Page 19 - Florida Sentinel 12-27-16 Online Edition

National
New Charges Filed Against Backpage.com Founders
The founders of Backpage.com are facing 30 criminal charges. Carl Ferrer, Michael Lacey and James Larkin made millions ad- vertising prostitution and sex trafficking using the website.
Shooter In Road Rage Killing Of 3-Year-Old Captured
Gary Holmes shot into the car during road rage incident killing Acen King, 3.
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — U.S. Marshals captured the man ac- cused of shooting and killing a 3-year-old boy during an appar- ent road rage case in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Gary Holmes, 33, faces cap- ital murder and terroristic act charges in connection with the shooting, Pulaski County Sher- iff’s Office spokesman Lt. Cody Burk said.
The arrest came on the same day Acen King was laid to rest. He was gunned down in the back seat of his grandmother’s car by Holmes.
The shooting sparked a com- munity outcry and police had offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
The boy’s grandmother told police the incident began when a man in a car behind her at a stop sign started honking his horn, apparently upset she was- n’t moving quickly enough. The grandmother honked her horn, too.
Then, police said, the man got out of his black Chevrolet Im- pala and fired into her car.
“One shot was fired, and it went through the vehicle and hit the child,” said Lt. Steven Mc- Clanahan, Little Rock police spokesman.
Not realizing that the boy had been hit, the woman drove to a JCPenney about nine miles away.
When she went to get him out of the car, she saw that her grandson was wounded, accord- ing to a police incident report.
“She didn’t know he was shot,” a bystander told the 911 opera- tor after speaking with the grandmother. One of the callers, describing what happened to the 911 operator, said the grand- mother feverishly performed CPR after the child sustained a neck wound.
The boy was transferred to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A 1-year-old child was also in the car at the time of the shoot- ing, according to the police re- port.
Police said they believe the grandmother and the slain boy had no relationship with the gunman.
Texas Pastors Say Arrest Of Mom By Cop Who She Sought Help From Was Racist
Jacqueline Craig and her teen daughter were put on the ground and arrested by Fort Worth officer after a neighbor choked her 7- year-old son.
Pastors and concerned citizens protested on Thursday.
CALIFORNIA -- The three California men who operate Backpage.com, the notorious backchannel web domain ad- vertising prostitution and sex trafficking, have been charged with nearly 30 crim- inal acts — just two weeks after a judge tossed an earlier case against them.
Carl Ferrer, the website's CEO, Michael Lacey and James Larkin were slammed with 13 counts of pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping in addition to 26 counts of money laun- dering, California Attorney General Kamala Harris an- nounced Friday. In seven of the pimping counts, the vic- tims were children.
"By creating an online brothel — a hotbed of illicit and exploitative activity — Carl Ferrer, Michael Lacey, and James Larkin preyed on vulnerable victims, including children, and prof- ited from their exploitation," Harris said in a statement.
Harris claims the new charges are based on recently unearthed evidence that will not be protected under the federal free-speech laws that a Sacramento County judge
California Atty. General and newly elected U.S. con- gressperson Kamala Harris filed new charges.
cited when he threw out pre- vious charges against the three men on Dec. 9.
Ferrer, 55, Lacey, 68, and Larkin, 69, were charged on the same counts in the last case. Lacey and Larkin, the website's previous owners, used to own a string of alter- native newspapers across the country — including the Vil- lage Voice in New York City — before getting involved with Backpage, which al- legedly makes millions of dol- lars in revenue each month off of prostitution ads featur- ing coded language and lewd photos.
DALLAS — Dozens of Fort Worth and Arlington pastors say the recent arrest of a Black mother and her two teenage daughters by a white officer was racist despite other characterizations from city officials.
The pastors gathered on Christmas Eve at Beth Eden Baptist Church to ask the Black community to remain calm while an internal inves- tigation is completed. Several pastors said the community still believes the police chief, mayor and other city officials want to work with the pastors and the Black community, but they have lost faith in the ability of the officer, who has- n't been named and is on paid restricted duty, to police the community.
Police were called to an ar- gument between Jacqueline Craig and a neighbor who Craig said choked her 7- year-old son after the neigh- bor said he littered and refused to pick it up. The video shows a quickly escalat- ing argument between Craig
and the unnamed officer. The officer asks Craig why she didn't teach her son not to litter. Craig answers that whether he littered or not, the neighbor didn't have the right to put his hands on her son. The officer can be heard ask- ing, "Why not?" He is seen wrestling Craig to the ground after one of her daughters tries to step be- tween the officer and Craig. He points a Taser into Craig's back and, after cuff- ing her, points the Taser at the daughter who tried to in- tervene and arrests her. Po- lice said the daughter filming the incident was arrested,
too.
Craig's attorney, S. Lee
Merritt, has asked that charges be dropped against the woman. He also wants the officer to be fired and prose- cuted.
Merritt said Saturday on Twitter that he had helped Craig file an initial report on the alleged choking incident, and hoped to press charges against the neighbor.
New Missouri State Law Change Could Mean Felony Records For School Fights
MISSOURI -- A new statute is drawing the ire of civil rights advocates over concerns that it unnecessarily criminalizes chil- dren. However, a state law- maker says that the statute is being mischaracterized and does not spur significant change.
A letter to parents and guardians in the that Hazel- town School District in St. Louis County sent recently said that a law taking effect Jan. 1 could result in school fights being treated as class E felonies. Class E felonies could result in up to four years in prison. The letter said these types of acts were previously treated as misdemeanors.
As the school district ex- plains, under the statute, “if two students are fighting and one child is injured, the student
who caused the injury may be charged with a felony. Stu- dent(s) who are caught fighting in school, bus or on school grounds may now be charged with a felony (no matter the age or grade level), if this assault is witnessed by one of the School Resource Officers/police offi- cers (SRO) or if the SRO/local law enforcement officials have to intervene.”
The law’s language does not specifically address school fights, but rather changes in how the state views instances of assault. This could impact students arrested by school- based police officers, the dis- trict implies.
Additionally, another school district in the area, Ferguson- Florissant, released a video giv- ing a similar explanation of the law change.
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