TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • 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 if 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

    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 footstep. 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

    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 regards 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.

  • Another Mass. man busted on craigslist

    Man Accused Of Trying To Lure Teen For Sex:

    Another guy from Massachusetts soliciting underage sex on craigslist. This time it’s married father of two Fred Newhall III of Uxbridge. He posted an ad looking for a teenage “house cleaner”. What he ended up getting was Auburn Police Detective James Lyman posing as a 15-year-old girl.

    “He gave me a price list. If you clean, you get this. If there’s light touching, that’s how much you get. Right up to full contact being $500 a day,” Lyman said.

    Lyman said Newhall made the ultimate promise.

    “He told her if she was submissive and did everything he told her, he’d buy her a new vehicle for her birthday,” Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis.

    Newhall arranged for a meeting with the girl at a house in Auburn. But when he got there, he didn’t find a 15-year-old girl; he met a police officer.

    “He had alcohol and he had some sort of massage oil. He knew what he was going to do,” Lyman said.

    Realizing the sting, Newhall allegedly pushed the police officer and ran. It took seven police officers to catch and handcuff him.

    I have no sympathy for scumbags like this. Especially ones that are supposed to be fathers.

  • Zarate brothers plead not guilty

    Not-guilty pleas in grisly slaying:

    From the “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me” Dept. comes the story that both Zarate brothers have pleaded not guilty in the murder and dismemberment of 16-year-old Jennifer Parks. So let me get this straight. They invited Jennifer to their house, beat her and stabbed her to death, dismembered her body so that they can store the body in a trunk, stored the trunk in a Jeep for 24 hours and attended a kid’s birthday party, then got caught trying to dump her body in the Passaic River, and then they plead not guilty? What possible defense could they have? I guess they figured since the death penalty is off the table they’ll take their chances in the trial.

  • A sensible alternative

    Archives vanishing act:

    This is an editorial from Rocky Mountain News that gives some great reasons for making the depositions of the Columbine killers’ parents public…

    The Rocky, along with several families of the victims, have repeatedly called for the depositions to be made public. They offer the only sworn statements from the killers’ parents that could reveal what they knew about the boys before their murderous spree – including what information they shared with school or law enforcement officials in advance.

    Disclosing these records would reopen many wounds. But it could also provide insights that could warn others.

    If Babcock is not inclined simply to release the depositions – the best option, in our view – in part because of privacy concerns, there is an alternative. The judge could order the depositions sealed in the archives until the deaths of the Harrises and the Klebolds.

    This would allow some additional aspects of the tragedy to eventually be explained. And anything that casts more light on the thinking of the killers and those who knew them best, however belated the disclosure, is a goal worth pursuing.

    That definitely makes a lot more sense than sending the depositions to the National Archives for 25 years only to be destroyed. Normally I’m not conspiracy minded but between Sheriff Ted Mink and now Judge Babcock it seems like that all law enforcement and all those involved seem to be covering something up.

  • MySpace is on tubes

    Ted Stevens Returns, Wants to Ban Kids from MySpace:

    Just when it seemed that DOPA was dead here comes Senator Ted Stevens. Yes that Ted Stevens. The one with the tubes and the dump truck. Except his is called the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. As far as sites like MySpace go Senator Stevens’ bill is no different from DOPA. It seems like he’s trying to sneak it through by tying it in with tougher child pornography and privacy laws. And yet with all Senator Steven’s bluster about protecting children, there’s still no mention of having parents monitor their children’s internet activity better.

  • Victim testifies in Campbell County shooting

    ‘It’s real’: Testimony in Campbell shooting:

    Campbell County High Assistant Principal Jim Pierce testified today in a hearing to see if Kenny Bartley will be tried as an adult or a juvenile. Mr. Pierce gave his account of the shooting…

    Pierce, an assistant principal, testified today in Campbell County Juvenile Court that he summoned Bartley to his office after receiving a tip the boy was armed.

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

    Bartley brandished a gun, Pierce said.

    “Kenny stood up with the gun waving it at all of use,” he testified.

    “Mr. Seale asked him if it was real. He said yes it’s real, I’ll show you I never liked you anyway.”

    Pierce said Bartley reached into his pocket, pulled out an ammunition clip and popped it into the gun and started shooting.

    As we know now administrators Jim Pierce and Gary Seale were wounded while Ken Bruce was killed.

    I guess there goes that “accidental shooting” theory that so many of Bartley’s supporters have espoused.

  • Alenson didn’t know his attacker

    Principal: No Evidence Slain Teen Knew Attacker:

    The principal of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, John M. Ritchie, addressed a group of parents at the school auditorium Thursday night. He stated that there was no pre-existing relationship between accused killer John Odgren and his victim James Alenson. So all of those claiming bullying as Odgren’s motive can stick that in your crack pipes.

    Now it says the stabbing started as an altercation. How do we know that John Odgren didn’t start that altercation? If he’s going to claim that Asperger’s caused him to kill James Alenson the prosecution can also claim that it caused him to kill James Alenson unprovoked.

    An insanity plea can work both ways.

  • Jonesboro killer pleads innocent

    Jonesboro school killer enters plea to drug, gun charges:

    Mitchell Johnson, one of the Jonesboro gunmen, pleaded innocent yesterday to charges of drug possession and unlawful weapon possession. Both are misdemeanors. So let me get this straight. Pot and a loaded 9mm are found in his van but he pleads innocent. I get the feeling that he’s going to try to blame his friend that was in the van with him, crossbow killer Justin Trammel. And if you’re wondering why Johnson wasn’t immediately placed back in jail is because once he was released from jail at age 21 due to a loophole in Arkansas law at the time of the Jonesboro shooting, Johnson has basically no criminal record.