TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Blog

  • Written Permission

    Cross seeks new Internet safety laws to shield kids:

    State legislators in Illinois are trying to pass a law that would require sites like MySpace and Facebook to get written parental permission before kids would be allowed on the site.

    This may be the stupidest proposed legislation yet.

    Is the state going to verify each and every written permission that they receive to make sure the signatures are authentic? Because you know no kid would ever just have someone sign as their parents.

    Let’s throw some reactionary quotes from politicians in order to enrage the unenlightened.

    Cross and Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow acknowledged the proposed laws are aggressive and that lawmakers could face some obstacles in getting them passed. Some judges might feel some of the proposals could violate freedom of speech, Glasgow said.

    But they also said it would be worth the fight.

    “This is an area that is constantly evolving,” said Glasgow, calling the Internet a “portal to hell” where children are concerned. “We have to very aggressively push the legislative envelope.”

    This isn’t pushing the legislative envelope, it’s legislatively crashing and burning.

    The government wasn’t designed to be parents to everyone.

  • Marshfield witness can’t recall details

    Witness in ’05 school plot case says he can’t recall many details:

    Could the trial of Joe Nee be any more of a joke?

    Yesterday one of the witnesses who was granted immunity, Daniel Farley, all of a sudden can’t recall details of the plot to attack Marshfield High. Which is funny to me because in the trial of Tobin Kerns Farley had no problems with recollection. You would think that if your ass almost went to jail you’d remember the details of why pretty clearly.

    Farley, who was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, said during cross-examination: “It’s been dragged out so many years, everything’s foggy. . . . I cannot give an accurate testimony.”

    How convenient now that you’re testifying in the trial of the son of the head of the Boston police union.

    His father, Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, said after the nearly seven-hour hearing that he was glad to finally be in court.

    “This is where the truth comes out,” he said. “I have faith in the system.”

    Don’t you mean faith in collusion? Coercion maybe?

  • Opening statements in Nee trial

    Trial starts for ex-Marshfield student charged in plot:

    A little more from the proceedings at yesterday’s trial of Joe Nee.

    In his opening statement Nee’s attorney, Thomas Dreschler, argued that his client deserved the same treatment as ‘informants’ Daniel Farley and Joseph Sullivan. Farley and Sullivan originally fingered Tobin Kerns as the ringleader then after Kerns’ arrest rolled on Nee. Farley and Sullivan were active participants in the plot but were granted immunity for their testimony in both trials.

    In the prosecutions opening statement, Karen O’Sullivan stated that Nee and Kerns plotted the attack together. I don’t see how she could say that since in my estimation all evidence points squarely at Nee.

  • Father of Dillon Cossey jailed

    Father of boy who planned school attack is jailed:

    Frank Cossey, the father of would be homeschooled school shooter Dillon Cossey, has been jailed. He violated his parole when he failed a drug test.

    Cossey the elder was convicted of manslaughter back in the ’80s and had attempted to buy a rifle for his son by lying on the application stating he had no previous convictions.

  • Trial starts for Joe Nee

    The trial for the second suspect in the plot to attack Marshfield High school in Massachusetts started today. The first ‘suspect’, Tobin Kerns, was convicted for his alleged role in the plot and was sentenced to 10 months in jail.

    It’s no secret that I think Tobin Kerns was actually set up by the defendant in today’s trial, Joe Nee. For all my posts on that, you can check the archives.

    Here are two articles about today’s proceedings. Pretty much both of them say a whole lot of nothing. All they say is that there were opening statements and witness testimony. Way to display those journalism degrees guys. Considering that the trial of Tobin Kerns was documented in detail by both newspapers this is ridiculous.

    As I’ve mentioned before Nee’s father, Thomas Nee, is the head of the Boston police union. Is it possible that the media is downplaying this trial because of some kind of arrangement with the Boston Police Department? That’s pure speculation on my part but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

  • Trial of Dane Abdool starts

    Man Accused Of Burning Girlfriend Heads To Trial:

    Longtime readers may remember when I first posted about Dane Abdool. Almost two years ago a 19-year-old Dane Abdool was arrested for setting his 17-year-old girlfriend, Amelia Sookdeo, on fire, killing her.

    It’s alleged that Amelia told Abdool that she was pregnant. Abdool allegedly wrapped her in duct tape, doused her in gasoline, set her on fire, then left her in a ditch to die. The medical examiner determined after Amelia’s death that she wasn’t even pregnant.

    Abdool’s trial started today on first-degree murder charges with a possible death sentence.

    Today was the start of jury selection.

  • Even the AG’s admit it’s useless

    Even the AG’s admit it’s useless

    My not so safe space, still?:

    This is a great article from the Philadelphia Inquirer about how MySpace’s ‘pact’ with the Attorneys General is pretty much useless. Who says so? Why, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett says so.

    That’s because the safety barriers it prescribes depend largely on MySpace subscribers’ truthfully reporting their ages when creating online profiles. And it offers no reliable means of identifying or policing the suspected millions who do not.

    “I’ve been arguing this point for more than a year now,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, who considers the agreement more blueprint than panacea. “Age verification has been the number-one issue for us from the very beginning.”

    Until that nut is cracked, no set of guidelines can keep 12-year-olds from registering their virtual selves as adults, or stop 60-year-old creeps from masquerading online as high school cheerleaders.

    Yet none of the Attorneys General have come up with a realistic way on how to verify age on the internet.

    The article also, at the very end, prescribes to common sense.

    But police say the best security of all is a vigilant parent – one who knows a child’s passwords, monitors his online friends and activities, and keeps the computer in a public area of the home. Some even buy spyware that can record their kids’ online conversations and Web visits.

    “A lot of parents don’t want to do that because they don’t want to invade their kids’ privacy,” said Montgomery County Detective Ray Kuter, an Internet-crime expert. “I say, ‘You are the parent. You need to decide what to do.’ “

    “Parents,” Kuter said, “are the best monitoring program we know of.”

    The police know this, why don’t the Attorneys General?

  • Facebook Vigilantes in Oregon

    Facebook Vigilantes in Oregon

    Facebook Site Prompts Sexual Assault Charges At College:

    Every time I make a post about Facebook vigilantism, I hear the song “Ghost Riders in The Sky” by The Outlaws in my head.

    Anyway, Facebook Vigilantes have struck again. This time, the vigilantism has crept over our northern border and is now taking place in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

    At Lewis & Clark College, in Portland, Oregon, a male student who I won’t name was accused of a sexual assault against a female student.

    Before even law enforcement caught wind of it, a Facebook group targeting him was made. It was later removed.

    According to the Information Week article, the alleged victim went to the local media and as of the time of IW’s article had still not reported it to police.

    Even to her own admission, the victim admits she initiated the encounter but then changed her mind.

    Let’s just for a second say that her story is true. Personally, I’m not buying it, but let’s just say it is. By going public with the alleged aggressor’s name not only on Facebook but also in the media, she’s probably ruined any chance of him being prosecuted.

    Let the law do its job, people. When you pull stunts like this, justice doesn’t get served, it gets turned away at the door.

  • Brain exam allowed for one of Cassie Jo Stoddart’s killers

    Brain exam allowed for one of Cassie Jo Stoddart’s killers

    Judge Allows Brain Exam on Adamcik:

    Congratulations to the citizens of Idaho. You’re now footing the bill for a neurological exam for an already convicted killer.

    Torey Adamcik and his mutant buddy Brian Draper were both sentenced to life without parole in the brutal murder of 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart. Don’t forget they also videotaped the murder.

    Now Judge Peter McDermott has allowed the request of Adamcik’s attorney for the state to pay for a brain scan because his lawyer claims that Adamcik has a ‘brain deficiency’.

    In his ruling, Judge McDumbass stated…

    “Mr. Adamcik is a needy person… He is being detained under a conviction of a serious crime, since he has been sentenced to a fixed life term without the possibility of parole. Mr. Adamcik does not have the funds, or the ability to generate the funds necessary to conduct the neuropsychological examination requested by his attorney.”

    So how is that the state’s responsibility? The state has already proved Adamcik’s role in Cassie Jo Stoddart’s murder. Why should the state now have to foot the bill for a ploy by his attorney to get his sentence reduced? If McDermott wants the test done so bad, why doesn’t he pay for it out of his own pocket? Better yet, why don’t all the people who think that he shouldn’t have been tried as an adult chip in? Oh, that’s right, they don’t put their money where their mouth is.

  • Indictments and guilty pleas in WV torture case

    Indictments and guilty pleas in WV torture case

    2 plead guilty, 5 others indicted in torture case:

    A lot of news coming out of West Virginia lately in the kidnap and torture case of Megan Williams. If you’re not familiar with the case, you can see my first post about it here or this search which shows the bulk of the posts related to the case.

    Anyway…

    A Logan County grand jury handed up indictments Tuesday charging Bobby Brewster, 24; his mother, Frankie Brewster, 49, of Big Creek; Danny Combs, 20, of Harts; Karen Burton, 46, of Chapmanville; and her son, Linnie Burton Jr., in the case.

    Two other defendants — Karen Burton’s daughter, 23-year-old Alisha Burton, and 27-year-old George A. Messer — each pleaded guilty Friday to one count of kidnapping and one count of assault during the commission of a felony. Messer and Alisha Burton, both of Chapmanville, were each sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 10 years on the kidnapping charge and 2 to 10 years on the assault charge, Logan County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Abraham said.

    Karen Burton is the only defendant charged with a hate crime. She also was indicted on kidnapping and malicious wounding charges.

    Burton allegedly used the N-word as she stabbed Williams in the ankle, Abraham said.

    Personally, I couldn’t care less about the color of the victim or the perpetrators. The only thing I care about is justice being served for the sick, depraved things these scumbags did to Megan Williams that you only normally see in over the top horror movies.