CATLETTSBURG, Kentucky — Four local residents were indicted by Boyd County jury for allegedly burglarizing a number of local businesses.

Named in the charged sheets according to Boyd Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice, were David M. Baldridge, 26, and Donald R. Nullins, 38, both of Ashland. Each one was charged 13 counts of burglary.
The other two were Christina Lynn Perkins, 41, of Flatwoods, and Kendra N. Taylor, 23, of Ashland, each on six counts of burglary.

The four confessed to being involved in a string of business break-ins. Victimized included Rich Oil on U.S. 60 at Summit, BP on Ky. 3, Rich Oil on Wheatley Road in Westwood, Air Equipment Sales & Service on Armco Road, Ferguson Plumbing on West Central Avenue, Mid-American Group on U.S. 60 and Exxon Tiger Mart on U.S. 60 at Canonsburg, according to the Boyd County Sheriff’s Department.
Amounting to several thousand dollars’ worth of cigarettes was stolen in the convenience store burglaries, while copper and tools were taken from Ferguson’s and Air Equipment. Some of the copper was recovered at a recycling center in the Huntington area, the sheriff’s department said.

A grand jury indictment is just a formal accusation of a crime and does not establish guilt.

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Four In Burglary Indicted in Boyd County Kentucky was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

TAMPA, Florida – Tampa Fire Rescue says a West Tampa man drove his truck a short distance from his house, set it on fire and tried to collect insurance money.

Detectives arrested 26-year-old Juan Santallana. He’s charged with second degree arson and insurance fraud.

Tampa Fire Rescue says back on the night of June 23, firefighters extinquished his truck. The 2009 Toyota Tacoma was on fire in an alleyway near the corner of Tampania and W. Green Streets. Santallana lives on W. Green Street a short distance away.

After a few weeks of investigating, Santallana was arrested on the morning of Thursday, July 15. 

Detectives say man burns truck for insurance money was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

HOUSTON, Texas – A woman who operated two Houston companies must serve four years in prison over what prosecutors say was a $3.9 million motorized wheelchair scam.

Prosecutors say 46-year-old Sandra Thurman Patino surrendered Tuesday, as ordered by the court.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes on Monday sentenced Patino and barred her, during three years of supervised release following her prison term, from seeking employment with any company that bills Medicare or Medicaid.

Investigators say fraudulent billing involving durable medical equipment, mainly motorized wheelchairs and accessories, ordered between 2002 and 2003 at a certain price, but less expensive equipment was delivered.

4 years in prison over Houston insurance fraud was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – Authorities today still are searching for the last of 16 people they allege lied about their status to get nearly $600,000 in federal rental assistance to which they aren’t entitled.

In custody: Tammy Temteo Latson, 44, of West Palm Beach. Amount: $82,920. Allegation: Failed to disclose criminal history.

In custody: Robin Michelle Clark, 43, of South Bay. Amount: $65,302. Allegation: Failed to disclose criminal history of residents.

As part of “Operation Shield,” 15 people were booked Monday into the Palm Beach County Jail on 21 counts of grand theft, organized scheme to defraud, public assistance fraud and falsifying homestead exemptions. The last one, Courtney Lataurus Gross, 34, of Royal Palm Beach was expected to be in custody soon, officials said. The amount of her alleged fraud is $92,859. She allegedly failed to disclose her criminal history.

The sweep is the latest of several crackdowns by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to Palm Beach County Jail records, the 16 named bring to nearly 40 the number booked on such charges in 2010; more than 100 have been charged since January 2009.

Late last year, detectives said abuses already had cost taxpayers more than $1 million that could have gone to worthy tenants.

One detective has been contracted out to the Palm Beach County Housing Authority and another has been working the abuses nearly full time.

The types of abuses included: tenants had more people living in the unit than disclosed; the renter or another person in the unit had been convicted of a violent crime or drug charges; and the renter earned too much money to qualify.

Those arrested Monday include Tanisha Henry, a sergeant at Glades Correctional Institution, who didn’t reveal her income, and Sarah Jeannine Belk, who didn’t disclose she earned $55,000 a year working at Hospice of Palm Beach County.

Toral Frazier, of Boynton Beach, is in jail on charges she attacked a pregnant woman with a box cutter and stun gun on June 16 in Boynton Beach. Frazier allegedly submitted updated documents to her housing authority, claiming she still was living in her subsidized apartment, while she was in jail.

Several of those charged did not reveal that they or others in their household had previous arrests ranging from sexual assault on a minor to manslaughter and attempted homicide. Some didn’t disclose they were in probation.

“They’re ripping off the fellow residents and citizens of our community in order to deprive the others of assistance,” State Attorney Michael McAuliffe said Monday.

“These are really good programs,” McAuliffe said. “But when they get off track, and people start abusing them and using them for their personal gain, we know we have to step in and do something.”

The average household in the Palm Beach County Housing Authority averages about $11,000 in subsidies a year, so just the 16 charged would equal about $176,000 per year in ineligible subsidies, housing authority Executive Director Joe Zalman said.

“If this was every housing authority in the country, all 3,300 of them, that’s about a half billion (dollars) a year,” Zalman said.

Besides ripping off taxpayers, the fraud allows people with criminal records to live where they shouldn’t be allowed, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.

“When this (arrests) happens and we solve these problems, these individuals come out of these neighborhoods and the quality of life gets better,” Bradshaw said.

And, he warned, “If you’re one of those people doing this fraud, we’ll be knocking on your door before this is over with.”

By Eliot Kleinberg

Authorities in search for last of 16 indicted for housing fraud in Palm Beach County sweep was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

DELAND, Florida – A DeLand caregiver was arrested and charged with stealing from the 71-year-old man she was supposed to be helping and then trying to extort money from him in return for some of the property, Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.

The 71-year-old victm was suffering from heart problems and was undergoing chemotherapy, authorities said. Cynthia Cardenas, 44, was hired by the man to help around the house.

But the job only lasted a week before the victim said he fired Cardenas because her work wasn’t satisfactory. Shortly after that, he noticed some of his property – including about $950 in jewelry and a coffee maker – was missing.

When a deputy questioned Cardenas, she said she left the job because she wasn’t getting paid. She said the victim was infatuated with her and had given her the items as gifts, but she wasn’t romantically interested in him. Cardenas gave the property back to the deputy and was charged with grand theft, the sheriff’s office said.

A few days later, Cardenas tried to arrange to sell the victim his own cell phone for $75, the sheriff’s office siad. The victim arranged the transaction with a deputy staked out to watch the incident.

The sheriff’s office said that Cardenas showed up but without the phone. During the incident, the victim became overwrought and paramedics had to be called.

Deputies arrested Cardenas on charges of grand theft and elderly abuse.

Volusia county caregiver charged in theft of money, coffee maker from elderly 71-year-old man was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

Wells Fargo Bank and DeSoto police thought they caught a check forger when Randolph Shaheed walked into a bank in November and presented a check to be cashed for his new job as a mystery shopper.

The check was an obvious fake, police said, and they arrested Shaheed. He spent four days in jail and, after a Dallas grand jury indicted him, faced a felony charge for forgery that could have sent him back to prison for the rest of his life.

Shaheed, 60, is a convicted murderer who served his time for crimes committed as a gang member decades ago in Fort Worth. But he has spent the past quarter-century working to do the right thing and help ex-cons fit back into society through his prison ministry.

Two days before his arrest, he was honored by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for his work helping ex-offenders. State officials told me he was an “ideal” ex-offender who tried to “promote positive change within our community.”

The Watchdog looked at the correspondence between Shaheed and the supposed mystery shopper company. I quickly concluded that the company was a fraud. Shaheed had been scammed, not the other way around.

But DeSoto Police Capt. Ron Smith was not so believing. He told me in December, “Don’t believe everything you hear.” He warned, “It’s not his first experience in the criminal justice system.” He added that he would be “surprised if it turned out to be a scam.”

Well, surprise!

The Dallas district attorney’s office dropped the charges against Shaheed last month. The office didn’t respond to my requests for comment, but Shaheed’s lawyer told me what happened.

“Fortunately, we had a very reasonable prosecutor who asked to see the evidence,” lawyer Valencia Bush said. “When you see all the correspondence back and forth, you can see these people are being duped.”

Bush told me she recently represented four clients who fell for the same scam and were wrongly arrested. But Shaheed’s was the most difficult to get charges dropped because of his criminal record.

“He’s a good guy that’s been doing nothing but good works in the community,” she said. “Certainly, he wasn’t about to risk his freedom for a couple of hundred bucks.”

Here’s how the scam worked: Shaheed thought he found a job on the Internet as a shopper who would test customer service at Western Union and other stores. He was sent a check for $1,950. All he had to do, he was told in written instructions, was cash the check and send $200 back to the company as a Western Union money transfer. The rest was for him to use for mystery shopping to evaluate businesses, he was told. Afterward, he would file reports about his experiences.

The scam comes in when a bank cashes a check, then later realizes it is a fake. The supposed mystery shopper had already spent the money and wired the rest to the scammers.

The shopper is responsible for the losses. But arrests for the crime are rare. Most banks know about the scam and warn off customers before it’s too late.

The Wells Fargo bank branch manager and a corporate spokeswoman both declined to answer questions about this.

Ex-con’s job as a mystery shopper puts him in jail was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

Puerto Ricans become victims of identity theft was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

Texas man sentenced to 4 years for providing stolen identification was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

KENWOOD, Ohio – Do you recognize this thief?

Authorities are searching for this man after they say he stole someone’s wallet on June 17 from a locker at Urban Active Fitness Center, 8133 Montgomery Rd.

The suspect used three of the victim’s credit cards at Target, Best Buy and Dick’s Sporting Goods in Springdale to purchase $5,000 in gift cards and electronics, said Steve Barnett, spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

Anyone with information on this suspect is asked to contact Detective Mike Lindner at the sheriff’s office: 513-851-6000, or Crime Stoppers: 513-352-3040

Do you recognize this thief? was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog

By Dan Horn

Mason homebuilder Bernard Kurlemann was charged with bankruptcy fraud Thursday, adding to troubles that began six months ago when federal prosecutors linked him to a fraud scheme involving multi-million dollar homes.

The new charge accuses Kurlemann of failing to disclose an option to purchase real estate during bankruptcy proceedings in 2008.

Kurlemann and three other men already face up to 30 years each in prison if they are convicted of federal fraud and conspiracy charges involving high-end homes in Greater Cincinnati.

Prosecutors say that conspiracy revolved around Eric Duke, a self-employed tax preparer and interior designer who they say orchestrated the sale of the homes by using straw buyers and phony financial documents.

The bankruptcy charge was added Thursday to the original federal indictment after prosecutors said they learned Kurlemann did not disclose an option to buy back a property that he had sold prior to filing bankruptcy for his company, Kurlemann Builders Inc., or KBI.

“Bernard J. Kurlemann engaged in a scheme to defraud the creditors of KBI and the bankruptcy trustee,” the indictment states.

Kurlemann said in a statement that he had did nothing wrong and that he met disclosure requirements in the documents he filed during the bankruptcy. He previously has denied wrongdoing in connection with Duke or the other fraud and conspiracy charges.

Kurlemann has denied wrongdoing in connection with Duke or the other fraud and conspiracy charges.

The new charge focuses on the transfer of property in 2007 from Kurlemann to RNS Property Management in exchange for $220,000 and an option to buy back the property within a year.

Because the buy-back option is considered an asset, prosecutors say, Kurlemann was required to disclose it during bankruptcy proceedings. The indictment accuses Kurlemann of making “a material false statement” when he did not reveal the asset.

Kurlemann, whose company has built luxury homes in the area for two decades, is scheduled to appear June 24 in U.S. District Court on the bankruptcy fraud charges. He has pleaded not guilty to the previous fraud and conspiracy charges.

Homebuilder charged with bankruptcy fraud was posted at Stun Gun Savior Self Defense Blog. | http://site.ninjacops.com/blog