You Just Can’t Make This Shit Up!

The Sandy Springs solicitor has dropped prostitution-related charges against four women who were arrested after a vice detective engaged in sex with them.

Solicitor Bill Riley said such behavior calls into question a detective’s motives and makes the cases more difficult to prosecute. Moreover, Riley wanted to send a message to other detectives that such behavior crosses a line.

Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said in an earlier interview that an arrest can be made as soon as the prostitute makes an offer or agrees to have sex for money or something of value.

“Some hookers will make the john take his clothes off first because they believe a cop can’t do that, but they can,” Porter said then. “Police are trained not to put themselves in a compromising position. The deal doesn’t have to be consummated. The further the officer goes into illegal conduct, the more difficult it is to convince a jury that it was prostitution.”

Steven Patrick Boyle, 23, worked part time for the police department serving Amboy and Vernon Center at the time of the incident last July. Boyle resigned in August.

According to court documents, Boyle told the 18-year-old woman she would be released if she flashed her breasts. He was in uniform and driving a squad car at the time.

Assistant Blue Earth County attorney Chris Rovney says Boyle was sentenced for just a misdemeanor crime, but that it will be difficult for him to get a job on a police force again.

Police said the two were in a pickup truck that spun across Route 124 on a curve, struck a utility pole, slid down an embankment and flipped over. Both were able to crawl out of the truck, where a small fire had started.

The driver, Benjamin Streicher, of Jaffrey, was taken to a hospital with injuries to his shoulder and hands.

His 15-year-old female passenger, whose name has not been released, was flown to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center with injuries to her torso. Her condition has not been released.

Police said that speed might have been a factor in the crash, and there was no evidence of drugs or alcohol. Police said neither occupant was wearing a seat belt.

Police said the baby was sleeping when his father and aunt, Amanda Arthur, 19, got into an argument.

Arthur, 19, ordered the boy’s father out of the apartment, and that’s when, police said, she tossed the baby.

The baby suffered minor cuts and bruises.

Veva Virgil, 37, of Aptos (Santa Cruz County) told police that she killed her daughter in a room at the Motel 6 on Silver Leaf Drive in Watsonville, said police Lt. Darren Thompson. The girl’s name was not released.

A member of the motel’s housecleaning staff found the girl’s body on the bed about 2 p.m. Sunday, Thompson said. Virgil had checked into the motel the day before, police said.

Patrolman Anthony Trabal, a 20-year veteran of the police force, was charged in Hampden Superior Court with motor vehicle fraud and attempted larceny in connection with a 2004 crash that sent him to the emergency room with neck and shoulder injuries.

A prosecutor with the state attorney general’s office has argued Trabal trumped up an extended disability after being out of work for three months with a prior injury to his pinkie, and for nine months following the accident.

A defense lawyer for Trabal has argued his client suffered legitimate injuries and was entitled to more than $23,000 in back pay after he returned to duty in 2005. He has been suspended without pay since his indictment in 2007.

Kevin MacPherson, a physician’s assistant with New England Orthopedic Surgeons, testified on Monday morning that he signed about a dozen forms required under the Police Department’s policies to authorize disability pay. MacPherson said he was confronted with the pile of paperwork while juggling several patients and scrawled his signature on each at the request of a billing clerk.

Somebody filled in false information about appointments and treatment afterward. MacPherson admitted on the witness stand that he signed the forms without consulting Trabal’s file.

“I made an error. I should not have done that,” MacPherson said under direct examination by Assistant Attorney General Glenn Cunha. “I trusted him as a Springfield police officer and wanted to be helpful to him.”

Violence Erupts At 1-Year-Old’s Funeral

Christopher Thomas Jr. died last week of severe injuries and trauma while in the foster care of his aunt.

Family, friends and even strangers came to Serenity Funeral Home to say goodbye to Christopher — a 1-year-old with dimples on both sides of his smile.

His autopsy showed he had broken bones.

But violence continued after his death. A fist fight began at the foot of his open casket and spilled into the foyer of the funeral home.

After a hostile exchange of words, Thomas’ father, Christopher Thomas Sr., was attacked by family members from the maternal side of the family.

“This ain’t the way. This is not the way,” great-grandmother Katherine Shaw said.

Great-grandparents Katherine and Frank Shaw traveled from Alabama for the service.

“We didn’t want him to go home this way. We want him to go home the right way. That’s not right what happened in there,” Frank Shaw said.

But emotions were raw as each side of the family blames the other for what happened to Christopher.

There was further anguish over Christopher’s older sister, Christyanna, who is now in foster care.

“I begged the system to take her out that home before this even happened to her. They ignored what I’m saying. Give us Christyanna so it won’t happen to her,” Katherine Shaw said.

“I’m tired. I’ve been crying all week — every day, every day,” grandmother Darlene Keith said.

Christopher Thomas Sr.’s mother is also upset. She has another son who is married to Crystal Keith, the aunt accused in Christopher’s death.

The baby’s father left his son’s funeral bloody and battered in an ambulance.

SAN ANTONIO — A 27-year-old woman has been arrested on charges of distributing harmful material to a minor after a 14-year-old’s parents found a topless photo of her on his cell phone.

Victoria Ann Chacon, a former middle school teacher, allegedly met the boy at their church, where she was a Sunday school teacher. Authorities at Somerset Independent School District said they found no evidence of any inappropriate relationships with students; the 14-year-old attended school elsewhere.

The boy’s parents called police in March after finding racy letters in which Chacon professed her love. The boy initially refused to give a statement about the relationship, the arrest warrant says.

Several months later, the parents found a cell phone with a topless photo of Chacon. The phone was owned by Chacon and the two had been calling on another, according to court documents.

KEMAH, Texas — Authorities in Texas say a teenage boy fatally shot his father during an argument over a fast food order, then killed himself.

Galveston County sheriff’s officials say the violence occurred Sunday at the family home southeast of Houston.

Sixteen-year-old Robert Lee Mueller Jr. had returned home with the wrong food order for his father, 59-year-old Robert Lee Mueller.

Mara L. Escobar pleaded not guilty yesterday in Central District Court in Worcester to two counts of child rape, five counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, three counts of assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury and one count of domestic assault and battery.

The alleged victim, now 16, was reportedly beaten with thorny rose stems, assaulted with frozen hot dogs, slammed against the floor and kicked and punched in the eye on numerous occasions starting in 2005 while living at Escobar’s home, according to court documents.

On two occasions the victim suffered black eyes and another time she sprained her wrist, according to a statement of facts filed in court.

Worcester police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst said police are calling the abuse a “Cinderella”-type situation in which Escobar’s niece was forced to do housework and live in a shabby, sparsely furnished room, while Escobar’s daughters had toys, TVs, posters and DVD players in their rooms.