News & Blues 1/27

Police in Hinton, W.Va., accused
attorney Matthew Don Reed, 32, of trying to steal Social Security
numbers and other personal information by impersonating West Virginia’s
governor. State Police Sgt. T.L. Bragg told The Register-Herald
that Reed used the Internet to persuade government-job applicants to
send copies of their birth certificates and other information. An
unwitting accomplice alerted authorities after becoming suspicious when
Reed asked him to mail an applicant a letter purportedly from Gov. Joe
Manchin. It lacked the governor’s seal and was riddled with
misspellings and grammatical errors.

Smart Phone, Dumb Owner

Aaron R. Klein, 24, couldn’t pay his $57.75 tab at a bar
in Brookfield, Wis., so he left his cell phone as collateral and said
he’d come back the next day to settle up. After Klein left, according
to a criminal complaint filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court, a
bartender searching the phone for Klein’s name or number found seven
pornographic images of children that had been downloaded to the phone.
He called police, who arrested Klein when he returned to the bar. They
searched his home computer and found between 300 and 400 child
pornography images, leading to felony charges.

Way to Go

When heavy rain caused flooding in Chattanooga, Tenn.,
Sylvester Kitchens, 46, bragged he could swim an overflowing storm
ditch and dared onlookers to bet him $5 he couldn’t. He got no takers,
the Associated Press reported, but jumped in anyway. He bobbed along
for about 150 feet before grabbing a chain link fence above the ditch.
He lost his grip while family members tried to toss him a lifeline, and
washed away into an underground culvert. Rescuers found his body four
days later.

Three members of a Florida family were electrocuted while
trying to erect an antenna in Palm Bay, Fla. Witnesses told WKMG-TV
News that Melville Braham, 55, Anna Braham, 49, and Anthony Braham, 15,
were raising a HAM radio antenna onto their roof when they lost control
of the pole. It struck an overhead wire, sending 13,000 volts of
electricity through the antenna while the victims were holding it. “The
house is on fire,” said a woman who placed a 911 call. “The house is
blowing up.”

Not-So-Funny Money

Federal authorities charged Rickey A. Kempter, 50, with
counterfeiting money they said he intended to use to pay an exotic
dancer for a private session at a motel in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Court
documents show Kempter and the dancer took a taxi to the motel, where
Kempter asked the driver to hold a roll of $50 bills. The driver
“noticed the money was ‘funny looking’ and that several of the $50
Federal Reserve notes were not cut evenly” and “had the same serial
numbers.” The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported that when
investigators questioned Kempter, he admitted making the 24 bills on a
printer at his home and explained he wanted to “front like the money
was there” to pay for the dance.

News and Blues is compiled from the
nation’s press. To contribute, submit original clippings, citing date
and source, to Roland Sweet in care The New Times.