Where is Roland “Jack” Auslander?

Roland “Jack” Auslander, 69, buried his 100-year-old mother, Herta Auslander, not in a cemetery, nor did he have her cremated; Roland buried his dead mother in a freezer chest at her home in Cooks Fall, N.Y. There she remained for more than a year before being discovered by the New York State police. An autopsy revealed that the woman died of natural causes - cardiac disease - so foul play is not suspected in her death.

However in the meantime, for more than a year Roland was happily cashing her social security checks. The police, naturally, would like to have a chat with Roland - but he has disappeared. He hasn't been seen since his mother's body was discovered months ago.

Roland is also no stranger to trouble, he has been locked up several times in Sullivan County Jail and in the Woodbourne Correctional Facility on drug charges. Court records show he was convicted of buying more than 3 ounces of cocaine in Livingston Manor in 1987. He was imprisoned on drug charges again in 1999 and was released in 2003.

“He will eventually appear and we’ll ask him what Mom was doing in the freezer,” said Les Hyman, a senior investigator with the state police in Binghamton.

When Roland surfaces he will likely be facing criminal charges of fraud and forgery related to cashing his dead mother's social security checks. He will probably not face any charges for stuffing his mother in the freezer, which would at best be a violation of the public health law.

According to his attorney, Gerald Orseck, Roland has already paid back the roughly $20,000 that he accumulated from his mom’s Social Security checks. Orseck said he has no clue where Roland is hiding.

“I know he paid back the Social Security Administration because I delivered the check personally,” Orseck said.

This is not the first time Roland has disappeared. When he was out on bail, about 10 years ago, on a cocaine charge, he skipped the court date for his sentencing. He wasn't found until more than a year later, on a farm in Essex County, in Northeastern New York, where he was dressed like an Amish person.

“He was pretending that he was Amish, laying low, working on a farm,” Sullivan County District Attorney Steve Lungen recalls.

Has Roland gone Amish again? The police would certainly like to know: Where is Roland Jack Auslander now??

Eyeglasses for the Masses

Joshua D. Silver, a retired Oxford University physics professor,  has designed eyeglasses that hold promise for a billion people in the Third World. His idea was driven by the fact that in many parts of the world opticians are in short supply and most poor people, especially in developing countries, could not afford their services anyway. His adjustable spectacles can be tailored quickly and easily by each person to suit their individual needs.

Working on the principle that thicker lenses are more powerful than thin ones, Prof Silver's spectacles can be adjusted by injecting tiny quantities of fluid. The tough plastic glasses have thin sacs of liquid in the center of each lens. They come with small syringes attached to each arm with a dial for the wearer to add or remove fluid from the lens. Once the lenses have been adjusted, the syringes are removed and the spectacles worn just like a prescription pair.

This invention will enable millions of people who do not have access to eye care professionals to have eyeglasses for the first time. They will work for both far-sighted and near-sighted people. A trial project, supported by his company, Adaptive Eyecare, and the Department for International Development, has already seen thousands of pairs distributed in Third World countries. Prof. Silver has now set his sights on India. He plans to distribute more than one million pairs a year in that country, with the eventual goal of reaching one billion people, worldwide, by the year 2020. See a short video presentation of his invention here.

Hear a presentation sponsored by The Conversations Network of Prof Joshua Silver as he describes how he developed his liquid-filled corrective lenses and his plans for the future. Click the arrow below.

[audio=http://cdn.conversationsnetwork.org/SI-SD.JoshSilver.2007.04.17.mp3]

Lesbian Rape Considered a Hate Crime

An unidentified 28-year-old woman was brutally raped and beaten for 45 mins by a gang of 4 men. She was then thrown out of her own car and left naked on the street. During the attack the men told her she was targeted because she was a lesbian. Authorities are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to arrests and prosecution in the case.

"I've lost sleep over this. I am sickened," said police Chief Chris Magnus. "While every sexual assault is a terrible crime, this particular case is especially horrific because multiple individuals acted together in the commission of this assault, and because of the hate-crime aspect."

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The victim, who police describe as openly gay, parked her car on the 1500 block of Visalia Avenue, Richmond, Ca., at about 9:30pm. While walking away from the car she was approached by four men on foot. "One of the suspects struck the victim with a (blunt) object," Lt. Mark Gagan said. "There was very little interaction between the victim and the suspects. From that point, the physical assault turned into a sexual assault."

"She was beaten, she was robbed and she was sexually assaulted," Gagan said. A few minutes into the sexual assault, one of the men told the group that someone was approaching and they forced the victim into her car. They took her to a desolate area near the Bay Area Rapid Transit tracks, about seven blocks away, to the 1300 block of Burbeck Avenue where they continued to rape her, both inside and outside the vehicle.

During the attack, which lasted for about 45 minutes, the suspects made several statements about the victim's sexual orientation. She also had a rainbow sticker on her license plate that identified her as being supportive of the gay community. After the attack, the suspects fled in the victim's car, leaving her there naked in the street, Gagan said.

After the men left she was able to get help from a nearby resident, who called for the police and an ambulance. She was treated for her injuries at a hospital and released.

Although the four men participated in the attack to varying degrees, they are all being sought on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping and rape in concert with an enhancement for committing a hate crime.

"It's rare to find four adults willing to condone behavior this extreme and violent. It's clear that some of them behaved as followers, but all of them are responsible for what happened," Gagan said. "They should know that their best chance (for leniency) would be to turn themselves in and cooperate with our investigation before we identify them and apprehend them on our own."

The police have descriptions of the four suspects:

• The first suspect, the leader of the group, was described as a Hispanic man in his 30s. He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed 180 pounds and had black hair, brown eyes and a mustache.




• The second suspect was a black man in his early 20s. He was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed about 170 pounds and had black hair and brown eyes. He goes by the nickname "Blue."




• The third suspect was described as a Hispanic man about 18 to 20 years old. He goes by the nickname "Pato."




• The fourth suspect was described only as a Hispanic man about 18 to 20 years old.

"The Richmond Police Department is pleading for the community to come forward and help us find the people responsible for committing this vicious crime," Gagan said. "We are hoping that residents know who these people are. People need to pick up the phone."

Anyone with information about any of the suspects is asked to call Detective Ysenia Rogers at (510) 672-1717.

Caylee Anthony is Dead

There is no nice way to say this. The life of an innocent little 2-year-old girl, Caylee Marie Anthony, was extinguished and her body dumped in the woods near her grand-parents house. Her mother, Casey Anthony, sits in jail, accused of killing her baby daughter even though the girl's body had not yet been found. Read more about the case here.

In a press conference Dr. Jan Garavaglia, the Orange County medical examiner confirmed that the skeletal remains of a young child found in the woods on December 11, is that of Caylee Anthony. The remains were confirmed to be Caylee's through a DNA match. The cause of death was determined to be homicide but the medical examiner could not say exactly how.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVMhxf4X6eA]

The six-month search for the missing Caylee is over. Questions however remain as to why it took so long to find Caylee's body. It appears as if some clues and tips were not followed up thoroughly.

Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found the remains and called the department four months ago, directing them to the site three times, came forward. He read from a prepared statement, telling reporters that

"Back in August of this year, I previously reported to Crimeline and to the sheriff's communications center that I had spotted something suspicious, a bag in the same area. I have been and will continue to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation by the sheriff's office and the FBI," Kronk said.

At a news conference, Capt. Angelo Nieves, a Sheriff's Department commander, said investigators were looking into whether Kronk's tips, called in August 11, 12 and 13, were properly followed up. In one of those phone calls, Kronk reported seeing a gray bag on the side of the road, Nieves said. On August 13, a deputy responded to the site and did a "cursory search" but found nothing, Nieves said. He said the department was investigating the "thoroughness" of the deputy's response but would not identify the deputy. Nieves also said that searchers combing the site after the skull's discovery had found "significant skeletal remains" consistent with those of a small child on the outer perimeter of the search area.

Kronk is not the only one, or the first, to have pointed police toward the site containing the remains. KioMarie Cruz, Casey Anthony's childhood friend, also told police to investigate the same wooded area near Hidden Oaks Elementary School a month before the meter reader.

Cruz said that she and Anthony "pretty much used to hang out there most of our time," would "snack on food for hours" and went there to "get away from our parents."

The Sheriff's Department followed up on that tip, but the wooded area was covered in floodwaters, preventing a search. Nieves said the water may have been present at the time of the meter reader's tips as well.

Caylee Marie Anthony died a horrible death but at least there is some closure in knowing that her body has been found. What follows next is the trial of Casey Anthony for the murder of her daughter. Will justice be served??

Dymond Milburn - A Victim of Police Brutality

The night of August 22, 2006 would change the life of Dymond Milburn, 12, and her family forever. Before the night was over Dymond, an honor student attending advanced classes at Austin Middle School, would be falsely accused of being a prostitute and assaulted by 4 undercover Galveston police officers - while hanging unto a tree limb, yelling "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" -  requiring that she be hospitalized. According to the lawsuit:

The examining physician found that Dymond suffered injuries from multiple blows to the head, face, neck, lower back, left shoulder, and left hip/waist area. She suffered a contusion to the back of the head (where she was struck with a flashlight). There were abrasions on her arm and wrist. Her throat was swollen; she had difficulty swallowing, nausea and vomiting, and hoarseness of voice due to being struck in the throat. She had black eyes, scalp lacerations, tenderness of the vertebrae. She was experiencing double vision and loss of hearing. Dymond’s ear drum and nose were also injured (blood in ear, bruised nasal septum, and nose bleed).

This 12-year-old black girl, not yet a teenager, was mistaken for a prostitute because, according to the police, she was dressed in "tight shorts". The police were investigating a report of 3 white prostitutes and a drug dealer who were supposed to be located two blocks away from where they encountered Dymond, who was in front of her parents house.

Still not content to leave the family alone, three weeks after this unfortunate event, the police showed up at Dymond's school to arrest her, in front of the entire class, for assaulting a public servant! They claim that she was arrested because she fought back against the plain-clothed police officers who were trying to arrest her in front of her own home. It didn't matter that she was innocent and they, the police officers, were at the wrong address.

It all began around 8pm when the breaker went out at the Milburn home. Dymond's mother, Emily, asked her daughter to go outside and turn the switch back on. Emily was busy preparing her kids for school the next day. So Dymond went outside to find the breaker. As she was heading towards the switch, a blue van pulled up to her and 4 undercover police officers jumped out.

Without identifying themselves as police officers one of them grabbed Dymond saying: "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me." Dymond did not go quietly. She grabbed a tree and started sceaming "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" so loudly that she could be heard by the neighbors. The police reacted by covering her mouth and beating her about the head and throat. The officers involved were: Sergeant Gilbert Gomez, Officers David Roark, Justin Popovich and Sean Stewart.

Wilfred Milburn, Dymond’s father, was on the balcony when he heard his daughter’s cries for help and came outside. Emily Milburn also heard the cries and ran outside. When they arrived outside, Dymond was hysterical and holding on to the tree with one arm; two officers were striking Dymond in the head, face and throat. At no time did the supervising officer (Gomez) on the scene intervene and stop the illegal seizure and assault. Officer Roark hit Dymond in the back of head with a flashlight, hit her neck, throat, slapped her across the face, and told her to get off the tree.

Wilfred Milburn told the officer “that’s our daughter. She’s twelve.” The officer responded, “I don’t care if she’s twenty-two, thirty-two, or forty-six. Tell her to calm down.”

As a result of the Officers’ assault, Dymond suffered from pain in the back of the head, lower back pain, a sprained wrist with abrasions, and throat, neck and face pain. Her parents took her to the University of Texas Medical Branch for treatment. They arrived at the emergency room at 9:24 p.m. on August 22, 2006. Dymond was treated for head injuries and multiple contusions.

On Friday, September 15, 2006, at 10:00 a.m., twelve (12) year old Dymond Milburn was arrested for assaulting a public servant. The arrest took place while Dymond was at school.

This incident so traumatized Dymond that she had to seek professional help.

Since the incident, Dymond has had regular nightmares in which police officers are raping her, beating her, and cutting off her fingers. Her fear prevented her from participating in normal activities (going outside to play) which she no longer considered safe. Dymond sought psychological treatment, and on October 31, 2006, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to the incident which is the subject of this lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Dymond claims that she has also experienced: Loss of appetite, loss of normal functioning, and negative effect on school grades due to trouble concentrating in class, all associated with the beating suffered at the hands of the law enforcement officers.

The police version of the story is, of course, not quite the same. The following is a statement from the lawyer for the officers, William Helfand:

Both the daughter and the father were arrested for assaulting a peace officer. "The father basically attacked police officers as they were trying to take the daughter into custody after she ran off."

Also, "The city has investigated the matter and found that the conduct of the police officers was appropriate under the circumstances," Helfand says. "It's unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest."

The charge of assaulting a public servant, brought against Dymond Milburn, was taken to trial, but the judge declared it a mistrial on the first day. A new trial is set for February.

"I think we'll be okay," says Anthony Griffin, Dymond's defense lawyer. "I don't think a jury will find a 12-year-old girl guilty who's just sitting outside her house. Any 12-year-old attacked by three men and told that she's a prostitute is going to scream and yell for Daddy and hit back and do whatever she can. She's scared to death."

Griffin says he expects to enter mediation with the officers in early 2009 to resolve the lawsuit.