A court is hearing the case of Finland's Antti Sakari Manselius, whose
antics on board a Hong-Kong-bound Cathay Pacific flight began with
clownish entertainment of other passengers. Then, he went too far.
Wielding a Toblerone bar and wearing his blanket as a cape, he headed
for the cockpit, making a bomb threat and demanding that the plane
divert to Sochi for the Olympics.
Flight attendant Leung Riu-lu later recounted that the 23-year-old Finn
was non-violent but furious, making her 'feel like he was trying to
endanger the aircraft'.
Manselius was handcuffed and kept tied up with a spare seat belt until
the flight reached its planned destination, where he was arrested. He
has pleaded not guilty of disorderly conduct.
German media report on Ina Groll, who left behind a career as porn
actress Kitty Blair to go into politics. As she fought immigration and
otherwise acted as a public face of the National Democratic Party,
all was going well for the 28-year-old Groll until the NDP were made
aware of one incident in her past: she had sex with a black man in the
film Kitty Discovers Sperm. She has been removed from her duties
with the party.
Groll has also found herself unable to return easily to the adult film
industry. Speaking of a 'unanimous decision' not to work with Groll,
John Thompson, the president of Berlin porn film company GGG, said
that his industry 'welcome[s] participants with all skin colours and all
nationalities, but we don't welcome Nazis'.
Police reports from Columbia County, Pennsylvania, state that,
according to students picked up for the journey home by school-bus driver
Jennifer Watson, she 'was yelling and cursing at students and was
driving all over the road'. After a time, Watson turned around and
started taking the students back to school. High-school student Ryan
Lynn said: 'We were like "Where are we going?" and she was like "I'm
taking you to school" and we were like "We already went to school" and
she said "No, you weren't", and we were like "OK".'
Watson, whose offences are alleged to include drink driving and
reckless driving, said that she had been eating gin-soaked raisins to
help with her headaches.
In Australia, Kimberly Davis pleaded guilty to dangerous driving that
led to a cyclist suffering a spinal fracture. Davis, who had used her
phone 44 times on the journey before hitting the man and his bicycle,
added, however, that she doesn't agree that someone texting and
driving could hit a cyclist.
When asked to help the man, the 21-year-old Davis told officers at
the scene that 'I just don't care because I've already been through a
lot of shit and my car is like pretty expensive and now I have to fix
it. [...] I'm kind of pissed off that the cyclist has hit the side of
my car'.
Her licence has been revoked for nine months, and she has been fined
the equivalent of 3000 euros.
The New York Post reports on Manhattan stenographer Daniel
Kochanski's transcripts of court cases. He is accused of hitting
random keys instead of recording questions and answers, and in at
least one case simply typing 'I hate my job' repeatedly. At least 30
cases are affected. After Kochanski, 43, proved unable to
reconstruct proceedings from his 'shorthand', officials called in
witnesses and others involved in the cases to recount how events
proceeded.
Kochanski, who was sent to alcohol-related rehab after losing his
job and wife, says: 'I never typed gibberish. I always did my job
100%. I was let go because of substance abuse.'
Emergency response workers found Kenneth Dewhawn Splunge immobilised
by a broken leg in a Louisville, Kentucky, home. This was not his
home - the 34-year-old man had fallen from his ladder while climbing
down from a skylight to burgle the residence.
He was arrested in hospital two days after the failed burglary.
In Norridgewock, Maine, a tree-removal crew trimming tree branches
near power lines woke up homeowner Michael Smith, who works nights.
The workers contacted the police, telling them that Smith had gone
outside shirtless and told them to leave his property. They also
reported that Smith had a gun tucked into his waistband.
After armed police descended on the home, it became obvious that the
gun is a tattoo. Smith, who says that his tattoo had not previously
been an issue, faces no charges.
In other tattoo-related news, British tourist Naomi Coleman was deported from Sri Lanka for having a tattoo of Buddha on her arm. Senior immigration official Chulananda Perera said that this was for Coleman's protection, partly because 'some Sri Lankans could get offended' at the insulting image. Coleman, 37, responded: 'If there is a rule like this, Sri Lankan authorities should clearly say that Buddha tattoos are banned. I am a practicing Buddhist and Buddhism is all about compassion and kindness.'
Jeffrey Chapman too has a problem with a tattoo. Soon to face trial
for first-degree murder, this 32-year-old Kansas man is worried that his tattoo
might influence the case. A motion filed by his defence attorney for
a tattoo artist to be allowed to visit the jail and cover up the
marking, wrote: 'The fact that he has "Murder" tattooed [as a mirror
image in large capital letters] across his neck is irrelevant to the State's case and extremely prejudicial to Mr.
Chapman if introduced at trial or observed by the jury.'
Sheriff Brian Bellendir pointed out in response that the jail
isn't a licensed tattooing facility and doesn't wish to transport
Chapman to an official tattoo parlour for the procedure. Chapman
plans to wear a turtleneck to his trial this summer.
Police in Rhode Island are after a man who approached the clerk at a Providence-area convenience store and shouted 'Give me the money!' while wielding a potato. After the clerk chased him off with a baseball bat, the man took the potato to a nearby dry cleaner's, where he had slightly more success - clerk Anna Jung gave him the only thing in the till, a counterfeit $20 note.
Finally, speaking for Pennsylvania's Excela Westmoreland Hospital, Jennifer
Miele says that staff 'noticed an inordinate amount of foot traffic to
one room - rather than visitors who stayed for an hour or more, they
saw people coming and going in a matter of minutes'. Surveillance
camera footage soon revealed why. Lori L. Sullenberger, 37, has now
been charged with selling heroin from her hospital room and the
intensive care unit. Each bearing the label 'Bingo', 342 individual
doses of heroin were removed from the premises.
Sullenberger has admitted to injecting heroin into her IV line.
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© 2014 Anna Shefl