Crime

The Los Angeles Times reports: Two carjacking suspects who reportedly used the gay dating app Grindr to lure their victims have been arrested by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, officials said Tuesday. The carjackings occurred over the last two weeks in the high desert communities of Victorville and Adelanto, according to deputies. “On both occasions, the victims had blindly …

CNN reports: More than a decade after he was first accused of sexual misconduct, Bill Cosby will go to trial. A Pennsylvania judge found enough evidence during a hearing Tuesday to proceed with a criminal trial. It’s not clear when his trial will start. Cosby faces three counts of felony indecent assault from a 2004 case involving Andrea Constand, an …

Reuters reports: George Zimmerman said he has sold the gun he used to kill unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012 for $250,000, television stations in Orlando and Las Vegas reported on Friday. Zimmerman could not be reached to verify the reports by KTNV in Las Vegas and the Daytona Beach News-Journal. His offer to sell the Kel-Tec …

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The former chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party was arrested Friday morning and charged with child molestation, jail records showed. Joseph Russell Dendy, 71, was arrested at his West Cobb home and charged with aggravated child molestation and child molestation, both felonies. He was being held at the Cobb jail without bond early Friday afternoon. …

Philly Mag reports: The victims of the September 2014 gay-bashing assault in Center City are taking their attackers to court. Earlier this week, Zachary Hesse and Andrew Haught filed a civil suit against Kathryn Knott, Kevin Harrigan and Philip Williams for their roles in the attack. Harrigan and Williams both escaped jail time when they pleaded guilty last year to …

From the Associated Press: Police in Bangladesh said Sunday that they have arrested a suspected Muslim militant for his alleged involvement in the killing last month of a gay rights activist and his friend in the capital. Police identified the suspect as Shariful Islam Shihab, a former member of the banned Islamic group Harkatul Jihad. They said he joined another …

In a refreshing change for New York state politics, today it was a Republican former lawmaker that was sentenced to prison. Instead of a Democrat. For once. From the New York Times: Dean G. Skelos, the once powerful Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate who was convicted with his son in December on federal corruption charges, was …

From the New York Times: Robert L. Dear Jr., the self-described “warrior for the babies” who defiantly admitted to carrying out a shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood center here last November, was declared on Wednesday unfit to stand trial by the judge overseeing the case. The ruling by Judge Gilbert A. Martinez found Mr. Dear to be mentally incompetent, …

Via the Washington Post: George Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, then acquitted by a Florida jury on July 13, 2013. The case sparked a nationwide debate and protests over “stand your ground” laws and race relations in the United States. Now, Zimmerman is auctioning off the …

An Arkansas preacher has been charged with 70 felony counts of distributing, possessing, and viewing child pornography after a watchdog group tipped off authorities that he’d been trading the images via private messages on Twitter under the username “Candy Man.” Pastor David Reynolds of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship today pleaded not guilty to the charges. Reynolds’ church has issued a statement: …

Back in November I reported that an Arkansas judge had been accused of soliciting sex from male defendants. As it turns out, there’s much more to the story. NBC News reports: An Arkansas judge accused of swapping sex for reduced sentences resigned Monday after a state commission said it discovered thousands of photographs from his computer that depicted nude male …

You remember this woman, right? From the Orlando Sentinel: A North Florida gun advocate will avoid prosecution after her 4-year-old son shot her in the back with her improperly stored gun, the State Attorney’s Office said Friday. As part of a diversion agreement with the state, 31-year-old Jamie Lynn Gilt of Jacksonville must complete a gun-safety course, install a mounted …

CNN reports: A former aide to Ron Paul and current strategist for a pro-Donald Trump super PAC was convicted Thursday of falsifying campaign records in a 2012 scheme to pay for a presidential endorsement. A federal jury in Iowa found Jesse Benton guilty on all counts, which included conspiracy and false records charges. Benton was convicted along with John Tate …

Yesterday the AFA issued a press release which claims that despite what you’re reading in the “lying liberal media” – they are not sending men into Target’s ladies rooms to “test” to company’s pro-trans policy. Damn those liars for quoting AFA radio host Sandy Rios: “We’ve already had people testing this, going into Targets and men trying to go into …

NBC Chicago reports: A man protesting Target’s transgender bathroom policy at a store in Bourbonnais was arrested Monday, authorities said. Michael Merichko was charged with disorderly conduct following a disturbance inside a Target store at 1615 N. State Route 50 in Bourbonnais, about 55 miles south of Chicago, according to the Bradley Police Department. Merichko was allegedly protesting Target Corporation’s …

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: A blogger who wrote about Kathryn Knott – the Bucks County woman convicted of participating in a 2014 attack on a gay couple in Center City – has sued Knott, Knott’s father [above right], the Bucks County district attorney, and others. Kathleen O’Donnell, 61, of Norristown, says in her lawsuit filed Friday in federal court, that …

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The first sentence of the original ABC News report has been changed. It now reads: Former Speaker of the House John Dennis Hastert was sentenced today in federal court to 15 months in prison and two years of supervised release after he faced one of his accusers, who identified himself publicly for the first time as Scott Cross, …

The Telegraph reports: An al-Qaeda affiliate has claimed the murder of a prominent gay rights activist who was hacked to death in Dhaka by men armed with guns and machetes who entered his flat pretending to be parcel couriers. Xulhaz Mannan, along with his friend Mahbub Tony, also an activist, died on the spot from cuts to their heads, according …

The Mirror reports: The editor of Bangladesh’s first ever LGBT magazine has been hacked to death by suspected Islamist militants in a horrific attack, it is reported. Julhas Mannan, 35, who worked for ‘Roopbaan’, was killed alongside his friend, Tanay Mojumdar, in an apartment in the capital of Dhaka, a police official said. A third person was injured in the …

Philadelphia Gay News reports: It appears that Kathryn Knott will not file a full appeal of her prison sentence. Knott was convicted of assault and other charges in December, stemming from a 2014 gay-bashing incident, and sentenced to 5 to 10 months in prison Knott would have typically had 30 days after her Feb. 8 sentencing hearing to appeal to …