TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • NC MySpace bill fails

    Energy bill advances; MySpace rules fail:

    North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper’s proposed legislation to make teens get parental permission before signing up for MySpace has failed in the State House.

    But the second bill lost its headlining clause, a requirement that parents give permission for their younger teenagers to sign up for online social-networking sites. Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, said that legal and technical experts raised too many unanswered questions about whether the proposal was feasible and constitutional.

    It is expected that the Senate will reject the changes and the bill will end up in a conference committee.

    So there still are some sensible politicians left in the world.

  • Hainstock said he’d kill

    Witness: Armed Wis. Teen Said He’d Kill:

    Two members of the staff of Weston Schools testified that Eric Hainstock declared his intention to kill before shooting Principal John Klang.

    Custodian Dave Thompson testified he was talking with assistant football coach and social studies teacher Chuck Keller before school when they saw Hainstock walking across the parking lot with a shotgun raised.

    Thompson said the teacher asked the 15-year-old freshman what he was doing with a gun in school and Hainstock replied, ‘”I’m here to (expletive) kill somebody.” ‘ He then pointed the gun barrel to within inches of Keller’s face.

    Thompson ripped the gun away from him, telling him, “No, not in my school,” he recalled. Hainstock then reached into his pocket, Thompson said.

    Fearing the boy had another gun, Thompson ran outside with the shotgun, telling Keller to run.

    After Thompson had taken the shotgun, Keller said that he tried to corner Hainstock in the entryway, but that the boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a .22 revolver.

    Notice that Hainstock didn’t say that he was there to (expletive) scare someone.

    Keller also testified about the character of Hainstock…

    Keller testified he had Hainstock in class a year earlier. The boy was disruptive, touching other students and heckling him during his lectures, Keller said.

    Hainstock was equal parts victim and instigator, he said, but the shenanigans didn’t seem serious.

    If the kid was a loudmouth and an attention seeker he probably brought any alleged bullying on himself. But again none of his alleged abusers were his target, only John Klang was.

  • NJ man arretsed for MySpace assault

    Cops: Girl victim of MySpace assault:

    19-year-old Jhor Guerra of New Brunswick, New Jersey has been arrested for having sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl he met on MySpace.

    Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest said Guerra and a 22-year-old man met with the girl and another 13-year-old girl in an apartment in the Somerset section of Franklin. The men gave the girls alcohol, and Guerra “engaged in sexual activity” with one of the girls, Forrest said.

    The victim reported the sexual contact to Dunellen police at about 11:45 p.m. July 20, Forrest said. Forrest said the victim told police she had met Guerra on MySpace.

    I was able to find two MySpaces for Guerra however they are both bare bones. In true MySpace fashion, there has been a MySpace set up by his supporters entitled obviously enough FREE JHOR.

  • Punta Gorda PD make a different kind of arrest

    Police: Myspace mission leads to sex arrest:

    The police department of Punta Gorda, Florida has been featured on this site many times. Usually, it’s for the arrest of some drug dealer that blatantly advertises on MySpace. This time they made a completely different kind of arrest.

    Punta Gorda PD arrested 19-year-old Tyler Stancker of Pennsylvania. Stancker traveled from Pennsylvania to Florida in order to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on MySpace.

    He is being charged with fourteen counts of Lewd Battery, two counts of Lewd and Lascivious Molestation, and one count of Prohibited Use of Computer Services.

    He will be transported to the Charlotte County Jail for booking procedures where he will be held on no bond.

    Wow, no bond. That’s pretty harsh. Not that he’ll get any sympathy from me. I still don’t understand why someone would travel that great a distance for a 14-year-old girl.

  • Parks family sues Zarates

    Parents of murdered Randolph teen sue:

    It’s been a while since we’ve talked about the murder of Jennifer Parks so I’ll do a brief recap for those of you who are new.

    Jennifer Parks was a 16-year-old girl from Randolph, New Jersey. She was killed by her neighbor Jonathan Zarate. Zarate dismembered her body and stuffed her into a steamer trunk. He then hid her body in his parents’ Jeep for 24 hours while he attended a child’s birthday party. Zarate, his brother James, and a third teen were caught trying to dump Jennifer’s body into the Passaic River.

    That was 2 years ago. In true New Jersey fashion, the trial has yet to commence.

    Now the parents of Jennifer Parks are suing the parents of Jonathan Zarate for negligence.

    An attorney for David and Laurie Parks filed the lawsuit in Superior Court in Morristown, claiming Jonathan and James Zarate were negligent in not stopping the other from committing the brutal murder in their father’s home.

    The lawsuit claims the boys’ parents, John Zarate and Flora Mari, failed to adequately supervise them, knowing they both had bullied 16-year-old Jennifer prior to the July 30, 2005 murder.

    Like I always say in these kinds of lawsuits whatever the Parks get it won’t even be close to what they’ve lost with the death of their daughter.

  • Opening day of Hainstock trial

    Opening Statements in Principal Shooting:

    Today was the opening day in the trial of Eric Hainstock. He’s accused in the shooting death of Weston Schools principal John Klang.

    The defense is trying the argument that Hainstock only meant to scare John Klang.

    Hainstock’s attorney, Rhoda Ricciardi, told jurors they should not convict him of first-degree murder because his actions were not intentional, but reckless. She said he told police he only meant to scare people.

    She said Hainstock was upset with kids calling him a “fag.” Ricciardi said his stepbrother sexually abused him when Hainstock was 6, and that his father abused him and refused to give him medication for attention deficit disorder.

    This is the first I’ve heard of claims of sexual abuse but again Hainstock did not strike back at the people who allegedly abused him. He shot and killed someone who was actually trying to help him.

    The prosecution remains unfazed…

    District Attorney Pat Barrett maintained that Hainstock’s anger toward Klang had been building for two weeks before homecoming.

    She noted Klang kicked Hainstock out of school for three days after Hainstock threw a stapler at his special education teacher. Klang also gave Hainstock an in-school suspension after Klang found chewing tobacco in the boy’s backpack.

    Pointing her finger at jurors like a pistol, Barrett also pledged they would hear statements Hainstock gave to investigators in which he said he pulled the trigger on Klang on purpose and testimony from a school janitor who heard Hainstock say he was at the school to kill someone.

    Barrett also said Hainstock brought 50 cartridges for the revolver to school.

    Do 50 rounds of ammunition sound like he was just trying to scare someone? Let’s not forget that Hainstock also brought a shotgun to the school as well even though the shotgun was taken away by a school custodian. Fear was not Hainstock’s objective. Death was.

    Librarian: Hainstock seemed “proud” of violent incident weeks before shooting:
    Librarian Kay Amborn testified today that Eric Hainstock took pride in his throwing a metal stapler at special needs teacher James Nowak.

    Librarian Kay Amborn testified Friday that Hainstock, 16, seemed “proud” a week later on Sept. 21 when he saw a story about the incident published in the Reedsburg Independent, showed it to several other students and asked Amborn to make a copy of it for him. She declined.

    “He said he wanted a copy for his dad, because his dad didn’t get the newspaper,” Amborn testified.

    The stapler incident is what led to Hainstock being suspended by Klang which is what prosecutors believe that led to Hainstock shooting Klang. I tend to agree.

  • Canada’s sex offenders not affected by purge

    MySpace kicks out sex offenders — but not in Canada:

    This is a great article from Canada.com that explains while 29,000 registered U.S. sex offenders were located and removed from MySpace’s userbase, no such purge will happen in Canada.

    “We can’t even work with any private companies or law-enforcement agencies because we simply can’t get hold of the data,” said John Cardillo, CEO of Sentinel Tech, who said predators are more free to use Canadian social networking sites to lure young victims.

    The public does not have access to the national sex offender registry — a database that provides Canadian police services with information to investigate crimes of a sexual nature.

    “When the bad guys have to cover their tracks, they get caught,” Cardillo said, who added it was only in May that MySpace began to use his Sentinel Tech’s technology, after signing a seven-figure deal reached with MySpace’s owners, News Corp.

    But because Canada’s federal government has not publicly released the names of registered sex offenders, those people are able to travel on the information highway, virtually undetected, Cardillo said. “We can’t see who they are so we can’t see where they are.”

    I’d like to hear from Canadians on whether or not they think the sex offender registry should be made public.

  • Media fueling MySpace hysteria

    Sexual predator gets close to his target on MySpace:

    The headline is kind of misleading but I’m getting ahead of myself.

    30-year-old Andre Johnson of Eastlake, Ohio was already on probation for improper sexual conduct with a 14-year-old. Apparently, that wasn’t enough of a deterrent. He’s now accused of breaking into the bedroom of another 14-year-old girl and raping her.

    He denies that the sex was rape, but admits he was so drunk and high that he barely remembers the evening.

    Like that makes it better.

    And here’s where MySpace comes into play.

    The two originally met through the teen’s older sister, but detectives say the relationship was further established by chatting back and forth on MySpace.

    So while Mr. Johnson is a grade A scumbag and deserves everything he gets MySpace was barely involved in this incident and was not the conduit for this predator to meet his victim.

    Sensationalistic journalism at its worst.

  • Schorling’s appeal denied

    Romeo: Knife attacker loses his appeal:

    Eric Schorling is the stab-happy Michigan teen who plunged a rather large knife into his ex-girlfriend’s back…at school…in front of witnesses…then bragged about it. Luckily the victim survived and Schorling was convicted.

    Now he’s lost the appeal of his conviction.

    He had appealed the case on the grounds that his Circuit Court attorney was able to introduce evidence that Eric Schorling was bullied and he lacked the mental capacity to form specific intent.

    His bullying is that he was called a Nazi because of his swastika tattoo. I think he brought that on himself. Plus I find it comical that the defense attorney claims that he lacked the mental capacity to form specific intent but had enough mental capacity to escape from a detention center before his trial.

    Schorling is currently serving a 10-15 year sentence.

  • Shefelbine’s father has charges increased

    Shefelbine Charge Changed:

    David Shefelbine, the father of alleged serial predator Scott Shefelbine, had his charges increased for assaulting a Connecticut news reporter.

    During his brief arraignment Tuesday in the same court in Rockville, David Shefelbine said nothing as Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth C. Leaming increased the charge he faces to third-degree assault. Lori Beth Leavitt, Shefelbine’s attorney, entered a routine not guilty plea and a request for a jury trial.

    Shefelbine the elder is accused of punching reporter Erin Cox after she asked him to comment on his son’s bail being revoked.

    Maybe father and son will have adjoining cells.