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From the Los Angeles Times

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Somali pirates hijack yacht of U.S. couple on Bible mission

Jean and Scott Adam have been roaming the world for six years, using Marina del Rey as their mail drop.

by Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times

February 19, 2011

Pirates off the coast of Somalia have hijacked the yacht of a couple on a worldwide voyage distributing Bibles, according to Somalia's U.N. Mission.

Jean and Scott Adam have been sailing around the world for six years on their sailboat, the S/V Quest. They have raced with the Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, which has been their mail drop during their global odyssey.

Omar Jamal, first secretary at the Somali mission, said Friday that pirates in the Indian Ocean had taken four U.S. citizens captive when they hijacked the S/V Quest, according to the Associated Press. The other two people have not been identified.

The couple's website, svquest.com, shows that the Adams were on a journey this winter from India to the Mediterranean by way of the Arabian and Red seas. They had hoped to reach Crete by April, then sail to Istanbul.

"Djibouti is a big refueling stop," Jean Adam, a retired dentist, wrote of a stop that they were planning just beyond Somalia. "I have NO idea what will happen in these ports, but perhaps we'll do some local touring. Due north is the Red Sea where we plan to tuck in when winds turn to the north."

Last year, the couple sailed to ports in Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand.

Jamal told the Associated Press that the hijacking raises serious concerns, as it follows the sentencing in New York on Thursday of a Somali pirate who kidnapped and brutalized the captain of a U.S.-flagged merchant ship in 2009.

Piracy has flourished off Somalia's coast for two decades. Before the recent seizures of the S/V Quest and another vessel, the Alfardous, pirates were believed to be holding 29 ships and about 660 hostages.

The S/V Quest website says almost nothing about where the Adams lived or what they did before they set off around the world.

"We were so unhappy being 'dirt dwellers' during our time in the States that another floating abode had to be acquired," Jean Adam wrote.

But the website richly chronicles their adventures abroad, among them tales of distributing Bibles in Fiji.

"We seek fertile ground for the Word and homes for our Bibles," she wrote. "Often, the ultimate homes are best found by people who are already living locally and seeking and cultivating that fertile ground."

She also told of the uncertainty of their future plans.

"We have some repairs we need to make in Turkey," she wrote. "We'll do a little cruising in the Med. AND we have a reservation on October 15th in St. Katherine's Docks in London, England — SOOOO, we'll see...."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-yacht-captured-20110219,0,4868278,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Chilean Priest Found Guilty of Abusing Minors

by ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO and PASCALE BONNEFOY

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — After an internal investigation, the Vatican found the Rev. Fernando Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors in Chile and ordered him to retire to a “life of prayer and penitence,” the archbishop of Santiago said Friday.

The ruling, announced by the archbishop, Ricardo Ezzati, said that Father Karadima, 80, would be relocated to a place where he would have no contact with his former parishioners or “persons that have been spiritually guided by him.”

The accusations by former parishioners against Father Karadima last year stunned Chile, a conservative and predominantly Roman Catholic nation unaccustomed to questioning its priests, especially one as revered as Father Karadima. He had trained five bishops and dozens of priests, acting as a spiritual leader and father figure for young men who later accused him of molesting them.

The decision is a rare case of a powerful church figure being called to account for the charges of sexual abuse that have swept the Catholic world the past few years.

The Vatican decision “is going to mark a before and after in the way the Chilean Catholic Church proceeds in cases like these, or at least it should,” said Antonio Delfau, a Jesuit priest in Santiago, the capital. “From now on, every case of sexual abuse must be treated with meticulous care and not be based on the gut feeling of a given church official.”

For the accusers, including at least four men who said Father Karadima abused them when they were young parishioners, the decision was a long-awaited vindication. One original accuser said the abuse began when he was 14.

“At last the truth was revealed and acknowledged,” said an emotional Juan Carlos Cruz, 47. “This was like having a father who abused you and a mother who slapped you in the face,” he said of the Catholic Church. “Now I feel like this mother has taken me in.”

President Sebastián Piñera reacted to the decision by vowing that his government would “defend children and minors from sexual abuse with all the strength in the world and force of the law.”

Father Karadima has not been prosecuted criminally. A judge investigating the accusations against him closed the case late last year, ruling that there was not enough evidence to charge him.

An appeals court in Santiago is still deciding whether to reopen the criminal investigation. It remains unclear whether the Vatican's decision will prod the Chilean authorities to do so.

The Vatican ruling announced Friday said that Father Karadima was subject to “lifelong prohibition from the public exercise of any ministerial act, particularly confession and the spiritual guidance of any category of persons.”

In consideration of his age, the Vatican deemed it appropriate “to impose on the accused his retirement to a life of prayer and penitence, also in reparation to the victims of his abuses,” said the ruling, read by Archbishop Ezzati.

If he violates the conditions of the ruling, Father Karadima could face stricter sanctions, including removal from the priesthood, the archbishop said.

Juan Pablo Bulnes, Father Karadima's lawyer, said the priest maintained his innocence and would appeal the Vatican's decision. He said the priest, respecting the ruling, had already retired to a religious convent in Santiago, away from anyone in his El Bosque parish.

The Chilean Catholic Church referred the case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last June, sending a 700-page investigative report to the Vatican.

Last month, the Vatican quietly issued its ruling and informed the Chilean church on Jan. 16. Archbishop Ezzati said he notified Father Karadima the next day and immediately identified a new residence for him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/world/americas/19chile.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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New system to find missing persons unveiled by Pa. state police

Friday, February 18, 2011

by Mercury staff

HARRISBURG — A new alert system has been started to help find those with health or age-related issues who go missing in the state. Called the Missing Endangered Person Advisory System, or MEPAS, it is designed to relay information to the public, law enforcement and other agencies when someone with a disability or who is elderly wanders off.

“MEPAS will provide information about the missing individual to broadcasters to relay to the public. The information also will be sent to law enforcement and other agencies," said acting Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan.

MEPAS is not the Amber Alert System, which issues an alert when a child is abducted, Noonan clarified. “MEPAS is not designed to be used for such cases," he said.

MEPAS was established in 2010 through a bill in the state General Assembly. The state police were designated to develop and operate the system.

A MEPA will be issued only when all of the following criteria are met:

The public broadcast will contain a description of the missing person and what they were wearing when last seen, as well as where they were last seen.

They system could be used when an elderly or dementia patient wanders away from a residential facility, a young child wanders away from its mother, or a seriously ill person who needs to take medication regularly wanders off.

The MEPAS will be sent to TV and radio stations, newspapers, online sites and emergency services near the missing person's last known location. The MEPAS broadcast will not prevent local law enforcement from putting out their own alerts and MEPAS requests are not required.

Noonan said MEPAS is a result of a cooperative effort by State Police, the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/02/18/news/doc4d5eb1eac49ca046338870.txt

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Hermiston Oregon to join ‘A Child is Missing'

A child is missing. Police get a call, and in minutes households within a one-mile radius of the child's home get a call from police, describing the child and alerting thousands of people to look for the missing child.

By the end of next week that will be a reality in Hermiston, according to Police Chief Dan Coulombe. Hermiston's newest tool for finding missing persons is a national program called, “A Child is Missing.”

The program has already helped police across the United States find 815 missing persons, according to Coulombe.

What has made the program successful is how quickly police can alert an entire community that someone is missing. Unlike Amber Alerts, the program has fewer restrictions and greater versatility, according to Coulombe.

“This is a lot more flexible,” Coulombe said. “That first two hours is really critical.”

A Child is Missing can be used for elderly people with Alzheimer's or mental illness, unlike Amber Alerts. The new program also needs less information and protocol to initiate an alert.

“We won't use it a lot,” Coulombe said. “I think there will be cases where it will be absolutely critical and a wonderful asset to us.”

It also won't cost anything for the city to institute the program. According to Coulombe, A Child is Missing is funded by federal money through the Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice.

In addition to being free for Hermiston, city residents will not have to do anything to be included in the program. Anyone with a landline phone and a listed phone number will automatically be included in the system.

“They really don't have to do anything,” Coulombe said.

People who rely on cell phones can sign up for alerts at www.achildismissing.org, and anyone who wants to opt out can do so as well.

So, if you get an automated phone call from the Hermiston Police Department, don't hang up.

http://www.hermistonherald.com/news/hermiston-to-join-a-child-is-missing/article_f9cdf9e0-3bc2-11e0-a9da-001cc4c002e0.html

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Man plans to plead guilty in Wash. to 49th killing

One of the nation's most prolific killers plans to plead guilty Friday in Washington state to killing a 49th person.

The Associated Press

SEATTLE — One of the nation's most prolific killers plans to plead guilty Friday in Washington state to killing a 49th person.

Green River Killer Gary Ridgway already is serving 48 life terms. He's scheduled to enter a plea at his arraignment at the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Ridgway already confessed to killing 20-year-old Rebecca "Becky" Marrero in 1982 as part of a 2003 plea deal that spared him the death penalty.

Her remains weren't found until Dec. 21 when teenagers found a skull in a ravine at Auburn, south of Seattle. Ridgway was charged Feb. 7. He was brought from the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla for the arraignment, where Marrero's family will have the opportunity to confront him.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014262481_apusgreenriverkiller1stld.html

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Couple under scrutiny fought to adopt twins

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

In lengthy, single-spaced letters to Gov. Charlie Crist, Jorge and Carmen Barahona in 2007 portrayed themselves as loving and misunderstood parents, suggested they were victims of little more than a witch hunt by a guardian ad litem for their twins and pleaded for intervention from Tallahassee.

"If we have done anything wrong then let us be held accountable for it, which we have not done anything to (these) children," the couple wrote in letters obtained by The Palm Beach Post. "Just give them all the Unconditional Love a father and mother have for them."

The Barahonas became foster parents to twin brother and sister Victor and Nubia in 2004 and moved to adopt them in 2008, the year after letters complained of unfair interference from guardian ad litem Paul Neumann. Neumann had been appointed to oversee the interest of the twins pending the adoption.

"We were home raising our children with love, as any father and mother would do," when Neumann began raising questions, the couple wrote. "We did what any parent would do for their children, we stood up for them to protect them."

Florida Department of Children and Families officials acknowledge they received four calls to their abuse hot line after the children went to live with the Barahonas, three of them before the adoption.

On Thursday, 53-year-old Jorge Barahona was charged with attempted murder and is being held without bail in the Palm Beach County Jail. He was found in West Palm Beach this week with the body of Nubia, 10, in a black garbage bag in the back of his pickup. Victor was convulsing on the front seat. The children had been doused in still-unidentified chemicals. Victor is listed in critical condition in the burn unit of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

His adoptive mother, 60-year-old Carmen Barahona, had not been charged as of Friday despite indications there were serious problems in the home. The couple's other two adopted children have been removed from the home and placed in state custody.

As for the Barahonas' contentious relationship with Neumann, the twins' guardian, Sonia Ferrer, head of Miami-Dade County's guardian ad litem program, confirmed Neumann expressed reservations about the Barahona adoption to a judge. But she declined to detail the concerns.

Neumann also confirmed that he raised objections at the time of the adoption. He said he could not discuss the case publicly without the consent of his superiors because of privacy concerns.

The Barahonas' four letters, redacted by state officials, never spell out the specific allegations made by Neumann, or the nature of the dispute with the guardian ad litem. But they document a frequently bitter diatribe aimed at eliminating any barriers to the twins' adoption.

In their May 2007 letter to a private agency overseeing the adoption for the state, the couple protested, "We have never had any problems with any caseworker or anyone else that has been assigned to our home. Now we understand we are being taken to court on allegations. This is being done behind our backs.

"All we would like is to be treated fairly; we feel that we deserve at least that much," the couple continued. "We love our children very much and we will do whatever we need to do for them."

The following month, the couple wrote to Crist, prefacing their complaint with a description of their home life. "It has taken us 10 years as foster parents to build our family. Our home has never been an in and out home for foster children." The twins, they wrote, "have already (built) a bond with us.

"There has never been any neglect on our part we are being falsely accused of these things by Mr. Neumann," with whom they had "a personality conflict from the beginning because of his arrogance and smart remarks," they wrote.

The governor's office forwarded the letter to DCF, according to the Barahonas' next letter in August. The couple wrote of a June court hearing on removing the children from the home, saying, "We were humiliated, in front of everybody, we were portrayed as dirty and uncaring parents. For how long is this going to continue?"

Five months later, the couple wrote a shorter letter to Crist. "After my second letter to you, we saw hope regarding our situation," they wrote. " Hopefully the next time we write to you it will be to let you know that we have finalized the adoption."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/couple-under-scrutiny-fought-to-adopt-twins-1266269.html

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Officer killed in shooting; 2 others dead in city

City of Poughkeepsie police are continuing their investigation today of a series of shootings in a five-minute span that killed a 44-year-old officer and left two other people dead Friday afternoon near the Poughkeepsie Train Station, police Chief Ronald Knapp said.

Police said a man apparently shot and killed his wife in a car in a downtown parking lot, then was fatally wounded in a confrontation with police in which a 18-year veteran of the department was shot in the head.

"Our thoughts and concerns are with him at this time," Knapp said.

The officer, who was not identified, was said to have been fighting for his life following surgery at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. A second city officer sustained a dislocated shoulder during the incident, Knapp said. Police did not release the name late Friday night to allow his immediate family to contact their relatives.

Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik, speaking Friday afternoon at a news conference at City Hall, called the incident "tragic ... perhaps the worst day the city has seen ..."

"This is a tragic day in the City of Poughkeepsie for our citizens and for our uniformed personnel," Tkazyik said. "And at this point, I can only ask that you keep the officers and their families in your thoughts and prayers."

Police did not release the names of anyone involved in the incident pending notification of their families. The man and his wife were not from the area, Knapp said.

The incident began about 1:07 p.m. when the man shot his wife in a car in a parking lot just south of the train station, Knapp said. When city officers responded to reports of the shooting, they confronted a man holding the couple's 3-year-old child. An officer wrested the child from the man, who then fled north across Main Street toward the railroad station.

During the chase, the officer and the civilian were shot on Railroad Avenue, on the north side of Main Street, just south of the train station, Knapp said.

The gunman and his wife were both pronounced dead a short time later, Knapp said. The gunman was alive when he reached Saint Francis Hospital but was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m. Autopsies were to be performed late Friday or today, he said.

Knapp said the child was in the custody of city police juvenile officers.

Shortly after the shootings, city police, Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, state troopers, Dutchess County sheriff's deputies and Town of Poughkeepsie police closed the area to traffic while emergency crews and crime scene technicians arrived and began their investigation.

Knapp said it was unclear whether the suspect had been shot by one of the officers chasing him or whether his wound was self-inflicted.

He said detectives had interviewed "numerous" witnesses who saw all or part of the incident.

He asked anyone else who was in the area at the time of the shootings to contact police.

And though the major facts of the case apparently have been determined, Knapp said, "there's still a lot we don't know."

Knapp said police expect to hold another news conference today, perhaps at noon.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110219/NEWS05/102190338/Officer-killed-in-shooting--2-others-dead-in-city

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From the Department of Justice

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Eleven Alleged Aryan Brotherhood of Texas Members Charged for Roles in Assault

WASHINGTON - Eleven alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) have been indicted for their alleged roles in the 2008 beating of a gang prospect in Tomball, Texas, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jose Angel Moreno of the Southern District of Texas.

The superseding indictment, returned by the federal grand jury on Feb. 16, 2011, and unsealed today in Houston, charges the defendants with violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity (VICAR) and conspiracy to engage in violent crimes in aid of racketeering. The defendants charged in the indictment are Zechariah Aaron Johnston, 31; Steven Walter Cooke, 47; Stephen Kyle Knebel, 33; David Bruce Harlow, 46; Robert Lynn Sheats, 33; Justin Northrup, 25; Benjamin Christian Dillon, 28; Rusty Dwayne Plante, 34; Johnny Ray Nichols, 35; Shane Everett Dallmeyer, 30; and Michael Raymond Burkett, 33. All of the defendants are from the greater Houston-area.

According to the indictment, in order to be considered for ABT membership, a person must be sponsored by another ABT member. Once sponsored, a prospective member must serve an unspecified term, during which he is referred to as a prospect, while his conduct is observed by the members of the ABT.

The indictment alleges that a prospect member of ABT sustained serious bodily injury after he was severely beaten on Sept. 22, 2008, at Cooke's home in Tomball. The beating was allegedly administered by ABT gang members because the prospect member violated certain ABT rules of conduct.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the VICAR charge. They face a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charge. The defendants who were not already in federal prison are making initial appearances today in U.S. District Court in Houston.

According to the indictment, the ABT is a race-based, state-wide organization that operates inside and outside of state and federal prisons throughout Texas and elsewhere in the United States. The ABT was established in the early 1980s within the Texas prison system. As alleged in the indictment, it modeled itself after and adopted many of the precepts and writings of the Aryan Brotherhood, a California-based prison gang that was formed in the California prison system during the 1960s. According to the indictment, previously, the ABT was primarily concerned with the protection of white inmates and white supremacy/separatism. Over time, however, the ABT has expanded its criminal enterprise to include illegal activities for profit.

As alleged in the indictment, the ABT enforces its rules and promotes discipline among its members, prospects and associates through murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, assault, robbery and threats against those who violate the rules or pose a threat to the enterprise. Members, and oftentimes associates, are required to follow the orders of higher-ranking members, often referred to as "direct orders."

An indictment is merely a charge and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by a multi-agency task force consisting of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the FBI; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Texas Rangers; the Texas Department of Public Safety; the Walker County, Texas, Sheriff's Office; the Montgomery County, Texas, Sheriff's Department; the Houston Police Department-Gang Division; and the Harris County, Texas, Sheriff's Office.

The case is being prosecuted by David Karpel of the Criminal Division's Gang Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman of the Southern District of Texas in Houston.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/February/11-crm-215.html

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