TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • Closure?

    Closure?

    Gunman’s Parents Don’t Object to Seal:

    Here’s a shocker. Eric Harris’ parents, Wayne and Kathy Harris, have no problem with their depositions being sent to the National Archives for 25 years.

    Depending on the final details, Wayne and Katherine Harris do not oppose storing the depositions under seal “in order to bring closure to this matter,” their attorney, Michael Montgomery, said Wednesday in a court filing.

    Closure for who? Not the victims’ families, obviously. The Harrises don’t deserve closure. They let their psychopath son develop his deadly plan for over a year. As far as I’m concerned, they’re just as responsible for the deaths of the 13 victims at Columbine as their cowardly son is.

    The depositions should be unsealed immediately.

  • Facebook’s first predator

    Facebook’s first predator

    Online social site defends security:

    Facebook has its first predator. That must be a proud title to have. 🙄 Anyway, his name is Michael Macalindong, and he was arrested for trying to lure a 15-year-old boy to his home for sex. According to Facebook, Macalindong stole the Facebook account of a high school girl. Then it gets disturbing.

    Authorities said Macalindong–posing as a girl–told the teen that for him to have sex with her, he had to first have sex with her male friend and have it taped so she could watch. In the ruse, Macalindong was the male friend, authorities said.

    Officials said Macalindong videotaped the first sexual encounter at his apartment in May. There were at least two more meetings at the home, Patricia Fix, head of the Lake County state’s attorney’s cyber-crimes unit, said.

    When the teen refused to meet again in January, Macalindong threatened to post the videos on the Internet unless he was paid $200, authorities said. The teen contacted police.

    Last week, a Lake County investigator went online posing as the teen and arranged a meeting in Wilmette, officials said. Macalindong arrived about an hour later and was arrested.

    Before I get to the linky goodness, let me give the male teens out there some advice. No girl will have sex with you if you’ll have sex with her male friend. And trust me, there is no girl out there that’s worth doing that for. No offense to any alternative lifestyle readers. It’s just not my bag.

    Anyway, I couldn’t find Macalindong’s (nice name by the way) Facebook, but I was able to find Macalindong’s MySpace. Of course, it’s been set to private.

    Macalindong has had other victims.

    Investigators found a scanned image of the teen’s identification card along with lewd images and videos on his laptop computer, Fix said.

    Investigators also found other scanned ID cards and photos of Macalindong engaged in sexual activity with other teens, authorities said. Macalindong has been charged with six counts of producing child pornography, one count of indecent solicitation of a minor, one count of intimidation and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

  • Odgren warrants to remain sealed

    Odgren warrants to remain sealed

    Judge denies request for access to Odgren search warrants:

    Luckily, a judge has wisely decided that the search warrants used in the investigation of Lincoln-Sudbury stabbing suspect John Odgren will not be made public.

    Judge Paul Healy Jr. said in a ruling that releasing the information to the public would not be fair to the investigation or suspect John Odgren, 16, of Princeton.

    “At this time, it is believed that a blanket impoundment order is necessary to protect the rights of both the defendant and the Commonwealth and that there is no reasonable alternative,” Healy wrote in the two page decision.

    Thank God, this exercise in media self-righteousness was put down quickly.

  • Odgren’s past

    Odgren’s past

    School transfer of accused teen eyed:

    This is an article that chronicles the school history of Lincoln-Sudbury High stabbing suspect John Odgren. According to the article, he attended 5 schools in five years, which also, according to the article, is not very conducive to an Asperger’s patient.

    Psychiatrists say children with Asperger’s often struggle with school transitions, and a move to a large public school with 1,600 students would not be easy. Youngsters with Asperger’s typically have poor social skills.

    “It’s difficult for these people to accept changes,” said Mohammad Ghaziuddin, a child psychiatrist at the University of Michigan and a specialist in Asperger’s. “They are used to having their own schedule, their own routines. It’s their desire for sameness.”

    At this point, it’s unknown why all those transfers took place. One of the schools said that anyone who has a tendency towards violence would not be allowed to remain there. Lincoln-Sudbury schools are also saying that records provided to them were missing documents that should have contained information regarding Odgren’s past “explosive episodes”.

    Was he shuffled from school to school because of his behavior? Or could it have been parental impatience? Were they possibly not satisfied with the pace he was progressing and held the schools responsible? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

  • Odgren investigation is worldwide?

    Odgren investigation is worldwide?

    Judge to rule Monday on search warrants:

    In arguing whether or not the search warrants used to investigate the murder of James Alenson by John Odgren should be made public, Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bennett had the following to say…

    “We’re attempting to gather evidence worldwide,” said assistant district attorney Daniel Bennett. If information about what was found when the four search warrants were executed is made public, “The information we’re seeking could be altered. It could be destroyed. The search of evidence is both worldwide and goes back 16 years.”

    Even though my curiosity levels are through the roof at this point, there’s no real reason why the warrants should be made public until the investigation and trial are over.

    The judge is set to decide on Monday.

  • Another victim testifies in Campbell County shooting

    Another victim testifies in Campbell County shooting

    Principal: Bartley had chance to flee:

    The other day, I posted about Campbell County High Assistant Principal Jim Pierce testifying in the juvenile status hearing for shooter Kenny Bartley. Now it’s Principal Gary Seale’s turn. According to Seale’s testimony, Bartley had an opportunity to flee the office rather than loading the gun and firing it.

    Seale soon found himself distracted by a tardy student who showed up at the guard shack. Meanwhile, Bartley had arrived at Pierce’s office. Pierce again radioed Seale, who headed to Pierce’s office.

    “Mr. Bruce walked in behind me,” Seale said. “Little Kenny was sitting in a chair. I asked him what was going on.”

    Seale took a seat next to Bartley. Bruce stood near the door. Pierce was seated behind his desk.

    “I just told Kenny, ‘I want what you have in your pocket,’ ” Pierce testified.

    Bartley reached for his pocket. Seale did, too, but Bartley swatted his hand away and pulled out a gun, Seale testified.

    “Kenny stood up with the gun, waving it at all of us,” Pierce said.

    Bruce moved from the door to the back of the room, Seale said.

    “I was like, ‘Little Kenny, is that real?’ ” Seale testified. “He was like, ‘I’ll show you. I don’t like you anyway.’ “

    Seale and Pierce testified that Bartley then reached into his pocket, pulled out an ammunition clip, loaded the gun and opened fire. Seale was struck in the groin. Bruce was struck in the chest. Pierce was shot in the side and hand while wrestling Bartley to the floor.

    As soon as Ken Bruce moved to the back of the room, Kenny Bartley could have just walked out the door. Instead, he chose to fire his gun, killing Bruce and wounding Seale and Pierce.

    An officer also testified that drugs played a major role in the shooting.

    Campbell County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Darrell Mongar testified that Bartley had 10 Xanax pills in his pocket. Xanax is a brand name for a prescription narcotic sedative.

    Under questioning by defense attorney Mike Hatmaker, Mongar described Bartley’s reaction once handcuffed.

    “He started crying,” Mongar said. “He stated that he had stolen his father’s gun and brought it to school to trade for Oxycontin (an opiate-based prescription painkiller). He said none of this would have happened if he hadn’t taken (two of) the Xanaxes.”

    Considering he was trying to trade the gun for OxyContin, it’s safe to assume that the Xanax wasn’t prescribed to him.

    If Bartley is tried as an adult, he’s looking at a minimum of 51 years. Since Bartley has a prior juvenile record, that swings things in favor of him being tried as an adult since rehabilitation obviously hasn’t worked.

    A decision should be reached today.

  • SCMRPG almost makes it through Slamdance

    SCMRPG almost makes it through Slamdance

    Columbine game blocked from receiving Slamdance special jury prize:

    It seems that attention whore extraordinaire Danny Ledonne tried to backdoor his game into the Slamdance Festival competition, but as a documentary rather than a game.

    Ledonne showed a demo of his travesty of a game, Super Columbine Massacre: RPG, to Slamdance juror and filmmaker Brian Flemming. Flemming then discussed the “game” with two other jurors. The three jurors then decided they were going to award Ledonne an unofficial special jury prize. But their intention was to try to slip it past Slamdance director Peter Baxter by surprising the audience by announcing the special prize along with the film documentary award.

    However, Peter Baxter caught wind of it and put a stop to the award, claiming that the award could not be presented to music clearance issues. The game contains midis of copyrighted music.

    How do we know all this? Ledonne told Joystiq himself. I’ll give Captain Smug this much. He definitely knows how to market himself.

    To make matters worse, Ledonne says he’s going to make a documentary about the game and all the controversy surrounding it.

    If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was his plan all along. Create controversy and turn it around to a film career.

    If Mr. Ledonne is still serious about not trying to cash in on Columbine, then he should put his money where his mouth is. If he successfully makes the documentary, any money he makes from it should be donated to the Columbine Memorial fund. But then the Memorial isn’t dedicated to his heroes. Only the victims.

  • The KIDS Act

    The KIDS Act

    Proposal requires sex offenders to list e-mail, IM:

    First, there was DOPA, then Ted “Tubes” Stevens introduced the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. Now we have yet another legislative proposal designed in the name of “keeping children safe” but really doesn’t do anything of the sort.

    Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota has proposed the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act or KIDS Act because, as we all know, no proposal is effective unless it has a catchy acronym to go along with it.

    If passed, the law would require just about any website that has users to cross-reference their user information with lists of registered sex offenders. In theory, that sounds like a great idea, but then again, so did Communism.

    Of course, nothing stops an SO from using a fake e-mail address or the ones that haven’t been caught yet. Again, just more legislation designed to get votes but has no application in the real world.

  • Judge grants juvenile status hearing for Hainstock

    Judge grants juvenile status hearing for Hainstock

    Eric Hainstock Case Goes Back To Juvenile Court:

    A judge has granted a request to have a hearing on whether or not Eric Hainstock should be tried as an adult. Hainstock shot and killed his principal, John Klang of Weston Schools in Wisconsin. Prosecutors are appealing this decision.

    If Hainstock were to be tried as a juvenile, he could only be held until his 25th birthday. Less than 10 years for first-degree intentional homicide is a joke, and again would set a dangerous precedent for those that would follow in Hainstock’s footsteps.

    He needs to be tried as an adult and put away forever. The victim, John Klang was given a death sentence and he didn’t commit any crime.

  • Conn. Attorney General blows more hot air at MySpace

    Conn. Attorney General blows more hot air at MySpace

    Attorney General Calls MySpace Sex Offender Registry “False Security Blanket,” Renews Call For Age Verification:

    Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has issued the following press release in regard to MySpace donating a sex offender database to the NCMEC.

    “MySpace’s sex offender data base is a false security blanket that ignores and distracts from the real problem – sexual predators not yet caught and convicted trolling for victims. This data base does nothing to protect children from sexual predators still eluding criminal authorities or who lie about their ages and identities while using MySpace. A data base may actually create a false sense of security and comfort that the site is free from predators.

    “Protecting children is too important for MySpace to continue taking feel-good baby steps. Without age verification, the problems will continue. Age verification is a must.

    “Age verification will help protect kids from the towering danger of sexual predators and inappropriate material on MySpace. The web site and its parent company need to stop making excuses and introduce age verification, as well as raise its minimum age to 16.

    “Age verification for users 18 and older using publicly available data is easy and effective. MySpace can confirm the ages of younger users by requiring information from a parent or guardian.

    “Our coalition of states continues to grow, reaching 39 last week. I will continue to help lead this powerful and growing coalition in pressing MySpace to introduce age verification. We will consider every available option, including possible legal action, if the site continues to resist age verification.”

    I still don’t hear him offering any real solutions.

    He can form as many coalitions and make as many calls for age verification he wants. Any form of age verification out on the internet today can be circumvented.

    Is he going to propose any legal action against lax parents who leave their kids roam the internet unattended?

    Instead of going after MySpace maybe he needs to keep the myriad of sex offenders from The Constitution State behind bars to keep them from reoffending. Just do a search on this site for Scott Shefelbine or David Leonard to see what I mean.

    Mr. Blumenthal, stop being a politician and be a prosecutor.