Tag: crime

Girlfriend charged with murder of former Texas judge who died of fentanyl overdose

Authorities in Texas have arrested the 35-year-old girlfriend of a former judge for allegedly supplying him with fentanyl that led to his overdose death late last year. Kami Ludwig was taken into custody on Monday and charged with the murder of 47-year-old former Associate Tarrant County Judge William Shane Nolen.

The murder charge is the result of a novel interpretation of a new law that Gov. Greg Abbott signed in June 2023 and went into effect on Sept. 1, 2023, classifying the supplying of fentanyl that results in death as murder. The law was enacted to combat the thousands of Texans who die annually from fentanyl poisoning, but appeared to primarily target drug dealers who distribute the deadly substance.

According to a news release from the Grapevine Police Department, officers at about 4:45 a.m. on Nov. 20, 2023, responded to a call regarding a deceased male — later identified as Nolen — at a residence located in the 4100 block of Mapleridge Drive. Ludwig placed the initial 911 call and identified herself to the dispatcher as Nolen’s girlfriend.

Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they found Nolen deceased in his bedroom “with signs consistent with an opioid overdose.” Authorities on the scene said they also recovered “several” additional pills from inside the home.

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56 years after death, Tennessee folk hero Buford Pusser’s wife Pauline Pusser exhumed

Pauline Pusser has been dead for 56 years without a suspect in the case.

On Thursday, authorities exhumed her body, the wife of hard-charging sheriff Buford Pusser, who became known as a folk hero after his death in Tennessee.

Pauline was shot to death in an ambush presumably meant to kill her husband.

An overcast day accompanied by whistling winds blew a foul stench through the cemetery in Adamsville, a small town around 100 miles east of Memphis, after the departure of Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents, which oversaw the exhumation of the body on Thursday.

Disturbed dirt rests in front of her grave, adjacent to her husband’s headstone that reads “He Walked Tall.”

A recent tip prompted a review of the case, TBI said, and they discovered that an autopsy was never done after Pauline Pusser’s death on Aug. 12, 1967.

“With the support of Pauline’s family and in consultation with the 25th Judicial District Attorney General Mark Davidson, TBI requested the exhumation in an attempt to answer critical questions and provide crucial information that may assist in identifying the person or persons responsible for Pauline Pusser’s death,” TBI said.

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Daughter of ‘Mormon Manson’ Ervil LeBaron lifts the lid on what it was like to grow up under terrifying control of polygamous cult leader who ordered the MURDERS of multiple people as part of heinous ‘Blood Atonement’ killings to ‘cleanse their sins’

The daughter of polygamous cult leader Ervil LeBaron – who was dubbed the Mormon Manson for orchestrating more than two dozens murders both inside and outside of the sect – has revealed what her life was like growing up.

Celia LeBaron, now 57, was born into the Church of the Lamb of God – a fundamentalist Mormon breakaway group which continued to practice polygamy and even followed the ‘Blood Atonement’ teaching that stated the blood of sinners needed to be shed for them to ascend to heaven.

Her father was ultimately sentenced to life in prison but continued to create hit lists from behind bars for his followers to carry out.

Ervil, who died in a Utah state prison in 1981, is estimated to have had 25 people killed as a result of his orders – with deaths including that of his own pregnant daughter. 

Celia, who is now a mother of three, appeared on an episode of the Cults to Consciousness podcast to unravel her childhood memories.

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Woman uncovers HEINOUS crimes of her ‘charming’ grandfather – who physically and sexually abused his own children while posing as a neighborhood nice guy – as she attempts to unravel his terrifying links to multiple unsolved MURDERS

A woman has launched a chilling investigation into the sexual and physical abuse of her step-grandfather as she questions whether his crimes could have escalated to multiple murder.

Sierra Barter, from California, has become a central figure in Max’s upcoming four-part docuseries titled The Truth About Jim as she sets out to confront her family’s traumatic past.

The amateur investigator will begin by unraveling the horrific abuse suffered by relatives at the hands of Jim Mordecai who, to most, was a respected teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area.

But the family have now detailed their suspicions that the former patriarch, who died in 2008, could have been responsible for a string of deaths that have gone unsolved for decades.

Many believed that Jim ‘seemed like a really nice teacher’ but this was by no means the full story.

‘There are a lot of people still to this day that look up to him but it’s far darker,’ one woman ominously admits.

Sierra then explains: ‘My step-grandfather was a man named Jim Mordecai. My entire life I have heard horror stories about him.’

Jim was accused of sexual and physical abuse, which included extensive beatings, that left his family ‘terrified.’

‘He either was the most charming man that you were ever going to meet or he was your worst nightmare,’ another woman adds.

The trailer cuts to Jim nonchalantly walking around the family’s living room as his own stepdaughter candidly divulges: ‘Being sexually assaulted by your step-parent who happens to be a teacher… it just made me shut down.’

And it seems that it was Sierra’s mom Shannon Barter who first mentioned that she thought Jim’s crimes could have been even more sinister.

Sitting with her head in her hands, Shannon mutters: ‘I’m just trying to figure out when I started thinking that he killed people.’ 

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Man Who Destroyed Satanic Shrine In Iowa Capitol Charged With ‘Hate Crime’

Michael Cassidy, a Christian veteran who decapitated a Satanic shrine on display in the Iowa State Capitol building, has been charged with a ‘hate crime’.

Yes, really.

If you object to literal Satanic displays in public buildings you are now hateful.

Back in December, Cassidy, beheaded the caped figure placed in the building by The Satanic Temple, and threw the goat skull that was serving as its head in a bin.

Cassidy was quoted as stating that he took the action to “awaken Christians to the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government.”

Instead of simply charging him with misdemeanor damage to property or vandalism, the Des Moines Register reports that Polk County prosecutors charged the veteran with felony third-degree criminal mischief, arguing that the act was “in violation of individual rights” under Iowa’s hate crime statue.

A statement from the Polk County Attorney’s Office claimed that “Evidence shows the defendant made statements to law enforcement and the public indicating he destroyed the property because of the victim’s religion.”

Cassidy is raising money for his legal defense on his GiveSendGo page, which notes “Out of the millions of Christians in this nation, Cassidy was the first to act in bravery and conviction. He was not willing to see God reviled, especially in a building where lawmakers are supposed to honor Jesus Christ as King and look to his law for wisdom as they legislate with justice and righteousness.”

[ZH:] And of course, leftists have been tearing down statues all over the country with impunity.

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Adult Son of Israeli Diplomat Accused of Deliberately Running Over Florida Police Officer — Lawyer Claims He Has ‘Diplomatic Immunity’

The adult son of an Israeli diplomat has been accused of purposefully running over a Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, police officer on his motorcycle — and his lawyer claims that he is protected under diplomatic immunity.

Avraham Gil, 19, hit a police lieutenant who was conducting a traffic stop on Saturday afternoon.

Avraham is the son of Eli Gil, a diplomat at the Israeli consulate in Miami.

Local 10 News reports:

An arrest report states that as the officer approached the vehicle he pulled over, Gil came up on his motorcycle, weaving in between vehicles. The officer motioned at Gil and yelled at him to stop, police said, but instead he kept riding towards the lieutenant and “intentionally ran him over.”

The officer, who suffered an “incapacitating” injury to his left leg, grabbed Gil and brought him to the ground to stop him, the report states. Police arrested Gil on a first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence.

Gil is crying and red-eyed in his mug shot and has been charged with two felonies.

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High School Student and Father Arrested Following School Threat Allegations — Cache of Guns and Explosives Including RPG Launcher Discovered at Home

A potentially catastrophic event was averted at Rancho Bernardo High School when officials took swift action after learning of threats made by a student. The student and his father have been taken into custody, according to the Poway Unified School District, ABC 10News reported.

Rancho Bernardo High School, or RBHS, is a public high school in the Poway Unified School District of San Diego County, California.

Christine Paik, Chief Communications Officer for the Poway Unified School District, informed ABC 10News that the student was apprehended by the authorities last Friday, January 26.

The arrest followed an alarming series of events that began with vigilant students reporting unsettling videos and statements made among students detailing a planned attack on the school slated for Tuesday, January 30.

“This is a situation where everything went right,” Paik said.

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How a Medieval Murder Map Helped Solve a 700-Year-Old London Cold Case

ON FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1337, Chaplain John Ford was strolling down the bustling market street of London Cheapside during golden hour—when three men assaulted him. As one man stabbed Ford in the throat with an 11-inch-long dagger, the other two slashed his stomach open. Ford was left to die in a puddle of blood under the arches of what once was Greyfriars Church as the assailants escaped. Among the crowds, a hatter, a rosary-maker, and a third man called for help.

When local officials filed a report detailing the murder, a mysterious “longstanding dispute” was mentioned alongside one name: the rich and famous Ela FitzPayne.

But what could the churchman possibly have done for the noblewoman to order the man’s murder in broad daylight on a crowded London street?

These are the kinds of questions that Manuel Eisner, the deputy director of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, asks himself daily. In 2018, Eisner founded the Medieval Murder Maps—an interactive medieval murder map plotting the sudden deaths of thousands across the medieval towns of London, York, and Oxford. For Eisner, cracking 700-year-old cold cases, like the murder of John Ford, can provide an invaluable snapshot into medieval life, helping us understand the origins of the modern criminal justice system, what life was like for the past’s everyday people, and how crime patterns have, or haven’t, changed.

“I call it a distant mirror,” says Eisner. “You don’t just read it as violence. You have these little stories that are taking you on a time travel [adventure].”

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Georgia GOP Proposes RICO Expansion for “Loitering” Protesters

WHEN THE STATE of Georgia indictedOpens in a new tab 61 Stop Cop City activists on racketeering charges last year, it mangled the meaning of “racketeering” beyond recognition. In the indictment, prosecutors cited typical social justice activities, such as “mutual aid,” writing “zines,” and “collectivism,” as proof of criminal conspiracy and raising money for protest signs as grounds for money laundering charges.

Just as it seemed that Georgia Republicans couldn’t push the state’s broad Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, statute any further, GOP state senators introducedOpens in a new tab a bill on Friday that would significantly expand the reach of the Georgia RICO law, with blatantly repressive designs.

Former President Donald Trump and his allies currently face the highest profile RICO charges in Georgia for attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s case, however, is a political outlier when it comes to the increasedOpens in a new tab deployment of RICO charges in recent years, as it takes aim at a truly powerful cohort engaged in the very paradigm of conspiracy. While this is the purported intention of RICO laws — first introduced in 1970 to target mob bosses — recent uses of Georgia’s statute have involved casting Atlanta public school teachersOpens in a new tab as organized criminals for altering test scores and claimingOpens in a new tab that the lyrics of Black rap artists can indicate potential violent gang involvement.

The newly introduced Senate Bill 359, or S.B. 359, sponsored by 10 Republican state senators, makes clear that the Georgia GOP intends to continue using RICO as a tool for sweeping criminalization and repressive prosecutions. The proposed law would include low-level misdemeanors, such as “loitering” and placing posters in unpermitted places, as crimes to which RICO charges and hefty enhanced penalties could apply. The bill also includes “political affiliation or belief” as a factor for enhanced penalties in certain circumstances.

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As Milwaukee police chase cars more, crashes are up and arrest rates are down, study says

Milwaukee police are engaging in almost three times as many vehicle pursuits in recent years, and even though crashes have almost quadrupled and the apprehension rate is down, officials believe the chases are worth it.

According to a recent study, the increase is fueled mostly by a rise in reckless driving, which in 2017 drove Milwaukee’s police oversight board, the Fire and Police Commission, to force an expansion of a policy governing when chases are acceptable.

Vehicle pursuits are among the most dangerous activities law enforcement perform and the challenge of striking the right balance with them has vexed officials across the country. And nationally, there is some debate about how appropriate it is to chase reckless drivers, given the risk that it will only increase danger for everyone nearby.

“This is a risk that (Milwaukee) wants to assume and I think with it comes certain responsibilities and consequences,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, who has written extensively on vehicle pursuits.

But in a city that has been frustrated with reckless driving for about a decade, Police Chief Jeffrey Norman argued his officers have balanced the risks appropriately while the feedback from the community has been, “Don’t let up. Keep the pressure on.”

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