Kory McFarren gets Probation and Jail

Kory McFarren, 37, became famous when he called the police for help in removing his 35-year-old girlfriend, Pam Babcock, from their toilet seat. She had spent the past two years in the bathroom and had become so firmly attached to the toilet seat that she had to be taken to the hospital with the seat stuck to her buttocks. See the entire story here.

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Kory McFarren of Ness City, Kansas was eventually charged with the mistreatment of a dependent adult. Kory pleaded no contest to the charge and was found guilty by the Ness County district magistrate. He was sentenced to six months in jail but after a plea for leniency by his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, the judge granted him six months probation instead.

According to Ness County Attorney Craig Crosswhite Pam Babcock petitioned the judge on behalf of her boyfriend because "She didn't believe that her circumstances were his fault." She is now under the protection of a guardian who was appointed through the legal department at the hospital where she received treatment.

However, Kory McFarren does get jail time for another unrelated incident. Shortly after the incident with his girlfriend and the toilet seat, Kory was arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior.

Kory McFarren was arrested after allegedly exposing himself to a minor. He spent the night in jail before being bonded out, said Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple. It was a neighbor who filed the complaint after calling the police, saying that McFarren exposed himself to her teenage daughter and some friends.

"This has been going on for a long period of time," the neighbor said. "While we were using our pool or hot tub, he would stand in his window and watch and play with himself. It has become much worse lately."

According to the woman, this was not the first time that she had called the police. Her family even had built up a pile of firewood to obstruct McFarren's view of the pool area. However, this time when the police showed up, they caught McFarren exposing himself. He was arrested but made bail and returned home the next day.

The neighbor was frustrated when she saw that McFarren had been released so quickly."I have a daughter who is home after school," she said. "We don't know what is going to happen." She said her children long have had after-school instructions to come inside, lock the doors and call the police if McFarren comes on their property.

In this matter, which was heard at the same time as the "Toilet Case", the judge did give Kory McFarren jail time. He was sentenced to six months.

Couple Have Their 18th Child

Alexandru Ionce, 51, and his wife Livia, 44, did not set out to be the center of attention but 18 kids later, lots of media attention was focused on the family. Baby Abigail weighed 7lb 12oz at birth. She is the 10th girl born into the family. See the video here.

"We never planned how many children to have. We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that's the reason we did not stop the life," said Mr Ionce, who works in construction.

The Ionce's immigrated from Romania to Abbotsford, B.C., in 1990 with five children. Their 17 other children range in age from 20 months to 23-year-old Ioana. None are twins and all were born naturally, except four-year-old Filip, who was born by Caesarean section. They live in a 7 bedroom house with only 2 bathrooms to share. "It's tough sometimes," says Ioana. "Sometimes there's lineups but we're used to it."

"We're a lot of people but my parents taught us organization and discipline," she says. "I like it, it's good."

"I've been to my friend's house - an only child," says 15-year-old Alex. "It's different. Quiet around his house all the time. Not fun. It's not quiet here."

Alexandru works in construction, and admits it's not cheap to have a family so large. "Yeah, it is expensive," he says. But while money's in short supply, love is not. And even though she's 44-years-old, Livia's not sure she's done. "I don't know what's happen in the future," she says. "There might be more."

Even with 18 kids the Ionce's are not in the Guinness Book of Records:

• A Russian woman, known only as "the wife of Feodor Vassilyev", who gave birth to 69 children in the 18th century from 27 pregnancies.


• The book also cites Leontina Albina, from Chile, as the most prolific living mother. She reportedly gave birth to her 55th child in 1981.

Giving Pot to Kids - Teen gets 8 Years

Demetrius McCoy, 18 of Watauga, Texas was sentenced to 8 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to two charges of injury to a child causing bodily injury. He also pleaded guilty to two charges of burglary of a habitation. He received 8 years on each of the 4 counts all of which to be served concurrently. It was however the charges related to causing bodily injury to a child that were the most shocking.

McCoy and his cousin Vanswan Polty, were arrested in February 2007 after police found a video while executing a search warrant at the Watauga home of McCoy’s grandmother. Police were investigating burglaries that McCoy and Polty are suspected of committing. On the video McCoy was seen giving his two nephews 2 and 5-years-old marijuana to smoke. Below is the video found by the police.

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McCoy who reportedly has a 3-month-old daughter, was seen giving his nephews pot, blowing smoke in their faces, calling them "potheads" and joking about them having the "munchies". When asked about the incident in an interview from jail, McCoy apologized for causing such a firestorm but indicated that he didn't consider what he did to be a serious crime.

"Some people give their kids alcohol, let them smoke ice, methamphetamines. Weed ain't going to kill them," he said.

Watauga Department of Public Safety Director Bruce Ure took the incident very seriously and said the teens encouraged the two young boys to smoke a marijuana cigar. Investigators were appalled as they watched the tape.

"You're watching a crime in progress," Mr. Ure said. "This is their uncle, and he's encouraging them. They were so willing to go along, to please their uncle. Encouraging a 2-year-old who is clearly a baby – it's a baby, and they think it's funny watching him impaired."

In an attempt to minimize his own actions, he said he doesn't believe he is the first to expose the boys to the illegal drug and besides "They wasn't even high," Mr. McCoy said. "They didn't even inhale it right." He said that even if he hadn't giving his nephews the pot to smoke "the youngsters would have eventually smoked the drug anyway."

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In exchange for the eight-year sentence, McCoy must also testify against his co-defendant, Vanswan Polty, officials said. If McCoy had been convicted at trial, he would have faced up to 10 years in prison. Vanswan Polty, 19, remains in the Tarrant County Jail awaiting trial. He faces two charges of injury to a child, three charges of burglary of a habitation and one charge of failing to identify himself to a peace officer.

"I think Mr. McCoy recognized that a Tarrant County jury was not going to stand for his behavior, and he did the proper thing by taking responsibility for his actions," said prosecutor Darrell Davila, who handled the case with Leticia Martinez.

McCoy was represented by defense lawyer Ruben Gonzalez Jr.:

"My client accepted his responsibility," Gonzalez said. "His family has suffered terribly, and it is something he will have to live with."

Shatorria Russell, the children's mother, has said she was asleep in another room in the home, which she shared with her children, grandmother and McCoy when the children smoked marijuana. Child Protective Services removed the children from the home shortly after McCoy’s arrest, and  Russell relinquished her parental rights to the state. The children are living with a foster family and are awaiting adoption, CPS spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said.

John and Anne Darwin Sentenced

John Darwin, 57, and his wife Anne Darwin, 55, will be spending the next 6 years of their lives in the same place, but they won't be together. Judge Alan Wilkie imposed a sentence of six years and three months on John Darwin after he plead guilty to seven charges of obtaining money by deception and a passport offense. His wife Anne took her case to trial.....and lost. She was sentenced to six-and-a-half years after being convicted of all 15 counts of fraud against her.

They were both sentenced for their separate roles in faking the death of John Darwin in a canoeing accident in March 2002. The couple swindled £250,000 from pensions and insurance companies after Mr Darwin went missing. They succeeded in fooling everyone: The police, their friends and neighbors, the pension and insurance companies and even their own two sons Anthony, 29, and Mark, 32. In fact the two sons gave testimony at the trial against their own mother.

John Darwin apparently hatched the scheme to fake his own death because of his financial problems. He got his wife to play along. After his "death" John lived for sometime at the couple's home hiding from everyone. He eventually obtained a passport under a false name and went to live in Panama, where his wife joined him. For unknown reasons the couple decided to return to Britain where John reported to his local police station, claiming that he had amnesia and did not know where he had been for the past 5 years. Under police questioning the truth came out and they were both arrested. Here is John Darwin's statement to the police and here is what his wife told the police.


Judge Alan Wilkie ruled that even though Mr Darwin had admitted his guilt he should serve a similar sentence to his wife because he had been the orchestrator of the plot. He said the severe sentences were handed down because of the "cruelty and grief" inflicted on the Darwin children in a "virtually unique" fraud.

“I accept you, John, were the driving force behind this deceit,” he said. “You, Anne Darwin, perhaps initially unconvinced, played an instrumental rather than organising role. Nevertheless, you contributed to its success and played your part efficiently. In my judgment, you operated as a team, each contributing to the joint venture.

“You would in all likelihood have got away with it if you, John Darwin, had not decided to return to the UK and try to brazen it out with a further false story of amnesia.”

The "betrayed" sons of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin described how their shock turned to rage when they learned their parents faked the entire ordeal. Mark and Anthony Darwin told a British court they could not believe they had been deceived for five years and only realized they had been fooled when they saw an internet photo of their smiling father posing next to their mother Anne in Panama.

Mark, 32, told the Teeside Local Court jury he was stunned by his mother's lies. "I couldn't believe the fact she knew he was alive all this time and I had been lied to for god knows how long," he said.

Anthony, 29, said he thought the image was faked and had been doctored by an internet prankster. It was only when he read a newspaper confession by his mother in which she apparently confirmed it was genuine that he realized he had been so badly duped. The court heard how he cut short a trip to Canada in March 2002 during which he intended to propose to his girlfriend when he was told that his father was missing.

"She flung her arms around me, she said 'He's gone I think. I have lost him'," he said at hearing the news from his mother five years ago. "She wouldn't stop crying for ages. We just stood in the drawing room doorway."

The following document shows the significant events this case from the time the Darwins hatched their scheme to their final sentencing of six years in jail.

Doctor Charged with Molesting Patients

Dr. Kevin Antario Brown, 37, was charged with a total of 19 counts, including rape, performing a lewd act on a 15-year-old child, sexual battery by fraud and sexual exploitation. All his victims were former patients including an undercover officer who was investigating the case. If convicted he could spend more than 25 years behind bars. See TV news coverage here.

Dr. Brown is a general practitioner medical doctor formerly practicing medicine at the Crenshaw Expo Medical Center, 3631 Crenshaw Boulevard, Los Angeles.

His problems all began when an unidentified 18-year-old girl complained to the police, in June 2007, that Dr. Brown had touched her inappropriately during a medical examination. The police launched a year-long investigation, using an undercover officer to pose as one of his patients. She was also molested.

Dr Kevin Antario Brown was arrested July 8 at his Los Angeles home and was initially charged with sexually molesting a female patient and a female undercover police officer. He was subsequently freed on $50,000 bail.

However, after his arrest more people came forward, claiming he also sexually molested them. Dr Brown was arrested again, this time on 19 felony counts including: performing a lewd act on a 15-year-old child, rape, sexual battery by fraud and sexual exploitation. The alleged crimes occurred between Nov. 6, 2006, and this May 31 2008. Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Ann Marie Wise, of the sex crimes division, said:

"Since we filed the charges, we have been flooded with phone calls, both from other alleged victims and from other agencies, saying: 'By the way, we are looking at him for this.'"

Ann Marie Wise also said that there were more people involved than anticipated and that the investigation was not yet over and more charges were likely.

"We were certainly expecting additional women to come forward, but the number has been probably higher than we would usually expect in this sort of investigation. We didn't want to rush and file all of them [alleged victims] all at once. We have finished interviewing some of the women, and others have come forward in the past two days and we haven't spoken to them yet."

Bail was set at $4 million as requested by the prosecution. They considered Dr Brown to be a flight risk. His father, Ewart Brown, is the premier of the island of Bermuda and they feared that he might try to flee there to avoid prosecution.

According to reports, an affidavit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court says that Dr. Brown is being investigated for allegedly over-prescribing the opiate painkiller Oxycontin. No charges have yet been filed in that case. Investigators are also probing Dr. Brown's alleged role in a multi-million dollar medical fraud, the affidavit says. In recent years, doctors have been convicted of making fraudulent claims to Medi-Cal and Medi-Care - two bodies set up to provide medical aid to the poor.

Special Agent J. Timothy Fives, of the Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse unit in the California Attorney General's Office, said that during a raid on another doctor's home in October, investigators obtained a list of those allegedly involved in the fraud. Dr. Brown's name was on the list, Mr. Fives said. He says that doctors already convicted of fraud have told him that Dr. Brown recruited them into the scheme adding:

"Physicians have stated during interviews that they paid Dr. Brown a percentage of their income from fraudulent Medi-Cal and Medi-Care claims in payment for him setting them up in business."

On top of his work as a doctor, Dr. Brown runs the Urban Health Institute, a charity set up to provide disaster relief in the U.S., Africa and elsewhere. The charity attracted controversy earlier this year when it was revealed Premier Ewart Brown used taxpayers' funds to help sponsor a party thrown to benefit the charity. The Premier was a guest of his son at the charity poker event, held at the Playboy Mansion in L.A.

Premier Ewart Brown of Bermuda continues to have faith in his son saying: “I have been in touch with him and he denies the charges and we trust that he will be exonerated.”