TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • An open letter to Katherine Lester

    An open letter to Katherine Lester

    I received a comment on my very first entry about Katherine Lester. I thought it made such a good point that I decided to share it with you. It’s from a commenter named Mary…

    If you know Katherine, please give her this message: I have a god-daughter who began dating a guy who was just like Katherine’s “soul-mate.” He’s handsome, a sweet-talker, said all of the right things, treated her great and said he could not imagine life without her. She kept their relationship a secret from me and married him behind my back, then wrote me a letter & brought it to me, telling me about their marriage. What a betrayal….what a hurt! Though she is not my birth daughter, I love her as if she were and pray for her, always. Several weeks later, the mask came off: He was not Italian (as he had been telling her) he was a Muslim and demanded that she convert, or else. She refused. All Hell broke loose, including physical fights, destruction of her property (her car, clothes and condo) and finally, threats of death. After many bizarre and scary months, she was able to get the marriage annulled. (He refused to have sex with her unless she converted). The threats continued, however, for a year or so after the annulment. Katherine and her parents need to understand Islamic customs and practices. Once she marries this guy, she will no longer have a voice of her own – Islamic women are seen & not heard, and speak only when spoken to. Going from a woman young woman accustomed to personal freedoms to a nameless non-entity will no doubt be Katherine’s undoing, unless she is prepared for that type of sacrifice. She has entered very dangerous waters that may appear placid on the surface, but underneath lurks a turbulence that will have very harmful effects on both her and her family. (I know – I’ve been there with my beautiful god-daughter) and would not wish this experience on ANYONE. The fact that he asked her or allowed her to violate her parents trust, speaks volumes about him. Tell Katherine that true love would never ask nor allow her, to violate the love of her parents. I’m praying for Katherine and her family.

    Granted, it’s only one person’s story, but it’s still a real possibility.

  • Samson Shelton indicted

    Samson Shelton indicted

    Grand Jury Indicts Former Ill. Teacher:

    Our favorite teacher/wrestler/attempted murderer, Samson Shelton is back in the news…

    BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) A grand jury indicted a former teacher accused of attacking a teenager and leaving her clinging to life in a park.

    Samson Shelton, 26, was charged Friday with attempted murder.

    Authorities said that Shelton choked 17-year-old Ashley Reeves with a belt and injured her neck with his forearm before leaving her for dead in Belleville’s Citizens Park, where she was found April 29.

    Prosecutors said they would pursue an extended sentence, citing the “heinous and brutal” nature of the attack. That means Shelton could receive up to 60 years in prison if convicted.

    If he’s found guilty, I hope he gets sent to Joliet.

  • MySpace lawsuit viability

    MySpace lawsuit viability

    A Fourteen-Year-Old Girl’s Suit Against MySpace: Should Networking Sites Be Legally Responsible for Protecting Teens from Harmful Real-World Conduct?:

    This is a great and lengthy article about the viability of the MySpace lawsuit. It’s a great read but the last paragraph, in my opinion, sums up the whole situation…

    At the end of the day, however, as long as users are willing to lie and circumvent, there is a limit to how effective controls can be. There are inherent perils involved in hooking up in cyberspace – and parents need to be the ones who educate their children about such dangers.

    Hopefully, common sense will prevail.

  • Cops using MySpace to search for Brooklyn girl’s killer

    Cops using MySpace to search for Brooklyn girl’s killer

    In murder investigation, police search MySpace.com:

    (Crown Heights-WABC, June 24, 2006) – The NYPD is trying to solve a murder mystery involving a 16-year-old girl from Brooklyn. They are now looking on the popular web site MySpace.com for any leads.

    Police at the 77th Precinct in Crown Heights say they’re still looking for 16-year-old Chanel Petro Nixon killer. They believe it may be someone the victim knew.

    Chanel Petro Nixon will remain sweet-16 for eternity and that’s just how her heart-broken family wants her to be remembered.

    “It’s already out that she was chopped up and she was not. Her body was whole. Her body wasn’t even cut. She wasn’t stabbed or anything,” said Errol Wilson, the victim’s cousin.

    Her family is now in shock. Relatives are trying to cope with the gruesome way the body was found.

    Officials say her remains were discovered stuffed inside a garbage bag that was dumped on Kingston Avenue, just one mile away from home. Police say when they found Chanel’s body she was partially clothed but there were no signs of sexual assault.

    Investigators are now looking into conversations the teen had on MySpace.com, an internet web site popular with teens. Her cousin says the Boys and Girl’s High School student loved to chat online. Still, no one knows who would want to strangle Chanel and put her body in a garbage bag.

    Neighbors say they saw Chanel Sunday morning as she crossed the courtyard in front of her building. She was dressed in her Sunday best and on her way to church.

    “She had a long life. A prosperous life ahead of her,” said Wilson. “Unfortunately, it was cut short.”

    I couldn’t find her MySpace at this time, but I will keep you up to date on any developments in this case.

    My prayers and condolences go out to the Nixon family.

    UPDATE: Chanel’s MySpace is here.

  • Sierra Vista Hazer Sentenced

    Sierra Vista Hazer Sentenced

    Sierra Vista Basketball Player Sentenced in Hazing Case:

    The Sierra Vista High basketball player who was not found guilty of sexual assault, even though he stuck his finger in another player’s ass, was sentenced for other charges yesterday…

    A Sierra Vista High School basketball player was sentenced Friday afternoon for his role in a hazing incident.

    A judge ordered the teen to serve thirty days in the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center plus two years probation.

    The teen was found delinquent on battery and lewdness charges stemming from a hazing incident involving Sierra Vista’s basketball team.

    Players piled on top of the victim, but it was the defendant who took the rough-housing to a violent level.

    Prosecutor Mary Brown said, “The primary focus is that they want to get this young man help and to make sure there is not another victim.”

    The teen was handcuffed and brought to the detention center immediately after the sentencing.

    Maybe now he’ll think twice before giving some kid an involuntary rectal exam.

  • Lester still plans to marry Psycho

    Lester still plans to marry Psycho

    Teen Plans to Marry Middle East Man She Met on Myspace.com:

    Oh, cut me a break…

    GILFORD, Mich. A teenager who flew to the Middle East to be with a man she met on MySpace.com said Friday she intends to marry him.

    “I love him very much,” 17-year-old Katherine Lester said of Abdullah Jimzawi, 20, who works in his father’s business delivering goods to West Bank convenience stores.

    Lester appeared on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” with her father and stepmother. Jimzawi also spoke with ABC during a taped portion of the segment, describing how the pair “can’t live without each other.”

    After hearing what Jimzawi said, Lester began weeping.

    “It’s true,” she said. “I love you. That’s all I can say.”

    The two have resumed communication online since she returned home.

    “Our initial reaction was to isolate her, to lock her up and just keep her safe here in America,” said her father, Terry Lester. “But that’s unrealistic because you can see the love they have for each other.”

    Ok, I can honestly say that her father is an idiot.

    How many of us that are in our 30s can look back and say we were honestly in love at 17? I can’t. How about you?

  • Michael Ramos pleads guilty

    Michael Ramos pleads guilty

    Man accused in MySpace luring agrees to plead guilty:

    This is a follow-up to the story of Michael Ramos, the man who was stung by a group of teenage boys…

    FONTANA – A man arrested after traveling to a park to allegedly have sex with an imaginary girl conjured up by teens on MySpace.com agreed to a very real deal with prosecutors on Wednesday.

    Fontana resident Michael Ramos, 48, was taken into custody in early March after trying to meet who he thought was a 15-year-old girl named Jessica. He’d been chatting with ‘her’ for weeks on MySpace.

    The girl actually was a fake account set up by a group of boys looking to cheer up a friend who recently had broken up with a girlfriend.

    After the boys spied on Ramos at the park, they called police, who arrested him.

    On Wednesday, Ramos agreed to plead guilty to one count of an attempted lewd act with a child aged 14 or 15 and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

    He will be sentenced July 26, at which time a judge will rule on the details of the plea as well as a probation officer’s recommendations, said Prosecutor Karen Martinez of the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.

    Other terms of the agreement that could be imposed include five years of probation and a list of prohibited search terms on his home computer, she said.

    There’s a link to his MySpace on the original entry, and it’s still up.

  • Another Lawsuit?

    Another Lawsuit?

    TIME.com: A Countersuit in the MySpace Case?

    A 14-year-old girl is suing the social networking site, where she met the man charged with sexually assaulting her. Now the man she says assaulted her may pursue his own legal case against MySpace.

    It has been an unlikely legal wrangle from the start. First, a 14-year-old Austin, Texas, girl and her mother filed a $30 million lawsuit against MySpace.com, where the teenager claims she met a man who assaulted her. Now, the college student charged with the sexual assault also is considering suing the popular social networking site.

    The defense attorney for Pete Solis, the 19-year-old Texas community college student charged with sexually assaulting the girl dubbed “Julie Doe” in her lawsuit, told TIME that if the Texas courts accept the premise that MySpace is liable because the two met there, then his client also has a claim, since the alleged victim falsely portrayed herself on the webiste as 15 years old.

    “He’s been, in effect, just as much a victim — if not more,” says Adam Reposa, the attorney for Solis, who is facing up to 20 years in prison on charges of second degree felony sexual assault. Since the lawsuit against MySpace also names Solis as a defendant, Reposa said he will “cross-file” and also sue MySpace and its owner, News Corporation. “MySpace wasn’t there when they went to Whataburger. MySpace wasn’t there when they went to the movie and MySpace wasn’t there when they climbed in the backseat,” Reposa said. “Meeting on MySpace — if that alone is enough, then we can make the same claim for damages.”

    This has officially gotten ridiculous.

  • As Mid-Michigan Turns

    As Mid-Michigan Turns

    New details come in Katherine Lester case:

    MID MICHIGAN (WJRT) – (06/22/06)–There were new developments Thursday in the case of Katherine Lester. The Mid-Michigan teen flew halfway around the world two weeks ago to meet with a Palestinian man she met on MySpace.com.

    Thursday her mother’s attorney asked a judge to rescind a decision made Monday in which her father was granted temporary custody.

    That petition was filed in Tuscola County’s Family Division of Judicial Court Thursday morning.

    The judge in the case, Judge W. Wallace Kent, denied the petition, and she will remain with her father until a hearing is scheduled.

    In the petition, Lester’s mother’s attorney states numerous reasons of why she should be returned to the custody of her mother.

    One of those reasons is an interview ABC12’s Bill Harris had with Lester, her father and stepmother.

    Am I just dense? Because I don’t remember any article mentioning her parents were divorced. Not that it matters. But if this situation was a television show, I’d turn it off for being too corny.

  • James Zarate goes to adult jail

    James Zarate goes to adult jail

    Teen charged in Randolph murder moved to adult jail:

    The 15-year-old charged with helping his brother murder and sever the legs of 16-year-old neighbor Jennifer Parks in Randolph last year was ordered held in the Morris County jail this morning on $1 million bail.

    Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto approved the transfer of James Zarate from the county Juvenile Detention Center to the county jail since the youth on June 7 was “waived up” from juvenile status to be tried as an adult.

    Defense lawyer Joseph Ferrante said it would “be a tragedy” if the teen — who was 14 when he allegedly helped his then-18-year-old brother kill Parks on July 30 — was moved to the adult facility. Ferrante characterized the state’s evidence against James Zarate as weak and based upon the statements of a co-defendant and DNA from a piece of chewing gum found in a bag containing supplies used to clean up after the murder.

    “My view is it would not be appropriate for him to be amongst other juveniles,” Ahto said, saying he believes it is in the public’s interest to hold the teen in an adult facility.

    One of the mantras here says if you commit an adult crime you deserve adult time. Have fun in Morris County Lockup.