 2018, in a 32-page opinion laying out her legal rationale, ruled that the New York state NumChuck ban was indeed unconstitutional.  The decision probably stunned the state's media and academic elites who braced themselves for a historic wave of NumChuck violence perpetrated by mobs of aging Bruce Lee fans.

     

Classroom Meltdown

     In December 2018, police in Visalia, California responded to reports of a teacher gone mad at the University Preparatory High School. Chemistry teacher Margaret Gieszlinger, 52, was caught on video ordering a student to take a seat in the front of her classroom. While singing her version of "The Star Spangled Banner," the teacher started cutting off chunks of a female student's hair. After the student jumped out of the chair, Gieszlinger, still singing the national anthem, walked around the room waving the scissors. Frantic students fled the classroom.

     Police officers booked Margaret Gieszlinger into the Tulare County Jail on the charge of child endangerment. A magistrate set her bond at $100,000.

     In 2007 and 2016, Gieszlinger's teaching credentials were suspended for 14 days. School administrators did not reveal the basis for these suspensions.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for visiting the Jim Fisher True Crime blog. Over the past seven years it has been a pleasure and honor writing for you. I also appreciate all of your comments.

Bad Mall Santa?

     Imagine what it must be like sweating under a fake beard and Santa costume in a loud, brightly lit shopping mall listening to other people's children babbling into your ear about things they want for Christmas. These I-want lists range from the ordinary stuff to asking Santa to use his powers to get dad out of jail. A little girl once asked Santa to bring her boobs as big as mommy's. Another kid wanted a real gun so he could shoot the bad guys who broke into his mother's car and stole his basketball. (This kid wanted revenge more than he wanted a new basketball.)

     There are hundreds of shopping malls in the country and every year almost every one of them hires two full-time Santa fakes. A mall Santa, on average, sees 4,000 children during the holiday season. Rookies earn about $10,000 which comes to a little over two bucks a kid. A veteran mall Santa Claus makes a little more.

     It's amazing that mall managers can find enough men for the job who aren't drug addicts, alcoholics, mental cases, or registered sex offenders. And what about job candidates who simply can't stand being around kids?

     According to the standards of professionalism that comes with the job, these holiday employees have to maintain a jolly disposition. They must also abstain from alcohol just before suiting up. Drinking on the job, of course, will send a mall Santa packing. (Booze might help a Santa meet the jolly disposition requirement.) A mall Santa is not supposed to promise a kid anything. Instead, he is taught to say something like, "I'll see what I can do." In other words, a mall Santa has to talk like a politician.

     Besides the basic job standards, the jolly mall Santa must get along with his Santa helper dressed like an elf. (A mall Santa without an elf is like a singing cowboy without a sidekick.) Elf impersonators are usually little people or small women. (What would be more creepy than a six-foot elf with a deep voice? I have no idea if mall elves make as much as their red-suited partners. I would hope the pay is equal because that job must be just as unpleasant.)

     At 5:30 PM on Saturday, November 23, 2013, police officers in Hanover, Massachusetts arrested a mall Santa named Herbert G. Jones. The 62-year-old Santa impersonator and his elf partner worked at the Hanover Mall where parents brought their kids to have them photographed with the great giver of gifts. Jones and his elf, an 18-year-old girl, worked for a New Jersey company called Cherry Hill Photos.

     According to the elf, Mr. Jones pinched her buttocks and made suggestive comments while the pair worked at the North Pole photo booth. Police officers hauled Santa out of the mall in handcuffs. (Try explaining that scene to a kid waiting in line to speak with Santa.)

     Charged with indecent assault and battery, a judge released Jones on $1,000 bond. But he couldn't return to the scene of the alleged crime because the magistrate barred him from performing Santa gigs until his case was resolved.

     Mr. Jones strongly denied the elf's allegations. According to his employer, Mr. Jones had no arrest or conviction record. The suspect was due back in court on Christmas eve.

     In August 2014, following several continuances, the judge set Jones' indecent assault and battery trial for May 4, 2015. (I have been unable to determine the outcome of this "he said, she said" case. I suspect it was dismissed due to lack of evidence. However, the charge alone probably took Mr. Jones out of the mall Santa business.)
      

Judge Throws Book At High Altitude Sex Offender

     In January 2018, 35-year-old Prabu Ramamoothy, an Indian living in the U.S. on a work Visa, was on a Spirit Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Detroit. Ramamoothy sat in the middle seat between his wife and a 23-year-old model.

     During the flight, the model sitting next to Ramamoothy woke up from a nap to find her neighbor fondling her with his hand inside her pants.

     On December 12, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Berg sentenced Ramamoothy to nine years in federal prison. The judge hoped the severe sentence would serve to deter other airline passengers from similar offenses. (Over the past few years a rash of airline passenger sexual assault cases involving sleeping women had been committed.)

     After completing his prison sentence in the U.S., Ramamoothy will be deported back to India, a country much friendlier to sex offenders.

Calling the Cops on Disruptive School Kids

     There was a time when disruptive students were sent to see the principal. Today in some school districts, the disruptive student is handcuffed and ushered off to court. The school-to-prison pipeline is overflowing with students.

     Melodee Hanes, of the U. S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, describes the school-to-prison pipeline as "the pervasive use of court referrals as a means of discipling kids at school."

     According to the Washington Post, more than 3 million students each year are suspended or expelled from schools across the United States. Federal data, though limited, show that more than 240,000 students were referred to law enforcement.

     The school-to-prison pipeline is being fueled by "zero-tolerant" policies that accelerate the involvement of the criminal justice system in routine school disciplinary practices….The results, at times, have been ridiculous.

Matthew T. Mangino, GateHouse News Service, December 19, 2013.  

Crowded Prisons

     Nebraska's prisons are bursting at the seams, and the state's legislature is struggling to fix the problem. Law makers held hearings on a series of bills on February 13, 2015 to address the overcrowded prison population. One proposed law would limit mandatory minimum sentences for several mid-level felonies such as distribution of cocaine or heroin. Another bill would limit the "three strikes and you're out" rule to violent crimes. [Whenever politicians "fix" prison overcrowding, it never involves building more lockups. It's always letting inmates out or reducing sentences. This may fix the overcrowding problem, but it doesn't fix the crime problem.]

     Nebraska's prisons are at 155 percent capacity with some facilities much higher according to a March 2014 ACLU report. The report points to the Nebraska State Penitentiary at 183 percent capacity and the Omaha Correctional Center at 190 percent capacity, suggesting that Nebraska's correctional system may be operating unconstitutionally…

     The ACLU report points to similar legislation that was successful in California, where prisons were at roughly 200 percent capacity. [Successful in returning rapists, killers and pedophiles to the streets. California is such a dysfunctional state, the rule should be to do just the opposite of what politicians in that state have done.]

Casey Harper, "Nebraska Has More Prisoners Than It Knows What To Do With," The Daily Caller, February 18, 2015