Missing Yacht School Friends: Police Find Clothing on Small Island

Kennebunkport Police Department(KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine) -- Clothing items believed to belong to two missing yacht school friends were found on the rocks of a small island off the coast of Maine on Monday, according to the Kennebunkport police.

Zachary Wells, 21, and Prescott Wright, 23, were last seen hanging out at a home in the seaside community on Thursday, Police Chief Craig Sanford said.

The disappearance of the two friends baffled authorities, who have searched by air, water and in wooded areas for the men.

Monday marks the first breakthrough in the case, when authorities discovered the clothing, including one item that was marked to indicate that it belonged to one of the men, Sanford said.

Wells and Wright are students at The Landing School in Arundel, Maine, where they were learning boat building and yacht design.

When the men failed to show up for classes on Thursday and Friday, administrators at the school contacted police.

Authorities found no signs of a disturbance at the home, Sanford said, and searches of the nearby area did not turn up any clues. Only one of the men owns a vehicle, and it remained parked in the driveway of the house.

“There’s no one area to pinpoint because we don’t know where they might have gone,” Sanford said, calling it one of the strangest cases he has ever seen.

Both men were expected to head to their home states for the holidays.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Kennebunkport Police Department at 207-967-2454.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Baltimore Police Chief Wants to Ban High-Capacity Firepower

File photo. iStockphoto/Thinkstock(BALTIMORE) -- High-capacity magazines are the deadliest of gun cartridges. They come in cases of 30, 40, 60 and even 120 rounds.

These magazines are maximum, economy-sized firepower packed into a steel cartridge. When strapped into a pistol or semi-automatic rifle, a shooter can fire non-stop until the magazine is empty. By then, the damage can be devastating.

That is why Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson wants to outlaw all but the smallest of these magazines. Johnson wants to limit them to a capacity of 10 rounds.

The fewer the bullets, the more often the shooter has to stop firing, eject the empty cartridge and load another one.

A lot can happen in the window of time it takes to reload, Johnson said.

"Folks that are being attacked have time to react, to close that distance in," he said. "I think any football player in America would like to have four-and-a-half seconds to get to the quarterback without any of the offensive players."

An expert shooter like a police officer can switch magazines in less than two seconds. But for a nervous, scared adolescent, it would take much longer, Johnson said, which can be crucial.

During the Tucson, Ariz., attack on Rep. Gabby Giffords, gunman Jared Loughner was wrestled down when he stopped shooting to reload his 9-millimeter pistol.

During the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting spree last July, police say James Holmes' assault came to an end when his semi-automatic rifle jammed.

"As we've seen in America today, there have been several attacks where that reload is vital," Johnson said. "Tragically, in the shooting of a congresswoman, the reload was instrumental."

"We've also seen this in Baltimore County, in a school shooting that we had, where the reload became very instrumental in allowing the teacher to actually tackle a student that was trying to reload a double-barreled shotgun," he said.

Police believe that last week at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Adam Lanza was armed with high-capacity magazines. He fired at least 30 times before having to stop to reload.

Johnson said there is no reason that the general public should have access to high-capacity magazines.

"I have to advise you that even for law enforcement, 100-round magazines, 50-round magazines, have no place for law enforcement," Johnson said. "Certainly, we believe that limiting a magazine to 10 rounds, what was in place from '94 to 2004, is wise and certainly could save lives in America."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

San Francisco Cop’s 100 MPH Ride Video Probed

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(SAN FRANCISCO) -- San Francisco police are investigating a video posted on Facebook by one of its police sergeants showing what could have been the officer and his friends traveling through the city's Broadway Tunnel at 100 mph.

The video, posted in September, was removed  Wednesday along with the Facebook page of a police sergeant whose legal name is Carl T. The video showed a driver stepping on the gas from the Larkin Street stop at the Russian Hill side of the tunnel, zooming through it toward Chinatown at almost 100 miles per hour in an 35 miles per hour zone.

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San Francisco police were still confirming whether or not Sgt. T was the driver, whether he was on duty at the time, and driving under the influence.

“This case is still under review …  Any time we have a possible violation or any type of misconduct by our staff it is protocol to refer the matter to administrative investigation,” Officer Carlos Manfredi, spokesperson from the San Francisco Police Department told ABC News. “We have no further results on the investigation yet and Sgt. T is still on staff.”

The “SFist” blog carried the news of the video in September and extracted comments from T’s Facebook post which gathered 31 likes and 19 comments. Carl T’s posting read, “Broadway tunnel. 100 Miles per hour in the Lambo.”

Carl T. recently made news for legally changing his last name from Tannenbaum to T so his entire name would not be put on his badge.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Woman Turns in Valuable WWII Gun at Police Station Weapon Buy-Back

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(HARTFORD, Conn.) -- Just like a scene out of Antiques Roadshow, a woman in Hartford, Conn., turned in an old rifle to her local police station’s gun buy-back, only to discover the gun was worth anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, inherited the gun from her father who had brought it home with him from Europe as a memento from World War II.

The two officers conducting the gun buy-back, who are resident gun experts for the Hartford Police Department, informed the owner she was in possession of a Sturmgewehr 44, the first modern assault rifle ever made.

“It’s like finding the Babe Ruth of baseball cards,” said Officer John Cavanna. “The rarity, it was made for such a very short period.”

Most people, however, who aren’t avid gun fans would have no idea what role this gun played in history.

“If you were to look at the gun and didn’t know anything about guns, you would think it was garbage,” Crabtree said.

That is essentially what the owner thought the gun was, bringing it to the station knowing full well it would be put into a smelter, melting the gun down into an iron brick.

“People turn in guns for a variety of reasons,” Cavanna told ABC. “They don’t have a good way to secure it, they have kids around their home, or they don’t know how to use it.  This is an anonymous way for someone to take an unwanted firearm and get it off the streets. We then give them a $50 or $100 gift card to Wal-Mart.”

Crabtree attributes gun accidents to ignorance and carelessness. The anonymous gun buy-back program is aimed at preventing people from running into potentially dangerous situations with a gun they don’t know how to use or work.

This seems to be the reason the woman who dropped off the historic rifle.

“Her father passed away. The gun was in her closet,” Cavanna said. “She did not know it was a machine gun."

“If the gun had been in the closet loaded, any second you could hit the wrong level and discharge a fatal round,” he said of the Sturmgewehr 44.

This German-made machine gun can fire 500 rounds a minute, according to Cavanna, who is also a gun range master.

However, at the time the officers received the gun, it was in such disrepair that it was inoperable, unable to shoot a bullet even if the gun had been loaded. At any rate, ammunition would have to be specially made for the rifle.

The unnamed owner of the gun has left the valuable artifact at the police station for safe keeping.

“We did not take the gun in for the gun buy-back program,” Crabtree said. “If we took it as part of the buy-back, we would have no choice but to destroy the gun. We don’t want to destroy that gun.”

The owner intends to sell the rare weapon. “It sounds like her family could use the money,” Cavanna said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Los Angeles Officials Suspend Search for Girl Dragged Away by Hair

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(LOS ANGELES) -- Steep terrain and rough conditions dangerous to K-9 units forced the suspension of a search for a girl or petite woman seen being struck and dragged away by her hair Monday night, officials said.

The victim may have been kidnapped by a man at the El Sereno Recreation Center on the 4900 block of Klamath Street in El Sereno, Calif., located in eastern Los Angeles, according to a 911 caller reporting the incident at 8 p.m. Monday.

Witnesses saw the victim and her alleged assailant arguing, according to reports.

"That argument escalated to the point where the male struck the female at least once in the face and then began to drag her up into the brush area by the hair," police Lt. Andy Neiman said, according to The Associated Press.

Soon, police launched a thorough search, Los Angeles Police Department Public Information Officer Luiz Garcia told ABC News.

"Helicopters, K-9 units, urban search and rescue, and mounted police officers searched a 350-acre radius around the center, and we involved up to 250 officers to search for the missing victim," Garcia said.

"We found clothing items including shoes, a shirt and pants that we believe belong to the girl," Garcia added. "The fact that we found these items made us suspect that the victim may have been sexually assaulted."

During Monday's incident, witnesses heard the victim screaming and saw the suspect drag her into the bushes by her hair, Garcia said.

"The girl looked petite to them, so they estimated that she might have been between 13 and 15 years old," he added.

The witnesses did not interfere with the suspect, but decided to call the police instead, Garcia said. They did not have a cellphone with them so they ran to grab one to call 911.

When they returned to the scene, "they had lost contact with the victim and the suspect," Garcia said.

So far, the LAPD hasn't received any reports of missing persons that matched the description of the victim.

El Sereno Recreation Center serves the East Los Angeles community. It is a bustling center with a pool, a public community room, a baseball diamond, basketball and tennis courts, and other amenities.

"It's very shocking that such an incident would happen at this park given that it's a really nice and safe place," said Patricia Solis, a neighborhood resident. "This is a very safe neighborhood and people look out for each other."

Garcia said that the suspect was described as a Hispanic male between 18 and 20 years old, 6 feet tall, weighing 200 pounds with clean-cut dark hair. He was reported to be wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans at the time of the incident.

Even though the full-scale police search that followed was suspended on Tuesday, the investigation to find the girl and her assailant continued. A command post established next to Wilson High School, located half a mile away from the recreation center, was still operating.

Garcia urged anyone with information about the case to call the Los Angeles Police Department at 1-877-527-2477.

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Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Chicago Police Guilty of Covering Up Bartender Beating

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- The Chicago Police Department has been found guilty of covering up the beating of a female bartender by a city police officer, and was criticized for honoring a "code of silence" in which officers cover up for one another's misdeeds.

Bartender Karina Obrycka was awarded $850,000 by a federal jury on Tuesday.

Obrycka sued the police department and former police officer Anthony Abbate for a 2007 incident in which Abbate jumped behind her bar at Jesse's Shortstop Inn and, when reprimanded by Obrycka, assaulted her.

The altercation was caught on surveillance tape, but Chicago police officers ignored the tape's existence and failed to mention in their police report that the assailant was a city cop. Obrycka's attorney presented evidence, including hundreds of phone calls between Abbate and other cops in the hours after the incident, that convinced the jury there was a widespread effort to cover up the attack.

Abbate was eventually charged and found guilty of felony battery and lost his job. On Tuesday, however, a federal jury went farther, condemning the entire police department as well as Abbate for covering up the crime.

The jury awarded Obrycka $850,000, validating the bartender's claims that Abbate conspired with other cops after the assault, and that higher-ups at the department tried to keep the case quiet, according to ABC News affiliate WLS.

The city of Chicago said in a statement after the verdict that it "respectfully disagrees" and intends to appeal the decision.

Obrycka's attorney, Terry Ekl, said that the Chicago Police Department must make changes to how it operates now that the code of silence has been recognized by a court of law. He put the onus on the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel.

"The question now becomes, 'What are they going to do about it?'" he said. "If there's going to be changed, it has to come from the mayor's office."

Craig Futterman, a law professor at the University of Chicago who has studied the code of silence in Chicago, agreed.

"The bulk of the Chicago Police Department isn't made up of officers who go around beating up bar maids and pummeling them gratuitously for no reason or in drunken rage. It's not what the vast majority of officers do," he said.

"Still, it's something that departments as a whole and police leadership tends to shy away from. I think the best police leaders try to take it head on, and they do have those conversations about what needs to be done, but they need to have support not just in the police department, but from the mayor, too. When you're dealing with an entrenched culture, the rank and file can just wait out that person," Futterman said.

Emanuel's office released a statement saying that he believes Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy will end the code of silence.

"The mayor is confident that Superintendent McCarthy and his leadership team have not, and would not, approve of, let alone participate in, a code of silence. And to the extent there are members of the department who have a different view, the Mayor is confident that McCarthy and his team will deal with that," the mayor's office said.

McCarthy also released a statement saying he would not tolerate a code of silence in the department.

"The Chicago Police Department does not tolerate misconduct by our members and vigorously investigates all instances that are brought to our attention or discovered internally," the statement read. "Furthermore, I will never tolerate a code of silence in a department for which I am responsible."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Philadelphia Officer Who Punched Woman to Be Fired

WPVI/ABC News(PHILADELPHIA) -- The Philadelphia cop caught on video punching a woman in the face will be fired, according to ABC News' Philadelphia station, WPVI.

A video posted on YouTube shows Lt. Jonathan Josey punching a woman in the face and knocking her to the ground before she is led off bloodied and handcuffed.

Earlier Wednesday, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said it intends to drop the disorderly conduct charge against the woman who was hit.

The woman was identified as Aida Gusman, 39, a mother of three and domestic worker, according to WPVI. She denied throwing anything at police and said she did not know why she was punched.

"I'm 40 years old. I don't have time to play games like that," Gusman told WPVI earlier in the week. In addition to her facial injury, she has cuts and bruises on her arm and hand.

The video was taken at Sunday's Puerto Rican Day Parade.

The video shows a crowd of blue-shirted police officers standing in the middle of a street, around a car. Someone on the left appears to throw something resembling silly string or a liquid on the cops. An officer in a white shirt rushes out of the crowd and goes after a woman with long, dark hair and a black T-shirt.

Her back is to the camera so it is unclear if she was saying anything to him. The officer appears to punch her in the face and then hit her in the back of the head. She falls to the ground where two officers apprehend her and lead her off. As she passes the camera, blood can be seen streaming down her face.

A fellow officer had called Josey, a 19-year veteran of the force, a "good cop."

"If I was in a jam, I'd want him backing me up," Lt. Ray Evers told ABCNews.com. "He's a good cop, but the video speaks for itself and the investigation will reveal whatever it reveals."

Josey, 39, has had 13 complaints made against him over his career, but Evers said that it is hard to qualify whether that is a lot, a little or average. He said it is not entirely unusual for officers who have frequent contact with people in rougher neighborhoods to have complaints made against them.

He said the 13 complaints against Josey range from verbal abuse to physical abuse.

"It's hard to decide if that's a lot or a little," Evers said. "Most were unfounded or not sustained."

The YouTube video, titled "Philadelphia Police Brutality," was posted on Sept. 30 and has been viewed over one million times.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Philadelphia Officer Who Punched Woman 'a Good Cop,' Police Say

WPVI/ABC News(PHILADELPHIA) -- The Philadelphia cop under investigation for punching a woman in the face has had 13 previous complaints against him over his 19 years on the force, but co-workers insist he is "a good cop."

A video posted on YouTube shows the officer punching a woman in the face and knocking her to the ground before she is led off bloodied and handcuffed.

The officer has been identified as Lt. Jonathan Josey.

"If I was in a jam, I'd want him backing me up," Lt. Ray Evers told ABC News. "He's a good cop, but the video speaks for itself and the investigation will reveal whatever it reveals."

Josey, 39, has had 13 complaints made against him over his career, but Evers said that it is hard to qualify whether that is a lot, a little or average. He said it is not entirely unusual for officers who have frequent contact with people in rougher neighborhoods to have complaints made against them.

He said the 13 complaints against Josey range from verbal abuse to physical abuse.

"It's hard to decide if that's a lot or a little," Evers said. "Most were unfounded or not sustained."

Evers said documentation regarding whether Josey was ever disciplined was not immediately available to him. Josey could not be reached for comment.

Investigators are looking for more information on the circumstances surrounding the incident. They are asking that anyone who may have witnessed the incident call Internal Affairs.

"We don't see exactly what happened before," Evers said, referring to the video. "It doesn't look good and the naked eye sees that."

The woman was identified as Aida Gusman, 39, a mother of three and domestic worker, according to ABC News Philadelphia station WPVI. She denied throwing anything at police and said she did not know why she was punched.

"I'm 40 years old. I don't have time to play games like that," Gusman told WPVI. In addition to her facial injury, she has cuts and bruises on her arm and hand.

Josey was placed on "restricted status" on Monday, meaning that he is relegated to "administrative duties pending the outcome of the investigation," Evers said.

The video was taken at Sunday's Puerto Rican Day Parade, an event that Evers said "usually goes off without a hitch."

"Internal Affairs opened up an investigation in reference to the incident and the actions of that officer," Evers said. "The incident is being fully investigated."

The video shows a crowd of blue-shirted police officers standing in the middle of a street, around a car. Someone on the left appears to throw something resembling silly string or a liquid on the cops. An officer in a white shirt rushes out of the crowd and goes after a woman with long, dark hair and a black T-shirt.

Her back is to the camera so it is unclear if she was saying anything to him. The officer appears to punch her in the face and then hit her in the back of the head. She falls to the ground where two officers apprehend her and lead her off. As she passes the camera, blood can be seen streaming down her face.

"There were people in the crowd throwing items at the officer, water and other things," Evers said.

The woman was taken into custody on a disorderly conduct charge and was later released. Evers said he believed she had a cut lip, but was not seriously injured.

The YouTube video, titled "Philadelphia Police Brutality," was posted on Sept. 30 and has been viewed nearly 840,000 times. Viewers have left thousands of comments.

Some of the comments were in support of the officer, but the majority denounced his behavior.

"Regardless of what was done or provoked, the use of excessive force is apparent in this case. She was pursued and smacked, not restrained," one commenter wrote.

"She is obviously not [sic] threat and can easily be subdued by a man of his size versus her small frame plus there was plenty of back up," another wrote. "His position and authority contradict his actions, I would hope his rank was earned off of better judgement [sic] in the past because this was just shameful."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio 

Police Search for Jimmy Hoffa's Body in Michigan Driveway

Comstock/Thinkstock(ROSEVILLE, Mich.) -- "Where is Jimmy Hoffa's body?" is a question that has spawned thousands of theories. Now, one Michigan police chief believes a break in the famous cold case could be close at hand.

James Berlin, the police chief in Roseville, Mich., a town about 20 miles north of Detroit, says his department will take soil core samples from under the driveway of a home in the area this Friday after "credible" information recently surfaced.

"We received information from an individual who saw something," Berlin told the Detroit Free Press. "The information seemed credible, so we decided to follow up on it."

"We do not know if this is Jimmy," he said.

Hoffa, the union boss who headed the powerful International Brotherhood of Teamsters, disappeared in July 1975. He was last seen outside "The Red Fox" restaurant in suburban Detroit. Hoffa was 62 at the time and had recently spent nearly five years behind bars.

Berlin told the Free Press that Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality, in a ground scan of the Roseville driveway last week, discovered "an anomaly" that set the stage for this Friday's return visit to the site, a development confirmed to ABC News by the department's spokesman, Brad Wurfel.

"Our staff weren't told what or who they were looking for. What they knew was they were down there to do a scan," Wurfel said. "What they came up with was some anomalies relatively close to the service."

"The ground scan," Wurfel said, "is like a sonar unit you'd use on your boat to go fishing. It sends down a signal and reports back up based on interruptions. It shows you the earth's natural layers as horizontal lines and it'll show you the break in those lines where something is buried. So we were called to help out last Friday and all they really told us was they needed the ground slab over a concrete slab, looking for things below."

"We'll be back Friday to help them again," he said.

Berlin did not respond to messages left by ABC News, but a representative from his department said Berlin would be addressing the media "at a later date."

In 2009 FBI agents dug up a Detroit lumberyard, prompting speculation that the excavation was a search for Hoffa. Three years earlier, in May 2006, an unsuccessful search for Hoffa at a farm in the town of Milford became known as "The Big Dig."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Despite Crime Wave, 50 Chicago Police Sent to Dem Convention

ABC News(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) -- Only days after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked for federal agents and U.S. Marshals to help combat the city's wave of violence, about 50 Chicago police officers have arrived in Charlotte, N.C., to work perimeter security details for a week at the Democratic National Convention.

The Chicago officers, in their distinctive uniforms and checkerboard-brimmed hats, said they had been instructed not to talk with reporters about their out-of-town assignment.

"These are officers on their days off and were specially trained as mobile field force officers for the recent NATO summit in Chicago," said Melissa Stratton, a spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department.

A Charlotte Police Department spokesperson confirmed that "roughly 50 officers from Chicago" were on duty at the convention.

On Monday morning, some of the Chicago officers were stationed near security screening posts where delegates enter the Charlotte Convention Center.

"I would love to know the logic behind that decision to send them there given all that is happening here in Chicago," the Rev. Ira Acree of the Greater St. John Bible Church in Chicago told ABC News on Monday.

"It's a state of emergency here in Chicago," Rev. Acree told the Wall Street Journal last week.

Chicago police union officials also questioned the use of officers in Charlotte.

"We had two homicides and dozens of shootings this weekend, and we're sending offices out of the city?" said Pat Camden, a spokesperson for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.  "I think the average person would shake his head over that."

Last Friday, Mayor Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy publicly asked for federal help in targeting neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the city's wave of violence.

"The help comes in the form of additional agents to target guns, gangs and drugs," Superintendent McCarthy said at a news conference.

Chicago's homicide rate is about 31 percent higher than last year, with 346 reported killings as of Aug. 19, according to figures provided by the Chicago police.

Officials said the Chicago officers were sent to Charlotte to reciprocate for police sent by Charlotte to help during the recent NATO summit held in Chicago.

"They are there on their days off and were not pulled off the street," said Stratton.

She said the officers sent to Charlotte will be paid through a special federal grant of $50 million for convention security.

"No funds from the city of Chicago are involved," Stratton said.

"We had a very successful outcome at the NATO convention in Chicago," she said, praising the training of the officers to handle large gatherings.

There was no request for the Chicago officers to assist in security at the GOP convention last week in Tampa, Fla., Stratton added.

The police union has been critical of Mayor Emanuel, a prominent figure in the Democratic party and former White House chief of staff, for substantial reductions in the police budget.

"We've had about a thousand officers retire over the last two years and only about 200 have been hired to replace them," said Camden.

"We've had a collective failure of all institutions to address the violence and I don't give the president a pass either," Rev. Acree said.

A spokesperson for Charlotte Police Chief Rodney Monroe said, "Chief Monroe is grateful to have the assistance of these officers for this monumental event."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio