TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • Tobin Kerns’ trial starts tomorrow

    Tobin Kerns’ trial starts tomorrow

    MARSHFIELD HIGH: Who’s lying? Teen eager for judge to hear his side in school attack plot:

    For those of you that have been following my site for a while, you’re familiar with the case out of Marshfield, Mass. Well, the trial of Tobin Kerns finally starts tomorrow. I did not know this previously, but Tobin has waived the right to a jury trial and the trial will be decided by Plymouth County Juvenile Court Judge Louis Coffin.

    He’s facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder, promotion of anarchy and threatening to use deadly weapons at school. I really hope Tobin is found not guilty, and I’ll tell you why. Let me show you with the following quotes…

    Former classmate Joseph Nee, now 20, faces identical charges. Kerns was arrested in September 2004, Nee in October 2004. Both were indicted later that month and have been free on $20,000 bail.

    Benjamin Kerns was critical of authorities for continuing to blame his son as others suggested that Nee was the ringleader.

    ‘‘Within a day, the students all knew the truth,’’ Benjamin Kerns said. ‘‘By that time, the DA had already charged him and were racing forward with things.’’

    Within days of posting the original story, I received comments from Marshfield High students defending Tobin Kerns and naming Joe Nee by name as the true ringleader. It took months before someone came forward to defend Joe Nee.

    I’ve never met Tobin Kerns, but I am very anxious for his trial to be over and that he comes out ok. I think he is being railroaded by a questionable accuser. I still think that Joe Nee accused Tobin of being the ringleader in order to deflect blame from himself before Tobin went to police.

    What really scares me is that Tobin is being tried as a youthful offender, which means if convicted he could receive an adult sentence if convicted.

    I pray to God that Judge Coffin sees the truth and finds Tobin Kerns innocent.

  • Esmie Tseng pleads guilty

    Esmie Tseng pleads guilty

    Esmie Tseng pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter:

    In a shocking turn of events, shocking to me anyway, Esmie Tseng, the 16-year-old Kansas teen accused of stabbing her mother to death, has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter…

    Esmie Tseng, 16, pleaded guilty to the charge after agreeing to have her case moved to adult court. Sentencing was set for May 3.

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to recommend a sentence of 100 months in prison, or about 8 years and four months. The defense agreed it would not ask for probation.

    I’m curious as to why she pleaded guilty to an adult charge when so many people thought she should be tried as a juvenile?

  • Dumped boyfriend uses MySpace for revenge

    Dumped boyfriend uses MySpace for revenge

    Former Boyfriend Seeks Revenge On MySpace.com:

    (CBS) CLIFTON Police say Neftali Soto sent “intimate photos” of his ex-girlfriend to students at the Christopher Columbus Middle School in Clifton, NJ where she’s a teacher.

    They say the 26-year-old did it by setting up a sham account on MySpace.Com, pretending to be the teacher.

    “They were intimate photos they took on vacation, the kind lovers would take in this digital age,” said Joseph Del Russo, Passaic County’s Assistant Prosecutor.

    Authorities say Soto stole the photos from his ex’s computer because he was angry over their breakup.

    Then, according to investigators, he used MySpace’s search engine to identify students at the school.

    “When a mom found out, she forwarded the pictures to her own account and she was able to freeze time.” Del Russo said.

    That’s how investigators say they were able to link the photos to Soto’s computer.

    MySpace had the usual non-answer…

    When asked for comment about this story, MySpace.Com said they have all kinds of safety nets to make sure inappropriate material doesn’t make it on the site.

    Apparently, their safety net has Buick sized holes in it.

  • MySpace to increase security

    MySpace to increase security

    MySpace Plans to Boost Security for Minors:

    In the wake of the Connecticut arrests of two predators who met underage girls through MySpace, MySpace chief executive Chris DeWolfe announced that MySpace will soon add technology to help prevent further crimes facilitated through MySpace. DeWolfe declined to give specifics on the technology but said an announcement would be made in the near future.

    No word if better parenting and common sense are among those measures.

  • Burned his girlfriend alive

    Police: Teen Burned Alive Over Pregnancy:

    A 20-year-old man in Ocoee, Fla., was charged with murder after he confessed to pouring gasoline over his ex-girlfriend and then setting her on fire because she may have been pregnant, police told Local 6 News.

    Winter Garden police officers investigating a report of a car fire noticed a small fire on the east side of County Road 545 on Feb. 25.

    When officers extinguished the flames, they found the body of Amelia Sookdeo, 17, burned beyond recognition.

    An investigation into the homicide led to Sookdeo’s ex-boyfriend, Dane Abdool, 20, who at first denied any involvement in the crime, according to the report.

    However, when police confronted him with inconsistencies in his story and presented a set of tire marks from his car photographed at the scene, Abdool confessed to the crime, Local 6 News reported.

    “He admitted that he had met his former girlfriend that night, she sneaked out and he picked her up and went to his apartment in Ocoee,” Winter Garden Police Chief George Brennan said. “From there they left and had an argument and he took her down County Road 545, forced her out of the car. He poured gasoline on her and ignited it.”

    Abdool told police that he was arguing with Sookdeo over her possible pregnancy and he was just trying to scare her, Local 6 News reported.

    Here’s the twist…

    “The medical examiner found no evidence that she was having a baby,” Local 6 reporter Mike DeForest said.

    Way to go, you scumbag. You killed your own girlfriend in one of the most brutal ways possible over something that is supposed to be so beautiful, like bringing a new life into the world, and she wasn’t even pregnant.

    I hope the fires of hell burn a million times hotter for you once you get there.

    My prayers and condolences go out to the Sookdeo family.

  • The Predator’s Playground

    The Predator’s Playground

    Pedophiles trolling in MySpace raise alarm:

    Just another local news article, this time from Houston, about how MySpace is a predator’s playground…

    MySpace is the Studio 54 for the Internet set. And just like the seminal disco-era nightclub, MySpace has transcended being a place ”to see and be seen” and become a cultural benchmark.

    But there are no bouncers guarding the Internet. Locally, there have been two arrests in underage sex cases, and nationwide, the site has been linked to probes involving a variety of crimes, including exposing minors to pornography and even murder. On Thursday, Connecticut authorities said they arrested two men on allegations of having sexual contact with minors they met through the site.

    Locally, a 26-year-old Houston man was charged with sexual assault of a child, accused of luring a 15-year-old League City girl away from home in January after meeting through MySpace.

    Also in January, another teen from League City met a 38-year-old man on the site who began sending sexually explicit messages. The girl told her father, who went to police. Robert Alan Wise was arrested after arriving at what he thought was a meeting with the girl but was a trap set by police.

    And for the “no surprise” portion of the article…

    Telephoned requests to the Santa Monica, Calif.-based headquarters of MySpace seeking comment were not answered.

    Go figure.

  • Dyleski facing life

    Dyleski facing life

    Dyleski could serve life without parole:

    Contra Costa County prosecutors have filed a special circumstance allegation against 17-year-old murder defendant Scott Dyleski, subjecting him to a life term without the possibility of parole if he is convicted.

    Prosecutors allege that Dyleski committed murder during a residential burglary.

    In court documents filed Wednesday, deputy district attorney Harold Jewett said Dyleski entered the home of Pamela Vitale with the intention of stealing, counterfeiting or fraudulently using access card information.

    Dyleski is accused of killing Vitale on Oct. 15, 2005. Vitale’s husband Daniel Horowitz found her stabbed and bludgeoned to death that evening.

    Dyleski cannot get the death penalty due to his age. Which is more consideration than Pam Vitale got.

  • Two molestations in Conn.

    Two molestations in Conn.

    Prosecutors: Men used MySpace to meet underage girls for sex:

    I am horrified by this article…

    Two men from Pennsylvania and New Jersey used the popular networking Web site MySpace.com to set up sexual encounters with underage Connecticut girls, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

    The two unrelated cases come after weeks in which the potential danger of MySpace has been a topic of discussion for law enforcement, parents and school officials nationwide.

    In one case, Sonny Szeto, 22, of Jersey City, N.J., traveled to Connecticut in October and molested an 11-year-old girl in her playroom while her parents slept upstairs, according to an FBI affidavit.

    In the other case, Stephen Letavec, 39, molested a 14-year-old Connecticut girl in his car while visiting from of Elrama, Pa., in October, according to another FBI report.

    Police in Middletown are investigating recent reports that as many as seven local girls were sexually assaulted by men in their 20s who contacted them through MySpace pretending to be teenagers.

    Emphasis mine.

    What the hell was an 11-year-old girl doing on the internet unsupervised, anyway?

    The internet is not someplace an 11-year-old girl needs to be wandering around aimlessly. Parents, if this isn’t a wake-up a call, I don’t know what is.

  • What would we do without experts?

    What would we do without experts?

    A Parent’s Guide To Checking MySpace:

    Another local news article on what parents can do to protect their kids online. I only have one bone to pick with the article…

    Remember, experts have said you should warn your child that you are going to look at their Web site, and be prepared to talk reasonably about how they present themselves on the Web.

    Screw what the experts say.

    If you really want to protect your kids, don’t tell them you’ll be checking it out. This way they won’t have time to change anything, and you can really see what they’re doing online, which in turn will let you know how you need to protect your kids.

    When it comes to protecting your kids, be a parent first and their friend second.

  • Survey Says II

    Survey Says II

    Sheriff asks families whether to release Columbine tapes:

    Sheriff Ted Mink of the Jefferson County Sheriffs department is still dragging his feet on releasing the tapes and journals made my Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. He’s still surveying the victims’ families to see if the material should be released. Old news, right? Well, the article had two interesting facts that caught my eye…

    Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said Wednesday Sheriff Ted Mink wanted to hear from the families before deciding. She said no decision has been made and that Mink would likely wait until after the seventh anniversary of the shootings next month to announce his plans.

    Mink has not said whether the parents and victims will have the final word.

    So he’s not going to announce his decision until after April 20th and that the victims and their families will NOT have the final word. Then what is the point of surveying the victims and their families?

    If he doesn’t release the tapes, he will be committing political suicide. Is there really any other option than releasing the tapes?