True Crime – Page 163 – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

Bill Cosby To Go On Trial For Sexual Assault Charges

Bill Cosby’s lawyers may ask a judge on Tuesday to throw out two key pieces of evidence in the sexual misconduct case against the comedian: a deposition Cosby gave in a 2005 lawsuit by accuser Andrea Constand and a recording of a phone call between Cosby and Constand’s mother.

According to KTLA:

Judge Steven O’Neill’s ruling on those defense motions could shape the case against Cosby, one of the nation’s most-loved entertainers until dozens of women accused him of sexually assaulting them over several decades.

This is the first time he’s faced criminal prosecution. Cosby is charged with three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault from a 2004 case involving Andrea Constand, an employee at his alma mater, Temple University.

She said she went to his home in a Philadelphia suburb for a career consultation and he gave her a mix of pills and wine that left her incapacitated and unable to consent to sex.

Cosby, 79, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is required to attend the hearing.

$1 Million Worth Of Weed Plants Found At Connecticut Day Care

According to KTLA — $1 million worth of a marijuana plants at a licensed day care facility in West Haven, Connecticut was found.

West Haven Police Department officers were called to a home on Norfolk Street on Friday and allegedly found 600 marijuana plants in the backyard, according to WTIC.

The street value of the plants after processing was estimated to be over $1 million.

State inspectors discovered the marijuana plants growing in the backyard of the home day care and called local police.

The day care facility was shut down by city housing inspectors, and the day care license was immediately revoked.

Next door neighbors Ivette Quiles and Frankie Torres said the couple who lived in the home kept to themselves. When they saw all the police activity, they knew something was up, but didn’t expect this.

“I saw him building something in the backyard and kind of thought it was just a regular fence,” Torres said.

The discovery had neighbors talking about what was behind that fence.

“I should have smelled that. That’s crazy. I didn’t expect that,” said another neighbor Robson Antoine. “And they have a daycare? Not good.“

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Chicago aka “Chi-Raq” Hits 500th Homicide Of 2016 Over Labor Day Weekend

Chicago’s 500th homicide of the year happened over Labor Day weekend, according to the Chicago Tribune.

That number carries a lot of weight for the city — not just in quantity, but in meaning: 2016 is now the deadliest year in two decades.

CHICAGO VS. OTHER CITIES

When you compare Chicago’s homicide rate to that of other big cities in the country — New York and Los Angeles, for example — it tops the list.

But Chicago is not the homicide capital of the United States.

New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore and Newark all have higher rates when you drill down the data per capita.

However, this doesn’t tell the entire story of Chicago’s bloodshed. There’s another statistic that points to a disturbing trend the city is facing: a surge.

WHAT 500 MEANS

In the early 2000s, the homicide rate in Chicago held steady, but it began an upward tick in 2014 and has been increasing ever since.

But 2016 is the deadliest year in two decades when it comes to homicide rates.

Chicago hit 500 homicides before the end of the summer. In 2015, the city had 480 homicides total.

The day-to-day breakdown of those figures is alarming. For example, there were 12 murders on Father’s Day weekend alone. The youngest victim was just 16.

THE GUN PROBLEM

A lot of the homicides in Chicago are gun-related. There are nearly 82 shootings per week. In just one weekend in August, there were eight gun-related homicides and 64 non-fatal shootings.

Chicago has strict gun laws, which is why many gun rights advocates point to it as evidence that tighter regulation doesn’t equal less crime. But Chicago’s gun violence problem is more complicated. Sixty percent of the guns used in shootings were purchased out of state.

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner recently signed a new gun control law that imposes harsher penalties on those who bring in guns from out of state to sell and do not have gun-owner ID cards.

WHO’S TO BLAME?

There’s a deeply rooted distrust of Chicago’s police force.

The city’s police department has been under review for months in the wake of high-profile officer-involved shootings, including that of Laquan McDonald.

That independent task force has accused the police of institutional racism, saying they “have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.”

But the other side of this battle is the street crime in Chicago, which has led to the killing of innocent bystanders and kept residents shut inside their homes out of fear.

Englewood resident Stephanie Armas, 43, said she taught her kids from a very young age what to do when they hear gunshots.

“If you live in a society where (your children) have to learn to duck and dodge bullets, you have to teach them how to duck a dodge bullets,” Armas said on September 1. “That’s all you can do.”

Some Chicagoans partly blame the violence on economic struggles and lack of jobs. However, Chicago’s unemployment rate fell from 6.1% in 2015 to 5.5% in 2016.

THE PEOPLE

We often point to Chicago’s alarming homicide numbers, but the real tragedy in this city are the victims and the families left behind.

They are the ones who face this violence every day, the ones who stand over gravestones, the ones who’ve lost hundreds of sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers.