Michigan man may have intentionally infected hundreds with HIV
Leon Hendrix of NBC station WOOD-TV of Grand Rapids, Mich., spoke to one of the possible victims.
Update: Smith’s attorney says he plans on “exploring all options” in defending Smith, saying specifically, “I am concerned about his mental health.”
Over at msnbc.com, I have the bizarre story of a Michigan man with HIV who’s been charged with sex crimes after he told police he intentonally set out to kill as many people as he could by having sex with them.
According to documents on file with Grand Rapids 61st District Court, Smith claimed to have had sex with “thousands” of partners, intending to kill them by infecting them with HIV. Some of those people are from outside the Grand Rapids area, including people Smith met over the Internet, he told police, according to documents.
Smith faces separate preliminary hearings on the two charges on Jan. 4 and Jan. 9. He remains in the Kent County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.
Smith’s attorney did not answer calls seeking comment.
Police Blotter of the Day: Bull shot to death after daring meat-plant escape
Cross-posted from msnbc.com, where it originally appeared:
By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com
An animal control officer shot and killed a bull Thursday after it escaped on its way to a Maryland meat processing plant, charged a sheriff’s deputy and damaged a patrol car, authorities said.
The bull escaped Thursday morning in Mount Airy, Md., about 50 miles north of Washington, as it was being led from a truck into the plant, said Brian Horton, a spokesman for the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the sheriff’s incident report, the bull broke free, charged a bystander and ran off in the general direction of a day care center. Deputies followed him into a nearby field, where he then charged one of the deputies.
“Fearing for their safety, a deputy discharged two rounds from a shotgun, striking the bull, and causing him to retreat into a wooded area,” the report said. A county animal control officer then finished him off with two more shots.
Besides the bull, the only casualty was the taillight on a deputy’s cruiser, which the bull slammed into as he eluded attempts to corral him. The body of the bull — presumably no longer fit for human consumption as it was by then lead-contaminated — was released back to its owner.
Memo to shoplifters: Don’t pick ‘Shop With a Cop’ night. (Police Blotter of the Day)
WOWT-TV
A shoplifting suspect who picked Wednesday night to try and steal a DVD player didn’t realize it was also Shop With A Cop Night at the Gretna, NE. Walmart.
More than 24 Sarpy County Sheriff’s Department deputies were in the store at the time. …
“It really set the tone for the weekend coming up for us, for Christmas and what Christmas is supposed to be about,” said Sarpy County Lt. Kevin Griger.
Full story (WOWT-TV of Omaha, Neb.)
Police Blotter of the Day: Teens broke in, cooked gizzards
Two 14-year-old boys were arrested Saturday night for breaking into a Chinese restaurant and cooking chicken gizzards, police said.
“I guess they couldn’t find any money so they decided to cook some food,” Gainesville Police Lt. Jorge Campos said.
Full story (Gainesville, Fla., Sun)
Dear Santa: Give me ‘the real-life Justin Bieber … or you die’
Mekeeda Austin has warned Father Christmas that he will be ‘killed’ if he fails to deliver at least two of her long list of gifts – including a BlackBerry smartphone and ‘the real-life Justin Bieber’.
The 13-year-old goes even further and threatens to ‘hunt down’ Old Nick’s reindeer so she can ‘cook them and serve their meat to homeless people on Xmas day’.
Full story (MetroUK)
Police Blotter of the Day: Thieves clean out Georgia church … during the service
Pastor Mona Harper surveys the damage at Kingdom City Church in Stone Mountain, Ga. (WXIA-TV)
Thieves tore apart the youth center of a Georgia church and made off with nearly everything they could — including a refrigerator, a stove, a microwave oven, broilers and the copper in the ceiling — while the congregation worshiped during Sunday services upstairs, the church’s pastor says.
“They stood on the chairs and took all the copper. They took our kitchen utensils,” said Mona Harper, pastor of Kingdom City Church in Stone Mountain, a suburb of Atlanta.
But then they went a step further, NBC station WXIA of Atlanta reported.
“They took crayons, magic markers and DVDs. They left the Bible and the Scrabble game, but they took the board games,” Harper said.
“Things that we use to get kids off the street, they just took it,” she said.
Full story and video (msnbc.com and NBC News)
Police Blotter of the Day: ‘Can I have my weed back?’
Jeter asked for a preliminary hearing in Beaver County Court, and public defender Mitchell Shaheen tried Monday to convince Judge William Livingston that the marijuana could have belonged to any of four men in the car. He recounted Jeter’s comment to police that he intended to purchase the marijuana, but had not yet consummated the deal.
Shaheen, however, had no defense for Jeter’s question to officers as he was released from police custody in May.
“Mr. Jeter asked if he could have his weed back,” officer Bruce Clark testified Monday in court.
Full story (Beaver County, Pa., Times)
Judge allows media to live-tweet Sandusky hearing
Senior Judge John Cleland has reversed himself and says he will allow news organizations to report the preliminary hearing for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky through Twitter, email and text messages.
Pennsylvania law bans “transmission of communications from the courtroom by telephone, radio, television, or advanced communication technology,” but at a hearing Monday requested by news organizations, Cleland appeared to carve out an exception for live electronic text reporting, deciding that the ban applied to “neither ‘tweeting’ or the simultaneous transmission of a reporter’s account or impression of events as they occur in the courtroom.”
The state rule is intended to bar “an audio and/or visual record” of events, Cleland ruled — not the actual reporting of the news.
Bonus Police Blotter of the Day: Woman caught making meth inside S. Tulsa Walmart
Tulsa County Jail via KOKI-TV
Police say surveillance video shows Halfmoon had been in the store since noon. Six hours later security noticed she was acting suspicious, so they called Tulsa police.
Responding officers say she claimed she was “too broke to buy the chemicals.”
“She didn’t have the money to make the purchases of the chemicals that were needed so she was taking what was needed in the bottle,” says Officer David Shelby.
Shoppers inside the store had no idea someone was cooking meth.
“This is a family store,” says Jessica Fuentes, who also had her 1-year-old son inside the store. “People need to start thinking. If she has family she needs to think about her family. If you are broke. It’s just wrong.”
Full story (KOKI-TV of Tulsa, Okla.)
