Crime

This was definitely the most surreal news on the net last night. CBS News reports: The recapture of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman took a surprise, Hollywood twist when a Mexican official said security forces located the whereabouts of the world’s most-wanted trafficker thanks to a secret interview with U.S. actor Sean Penn. Penn’s interview with Guzman, who has …

ABC News reports: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted today that the infamous drug lord known as “El Chapo” has been captured. “Mission accomplished: We have him. I want to inform the Mexicans that Joaquin Guzman Loera has been detained,” the tweet states, originally in Spanish. No further details have been released. Guzman escaped from the Altiplano prison near Mexico …

Ooh, papa toony! Via Right Wing Watch: Yesterday on “The Liberty Roundtable” radio program, Ammon Bundy defended his seizure of a federal building in Oregon, claiming that the Bible supports his militia’s actions. He explained that the federal government is wrongly prohibiting economic development on the property he seized, insisting that God would rather have the land be developed: “We …

Reported yesterday by the Associated Press: The son of Alabama’s chief justice has pleaded not guilty to drug charges. Court documents show Caleb Moore pleaded not guilty on Dec. 21 to two counts. Moore, who is 25, faces charges of felony possession of the prescription medication alprazolam and misdemeanor marijuana possession. Caleb Moore was arrested in March in Troy. Police …

The mother of “affluenza” teen Ethan Couch is now in US custody. Her son remains in Mexico, where he is fighting extradition. Via Mashable: Tonya Couch arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from Mexico in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and was taken in handcuffs through the terminal to an unmarked Dodge Charger early Thursday …

The so-called affluenza teen and his mother are fighting extradition from Mexico and have been granted a temporary stay. The Daily Mail reports: Affluenza teen Ethan Couch has won a temporary stay against his deportation back to the United States, according to officials. The controversial decision comes after the killer drink-driver and his mother Tonya filed papers to fight their …

Pittsburgh’s ABC affiliate reports: Bill Cosby has been charged with sexual assault more than a decade after a former Temple University employee told police the comedian drugged and violated her at his home near Philadelphia. It’s the first criminal charge against Cosby over his conduct with women, which has received new scrutiny in the past year. The Montgomery County prosecutor …

TMZ reports: “Glee” star Mark Salling has just been arrested for possessing child porn, TMZ has confirmed. We’re told the LAPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force obtained a warrant and served it Tuesday morning, as first reported by the TV show “Crime Watch Daily.” We’re told cops searched Salling’s computer at his Sunland home and found hundreds of images. …

The drunk driving Texas teenager who avoided prison for killing four people with his now-infamous “affluenza” defense has been captured with his mother in Puerto Vallarta. Ethan Couch, 18, and his mother had been the targets of an international manhunt after he failed to comply with his probation stipulations. From the BBC: Officials in the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office …

UPDATE BELOW. Philadelphia’s NBC affiliate reports: A man armed with a sledgehammer began pounding away at a Center City crosswalk that celebrates Philadelphia’s LGBT community as shocked onlookers watched Monday night. The guy just began hammering away at 13th and Locust streets in the neighborhood, commonly called the Gayborhood, around 10:25 p.m. An onlooker captured cellphone video of the hammering …

Despite raising over $500K via Christian crowdfunding campaigns, Oregon’s anti-gay bakery refused to pay its fine. Until today: The co-owner of a Gresham bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple delivered a $136,927 check that covers the couple’s damages following the January 2013 incident. Aaron and Melissa Klein, the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, …

Last week following the conviction of Kathryn Knott in the gay-bashing of a Philadelphia couple, one of the jurors conducted an “Ask Me Anything” thread about the trial on Reddit. This might have been contrary to the judge’s orders and Knott’s attorneys are hoping to capitalize on that. Via LGBTQ Nation: In the thread, which has since been deleted, [Ari] …

The International Business Times reports: Italian police have arrested an alleged paedophile priest amid media accusation he was protected by the local bishop. Detectives allege father Antonello Tropea, 44, used gay dating app Grindr to groom teenage boys who he then paid for clandestine encounters in the southern Calabria region. Tropea was held on 18 December at the end of …

Longtime readers will surely remember this case. Via Reuters: A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of a Mennonite minister accused of helping a woman flee to Nicaragua with her daughter to evade court orders giving her former lesbian partner visitation rights. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld the conviction of Kenneth Miller, …

The jury forewoman and other jurors in Kathryn Knott’s gay-bashing trial say that they saw right through her lies. Philly.com reports: Three jurors spoke to reporters outside the courthouse. They all expressed sympathy for the victims — Zachary Hesse, 29, and his boyfriend, Andrew Haught, 28. Joan Bellinger, 67, the jury forewoman, said the jurors all believed Knott punched Hesse …

After three days of deliberations a Philadelphia jury today found Kathryn Knott guilty in the brutal September 2014 attack on a gay couple. The jury found Knott guilty of simple assault, two counts of reckless endangerment, and conspiracy. She was found not guilty of aggravated assault. Story developing…. UPDATE: Philly.com reports: A Philadelphia jury Friday found Kathryn Knott guilty of …

Twitter was very amused. Via Slate: In the most 2015-esque news of 2015, the FBI just tweeted that it did not seize the single-copy Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin when it arrested “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli on securities fraud charges earlier Thursday. Please pause before continuing to consider how little of that sentence would have been …

Via the Philly Voice: The jury in the assault trial of Kathryn Knott on Friday will deliberate a third day as it works to reach a verdict. Judge Roxanne Covington honored the jury’s request for dismissal around 4:20 p.m. Thursday, the second full day of deliberations following four days of testimony. Not long after beginning its second day of deliberations, …

This morning the jury in Philadelphia’s trial for accused gay-basher Kathryn Knott once again sent requests to the judge. The Philly Voice reports: The jury requested police statements given by Knott and Elizabeth Foley, a defense witnesses who was among Knott’s group of 15 people on the night of the incident. However, Knott never gave a statement to police. Her …

Whoa. Bloomberg Business reports: A boyish drug company entrepreneur, who rocketed to infamy by jacking up the price of a life-saving pill from $13.50 to $750, was arrested on securities fraud related to a firm he founded. Martin Shkreli, 32, ignited a firestorm over drug prices in September and became a symbol of defiant greed. The federal case against him …