Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Shrink Suspended For Whipping Patients With Riding Crop, Calling them Mules

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Valerie Augustus’s riding crop method was a bit more hands on than most therapists

MEMPHIS — A sicko Tennessee shrink has been suspended for allegedly beating patients with a riding crop and calling them mules as part of her therapy sessions.

Valeria Augustus has been ordered by state authorities to close her office for two months and could lose her medical license for good following a review, officials said.

Augustus has run Christian Psychiatrist Services for 17 years, and was found to have spanked at least 10 patients with the crop. In 2015, officials say she whipped the buttocks of a patient with a history of physical abuse, and who suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts.

An investigation by state authorities also found that Augustus had “made contact with other mental health patients with a riding crop, whip or other object.” The probe also revealed that Augustus kept a riding crop and a whip “displayed in her office” and “compared her patients to mules,” according to the Nashville Tennessean.

The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners suspended Augustus’ license after determining there was “no evidence” in psychiatrist literature that using whips or riding crops is an effective part of treatment.

Her license was suspended for 60 days as the agency continues its probe. If cleared, Augustus can petition to have her license reinstated.

Augustus was also fined $10,000 – $1,000 for each patient she struck.

 

 

 

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EX-NBA Announcer Jailed for Upskirt Videos Filmed at Memphis Church

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Rick Trotter was canned by the Grizzlies after his upskirt video arrest

MEMPHIS — An ex-NBA announcer who called games for the Memphis Grizzlies for a decade, was sentenced to 60 days behind bars for illicitly filming up women’s skirts at his church.

Rick Trotter, 41, was caught in 2016 kneeling behind behind a woman at the Memphis church where he worked and angling his church-issued cell phone to take an upskirt video, prosecutors said.

A police search of his phone and church-issued laptop revealed similar videos of four women also shot within the church. The women ranged in age from 29 to 63.

Trotter, who joined the Grizzlies announcing staff in 2006, was dumped by the team immediately after his arrest.

Church officials also cut ties with Trotter after his arrest, saying his termination was the result of “deception and moral failures of sexual nature.”

“This revelation has been deeply devastating to all of us,” the statement continued. “We, as elders, have come around his wife and children offering spiritual, emotional and financial support.”

Trotter will serve his 60-day sentence at the Shelby County Penal Farm followed by four years on probation. He also must register as a non-violent sex offender.

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Woman Busted for Trying to Hire Ex to Kill Future Husband

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Crystal Gadlin allegedly turned to her ex to do away with her future husband

MEMPHIS — Here’s a woman who can’t figure out what she wants.

Police in Tennessee busted a Memphis woman who they say tried to hire her ex to kill her future husband.

Crystal Gadlin, 32, allegedly planned to pay her ex $40,000 from her soon-to-be husband’s life insurance policy in exchange for killing him, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

But instead of helping her out, Gadlin’s ex recorded the conversation and then went to police to report a “murder for hire plot,” cops said.

According to court records, Gadlin had picked her ex up so he could visit their kids, but then told him she intended to marry a man for his money and then offered him cash to kill her new paramour.

When Gadlin was taken into custody, she was unable to give a statement to authorities,  “due to her self-admission that she was high and intoxicated on cocaine,” cops said.

 

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Tennessee Drug Lord Who Shot His Own Son Convicted in Trafficking Case

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James “Boogie” Simonton’s drug empire was brought down after he shot his own son

GREENEVILLE, Tennessee — A cocaine kingpin was convicted of running a drug trafficking empire that only came to light when he shot his own son for knocking over his motorcycles.

James “Boogie” Simonton, 50, of Kingsport, Tennessee, faces a minimum of 15 years for his conviction in federal court on drug conspiracy and weapons charges.

Police initially caught wind Simonton when his 23-year-old son, James Jr., and a 14-year-old pal, showed up at a local hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and in a car riddled with bullet holes.

The day before the shooting, police say the younger Simonton had knocked over four of his father’s motorcycles with his car, causing thousands of dollars in damage. The son had apparently accused his father of stealing his cell phone.

As detectives investigated they discovered that the elder Simonton and another of his sons had been involved in smuggling large amounts of crack cocaine from Georgia into Tennessee. They also found the weapon he used to shoot his son — a Hungarian-made AK-63 assault rifle — as well as other guns.

After his arrest, and while in a federal lock-up, investigators say Simonton threatened a cooperating witness against him in an effort to influence the person’s testimony.  Simonton was also convicted of intimidating a witness.

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Escape Artist Busts Out of Tennessee Jail for the Sixth Time

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Philip Andrew Marshall has mastered the art of escape from the Bedford County Jail

SHELBYVILLE, Tennessee — They might want to move this guy to a different jail next time.

Police in Bedford County, Tennessee are hunting for an escape artist inmate who has broken out of the county jail for the sixth time.

Philip Andrew Marshall escaped through a ventilation shaft at the Bedford County jail on Monday, after managing to cut through the grate, police said.

He had previously managed to escape from the same jail in January.

“Since the last jail escape, we, the Bedford County Sheriff’s Department, have made some changes in our personnel,” Sheriff Austin Swing told WSMV-TV. “We have implemented new training and more training. We have reinforced the places where they have escaped before and anywhere we think they could escape. Still, he escaped.”

Deputies nearly caught up with him on Monday, getting as close as 200 yards to him as he ran, but he managed to get away.

Marshall was one of three inmates that escaped from the Bedford County Workhouse in September where he had been staying while repairs were being made to the jail.

A month later, he escaped again with two other men from the county jail, by crawling through an air vent and using a bed sheet to climb to the ground.

At the time of his first escape, Marshall was serving a sentence for evading arrest.

 

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Unborn Baby Shot in Mother’s Womb In Memphis Road Rage Incident

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The terrifying road rage shooting left a pregnant woman and her unborn infant with gunshot wounds

MEMPHIS — A newborn baby was miraculously delivered alive after being struck by a bullet in the womb during a terrifying road rage incident in which the child’s mother was shot by a passing motorist.

Police say the disturbing episode unfolded late last Friday when the child’s parents were driving on I-40 through Memphis and dark colored Chevy Impala with three men inside began riding on their bumper.

The Impala then pulled alongside the couple’s car on the passenger side and numerous shots were fired, striking the mother — who was 36 weeks pregnant — three times in her right hip, police said.

She was rushed to the hospital where the baby was delivered and doctors discovered that the child had also been hit by a bullet.

Both the mother and the child are expected to survive.

Investigators say they do not know if the shooting was premeditated or if the couple had been specifically targeted in any way.

According to WREG-TV, it was the second time a car had been shot at randomly on I-40 in recent days. A week earlier, a man reported that two cars had pulled up alongside him as he was driving and sprayed his car with bullets. He was not hurt.

It is unclear if the two shootings are connected.

 

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Churchgoer Accidentally Shoots Self, Wife During Church Talk About Guns in Church

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First United Methodist Church

TELLICO PLAINS, Tennessee — What would Jesus do? Probably not let this guy bring a gun to church again.

An elderly man accidentally shot himself and his wife at a Tennessee church during a discussion about church shootings, police said.

The congregation at the First United Methodist Church in Tellico Plains had just finished up a luncheon on Thursday in advance of Thanksgiving when the subject of bringing guns to church came up, cops said.

The man, who is in his 80s, then pulled out a .380 caliber Ruger handgun and said, “I carry my handgun everywhere,” said Tellico Plains Police Chief Russ Parks, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

The man then removed the magazine and cleared the guns chamber and began handing the weapon around. When he got it back, he replaced the magazine, chambered a round and holstered it, Parks said.

When another man asked to see the weapon, the man took it out, and apparently forgetting there was a bullet in the chamber, pulled the trigger, firing a shot.

The gun was on a table when it went off, slicing through the man’s hand and hitting his wife, who is also in the her 80s, in the abdomen. Both were rushed to a nearby hospital and were expected to recover.

Police said they didn’t expect to file any charges.

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Family Outraged to Find Man With Legs in Casket at Funeral For Legless Uncle

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Benjamin Brown died on Nov. 8 after a long fight with diabetes

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee — The legs were a dead giveaway.

A Tennessee family was outraged when they went to pay their last respects to a recently deceased release who was missing both his legs and found a different man with legs in the casket.

Benjamin Brown, 66, died Nov. 8 of complications of diabetes and had lost both his legs due to the disease. So when family member noticed the man in the coffin had legs, they knew something was wrong.

“I said, ‘this ain’t my uncle,’ ” Benjamin’s nephew Willie told WRCB-TV. “So, everybody around was like, ‘that’s your uncle, that’s your uncle, it’s just the makeup’ and I’m just saying I know my uncle and this is not my uncle.”

“Open up the casket, if this guy has legs, that’s not my uncle,” a niece, Dominique told WTVC-TV. “Open the casket, you see legs and nice slacks.”

Officials at the John P. Franklin Funeral Home admit that a mistake had been made and they were investigating exactly what had happened. They apologized to the family, but relatives said the mix up had caused them even more grief.

Benjamin’s body was located elsewhere in the funeral home.

 

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Gal Pal Calls Cops on Car Thief Beau for Reward While With Him in Stolen Car

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NASHVILLE, Tennessee — This caper wasn’t fated to have a “Bonnie and Clyde” ending.

A Tennessee woman called cops to turn her car thief boyfriend in for a reward while sitting in the passenger seat of a car he had stolen.

Nashville police say Chance Mongeon, 37, had jumped the counter at the Enterprise rental car desk at the city airport, snatched a set of keys and made off with a 2017 Dodge Challenger.

According to police, Mongeon drove the car the wrong way down a one-way street ad over two set of spike strips but kept going. As officers responded, they were unaware exactly where Mongeon had gone, but then got a call from his gal pal,  Christy Cardwell, who said she was in the car and she’d tell them where he was for a reward.

“She advised [the officer] that, ‘She knew the law very well and didn’t have to give him up’,” the police report read. But she wouldn’t give them specific details without some cash.

Cops eventually caught up with the pair and Mongeon was charged with theft. Cardwell, 38, was hit with charges of harboring a fugitive and accessory after the fact.

A search of a bag belonging to Mungeon turned up drugs and drug paraphernalia.

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Sicko Pinned to 2001 Rape Through DNA Found on Dentures Left at Scene

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Thomas Maupin

MEMPHIS — A deranged sicko pleaded guilty to a 2001 rape after investigators were able to link him to it through DNA collected from a set of dentures left behind at the scene.

Thomas Maupin, 67, pleaded guilty to raping the 31-year-old woman 16 years ago in Memphis and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

“The victim, who remains emotionally traumatized by the case, did not want to testify in a trial, and approved the settlement,” said the Shelby County district attorney.

Maupin came to Memphis after serving 12 years in Washington State for the murder of a 6-year-old girl. He had been convicted twice of murder in that case and sentenced to 40 years but had his convictions overturned on appeal. He then pleaded guilty in exchange for 12 year sentence. The dentures he left behind were made for him in prison, prosecutors said.

In August, 2001, police say Maupin hopped out of his car and chased down the victim, forcing her into an alley and stabbing her “with a metal object under her chin with such force that it struck the roof of her mouth,” the district attorney said.

“He also used the object to sexually assault her after forcing her to perform oral sex.and then raping her,” the DA added.

Investigators later turned up a pair of dentures and collected them as part of the sexual assault kit.

But the dentures remained untested until 2016 as part of a huge backlog of evidence waiting to be tested. Not only did investigators obtain a partial match to Maupin’s DNA, they found his name inscribed on the inside of the denture set.

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