Love Triangle Leads to Death and Imprisonment

Its an age-old story: Two women fight over the same man.

This story, which involves a Facebook feud, a high-speed car chase and a 3-year-old, however has very tragic consequences. In the end one woman (not a party to the dispute) is dead. Another woman is in critical condition in hospital and a third woman is in jail facing multiple felony charges.

Torrie Lynn Emery, 23, of Pontiac, Michigan was ordered held without bond by 50th District Judge Preston Thomas on July 24, 2010. She is charged with second-degree murder, assault with intent to commit great bodily harm and child abuse.

Torrie Lynn Emery and 20-year-old Danielle Booth had been feuding over a 23-year-old unnamed man who is incarcerated in a Michigan prison. Their dispute was at times carried on through the online service Facebook. Police said Booth had filed a threatening and harassing report against Emery.

On Wednesday, July 21st Emery spotted Booth in a car driven by her friend Alesha Abernathy, 21. An argument ensued and Booth and Abernathy drove off with Emery chasing them. Emery also had her 3-year-old daughter in her car. According to reports Emery rammed the other car during a high-speed chase which at times reached 100 mph. A frantic Danielle Booth was on the phone with the police during the chase.

Police Det. Paul McDougal, who was in an unmarked squad car, saw both vehicles rush by at speeds approaching 100 mph but was unable to catch them before the car in which the two girls were driving ran a red light at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Rapid Street and plowed into a dump truck, knocking it onto its side.

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Alesha Abernathy died as a result of the impact. Danielle Booth was critically injured and taken to POH Regional Medical Center in Pontiac. Torrie Emery, her 3-year-old daughter and the truck driver were not injured.

"It's unbelievable," Pontiac police Chief Valard S. Gross told The Associated Press as he described the escalating dispute that ended with Wednesday's deadly crash. "It's just crazy."

"How can you get that angry or that jealous, really, that you jeopardize the life of your 3-year-old?" Gross asked. "One person's stupidity, and look at the repercussions. It's just a ripple effect."

Torrie Emery’s friends and family members packed the courtroom Friday and shed tears during the brief proceeding. Emery struggled to speak over sobs and sighs during the video arraignment. At one point, Thomas had to ask Emery to speak up.

With tears in her eyes and a strain on her voice, Emery said, “I didn’t mean to kill nobody”

Immediately following the court appearance, Emery’s friends and family gathered outside and attempted to console her mother, Tracy Emery.

“She wasn’t trying to kill anybody,” Tracy Emery screamed while sitting in front of the courthouse. “Please have mercy on her, Lord.”

“I’m not asking that she don’t pay for her mistakes,” Tracy Emery said. “She made a mistake, but her intentions were not to kill nobody. Her intentions were to fight.

According to Sue Edmonds of Oakland County Pre-trial Services, Torrie Emery is bipolar and she has a history of failing to appear in court and violating probation.

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Racist or Innocent Vanity Tag

Richard Macaulay of Muskegon, Michigan is a Harley-Davidson lover. He takes pride in his Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide motorcycle, which he keeps in immaculate condition. His other love is the Harley-Davidson Soft Tail Springer.

7 years ago he ordered vanity plates which combined the names of his two favorite bikes: DYNGR.

Macaulay said he was  shocked to receive a letter from the Michigan Secretary of State’s office recently, stating that his personalized license plate of seven years had been revoked. The letter went on to say that a complaint had been received claiming the personalized tag was racially insensitive.

That complaint came from Tiffany Gilmore, who is black. According to Tiffany she was in the Walmart parking lot on Sherman Avenue when she came across a motorcycle with a personalized license plate that sent chills down her spine. She said the license plate included an abbreviation for a racial slur that encourages hatred toward blacks.

Gilmore, of Muskegon Heights, said that at the time she saw the license plate, she “went from awe to disbelief to sadness and then anger because I had my 11-year-old son with me and I had to explain it to him.”

She said she called the Secretary of State’s office in Lansing when she got home. After Gilmore spelled the license plate, the employee responded: “Excuse me? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Kelly Chesney, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State, said her agency conducts extensive screening of applications for personalized license plates. She said a committee reviews the proposed text to avoid offensive language and objectionable content.

The committee includes representatives from ethnic groups and students who know texting lingo. With the evolution of a texting generation that uses abbreviations for almost everything, a license plate with objectionable content occasionally slips through, Chesney said.

After an investigation of Gilmore’s complaint, the Secretary of State’s office decided to pull the license plate, Chesney said. She would not elaborate on whether state officials agreed that the plate was racially insensitive. The plate’s owner has been notified of the decision. The owner has the right to appeal, she said.

After he received the complaint letter, Macaulay said it took him several minutes to figure out what the fuss was about.

“I don’t think that way,” he said. “It took me awhile to figure it out.”

Macaulay's brother-in-law thought it was an abbreviation for “danger.” But, he said, no one ever thought it was racially motivated....Until last month.

“I agree with the lady in one respect, and that is that I don’t know what it’s like to be picked on racially,” Macaulay said. “But she immediately took umbrage without accepting that it could mean something else.”

Upon hearing Macaulay’s explanation Gilmore said she still believes it’s racially motivated.

“When you look at the abbreviation and try to put it together, it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “I’m sorry, it just doesn’t.”

Macaulay said he can’t believe the controversy his license plate has kicked off.

“There are so many other things going on, like the war,” he said. “People have nothing better to do than spend their lives being pissed off.”

Macaulay said he has applied for a new personalized license plate similar to the one that has been recalled. But it lacks the letter “N” so nobody gets confused.

“I would like to apologize to this lady for offending her, but that was not my intention,” Macaulay said of Gilmore. “People who know me know that I’m not a racist. But she didn’t really know what the plate meant. I didn’t ask for any of this, and I wish it would all just go away.”

 

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