Free Republic

Jerry Sandusky will be found innocentLetter to the Editor Updated: 11/09/2011 12:37:09 PM EST I have to say I find the accusations against Jerry Sandusky very hard to believe. I have met and know Jerry through The Second Mile. Both of my daughters were a part of the Second Mile program, and it is a great program for kids. I would have never hesitated one minute to allow Jerry to be with my children. He is being judged in the court of opinions. This man is innocent. I support Jerry 100 percent. I also ask that people please do not...

AMANDA KNOX ACQUITTED, TO BE RELEASED IMMEDIATELY

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been arrested in connection with an investigation into phone hacking and bribery. The 43-year-old was arrested by appointment by Operation Weeting police at a London police station. Met Police said she is currently still in custody. This is the 10th arrest made by police investigating hacking allegations by the News of the World newspaper. She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption allegations. The Operation Weeting team is conducting the current investigation into phone hacking.

PAKTIYA, Afghanistan (July 8, 2011)– An insurgent mortar attack landed in a civilian populated area injuring eight Afghan civilians in Dand Patan district, July 3. At least 3 mortar rounds fired by insurgents resulted in severe injuries requiring medical evacuation. Coalition Special Forces operating near the incident provided first aid and called for a medical evacuation. Four young male children, a female child under the age of 2, one female adult, and two male adults were medically evacuated from the scene by coalition forces to a U.S. military hospital for treatment. The injured had severe shrapnel wounds to the head,...

I SPENT 18 years in prison for robbery and murder, 14 of them on death row. I’ve been free since 2003, exonerated after evidence covered up by prosecutors surfaced just weeks before my execution date. Those prosecutors were never punished. Last month, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 to overturn a case I’d won against them and the district attorney who oversaw my case, ruling that they were not liable for the failure to turn over that evidence — which included proof that blood at the robbery scene wasn’t mine. Because of that, prosecutors are free to do the same thing...

Simpson lawyer answers critics F. Lee Bailey: "So many people said, 'You are the reason he got off.' It is very frustrating, a terribly raw deal. ... It is the most sustained assault on my credibility that I have ever experienced. Why -- if I knew he was guilty -- why go around taking this abuse?" By J. Hemmerdinger jhemmerdinger@pressherald.comStaff Writer YARMOUTH - Former O.J. Simpson defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey is out to set his record straight. click image to enlarge F. Lee Bailey click image to enlarge O.J. Simpson reacts, Oct. 3, 1995, as he is found not guilty...

A police surveillance camera in Mexico reportedly recorded the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old Mexican teen by a U.S. Border Patrol agent early Wednesday. Jose Larrinarga Talamantes, a spokesman for the Sonora Attorney General's Office in Hermosillo, told Nogales International that state investigators have confirmed the existence of the video with officials in Nogales, Sonora, and have asked for a copy. "But it hasn't arrived yet," Talamantes told Nogales International.

Feds Clear DeLay. He Calls Pelosi “The Swamp”Chad Pergram | August 16, 2010 It's been a long time since former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) got the chance to come out swinging in public. But that's exactly what the feisty former GOP leader did Monday when the Justice Department told his attorneys it closed its inquiry of DeLay after a six year probe. DeLay was his vintage himself during a telephone conference call with reporters. "They didn't have anything," DeLay boasted. "The case was so weak I never did meet with anyone from the Justice Department and never appeared...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has ended its six-year criminal probe of the ties between former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff without filing any criminal charges against the former congressman. One of DeLay's lawyers, Richard Cullen, said Monday the Justice Department's Office of Public Integrity informed DeLay's legal team early last week that it was ending the investigation. "Six years is a long time and I'm sure he wishes it had happened years ago," Cullen said of the conclusion of the investigation. Cullen added that "for me, the result trumps the timing." Justice Department spokeswoman...

Canandaigua (WSYR-TV) - A Canandaigua school teacher is facing charges, accused of performing oral sex on a 17-year-old student. 36-year-old Marla Gurecki-Haskins is also accused of "Sexting" two other students. Police say some of the incidents happened in her classroom during school hours. According to court paperwork, she's accused of "engaging in text messaging of a sexual nature that encouraged a sexual relationship between the defendant and two 16 year old male students." Haskins is charged with official misconduct, two counts endangering welfare of a child and disseminating indecent material to a minor. The third charge is a felony. Haskins...

Final Navy Seal charged in the "fat lip" of an Iraqi terrorist found not guilty, breaking on FNC per Brett Bear.

A U.S. military judge on Friday cleared a Navy SEAL of any wrongdoing in the alleged beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American contractors. http://scottfactor.com

Not since the Salem witchcraft trials has there been a worse disgrace in the annals of Massachusetts jurisprudence: the railroading of an innocent Malden family during the legally sanctioned insanity known as the Fells Acres child-abuse case. Probably the apogee of the mass hysteria that gripped the U.S. beginning about 1995, the Amirault case continues to resonate – in part thanks to Martha Coakley’s inexplicable disinterest in seeing that justice was done. You can read up on the case here and here. Be sure to steel yourself. And then ask yourself: how could any rational human being have possibly believed...

Pass the syrup -- this lucky guy is eating breakfast at home instead of on Rikers Island. A Brooklyn teen's playful Facebook message to his pregnant girlfriend about pancakes sprung him from jail and helped him avoid years in prison for a holdup he didn't commit. Prosecutors dropped a robbery charge against Rodney Bradford, 19, after learning his Facebook account status had been updated with the inside joke "WHERE MY IHOP?" from a computer in his dad's Harlem apartment one minute before an Oct. 17 stickup of two men in Brooklyn's Farragut Houses. "They had me on Rikers Island...

"When Montreal-born author Ian Halperin first set out to write the definitive Michael Jackson biography, his intention was to nail the pop icon to the wall. It was 2005 and Jackson had just been acquitted of a second charge of child molestation. By the time Halperin, 44, finished the book, and long before Jackson died two weeks ago, his opinion of the troubled artist had undergone a 180-degree shift."....

"The phone rang at Neverland – and it was crunch time for Michael Jackson as he was told the jury had reached their verdicts in his child molestation trial. Calmly, the entire Jackson clan climbed into cars for the 30-minute drive to Santa Maria. Jackson was in a black Cadillac Escalade SUV, accompanied by mum Katherine and dad Joe. Not long into the journey, he leaned over and whispered in Katherine’s ear. “If this doesn’t go right, take care of my kids,” he pleaded. “Make sure my kids are fine.” It was the first time the King of Pop had...

Is anybody else out there not buying the Mother Teresa comparison crap the MSM is attempting to pawn off on us regarding Michael Jackson? This would be the same media that routinely—and righteously, I might add—exposed, ridiculed and condemned Wacko Jacko while he was alive for all of his out-of-this-world, can’t-get-more-jacked-up-than-that asininities he shoved up our culture’s collective tailpipe. Let me see if I get this straight. If I live by Jacko’s rules: • I can, as a 50-year-old man, sleep with a stack of little boys in my bedroom—a room, mind you, that is protected with advanced Maxwell Smart...

It'll be on the dopey MSNBC channel. They apparently don't even list it on their website, but I know it will be on at 1PM ET today and again tomorrow (Sunday) at 12 noon ET. In any case, you have got to see it to believe it. "Weird" doesn't begin to describe it.

LA police chief: Jackson investigation might turn criminalBy Deutsche Presse Agentur His statements Thursday to CNN were the clearest indication yet that some of the many doctors who treated Jackson over the years could have helped him illegally get the prescription drugs that were suspected of being a factor in his death. Bratton's comments came as the Jackson family was waiting for the results of the pop star's official autopsy and the independent autopsy that were conducted shortly after his June 25 death. "We are still awaiting corroboration from the coroner's office as to cause of death," Bratton told CNN....

This was the news article that was not written.This was the scoop that was not painstakingly sought after by responsible members of the American news media, in fierce competition with each other.These were the shaking, impressionable quotes and stunning off-camera comments that were not gathered in the course of good American journalism.In short, this was the story that was not to be.

A New York congressman says Michael Jackson was a "pervert" and calls on society to stop "glorifying" the late entertainer in a YouTube video. Rep. Peter King said Jackson -- whom he called a "low-life" -- is being glorified in the days after his death while society ignores the efforts, of teachers, police officers, firefighters and veterans. In the two-minute video, King claims the "day in and day out" coverage of Jackson's death is "too politically correct." "Let's knock out the psychobabble," King said in the video taped outside an American Legion Hall on New York's Long Island. "He was...

A teary Brooke Shields approached the podium at Michael Jackson’s public memorial in Los Angeles today and spoke about the unique friendship the two shared as 1980s megastars thrust into the spotlight at a young age. In the special Michael Jackson commemorative issue of Rolling Stone hitting stands this week, the model-actress reveals the King of Pop asked her to marry him — more than once. “I would say, ‘You have me for the rest of your life, you don’t need to marry me, I’m going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and...

The union representing state troopers has backed off allegations that a drug investigation of Sherry Johnston was slowed down last fall to shield the national candidacy of Gov. Sarah Palin. An inquiry Monday by officials for the Public Safety Employees Association concluded that investigators did not delay a search warrant for political reasons, said union president Rob Cox. Charges of political meddling erupted last week because of misunderstandings between investigators working on the case and senior state public safety officials, Cox said.

3 Jefferson relatives plead innocent Three relatives of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., have pleaded innocent to charges they ripped off three charities they founded. Mose Jefferson; his sister, 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson; and her daughter, Angela Coleman all entered pleas at an arraignment hearing Friday, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported. They are accused of skimming more than $600,000 from three non-profit groups. U.S. Magistrate Louis Moore told the trio to avoid any contact with Brenda Foster, who pleaded guilty Wednesday. Foster, who also goes by the name Brenda Jefferson, is a sibling of the congressman, as well...

It is not the sort of appointment Gordon Brown would make to his cabinet. But then Mr Brown is no Silvio Berlusconi, playboy and man of ostentatious political gestures. The Italian prime minister, long known for his fondness for pretty women, has named former topless model and beauty queen Mara Carfagna as equal opportunities minister in his new cabinet. Miss Carfagna, 33, turned to politics after a career on TV following her sixth-place finish in the 1997 Miss Italy contest. She has also posed topless and semi-naked for photoshoots but has always underlined her family values and stressed none of...

Wrongly Convicted Man Released After 26 Years Reporting Derrick Blakley CHICAGO (CBS) The man who spent 26 years in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit was released on bond Friday night. Alton Logan's release was made possible because of two attorneys who this year dropped a bombshell when they admitted Logan was the wrong man convicted of a crime. CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports Logan had been serving a life sentence for the 1982 murder of a McDonald's security guard. Another man, Andrew Wilson, told his lawyers years ago that he was the real killer. But under...

Cynthia Sommer, accused of fatally poisoning her Miramar Marine husband with arsenic, spent two years and four months behind bars. Yesterday, the 34-year-old mother of four walked out of the Las Colinas jail a free woman, after prosecutors dropped the murder case against her. Prosecutors said they now have reasonable doubt that Sgt. Todd Sommer was poisoned, based on conclusions reached by a new set of toxicology experts. San Diego Superior Court Judge John Einhorn granted the prosecutors' motion to dismiss “without prejudice,” meaning they have the option to refile charges later. Cynthia Sommer's defense lawyer has said he plans...

After spending nearly 23 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, Thomas Clifford McGowan on Wednesday heard the words that set him free. "Words cannot express how sorry I am for the last 23 years," said state District Judge Susan Hawk, moments after overturning his convictions. "I believe you can walk out of here a free man." McGowan, 49, won his freedom after a DNA test this month proved what he had always professed: that he did not rape a Dallas-area woman in 1985 and then burglarize her apartment. He was convicted of both crimes in separate...

Woman pleads guilty to false rape report By Peyton Whitely Seattle Times Eastside bureau A 22-year-old former Woodinville woman pleaded guiltyTuesday to making a false rape accusation against a local college professor last June. King County District Court Judge Peter Nault called the case one of the "saddest" he'd ever seen in court and one that is likely to have long-term impact on future investigations. "That we hurry to castigate a person who turns out to be entirely innocent ... I don't know how it could be worse," said Nault, saying the incident will make it harder for real sexual...

A bikini model in Japan has been cleared of property destruction after an appeal court heard that her large breasts meant she couldn't have committed the crime. Serena Kozakura – her professional name – was convicted in 2007 of kicking a hole in a man's door and crawling inside, supposedly because she was angry that he was with another woman. However, in her defence, her counsel asked the court to compare the size of the hole in the door with Kozakura's 110cm bust – and suggested that she couldn't possibly have made it through the gap. Kozakura maintains that the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces detained one suspect and treated a woman victimized by Taliban gunfire in Afghanistan in recent days, military officials said. Combined forces detained one suspect in a Nov. 13 operation to disrupt foreign-fighter facilitators in the Qalat district of Zabul province. Actionable intelligence led coalition forces to compounds in the district where they searched for militant facilitators thought to be hiding in the area. Troops found and detained a person with alleged links to foreign-fighter-facilitation operations, as well as other extremist activities, officials said. Some damage occurred to a building during the...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents searched the home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens on Monday. Investigative sources told FOX News that the FBI

Federal law enforcement agents are currently searching the Girdwood home of Alaska U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, an FBI agent said. "All I can say is that agents from the FBI and IRS are currently conducting a search at that residence," said Dave Heller, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Anchorage office. The search began this afternoon, he said.

Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and once the chief power broker for dispensing federal dollars, says he's worried that a corruption investigation "could cause me some trouble" in running for re-election next year. ADVERTISEMENT The 83-year-old Alaska Republican has drawn Justice Department scrutiny over a renovation project in 2000 that more than doubled the size of his home in a resort town surrounded by glaciers. The remodeling was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators. Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has...

Babies not as innocent as they pretend By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent Last Updated: 12:01am BST 01/07/2007 Whether lying about raiding the biscuit tin or denying they broke a toy, all children try to mislead their parents at some time. Yet it now appears that babies learn to deceive from a far younger age than anyone previously suspected. Behavioural experts have found that infants begin to lie from as young as six months. Simple fibs help to train them for more complex deceptions in later life. Until now, psychologists had thought the developing brains were not capable of the difficult...

Ending an investigation that clouded the tenure of former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, federal prosecutors have decided not to file insider-trading charges against the Tennessee Republican for his sales of stock in a family-owned chain of hospitals. The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York and Securities and Exchange Commission staff sent Frist letters last week signaling that they had closed their joint, 18-month investigation. The letters essentially cleared him of wrongdoing. Frist said in a statement that he "acted properly" and that his only reason for selling stock in his trust accounts was to "eliminate the...

After the rape allegations against three young men from the Duke lacrosse team, 88 professors, including 11 from the history department, signed a public statement that they were "listening" regarding the allegations. Their actions led to campus protestors putting up wanted posters of the young innocent men and branding the lacrosse team as rapists. We all watched in amazement as Attorney General Cooper made a statement a few days ago that is almost unprecedented. He didn't say that there was not enough evidence in the case. He said that the young men were innocent. A short time ago, I spoke...

Lacrosse player sues Duke professor who failed him in wake of scandal (1/5/07 - DURHAM, NC) - In the first of a potential series of legal actions against Duke University, a former lacrosse player filed a civil lawsuit today, claiming a Duke professor failed him because of accusations by a hired dancer that she'd been sexually assaulted at a team party last March. The university apparently revised the grade upward months after student athlete Kyle Dowd graduated last spring, according to a copy of the court filings obtained by ABC News Law & Justice Unit. Dowd has not been accused...

A WOMAN'S crime in having sex once with a 15-year-old boy was different from the six-week affair Melbourne school teacher Karen Ellis had with a boy of similar age, a court heard. Diana Nicole Bennett's lawyer said that unlike Ellis, the boy with whom she had intercourse was not under her care, supervision or authority. The County Court heard yesterday that in January 2005, Bennett, a voluntary worker, then 28, had sex with the boy who had telephoned her at home one morning and invited her to his house. Judge Lance Pilgrim was told they had been friends for about...

By Associated Press TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A Tacoma judge ignored a plea bargain and sentenced a former Buckley teacher to six months in jail for having sex with a 17-year-old student in April, 2006. Rebekah M. Todd, 25, had expected a sentence of 30 days in home detention when she appeared Friday in Pierce County Superior Court. She had pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree assault. Prosecutors said they had evidence she performed oral sex on the White River High School boy. The health and physical education teacher resigned after she was accused and forfeited her teaching certificate. The deputy...

U.S. prosecution of border guards is a baffling miscarriage of justice Saturday, March 10, 2007 The Associated Press article "Border-shooting case shrouded in confusion," Feb. 17, omitted many facts from the trial transcripts and Department of Homeland Security memos. The government prosecuted Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean criminally for acts that called only for an administrative reprimand, based the case on the testimony of an admitted drug smuggler brought back from Mexico and induced to testify by a grant of immunity, withheld crucial evidence from the jury, used the wrong law (which carries a mandatory additional 10-year sentence), and...

MARCH 1--Police tonight arrested two young women, a bank teller, and a fourth accomplice in connection with Tuesday's robbery of a Bank of America branch in Acworth, Georgia. The inside job was allegedly pulled off by Ashley Nicole Miller and Heather Lyn Johnston who are pictured in the below mug shots (Miller is at left). The women, both 19, were aided by Michael Chastang, 27, and Benny Herman Allen, a 22-year old bank employee. The men are pictured in these booking photos. While the incident first appeared to be a bank robbery, cops now consider it a felony theft and...

Notes on a Scandal Bottom Line: The scandal is the misogynist tone taken toward this film's female characters. By Kirk Honeycutt Dec 11, 2006 Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench co-star in this tale of a foolish affair between a married female schoolteacher and a 15-year-old male student. This may run counter of the auteur theory, but "Notes on a Scandal" feels much more like a film by writer Patrick Marber than by director Richard Eyre. Eyre does a fine job overseeing performances by a terrific cast that rings true until female hysteria takes over the final act. But in tone...

Teacher charged with child seduction Suspect turned herself in By Keith Rhoades | krhoades@reportert.com Thursday February 15, 2007 Martinsville Martinsville High School English teacher Cynthia Marie Rynard has been charged with child seduction for allegedly having oral sex with a student. Rynard, 32, turned herself in Wednesday night at the Morgan County Jail. She's being held on no bond prior to her initial court hearing. According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Martinsville Police Department patrolman Rob Townsend, the alleged contact occurred in the Morgan Monroe Forest. Rynard has been a teacher at the school for about three years....

Ex-para faces sex charges: Abasolo-Farley arrested by police Monday Published: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 1:30 PM CST E-mail this story | Print this page DEANNA ABASOLO-FARLEY: Wellington woman arrested Monday WELLINGTON - A para-professional at Wellington High School now faces sex charges alleging she had sexual relations with a student attending the school. Wellington police arrested DeAnna M. Abasolo-Farley Monday without incident following a month-long investigation into the alleged incident. Abasolo-Farley, 34, Wellington, was arrested at 5:30 p.m. by Wellington police and booked into the Sumner County Jail, according to Wellington Police Chief Mike Keller. Abasolo-Farley now faces charges of...

Former teacher gets jail time for having sex with student 02/08/2007 17:20:55 A former U-High teacher will now spend six months in jail for having sex with a student. Sarah Dickerson, 26, pleaded guilty today (yesterday) of two new counts of aggravated sexual assault, dropping five similar charges. On top of jail time, she will have four years of probation, pay several thousand dollars in fines, and register as a sex offender. Prosecutor Bill Workman says the two charges were added after talking to the victim's family. Dickerson reportedly had sex with a 17-year-old student from her Spanish class several...

HOUSTON -- A teenager read love poems in a downtown Houston courtroom Tuesday as he testified about the sexual relationship that he had with a teacher, KPRC Local 2 reported. Shanikka Campbell, 26, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual abuse of a child on Monday. The former Aldine Independent School District English teacher admitted to having sex with a 16-year-old 11th-grade student she met at Carver High School last Spring. Jurors will decide her punishment, which ranges from probation to 20 years in prison. Defense attorney George Parnham said what his client did was obviously wrong, but the 16-year-old...

MUNCY — In an apparent attempt to avoid media coverage, a suspended junior high school guidance counselor who allegedly had consensual sex with a 16-year-old student visited the magistrate’s office two days before her scheduled preliminary hearing. Jennifer M. Villacrusis, 35, of 256 Highland Drive Extension in Wolf Township waived her case into court Tuesday, largely avoiding media scrutiny and declining to comment at District Judge C. Roger McRae’s office about 11:30 a.m. Villacrusis has been charged with interference with the custody of a child and two counts of corruption of minors, according to an affidavit by Trooper Joseph D....

WATERBURY, Conn. -- A Middlebury woman who was a guidance intern at Newtown High School has pleaded guilty to having a sexual affair with a student, a 15-year-old boy. Under terms of a plea deal, Jillian Gehrkens, 28, will serve nine months of a seven-year suspended sentence at the women's prison in Niantic section of East Lyme, court officials said Monday. ... Gehrkens' affair with the student began in December 2003 and ended sometime after January 2005, according to court documents. Gehrkens was working for the Newtown school district as a paid guidance intern at the time, but left in...

Father of boy at center of teacher sex case lashes out spacer By: Katie Allison Granju, Producer Date created: 1/11/2007 1:51:00 PM Last updated: 1/11/2007 1:53:57 PM spacer Post a Comment spacer By CLAY CAREY Staff Writer - THE TENNESSEAN Advertisement Passions The father of a Warren County teen who was sexually abused by his former teacher lashed out at the woman Wednesday, moments after she was sentenced to more jail time for sending the boy nude pictures while she was on probation. The teacher, Pamela Rogers, was jailed in 2005 after she admitted to having sex with the student,...