Superior Court Judge Curtissa Cofield: “Negro Trooper” Arrest (Video)

Superior Court Judge E. Curtissa Cofield was arrested by Glastonbury, Connecticut police on October 10, 2008 for driving under the influence of alcohol. In a video released yesterday by Glasonbury police, she is seen addressing the officer booking her with racist language, calling him a “Negro trooper” and the N-word.
Curtissa Cofield
Connecticut’s Judicial Review Council released a video Monday of Manchester County Superior court judge Curtissa Cofield being booked by Glastonbury State Police. The Council is now investigating judicial misconduct charges against Cofield for using racist language against police officers booking her. Since Cofield is African American, this a very disturbing case of black-on-black racism.
She was being booked with sideswiping a state trooper’s cruiser with her BMW.
Some of the more disturbing quotes:
“We’re ghetto Negroes. We don’t have Triple-A.”
When asked if she took medication: “Yeah, I need to take anti-Negro, ummm …”
“Do you have a reading on my urine test, Negro trooper?” more

Did you know that Man Attacks His Lawyer In Court With Feces

SAN DIEGO -- A mistrial was declared Monday when a home-invasion robbery suspect smeared human feces on his attorney's face then threw more at the jury.
Weusi McGowan, 37, was upset because San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser refused to remove Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jeffrey Martin from the case, prosecutor Christopher Lawson said.
At the mid-morning break, McGowan produced a plastic baggie filled with fecal matter and spread it on Martin's hair and face, then flung the excrement toward the jury box, hitting the briefcase of juror No. 9 but missing the juror himself.
"That juror didn't even see it coming," Lawson said.
The prosecutor said the defendant was compliant after the outburst and was taken into custody without further incident.
After lunch, Fraser dismissed the jury, telling them McGowan would have to get a new lawyer and that his trial would be delayed.
The judge scheduled a status conference for Feb. 9 and raised the defendant's bail from $250,000 to $1 million, finding he is a danger to the community.
Lawson said McGowan originally became upset last week when he claimed one of the jurors saw him in shackles as he entered the courtroom. Fraser dismissed all jurors who saw the defendant in shackles, the prosecutor said.
"The judge had been very fair," Lawson said. "All jurors who saw it were dismissed."
Fraser had also denied McGowan's attempt to represent himself, saying the request was untimely, Lawson said. more

St. Lucie firefighter who took severed foot charged with theft

PORT ST. LUCIE - The St. Lucie County Fire District firefighter accused of absconding with a portion of a man's leg from an Interstate 95 crash scene last year was arrested Monday on a misdemeanor theft charge, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman said.Cindy Economou, 38, who wanted the remains to help train her cadaver dog, eventually resigned after taking Karl Lambert's foot and part of his leg from the Sept. 19 crash scene, officials said.FHP officials on Monday arrested Economou, of the 500 block of Aster Road, on a second-degree petit theft charge, which is punishable by up to 60 days in jail, in connection with the incident. The warrant lists the value of Lambert's foot at less than $100."I think the issue here for everyone was unfortunately the value of the foot," said Lt. Tim Frith, FHP spokesman. "This particular bizarre incident involving a body part is not listed in the statute as far as specifying it, so therefore it would relate back to some type of monetary value."
An arrest affidavit states Economou took the foot "with the intent to either permanently or temporarily deprive the owner, Mr. Lambert, the right to his property.""This is just so unbelievable, it's like a dream I'm in," Lambert said Monday. "I can't believe it's happening."Lambert is in a wheelchair, and said the portion of his left leg from about 5 inches below the knee is missing."Every person has his breaking point and I've had mine," he said. "Sometimes it just gets harder than normal."Lambert said the end of his leg still needs to get toughened up before he can get fitted for a prosthesis. He also needs to strengthen the extremity and be able to straighten it fully. Lambert, who was in the hospital for nearly a month following the incident, couldn't talk about some aspects of the situation on the advice of his attorney, Raymond Christian, who did not immediately return a call. more

Did you know Hartford mayor turned hhimself in for bribery?

HARTFORD, Conn. — Hartford's mayor turned himself in Tuesday on charges of having a city contractor do $40,000 in work at his home and paying for it only after being confronted by investigators.
Eddie A. Perez, a native of Puerto Rico and the first Hispanic mayor in the city's history, admitted "a lapse in judgment" but said he did not commit a crime. He pledged to remain in office.
"There is no excuse for it," Perez told The Hartford Courant. "I apologize for putting my family and my city under this situation."
Perez, the Democratic mayor of Connecticut's capital city since 2001, was charged with receiving a bribe and falsifying evidence.
The contractor, Carlos Costa, told investigators he believed he would be shut out of lucrative city contracts had he not done the work for free, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Costa, who was awarded a $5 million city streetscape contract, did the kitchen and bathroom renovations at Perez's home in 2005. Perez paid $20,000 for the work in 2007, but only after being questioned by a grand jury probing possible corruption in city government, prosecutors said. Neither Costa nor Perez obtained building permits for the work, prosecutors said.

According to warrants in the case, investigators found "numerous instances" where Perez intervened in matters to help Costa.
Costa was charged Monday with two counts of bribery, fabricating evidence and conspiracy to fabricate evidence in connection to the case.
Perez is charged with receiving a bribe, fabricating physical evidence and conspiracy to fabricate evidence. The felonies can bring a maximum sentence of five to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Perez did not return a phone message left by The Associated Press, but scheduled a 1 p.m. news conference to discuss the charges.
Perez grew up on Hartford's gritty North end and street gang leader before turning away from gang life in the 1970s and forming a neighborhood civic group.
Though technically powerless in the city's weak-mayor form of government, Perez upended Hartford politics by aligning himself with a Republican and a Green Party member to seize control of the City Council. In 2002, voters approved a charter change that shifted the power from the council to the mayor's office and made Perez the most powerful mayor in Hartford history. In 2005 he also took over the city's school system.
Another city hall employee, Edward Lazu, was charged with one count of receiving a bribe, fabricating evidence and three counts of forgery. more

Did you know that Julie Amero Faced Up to 40 Years in Prison After Spyware Caused Porn to Pop Up on Her

Julie Amero spent years fighting porn charges after a computer malfunction.
But her life took a drastic turn on Oct. 19 of that year and now, four years later, Amero has a scarred reputation and said she has suffered emotional distress after facing serious pornography charges that destroyed her teaching career.
"Everybody out there should be afraid," the now 47-year-old Amero said on "Good Morning America" today. "If it can happen to me it can certainly happen to you."
The Back Story: Spyware Cause Porn Popups on Teacher's Computer
Amero started that fateful school day at Kelly Middle School in Norwich, Conn., by checking her personal e-mail and then she stepped out of the classroom to use the bathroom. While she was away from her desk, the computer began displaying a flurry of pornographic images.
She returned to find two students giggling at the computer screen. Amero said she tried to close the inappropriate images, but to no avail.
"The pop-ups never went away. It was one after another. They were continuous. Every time I clicked the box in the corner, the red box, the red X, more were generated," she said according to a court transcript. more

Did you know that Citigroup abandon plans to purchase luxurious new 50 million corporate jet?

The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France.
The bank used TARP funds to purchase a new corporate jet for executives.
The decision came 24 hours after the banking giant, which was rescued by a $45 billion taxpayer lifeline, defended buying the state-of-the-art Dassault Falcon 7X -- one of nine to be flying in U.S. skies -- as a smart business deal.
The jet, the epitome of corporate prestige and privilege, can carry 12 passengers in elegant comfort.
ABC News has learned that on Monday officials of the Obama administration called Citigroup about the company's new $50 million corporate jet and told execs to "fix it." more

Did you know a California woman gave birth to eight babies?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California woman shocked doctors by giving birth on Monday to octuplets, believed to be only the second set of eight babies born in the United States.

The six boys and two girls were doing well and were in stable condition in the neonatal intensive care unit, said Dr. Karen Maples at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower.

But two needed some help to breath with ventilators, she told a press conference.

The eight babies were born nine weeks prematurely by Caesarean section over a five-minute period, stunning a 46-member medical team that was expecting only seven babies.

They weighed between 1 pound 8 ounces (680 grams) and 3 pounds 4 ounces (1.47 kg) and doctors initially identified them by the letters A through H as they were born.

"We decided to proceed with the delivery in anticipation of seven babies. We had done some drills, some preliminary dry runs," Maples said.

"Lo and behold, after we got to Baby G, which is what we expected, we were surprised by Baby H."

Maples said she had been following the mother, who was not identified, since the first trimester of her pregnancy.

Citing patient confidentiality rules, the hospital declined to say whether the mother had become pregnant through fertility treatments, which can raise the likelihood of multiple births.

"It was a shock, especially with the eighth baby," Maples said.

The mother plans to breast feed all eight babies, her doctors said.

The last octuplets known to have survived in the United States were born in Houston in 1998, in that case six girls and two boys. One of the babies, a girl, died one week after birth.