Alleged Army ringleader in Afghan murders faces accuser (Reuters)

By Laura L. Myers Laura L. Myers – Thu Jul 21, 10:52 pm ET

TACOMA, Wash (Reuters) – The U.S. Army sergeant charged with murdering unarmed Afghan civilians as ringleader of a rogue combat platoon faced his chief accuser in a military court on Thursday, a soldier who pleaded guilty earlier this year to three killings.

Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was back in court for a reopened Article 32 hearing, a military justice proceeding roughly equivalent to a grand jury session that determines whether a case gets referred to court-martial for trial.

Prosecutors have cast Gibbs, 26, of Billings, Montana, as the main instigator behind the most serious case of alleged U.S. military atrocities in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

He is one of five soldiers from the infantry unit formerly known as the 5th Stryker Brigade charged with killing innocent Afghan villagers in cold blood while deployed last year in Kandahar province.

Seven other soldiers were charged with lesser offenses stemming from the investigation, which began as a probe of rampant hashish abuse among the soldiers.

The Stryker Brigade cases, with scores of photographs seized as evidence but sealed from public view by the military, have drawn comparisons to the inflammatory 2004 Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

Gibbs was ordered in January to stand trial on three counts of premeditated murder and other offenses. They include charges he beat up a fellow soldier, tried to obstruct an investigation and collected fingers and other body parts from Afghan corpses as war trophies.

An Army judge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma granted a defense request to reopen the Article 32 inquiry to give Gibbs' lawyers a chance to cross-examine witnesses who were not previously made available for questioning.

The most anticipated testimony on Thursday came from Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, sentenced in March to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of murder for his role in the same killings in which Gibbs is accused.

'DROP WEAPON'

Echoing previous statements to military investigators in the case, Morlock recounted incidents in which he said Gibbs opened fire on innocent, unarmed Afghans during encounters staged to appear as legitimate combat engagements.

In one such killing, Morlock said, Gibbs planted an AK-47 assault rifle that he carried around as a "drop weapon." In another, he testified, Gibbs tossed a Russian-style hand grenade as he opened fire on his victim to leave the impression that their patrol had come under attack. Morlock later added that he then moved the unexploded grenade closer to the body.

"The idea was to go out and find someone to plant an AK-47 on and say, 'We got shot at,'" said Morlock, whom prosecutors have described as Gibbs' right-hand man in their platoon.

Gibbs sat silently through the eight-hour hearing, seeming alert but largely at ease, even as he stared intently at Morlock during his accuser's testimony. Morlock avoided looking at Gibbs, and the two men never appeared to make eye contact during Morlock's 3-1/2 hours on the witness stand.

During two hours of cross-examination intended by defense lawyer Phillip Stackhouse to undermine Morlock's credibility, Morlock acknowledged a history of alcohol and drug dependence. He also admitted, as he has before, to burning his ex-wife with a cigarette during a bar fight and getting into trouble with the Army for having women in his barracks after hours.

But Gibbs' platoon leader, Captain Roman Ligsay, and a fellow sergeant, Michael Hefner, both testified that Gibbs was a "good squad leader," and neither could recall him ever discussing murder scenarios like those described by Morlock.

Morlock, whose previous statements were considered central to the prosecution's case against his co-defendants, had agreed to testify in open court against Gibbs and others as part of his own plea deal.

In May, Morlock took the stand against another of the five soldiers charged with murder, Private Andrew Holmes.

Morlock and Holmes appeared in separate photos published in March by two magazines showing them crouched over the bloodied corpse of a 15-year-old Afghan -- the son of a village elder -- holding the boy's head up for the camera by his hair.

Gibbs' hearing was set to resume on Friday with more witnesses due to be called, but no decision on whether the case will proceed to court-martial was expected immediately.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston)

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3 charged in alleged airport drug smuggling scheme (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY – A federal grand jury has indicted two former Salt Lake City airport contract employees and another man on conspiracy and drug possession charges.

Federal prosecutors say they smuggled about 500 grams of methamphetamine between Utah, California and Georgia by bypassing airport security and using employee doors to move the drugs through the Salt Lake City airport.

The 10-count indictment was unsealed Friday in Salt Lake City's federal court.

U.S. District Court records show Angel F. Segura, 43, of West Jordan, is facing seven counts of conspiracy and attempted possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and three counts of entering an airport area in violation of security requirements.

Also charged are Oswaldo Rosas, 29, and Jesus A. Aleman, 20, both of Salt Lake City. Rosas is charged with three counts of conspiracy and attempted drug possession and two of violation airport security rules. Aleman is facing just two drug charges.

Authorities believe the men began transporting the drugs October and continued into June.

Court papers say that in June Segura and Aleman went to retrieve three kilograms of meth at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. Segura was paid $4,500 to transport the drugs to Atlanta, charging documents state.

After driving a rental car with Aleman from California to Utah, authorities say Segura contacted Rosas by phone as asked if he was "willing to do what they had talked about."

Court papers say the men met on June 10 in a Salt Lake City International Airport parking lot. Segura gave Rosas a package, which he placed in his backpack and carried into the airport through a secure employee door, court papers say. Rosas bypassed security and took the package into a Delta Airlines lounge, court papers say.

Segura cleared security, recovered the package from the lounge and then transported the drugs — about three kilograms of meth — in a black duffel bag to a client at a hotel near the Atlanta airport, court papers say.

In Salt Lake City, Segura and Rosas were both employed by an airport contractor that provides passenger services, such as curbside baggage handling and wheelchair transportation, airport Director of Operations Dave Korzep said.

Segura worked at the airport for two and a half years and Rosas for about one and a half, he said. Both have been fired.

Segura made an initial appearance in federal court on Friday and a judge ordered him held pending a Sept. 19 trial. A telephone message left for his federal public defender after hours on Friday was not returned.

Aleman and Rosas are both scheduled to make initial court appearances on Monday. Court records show no listed attorney for Aleman. Rosas's attorney, Darin Goff, also did not return an after-hours message Friday.

Each of the conspiracy and attempted possession of methamphetamine charges carries a possible maximum penalty of life in prison and the airport security violations each carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

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Witness tampering alleged at Casey Anthony trial (AP)

ORLANDO, Fla. – Authorities were looking into allegations of witness tampering during Casey Anthony's murder trial, a Florida sheriff said Tuesday during a wide-ranging news conference with his top investigators in what he said was an effort to bring closure to a case that polarized the country.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings also revealed that prosecutors were considering perjury charges against Anthony's mother, but a spokeswoman for the state attorney's office later said they would not be pursued.

Casey Anthony was acquitted a week ago on charges of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008. Anthony was found guilty on four charges of lying to law enforcement officers. She is to be released from jail Sunday.

The sheriff held the news conference to defend his investigation and because his office had been besieged with interview requests since the verdict.

"The ultimate goal ... is that our personnel can get back to work doing the business of the taxpayers and residents of Orange County," Demings said. "This is the only way that we can move forward."

Demings wouldn't say who was accused of witness tampering, but it didn't involve Casey Anthony's mother, Cindy. She stunned prosecutors during the trial when she testified that she had done searches for chloroform on the family's computer. Prosecutors believed, along with sheriff's investigators, that Casey Anthony had performed the search as she plotted to kill Caylee.

Later, testimony by two of Cindy Anthony's co-workers that the company's electronic records showed that she was logged into her work system for most of the day on both March 17 and March 21 when the chloroform searches were done.

Cindy Anthony said she had performed the Internet searches for chloroform while looking up information on chlorophyll, a green pigment found in plants. Chloroform is a chemical that can be used as a sedative and is fatal to children in small doses.

A co-worker said the system would not have recorded Cindy Anthony's presence if a person hadn't been actively using the work computer.

The government presented evidence at trial that chloroform was found in Anthony's car trunk and insinuated that she could have used it to render Caylee unconscious.

As for the alleged witness tampering, detective John Allen would only say the sheriff's office has interviewed some witnesses.

"In regards to where we will go, it really depends on what information we get and what people come forward to provide additional information," Allen said.

The investigators at the news conference sat at a table alongside a big picture of Caylee. The sheriff said it was a reminder of what his investigators were pursuing during the three-year case that dominated his resources.

"This is what this was all about," Demings said. "It was about a missing child. That's what motivated our staff and our community."

Demings said his office followed up on more than 600 tips and worked with more than 100 FBI agents. He said he is still in the process of working with his accounting department to total up substantial investigative costs. Prosecutors want Anthony to incur those costs because they said the lies she was convicted of telling investigators directly led to the expenditures.

"Obviously those were resources that could have been put toward finding other missing children," Allen said.

Texas Equusearch, the private group that conducted several searches for Caylee in 2008, filed a lawsuit against Anthony on Tuesday, seeking $15,000 for what it spent on searches. The lawsuit claimed Anthony made misrepresentations to the group's founder, causing extensive, costly and time-consuming searches for Caylee.

Anthony's defense said Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and her father, a former police officer, helped cover it up. Anthony's partying and shopping during the month before her daughter was reported missing was caused in part by her father's sexual abuse, her attorneys said.

George Anthony denied the claims in court, and investigators said Tuesday they were rebuffed by the defense team when they tried to interview her about the allegations.

Allen and the case's lead detective, Yuri Melich, said they wouldn't do anything differently in the case, despite not winning a conviction.

"Ultimately, it's up to the jury to decide," Melich said. "We respect that and honor that."

The sheriff did acknowledge that finding Caylee's remains earlier could have built a stronger case. The remains were found by a meter reader in December 2008, six months after Caylee was reported missing. The meter reader initially called authorities as early as August about seeing what might have been a skull in the woods.

Demings said the investigator called out after the meter reader's report no longer works at the sheriff's office, and he believed authorities correctly focused on Anthony.

"I certainly don't have any doubt," Allen said. "... I think our work was solid."

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Feds indict 18 alleged Wheels of Soul motorcycle gang leaders (Reuters)

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – Some 18 Wheels of Soul motorcycle gang leaders face racketeering, murder and kidnapping charges in a wide-ranging indictment aimed at a nationwide takedown, federal authorities said on Tuesday.

Gang members allegedly murdered a rival gang member in St. Louis in August 2009, committed murders in Illinois and Ohio, and were involved in extensive drug dealing in at least seven states, according to the 40-page federal indictment.

"The significance of today's arrests is not just the fact that these members are considered the most violent of the group," FBI Special Agent in Charge Dennis Baker said.

"Today's nationwide takedown has disrupted and dismantled the Wheels of Soul by targeting the senior leaders."

Among the long list of crimes authorities accused gang members of committing were a drive-by shooting in Colorado and a stabbing during a gang fight in Chicago. The indictment also said gang members used high explosives, committed arson, and were ordered to carry guns, hammers and knives.

It said this activity added up to a racketeering enterprise, involving a federal law often used against Mafia members.

The indictment handed up June 9 and unsealed in U.S. District Court also brought gun violations charges against three other members.

Eighteen of 21 indicted gang members were in custody on Tuesday, with three members from the Denver area at large, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis said.

The federal investigation targeted the gang's leadership, a small percentage of members who attained the status of "One Percenter" or "Diamond" level and were considered "particularly criminal and violent," authorities said.

Those members wore special patches reflecting their status in addition to the Wheels of Soul colors that consist of a black vest adorned with several patches worn on the back, according to the indictment.

The gang is governed by a "Mother Chapter" in Philadelphia, with regional chapters around the country, according to the indictment. Federal agents raided two Wheels of Soul clubhouses in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Some of those identified as leaders in the group included James "Animal" Smith in Philadelphia, Allen "Dog" Hunter in Chicago and Dominic "Bishop" in St. Louis.

The indicted members were from seven states: Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

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More grisly details in trial of alleged Ohio serial killer (Reuters)

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Testimony in the capital murder trial of alleged serial killer Anthony Sowell continued here on Tuesday with more grisly details of the evidence authorities collected at his home.

Dr. Elizabeth Balraj, the former chief deputy coroner for Cuyahoga County who autopsied five of the bodies, spent almost two-and-a-half hours on the stand Tuesday morning as the trial entered its third week.

She and others testified the victims were strangled and bound with apparently random items, including shoe-strings, socks, a belt, a bag strap, a coaxial cable and a cell-phone charger cord.

Sowell, 51 is accused of killing 11 women and assaulting four others. Their remains were found in 2009 after police executed a search warrant at Sowell's house on a rape charge.

Sowell, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, faces the death penalty if convicted.

Police and SWAT found two bodies on the floor in a room next to Sowell's bedroom and eventually discovered three more bodies and a skull in the house and five more bodies buried in shallow graves in the back yard.

Balraj also provided more details about the state of the victim's bodies found at Sowell's house, testifying those she examined were nude or nude from the waist down, some wrapped in blankets and plastic and bound at the hands and wrists.

Sowell, wearing a light-colored short-sleeve shirt, was stoic while listening to doctor's testimony and viewing autopsy photos.

Balraj testified that the plastic bucket that held the skull of Lasanda Long had "no evidence of decomposition" and that the bucket had "non-human bite marks" around the rim.

"I couldn't draw any conclusion when the skull was placed in the bucket," Balraj admitted to prosecutor Rick Bombik.

On Balraj's cross-examination, defense attorney John Parker continued to question the validity of the date of death given to the victims, pointing out Balraj had changed the date of death for Janice Webb after a family told her she had seen her alive after the date Balraj had originally provided.

Parker also took issue with part of the autopsy report on Amelda Hunter that stated she was strangled by "a male" and asked Balraj, "How could you know that information based on her autopsy?"

Balraj said she consults police reports and uses that information to help determine cause of death. She has come under fire from local media in the past for a perceived bias toward prosecution and police.

Kristopher Kern, who had been a forensic scientist with the coroner's office, and Curtiss Jones, the supervisor of the trace evidence department with the office, also took the stand Tuesday.

Kern testified to testing a number of items of clothing and "ligatures" used in the strangulation of the bodies.

Kern identified both a shoelace and sock for the prosecution that he removed from the neck of Nancy Cobb and what looked like a cell-phone charger from Tonia Carmichael.

According to Kern, Cobb was also wrapped in six different plastic bags and a blanket when she came in for autopsy.

During his testimony, Kern described removing shoestrings from one of the wrists of one of the victims, Janice Webb, and said: "They were bound so tightly, I had to cut them to remove them."

Jones testified he removed coaxial-type cable from around the partially clothed body of Crystal Dozier and found trace fibers of blue polyester from the plastic bag around another victim.

He said those fibers were consistent with the fibers from the carpet in Sowell's bedroom and were found on the clothing of other victims.

As he has with all of the other prosecution witnesses, defense attorney Parker pointed out a mistake in Kern's reports and asked how much time he spent at the crime scene.

Parker kept Kern on cross from almost an hour-and-a-half as he went through an exhaustive list of women's clothing that was collected, tested for DNA and semen, and returned without testing positive.

The trial is scheduled to continue on Wednesday with more witnesses for the prosecution.

(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Jerry Norton)

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Tenant: Stench arrived after alleged serial killer (AP)

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press – 48 mins ago

CLEVELAND – A Cleveland tenant says mice and a terrible stench arrived after an alleged serial killer moved into a house where the remains of 11 women were later found.

Brandon Pompey was the first witness Wednesday, the third day of testimony in the trial of 51-year-old Anthony Sowell (SOH'-wehl). Sowell has pleaded not guilty to killing the women and dumping their bodies around his home.

Pompey says Sowell moved into the house's third floor in 2005 and mice and a stench like dead animals appeared shortly after.

Pompey moved out of the home in 2006, leaving behind some furniture because of the odor and rodent issues. The women began disappearing in 2007.

The mother of one of them also testified Wednesday about her daughter's disappearance.

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Jury tours house of alleged US serial killer (AFP)

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AFP) – Jurors toured a house where an accused Ohio serial killer allegedly stored the decomposing bodies of 11 women for more than two years, blaming the stench on a nearby sausage factory.

Once the horror house tour was completed, they returned to court for opening statements in the gruesome case that broke on October 29, 2009 -- and had officials scrambling to explain why the crimes weren't discovered sooner.

"You are about to begin a disturbing journey," assistant county prosecutor Richard Bombick warned the jury, describing how many of the victims were found partially naked, their bodies bound with plastic bags and electrical cords.

"You will be convinced beyond any doubt, shadow of a doubt, all imaginary doubt that the person who is responsible for those atrocities sits in this courtroom," he said, referring to accused killer, 51-year-old Anthony Sowell.

Defense attorney John Parker in turn argued that the state had no DNA or forensic evidence to link Sowell to the crimes and said the crime scene was not properly handled by police.

"Please be patient... Please don't make any conclusions until you have heard all of the evidence," he said, adding that the victims were troubled women whose lives ended sadly but insisting they were not kidnapped.

The city's police department is also on trial.

The women allegedly killed by Sowell were poor, black and hampered by lifestyles that took them on and off the streets. That meant they weren't always immediately reported as missing.

Nor did police pay much attention to cries for help that could have saved the lives of six of the victims.

One bloodied woman flagged down police in December 2008, telling them of her desperate escape from the registered sex offender's house.

But police felt she wasn't a "credible" witness and declined to press charges even though they found blood and signs of a struggle in Sowell's home.

A second woman was also ignored after she told police in April 2009 that Sowell had raped her repeatedly over a three-day period at his home after telling her she needed to be "trained like an animal."

In September 2009 a third woman went to police and told them Sowell lured her to his house, raped and strangled her with a cord, then let her go when she regained consciousness.

It wasn't until police knocked on the door of the yellow house a month later with an arrest warrant that the bodies were discovered.

The officers went inside when Sowell didn't answer their knock and followed the stench to two rotting corpses on a bed on the third floor.

A weeks-long search of the house and yard found eight more bodies and a human skull in a bucket.

Sowell was arrested as he walked down the street two days after the first bodies were found.

He faces the death penalty if convicted of nearly 100 charges, including kidnapping, rape, molesting a human corpse, robbery and attempted murder.

The first victim -- 36-year-old Crystal Dozier, whose remains were found buried near the backyard fence -- had not been seen since May 2007.

Then came Tishana Culver, 29, who had been missing since June 2008, and Leshanda Long, 25, who disappeared in August 2008.

Michelle Mason, 44, and Tonia Carmichael, 53, vanished in October 2008.

Several of the remaining victims could have lived if their killer had been jailed after the December 2008 attack or April 2009 rape.

Kim Smith, 43, vanished in January 2009. Nancy Cobbs, 44, was last seen in April 2009. Amy Hunter, 47, disappeared some time in the spring of 2009.

Janice Webb, 48, and Telacia Fortson, 31, were last seen in June 2009, and Diane Turner, 38, disappeared in September 2009.

Some of their relatives watched the trial in a private room in the courthouse through a live feed.

Donnita Carmichael, daughter of victim Tonia Carmichael, and her grandmother Barbara were not allowed to watch opening statements because they have been subpoenaed to testify.

"I'm just sick of everything and I want for this to end," Carmichael told AFP.

Yvonne Williams, mother of victim Tishana Culver, lives a few houses down from the crime scene and saw the jury and the media arrive at the house.

"The jury is going to get a gruesome look at how he kept that house and what he did to my daughter and those women," she said.

"I really want him to be in jail for the rest of his life so he can suffer."

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Alleged serial killer in Ohio suspect in rape (AP)

CLEVELAND – Prosecutors preparing for next month's Ohio trial of a man accused of killing 11 women say DNA from a previously untested rape kit matches the defendant.

The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reports prosecutors may call as a witness the woman who told police she was raped in April 2009 in Cleveland Heights.

The alleged rape occurred before five of the 11 alleged murder victims of 51-year-old Anthony Sowell (SOH'-wehl) disappeared. The Cleveland police department's handling of sexual assault cases has been under review.

Sowell hasn't been charged in the alleged rape. Prosecutors say they won't introduce the latest DNA evidence in Sowell's murder case if it would mean a trial delay.

Sowell has pleaded not guilty to killing the women and dumping their bodies around his house and yard.

___

Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_us/storytext/us_cleveland_bodies_found/41452742/SIG=10qhv29lr/*http://www.cleveland.com

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IMF chief to be charged in alleged sex assault: police (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, widely expected to run for the French presidency next year, was set to be charged Sunday over an alleged sexual assault on a New York hotel maid, police said.

The 62-year-old would be charged with a "criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape," a police official told reporters late Saturday.

He was likely to be indicted some time on Sunday, police indicated, although it was not immediately clear where it would take place.

Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist who had been leading French opinion polls for the 2012 elections, was escorted off an Air France flight Saturday just minutes before it was to leave John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.

"We took him into custody and we handed him over to the New York City police department," an official for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Authorities were investigating an alleged attack on a maid at the Sofitel New York hotel earlier in the day, police said. A maid in the hotel alleged she had been assaulted by the IMF chief when he got out of his shower naked.

Strauss-Kahn, a well-known figure on the French political scene popularly known by his initials DSK, has not officially thrown his hat into the ring to challenge center-right President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential race.

But the former French finance minister had been widely expected to stand, and polls out earlier Sunday before news of his arrest broke had put him narrowly ahead of the pack if he ran with 26 percent of the vote.

NYPD spokesman Officer Michael DeBonis told AFP by phone late Saturday that Strauss-Kahn has "been taken into custody. He's being questioned about an alleged sexual assault."

It was believed he was being questioned at precinct five in Harlem, which is a special unit dealing with sexual harassment.

DeBonis would not comment on any other details, but according to police sources he had allegedly left the hotel room in a hurry leaving behind his mobile phone and personal effects.

In Washington, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

The Port Authority official said Strauss-Kahn, who has headed up the IMF since 2007, was removed from the flight 10 minutes before departure, at 4:45 pm (16:45 GMT).

"Ten minutes before a flight takes off? That doesn't happen too often," the official said. "He did not resist."

Strauss-Kahn had been due to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Sunday to discuss an aid package for debt-laden Greece.

He was then due to attend a meeting of EU finance ministers on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels.

In 2008, Strauss-Kahn was discovered to be having an affair with an Hungarian IMF economist. The affair was investigated by the IMF, which concluded he had not exerted pressure on the woman, but noted his inappropriate behavior.

John Sheehan, director of security at Sofitel New York, told AFP by phone that they are cooperating with the probe.

"The Sofitel is working very closely with the NYPD with their investigation," Sheehan said. "The safety and security of our clients and team members are of the utmost priority to us."

Strauss-Kahn's stint at the helm of the IMF in Washington does not officially end until September 2012, several months after the scheduled date of France's vote.

But the French political world has been buzzing with speculation that he would end his tenure early to stand as the Socialist Party's candidate.

Sarkozy's party has launched virulent attacks against the IMF boss denouncing him as a rich "champagne socialist," and arguing he has been away too long to still be in touch with France.

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