Woman goes to jail for planting rat in dinner
May 3, 2010
Foodie news from the Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent
APPLETON — An Appleton woman’s attempt to extort $500,000 from an upscale Grand Chute restaurant was “crazy and outlandish,” her defense attorney said Friday at her sentencing.
Debbie Miller will spend nine months in jail and four years on probation instead of collecting hush money after planting a rat in her lunch.
Miller, 43, was sentenced in Outagamie County Court for the 2008 incident at The Seasons.
She pleaded no contest in January to a felony extortion charge and a misdemeanor for obstructing police. She planted the dead animal in her food April 17, 2008, before asking for the money in exchange for keeping quiet about the incident. She threatened to alert the media if the money wasn’t paid.
Police arrested Miller nearly three months later after an investigation conducted by the restaurant’s insurance company.
Defense attorney Edmund Jelinski said the amount Miller tried to extort shows she has mental problems caused by a life of suffering from abuse.
“Five hundred thousand dollars isn’t trying to get a quick buck,” he said. “Five hundred thousand dollars is a delusion of grandeur.”
At the urging of one of their cooks, restaurant owners Bob and Jessica Doller kept the rat after the extortion attempt. Insurance investigators sent it for testing and determined that it was a domestic white rat that had been cooked in a microwave. The restaurant doesn’t use microwaves.
Police determined that Miller purchased the rat days before the incident.
The Dollers declined to address the court at Friday’s sentencing.
Dist. Atty. Carrie Schneider said the crime brought unbelievable stress not only to the Dollers, but also their employees. It caused financial hardship, and to this day, people still connect the rat incident with the restaurant, Schneider said.
The impact is “very significant and severe,” she said.
Schneider also acknowledged Miller’s ongoing therapy needs. Judge Dee Dyer’s sentence matched the prosecution’s request.
Dyer structured the sentence so he can reconsider a prison sentence should Miller fail to abide by rules during probation. The jail sentence will allow her release for treatment, education and work.
Dyer scheduled a May 20 hearing to address restitution. The Dollers are requesting $31,000 based on factors including lost business.
Jelinski, who plans to contest the amount, asked for probation in part to allow for Miller to earn money so she can begin repaying the Dollers.
“I don’t think Miss Miller is a hardened criminal,” he said. “I think Miss Miller is broken.”
Dyer said the presentence report was among the most bizarre he’s seen while a judge. The jail sentence, he said, should serve to assure the community that scheme’s like Miller’s will be punished severely.
“It’s heinous,” he said.
This comes to us from the Houston Chronicle…
A former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper was sentenced today to federal prison for stealing money from motorists, particularly Hispanics.
Michael Anthony Higgins, 43, was sentenced in Corpus Christi federal court to four years in prison, federal officials said.
He also must serve one year of supervised release and was ordered to pay $850 in restitution.
A jury convicted Higgins on Jan. 13 of four counts of willfully stealing money from motorists he stopped on the highway while he was working as a trooper.
Federal authorities said Higgins stopped motorists who appeared to be of Hispanic descent and stole their money, usually in amounts of several hundred dollars.
Civilian complaints led DPS and the Texas Rangers to investigate Higgins.
An undercover agent posing as a motorist was stopped by Higgins, who asked the driver for money and then took some of it, officials said.
Weekend at Bernie’s, Cyprus-style
March 15, 2010
This comes to us from Reuters…
A court in Cyprus remanded two men in custody Wednesday on suspicion of snatching the corpse of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos, holding it for ransom for three months until its discovery Monday.
The men, a 31-year-old migrant from India and a 48-year-old Greek Cypriot, are suspected of being behind the bizarre crime, for which one of them received just 200 euros ($270) for his assistance to the other suspect.
Police said they raided Papadopoulos’s tomb in December, armed with a pick and a shovel, and buried him elsewhere.
A third man, thought to have masterminded the theft, is already serving a prison sentence for other offences and did not appear in court. He is the brother of the Greek Cypriot suspect.
Police were led to the macabre discovery after the Indian suspect, who authorities say has confessed involvement, made contact with Papadopoulos’s family this week.
“The suspect said he felt remorse, so decided to ask for money to reveal where the body was hidden and leave Cyprus,” said Yiannakis Charalambous, a superintendent with Cyprus police.
The Indian was paid 200 euros with the promise of more which was not forthcoming, Charalambous told the court.
Papadopoulos was president of Cyprus from 2003 to early 2008. He died of lung cancer later that year. When his grave was robbed, police spoke of a carefully planned operation, sought help from Interpol and Western intelligence agencies.
Neither man has been charged. Under Cyprus law suspects can be held in custody on court orders to assist inquiries.
