Guy Robs Bank So He Doesn't Have To Go Home To His Wife

This guy robbed a bank because he figures jail would
be better than going home to his wife,
who he apparently dislikes.  

I love my husband, and after four years of marriage, my heart does a couple little happy backflips when I pull into the driveway after work to see that he is home.

Which means my life appears to be a LOT better than that of Lawrence John Ripple, 70, of the Kansas City area.

According to the Kansas City Star, Ripple robbed a bank by handing a teller a note which read, "I have a gun, give me money."

So the teller gave Ripple money.

With the money in hand, he could have fled. But Ripple just sat down and waited for the cops. Even before the police got there, a bank security guard came up to him, and Ripple said, "I'm the guy you're looking for."

The guard took the money back from Ripple and held him until police arrived.

Ripple's a really bad bank robber, right?

Well, it turns out Ripple told the police he robbed the bank because going to jail would be MUCH more fun than hanging out with his wife for even one more minute.

Apparently, Ripple wrote the bank robbery note in front of his wife to ensure she understood that he was Fed. Up.

You think Ripple would have come up with a better way to walk away from a marriage that, at least to his perspective, really sucked. Divorce is an option. Marriage counseling. Just moving out of the house might work, too.

But, Ripple will get his wish. He's got a bank robbery charge hanging over his head, and if he's found guilty, he's almost assured of going to prison.

My only question is what will happen if they let him out on bail before his robbery trial?

Wacko Oregon Land Takeover Guys Say They Want Their Gun Rights Back While In Prison

One of this year's Oregon standoff guys,
Ryan Bundy is in jail and says that, among
other things, he's mad that his right to
have a gun with him has been taken away.  

Remember those idiots who took over that Oregon wildlife refuge earlier this year?

They are, of course, in jail, awaiting trial in connection with that messy case.

The group, led by the ever-esteeemed ringleaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy, are threatening to sue, saying their Constitutional rights are being withheld from them while awaiting trial.

Most of it is the typical whines: They're not letting us into the library enough, they're not giving us certain clothes so they can practice their Mormon religion, they're not letting the group meet with each other to strategize, blah, blah, blah.

But a statement in a great article from Oregon Public Radio telling us what Ryan Bundy had to say caught my eye:

"My rights are being violated. My right to right life is being violated. All of my First Amendment rights are being violated. My right to freedom of religion is being violated....... My Second Amendment rights are being violated. I never waived that right. My Fourth Amendment rights are being violated."

Well, first of all, if you're reading this, you see an example of Ryan Bundy exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. Since he's still alive, his right to life is being honored.

The real wild one is Ryan Bundy saying that his Second Amendment rights are being violated. That's the gun rights amendment. So, he should have the right to have his guns with him while he's in jail?

What could go wrong?

City Threatens To Jail Elderly Woman For Not Mowing Her Lawn

These four brothers mowed the huge lawn behind them
because the city threatened to jail the elderly
property owner for not mowing it.  

I guess city officials in Riesel, Texas have nothing better to do.

They've been threatening to jail a 75 year old woman for not mowing the lawns on property she owns.

She can't handle the job.

I suppose there's the possibility she's being obstinate, that she's just not bothering to hire someone to do the mowing. I don't know if she can afford it or not.

And the grass did get tall, up to 18 inches tall.

So yeah, maybe people in Riesel were annoyed by the tall grass. That, I get.

But threatening to put the woman in jail for not mowing the lawn? That just seems a bit harsh to me.

Four young brothers were nice enough to go over to Gerry Suttle's property, and they spend two hours in the hot Texas sun mowing the lawn, so she wouldn't have to go to jail.

However, she's apparently still in trouble.  She received another summons from the fine city officials of Riesel to mow the lawn or go to jail. It's unclear if the city is unhappy with the way the four boys mowed the lawn (looks fine to me, judging from the pictures) or whether another property is too overgrown for the city of Riesle to bear.

City officials aren't talking to reporters. They've got better things to do. Like maybe the old lady down the block who didn't deadhead all the faded flowers in her garden or something stupid like that.

I guess Riesel takes its landscaping way, wayyyyyy to seriously.

I'm So Happy "Revenge Porn" Guy Will Rot In Prison For Awhile

This jerk is going to prison because of
his "revenge porn" site. Things like this
happen to creepy guys. Hope he has fun in jail.  

Remember the revenge porn guy?

He was the moron who collected nude or sexually explicit photos of women posted by angry ex-girlfriends and ex-husbands, and posted them on line for all to see.

He then charged the women $300 or more to have those photos removed from the web site.

Yeah, the guy's a real charmer.

The jerk,  Kevin Bollaert, was just sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of operating the revenge porn site, says the Los Angeles Times.

I'm hoping the stiff sentence is a deterrent to others who have the same bright idea as Bollaert. NBC San Diego says two other California men are also facing charges in connection with their revenge porn sites.

Good!

"Sittng behind a computer, committing what is essentially a cowardly and criminal act, will not shield predators from the law or jail," said California Attorney General Kamala Harris, whose office handled the prosecution against Bollaert, says the LA Times.

Bollaert was  convicted of multiple felony counts of identity theft and extortion. Bollaert is also supposed to pay $15,000 in restitution to his victims and a $10,000, but that's almost besides the point.

He is not going to do well in prison, is my guess.

He's not off to a good start. He cried in court as his victims talked about how traumatized they were, and still were, by all those perverts out there who saw the photos and are still trying to contact them.

That crying jag was surely a contrast to Bollaert's cocky demeanor when he thought he was this big hotshot stud running his horrible web sites.

Somehow, when Bollaert gets out of jail in as little as 10 years, he's not exactly going to be the most sought after bachelor in California.

I think his being alone all the time will be good for him. But even better for the women of California.

Revenge Porn: "Most Hated Man On The Internet" Is Going To Jail

Victims are hoping jail time will wipe
the smug smile off of Hunter Moore,
who basically invented the odious "revenge porn." 

Hunter Moore is going to jail.

The name probably doesn't ring a bell with you, but it sure does among the many women he victimized.

Moore pretty much invented "revenge porn," in which people sent in their ex-girlfriends' compromising photos and Moore put them up for the world to see.

That's invasion of privacy enough, but it gets worse: He posted nude photos he and his cohorts stole  from women's Gmail accounts.

Moore once said he wouldn't care if, as he put it, "somebody killed themselves"  because of his hideous website.  He was pretty proud of his work. And he seemed to think he was some sort of entrepreneur rock star.

Now it looks like he won't be being the Worst Possible Troll on the Internet anymore.

ArtsTechnica.com reports that Moore, 28, pleaded guilty this week to unauthorized access to a computer, identity theft and other charges.

From Arts Technica:

"Moore's IsAnybodyUp became hugely popular for posting nude and sexually explicit photos of people without their permission, and it spawned copycat revenge porn sites like Craign Brittain's IsAnybodyDown.com and Kevin Bollaert's ugotposted.com. (Brittain was banned from posting any more nude photos without their explicit permission in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in January, while Bollaert was found guilty earlier this month of identity theft and extortion."

Awesome. I know getting rid of these kinds of troll web site developers and scumbags is something of a game of whack-a-mole, but at least they're being prosecuted. It might discourage a few of the assholes, anyway.

Lawmakers are also trying to craft laws specifically going after horrible people like Moore. ArtsTechnica said England and Wales recently passed a law making it a criminal act to distribute nude and explicit photos without a person's permission. California passed such a law last year.

It's too bad Moore isn't banned from having Internet access for the rest of his life. I know nowadays it's very hard to live without such access.

But he deserves to suffer that way. The havoc he wreaked on the Internet begs us to keep him off it.

My more base instincts also hopes Moore, that most hated man on the Internet, also becomes the most hated man in prison. I'm sure his bro attitude will get an adjustment there.

Yay!

  

-------------------------------------------------------------
From Gawker

Hunter Moore, the inveterate troll whose website Is Anyone Up introduced the world to "revenge porn" in the early part of this decade, has pleaded guilty to hacking and ID theft, admitting he posted nude photos stolen from women's Gmail accounts, according to court documents obtained by Ars Technica.

Moore, once known as The Most Hated Man on the Internet, faces a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 7 years in prison, plus fines of up to $500,000 and probation for up to 3 years once he gets out.

The deal will let Moore, who once said he wouldn't care if "somebody killed themselves" over his website, back on the Internet—he's been banned since he was first charged last year— but requires him to notify his probation officer of any new accounts he registers and any new hardware or software he gets, and let the cops access and copy all his files at any time.

Creator of Sleazy Revenge Porn Site Wouldn't Care If Someone Killed Themselves Because of It

The Village Voice has an excellent cover story about 26-year-old Hunter Moore, creator of the gross …Read more gawker.​com

He's also forbidden from contact with any of the seven revenge porn victims in the indictment, who are identified only by their initials. 

Charles Evens, the co-defendant Moore admitted he paid to break into those Gmail accounts and steal nudes that later ended up on Is Anyone Up, will go to trial next month unless he also cuts a plea deal. 

Woman Jailed For Heinous Crime Of Not Maintaining Her Lawn Adequately

Does this messy yard mean the homeowner
should go to jail? A Tennessee city thinks so.  

The property and landscaping Nazis continue to run amok.

My evidence? A woman in Lenoir City, Tennessee was jailed because she did not keep up with her yardwork, says television station WVLT in Knoxville. 

Karen Holloway was initially sentenced to five days in jail but a judge "generously" reduced it to six hours.

She'd been cited by Lenoir City officials who first gave her a warning, but then, when the lawn wasn't cleaned up to their satisfaction, sentenced her to jail.

WVLT quotes Holloway:

"'With my husband going to school and working full time, me with my job, with one vehicle, we were trying our best,' she said.

Holloway, who has two kids still at homes, says she'll be the first to admit this yard needed some attention. But she feels the city has gone too far by imposing jail time." 

Ya think? Sure,  it's a bit annoying to see your neighbors bushes and trees overgrown, as Holloway admits. You want the neighborhood to look nice, but jeez, is putting a person in jail for a sloppy yard the best use of resources in the fine community of Lenoir City?

Apparently, Judge Terry Vann thought so, but he's not talking to the press to elaborate on that point. Code enforcement and police aren't talking about this either.

Maybe they're embarrassed?

Holloway has a reasonable question: "Why would you put me in jail with child molesters, and people who've done real crimes, because I haven't maintained my yard?"

"I feel like I'm being bullied."

I'm a gardener, and judging from the photos taken when Holloway was cited, this property didn't seem like a total disaster to me.  It was indeed messy. The lawn needed mowing, a lot of vines needed to be removed from the house and the shrubs needed tons of trimming and shaping,  but I've frequently seen much worse, and I've cleaned up much worse.

I bet I could have gotten the property in fine shape in one afternoon.

If the city was that worried about how messy the Holloway yard was, they could have saved a lot of money and angst by hiring some teenager to clean up the property. True, Holloway could have done the same, but still, jail time? She could have spent the time in jail doing her landscaping.

As is often the case with these lawn care crises, Holloway says she didn't really get due process. She said she was never read her rights nor told she could have a lawyer with her.

Holloway offered to do five days of community service, but the judge was insistent on jail. Six hours it was. "This opens a floodgate to everybody in Lenoir city being put in jail for silly things," she said.

There have been a surprising number of people who reacted hysterically to perceived violations of what Were Supposed To Do with our property.

Last year, the idiotic city of Miami Shores, Fla. made homeowners remove a meticulously maintained vegetable garden from their front lawn because apparently bland expanses of lawn is much more interesting, useful and beautiful than gardens.

Two years ago, a homeowner's association in Denver went ballistic because a three year old girl drew pictures with chalk on a sidewalk. Because people had to put up with the artwork until the next rainstorm, which probably arrived the next day. Oh, the suffering!

And on and on it goes.

SpaghettiOs On A Spoon Kept Woman In Jail For A Month

This woman did not possess methamphetamines or
any other illegal drugs, but she did make the
mistake of eating SpaghettiOs in a car.  

A woman spent a month in jail on felony drug charges because she was a bit sloppy:

There was a little food residue on a spoon Ashley Gabrielle Huff, 23, had in a car. She'd eaten some SpaghettiOs with the spoon.

But in a case that really gets my outrage going, a cop decided it was methamphetamine residue on the spoon and arrested her back on July 2, says the Gainesville (Georgia) Times. 

Interesting, reporters tried to get the original arrest report in the case but have so far been unsuccessful, even though arrests records are public record.

I can only conclude the Gainsville Police Department has something to hide and is trying to make the negative publicity go away.

Even though Huff knew she was guilty of only eating SpaghettiOs and did not do anything involving drugs, she figured the deck was so stacked against her that she was going to go in for a plea deal.

Says the Gainsville Times:

"Huff originally attempted going through the Hall County Drug Court but wasn't able to make all the appointments, (Hall County Assistant Public Defender Chris) van Rossem said. Huff was then reincarcerated Aug. 2 and was unable to make the bond payment.

"I think what the unfortunate part about her case is she was probably willing to take the felony to close out her case so that she get out of jail, even though she always maintained innocence," van Rossem said."

OK, there are all sorts of problems here. I though we were presumed innocent until proven guilty, so why was she in  jail and why was she being pressured to take a plea deal?

How long does it take to test SpaghettiO residue for signs of drugs? Somebody was pretty slow here.

Why was it important to keep her in jail, when it would have been cheaper to let her out on bond, with conditions? Yeah, she couldn't make the bond payment at one point, but arrangements could have been made.

Taxpayers got a raw deal, too. They kept Huff in jail, at taxpayer expense. It's a lot more costly to keep someone in jail than to keep them out, when that's possible.

So what were they trying to accomplish by keeping Huff in jail so long?

I'm not so sure Huff's case is isolated. In fact, I know it isn't.

Here's a for instance: Some Mississippi counties keep people awaiting trial in jail for months, prompting a class action lawsuit from the ACLU.

The ACLU says the Scott County sheriff, district attorney and judges after learning the Scott County Detention Center has held people for as long as a year without appointing counsel or indicting them.

"The county's practices violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments' rights to counsel, to a speedy trial and to a fair bail hearing," says the ACLU

According to Mississippi News Now, The Scott County Sheriff says one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit has a federal charge hanging over him, which keeps him in jail, and the other has two felony charges pending.

Still, even if the plaintiffs are eventually found guilty, should they sit in jail without a quick indictment, or a bail hearing, or trial, or something? If they are eventually found guilty, sure, lock 'em up, but let's at least have a fair legal process.

But screw the Constitution if local politicians can claim, probably falsely, that keeping suspects in jail saves taxpayer money. Or something.  

Dumb, Mouthy Woman Manages To Get Judge To Increase Jail Sentence From 0 To 300 Days In Minutes

In what could be the ultimate instructional video on how not to behave in a courtroom, a woman finds herself getting a longer and longer jail sentence as she continues to mouth off at a judge.

You can hear the defense lawyer trying to shut her up, to no avail.

The first part of the court arraignment goes well enough, but the disaster comes in the second half.

I wonder if she will continue to mouth off in her jail cell

Watch the pathetic court proceeding here: