Mulberry Eight Update: Florida Teens Involved in Videotaped Beating Appear Before Judge at Bond Hearing

The case of the eight Florida teens accused of beating a friend and videotaping it so they could post it on MySpace appeared before a judge yesterday to have their bond set. And for all of them, the judge more than doubled the typical bond in these kinds of cases, keeping many of them behind bars. Of course, the hearing also brought the parents of these punks out, and in some cases you can see the darling little apples didn't fall far from the trees. According to WFTV, the father of Stephen Schumaker, 18 decided the whole thing was the fault of Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who decided to release the video adding, "Grady Judd, our great sheriff, he made a mountain out of a molehill with all these trumped up charges for these kids." Trumped up charges? Have you seen the video dad?
Not surprisingly, Angela Cowden, the judge in the case also set some strict rules for the Mulberry Eight teens if, and when, the get out on bond: they can't go back to Mulberry High School, use any Internet sites (like MySpace or YouTube) and there's a strict curfew that essentially keeps them under house arrest.
Sweet! Below, a compilation picture of all six girls as they stood before a judge for the first time. Click here to see a slide show of the whole circus.

Here's more from WFTV:

Six of the teens accused in the videotape beating in Polk County bonded out of Jail Friday night. Only Stephen Shumaker and Britney Mayes remained behind bars. On their own videotape, six Polk County girls laughed in another girl's face as they beat her so badly she was hospitalized. Friday in court, they hung their heads in shame.Not only will the girls be tried as adults for their videotaped attack, Judge Angela Cowden doubled the normal bond for all eight teens.
Each is now held on anywhere from $31,000 to $37,000 for kidnapping and battery and Friday many of their parents told Eyewitness News they can't afford to get their kids out. More than one parent came out of the Polk County courtroom sobbing. People like Mary Nichols learned getting her 17-year-old granddaughter Mercades out of jail would now take serious money. "I don't have the money to bond her out," Nichols said.

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New York Cop Caught Robbing Pennsylvania Bank at Gunpoint - Christian Torres

Christian Torres is a new cop on the New York Police Department, so he's likely not at the top of the pay scale for the job. But is that any reason to go out of state to rob a bank, using a gun? At right, a picture of Christian Torres in uniform. Here's more from NY Daily News:

An NYPD rookie sworn to enforce the law broke it big-time Thursday, stealing $113,000 from a Pennsylvania bank at gunpoint, authorities said.

Cop-turned-robber Christian Torres, 21, of Queens, was collared less than a block away and the loot was recovered, police said.

"I can't believe it happened," said Chris Salcedo, 20, a neighbor who plays football with Torres every week. "He talked a lot about being a cop. He said he wanted to do good stuff for people."

The bizarre caper unfolded when the transit officer, dressed in a black suit, marched into the Muhlenberg Sovereign Bank just after opening and flashed a silver Glock handgun, cops said.

He demanded that tellers take him to the vault, where he stuffed a white plastic CVS bag with piles of bills ranging from $10s to $100s, authorities said.

During the heist, an employee tripped an alarm, and police arrived as Torres, who had joined the NYPD last July, walked out and hopped into his black Toyota Scion, cops said.

When officers pulled him over moments later, he told them he was a New York City police officer, authorities said. He had the bag of cash on the seat and the gun tucked into his waistband, police said.

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Cheerlader Beating Video Update: Mulberry Eight Will Be Charged as Adults, Could Face Life in Prison!

The eight Florida teens from Mulberry High School (six girls and two boys) will ALL apprently be charged as adults in the case and could face life in prison! Click here for earlier post that includes the teen's mug shots and a video clip of the alleged assault on another high school girl.

According to The Ledger:

Court records show all of the teens are charged with kidnapping and battery. The kidnapping charges are first-degree felonies that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. The battery charges are first-degree misdemeanors that carry a maximum sentence of a year in jail.
Three girls also face a third-degree felony charge of tampering with a witness, which carries a maximum of five years in prison.

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Mom Takes Infant Along With Her to Rob Candy Store - Christine Ruther

Now here's one mug shot you're not likely to forget anytime soon! That's Christine Ruther, 19, of Green Township (we're assuming Ohio because the story is from the Cincinnati Enquirer) who was arrested along with three other people for the robbery of a local candy store. But that's not her only crime: apparently Ms. Ruther took her 7-wee-old daughter with her on the crime spree and, according to cops, used the baby's stroller to haul away some of her loot. And when we say loot in this case we are actually referring to stolen candy, not cash. The thieves were ultimately caught when--I'm not making this up!--cops followed a trail of candy and empty wrappers. Are we really that far from the movie "Idiocracy" coming true? At right, Christine Ruther's mug shot picture. Here's more from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Police said Ruther had her 7-week-old daughter with her. Ruther told police she and her baby accompanied three people to the break-in and watched. She also told officers they used the baby stroller to transport the candy.

Ruther was charged with child endangering and breaking and entering. Also charged with breaking and entering were Terrance Ware, 18, of Northside; Rebecca Gamble, 18, of Blue Ash; and Dwight Reed, 22, of Walnut Hills.

Leslie Betts, manager of the 103-year-old family candy distributing business, said the quartet stole every kind of candy imaginable: “Reece cups, Skittles, Twizzlers, you name it.”

She said she learned of the break-in when Cincinnati police called her at home about 1:30 a.m.

“You’ve been broken into,” she said they told her. “We’re guarding the Swedish fish. Hurry. Come down. We can’t leave the store. It’s wide open.”

Cincinnati police also called Ruther’s mother, Amy Ruther, and asked her to come pick up the baby at District 1 police headquarters in the West End, Amy Ruther said in a phone interview.

She said she was shocked and upset over her daughter’s arrest – and that she would have the baby, Madison, with her.

“She has some problems and we have been trying to help her for a long time through doctors,” Amy Ruther said of her daughter. “When someone is that age you can’t force them to do anything. People shouldn’t make fun of the situation when they don’t know the facts. She is a good person.”

She said Christine and the baby live with her and her husband but they haven’t been able to reach Christine this week.

Amy Ruther said she doesn’t think the break-in was planned because the baby was with her daughter.

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Teacher Michelle Droelle Resigns, Admits Running Escort Servcie - Kellam High School

Yesterday, this looked like a non-story: Michelle Droelle works as a social studies teacher at Kellam High School in Virginia and someone noticed that she was still paying the the bills to place phone numbers for escort services. Legal escort services, but still something the school district was not happy about. Her explanation (yesterday)? Her name was just still on the phone bills, but she had already divorced herself from the business BEFORE she ever started teaching. End of story, right? Wrong? Someone looked into this a little more closely and found out that Ms. Droelle was actually still very much involved in the escort business and so she's been forced to resign. At right, the only picture we have been able to find of Michelle Droelle, now former teacher. Here's more from Hampton Roads:

The contracts for phone book ads list Droelle as the owner of Penthouse V.I.P. and her home address in Ocean Lakes as the company’s location.
Penthouse V.I.P. is the umbrella for an operation that runs ads under at least 20 different names, such as Exotic Playmates, Sinful Seductions and Party Girls.
Droelle did not return calls Wednesday to her home or business. Her lawyer, Mike Joynes, said that “pursuant to an agreement with the School Board, Michelle can’t have any comment.”
However, the school division denies requiring her silence.
“She chose to resign,” spokeswoman Eileen Cox said. “We don’t have any conditions on her resignation.”
As of Tuesday, Droelle still managed the businesses on a day-to-day basis, according to several women who said they have worked recently for the escort service.
One dancer, who appears on the Web site of Penthouse V.I.P. but requested that her name not be used in this article, said she has worked for Droelle for more than a year. She said that once Droelle took the teaching job at Kellam, she tried to keep a lower profile in the company – avoiding the weekly meetings where the dancers settle up their accounts with the service and collect their paychecks, signed by Droelle.
“Michelle didn’t want the newer girls to see her so she stopped coming to the meetings for a while,” the woman said. “But then she started coming again. I saw her at one in the past month.”
The contracts, from 2006 through 2008, are for ads in The Talking Phone Book, Verizon Yellow Pages and Yellow Book USA. Penthouse V.I.P. spent more than $50,000 on ads in 2007 alone, according to the contracts.
The phone book ads, often featuring scantily clad women, appeared in South Hampton Roads and Peninsula editions. Phone numbers for at least eight of the escort service names also are registered in Droelle’s name.
Calls to Penthouse V.I.P. and its affiliates are answered by an operator who sets up appointments and explains that for $100, the “girls” will strip fully nude, perform lap dances and provide companionship for one hour. Such acts are legal in Virginia as long as they take place in private and everyone involved is at least 18.
The company’s Web site features provocative photos of a dozen young women and a list of services, including “1-on-1 encounters … fetishes … light domination.”

Only LIGHT domination? I was hoping for more than that. Never mind.

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Teacher/Sheriff’s Deputy, 42, Suspended While Being Investigated for Improper Relationship With 17-Year-Old - Brattleboro Union High School

UPDATE: We Have a Picture! The question is: now that you've seen what Capt. Heidi Nelson looks like, does it make a difference in your opinion about what happened?

EARLIER POST: Now things are getting REALLY interesting. Not only are the female teachers having sex with underage boys, now some of them are cops and likely wearing guns! Add to that the possibility of doing it in the police car with sirens on and you have the makings of a great porn film. That is, unless it really happened, which is what the Vermont State Police are investigating in a case involving Windham County’s top sheriff’s deputy, Heidi Nelson, 42, who also teaches law enforcement classes and serves as Brattleboro Union High School's resource officer. Or at least she did until someone accused her of getting a little to close to a 17-year-old. No mug shot or picture yet, but drop us an email at dumbassdaily@yahoo.com if you find one! Here's more from the Burlington Free Press:

“I think it’s vital to ensure that the student, the student’s family, the career center, the members of the department, the public and Captain Nelson can trust that I am doing everything possible to protect everyone concerned as these investigations move forward, the facts are determined and the truth of the situation becomes known,” Clark said during a Monday news conference.

Clark was joined at the news conference by Brattleboro School Superintendent Ron Stahley, and David Coughlin, the acting director of the Windham Regional Career Center, which is based at the high school.

Efforts to reach Nelson on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Neither Clark nor Stahley would say much about the alleged relationship, whether it was a consensual, whether it was with a male or female student or how it came to the attention of authorities.

Nelson, of Westminster, was a 17-year veteran of the Vermont State Police before she left to run a private gym in Bellows Falls. She was first hired by the sheriff’s department by former Sheriff Sheila Prue. When Clark became sheriff last year he promoted Nelson to be his second in command.

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Free Reverse Phone Number Lookup?

How To Run A Reverse Cellphone Lookup

You’ve just received a phone call, but you need to know the owner of the number. How do you find the information you need? If you have Caller ID, then you’d have the answer - but if it was that simple your problem would already be solved. Your best bet is to run a reverse cellphone lookup using ReversePhoneDetective.com.

Protect Your Interests

A reverse cellphone lookup is an easy way for you to track down information about the owner of a particular phone number. If you suspect your spouse is cheating with the caller, if you think your child is sneaking around with someone behind your back, if you’re being pranked or if you just want to know who called you last, a reverse cellphone lookup can be a huge help in finding out what you want to know.

To get started, you need to select a site that provides this feature. Now, you’ll find several that promise free reverse phone lookups, but they only work on landline numbers. You see, your home phone number is published pretty much everywhere – which is why you get so many of those annoying telemarketing calls!

How ReversePhoneDetective.com Works

But because cell phone numbers are considered and treated more privately, they are not collected in a central database. Putting such a database together requires extensive time and money and that’s why such services – if they are legitimate – charge a fee to use them.

One reverse cellphone lookup service that you need to consider using is Reverse Phone Detective. We specialize in reverse cellphone lookups and have expansive coverage. Plus, your fee will entitle you to search as many times as you want within our members area, not only once.

More Services than Anyone Else!

Reverse Phone Detective doesn’t just provide phone numbers – we give you access to expanded people search databases and background information about the phone owners. But we don’t stop there - our service is backed up with the strongest guarantee in the industry, and we’ve been ranked #1 by many customer satisfaction surveys!

After you sign up, you can start your reverse cellphone lookup by entering the area code followed by the seven digits of the number whose owner you want to find. The search takes just a few seconds. Information about the person is immediately accessible.

The next time you want to run a reverse cellphone lookup, you know where to go – ReversePhoneDetective.com!

Click here to get started.

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Principal Caught at Motel With Pot, Porn, Booze & Two Girls, 15 & 16 - Daniel Scott Markofski, Spring Grove Elementary

A Milwaukee police officer, walking by a Super 8 Motel room, noticed the smell of marijuana coming from the room and walked in. There he allegedly found Daniel Scott Markofski, 47, the principal at Spring Grove Elementary in suburban Chicago, clad only in his boxer shorts along with some weed, some Cognac, porn blaring on the TV and . . . two underage girls, 15 and 16. No, it was not a special after school tutoring session, if that's what you were thinking. The best part of the story? According to cops, when the trio arrived a the motel they wanted to order an in-room movie. The girls wanted to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks," Markofski wanted porn. At right, Markofski's mug shot picture.
Here's more from Chicago Daily Herald:

Daniel Scott Markofski, 47, of 5713 Broadway St., Richmond, was held on $20,000 bond Tuesday at the Milwaukee County Jail. He's principal of Spring Grove School, which is part of Nippersink Elementary District 2.

Markofski was charged with two counts of exposing a child to harmful material and one count of sexual intercourse with a child age 16 or older, according to documents filed by the Milwaukee County district attorney's office.

Court documents state Markofski was arrested in Glendale, just north of Milwaukee, after an officer on routine patrol found him partially clothed in a motel room with two girls, ages 15 and 16, early Saturday.

Markofski performed a sex act on the 16-year-old while the younger teen was in the room, prosecutors said. Markofski met the older teenager on a telephone chat line, authorities said.

In addition, Markofski is accused of ordering a pornographic movie for the teens. Both Milwaukee County girls suggested "Alvin and the Chipmunks" when the trio discussed watching a movie, authorities said, but Markofski decided on the pornography.

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Florida Cheerleaders Accused of Beating Girl, Planned to Post Video on YouTube & MySpace - Mulberrry High School

That damn MySpace! Getting more innocent teens in trouble. This time, down in Florida where six young ladies--ranging in age from 14 to 17--are in jail after cops say they lured a female classmate a house and then kicked and punched her for 30 minutes while the camera rolled. The reason? According to police, the girls (many of whom are on the same cheerleading squad at Mulberry High School) didn't like what the girl wrote about them on her MySpace page, so they were going to beat her up, tape it, and post THAT on MySpace . . . apparently as a warning to anyone who messes with HS cheerleaders. Two boys, who allegedly waited outside and acted as lookouts were also charged. Below: the "Mulberry Eight." (Story continues below)

Said Polk County Sheriff Grady "No Relation to Ashley" Judd, "I've never seen anything like it. They seem to have absolutely no remorse at all. I don't understand the sheer violence. That is animalistic behavior and it is pack mentality. They lured her there to beat her and beat her. They left her with a concussion. We have photographs of her with two black eyes; her nose is swollen." Afterwards, according to police, several of the attackers drove the victim around and threatened to "beat her again" if she went to police. According to one news report, while in the holding cell, one of the girls asked if she would be released in time to make it to cheerleading practice, while others laughed and joked about not being able to go down to the beach for a while. All but one of the Mulberry Eight were in a juvenile facility, but local prosecutor would like to charge the girls as adults and after watching this brutal video, you'll likely agree. (The Ledger) Thanks to reader Scott S. for the tip on the story!

WARNING: Video is very graphic, although the language is bleeped. 

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