• Ex-Marine arrested in alleged hate crime in attack outside California gay bar

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A former Marine has been arrested in the beating of two men outside a popular gay bar in Southern California last year and will face hate-crime charges for using anti-gay slurs during the attack, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Thursday.

    John Kelly O'Leary, 21, was arrested Monday by police in Evergreen Park, Ill., Deputy District Attorney Gretchen Ford of the hate crimes unit said in a statement. O'Leary was discharged from the Marines on Oct. 19, about six weeks after the attack, Marine Corps’ spokesman Master Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva told NBC News. He will be extradited from Illinois to California to face the charges.

    O'Leary and a group of friends, including other Marines, went to the Silver Fox bar in Long Beach, Calif. in the early morning hours of Sept. 3, 2012. O'Leary was accused of shouting anti-gay slurs outside the bar at closing time, which triggered the hate crime charge, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

    "Following a verbal exchange with one of two alleged victims, O’Leary allegedly turned and began punching the first alleged victim as he continued to shout anti-gay slurs. The victim, who suffered a concussion and a fractured hip during the altercation, was knocked unconscious," the statement said. "As others joined in to break up the fight, O’Leary allegedly began punching and choking a second male victim before police arrived."

    O'Leary has been charged with two felonies – battery with serious bodily injury and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury – and faces up to eight years in prison, which includes time for the hate crime allegation, Robison said. The Press-Telegram of Long Beach first reported the charges.


    Authorities arrested three other Marines after the attack, but they were not charged, the district attorney's office said. Robison said they were attempting to break up the assault, and Oliva said they were on active duty with their commands.

    The four Marines, based at Camp Pendleton in southern California, were in their first enlistment. Oliva characterized O’Leary’s discharge as “less than honorable,” but he didn’t have the exact nature of it. He also said the Marine Corps was still conducting an inquiry into the attack.

    Robison said she didn't know if the two victims were gay. Immediately after the attack, CBSLA.com reported that one of the victims had gone to the bar with his boyfriend and that he had blacked out from the assault. He was hospitalized overnight and released with non-life threatening injuries, Long Beach police said at the time.

    O'Leary is being held on $105,000 bail. He has waived extradition and will be transported to Los Angeles some time next week, the district attorney's office said. Attempts to reach O'Leary, his family or an attorney representing him were unsuccessful.

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  • Suspect charged in mysterious slayings at remote Coast Guard station in Alaska

    U.S. Coast Guard via AP

    This July 2, 2011 photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows Richard Belisle, second from left, and Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class James Hopkins, second from right, with James Wells, left, and Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Cody Beauford as they help erect a communications antenna on Shemya Island, Alaska. Belisle and Hopkins were slain in April 2012, and Wells reportedly has now been charged with their murders.

    By Mike Brunker, NBC News

    Authorities in Alaska have charged a suspect in the mysterious killing last year of two employees at a U.S. Coast Guard communications station in Kodiak, it was reported Friday.


    NBC News’ Anchorage affiliate KTUU and the Anchorage Daily News both reported the charges Friday evening, citing a written statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

    The statement provided no detail on what led authorities to the suspect, identified as Kodiak resident James Michael Wells, KTUU reported. It simply said he had been charged with murder in the deaths of James Hopkins and Richard Belisle and is expected to appear in federal court in Anchorage next week.

    Hopkins, a Coast Guard electrician's mate, and Belisle, a retired boatswain's mate and civilian employee, were found dead at the Coast Guard station on April 12, 2012.

    KTUU reported in May that the FBI asked if anyone had seen two vehicles, a white 2002 Dodge Ram pick-up truck and a blue 2001 Honda CR-V. It said that vehicles matching the descriptions belonged to James and Nancy Wells of Bell Flats, a Kodiak Island town about 12 miles from downtown Kodiak, and that the FBI had searched the couple’s property.

    Authorities declined to comment on the report. James Wells, a civilian rigger who worked alongside Belisle and Hopkins repairing antennas, told KTUU at the time. “It’s our policy not to talk to anybody.”

    The communication station, which monitors May Day air and maritime traffic, is about two miles from the main Coast Guard base on Kodiak, an island about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage. About 6,300 people live in the island's main town of Kodiak, where the base is located. The base has about 1,000 Coast Guard personnel and several hundred civilian employees.

     

  • Cops: Two teens charged after Isabella Tennant, 5, found dead in trash can

    A 16-year-old teen, described as a "family friend," is accused of killing a five-year-old girl left in his care. Police say his friend helped dispose of the body. WGRZ's Claudine Ewing reports from New York.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- Two teenagers charged in connection with the death of a five-year-old New York girl whose body was dumped in a trash can were expected to make their first court appearance since their arrests.

    Five-year-old Isabella Tennant was found dead after going missing from her home in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

    Authorities said 16-year-old John Freeman and 18-year-old Tyler Best were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Niagara Falls City Court.  An autopsy of the body of Isabella Tennant was also scheduled.

    The arrests came after Best went to police Monday morning and led them to a garbage can containing a trash bag holding Isabella's body. Best told them he had helped the younger teen dispose of the body after Freeman killed her, police said.

    'Bare hands'
    Isabella's family called police Monday morning to say she was missing from her great-grandmother's Niagara Falls home, where she'd been staying overnight.

    “The great grandmother, Sharon Lascelle, said she went to bed just after 11:00 p.m. and Isabella was playing with" the 16-year-old, according to a press release issued to NBC station WGRZ by the Niagara Falls Police Department.

    “At this time we believe Freeman killed Isabella with his bare hands (no weapons involved) and that Best was only involved after she was deceased and assisted with moving her remains,” it said.

    Freeman "was described by family members of the victim as a ‘close’ and ‘trusted’ family friend. They also said it was also not uncommon for him to be in the home and around Isabella unsupervised. Best and Freeman are described as close friends,” it added.


    Read more news from NBC station WGRZ

    Police charged Freeman as an adult with second-degree murder.  

    Best is charged with tampering with evidence. Best and Freeman were in custody and couldn't be reached for comment. 

    At a news conference Monday afternoon, Niagara Falls Chief Detective William Thompson said there were signs of injuries but no indication of sexual abuse.

    "It's a terrible crime. It tears at your heart," Thompson said.

    Of Best going to police, Thompson said, "I imagine it was his conscience."

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Kansas City cop accused of sex with women in exchange for no arrest

    By Mitch Weber, of NBC's kshb.com

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A 13-year veteran of the Kansas City Police Department is behind bars after allegedly having sex with two women in exchange for not arresting them, NBC station kshb.com reported.

    Officer Jeffrey Holmes turned himself in on Monday. He is facing two felony counts of acceding to corruption by a public servant.

    When the investigation began in April, he was taken off patrol and moved into an administrative assignment.

    When the second victim came forward in May, he was suspended with pay. Now that he’s been charged, he is suspended without pay.

    According to court documents, the first victim who came forward said that Holmes raped her at the Extended Stay on 105th Street in Kansas City, Mo.

    Read more from NBC station kshb.com

    The woman told police that he threatened to bust her for prostitution if she didn't have sex with him. She said he was dressed in a uniform with a gun.

    At first, the victim thought Holmes was a security guard -- until she recognized him when she went to South Patrol to file a police report that her car had been stolen.

    The victim and a hotel clerk identified Holmes during a line-up.

    The second victim who came forward told police that Holmes asked her if she was a prostitute, and then forced her to take him back to her room at the A-1 Motel on 87th Street.

    'Very good day'
    She told officers he threatened to arrest her for marijuana she had in the room if she didn't have sex with him. She said he was wearing a KCPD uniform at the time.

    Jean Peters Baker, Jackson County prosecutor, said Holmes was off-duty when both incidents allegedly occurred.

    "It's extremely disappointing and it's actually infuriating, but it's also [a] very good day when someone like that who wears the blue uniform and carried the badge no longer will,” Baker said. “We don't want an individual like that in the department, and I know (Kansas City Police) Chief Forté shares that opinion as well."

    Baker said the women will not face any prostitution or drug charges.

    "The conduct we are most concerned with here is a police officer who, in exchange for a benefit, got women to do things that he wouldn't have otherwise," she said.

    Holmes is being held on a $25,000 bond.

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