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“The situation is very unfortunate,” Faris said, reading from a statement at a news conference. “It does appear, at this time, that Deputy Knox’s actions were an appropriate response to what he reasonably believed to be an imminent threat to his life.”

"Authorities say Fleetwood Peeples, 76, confessed to abusing and taking nude photos of young boys while they were in his care in the early 1980s."

Drugs and ignorance is not a good combination. That's the conclusion of several law enforcement sources after looking into the case of four teenagers facing kidnapping and assault charges after they allegedly lured another teen to a shed in Southeast Portland and tortured him for several hours. Those under arrest are three boys and a girl. The youngest is 14. Two of them are 15 and one is 17. They were arraigned Tuesday, and the grand jury started hearing the case on Thursday. The 14-year-old is described as the ring-leader. The target of the teens is a 14-year-old that they...

The lawsuit claims the confrontation began when the alleged victim's father accidentally dropped a cigarette onto the ground A Southern California man is accusing Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in a federal civil rights lawsuit of attacking him and using a Taser on his genitals while his mother watched. Daniel Johnson, 26, filed the lawsuit in January against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department after deputies allegedly threw him to the ground and attacked him for asking if he could pick up his father's cigarette to avoid a fine. Johnson was cooking dinner at his mother's Altadena home on Dec....

Woody Allen’s adopted daughter, in a wrenching letter, describes in stomach-churning detail how the iconic film director sexually abused her. “When I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house,” wrote Dylan Farrow, who is now 28. “He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me.” “He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go...

A new inquiry investigating allegations of abuse at two care homes run by the Catholic Church in Derry could face legal challenges, it’s emerged. The Historical Institional Abuse Inquiry is examining claims of abuse at 13 institutions across the North - including St Joseph’s Boys’ Home, Termonbacca, and Nazareth House Children’s Home, Bishop Street, Derry. The public hearings stage of the inquiry, which began last week, is being held in Banbridge, County Down, and is expected to last for 18 months. Two Catholic orders - including the Sisters of Nazareth, which ran the Derry homes - have already apologised for...

Los Angeles Attorney Declares Rampant Fraud, Many Abuse Claims Against Catholic Priests are ‘Entirely False’ January 2, 2011 By TheMediaReport.comIn a stunning ten-page declaration recently submitted to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, veteran attorney Donald H. Steier stated that his investigations into claims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have uncovered vast fraud and that his probes have revealed that many accusations are completely false.Counselor Steier has played a role in over one hundred investigations involving Catholic clergy in Los Angeles. In his missive Mr. Steier relayed:"One retired F.B.I. agent who worked with me to investigate many claims...

A Metro passenger used his cell phone's video camera to capture a confrontation between a woman and two LA County sheriff's deputies on a bus in Bellflower.

A 28-year-old man from Los Angeles is facing two charges of animal cruelty over a video that allegedly showed him dragging a puppy down a street. Dossey James is being held on $145,000 bail after a concerned passerby, who filmed the incident, contacted police. The heartbreaking footage shows a tiny bull terrier type puppy being dragged along on its stomach by its leash.

Glenn Beck on Thursday likened New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s bridge scandal to a long list of scandals tied to President Obama, saying both illustrate “why you don’t give so much power to the government.” “The ends justify the means,” Beck said. “This Chris Christie story is everything we despise in Barack Obama.” Members of Christie’s staff are accused of closing access lanes to the George Washington Bridge as a way to get back at Mayor Mark Sokolich, who did not support Christie’s re-election bid. Beck referenced a CNN interview in which DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz claimed the president’s purported...

Pope Francis named his first batch of cardinals Sunday, choosing 19 men from around the world, including the developing nations of Haiti and Burkina Faso, in line with his belief the church must pay more attention to the poor. But advocates for victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy said they felt let down that Francis didn't unequivocally embrace their calls that prelates who hadn't made a clean break with past practices of covering up pedophile behavior never be promoted. Francis read out the 19 names to a crowd of tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square....

Vilbert Jean, 36, Marlene San Vincente, and DeWayne Ward, 18, are accused of keeping the teen against her will for nearly a month. They forced her to have sex with men for money, and then made her strip at Club Madonna in Miami Beach. The trio kept all the money she made, cops say... Cops collared three scumbags they say forced a 13-year-old girl to prostitute herself and strip at a seedy Miami Beach jiggle joint for money the alleged pimps took for their own. Vilbert Jean, 36, Marlene San Vincente, 22, and DeWayne Ward, 18, kept the teen against...

They may be on welfare, but that doesn’t stop them from vacationing. According to an analysis of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, Maine welfare cash has been spent in every other state in the Union, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Department of Health and Human Services records related to TANF, a program intended to provide cash assistance to low-income families, was obtained by The Maine Wire pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request. The data includes three years’ worth of transactions involving Maine Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, the debit cards that carry benefits...

Madonna posted a picture of her 13-year-old son Rocco Ritchie holding a bottle of gin Saturday on Instagram, according to the New York Daily News. "The party has just begun!" Madonna captioned the shot, which included two of Rocco's apparently underage friends holding bottles of vodka. Note to self: Tear up kids' invites to birthday parties at Madonna's house. According to E! News, the photo was taken in the Swiss Alps where the legal drinking age is 16. But, in her defense, Madonna probably never went to math class. Of course, people immediately criticized Madonna on Instagram, prompting her to...

Recent revelations of clergy sex abuse cases here and abroad have caused great distress among the people of God. There is simply no excuse for such offenses that can satisfy, and there should not be. The crime is bad enough but further charges of cover up cause even more distress and anger.But while the Church remains in the media focus, questions should also arise in the minds of all observers. Is the Church the only place where such things take place?Are the Church and Catholic Clergy worse offenders than, say, non-Catholic denominations and clergy, or public schools, or sports teams,...

We’ve seen so many police abuse lawsuits settled before making it to trial where cops admit no wrongdoing while guiltily dishing out thousands of taxpayer dollars that it’s surprising to see one actually make it to trial.And it’s absolutely flabbergasting to see it result in a cop ordered personably liable.The cop is none other than Sterling Wheaton of the Atlantic City Police Department, whom we became familiar with back in September when he drove up to a group of five fellow officers beating on a suspect and sicced his dog on him in an incident caught on surveillance video.Then we...

The problem with solutions is that few of them tend to be perfect, even if they act in a mostly benign manner. Actions produce reactions, a principle as true in politics as it is in physics, and those tend to multiply when solutions increase in complexity. The nature of these unintended consequences changes dramatically when complex “solutions” turn out to be poorly designed and incompetently administered. The rollout of the Affordable Care Act has provided many real-world examples of this, but perhaps none so “unintended” as the consequences discovered by the Seattle Times this weekend. Carol Ostrom, The Times’ health...

<p>Covered in bruises, his skin red and smarting, this sobbing eight-year-old has just been stripped to his underwear, tied to a tree and beaten by his father.</p>

DOVER, Del. (AP) - The state of Delaware is working to set up a task force to help residents with a hoarding problem. As many as 45,000 people in the state are estimated to have problems with hoarding. In advance of the hoarding task force, the state is creating an advisory panel to try to determine stakeholders who may be able to offer input into hoarding issues.

From the start of his tenure as the leader of L.A.'s Catholics, Roger Mahony had ambitious plans for the archdiocese. But clergy molestation claims were vying for his attention. A year after arriving in Los Angeles, the youngest archbishop in the U.S. Catholic Church had a schedule and an agenda befitting a presidential candidate. Roger Mahony raced around the city in a chauffeured sedan, exhorting labor leaders to support immigrant rights and rallying hundreds against a proposed prison in Boyle Heights. Where his predecessors had talked up praying the rosary, Mahony touted his positions on nuclear disarmament and Middle East...