| Blog and Media Roundup - Saturday, April 9, 2011; News Roundup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 9 2011, 04:28 AM (351 Views) | |
| abb | Apr 9 2011, 04:28 AM Post #1 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/12718850/article-Duke-grad-student-robbed-on-Ninth-St-?instance=main_article Duke grad student robbed on Ninth St. 04.08.11 - 10:25 pm By KEITH UPCHURCH kupchurch@heraldsun.com; 419-6612 DURHAM -- Durham police are looking for a gunman and accomplice involved in robbing a Duke University graduate student early Thursday on Ninth Street. The female student, 28, was not hurt in the holdup, Durham Police Capt. Mark Sykes said Friday. Sykes said no arrests have been made, and that police are conducting "directed patrols" in the area in response to the robbery. Sykes said the gunman robbed the student about 12:25 a.m. as she was walking from her car near the 1000 block of Ninth Street. He took her purse before leaving in a red, large-body pickup truck driven by a second man, he said. Police said the victim's handbag and contents were valued at $145. The gunman was described as Hispanic, 18 to 24 years old, with a medium build, 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall. He wore dark clothes and a hooded sweatshirt. The driver is described as having a medium build, 5-foot-2 inches to 5-6, in his late teens or 20s. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Investigator Jason Salmon at (919) 560-4582, ext. 29238, or CrimeStoppers at (919) 683-1200. |
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| abb | Apr 9 2011, 04:30 AM Post #2 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/12720688/article-City-manager-fires-director-of-HR?instance=main_article City manager fires director of HR 04.09.11 - 12:01 am <br>File photo</br> Yvonne Peña was fired from her position as director of Durham s Human Relations Department Tuesday. By Ray Gronberg gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648 DURHAM -- City Manager Tom Bonfield has fired the longtime head of Durham's Human Relations Department, Yvonne Peña. The move came on Tuesday. Bonfield that day told members of the city's Human Relations Commission that while officials "are grateful for Ms. Peña's efforts and commitment to human rights and all citizens of Durham, it has been determined that a separation at this time is in the long-term best interest of the city organization." The manager didn't elaborate on the reasons for the dismissal, citing the state's personnel-privacy laws. He did say that Peña's top subordinate, Delilah Donaldson, would serve as the department's interim director. Peña had been the city's human relations director since 2002. Before her discharge Tuesday, she'd been making $94,365 a year plus allowances for a car and a cell phone, said Alethea Bell, the city's personnel director. The N.C. General Assembly last year changed the state's personnel-privacy laws to require local governments who've terminated an employee to release "a copy of the written notice of the final decision of the municipality setting forth the specific acts or omissions that are the basis of the dismissal." The Herald-Sun has asked for a copy of that notice, but hadn't received it as of Friday afternoon. Bell said that while she "will supply" the information, she needed "several days to put [it] together since a manual review of the file is required." Beyond whatever might be in the notice, a recent pay decision had made it obvious Bonfield wasn't happy with Peña's work. She was one of two city department directors who didn't receive the $1,000 bonus the city awarded this winter to established employees who'd scored at least a "meets/meets" expectations on their annual performance evaluation. The other department boss who didn't, Community Development Director Mike Barros, has been a key figure in the debate over the Rolling Hills redevelopment project. Peña couldn't be reached Friday for comment, as the only published home phone number for her came back as "disconnected or [no] longer in service." Barros declined comment. Nathaniel Goetz, chairman of the Human Relations Commission, Friday called Peña "a passionate advocate of human rights," and said his board "wishes her nothing but the best in all future endeavors." Goetz earlier in the week reported to commission members that Bonfield had told him the firing was "an isolated performance issue" that "does not impact the commission [or] its work." The Human Relations Department is one of the city's smallest, with a budget of $589,479 and a staff of six. It's supposed to administer Durham's fair-housing program, offer dispute-settlement mediation, and work to improve race relations in the city. Staffing-wise, the department has shrunk since the N.C. Supreme Court in 2003 struck down laws that had allowed local governments to investigate job-discrimination complaints. The court held that the state constitution bars local-level regulation of matters affecting labor. Its ruling at a stroke halved the Human Relations Department's workload. |
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| abb | Apr 9 2011, 04:31 AM Post #3 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/12718852/article-Durham-sergeant-faces-kidnap--sex-offense-charges?instance=main_article Durham sergeant faces kidnap, sex offense charges 04.08.11 - 10:25 pm Durham Police Department Sgt. Lester Rhodes is pictured in this Friday afternoon booking photo. By Mark Donovan mdonovan@heraldsun.com; 419-6655 DURHAM -- Sgt. Lester Rhodes, a 15-year Durham Police Department veteran, was arrested Friday afternoon and charged with kidnapping and sexual assault. Rhodes, was arrested after the Police Department's Professional Standards Division and Criminal Investigations Division investigated a complaint. The alleged incident occurred on Sunday while Rhodes was on duty. Rhodes has been charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual offense and on Friday was taken to the Durham County Magistrate's Office for processing. Friday evening, a Durham County jailer said Rhodes bond had been set at $1.25 million. "This is an ongoing investigation and we are not releasing further details at this time to avoid compromising the investigation," said Police Chief Jose Lopez. Rhodes, 42, joined the Durham Police Department in February 1996 and is assigned to the Patrol Bureau. He has been placed on administrative leave with pay. Rhodes has been in the news before, but as a victim of crime. In 1999 his brother, Carl Parks, was shot and severely wounded at Midland Terrace shortly after having Thanksgiving dinner with Rhodes and his family. Rhodes was among officers who responded to the call ``Subject shot in the head on Midland Terrace.'' There he found his brother lying wounded in the street. Police later established that Parks was a victim of circumstance, as he did not know the two men involved in the shooting and apparently had simply knocked on the wrong door when attempting to visit a friend. Parks survived the shooting, but suffered chronic health issues related to it. Rhodes had said in a September 2000 profile in The Herald Sun that the experience made him particularly sensitive to the rights and sensitivities of victims and their families. |
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| abb | Apr 9 2011, 04:40 AM Post #4 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/04/09/1116901/officer-charged-in-on-duty-sex.html Published Sat, Apr 09, 2011 02:00 AM Modified Sat, Apr 09, 2011 12:51 AM Officer charged in on-duty sex assault STAFF WRITER JIM WISE DURHAM A Durham police officer was arrested Friday afternoon and charged with a kidnapping and sexual assault that allegedly took place while he was on duty. Sgt. Lester Rhodes was charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual offense and transported to the Durham County Magistrate's Office for processing. "We are not releasing further details at this time to avoid compromising the investigation," Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. said in a prepared statement. Police began investigating after receiving a complaint. The incident is alleged to have occurred April 3. City Manager Tom Bonfield said the allegations taint a department that has many dedicated, hard-working officers and employees. "When a situation like this happens, unfortunately it becomes a negative spillover on everybody," he said. Rhodes, 42, joined the Durham force in February 1996 and is assigned to the Patrol Bureau. He has been placed on administrative leave with pay. He is the third Durham officer charged with breaking the law in recent months. In early December, Officer Kevin A. Stewart was charged with driving while impaired while he was on duty. Stewart was fired. A few days later, Officer L.A. Harvey was charged with running a red light after he collided with another vehicle while answering a call. |
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| abb | Apr 9 2011, 04:44 AM Post #5 |
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http://boxscorenews.com/no-denver-pioneers-face-defending-national-lacrosse-champs-duke-this-we-p17863-68.htm No. 10 Denver Pioneers Face Defending National Lacrosse Champs Duke This Weekend University of Denver April 8, 2011 Denver and Duke will face each other at the Battle at Bethpage on Saturday at 12 p.m. MT BETHPAGE, N.Y. – The No. 10/10 University of Denver men’s lacrosse team remains on the road this weekend, traveling to Bethpage, N.Y. to take part in the Battle at Bethpage against the defending National Champions No. 4/4 Duke University Blue Devils. Opening face-off is slated for 12 p.m. MT at Bethpage High School. MEDIA INFO Fans can follow the game live via Live Stats and the Pioneers’ interactive in-game blog CoverItLive through DenverPioneers.com. The game will also be available on tape-delay on Verizon FiOS. The game can be seen on Channel 1 on Verizon's FiOS TV system on Long Island on Wednesday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. It will also be available free on VOD (video on demand) after that date on Verizon FiOS systems on Long Island, in New Jersey and in the Washington DC metro area. Play-by-play is Ralph Bednarczyk, analyst is Rich Donovan (former UMass and Hofstra assistant coach). THE BATTLE AT BETHPAGE The game will be sponsored by the Bethpage Educational Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to support the educational process for the Bethpage Public Schools. The new state-of-the-art athletic complex is one of the finest on Long Island, seating approximately 2,700. For the event, the Town of Oyster Bay will add an additional 2,500 seats to allow for approximately 6,000 tickets to be for sale to the public. Denver head coach Bill Tierney and Duke head coach John Danowski both grew up less than 10 miles away from Bethpage High School, making the neutral site a reunion of sorts for two of the most decorated coaches in college lacrosse. Both are long time friends, National Championship lacrosse coaches, National Coaches of the Year, former Long Island high school lacrosse players and coaches, former Nassau County residents and Nassau County public school educators (Tierney-Levittown, Phys. Ed., Danowski-Bellmore-Merrick, Science). THE SERIES The Pioneers and Blue Devils will meet for the fourth time in program history with Duke leading the all-time series 3-0. Both teams have never met on a neutral site, as Duke has defeated the Pioneers twice at home and once at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The last time these two teams met, the Blue Devils came away with a 13-9 victory in Durham, N.C. SCOUTING DUKE The Blue Devils come into this weekend’s match-up with an 8-3 overall mark, 2-0 in ACC action. Duke is coming off a 13-11 heartbreaking defeat at the hands of No. 1 Syracuse. Duke’s only other losses came against then No. 6 Notre Dame (12-7) and at Penn (7-3). Zach Howell leads the Blue Devils with 29 goals and 10 assists for 39 points, while Jordan Wolf has 20 goals and 12 assists for 32 points. The face-off tandem of CJ Costabile and Brendan Fowler are a combined 112-188, and are accounting for 78 ground balls. Goalkeeper Dan Wigrizer is posting a 55.0 save percentage and a 9.24 goals against average in 10 games played. Duke is averaging 36.5 shots per game, 12.73 goals per game, 6.63 assists per game and 19.36 points per game. PIONEER LEADER BOARD Juniors Mark Matthews (Oshawa, Ontario) leads the Pioneers with 26 goals and is second on the team with 14 assists for 40 points, while junior Alex Demopoulos (Canton, Conn.) has 21 goals and leads the way with 16 assists for 37 points. Rounding out the Pioneers’ attack group is senior Todd Baxter (Eden Prairie, Minn.) with 16 goals and 10 assists for 26 points. Sophomore Chase Carraro (Louisville, Ky.) leads the Pioneers’ face-off group with a 59.2 face-off winning percentage (116-196) and 53 groundballs. Freshman goalkeeper Jamie Faus (Lakeville, Conn.) has 83 saves on the season for a 52.9 save percentage and has a 8.71 goals against average. The Pioneers are averaging 20.89 points per game, ranking them first in the nation. Denver is averaging 13.11 goals per game and is ranked second in the nation in scoring offense. Denver also is ranked third in man-up offense with a 51.2 scoring percentage with the man-advantage. Denver has scored 21 man-up goals so far this season. The Pioneers are averaging 39.44 ground balls per game, third best in the nation, and 9.78 caused turnovers per game, 10th best in the nation. TOPS IN THE NATION Junior Mark Matthews is 16th in the nation among active goal scorers with 88 career goals. Stony Brook’s Jordan McBride leads the way with 153 career goals. CAN I GET A HAT TRICK? Junior Mark Matthews has 16 career hat tricks to his name, five of those coming in the 2011 season alone, including five goals against Hofstra on April 2. Fellow attackman Alex Demopoulos has 10 career hat tricks, three so far this season. GOING STREAKING Junior Alex Demopoulos is currently on a 26-game point scoring streak coming into this weekend’s game. Demopoulos is 12th in the nation among active consecutive-game scorers. Demopoulos has scored 57 goals and recorded 40 assist for 97 points during the streak that began on Feb. 19, 2010. Junior Mark Matthews has recorded a point in 20 consecutive games, ranking 27th. Matthews’ streak began on March 16, 2010 and he has recorded 57 goals and 23 assists for 80 points. Bryan Neufeld from Sienna leads the nation with a 45-game point-scoring streak (101 goals, 31 assists) that started on Feb. 20, 2009. Matthews is ranked tied for second in the nation among active scorers with a 20-game goal scoring streak. Matthews has scored 57 goals in 20 consecutive games, in a streak that began on March 16, 2010. Matthews is tied with Hartford’s Carter Bender, while Virginia’s Chris Bocklet leads the way with a 28-game consecutive goal-scoring streak (78 goals). |
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| abb | Apr 9 2011, 04:46 AM Post #6 |
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http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/apr/08/boyds-conviction-stands-in-christian-newsom-case/ Eric Boyd's conviction stands in Christian-Newsom torture slayings case By Jamie Satterfield Friday, April 8, 2011 The ongoing effort to bring to justice those involved in one of Knoxville's most horrific crimes cleared its first appellate hurdle Thursday with a federal appeals court backing the conviction of an accessory in the January 2007 torture slayings. The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Thursday released an opinion giving the appellate court's stamp of approval to the 2008 conviction of Eric Boyd of being an accessory to a fatal carjacking and concealing a crime from law enforcers. It is the first appellate test in the prosecution of the carjacking, kidnapping, rape and murder of Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23. Although Boyd remains a suspect in the killings, he was charged and convicted in U.S. District Court of hiding out convicted ringleader Lemaricus Davidson in the days following the slayings. He is serving an 18-year prison term. Davidson has since been sentenced in Knox County Criminal Court to death in the slayings. His brother Letalvis Cobbins and Cobbins' friend George Thomas are serving life sentences without possibility of parole, while Cobbins' girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman, was sentenced to 53 years for her role as a facilitator. The murder cases have not yet reached a state appellate court. In its Thursday ruling, a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit rejected all of Boyd's attacks on the legal soundness of U.S. District Court Judge Tom Varlan's rulings. Among those complaints, authored by defense attorneys Phil Lomonaco and associate Bradley Henry, was an objection to testimony by Knox County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan about the horrors the couple suffered. Both were beaten, tortured and raped. Newsom was shot and his body set on fire. Christian was forced alive inside a trash can in Davidson's Chipman Street home, where she suffocated. Boyd's attorneys insisted that federal prosecutors David Jennings and Tracy Stone used the medical examiner to prejudice the jury, arguing that, since Boyd wasn't being tried in the killings, her testimony was unnecessary. The appellate court disagreed. "The nature of her testimony was undoubtedly horrific, but it was also highly probative" to an essential element of the accessory charge for which Boyd was accused - whether the carjacking for which Boyd was accused as an accessory involved seriously bodily injury or death, the court opined. Although the court deemed Jennings and Stone a bit out-of-bounds in their appeals for justice for Christian and Newsom in closing arguments, the panel ruled it harmless error. Boyd apparently did not challenge Varlan's conclusion he rated maximum sentencing. Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308. |
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| abb | Apr 9 2011, 04:48 AM Post #7 |
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http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=In%20FCO%2020110407135.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR U.S. v. BOYD UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE, v. ERIC DEWAYNE BOYD, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT. No. 08-6402. United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit. Argued: January 18, 2011. Decided and Filed: April 7, 2011. |
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| Quasimodo | Apr 9 2011, 07:05 AM Post #8 |
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Edited by Quasimodo, Apr 9 2011, 07:07 AM.
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