Tag: crime

NYPD detective Louis Scarcella dubbed ‘the closer’ is accused of rigging DOZENS of murder cases and costing taxpayers $110 MILLION in settlements to wrongly-convicted prisoners

A retired NYPD detective accused of rigging dozens of murder cases has cost taxpayers $110million in settlements from 14 overturned convictions.

Louis N. Scarcella, known to colleagues as ‘the closer,’ allegedly coerced confessions and made up witness testimony to help secure convictions leading to people spending decades locked up before being exonerated.

The cost to the taxpayer has been colossal. New York City has paid $73.1 million in settlements to people investigated by the former detective, and the state has paid out another $36.9 million, according to The New York Times. 

The city is expected to be on the hook for tens of millions more, as three men cleared last year of burning a subway token clerk alive in 1995 have filed lawsuits. 

A second-generation cop who smoked cigars, ran marathons, worked a side job at a Coney Island amusement park and jokingly put ‘adventurer’ on his business card, Scarcella, now 72, worked in the Brooklyn North homicide squad during the crack epidemic of the eighties and nineties.

Keep reading

Mystery over ‘the woman with the flower tattoo’ deepens as friend reveals she’d been told of her death 30 years ago – as Rita Roberts’ body was identified this week

The mystery around a British woman murdered in Amsterdam 31-years-ago deepens as an old school friend has come forward with new information. 

31-year-old Rita Roberts, know as the ‘woman with the flower tattoo’, was violently killed and her body was dumped in the Het Groot Schijn river in Antwerp, Belgium, on June 3, 1992.

However, she remained nameless for over three decades until an international appeal for information from Interpol lead to her identification this year because of her distinctive flower tattoo. 

Now an unnamed person has come forward saying they were told she drowned in a canal in Amsterdam thirty years ago. 

‘I was confused to see the stories about Rita because I was told she had drowned in a canal in Amsterdam 30 years ago,’ the school friend told the Mirror.

‘I got on with my life not thinking anything other than it was a tragedy. 

‘I don’t know why this has only come out now.’

This friend is now working with the police to see if it will help catch Ms Roberts killer.  

Ms Roberts had moved there from Cardiff and her last known correspondence was a postcard sent home in May 1992. 

When an appeal to uncover her identity began in May this year, detectives described her as being aged between 20 and 50 years old, around 170cm in height and of a stout build.

She had light-skin and had mid-length dark hair, and was wearing a t-shirt and dark blue Adidas training trousers.

Keep reading

Stacey Abrams’ brother-in-law arrested in Tampa for human trafficking, attacking teen: police

Jimmie Gardner, the brother-in-law of former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, was arrested on allegations of human trafficking, according to Tampa authorities.

Tampa police said they arrested the 57-year-old Friday for allegedly attempting to engage in sexual acts with a 16-year-old girl.

A release from the Tampa Police Department stated Gardner met the minor at 1:43 a.m. and invited her to his room at the Renaissance Hotel at International Plaza.

The girl accepted his invitation, and when she got there, he allegedly offered her money for sex, police said.

“The victim initially agreed but later told Gardner that she no longer wanted to engage and he became angry,” the release said. “Gardner advised the victim that she needed to leave his hotel room. The two got involved in a verbal altercation that escalated to a physical dispute after Gardner placed his hands around the victim’s neck, impeding her breathing. After the dispute, Gardner left the hotel room, and the victim called 911.”

When officers arrived, Gardner had already left the hotel, but they found the victim at the scene, according to police.

Meanwhile, police said Gardner reported to the Tampa Police District 1 Office. He was arrested on charges of human trafficking for commercial sexual activity (victim less than 18), lewd or lascivious touching of minor 16 or 17 years of age by person 24 years of age or older, and a misdemeanor count of battery.

Keep reading

FBI digs up two upstate NY horse farms for bodies possibly buried by Gambino crime family members – one week after huge extortion ring linked to garbage trucks was exposed

The FBI is digging up two horse farms in upstate New York as it searches for bodies potentially buried by the notorious Gambino mob crime family.

Federal authorities have turned their attention to the properties in Orange County amid an ongoing investigation into the crime syndicate.

They used shovels and diggers to comb the farm in Campbell Hall on Tuesday and one in Goshen on Wednesday.

It comes after ten people with connections to the Gambino organization were arrested on a slew of racketeering charges last week.

No bodies were found during the search on Wednesday, a source confirmed to NBC New York, however it is scheduled to resume on Thursday.

The FBI declined to reveal who they believe could be buried at the farms, which list a Giovanni DiLorenzo as the property owner, the outlet reports.

Salvatore DiLorenzo was named as among the ten alleged Gambino members on an explosive 16-page indictment which claimed the Sicilian syndicate used violence and intimidation to try and dominate New York’s garbage hauling and demolition businesses.

Others charged were Vito Rappa, 46, and Francesco Vicari, 46 – who is known as ‘Uncle Ciccio.’ 

Vincent Minsquero, 36, known as ‘Vinny Slick,’ Kyle Johnson, 46, known as ‘Twin,’ and Angelo Gradilone, 57, known as ‘Fifi,’ were also arrested. 

The alleged captain of the Gambino crime ring – 52-year-old Joseph Lanni – was also charged with the slew of federal crimes. He is known by nicknames ‘Joe Brooklyn,’ and ‘Mommino.’

Diego ‘Danny’ Tantillo, James LaForte and Robert Brooke were also charged.

The infamous Italian-American crime syndicate made up one of the ‘Five Families’ known for their racketeering, gambling and loansharking. 

The defendants now variously face maximum sentences between 20 and 180 years’ imprisonment if convicted. 

Keep reading

Full Extent of COVID Fraud Will ‘Never Be Known With Certainty’

A couple claiming to run a farm that employed dozens of people used fake employee records to get more than $1 million in COVID-19 relief payments when they actually employed no one on a farm that did not exist.

A social media influencer created fake documents to score more than $400,000 in COVID-19 funds meant to help small businesses, then used the money to buy cryptocurrency and gifts for his girlfriend.

A state employee whose job was to stop unemployment benefits fraud helped other fraudsters navigate around fraud prevention systems so they could steal more than $1 million, including federal tax dollars made available to states during the pandemic.

Only now, nearly four years after the federal government approved an unprecedented amount of emergency spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, are investigators getting a full picture of all the ways that schemers and thieves raided programs. Congress approved about $4.6 trillion in COVID-19 emergency spending, and so much of it was stolen that auditors now say we’ll likely never have a full accounting of it all.

“When the federal government provides emergency assistance, the risk of payment errors—including those attributable to fraud—may increase because the need to provide this assistance quickly can lead agencies to relax or forego effective safeguards,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explained in a new report summing up efforts to recoup stolen funds. “Because not all fraud will be identified, investigated, and adjudicated through judicial or other systems, the full extent of fraud associated with the COVID-19 relief funds will never be known with certainty.”

As Reason has previously reported, auditors believe that about $200 billion was fraudulently disbursed from two programs run by the Small Business Administration (SBA) during the pandemic. That’s about one-sixth of all spending run through the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. Additionally, the GAO believes that between $100 billion and $135 billion in federal unemployment funds—provided to states on a temporary basis during the pandemic—were lost to fraud.

One former U.S. attorney has called it “the biggest fraud in a generation.”

Keep reading

Suspect arrested in murder of Jewish synagogue leader Samantha Woll in Detroit was released because cops FAILED to file paperwork – including warrant for arrest

A suspect arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a prominent Jewish community leader was released after cops did not file the necessary paperwork, prosecutors have confirmed.

The revelation, offered this week by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, comes almost a month after 40-year-old Samantha Woll was found stabbed to death outside her Detroit home, spurring an investigation that led to the suspect’s arrest.

On Friday, after being held for 72 hours, the suspect was released – days after the city’s police chief announced to reporters they had taken in a person of interest, without specifying what led to their arrest.

A dayslong interrogation ensued, culminating with the suspect being cut loose. The decision was reportedly made after the suspect made an ‘ambiguous’ statement to cops – one that sources told The Detroit News was not enough to warrant charges.

A warrant was never filed, and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office’s hands were tied. A spokesperson for the office confirmed the situation in a brief statement.

Keep reading

‘Wife beater Alaska mayor’s domestic abuser sons’ girlfriends are BOTH found dead at his home two years apart’ – with local cops accused of slow-walking probes into their deaths

A wife beater Alaska mayor’s two abusive sons each dated a woman who turned up dead at the lawmaker’s home two years apart – but no-one has ever been charged.

Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton were found dead with signs of strangulation and beating in 2018 and 2020 in the Alaskan town, Kotzebue. 

Both women were dating the ex-mayor Clement Richards’s sons at the time, with cops accused by ProPublica of inaction following the two women’s deaths.

Richards was previously convicted of beating his wife Annette, while his two sons Anthony and Amos also have a history of domestic violence.  Anthony had been convicted of beating Kirk prior to her death in May 2018, which cops claimed was a suicide. 

Amos admitted kicking Norton in the stomach while she was six months pregnant before she was killed in March 2020.

Despite those convictions – and a long track record of abuse allegations from multiple other women – neither of the sons have been charged in their deaths.

Holes in the police investigations and the judicial process have raised serious questions over a potential cover-up, after ProPublica and the Anchorage Daily News jointly reported the story.

Keep reading

Suspect in Los Angeles Dismembered Torso Case Is Hollywood Scion, Whose Wife and In-Laws Remain Missing

The suspect in a Los Angeles case, where a dismembered torso was found in a dumpster, is reportedly a scion of a prominent Hollywood family whose wife and in-laws are missing.

Murder suspect Sam Haskell Jr., whose family is known for Christmas movies, was arrested after a homeless man found a headless body in a dumpster, according to a report by Fox News.

The Los Angeles Police Department said they responded to a dumpster at around 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday near the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue in Encino, where they found a woman’s torso.

Police said the victim has not yet been identified, but that the woman’s body may belong to the murder suspect’s wife.

Keep reading

Alabama’s next death penalty atrocity: The execution of Casey McWhorter

30 years after a murder committed by three teenage boys, Alabama plans to execute one of them, Casey McWhorter, who was just three months past his 18th birthday at the time of the crime. (McWhorter’s co-defendants were 15 and 16, respectively.)

Any argument in favor of executing McWhorter is undercut by the illogical, unbending brutality of a bright-line legal rule established by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2005, in Roper v. Simmons, the Court held the 8th and 14th Amendments prohibit the execution of defendants younger than age 18, but, not the execution of juveniles like McWhorter whom — mentally and emotionally — under any reasonable interpretation, were children at the time of their crime(s). This is because of Roper’s legal fiction that childhood rigidly ends at 18 years of age — on the nose — and not a day, or as in McWhorter’s case, 3 months, older. Describing that period in his life to a reporter recently, McWhorter said: “I had issues in my head that I didn’t know how to work out.”

Keep reading

State Cleared to Use Never-Before-Seen Execution Method on Murderer of Preacher’s Wife

A divided Alabama Supreme Court has ruled in favor of using nitrogen gas as a method of execution, marking the first instance of the method being considered for carrying out a death sentence.

The all-Republican court, in a 6-2 decision issued on Wednesday, granted the state attorney general’s request for an execution warrant for Kenneth Eugene Smith. Smith was one of two individuals convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Sennett in northwestern Alabama. The specific execution date will be determined later by Governor Kay Ivey.

This decision brings Alabama closer to becoming the first state to pursue nitrogen gas as an execution method. However, it is likely that further legal challenges will emerge before this method is actually used. Other states like Oklahoma and Mississippi have also authorized nitrogen hypoxia for executions, a process in which an inmate breathes pure nitrogen and is deprived of the oxygen required for survival. While advocates argue it may be painless, opponents liken it to unethical human experimentation.

Keep reading