Law Offices of Jonathan Franklin: June 2013

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Walt Disney World Housekeeper Arrested for Stealing from Guests at Art of Animation Resort

Emely Santiago, a housekeeper at Disney's Art of Animation Resort, is accused of stealing from guests.
A Walt Disney World hotel housekeeper is facing charges, accused of stealing from guests.

Orange County deputies said Emely Santiago stole a credit card and cash from a guest at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

They said the thefts happened in May and Santiago was caught when she tried to use the card at Walmart, located on U.S. 192 and Bass Road in Kissimmee.

Deputies said Santiago could be connected to other thefts at the resort, in which cash, medication, and jewelry were stolen from hotel rooms.

Santiago admitted to investigators that she had an addiction to pain medication following a domestic altercation in October 2012.

She has since bonded out of the Orange County Jail.

Source.... http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/on-the-town/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2013/6/24/disney_world_houseke.html

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'Star Wars 7' - Should Stars Be Pressured to "Lose Weight" - Your Thoughts?

Star Wars actors Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher have reportedly been told to lose weight for the upcoming seventh film of the series.

Producers are said to be hoping for the actors to closely resemble older versions of their characters Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, according to The Sun.

Mark Hamill... 1977 and 2013

Hamill, 61, and Fisher, 56, will apparently be given their own nutritionist and personal trainer before filming starts at the end of 2013.

"Mark and Carrie need to be as close to their appearance in the earlier movies as possible," a source claimed. "Producers are keen to help out and have offered support.

"The budget is huge, so there will be no expense spared."

Carrie Fisher... 1977 and 2013

Harrison Ford - who will reprise his role of Han Solo in Star Wars Episode VII - will reportedly not require the same treatment, as producers are said to be happy with his current physique.

JJ Abrams will direct the upcoming seventh installment of the sci-fi franchise, after George Lucas sold the rights to Disney last year.

Fisher recently said of Star Wars being bought by Disney and the planned new movie trilogy: "I'm glad they are doing a new movie because they are sending a trainer to my house so I can get in really good shape.

Other Star Wars 7 Stars:

"Standard Forced Should Not Be", as Yoda Would Say!

Movie We Can Not Wait!

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Friday, June 28, 2013

13 Years In Jail For Writing Anti-Big Bank Messages In Chalk for 40Yr old Jeff Olson

Jeff Olson, a 40-year-old man from San Diego, Calif., will face jail time for charges stemming from anti-big bank messages he scrawled in water-soluble chalk outside Bank of America branches last year.

The San Diego Reader reported Tuesday that a judge had decided to prohibit Olson's attorney from "mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial."

With that ruling, Olson must now stand trial on 13 counts of vandalism, charges that together carry a potential 13-year jail sentence and fines of up to $13,000.

"Oh my gosh," Olson said on his way out of court on Tuesday. "I can't believe this is happening."

In an interview with San Diego's KGTV, Olson maintained that "free speech is protected" and said he "was encouraging folks to close their accounts at big Wall Street banks to transfer their money local nonprofit, community credit unions."

The Reader first broke news of the case over the weekend, reporting that Olson and his partner had been active in the campaign to encourage people to move their money as early as 2011. During one protest outside of a Bank of America branch, they drew the ire of Darell Freeman, vice president of Bank of America's Global Corporate Security, who accused them of running a business with their demonstration.

UPDATE: 6/26 -- The San Diego City Attorney's office emails along a statement on the case of People v. Olson:

1. This is a graffiti case where the defendant is alleged to have engaged in the conduct on 13 different occasions. The trial judge has already held that, under California law, it is still graffiti even if the material can be removed with water. Most graffiti can be removed. Also, the judge and a different pre-trial judge held that the First Amendment is not a defense to vandalism/graffiti. 2. The defense is trying to make this case into a political statement, which it is not. This is just one of some 20,000 criminal cases that are referred to us annually by the police department. We have prosecutors who decide whether to issue cases. They are professionals. The City Attorney was not involved in deciding whether to issue this case as is typical practice in prosecution offices for most cases. He hadn't heard of this case until it was in the media. 3. The defense is whipping up hysteria about the prospect of 13 years in custody. This is not a 13 year custody case. It is a standard graffiti case compounded by the fact that the defendant is alleged to have done it on 13 separate occasions. Because there were 13 different occasions when the defendant allegedly engaged in the conduct, the law requires them to be set out separately in the complaint. This increases the maximum sentence, but it still is a graffiti case and nothing more. The courts routinely hear graffiti cases and handle them appropriately using judicial discretion. 4. It is not unusual for victims to contact police or prosecutors about a case. Our prosecutors are trained to focus only on their ethical standards in deciding whether to file a case. 5. We prosecute vandalism and theft cases regardless of who the perpetrator or victim might be. We don't decide, for example, based upon whether we like or dislike banks. That would be wrong under the law and such a practice by law enforcement would change our society in very damaging ways.

Read More... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/jeff-olson-california-banks_n_3499177.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

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“Legal Highs” in Recent Years has Left Governments Around the World in the Dust

An explosion of hundreds of new “legal highs” in recent years has left governments around the world in the dust as lawmakers struggle to keep prohibition laws updated as more and more never-before-seen drugs flood the black market.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said Wednesday that more than 251 new psychoactive substances were available on the black market by mid-2012, a growth of more than 50 percent over 2009. The UNODC’s 2013 World Drug Report finds that these substances are “proliferating at an unprecedented rate and posing unforeseen public health consequences.”

The situation has become so severe that the study says the number of new psychoactive substances available on the black market today exceeds the number of controlled psychoactive substances currently prohibited by governments around the world.

One of the problems governments are having with these rapidly emerging substances is that when they place one drug on a schedule of controlled substances, chemists slightly tweak the molecular structure and re-release the drug, once again technically legal thanks to tiny changes.

“There is a lack of long-term data which would provide a much-needed perspective: no sooner is one substance scheduled, than another one replaces it, thus making it difficult to study the long-term impact of a substance on usage and its health effects,” the study notes.

In other words, prohibition laws have now created a game of cat-and-mouse between authorities and the developers of untested new drugs, and the drug developers are winning. A similar effect was observed in the U.S. after authorities banned the psychoactive chemicals in the marijuana-substitute “Spice,” leading to hundreds of variants of the synthetic drug, some with terrifying physical and psychological side-effects.

The UNODC study said that the global body is now coordinating a rapid-response system that will warn governments of these new drugs as they are discovered on streets around the world.

Read More.... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/26/explosion-of-dangerous-legal-highs-leaves-prohibition-in-the-dust/

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Survivalist from Dead in His Home with Automatic Weapons, Grenades, 20,000 Rounds and a Tank in the Backyard

Authorities have discovered a large cache of automatic weapons, explosives and even a tank at the New York home of a survivalist who may have killed himself on Tuesday night.

Carmel Police on Thursday were forced to evacuate a Mahopac neighborhood while investigating the death of 41-year-old Jonathan Orser, a former Marine Corps reservist.

Carmel Police Chief Michael Johnson told The Journal News that Orser had “over 100 firearms, rifles and shotguns, 15,000 to 20,000 rounds of ammunition, buckets of black (gun) powder, hand grenades” and other military ordinance at his home.

Johnson said that the blasting caps alone “could have caused the whole house to go up and maybe surrounding houses.”

The 725th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit based in Fort Drum, N.Y. was called in early Friday morning to take possession of the ordinance.

A decommissioned tank found in the back yard with it’s turret plugged was thought to be legal.

Orser’s wife discovered him dead on Tuesday night of a shotgun wound to his chest. The death was thought to be a suicide.

“I believe he was a survivalist and believed to be that he should be well-armed for the future.

Read More and See Video... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/28/police-find-automatic-weapons-grenades-tank-at-dead-survivalists-home/

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One Way to Get Arrested for Drugs, - Fridge Full of Marijuana Explodes

Authorities say an exploding refrigerator led them to a marijuana-growing operation in San Diego.

City News Service says the fridge exploded and caused a fire Thursday afternoon at a home in the Encanto neighborhood.

It took firefighters about 30 minutes to douse the fire and there were no injuries.

One Child was released into his Mother's care.

However, police say authorities later discovered marijuana growing at the house and a quantity of flammable hash oil, which apparently caused the explosion.

Three people were held for questioning.

See Video... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/exploding-fridge-marijuana_n_3517369.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Law Offices of Jonathan Franklin
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Three - 20Yr Women Arrested for Buying "Water, Cookie Dough, and Ice Cream"

A University of Virginia student was arrested on multiple felony charges and spent 24 hours in jail after she tried to flee a grocery store parking lot when agents attempted to arrest her for buying a case of La Croix water. According to the Charlottesville Daily Progress, 20-year-old Elizabeth Daly and her two roommates panicked when plainclothes Alcoholic Beverage Control officers surrounded their vehicle, flashing badges and weapons because the officers believed the women had purchased beer during dry hours.

On Sunday night, April 11, around 10:30 p.m., Daly and her friends left a Charlottesville, Virginia Harris Teeter store carrying cookie dough, ice cream and a case of bottled water. As they reached the vehicle, ABC agents surrounded them, one even jumping on to the hood of Daly’s SUV. They showed badges, shouting at the women to exit the vehicle. One agent drew a gun.

Daly and the other passengers had just come from a “Take Back the Night” event on campus, where they heard the testimonies of dozens of survivors of sexual assaults and other violent attacks. With the details of those crimes fresh in their minds, the women believed that their safety was in danger.

“They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform,” wrote Daly Thursday in a an account of the incident. “I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were…terrified.”

Daly put the SUV in gear and fled the scene with one of her roommates shouting, “Go! Go! Go!” and diving into the back of the vehicle to get away from agents who were trying to break the windows. The women frantically called 911 trying to find out the location of the nearest police station and whether or not their assailants were really police.

Daly was profusely apologetic when she realized that she wasn’t about to be abducted or killed, but officers took her into custody at the roadside and charged her with two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and one count of eluding police. The crimes are all Class 6 felonies, which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $2,500 in fines per offense. The officers say that the SUV grazed two of them as it pulled away, hence the assault charges.

Read More.... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/28/woman-jailed-for-late-night-water-purchase-after-anti-sexual-assault-rally/

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72yr old woman being arrested in Texas Senate gallery for Just Sitting there! See For Yourself...

A 72-year-old woman who appeared to be doing nothing more than observing Texas Senate proceedings following state Sen. Wendy Davis’ (D) filibuster of an abortion bill was forcibly arrested and charged with assaulting an officer early Wednesday morning.

Video captured by 23-year-old Austin resident Elizabeth Willmann shows two troopers surrounding Martha Northington as she sits in the gallery. One of the officers approaches from behind and yanks Northington’s arm to bring her to her feet.

“You’re hurting me!” she shouts.

At that point, the crowd erupts and several more troopers surround the woman as she’s put into handcuffs.

“Stop pushing me, I will walk,” Northington pleads.

“This woman was doing nothing but sitting until this state trooper who had already manhandled other women decided to grab her, hurt her and arrest her,” Willmann wrote on her YouTube page.

Arrest records published online showed that Northington was charged with “assault by contact” and resisting arrest. Bond was set at $4,000.

Read More... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/27/texas-troopers-forcibly-arrest-72-year-old-woman-during-wendy-davis-filibuster/

SEE VIDEO... http://youtu.be/O0Bw6Hlt530

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NFL Star Arron Hernandez's Friend Turns Himself in to Florida Police 3rd Wanted Armed & Dangerous

A third suspect wanted in the murder case involving ex-Patriots player Aaron Hernandez has turned himself in, authorities say.
Ernest Wallace, who police had been searching for since Thursday night, turned himself in to Florida police Friday.

Wallace reportedly had seen news reports about the case and went to authorities, a Miramar police spokesman said. He is wanted for accessory after the fact of the murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd last week in North Attleborough, Mass., near Hernandez's home.

Massachusetts authorities had recovered a car linked to Wallace Friday afternoon. Police had said Wallace should be considered armed and dangerous.

Wallace is believed to be a resident of Hernandez's hometown of Bristol, Conn., MyFoxBoston.com reported.

Meanwhile, a judge in Bristol ordered Carlos Ortiz, who was arrested Wednesday as part of the murder probe, to be turned over to Massachusetts authorities.

Ortiz, 27, was charged in Connecticut as a fugitive from justice.

Hernandez has been charged with murder for what prosecutors say was Lloyd's execution-style killing. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.

A source told MyFoxBoston.com on Thursday that investigators are looking into Hernandez in connection with a double homicide that happened on July 16, 2012, in downtown Boston.

The source told the station that a fight broke out at a club between the two male shooting victims and a group that reportedly included Hernandez.

An email and phone call to Boston Police from FoxNews.com were not immediately returned.

Hernandez's lawyer argued at Thursday's bail hearing that his celebrity status means even if he wanted to flee he couldn't and that the case against him is circumstantial.

"He wants to clear his name," lawyer James Sultan told the judge.

But Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Bill McCauley called the evidence in the June 17 slaying of Lloyd overwhelming and said police had made discoveries Wednesday when they searched a condo Hernandez leased and a Hummer registered to him that was parked there.

Hernandez appeared in court with his hands cuffed in front of him and occasionally looked at his fiancee during Thursday's bail hearing. She cried when Bristol Superior Court Judge Renee Dupuis denied the request, but Hernandez showed little emotion.

The judge said that it is rare for someone charged with first-degree murder to get bail and that Hernandez had the means to flee if he chose to do so. She acknowledged the prosecution's case was circumstantial but said it was "very, very strong" and called the scenario the prosecution described "cold-blooded."

The Patriots cut Hernandez shortly after police arrested him on Wednesday.

A jogger found Lloyd's body in a remote area of an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez's home in North Attleborough 10 days ago. Lloyd was a semi-pro football player from Boston who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee.

Prosecutors said Hernandez orchestrated the killing because Lloyd talked to the wrong people at a nightclub. Hernandez, a 2011 Pro Bowl selection who signed a five-year contract with the Patriots worth $40 million, could face life in prison if convicted.

In laying out more of the government's case Thursday, McCauley said prosecutors believe that the murder weapon was a .45-caliber Glock and that a gun Hernandez is seen holding on his home surveillance video, a weapon they haven't found, appears to be a Glock.

The prosecutor said that inside the Hummer investigators recovered an ammunition clip for .45-caliber bullets and that ammunition was found inside the condo. McCauley said a photograph had emerged online of Hernandez holding a Glock.

Hernandez's lawyer said Thursday that as far as he knew there was no eyewitness testimony and the prosecution had not given evidence that shows who shot Lloyd or whether there was a plan to kill him. He said Hernandez has no criminal record, owns a home and lives with his 8-month-old daughter and fiancee.

"Mr. Hernandez is not just a football player but is one of the best football players in the United States of America," Sultan said, adding, "He's young man who is extremely accomplished and hardworking in his chosen profession."

Prosecutors have said that on June 16 Hernandez and two unidentified friends picked up Lloyd from his Boston home in a rented silver Nissan Maxima, took him to a remote area of an industrial park and shot him five times.

Lloyd, in the minutes before his death, sent a series of texts to his sister, who had seen him get into the car.

"Did you see who I was with?" said the first, at 3:07 a.m. June 17.

"Who?" she finally replied.

"NFL," he texted back, then added: "Just so you know."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/28/man-sought-in-death-ex-patriot-hernandez-pal/#ixzz2XXPtFmeA

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/28/man-sought-in-death-ex-patriot-hernandez-pal/#ixzz2XXPbAyVL

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Availability Marijuana Plants Rising and Being Burned by the USA

The U.S. government has burned almost enough marijuana plants to get the atmosphere high. Americans have responded by increasing domestic production.

See More Charts... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/cannabis-plants-_n_3516893.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

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Nick Stahl Terminator Star Arrested Again for Drugs

Nick Stahl is back in jail after getting busted for drugs early this morning.

LAPD tells us the "Terminator 3" star was arrested around 5 AM when police found him in a Hollywood motel with three other people ... they were all allegedly using meth.

Stahl was taken into custody -- along with the other individuals.

We're told police actually went to the motel to conduct a parole compliance check on one of the people Stahl was hanging with this morning.

Mr. Stahl has battled drug addiction for years.

Read More.... http://www.tmz.com/2013/06/28/nick-stahl-arrested-meth-hollywood/#ixzz2XX3SN5b3

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Kim Dotcom Legal Action Over Leaseweb ‘data massacre’ - Megaupload's

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom may be suing server hosting company Leaseweb over a “data massacre." The Dutch company says it deleted files from 630 servers due to lack of interest in them, but Dotcom has revealed letters proving otherwise.

The revelation comes a week after Dotcom accused the US government and Leaseweb of deleting millions of personal files without warning, including “petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property.”

Most of the permanently deleted data came from European users, with servers then re-provisioned to other customers – despite the fact that Megaupload had specifically requested that the hosting provider preserve the information.

“They deleted petabytes of data in the face of Megaupload’s data preservation notices. Our legal team asked them multiple times not to delete the data while the US court is deciding the pending cases including the rights of our users,” TorrentFreak quoted Dotcom as saying.

But Leaseweb’s senior regulatory counsel, Alex de Joode, said his company deleted the data and re-provisioned the servers “after a year of nobody showing any interest” in them.

“We did inform Megaupload about our decision to re-provision the servers,” de Joode said in a June 19 statement, thus disputing Dotcom’s accusation that the decision was made "without warning.” De Joode said that Leaseweb received no answer from the Megaupload team, so they “commenced the re-provisioning of the servers in February 2013.”

“To minimize security risks and maximize the privacy of our clients, it is a standard procedure at Leaseweb to completely clean servers before they are offered to any new customer,” he said.

To back up his accusations, Kim Dotcom has published an email which was sent from Megaupload’s legal counsel to Leaseweb in March 2012. The letter allegedly shows that Megaupload did, in fact, request preservation of the files.

"Megaupload continues to request that Leaseweb preserve any and all information, documentation and data related to Megaupload - as destruction by Leaseweb would appear to be in violation of amongst other things the applicable civil litigation data preservation rules and would interfere with evidence in a criminal matter [...]," said the letter. The email is signed by Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken and addressed to Leaseweb’s A.H. Bram de Haas van Dorsser.

The email adds that “the Mega data on the servers at Leaseweb contain private and sensitive customer data and is subject to applicable privacy and data retention laws.”

“Megaupload is negotiating with the United States to discern feasibility of consumer data access and the conditions for the same," Rothken wrote in the letter.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) representing the file-sharing website in court made a similar request to Leaseweb USA in April.

“We now write to formally request that you preserve that material both for purposes of contemplated future litigation and as a matter of obligation and courtesy to the innocent individuals whose materials have unfortunately been swept up into this case,” the EFF letter reads.

According to Dotcom, Megaupload’s legal team is analyzing whether Leaseweb violated the law.

“I can tell you that we are contemplating legal action against Leaseweb,” he told TorrentFreak on Wednesday.

“We believe that Leaseweb acted inappropriately under the circumstances when they destroyed data,” Rothken told the blogging website. “Ultimately we blame the United States who exercised constructive control over Megaupload’s assets and who had the obligation, resources, and ability to preserve all relevant and exonerating evidence including the data located at Leaseweb and failed to do so,” he added.

But Leaseweb claims it done nothing wrong. In a June 26 statement, the company stressed that “the contract between Leaseweb B.V. and Megaupload was governed by Dutch law.”

“This means the termination, and subsequent data retention needs to be valid under Dutch law. As there was no claim from the Dutch authorities on the data, the data was not subject to evidence rules. Also Dutch and European Privacy legislation prohibit giving third parties (i.e. MegaUpload customers, or Instra) direct access to their data,” the statement read.

Dotcom, who made a fortune from his file-sharing service Megaupload, is currently under a federal investigation, launched by the US Department of Justice after police raided his home. He is currently free on bail in New Zealand, with an extradition trial set for August.

The US has charged the Megaupload founder with facilitating copyright fraud on a massive scale, racketeering, and money-laundering, which carries maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

Authorities claim Megaupload has cost copyright holders upwards of $500 million in lost revenues, due to content being illegally uploaded to its servers. The Department of Justice also believes Dotcom illegally earned $175 million by selling ads and subscriptions on the site.

Read More... http://rt.com/news/dotcom-megaupload-sue-leaseweb-348/

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Vatican Accountant Monsignor Nunzio Scarano Smuggles $26 million in Private Jet with ex-Italian Spy

The accountant, the former spy and an Italian financial broker have all been arrested in a case that highlights the Vatican's continuing challenge to eliminate fraud within the famously secretive Vatican Bank.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was the head of analytic accounts at the Holy See's property-management agency, has been accused of fraud, corruption and slander. He was the middle-man in a complex plot that involved secretly flying his friends' money from Switzerland to Italy, evading customs and driving to his house in an armored convoy in order to avoid taxes, according to prosecutors.

The arrests come only two days after Pope Francis created an unprecedented commission that will investigate the Vatican Bank and problems that have plagued it for decades -- and damaged the Vatican's reputation.

The Vatican today said it would "fully" cooperate with the probe and that Scarano had been suspended from his job more than a month ago because of a separate allegation of laundering. In that inquiry, Scarano is accused of taking more than $700,000 donated for terminally ill patients and using it to pay off a personal mortgage. He did so, according to investigators, by withdrawing $16,000 at a time, giving it to 56 different friends, who then paid him back with checks so he could avoid detection.

In the arrest today, Scarano's friends approached him and asked him to bring the money back into Italy from Switzerland, according to prosecutors in Rome. Giovanni Maria Zito, a former intelligence agent and current member of the Italian military and secret service, then arranged for a private plane and plotted how to avoid customs agents and have the money driven back to Scarano's home with an armed export. Zito agreed to the plot in exchange for $520,000.

Zito hired the private plane while on sick leave and flew with Carenzio to Locarno, Switzerland, according to prosecutors. Carenzio was supposed to collect the money from a Swiss bank on behalf of his friends but never did because the broker called off the plot after deciding it was too complicated.

Pope Francis has made fighting corruption in the bank a priority. The bank has 114 employees, manages $9.3 billion in assets and handles funds for Vatican departments, Catholic charities and priests and nuns around the world. But the Italian media have long been filled with reports about bank accounts used by the Mafia and fraudsters. The most famous example is that of Banco Ambrosiano, in which the Holy See was the main shareholder before the bank collapsed with losses of more than $3 billion. The bank was accused laundering money for mobsters, and its former president -- dubbed "God's Banker" -- was found hanging from a London bridge in 1982. The death was originally ruled a suicide. He was exhumed in 1998 amid growing suspicion he had been murdered. Five people stood trial for his murder but were later acquitted.

To try to fight that reputation, Francis gave the new commission carte blanche, reporting directly to him and bypassing normal secrecy rules. He has told aides that he is considering radically restructuring the bank or even closing it, according to Reuters.

"Saint Peter," Pope Francis said recently, "did not have a bank account."

The Vatican Bank, which is called the Institute for Works of Religion, "must become an accepted member of the international financial system," the bank's new chief executive, Ernst von Freyberg, recently told Vatican reporters. "My role is to improve our reputation, so that the Church is no longer darkened by bad news from us. ... We have to be clean on all legal fronts."

Read More.... http://abcnews.go.com/News/vatican-accountant-smuggles-26-million-private-jet-italian/story?id=19518452#.Uc2vaPlwroJ

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Sarcastic Internet Comment Could be 8 Years in Prison for a Teenager who Has Been in Jail Since March

A teenager from Texas could spend the next eight years in prison if a court decides that the sarcastic comment he made during an online argument is enough to convict him of issuing a terroristic threat.

Justin Carter was only 18 years old when he and a friend got into an online spat over Facebook back in February with another person. They were arguing about the computer game “League of Legends,” his dad told a local ABC affiliate, but one snarky remark made by the teen was apparently enough to raise suspicion in one woman who was watching the conversation unfold all the way up in Canada.

“Someone had said something to the effect of 'Oh you're insane, you're crazy, you're messed up in the head,’” father Jack Carter told KKVUE News, “to which he replied 'Oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts.’”

According to the parent, the teenager from Texas followed up that remark with the phrases “LOL” and “JK”— Internet shorthand for “Laugh out Loud” and “Just Kidding.” The Canadian witness wasn’t amused, however, and reportedly conducted a cursory Google search to find out more about the sarcastic gamer. That information led her to learn that the Carter household is located close to a local elementary school, prompting her to alert the police.

Carter, who has since turned 19, was arrested in late March and has so far spent three months and one day behind bars. His trial is slated to begin in July, and if convicted of “making a terroristic threat” he could spend most of his twenties in federal prison.

Under Texas law, a person could be charged with a misdemeanor if he or she “threatens to commit any offense involving violence to any person or property” with the intent to prompt a reaction, cause fear in another or interrupt the occupation of a public place. If the defendant is thought to have made a threat to cause impairment or interruption of a public service, it’s a felony in the Lone Star State.

“These people are serious. They really want my son to go away to jail for a sarcastic comment that he made," Jack Carter told KVUE.

It’s likely that the timing of the teenager’s quip — only two months after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting left 26 people dead in Connecticut — didn’t discourage authorities from launching an investigation. His father said his son didn’t mean anything of it, though, and was just being behaving like an average teenager.

“Justin was the kind of kid who didn't read the newspaper. He didn't watch television. He wasn't aware of current events. These kids, they don't realize what they're doing. They don't understand the implications. They don't understand public space,” said Jack Carter.

Carter’s trial is expected to begin July 1 in Texas. Earlier this month, a grand jury in Massachusetts declined to indict an 18-year-old aspiring rapper who was accused of making terrorist threats after posting prose on his Facebook page that referenced the Boston Marathon bombing. Cameron B. D’Ambrosio was detained for one month in jail and stood to serve as much as two decades if convicted.

Read More... http://rt.com/usa/prison-years-teenager-sarcastic-383/

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US Army restricts access to "Guardian" Newspaper’s Website has been Filtered and Restricted for its Personnel over Secrets in NSA Leaked Stories

The US Army confirmed on Thursday that access to The Guardian newspaper’s website has been filtered and restricted for its personnel. The policy is due to classified documents described in detail in the stories.

Gordon Van Vleet, spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, said in an email to the Monterey Herald that the Army is filtering "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks."

The spokesman said the procedure was routine part of "network hygiene" measures to prevent unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information.

"We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with operational security," he wrote, "however there are strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information."

“Until declassified by appropriate officials, classified information - including material released through an unauthorized disclosure - must be treated accordingly by DoD personnel," Van Vleet explained.

In a later phone conversation he clarified that the filtering was “Armywide” rather than restricted to some US Army facilities.

Van Vleet said NETCOM, which is part of the Army Cyber Command, does not determine what sites its personnel can have access to, but "relies on automated filters that restrict access based on content concerns or malware threats."

The Guardian's website has posted classified information regarding the NSA's surveillance activities, including PRISM, the massive domestic spying program that has Internet companies collude with military intelligence to keep tabs on Americans' online habits.

The source of the leaks is Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and ex-staff member of a private contractor working for the NSA, who disclosed secret documents about US surveillance to several newspapers, including The Guardian.

The Herald inquired about the issue after staff at the Presidio of Monterey, a military installation in California, told the newspaper that they were able to access The Guardian’s US site, www.guardiannews.com , but were prevented from accessing articles on the NSA that redirected to the British site.

Source... http://rt.com/usa/guardian-access-restricted-army-367/

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