Category Archives: Victimless Crimes

Takeaway: Be prepared for the continued aggressive investigation and prosecution of white-collar pandemic relief fraud to continue in 2022 as a new Director has been appointed for the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

On March 10, 2022 the United States Department of Justice demonstrated its intent to continue its focus on and combat of pandemic-related fraud, by announcing that Associate Deputy Attorney General Kevin Chambers has been appointed as the Director for the Covid-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Director Chambers announced that his plan for the task force is to not only target domestic large-scale criminal organizations but to prioritize overseas actors as well.

As part of this initiative, the 2022 budget seeks to add 120 attorneys across the nation whose focus will be on pandemic relief fraud. The budget also requested $325 million to fund more than 900 agents to support the FBIs white-collar crime program. Pandemic relief fraud has also attracted the attention and involvement of multiple federal agencies including the IRS, U.S. Postal Service, and Social Security Administration as well as Interpol.

In the last year, the DOJ has seized over $1.2 billion in relief funds which were fraudulently obtained and has charged over 1,000 defendants with related crimes across the country. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco has stated that they are currently investigating more than 1,800 individuals and entities for alleged fraud in connection with more than $6 billion in relief package loans.

A large focus of the DOJs investigative efforts over the past year has been placed specifically on fraud related to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs). This has been evidenced by the various indictments, convictions, pleas, and sentencings that have occurred over the last year. Three men in the Middle District of North Carolina were indicted and sentenced for fraudulently seeking over $2.7 million in PPP and EIDLs. These defendants submitted fraudulent PPP loan applications which misrepresented the number of employees and the payroll expenses of their various businesses between May and June of 2020. In conjunction with the fraudulent PPP loan applications, these defendants also submitted false tax and bank records. In their applications for EIDLs, they misrepresented the number of employees, gross revenues and costs of goods sold for each business. The three defendants received different terms of imprisonment, with the lowest being 5 years incarceration. Each defendant was ordered to pay $498,657 in restitution.

A grand jury in Houston recently returned a superseding indictment against four individuals for fraudulently obtaining and laundering millions of dollars in forgivable PPP loans. This indictment has led to an additional 15 individuals across two states being charged in this conspiracy. In a separate scheme, seven individuals in California were indicted and sentenced for their involvement in attempts to fraudulently obtain over $20 million in PPP and EIDL Covid-19 relief funds. The ringleader of this group was sentenced to 17 years incarceration.

Its clear that the DOJ is going to continue to focus their efforts on investigating and prosecuting pandemic related fraud given this years budget request and the announcement of Kevin Chambers appointment. The light in which the DOJ views the seriousness and gravity of these cases was demonstrated when Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco stated that these cases demonstrate that these crimes are not victimless these criminals chose to line their own pockets, at a time when Americans were hurting, when many Americans were dying. So be prepared for the continued aggressive investigation and prosecution of white-collar pandemic relief fraud to continue in 2022.

See more here:

Pandemic Relief Fraud- A Focus And Priority For The Department Of Justice - JD Supra

One of the biggest things that fans loved about Lee Daniels hit FOX series Empire was the mother/son relationship displayed by Taraji P. Henson and Jussie Smollett as main characters Cookie and Jamal Lyon, respectively.

Following Smolletts real-life prison sentencing last week after being found guilty of staging a 2019 hate crime hoax, his former TV mom decided to defend the disgraced actor by calling for his release and using the sad case of Emmett Till as an example for her reasoning.

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Henson has joined the #FreeJussie movement started by his family in wake of Cook County Judge James Linns decision to give Smollett 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and an order to pay $120,000 in restitution to the Chicago Police Department for overtime spent investigating the case. I am not here to debate you on his innocence but we can agree that the punishment does not fit the crime, Taraji wrote to begin a lengthy caption in defense of Jussie (seen above), going on to add, Emmett Till was brutally beat and ultimately murdered because of a lie and none of the people involved with his demise spent one day in jail, even after Carolyn Bryant admitted that her claims were false. No one was hurt or killed during Jussies ordeal. He has already lost everything, EVERYTHING!

Many have been taught since childhood about 14-year-old Emmett Tills gruesome 1955 lynching, an act that as of last week is now officially considered a hate crime thats named after the late teenage civil rights martyr. Although Taraji is quite bold to compare the actual crime of Tills death to a lie Jussie told for sympathy and fame, the core of her argument is that his lie was a victimless one. She concluded the caption by adding, To me as an artist not able to create that in itself is punishment enough. He cant get a job. No one in Hollywood will hire him and again as an artist who loves to create, that is prison. My prayer is that he is freed and put on house arrest and probation because in this case that would seem fair. Please #freejussie [sic].

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Overall, what Jussie is accused of doing should be taken seriously being that many real-life victims of racist and homophobic attacks may be met with skepticism as a result of his actions. Still, worser crimes have been committed with little to no legal ramifications (see: Kyle Rittenhouse).

Let us know if you agree with Taraji P. Henson or believe Jussie Smollett is getting his due punishment.

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Taraji P. Henson Uses Emmett Till As An Example To Demand Jussie Smolletts Release From Prisonwas originally published onblackamericaweb.com

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Taraji P. Henson Uses Emmett Till As An Example To Demand Jussie Smolletts Release From Prison - Majic 102.1

Six men and two women were arrested March 3 and March 4 as the Flagler County Sheriff's Office conducted a sting operation to catch prostitutes and people soliciting prostitutes, according to the FCSO.

The six menhave been charged withsoliciting prostitution, and the two women have been charged with prostitution. One of the women is also charged with possession of fentanyl.

The operation also led deputies to a victim of human trafficking, according toa news release from the FCSO.That individual is being provided services to keep them away from their trafficker, according to the news release.

To catch the men, theFCSO's Special Investigations Unit created an ad on a website known to be used to solicit prostitution, according to arrest reports. The fake ad listedvarious sex acts for various prices, with a phone number. The men who arranged meetings and offered an undercover detective cash for sex were arrested.

Undercover detectives caught the two women by responding to existing ads for prostitution, then meeting with thewomen and offering cash in exchange for sexacts. The women were arrested when they agreed to the prices offeredand began to undress, according to their arrest reports.

The FCSO'sSpecial Investigations Unit,Homeland Security Investigations,Problem Area Crime EnforcementTeam and Community Policing Division worked together on the operation, according to the news release.

The thing to remember is that these arent victimless crimes. Human trafficking and prostitution ruins the lives of everyone involved, Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly said, according to the news release. We will always work hard to root out human trafficking operations and find help for the victims. I want to thank our Special Investigations Unit, Homeland Security Investigations and our PACE team for their effort throughout the length of the operation.

For more information on human trafficking, visit http://www.FloridaAllianceEndHT.com.

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Eight arrested as Sheriff's Office conducts prostitution sting - Palm Coast Observer

Research has found online fraud may affect as many as one in 10 of us, making fraud 20 times more likely than robbery. Its thought that instances of fraud may have been severely underreported, identifying the problem as significantly more widespread and acute than was initially thought.

The importance of taking measures to stay safe online cannot be understated and one effective way to achieve this is to place barriers of some sort between fraudsters and your finances. The advice is to always use trusted payment methods when paying for anything and to avoid ever handing over your bank details.

Casinos have made popular targets for scammers, with many of them operating without regulation or oversight. For that reason, a PayPal casino is a safer option than one that only accepts a debit card.

As a reputable online payment service, PayPal has security measures in place to tackle transactions that arent honoured by either party, and your money is safeguarded to an extent, depending on their terms and conditions. If you have been a victim of fraud, can prove it, and have paid for the product or service via PayPal, there is a strong likelihood you will be able to recoup your lossesbut its crucial to always read the small print.

Contrastingly, if you consent to a payment via bank transfer, there is very little protection in place and it may transpire that those funds are irretrievable.

There are simple steps that can be taken to help avoid scams in the first place, especially when iGaming. This includes:

John Flatley, the head of crime and analysis at the Office for National Statistics in the UK said, up until recently statistics have relied largely on figures that have been reported to the police through the National Fraud Reporting Centre. He goes on to stress, they know this has only ever offered part of the picture because the majority of frauds are never reported.

The true scale of fraud is massive, especially compared to more traditional crimes with banking and credit card misuse making up the largest proportion of those figures as much as two thirds of the total volume of scams. Card cloning and card details being hacked and used fraudulently are still the biggest problems.

Investment fraud also proved to be another problem. In these schemes, people are offered financial opportunities by telephone or email that turn out to be bogus but are only found out to be such after significant sums have been sent so that these fabricated funds can be released. Many similar problems can be avoided following the same guidelines to avoid iGaming scams.

While scams can and are sent in all languages, by far the most common found was scams in English. Such is the attraction of the wealth of the West, consisting largely of native English speakers, that scammers from a variety of countries will focus their efforts on English scams. As a result, one tool in identifying scams can be checking for grammar and spelling that looks like it may have been written by someone whose first language is not English.

If youve been a victim of online fraud, you may not even realise it until you notice unfamiliar transactions on your account or you receive a call from your bank saying they have identified suspicious activity. This can happen weeks or months after the initial details have been obtained but usually it happens relatively quickly.

Roughly 8 out of 10 victims of credit card fraud specifically have reported they were reimbursed in full by their financial services provider following the incident. However, its important to remember that these costs are not invisible and are passed on indirectly to the customers in some form or another. For instance, it is well documented that the increased level of insurance fraud that has occurred over the last decade has resulted in increased insurance premiums for everyone. Fraud is not a victimless crime and tackling it will help to reduce costs across society.

While much can be done to tackle the perpetrators, educating the public on ways to avoid becoming a victim of online fraud is paramount in reducing these figures. For many, the internet is still a new tool, especially for the elderly, and campaigns to teach basic online security to vulnerable groups will represent a big step forward.

While statistics for many types of crime are on the decline, even in areas where police funding has been reduced, online fraud does seem to be one illicit activity that is thriving. It could be argued that crime in some way has shifted from the streets to the web but if you follow these simple steps, you can greatly reduce your risk of falling foul of it.

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The Rise Of Online Fraud: How To Stay Safe When iGaming - Euro Weekly News

It's been a busy month in the courts and these men have started jail terms after being locked up for serious and shocking crimes in February.

They include a double murderer sentenced to serve at least 40 years behind bars, a paedophile who incited a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity and a school IT manager who distributed indecent images of children while working for 20 years at a school in Humberston.

Those who have committed crimes have now received long sentences at crown courts in Grimsby, Lincoln and Hull.

Read more crime news here

Here is a round-up of the northern Lincolnshire criminals who are now serving time after being jailed in January.

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Two heartless serial crooks with long histories of crime deliberately raided the homes of vulnerable elderly men aged 90 and 83 in separate burglaries in the early hours.

The 90-year-old victim in the first burglary was asleep in bed when one of them broke in through a window and woke him up by rummaging around in his bedroom.

The intruders hurriedly fled when the frightened pensioner shouted out but quickly went on to raid the home of the other elderly victim, showering him in glass after smashing patio doors, a court heard.

Marcus Blackham, 21, who had been living in a Grimsby hostel, and Brandon Dable, 20, of Grafton Street, Grimsby, admitted two offences of burglary and another of stealing a car on September 9.

Dable also admitted possessing a knife.

Gareth Henderson-Moore, prosecuting, told Hull Crown Court that Dable and Blackham raided the home of a 90-year-old man in Heron Close, Grimsby, at 1.50am.

The pensioner was asleep when Blackham broke in through a window but he was awoken by the sound of a search being made of his bedroom.

He shouted out, causing the burglars to flee, and discovered that 12 had been taken from his trouser pocket.

The second burglary happened later in the early hours at Ashridge Drive, Cleethorpes, the home of an 83-year-old man.

The occupant was disturbed by attempts to break in and went to the rear of his home.

A patio door was smashed in a bid to get in and the pensioner and another occupant were close to it at the time.

He was covered in glass when the window smashed and suffered cuts to his shoulder.

The keys to his Toyota Yaris were taken and the car was stolen.

The court heard that the car was reversed off the driveway but police found it by number plate recognition and it was spotted in Louth Road, Grimsby.

Three men got out and police chased after them. Blackham was found hiding under a car.

Dable was found hiding in a garden and he had to be Tasered, the court heard.

He was taken to hospital and was found to have a knife with him in his pocket.

Blackham was jailed for three years and eight months.

Dable was sent to a young offenders' institution for two years and eight months.

Read the full story here

Daniel Boulton made headlines worldwide when he murdered his ex-partner and her nine-year-old son in cold blood.

He washanded concurrent life sentences for both deaths and is now behind bars for at least 40 years.

Boulton, 30, savagely stabbed Bethany Vincent, 26, and her autistic son Darren Henson on May 31 at their home on High Holme Road in Louth.

Mr Justice Pepperall says it will be at least 40 years before he is eligible for parole and warned him "You may never be released."

He described Boulton as a very dangerous man who carried out the killings "calmly, callously and efficiently."

He was also handed 21 months for assaulting a police officer and 32 months for burglary.

All sentences will run concurrently.

Boulton had walked 28 miles from a hostel in Skegness to get to her home and bombarded her with 900 messages, despite a restraining order in place.

He then fled from the High Holme Road house, sparking a manhunt which was launched nationwide.

Boulton left a note which read: "I, Daniel Boulton, take full responsibility for 182.

He was spotted by a plain-clothed officer at beauty spot, Hubbard's Hills, who tried to detain him.

Boulton stabbed PC Stephen Denniss in the leg with a knife before fleeing to a farm on the outskirts of the Louth attraction.

He was eventually detained with the help of a police helicopter.

He shouted to armed officers to kill him and he had to be Tasered during his arrest.

He had admitted two counts of manslaughter, assaulting PC Stephen Denniss with intention to resist arrest and burgling an empty cottage at Hubbards Hill, Louth, but denied two charges of murder.

Boulton claimed he suffered from a recognised mental health condition at the time and told a psychiatrist he was on "autopilot" at the time of the killings.

Following a two week trial, a jury yesterday (February 1) convicted him of both murders.

Due to the harrowing nature of the trial, the jury members are now exempt from service for five years.

Jurors heard Boulton spoke of a hatred for young Darren, who had been diagnosed with autism.

He told a psychiatrist he was in emotional turmoil and began experiencing suicidal thoughts as he tried to stick to the restraining order.

Boulton went to Ms Vincent's home at around midday on May 31 but she "kicked him out" and he later broke in and got on his hands and knees and began begging Ms Vincent.

She was said to have kicked him over and laughed when he threatened to kill himself.

Bethany was discovered by police, downstairs with nine stab wounds, one of the fatal to the chest, which punctured her heart.

Darren was found upstairs with 14 stab wounds.

Read the full story here

A Grimsby man who was found guilty of serious sexual offences against two children has been jailed for 25 years.

Neil Jones, 55, formerly of Hainton Avenue, had denied all 13 charges when appearing at Lincoln Crown Court, but was found guilty of every offence.

Jones was sentenced for four counts of rape and five of indecent assault against the first victim, who was under 16 years of age at the time. The offending took place between 2000 and 2004.

He was also found guilty of four counts of causing or inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity, between 2016 and 2018.

Jones committed 'sickening crimes' against children.

Read the full story here

Hundreds of thousands of indecent images involving children and animals were found on a Scunthorpe man's phones, a court heard.

Former Scunthorpe area carpet fitter, Matthew Maw, of no fixed address, admitted seven offences of making and distributing indecent images.

He also admitted possession of extreme pornographic images.

Descriptions of the sickening images and videos involving rape of children were given to Grimsby Crown Court.

Sentencing Maw to two years in prison, Judge Peter Kelson QC said it was "a case of great gravity."

He said: "You seem to have lost sight of the fact this is not a victimless crime. Every single child is a victim. These children are victims of rape and abuse. You wholeheartedly threw yourself into this disgusting trade."

He added: "These are grotesque images and videos, involving the rape of a child. These children are victims and you have furthered their abuse by sharing them."

The judge said: "People who were like-minded individuals must be deterred. They must realise these are not victimless crimes."

Prosecuting, Ben Hammersley told the court the offences were committed between 2014 and 2021.

They were identified by the National Crime Agency investigating the internet accounts of the suspect in October 2021.

Police seized two mobile phones.

He said police investigated over 5,000 indecent images. He said police only managed to analyse 38 per cent of the collection which totalled 468,000 images.

Read the full story here

A school's IT manager distributed indecent images of children while working for 20 years at a school in Humberston.

Matthew Winder, of Grimsby admitted offences of making and distributing sickening photographs and videos of children.

At Grimsby Crown Court Judge Peter Kelson QC said parents would be "rocked to their core" to have discovered a staff member was sharing indecent images of children.

He said there was no evidence that any of the children at Humberston Park Special School, where he worked, were involved.

Prosecuting, Amber Hobson told the court the 39-year-old was caught thanks to a specialist investigation by the National Crime Agency which detected Winder's IP address on a computer internet account.

In March police attended at his address and initially arrested Winder's father and seized electronic devices.

But Matthew Winder voluntarily handed himself into a police station and admitted it was he who had accessed and shared indecent images of children. He said he had been viewing and downloading images and videos of children for about 20 years, while employed at Humberston Park Special School.

Miss Hobson told the court Winder made full admissions to the police and was frank about sharing 12 images in an internet chatroom, to which me made payments.

"He is computer savvy and had used a number of programmes to ensure devices were secure. There was a vast quantity of images and videos of all all categories including the most extreme, involving bestiality using a horse and dog," told Miss Hobson.

She described some of the most sickening images and videos involving children as young as two years old, with boys and girls abused.

The prosecutor said the viewing of the images went on for "a significant period of time."

There were around 6,000 images stored on the devices, she said.

Judge Kelson QC said: "Parents and staff would have been shocked to their core that he was working there. More horrifying is that the probation report says he has a high risk of serious harm to children."

The judge said: "I accept he did not move to physical contact."

He said it was "deeply troubling" that he had been accessing indecent images for 20 years and working for the entire period at Humberston Park Special School. He told there had been times when he was alone with pupils providing specialist communication systems.

Winder was jailed for 12 months and the judge imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order barring him from communication with children online and banning any use of encryption.

Read the full story here

A former army medic was caught with indecent images of children on his laptop for the second time in five years, a court heard.

Neil Smith, 53, of Merlin Road, Scunthorpe was jailed for two years at Grimsby Crown Court after admitting making indecent images of children.

They included videos of rape of two and four year olds.

Prosecuting, Nick Adlington said there were over 400 images and videos of the most vile category. There were scores of others involving children. They were found by police after his personal account was traced by investigators and he was arrested in September 2020.

He said Smith was convicted of possessing indecent images in 2015 when he received a three-year community order and was on a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years. The latest offences were committed between November 2019 and September 2020, the court heard.

Smith was not at his property when police raided the home and seized his laptop. He voluntarily presented himself at a police station later.

He was interviewed by police but denied the offences. When the Dell laptop was analysed the search history revealed key words, "rape," "incest," and "pre-teen hardcore."

Expert investigators also found use of a sharing network.

Sentencing Smith to two years in prison, Judge David Tremberg highlighted the recidivist nature of the offences, following the 2015 conviction.

"You received a golden opportunity from the court. Rather than locking you up straight away, the court gave you an opportunity to put all this behind you with supervision and unpaid work," said the judge.

He said: "That would have given you an opportunity and to see if it was not part of an entrenched pattern.

"You well knew that if you got caught again, you would be locked up.

"None of that was enough to deter you and so it was in the autumn of 2020 you got caught once again by the police."

Excerpt from:

Brutal double murderer and school worker paedophile among the men jailed in February - Grimsby Live

Bill Description:House Bill 672 would decrease some violations of fish and game rules from a misdemeanor to an infraction.

Rating: +1

Analyst Note: House Bill 672 is similar to House Bill 586, introduced earlier this session.

Does it directly or indirectly create or increase penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for nonviolent crimes? Conversely, does it eliminate or decrease penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes?

Idaho law contains a problematic provision stating that violations of fish and game commission rules, proclamations, or orders are misdemeanors unless they are expressly listed in statute as infractions or felonies. In no case should violating a rule (which is an administrative operating procedure, not a statute) ever constitute a criminal act, but alas, this unjust standard exists in Idaho.

Unfortunately, House Bill 672 does not repeal this unreasonable statute, but it does amend Section 36-1401, Idaho Code, to include a handful of victimless acts in the list of infractions, which reduces them from misdemeanors. Among these items are having a dog off-leash, using "any form of fireworks," and placing "beehives or bee boards."

The bill also says that the director of the commission "shall update the house resources and conservation committee and the senate resources and environment committee during each legislative session concerning new rules and proclamations containing penalties."

It is a net positive to reclassify victimless acts as infractions rather than misdemeanors. But victimless acts should not be prohibited at all, and administrative rules should guide the behavior of government employees, not impose demands or mandates on the public.

(+1)

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House Bill 672 Fish and game, violations - Idaho Freedom - idahofreedom.org

Police have seized thousands of illegal cigarettes off Hull's streets including 150,000 of them stashed behind a wall in the Hessle Road area.

A two-day operation in Hull saw officers swipe around 220k illicit cigarettes, tobacco and cannabis from the streets, following searches around the city.

Humberside Police's Hull Central Neighbourhood Team worked with Trading Standards and used sniffer dogs in the searches of hundreds of storage containers around Hessle Road, then at shops and addresses in north and west Hull.

For more crime news, click here

Pictures showed packets of fake fags stashed behind a tiled wall in the searches.

Some 150k illegal cigarettes, tobacco and cannabis equipment - plus a large bag of the drug - were seized in the first day of the haul around Hessle Road, with a further 70k taken the following day.

The investigation is now being led by Trading Standards.

PC Karen Walker, of our Hull Central Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: This was a very successful operation in our fight against illicit cigarettes and tobacco.

It might seem like were just taking cheap tobacco off the streets, but were doing it to protect you. These are not victimless crimes.

"Operations such as the ones we have tackled this week have been used to fund organised crime and have been linked to modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

We hope that this latest action will send a stark warning to anyone involved in this type of crime, that we will seek every avenue to disrupt them.

If you have any information about economic crime, please call us on our non-emergency 101 number, or report it anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

For the latest Hull Live headlines direct to your inbox, click here.

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Drugs and 150,000 illegal cigarettes found stashed behind wall in Hessle Road - Hull Live

The opioid crisis has ravaged the lives of many Rhode Islanders. A record 384 lives in the state were lost to overdoses in 2020, and substance-use disorders have locked hundreds in a cycle of arrest-release-repeat often for petty offenses driven by addiction.

When Superior Court Judge Kristin E. Rodgers assumed the bench in 2009, she took the view that the crimes themselves must be punished, regardless of the driving force behind them.

I was one of those people who believed in progressive punishment, Rodgers said in a recent interview. As the judge presiding over the courtroom that handled people accused of violating their probation, that was exactly what she did.

Opioid lawsuits: RI nets $112 million in settlement with opioid manufacturer, distributors. What we know

Rodgers perspective on criminal justice and the use of heroin or other illicit drugs began to shift in 2019 with her participation in the New England Regional Judicial Opioid Initiative. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell selected Rodgers and Family Court Magistrate Paul Jones to take part in a regional discussion contemplating how state courts could better respond to the opioid epidemic.

With that grew her understanding and appreciation that substance-use disorders are a medical condition, not a moral failing, she said.

Substance-use disorder is an illness. When a person has cancer, we dont penalize them. We treat it with kindness and compassion, Rodgers said in her chambers in the Licht Judicial Complex.

Court Reforms: RI opens path for former inmates to break impoverishing cycle of court fees and fines

Rodgers went on a listening tour to familiarize herself with the statewide efforts to combat the crisis. She learned about the pioneering medication-assisted treatment program at the Adult Correctional Institutions, legal-medical partnerships, and the Heroin-Opioid Prevention Effort Initiative, an outreach program in which law-enforcement officers pair with substance-use specialists to connect people with treatment and resources.

She heard from experts about the decriminalization of narcotics in Portugal.

Without having to be part of the criminal justice system, they got the help they needed, she said.

Opioid crisis in Rhode Island: Accidental drug overdose deaths in RI reached record high last year

With that in mind and the realization that courts are not equipped to deal with substance-use disorders, Rodgers proposed a diversion program to direct people facing addiction to a treatment provider and away from the criminal-justice system.

The concept centered on a police department steering people charged with nonviolent crimes, such as trespass or simple possession that the officer believes is linked to a substance-use disorder, toward treatment and other needed social services.

She reached out first to West Warwick and then to Woonsocket, where Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III was receptive to giving it a try in a city that saw 32 accidental overdose deaths in 2020. Woonsocket has been among the communities hardest hit by the opioid crisis in Rhode Island.

Were never going to arrest our way out of this," Oates said."I truly believe its a medical issue, not a criminal issue."

His department sees a constant cycle of people committing criminal acts to support a drug habit, he said.

What were doing right now is not working, said Oates, who saw substance abuse first hand during his years with the narcotics unit in the Providence Police Department.

The initiative the Law Enforcement Assisted Deflection, Engagement and Retention in Treatment, or LEADER program has secured a three-year, $819,109 grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to support the effort.

The program is expected to also benefit residents of Lincoln, Cumberland, North Smithfield, Pawtucket, Central Fallsand Providence who are routinely arrested by Woonsocket police for drug offenses.

For the many families touched by addiction, the opioid epidemic is yet another worry layered on top of the stress of the pandemic, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said in a statement announcing the grant. Im hopeful Woonsockets program will help divert people from jail into treatment and get more Rhode Islanders on the long, noble road to recovery.

The program is in its infancy. The Woonsocket police are coordinating with the Community Care Alliance, a nonprofit community-action program that provides substance-use treatment, along with other services such as assistance with housing, mental-health counseling and employment.

[The clients] work with us on whatever their needs are, said Benedict F. LessingJr., CEO of Community Care Alliance. They dont come to us for any one thing. Its four or five things. … Our job is to figure out what is the core issue.

Criminal Justice: Alleged leader of outlaw Pagans motorcycle gang returns to prison after violating bail

Blessing credited Oates for his willingness to work with a vulnerable community in which addiction and mental-health issues are often intertwined and homeless numbers are increasing daily.

This kind of approach really does have long-term implications. Once you have a record, it does follow you around, Blessing said.

The plan is for the police to connect clinicians and outreach workers each month with an estimated 10 to 12 people with substance-use disorders who typically would be arrested and charged with petty offenses to improve their odds of getting treatment and support.

We have more contact than anyone to help someone, Oates said.

Diverting an individual to help instead of arresting him or heravoids entanglement with the criminal justice system and the associated costs of court appearances and sometimes incarceration, he said.

I think it benefits everyone, Oates said.

What charges will be eligible for diversion remains in discussion, but ideally it will pertain to nonviolent, victimless crimes, Oates said. He acknowledges there will be a learning curve associated with determining who makes a good program candidate and assessing when an individual is noncompliant with his or her treatment.

This is just a new approach. I think its worth a try. I can see the great potential to help a lot of people, Oates said. To truly be successful, you have to want it.

The program has the support of the Rhode Island Public Defenders office. Unlike other efforts, such as the truancy and drug calendars, the program will divert people before they land in court. As such, the bulk of the grant money will be directed toward treatment, not administrative costs.

The statistics show the quicker you get them into treatment, the better the outcomes are. Its really a nod to trying something different, said Matthew B. Toro, Rhode Islands deputy public defender.

Rodgers is working with the public defenders and the attorney general's offices in drafting a participation agreement for potential arrestees, Toro said.

Were giving the service provider a lot of control over cases. They look at it through a different lens than the criminal justice system, he said.

Opioid Epidemic: East Providence to hire social worker to help police and firefighters in crisis response

While the first such diversion program took shape in Seattle, the Woonsocket initiative will be the second in New England behind Gloucester, Massachusetts. The district attorney there designed a program in 2007 to offer treatment instead ofprosecution for young adult nonviolent offenders with substance-use issues.

For Rodgers, helping the diversion program take shape is an extracurricular project that falls outside her judicial duties. She refers to it as an anti-court initiative.

We want to get the people all the help they need. Hopefully, we can get better outcomes. Rodgers said.

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A RI city and judge start new approach for petty offenses driven by addiction. Here's why - The Providence Journal

One person has been arrested following a cannabis farm discovery at a property in Coalville this morning.

North West Leicestershire Police made the discovery in Greenhill after local residents reported their suspicions, confirming cannabis plants were found in "various" stages of growth.

Posting to Facebook, officers confirmed investigations are ongoing following the arrest, and declared the public is "vital" in reducing this sort of crime in their area.

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PC Mundie from the Neighbourhood Proactive Team (NPT) said: "This warrant was obtained from the courts based on intelligence gathered from the community.

"What we have found today shows that the public is vital in reducing crime and harm in their area. If you suspect something, please report it."

Residents reading the post accused officers of making a "right mess" of the front door of the property, however officers replied to say "unfortunately" it had the strongest chain they had come across, meaning the door panel had "popped" in.

Other Facebook users commented on the severity of the crime and questioned whether it was worth police time.

One said: "Maybe you should concentrate more on the paedophiles and human trafficking and children going missing!!"

But a member of the force pointed out the bigger picture.

The officer said: "Unfortunately with these type of incidents, we often find that the 'gardeners' used at the cannabis grows are victims of modern slavery and have been trafficked into the country for this purpose by the persons responsible.

"Safeguarding those persons is just as important to us as tackling the offence of supply / production of cannabis.

"As for the other crimes you have mentioned, when they have taken place in our area, when reported, these are investigated too, however we have specialist teams who deal with many of these offences."

Another Facebook user said: "Wish you would leave the herb growers alone. Wheres all the heroine and crack busts? Messing around with a literal natural medicine like youre saving lives, you only found it cause the neighbours smelt it and called it in for you."

PC Gregory responded to highlight cannabis production is not a "victimless" crime.

He wrote: "Unfortunately, cannabis supply/production is not a victimless crime. Vulnerable people are often used to grow and distribute it. This often includes children.

"If you have any information about heroin and crack dealers (or criminal activity in general), you can report it directly to us or anonymously via crimestoppers."

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Police slap down suggestion they should 'focus on real crime' after cannabis bust in Coalville - Leicestershire Live

The only thing worth a dime in here is her, says Anna Delvey (played by Julia Garner), champagne glass in hand, pointing blithely to one of real-life artist Cindy Shermans untitled film stills. Before this series, Sherman was just another photographer hiding behind the lens. Then, one day, she steps into her own frame, considers herself to be worthy. Rather than being forced into a role in the male-dominated art world, she takes a leading role in her work. And it changes the world.

This scene is incidental to the plot, but it's indicative of the central thesis of Inventing Anna, Netflixs Shonda Rhimes-led drama about Delvey (legal last name, Sorokin). Also known as the Soho Grifter, Delvey became a New York scammer sensation a few years ago. From the jump, Inventing Anna, which premiered Friday, is equal parts confounded by and enamored with the real-life con woman at its center. Thus, the show largely buys her bull.

From the jump, Inventing Anna, which premiered Friday, is equal parts confounded by and enamored with the real-life con woman at its center.

Delvey, who posed as a German heiress, traipsed around New York City tipping $100 bills, living in luxury hotels and trying to launch a proposed $40 million art foundation, leaving a trail of conned financial institutions and acquaintances in her wake. She was convicted in 2019 on eight charges, including second-degree grand larceny, attempted grand larceny and theft of services. (She was found not guilty on attempted grand larceny in the first-degree, however, and also acquitted of stealing $60,000 from a Vanity Fair editor and friend.)

But shes not a regular scammer, Inventing Anna posits. Shes a cool scammer, a millennial scammer, a hustle-culture scammer. Shes a girlboss who bossed a little too hard and flew a little too close to the sun.

Im not some party girl, Garners stone-faced, pan-European-accented Delvey says. Im trying to build a business.

Delvey is all of us, the Netflix series coos as we binge nine long (too long! Way too long!) episodes or at least a part of all of us. The part that wants and wants and wants. And wouldnt it be delicious to see a young woman get what she wants? Or at least metaphorically die trying?

Americans love Delvey because we love a scam story. We are a culture obsessed with the promise of individualist reinvention. We are a people raised on scams spun as patriotism the pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps ethos of the American dream being the biggest scam of all. Its the reason we devoured journalist Jessica Presslers original New York magazine feature about Delvey one of the most-read stories worldwide in 2018 as well as content about Billy McFarland and Martin Shkreli and Elizabeth Holmes. (Holmes fictionalized limited series is set to drop in March on Hulu). Its the reason that podcasts like Scam Goddess and Fraud Talk and ScamWow exist, delivering a weekly dose of the stories so many of us myself included crave.

Lately, though, American scam stories have gotten a lot darker.

The global financial crisis resulted from rampant misrepresentation in the residential mortgage market, Edward J. Balleisen, author of Fraud: An American History From Barnum to Madoff, told me. During [Donald] Trumps presidency, his falsehoods came so thick and fast that news organizations tabulated them on a weekly basis. More recently, the Covid pandemic has unleashed an avalanche of spurious cures and fake masks.

In contrast stands Delvey so glittery, so brazen. We allow ourselves to wonder: Did her victims sort of deserve it?

Inventing Anna which is not only based on Presslers reporting, but also involved securing Delveys life rights leans hard on the mythology that her crimes were at worst largely victimless and at best nearly progressive. Her victims, including (especially!) entry level Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel DeLoache Williams played with utter contempt by Katie Lowes are portrayed as craven opportunists or creeps or narcs or idiots or all of the above. (In some cases, these labels feel earned. In others not so much.)

And while Delveys whiteness a quality that seems essential to how far her cons were able to go is barely interrogated, her gender is ever-present. This is not surprising, Balleisen told me, as the coverage of female scammers tends to evoke enduring themes of plucky self-invention, as well as the difficulty of distinguishing admirable self-promotion from contemptible misrepresentation and deceit.

Every day men do far worse things than anything Ive allegedly done. And what happens to them? Nothing, Delvey says from Rikers Island in the series. Men fail upwards all the time.

Men especially rich white men are privileged in ways that give a wider latitude for scammy behaviors, legal or not.

Delveys pseudo-feminist monologue isnt exactly wrong. Men especially rich white men are privileged in ways that give a wider latitude for scammy behaviors, legal or not. A character in Inventing Anna who effectively illustrates this point is Alan Reed, the lawyer who vouches for Delvey as she seeks a multimillion-dollar loan, blinded by the dollar signs he sees in his own future if she secures it. At work, after Delvey is exposed and arrested, he gets promoted.

As Jia Tolentino wrote in her 2019 book of essays, Trick Mirror, it has largely been accepted as gospel that, for women, personal advancement is a subversive form of political progress. This is how we got the era of the Girl Boss, a term brought to the masses in large part by Sophia Amoruso, founder of Nasty Gal and author of 2014s #GIRLBOSS.

The trickiest thing about this idea is that it is incomplete and insufficient without being entirely wrong, Tolentino wrote. The problem is that a feminism that prioritizes the individual will always, at its core, be at odds with a feminism that prioritizes the collective. The problem is that it is so easy today for a woman to seize upon an ideology she believes in and then exploit it, or deploy it in a way that actually runs counter to that ideology. That is in fact exactly what todays ecosystem of success encourages a woman to do.

During the pandemic, the myth of the Girl Boss as feminist icon was officially punctured. Prominent female founders like Steph Korey (Away), Audrey Gelman (The Wing), Yael Aflalo (Reformation), Jen Gotch (Ban.do), Christene Barberich (Refinery29) and Leandra Medine Cohen (Man Repeller) stepped down after criticism that ranged from allegations of general mistreatment of employees to outright racism. The lesson was clear: Just because a woman is out here, getting hers, doesnt mean her leadership or choices will be inherently better for those around her or the world at large. Women have, perhaps, fewer opportunities to exploit, but once given them, market conditions will incentivize them to do just that.

This shift in public discourse between Presslers 2018 New York magazine feature on Delvey and the Inventing Anna premiere makes the latters Anna-is-all-of-us thesis feel even murkier and more out of touch.

The New York magazine source material threaded this needle more carefully, positioning Delvey within the context that bred, encouraged and allowed her cons to thrive, without propping her up as some sort of feminist Robin Hood. (After all, while many of Annas cons did indeed come at the expense of the rich, she certainly was not practicing any form of wealth redistribution.) But Inventing Anna fails to add anything particularly useful or interesting to the story that Pressler already told.

Art based on real life is best when it illuminates new truths. But Inventing Anna, while stopping short of co-signing Delveys crimes, does little to help us understand who Anna Sorokin really is or why her story is so worth dedicating prolonged attention to.

[Its] something about class, social mobility, identity under capitalism, I dunno, Presslers fictionalized counterpoint says, trying to articulate what her piece will accomplish to a colleague. After watching all nine-plus hours of Inventing Anna, I dunno either.

Original post:

Netflix's 'Inventing Anna' and the 'girlboss-ification' of Anna Delvey - MSNBC