one man, two murders lead to tougher laws for sex crimes against children

The father of a teen girl murdered by a paroled sex offender said Thursday he expects a board that considers compensation for California crime victims to reject his claim that authorities were liable for his daughter's death.

Brent King's claim regarding his 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea, details how John Gardner repeatedly violated parole but was not returned to prison.

Gardner was not properly monitored by state authorities, according to state records.

The claim is nearly identical to one filed by the parents of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who also was murdered by Gardner. The California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board previously rejected that claim.

"Our assumption is that this claim will be rejected as well," said King, who filed the legal action Aug. 26 to meet a six-month deadline for making allegations of government wrongdoing.

Chelsea's body was found March 2 in a remote area of San Diego, five days after she went missing on an afternoon run.

Brent King said he has not decided whether to eventually sue the state of California or agree to have a mediator settle the dispute - possible scenarios if his claim is rejected. If King hadn't filed the claim, he would have lost his right to a claim.

King's claim details how Gardner violated parole after serving five years in prison for molesting a 13-year-old girl in 2000. Those violations included being within 100 yards of places where children gather.

Had Gardner been returned to prison and if the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had continued to monitor Gardner electronically until he showed an ability to serve his parole without violation, Chelsea King would be alive today," the claim states.

The board has yet to schedule a date to consider King's claim. It meets Sept. 16.

John Gardner, 31, was sentenced in May to life in prison without parole for raping and murdering King and Dubois.

New California legislation named after Chelsea King is awaiting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature after unanimously passing the state senate and assembly. Proponents of the bill say it will help protect other people's children from sex crimes.

Chelsea's Law, formally known as AB 1844, creates mandatory sentences of life without parole for violent sex offenses against children. Another major provision of the 62-page bill is lifetime parole for people who commit certain sex crimes against minors.

It's not the only proposed legislation to arise out of the henious acts of registered sex offender John Gardner III, who admitted in March to murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King.

A few days after her body was found, Gardner led police to the remains of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who had been missing for more than a year. Gardner was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life without parole for the murders and an attack on a jogger.

The deaths of the young girls sparked a flurry of tougher proposed laws aimed at protecting children.

Dubois' father is behind three assembly bills concerning law enforcement response to missing children. Among the legislative proposals:

* Creating a rapid response team in the state Attorney General's Office to help find abducted children.

* Reducing the minimum time for reporting a missing child from four hours to two.

* Enhanced training for police officers who search for missing children.

The four bills are on their way to Schwarzenegger's desk.

Chelsea's Law also has an urgency clause that means it will take effect as soon as Schwarzenegger signs it. The Dubois bills do not have an urgency clause and would take effect in January 2011.

Gardner was paroled Sept. 26, 2005, after serving five years for two counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child younger than 14 and a single count of false imprisonment for attacking a 13-year-old neighbor.

Under Chelsea's Law, lewd and lascivious acts on a minor will carry a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

The "one-strike" provision applies to forcible sex crimes against minors that include aggravating factors, such as the victim's age or whether the victim was bound or drugged.

Twisted Girl Throws Live Puppies Into River

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A video showing a young woman throwing live puppies into a river has sparked outrage across the Internet.

And now it has also led to an animal rights group offering a bounty for the arrest of the people behind it.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has offered a reward for information leading to the capture and arrest of the people behind what it calls a "heinous act" of cruelty.

"Animal abusers are cowards," PETA Manager Martin Mersereau said in a news release announcing the $2,000 reward. "They take their issues out on the most defenseless beings available to them."

In the video, a girl in a red hooded sweatshirt is seen throwing at least six puppies into a fast moving river.

She appears to speak Croatian, while repeatedly picking up live puppies from a bucket and throwing the squealing puppies into the river.

The video was originally posted on YouTube, but quickly pulled down. It is still widely available online and has gone viral, with sites such as LiveLeak.com registering over 1.3 million views of the footage.

Web users have banded together on sites like 4chan.org to help identify the young woman and the man filming her throwing the live puppies into the river.

According to PETA, clues in the video and the original post indicate that it may have been filmed near the Vrbas River in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A facebook page dedicated to helping track them down had more than 7,000 people sign up since the video was posted Monday.

Watch video of the incident

Users of the 4chan.org site helped identify the British woman caught on a security camera throwing a cat in a trash can last week.

Discovery gunman's grudges well known, inspired by Al Gore documentary

The gunman who was shot and killed by a police sniper on Wednesday after a nearly four-hour hostage standoff at the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, spent several days being evaluated by Maryland state psychiatrists following a 2008 arrest at the same building.

"I told them my idea of saving the planet," the gunman said in a 2008 interview. "They couldn't find anything wrong with me."

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James Jay Lee, the crazed save-the-planet protester, who took employees at the Discovery Channel TV headquarters hostage on Wednesday called himself "World Guardian" and said that he was inspired by environmental author Daniel Quinn and Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

Lee, a 43-year-old environmental wacko from San Diego, California, had a history of targeting the Discovery Channel for its programming, most notably in a 2008 protest in front of the channel's Silver Spring, Maryland, headquarters, where 1,900 employees work. On that day, the protest included tossing wads of cash in the air, and it ended in his arrest.

Lee burst into the Washington suburb office Wednesday firing shots into the air and ranting about saving squirrels before shouting: "Nobody is going anywhere!"

The armed liberal was wearing a vest with bombs strapped to the front and back. Talks over the phone between Lee and police negotiators had failed to diffuse the situation.

Police bomb squads and ATF, overnight Wednesday, located and safely diffused and detonated bombs Lee left behind in the office building.

Lee managed the environmental extremist website savetheplanetprotest.com. The site lists demands for the Discovery Channel and its affiliates.

Lee's postings show he was increasingly obsessed with civilization's "filth" and the problem of over-population, which he blamed on "parasite human infants."

Lee's obsession ended Wednesday afternoon when a police sniper shot and killed him to end a nearly four-hour hostage standoff inside the Discovery Channel headquarters. No hostages were injured.

In his online manifesto, Lee critized Discovery for what he saw as the channel's promotion of human birth and war coverage, and he called on the channel to devote programming to exposing evil deeds of man.

"Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is," Lee's manifesto reads. "That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn't, then get hell off the planet! Breathe oil! It is the moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they??"

In another section, Lee wrote: "All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it."

Lee accused the Discovery Channel programs of "causing more harm than good," and said, "It's time to bring about new initiatives and try different approaches whether they are conventional and uncoventional," in a Save The Planet Protest document dated February 2008.

The website post ends with the author (James Lee), "I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows to start by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it."


Discovery Communications, Inc. operates U.S. cable and satellite networks including The Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet. Discovery shows include "Man vs. Wild" and "Cash Cab," and TLC airs "American Chopper" and Kate Plus 8. Programming was not interrupted during the hostage ordeal.

Lee said he was inspired by Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and Daniel Quinn's environmental books "Ishmael" and "My Ishmael," which reportedly detail how a telepathic gorilla "talks" about the need to save the planet from humankind.

The top of Lee's Myspace page reads, "It's time for a REVOLUTION!" And on his profile, he gave himself the title: "World Guardian." In a December 2008 blog post, Lee wrote of "having strange dreams."

The blog reads, "I am ready to go all the way with this. All the way guys!"

"I refuse to read anything that is not directly related to the overpopulation problem and global warming. I am searching history for clues that could save the planet. I still am baffled why this is happening. It seems impossible. I am awaiting some nature videos that I ordered."

Lee's brother-in-law, Thomas Leonard, said Lee had been estranged from his family for about two years - since Lee's February 2008 protest in front of the same building.

Photos of the protest show Lee walking in front of the building while holding a sign that read, "SAVE THE PLANET DISCOVERY CHANNEL!!" He had hired homeless people to hold signs as well. At one point he threw wads of money in the air, sparking a scuffle among onlookers.

Lee was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 14 days in jail, six-months probation, fined $500 and told to stay at least 500 feet away from the building.

Lee also spent several days under the evaluation of state psychiatrists. "I told them my idea of saving the planet," Lee told the Gazette, a Maryland community online newspaper. "They couldn't find anything wrong with me."

Lee's website was hosted by a Vancouver, B.C., company. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they are aware of the Canada connection to Lee's website and are looking into it.

Doteasy.com, a free service, hosted Lee's site, savetheplanetprotest.com. A spokesman for Doteasy.com said information concerning Lee's site has been turned over to the RCMP.

RCMP are working with U.S. law enforcement.

2 men held in suspected terrorist test run

The Real Story

Despite security concerns, two men were allowed to board a Chicago-Amsterdam flight with "suspicious items" in their checked luggage; they were arrested by Dutch authorities on terrorism-related charges as they departed the plane in Amsterdam.

But U.S. Homeland Security and FBI officials said Tuesday that the two men arrested in Amsterdam were not on a test run for a future terrorist attack, even as Dutch authorities hold the pair on suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist act.

The Amsterdam arrests came at a time of heightened alert less than two weeks before the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

FBI agents said they chased down leads in Detroit, Birmingham, Ala.; and Memphis, Tenn. They were investigating whether the two men had been conducting a dry run for a potential terrorist attack. But as their investigation evolved, officials said that appeared unlikely.

Both of the detained men missed their flight to Dulles International Airport from Chicago, and United Airlines then booked them on the same flight to Amsterdam.

The men, identified as Ahmed Mohamed Nassar al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi, sat near each other on the flight to Amsterdam and airport surveillance video at Chicago's O'Hare airport shows the two men talking to each other.

Al Soofi has a Detroit address and has been living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, working at a convenience store, according to Homeland Security.

Al Soofi, who was bound to Dubai from Birmingham, Ala., through connections in Chicago and Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, was questioned by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as he went through security in Birmingham on Sunday, according to TSA officials.

Al Soofi told the authorities he was carrying a lot of cash. Screeners found $7,000 on him, but he was not breaking any law.

TSA screeners took a closer look at his baggage. It was then that the suspicious items were discovered in his bag: a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, multiple cell phones and watches taped together, and a knife and box cutter.

None of the items violate U.S. security rules, so TSA allowed al Soofi to fly.

Al Soofi was orginally bound for Dubai, but changed his flight to Amsterdam when he arrived at O'Hare, while his luggage went on to Dulles. When Customs officials discovered al Soofi wasn't on the later flight from Dulles to Dubai, they called the plane back to the gate and removed his luggage.

According to U.S. policy, passengers and their luggage must be headed toward the same destination on international flights.

Al Mirisi also changed his travel plans in Chicago to take a direct flight to Amsterdam, raising suspicion. Federal Air Marshals were on the flight from Chicago to Amsterdam, according to Homeland Security.

The men were arrested Monday morning at Schiphol Airport after getting off a United Airlines flight from Chicago. No charges have been filed against the men in the U.S.

Dutch authorites addressing why they continue to detain the two men: "We are taking it seriously. Otherwise we would not have arrested them," Theo D'Anjou of the Dutch national prosecutor's office said. "A Dutch investigation is under way."

Dutch authorities have charged the two men with preparation of a terrorist attack.

Under Dutch law, suspects can be held up to three days and 15 hours from the time of arrest. After that period, they must be taken before an investigating judge if law enfrocement officers want their custody extended.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said once officials found suspicious items in luggage associated with the two men on Sunday night's flight, they notified the Dutch authorities.

Travelers have experienced a dramatic increase in security at Amsterdam's main airport this year, after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian student, flew from Schiphol airport to Detroit on Christmas Day with explosives in his underwear. Abdulmutallab tried to detonate the explosives over the United States but was stopped by alert passengers, who grabbed and detained him.

Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio challenges Justice Dept.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, is challenging the Justice Department's request for certain documents in its investigation of alleged civil rights violations by the sheriff's office.

In a letter to the Justice Department on Friday, Sheriff Arpaio's attorney said the sheriff could not agree to the Justice Department's September deadline to supply all documents requested for its investigation and questioned the government's pursuit of broad access to documents, personnel and facilities in the inquiry.

The letter, from sheriff's office attorney Robert Driscoll, alleged that the Justice Department's position that it is "entitled to any document it wants, to access any facility it wishes, and to interview any witness it wants, without limitation... is simply unreasonable."

The Obama administration is investigating whether Sheriff Arpaio's policies and law enforcement sweeps discriminate against Hispanics. The Justice Department has been investigating Sheriff Arpaio since President Obama took office.

Justice Department officials met Tuesday with Sheriff Arpaio and his lawyers to request additional documents in their investigation. The department formalized the request in a letter to the sheriff's lawyers Wednesday.

The letter told the sheriff's office to deliver the documents by September 10.

On Saturday, Justice Department officials said they expect to receive the documents by September 10, despite the letter Friday from Sheriff Arpaio's attorney.

"We expect the sheriff's office to provide nothing short of full compliance," said a Justice Department official. "If it doesn't turn over the documents, the government may take action against the sheriff's office."

Sheriff Arpaio, called by many as "America's toughest sheriff," is known for his hard-nosed opposition to illegal immigration.

Guards open fire during riot at Calif. prison

Staff at California's Folsom State Prison worked Saturday to determine the cause of a riot in the prison yard on Friday that involved 200 inmates.

The Friday night melee sent seven inmates to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. There were no fatalities, said prison officials.

No corrections officers were injured.

Five inmates are being treated for gunshot wounds. The other two are being treated for injuries that they inflicted on one another.

The riot started on the handball court in the main exercise yard.

Staff initially used chemical agents in an attempt to quell the incident. When inmates failed to comply, officers deployed 40 millimeter rubber bullets. That didn't stop them. Finally, officers had to resort to the more lethal option - guards fired upon some of the combatants and five of them were struck.

It took 45 to 50 prison staff members 30 minutes to contain the riot, according to prison officials.

The riot began after dinner, around 7:30 p.m. (10:30 p.m. ET) during the inmates' exercise time.

The prison was under lockdown as inmates and staff were interviewed to determine the cause of the riot.

Folsom State Prison is about 20 miles from Sacramento. It is California's second-oldest state prison and houses medium-security inmates.

370 Illegal Aliens Arrested in 10 States

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested 370 illegal immigrants - including 347 with prior criminal convictions - over a three-day operation throughout the Midwest.

The arrests in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio were part of ICE's "Cross Check" operations that began in 2009 and are being held across the country.

Of the 370 people arrested this week, more than half of them had prior convictions in the U.S. for serious violent crimes such as armed robbery, drug trafficking and aggravated assault.

"We used a number of different leads," said Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for ICE's Chicago office. "We tracked individuals with information we had available in our databases. We worked with other law enforcement and used information they had as well to develop our target list."

Some of the illegal immigrants were gang members or convicted of sexual crimes against minors. Over 50 were immigration fugitives who had outstanding deportation orders, according to ICE.

The operation, which ended Thursday, was the largest of its kind for the agency.

Turn Out Strong For Restore 'Honor' Rally

Tens of thousands of people descended on the National Mall in Washington Saturday for a three-hour "Restoring Honor" freedom rally led by Fox News' Glenn Beck.

Beck held largely true to his promise to keep the event nonpolitical and instead conduct something of an old-style religious revival meeting that focused on healing the scars that the nation has suffered as a result of its disreputable moments in history.

"Let's be honest, if you look at history, America has been both terribly good, and terribly bad. It has been both, but we concentrate on the bad instead of learning from the bad and repairing the bad," said Beck.

"We have a choice today, to either let those scars crush us or redeem us," he said, speaking from the Lincoln Memorial.

"If you look at the Washington Monument, you might notice its scars... a quarter of the way up it changes color. Look at it. Look at its scars. How did the scar get there? They stopped building it in the Civil War. And when the war was over, they began again. No one sees the scars of the Washington Memorial, the Washington Monument; we see what it stands for," Beck said.

Beck had asked that people to not bring political signs to the rally, and for the most part they seemed to cooperate with the request.

Tommy LaRussa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals who attended the event, said he didn't feel it was political in nature at all. LaRussa had received complaints from the Cardinals' offices in St. Louis about his participation in the event.

Beck, pacing back and forth on the marble steps of the memorial for the 16th president, said he was humbled by the size of the crowd, which stretched along the Washington Mall's long reflecting pool nearly all the way to the Washington Monument.

As Beck promised the event paid tribute to America's military personnel and others "who embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor."

Governor Sarah Palin was greeted from many in the crowd by chants of "USA, USA, USA."

"It is so humbling to get to be here with you today, patriots. You who are motivated and engaged... and knowing never to retreat," Gov. Palin said.

Palin told the crowd she wasn't speaking as a politician. "No, something more, something much more. I've been asked to speak as the mother of a soldier and I am proud of that distinction. Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can't take that away from me." Her son, Track, 20, served a yearlong deployment in Iraq.

Across from the National Mall, Al Sharpton and others protested the Restoring Honor event, calling the event an anti-government rally advocating states' rights.

Manhunt Underway After Sheriff's Deputy Fatally Shot Near Ariz. Border

The manhunt has intensified in southern Utah for the man who fatally shot a Kane County deputy sheriff Thursday afternoon.

The U.S. Marshals Service has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Scott Curley, 23, who shot and killed Deputy Brian Harris on Thursday afternoon about three miles east of Fredonia, Arizona, a small town just south of the Utah border.

Early Friday, deputies followed tracks in the desert sands, after a woman reported spotting Curley outside her home.

"He had a rifle strapped to his back," Chief Deputy Jim Driscoll of the Coconino County Sheriff's Office said. "He was dressed in a brown shirt, jeans and a cap, which is consistent with the information we had as to how Mr. Curley was dressed Thursday after the shooting."

Deputy Harris was chasing a burglary suspect, identified as Curley, on foot Thursday when the suspect opened fire on Harris, killing the deputy with a high-powered rifle.

Authorities believe Curley may now be outside a six mile area they had originally pinned him in. Deputies have been searching "spider holes" Curley set up to hide in and store food and ammunition.

A warrant was issued on Friday, charging the 23-year-old Curley with first-degree felony murder in the death of Deputy Brian Harris. Deputies were chasing Curley after a series of burglaries - when he ambushed them.

"He was laying in wait underneath a tree," said Kane County Deputy Alan Alldredge. "When deputies came up over the rise, he had his sights on them and he fired upon them and hit Deputy Harris."

Curley fired several shots at the deputies. Throughout the day Thursday, police continued to pursue Curley in an area known as "The Clam Shell," about three miles east of Fredonia.

Arizona court records show multiple arrests for Curley, whom acquaintances describe as violent and unstable.

The incident first unfolded when Curley broke into Fredonia High School on Thursday, looking to steal chemicals in the science lab to make methamphetamine. A school custodian caught Curley, who then held him hostage for over three hours.

Deputy Harris was a resident of Mount Carmel, Utah, married with two daughters. The Gulf War veteran joined the Kane County Sheriff's Office after returning from the Middle East. He enjoyed his work, especially rescuing lost or stranded people, said his brother, Bert Harris.

Feds to dismiss some deportation cases

Critics say the plan is a way to create a backdoor 'amnesty'

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been systematically reviewing thousands of pending immigration cases and has been dismissing cases against illegal immigrants who have no serious criminal offenses, according to DHS officials.

Culling the immigration court system dockets of those in the country illegally that do not have felony criminal records started in Houston, Texas, last month. Deportation cases in Houston for illegal immigrants without felony convictions are being dismissed.

Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said Tuesday that it's part of the agency's broader, nationwide strategy to prioritize the deportations of illegal immigrants who pose a threat to national security and public safety.

Critics say the plan is another sign that the federal government is trying to create a kind of backdoor "amnesty" program.

Immigration attorneys in Houston have been briefed on the effort of Homeland Security to review and dismiss cases of illegal immigrants nationwide who do not have serious criminal records, though not yet to the pace of the Houston office.

Raed Gonzales, an immigration attorney who is the liason between the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which administer the immigration court system, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said DHS currently has five attorneys assigned full-time to reviewing all active illegal immigration cases in Houston's immigration court.

"The court is terminating cases. It's absolutely fantastic," said Gonzales at a press briefing in Houston on Tuesday.

DHS attorneys are reviewing cases and recommending for dismissal cases of illegal immigrants who have been in the country for two or more years and have no felony convictions.

Defendants can have misdemeanor convictions, but it cannot involve family violence or a sexual crime, according to DHS.

Opponents of illegal immigration are critical of the dismissals.

"They've made clear that they have no interest in enforcing immigration laws against people who are not convicted criminals," says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for strict controls.

"This situation is just another side effect of President Obama's failure to deliver on his campaign promise to make immigration reform a priority in his first year," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Tuesday. " Until he does, state and local authorities are left with no choice but to pick up the slack for prosecuting and detaining criminal aliens."

Attorney Elizabeth Mendoza Macias, who has praticed in Houston for 17 years, said she had cases for several clients dismissed during the past month and eventually called DHS to find out what was going on. She said she was told by a DHS trial attorney that 2,500 cases are currently under review for dismissal in Houston alone.

"I had five dismissed in one week, and two more just recently," Mendoza said. "And I am expecting many, many more in the next month."

One of her clients, a woman from Cameroon, who was in deportation proceedings for being in the country illegally after being caught by the U.S. border agents, had her case dismissed by the government. She can now apply for a permanent resident visa under current U.S. guidelines, according to DHS.

On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials provided a new policy memo from ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton dated Aug. 20 that instructs government attorneys to review pending court cases of illegal immigrants to adjust their residency status based on their relation to a U.S. citizen. In the memo, Morton estimated that the effort could effect up to 17,000 cases nationwide.

Tre Rebsock, the ICE union representative in Houston, said even if the efforts involve only a fraction of the pending immigration cases, "that's going to make our officers feel even more powerless to enforce the laws."