USHER & R. KELLY CONTINUE TO DISRESPECT WOMEN WITHOUT JAIL TIME

USHER & R. KELLY CONTINUE TO DISRESPECT WOMEN:

TIRADE OF HERPES, RAPE AND MIND CONTROL WITHOUT GOING TO JAIL.

Sources: Gossip on this, Daily Beast

**** R. Kelly, Usher, & Kevin Hart News Sets Black Twitter on Fire, Sparking Memes & Jokes

It’s been a rough week for Black Twitter. It first started off with R. Kelly allegedly being the leader of a sex cult, then video surfaced of Kevin Hart possibly cheating on his pregnant wife, and it was revealed Usher, not only has herpes, but infected somebody else.

And, on top of all that, O.J. Simpson will soon be roaming free. After serving nine years in prison for robbery and kidnapping, he was granted for parole today.

All the shocking news came to a head on Wednesday (Jul. 19) and was too much to handle for Black Twitter, causing all four black men to be trending topics on the social media app. However, Black Twitter coped the best way it knows how: with memes, jokes, and hilarious commentary.

SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO'S REPORT ON OBAMA'S REAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE INVESTIGATION

***** SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO'S REPORT ON OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE INVESTIGATION:

IS THIS INFORMATION WHY ANDREW BREITBART WAS MURDERED?

IS FACEBOOK'S ZUCKERBERG HELPING TO HIDE THE TRUTH??


Sources: WND, Alex Jones, Breitbart News, CNN, Fox News, YouTube


Officials in the office of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, of Maricopa County, Arizona, have announced that their news conference set at 4 p.m. on Thursday will be streamlined online on the sheriff’s Facebook page.

WND also is setting up the link so that those who want to know the results of the sheriff’s years-long Cold Case Posse investigation into the document that Barack Obama presented to the nation as his official Hawaiian birth certificate can watch through WND.

Details of what has been uncovered have not been released, although apparently the investigation results will concern the actual document, and not address the bigger questions that accompany the issue, such as the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency.

WND reported earlier that the event was being held.

It is to address the issue that badgered Obama throughout his first term in the Oval Office.

Now it could rain on his legacy.

There already have been investigations into the document, which Obama produced for the public just as the No. 1 bestseller “Where’s The Birth Certificate?”

was combining with a challenge from billionaire businessman Donald Trump to force Obama’s hand.


issue is that the U.S. Constitution requires the president to be a “natural-born citizen” but does not define the term. Scholarly works cited by the Founders defined it as a citizen at birth, born in the country to two citizens of the country, or merely the offspring of two citizens of the country.

The birth certificate Obama displayed on the White House website as “proof positive” of his eligibility states he was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father.

Some immediately pointed out alleged anomalies, questioning its validity, while others argued it also could prove his ineligibility because his father was not a citizen.

Some of the lawsuits argued Obama was a dual citizen at birth through his father, contending the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born citizens.

WND reported Obama explained he decided to release it because the Internet “chatter” was becoming a “distraction.”

While the issue became known in liberal and left-leaning circles as the biggest “conspiracy” theory of all time, some document experts questioned the validity of the birth certificate Obama released. Arpaio, responding to a petition from his constituents, launched a formal “Cold Case Posse” law enforcement investigation of the document.

In 2012, he held a news conference that concluded there was probable cause to believe the document Obama released as an official government document is a computer-generated forgery.

Mike Zullo, Arpaio’s lead investigator, said at the time his team believed the Hawaii Department of Health engaged in a systematic effort to hide from public inspection any original 1961 birth records it may have in its possession.

The Cold Case Posse at that time advised Arpaio that they believed forgers committed two crimes. First, they say it appeared the White House fraudulently created a forgery that it characterized as an officially produced governmental birth record.

Second, the White House fraudulently presented to the residents of Maricopa County and to the American public at large a forgery represented as “proof positive” of President Obama’s authentic 1961 Hawaii long-form birth certificate.

The investigators also said they had developed credible evidence that Obama’s Selective Service card was a forgery, based on an examination of the postal date stamp on the document.

Also, records of Immigration and Naturalization Service cards filled out by passengers arriving on international flights originating outside the United States in the month of August 1961, examined at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., were missing records for the week of President Obama’s birth.

But Arpaio said then a “continuing investigation” was needed, and his investigators set to work.

Now, Arpaio, who was defeated Nov. 8 in his bid for a seventh term as sheriff, has planned a news conference for Thursday to reveal his team’s final findings.

Ironically, in recent months it’s been Obama, his wife Michelle, Secretary of State John Kerry and even his former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who have raised the issue over and over.

It was during an appearance in Nairobi, Secretary of State John Kerry said he thanked the Kenyan president for giving America “a president of the United States” – a comment alluding to the contested issue of where Obama was born.

Kerry told Kenya’s foreign minister he had a conversation with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta concerning the Olympic Games in Rio and President Obama’s birthplace:

I had the pleasure of beginning that meeting [with Kenyatta], as I want to begin this press conference this afternoon, by congratulating Kenya on something no nation’s athletes have ever before accomplished, and that is to win both the men’s and the women’s marathon races at the Olympic Games.

Absolutely extraordinary. When I mentioned that to President Kenyatta, he promptly said to me, “Well, we also had a hand in helping you win a silver because the person who won came from Kenya.” (Laughter.)

“And I said, “Actually, Mr. President, you did better than a silver and a gold. You gave us a president of the United States.” (Laughter.) So you can see we had a very friendly and positive beginning to the conversation.

question at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, during an address in which he urged Americans to elect Clinton.

“You know, there’s been a lot of talk in this campaign about what America’s lost – people who tell us that our way of life is being undermined by pernicious changes and dark forces beyond our control,” Obama said. “They tell voters there’s a ‘real America’ out there that must be restored. This isn’t an idea that started with Donald Trump. It’s been peddled by politicians for a long time – probably from the start of our Republic.

“And it’s got me thinking about the story I told you 12 years ago tonight, about my Kansas grandparents and the things they taught me when I was growing up.

They came from the heartland; their ancestors began settling there about 200 years ago. I don’t know if they had their birth certificates, but they were there.”

The mention of “birth certificates,” which prompted laughter and cheers from the crowd, was a deviation from the president’s prepared remarks, and comes just two nights after his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, brought up the issue of her husband’s citizenship and faith during her speech to the DNC.

At that time, Michelle Obama said one of her jobs in the White House was to teach her daughters “to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith.”

She was referencing the challenges to her husband’s constitutional qualification for office as a “natural born citizen.”

Hillary Clinton “went birther” during a campaign appearance in Charlotte, North Carolina when she tweeted, “Someone who has never forgotten where he came from. And Donald, if you’re out there tweeting: It’s Hawaii.” –Hillary on @POTUS


Among the many records the Obama camp has refused to release are the marriage license of his father (Barack Sr.) and mother (Stanley Ann Dunham), name-change records (Barry Soetero to Barack Hussein Obama),
adoption records,
records of his and his mother’s repatriation as U.S. citizens from Indonesia, baptism records, Noelani Elementary School (Hawaii) records, Punahou School financial aid or school records, Occidental College financial aid records,
Harvard Law School records, Columbia senior thesis, Columbia College records, record with Illinois State Bar Association, files from his terms as an Illinois state senator, his law client list, medical records and passport records.

Standard & Poor's Role In 2008 Market Crash Possibly Criminal; Investigation Needed!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Senate report on Wall Street crash: The criminalization of the American ruling class

The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a voluminous report last Wednesday on the Wall Street crash of 2008 that documents the fraud and criminality that pervade the entire financial system and its relations with the government.

The 650-page report is the outcome of a two-year investigation that involved over 150 interviews and depositions as well as the examination of subpoenaed emails and internal documents of major banks, government regulatory agencies and credit rating firms. The report, entitled “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,” establishes that the financial crash and ensuing recession were the result of systemic fraud and deception on the part of the mortgage lenders and banks, carried out with the collusion of the credit rating corporations and the complicity of the government and its bank regulatory agencies.

The World Socialist Web Site will analyze the contents of this important document in detail in the coming days. However, its basic thrust is clear. As the executive summary states: “The investigation found that the crisis was not a natural disaster, but the result of high-risk, complex financial products; undisclosed conflicts of interest; and the failure of regulators, the credit rating agencies, and the market itself to rein in the excesses of Wall Street.”

At a press conference Wednesday and in subsequent interviews, Senator Carl Levin (Democrat from Michigan), the chairman of the subcommittee, was even more explicit. “Using emails, memos and other internal documents,” he said, “this report tells the inside story of an economic assault that cost millions of Americans their jobs and homes, while wiping out investors, good businesses and markets. High-risk lending, regulatory failures, inflated credit ratings and Wall Street firms engaging in massive conflicts of interest contaminated the US financial system with toxic mortgages and undermined public trust in US markets.

“Using their own words in documents subpoenaed by the subcommittee, the report discloses how financial firms deliberately took advantage of their clients and investors, how credit rating agencies assigned AAA ratings to high-risk securities, and how regulators sat on their hands instead of reining in the unsafe and unsound practices all around them. Rampant conflicts of interest are the threads that run through every chapter of this sordid story.”

Levin went on to say that the investigation had found “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing.” He told the New York Times: “The overwhelming evidence is that those institutions deceived their clients and deceived the public, and they were aided and abetted by deferential regulators and credit ratings agencies who had conflicts of interest.”

The report is divided into four sections, each focusing on a different contributor to the network of fraud and abuse: the mortgage lenders, the regulators, the credit rating firms and the Wall Street investment banks. The first section takes Washington Mutual (WaMu) as its case history, detailing the predatory and deceptive lending practices and accounting and reporting subterfuges that led, following the implosion of the subprime mortgage market, to the bank’s collapse and takeover by JPMorgan Chase in September of 2008.

The second examines the corrupt role of the federal Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), which oversaw three of the biggest financial failures in US history—Washington Mutual, IndyMac and Countrywide Financial. “Over a five-year period from 2004 to 2008,” the report states, “OTS identified over 500 serious deficiencies at WaMu, yet failed to take action to force the bank to improve its lending operations and even impeded oversight by the bank’s backup regulator, the FDIC.”

The third section documents the systematic manner in which the rating firms Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s gave top credit ratings to collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other complex securities backed by subprime and other toxic mortgages, enabling the banks to make billions of dollars by palming off these junk securities as top-grade investments. In return, the rating companies raked in huge profits for their services.

As the report states: “Credit rating agencies were paid by Wall Street firms that sought their ratings and profited from the financial products being rated… The ratings agencies weakened their standards as each competed to provide the most favorable rating to win business and greater market share. The result was a race to the bottom.”

The final section examines the fraud and deception perpetrated by the major investment banks as they profited first from the inflation of the US housing market and then from its implosion. It takes as its examples Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. Goldman began betting heavily in 2007 that the housing market would collapse, packaging and selling subprime mortgage-backed CDOs even as it secretly bet that the same securities would plummet in value.

The report cites emails by Deutsche Bank’s top global CDO trader, Gregg Lippman, calling risky mortgage securities marketed by the bank “crap” and “pigs” and the bank’s operations a “CDO machine,” which he characterized as a “Ponzi scheme.”

The document points to the central role of the big Wall Street banks in promulgating the fraud, stating: “Investment banks were the driving force behind the structured finance products that provided a steady stream of funding for lenders originating high-risk, poor-quality loans and that magnified risk throughout the US financial system. The investment banks that engineered, sold, traded and profited from mortgage-related structured finance products were a major cause of the financial crisis.”

The overall picture is one of criminality on the part of the entire financial establishment that, with all levels of government serving as its co-conspirator, systematically looted the economy in order to further enrich itself. The result is a social tragedy for tens of millions of people in the US and many millions more around the world. And yet, the result of this historic crime is that the bankers and speculators are richer and more powerful than ever.

Not a single senior executive at a major US bank, hedge fund, mortgage firm or insurance company has gone to jail. Not one has even been prosecuted.

There is every indication that none will be criminally indicted in the future. As with the similarly damning report released in January by the US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the Senate report has been largely buried by the mass media. It was reported perfunctorily on the inside pages of some of the major newspapers and barely mentioned by the broadcast and cable networks, and then dropped.

One day after the release of the Senate report, the New York Times published a long article on the failure to prosecute any of the Wall Street criminals. It recounted a private meeting between the then-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (now Obama’s treasury secretary) Timothy Geithner and then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in October 2008 at which Geithner urged Cuomo to back off on investigations of the banks and rating agencies.

The article contrasted the absence of criminal charges against bankers today with the aftermath of the savings and loan debacle of the late 1980s, when government task forces referred 1,100 cases to prosecutors and more than 800 bank officials went to jail. It noted the precipitous decline in referrals by bank regulators to the FBI, from 1,837 cases in 1995 to 75 in 2006. Over the ensuing four years, at the height of the financial crisis, an average of only 72 a year have been referred for criminal prosecution.

The Office of Thrift Supervision has not referred a single case to the Justice Department since 2000, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a unit of the Treasury Department, has referred only three in the last decade.

How is this to be explained? Why are Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, the former CEO of Washington Mutual, Kerry Killinger, as well as Treasury Secretary Geithner and his predecessor, Henry Paulson (previously CEO of Goldman), not in prison?

Such financial manipulators are being shielded while workers are being stripped of their jobs, wages, homes and basic social services to pay for the debts resulting from the transfer of trillions in public funds to the banks. Collective resistance to this attack is being criminalized in the form of anti-strike laws, imposing fines and jail terms for workers who fight back.

One reason for the absence of prosecutions is the power of the individuals involved, all of whom wield immense influence over politicians, the media and the legal system. But it goes deeper than the status of individuals, just as the sordid state of affairs as a whole arises not from individual greed, but rather from a profound crisis of the entire system.

The criminalization of the American ruling class is the outcome of more than three decades in which the accumulation of wealth by the corporate-financial elite has become increasingly separated from real production. In its pursuit of profit, the ruling class has dismantled huge sections of industry and turned ever more decisively to financial manipulation and speculation.

The ascendancy of the most parasitic sections of the capitalist class has been accompanied by a sharp decline in the living standards of the working class. The richest and most powerful layers have acquired staggering levels of wealth by plundering society.

The ruling class itself senses that to prosecute any of the leading figures in the defrauding of the American people (and the rest of humankind) would rapidly expose the criminality of the entire system. It would mean putting the capitalist system itself on trial.


Sources: AP, MSNBC, World Wide Socialist

DSK Released! Felon's Lies! Accuser's Rights Violated! WHITE Wins Again!

I Warned You This Would Probably Happen!

So Today Accused Sexual Predator Dominique Strauss-Kahn Was Released From House Arrest During A Hearing In An Manhattan Courtroom.

I'm Not Surprised.

Considering How The French Press Published His Accuser's Name In Several Articles, DSK's International Influence, His Wife's Money & The LIES Of An Incarcerated Felon, The News Of DSK's Release Did NOT Surprise Me.

Of Course DSK's People & The NYPD Are Going To Try & Make DSK's BLACK Accuser Appear To Be A Lying, Money Hungry Slut.

After All She's Just A Hardworking, Low Income, BLACK Woman From New Guinea (An African Country) Who Came To AmeriKKKa Seeking A Better Life For She & Her Daughter.

Who Would Believe That SHE (A Hardworking, Low Income, BLACK Woman From New Guinea) Were Actually Raped By A WHITE, Prominent Man Of DSK's Status?

I Mean Its Okay For An Attractive, Young, WHITE Woman To Kill Her 2-year-old Child, Become A Celebrity, (i.e., Casey Anthony) & Possibly Walk Free But How Dare A Hardworking, Low Income, BLACK Woman From New Guinea Accuse A Prominent, WHITE Man Like DSK Of Sexual Assault?

To Make Matters Worse, For Manhattan Prosecutors To Accept The Testimony Of An Incarcerated Felon Who Would Probably Say Anything For An Early Release Deal, Is Preposterous!

Now As It Relates To DSK's Accuser Not Being Honest When Asked About A Previous Rape Charge On Her Asylum Application, Since English Is NOT Her Native Language When She Was Being Interrogated Was There An Interpreter Or Translator Present?

If NOT Then DSK's Accuser Civil Rights Were Clearly Violated!

However, I Warned You This Kind Of Thing Was Going To Happen.

Once Again Rich, WHITE Males Win!

Oh! And One More Thing.....

If You Want To Accuse Me Of Playing The "Race Card" Be My Guest!






Dominique Strauss-Kahn goes free without bail, but prosecutors will not drop sex assault case

A smiling Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed with no bail Friday in a stunning reversal of fortune as prosecutors declined to drop attempted rape charges against the French bigwig.

The accused sexual predator, due back in court July 18, walked out of court with his biggest legal victory since his May 14 arrest for assaulting a midtown Manhattan hotel maid.

Strauss-Kahn held hands with his wife, who stood by him from the start, and flashed a smile while leaving the courtroom. He declined to address a media horde at the Manhattan courthouse.

"This is a giant step," said defense attorney Benjamin Brafman after his client's triumph. "The next step will lead to a complete dismissal of the charges."

With sources saying the case was collapsing amid a series of lies by the accuser, prosecutors acknowledged their witness had "substantial credibility issues."

But prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the case against the defendant would continue.

"The fact of a sexual encounter was and is corroborated by forensic evidence," she said.

The 62-year-old former head of the International Monetary Fund will be freed from his house arrest in a $50-000-a-month lower Manhattan townhouse.

His $1 million cash bail and $5 million bond will be returned under a deal with prosecutors, and he is permitted to travel anywhere in the U.S under the agreement, said noted attorney Brafman.

Prosecutors held onto his passport, keeping Strauss-Kahn from traveling to France.

Strauss-Kahn, accompanied by his television newswoman wife Anne Sinclair, departed for court in a black Lexus SUV about 40 minutes before his scheduled hearing.

Asked if he felt vindicated, the accused sexual predator turned to face reporters but said nothing. Strauss-Kahn's wealthy wife had posted the huge payout to spring him from Rikers Island.

Strauss-Kahn wore a calm, almost serene look as he headed inside the courthouse with Sinclair and a security guard. He wore a black suit with a light blue tie.

Brafman was smiling too as he joined his white-haired client for the hearing.

The prosecution of Strauss-Kahn is in jeopardy of falling apart because the hotel maid who accused him was caught in a web of lies, sources said.

The Bronx chambermaid's credibility crumbled as investigators linked her to a network of crooks and found that she had multiple bank accounts stuffed with a total of almost $100,000 in dirty cash, sources said Thursday night.

Prosecutors now believe there was little truth in anything the native of Guinea native told them since the NYPD yanked the one-time contender for the French presidency off a plane at Kennedy Airport on May 14, the sources said.

A horde of media joined the simply curious outside the courthouse where Strauss-Kahn was due at 11:30 a.m.

"I hope he will not be guilty for the image of France," said French tourist Jean Mark Beauchet, 62. "It changed the political scenario in France. He would have won the election."

Hells Kitchen resident Willa Streeter said she was there to support Strauss-Kahn.

"I feel bad how they handled this case," she said. "They took him to Rikers Island with all those murderers."

A phalanx of photographers lined either side of the courthouse entrance awaiting Strauss-Kahn, who will make the short ride to court from the Tribeca townhouse where he was held under armed guard.

Strauss-Kahn has reason for optimism: There even appears to be a smoking gun exposing his accuser.

Less than a day after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, the woman had a telephone conversation with an incarcerated "high-end, profitable drug dealer," said one source with knowledge of the imperiled case.

During the jailhouse chat, the maid discussed how she could cash in by accusing the political and financial titan. The damning talk was caught on tape.

"The DA's office has concluded she materially misled the grand jury," said a source close to the case. "The case has gone to hell. It's a wreck."

A perjury charge against the accuser is a possibility - but what actually happened in the hotel room may forver remain a he-said-she-said, the sources said.

Prosecutors were expected Friday to give the judge a letter outlining "four to five" different examples of credibility issues on the maid's part, a law-enforcement source said.

"The end is going to be soon - whether it's this week or next week, the case is not sustainable," the source said.

Prosecutors still believe Strauss-Kahn and the accuser had a sexual encounter - possibly even one of a forcible nature, a police source said. But the maid's shattered credibility makes even a misdemeanor charge against him seem like a tough sell.

The stunning revelation, first reported Thursday by the New York Times, is a major blow to the NYPD and first-term Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. DA's office.

It will also inevitably fuel pre-existing speculation that Strauss-Kahn was set up by political enemies - claims prosecutors have previously said are without merit.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the department's top spokesman, declined comment. A spokesman for the DA's office also refused comment.

The well-placed source said the NYPD rushed to judgment after it learned Strauss-Kahn, 62, was headed to the airport to catch a Paris-bound flight after allegedly fondling the maid at his $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel near Times Square. France does not have an extradition policy with the United States.

"They jumped the gun here because he was getting on a plane," the source said. "That is the explanation."

From the moment the criminal charges made headlines, Strauss-Kahn's legal team beat the bushes, sources said. They learned that she told investigators that her application for asylum included a previous rape - but the papers held no such claim, another cop source said.

The defense team also learned she was paying hundreds of bucks a month for several phone bills, but told authorities she had only one phone, that source said.

In late May, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers sent a letter to prosecutors saying they had evidence that shot holes in the case. Prosecutors fired back telling them to turn over the goods, the sources said.

Prosecutors have scoffed at the notion Strauss-Kahn's defense team spoon-fed them info about the maid's shady background, sources said.

Defense lawyers "knew by the second or third day she was not who she claimed to be," one source said.

The maid had a jailhouse chat with a man who had been busted with more than 400 pounds of marijuana, the sources said. He and a handful of others had made several cash deposits - adding up to about $100,000 - into "sophisticated bank accounts" set up for the maid.

The maid has told authorities she knew little about the big-money deposits, the sources said.

"She's complicit in those activities," the source said. "She's a rainmaker. She's in with a crew that makes illegal money."


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Sources: AP, CNN, NY Daily News, NY Times, Orlando Sentinel, Slate.fr, Youtube, Google Maps

Elisa Baker's Bond Increased: Zahra Baker's Body Still Missing

Judge Raises Bond For Elisa Baker


A judge increased bond for Elisa Baker on Wednesday after a hearing that included testimony from Baker’s biological daughter.

Her voice was hard to hear, but her words were powerful.

"If she was to get out I'd have to leave the state,” Amber Fairchild testified, speaking about her mother, Elisa Baker.

The setting was Baker's bond hearing on a felony obstruction of justice charge.

Prosecutors want Baker kept in jail.

Her attorney asked the judge to lower the bond, saying that even if Baker did obstruct justice, she'd probably only get probation as a punishment.

Police say Baker wrote a bogus ransom note the day Baker reported 10-year-old Zahra Baker missing from the family's home in Hickory.

Police think Zahra has been murdered. However, they haven’t found her body or charged anyone with murder.

"Feigning this kidnapping, starting this investigation is certainly enough for a jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt of intent to deceive and defraud,” said prosecutor Eric Bellas.

The bond hearing quickly became an evidentiary hearing.

It included Fairchild testifying about what she says Baker told her the day Baker was arrested for outstanding warrants, unrelated to Zahra's disappearance.

"She said she wished she could leave the state,” Fairchild said.

Fairchild also says that Baker was in contact with a man in London, England. She says her mother met him online and he’s sent Baker a lot of money.

"Over $10,000,” Fairchild said.

Baker's attorney Scott Reilly says he was hoping for fairness, not a bond hearing becoming an evidentiary hearing.

"Never happens,” Reilly said.
This is why he says it did.

"Because there are cameras and because this case is getting a lot of attention. No other reason,” Reilly said.

If Baker does make bond, which is now $65,000, she will have to wear an electronic ankle monitoring bracelet.









Excerpts Of Two 911 Calls From The Baker Household

Hickory Police released a 911 call from Elisa Baker reporting a fire at the family home and a later recording from Adam Baker reporting 10-year-old Zahra missing. Here are excerpts from those calls:

Call from Elisa Baker, Oct. 9, about 5 a.m.

Operator: 911 what’s the address of your emergency?

Elisa Baker: My husband works for a tree maintenance company and our backyard’s on fire.

Operator: Your what’s on fire?

Elisa Baker: The backyard. We’ve got big mulch piles and wood piles and firewood and stuff.

Operator: OK. What’s your address ma’am?

Elisa Baker: It’s 21 21 Avenue northwest Hickory.

Operator: We’ll get them (firefighters) out there ma’am.

Call from Adam Baker, Oct. 9, 1:58 p.m.

Operator: Hickory police, where is your emergency?

Adam Baker: Yeah, my daughter is missing.

Operator: What is your address?

Adam Baker: - - 21st Avenue NW. The police were out here last night over a fire and ransom note for my boss’s daughter. I got up a little while ago and it appears they took my daughter instead of my boss’s daughter.

Operator: OK, how old is your daughter?

Adam Baker: She’s 10. She’s handicapped. She has a prosthetic leg.

Operator: How long has she been missing?

Adam Baker: We checked in there (her bedroom) last night about 2:30 (a.m. Saturday, Oct. 9) and she was there. And all this happened last night about 5 o’clock.

Adam Baker: I don’t know if they set a fire in the yard to distract us to go out and they snuck in the door. I don’t know.

Operator: I’m not familiar with what happened last night. What happened last night?

Adam Baker: Last night my dog woke me up and I had a fire in the backyard. And somebody had poured gas in my company vehicle that I drive for work.

Adam Baker: They left a ransom note on the company vehicle to my boss saying they had his daughter and his son was next.

Adam Baker: It appears they may have taken my daughter instead of his daughter. …

Operator: So no one has seen your daughter since 2:30 this morning?

Adam Baker: No, like I said, we had all that drama last night. And me and my wife went back to bed. And my daughter is, I think, coming into puberty. So she’s hitting that brooding stage (chuckles). So we only see her when she wants something. That’s about it.

Operator: And did you say she was handicapped?

Adam Baker: Yes, ma’am. She has an above-the-knee amputation.

Operator: She has one leg that is partially amputated?

Adam Baker: Yeah. She has a prosthetic leg that apparently they’ve taken with her. …

Adam Baker: We had an officer here last night. And (my boss) ran through who he thought it might be, like an ex-employee.

Operator: OK, we’re getting the police on the way out there.

Operator: If you find out anything at all in the meantime, before we get the officer out there, call me back. That would help us toward finding your daughter.

Adam Baker: Thank you ma’am.




N.C. Authorities At Caldwell Landfill For Zahra Baker Clues

Calling her a "significant flight risk" and alluding to the "particularly disturbing allegations" against her, a judge on Wednesday increased the bond for Elisa Baker, who is accused of writing a phony ransom note concerning the disappearance of her stepdaughter, Zahra.

Meanwhile, a team of local, state and federal authorities is searching at a Caldwell County landfill for possible clues in the disappearance of 10-year-old Zahra Baker of Hickory, according to a police report.

Hickory police said their agents have joined those from the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI in searching for what authorities called "a piece of evidence."

The search is under way at the Foothills Environmental Landfill, on Cheraw Road in Lenoir.

Authorities are not permitting the media near the search site, but they said they will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. today.

Judge Robert A. Mullinax raised Baker's bond from $50,000 to $65,000 at this morning's hearing in the Catawba County Courthouse in Newton. Baker faces a probable cause hearing Nov. 3.

During the hearing, Baker's grown daughter, Morgan Fairchild, told the judge she would fear for her safety if her mother were released.

"If she gets out, I would have to leave the state," she said.

Typically, defendants must pay a bail bondsman 10 to 15 percent of the bond set by the court, in order to get out of jail. The bondsman then guarantees to pay the court the full bond if the defendant fails to show up for trial.

That means Elisa Baker would have to come up with between $6,500 and $9,750.

Her attorney, Scott Reilly, said after the hearing that he doubts she will be able to raise that money -- or enough to cover the $30,000 bond set for her in Burke County, where she faces charges for allegedly writing bad checks.

Reilly said he and his client are looking for consistency and fairness.

"We haven't seen the first piece of evidence," he said after the hearing.

There was one other interesting development at the hearing this morning. Details were released that Elisa Baker has received more than $10,000 from a man in London, including money received as recently as the past week. The man was referred to as "Carlisle Fullman" during today's bond hearing.

It's unclear what relationship, if any, the two have. Baker met her husband, Zahra's father Adam, as part of an online relationship in Australia.

These latest developments follow a report by CNN that authorities have asked Zahra Baker's family members in Australia for medical information that might help them find out what happened to the girl. Hickory police have said they believe Zahra is dead.

Among the evidence being sought, CNN reported, is information about the prosthetic leg that Zahra used. She lost a leg to cancer while living in Australia.

Hickory police on Tuesday released recordings of two emergency calls made from Zahra Baker’s home the day the 10-year-old girl was reported missing.

The calls shed new light on what Zahra’s parents claim happened Oct. 9, and how an early-morning fire and a phony ransom note might have been linked to her disappearance.

The Bakers’ description of events suggests that Zahra may have been kidnapped while her father and stepmother were dealing with a fire in the back yard of their Hickory house. The Bakers also reported that kidnappers might have taken Zahra by mistake in their attempt to actually abduct the daughter of Baker’s boss and landlord, Mark Coffey.

“I don’t know if they set a fire in the yard to distract us to go out, and they snuck in the door,” Baker said of possible kidnappers in his 911 call.

“It appears they may have taken my daughter instead of his daughter.”

The release of the recordings came on the 10th day of the search for the little girl with freckles who was hearing impaired and lost part of one leg to bone cancer. The case has drawn international attention. Newspapers in Australia where Zahra was born have been publishing daily updates.

Zahra’s stepmother, Elisa Baker, has been charged with felony obstruction of justice and is now in jail. She was arrested after police say she admitted writing the phony ransom note, which they say was intended to throw off the investigation into Zahra’s disappearance.

Investigators continue to seek the public’s help in piecing together a timeline of events surrounding the girl’s disappearance. The last person outside Zahra’s family whom police can confirm saw the girl alive was an employee at a Hickory furniture store, who reported seeing Zahra shopping with her stepmother on Sept. 25.

Zahra wasn’t reported missing until two weeks later.

The first 911 call from the Bakers came around 5:30 a.m. that Saturday, when Elisa Baker sounded anxious as she asked for help.

“Our back yard is on fire,” she told dispatchers. “…We have mulch piles and wood piles because we sell firewood and stuff.”

Firefighters and police responded, and while they were there found a handwritten ransom note on the windshield of the Bakers’ SUV parked at the house. The note was addressed to “Mr. Coffey” and said kidnappers had his daughter and wanted $1 million.

When police checked, they found Coffey’s family was unharmed.

The second 911 call came from Zahra’s father at 1:58 p.m. that same day.

He was polite and calm as he spoke to the dispatcher.

“Hickory police, where is your emergency?”

“Yeah, my daughter is missing,” said Adam Baker, 33.

“What is your address?”

“21st Avenue Northwest. The police were out here last night over a fire and ransom note for my boss’s daughter. I got up a little while ago, and it appears they took my daughter instead of my boss’s daughter.”

He explained how someone had poured gasoline on a company vehicle that he parked at his house, and that it might have been a diversion so kidnappers could enter his home.

Adam Baker told the dispatcher that maybe the kidnappers were confused.

“I guess they thought he (Coffey) lives in this house” Baker said.

Coffey owns the house, rented by the Bakers. Adam Baker worked for Coffey at a tree-trimming business that has a storage lot in Burke County – a site authorities have repeatedly searched for signs of Zahra.

Baker went on to tell the dispatcher that he last checked on his daughter about 2:30 a.m. that day – twelve hours before making his 911 call.

“We had all that drama last night,” he said. “And me and my wife went back to bed. And my daughter is, I think, coming into puberty. So she’s hitting that brooding stage (chuckles). So we only see her when she wants something.”

Adam Baker has not been charged in connection with his daughter’s disappearance.


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Sources: AP, McClatchy Newspapers, Myspace, WAFB, WCNC, Youtube, Google Maps

Sarah H. Foxwell, Missing Maryland Girl Is Found Dead

Body Of Missing Maryland Girl Found


The body of a Maryland girl who authorities say was abducted by a registered Sex Offender was found Friday after thousands of volunteers fanned out to look for her.

Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis said that the body of 11-year-old Sarah H. Foxwell was discovered at about 4 p.m. near the Delaware state line. He offered few other details. Thomas J. Leggs Jr., 30, has been charged in her kidnapping.

Leggs is a former boyfriend of the girl's aunt, who is her legal guardian. A public defender representing him has not returned a phone call.

Thousands of volunteers gathered in Salisbury to help in the search Friday.

Lewis said Sarah was last seen Tuesday night at her home on Maryland's Eastern Shore. A relative discovered she was missing early Wednesday while checking on Sarah and her 6-year-old sister. A charging document says Leggs was the last person seen with Sarah.

A "juvenile witness" awoke during the night Tuesday and saw Sarah leave the bedroom with "Tommy," and said he was wearing blue jeans, an orange jacket and white sneakers, the charging document says.

The statement of probable cause also says Sarah's aunt, Amy Fothergill, with whom Sarah lives, noticed that Sarah's green toothbrush was missing from the home. Deputies found a green toothbrush and a lollipop in a truck Leggs admitted driving. Leggs said he had been wearing jeans and white sneakers the previous night — the same clothes he was wearing when police questioned him.

The sheriff said Leggs has been uncooperative and "of no assistance to our investigators."

Leggs is listed on the Maryland and Delaware sex offender registries. The Maryland listing notes that he is a child sex offender, but does not give details about his conviction.

Lewis said Leggs has been convicted of sex offense in Wicomico County and was charged Oct. 29 with fourth-degree burglary.

In 2001, Leggs was convicted in Delaware of rape for having sex with a victim who was 16 or 17, according to the Delaware registry. The registry describes his risk level as "high" and notes he is unemployed.

Leggs, who has been convicted of assault several times, also is awaiting trial on charges of burglary and destruction of property in Ocean City.




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Sources: MSNBC, Washington Post, Google Maps

NYPD Investigate Death Of 3-Year Old Brooklyn Girl Kyrah Martin

3-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Kyrah Martin Found Dead In Snow After Apparently Falling Off Roof


A 3-year-old Brooklyn girl died just before Christmas when she ventured up to the roof of her building Wednesday and tumbled four stories to her death.

Kyrah Martin's broken body was found facedown in the snow at 1:15 a.m. as the rooftop alarm in the Crown Heights building blared.

"There's one set of footprints in the snow on the roof," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "The baby tragically fell off the roof."

Kyrah's mom, 35-year-old Nefertiti Martin, had gone to sleep with her four kids in the same bed, said the dead girl's grandmother, Nadine Martin.

Nefertiti Martin was awakened early yesterday by cops who were searching apartments, trying to find where the dead girl lived.

The mother assured the officers her four children were snug in bed, even lifting up the covers, the grandmother said.

"One, two, three ...," Nefertiti Martin counted out loud - stopping when she realized the little girl she had nicknamed "Mikey," after the ever-hungry kid in the Life cereal commercial, was gone.

"Oh my God! Where's my daughter?" the shocked mother wailed, Nadine Martin said, recalling what her daughter told her. "Kyrah! Kyrah! Kyrah!"

Police concluded Kyrah's death was accidental, but the Department of Homeless Services is investigating.

Kyrah's family had just been placed in the 21-unit building on Park Place on Tuesday, Nadine Martin said.

"If you put families in places like this ... it should be safe," Nadine Martin said, with tears welling in her eyes during what should be a joyous time of year.

"The pain and the hurt will never leave her," Nadine Martin said, noting her daughter lost another child four years ago after it was born prematurely with respiratory problems.

Police said Kyrah sneaked out of the apartment shortly after midnight. At 12:45 a.m., Kyrah was caught on videotape climbing the stairs "to the roof door," Kelly said.

"It shows the baby leaving the apartment by herself," he said of the video. "The roof is alarmed. Baby opens the roof door and sets off the alarm."

Then Kyrah vanished from view.

The alarm did not rouse Kyrah's mom, but another fourth-floor resident, James Morrison, 56, said it sounded "like an air raid."

Morrison marveled that Kyrah was able to get the rooftop door open. "It's a heavy steel door," he said. "I don't understand how a 3-year-old could get out."

Building super Desmond Bain, who saw the video, said nobody stopped Kyrah from reaching the roof.

"You can see the little girl on the tape walking up the stairs to the roof," he said. "She was alone when she went up there, but that's all you can see."

Bryant Eason, a father of a 5-year-old girl, placed a toy on the spot where Kyrah landed - and where some of the snow was still stained with her blood.

"I can't imagine losing my baby like that," said Eason, 48. "Three years old? With Christmas two days away? That's so, so sad."



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Sources: NY Daily News, Google Maps

Jennifer Roberts Supports Park Helms' $9,000. ABC Deal Dinner...NC Corruption

Criticism Grows Over Park Helms-ABC Board $9,000. Dinner



Mecklenburg ABC Board Chairman Parks Helms insisted Wednesday that the agency did not mislead the public about its relationship with an international liquor company that treated officials to a $9,000 holiday dinner.

The board paid more than $11 million to Diageo Americas from January to November, according to documents obtained by WCNC, the Observer's news partner.

Agency officials previously released a statement saying it "has no business relation with Diageo other than selling its products in ABC stores in Mecklenburg County."

The disclosure comes as the state Alcohol Law Enforcement Division is investigating the Nov. 18 dinner for 28 people paid for by London-based Diageo, which makes brands such as Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker Scotch. State ABC Commission officials have authority to remove local board members and employees who violate state laws against accepting gifts.

Last week, Helms announced that he and other top staff paid back the cost of the meal at Del Frisco's steakhouse in south Charlotte.

In his first public remarks since the disclosure about payments to Diageo, Helms defended himself and accused political rivals of spreading falsehoods.

Helms said there is no link between the holiday party and payments to the company. The board pays $47 million a year to Diageo and dozens of other vendors for the purchase of their products, he said.

"It's disappointing to me we are going down the road of making innuendo accusations," Helms said.

But Helms' assurances failed to quell criticism from some county commissioners, who appoint members of the local Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

The agency's statement did not explain that it not only sells liquor, but also makes direct payments to Diageo.

Commissioner Karen Bentley said that Helms should resign.

The board's previous statements about its relationship with Diageo "was at minimum, misleading," Bentley said. "At maximum, it was completely false."

County Commission Chair Jennifer Roberts also said the ABC Board's previous statement was "misleading."

Distillers lobby the state ABC commission to keep their products in its central warehouse through which local stores buy their liquor.

ABC stores are run by local boards across the state. Distillers also try to persuade local panels to stock their brands in the stores.

Local boards place orders from the central warehouse and after the alcohol arrives, the board has 30 days to make payments to liquor companies.

Records show the Mecklenburg ABC Board wrote 22 checks to Diageo from January to November. The board is Diageo's biggest customer in North Carolina.

Helms said Mecklenburg officials decide which brands to carry in their 21 stores based on sales.

A 1996 memo from the state ABC Commission prohibits manufacturers or vendors from giving local ABC boards money "or any other thing of value."

The Mecklenburg ABC Board has previously said that "unsolicited meals is an accepted business practice" and excluded from the law barring gifts.

Helms, who attended with his wife, was the only board member at the dinner. He has said he is repaying $1,000. Board CEO Calvin McDougal, who went with his wife, is repaying $4,000. They agreed to cover the tab for ABC employees for whom repayment would be a hardship. Others must pay $330 each.

On Wednesday, Helms said he did not know who was hosting the dinner before he arrived. He said that the ABC Board has dealings with 60 to 70 vendors whose brands are sold in Mecklenburg County stores.

But commissioner Bentley said Helms "should know better."

"If he didn't violate the policy, he violated the spirit of it," Bentley said.

Roberts, the commission chair, said she did not know if the board would take action against Helms. However, she noted, that he has repaid the company for the dinner.

"They have made things right," Roberts said. "The dinner was mistake and it is not going to happen again."




Charlotte-Meck. ABC Board Caught In Another Lie



The distiller that the Mecklenburg County ABC Board got a $9000 dinner from and the board then claimed it had “no business relation with Diageo other than selling its products in ABC stores in Mecklenburg County.” Yeah, not so much.

WCNC reports that the board only routinely writes six-figure checks to Diageo each month. During 2009 the board has had $11m. worth of business relations with Diageo.

Still, this has not pushed the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Commissioners to remove the board and its chair Parks Helms and start over. Instead the Republicans on the board remain narrowly focused on whether board violated any ethics law by accepting the $9000 gift. This is staggeringly beside the point. Helms and fellow board members are presumed to be held to a higher standard than petty thieves. They are in a position of trust, given immense power with little direct, day-to-day public oversight. If we can’t trust them to do the right thing, then we need to find people we can trust.





ABC Officials Repay Pricey Holiday Dinner


The Chairman of the Mecklenburg County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and top staff members have paid back $9,000 to an international liquor company that treated the local officials to a holiday dinner last month.

The payback comes as state officials are conducting an investigation into the dinner at Del Frisco's steakhouse in Charlotte, where a hostess said the cheapest steak is $32.95. State ABC Commission officials said last month that they have the authority to remove local board members and employees who violate state laws against accepting gifts.

“We shouldn't have done it,” ABC board Chair Parks Helms told the Observer Monday. “We made a mistake.”

He said that the dinner for 28 people may have appeared improper and that the board will revise its policies to ensure that guidelines about accepting gifts are clear in the future. The Observer's news partner, WCNC-TV, first broke the story in November.

State ABC Commission Chair Jonathan Williams, who ordered an investigation by the state Alcohol Law Enforcement Division, commended the board.

“I am pleased to learn the Mecklenburg ABC is taking steps to ensure that this situation is not repeated in the future,” Williams said in a prepared statement, “and also has taken action to address some of the specific questions surrounding the propriety of receiving a gift of this nature.”

He said the investigation is ongoing and that he couldn't comment further.

The state ABC commission runs the central warehouse through which local stores buy their liquor and handles liquor law violation cases but has rarely exerted authority over liquor stores. Those are run by the local boards that are appointed by county commissions and city councils.

Helms, who attended the dinner with his wife Eleanor, is paying $1,000. He was the only board member in attendance. Among the staff, CEO Calvin McDougal, who was accompanied by his wife Portia at the dinner, is paying $4,000. Both men are covering the tab for staffers for whom repayment would be a financial hardship. Other staff must pay $330 each.

A statement issued by the Mecklenburg board suggested that London-based Diageo, which makes brands such as Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker Scotch, wouldn't gain much by picking up the bill: “The Mecklenburg County ABC system has no business relation[sic] with Diageo other than selling its products in ABC stores in Mecklenburg County.”

The state ABC warehouse essentially serves as storage for the local stores' liquor and sets prices. The distillers still own the liquor until the stores buy it. The local stores determine what is ordered for the warehouse and then pay for it.

Helms said a steady stream of government scandal stories had caused an overreaction to news of the dinner.

“In the business world, you have meetings and dinners with the people whose products you sell,” he said. The Mecklenburg board's statement also said that, in the past, the state commission exempted unsolicited meals from state laws prohibiting distillers from giving gifts to retailers.

In a recent interview with WCNC-TV, Williams said: “In the sales and commercial world, wining and dining is part of how business is done,” he said, “but we're public servants.”

Local board members from Mecklenburg and other jurisdictions have been criticized in the past for annual conferences where liquor companies and others who do business with the state provided drinks, subsidized golf and other freebies. Organizers dropped the golf game from the schedule in 2007 after an Observer story about one of the conferences.



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Charmeck.org, The Meck Deck Blog, John Locke Foundation, WCNC, Google Maps

Michael Jackson's FBI Files Released, Terrorist Attack Feared

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FBI Releases Files On Michael Jackson


The FBI’s explosive, secret dossier on Michael Jackson was made public today and includes sickening — and surprising — allegations involving the kiddie-molestation raps against the superstar.

The sensational files on the late King of Pop — started after LA cops asked the federal agency to become involved in their sex probe of Jacko — include creepy new details of his antics with kids, specifically from a Canadian couple’s ride on the same train with him.

A Toronto woman told investigators probing allegations against Jackson in 1993 that she and her husband — both social workers in children’s services — were aboard a train March 7, 1992, during a visit to California and that the singer and his entourage had four compartments near them.

She said a 12- or 13-year-old boy — identified as Jacko’s "cousin" to anyone who asked — was with the singer at the time.

"Jackson was very possessive of the boy at night," the woman told cops, adding that she and her hubby grew even more suspicious of the star’s behavior when they "heard questionable noises through wall," according to one FBI file.

"She was concerned enough to notify the conductor of her suspicions," authorities wrote at the time.

The woman’s comments were part of the probe into allegations that the singer had molested Jacko mini-me Jordie Chandler, a young hanger-on who had been traveling with the star.

FBI files also contained information about the 2005 molestation trial against Jackson, as well as an attempted extortion of the singer in 1992.

The more than 300 pages of documents show:

* The FBI had been asked to analyze one of Jacko’s VHS tapes — home-labeled "Michael Jackson’s Neverland Favorites an All Boy Anthology" — seized amid a related child-porn probe.

The Sony tape was only described in the documents as a "poor-quality, third- or fourth-generation recording" that could be "a copy of a copy of a copy." There were no details of its contents.

* The LAPD appeared hot to nail Jackson on the federal Mann Act — involving "transportation of a minor across state lines for immoral purposes" — when it came to Chandler, and asked the FBI to consider the move.

But the agency balked at the idea.

* Investigators scribbled down notations about the case that included, "Chimp. Male chimp," apparently referring to Jacko’s beloved primate sidekick, Bubbles.

* Jackson had once been accused of molesting two Mexican boys in the mid-1980s — but the case was supposedly covered up.

An unnamed source told the FBI that while researching a book he was writing about Jackson, he was informed the agency had investigated the charge in 1985 or 1986.

But the case wasn’t pursued because "Jackson was to receive an honor at the White House from the president," the person said he was told. He added that his source insisted to him, "The investigation was covered up."

An FBI agent wrote that he turned up no such evidence of a probe.

The agency’s records also show that authorities were willing to traipse the world to collect dirt on the singer.

Detectives went to Manila in the Philippines to interview two former Jackson ranch employees, Mariano Quindoy and his wife, Faye. The probers also went to Canada to talk to the train-riding tourists.

Copies of newspaper clippings in one file allege that Mariano had seen the singer fondle young boys on two occasions. Jackson’s people called him a failed extortionist.

In their pursuit of Jackson, detectives even had the US Embassy in London send them British reports of a case involving the singer and a teen there.

The FBI pored over the newspaper articles, which reported a relationship between Jackson and 13-year-old British schoolboy Terry George in 1979.

George, who had met Jackson when he was a kid, had surfaced amid the Chandler case, saying he remembered what could now be considered a disturbing phone call that the pair once had shared about masturbation.

Chandler’s allegations were eventually settled with a reputed $20 million payout.

But Jackson — who died of a prescription-pill overdose at his LA home June 25 — was criminally tried in California in 2005 for allegedly touching a young cancer patient.

At the time of the singer’s arraignment, cops in Santa Maria, Calif., where the trial was being held, fretted that the media onslaught would make the venue a "soft target" for terrorists.

But the FBI said there was no evidence to suggest that. Still, the agency noted that a known Black Panther member had been at Jackson’s first court date.

A jury wound up acquitting the Gloved One.

Besides the molestation stigma, Jackson had other worries.

One involved an extortionist who targeted him — as well as infamous mob boss John Gotti — back in 1992, according to copies of the man’s threatening notes in one file.

"I told you what will happen to John if he doesn’t pay up. Michael, I will personally attempt to kill if he doesn’t pay me my money," reads one letter to a newspaper.

The deeply disturbed man, Frank Paul Jones, said he was willing to "commit mass murder at a Michael Jackson concert if necessary in an attempt to murder Michael."

The writer was eventually charged with extortion and sentenced to prison time.

The FBI papers were released after requests by The Post and other media outlets.



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Sources: NY Post, FBI, The Daily Beast, MSNBC, Google Maps

NY EMTs Under Fire For Intentionally Letting Pregnant Woman Die

Two NY EMTs Suspended As Officials Look Into Allegations They Refused To Help Pregnant Woman Who Later Died


Two city Emergency Medical Technicians were suspended without pay Monday while officials investigate accusations they refused to help a pregnant Brooklyn woman who collapsed in front of them and later died.

Jason Green, 32, and Melissa Jackson, 23, were suspended after witnesses said they callously walked out with their bagels and said "Call 911" instead of trying to help Eutisha Revee Rennix, who was gasping for air while sprawled on a coffee shop floor on Dec. 9.

Green and Jackson - who FDNY sources said are dating - work in the Emergency Medical Service dispatch center in the Metrotech complex, and their offices are directly above the Au Bon Pain where Rennix worked.

"We've known them for years," said Au Bon Pain employee Tareen Brown, 29. "We thought they'd do something ... [but] they said there was nothing they could do."

"They wouldn't put in any effort," said barista Lourdes Colon, 19. "She was lying on the floor and they just told me call 911."

Green had been an EMT for six years and Jackson for four, FDNY officials said.

Pat Bahnken, president of the EMT and Paramedics Union, said paramedics' job is to always help those in need. "If these allegations are true, then they should be disciplined," he said.

Rennix died a short time after collapsing. Her unborn child, delivered after just six months, died two hours after her mother.





Brooklyn Mother Rips Heartless EMTs Who Are Accused Of Refusing To Help Her Dying Daughter


A grief-stricken Brooklyn mother blasted two off-duty city emergency medical technicians Sunday who are being investigated for refusing to help her dying pregnant daughter - decrying the medics as "heartless."

Cynthia Rennix wept for her 25-year-old daughter Eutisha Revee Rennix, who died after collapsing in front of two FDNY EMTs who were buying bagels at the shop where she worked - but declined to help.

"They are useless. They are heartless," said Rennix, surrounded by relatives in her Flatlands home. "They are trained. They should be more responsive."

The expectant mom was working Dec. 9 at the Au Bon Pain at Metrotech in downtown Brooklyn, steps from FDNY headquarters, when she felt shortness of breath and intense stomach pain, her relatives said.

Co-workers said they begged two EMTs in the store to help, but they only callously turned and said, "Call 911" before walking out with their food.

"Those EMS workers who didn't help. ...She would have been alive," said a colleague who asked that her name not be used.

The two EMTs were placed on modified duty and are barred from providing patient care, FDNY officials said. Reports of their inaction infuriated Mayor Bloomberg.

"It was unconscionable," said Bloomberg. "But even if they weren't part of the Fire Department sworn to protect all of us, just normal human beings, drop your coffee and go help somebody if they're dying. Come on."

An ambulance from Long Island College Hospital arrived 11 minutes later, but those EMTs did not have some of the equipment needed to help, sources said. That crew also is being investigated, FDNY officials said.

Eutisha Revee Rennix's unborn child, delivered after just six months, died after her mother. The girl was posthumously named Jahniya Renne Woodson.

Rennix and her baby were buried Friday.

Her family said they asked for an autopsy, but sources said the medical examiner was never notified.

"I am angry," said the dead woman's twin brother, Eudane Rennix, a soldier stationed in Kuwait who rushed home to comfort his family. "[The FDNY] should apologize. They should try to reach out to the family."



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Sources: NY Daily News, MSNBC, AP, Youtube, Google Maps