LONDON — Queen singer Freddie Mercury disguised the late Princess Diana as a male model and smuggled her into a notorious gay bar, according to a memoir serialised in Britain's Sunday Times.
Comedian Cleo Rocos describes in her book "The Power of Positive Drinking" how she, Mercury and fellow comedian Kenny Everett dressed Diana in an army jacket, cap and sunglasses for a night out at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, south London, in the late 1980s.
"When we walked in... we felt she was obviously Princess Diana and would be discovered at any minute. But people just seemed to blank her. She sort of disappeared. But she loved it," said Rocos, who co-starred in Everett's television show.
She said she did not know whether Diana was propositioned in the bar in her guise as a male model, but added: "She did look like a beautiful young man."
The presence of Mercury, Everett and Rocos diverted revellers' attention and Diana was able to order drinks undetected, Rocos recalled.
Diana, the ex-wife of heir to the British throne Prince Charles, lived under the glare of the paparazzi and died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, pursued by photographers.
Mercury, loved for his spellbinding live performances and enduring Queen hits including "Bohemian Rhapsody", died in 1991 aged 45 of an AIDS-related illness.
In 1975 an air force sergeant made history when he came out, to challenge the ban on homosexuals in the US military. Leonard Matlovich became a figurehead for gay rights, but he could not have foreseen that in 2013 the US Supreme Court would be considering whether to overturn a ban on same-sex marriages.
"It just tears me apart on the inside," Matlovich said in his first national TV interview in May 1975. "My conscience just wouldn't let me do it any more. I had to come forward and say: No more, America!"
Matlovich was the kind of serviceman the air force prided itself on. He had voluntarily served three tours of duty in Vietnam. He had been injured while clearing landmines and was awarded a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star medal.
At the time, David Addlestone was working as a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union and had been looking for a gay soldier who would put himself forward to challenge the ban on homosexuals serving in the military.
"He was the perfect test case," says Addlestone, who hoped Matlovich's excellent military record might make the air force think twice about applying the ban.
Addlestone warned Matlovich, nonetheless, that he was likely to be discharged and "throw away 13 years of military service and a pension". But "Leonard said he couldn't live a lie" any longer, Addlestone recalls.
Matlovich had only come to terms with his homosexuality two years earlier, at the age of 30. Both his parents were deeply religious and politically conservative - his father had also served in the air force - and Matlovich was a devout Catholic himself.
"We were very much a 'What do the neighbours think of me?' type of family," says his niece Vicki Walker. "We had to do everything the right way. We were not even allowed to drink soda. My grandfather was very strict - loving but strict."
According to Michael Bedwell - a gay rights activist who became a close friend and flatmate for several years - Matlovich knew from an early age that he was "different".
Leonard Matlovich was awarded the Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam
"He was self-loathing primarily because of his religious and conservative upbringing," says Bedwell.
"Leonard even admitted to me that one of the reasons why he had kept on volunteering for Vietnam was because he had a subconscious death wish - suicide by war... thoughts he regretted very much later."
Bedwell says it was only when Matlovich started visiting gay bars and meeting positive gay role models, such as a lesbian bank executive, that he finally came to terms with his homosexuality.
"He started meeting people who were different to the stereotypes he grew up with, people who were contributing to society," says Bedwell.
Matlovich had accepted that he was gay, but he had not come out except to a close circle of friends, not even to his own family.
By that time, Matlovich was working as a race-relations instructor in the air force, a role introduced in response to the civil rights movement.
"In Vietnam he had met black soldiers and started questioning the racism he grew up with," says Bedwell, who believes these experiences prompted Matlovich to come out to his superiors.
"Leonard had been taught that the United States was the land of the free," says Bedwell. "He realised that in the same way our country had once been wrong in denying those freedoms to people of colour, it was wrong to deny them to gay people."
Matlovich wrote a letter to his commanding officer, revealing his homosexuality and asking for an exception to be made because of his service record.
The officer "looked at it and said: 'Just tear it up and we will forget it.' But Leonard refused," remembers Addlestone.
The air force responded by starting a discharge procedure.
Bedwell says Matlovich had by then come out to his mother, who had pleaded with her son not to tell his father, out of fear he would blame her. "She thought she had done something wrong," says Bedwell. "She encouraged Leonard to see a psychiatrist."
But Addlestone wanted to make the case public, so in 1975 on Memorial Day - a day of remembrance for those who have died in US service - Matlovich gave an interview to the New York Times.
An interview on CBS TV news was to follow that evening, so Matlovich decided to come out to his father, but when he called home, his father had already found out from the media.
"His father's reaction was very emotional," says Bedwell. "He went into the bedroom and cried. But he came out and said: 'If he can take it. I can.'"
More interviews followed and in September 1975, just before the discharge hearing was to start, he became the first openly gay person to appear on the cover of Time magazine, declaring: "I am a homosexual".
"He had become a poster boy for gay rights," says Bedwell. "He became a hero particularly to those in the military. I remember where I was when Kennedy was assassinated and I remember where I was when I saw when Matlovich was on Time magazine."
Addlestone says Matlovich's media appearances had a big effect on America. "He was a patriotic, conservative middle-class war hero. He destroyed the popular myth of homosexuality."
Bedwell adds: "He was very unassuming, not the stereotypical homosexual."
Matlovich was soon ruled unfit for service. He was recommended for a general, or less-than-honourable discharge, but eventually granted an honourable one.
He appealed and five years later, following a protracted legal process, a judge ordered that Matlovich be reinstated and promoted. The air force offered Matlovich a financial settlement and, convinced they would find some other reason to discharge him if he re-entered the service, he accepted.
Addlestone says members of the gay community had urged Matlovich to go back to the air force, so this was a tough choice to make.
Matlovich got involved in other gay rights causes and opened a restaurant. Addlestone says his former client also attracted what he calls gay groupies. "People wanted to hang out and have sex with him," he says.
In 1986 he was diagnosed as being HIV positive. The following year he made a second startling public statement, revealing during a TV interview that he had the condition.
"I saw him in Washington DC when he was dying of Aids," Addlestone says. "He had no regrets - had reconciled with this father - the only problem he had was that he was a celebrity. He was very much a humble human being."
He died in June 1988 - 25 years ago, all but for a few weeks.
His gravestone at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington bears the inscription: "When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."
Nobody can explain the secret to a happy marriage, says Adam Gopnik, but it doesn't stop people trying.
Anyone who tells you their rules for a happy marriage doesn't have one. There's a truth universally acknowledged, or one that ought to be anyway.
Just as the people who write books about good sex are never people you would want to sleep with, and the academics who write articles about the disappearance of civility always sound ferociously angry, the people who write about the way to sustain a good marriage are usually on their third.
Nonetheless (you knew there was a nonetheless on its way) although I don't have rules, I do have an observation after many years of marriage (I've promised not to say exactly how many, though the name "Jimmy Carter" might hold a clue).
This principle, or formula, came to me when I was thinking about something else entirely - usually a good sign, lateral thinking being generally saner than the logical kind.
It dawned on me when I was brooding on the marriage of Charles Darwin and Emma Wedgwood, his cousin, for a book I was writing that was in part about the Darwins.
In 1838, when Darwin was first thinking of marriage, he made an irresistible series of notes on the subject - a scientific-seeming list of marriage pros and cons.
Against the idea, he listed "the expense and anxiety of children" and the odd truth that a married man could never "go up in a balloon".
In favour of marriage, he included the acquisition of a "constant companion and friend in old age" and, memorably and conclusively, decided that a wife would be "better than a dog, anyhow".
And the Darwins went on to have something close to an ideal marriage. As he lay dying in 1882, the distinguished scientist, who had irrevocably altered the consciousness of the world, and knew it, said simply: "My love, my precious love."
What made it work? My theory is that happy marriages, from the Darwins on down, are made up of a steady, unchanging formula of lust, laughter and loyalty.
The Darwins had lust, certainly - 10 children in 17 years suggests as much anyway - and they had laughter. Emma loved to tease Charles about his passion, already evident in youth, for obsessive theorising.
"After our marriage," she wrote to him early on, "you will be forming theories about me, and if I am cross or out of temper you will only consider: 'What does that prove?' which will be a very philosophical way of considering it."
And loyalty? Well, despite Emma's Christian faith, she stood by him through all the evolutionary wars, and did for him the one thing only a loyal spouse can do - pretend he wasn't in when German journalists came calling.
So, marriages are made of lust, laughter and loyalty - but the three have to be kept in constant passage, transitively, back and forth, so that as one subsides for a time, the others rise.
Lust, I suppose, needs no explanation. I will add only that when I told our children complacently once that if my wife had been five inches taller, she would have been out of my league. She replied - accurately - that she was out of my league, and always had been, and that if she had been five inches taller we would simply have been playing a different sport.
Nor does laughter need much annotation. The greatest joy in life is to discover that the same absurdities of life seem absurd to you both, creating that lovely moment of breakage when the masquerade of courtship you have been enacting becomes suddenly a backstage embrace: We're on to each other, and to the world, and will forever be in cahoots.
The trick is that marriage is played upon a tilted field, and everything flows downhill towards loyalty.
We've all seen that. Marriages from which lust fled decades ago, and laughter became hollow back in the 1990s, but which continue to run on loyalty alone.
Does your marriage resemble a Samuel Beckett play?
They persist on a primitive attachment, no better - and in many ways quite like - that of a couple living in rubbish bins in a Samuel Beckett play, held together by an incantation of repeated phrases in the face of the encroaching hopelessness. Loyalty alone can sustain a marriage, but not happily, and not for long.
And so people are inspired again and again to try and pass directly back from loyalty back to lust - to re-light or re-kindle a marriage with the old passion.
This produces the romantic getaway - the hotel room rented for the night on Valentine's day, and all the rest of the pathetic arsenal of re-lighting a fire that went out 10 summers ago.
It never works. If anything, more divorces are caused by attempts at erotic rejuvenation than by ongoing mutual bitterness.
When your troubled friends head for the Caribbean, you know that it is all over. "We tried everything, even Venice," your friend says, and you sigh for them. You can't transcend loyalty and get back to lust in one short step.
This is because the three-part formula of lust, laughter and loyalty is one in which you can only return from one end of the equation to the other by passing through the middle term. It's like getting to the cafe car on a train - you can't avoid walking through the cars between.
The real problem therefore with maintaining a happy marriage is this - that although the things you both found funny early on will remain so, the larger sense of what is funny will divide over time.
Any sane person, for instance, knows that the three funniest movies ever made are This Is Spinal Tap, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and one of the Naked Gun movies. My son knows this. I know this. Everyone knows this.
Yet my wife, to take an example completely at random, thinks that funny movies include things such as Annie Hall and The Big Lebowski.
Very, very good movies, to be sure. The best. But not really funny movies.
My wife, like many of her kind, thinks that funny movies are funnier when they have, you know, a point and an emotional arc, elements of pathos and meaning. She thinks that funny should be funny-plus, instead of funny-funny.
Fortunately, though it becomes harder as the years go by to agree on funny-at-length, everyone can agree on funny-in-brief.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor - some marriages last longer than others
And since the funniest single sketch ever recorded is Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's 1960s pub sketch - the one where Pete and Dud share tales about the famous movie stars they have had to beat away from their beds - it creates the perfect pre-aphrodisiac, the moment to begin to laugh again. This means that every marriage can be saved.
And so, I realise, with the blinding clarity with which Darwin reduced the mystery of life's passage simply to the struggle for existence, that all happy marriages can be reduced to the ongoing ability to continue to laugh together when Pete explains that he had to beat Betty Grable off with a broomstick.
Be lit by lust, enlightened by laughter, settle into loyalty, and if loyalty seems too mired, return to lust by way of laughter.
I have had this formula worked out - and repeated it, waggishly, to friends, producing for some reason an ever more one-sided smile on the face of my beautiful wife.
Until, not long ago, I realised that there was a flaw in this idea. And that was that I had underestimated the reason that loyalty had such magnetic power, drawing all else towards it.
For I had been describing loyalty in marriage as though it were a neutral passive state - a kind of rest state, a final, fixed state at the end of the road of life.
And then, well, against our better wishes, and our own inner version of our marriage vows, at our daughter's insistence we got a dog. And this is what changed my view.
"The expense and anxiety of children" indeed. Our daughter's small Havanese dog, Butterscotch, has instructed us on many things, but above all on the energy that being loyal really implies.
Dogs teach us many things - but above all they teach us how frisky a state loyalty can be.
Dogs, after all - particularly spayed city dogs that have been denied their lusts - have loyalty as an overriding emotion. Ours will wait for hours for one of its family, and then patiently sit right alongside while there is work to be done.
Loyalty is what a dog provides. The ancient joke-name for a dog, Fido, is in truth the most perfect of all dog names - I am faithful. I am loyal. I remain.
Is a wife (or husband) 'better than a dog'?
Dogs are there to remind us that loyalty is a jumpy, fizzy emotion. Loyalty leaps up at the door and barks with joy at your return - and then immediately goes to sleep at your side. Simple fidelity is the youngest emotion we possess.
So to my wife. She has been complaining for the past few years that I have not yet dedicated a book to her. I have always said that it is because I do not yet know how to express the extent of my feelings.
But now I do.
"To Martha," I shall write at the beginning of my next book. "Better than a dog, anyhow."
She at least, will understand the depth of passion, of lust and laughter and loyalty - of precious, long-married love - that those Darwinian words describe.
The judge tweets up a storm about Devin Velez, after the finalist complains about being ousted from the show.
American Idol judge Nicki Minaj is declaring a Twitter war on ousted contestant Devin Velezfor hisless than gracious remarks following his ouster from the Fox reality show. In particular, she warned against complaining that the judges didn't use their "save" to spare him from getting the axe.
"America r the 'potential' fans," she tweeted Friday. "U MUST win them over. 'Saves' are bullshit and they know it. Those girls are just too good this year."
Minaj didn't stop there, and shared her feelings about the show's male vocalists loud and clear, specifically eliminated Idol hopefulCurtis Finch, Jr.
"Send the judges some flowers and a card," she continued. "If Curtis didn't get SAVED, NONE of u get saved. Best male voice of the SEASON!!!!!!!!!!! #TruthTea."
The contention began Wednesday when Minaj slammed Velez and his group, which also included Lazaro Arbos and Burnell Taylor, for their sub-par performance of The Four Tops' song, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," during which the boys fumbled the lyrics to the Motown classic. Minaj said "I’m gonna act like I didn’t see that or hear it" and ordered all three boys to leave the stage.
But Velez asserted he knew his part of the song, stopping short of naming a weak link in the group as being at fault for its poor performance. Velez addressed the situation during a conference call with reporters Friday, where he had some choice words for the judge.
"I agree with the first half of her critique, when she said that it felt like it was Hollywood week, that it was a joke, that stuff like that should not happen, that she was going to pretend that she didn’t hear it," he said. "When she went crazy–when she was like ‘get off the stage, blah blah blah’ and it’s just like ‘whoa Miss Minaj, I need you to calm down please.'"
He added that "we still love Nicki" but that hearing her critique was "a little cutting while on stage."
Velez even threw a little shade at Minaj's professionalism in later comments, saying "She could have been upset because the night before she was wearing the same colored dress as Mariah, or that she was on time. We never know. But I know that I love her as a judge…It’s when she gets into the exaggerative speaking, where it’s just like, ‘Ah, take it easy!’ You don’t wanna hurt somebody else’s feelings."
Minaj let it be known on Twitter that she would have none of Velez's sour grapes, firing off a series of tweets, beginning with one thatread: "Lol. Be mad @AMERICA when u get sent home. The JUDGES are the ones who FOUGHT for America to get the opp to vote for you #memba?"
Minaj also informed Velez that he needed to grow up, tweeting "Trust me BEW BEW. If EYE didn't want u in that TOP, YOU wldnt have been in that TOP. Fought for ALL of You. So just simply b gracious."
The outspoken judge, who continued her impromptu mentoring session, concluded with an American Idol history lesson: "Jennifer Hudson didn't win!!! Oscar Winner! #memba??? ok. Take that exposure and let your light shine."
The 18-year-old Velez then responded with a tweet he later deleted: "That moment when an adult stoops down to the 3rd grade level...LOL grow up Hun, I've got songs to write. :) #movingforward."
The judge tweets up a storm about Devin Velez, after the finalist complains about being ousted from the show.
American Idol judge Nicki Minaj is declaring a Twitter war on ousted contestant Devin Velezfor hisless than gracious remarks following his ouster from the Fox reality show. In particular, she warned against complaining that the judges didn't use their "save" to spare him from getting the axe.
"America r the 'potential' fans," she tweeted Friday. "U MUST win them over. 'Saves' are bullshit and they know it. Those girls are just too good this year."
Minaj didn't stop there, and shared her feelings about the show's male vocalists loud and clear, specifically eliminated Idol hopefulCurtis Finch, Jr.
"Send the judges some flowers and a card," she continued. "If Curtis didn't get SAVED, NONE of u get saved. Best male voice of the SEASON!!!!!!!!!!! #TruthTea."
The contention began Wednesday when Minaj slammed Velez and his group, which also included Lazaro Arbos and Burnell Taylor, for their sub-par performance of The Four Tops' song, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," during which the boys fumbled the lyrics to the Motown classic. Minaj said "I’m gonna act like I didn’t see that or hear it" and ordered all three boys to leave the stage.
But Velez asserted he knew his part of the song, stopping short of naming a weak link in the group as being at fault for its poor performance. Velez addressed the situation during a conference call with reporters Friday, where he had some choice words for the judge.
"I agree with the first half of her critique, when she said that it felt like it was Hollywood week, that it was a joke, that stuff like that should not happen, that she was going to pretend that she didn’t hear it," he said. "When she went crazy–when she was like ‘get off the stage, blah blah blah’ and it’s just like ‘whoa Miss Minaj, I need you to calm down please.'"
He added that "we still love Nicki" but that hearing her critique was "a little cutting while on stage."
Velez even threw a little shade at Minaj's professionalism in later comments, saying "She could have been upset because the night before she was wearing the same colored dress as Mariah, or that she was on time. We never know. But I know that I love her as a judge…It’s when she gets into the exaggerative speaking, where it’s just like, ‘Ah, take it easy!’ You don’t wanna hurt somebody else’s feelings."
Minaj let it be known on Twitter that she would have none of Velez's sour grapes, firing off a series of tweets, beginning with one thatread: "Lol. Be mad @AMERICA when u get sent home. The JUDGES are the ones who FOUGHT for America to get the opp to vote for you #memba?"
Minaj also informed Velez that he needed to grow up, tweeting "Trust me BEW BEW. If EYE didn't want u in that TOP, YOU wldnt have been in that TOP. Fought for ALL of You. So just simply b gracious."
The outspoken judge, who continued her impromptu mentoring session, concluded with an American Idol history lesson: "Jennifer Hudson didn't win!!! Oscar Winner! #memba??? ok. Take that exposure and let your light shine."
The 18-year-old Velez then responded with a tweet he later deleted: "That moment when an adult stoops down to the 3rd grade level...LOL grow up Hun, I've got songs to write. :) #movingforward."
Advice for the young women of Princeton: the daughters I never had
Forget about having it all, or not having it all, leaning in or leaning out — here’s what you really need to know that nobody is telling you.
For years (decades, really) we have been bombarded with advice on professional advancement, breaking through that glass ceiling and achieving work-life balance. We can figure that out — we are Princeton women. If anyone can overcome professional obstacles, it will be our brilliant, resourceful, very well-educated selves.
A few weeks ago, I attended the Women and Leadership conference on campus that featured a conversation between President Shirley Tilghman and Wilson School professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, and I participated in the breakout session afterward that allowed current undergraduate women to speak informally with older and presumably wiser alumnae. I attended the event with my best friend since our freshman year in 1973. You girls glazed over at preliminary comments about our professional accomplishments and the importance of networking. Then the conversation shifted in tone and interest level when one of you asked how have Kendall and I sustained a friendship for 40 years. You asked if we were ever jealous of each other. You asked about the value of our friendship, about our husbands and children. Clearly, you don’t want any more career advice. At your core, you know that there are other things that you need that nobody is addressing. A lifelong friend is one of them. Finding the right man to marry is another.
When I was an undergraduate in the mid-seventies, the 200 pioneer women in my class would talk about navigating the virile plains of Princeton as a precursor to professional success. Never being one to shy away from expressing an unpopular opinion, I said that I wanted to get married and have children. It was seen as heresy.
For most of you, the cornerstone of your future and happiness will be inextricably linked to the man you marry, and you will never again have this concentration of men who are worthy of you.
Here’s what nobody is telling you: Find a husband on campus before you graduate. Yes, I went there.
I am the mother of two sons who are both Princetonians. My older son had the good judgment and great fortune to marry a classmate of his, but he could have married anyone. My younger son is a junior and the universe of women he can marry is limitless. Men regularly marry women who are younger, less intelligent, less educated. It’s amazing how forgiving men can be about a woman’s lack of erudition, if she is exceptionally pretty. Smart women can’t (shouldn’t) marry men who aren’t at least their intellectual equal. As Princeton women, we have almost priced ourselves out of the market. Simply put, there is a very limited population of men who are as smart or smarter than we are. And I say again — you will never again be surrounded by this concentration of men who are worthy of you.
Of course, once you graduate, you will meet men who are your intellectual equal — just not that many of them. And, you could choose to marry a man who has other things to recommend him besides a soaring intellect. But ultimately, it will frustrate you to be with a man who just isn’t as smart as you.
Here is another truth that you know, but nobody is talking about. As freshman women, you have four classes of men to choose from. Every year, you lose the men in the senior class, and you become older than the class of incoming freshman men. So, by the time you are a senior, you basically have only the men in your own class to choose from, and frankly, they now have four classes of women to choose from. Maybe you should have been a little nicer to these guys when you were freshmen?
If I had daughters, this is what I would be telling them.
William Strickland waited for his grandfather to step out of hisSouth Side home to take his paratransit ride to a kidney dialysis appointment early March 2, authorities said Saturday — then stood behind the 72-year-old man, shot him six times in the back and stole his wallet, leaving him to die just steps from his home.
Prosecutors said Saturday that Strickland, 19, used the money he took from his grandfather, who also was named William Strickland, to pay for new gym shoes, a cellphone and tattoos.
The teen had no criminal history but was an admitted gang member, they said.
He’d been living with his grandfather, according to neighbors.
“I just know that he stayed there,” said neighbor Mario Farmer, who was shocked at hearing the news about the grandson being accused. “I would have never expected it. That’s sad. That’s really sad.”
The younger Strickland was charged late Friday with first-degree murder and armed robbery with a handgun in the March 2 shooting in the 400 block of East 95th Street. On Saturday, a judge ordered him held without bail.
Police initially said Strickland was with another man during the robbery, but no one else was in custody Saturday.
Prosecutors said the semi-automatic gun used in the killing was owned by Strickland’s grandfather and that he’d stolen it from the older man.
The elder Strickland liked to get to his dialysis appointment early, according to neighbors. “He went early,” Theolene Shears, 84, said after the shooting. “He said he liked it better so he could get it over with.”
Strickland was headed to a Pace paratransit van for his ride to his dialysis appointment and had just made it to the gangway of his home when two men robbed and shot him several times, according to police. He died a short while later, around 4 a.m., just steps from his home.
Neighbors said Strickland, who sometimes walked with a cane, went to dialysis three times a week.
Family and neighbors said Strickland had recently retired after working nearly 30 years at a steel mill.
Shears, who heard three shots, said “he watched out for the neighborhood” and reported any trouble he saw.
Another neighbor, who asked not to be named, said the younger Strickland was quiet and “mysterious.”
(CNN) -- Convicted serial rapist Gary Irving was offered a weekend of freedom by a judge in Massachusetts before reporting to jail. He took nearly 35 years.
One of Massachusetts' most wanted fugitives was living a quiet life in Gorham, Maine, until he was arrested Wednesday night at his home.
Irving, 52, was found living under the name Gregg Irving, Massachusetts State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said Friday in a statement.
Irving was convicted in 1978 of raping three young women in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. According to Massachusetts State Police, Judge Robert Prince released the 18-year-old defendant on bail to his parents in order to make final arrangements before sentencing. Irving, facing the possibility of life in prison, never returned.
Massachusetts State Police put Irving on their "Most Wanted" list and launched a manhunt.
Louis Sabadini, the Norfolk County prosecutor for the case in 1978, told CNN he had advised Prince, who died in 2010, not to release Irving before his sentencing because he knew he would run. Sabadini said he had hoped Irving would be sent straight to state prison and was surprised by Prince's decision to grant bail because there was no longer a presumption of innocence.
"Usually the judges, even the easy ones, will revoke bail if (the defendant) is found guilty," Sabadini said. "I think most people would run."
Irving had been convicted of three counts of rape with force, unnatural acts and kidnapping, Massachusetts State Police said. In one incident, Irving knocked the victim off her bike and brought her to a secluded area, where he repeatedly raped her. During another, Irving threatened a victim with a knife if she did not comply with his sexual demands.
Since he fled, Irving's profile has been featured on the TV shows "America's Most Wanted," "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol," according to the Most Wanted poster.
Investigators found numerous handguns and long guns in his home in Gorham on Wednesday. Irving did not possess the guns legally and will be charged by federal authorities on firearms offenses, Procopio said.
Sabadini, now retired and living in Norwell, Massachusetts, told CNN that most lawyers quickly move on to the next case, but this one never quite left his mind.
"It did bother me," he said. "Rapists generally have a tendency to commit that crime over and over again, so I don't know what (Irving) has been doing all those years."
Maine State Police, Gorham police and FBI agents joined the investigation and aided in the arrest, Procopio said. Irving is being held in Portland, Maine. He is scheduled for a hearingMonday morning at Cumberland County Courthouse, according to Stephen McClausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police.
Irving's lawyer, Christopher Leddy, told CNN that he would not comment on the case until after the hearing Monday. "Please understand that this is an extremely difficult situation for Mr. Irving's family and they would like to be given some space for now," Leddy said.
UGHELLI- There was apprehension yesterday, in Ole, Isoko south local government area of Delta state, following the killing of a retired soldier and his wife by their 32-year-old daughter. Sources said the retired army warrant officer, Jonah Elli and his wife gave up the ghost after they were hit with a pestle by the daughter whose name was given as Elo. The lifeless bodies of the couple were reportedly discovered in the early hours of yesterday by a neighbour who had gone to purchase some items from the Deceased couple's shop. According to a neighbour of the late couple, they were blessed with seven children, including the one that was afflicted with insanity who had been roaming about the community. Elo reportedly told the police that she killed her parents because they hated her. "My parents hate me. They locked me up in a room where they first hit me before I retaliated with a pestle. I saw blood and that is all I know" -VANGUARD
A Brazilian doctor who appeared in court for allegedly killing seven patients could be responsible for up to 300 deaths to free up hospital beds in the south east city of Curitiba, multiple media reports suggest. Virginia Helena Soares de Souza recruited a group of doctors to help administer lethal doses of anesthetics, sedatives and pain killers according to authorities. In addition the group allegedly altered oxygen levels for patients leading to deaths by asphyxiation, police said. Prosecutors alleged Souza pulled the plug on victims against the wishes of the patients and their families, and in so doing broke the law. She did that to free up beds in the intensive care unit (ICU) and clear up the "clutter" the patients were causing, according to police. Investigators say between 2006 and 2013, Souza ordered medical professionals working under her at an intensive care unit to alter medications and oxygen levels. During the seven years the incidents occured, in cases where Souza did not prescribe the drugs herself, she ordered other doctors to change mechanical ventilation devices, according to police. She allowed them access to medical records to issue prescriptions in her name, police said. Her lawyer, Elia Mattar Assad, said she will prove that her orders in the ICU were backed and justified by medical literature. Some of the patients were awake and conscious moments before the drugs were administered. Euthanasia is considered a crime in Brazil.
A man rapes a woman in his bedroom or hers, often the woman keeps quiet for whatever reason, her ego is bruised, she is hurt beyond imagination. For the less than one percent that reports the incident to the police, the police will mock and humiliate them. In very few instances they will arrest the man and charge him to court. Wait for it, yeah! You got it. The honourable Judge will tell the woman to bring a witness. This is the position of the law in our country. Hmmmmmm, this is Naija for you. Should this stop victims of rape from seek for justice?
A woman serving in the United States' military is reportedly more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than attacked by the enemy and women who are raped are not likely to report it.- MSNBC There are allegations that those who report been raped are subjected to a very long and complicated processes.
Danny Ferguson was shot in the eye and his body was hacked with a machete in a bedsit in Shakespeare Road, Beford on 21 February 1994. A post-mortem examination was carried out and his brain was removed but not replaced. His family believed the body was buried intact. A ceremony has been carried out to place Danny's brain with his remains. His killers has never been caught. The case was reopened 12 months ago, leading to the discovering of his brain at the hospital. The family said they were very distressed over the discovery. Danny's brother Richard said " The police have recently contacted us to make us aware of the body found recently in storage belonging to my brother. The brain was retained without our knowledge or consent for 19 years. We have buried our brother unwhole and this is truly disturbing to know"
Newport News- Two Hines Middle School students are charged with trying to poison a teacher at the school. According to Police spokesman Lou Thurson, the students are accused of putting hand sanitizer in a teacher's drinks over the course of two or three months. Michelle Price with Newport News public schools said the school's resource officer (SRO) was made aware of the incident Jan. 29, 2013. The SRO alerted the teacher involved and the Newport News Police Department's special victim's unit. Price said two 13-year-old male students admitted to the act and were suspended. As a result of the school's investigation, the teens were later removed from Hines Middle School and transferred to an alternative school. They were arrested March 6 at the alternative high school they attended in the 800 block of Diligence drive. Each teen involved was charged with attempted poisoning and felony. The victim is a 66-year-old woman. Price said she had stomach discomfort but was never hospitalized. She had to take several days off for doctor's appointment. She is back at the school teaching, according to Price. Price said the school system believed the kids should still be offered an Education, which is why they were placed in the alternative school until they were arrested.
A Norfolk church pastor was arrested Wednesday on charges of possession of child pornography, according to a police news release.
David William Smith, 35, was taken into police custody on 10 counts of possession of child pornography, according to a Norfolk news release. Police said Smith is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church and School at 6001. Granby St.
An investigation by the police department’s computer crimes section led to the arrest, according to the release.
Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock(MIAMI) -- A Miami appeals court Wednesday reversed a ruling that allowed Florida polo tycoon John Goodman to adopt his longtime adult girlfriend.
Florida's Third District Court of Appeals Senior Judge Alan R. Schwartz wrote that the adoption of a "paramour" or lover was "so contrary to the beneficent purposes of such an action" that it could not be confirmed by the court, according to court documents.
Goodman, a 49-year-old multimillionaire who founded the International Polo Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., made headlines when he adopted his girlfriend, Heather Hutchins, 42, in an attempt to preserve part of his fortune for her while negotiating a civil suit settlement.
Carroll Goodman, John Goodman's ex-wife and the mother of their two children, filed the appeal, according to court records.
Attorneys for Goodman and his ex-wife could not immediately be reached for comment.
In 2011, a trial court in Palm Beach Countyapproved the adoption. As a result, Hutchins was recognized as another one of Goodman's "children" under the trust fund that had been set up by him and Carroll Goodman for their biological children in 1991.
According to court documents, John Goodman and Hutchins entered an adoption agreement contract that paid her $5 million immediately at the signing of agreement, another $3 million by the end of 2012, and lifetime payments valued at an estimated $8.75 million -- a total of $16.75 million over time. The agreement also allowed Hutchins to request additional amounts from the trust.
While the adoption earned national attention, Goodman found himself in the spotlight again in May 2012 when he was sentenced to 16 years in prison and fined $10,000 for killing a man in a drunk-driving crash.
On May 11, 2012, a Florida judge said in court that Goodman "left to save himself" after his Bentley slammed into 23-year-old Scott Wilson's Hyundai and sent the car into a nearby canal in Wellington, Fla., in the February 2010 accident.
Wilson, an engineering graduate, was strapped into the driver's seat and drowned.
At the time of the court case, Judge Jeffrey Colbath granted that Goodman could be released on a $7 million bond pending his appeal. As conditions for his release, he was placed under house arrest and monitored 24 hours a day with a GPS device, and could not apply for a new passport. His driver's license was also permanently revoked.
A Florida jury found Goodman guilty of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide last March.
Goodman claimed in court that his $200,000 car malfunctioned and lurched forward. He has also denied being drunk at the time of the crash that killed Wilson, although other testimony has contradicted him and his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit three hours after the crash.
Prosecutors said Goodman left the scene of the accident without calling 911.
"Scott Wilson's death was senseless," Colbath told the court at the time.
"His conduct from the moment the crash happened to the time he came to be in the custody of law enforcement was to save himself," the judge said. "It wasn't to go get help and it wasn't because he was disoriented. It was because he wanted to figure out a way to save himself. He had an opportunity to try to save Mr. Wilson."
"I believe what the jury believed -- that he knew he pushed [Wilson's] car in the canal. He knew there was someone in the canal and he left to try to save himself," Colbath said.
Last April, court documents revealed that Goodman agreed to a $46 million payment to Wilson's parents, Lili and William Wilson. Each received $23 million in the settlement.
In his decision Wednesday to void Goodman's adult adoption of Hutchins, Schwartz cited the crash, the trust fund John and Carroll Goodman had set up in 1991 for their two biological children, and that Goodman gave his ex-wife "no notice of the adoption proceeding."
When Melissa Townsend couldn't control her children, ages 1 and 3, she called the police to teach them a lesson. Instead, she was the one arrested. In the 911 call, Townsend says she wants the police to "scare the (expletive)" out of her kids because "they're not listening and they need to learn respect." The operator responded, "we don't come out to scare kids." When the police showed up at Townsend's house, she was visibly intoxicated, which violated her probation. When authorities tried to arrest her for child neglect, she became physical and was charged with assaulting a police officer.- FOX NEWS
His town's indigenous doctors recommended he be buried alive, in an upright position with his head sticking out, to strip him from the electrical charge that runs through his body. Maybe that will prevent him from being a walking lightning rod.
