News & Blues 2/3

While responding to a domestic disturbance call in Carter
County, Tenn., sheriff’s Deputy Richard Barnett drove to the wrong
address. Daniel Hubert Taylor Jr., 33, met Barnett at the door, invited
him inside, placed his hands behind his back and said he was ready to
go to jail. The Johnson City Press reported that when Barnett
asked why, Taylor said he assumed the deputy had come to arrest him for
outstanding warrants. Barnett called headquarters, verified that Taylor
was wanted and took him into custody.

Backseat Driver

When sheriff’s Deputy Kristin Rozycki
stopped a vehicle for speeding in Erie County, N.Y., she found Michael
G. Spagnola, 38, sitting in the back seat insisting that he had not
been driving. Suspicious because he was the only occupant, Rozycki
determined that Spagnola was the driver and had climbed into the back
seat to avoid a ticket, a conclusion that Spagnola later confirmed,
leading to a charge of driving while intoxicated.

Too Pious to Fail

State regulators closed a 6-year-old
bank in Otsego, Minn., that attracted national media attention for
advocating prayer in the workplace. Riverview Community Bank was an
aggressive real estate lender and was hit hard by foreclosures,
according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The bank opened as a
“Christian financial institution,” with a Bible buried in the
foundation and the words “In God We Trust” engraved in the cornerstone.
The office wall of bank president Duane Kropuenske features a large
color print of Jesus and two businessmen closing a deal. One of the
bank’s founders, mortgage banker Chuck Ripka, once boasted that God had
actually guaranteed success for investors, claiming God personally
assured him, “Chuck, if you pastor the bank, I’ll take care of the
bottom line.”

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Anthony Armatys, 35, accepted a job at
Avaya telecommunications firm in Somerset Township, Ill., and filled
out the necessary paperwork to start but changed his mind at the last
minute and kept his current position. Avaya’s new computer system
removed Armatys from the human resource database but not the payroll
system. As a result, Armatys received Avaya paychecks from September
2002 to February 2007. After auditors uncovered the error, an
investigation learned Armatys also withdrew funds from an employee
retirement savings account he had been contributing to. Accused of
stealing $470,995.53, Armatys pleaded guilty.

Melting Pot Follies

Citizens protested in Taos, N.M., after
hotel owner Larry Whitten, 63, forbade Hispanic workers from speaking
Spanish in his presence and ordered some to Anglicize their names. “I’m
just doing what I’ve always done,” Whitten told the Associated Press
after fired workers, their relatives and some townspeople set up
pickets across the street from the Paragon Inn. He explained he asked
workers to speak only English because he perceived they were hostile to
his management style and worried they might start talking about him in
Spanish, which he doesn’t understand.

Six Dallas police officers ticketed at
least 39 motorists over the past three years for not speaking English,
even though no law requires drivers to speak English. Police Chief
David Kunkle apologized repeatedly while promising to investigate the
officers involved. The Dallas Morning News reported Kunkle also ordered pending cases to be dismissed and fines already paid for the nonexistent offense to be refunded.

Rules Are Rules

Maryland’s Hereford High School lost a
Baltimore County cross-country championship after an official
disqualified one of its runners whose black undershorts had white
thread. Official Steve Smith explained the rule against wearing visible
multicolor undergarments is new but is on the books and noted that a
number of other runners changed their uniforms before the race to
comply with the rule.

When Guns Are Outlawed

Police arrested Erik John Batty, 40, for attacking Officer Myles J. Lawler with a pillow. The Orlando Sentinel
reported that Lawler responded to a call about a medical situation at
Batty’s mobile home in Edgewater, Fla., but Batty ordered him out of
his room and threw the pillow at him. Lawler deflected the weapon but
stated in his arrest report that because Batty had several diseases, “I
felt the pillow was biohazardious {sic} material and could contain
hazards.”

Not Quite Right

Lynda K. Russell, the district attorney
of Shelby County, Texas, plans to defend herself against accusations
that she stole money from motorists by using the money she’s accused of
stealing to pay for her legal defense. The ACLU of Texas is suing
Russell on behalf of the 150 motorists whose property was illegally
seized and turned over to a county forfeiture fund. Reason Magazine
said Russell used the fund for a Christmas party and tickets to a
motorcycle rally, but the ACLU asked the state attorney general to
prevent her using the fund for her defense.

Crime Pays

Members of one New York City drug gang received more than $500,000 by repeatedly suing the city for civil rights violations. The Daily News
reported that accused drug dealers from Brooklyn’s East 21st St. Crew
filed more than 20 lawsuits, all of which were settled out of court.
One crew member, Shamel King, got $117,500 for six separate claims.
Anthony Lawrence, who was indicted on 11 counts of drug selling and
collected $40,000 in settlements, was shot multiple times in his
apartment last August, apparently by gunmen trying to rob him of his
latest settlement check, for $17,500.

The city defended the payouts,
explaining that its policy of aggressively settling cases removes the
risk of a big payout after a costly trial. Noting the city is sued 200
times a week and that claims against the police have increased, Law
Department official Connie Pankratz said, “Although we are often
successful at trial, it can be more expensive to defend a case than to
settle it.”