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Woman played role in killing of man found bound in park

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 21:18:06 +0000

Larren Parker (KHQ).

A Washington state woman was sentenced to eight years in prison for her role in the killing of a man found bound with zip ties and his mouth taped shut on a park trail by a passerby.

Larren Parker, 21, learned her fate on Friday in the death of Andy Hernandez, 51. She was convicted in May of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

The victim’s brother, Freddie Hernandez, cursed Parker during sentencing.

“You don’t deserve pity,” he said, in comments reported by the The Spokesman-Review. “You will always be a coward, just like your other two partners.”

More Law&Crime coverage: ‘What goes up must come down’: ‘Routinely bound in plastic wrap and packing tape’: 3 adult family members charged after 4-year-old boy dies amid alleged regime of extreme abuse and neglect

Parker, who cannot read or write and who’d suffered trauma as a young child, according to what her mother said in court, had a statement read for her apologizing. The statement said she was “on a path of destruction” before her arrest.

Andy Hernandez was killed on Oct. 23, 2022.

Police said Parker and two men, John Birgen, 28, and Randy E. Slone, 30, picked up Hernandez from a gas station. Birgen hit the victim in the head with a large rock, local NBC affiliate KHQ reported, citing court documents.

A passerby found the victim’s body on a trail in Spokane. Citing court documents, local Fox affiliate KAYU reported his hands were zip-tied, and his mouth was taped shut. He had been beaten on the head and was suffocated.

Detectives quickly linked Parker and two men to the killing.

More Law&Crime coverage: ‘What goes up must come down’: ‘He would zap me’: Man electrocuted bound wife with jumper cables, forced her to stand on bucket with rope around her neck because he thought she cheated on him

Birgen orchestrated the killing because he believed Hernandez raped his friend “a long time ago” while she was sleeping, KHQ reported.

He was previously sentenced to 39 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of first-degree murder, unlawful imprisonment and unlawful possession of a firearm. Slone, 30, received 36 years after his guilty plea.

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Trump says he did not defame Central Park 5 at debate

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 07:31:52 +0000

Inset, left to right: Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana (CBS Sunday Morning). Background: Donald Trump speaks at the annual Road to Majority conference in Washington, D.C., June 22, 2024. (Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP)

Donald Trump implored a federal judge in Pennsylvania to toss out the defamation lawsuit filed against him by members of the Central Park Five over comments the president-elect made during last year’s presidential debate, claiming the falsely-accused quintet are portraying his “substantially true” comments out of context.

The 12-page reply motion seeking to have the suit dismissed was filed Wednesday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and reiterated many of Trump’s previous arguments about the case, mainly, claiming the plaintiffs rely on “misrepresentations of President-elect Trump’s arguments” that could only be defamatory if one were “reviewing the at-issue statements out of context.”

Specifically, Trump’s attorneys argue that his statements about the quintet were in response to Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments about the full-page ads Trump took out calling for their execution in the immediate aftermath of their 1989 arrests and were about his state of mind at the time.

“In direct response to this attack regarding the 1989 ad, President-elect Trump responded with several phrases that showed his statements were directly in reference to his reasoning for the 1989 ad,” the motion states. “First, President-elect Trump noted that Vice President Harris had to go back ‘many, many years’ to find material to attack him. Second, he used the phrase ‘well, I said if …,’ an indication that he was harkening back to prior reasoning rather than making present claims.”

Trump’s statements during the debate

The action centers on the following exchange between Trump and Harris during the presidential debate on Sept. 10, 2024, viewed by over 67 million people. Harris had just accused Trump of using “race to divide the American people” before referring to Trump’s ads.

Harris: “Let’s remember, this is the same individual [Trump] who took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, The Central Park Five. Took out a full-page ad calling for their execution. ….”

Trump: “… They come up with things with things like she just said, going back many, many years, when a lot of people, including Mayor Bloomberg, agreed with me on the Central Park Five. They admitted — they said they pled guilty. And I said, well if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty — then they pled we’re not guilty. But this is a person that has to stretch back years, forty, fifty years ago, because there is nothing now. ….”

The lawsuit

According to plaintiffs Antron Brown, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam, Trump’s comments were “demonstrably false.”

“Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing,” the lawsuit said. “Further, the victims of the Central Park assaults were not killed.”

Trump’s Wednesday reply motion

Trump on Wednesday argued that no “reasonable listener” (the standard for defamation claims) would come away from hearing the president-elect’s full statement believing that the plaintiffs really did what Trump said.

“A ‘reasonable listener’ hearing the statements in their full context would never come away with the impression that President-elect Trump was making a present assertion that Plaintiffs ‘pled guilty’ and ‘killed a person,”” the motion states. “Further, he did not dispute Vice-President Harris’s claims of innocence, and, in fact, followed up his own statement that they ‘pled guilty’ with a qualifier that they then pled ‘not guilty.’ No reasonable listener would interpret the statements as Plaintiffs suggest.”

Trump also argued that “his challenged statements were substantially true,” asserting that when he said the plaintiffs “pled guilty” and “ultimately killed a person,” those remarks would have virtually the same effect on the average person as the truth. Trump reasoned that while the men never formally pleaded guilty, they did initially confess to police (under duress).

Similarly, while the victim, Patricia Meili, survived the attack (and is still alive today), Trump said she was left “virtually dead” and “in a coma.”

“As to the attack on Ms. Meili, the proper comparison is whether, in the mind of a listener, an accused’s initial admission to a beating that ultimately left a victim dead would be substantially the same as an initial admission to a beating that left a victim ‘virtually dead,’” the motion states. “Here too, there would not be a ‘different effect’ on the listener’s mind between the two statements because, in either case, the listener would understand the accused to have admitted to a vicious, murderous beating before recanting.”

Backstory of the Central Park Five

In 1989, the then-teenagers were wrongly accused of raping Trisha Meili as she jogged in Central Park. The five were also accused of attacking two men that same night.

“While in police custody, Plaintiffs were each separately subjected to hours of coercive interrogation, under duress, with no attorney present and often without a parent or guardian present,” the lawsuit recounted. “Plaintiffs all initially denied having any knowledge of the Central Park assaults. However, after hours of interrogation, four of the Plaintiffs agreed to provide written and videotaped statements in which they falsely admitted to having been present during the assaults.”

From there, the Central Park Five faced trials, maintained their innocence, were convicted by juries in 1990 and were sent to prison, only to be exonerated decades later after the real attacker, Matias Reyes, admitted to the crime against Meili and DNA “conclusively” proved that Reyes was the “true perpetrator,” court documents said.

“In fact, Plaintiffs were not involved in the assaults in any way, and their statements were the product of coercion and duress,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiffs all recanted their coerced statements shortly after their interrogations.”

The Central Park Five were ultimately exonerated, their convictions were vacated, and New York City went on to settle a lawsuit for $41 million

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BLM schedules maintenance work on mountain bike obstacle park

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 00:33:39 +0000

WHITETHORN, Calif. — A mountain bike skills park in the Bureau of Land Management King Range National Conservation Area (NCA) will be undergoing important maintenance from Monday, Oct. 28 through Nov. 1. The BLM is asking riders to avoid the Tolkan Terrain Park while work is underway to enhance the riding experience for enthusiasts.

“This project is important to ensure that the features of the terrain park are in top shape for riders,” said Paul Sever, manager of the King Range NCA. “The 25 miles of mountain bike trails on Paradise Royale and Pacific Rim trail network will remain available during the project.”

The King Range NCA offers a wide variety of hiking and camping ranging from the Lost Coast wilderness trail to high elevation hiking routes offering spectacular Pacific Ocean vistas. A planning guide provides important information on visiting.

The King Range NCA encompasses 68,000 acres along 35 miles of California’s north coast. It is the Nation’s first NCA, designated in 1970. The King Range NCA’s Douglas fir-covered peaks attract hikers and hunters, while the coast beckons to surfers and anglers. World-class mountain bike trails, and 42,585 acres of coastal wilderness are two of the highlights of this incredibly unique area.

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Who stole a Jackie Robinson statue from a Kansas park?

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 01:22:29 +0000

Thieves went to McAdams Park in Wichita, Kansas, and stole a Jackie Robinson statue around midnight on Jan. 25, 2024. Police believe a pickup truck, inset, was involved in the theft. Anyone with information is asked to call Wichita police. (Wichita Police Department)

Authorities in Kansas are searching for the people who are responsible for going to a Wichita park in the middle of the night and hauling off with a Jackie Robinson statue.

The theft happened around midnight Thursday at the Jackie Robinson Pavilion in McAdams Park on Wichita’s northside. Wichita police released surveillance video of a pickup truck they think is involved. The thieves cut off the statue at the ankles, leaving only Robinson’s shoes behind, and loaded it into the bed of the pick-up truck before driving away. Cops say the value of the theft is about $75,000.

“When I received notification of this, [it was] one of the few times in life I’m speechless,” said Wichita City Councilman Brandon Johnson at a press conference Friday. “This horrendous, disgusting act really caused me a pause. And it caused pause because of the impact no matter the motivation of those who were involved.”

Johnson said the statue by artist John Parsons was erected to benefit kids in the area who play baseball and to honor the legend. The statue was unveiled in 2021 by League 42, which organizes the area Little League baseball league and is named for Robinson who wore No. 42.

Park and Recreation Director Troy Houtman said he had a lot of different emotions about the theft.

“I was wondering who would do such a thing?,” he said. “Who would actually take a statute of Jackie Robinson, an icon of baseball history? … The impact of this theft is more than just the cash value of this statue. It has a huge impact in regard to the history of our community and the history of baseball. This theft is the opposite of everything Jackie Robinson stood for.”

The city is offering a $2,500 for tips that lead to an arrest and $5,000 for the statue’s return. Anyone with information is asked to call Wichita police. Meanwhile, League 42 started a GoFundMe to raise funds for a replacement statue or to repair the original should it be recovered.

“As law enforcement searches for the statue and the culprits of this crime, we remain devoted to our mission of providing low-cost baseball and education opportunities for our 600 kids, ages 5-14. They are as heartbroken over this theft as any of us and we are determined to either repair the original sculpture or create a new one,” Executive Director Bob Lutz wrote.

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Rapist granted early release allegedly stabs woman in park

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 21:15:02 +0000

Left: Bernard Abney allegedly appears in surveillance footage; Right: the defendant appears in a booking photo. (Foley Police Department)

An Alabama man arrested after the stabbing and attempted rape of a woman in a park earlier this month was granted early release from prison on a prior rape conviction from nearly two decades ago, authorities say.

Bernard Christopher Abney, 40, is currently charged with a Sex Offender Registration Notification Act violation, according to Mobile County Sheriff’s Office records reviewed by Law&Crime.

The defendant is also the prime suspect in the stabbing of a 21-year-old woman who was attacked in Heritage Park during the late afternoon on Jan. 17, according to a series of press releases and wanted posters issued by the Foley Police Department on Facebook.

After releasing several different images alleged to be Abney culled from various surveillance videos, he was arrested on Saturday.

“We are relieved that he is in custody and appreciate all the hard work by the many agencies involved as well as the media and citizens of our local communities,” Foley Police Chief Thurston Bullock said in a press release.

At around 5:40 p.m. last Wednesday, a woman ran to a local business and said she had been attacked. After the initial 911 call, police described her as having suffered “non-life threatening injuries” including “stab wounds to the left forearm, left torso and left thigh.”

The incident is alleged to have occurred along the Wilbourne Antique Rose Trail, just east of Alabama State Route 59, police said.

The trail itself is highly landscaped and lined with hundreds of roses, according to a recreation website, and runs through Heritage Park and downtown Foley, near the city’s central business district.

“We have learned that the suspect was around the park before the assault,” police said in an update. “At this point in the investigation, the victim does appear to be a random target of opportunity.”

In multiple photos posted by law enforcement, the man eventually identified as Abney appears to be riding a blue bicycle and wearing dark-colored clothes and a beanie. Police highlighted the man’s clothes and method of transportation, first referring to him as “a person of interest.”

“Detectives have eliminated several individuals in this case and continue to follow up on all leads,” Foley police wrote in a third update.

Bullock said Abney turned himself in on Saturday night, according to Mobile-based Fox affiliate WALA.

Court documents obtained by the TV station and AL.com reportedly show that Abney was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of rape in the second degree in 2005.

In that earlier case, which occurred in 2003, Abney is alleged to have raped a 16-year-old girl at gunpoint in a vacant lot after she and her friend refused to give him and another man their phone numbers. Abney was originally charged with first-degree rape and credited with over a year’s worth of time served when he took the 2005 plea deal.

The defendant was originally slated for release eligibility on July 2, 2023, AL.com reported.

In 2021, a sentencing reform measure intended to address understaffing and overcrowding expedited early release schedules for certain inmates. This measure allowed Abney to be considered for such release in January 2023. On Jan. 31, 2023, he was released along with 369 other state prison inmates, according to AL.com.

Overall, Abney’s release schedule was expedited by some six months.

Abney will be charged with one count of assault in the second degree and one count of attempted rape in the first degree, police said.

Still, local officials in Foley took the opportunity to blast the prison reform law — while thanking law enforcement.

“I am very proud of our police force and the team effort to bring it to a close with an arrest,” Foley Mayor Ralph Hellmich said. “These types of crimes are extremely rare in our community but when they occur, they cause great anxiety. It is no surprise to me that our men and women closed this difficult case quickly.”

“I am, however, disappointed in our state system for allowing an early release of a person who has not been rehabilitated into society,” the mayor added.

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