True Crime Thursday: Would You Believe…

Sometimes truth is far more difficult to swallow than fiction. Would you believe…

Brunswick, Ga. –  A former Appling County Georgia deputy sheriff, Richard W. Crosby, has been sentenced to two years in prison for alerting a drug dealer that deputies were on the way to his residence to serve a search warrant.

Dulles, Va. – Synthetic drugs such as Spice, Eight Ballz, and K2 are now so rampant the DEA has a chemist specifically assigned to delve into the new drugs, learning their compositions. His purpose is to alert officials so they can stop the sale of these extremely dangerous products.

The DEA lab is located in a Virginia suburb just outside of Washington D.C. It’s a tightly guarded facility that’s surrounded by a twelve-foot fence smartly decorated with lots of surveillance cameras, with guards patrolling the perimeter. Why the super-tight security? Well, the facility also conducts tests on real drugs, such as meth, cocaine, and heroin, meaning those drugs are stored within the compound. Scientists check out samples from a steel vault each day and return them at the end of their shift.

There’s a problem, though, with the testing of synthetic drugs…there’s only one scientist assigned to the task and there are thousands of chemicals available for the market. And, there are, well, who knows how many illegal drug-makers out there, but you can be sure the number is much greater than one.

Augusta, Ga. – Cell phones were at the root of a dozen incarcerated gang members being sent to the hospital with various injuries. It seems the phones were smuggled into the prison for the purpose of helping to start a gang-related riot. I wonder if any of the injured used the devices to call 911?

Chattanooga, Tenn. – It could have been filmed for an episode of Officers Gone Wild, when Officer Dennis Hughes shot fellow officer Chris Mason in the hand while Officer John Hammond, in a prescription-pill-induced high, looked on. The shooting incident launched an investigation that revealed a much larger problem, such as the officers’ regular abuse of pills without prescriptions and having sex with 14- and 16-year-old girls. To make matters worse, the town’s police chief allegedly knew of the illegal activities and did nothing about it.

Kingston, N.Y. – Two kids (4- and 6-years-old), rang up 911 and asked to speak to Santa…or the police chief.

Toronto – A Toronto police officer, Const. Salameh Marji, was found guilty of grabbing and squeezing the testicles of a motorist after a traffic stop. The officer, it seems, squeezed “the fruit” not once, but twice, and he used enough force to lift the screaming driver off his feet. Ironically, at the time, Marji was assigned to Toronto’s Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy.

Gary Haugen – Eurasiareview photo

Salem, Oregon – A two-time murderer, Gary Haugen, called Gov. John Kitzhaber a “paper cowboy” for commuting his death sentence to life in prison. Haugen felt the governor was “too chicken” to allow his execution to go forward. The inmate is now pursuing legal options that would allow his death to take place as scheduled. “Man, this is definitely cruel and unusual punishment,” said Haugan.

St. Louis, Mo. – The Knockout Game is all the rage in the Gateway City. The rules of the game are simple. A group of teens hang out on the street until an older person passes by. Then, one of the teens shouts out, “Knockout King!” and sucker-punches the unsuspecting pedestrian. The game is so much fun to the youths that after the victim falls to the ground the rest of the group joins in by throwing a few punches and kicks of their own. Last month, a 72-year-old man died as result of injuries he received during one of these “games.”

San Francisco, Ca. – Sarah Boushey , 41, the loving mother that she is, took her 4-year-old daughter to see the latest Smurf movie. And, like many of us, smuggled in her own snack. Well, her idea of a snack was a bottle of vodka which she apparently chugged throughout the entire two hours of the tiny, singing, blue peoples’ antics.

On the way home with her precious cargo, the woman sideswiped two cars and hit a median before police managed to get her stopped. She was so intoxicated she couldn’t remember her name or what had happened. Her little girl, though, summed it all up for police when she calmly said, “He name is Sarah Boushey and she’s drunk.”

I wonder who’s feeling “blue” now?