Friday Night News Dump

Stillwater stabbing victim accused of keeping box of child pornography in basement

Published: Friday, June 22, 2012, 8:30 PM     Updated: Friday, June 22, 2012, 11:47 PM
By Seth Augenstein and Amy Ellis Nutt/The Star-Ledger 

STILLWATER — As murder victim Dennis Pegg was laid to rest at St. Joseph’s cemetery in Newton today, across town a defense lawyer for one of the accused filed an affidavit seeking to preserve Pegg’s belongings — including an alleged box of child pornography.

The request, submitted by attorney Daniel Perez, specifically cited a box containing "numerous Polaroid photographs of nude children and/or children involved in sexual acts."

Clark Fredericks, 46, has been charged with first-degree murder and two of his relatives claim he was molested by Pegg years ago when he was a Boy Scout and Pegg a troop leader. Robert Reynolds, 47, friend of Fredericks, has been charged with helping him kill Pegg and hiding evidence.

Perez’s request, according to the affidavit, was based on information provided to police after Pegg’s death by an unnamed individual (called "John Doe 1" in the legal notice), who says he, too, was molested by Pegg when he was a child.
More at NJ.com

This happened too.... 

Teen admits to Lakewalk beating role

Teen admits to Lakewalk beating role
Duluth News Tribune - July 02, 2010


A 16-year-old Duluth boy told a judge on Thursday that he took part in the May 20 beating that left a University of Minnesota Duluth student unconscious on the Lakewalk.

Markus Lee St. Clair admitted to a charge of first-degree assault that was brought against him in a juvenile delinquency petition. In exchange for that admission, a charge of first-degree aggravated robbery was dismissed by the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office.

St. Clair is one of four juveniles to be charged with beating Dash Johnson, and the first to admit to his role. The juveniles are accused of stealing Johnson’s wallet and cell phone. Johnson, an Arden Hills, Minn., native, had just finished his junior year at UMD, where he was majoring in communications. He had been working as a host at Little Angie’s in Canal Park and as a student intern with Visit Duluth.


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Why wouldn't they say "Teen boy admits to Lakewalk beating role"?

Teen girl accused in beating my cousin

Teen girl accused in beating, sexual assault appears in court
Duluth News Tribune - June 12, 2010

A 17-year-old girl accused of taking part in beating University of Minnesota student Dash Johnson unconscious on the Lakewalk last month, and using a shampoo bottle to sexually assault an 18-year-old woman two days later, appeared in St. Louis County District Court Friday to determine if there is sufficient evidence to support the charges against her.

Julie Ann Isham, who turns 18 on June 20, is charged with first-degree assault and first-degree aggravated robbery in the May 20 beating of Johnson, who suffered traumatic brain injuries. Isham is charged with first-degree criminal sexual and third-degree assault in a separate incident on the 1300 block of East Fourth Street on May 22.

Isham and a 16-year-old girl are accused of striking the victim of the sexual assault 20 times in the head and face. The young woman suffered a broken nose and broken facial bone.

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Loathsome, stinking underground

There, in its loathsome, stinking underground, our offended, beaten-down, and derided mouse at once immerses itself in a cold, venomous, and, above all, everlasting spite.

For forty years on end it will recall its offense to the last, most shameful details, each time adding even more shameful details of its own, spitefully taunting and chafing itself with it fantasies. It will be ashamed of its fantasies, but all the same it will recall everything, go over everything, heap all sorts of figments on itself, under the pretext that they, too, could have happened, and forgive nothing.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky. Notes from Underground. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.

They Are The Best

And they specialize in the ridiculous...

Erik Got A Ruling from The American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel

June 1, 2009

Erik B. Anderson
Hackettstown, NJ 07840

Mary Huot
c/o Huoghton Mifflin Company
222 Berkeley St.
Boston, MA 02116

Dear Ms. Huot:

I am doing some research for my autobiography and I need your help.I need to know if the word "ironically" is used incorrectly in the three short articles I am including in this letter.

An article on Wikipedia says:

The American Heritage Dictionary’s usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that "suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly."

This is my argument:

1. The fact that James Titus was wrongly convicted of rape and murder, served 19 years in prison and lived in Hackettstown for almost 50 years is a "surprising disappointment."

2. The fact that the scene of the crime burned down on Halloween night, 1899, is another "surprising coincidence." [The HackettstownHistory.com article "Fall Into Halloween" is no longer online].

and

3. The fact that Marilyn Manson torched his drummer's drum kit on the night before the last show of the tour in the winter of 1995 is...well it's not a coincidence or a surprise knowing what I know about the last night of the tour that ended in December 11, 1995, but it most certainly does not suggest( any particular lessons about human vanity or folly.

So, the word ironically is used incorrectly in each of these documents, and the reasons for these events have not been adequately explained. I believe the real answers to these questions are very important indeed.

Can you confirm if I have used the correct argument to determine that it is incorrect usage already? Is there a formal process to request a "ruling"?

I cannot ask Webster's, because the third definition of irony in Webster's New World College Dictionary: Fourth Edition (page 755) calls it: "a combination of circumstances or a result that that is the opposite of what is or might be expected or considered appropriate [an irony that the firehouse burned]."

I appreciate the fact that you are there. This is very important to me on a personal level. Is there anything more that I can do?

Sincerely,



Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782


************

Click on image to read letter.