Monthly Archives: January 2022

Blog

Jury seated in federal civil rights trial of 3 ex-Minneapolis officers in George Floyd’s death

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – A complete jury was seated Thursday after one day of jury selection in the federal trial of the three former Minneapolis Police Department officers facing charges for violating George Floyd’s civil rights during the deadly arrest on May 25, 2020.  

Former MPD officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao face charges of depriving George Floyd of his civil rights outside of Cup Foods after failing to intervene as fellow officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, and not providing medical assistance as Floyd took his last breaths. 

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Blog, Criminal, Legal News

DESPITE LAW ENFORCEMENT’S EMPHATIC DENIALS, SOCIAL MEDIA INSISTS FOUR WOMEN ARE VICTIMS OF A NORTH COAST SERIAL KILLER

All four women that died in the last month and whose deaths are being attributed to a serial killer in spite of emphatic denials from three different county sheriff’s. From left to right: Ukiah’s Alyssa Mae Sawdey, Napa’s Crystal McCarthy, Guerneville’s Cynthia Crane, and Willits’s Amber Dillon.

North Coast community Facebook pages have continued to circulate an unsubstantiated rumor that a serial killer is preying upon women in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Napa Counties. This assumed serial killer’s victims were originally two Mendocino County women but has grown to include one from Sonoma County, and another from Napa County.

We reached out to all three law enforcement agencies investigating the deaths of these four women. All, in their own way, made it clear there was no known connection between these tragedies and these cases are not a result of any serial killer preying on women.

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Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Italian police arrest alleged Black Axe Nigerian mafia members over trafficking

Four arrests of cult-like criminal gang members made in southern Italy after Nigerian woman forced into prostitution comes forward

Four alleged members of the Nigerian mafia have been arrested in southern Italy after a young sex trafficking survivor spoke out against them.

The men, who were arrested in Palermo and Taranto in the early hours of Tuesday, allegedly belong to the feared Black Axe, a cult-like criminal gang that emerged in the 1970s at the University of Benin, according to police.

Investigators in Palermo who led the operation said the woman, who is also Nigerian, was forced into prostitution after taking part in an occult ritual bound up with traditional spiritual beliefs, known as juju, which bond victims to their traffickers and to any debts they will incur.

“The suspects were charged with slavery, human trafficking, kidnapping and pandering [recruiting prostitutes],” the police said.

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Blog, Civil Rights, Family, Legal News

Family sues condo board, claim swim diaper ban violates baby’s civil rights

Add swim diapers to the list of issues that can get turned into a federal case.

A Florida family is suing their condo board over what they say is a rule barring children from using the community pool while wearing swim diapers.

Swim diapers are a snug-fitting lightweight alternative to disposable or cloth diapers, which become heavy like anchors when wet.

According to the website SwimOutlet.com, swim diapers are “meant to be used only in the pool or ocean to make sure that your little one’s bum is covered and contained.”

But if banning them in a community pool prevents a child from using that pool, swim diapers can also become a symbol of the fight against discrimination.

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Blog, Criminal, Legal News

Body of fifth victim may be linked to alleged ‘shopping cart’ serial killer

A man police have dubbed the “shopping cart killer” may be linked to the body of a fifth victim found in Washington, DC, authorities said on Friday.Anthony Robinson, 35, has already been charged with the killing of two women.Investigators believe Robinson met his victims on dating websites and allegedly lured them into motels where he killed them and transported their bodies in shopping carts.

Police received a “critical tip” this week that might connect Robinson to another case in which a woman’s body was found in a shopping cart in Washington, DC, Fairfax County Police Bureau Chief of Major Crimes Cyber and Forensics Ed O’Carroll said in a news conference on Friday.

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