And The Downfall Of Ex-’Friends’ Stars Continues

Eh. It’s no worse than Joey.

LeBlanc found guilty of bribery [Inky]

Holy Bomb Threat, Batman!

We’ve all been in a situation where we haven’t gotten the job we wanted, the raise we thought we deserved or the promotion we thought we’d get. Most of us can take it in stride, find a new job or however you cope.

But, well, one thing you probably shouldn’t do is threaten to blow up the place:

A disgruntled Wal-Mart employee who scrawled a bomb threat on the men’s room wall after being passed over for a promotion was sentenced Monday to six to 23 months in the Bucks County prison. [...]

[Kevin] Spear was arrested shortly after the Dec. 28 incident at the Wal-Mart on North West End Boulevard in Quakertown. An employee called police after the message “On Friday, December 30, two bombs will level the store” was found, written in black marker.

Another threat: “Hey Wal-Mart. Wanna start New Year’s with a bang?” was also found.

Wow, that’s like a comic book bomb threat. “Let’s start this party with a bang!” Are you sure this guy isn’t secretly Two-Face or The Joker? They better jail him in Arkham Asylum.

Man jailed for Wal-mart bomb threat [Bucks County Courier Times]
Photo by Monochrome

Leftovers: Sex, Lies & Videotape

• Story of, perhaps, the year, courtesy of Dan Gross: NBC 10 traffic reporter John Ogden was handcuffed and it was caught on video. (He ended up not being charged with anything — “wrong place, wrong time” it seems.) But the actual best part of it was that CBS 3 bought the video without knowing Ogden was in it. They say they’re not going to air it, which is good for the contest-winning traffic reporter, but bad for the other 1.4 million Philadelphians. [DN]

• I’m going to try to link this story about “city girl” speak without, like, writing some sort of city girl speak. Wait… d’oh! [New York Observer]

• An update: The meeting between John Street and James Kenney was not just them, it was a four-way with Bob Brady and Frank DiCicco. Ew, that’s nasty. [DN]

• Rumor of the Day: Judy Miller is going to be writing for Atlantic Monthly. And Steve Glass has the cover in the next issue of, uh, N+1. [Gawker]

• This article in Slate about how drug testing doesn’t deter students from drug usage is good, but I love the caption on the stock photograph even better: “A student smokes a joint.” [Slate]

• People are so scared of peak oil — the idea that, essentially, we’re going to run out — they’re acquiring land in the desert to start new lives when the shit hits the fan. Uh, I’ll continue being not stupid, thank you very much. [Salon]

• The prostitute/”real estate agent” who was allegedly murdered by a bouncer was dismembered after her death, according to testimony. And then a 17-year-old allegedly shot the bouncer. Wow. [NBC 10]

Effectiveness of Stop Snitchin’ t-shirts greatly exaggerated

It seemed like every day in the Faheem Thomas Childs trial, another witness would recant on the stand. At least eight witnesses in all just got up and decided that their previous statements implicating Kennell Spady and Kareem Johnson were untrue, coerced, fake, whatever.

From this trial, a few things are clear. (1) Something fishy was going on with all those witnesses and (2) Even with Stop Snitchin’ t-shirts o’er the land, people can still be found guilty:

Two men were found guilty Thursday of fatally shooting a 10-year-old boy outside his elementary school, a case that bedeviled authorities for months because witnesses were reluctant to come forward.

Kennell Spady, 21, and Kareem Johnson, 22, were charged with first-degree murder for their roles in a wild gunfight that caught Faheem Thomas-Childs in the crossfire, killing him as he walked to school on Feb. 11, 2004.

The non-jury trial over the past several weeks had been a nightmare for prosecutors, with at least eight witnesses recanting their statements to police. One woman allegedly was coached by her father as she took the stand to say, “I don’t remember.”

Oh, yeah, and (3) Spady and Johnson should have gotten a jury trial.

Guilty Verdicts In Faheem Thomas-Childs Case [KYW/AP]
March 9: Stop Snitchin’: This is the song that never ends

Quickies: More than a ‘No comment’

• The best part about the article about the funeral home in Philadelphia that may have sold body parts without consent is this paragraph: “Garzone, 63, declined to comment yesterday. ‘I don’t have any comments on this situation,’ he said.” [Daily News]

• In other great quote news, a man from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyer Association called a recent bill “[T]he second worst attack on victim rights.” Ooh, second worse! [Bucks County Courier Time]

• William “King Homicide” Sosa has been found guilty on several charges including racketeering, murder conspiracy, drug dealing. The jury didn’t believe his “Homicide doesn’t mean murder” defense. [Inky]

• Relax, Catholics, you can eat meat tomorrow. [KYW 1060]

Leftovers: Pictures of you

• That man sitting on the far left learning about the Daily News‘ fate? One Drew McQuade, who I hear has a very handsome, talented son. I think. [DN]

• An FBI agent couldn’t remember if a letter had been sent or not, so Ricky gets off on the mail fraud charge! Whoo! One down, lots and lots of charges to go! [USA v. Mariano]

• I’m invoking the “Americans have bad taste. It doesn’t matter.” clause of the Constitution to rationalize Desperate Housewives‘ thrashing of Sopranos in the ratings. Oh, and the whole network TV vs. premium cable thing. [Hollywood Reporter via Defamer]

• New day, same story. Yesterday, we saw the sixth witness in the Faheem Thomas-Childs murder trial claim that, “No, the cops made me sign that statement. I don’t remember anything.” You think there’s some kind of pattern here? Hmm. [DN]

• Speaking of same old, same old, lawmakers in Harrisburg are continuing to amend the slots legislation, with a whopping 140+ amendments proposed. Clearly the slots law is more effed up than the U.S. Constitution. [Bucks County Courier Times]

• Two Ryan Adams fans who leaked his album are now facing 11 years in prison for doing so. The music blog virtuosos behind Badminton Stamps remain on the lam. [Pitchfork Media]

Stop Snitchin’: This is the song that never ends

Jesus. I could just write the same thing as yesterday. And if I finish this in five minutes I can post it at the same time, too.

Let’s jump right in:

For instance, Russell Brown, 42, said yesterday he couldn’t remember any details he had given to investigators in a five-page statement he signed in 2004.

“I don’t remember seeing anything,” Brown said. “That was a long time ago. I don’t know where I was at when the shots were fired. [...]

According to his signed statement, Brown said he had witnessed loud talking between a man named Cassius Broaster and defendant Kareem Johnson. He said he had seen Johnson pull out a pistol and run up a street and then he “heard shots, lots of shots.”

But yesterday, Brown’s memory came up empty. “That was a long time ago,” he said.

Hmm… you’d think there’s some sort of a pattern here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe someone should look into it.

Editor’s Note: Four minutes! So posted a minute earlier than yesterday’s.

Despite his signed statement, another witness ‘goes south’ [DN]
Yesterday: Stop snitchin’: The saga continues

Stop Snitchin’: The saga continues

In today’s episode of Stop Snitchin’: The Series, the main characters are a 18-year-old girl and her father.

The girl, Taniesha Wiggins, had given a detailed account of the shooting of 10-year-old Faheem Thomas-Childs to police. But, naturally, since this is Stop Snitchin’, when she takes the stand it’s a different story:

Just as Taniesha Wiggins was about to take the stand yesterday as the first prosecution witness in the 2004 murder of 10-year-old Faheem Thomas-Childs - a case that has become a symbol of the city’s problem with witness intimidation - she asked to see her father, who was motioning to her.

He leaned over and spoke, sotto voce, to Wiggins, 18: “Just remember to say what I told you to say: ‘I don’t remember.’ ”

And she did just that for about two hours - despite repeated reminders from Assistant District Attorney Jason Bologna about her sworn statements, in writing and on videotape, to Philadelphia police detectives.

Tune in next week when the police blame her change in testimony on a t-shirt. Same snitchin’ time, same snitchin’ channel!

Key witness flips at trial in Faheem Thomas-Childs’ slaying [Inky]

H.O.M.I.C.I.D.E.

Yesterday we saw an example of the “I Was Only Comparing His Death To The Life Expectancy Of A Sub-Saharan Elephant” Defense. And, today, William “King Homicide” Sosa shows us the Acronym Defense:

Sosa spent an hour on the witness stand trying to refute those allegations, telling the jury, among other things, that his Latin King nickname, “Homicide,” is not what it seems. [...]

Homicide, he said, was an an acronym that embodied some of the tenets of the organization. With many jurors taking notes and with federal prosecutors looking on skeptically, Sosa said the name stood for a Humble Oppressed Mind Increases through Cultural Independence a Desire for Education.

Someone’s been watching too many Emerald Nuts ads.

Reputed Latin Kings leader testifies in his defense [Inky]
Yesterday: No more elephun at the zoo for one woman