True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Three Denver Teens Charged in Arson Fire that Killed Family of Five African Immigrants

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Denver police had only released these chilling images of the suspects in the Aug. 5 fire

DENVER — After a nearly six-month investigation, Denver police have arrested three teenagers for a devastating arson fire that left five members of a family of African immigrants dead.

Police said the teens, two of whom are 16 and the other 15, face first-degree murder charges in the Aug. 5 blaze that killed Djibril Diol, his wife Adja and their 2-year-old daughter Khadija Diol, as well as his sister, Hassan Diol, and her infant daughter, Hawa Beye.

The tragic blaze had unnerved the community and perplexed investigators who had been working with clueslike  photos of a car leaving the scene and chilling, black-and-white images of three suspects wearing hoods and full masks over their faces.

“This was as complex of an investigation as I’m aware of in my entire career,” said Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen.

Many details of the crime remain shrouded in secrecy, with police limited in what information they could release — including the suspects’ names — because they are juveniles. 

Pazen said that the three teens know each other, but are not related. He said there was no evidence to suggest the attack was a hate crime. 

“We are very confident to say we don’t believe this is a bias-motived crime,” Pazen said. “If facts change as the investigation and prosecution continues, we can add that.”

Pazen said he could not provide further information about a possible motive to protect the integrity of the case and ensure a successful prosecution.

Immediately after the fire, Denver police opened a homicide investigation, saying there was evidence it had been intentionally set. Three other residents of the house managed to jump from the second story and survived without life-threatening injuries.

The three teens each were arrested on 10 counts of first-degree murder — five counts apiece under felony murder and extreme-indifference murder statutes — as well as three counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, three counts of first-degree arson, eight counts of fourth-degree arson and one count apiece of first- and second-degree burglary.

Denver District Attorney Beth McCann ultimately will decide how to charge the three suspects, and whether to prosecute them as juveniles or adults.

FBI Investigating Bomb Explosion at California Anti-Gay Church

By HardBoiledNews Staff

EL MONTE, California — The FBI and local authorities are investigating an explosion apparently caused by a bomb at a Los Angeles-area church that had been the target of protests for its anti-gay views.

Officers responding around 4:30 a.m. Saturday initially thought a vandal had broken the windows of First Works Baptist Church in El Monte, police there said. Then officers noticed smoke coming from inside the building.

“Then we realized that the windows were not smashed, that they had actually blown out from some type of explosion,” Lt. Christopher Cano said.

No one was in the church at the time and no injuries were reported. The extent of the damage to the building was unclear.

The FBI said it appeared the damage was the result of an improvised explosive device.

Protestors have repeatedly targeted the church headed by Pastor Bruce Mejia, who has condemned same-sex relationships.

A statement on it website says: “We believe that homosexuality is a sin and an abomination which God punishes with the death penalty.”

Mejia’s sermons and the church’s stance were called hate speech during public comments at an El Monte City Council meeting, according to the Mercury News.

The Southern Poverty Law Center listed the church on its 2019 watch list of “anti-LBGTQ hate groups.”

The church had been the target of protests in the city, and more than 14,000 people have signed an online petition calling on El Monte’s mayor to recognize the church as a hate group and force them to leave town.

The church is part of the New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement, a network of 30 churches known for calling for the government to round up and execute gay people.

The network’s leader, Steven Anderson, is an Arizona pastor who has drawn widespread condemnation for celebrating the 2016 shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., where 49 people were killed.

Mr. Anderson also gained notoriety in 2009 for saying in a sermon that he had prayed for the death of President Barack Obama, and was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League in 2014 for what it called his “history of anti-Semitism.”

Railway Spike Killer Gets Life in Murder Spree That Targeted the Homeless

By HardBoiledNews Staff

SAN DIEGO — A Southern California man who killed four people and attacked more than a dozen by setting them on fire or impaling them with railroad spikes, has been sentenced to life in prison.

Jon David Guerrero, 43, pleaded guilty last year to murder, attempted murder and arson in more than a dozen attacks in 2016 of mostly homeless men he targetted as they slept on the street

Some were set on fire with gasoline and others had railroad spikes driven through their heads or chests. One survivor of a spike attack was blinded in one eye, prosecutors said.

Three murder victims were homeless: Angelo DeNardo, 53; Shawn Longley, 41; and Dionicio Vahidy, 23. Another victim, 83-year-old Molly Simmons, wasn’t homeless. Authorities said she was fatally struck in the head from behind while walking to a bus stop on her way to volunteer at a YMCA.

Although a motive wasn’t disclosed, trial testimony indicated that he told one survivor, “because you’re a bum.”

Guerrero, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, had a history of arrests and mental competency hearings. He was initially declared mentally incompetent to stand trial in 2017 and sent to Patton State Hospital but later was ruled able to stand trial.

He was  sentenced in San Diego Superior Court to life without possibility of parole with an additional 143 years to life in prison. 

Man in Covid Ward Bludgeoned 82-Year-Old Patient to Death For Praying: Cops

By HardBoiledNews Staff

LANCASTER, California — A crazed Covid patient in a California hospital allegedly bludgeoned his 82-year-old ward mate to death with an oxygen tank because the man started to pray, police said.

Jesse Martinez, 37, was receiving treatment at the Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster on Dec. 17, when he blew his top after the man he shared a room with knelt down to pray, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office said.

“The suspect became upset when the victim started to pray. He then struck the victim,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The victim– who was described by police only as Hispanic — died the next day. Investigators say the men didn’t know each other.

Martinez has been charged with murder as a hate crime and elder abuse and was held on $1 million bond.

Police said they are continuing to investigate.

Tennessee Man Threatened to Lynch Black Woman in Fight Over Parking Spot: Cops

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Clinton Jeffries

MEMPHIS —  A Tennessee man has been hit with civil rights charges after he shockingly threatened to lynch a Black woman in a dispute over a parking spot, Memphis police said.

Clinton Jeffries, 52, admitted he hurled racist threats and slurs at the woman in a fight Wednesday in the parking lot of a Shelby County Kroger supermarket, cops said.

Jeffries allegedly called the woman the n-word and threatened to “hang her from a tree” after she took a parking space he wanted, cops said.

Jeffries allegedly boxed the woman in with his car before yelling epithets at her through her car window.

The victim “was placed in fear of her life from the anger that was displayed toward her,” police wrote in a statement, according to WREG-TV. She later identified the man to police in a photo lineup.

She told police she left the parking lot once Jeffries moved his car from behind hers but quickly realized he was following her as she drove to work, according to the report.

She said she called police after Jeffries followed her into her workplace and threatened to “cut your neck off” if she took his spot again.

Jeffries was arrested Thursday on charges of assault and civil rights intimidation.

White Supremacist Ex-Cop Convicted in Minnesota Mosque Bombing

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Micheal Hari faces at least 35 years behind bars

MINNEAPOLIS — A former cop who became the leader of a white supremacist militia group has been convicted of masterminding a pipe bomb attack on a Minnesota mosque.

Michael Hari, 49, of Clarence, Illinois, was found guilty of five counts and faces at least 35 years in prison for the 2017 attack in which a 20-pound pipe bomb was tossed into the Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington as worshippers gathered for prayer.

The same year as the attack, Hari submitted a bid for a federal contract to build President Donald Trump’s border wall.

In a video about the project, which Hari called the “Great Western International Border Wall,” a narrator proclaims that “the wall will be culturally significant … a powerful architectural statement of the determination of the American people to defend their nation and its Anglo-Saxon heritage, Western culture and English language.”

“The wall exists to protect the economic rights of the U.S. population and to protect our way of life from people who have different value systems,” the narrator says.

While Hari plotted the attack, he left it to two younger men — Joe Morris and Michael McWhorter — to carry out the bombing as he waited in a getaway vehicle nearby.

Morris and McWhorter had pleaded guilty and testified against Hari, calling him the brains behind the attack. No one was injured in the explosion.

“Michael Hari’s goal in bombing the Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center was to spread hatred, instill fear, and threaten the constitutionally protected right to freedom of religion. This act of violence, driven by hatred and ignorance, shook our community,” U.S. Attorney Erica H. MacDonald said in a statement.

During the five-week trial, Morris and McWhorter alleged Hari coordinated the plan to rent a truck in Illinois which he drove to the Minnesota mosque. He then ordered the two men to throw a pipe bomb into the imam’s office. Morris, 25, testified that Hari claimed the mosque trained ISIS fighters and that the militia group was “taking orders from a CIA agent called ‘Congo Joe’ to harass ‘untouchables,’ such as Antifa and billionaire George Soros.”

McWhorter, 31, said the three were also behind the attempted bombing of a women’s health clinic in Champaign, Ill., just three months after the Bloomington bombing.

In court, prosecutors said Hari and the others formed an anti-government militia group called the White Rabbits. As its leader, Hari wrote a manifesto known as “The White Rabbit Handbook” and recorded a series of xenophobic YouTube videos under the handle “Illinois Patriot.” 

A 2018 indictment says that “the group obtained materials used to make explosives, provided weapons and uniforms to group members, and assigned ranks to its members.”

U.S. Attorney John Docherty presented evidence suggesting that the three men planned to carry out a series of criminal jobs to fund their bigoted endeavors, including going on a trip to Cuba to capture the aunt of dead rapper Tupac Shakur, who is wanted by the FBI. They had planned to turn her in for a $1 million reward.

Hari, who once worked as a sheriff’s deputy, has had numerous run-ins with the law. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 months probation for child abduction in 2006 after taking his kids to Mexico and Belize in an effort to not lose custody of the children to his ex-wife.

Ex-Firefighter Jailed for Hanging Baby Doll By Noose Outside Black Family’s Home

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Glenn Eugene Halfin had argued that hanging dolls with nooses outside a black family’s home wasn’t technically racism

FORT WORTH, Texas (Oct. 26, 2018) — A racist retired firefighter was sentenced to a year in jail for hanging baby dolls with nooses around their neck outside the apartment of his black neighbors.

Glenn Eugene Halfin, 64, had pleaded guilty in July to repeatedly threatening and intimidating the black family who lived above him in Grapevine, Texas because of the color of their skin.

Halfin admitted he had strung the baby dolls up with rope around their neck on a railing of the the staircase he family used and that he t “recognized that this display would be particularly intimidating for the African-American victims who had a young daughter.”

“No family should be afraid for children in their own home,” said U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox. “The Northern District of Texas will not tolerate crimes born of bigotry.”

Halfin’s neighbors also reported that their cars had been repeatedly smeared with feces and splattered with eggs. They also told police that a noose had once been thrown on their balcony.

Halfin’s attorney, who is black, had argued for leniency, saying the matter had just been a dispute among neighbors that got out of hand. He insisted his client, who had been a firefighter, arson investigator and emergency medical technician was not a racist.

“He had tried talking to them. They would stomp down the floor,” Halfin’s lawyer, Brook Antonio said. “He got angry, frustrated, and he didn’t handle it well.”

“I’m sorry,” a tearful Halfin said to the judge.

Bigot Jailed For Threatening to Burn House Being Bought by Muslim Family

By HardBoiledNews Staff

David Howard (l) threatened to burn his neighbor’s house down rather than have a Muslim move in

TAMPA, Florida  —  A Muslim-hating homeowner was sentenced to eight months in prison for threatening to burn a neighbor’s house to the ground rather than let a Muslim family buy it.

David Howard, 59, was accused of accosting Kaderbhai Ali Asgar and his wife in 2016 as they were doing the final walk through before plunking down $658,000 to buy the house next door on David Islands in Tampa, Florida, prosecutors said.

“This sale will not take place,” Howard said, according to court documents. “I will break all of your f—— windows and I will burn your f—— house down.”

The outburst so unnerved Asgar that he and his wife backed out of the sale and lost their  $30,000 deposit.

Howard pleaded guilty in February to a felony civil rights violation and now has been sentenced to eight months behind bars, two years probation and $30,000 in restitution.

“This Justice Department will not stand by when individuals use violence and intimidation to deny fair housing rights,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to prosecute crimes like this one that deprive families of a safe place to live.”

Howard testified that his outburst was driven by testosterone supplements he takes because he has AIDS. He claimed he was not racist, although he said he was not fond of Muslims as he had lost a loved one in the September 11 attack.

Prosecutors say Howard later boasted to friends and neighbors about driving the couple out and made derogatory remarks about Muslims.

Asgar said that he was very pleased at the punishment Howard received.

“I’m very happy that the judge did a very fair judgement,” Asgar said after court.

 

Radical Professor at Kent State University Charged With Lying to FBI in ISIS Probe

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kent State University history professor Julio Pino has been under investigation about alleged ties to ISIS

CLEVELAND — A radical professor at Kent State University has been charged with lying to the FBI during a probe into his possible connections to the Islamic State.

Julio Pino, 58, who has taught history at the Ohio university since 1992, is charged with falsely telling investigators he didn’t know a man he messaged with online and egged on as he discussed killing people, including a judge involved in his custody case.

“I’m playing the game backwards.  and winning! . . . I will kill 100s of people if they take my rights as a father away!” the man, identified in court papers only as J.E. said.

“Devour them, [J.E.],” Pino replied.

In January 2016, the man was charged with threatening a judge. Around that time, the FBI launched a probe into Pino, questioning his students about whether he attempted to recruit any of them to join ISIS. At the time, Pino called the allegations preposterous.

A Muslim convert, Pino has long been a lightning rod for controversy. In 2002, he wrote a newspaper column, eulogizing a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. Nearly a decade later, he shouted “Death to Israel” at a lecture by a former Israeli diplomat.

There have been calls to revoke his tenure, but the school always refused on first amendment grounds. The school has suspended him following the filing of charges on Monday. His attorney told Cleveland.com, that his client is planning to retire.

N. Carolina Truck Driver Jailed For Lying About Role in Bosnian Massacre

By HardBoiledNews Staff

A woman weeps at a memorial to those slain in the Srebrenica massacre

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — A Serbian man who came to the U.S. in the 1990s as a refugee from the bloody Balkan wars, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for lying about his role in one of the war’s most brutal massacres.

Milan Trisic, 55, admitted that he was a member of the feared Bratunac Brigade during the war in Bosnia and Herzogovina and took part in the bloody Srebrenica massacre in 1995 in which up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were summarily executed.

The killings are considered the worst war atrocity in Europe since World War II, and late last year, former Serbian general, Ratko Miladic, was found guilty by a U.N. tribunal of genocide and crimes against humanity for commanding the slaughter at Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo. He was sentenced to life in prison.

When Trisic applied for refugee status, prosecutors say he claimed to have lived in Serbia during the war, hiding the fact that he was involved in arresting and beating thousands of  Muslim prisoners and transporting them to be killed and buried in mass graves.

Once he moved to the United States, Trisic settled in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he became a truck driver and raised a family. He eventually obtained a green card by similarly lying about his wartime activities on his application.

“Those who wish to live in the United States ought to respect our laws, support our national security, and pursue residency legally and honestly.  Anything less is inexcusable,” said U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trisic will be deported back to Serbia upon completion of his sentence. It is unclear if he will face war crimes charges upon his return to his homeland.

Suspected Serial Killer Targeting Vegas’ Homeless Charged in 4 Shootings

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Joshua Castellon is believed to be the serial killer going after homeless people in Vegas

LAS VEGAS — A suspected serial killer targeting homeless people in Las Vegas has been arrested and charged with fatally shooting two people and wounding two others in what appear to be random attacks, police said.

Joshua Castellon, 26, was initially arrested by the FBI last week on a weapons charge, but has now been charged with murdering two homeless in cold blood as they slept. He has also been charged with two other similar shootings in which the victims survived, the Las Vegas police said.

“The good news is that we have a suspect in custody and we’re relieved that a dangerous person is off the streets,” said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Robert Plummer.

Police say the shootings appeared to be random.

The first fatal shooting occurred in the early morning hours of Jan. 29 when a man was shot to death while sleeping outside a business. Later that morning a second homeless man was taken to a hospital after being shot in the mouth. He lived.

A third man was shot by a passing motorist as he cleaned a car and also survived. Four days later, a surveillance camera captured a man walking up to a homeless man under  bridge and fatally shooting him, police said.

In mid-February, detectives began closing in on Castellon after receiving some tips, contacting his estranged wife who told them she believed her husband had bought a gun in January. When detectives caught up to Castellon, he agreed to come in for an interview.

Castellon was initially arrested after he told detectives he had bought the gun with the intention of selling it to someone else. The handgun believed to have been used in the shootings has not been recovered.

Muslim Convert Charged With Killing Neo-Nazi Roommates Deemed Unfit for Trial

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Devon Arthurs was once a neo-Nazi who later found Islam

TAMPA, Florida — A former white supremacist who gunned down his neo-Nazi roommates after converting to Islam has been found mentally unfit to stand trial.

Devon Arthurs, 18, said he fatally shot his ex-roommates Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18, with an assault rifle inside their Tampa condo in May because they had disrespected his new faith, authorities said.

But Dr. Yolanda Leon found Arthurs incompetent to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder, the Tampa Bay Times reported. But before the judge ruled on the matter, prosecutors asked for a second opinion.

Arthurs told police he had been friends with Himmelman and Oneschuk and a fourth roommate, Brandon Russell — who wasn’t home at the time of the shooting — with all four sharing neo-Nazi beliefs. But the friendship faltered when Arthurs converted to Islam and grew angry at U.S. actions in Muslim countries.

When investigators searched the condo where they all lived, they discovered bomb-making materials in Russell’s room, as well as neo-Nazi literature and a  photo of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Russell, who told police he was member of Atomwaffen, a neo-Nazi group active on college campuses,  pleaded guilty to federal explosives charges and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Missing Woman’s Remains Found Cooking in Pot at Ex-Husband’s Home

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Magdalena Romero’s remains were found cooking in a pot after having gone missing more than a week earlier

TAXCO, Mexico — The chopped-up remains of a woman who had disappeared in a southern Mexican town were found bubbling away in a pot at her ex-husband’s business, police said.

Magdalena Aguilar Romero, 25, was last seen on Jan. 13 when she left her home in Taxco to pick up her kids at her ex-husband’s home.

On Monday, police discovered her remains at a botany center owned by her ex, Cesar Gomez Arciniega.

“It is presumed that she was cooked,”Guerrero state security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said.

Investigators described a grisly scene, saying Romero’s arms and legs were found boiling in a pot on a stove in a back storeroom. Her already-cooked pelvis was in a bag on the floor, and other body parts were stashed in a freezer, police said.

Prosecutors said they are investigating whether Arciniega committed  “femicide,” a gender-based hate crime.

According to a government report released last month, murders of women in Mexico have risen sharply over the last decade following two decades of decline.

The state of Guerrero had the second highest “femicide” rate in 2016, official statistics show.

Black Gunman Eyed as Serial Killer in Slayings of 5 White KC Hikers

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Frederick Demond Scott has been charged in the death of two men and is a top suspect in three other killings

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A 22-year-old Missouri man is being eyed as a possible serial killer responsible for the shooting deaths of five middle aged men who he may have targeted because they were white, authorities said.

Frederick Demond Scott, who is black, has been charged in the fatal shootings of two of the victims and is considered a top suspect in the death of three others who were all gunned down along a popular hiking trail in Kansas City.

Police say it is not clear if the attacks were racially motivated, but in 2014, Scott was arrested for threatening to shoot up a high school “Columbine style” and “kill all white people,” according to the Kansas City Star.

He was sentenced to six months in jail but later had the sentence suspended and was put on probation. His mother told the paper that her son suffered from paranoid schizophrenia but refused to get treatment.

The victims, who ranged in age from 54 to 67, were killed on and around the Indian Creek hiking trail between August 2016 and August of this year. Several of the shootings appeared to be ambush killings in which the victims were shot in the back of the head. Some were killed while walking their dogs, with the animals remaining by their sides until their bodies were found.

Police say Scott boasted, “they didn’t see it coming,” when questioned by detectives.

Investigators got a break in the case after the fifth killing, which occurred on a city street in broad daylight, when they located surveillance footage showing Scott follow the victim a bus before he was shot.

Scott was later linked to the scene from DNA detectives lifted from a iced tea bottle and a cigarette butt found at the scene of the final killing. The DNA also matched that found on a t-shirt left at the scene of an earlier killing.

People who knew Scott said he had never been the same following the shooting death of his half-brother, Gerrod Woods, in a robbery in 2015. The killer in that case, who is black, was recently sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Oklahoma Top Cop Resigns After Being Tied to Neo-Nazi Organizations

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Bart Alsbrook was named Colbert’s interim police just last week

COLBERT, Oklahoma — The interim police chief in a small town on the Oklahoma-Texas border has resigned after a local TV station reported that he appeared to have ties to neo-Nazi organizations.

Bart Alsbrook had been a reserve police officer in Colbert until being named interim chief last week.

But news station KXII-TV reported soon after that a Bart Alsbrook showed up in records as the owner of two websites, ISD Records and NS88 Videos, that sell neo-Nazi paraphernalia, like such as music by “The Klansmen,” and Nazi patches.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, has listed both sites as connected to hate groups. The Center also listed him as the Texas coordinator of Blood & Honour USA, a racist skinhead gang.

When contacted by the Tulsa World newspaper, Alsbrook insisted that someone had stolen his identity and that he was not responsible for the websites.

“Someone has been using my name for years on the Internet in regards to racist topics. It’s not me, rather someone who has hijacked my name due to my combativeness and rejection to white power skinheads who were always coming to the heavy metal shows, starting fights and messing up our scene,” he said. “We hate each other. They use my name in all sorts of things.”

But within hours of being contacted by the local TV station, both web sites tied to Alsbrook were taken down.

 

 

 

KKK Prison Guards in Florida Convicted in Plot to Murder Black Inmate

By HardBoiledNews Staff

From left: Charles Thomas Newcomb, David Elliot Moran and Thomas Jordan Driver

LAKE CITY, Florida — A pair of Florida prison guards who were secretly members of the KKK have been convicted of plotting to murder a black inmate after his release.

Prosecutors said the plot dated back to 2015, when David Elliot Moran, 49, and Charles Thomas Newcomb, 45, and a third guard who had previously pleaded guilty, tried to enlist the help of an FBI informant to kill the inmate.

The men were infuriated by the inmate after he bit the third guard, Thomas Jordan Driver, 27, who, like the others, is  a member of the Traditionalist American Knights branch of the Ku Klux Klan, during a fight. The three guards believed the prisoner was infected with HIV and hepatitis.

One version of the plot involved injecting the inmate with insulin and then forcing him face down into a river with a fishing pole in his hand to make it look an accident. Another involved shooting him and chopping his body into pieces.

But the scheme was quickly foiled after recorded conversations between the three former guards and the FBI informant revealed the murder plot.

“These Klansmen plotted to murder a black inmate after he was released from prison, but swift action and clever investigative tactics on behalf of investigators foiled their plot and may have saved a life,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

At the time of the murder conspiracy, Driver and Moran were guards at the Department of Corrections Reception and Medical Center in rural north Florida. Newcomb was a former correctional officer who had been fired in 2013 for failing to meet training requirements.

Driver pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder in March and was sentenced to four years in prison.

The head of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Frank Ancona was shot and killed in Missouri earlier this year and his body dumped by a river. His wife and son-in-law have been charged in his death.

 

Cops Hunt Man Who Stole Signs Meant for the Blind Along a Hiking Trail

By HardBoiledNews Staff

U.S. Cops are asking for help identifying this man

GENESEE PARK, Colorado — Cops are hunting for a brazen thief who made off with 37 Braille interpretive signs meant to help the blind from a hiking trail in Colorado.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s office says the man took the signs — valued at over $18,000 — from two trails in Genesee Park sometime between April 22 and May 6.

A man caught on surveillance footage stealing a laminated paper sign that had been placed in the park to replace one of the stolen signs is considered a “person of interest,” cops said.

Investigators described him as between 55- and 65-years-old, with white hair, but bald on top. They said he stands between 160 and 190 pounds at the time of the theft, and was wearing a blue jacket with white lettering on the left breast. He was accompanied by a small black dog, cops said.

Tipsters are encouraged to call the sheriff’s office at 303-271-5612.

Man Convicted in Bizarre Adult Adoption Immigration Scheme

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Helaman Hansen says he meant well, and making off with $1 million was just a coincidence

SACRAMENTO, California — A man accused of bilking hundreds of illegal immigrants out of over $1 million with the false promise of securing them citizenship by having them adopted as adults, has been convicted of fraud.

Helaman Hansen, 64, of Elk Grove, California was accused of running the bizarre and elaborate scheme from 2012 through 2016, netting as much as $10,000 from each of the immigrants he conned.

The scam was based around the bogus promise that the victims would be granted U.S. citizenship if they were legally adopted by an American. Hansen did arrange for several adult victims to be adopted but none ever received citizenship as the law only allows someone under the age of 16 to be granted such status following an adoption.

In reality, adult adoptions are exceedingly rare, and Hansen’s con came unwound when court officials in the Sacramento and Alameda Superior Courts noticed an unusual amount of such adoptions and grew suspicious that something wasn’t kosher.

Prosecutors say that Hansen had created a number of entities, such as Americans Helping America, to sell memberships in what he called a “Migration Program,” through which the adoptions would be arranged.  At the beginning, memberships were sold for an annual fee of $150, but that cost gradually grew as high as $10,000.

Many of Hansen’s victims were over the age of 50 and a substantial number hailed from Pacific island nations like Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand, prosecutors said.

In all, prosecutors say he duped over 500 people and collected over $1 million in fees.

After an 11-day trial, a federal jury found Hansen guilty of 12 counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, and two counts of encouraging and inducing illegal immigration for private financial gain. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

White Cop Files Race Discrimination Suit After Discovering He is Part Black

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cleon Brown recently discovered that he is 18% black

HASTINGS, Michigan — A Michigan cop has filed a racial discrimination suit against his department, saying he became the subject of non-stop racist taunting after discovering he had black ancestry.

Sgt. Cleon Brown, 49, said in his civil suit that the police chief repeatedly called him “Kunta,” after the character Kunta Kinte in the famed slave epic, “Roots,” by Alex Haley. He said others whispered “Black Lives Matter,” and raised their fists in a black power salute as he walked past.

And at Christmas time, the sergeant said he found a black Santa figurine with “18%” written on its beard, in a stocking that hung in the department with Brown’s name on it.

The figure was a reference to the 18% black ancestry Brown discovered he had when he had done an Ancestry.com genetic test. Brown says department staff grew increasingly chilly towards him after he objected to the taunts, and began to ignore him completely after he filed a complaint with the equal employment opportunity commission.

The suit, filed in federal court, names Police Chief Jeff Pratt, City Manager Jeff Mansfield, and several others.

Brown found this statue in his office Christmas stocking

The department and Mansfield countered that it  was Brown who started the racial bantering and that others just followed suit when he would joke about his black ancestry. They accused Brown on engaging in “typical racial stereotypes.”

City officials told MLive.com that they weren’t even sure if Brown’s genetic makeup even qualified him as a protected class under civil rights laws.

Brown has served on the force since 1998 and had spent seven years in the Army before joining the Hastings department.

Black Suspect Busted in Racial Arson Attack He Tried to Pin on ‘White America’

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Curtis Flournoy is accused of setting a fire he tried to blame on ‘White America’

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Police arrested a black man for a racially-charged arson attack on a North Carolina store in which a threatening note was left that was signed “White America.”

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department say they busted 32-year-old Curtis Flournoy on Sunday for the attack and charged him with ethnic intimidation, burning a commercial building and writing anonymous and threatening letters.

Police had previously said they were investigating the attack Thursday evening on Charlotte’s Central Market, which sells South Asian products, as a hate crime. Investigators said a rock had been thrown through the store’s window and a fire set in its entrance way which burned itself out by the time authorities arrived.

No one was hurt.

A note found at the scene stated that refugee business owners weren’t wanted and “that they would torture the owner if they did not leave and go back to where they came from,” police said. The note was signed “White America.”

But video surveillance footage captured a black man leaving the scene.

 

The store’s owner, Kamal Dhimel, previously lived in Nepal and Bhutan before coming to the U.S. in 2010. He opened the store in 2014, selling goods from Nepal, India and Pakistan.

He told The Charlotte Observer that he hadn’t faced anti-immigrant attitudes in the U.S. before last week’s episode.

Police did not say what they believed Flournoy’s motive might have been. He has a long rap sheet with multiple arrests for drugs as well as damaging property and assaulting a government official. He is currently being held on $22,500 bond.

Bosnian War Criminal Sentenced for Lying About Past to Get U.S. Passport

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Slobo Maric was convicted of abusing Bosnian Croat prisoners of war like these men

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — An unemployed Florida man convicted of war crimes in Bosnia has been sentenced to a year-and-half in federal prison for lying about his past as a sadistic prison warden when he applied to become a  U.S. citizen.

Slobo Maric, 56, had been a member of the Bosnian army during the civil war that tore that country apart in the early 1990s. Authorities say that during that time he served as the second in command at an elementary school-turned detention center for captured Bosnian Croat soldiers in the city of Mostar.

Under his command, prison guards routinely meted out brutal beatings of the prisoners of war . They also sent them to the front lines to dig trenches, fill sandbags and carry away the dead, and many were killed by sniper fire and bombs, authorities said.

In 1994, Maric was arrested and charged with war crimes against prisoners but was released as part of a prisoner exchange the following year. In 1996, he applied for refugee status in the United States. Prosecutors say he lied about whether he had ever violated the law, and the application was granted.

He then moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and in 1998 became a permanent resident and once again lied about his past on the application. Two years later, Maric was indicted for war crimes in Bosnia and was tried and convicted in absentia. U.S. prosecutors say Maric hired a lawyer and filed letters in his own defense in the case.

Shortly after his conviction, Maric applied to become a U.S. citizen and lied once again about  his past and in 2002, he was granted citizenship.

Maric pleaded guilty to the fraud last July and will have his U.S. citizenship revoked after he has served his sentence. He will then be deported back to Bosnia where he will likely face jail time for his war crimes conviction.

Man Poses as Jew, Vandalizes Own House with Swastikas, Is Arrested

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Andrew King not only wasn’t targeted for being Jewish — he’s not even Jewish

SCHENECTADY, New York — They may be considered God’s chosen people, but this guy wasn’t included.

Police in upstate New York have arrested a man who allegedly painted swastikas on his own home and falsely reporting it as a hate crime.

In an even odder twist, the man, Andrew King, isn’t Jewish despite claiming to be so and wearing a yarmulke in interviews with reporters on television.

After a five-week investigation into the Feb. 10 incident, cops determined that the 54-year-old King did it himself.

“Our detectives interviewed many witnesses in the neighborhood to determine if anyone saw anyone do this,” said Sgt. Matt Dearing of the Schenectady police. “We take this very seriously.”

And when WTEN-TV asked local Jewish groups around Schenectady for comment, many leaders said they didn’t know King. Several people who do know him said he isn’t Jewish, although he has tried to convert more than once but has been turned away.

King was also charged in a separate case in which he is accused of harassing a county employee. He claimed in court that he was roughed up by police leaving him with two black eyes.

“He had no altercation with us when he was brought in yesterday,” Dearing said.

Four Teens Arrested for Turning Menorah into Swastika

By HardBoiledNews Staff

An Arizona family was stunned to find their menorah turned into a swastika

CHANDLER, Arizona — Police in Arizona have busted four teens for a chilling act of vandalism in which a family’s front-lawn Hanukkah menorah was reconfigured into a swastika.

Clive Jamar Wilson was among those arrested

The Chandler police department says the episode occurred Dec. 30, when someone went into the family’s yard and taken their eight-foot high menorah, which had been fashioned out of PVC piping, and turned it into a symbol of hate.

On Friday, cops say they busted 19-year-old Clive Jamar Wilson, and three juvenile males, whose names were not made public, on charges of criminal trespass and aggravated criminal damage. All four were released pending the submission of charges to the Maricopa County Attorney’s office, police said.

At the time of the incident, the FBI said it was investigating to see if vandalism constituted a hate crime. Police say the investigation is ongoing.

“It just makes me sad and it makes me feel sick that’s still how people look at the world in 2016,” Seth Ellis, who built the menorah for his children said at the time.

Florida Man Pleads to Burning Cross on Interracial Couple’s Lawn

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Thomas Sigler had harassed his black neighbor since he moved in

PORT RICHEY, Florida — A Florida racist outraged by an interracial couple that was living next door, pleaded guilty to burning a cross on the their front yard on Halloween night five years ago.

Thomas Herris Sigler, 45, was living in a predominantly white neighborhood of Port Richey in 2012 when a black man moved in with a white woman next door, federal prosecutor said.

Sigler was so aggrieved by the situation, prosecutors say he repeatedly hurled racial epithets at him and one time even punched him in the face solely because of his race.

Then on Halloween night that year, Sigler went to a party at another neighbor’s house, where he and several others decided to burn a cross in the front yard of the interracial couple to force them to move out.

They then gathered wood and fashioned a cross on which they poured gasoline. They then carried it over to the couple’s front yard, leaned it against the mailbox and set it on fire, prosecutors said.

“It is sad that crosses are being burned in front yards in the 21st century. Acts of hatred such as this simply cannot be tolerated under law,” said U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley.

One of the perpetrators of the hate-filled spectacle, Pascual Carlos Pietri, was arrested not long after, and in 2015, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Pascual Pietri pleaded guilty to the cross burning in 2015

Sigler and another man, William Dennis, 56, were indicted in September for their alleged roles in the racially-charged episode.

Both Pietri and Sigler have long rap sheets. Pietri has served time for drug trafficking, auto theft, assault and burglary. Sigler has been charged with kidnapping, sexual battery and burglary in separate cases.

North Idaho Man Charged In Catholic Church Burning

By HardBoiledNews Staff

St. Ann’s Catholic Church was burned to the ground

BONNERS FERRY, Idaho — A contractor from northern Idaho has been charged with setting fire to the Catholic church in his town and burning it to ground last year.

Federal prosecutors say Shane Rucker, 33, of Bonners Ferry, entered St. Ann’s Catholic Church alight last April 21, and set fires in three places in the basement, starting a blaze that eventually consumed the entire building.

Rucker, who has a lengthy rap sheet with arrests for burglary, drugs and domestic violence, was charged in federal court in Coeur D’Alene on Friday with destroying religious property under the Church Arson Prevention Act. He was held without bail and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The law was passed in 1996 in response to a spate of arson attacks on black churches in the south. Authorities did not publicly disclose a motive and the indictment against was sealed by the judge.

Shane Rucker has a long rap sheet

Father Carlos Perez said the church had been vandalized a month before the alleged arson, with the sanctuary desecrated with satanic symbols and a cross stolen from the tabernacle. A Lutheran Church in the area was also vandalized at the time.

“As a priest I pray confession for him because I know he is a human being,” Perez told the Bonners Ferry Herald. “But he has to pay for his mistake. I tell you, we didn’t do anything to him and he has no idea how many people are suffering from his actions.”

He said the church is used by about 150 families and the Diocese of Boise said it had served the community for over 100 years. While insurance will cover a substantial part of the cost to rebuild, church officials say they will have to raise over $500,000 themselves to make up for the shortfall.

The congregation is currently using a group of temporary trailers for services.