True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Cold Case Child Killer Strangled to Death By Cellmate in Oklahoma Prison

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Child Killer Anthony Palma (l) was found slain in the cell he shared with Raymond Pillado

McALESTER, Oklahoma  — A convicted child killer serving a life sentence for a 1997 cold case slaying of an 8-year-old girl was strangled to death in prison by his cellmate, authorities said.

Anthony Palma, 59, died from “ligature strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head,” according to a report released by the Oklahoma state medical examiner’s office.

Palma was found lying in a pool of blood in his cell at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary during a routine security check on Jan. 11 and could not be revived.

His cellmate, Raymond Pillado, 35, was also serving a life sentence for first-degree murder for killing three people.

Palma was convicted in 2017 of the murder of 8-year-old Kirsten Hatfield, who was abducted from her Midwest City home in 1997. Her killing had remained unsolved for two decades until DNa evidence linked Palma to the case.

He had lived two doors down from the Hatfield family and was arrested for the murder in 2015 after investigators reexamined some of the evidence from the cold case and he matched DNA recovered from blood found on the girl’s bedroom window and her underwear.

The girl’s body was never recovered.

Authorities told KFOR-TV that they had plans to interviewing Palma later this year in the hopes of  extracting information that could lead them to her body.

‘We’ve not had closure on this case and we may never have closure because we wanted to find her body and bring her home,’ said Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes.

 

Oklahoma Zookeeper and Gov. Candidate, ‘Joe Exotic,’ Busted in Murder-For-Hire Plot

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Joe Exotic kept more than 200 big cats at his roadside zoo in Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY — The operator of a roadside zoo who ran for governor in Oklahoma earlier this year, has been charged in a murder-for-hire plot for allegedly trying to hire people to bump off the owner of a big cat rescue group in Florida, federal prosecutors say.

Joseph Maldonado-Passage, 55, who is known as “Joe Exotic” runs the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park and has been accused by animal rights groups of mistreating the big cats he keeps there.

Prosecutors say he allegedly tried to hire two separate people to kill Carole Baskin,, CEO of BIg Cat Rescue in Tampa with whom he had been engaged in a dispute with for years. She wasn’t harmed.

Maldonado had threatened Baskin online in recent  years including a video of him shooting in the head a blow up doll dressed to look like her.

“Maldonado ran, in our view, one of the most notorious cub petting roadside zoos in the country,” Baskin said.  “Years ago he also operated a traveling exhibit that would bring cubs to malls throughout the Midwest and Southwest. When Big Cat Rescue educated the malls about the miserable life this created for the cubs and the malls started cancelling Maldonado’s traveling exhibit, Maldonado retaliated by renaming his traveling show “Big Cat Rescue Entertainment” in order to confuse the public into thinking the show was operated by Big Cat Rescue.”

“In 2011, Big Cat Rescue sued for violations of its intellectual property rights and in 2013 was granted a consent judgment for over $1 million. Litigation to collect on the judgment has been ongoing since then in Oklahoma,” she said.

According to the indictment, Maldonado-Passage gave an unnamed person $3,000 to travel from Oklahoma to Florida to kill Basin. He allegedly agreed to pay thousands more after the deed, officials say.

Maldonado-Passage also repeatedly asked a second person to kill Baskin in exchange for money. But that person ultimately put him in contact connected him with an undercover FBI agent, who met with Maldonado-Passage in December 2017.

Known for his blonde mullet and expletive-laden rants on YouTube, Maldonado-Passage finished third in a three-way Libertarian primary for Oklahoma governor in June.

In October 2017, Maldonado-Passage was investigated by police when his then-husband, 23-year-old Travis Maldonado, shot himself in the head in the zoo gift shop. Garvin County Sheriff Larry Rhodes said at the time that witnesses reported Travis Maldonado put a loaded firearm to his head and pulled the trigger to prove the weapon would not fire with the magazine removed.

Maldonado married another man, Dillon Jacob Passage, in December.

 

Oklahoma School Shut Amid Threats Against Transgender 7th Grader

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Officials shut the school down because they worried about demonstrators by out-of-towners against a transgender student

ACHILLE, Oklahoma — Officials were forced to shut down a school in a tiny Oklahoma town for two days after people posted violent threats online against a transgender 7th grade girl.

Brandy Rose says the trouble started on the first day at the Achille Public School last week when her 12-year-old daughter, Maddie, used the girl’s bathroom, triggering a flurry of threatening messages on a Facebook page for parents.

“If he wants to be a female, make him a female. A good sharp knife will do the job really quick,” one message read, according to KFOR-TV. Other messages referred to Maddie as “it.”

In one post, a person wrote: “You know we have open hunting seasons on them kind. Ain’t no bag limit either.”

Rose said her daughter has publicly identified as female since before they moved to the town of 500, so no one there had ever known Maddie as a boy.

“She’s been living as female for years– she started at Achille as Maddie,” Rose told KXII-TV. “We had no problems when we first started.”

For the past two years, Maddie had used the teacher’s bathroom after being falsely accused of trying to look under a stall partition at another student. But when she started middle school last week, she didn’t know where the staff bathroom was in the new building, so used the regular toilets.

“She’s an awesome kid. To see any fear in her,I can’t explain how bad that hurts me for them to hurt her,” Rose said.

School officials said they thought the threatening posts were made by people who do not live in the school district and don’t have kids who attend the school. Local police advised them to close the school for the first two days of the week, because they worried about demonstrators coming from out of town.

 

Tinder Slay Suspects Bought Tools to Chop Up Body Before Victim Died: Cops

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Sydney Loofe’s dismembered body was found after going on a Tinder date with one of the suspects

ROSE, Oklahoma — The two suspects eyed in the death of an Oklahoma woman who disappeared following a Tinder date, are believed to have bought supplies to dismember her body in the hours before her death, new evidence revealed.

According to newly unsealed court documents, suspects Aubrey Trail and Bailey Boswell  were caught on camera at a Home Depot on Nov. 15 buying tools cops think they later used to dismember 24-year-old Sydney Loofe’s body.

But at the time they were shopping, Loofe was still alive and working a shift as a cashier at Menards in Lincoln. It is believed Loofe met with Trail and Boswell later that night. She was reported missing the next day and her dismembered remains were found in early December, stuffed in garbage bags in a field some 90 miles away.

Prosecutors say that Trail told investigators he strangled Sydney Loofe with an extension cord. Investigators believe Boswell, who lived with Trail, helped him dismember Loofe’s body and dump her remains.

In a series of phone calls to the Omaha World-Herald, Trail admitted killing Loofe but said it was an accident that occurred while they were engaged in a sexual fantasy with him and at least two other woman.

“It wasn’t supposed to go to the extreme it went, of course not,” he said. “It wasn’t meant that she was to die.”

Aubrey Trail (l) and Bailey Boswell

Prosecutors, however, have charged the pair with premeditated murder, not an accidental death.

On Tuesday, Trail, 51, and Boswell, 23, appeared in Saline County Court to face charges of first-degree murder and the improper disposal of human skeletal remains.

The pair, who met Loofe on Tinder in the days before she disappeared, became suspects early on, and were arrested initially in November on unrelated fraud charges.

In an online tribute, Loofe’s parents wrote that their daughter had many friends, but was looking for a soulmate when she was killed.

“She was looking for that one special person with whom she could spend time,” her parents wrote. “She took to Tinder to look for that person and unfortunately, found someone that had nothing but evil plans for her.”

 

Prolific Sugar Daddy Predator Busted for Luring ‘Staggering’ Number of Underage Girls for Sex

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Troy Dustin Clark is accused of posing as a drug dealer, sugar daddy or terminally ill to lure underage girls for sex

MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma — A shape-shifting sexual predator who posed as a sugar daddy, a drug-dealing gangster or a man with just months to live has been busted for trying to lure what cops say was a “staggering” number of underage girls online into having sex.

Troy Dustin Clark, 38, was arrested after trying to set up a rendezvous with what he believed was a 15-year-old girl, but was actually a detective from the Wagoner County Sheriff’s office in Oklahoma.

“This Dusty Clark character is one prolific predator,” said Sheriff Chris Elliott. “Unbeknownst to Clark, one of his “young girls” was actually a team of full-grown, adult male Wagoner County investigators.”

Cops say Clark groomed victims with “stories that he was dying and wanted to spend his remaining months pampering his special girl.” They said he also ”impressed more hardened victims by portraying himself as a drug dealer and hustler.”

“To others, he was a successful businessman seeking to be a ‘super secret sugar daddy,’” the sheriff’s office said.

“We’re talking about a textbook sexual predator who gets a sense of his victims, then adapts his narrative to reel them in,” said Jack Thorp, district attorney for District 27, which includes Wagoner County.

Cops picked up on Clark’s sleazy trawling when a 15-year-old girl’s mother reported that her daughter had been contacted online by an older man calling himself Easton Sloan. That’s when the undercover detectives stepped and began pretending they were the girl. They soon set up a date to meet with Clark at a fast food restaurant and then go to a motel for sex.

“We told Sloan we’d be wearing a blue flowered dress,” Elliott said. “And he was kind enough to send selfies from inside his vehicle while he was in route.”

Clark ultimately stood deputies up, but armed with the selfies, they were able to identify his mother’s car, which he was driving, and found him the next day at his mother’s home.

“When these big old guys told Clark they didn’t appreciate being stood up at the restaurant he realized, they were the ‘sweet young thing’ he’d been grooming,” Elliott said. “From that moment on, he confirmed everything we already knew, and, unfortunately, much more.”

He faces charges in three Oklahoma counties but cops say they believe there are other victims and that further charges would be filed. Clark was held on $250,000 bond.

Bad Dad Kills Daughter’s Dogs After She Failed to Do Dishes

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jeffrey Don Edwards took his frustration out on his daughter’s two helpless dogs

HARRAH, Oklahoma — An ogre of an  Oklahoma dad has been charged with teaching his teenage daughter a particularly cruel lesson when he ruthlessly shot her two dogs after she failed to clean up the house, cops said.

Jeffrey Don Edwards, 35, allegedly “got mad” at his 17-year-old daughter for not having done the dished or straightened up the house, triggering the bloodshed.

“Her father was mad … and began throwing dishes,” an investigator with the Oklahoma County sheriff’s office reported in a court affidavit, according to the Oklahoman.

The girl then called her mother to come pick her up. When she returned the next morning, she found “blood all over the place” and her two dogs missing, cops said.

According to investigators, the girl’s uncle told her Edwards “shot her dogs to punish her.” She then found dried blood in the bed of her pickup and investigators found tire tracks that led to a wooded area near the house, where the two dogs were found shot to death.

Cops say that after the shootings, Edwards visited a nearby convenience store and told two employees there about killing the animals. One employee said Edwards told them “his house was dirty and he lost his temper then shot the dogs without remorse,” according to investigators.

Investigators recovered at least two rifles, a handgun and a huge cache of bullets on the property.

In 2011, he was sentenced to five years’ probation after pleading guilty to firing a shotgun out the window of a pickup.

 

Charges in Cold Case Slaying of 4, Including Teens Who Were Never Found

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Teens Ashley Freeman (L) and Lauria Bible disappeared in 1999 and have never been found

VINITA, Oklahoma — Charges have finally been filed in an 18-year-old cold case disappearance of two teenage girls from a burning mobile home where the parents of one of them were shot to death.

The girls, Ashley Freeman and her friend Lauria Bible, both 16, have never been found and are believed dead.

Ronnie Dean Busick, 66, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the December 1999 slayings of Danny and Kathy Freeman and the two girls. Bible had been staying with the family that night to celebrate Ashley’s 16th birthday.

Two other suspects in the killings, Warren Phillip Welch II and David Pennington, have since died, investigators said.

Authorities say the three men came to the Freeman house in Vinita that night either to sell drugs or collect on a drug debt, the Oklahoman newspaper reported. The girls are believed to have unexpectedly walked into the house after the men had killed the Freemans.

Prosecutor say the men then kidnapped the girls and set the mobile home on fire. According to court documents, prosecutors believe the men held the girls in Welch’s mobile home and raped them. Welch and Pennington are through to have strangled the girls after “a matter of days.”

According to prosecutors, Welch kept photos of the teens “lying on a bed, facing each other, with their hands tied and their mouths gagged,” with some photos featuring him lying next to the teens.

Authorities believe the girls’ bodies were dumped in a pit or mine shaft in the area known as the Tar Creek Superfund site or “dumped in a cellar that was later covered in concrete,” according to the affidavit.

“We believe there are people with knowledge of this crime who can assist in recovering the girls’ bodies and bring some closure to their families,” Craig County District Attorney Matt Ballard said.

83-Year-Old Child Molester Charged With Groping Sex Shop Employee

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Bobby Otto Powers allegedly tried to cop a feel from a worker at a sex shop where he liked to buy his porn

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma — What a creepy old man.

An 83-year-old former school teacher who’d been sentenced to 60 years in prison for molesting a child only to be released early, has been busted again for groping an employee or a sex shop where he went to buy porn.

Police in Oklahoma City say Bobby Otto Powers groped the employee of the Hustler Hollywood shop in Oklahoma City in late November after pushing $10 into her hand, and then pointed to some red lingerie and said he wanted to see her in it, police said.

The whole episode was caught by surveillance cameras, but when cops caught up to Powers, he said he didn’t remember laying hands on the woman, and that if he did so, it was accidental, the Oklahoman newspaper reported.

He did admit he went to the shop several times a week to buy porno videos.

When Powers was 70-years-old, in 2005, he was sentenced to 60 years behind bars for molesting a 9-year-old girl over many years. But in 2010, he was released when the state parole board granted him a medical commutation because it was believed he was sick and dying, with less than six months to live.

Even then-state governor, Brad Henry, signed off on Powers’ release.

He is now facing three felony counts of sexual battery and prosecutors say they will try to send him back to prison.

His victim told the Oklahoman that she was stunned that Powers was out walking the streets as she had thought he had died in prison.

“That’s crazy,” she said. “He, like, freaking messed my life up, a good part of it. I had a lot of mental issues for a long time. And still kind of do.”

Mother-Daughter Shoot Would-Be Robber in Furious Liquor Store Gun Battle

By HardBoiledNews Staff

TULSA, Oklahoma — A shotgun-wielding robber messed with the wrong liquor store, when the owner and her daughter whipped out their guns and shot him numerous times as he fought with them.

“We’re not going to be victims,” the owner’s son, Justin Christen, told KTUL-TV.

Dramatic surveillance video footage showed a masked gunman, who police identified as Tyrone Lee, walk into the Forest Acres Liquor Store in Tulsa on Thursday with a sawed-off shotgun in his hands and demanding cash.

The footage shows the store’s owner and her daughter get out of the way as Lee rifles through the cash register, but when he walks out of the camera’s view, they both dart down below the counter and grab handguns.

When Lee comes back into the frame, the owner opens fire. Lee then steps off camera again, but then comes back prompting more shots to be fired. As he begins to wrestle with the owner for her gun and start to pistol whip her, the daughter shoots him at close range.

He then tries to chase them around the counter, but falls to the ground, presumably as a result of his wounds. The women then fled the shop and called for help.

Lee — who police say they suspect was responsible for a string of gunpoint robberies in Tulsa in recent weeks — managed to get away from the store but later turned up at a hospital where he was rushed into surgery. He remains in critical condition in an induced coma.

The owner required several staples to close a gash in her head.

13-Year-Old Faces Murder Charges in Crossbow Killing of 10-Year-Old Boy

By HardBoiledNews Staff

A 13-year-old kid — like this one — took a pot shot at his pal and could now go to jail for it.

CHANDLER, Oklahoma — A 13-year-old boy was taken into police custody after fatally shooting a 10-year-old boy with a crossbow and injuring his kid brother, police said.

Cops say the three boys were playing in a tree house behind a home in Chandler when they began arguing and the oldest of them shot a single, broad head arrow.

“There was a disagreement amongst the three prior to the shooting,” Lincoln County Sheriff Charlie Dougherty said, according to KOKH-TV.

The arrow passed through Austin Almanza and struck his 8-year-old brother, Ayden, on the arm. Austin was declared dead at the scene and Ayden was taken to a local hospital and later released.

The suspect, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was held in a juvenile detention center and the sheriff expects formal charges to be filed soon.

“On an incident like this, I think you have to take the word accident plumb out,” he said. “Austin is not dead because of an accident. He’s dead because of an action that took place. So until something steers us in the other direction, we’re going to work it as a homicide.”

Relatives said the 13-year-old had just been given the crossbow as a gift by his parents.

 

Okla. Cops Stop Weirdo Motorist in Thong Bikini Bottom and Covered in Vaseline

By HardBoiledNews Staff

John Wayne Kellerman

ENID, Oklahoma — This guy found himself at the far end of the slippery slope.

Police in Oklahoma pulled over a motorist for speeding only to discover he was clad only in a thong bikini bottom and was dripping with Vaseline with a pornograhic magazine lying on the passenger seat.

Cops say they decided to stop John Wayne Kellerman, 54, on Oct. 15 when they clocked him driving 57 miles-per-hour in a 45 mile zone.

After Kellerman pulled into a driveway, the officer discovered him mostly nude except for a “bikini thong covering his genitals,” and an open jar of Vaseline next to him. The officer noted that Kellerman’s hands, upper and lower body were oiled up with Vaseline and there was a sin mag on the seat next to him, according to the Enid News & Eagle.

The officer’s reported stated that Kellerman nervously handed over his Vaseline-smeared ID and admitted he’d been masturbating while driving. The officer then declined Kellerman’s offer of a “semen rag,” to wipe the lube off the ID card.

A license check revealed Kellerman’s license had been revoked back in 1985. Kellerman said he thought his license was still valid, but admitted he’d been in jail for much of the past 27 years for car theft.

He was charged with speeding and driving with a revoked license. He was released on $1,000 bond.

When officers prepared to impound the car, they noted that the driver’s seat was “extremely greasy.”

Inmate Sues Penal System For Failing to Treat His 91-Hour Erection

By HardBoiledNews Staff

McALESTER, Oklahoma — He may have been a hardened criminal but he wasn’t up to do hardest of hard time.

An Oklahoma inmate has filed a $5 million lawsuit against officials at a county jail for allegedly laughing off his complaints of a painful erection that lasted 91 hours and refusing to promptly bring him to a hospital for treatment.

The suit says Dustin Lance, 32, suffered permanent damage to his member as a result of the stiff penalty.

The episode unfolded after Lance was arrested on Dec. 15, 2016 on burglary and drug possession charges at was taken to the Pittsburg County Jail. There he ingested an unknown pill given to him by another inmate which caused him to have a raging hard-on that wouldn’t go away.

The next morning he complained to jail officials that he was suffering “intense and excruciating pain to his penis” but that they refused to bring him to see a doctor and then began mocking him.

It was only four days later that Lance was taken to a local hospital, but doctors there said that permanent damage had been done and they were unable to treat him, the suit said. They said he needed to be taken to a urology specialist in Tulsa right away.

But the suit says the prison guards took him back to the jail and then released him on his own recognizance to seek medical attention on his own.

County officials are trying to get the suit dismissed due to an error in the suit that suggests Lance has since died. His lawyer insists, however, that his client is still alive and that the offending language was simply a “scrivener’s error,” according to the Tulsa World.

Hostage Shot Nine Times By Cops in Oklahoma Bank Robbery Files Suit

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Julie Huff was used as a human shield during a 2016 bank robbery

EUFAULA, Oklahoma — A woman who was taken hostage by a bank robber last year and was shot nine times by cops trying to stop him, has filed a lawsuit against the bank and the police saying they are responsible for the “horrific injuries she suffered that day.

Julie Huff, 57, was a customer in the Bank of Eufaula on Jan. 21, 2016, when Cedric Norris, a career criminal with a history of mental illness stormed in. Before he left, he fatally shot the bank president, Randall Peterson, wounded a teller and took Huff hostage, dragging her to his SUV to make his getaway.

Police gave chase and eventually stopped the vehicle, after which Norris jumped out and, using Huff as a human shield, opened fire on cops. They fired back — some officers using AR-15s — killing Norris and striking Huff nine times. The suit states that all of the shots that hit Huff came from weapons fired by police.

“Ms. Huff was shot from her head down to her legs. She also sustained multiple gunshot wounds in her torso,” the suits says, according to the Muskogee Phoenix.

At the time, officers said they didn’t know that Huff was a hostage.

A registered nurse and a grandmother, Huff suffered severe injuries, requiring numerous surgeries. The suit said some of her injuries are permanent and that she has been left disfigured. It said she will have significant medical expenses for the rest of her life.

The suit, which seeks a minimum $75,000 in damages, contends the bank had multiple points of entry and lacked a security guard which made it particularly vulnerable to a violent robbery.

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.

 

 

 

Grand Jury Probes Death of Oklahoma Inmate Left Strapped to Chair for 2 Days

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Garfield County Detention Center in Oklahoma

ENID, Oklahoma — A grand jury is investigating whether officers at an Oklahoma jail are responsible for the death of an inmate who was found dead after being strapped in a restraining chair for two days.

Anthony Huff, 58, had been arrested for public intoxication in Enid, Oklahoma in June 2016 and placed in the chair two days after he was booked and was found dead 48 hours later. The official cause of Huff’s death was complications from chronic alcoholism, authorities said.

A civil rights lawsuit filed by his family last month said jail officials knew from prior arrests that Huff suffered from congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and other ailments, but left him in the chair without his medication or adequate food or water for two full days.

Anthony Huff

The Oklahoman newspaper said the grand jury is investigating whether officers committed a crime by leaving Huff in the chair for so long.

According to the suit, filed in federal court in Oklahoma City, Huff “died due to conditions related to his withdrawal from alcohol and the effects it had on his body and system.”

The suit names the  Garfield County sheriff, jail administrator, the county commissioners, the Garfield County Detention Center, the jail medical provider and a jail nurse for actual and punitive damages.

The suit says there had been a recorded pattern of abuse of inmates at the jail and that some guards had complained to the jail administrators about it. County officials, the sheriff and the jail administrator deny any wrongdoing.

Star Wars Vs. Star Trek Argument Ends In Oklahoma Knife Fight

By HardBoiledNews Staff

OKLAHOMA CITY — The age-old argument over which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek, took a bloody turn in Oklahoma when two nerds got into a knife fight.

Oklahoma City Police say Jerome Dewayne Whyte, 23, was arrested after a bloody brawl on July 1 which was sparked by a tense debate over which sci-fi franchise is superior.

Cops say the victim, who they did not publically identify, told investigators he became frustrated and stated “You’re just a trick” before walking out of the room, KOKH-TV reported.

Whyte then chased the man into the other room and shoved him to the ground, cops said.

The victim got back up and said: “You wanna replay that?” and was once again shoved to the ground, cops said.

Whyte then put his arm around the victim’s neck and began choking him. The victim said he was about to pass out when he pulled out a pocket knife. Whyte then let go and cut himself as he reached for the blade, and then fled the room.

Jerome Whyte

Whyte was later charged with assault and battery, possession of marijuana and on several older warrants, police said.

Hobby Lobby Owners Admit Being Tomb Raiders in Hunt for Biblical Antiquities

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Prosecutors say this ancient tablet was among a trove of artifacts Hobby Lobby illegally smuggled out of the Middle East

NEW YORK —  The owners of Hobby Lobby are quaint home ware and curio dealers by day, but were apparently tomb raiders by night.

Hobby Lobby’s evangelical Christian owners who have avidly collected biblical artifacts from the Middle East have agreed to forfeit 5,500 ancient cuneiform tablets they illegally smuggled out of Iraq in addition to paying $3 million in fines.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say the company paid $1.6 million for the tablets and clay talismans it acquired in 2010 from an unnamed dealer in the United Arab Emirates.

At the time, the company sent its president and an antiquities consultant to inspect the treasure trove that is thousands of years old, but ignored the opinion of a cultural property law expert who warned that the artifacts might have been looted from historical sites in Iraq. Extremist groups like ISIS have often traded in looted artifacts to fund terrorist activities.

The expert had told the Hobby Lobby execs that failing to determine the artifacts’ exact provenance could put them in violation of the law. Despite what prosecutors said were numerous “red flags” Hobby Lobby shipped the items back to its Oklahoma headquarters with false shipping labels identifying them as clay or ceramic tiles that had originated in Turkey.

The company’s owners began amassing their collection of biblical artifacts in 2009, and in a statement, admitted they had made mistakes because they were new to the process at the time they made the illicit deals in 2010.

“The company was new to the world of acquiring these items, and did not fully appreciate the complexities of the acquisitions process.  This resulted in some regrettable mistakes,” said Hobby Lobby president, Steve Green. “We should have exercised more oversight and carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled.”

The company deals primarily in home wares, knickknacks and arts and crafts materials and operates 600 stores across the country with about $4 billion in annual sales.

Over the years, Hobby Lobby’s owners have engaged in widespread efforts to promote evangelical Christianity by producing biblical-themed films, operating a chain of Christian bookstores and donating to Christian charities.

In 2014, the company made headlines when it was the defendant in a landmark Supreme Court case that found barred the Affordable Care Act from forcing family-owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception, saying it was a violation of religious freedom.

Okla. Jail Guard Busted For Sneaking Drug-Stuffed Burrito Into Work

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Kevin Mayo,

TULSA, Oklahoma — A jail guard was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs he stashed inside the burrito he had brought to work for lunch.

The Tulsa County Sheriff’s office say they began investigating 20-year-old Kevin Clevon Mayo after receiving a tip he was sneaking contraband into the Tulsa Jail.

As he arrived for work last Friday, Mayo was stopped and his bag searched. Inside, officers found a Tupperware container containing fried chicken and the burrito.

Concealed inside the burrito was about four grams of marijuana, some crushed-up hydrocodone pills and two grams of methamphetamine, the Tulsa World reported.

They also found two cell phone chargers, rolling papers and three cigarette lighters and a cell phone battery. And stuffed inside Mayo’s sock was a cell phone still in its packaging, authorities said.

Mayo initially denied knowing how the drugs in the burrito ended up in his bag or why he had a cellphone in his sock, cops said.

He later admitted meeting with the friend of an inmate at the jail who gave him the phone to bring to the inmate. Police say he also said he successfully brought a phone into the jail a few weeks earlier.

Mayo, who started on the job in March, was charged with carrying contraband into a jail, possession of drug paraphernalia, conspiracy to commit a felony, possession of marijuana with intent and two counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent.

He has been placed on administrative leave without pay.

Video Captures Two Bumbling Crooks Getting Outsmarted by Runaway Truck

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Thieves Battle Runaway Truck

 

OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s almost as if the truck didn’t want to be stolen.

Cops are hunting for a pair of bumbling crooks who were caught on camera attempting to steal a pickup truck from an auto lot in Oklahoma, but failing miserably when the vehicle rolled away from them.

The two men walked onto the lot of Reynolds Ford in Oklahoma City late in the night on March 27 with their eyes on a white Ford F-150.

Cops say the criminals managed to unlock the vehicle’s transmission before they managed to get inside, which set the truck rolling backwards across the lot in neutral.

One of the men is seen frantically trying to stop the vehicle rolling by yanking on the driver’s side door handle. The other wannabe thief then opened fire at the side window with a pellet gun, presumably so they could get inside to stop the truck, but the glass didn’t break.

Eventually, the truck stopped by itself after rolling several dozen feet, but by that time, the two exasperated criminals had given up and fled. Police say the vehicle was later taken from the lot but has since been recovered.

Although the two unidentified men remain at large, cops said they appreciate the comic relief they have provided.

“As police officers, we see all sides of life. We have a front row seat to the terribly sad and the extremely funny. That being said, this video falls into the category of the extremely funny,” the Oklahoma City Police department said.

Ex-Oklahoma Football Player Charged With Pimping Out Cheerleader Gal Pal

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Parker (r) is charged with selling herself for sex at the behest of her boyfriend, Moore (l)

OKLAHOMA CITY — A former University of Oklahoma football player has been charged with pimping out an ex-cheerleader who is the daughter the team’s cheer coach, police said.

Undercover cops busted former cheerleader Micah Parker, 23, on March 30 after arranging online to meet her at an Oklahoma City motel to have sex for $200, KOCO-TV reported.

They say Parker attempted to throw several cell phones down the toilet as officers entered the room. They also found burnt marijuana and pharmaceutical drugs.

After her arrest, police say they busted 22-year-old Lawrence “LJ” Moore when he came to the hotel to pick up her car. A search of social media and jailhouse phone conversations between the two suggested that Moore was working as Parker’s pimp, police said.

Moore, who hails from California, had signed on to join the Oklahoma team as a cornerback in 2013 but played in only two games before leaving the team. Parker had been a cheerleader at the time Moore was on the team. JohnTV — an Oklahoma media outlet that focuses on vice crime — reported that Parker’s mother had once been the team’s cheerleading coach.

Parker was charged with destruction of evidence, offering to engage in an act of prostitution, and two counts of possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Moore, who has felony assault arrests in California, was hit with charges of aiding and abetting prostitution, pandering, possession of a controlled dangerous substance, and possession of marijuana.

Parker during her cheerleading days

 

Moore during his brief stint on the Oklahoma team

 

 

Corrupt Oklahoma Sheriff Pleads Guilty to Letting People Smoke Meth in His House

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Joe Russell ran Love County with and iron hand since 2001

MARIETTA, Oklahoma — Boss Hogg lives!

The former sheriff of Love County in Oklahoma has pleaded guilty to corruption charges stemming from letting people smoke meth in his home and not arresting his son’s fugitive girlfriend while she stayed with the family but slapping the cuffs on her after they broke up.

Joe Russell, 63, resigned from office last October after serving as sheriff since 2001. Russell was arrested in July and booked into his own prison on a variety of corruption charges, mostly revolving around him looking the other way as people took drugs in his house while he was home on two occasions in the spring.

He was also accused of his son’s girlfriend, Sara Bamburg, who had multiple warrants out for her arrest, stay at his house for a couple of weeks last year.

She told investigators that the sheriff’s son, George “Willie” Russell had told her “As long as you are here dating me, you are not going to get arrested.”

Sure enough, when the couple broke up a short while later and she moved in with someone else, she was arrested.

The younger Russell was sentenced to federal prison last year for selling meth to an undercover agent.

Russell’s office had been the focus of an FBI probe related to his son’s conviction and an episode where the sheriff allowed his nephew, James Conn Nipp,  who had been arrested for leading cops on a high-speed chase and has been eyed in the disappearance of two local teens, meet with relatives unsupervised in a room where evidence in his case was being kept.

Nipp had since been sentenced to 10 years for the police chase.

Russell pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of willful omission to perform a duty and was sentenced to one-year on probation.

 

Drunken Creep Offers Girl Scouts Booze in Exchange for Cookies

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jerry Swanson thought a bottle of booze in exchange for Girl Scout cookies was a fair trade

ARDMORE, Oklahoma — A drunken stumblebum became one creepy cookie when he approached a group of Girl Scouts and offered to trade them his vodka for a box of Girl Scout cookies.

Police in Ardmore, Oklahoma say 45-year-old Jerry Swanson was busted after making the cringe-worthy request at a shopping mall on Saturday.

“They were trying to sell their girl scout cookies and apparently a male subject approached them, asked them if he could trade vodka for Girl Scout cookies,” Ardmore Police Captain Keith Ingle told KXII-TV.

The girls were unharmed, but when cops got to the scene they say Swanson was so drunk, he could barely stand.

“He didn’t have anything to say about it, he didn’t even know what they were talking about. He was unsteady on his feet and basically had to place him in the police car and barely able to walk,” Ingle said.

When Swanson was arrested, cops didn’t find any bottles of alcohol on him, but say he smelled strongly of booze. He was charged with public intoxication and booked into the Carter County jail.    Court record show that Swanson has at least two prior arrested for domestic abuse.

“You shouldn’t say things like that to underage kids anyway, even if you are joking,” Ingle said.

 

 

Choir Class Takes Indecent Turn With Teacher’s Commando Cartwheel

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Lacey Sponsler got this one all upside down

PAWHUSKA, Oklahoma — If she had just been teaching an anatomy class, this all would have been fine.

Police in Pawhuska, Oklahoma arrested a substitute school teacher after she allegedly flashed students by performing a cartwheel in front of them while wearing no underwear beneath her skirt.

“It was alleged that a substitute teacher had performed a cartwheel, with no under garments on, which caused her to expose herself to the students in this class,” Chief Scott Laird said.

Officers busted 34-year-old Lacey Dawn Sponsler on indecent exposure charges after the episode on Tuesday in front of a choir class.

Police say a student filmed the incident on his cell phone.

Sponsler initially denied the incident, police said, but when she was told about the cell phone video, she stated she “did not remember performing a cartwheel” or exposing herself, according to the arrest affidavit.

Ex-Oral Roberts Prof Holds Saleswoman Hostage, Chases Her Naked Down Street

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Karan Rebitzke had a captive audience to her ranting about God

OWASSO, Oklahoma — She probably regrets getting her foot in this door.

A door-to-door saleswoman was held hostage by an unhinged homeowner who then chased after her naked when she managed to escape.

Owasso, Oklahoma police say Karan Rebitzke, a one-time English professor at nearby Oral Roberts University, invited the salesperson into her home and then started ranting about religion and God.

The saleswoman said she grew uncomfortable and tried to leave several times, but Rebitzke, 44, blocked her from getting out the door.

After an hour, the woman managed to escape, but Rebitzke stripped her clothes and gave chase through the streets, KJRH-TV reported.

Rebitzke eventually gave up and went back to her house. When officers arrived at the home, Rebitzke allegedly opened the door naked and then slammed it in the deputies’ faces several times.

She eventually was arrested and  taken to the Tulsa County Jail. She was charged with kidnapping, assault and resisting arrest and held on $25,000 bond.

Case Dropped Against Deaf Man Accused of Resisting Orders He Couldn’t Hear

By HardBoiledNews Staff

This is what Pearl Pearson looked like after his encounter with Oklahoma police

OKLAHOMA CITY — Prosecutors have dropped charges against a  deaf man who was allegedly roughed up by cops during a traffic stop after he couldn’t understand their orders.

Pearl Pearson, 66, said he had tried to inform the two Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers that he was deaf and can only communicate through sign language. His lawyers said his car has a placard in the window stating that the driver is deaf and that Pearson’s license also notes it.

In court documents, police accused Pearson of resisting arrest. Video from the police stop showed the officers yelling at Pearson and yanking him out of his vehicle. Mugshots taken that day showed Pearson with swelling around his eyes and bruising to his face.

The officers initially were suspended by the department but prosecutors opted not to charge them. Instead, they filed misdemeanor charges against Pearson for resisting arrest.

In the end, prosecutors decided the cost of providing Pearson with interpreters for the trial, which was slated to begin next week, outweighed the “public interest.”

“It is the District Attorney’s responsibility to be a good steward of the taxpayer’s money,” District Attorney David Prater wrote in court filings. “Though it is important to prosecute matters to promote public safety and assure that the State of Oklahoma’s laws are enforced, the financial burden placed on the State to prosecute a matter is a legitimate consideration; especially as in this case, the matter is a misdemeanor.”

Prater had estimated the cost of the trial could exceed $40,000.