2 Cops, Rabbi, Coach And Mother Arrested in Child Pornography Ring

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two police officers, a Little League coach, and a mother were among 71 people arrested across the New York City-area in the largest-ever roundup of people who share child pornography online, federal and local law enforcement said Wednesday.
The 70 men and one woman came from all five boroughs of New York City and the surrounding suburbs, including New Jersey and Long Island, and range in age from their 20s to 50s, authorities said.


The investigation was led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, whose agents identified an online network sharing child pornography, said Special Agent James Hayes.


"Many of the defendants are in fact educated and successful in their professional and private lives," Hayes told reporters. "We can no longer assume that the only people who would stoop to prey on children are unemployed drifters."


Among those charged was a paramedic, two nurses, an airline pilot, an au pair, a person previously convicted of child sexual abuse, a New York City police officer and a mother accused of producing pornography involving her own child.

                                                                             

Seized hard drives that contain child pornography are pictured on a table following a news conference.

Several of the individuals have young children at home, Hayes said.
Those arrested face a battery of state and federal charges, including distributing, producing and possessing child pornography.


Authorities became aware of the file-sharing ring after the January arrest of Brian Fanelli, a former police chief in Mount Pleasant, 24 miles north of New York City and the March arrest of a Brooklyn rabbi, Samuel Waldman, on child pornography charges. Both men's computers were linked to a peer-to-peer network that allowed users to share caches of child pornography while easily importing materials from other computers linked on the network, authorities said. Both men have pleaded not guilty.


With the help of the New York City Police Department, investigators "surreptitiously" connected to the peer-to-peer network, which at times had up to 3,000 people searching for child pornography, Hayes said.


During the execution of nearly 90 search warrants, agents seized 600 desktop and laptop computers, tablets, phones, thumb drives and hard drives containing tens of thousands of images and videos.

Hayes said the investigation was just beginning. "We hope this sends the message to predators that we are going to find them," he said.

Those arrested in the sweep face between seven and 25 years in prison if convicted.

Michael Jordan says He Used to be Racist in New Book

Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan says in a new book that he considered himself a racist growing up. In a new book entitled "Michael Jordan: The Life" by author Roland Lazenby, the five-time National Basketball Association most valuable player and current owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, says that as a teenager he was "against all white people."


Excerpts of the book published on Wednesday by the New York Post include Jordan describing how growing up in North Carolina during the 1970s, where he said the Klu Klux Klan thrived, helped shaped his views on racism. In one instance, Jordan recalls a school girl calling him the n-word.


"So I threw a soda at her," Jordan says in the book. "I was really rebelling. I considered myself a racist at the time. Basically, I was against all white people."


It was after that incident that Jordan's mother convinced him that he could not go through life consumed by racial hatred.


Jordan, who went on to win six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls, recently spoke out against racist remarks by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who has since been banned for life by the NBA and could be forced to sell the team.


"As an owner, I'm obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views," Jordan said in a statement last month. "As a former player, I'm completely outraged.


"I am appalled that this type of ignorance still exists within our country and at the highest levels of our sport. In a league where the majority of players are African-American, we cannot and must not tolerate discrimination at any level

 

Monica Lewinsky writes in Vanity Fair for the first time about her affair with President Clinton: “It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress.” She also says: “I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened.”

After 10 years of virtual silence (“So silent, in fact,” she writes, “that the buzz in some circles has been that the Clintons must have paid me off; why else would I have refrained from speaking out? I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth”), Lewinsky, 40, says it is time to stop “tiptoeing around my past—and other people’s futures. I am determined to have a different ending to my story. I’ve decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past. (What this will cost me, I will soon

Clearing the Air

Maintaining that her affair with Clinton was one between two consenting adults, Lewinsky writes that it was the public humiliation she suffered in the wake of the scandal that permanently altered the direction of her life: “Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position. . . . The Clinton administration, the special prosecutor’s minions, the political operatives on both sides of the aisle, and the media were able to brand me. And that brand stuck, in part because it was imbued with power.”

Job Hunting

After the scandal, writes Lewinsky, “I turned down offers that would have earned me more than $10 million, because they didn’t feel like the right thing to do.” After moving between London (where she got her master’s degree in social psychology at the London School of Economics), Los Angeles, New York, and Portland, Oregon, she interviewed for numerous jobs in communications and branding with an emphasis on charity campaigns, but, “because of what potential employers so tactfully referred to as my ‘history,’” she writes, “I was never ‘quite right’ for the position. In some cases, I was right for all the wrong reasons, as in ‘Of course, your job would require you to attend our events.’ And, of course, these would be events at which press would be in attendance.”

Cop Frames Wife with Drug Charges

The ex-wife of a disgraced Texas police officer who has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years probation for framing her on drug charges said today she is glad the "nightmare" is over but said, "I will always be looking over my shoulder."


"If anyone would have ever told me I would have drugs planted on me by my ex-husband, another police officer and a local criminal, I would have never believed them," Laura Covington told ABC News today.


Her former husband, Madisonville police Sgt. Jeffrey Covington, was convicted last week of retaliation for planting methamphetamines in Laura Covington's car in 2011 during a child custody battle. The drugs were found after she was stopped by police and she was promptly jailed.
The terms of Jeffrey Covington's sentencing, which occurred Monday, include 30 days in jail, five years probation, and the surrender of his peace officer's license, according to ABC News affiliate KTRK TV.


The court determined that Jeffrey Covington and a second police officer arranged with a third person to plant drugs in Laura Covington's vehicle. She was seven months pregnant when she was arrested and her two children were taken away from her for five weeks.

"Being arrested when I was seven months pregnant, going to jail, and then having my two young children taken from me was a nightmare that still causes me pain to this day," she told ABC News. "It's like a bad dream, but the sad thing is that it's not a dream because it actually happened."

"Having my babies taken from me was the worst part about this entire ordeal and if Jeff would have succeeded in his scheme, I could have lost them forever. My family and I will move on, but I will always be looking over my shoulder," Laura Covington said.

Laura Covington's attorney Paxton Adams has filed civil rights lawsuit in federal court as well.
Jeffrey Covington could not be immediately reached for comment. The police officer who allegedly helped Jeffrey Covington is scheduled to go on trial later this month.

Child Murders Continue to Rise in Turkey

Ankara (AFP) - Several brutal murders of children have sparked outrage across Turkey, prompting calls to bring back the death penalty and leading the government to stiffen sentences for child killers.

 

Turkey abolished capital punishment more than a decade ago as part of Ankara's bid to enter the European Union, but calls to bring it back have multiplied after the gruesome killings.

Yusuf Yigitalp, deputy leader of the Islamic Saadet (Felicity) Party, said scrapping the death penalty had sparked a surge in crimes and bringing it back was a "must".


"Today capital punishment is applied in Western countries. The death penalty is in place in the United States and in Europe for certain crimes," he told the conservative Milli Gazete newspaper.
Ankara abolished capital punishment in 2002 as part of reforms to aid its EU bid, enshrining it in its constitution two years later.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that reintroducing capital punishment was impossible if Turkey wanted to join the bloc and the government would instead work to ensure full-life sentences for child murders.

"These incidents are a kind of capital offence," Erdogan said on Friday. "An aggravated life sentence is on our agenda even if we cannot reinstate (the death penalty)."

Aggravated murder in Turkey means full-life imprisonment.
- String of vicious killings -


The calls to reintroduce state executions come after several gruesome child murders.
In one, a six-year-old girl was stabbed, tortured and set on fire, according to preliminary police findings reported in local media.


The suspected murderer, described only as 20-year-old S.A., reportedly confessed to the crime, saying he had lured the girl into his car by saying they were going for a picnic before tying her up and attacking her.


"I closed my eyes and stabbed her. She fell down. I poured gasoline on her and lit it with a match. She started to scream," he was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet daily.
In another shocking killing earlier in the month, a nine-year-old boy was found raped and strangled in the eastern province of Kars.


Surveillance cameras showed the 23-year-old suspect driving the boy to a remote spot where he committed the crime. Local media also broadcast a picture of the suspect posing next to a red car while the boy took his photo before the murder.


And two weeks ago, a four-year-old boy, identified as C.C., was also reportedly found savagely murdered in a barn in the Aegean province of Aydin.
- 'Children need to scream' -


The killings have also sparked criticism of government efforts to address the issue of child safety after Family Minister Aysenur Islam urged parents to take steps like teaching their children to scream.


"They should also know how to behave when they meet a stranger, the same as how they should know their hands will burn when they touch fire," she said on April 30.
"Our children need to scream in order to make their environment aware when they face a situation which they do not want," said Islam.


But Ezgi Koman, children rights centre coordinator at Gundem Cocuk (Agenda Child) Association, said it was a "superficial proposal" that showed the state has no idea how to tackle the problem of child safety.


"It is apparent that screaming does not work in most cases. Many children are kidnapped with their mouths covered," she told AFP.


"The state's responsibility is to create a secure environment."


The association says 633 children were killed in Turkey during 2013, up from 609 the previous year.
Aylin Ilden, a child psychologist, said the public outrage over the murders does not reflect an actual upswing in such crimes.


"These things have always happened, both in Turkey and in the world," she said.

Ilden said most abuse happens in a family environment, where children feel more secure.

"Intra-family child sexual abuse cases are usually whitewashed in Turkey as they are an embarrassment," she said.

"In such cases, children are often defenceless and targeted by those whom they trust the most, usually male members in the family. That's why mothers should also be trained to spot the offence."

Women Trapped in Car for 6 Days

DENVER (Reuters) - A 43-year-old Colorado woman who survived six days trapped in the wreckage of her car after driving off a mountain highway was listed in critical condition on Monday at a Denver-area hospital, authorities said.


Kristin Hopkins, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, was reported missing by her family on April 29, the day of the presumed automobile crash, said Park County Undersheriff Monte Gore.
Gore said a group of people spotted the wreckage of a car on Sunday while driving along a mountain highway near Red Hill Pass, about 65 miles southwest of Denver, and hiked 140 feet down the slope to the crash site.


The group then returned to their vehicle and drove that afternoon to the sheriff's office, where they reported they had "found a body in a vehicle," Gore said.


Gore said when emergency crews reached the site, they found Hopkins alive inside her car.
Trooper Nate Reid, spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol, said Hopkins had been driving southbound on Highway 285 when she lost control of her Chevrolet Malibu around a curve.


The vehicle was believed to have gone airborne after striking several trees and rolled several times down a steep embankment before coming to rest upside down in a grove of aspen trees, Reid said.
Reid said Hopkins was "conscious and coherent" when rescuers reached her on Sunday.


Hopkins was flown by helicopter to St. Anthony Hospital in suburban Denver, where a spokeswoman said she is listed in critical condition. There were no further details on the nature or extent of her injuries.

Cop Gives Driver Ticket for Defensive Driver

Associated Press-

The rule of thumb when it comes to driving over potholes is: don’t. If possible, it’s best to (safely) maneuver around them. That’s the advice Rosemount, Minnesota man Allen Moe was trying to follow when he drove his car around one.


However,  a police officer decided to ticket him for it. Mr. Moe was on Shannon Parkway, driving his daughters to their dance class on May 3 when he did what he’s done for years. He told KMSP, "I swerved to just get around the potholes and then I came back into my lane. After I went through the stop light, [a police officer] stopped me."


Mr. Moe explained why he had swerved around the potholes, "We all do it in this community. We have to, to preserve our own vehicles." That argument did not win over the officer, who KMSP reports, "suggested [Allen Moe] may have been texting." When Mr. Moe fights the $128 fine in court, he’ll have a fairly important supporter – Rosemount, Minnesota Mayor Bill Droste. Mayor


Droste told KMSP, "That’s what I do when I drive down this street, also…it deteriorated so quickly here this winter, you have to drive around potholes." He did also mention that the section of Shannon Parkway covered in this story will be resurfaced this coming June.

Efrem Zimbalist Dead at 95

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Handsome, debonair and blessed with a distinguished voice that reflected his real-life prep school upbringing, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. seemed born to play the television roles that made him famous, that of hip Hollywood detective and brilliant G-man.

 

A prolific actor who also appeared in numerous films and stage productions, Zimbalist became a household name in 1958 as Stu Bailey, the wisecracking private investigator who was a co-partner in a swinging Hollywood detective agency located at the exclusive address of "77 Sunset Strip."
When the show of the same name ended in 1964, Zimbalist became an even bigger star playing the empathetic, methodical G-man Lewis Erskine in "The F.B.I."


The actor, who in recent years had retired to his ranch in Southern California's bucolic horse country, died there Friday at age 95.


"We are heartbroken to announce the passing into peace of our beloved father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., today at his Solvang ranch," the actor's daughter Stephanie Zimbalist and son Efrem Zimbalist III said in a statement. "He actively enjoyed his life to the last day, showering love on his extended family, playing golf and visiting with close friends."


Zimbalist's stunning good looks and cool, deductive manner made him an instant star when "77 Sunset Strip" began its six-season run in 1958. He and his partner Jeff Spencer (played by Roger Smith) operated from an office in the center of Hollywood where, aided by their sometime helper, Kookie, a jive-talking beatnik type who doubled as a parking lot attendant, they tracked down miscreants.


Kookie's character, played by Edd Byrnes, helped draw young viewers to the show, and his constant hair combing created the national catchphrase, "Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb."
When the program's run ended in 1964, Zimbalist segued seamlessly into "The F.B.I." the following year and that program aired until 1974.


At the end of each episode, after Zimbalist and his fellow G-men had captured that week's mobsters, subversives, bank robbers or spies, the series would post real photos from the FBI's most-wanted list. Some of them led to arrests, which helped give the show the complete seal of approval of the agency's real-life director, J. Edgar Hoover.


"He never came on the set, but I knew him. A charming man, extremely Virginia formal and an extraordinary command of the language," Zimbalist said of Hoover, who opened the bureau's files to the show's producers and even allowed background shots to be filmed at real FBI offices.
In 2009 the FBI honored Zimbalist with his own special agent's badge, making him an honorary G-man in recognition of the contributions his show and his character made to the agency's reputation.
"We could not have asked for a better character, or a better man, to play his role," FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said at the time.


The son of violin virtuoso Efrem Zimbalist and acclaimed opera singer Alma Gluck, young Efrem initially appeared headed for a musical career himself. He studied violin for seven years under the tutelage of Jascha Heifetz's father, but eventually developed more interest in theater.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as his character from F.B.I. in 1971. (AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANIES, INC.

After serving in World War II, he made his stage debut in "The Rugged Path," starring Spencer Tracy, and appeared in other plays and a soap opera before being called to Hollywood. Warner Bros. signed him to a contract and cast him in minor film roles.
He also had a recurring role in the hit Western series "Maverick," playing con man Dandy Jim Buckley.


Then "77 Sunset Strip" debuted, starring Zimbalist as a cultured former O.S.S. officer and language expert whose partner was an Ivy League Ph.D. The program brought Zimbalist an Emmy nomination in 1959, but after a few seasons he tired of the long hours and what he believed were the bad scripts.
"A job like this should pay off in one of two ways: satisfaction or money. The money is not great, and there is no satisfaction," he said.


When the show faltered in 1963, Jack Webb of "Dragnet" fame was hired for an overhaul. He fired the cast except for Zimbalist, whom he made a world-traveling investigator. The repair work failed, and the series ended the following year. Zimbalist had better luck with "The F.B.I.," which endured for a decade as one of TV's most popular shows.


His daughter Stephanie also took up acting — and small-screen detective work, in the hit 1980s TV series "Remington Steele." Her father had a recurring role in that show, again playing a con man.
During summer breaks between his two hit series, Warner Bros. cast Zimbalist in several feature films, including "Too Much Too Soon," ''Home Before Dark," ''The Crowded Sky," ''The Chapman Report" and "Wait Until Dark." In the latter, he played the husband of Audrey Hepburn, a blind woman terrorized by thugs in a truly frightening film.


Zimbalist also appeared in "By Love Possessed," ''Airport 1975," ''Terror Out of the Sky" and "Hot Shots." But he would always be best known as a TV star, ironic for an actor who told The Associated Press in 1993 that when Warner Bros. hired him he had no interest in doing television.
"They showed me in my contract where it said I had to," he recalled.


"I ended up with my life slanted toward television and I just accept that," he said. "I think you play the hand the way it's dealt, that's all."


In the 1990s, Zimbalist returned to television, recording the voice of Alfred the butler in the cartoon version of the "Batman" TV series. That role, he said, "has made me an idol in my little grandchildren's eyes."


Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was born in New York City on Nov. 30, 1918.
His mother, reasoning that living amid the musical elite was not the best upbringing for a boy, sent him to boarding schools where he could be toughened by others his age. But young Efrem was bashful and withdrawn in school. His only outlet was acting in campus plays.


"I walked onstage in a play at prep school, and with childish naiveté, told myself, 'Wow, I'm an actor!'" he once recalled. He was kicked out of Yale after two years over dismal grades, which he blamed on a playboy attitude.


Afraid to go home, he stayed with a friend in New York City for three months, working as a page at NBC headquarters, where he was dazzled by the famous radio stars. Unable to break into radio as an actor, he studied at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse.


During World War II he served in the infantry, receiving a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound in his leg. In 1945, Zimbalist married Emily McNair and they had a daughter, Nancy, and son, Efrem III.

After his wife died in 1950 he gave up acting for a time to teach at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where his father was an artist in residence. He returned to Hollywood five years later, marrying Loranda Stephanie Spalding in 1956, and she gave birth to their daughter Stephanie.

Zimbalist was preceded in death by his second wife and by his daughter Nancy.

In addition to his son and other daughter, Stephanie, he is survived by four grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.