• Conspiracy theorist harassed Aurora shooting victims' families, cops say

    Portland Police Bureau

    Kevin Purfield, 45, of Portland, Oregon.

    By Teresa Carson, Reuters

    PORTLAND, Oregon - An Oregon man was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of harassing family members of some of the 12 people slain by a gunman who opened fire on moviegoers inside a Colorado theater last summer, police said.

    Kevin Michael Purfield, 45, of Oregon, is accused of contacting relatives of the Aurora, Colorado, victims through telephone calls, email and social media networks, police in Portland and Aurora said.

    Portland Police Bureau Sergeant Pete Simpson said he had little information about Purfield's background aside from the fact that law enforcement had previous contact with the suspect, including at least one "mental health call."

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    Twelve people were killed and 58 injured when a gunman opened fire during the premiere of a Batman movie.

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    A spokesman for the Aurora police, Frank Fania, said Purfield's contacts with victims' families numbered in the dozens, and started with the suspect offering unfounded conspiracies about the massacre.

    "In the beginning it was this conspiracy theory stuff," Fania said, "then it went away from the conspiracy theory into personally attacking the families, calling them names and hoping bad things would happen to them."

    A Facebook page and blog identified as belonging to Purfield stated, for example, that some coffins of the Aurora victims were empty. There were also discussions of the September 11, 2001, attacks on America and the December 2012 mass shooting that left 20 children and six adults slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

    The suspect in the Aurora shooting rampage, James Holmes, 25, is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder, and prosecutors announced last week that they would seek the death penalty if he were convicted.

    The July 20 shooting spree, unleashed during a midnight showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises," also left 58 people wounded.

    New court documents released by a Colorado judge show that Aurora theater shooter James Holmes had threatened his psychiatrist and showed other troubling signs well before his shooting spree, raising questions about whether enough was done before he picked up a weapon.

    Aurora police contacted the Portland Police Bureau in February, seeking assistance in an investigation into the harassment reported by victims' families.

    Purfield was arrested without incident and booked on five misdemeanor charges of telephonic harassment and one count of stalking, police said.

    Prosecutors in the Holmes case recently raised the issue in connection with arguments over newly unsealed court records, citing "ongoing harassment" of victims and witnesses and "potential intimidation by individuals who have no relationship to the case."

    Victims' identities were made public in some case documents, and the names of the dead, their families and survivors of the shooting have appeared in numerous media accounts of the tragedy and its aftermath.

    Purfield was jailed in lieu of $10,000 bond and was slated to be arraigned in Multnomah County Court on April 11. The case would be tried in Portland. 

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Air Force searches out porn, other 'offensive' material on its bases

    The U.S. Air Force has released a report revealing hundreds of instances of pornography on its bases. The investigation was spurred by a female sergeant who risked her career by stepping forward. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.

    By Michael Isikoff, National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

    A worldwide inspection of U.S. Air Force facilities uncovered more than 631 pornographic movies, videos, DVDs, posters, magazines and other material that were either stored on computer servers or displayed in common areas at bases, according to a report released Friday. The hunt also found 31,585  other instances of "unprofessional" and "offensive" material -- including some that was racially insensitive, it said.

    The  search and report come on the heels of allegations that sexual misconduct is rampant within the Air Force and mounting complaints from Congress and women's groups that the service has tolerated a "culture"  of disrespect for women. Other branches of the U.S. military have been the subject of similar complaints.  

    Maj. Joel Harper, an Air Force spokesman,  confirmed that criminal investigations have been launched into some of those responsible for the material and said that some personnel may be subject to possible court martials. All the pornography and offensive material has been either removed or destroyed, Harper said.

    The purpose of the inspection was "to send a message that this type of stuff is not acceptable in this day and age," Harper said. "Some of this was clearly inappropriate."

    Mattel

    The 'offensive' material seized at Air Force bases around the world ran the gamut from hard-core pornography to a 'Ken' doll clad only in swimming trunks.

    An especially high number of improper materials were found at the Air Education and Training Command in Texas, which includes Lackland Air Force Base, the report said.  More than 30 instructors there are already under investigation for sexual misconduct—including allegedly sexually assaulting trainees --  and the issue will be a subject of a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee next week. Among the material found at the command on common computer drives, according to the report, were 144 pornographic posters and graphics -- including some "glorifying suicide" and "racial" in nature -- and 13 videos at showing "sexual images" as well as "killings and torture." Another video removed from the command was entitled "Achmed the Dead Terrorist."

    Material found and removed at other bases included Maxim magazines "with scantily clad women in provocative poses"  and photos of a "clothed lady performing oral sex" and a "female in tank top with beer bottle between breasts," it said. Other less explicit material, deemed less serious but still inappropriate,  included a shirtless photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and a “Ken' Doll dressed only in swim trunks."

    The worldwide inspection of all Air Force bases was ordered last month by Gen. Mark Welsh, the service’s Chief of Staff, who directed commanders to “document and remove as contraband” any material they deemed “unprofessional or inappropriate” – defined as “detrimental  to a professional working environment” as well as “lewd, obscene or pornographic images or publications.” Harper said it was up to individual commanders to determine what constituted “inappropriate” materials.

    Welsh acted after Jennifer Smith, a technical sergeant at Shaw Air Force Base, filed an administrative complaint alleging "systemic and intentional sexual discrimination" against women in the Air Force. Smith, a 17 year veteran of the Air Force, told NBC News that she found highly offensive and "disgusting" pornography stored on computer servers and in songbooks at the base -- as well as some that she said were stored in classified vaults.  

    "I have served just as long and just as hard as any male has and for them to put that type of pornography out there was degrading," she said.  

    As the numbers  of women serving in the military has increased over the years, it has led to mounting complaints of rapes, sexual assaults and other misconduct. The Pentagon estimated that there had been as many as 19,000 sexual assaults against members of the military in 2011, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta vowed  vigorous action to attack the problem. 

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  • Man accused of threatening former high school classmates before 20-year reunion

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Bexar County Sheriff's Office

    Jason Carroll Moss, 38, was arrested Friday night.

    A 38-year-old Texas man who says he was bullied in high school has been accused of threatening his San Antonio classmates online before his 20-year reunion.

    Jason Carroll Moss was arrested Friday night, just as the reunion weekend kicked off at a bar in Fair Oaks Ranch, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Moss was charged with misdemeanor harassment and released early Saturday on a personal recognizance bond.

    Moss was arrested after some people who noticed the online posting contacted police.

    Police say Moss reportedly admitted to posting harassing messages on a Facebook page for the John Marshall High School Class of 1992, the Express-News reported. He claimed he did so to prevent further bullying during the reunion, according to the Express-News.

    About 150 people attended Saturday night’s event in the San Antonio area as police patrolled nearby.

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    According to the Express-News, arrest warrant affidavit included Moss's Facebook comment:


    “I stayed away from graduation at the time because I would have started the Columbine shootings early. I was picked on and bullied by a bunch of you when I went to school and I wanted to kill everyone that hurt me. I'm still seeking vengeance on all those who bullied and harassed me when I was growing up or went to school. You people do not know what you did to me.”

    No published phone number could immediately be located for Moss and msnbc.com could not reach him for comment.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Bullied gay student who fired stun gun is expelled

    Seventeen-year-old Darnell "Dynasty" Young, who is openly gay, says he's been taunted and bullied for months by fellow students.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A gay student who said he fired a stun gun in the air at school when bullies threatened him has been expelled, according to the school district.

    Darnell “Dynasty” Young, a junior at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, may return to school in the district on Jan. 7, 2013, Indianapolis Public Schools said Tuesday in an e-mail statement.

     

    Young, 17, said bullies hounded him daily. The harassment escalated on April 16, when a group surrounded him at school and threatened to beat him up, according to the Indianapolis Star.

    Young took the stun gun, which he had stashed in his backpack for a few weeks, and fired it off in the air. The students dispersed, but within minutes, school police had arrested Young.

    "My point was not to hurt anybody … the purpose was to back them off. I didn’t know what else to do," he told msnbc's NewsNation on Monday.

    The district said it had accepted the decision of an examiner, who presided over Young’s hearing last week, to expel him.

    “While the district does not condone bullying, it also does not allow weapons to be brought on our school campuses for any reason. Students who violate this rule will be held accountable,” Mary Louise Bewley, director of the district’s Office of School and Community Relations, said in the e-mail statement.

    When reached by phone on Tuesday, Young declined to comment. His mother, Chelisa Grimes, said she couldn’t believe her son had been expelled.

    "They really kicked him out," she told the newspaper.

    Grimes said that she had given her son -- who transferred to the school last year -- the stun gun for protection, saying school authorities weren’t doing enough to protect him.

    “I had to do something to protect my child. I was in fear of losing my child, either at the hands of the bullies or either at the hands of himself," she told msnbc's NewsNation.


    Principal Larry Yarrell earlier said the school had tried to look into the bullying reports, but Young was not always able to identify all of those who had harassed him. He said they had interviewed staff and students, and he had also recommended that Young “tone down” his accessories.

    Carolyn Laub, Executive Director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, denounced the district's decision.

    “Dynasty, like many other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender young people, was pushed out of school by an administration that failed to keep him safe and by school discipline policies that remove students instead of resolve the problem,” Laub said in an e-mail statement. “When schools use a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to school discipline, they unfortunately reinforce an environment of fear and punishment and fail to create a climate of inclusion, safety, and respect for all students.”

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