Brief news:  from usatoday March 23 ,2018

Former officer charged with murder leaves jail

Hijacking

Seizing control: Recent plane hijackings around the world

Two hijackers seized control of a Libyan domestic flight Friday and diverted the Afriqiyah Airways plane to Malta before surrendering. All 118 people aboard left safely.

The pilot said the two men, who were taken into custody, were seeking political asylum in Europe and wanted to set up a political party called “the New Fateh," referring a revolution led by the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi after a coup in 1969.

Kidnapping

Nearly 100 Nigerian girls still missing days after suspected Boko Haram attack, parents say

ABUJA, Nigeria — Nearly 100 Nigerian schoolgirls are still missing three days after suspected Boko Haram militants raided their school this week in northeastern Nigeria, parents said Thursday. 

The news came after government officials in Yobe state said some 50 women remained unaccounted for in the Monday evening attack on the Dapchi village. There have been conflicting reports over the number of girls accounted for and how many are still missing.

Families accuse the government of lying about finding some of their children. “How could they have deceived us all along?” said Abdul Dapchi, 27, whose two sisters are missing.

The incident came four years after 276 students were abducted from their school 170 miles away in the northeastern town of Chibok, sparking the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

Teachers and students ran from the Government Girls Secondary school into the bush outside Dapchi on Monday evening as the girls were taken away in trucks, the BBC reported.

A swift investigation of the terrorist attack of Yobe Girls Secondary School is KEY to enabling FG &Yobe State Government identify the VULNERABILITIES that led to yet another successful abduction of students (Girls) from a Boarding School.#LessonsMustAlwaysBeLearned.

— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) February 22, 2018

Robbery

http://usatodayhss.com/2018/florida-football-player-shot-dead-house-robbery

Florida HS football player shot dead after he allegedly broke into house

An Edgewater (Fla.) football player was shot dead when he and an accomplice broke into a house and he was shot in an alleged attempted robbery gone wrong.

As reported by Orlando news network WKMG, 18-year-old Edgewater student and football player Gerald Anderson was shot in the chest and leg by 70-year-old Orange County homeowner Juan Caraballo when the two exchanged gunfire after Anderson and fellow teen Luismil Hernandez broke down Caraballo’s door in an attempt to rob from the house. Caraballo was also shot in the arm, chest and lower abdomen and was later taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Burglary

3 Illinois players facing burglary charges now off team

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — The University of Illinois has dismissed three players facing residential burglary and aggravated robbery charges.

Coach Lovie Smith on Wednesday dismissed freshman tight end Zarrian Holcombe and offensive linemen Darta Lee and Howard Watkins.

Police allege the three entered a fellow student's dorm room wearing masks and wielding a BB gun. They went through the 19-year-old man's dresser drawers and wallet. The trio left with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The players have said they were pulling a prank on the man, who recognized one of them by voice.

The three players were suspended indefinitely following their arrests on May 10.

Lee of Fresno, Texas played in six games last season as an offensive lineman. Holcombe of Houston played in seven games mainly on special teams. Watkins, from Cincinnati, joined the team with the 2017 recruiting class and participated in spring practices.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Shoplifting

Alford to sit 3 players reportedly involved in shoplifting

BEIJING (AP) — UCLA basketball coach Steve Alford will sit the three players reportedly involved in a shoplifting incident in China for Saturday's game against Georgia Tech in Shanghai.

Alford, however, declined to address the issue further.

"The University came out with a statement, so I won't have any further comment on this other than in answering that question — those individuals won't play on Saturday," Alford said Wednesday in Shanghai.

Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott issued a statement Tuesday night saying that UCLA basketball players were "involved in a situation" in China, with police being summoned to the team's hotel to investigate the matter.

"UCLA is cooperating fully with local authorities," Scott said.

Citing a person close to the situation, the Los Angeles Times reported that freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were involved in a shoplifting incident. Ball is the younger brother of Lonzo Ball, the former UCLA star and current Los Angeles Lakers rookie. Their father, LaVar Ball, is also in China and told ESPN that he was "going to wait until I get more intel on what's going on" before commenting.

Police in Hangzhou did not respond to telephone calls from The Associated Press for details.

Scott did not elaborate on what occurred and said the league was directing all inquiries about the specifics of the matter to UCLA.

"We are very disappointed by any situation that detracts from the positive student-athlete educational and cultural experience that this week is all about," Scott said. "Whether in the United States or abroad, we expect our student-athletes to uphold the highest standards. We will continue to closely monitor the situation."

UCLA team spokesman Alex Timiraos said the school is aware of the situation and is gathering more information.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that local police were called to the hotel where both teams were staying in Hangzhou and inspected UCLA's bus as players waited to depart for practice. Police interviewed players from both teams before clearing three players from Georgia Tech, according to a statement released by the school.

The teams were staying at the Hyatt Regency Hangzhou on Tuesday before leaving for Shanghai, where Georgia Tech and No. 21 UCLA are set to open the season.

Georgia Tech said its players who were questioned were to rejoin the team and resume their scheduled activities.

The teams are playing at Baoshan Arena in the annual Pac-12 China game, in which a conference school plays another American opponent as part of the league's global initiative.

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More college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Forgery

Ex-East Tennessee State tennis coach Zaatini indicted

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) — Former East Tennessee State tennis coach Yaser Zaatini has been indicted on charges that he misappropriated at least $45,540 from the university.

The Tennessee comptroller's office announced Friday that a Washington County grand jury on Nov. 3 indicted Zaatini on one count of theft of over $10,000 and 22 counts of forgery. The investigation started after ETSU's department of internal audit reported financial discrepancies in the tennis program.

Zaatini resigned on March 16.

Investigators said Zaatini misappropriated funds between September 2011 and February 2017 and provided fabricated or altered documents to the ETSU athletic department. Investigators said Zaatini submitted fraudulent student-athlete per diem documents, fabricated fraudulent documents for reimbursement and inflated the amounts he paid for tournament registration.

Zaatini's lawyer, Don Spurrell, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Arson

2 men found guilty of arson and murder in firefighter's death

CINCINNATI — Two men were found guiltyWednesday of arson and murder in connection with an Ohio firefighter's death nearly two years ago.

Homeowner Lester Parker and his nephew William "Billy" Tucker were charged with murder and aggravated arson in the death of Hamilton firefighter Patrick Wolterman, who died of smoke inhalation while responding to a house fire on Dec. 28, 2015.

The two were sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 15 years but are expected to appeal.

"I consider this to be one of the most important cases because of the death of a true American hero," Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said after the verdict. "It's important to know that justice can be served in this county and it has been."

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Prosecutors said Parker talked to Tucker on Dec. 20 and asked him to set the fire at his house in suburban Cincinnati in exchange for pills while Parker and his wife were in Las Vegas. Prosecutors said Parker wanted the money from the insurance policy. 

The fire was set in the basement and the blaze weakened the floor, which caused Wolterman to fall through the floor when he entered the home, prosecutors said. 

Facebook messages that Tucker sent to multiple people contained GPS locations of where he was when he sent them, Gmoser said. Gmoser said those messages put Tucker at the scene of the arson. 

"His alibi goes up in smoke," Gmoser said during closing arguments on Tuesday.

Gmoser said Parker moved valuables from the home and took family pictures with him to Nevada.

"Lester took those pictures of his beloved children to Las Vegas. It is the hallmark of arson cases," Gmoser said. "They give themselves away."

Before the Butler County jury’s verdict was read Wednesday, the silence in the courtroom was broken by crying from members of Wolterman's family. Small packets of tissues were passed around. 

Bre Wolterman, Patrick's widow, made a tearful statement before Butler County Common Pleas Judge Greg Stephens after the verdict. She was 31-years-old when her husband died. They had only been married for seven months. 

"These two men robbed me of my whole future,” she said. “They not only took my husband from me, they took my life away. We didn't even have children yet. They took that away from me.” 

Wolterman said she struggled to watch her family and other Hamilton firefighters suffer due to the loss of their friend and coworker. She asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence for two people "who had a choice."

"This has taken such a huge part of our lives. We have a Patrick-sized hole," Wolterman said.

Drug

Silk Road drug busts: 8 more arrested

Britain's National Crime Agency said it had seized millions of pounds (dollars) worth of bitcoins, the electronic currency used on the site, and the agency's director general, Keith Bristow, said in a statement that other online drug dealers should expect a knock on their door.

"These latest arrests are just the start; there are many more to come," he said.

Silk Road gained widespread notoriety two years ago as a black market bazaar where visitors could buy and sell hard drugs using bitcoins, a form of online cash which operates independent of any centralized control. A so-called "hidden site," Silk Road used an online tool known as Tor to mask the location of its servers. While many other sites sell drugs more or less openly, Silk Road's technical sophistication, its user-friendly escrow system and its promise of near-total anonymity quickly made it among the best known.

Officials say the black market website brokered more than $1 billion in sales before the FBI collared Ulbricht at a public library on Oct. 1. In its complaint, the bureau said it had managed to copy the contents of the site's server — something one expert said would likely provide international authorities with detailed information about the site's dealers.

"Any large sellers on Silk Road should be very nervous," said Nicholas Weaver, a researcher with the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley and the University of California, San Diego.

Silk Road's eBay-style customer review system means that months' worth of sales history are now in law enforcement hands, Weaver said in an email, while the traceable nature of bitcoin transfers means the FBI "can now easily follow the money."

Britain's Crime Agency said its arrests were carried out only hours after Ulbricht was detained. It called the suspects "significant users" of Silk Road and described them as three men in their 20s from the northern English city of Manchester and a man in his 50s from southwestern England.

U.S. authorities have charged two people in Bellevue, Washington, a city just east of Seattle, after identifying one of them as a top seller on Silk Road. He was arrested on Oct. 2, while his alleged accomplice turned herself in the next day.

In Sweden, two men from the coastal city of Helsingborg were arrested on suspicion of distributing cannabis over Silk Road, the local Helsingborgs Dagblad reported Tuesday. The newspaper did not say when the pair had been detained.

Britain's Crime Agency, which became operational only this month, said the arrests sent a message to criminals that the anonymity touted by sites like Silk Road is an illusion.

Traffic Violation

Woman pleaded guilty to DUI before fatal crash

ASHVILLE — A woman involved in a fatal crash Thursday morning had pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol earlier in the day, court records show.

Stephanie L. Ferguson, 29, of Nashville is the suspected driver of a Toyota Tundra pickup truck that smashed into the back of the Cadillac sedan carrying two people, police said.Willie Nichols, 64, and Aaron Hall, 66, both of Nashville were rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where they were pronounced dead.

"We are all in shock," said Rod Fuller, Hall's stepson. "It's just hard to believe that he's gone. Hall was helping his friend find a new tire for his vehicle.

Ferguson and her passenger, Ashley Morrison, 28, of Nashville were seriously injured, police said. Four people inside the two vehicles in front of the Cadillac suffered non-critical injuries when their vehicles were hit in the chain-reaction crash.

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Ferguson and her lawyer, Stephanie Pirera, did not respond to requests for comment; on her Facebook page Ferguson posted that she had had a seizure. Kris Mumford, a spokeswoman for Metropolitan Nashville Police, said investigators are aware of Ferguson's statement but could not verify it.

Ferguson was convicted Thursday morning of a misdemeanor DUI that occurred Dec. 31, 2013, according to the Nashville-Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk's Office. For that offense, she must serve two days in jail and 11 months and 29 days on probation.

YouTube DUI confessor gets 6.5 years

Ferguson's driver's license was revoked at the time of Thursday's crash, a police press release said. She has a lengthy history of run-ins with police that dates back to 2003, according to court records.

She was booked into jail Friday afternoon on a probation violation and is being held on $100,000 bond, records show.

Mumford said the crash investigation is continuing and police will determine additional charges in consultation with the Nashville District Attorney's Office.

Juvenile Deliquency

13-year-old girl charged with 15 felony counts for school threats in Pennsylvania

YORK, Pa. — A 13-year-old girl has been charged with 15 felony counts of terroristic threats in connection with threats made to Central York School District last week.

The York County District Attorney's office announced the charges on Tuesday, the day after Central York resumed classes. School was closed three days last week because of the threats.

The girl is being charged as a juvenile because the offenses she's charged with don't meet the statutory criteria for an adult criminal offense, the district attorney's office said.

Unlike the adult system, there are no sentencing guidelines — minimum or maximum penalties — for juvenile offenders. A judge makes the ultimate disposition, according to Kyle King, a spokesman for the district attorney's office.

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York defense attorney Chris Ferro also talked about the differences between the adult and juvenile criminal justice systems when it comes to possible punishments.

"There's a huge difference between the adult criminal justice system and the juvenile criminal justice system as it relates to penalty," Ferro said. "In the juvenile system, most sentencing is geared toward rehabilitation and treatment, not so much punishment."

Several mothers of Central York School District students explain their feelings after police have identified the source of the Central York School District threats. Anthony J. Machcinski, York Daily Record Anthony J. Machcinski, York Daily Record

There are no specific guidelines that mandate a specific penalty in the juvenile system, Ferro said. The judge has a lot of discretion with juvenile cases, and penalties could range from informal probation up to a long-term placement in a juvenile facility.

"There's always concerns of safety of the public, and I'm not saying that punishment doesn't play any role" in juvenile cases, Ferro said. "But the primary role is the child and the rehabilitative efforts to make sure this doesn't happen again." 

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One thing that is common in the criminal justice system is ordering the payment of restitution when appropriate. Restitution is "a fixed cost for the harm caused to a victim and it is something that would have to be paid by a juvenile" as part of their sentencing, Ferro said. He said it would have to be determined whether police overtime pay stemming from a criminal investigation could be recouped through restitution.

Police began investigating after two threats against Central York School District were discovered the night of Feb. 19 and the morning of Feb. 20. In response, police launched a task force and beefed up their presence at schools across the district. Central York School District, at the recommendation of police, closed Wednesday.

In the first threat, a Central York High School student on Feb. 19 overheard another in the hallway say, “Don’t come to school tomorrow.” Details became distorted as this information was shared and passed around on social media, police said.

A second threat, uncovered on social media the morning of Feb. 20, mentioned the police presence at the high school and in response, focused on the middle and elementary schools. Later that morning, another social media post threatened that the person would be "coming all week."

Classes resumed Monday. School officials said the day went well.