Officers cleared of shooting mentally ill man

A grand jury has determined a Fort Myers police officer acted within the law when he shot and killed a mentally disturbed man on Feb. 2.In a presentment issued today the grand jurors determined that Ernest L. Weston was shot and killed by Fort Myers Patrolman Joseph Martinez, one of three officers who had responded to a shooting call in the area of Delaware Avenue and C Street that night.Two other officers, Sgt. Fred Dunaway and Det. Glen Eppler did not fire.The grand jurors said there were a number of misconceptions about the case, including reports that Weston was shot while running away, had his hands raised in surrender when he was shot and was shot while handcuffed.The grand jurors determined these perceptions were false.

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Do you think the grand jury's decision was justified?

Missing Ohio pregnant woman's body found; Bobby Cutts Jr. charged with murder.

CANTON, Ohio - The boyfriend of a missing pregnant woman was arrested on two counts of murder charges Saturday, and a body believed to be hers was found nearly a week after she vanished from her home, authorities said.
Jessie Davis' 2-year-old son was found alone in their home, where bedroom furniture was toppled and bleach spilled on the floor. Davis was due to deliver a baby girl on July 3.
The boy gave investigators their first clues. "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in rug," the boy said.
The Stark County Sheriff's Department said a body was recovered in Summit County at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Authorities did not give a location but said they believed it to be Davis.
Davis' boyfriend, Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, is to be arraigned Monday on two counts of murder in the woman's death and the unborn child, the sheriff's department said.

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Eddie, YOU ARE THE FATHER!

Eddie Murphy wanted a paternity test, he got one.
After months of first disputing then keeping quiet about the paternity of ex-girlfriend Melanie Brown's daughter, the Dreamgirls star has been genetically matched, the singer's publicist told E! News.
"Eddie is the father and the rumors are true," said Liza Anderson.
As ever, Murphy spokesman Arnold Robinson declined to confirm the developments, reiterating that he does not comment on his client's personal life.
Both parties were informed of the newsThursday afternoon, when they received the results of a DNA test provided by Murphy and two-month-old Angel Iris Murphy Brown on June 11.
After giving his sample, the Oscar nominee told reporters outside the Beverly Hills office that he "absolutely...[would] do the right thing" if he was found to be the biological daddy.
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Big Al's video clip of the day: Can T-Pain really sing?

There's something that has always been on my mind since T-Pain came out on the music scene. Can this brotha really sing with out that Zapp/Roger Troutman voice thingy? Here's a clip of T-Pain performing "Buy You A Drank" on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. You be the judge of his "singing" skills.

Orlando man gives FMPD tips on a shooting; gets arrested

The last time Charles “City” Johnson saw friend David Haike alive, he was drinking by the pool Thursday night at the Viridian Lake Apartments.Friends said the 20-year-old Haike was talking to Kourtney Terrill — the man Fort Myers police are now charging with Haike’s murder. Haike’s body was found after police received a call from Orlando from Terrill, 22, saying he and Haike had gotten into a fight and his body was in the woods off the Winkler Avenue Extension and Colonial Boulevard.Fort Myers Police have charged Terrill with second-degree murder. He was arrested in Orlando and booked into the Orange County Corrections Department on Saturday.Johnson, 18, said he saw Haike and Terrill walk away from the pool Thursday at about 9:30 p.m. The memory now troubles him, the teenager said.

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Wow. This man's conscience must've really gotten to him. I'm glad he did the right thing and tipped himself off, because this probably would've been another case gone unsolved.

The "Cream of Wheat Man" finally gets a grave marker

photo source

Leslie.MI - A man widely believed to be the model for the smiling chef on Cream of Wheat boxes finally has a grave marker bearing his name.Frank L. White died in 1938, and until this week, his grave in Woodlawn Cemetery bore only a tiny concrete marker with no name.On Wednesday, a granite gravestone was placed at his burial site. It bears his name and an etching taken from the man depicted on the Cream of Wheat box.Jesse Lasorda, a family researcher from Lansing, started the campaign to put the marker and etching on White's grave.
"Everybody deserves a headstone," Lasorda told the Lansing State Journal. He discovered that White was born about 1867 in Barbados, came to the U.S. in 1875 and became a citizen in 1890.When White died Feb. 15, 1938, the Leslie Local-Republican described him as a "famous chef" who "posed for an advertisement of a well-known breakfast food."White lived in Leslie for about the last 20 years of his life, and the story of his posing for the Cream of Wheat picture was known in the city of 2,000 located between Jackson and Lansing and about 70 miles west of Detroit.The chef was photographed about 1900 while working in a Chicago restaurant. His name was not recorded. White was a chef, traveled a lot, was about the right age and told neighbors that he was the Cream of Wheat model, the Jackson Citizen Patriot said.Long owned by Kraft Foods Inc., the Cream of Wheat brand was sold this year to B&G Foods Inc.

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Big Al's video clip of the day: T-Pain" "Bartender"

T-Pain - Bartender (feat. Akon)
Uploaded by yardie4life


First, he wants to buy some chick a drank, now he likes the bartender. Hmm. Maybe the bartender made his rum and coke so good, he fell in love with her. Or, maybe he's just trying to score free drinks.

Ten year sentence thrown out for high school football star

photo source

Atlanta, GA. A former high school football star who became a national symbol for the extremes of getting tough on sex offenders was ordered released from prison yesterday by Judge Thomas H. Wilson, who called his mandatory 10-year sentence for consensual teen sex "a grave miscarriage of justice." But the joy felt by Genarlow Wilson's family rapidly turned to disappointment as Georgia's Attorney General Thurbert Baker announced he would appeal, a move that will keep the honor student behind bars for now.
Nothing could have prepared Wilson for what happened as he neared the end of his days in high school. He became prom prince, homecoming king - and a child molester.


A 17 year-old star football player and honor student, Wilson was arrested on the day he was supposed to take his SATs after police saw a video showing him receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl at a 2003 New Year's Eve party.
Under Georgia law, the encounter constituted "aggravated child molestation." The girl said the act was consensual, but in February 2005, Wilson was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a lifetime on Georgia's sex offender registry.
The following year, Georgia legislators changed the law to make most consensual sex between teenagers a misdemeanor rather than a felony, with a sentence of no more than 12 months in jail.
The odds of Wilson's release appeared to be long. When Georgia legislators revised the law, they declined to make it retroactive so it would apply to Wilson. Then the Georgia Supreme Court rejected his motion for an appeal on the basis that legislators had chosen not to make the law retroactive. This year, a bill that would have allowed judges to review earlier sentences stalled in the Georgia Senate.
The mandatory sentence provoked an outcry from members of the jury that convicted Wilson. Even the author of the 1995 law responsible for imprisoning him held a news conference urging legislators to pass a bill allowing judges to review cases involving consensual teenagers.
"No one in their right mind ever thought a prosecutor would take that bill and use it in such a way," said Matt Towery, the Republican former state representative who sponsored the bill.
The videotape was found in a hotel room after a 17-year-old girl reported that she had been gang raped. In the video, that girl appeared severely intoxicated.
Wilson was charged with rape of the 17-year-old and aggravated child molestation of the 15-year-old, but the jury acquitted him of the rape charge.

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What do you think about this? I, myself, feel that the punishment was too extreme in the first place, but that's my opinion.

Big Al's video clip of the day: Fantasia performing at the 2007 Tony Awards

In case you've missed the 2007 Tony Awards, Fantasia performed her song "I'm Here" from the Broadway play she's starring in "The Color Purple". Check it out.


Fantasia - I'm Here (2007 Tony Awards)
Uploaded by Vidfan46

New CD and DVD releases (6/12/07)

Check out these new albums and DVDs being released tomorrow:

Albums

• Terror Squad Presents: DJ Khaled- We the Best. Listen to full album here.



• Fabolous: From Nothin' to Somethin".



• DMX: Definition of X: Pick of the Litter.

DVD RELEASES

• Breach
• Ghost Rider
• Days of Glory
• Primeval
• Daddy's Little Girls

all CD's and DVDs available @Best Buy

Neighborhood Discount Supermarket robbery

The Neighborhood Discount Supermarket is a mom-and-pop shop that’s served its Fort Myers community for years. Customers drop by for a pack of cigarettes, a gallon of milk or a bag of chips. “They’re real, real good people,” Bob Ward, 55, said of the owners, David R. and Nancy Hutto, and the people who help them run the store. The store manager had the right to defend himself when two masked, gun-toting teenagers tried to rob him Sunday, Ward and others said. One suspect, 16-year-old Damione Massey, of 5047 Centennial Blvd. in Lehigh Acres, was shot in the head and died, face down, in front of the counter. The second suspect, 14-year-old Devon Gallagher, also of 5047 Centennial Blvd., fled, wounded.It was not known whether the two suspects were related.The pair had a sawed-off shotgun and a handgun when they entered the store at 2130 Ford St. shortly before 12:24 p.m. and shot at the manager, said Fort Myers police Detective Sgt. Bill Musante.The manager fired back with a pistol, police said.The manager, whose name wasn’t released, wasn’t hurt, police said. Gallagher was found a short time later at Lehigh Medical Center after police issued an alert to hospitals about a man with a gunshot wound.He was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital, said police spokeswoman Shelly Flynn said. His condition wasn’t released Sunday.Gallagher could face charges of felony murder because someone died during the commission of a felony, Flynn said.Teen crime increases after school lets out for the summer, Musante said.“It’s idle time,” Musante said. “This is an extreme form of what they choose to do with it.”Sawed-off shotguns and other weapons are readily available on the streets, and children get their hands on them through burglaries as well, he said.It’s unclear whether other employees or customers were in the store at the time of the robbery.The Huttos have owned the store for many years, neighbors said and Lee County property records confirmed.The Huttos didn’t answer telephone calls to their home Sunday night. Pat Clark, 49, said she’s known the Huttos all her life and they are great people.“I’m glad they didn’t get hurt,” Clark said as she stood by police cars Sunday afternoon. “They gave my 95-year-old grandma a cake and flowers for her birthday.”Standing in front of the yellow crime-scene tape Sunday afternoon, Musante agreed with those residents who said the manager did nothing wrong in defending himself.“The bad guys lost,” Musante said. “We recommend you don’t resist, but if you choose to do so, that’s your right.”The shooting happened in Dunbar, a community east of downtown Fort Myers that has seen murders and drug-related shootings, despite efforts by police and residents to attack crime there and to clean up the streets. The attempted store robbery was the second shooting in less than 11 hours Sunday in Fort Myers.A man was found with a gunshot wound to his neck shortly before 3:32 a.m. at an apartment complex at 4100 Edgewood Ave., northeast of Ford Street off Palm Beach Boulevard.“Somebody is always robbing somebody and shooting them around here,” said Haven Weech, who’s 13 and lives near the market. “It doesn’t bother me because it happens a lot.”

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Wesley Snipes charged for tax evasion "because he's black"

OCALA, Fla. - Actor Wesley Snipes is a victim of "unscrupulous tax advice" and is being selectively targeted for prosecution on federal tax evasion charges because he is black, his attorneys argue in a motion to dismiss the indictment.
That's what Snipes has said all along about the charges.
In a June 4 motion to dismiss the indictment, Snipes' attorneys argue that prosecutors filed additional tax evasion charges against him and not against two other defendants because they are "Caucasian, while Mr. Snipes is African-American."
A federal judge is still considering the motions.
The Oct. 17 indictment charges Snipes with fraudulently claiming refunds totaling nearly $12 million in 1996 and 1997 for income taxes already paid. The star of the "Blade" trilogy and other films also was charged with failure to file returns from 1999 through 2004.
According to the indictment, his taxes were prepared by accountants with a history of filing false returns to reap payments for their clients. The firm American Rights Litigators would receive 20 percent of refunds from clients, according to the indictment.
There was no immediate response Sunday to calls seeking comment from Snipes' manager and attorneys representing other defendants in the case.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney's Office also did not immediately return a call to his office.

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