Crime

The Dallas gayborhood of Oak Lawn is enduring a rash of violent attacks on gay men. Last night there was another one. The Dallas Morning News reports: Police are investigating after a bartender was beaten up while walking to his friend’s home in Oak Lawn Thursday night — the latest in a spate of attacks in the neighborhood in recent …

As some of you surely remember, in 1989 televangelist Jim Bakker (then husband of Tammy Faye) was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison after being convicted on 24 felony counts of wire and mail fraud. That conviction came two years after Bakker was accused of raping Jessica Hahn, prompting Jerry Falwell to call him “the greatest scab and cancer …

Via GLAAD: Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. The Transgender Day of Remembrance was started by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. …

A federal judge today sentenced former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle to 15.6 years in prison. The sentence is three times longer than the one suggested by Fogle’s lawyers and even longer than the one recommended by prosecutors. Reuters reports: Fogle agreed in court on Thursday to avoid pornography, get sexual disorder treatment and will be a registered sex offender. U.S. …

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports: A Cross County judge is accused of soliciting sex from offenders in his court in exchange for sentence reductions, the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission said. District Court Judge Joseph Boeckmann will have 30 days to respond to charges filed by the commission, which were released Tuesday. He is also entitled to a hearing in front …

Michael Wright, a pro basketball player once drafted by the New York Knicks, was found bludgeoned to death in his SUV on Tuesday. NYPD detectives believe Wright may have been murdered by a man that he met on Grindr. The New York Daily News reports: Wright was found dead from a head wound inside his Lexus SUV on E. 16th …

Thou shall not steal candy bars is in there somewhere, right? The Friendly Atheist has the backstory: In 2001, the ACLU filed a lawsuit over a Ten Commandments monument outside the new City Hall building in Grand Junction, Colorado. It was a Christian symbol — everybody knew that — so it had no place on government property. Knowing that they …

A 61 year-old Mississippi patriot has been charged with bombing a local Walmart because the chain no longer sells the Confederate flag. USA Today reports: Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre said a vehicle pulled up to an entrance of the Walmart in North Gloster around 1:30 a.m. CT. “A white male got out, lit the package and threw it in …

Philadelphia Gay News reports: A judge this week ordered Kathryn Knott to stand trial Dec. 9 for her alleged role in last year’s attack on a gay couple. Knott is charged with two counts each of aggravated and simple assault, as well as conspiracy and reckless endangerment in connection with the Sept. 11, 2014, attack on Zachary Hesse and Andrew …

Last year the US House candidacy of GOP former Stanislaus County Clerk and anti-abortion activist Karen Mathews Davis gained national attention when she claimed to have gotten death threats from anonymous writers who threatened to shoot her and her husband in the head if she didn’t withdraw from the race. While the feds investigated, Davis told the local press that …

A British man was arraigned today on charges that he drugged and murdered four young men that he met on hook-up sites over a period of 15 months. The Guardian reports: At a hearing before Barkingside magistrates court in east London, Stephen Port spoke only to confirm his name and address. He faces four counts of murder in relation to …

Fox News terrorism analyst Wayne Simmons has been charged with fraud for falsely claiming to be a former CIA agent. Via the Daily Mail: Simmons, 62, of Annapolis, Maryland, pretended to be an ‘Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer’ for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1973 to 2000, the US Attorney’s Office for Virginia’s Eastern District said in a statement released …

Former GOP House Speaker Dennis Haster will plead guilty to charges that arose after he lied to the FBI about the nature of large cash withdrawals he was allegedly using as payoffs to keep a decades-old sexual misconduct accusation from becoming public. NBC News reports: The politician, who was not in the Chicago federal courtroom where the agreement was announced …

Two of the three alleged gay-bashers accused in the brutal October 2014 attack on a Philadelphia gay couple have agreed to a plea deal in which they will receive probation and community service. The third and most infamous of the charged trio, Kathryn Knott, has refused a plea arrangement and will go on trial in two weeks. The attack electrified …

Via the Associated Press: A central New York couple has been charged with fatally beating their 19-year-old son inside a church and four fellow church members have been charged with assault in an attack that also left the young man’s brother severely injured, police said Tuesday. Bruce Leonard, 65, and Deborah Leonard, 59, of Clayville, were charged with first-degree manslaughter …

The abuse charge comes because the kids were duct-taped to their chairs. This case made a bit of news back in August when the boyfriend was arrested and now the mother has been charged too. The Smoking Gun has the arrest details: A Nebraska woman whose two young boys were forced to watch the film “Mommie Dearest” while duct-taped to …

Over the weekend hundreds of activists rallied in Philadelphia to mark the murder of a local trans woman. Today there’s a break in the case. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: A man has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a transgender woman in Philadelphia’s Logan section. Pedro Redding, 24, has been taken into custody in the Oct. 6 killing of …

NBC News reports: A large crowd gathered in Center City to call for justice and equality for transgender men and women in the wake of a brutal murder. The 5th Annual Philly Trans March took place Saturday afternoon at Thomas Paine Plaza, less than a week after Kiesha Jenkins, a 22-year-old transgender woman, was killed by a group of men …

Via the Associated Press: Holding signs saying the president was not welcome, more than 200 gun-rights activists protested Barack Obama’s visit on Friday to Oregon to meet with the families of victims of last week’s campus killings. The protesters stood outside Roseburg airport as Obama left a helicopter and got into a limousine that whisked him away for the private …

President Obama reportedly may circumvent Congress and issue an executive order requiring expanded background checks for gun purchases from high-volume dealers. The Washington Post reports: The proposed executive action aims to impose background checks on individuals who buy from dealers who sell a significant number of guns each year. The current federal statute dictates that those who are “engaged in …