Pennsylvania
'I just like pigs,' says naked man found in barn
MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - Police have charged a man with trespassing, public drunkenness and indecent exposure after he was caught on a neighbor's Pennsylvania farm in the nude, drinking beer among pigs.
Police in Manor Township, Lancaster County, say 64-year-old Larry Henry told them, "I just like pigs" when they found him in the hog barn June 26 about 10:15 p.m.
Henry faces a preliminary hearing Aug. 4. His defense attorney didn't immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.
Arrest papers show Henry had been banned from the farm since he got caught trespassing four years ago.
Police say Henry smelled of alcohol and acknowledged drinking a six-pack of beer while hanging out with the hogs.
Police say the brand of beer was in keeping with the overall theme. Henry was drinking Hamm's.
Ohio
Ex-choir director sentenced for sex crimes with boys
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A former choir director at an Ohio high school said he was "ashamed, embarrassed and disgusted" by his actions as he was sentenced to prison for soliciting sex and naked pictures from teenage boys in exchange for higher grades and other favors.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that 28-year-old Zachary Ruppel was sentenced Tuesday in Franklin County Common Pleas court to two years and nine months in prison. He must also register as a sex offender every six months for the next 25 years.
Three underage male students at St. Francis DeSales High School in Columbus reported Ruppel for asking them to text him photos of their genitals.
Ruppel pleaded guilty to charges of compelling prostitution, among other things, in April and asked for probation over prison time.
South Carolina
Ku Klux Klan fliers show up in neighborhood
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Residents in a predominantly black South Carolina neighborhood say fliers have been distributed claiming to be from the Ku Klux Klan.
Local news outlets report the fliers from the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan showed up last week in a community in North Charleston.
The flier reads, "Neighborhood Watch. You can sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake." It includes a sketch of a hooded Klansman and a finger pointed toward the reader.
Neighborhood association president Jesse Williams said the woman who brought him the flier said she found didn't see who placed it on her car.
The fliers appeared less than three weeks after nine people were shot to death at a historic black church in nearby Charleston. A 21-year-old white man has been charged.
Pennsylvania
Man pleads guilty but mentally ill in fatal shootings
MEDIA, Pa. (AP) - A gunman has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to charges he killed his caseworker and wounded his psychiatrist at a suburban Philadelphia hospital complex last July.
Fifty-year-old Richard Plotts entered the pleas Tuesday to first-degree murder, attempted murder and illegally possessing a firearm.
The Upper Darby man killed 53-year-old Theresa Hunt at the Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital campus in Yeadon on July 24. He also grazed Dr. Lee Silverman in the temple and thumb before the doctor returned fire with his own gun and wounded Plotts to end the siege.
Public defender Charles Williams says Plotts faces life in prison when he's sentenced Sept. 25, but that the plea was in his best interest. He says Plotts never wanted to put his or the victims' families through a trial.
Texas
Military exercise sparks fears in archconservatives
BASTROP, Texas (AP) - A summer military training exercise that has aroused alarm among archconservatives who believe it could be a precursor to martial law and firearms confiscations is set to begin in Central Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott acknowledged that panic when he directed the Texas State Guard to monitor Jade Helm 15 starting Wednesday near the town of Bastrop, 30 miles southeast of Austin.
Texas is one of two "hostile" territories for the purpose of the exercise.
The State Guard will brief Abbott's office every day on the exercises. Civilian volunteers say they plan to shadow military movements statewide.
Jade Helm 15 will cover seven Southwestern states and wraps up in September.
North Dakota
Police: Airman in store shooting acted by himself
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) - Police say a U.S. airman was acting alone when he fatally shot one worker and injured another at a North Dakota Wal-Mart store before killing himself, and that no one had any advance notice of his intentions.
Grand Forks police said Wednesday that they closed their investigation into the May shooting without forwarding the case to prosecutors for possible charges.
Twenty-one-year-old Marcell Willis was a senior airman stationed at Grand Forks Air Force Base. Police say he walked into the Wal-Mart store about 1 a.m. on May 26 and shot and killed 70-year-old overnight cashier Gregory Weiland. Willis then shot and wounded 47-year-old overnight grocery general manager Lisa Braun.
Willis then killed himself. His motive isn't known.
Rhode Island
Some moms feel scammed by special jeweler
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Several women who sent their breast milk to a Rhode Island jeweler to have it turned into keepsakes say they feel scammed after not receiving their jewelry.
Some customers tell WPRO-AM they sent MommyMilk Creations money and their milk up to two years ago and still haven't received anything from company owner Allicia Mogavero.
They say invoices show that Mogavero has processed their payments for the pendants, which cost hundreds of dollars, but she isn't returning their calls and emails.
Mogavero says her business is legitimate but acknowledges that wait times are long. She tells the radio station it's not a matter of if customers receive their products but when.
State Attorney General Peter Kilmartin says his office received one formal complaint about MommyMilk, in 2014, but it was closed once the complainant received the item.
Published: Thu, Jul 16, 2015
