Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Ex-Prosecutor Spared Jail Time for Trading Lesser Sentences for Sex

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Ex-District Attorney William Higgins admitted he’d taken sex in exchange for better sentences

BEDFORD, Pennsylvania — A former top prosecutor was spared any time in jail after he pleaded guilty to forcing female drug defendants to give him sexual favors in return for lesser sentences.

William Higgins, Jr., 43, had served as district attorney in the Pennsylvania town of Bedford for 14 years. He was charged earlier this year with with protecting female drug defendants and revealing the identities of confidential informants to them in exchange for sex.

He was disbarred last month.

Instead of serving any time behind bars, Higgins was sentenced to $9,700 in fines, eight years of probation, 1,125 hours of community service and 120 days of house arrest.

“We’re extremely pleased with the results of the sentencing hearing,” his attorney, Steven Passarello, told the Altoona Mirror. “We believe the sentence was fair, and we believed it balanced the sentencing factors appropriately.”

State attorney general Josh Shapiro said now, “Higgins will never again be able to use the tools of a prosecutor’s office to commit these crimes.”

Bedford resident Robert Lewis, whose daughter died of a drug overdose, said he was appalled at the decision because Higgins had allowed pushers to remain on the streets.

“Your everyday citizen is not going to get that kind of consideration,” Lewis said. “Who else is going to get that kind of favoritism? Nobody. Nobody.”

In court, Higgins argued that he had made poor choices during a time when he was abusing alcohol and hand mended his ways.

“I’m deeply sorry,” he told the court room. “I’ve accepted full responsibility for my actions.”

 

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Couple High on Drugs Open Fire On Fireflies They Thought Were Aliens

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Jesse Shields and Katherine McCloskey thought the warming glow of fireflies was a harbinger of an alien invasion

LOGANTON, Pennsylvania — A couple high on bath salts opened fire at a swarm of fireflies that they thought were laser beams being shot by aliens, police said.

Katherine McCloskey, 22, and Jesse Shields, 30, both of Mill Hall, were driving around in a pickup truck near Loganton last Friday when they spotted the glowing insects, state police said.

Thinking the lights were supernatural, Shields pulled out a .357 Magnum belonging to McCloskey’s father, and fired it to scare off “whoever was messing with them,” PennLive reported.

Shields then allegedly ran to a nearby home and demanded the homeowner call police, saying they were under attack. While the homeowner was on the phone, Shields used his gun to smash in the window of a screen door.

After waiting 20 minutes for cops, Shields and McCloskey ran off to another home. There, the couple woke up a family who found Shields in their living room screaming about being attacked and asking them to call 911. McCloskey was there crying as well.

As the homeowner’s wife dialed 911, the homeowner wrested the gun away from Shields.

Shields then asked if he could take a shower to get the “goo” off him that was burning his skin.

He was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. He was held on $250,000 bail.

McCloskey was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, DUI, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness and held on $15,000 bail.

 

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Pennsylvania Motorist Busted For Pooping on Man in Road Rage Incident

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This driver was pooping mad!

HEIDELBERG TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — That’s one hell of a way to end a fight.

A Pennsylvania motorist has been arrested for allegedly pooping on another man during a heated road rage incident, cops say.

“The accused and the victim got into a road rage argument, leading the accused to defecate on the victim,” Pennsylvania State Police said in a press release, according to LehighValleyLive.com.

Henry George Weaver of New Tripoli, was charged with harassment for the incident which occurred Friday morning in Heidelberg Township.

Police did not give further detail on what led to the episode.

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15-Year-Old Student Driver Runs Over and Kills Two Men in Parking Lot

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The student driver got a lead foot at the worst time

PHILADELPHIA — A 15-year-old student driver accidentally killed two homeless men in a shopping center parking lot where her mother was giving her a lesson behind the wheel, cops said.

The incident occurred Monday evening in the parking lot of a Dollar Tree store in Philadelphia.

Witnesses say the two men were trying to help the teen navigate into a parking spot when the SUV suddenly lunged forward, pinning them against a wall.

“She was navigating into a parking spot and made a mistake. The vehicle lunged forward, striking two men who were seated at the wall of the dollar store,” Philadelphia Police Capt. Mark Overwise told WPVI-TV.

“My heart is ripped out. I lost two of my best friends,” pal Tim Stewart said.

Cops haven’t filed charges against the girl. Student drivers must be 16-years-old to receive their learner’s permit. The girl was in the car with her mother and two others at the time of the accident.

 

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University Love Triangle Ends in Dramatic Murder-Suicide With ‘Blood Everywhere’

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Murder-Suicide: Jennair Gerardot (l) shot Meredith Chapman (r) in the head after discovering she was having an affair with Mark Gerardot (c),

RADNOR TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — An illicit extramarital affair ended in a blood-soaked murder-suicide when the enraged wife of a University of Delaware official broke into his lover’s house, then shot her in the head when she came home, before turning the gun on herself.

Police say the bloodshed appeared to the result of a well-planned out murder-suicide plot hatched by 47-year-old Jennair Gerardot, after she discovered that her husband, Mark, had been carrying on with a younger woman he used to work with.

Cops discovered the two women’s bodies Monday night in the quiet suburban home of Meredith Chapman, a 33-year-old assistant vice president at Villanova who had, until recently, worked as a communications officer at the University of Delaware with Mark Gerardot.

In a 911 call, police were told “there’s blood everywhere,” by a person who had initially found the scene, according to the Wilmington News Journal.

Investigators believe that the scorned wife had broken into Chapman’s home earlier in the evening, wearing a wig and carrying a Taurus Tracker .357 revolver. She then lay in wait until her husband’s lover came home.

When Chapman opened the door, police say Jennair shot her once in the head, and then shot herself.

“You had a man who was married that was having an affair with this other woman. The wife knew about it. And this was a calculated, planned attack,”  said Bill Colarulo, superintendent of the Radnor Township police. “She broke into the house. She was lying in wait, and she shot her as soon as she walked in, and then she shot herself.”

He said investigators had uncovered “emails and text messages indicating what she planned to do.”

“We believe the husband was in the area under the belief that he was meeting the other woman for dinner, and when she didn’t show up, that’s when he got concerned and showed up at the house,” he said.

In the weeks before the shooting, Jennair said on an online forum that her husband wanted a divorce and asked for advice finding a good divorce lawyer or marriage counselor.

Chapman was married to a city councilman  in the Delaware city of Newark, but the two were no longer living together, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Chapman ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a state Senate seat in Delaware in 2016. In her bio on her campaign website Chapman said she had worked as a communications manager for former Congressman Mike Castle, R-Del.

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Woman Shoots Husband in Fight Over Her Refusing to Make Breakfast

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Rachel Eutsey wasn’t down to cook breakfast for hubby, John Maki, prompting him to attack her and her to shoot him

NORMALVILLE, Pennsylvania — There isn’t enough marriage counseling in the world for this pair.

A Pennsylvania woman called police to say she had shot her husband in the head after he started choking her because she refused to cook him breakfast, cops said.

Rachel Aarold Eutsey, 36, told cops she and her husband, John David Maki, had been smoking crack for several evenings in a row leading up to the fatal altercation.

When the couple woke up Thursday morning, Eutsey said they got into an argument because she wouldn’t cook him breakfast.

She says he then began to choke her, but she got away and got a gun from her father’s bedroom and loaded it. She said Maki had a baseball bat, and was walking down the hall yelling when she “pointed the gun at him to scare him,” according to a police affidavit, the Uniontown Herald Standard.

“She related that she fired the gun, but didn’t intend to strike the victim,” the affidavit said.

He was hospitalized in critical condition.

John Maki

Eutsey is charged with criminal attempt to commit homicide, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. She is being held on $100,000 bond.

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Woman Fakes Pregnancy to Get Lift Home From Ambulance

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Leeann Armstrong needed a lift home so called an ambulance, faking a pregnancy

GREENSBURG, Pennsylvania — A woman is accused of faking a pregnancy and being in medical distress to get an ambulance to give her a lift back to her hometown.

Leeann Armstrong, 25, was at a home in the Pennsylvania town of Latrobe when she called 911 complaining of having complications from her pregnancy, police said.

When an ambulance arrived, Armstrong and a male companion were driven to Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg and brought to a room to wait for her to be be examined.

“Before Armstrong could receive treatment, she walked out of the hospital,” Patrolman Kerry Dieter wrote in a criminal complaint, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Cops then went to Armstrong’s home where they found her hiding in the attic. They also detected the strong smell of marijuana in the apartment and saw what appeared to be a bag of pot and pipe laying on a table, police said.

Upon questioning, Armstrong admitted that she wasn’t pregnant, but that her ride had left her in Latrobe the night before and she needed a lift back to Greensburg.

She was charged with theft of services, which carries an $800 fine, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

 

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Man Who Stole Pot of Meatballs Caught With Sauce All Over Face

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The pot of meatballs was too hard to pass up for one hungry thief

HAZLE TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — This gives a whole new meaning to getting caught red handed.

Police were easily able to pin the theft of a pot of steaming meatballs on a Pennsylvania man when they found him with red sauce smeared all over his face.

Leahman Potter, 48, was charged with burglary, criminal trespass and theft for swiping the pot from a man’s garage.

Cops in Luzerne County say the victim reported the missing meatballs on Monday  and told officers that he saw Potter standing in front of his house with red sauce on his face and clothes.

The empty pot was found on the street.

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Woman Shows Up Dead Drunk to Court for Public Drunkenness Hearing

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Showing up drunk in court is a good sign of a drinking problem

NEW HOLLAND, Pennsylvania — It might be time to admit you have a drinking problem.

A Pennsylvania woman was arrested after showing up dead drunk to a court hearing for a earlier public drunkenness arrest, police said.

New Holland police say Jennifer Amanda Jones, 36, was under the influence when she arrived for a hearing at a district judge’s officer on did Feb. 9.

Jones was in court for a public drunkenness hearing and also has an open DUI case against her. She has had numerous arrests over the years for drunk driving and public drunkenness, court records show.

She was later hit again with a public drunkenness charge for her tipsy appearance in court.

 

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Philly Knucklehead Steals Thumb From Priceless Statue, Snaps Selfies With It

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The stolen thumb came from a famed terracotta warrior statue on loan from China

PHILADELPHIA — It was only a matter of time before they fingered their man.

Federal agents have tracked down a knuckleheaded thief who snuck out from an after-hours party at a Philadelphia art museum and managed to steal the thumb from a $4.5 million, third-century statue of a Chinese warrior.

The FBI says Michael Rohana, 24,  of Bear, Delaware, was a guest at an “Ugly Sweater Party” at the Franklin Museum in December, when he made his way into an exhibit on loan from China of some of the country’s famed terracotta soldiers.

He then walked out with the snapped-off finger in his pocket. Museum staffers didn’t notice the missing digit for a week, but the whole episode was captured on surveillance video, which showed Rohana in a fuzzy, green sweater and Philadelphia Phillies go in and out of the room, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

An investigation revealed that he sent  Snapchat messages to friend the next day featuring pictures of the finger. And the friends he as with that night told investigators he had talked about stealing the finger.

When agents showed up weeks later at Rohana’s house where he lives with his parents, he fessed up and produced the finger he had kept in a drawer. He was charged with art theft.

The museum said the thumb has been reunited with the statue and will be reattached. Meanwhile, the museum says it is reviewing its security protocols.

 

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