TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • The Pro-Anorexia sites

    The Pro-Anorexia sites

    The Vanishing Act:

    This isn’t the first time I’ve taken on the topic of pro-eating disorder websites. With the explosion of sites like MySpace, Xanga, and LiveJournal and their refusal to do anything about it, this “movement” is growing…

    Faced with recrimination from the outside world, the pro-ana girls went underground. There are currently hundreds of pro-eating-disorder groups spread over all the most popular social-networking sites, including Xanga, MySpace, and Live Journal. Many require new users to submit photos to moderators to prove they’re anorexic.

    The hosts see it as a free speech issue, I see it as a health and welfare issue. These girls are basically purging themselves into an early grave.

    Would any of these hosts allow sites that tell you new and better ways to commit suicide? This is no “lifestyle choice”. It’s a disease that the social networking sites are helping to spread.

  • School Shooting in North Carolina

    School Shooting in North Carolina

    Two injured in school shooting:

    HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — One person was shot and two people were injured Wednesday after a shooting at Orange High School.

    Officials say a man fired approximately eight shots in the high school parking lot, hitting one female student in the shoulder. Another male student was injured by flying glass.

    The gunman is now in custody. Officials said he sped past the high school’s security gate in a light gray minivan before opening fire. The gunman was a former student.

    Two guns were seen lying on the parking lot pavement outside of the minivan after the shooting. One appears to be a shotgun. The other is a rifle and might possibly be an assault rifle missing its ammunition clip.

    Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department locked down the school when they arrived. They weren’t letting anyone either in or out. They finally started busing students out of the school around 3:30 p.m.

    As soon as I have more details I’ll let you know.

  • Jonathan Allen Miller

    Jonathan Allen Miller

    MySpace sex leads to charges:

    A Portage man has been charged with sexual misconduct with a minor and child exploitation after he met a 15-year-old girl through MySpace and engaged in sexual activity that he videotaped, police said.

    Jonathan Allen Miller, 18, of the 6500 block of Kandi Avenue, is accused of videotaping and taking digital photographs of sexual acts with the 15-year-old girl on March 3 or 4 in Hobart and Portage.

    In the Hobart case, the girl, a former Hobart resident, met Miller through a MySpace profile page. They began instant messaging in February and eventually agreed to meet at a Portage school parking lot late on March 3 or early on March 4.

    They drove around looking for a secluded spot and ended up in the Barrington Ridge subdivision near St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, where they engaged in sexual activity until another car arrived and they left. Afterward, they drove to a site in Portage and engaged in sexual activity.

    The girl’s mother learned of the alleged incident in June after discovering printed instant messages in the garbage in which her daughter was asking a man to return a tape of them having sexual contact. The girl then told her mother what happened, and the mother recovered a severely damaged VHS tape from Miller. She gave the tape to Portage police.

    A member of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force was able to recover a portion of the tape depicting Miller and the girl having sexual contact.

    The class C felony charges carry a sentence range of two to eight years in prison.

    Yes, we do have Miller’s MySpace.

    For those of you who think an 18-year-old boy having sex with a 15-year-old girl is no big deal, get back to me when you have a 15-year-old daughter who is banging an 18-year-old and tell me how ok you are with it.

  • Possible suspect in Chanel Petro-Nixon’s murder

    Possible suspect in Chanel Petro-Nixon’s murder

    PIMP EYED IN 2ND SLAY:

    New York police are looking at Jennifer Moore’s killer, Draymond Coleman, as a possible suspect in the murder of Chanel Petro-Nixon…

    Police sources said there are similarities:

    – Both girls were choked to death.

    – Both had their pants pulled down, although Moore was raped while Petro-Nixon was not.

    – Their bodies were stuffed into black garbage bags and dumped.

    After speaking to New Jersey investigators, Brooklyn cops believe the two murders could be Coleman’s handiwork, the sources said.

    After she was killed in a New Jersey motel room, Moore’s fingernails were clipped and her body washed down in bleach, an effort to erase clues.

    The body of Petro-Nixon, a top high school student, was found four days after she vanished on Father’s Day, with a chemical scar on her leg – possibly caused by bleach.

    The connection may be a long shot, but cops said they are leaving no stone unturned in an effort to solve the Brooklyn teen’s murder.

    Link via Gothamist.

  • Accutane

    Accutane

    Accutane restrictions creating problems:

    Dermatologists are complaining because restrictions have been put on the drug Accutane, because of possible birth defects to babies if the drug is taken by pregnant women.

    They should be lucky that the drug is on the market at all. I was on this drug for years, and let me tell you I’d rather have the worst acne in recorded history than the side effects of this drug.

    And it really didn’t do anything for my acne either.

  • 25 hours on a bus

    25 hours on a bus

    Michigan Man Busted During MySpace Rondevous:

    (CBS4) KEENE, N.H. A Michigan man is under arrest after he traveled to New Hampshire to allegedly meet someone he thought was 14-year-old boy he met online. That 14-year-old boy turned out to be Keene Detective Jim McLaughlin.

    Jeremy Dale Stewart, 28, had been talking with the detective for two months. According to McLaughlin, Stewart was using MySpace.com to find teens.

    Officials say Stewart traveled about 25 hours on a bus to meet up with the teen in Keene. Prior to the arranged meeting, McLaughlin said Stewart would send photos and love notes.

    When Stewart was met by police at the bus station in Keene, officials say he was taken into custody without incident. When police told him he was under arrest, Stewart apparently told them he was there on vacation.

    I wasn’t able to find a definitive MySpace for Stewart, but I guess he won’t be needing that round-trip ticket.

  • Dyleski found guilty

    Dyleski found guilty

    Dyleski weeps as jury finds him guilty:

    MARTINEZ – Scott Dyleski put a hand over his eyes, leaned over and wept Monday afternoon as he heard a jury’s verdict finding him guilty of first-degree murder and a special circumstance that will send him to prison for the rest of his life.

    The jury deliberated about 18 hours before deciding Dyleski, 17, murdered 52-year-old Pamela Vitale on Oct. 15, 2005.

    With the conviction on the special-circumstance count of murder in the commission of a burglary, Dyleski will be sentenced to state prison without possibility of parole. He was 16 when he killed Vitale.

    The prosecutor said at trial Dyleski killed Vitale in connection with a scheme to purchase marijuana-growing equipment with stolen credit cards.

    Prosecutor Harold Jewett argued that Dyleski may have killed Vitale mistakenly believing that she was another neighbor. He was angry at the other neighbor for thwarting his plan to purchase the equipment and for running over his dog a month earlier.

    However, jurors did not believe that theory, said 55-year-old Concord resident Peter DeCristofaro, the single juror willing to speak with reporters.

    “That didn’t even come up,” he said. “We didn’t buy that.”

    He said all but one juror was certain from the first day of deliberations about guilt, but it took three days to decide that it was premeditated murder.

    “As far as guilt, we got that nailed down pretty quick,” he said.

    Sentencing is set for Sept. 26.

  • Fort Drum soldier pleads guilty

    Fort Drum soldier pleads guilty

    Soldier pleads guilty to arranging tryst with teen using MySpace:

    I originally talked about Jason Benge here…

    A Fort Drum soldier charged with soliciting teens for sex using the popular website MySpace.com plead guilty to all charges this morning in Jefferson County court.

    27-year-old Jason Scott Benge of Flower Avenue East plead guilty to charges of Criminal Solicitation in the 3rd degree and Attempted Rape in the 3rd degree. Benge used the website MySpace.com to arrange a meeting with what he thought was a 15-year-old teen and her 16-year-old friend for purposes of engaging in sexual activity with him and his girlfriend. The teen he believed he was propositioning was actually Detective Steven C. Cote of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.

    Sentencing for Benge is scheduled for October 27th. He was released on his own recognizance.

    His MySpace has since been deleted.

  • Dyleski jury deliberates

    Dyleski jury deliberates

    Dyleski Jurors Begin New Week Of Deliberations:

    The jury in the trial of Scott Dyleski has been deliberating, and on Friday had requested the following items…

    E-mail correspondence between Dyleski and his friend who is accused of taking part in a marijuana growing scheme

    The emergency contact list of the Hunsaker Canyon Road residents

    Aerial photos of the Hunsaker Canyon neighborhood, where Vitale lived

    Photo of mansion Daniel Horowitz and Vitale were building at the time of her death

    Photos of the content of Dyleski’s red backpack. The items in the backpack were eventually turned over to police by Dyleksi’s mother.

    Hernandez said the jury started deliberations ten minutes ahead of schedule on Friday. Hernandez said by midday, jurors requested even more items submitted into evidence. They included a photo of Scott Dyleski after his arrest, as well as photos from his room. They also asked to see the tape lift of shoe print and a photo of shoe print on a plastic lid.

    As soon as I hear anything about a verdict, I will let you know.

  • Nick Govind waives hearing

    Nick Govind waives hearing

    Accused Internet solicitor waives right:

    Recently, I told you about some “gentlemen” that were arrested for trying to solicit underage girls on craigslist. One of them, Nilesh “Nick” Govind, has decided to get things over with…

    REDWOOD CITY  Opting to go straight to trial, a San Carlos man accused of using the Internet to solicit teen girls for sex waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
    Nilesh “Nick” Govind, 28, is charged with one count of attempting to commit a lewd act with a minor.

    A local parent tipped off police to the ad, prompting Belmont police to set up a sting operation on March 10. It was during that sting operation that Govind allegedly offered a Belmont police investigator  who he thought was a 15-year-old girl named Amber  $200 in exchange for performing specific sex acts.

    Govind has no known prior arrests and is not a registered sex offender, police said.

    Govind was released from custody on a $75,000 bail bond. He will return to court on Sept. 12 for his superior court arraignment.

    If convicted, he faces up to 18 months in prison.

    I could almost respect him because it sounds like he’s owning up to his crime if it wasn’t for the fact that he was trying to solicit underage girls.