Lethal Dose

Here comes the judge! It is a John Waters World:

05-09) 14:52 PDT LAS VEGAS, (AP) –

Elizabeth Halverson is a judge. But the way courthouse staffers see it, she expects to be treated like a queen. Her former bailiff, for example, says Halverson made him feel like a “houseboy.” He says the judge — who is obese and uses a motorized scooter to get around — made him put her shoes on her feet, massage her back, cover her with a blanket for naps and make sure her oxygen tank was filled. He says she asked him, “Do you want to worship me from near or afar?”

Halverson also surrounded herself with her own hired guards, saying she did not trust the courthouse security force to protect her. Another time, she allegedly had her husband sworn in so that she could ask him under oath if he had completed chores at home.

Since then, the 50-year-old Nevada district judge has been locked out of her Las Vegas courtroom, suspended from the bench and brought up on judicial-misconduct charges that include not only misusing her position and treating her staff like personal valets, but also tainting juries and falling asleep on the bench.

“We believe the Judicial Discipline Commission has overreached,” said her attorney, John Arrascada. “It’s apparent that some people believe her physical appearance somehow makes her unable to perform her duties as a judge.” He added: “Last time I checked, being a judge doesn’t require a beauty contest.”

Halverson holds a law degree from the University of Southern California and worked as a law clerk in the state court for nine years before she was elected to the bench in the fall of 2006. She handled civil and criminal cases alike. When the bailiff who complained about her, Johnnie Jordan Jr., was reassigned, Halverson hired her own guards and let them bypass security checks at the courthouse. She then called 911 when court administrators tried to enter her office.

Last May, the chief Clark County District Court judge, Kathy Hardcastle, locked her out of her courtroom. The following July, six months after Halverson was sworn in, the commission suspended her, accusing her among other things of creating a hostile work environment, hiring a technician to try to hack into the courthouse computer system, and causing mistrials in two sexual assault cases by improperly meeting with jurors.

“Judicial removal should generally be reserved for corruption and complete incompetence or inability to do the job,” Stempel said. “One question you have to ask is, `Is this judge so bad we have to remove her before the voters have a chance to do so?’”

Dayvid Figler, a defense lawyer, said he had no complaints after trying cases in Halverson’s courtroom.

“In fairness, she believes she’s fighting the fight of a maverick,” Figler said. “I think her position is, `Why should I be another cog in the machine? Isn’t it what the voters elected me to do, bring change?’”

Amid the hullabaloo, Halverson has filed for re-election in August to a six-year term and is soliciting contributions on her Web site. But she has also filed a request to stop the election, claiming that the Legislature unconstitutionally changed the procedures. She continues to draw her $130,000-a-year salary.

Halverson did not respond to an interview request. A shirtless man who answered the door at her home pointed to a “no trespassing” sign and ordered a reporter off the property. The yard is clean these days, after the city cited Halverson for leaving it strewn with junk and letting the water in her pool grow murky and stagnant.

In documents denying the allegations, Halverson has blamed disgruntled employees and vindictive colleagues.

She has submitted a report from a therapist who diagnosed her with an adjustment disorder*, anxiety and depression. And she produced a letter from her physician, Dr. Michael Jacobs, who said she is diabetic, uses a wheelchair because of arthritis in her feet and knees, and needs oxygen to counteract the effects of sleep apnea. Jacobs said a drop in blood sugar may have caused a brief episode in which she fell asleep in court. But he said there is no physical reason Halverson cannot be an effective judge.

*Oooh! “Adjustment disorder” is my new favorite condition … I’m sure I have it!

The “Poor Gabors” were found guilty! And have already started to pay for their crimes - in beauty:

That was then …

this is now.

She and Helen Golay, who was convicted of all four counts Wednesday, were accused of plucking Kenneth McDavid and Paul Vados off the streets, putting them up in apartments for two years and then having them run over in dark alleys. Two years is the period after which most insurance policies cannot be contested. Golay faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. She buried her head in her hands after the jury’s decision was read.

No doubt thinking of spending the rest of her life without hair and makeup - that is punishment!

Wishing she had stayed in the hair-removal business?

Rutterschmidt could be sentenced to 25 years to life on the conspiracy conviction. As the verdict was returned, she put her chin on her fist and looked blankly around the small, softly lighted courtroom.

The jury, which received the case late Monday, will continue deliberating the remaining counts against Rutterschmidt today. Golay’s attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, indicated that she would appeal. “The ladies did not do very well today,” he said.

Sugar Mama

A local mother is in trouble after police say she brought her baby along when she broke into a Downtown Cincinnati candy store early this morning.

Officers believe 19 year old Christine Ruther and three others broke a window to get inside Minges Candy Store on Court Street in Downtown Cincinnati at 1:00 a.m. Police say Ruther took her baby out of a stroller so they could fill it with $400 worth of candy. Officers followed a trail of candy wrappers to Fourth and Race Streets, where they arrested Ruther along with 19-year-old Rebecca Gamble, 18-year-old Terrance Ware and 22-year-old Dwight Reed. Ruther is charged with breaking and entering and child endangering.

It’s “Minges” not “Binges”, Mum.

From the LAT:

Sadly, the embedded code doesn’t work, but go here:
?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=2362862

The horseshoe for luck! Helen’s hair in the corner!
Priceless:

Olga: “They gonna lock you up!”

An attorney for a septuagenarian woman charged with murder in the staged hit-and-run killings of two homeless men told jurors Monday that his client was framed by her daughter, who was motivated by “intense hatred toward her mother.”

Roger Jon Diamond, who had delayed his opening statement until the prosecution completed its case in the double murder trial, told the jury that Kenneth McDavid’s death was clearly a homicide. But he said Kecia Golay, 44, was at the wheel of the Mercury Sable station wagon that killed him, not her mother, Helen Golay, 77.

Prosecutors said a tow record places Helen Golay at the homicide scene.

“That is the question: Who did this dastardly act, not how was it done,” Diamond told jurors.

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) — A hairstylist shot an unhappy client after she complained about her haircut, police said.

She thought she was getting a bad haircut, but police in southwestern Pennsylvania say when Lauren Newton complained, she got a bullet in the back.

Newton’s hairstylist is now facing charges of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Police say the two had been arguing yesterday about the style of the cut when the hairstylist left the room and returned with a gun. Newton and her sister tried to flee after the stylist fired a shot into the ceiling, but police say that’s when a second shot hit Newton in the lower back.

She was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital for treatment. Her injuries are not considered to be life-threatening. (But what about her hair?!)

The hairstylist is being held in a Washington, Pennsylvania, jail on $50,000 bond.

deleted scene from Female Trouble: “Dawn’s Hair”

A girlfriend called last night in hysterics. She has a cold, so her rasping worried me for a second, until I realized she was laughing so hard that she was crying. She was in bed reading and came across one of the … well, what can I say? I laughed so hard I almost threw up. Not exactly what you want when you have the flu, but it sure made me feel better. “Babs” was kind enough to email it to me:

From Hattie: The Authorised Biography of Hattie Jacques, by Andy Merriman:

“After a huge delicious Christmas lunch that had included oysters, turkeys galore, all the trimmings, an array of fabulous puddings and desserts, Hattie would produce a yard-long chocolate log.”

But wait! it gets worse! She makes her grandmother eat it!

“When offered a piece, Adelaide said she couldn’t possibly eat another thing. Hattie wouldn’t take no for an answer, and Adelaide, finally yielding, agreed to a mouthful. ‘Alright . . . but it’s only to take the taste of the food away.’”

Hope you–unlike Adelaide–are feeling better–

–Babs Johnson

For the fourth day in a row I’ve been awoken by multiple chainsaws. The school nearby has been “tree trimming” but not the usual holiday style. By today, I was so enraged that I called the police, apologetically, because I can’t stand when people bother cops for stuff like that. I made sure to call the non-emergency number, where the Officer on duty told me that he was sorry, but tree-trimming is not illegal, unless on Sundays. I guess it’s just fine to employ three men with chainsaws when you’re on vacation, because you won’t hear them.

Last night, enjoying the quiet, we had a brown-out. All of the lights went dim, and the tv turned off. It stayed that way for a few hours, which was sort of interesting, actually, because the little string of blue xmas lights we have running over the bookcases dimmed down to the smallest blue glow. Mr. Lethal and the pup went out for their nightly walk and I admonished them to be careful. I was thinking of traffic.

On their return, Mr. L told me they had been invited to a swinger party. I assumed he was making an odd sort of joke, probably based on the recent “Life on Mars” episode. I mean, a guy walking a pit bull in the dark?

No joke. He was greeted on one of our leafy suburban streets with one of those “Hi-neighbor-i’ve-seen-you-around” that led to a “I’m having a big Christmas party tomorrow night” (?) that will consist of “lots of hot chicks.” If you could see the neighborhood it only makes it stranger. These houses are classic angeleno-surburban-upscale, with that only-in-LA-tasteful/overdone Christmas light displays in a land that has never seen snow. And with the brownout, it was pitch black. Mr Lethal demurred, citing Mrs Lethal at home.
“Oh, you can bring her!” Mr Neighbor enthused. Another man stood nearby. Mr L says that Neighbor reminded him of Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights, which makes perfect sense. Jack Horner around the corner!

I really want to go and peep in the windows, or at least park nearby to see the party guests.

“lots of hot chicks!”

Surprisingly, I’d never heard of this game until I came across it on a site that sells old board games:

Download before they remove the link! Too late. Find it on 1010WINS site. Italics all mine, natch.

NYC Catholic Coloring Book Warns Kids About Predators

NEW YORK (AP) — A new coloring book being distributed by the Archdiocese of New York uses a cartoon guardian angel to warn kids against predators in what is apparently the first such effort by a Roman Catholic diocese in the United States.

But the head of an advocacy group for victims of abuse by priests said the book should say explicitly that trusted adults — including priests — may be the abusers.

In the coloring book the perky guardian angel tells children not to keep secrets from their parents, not to meet anyone from an Internet chat room and to allow only “certain people” like a doctor or parent to see “where your bathing suit would be.”

In a comic book version for older kids, a teenager turns to St. Michael the Archangel for strength to report that two schoolmates are being sexually abused.

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the books are new this fall and have been distributed to about 300 schools and 400 religious education programs to use as a resource.

“It’s to help young people to know situations they should not get into,” he said. “How to be safe — but to try to do it in an age-appropriate and sensitive way.”

Zwilling said the coloring book grew out of the archdiocese’s “safe environment” training program for adults such as coaches and parent volunteers who interact with children.

He said that as far as he knows, the coloring book is the first of its kind to be produced by church officials.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he, too, was unaware of any similar effort.

Clohessy said that while he welcomes any attempt to teach children how to stay safe, he believes the coloring book should state more clearly that the predator is more likely to be a trusted adult than a stranger.

“There continues to be a bit of an overemphasis on stranger danger,” Clohessy said. “I think it would be most effective if it would say, ‘Not only strangers molest kids. Even adults you like and your parents respect — teachers, doctors, priests — can hurt kids.”’

Clohessy, who emerged as the most prominent victims’ spokesman after accusations of widespread abuse by priests shook the Catholic church in 2002, said the church’s steps to address the issue “were undertaken belatedly and begrudgingly and under external pressure.”

But Zwilling said the vast majority of priests are “good and holy men,” and he said it would have been inappropriate for the coloring book to single out priests as potential abusers.

“You don’t want to frighten children,” he said. “You also don’t want to stigmatize any group.”

The closest the coloring book comes to directly addressing the church abuse scandal is a picture of a second angel — not the guardian angel — grinning at a priest and an altar boy through a wide open door.

“For safety’s sake, a child and an adult shouldn’t be alone in a closed room together,” the text reads. “If a child and an adult happen to be alone, someone should know where they are and the door should be open or have a big window in it.”

Well, that doesn’t help - everyone knows angels can fly, stupid.

Taking some style tips from Chick Tracts?

2 SIU students accused of using hot cookies to burn man

November 7, 2007

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Two students at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville kidnapped, paddled and burned a young man with fresh-baked cookies after a drug deal went bad, prosecutors said. Rosario James, 23, and Jordan Sallis, 20, were charged Monday with aggravated kidnapping, robbery and aggravated battery.

Sheriff’s Capt. Brad Wells said that on Friday night, three men went to James’ house to buy marijuana, but two of them grabbed the drugs and fled. He said the suspects held the third man, demanded $400, beat the man with a wooden paddle, and burned his neck and shoulders with fresh-baked cookies. AP