Pennsylvania
Cops: Woman with history of thefts steals hair highlights
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman with a history of stealing meals and services has allegedly struck again, this time at a hair salon.
Bethlehem township police say 46-year-old Tia Hassler went to the Intrigued Salon on Sunday and had more than $100 worth of highlights put in her hair, only to claim she had no money once the work was done.
Salon workers told police Hassler knew the price before they did the work and gave no indication she couldn’t pay.
Hassler remained in the Northampton County jail Wednesday without an attorney listed in online court records.
Those records show numerous theft of services cases against her dating to 2009. That’s when she first was charged with running up a tab for meals and drinks and refusing to pay for them.
Texas
Woman who hid gun in her vagina gets probation
WACO, Texas (AP) — A Texas woman who police said packed a loaded pistol in her vagina has been sentenced to probation after she pleaded guilty to drug possession.
Ashley Cecilia Castaneda has been sentenced to 10 years on deferred probation for methamphetamine possession. The 33-year-old Waco woman also was fined $2,500.
Waco police say that when Castaneda was arrested in 2015, she told officers on her way to McLennan County Jail that she was packing a loaded handgun in her birth canal. Police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said a jail matron performed a cavity search and found the gun, right where Castaneda said she had hid it.
Castaneda’s attorney, Seth Sutton, denied the story as impossible.
Georgia
Official to be reprimanded for ‘racist pig’ post
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Commissioners in a suburban Atlanta county have voted to publicly reprimand a colleague for calling civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia a “racist pig” on Facebook.
News outlets report the decision on Tuesday followed the recommendation of Gwinnett County’s ethics board, which voted earlier in June to sustain the ethics complaint against Commissioner Tommy Hunter. He did not attend the meeting, which included a public hearing.
The public reprimand will involve posting a written rebuke on the county’s website, on the wall of the courthouse and in the local newspaper.
An Atlanta woman, Nancy Turner, filed the complaint against Hunter on Feb. 6.
Hunter spokesman Seth Weathers issued a statement that reads, in part, “We now know that mob rule controls the Gwinnett County Commission Board.”
Maine
Court rejects appeal claiming officer showed ‘excessive friendliness’
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A man convicted of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy will remain in prison after Maine’s high court rejected an appeal arguing that the detective who interviewed him displayed “excessive friendliness.”
Andrew Seamon’s lawyer said Augusta police detective Tori Tracy was playing “good cop” when she secretly recorded an interview with Seamon, whom she had known for years.
The Kennebec Journal reports that Seamon testified he wasn’t thinking rationally during the interview and had recently been treated for psychiatric issues.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a decision published Tuesday that Seamon’s statements were voluntary regardless of the “friendly nature” of the interview.
Seamon was convicted of unlawful sexual contact. A jury cleared him of one count of gross sexual assault and deadlocked on a second count.
Florida
Teen killed during Craigslist transaction
MIAMI (AP) — A Florida man is in accused of fatally shooting a 19-year-old old recent high school graduate who was trying to sell his video games and console on Craigslist.
The Miami Herald reports 22-year-old Ed Lamarre was arrested Tuesday night and is being held without bond on a second-degree murder charge.
Authorities say Brian Brown met Lamarre on June 14 after connecting with him on Craigslist. CBS 4 reports Brown was planning to leave next month for Merced College in California on a full football scholarship.
Investigators learned that Brown and Lamarre began arguing during the transaction. An arrest report says Lamarre fired several rounds at Brown, who died of his wounds the next day.
Massachusetts
Man who threatened Bill Clinton arraigned in dad’s killing
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who served prison time for threatening to kill then-President Bill Clinton has been arraigned on a murder charge in the death of his father.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports a judge on Tuesday ordered Glenn Armstrong to be held without bail and committed to a hospital for 60 days of psychiatric observation.
Not-guilty pleas have been entered on Armstrong’s behalf.
He was indicted on murder and motor vehicle larceny charges June 13.
His 83-year-old father, Walter Armstrong, was found dead in the home they shared in Blackstone by officers conducting a well-being check Jan. 11. A medical examiner says the father was suffocated with a bag.
Armstrong had been sentenced to 21 months in prison for threatening to kill Clinton in 1994.
Ohio
Prisons dept. settles inmate hearing aids suit
CLEVELAND (AP) — Ohio’s prisons department is settling a lawsuit brought by a hearing-impaired convicted killer who said officials wouldn’t give him two functional hearing aids.
The suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union argued the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s statewide policy of providing only one hearing aid to inmates was unconstitutional and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Cleveland.com reports the department will clarify its policy to require that inmates receive two hearing aids if a doctor deems it necessary. It also will pay the ACLU $22,000 to cover legal fees.
The suit was brought on behalf of James Handwork, an inmate at a private prison in Conneaut for a 2002 murder. He received new hearing aids in April.
