Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Disgraced Judge Kills Ex-Wife He Brutally Beat in Front of Kids in 2014

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Disgraced judge Lance Mason had served nine months for beating his ex-wife in 2014

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — A disgraced former judge has been arrested for fatally stabbing his ex-wife after serving time for brutally beating her in front of their kids, cops said.

Lance Mason, 51, allegedly stabbed his estranged wife, Aisha Fraser Mason, a sixth-grade school teacher, at his home on Saturday, police said. He then fled the scene in his SUV and rammed a police cruiser, severely injuring a Shaker Heights police officer as he got out of the vehicle.

The officer, Adam Flynt, is expected to live.

Mason was thrown off the bench after the vicious attack on his wife in 2014 that left her with a broken orbital bone that required reconstructive surgery.

Investigators said Mason punched Fraser Mason 20 times and slammed her head against the dashboard of his car five times, while the couple’s children were in the back of the car. Mason, who previously served in the state legislature, was a sitting Cuyahoga County judge when the attack took place.

After his 2014 arrest, police found a large arsenal of weapons and ammunition in his home.

Mason served nine months of a two-year prison sentence and went to work as a minority business development director for the mayor of Cleveland’s office after his release. He was fired after his arrest on Saturday.

Fraser Mason filed for divorce two days after the attack. The divorce case was still pending at the time of her death.  She also won a $150,000 judgement in a civil case against her ex-husband.

As part of his petition for release, Mason penned a letter to Fraser Mason saying he “failed as a husband, father, and a man,” and promised that once he realized he was “broken” he became a better father and man.”

“My responsibility was to love and protect you,” Mason’s letter said. “Instead of loving, protecting and providing for you and our daughters, I have provided a terrible example, and exposed you to rage and violence.”

4 Charged in Stunning Execution of Ohio Family of 8 Over Custody Dispute

By HardBoiledNews Staff

George Wagner III, Angela Wagner, George Wagner IV and Edward Wagner are charged in the  execution slayings of the Rhoden family in Pike County, Ohio in 2016

WAVERLY, Ohio — Nearly three years after eight members of a rural Ohio family were found shot execution-style in their mobile homes, authorities have charged four members of another family long acquainted with the victims.

The brutal, execution-style slayings of two generations of the Rhoden family in Pike County in Appalachia in April 2016, had perplexed authorities who had dedicated thousands of hours of detective work and had interviewed over 550 people in the effort to track down the killers.

“We promised the victims’ families that the day would come when this case would be solved, and today is that day,” said Attorney General Mike DeWine. “These suspects developed a calculated plan to execute the victims in the middle of the night and then carefully cover their tracks. Their alleged plan was sophisticated, but not sophisticated enough.”

George “Billy” Wagner III, 47, Angela Wagner, 48, George Wagner IV, 27, and Edward “Jake” Wagner, 26, were charged with eight counts of aggravated murder and face the death penalty.

DeWine said the killings appeared to have stemmed from a custody dispute over the five-year-old daughter of Jack Wagner and 19-year-old Hanna May Rhoden.

“There was an obsession with custody of the children. There was an obsession of control of the children,” DeWine said. He dismissed a long-standing theory that the murders were connected to a marijuana business relationship between the families that had gone sour.

Additionally, authorities arrested Angela Wagner’s mother, Rita Newcomb, 65, and Billy Wagner’s mother, Fredericka Wagner, 76, on charges of obstructing justice, perjury and forging custody documents.

Suspicion had long been cast on the Wagner family, but DeWine said efforts the clan had made to cover their tracks had slowed the investigation. At one point, members of the Wagner family had moved to Alaska, purportedly to get away from the glare of the investigation, but had since moved back to Ohio.

The case dates backs to April 2016, when authorities found  seven members of the Rhoden family, plus the fiancée of one of the Rhoden victims, each shot numerous times  at four different mobile homes in Pike County.

Among the dead were:: Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40, his ex-wife Dana Manley Rhoden, 37, and their three children, Hanna Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20. Frankie Rhoden’s fiancée, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20, was also killed, along with the elder Christopher Rhoden’s brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44, and cousin Gary Rhoden, 38.

 

Most of the victims were killed as they slept. Three young children at home at the time of the murders were left unharmed.

The turning point in the case came last week, when authorities determined that one of the Wagner’s had built a homemade silencer for a gun.

“The Wagners were friends with the Rhodens and had been for years. They knew the layouts of the Rhodens’ homes, and they knew the victims’ routines. It is our belief that the suspects used this knowledge to meticulously plan these horrendous, cold-blooded murders,” DeWine said.

The indictments allege that the suspects purchased ammunition, a magazine clip, bags to catch spent shell casings and a bug detector in preparation for the crimes.

Jake Wagner is also charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor for having sex with Hanna Rhoden when she was 15 and he was 20.

Sweet-Toothed Thief Steals $1,600 Worth of Cookies From Girl Scouts

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Noel Hines refused to pay for all the cookies she took

NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio — What a cookie monster!

A heartless Ohio woman with a sweet tooth is behind bars for stealing $1,600 worth of cookies from a Girl Scout troop, police say.

Noel Hines has been charged with taking a large delivery of Girl Scout cookies to sell for a local troop back in March, but then never handed over any of the cash from selling them, the North College Hill police said.

For six months, the organization tried to get hold of Hines to pay up, but she never responded. Even when cops got involved, Hines refused to discuss paying for the sweets or giving them back.

So cops charged her with theft and arrested her last week while she was in court on unrelated charges.

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles,” the department said in a Facebook post.

 

Ohio Man Calls Cops to Report He is Being Chased by a Pig

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cops were convinced the man reporting the pig was dead drunk and hallucinating but they were wrong

ELYRIA, Ohio — Now, if he said it was six-foot rabbit named Harvey, that would be a different story.

An Ohio police department thought they had a drunk with a wild imagination on their hands when they received a call from a man who claimed he was being followed by a pig.

But when officers responded, they discovered a completely sober man who was indeed being followed by a pig.

The North Ridgeville Police Department says they got the call at 5:26 a.m. on Saturday from a man who said he spotted the porcine pursuer as he walked home from the train station in Elyria.

“Night shift responded to the obviously drunk guy walking home from the bar at 5:26 in the morning. He was at least drunk enough to call the police on himself while hallucinating,” the department wrote on its Facebook page.

But when they go there, “they found a very sober male walking … from the actual Amtrak train station in Elyria, not the bar. Oh, and he was being followed by a pig.”

After wiping egg off his face, a patrolman “managed to wrangle (I think this is the correct word to use) said pig into his cruiser and he is currently secured in our pig pens…..er, dog kennels. Whatever.”

The cops weren’t too ashamed to make themselves the butt of their own joke in the end.

”We will mention the irony of the pig in a police car now so that anyone that thinks they’re funny is actually unoriginal and trying too hard,” the department wrote. “Have a great day.”

The following day, the department said the pig had been returned to its owner.

 

Quick-Thinking Good Samaritan Lays Gunman Flat for Cops to Pick Up

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The brave bystander was happy to lend a leg to trip up a gunman cops were pursuing

COLUMBUS, Ohio — That’s some fancy footwork.

A Good Samaritan is being credited by cops with helping take an armed gunman off the streets when he stuck his leg out and tripped up the crook as he fled from police.

The brave bystander, identified only as Bill, was standing outside a public library in Columbus, Ohio when the suspect darted by with cops giving hot pursuit.

“I figured OK, this is a chase,” Bill said of watching officers chasing the man and yelling, “Gun, gun, gun!”

“I saw who you guys were chasing and I could see he was holding something in his waistband but he had a pretty good lead,” Bill said. “So I got in his way to slow him down.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXK4Re7VS2Q

As the man passed, Bill craftily stuck out his leg, which sent the teenage suspect flying and allowed cops time to catch up.

Police said the teen was armed with a Glock 9mm pistol with an extended clip, which he dropped as he fell to the ground. The department thanked Bill “for sticking your leg out for us” and added that the move may have saved the 18-year-old’s life in the process.

“Community involvement, be it by courage, bravery and/or fancy footwork, helped take a criminal off the streets of Columbus,” said the Columbus police, according to WCMH-TV.

 

Urine Trouble: Woman Jailed for Failing Drug Test With Someone Else’s Pee

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kiana Wallace asked the wrong person for their urine sample for a drug test

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — If you are going to fail a drug test, better to do it with your own piss.

A red-faced Ohio woman admitted in court that she used someone else’s pee for a drug test, but then shockingly tested positive for drugs.

“Let me get this straight,” Belmont County Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Fregiato said, according to WTOV-TV. “To avoid the positive test with your own urine, you used someone else’s urine which turned out to be positive also. That’s bizarre.”

Fregiato accused Kiana Wallace of making a mockery of the court and its drug and alcohol testing system. He then threw the book at Wallace, sentencing her to 1 1/2 years in prison.

Wallace was sentenced to six months in jail last January 2017 for drug possession.

 

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.

Drunken Wannabe Arsonist Wags Tongue at the Law

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Amber Legge — and her tongue — do not seem to be taking being arrested very seriously

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Take your law and shove it.

That’s the attitude Amber Legge had on display when she was arrested in Ohio for allegedly threatening to burn a woman’s house down and driving drunk.

Legge, 32, had gotten into a fight with the owner of a Huber Heights home after going there at 3:15 a.m. Friday to demand money she believed she was owed.

“(The victim) indicated that Legge then returned to her residence…began calling her a ‘dope friend’, threatened to beat her, burn her house down, and contact Children’s Services,” the police report read, according to the Dayton Daily News.

As police arrived at the scene, Legge took off, but was pulled over later when officers determined she was under the influence.

Man Gets 27 Years For Impregnating Twins, 14, and Their 12-Year-Old Sister

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Rapist Arnold Perry abused his friends’ trust by impregnating their three daughters

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A twisted child rapist was sentenced to 27 years in prison for impregnating a pair of 14-year-old twins and their 12-year-old sister.

Arnold Perry, 34, had been a friend of the girls’ family and would periodically stay at their home when he had nowhere else to go, prosecutors said.

One of the twins had an abortion after her pregnancy was discovered, but the other two victims ended up having their babies because they were too far along when it was discovered they were pregnant, prosecutors said.

“These girls will suffer the rest of their lives because of this,” Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin said, according to the Youngstown Vindicator.

Perry pleaded guilty in November to two counts of first-degree felony rape and a third-degree felony count of sexual battery for the attacks, which took place in 2015 and 2016. He had faced 25 years in jail, but the judge gave him two years above the recommended sentence.

Prosecutors say Perry had been convicted of similar crimes as a juvenile.

 

Facial Tattoos Likely to Be Dead Giveaway for This Fugitive

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Michael Mann’s distinctive facial tattoos definitely make him stand out

CINCINNATI — Well, he shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Police in Cincinnati are looking for a man with rather distinctive tattoos covering his face, including a dollar sign over his left eye.

Michael Mann, 34, is wanted on aggravated burglary and domestic violence after allegedly climbing into an unlocked window of his ex-girlfriend’s house on Jan. 9 and choking and slapping her several times. Cops say the victim has a child with Mann.

Mann is described as 6-foot-3 inches and 185 pounds. Cops say he has a history of domestic violence, aggravated robbery and drug charges.