May 19, 2009–The man accused of attacking the winner of Alaska’s biggest lottery with a metal pipe or rod pleaded guilty this week to a reduced charge of second-degree assault, a prosecutor said. Brandon Hughes, a 20-year-old from the Los Angeles area, was sentenced to three years in prison under a plea bargain, said prosecutor Clint Campion.

Hughes will be eligible for parole and time off for good behavior, which is usually about one-third of the sentence.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Patrick McKay accepted the plea and sentenced Hughes on Monday.

The victim was Alec Ahsoak, a convicted sex offender who won the $500,000 jackpot in January. After taxes, Ahsoak took home a $350,000 prize. Hughes knew a relative of one or more of Ahsoak’s sexual abuse victims, according to authorities.

If you remember the original story, Alec Ahsoak received his registered sex offender status because he is a 2 time convicted child molester. Ahsoak was convicted of two counts of sexual abuse of a minor in 1993, and once again in 2000, according to Alaska’s sex offender registry (Click here to see Ahsoak’s report).

One thing we didn’t know at the time of the original story was the fact that Brandon Hughes was friends with a relative of one of Alec Ahsoak’s victims. So Hughes’ “tune up” of Alec the Diddler’s head was not some random act of a guy who saw a child molester on the street and decided to rough him up – he had a personal stake in it.

Brandon Hughes’ mistake was running, forcing the police to look for him, and getting rid of the tire iron. I’ve said this in the original thread, but if I was in his position, I would have waited for the police after I’d finished adjusting Alec Ahsoak’s attitude and admitted to what I’d done.

We can argue about whether or not Brandon Hughes should have taken justice into his own hands all day long, but I think we can all agree there were only two roads for him to choose once the beat down was over. If you’re going to go so far as to commit assault on another person, and believe you’re in the right, then you should be prepared to face the consequences of your actions.

Brought to you by People You’ll See In Hell. The best reason to get a background check that just about anyone can think of.

A Tucson man accused of starving his newborn baby to death was acquitted of first-degree murder Thursday and was convicted of reckless child abuse, a probation-eligible offense.

Scott Sullivan’s daughter, Kimberlie, was born on July 14, 2008, weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces and died Aug. 30, 2008, weighing 5 pounds, 7 ounces.

Her mother, Terri Sullivan, 27, pleaded guilty to child abuse and first-degree murder and is now serving a life sentence with parole possible after 25 years.

The jury found that Sullivan’s wife was responsible for the child’s death.

Defense attorney Dan Cooper said he told jurors the evidence showed Scott Sullivan, 28, was oblivious to Kimberlie’s declining health because he was rarely home and when he was, he was exhausted.

Scott Sullivan was working two jobs much of the summer of 2008 and often had to walk 20 miles roundtrip to work because his vehicle was broken down, Cooper said.

Scott Sullivan counted on his wife to care for the baby and their three other children while he was working, Cooper said.

His client’s family testified Scott Sullivan was a shy, reserved man who was married to a bossy, domineering and forceful woman, Cooper said.

Terri Sullivan told a probation officer she was having an affair with an 18-year-old man that summer and smoking marijuana daily, court documents indicate.

On Aug. 30, 2008, Terri Sullivan called 911 saying she found Kimberlie in her swing and she wasn’t breathing. When paramedics arrived, they found Scott Sullivan performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They took over CPR but declared the emaciated baby dead a short time later.

The couple’s three other children now live with Scott Sullivan’s parents.

I’m not sure what to make of this verdict. At first I was understandably outraged that Scott Sullivan apparently got away with murder. I just could wrap my mind around a father not noticing that his newborn baby was wasting away.

But information I found out in this article an others have softened my position on Scott. Many facts came out in court, both during Scott’s trial and during Terri’s guilty plea, that were not available before.

Scott was a shy, reserved man who had married a domineering woman who made all the decisions about the family, including child rearing. He was working two full time jobs, and honestly didn’t see much of his little daughter. Whenever he did question his wife about Kimberlie’s appearance, his wife always told him everything was fine.

Plus Scott was hoofing it the whole time that Kimberlie was “alive”, walking 20 miles roundtrip to work because his POS automobile wasn’t running.

Terr Sullivan was also apparently having an affair with a much younger man. That could explain much of the neglect of baby Kimberlie. A newborn takes up most of a mother’s time. If there was a demand for her attention from a second source, like a lover, something had to give.

Anyway, I guess in this case I’m going to have to accept that the jury may have known better than I did (Shhh, don’t let it get around, or my reputation as an opinionated jerk will really suffer). There are times when I have to give a certain situation to fate and move on.

Brought to you by People You’ll See In Hell. The best reason to get a background check that just about anyone can think of.

LOS ANGELES — A Swedish hip-hop artist who ran down and killed a man at a Hollywood crosswalk was sentenced Thursday to 15 years to life in state prison.

David Moses Jassy, who also uses the name Dave Monopoly, was sentenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court for the Nov. 23, 2008, death of John Osnes.

Judge Michael Johnson denied defense motions for a new trial and to reduce Jassy’s second-degree murder conviction to manslaughter.

“In my mind, there is no question that this is a murder” and Jassy “deserves every bit of punishment,” the judge said.

Two of Osnes’ sisters said they still grieve for him, according to letters read in court by a family friend.

“Invariably, even though I was not there, my thoughts of John are often accompanied by a mental picture of my brother lying dead on the pavement, a pool of blood forming behind his head,” Kris Osnes wrote.

Defense attorney Alec Rose said he planned to appeal the sentence.

Osnes, a 55-year-old musician and pedestrian activist, banged on the hood of Jassy’s rented sport utility vehicle after it nearly struck him in a Hollywood crosswalk, prosecutors said.

Jassy got out, punched Osnes in the face and then gave him a brutal kick in the head as he bent to pick up his glasses so that he toppled to the ground, prosecutors said.

Osnes was run down as Jassy drove away.

Prosecutors said he died from head injuries from the kick and a liver laceration caused by the SUV.

Jassy was arrested after police traced him through the rental car’s license plate.

At his trial, Jassy testified that he never intended to hurt Osnes, got out of the SUV to check for damage and thought that there was “going to be an argument, not a fight.”

Jassy said he cried when police told him that Osnes had died.

Los Angeles County Superior Court jury convicted him on Feb. 1 of second-degree murder, assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury. Jurors acquitted him of first-degree murder and two other charges.

My sources tell me David Moses Jassy was also convicted of committing first degree assault on the ears of the general public for his involvement in High School Musical. He was sentenced to 6 months of watching “From Justin To Kelly” around the clock.

Two administrators and two caseworkers from a city-funded social service agency were convicted today of health care fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the death of Danieal Kelly, the 14-year-old with cerebral palsy who died of bedsores and malnutrition at her mother’s apartment.

While the verdicts ended a month-long federal trial, they are not the final legal acts stemming from the West Philadelphia girl’s death in August 2006 and the ensuing investigations into the agency, MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., and the city’s Department of Human Services.

Mickal Kamuvaka, 60, a MultiEthnic co-founder who served as day-to-day manager, had no reaction as the verdict was read and declined comment afterward. She still faces a city charge of involuntary manslaughter, as does Julius Juma Murray, 52, the caseworker assigned to the Kelly family and who was also convicted today. Murray also faces trial on federal immigration charges.

An overhaul of the city’s Department of Human Services that started after the disclosure of treatment failures in Kelly’s death is also continuing. DHS used federal funds to have MultiEthnic provide in-home care for the teen and other at-risk children.

The U.S. District Court jury of seven men and five women also convicted Solomon Manamela, 52, another agency co-founder, and caseworker Mariam Coulibaly, 42.

Coulibaly was acquitted on three of 20 charges, and Murray was acquitted on three of 19 charges.

The four face sentences ranging from three to more than seven years.

According to court testimony, the federal investigation started after William McDonald, a criminal investigator from the Department of Health and Human Services, read a lengthy article in The Inquirer about Danieal’s death.

The fallout from that incident, and other failings earlier reported by The Inquirer, prompted then-Mayor John Street to fire the commissioner and top deputy of DHS. Mayor Nutter later discharged other employees and installed a child advocate, Anne Marie Ambrose, as DHS commissioner.

Murray had claimed, and agency records said, that he had visited the West Philadelphia home on July 24th 2006, less than two weeks before Danieal died Aug. 4. But prosecution witnesses testified that the odor from Kelly’s massive bedsores – the odor of decaying flesh – would have been impossible to miss.

The jury found that the defendants fabricated paperwork for home visits that never happened, and when a federal investigation started, tossed out or shredded documents sought by the government.

“Danieal Kelly starved, and to put it bluntly, rotted to death in her bed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben said after the verdict. Deliberations extended over parts of two days.

From July 2000 through December 2006, the city paid MultiEthnic some $3.7 million for services it was supposed to have provided to more than 500 families over that time period.

Some of those services were delivered, as defense witnesses testified.

“We’ve never alleged they provided no services at all,” said Witzleben, who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Attorney Vineet Gauri. Rather, she said, agency workers encountered some cases “that were very difficult to work with . . . and they chose not to do so.”

Andrea Kelly, the teen’s mother, was caring for eight of nine children in the first floor of a rowhouse in the Mantua neighborhood. She pleaded guilty in state court to third-degree murder and child endangerment, and was sentenced to up to 40 years in state prison.

Testimony from coworkers described Kamuvaka and Manamela as frequently failing to provide training and supervision to agency workers. Kamuvaka, in particular, was said to have condoned the creation of false records.

Her attorney, William Cannon, said Kamuvaka “was very disappointed” by the verdict and repeated his courtroom defense that she and other managers were the victims of their own staff, “social workers who did her in” by faking reports and not providing services.

Paul J. Hetznecker, Manamela’s attorney, said his client was “scammed” by his own employees, though he conceded there was “significant” mismanagement.

“But that doesn’t take away from the dedication Solomon Manamela has had” to social work, Hetznecker said. Kamuvaka holds a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, and like Manamela has had a career in social work.

Manamela and Coulibaly also declined comment. Murray is being held on the federal immigration charges.

Kamuvaka, Murray, Manamela and Coulibaly join Danieal’s mother Andrea Kelly and family friends Marie Moses and Diamond Brantley on the list of people who failed this poor child and have either been adjudicated or plead guilty in a court of law. Andrea Kelly took a plea deal for third degree murder and is currently serving a 30 year term, while Moses and Diamond plead guilty to lying to the Grand Jury – They were at the Kelly home the morning Danieal was found starved to death and covered in maggot infested sores, but testified that they saw Daniel and she was happy and healthy – they received probation, probably because they were just so God-awful stupid.

Next up is Julius Murray’s and Mickal Kamuvaka’s trial on involuntary manslaughter charges. We here a PYSIH hope their juries shown them all the sympathy and compassion that was shown to young Danieal during the last few weeks of her life.

On a chilly morning in February 2009, state police found 26-year-old Kenzie Houk in her bed with a bullet though her head. She was eight months pregnant.

The search for her killer ended with the most surprising murder suspect residents of Wampum, Pennsylvania, had ever seen: 11-year-old Jordan Brown, the son of the victim’s fiancé.

He is one of the youngest suspects in the country to be charged with homicide, legal experts say. There are two counts of homicide, one covering the fetus.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges in May.

In Pennsylvania, there is no lower limit for the age someone can be charged as an adult with criminal homicide. If convicted, Jordan, now 12, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The question of age is being raised in the Supreme Court this year where the practice of sentencing young people younger than 14 to life in prison without parole is being challenged.

After nearly a year of silence, Jordan’s family, friends and attorney are bringing attention to the case as more court hearings loom. They say Jordan is innocent and should be tried in juvenile court. This month, they will launch the Jordan Brown Trust Fund to raise money for his defense.

A decertification hearing, at which Jordan’s attorneys will ask the judge to move the case to the juvenile system, began this month. A decision on whether the case will be tried in the juvenile system or adult courts will likely be made in March, attorneys say.

The suspect’s father has not publicly discussed the case, and CNN has been unable to reach him for comment.

“Our first step is decertification, because we feel like he is amenable to juvenile rehabilitation,” said attorney Dennis Elisco of New Castle, Pennsylvania. “Not only do I know he’s amenable, but I know he’s innocent.”

In almost half the states across the country, children can be prosecuted and tried in adult court, according to the University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Many of the laws passed were passed during a time when juvenile crime spiked in the 1980s and 1990s.

But sentencing experts say a majority of homicide cases involving children as young as Jordan are tried in juvenile courts, where the records remain sealed and sentences are less harsh.

At the time of the slaying, Jordan was a chubby fifth-grader with dark brown hair and an energetic smile. He liked riding bikes and reading Harry Potter books. Since the third grade, he played quarterback in his community’s football league.

Family and friends describe him as an “all-American boy.”

On weekends, Jordan hunted alongside his father, Chris Brown, who purchased the youth-sized 20-gauge shotgun state police believe was the murder weapon. The gun was given to Jordan as a present for Easter, and the boy’s lawyers say he only used it for hunting.

Jordan’s family friends say they never saw him exhibit any violent behavior. And he had no prior brushes with the law.

“He always got along with everybody, and he was always smiling,” said Lonnie McConahy, 43, a co-trustee of the Jordan Brown Trust Fund. “It was always ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, ma’am.’ ”

After his arrest, Jordan was placed in the Lawrence Country Jail, a facility for adults. But authorities transferred him to a juvenile center in March after his attorneys argued that the adult jail couldn’t accommodate an 11-year-old.

Most juveniles who enter the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Detention Center come and go within a few weeks. But Jordan has spent a birthday and Christmas there. He missed a much-anticipated fifth-grade overnight field trip to Gettysburg and didn’t get to play his final year on the junior football league.

His attorneys say Jordan is still unable to grasp the magnitude of what is happening to him. He is doing well in counseling, his attorneys and family say.

Jordan’s detention facility locker holds his books and board games. His school friends and football teammates shower him with letters, cards and magazines.

He is showing signs of reaching puberty. He has grown several inches and has gained about 20 pounds. He’s starting to look like a teenager.

Although it is rare to charge someone so young as an adult in the United States, the prosecutor in the case says Pennsylvania law left him with little choice.

In the case of homicide, “my choice is either to charge him as an adult, or don’t charge him,” said John Bongivengo of the Lawrence County District Attorney’s Office. “Not charging him at all wasn’t feasible.”

It also is rare for an 11-year-old to commit a violent crime. In his 30-year analysis of juvenile homicides, Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox found about 500 cases of children younger than 11 who were suspected of murder.

The U.S. Supreme Court took into account the growing body of adolescent brain research in 2005 when it banned the death penalty for juveniles.

“For all of the reasons the Supreme Court has rejected imposing the death penalty on children and all the new brain research, those reasons are magnified when thinking about a child as young as 11,” said Marsha Levick, director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.

Jordan’s defense argues that there are no witnesses to connect him to the crime, but prosecutors are relying on the statements of the victim’s oldest daughter, who was 7 at the time. She told authorities she heard a loud boom before leaving for school with Jordan.

That sound, prosecutors say, was the noise of a 20-gauge youth shotgun that state police believe is the weapon responsible for Houk’s slaying.

But Jordan’s attorneys say the witness, now 8, is unreliable because she didn’t say she heard a “boom” the first two times police interrogated her. It wasn’t until a third round of questioning that she told them about the noise.

The victim’s body was discovered by her youngest daughter, just 4.

Prosecutors allege there was tension between Jordan and Houk, who had moved into the father’s farmhouse. They say Jordan was jealous of Houk and her two daughters. The unborn child was a boy.

“There are no signs of forced entry,” Bongivengo added. “No signs of a robber or burglar.”

Jordan’s supporters deny any rivalry or bad feelings between the boy and his would-be stepmother.

Prosecutors also allege that there is strong physical evidence linking Jordan to the crime. Police found gunshot residue on Jordan’s shirt. A state trooper testified that the gun smelled like it had been freshly fired. His defense team argues that many of Jordan’s shirts and guns had residue because he frequently hunted with his father.

And let the revisionists begin their assault on the truth.

If I hadn’t been so interested in this case from the beginning, this story might have slipped by me like so many others do. But I remember everything about this story, and what Jordan Brown’s family wants us to believe about who he is doesn’t jive with who he was a year ago.

They want us to believe he was the all-American boy who was friends with everyone, when the truth is he was a bully and a loner.

They want us to believe he is completely innocent, when in fact, there are at least two witnesses that have said he threatened to do exactly what he did to Kenzie Houk. That’s called premeditation.

They want us to think he shouldn’t be tried as an adult in any case, when there is plenty of circumstantial evidence that Jordan Brown took his shotgun and put a hole in the back of Kenzie’s head while she slept. He then destroyed evidence, established an alibi, and did his best to send the cops on a wild goose chase.

Most adults who commit murder don’t plan it this well.

No, Jordan Brown is a cold blooded murderer, and his age is not a factor in this particular situation. I agree, most 11-year-olds are not capable of committing such a heinous act and truly understanding what they’ve done.

But not this evil little fucker. Take a really good look at his mug shot. Look into his eyes. What do you see?

Nothing, that’s what you see – no fear, no remorse – nothing. He has the eyes of a killer. Shark eyes. And God help us all if he ever gets away with this.

Feb 25, 2010–A Tucson mother of four had nothing to say Wednesday before she was formally sentenced to life in prison for starving her 6-week-old daughter to death.

Also in the same courthouse Wednesday, Terri Lynn Sullivan’s husband went on trial separately in the baby’s death. Scott D. Sullivan is charged with first-degree murder and child abuse in connection with Kimberlie Sullivan’s death in August 2008.

Terri Sullivan, 27, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last month, agreeing to serve a life sentence with parole possible after 25 years.

Kimberlie was born on July 14, 2008, weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces. Her siblings were 2, 3 and 6 years old, according to court documents. The baby weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces when she died.

On Aug. 30, 2008, Terri Sullivan called 911 saying she found Kimberlie in her swing and she wasn’t breathing. When paramedics arrived, they found Scott Sullivan performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They took over CPR but declared the emaciated baby dead a short time later.

The Sullivans gave conflicting accounts about how often they fed the baby, but they acknowledged that they had sought no medical help for her deteriorating condition, court documents said.

On Wednesday, Pima County Assistant Public Defender Darlene Edminson-O’Brien told Judge Richard Fields in county Superior Court that Terri Sullivan’s childhood and intelligence level contributed to “the situation she found herself in,” but she didn’t elaborate. Documents with those details have been sealed at the defense attorney’s request.

Deputy Pima County Attorney Carolyn Nedder said life in prison was the appropriate sentence for Terri Sullivan.

At the start of Scott Sullivan’s trial, witnesses told jurors that Kimberlie was emaciated, frail and malnourished when they responded to her family’s apartment after her mother called 911.Then jurors saw photos that Tucson police detectives took on Aug. 30, 2008, after the baby had been pronounced dead in a room in her family’s east-side apartment.

The photos showed Kimberlie’s face was sunken in, her skin was saggy, and her bones protruded through her skin. In one photo, her tailbone was exposed.

Nedder told jurors that a medical examiner would testify that Kimberlie had no food in her stomach or in her esophagus when an autopsy was done.

Scott Sullivan, 28, told police that Kimberlie was skinny, and he fed her four or five times a week, Nedder said.

Defense attorney Dan Cooper told jurors that Sullivan counted on his wife to care for the kids while he was working.

Scott Sullivan was exhausted, never at home and oblivious, Cooper said. “He never knew she needed medical attention,” Cooper said.

Sullivan was a caring and attentive father, but he was passive, inward and shy, Cooper said.

Terri Sullivan was mean and nasty toward her husband, and dominated and controlled the marriage, Cooper said.

When police asked Sullivan why he didn’t notice his daughter’s diminishing weight, he told them, “I guess I hadn’t looked at her that much lately,” Cooper said.

During testimony, jurors heard from a captain and paramedic with the Tucson Fire Department and a police officer and two detectives, who all responded to the Sullivans’ apartment.

Officer Jennifer Galaida told jurors that Kimberlie reminded her of concentration camp victim.

“She was so thin – her skin was sagging around her ankles,” Galaida told jurors

It’s really nice to see this “person” truly get what she deserves. Seems she was a bit smarter than her hubby Scott, who would like us all to believe he was just too busy with work to notice that his daughter was slowly wasting away.

Yeah Scott, good luck with that defense pal.

Terri and Scott Sullivan deserve to burn for what they did, and didn’t do, for their newborn daughter Kimberlie. The poor child died weighing less than her original birth weight.

Kimberlie never knew anything but pain and suffering during her all to brief lifetime. And in addition, she never, ever knew the love of her parents, who appear to have been the epitome of those selfish and self centered parents that end up getting written up around here on an all to frequent basis. Wherever she is now, I hope she knows how her death touched so many of us.

A Brooklyn jury found three police officers not guilty on Monday of abusing a suspect in the Prospect Park subway station during an arrest, in a case that recalled some of the city’s most notorious police brutality episodes but never provoked as much public outcry or departmental reform.

Acquitting all three men on all counts, the jurors rejected Michael Mineo’s claims that Officer Richard Kern repeatedly rammed a baton between his buttocks, therefore making the charges that two other officers helped him cover up the abuse irrelevant.

“It’s been a long road and it’s finally over, thank God,” Officer Kern said afterward. “I’ll finally get a good night’s sleep. I’m glad the system works.”

The verdict came after just one full day of deliberations in a trial that had lasted four weeks. Mr. Mineo’s lawyers promised to push forward with a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against the city, and to ask federal prosecutors to consider charges that his civil rights were violated.

“It’s not over,” said Mr. Mineo, who was not in court when the verdict was read but spoke to reporters afterward. “I ain’t even surprised. I kind of had a feeling it would turn out this way. If you want to commit a murder, join the N.Y.P.D. and you get cleared off.”

On Oct. 15, 2008, Officer Kern, assigned to an anti-crime unit out of Brooklyn’s 71st Precinct, chased Mr. Mineo, a heavily tattooed body-piercer, into the Q-line subway station after seeing him smoking marijuana on Flatbush Avenue. Mr. Mineo was handcuffed on the platform, then released with a summons despite a computer check that showed he had several outstanding warrants. Mr. Mineo claimed he was warned not to go to a hospital or a police station. Officer Kern, 26, a married father of three, has been on the force five years and has been assigned to the housing bureau since shortly after the confrontation with Mr. Mineo. The other two officers on trial were his partner, Andrew Morales, 28, the son and brother of New York detectives, who lives on Staten Island and has been working for the fleet services unit; and Alex Cruz, 28, who lives in Brooklyn and has been in the property clerk division.

Officer Cruz cried as the verdict was read, while Officer Morales looked up at the ceiling. “It was very hard sitting there and listening to all the lies,” Officer Morales said afterward.

Officer Kern, whose confident, matter-of-fact testimony was a key part of the defense case, showed no expression before the verdict was read, then smiled, hugging his lawyer, and his parents, who sobbed at news of the outcome.

“I’m hoping to get back on the streets and do what I love to do: protecting the people of Brooklyn,” he said later. As soon as they emerged, Mr. Mineo’s allegations drew comparisons with the 1997 torture of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was sodomized with a broomstick by a police officer in Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct station house. The Louima attack became a national symbol of police brutality and racism, and led within days to the replacement of several commanders; Justin A. Volpe eventually admitted the abuse and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Throughout, the defense made diminishing the victim’s credibility its central focus. Lawyers told jurors about Mr. Mineo’s drug use, previous arrests and the federal civil rights lawsuit he filed against the city, seeking $350 million in damages — far more than the amount sought by Mr. Louima (who won more than $8 million in settlements with the city and the police union, and has moved to Florida).

With conflicting expert testimony on the physical evidence and medical records, jurors were left to sort through the recollections of witnesses, including two of the officers on trial, about what happened on the subway platform that day. None of that testimony was more important than that of Kevin Maloney, a transit officer who happened to be at the Prospect Park station when Mr. Mineo and the officers chasing him burst inside.

During two hours on the witness stand, Officer Maloney said he had come forward to quiet false allegations that Officer Cruz had sodomized Mr. Mineo. He said he saw Officer Kern press his baton into Mr. Mineo’s buttocks, but also said he did not think it amounted to abuse.

Mr. Mineo’s own testimony provided the trial’s other highlight and its most colorful moments. On the witness stand, his straightforward, anguished tale of abuse gave way to defiance as defense lawyers needled him about his lifestyle, his gang affiliations and even whether he paid taxes.

With his head in hands, Mr. Mineo asked at one point, “This is your best defense?”

Apparently, it was enough. Officers Kern and Morales testified in their own defense, dispassionately recounting the events of the day. Officer Kern acknowledged placing his baton on Mr. Mineo’s legs to help subdue him, but he denied ever sticking it down his pants. Officer Morales testified that he did not see Mr. Mineo’s open warrants on the computer-generated report he ran that day.

One juror was replaced on Friday after she told her colleagues Officer Kern had twice before been “prosecuted or convicted of police brutality” — allegations that had not been introduced at trial and that the judge dismissed as “misinformation.” (Officer Kern was cleared in two cases of excessive force by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, but one of those cases, in 2007, led to two lawsuits the city settled for $50,000.)

On Monday, jurors declined to discuss the deliberations, and released a simple statement: “We the jury weighed all the evidence and found reasonable doubt.”

Prosecutors in the case also left the courthouse without commenting. Later, when asked about it at an unrelated news conference, Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn District Attorney, said: “I never look beyond the jury’s verdict, and I never speculate.”

Sorry for posting the last picture again, the one of Michael Mineo in the hospital bed back in 2008, apparently putting on the performance of his lifetime. Now that the three NYPD officers who were accused of sexually assaulting Mr. Mineo have been acquitted of all charges, this picture becomes especially amusing to me.

As I had a chance to see the evidence the prosecution had, and heard the testimony of the so-called star witnesses, It became very clear that this guy had no case at all, and if it wasn’t for the actions of a few bad cops in previous cases, these three officers would probably never even have been charged.

What I’d like to know is how Michael Mineo came up with this brilliant plan? I’m assuming he expected the city to just settle, and when they didn’t, found himself so deep in the lie that he had to go through with it.

When he was interviewed after the verdict, Michael Mineo said, “This isn’t over…” Michael, I think you should find the nearest Starbucks, order the most caffeine-rich cup of coffee you can get and WAKE THE FUCK UP! It IS over. No one believes you, even the people who say they do. Most of them just hate cops and want to see them go down no matter what the truth is. It’s time for you to fade back into your little corner of Nowhere Land and leave us all alone.

Steven Barker, the stepfather of abused infant Baby P has been scalded in an attack by a fellow prisoner.

Another inmate at Wakefield prison, where Barker is serving his 12-year jail term, hurled boiling water at Barker, leaving him screaming in pain.

Some reports claimed it had been a concoction of water and sugar, which sticks to the skin and intensifies burns in the same way as napalm bombs.

But the Ministry of Justice today said no sugar had been involved.

Barker who stands 6ft 4in, suffered excruciating burns to his face and arms and will be left scarred for life following the attack.

Fellow inmates applauded as he was ambushed, according to The Sun.

One told the paper: ‘To say Barker is disliked is an understatement – he is reviled. The other inmates all hate him with a passion.

‘When Barker came here every one knew what he had done to Baby P. Your card is marked if you have a crime against your name concerning kids.

‘After the attack everyone was in good spirits, knowing someone had hurt Barker. The guy who did it will be getting applauded every-where he goes now.

‘It will be seen as a badge of honor and it is just a matter of time before someone else takes a shot at Barker too’.

Officers at the high-security jail in West Yorkshire were rushed to the scene to calm things down.

The source said: ‘He had been awaiting a chance to strike and went for it when one arose.

‘He was prepared to take the consequences for getting one over on Barker.

‘He deliberately chose the hot water and sugar combination as it inflicts the most damage and it can cause scarring.

‘It’s almost inevitable the victim will need medical help.’

Prison Service sources denied there was sugar in the boiling water used in Wednesday’s attack.

A Prison Service spokesman said: ‘A prisoner at HMP Wakefield was assaulted by another.

‘Staff intervened quickly and the prisoner received treatment. Police have been informed.’

Not much to add to this update, except the young man who attacked Steven Barker should have used a much larger pan. I was thinking one of those big old pans that folks cook 25 pound batches of spaghetti. You know, the ones that are as tall as a ten-year-old and hold about 10 gallons?

It’s so nice to hear that Steve is making friends and getting involved in so many of the prison activities.