Results tagged “childabuse”

There are many reasons to fear parts of California not near the coast. So much so, in fact, that LAist editor Zach Behrens and your SFist editor tend to argue about which of us has to write about items in central, non-coastline parts of the state. Here's one reason why: a Bakersfield father is in jail "after allegedly biting out one of his 4-year-old son's eyes and mutilating the other." The child told investigators, "My daddy ate my eyes." Neighbors who found the injured kid also discovered the boy's father, Angel Vidal Mendoza, 34, in the backyard of a nearby home "hacking his own legs with an ax." Mendoza has been charged with mayhem, torture, child cruelty and inflicting an injury to a child. This raises questions about the quality, or lack thereof, of Kern County's Child Protective Services department. It seems Mendoza and the boy's 23-year-old mother were "charged with being under the influence of PCP in 2006 and pleaded no contest to child cruelty charges in that case."

Alfonso Israel De Leon, 34, was arrested on charges of tossing a two-year-old boy from a car in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday. While police wouldn't "disclose the children's relationship to De Leon," it seems the man was passing through the scary state of Texas with two children, the little boy and a four-year-old girl, when he threw the kid, as well as other objects, from the moving car. The boy is expected to survive.

The whole story of the Tracy child abuse case is starting to emerge. The boy's aunt, Caren Ramirez, who was arrested on Tuesday night, was charged in 2006 with inflicting "cruel and inhuman corporal punishment" on her nephew. IN 2007, Ramirez admitted in court to using "a deadly or dangerous weapon" while abusing the boy.

The final suspect in this week's terrible Tracy child abuse case has been nabbed. Caren Ramirez, 43, was picked up by police at her Berkeley home at around 9:30 p.m. last night. The case has received much media attention ever since a 17-year-old boy escaped from the home of Michael Luther Schumacher, 34, and Kelly Layne Lau, 30, on Monday via "vaulting over an 8-foot wall separating the couple's backyard and the parking lot of the In-Shape Sports Club in Tracy." He was found emaciated, nearly naked, and wearing a chain padlocked to his ankle. Schumacher and his wife, Lau, were arrested on Monday.

Know the holiday log know God; no holiday log no God.

We just caught wind of this worldwide Michael Jackson "Thriller" movement, so [insert bad pedophilia, child abuse, or body dysmorphic disorder jokes here]. Thrill the World, "a worldwide attempt to break the Guinness World Record (GWR) for the largest simultaneous dance with Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,'" will take place in Dolores Park this Saturday. So...have at it, Michael Jackson followers.

Two small plane crashes -- one into a tank of raw sewage in Gilroy, and another onto Highway 4 in Contra Costa County. The Highway 4 crash involved a pilot who misjudged the location of the landing runway in the low cloud cover Thursday, and tied up traffic for miles. They're still investigating the Gilroy crash; investigators got a later start because they had to drain and disinfect the tank before it was safe to go in.

So last Saturday, this 36 year old father is watching his thirteen year old son play youth league football in Stockton. The 36 year old father is also an assistant coach on his son's team. Anyways, the son gets hit on the play after the whistle blows and just as the ref goes to call the penalty, the dude, Cory Petero, runs out onto the field and cold cocks the thirteen year old kid who put the late hit on his son. Thus leading to a twenty minute melee and fight between the football players and parents.

Shoppers trying to enjoy the a/c at the Oakridge Mall in San Jose on Sunday afternoon got less cool air than they were hoping for when the straining mall transformer outside the movie theater blew up. Witnesses reported seeing the lights flicker, hearing a huge boom, and then seeing sparks. In light of the panic and lack of power for the mall, Oakridge threw up its hands and decided just to close for the rest of the day.

"No, no, the X-Files do exist!!" A man went a little nuts in the lobby of the SF FBI office and did about $7,491 in damage as a result. (Do they keep all their receipts in the FBI or what?) After Maximillian Lee Schweitzer was told he could not meet with an agent (the article doesn't say for what reason Mr. Schweitzer needed to see someone), he flipped out, threw a potted plant against the wall, snapped some legs off the reception-area chairs, and broke some glass display cases before the feds got him under control. This murder case in Orinda is really starting to freak us out. So Susan Polk, 47, is accused of killing her 70-year-old husband Felix Polk. Susan met Felix Polk when she was 15 and he was her treating psychiatrist. Susan Polk has said she's psychic and that she predicted 9/11, and back in the 80s, she also accused some local day care workers of ritualistic child abuse. Susan claims that Felix had been abusing her for years; Felix made statements that he and his sons lived in fear of his wife. Further weirding us out, Susan and Felix have three sons. Two sons are cooperating with the prosecution, and one son is testifying on her behalf at the criminal trial. And two shootings in broad daylight yesterday -- one in the Bayview and one in Richmond. People fleeing the Bayview shooting left footprints in wet concrete being laid for the MUNI Third Street extension, and in Richmond, a man walked up to a stereo store and just started shooting.

Bay Area crime roundup