Gates Arrested in His Own Home

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. Gates currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, where he is Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

The above was taken from his Wikipedia biography. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is also Black. Whether this fact played a role in his arrest at his own home or not is as matter of conjecture. Below is one account of what happened when police were summoned to his house, because a neighbor, identified as Lucia Whalen, thought that two Black men were trying to break in. See Video here



The President, Barack Obama, was asked at a news conference what he thought of the incidence. Obama called Gates a friend, and said he doesn't know all the facts of the case but he said:

"Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in own home," Obama said.

See Video Here

"What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately," Obama said. "That's just a fact."

The police sergeant accused of racism after he arrested Gates insisted that he won't apologize. Police say Gates at first refused to display ID and then accused the officer of racism. Sgt. James Crowley said he followed proper procedures in arresting Gates.

Crowley said he was disappointed by the national debate triggered by the incident and insisted he followed proper procedures in arresting Gates last week in Cambridge on a charge of disorderly conduct.

"I'm outraged," Gates said in extensive comments made to TheRoot.com, a Web site he oversees.

"I can't believe that an individual policeman on the Cambridge police force would treat any African-American male this way, and I am astonished that this happened to me; and more importantly I'm astonished that it could happen to any citizen of the United States, no matter what their race.

There are 1 million black men in the prison system, and on Thursday I became one of them," he said. "I would sooner have believed the sky was going to fall from the heavens than I would have believed this could happen to me. It shouldn't have happened to me, and it shouldn't happen to anyone."

He spoke of a "terrifying and humiliating" experience at the Cambridge jail, where he was booked, fingerprinted, photographed and questioned, then locked up in a tiny cell that made him claustrophobic. He said he wants an apology from the officer, Sgt. James Crowley. He also said he planned to talk to his legal team about the next step.

Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge against Henry Louis Gates Jr. The city of Cambridge called the arrest "regrettable and unfortunate," and police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution.

The city of Cambridge, a Boston suburb, released a statement saying the situation "should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department."

Follow me on Twitter

Aaron Bruns Convicted

Aaron Bruns, 29, an ex-Fox News Channel producer, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing child pornography.

Bruns was arrested in February, 2009, when Federal agents found pictures and videos on his computer of children under 10 years old being sexually abused by adult men and women. This was not Bruns' first brush with the law.

He was previously arrested in March 1999 while at the University of Michigan. At that time investigators found more than 6,000 images on his computer of children engaged in sexual activity. Bruns dropped out of university while his case was pending and eventually pleaded guilty in July 1999 to distributing child pornography over the internet. He was sentenced to 3 years probation.

Bruns had been an imbed reporter for the FOX channel with the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign. The day before his arrest Bruns filed a story about the farewell speeches of Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton on the senate floor. Three days after his arrest on child porn charges he was fired.

For more on Bruns and his arrest check here: Bruns arrested on Child Porn Charges

Follow me on Twitter

Linda Nef Goes to Prison

Judge Rodney Page sent 46-year-old Linda Nef to prison for three years to life, for first-degree felony attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Nef was originally charged with first-degree felony counts of rape of a child and sodomy on a child, which carry mandatory prison terms of 25 years to life.

For complete background details on this story check the following:

1. Boy Has Sex with 2 Teachers


2. Teachers worry about child victim


3. Linda Nef Takes Plea Deal

Before her sentencing, Linda Nef apologized for her actions:

"I am so sorry for the pain you have been through ... as a result of my completely selfish actions," 46-year-old Linda Nef told the boy, who was 13 years old at the time.

A tearful Nef, 46, not only apologized to her victim and his family but also to   "educators everywhere who have been damaged by my actions," especially the faculty at Bountiful Junior High, whom she characterized as honorable and hard-working people.

"I loved teaching with all my heart — and yet I committed a crime," she said.

Nef pleaded guilty in June to a reduced charge of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, as part of a plea bargain in the hopes of avoiding a prison sentence. Possible sentencing ranged from probation to three years to life. In fact both her lawyer and the boy's lawyer urged judge to give her the minimum sentence of probation.

Sean Druyon, Nef's attorney, said mental-health and psychosexual examinations of Nef showed that she poses very little risk to the community or to re-offend, and that she is not a pedophile. He also said Nef came to him to confess, and they approached the police — and Nef has cooperated fully since then. Druyon said all professional reports show Nef could be helped with counseling and treatment.

Druyon said Nef admitted what she had done because it was the right thing to do and was a good candidate for probation for many reasons. Among them is the fact that she has exceptional family support from her husband and extended family. When he asked Nef's family to stand, three rows of people in the courtroom rose to their feet.

Gregory Skordas, the lawyer representing the boy and his family, said they appreciated Nef's confession, and they did not seek a prison sentence. However, Skordas emphatically denied the boy was in any way responsible for what happened. There is no "balance of culpability" when an adult in a position of authority engages in sex with a 13-year-old, he said.

In lengthy remarks before he imposed the sentence, Page said he wished the responsibility to sentence her rested with someone else.

"I haven't slept well in thinking about this case and knowing that from the date the defendant entered her plea, it would be my responsibility to impose sentence," Page said.

While he said it was commendable that Nef came forward and confessed her wrongdoing with the boy, he said there were hundreds if not thousands of victims besides this particular boy who have been hurt by her actions.

"The greater victim in this might be our society as a whole," Page said. "This undermines our faith, beliefs and confidence in institutions that create the foundation of freedoms by which we live — and that is our schools."

"In our society, we esteem our teachers to be among the most honorable people, although sometimes we wouldn't think that by the way we try to pay them and other things. We entrust them with the most important commodity we have in our society and that is our children," Page said.

Page said he had no doubt Nef was a good teacher and was genuinely repentant for what she has done, but the judge sensed Nef also was motivated by the "a concern this was going to come out anyway" once Nef got word about an alleged sexual relationship between another teacher and the same boy.

The other teacher involved with the same boy, Valynne Bowers, 40, is charged with rape and forcible sodomy --- first-degree felonies --- in connection with sexual activity with the boy when he was 14. Plea negotiations for Bowers have fallen through and a preliminary hearing has been set for Aug. 28 before 2nd District Judge Michael Allphin.

Follow me on Twitter

Legs Cut Off By Funeral Home

James Hines was a striking man - A Black Albino man who stood 6ft 7ins tall and weighted 300lbs. He lived in the town of Allendale, South Carolina and was known by almost everyone there.

James Hines,60, died of skin cancer in 2004 and his family picked out a standard-sized casket at Cave Funeral Services in Allendale. His wife, Ann Hines, said her husband's body was only shown from the chest up at his funeral. And no one suggested a longer casket.

The funeral home is owned by Michael Cave who employed his father, Charles G. Cave to do odd jobs. Charles, who does not have the license needed to embalm a body, would help with tasks around the home like dressing and cleaning bodies. He discovered that the body of James Hines was too long to fit into the casket the family had ordered.

He decided to cut off the legs, between the ankle and the calf, with an electric saw, without consulting with the family. He then placed the severed legs in the casket with the rest of the body. Since the casket was designed to show only the head and the torso, nobody knew that James Hines legs had been sawed off. Besides family members said they were so distraught they didn't notice anything was wrong.

Rumors about Hines' suspected truncation started spreading through the town not long after his death in October 2004. But confirmation came four years later when a fired employee, who was the only other worker in the room with Charles Cave when Hines' legs were cut, told the family what happened.

The authorities were called in and an investigation was started, leading to the state funeral board exhuming Hines' body.

"It's just like pulling the scab off an old sore. I was kind of like smoothing things out. But now it's like starting all over again," Ann Hines said two days after investigators pulled the casket from the ground, lifted the lid, photographed the contents and returned it to the earth, all without leaving the graveyard.

Under South Carolina law, destroying or desecrating human remains is punishable by one to 10 years in prison. The state Board of Funeral Service voted unanimously to close Cave Funeral Home in Allendale. The board also fined funeral director Michael Cave $500 and ordered him to pay $1,500 for the investigation. Evidence also has been turned over to criminal investigators. Whether Cave can ever reapply for his license will be determined in the final order, said state licensing spokesman Jim Knight.

Michael Cave appealed the decision. He said should be allowed to keep his license because he wasn't in the room when the legs were cut and had no idea what his father was about do. He also said there were no other blemishes on his 26-year record in the funeral business.

"It was a terrible act," said Cave's attorney, Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Columbia. "But these aren't terrible people."

Administrative Law Judge Deborah Durden gave her decision immediately after hearing the appeal and revoked the license of the funeral home. The ruling may be the end the family business founded in Allendale 49 years ago.

Harrison thinks Michael Cave could eventually go before the board and ask to be reinstated. In the meantime, the family is trying to figure out if it can complete services for a few bodies left in the home and what it should do with dozens of prepaid funeral plans, Harrison said.

Harrison said he felt the board acted especially harshly. He could find only one other time the board took away someone's license. But Christa Bell, a lawyer for the agency that oversees the funeral board, said state law gives members discretion to remove someone's license for any reason they see fit.

"If they cannot take the action they took in this case," Bell said, "when can they take it?"

Follow me on Twitter

7 Arrested in Billings Murders

Byrd Billings, 66, and his 43-year-old wife, Melanie, were both shot and killed in their home. 7 suspects have been arrested in what is considered to be a home invasion/robbery in Escambia County, Florida.

The Billings were the parents of 16 children, 12 of whom had been adopted, with ages ranging from an infant to 11 years old. Many of  them had disabilities. Eight of the children were in the house at the time of the murders but had not been physically harmed.

The Billings were wealthy. They owned several local businesses and had been noted for their generosity taking in children with disabilities and from troubled backgrounds.

“They were very good people. I don’t know what’s going to happen to those children,” said Nancy Markham, the mother-in-law of one of the grown children.

Due to the aid of surveillance cameras on the property police were able to identify and locate a red van used in the operation. They quickly arrested four men: Leonard P. Gonzalez Sr., 56, Leonard P. Gonzalez Jr., 35, Wayne Coldiron, 41, and Gary Lamont Sumner Jr., 31.

After the 4 arrests the police were still looking for three more suspects which they eventually found: 28-year-old Donald Stallworth, 19-year-old Fredrick Thornton and 16-year-old Rakeem Chavez Florence.

Follow me on Twitter