Category Archives: crime

In the neighborhood: Story Hill burglary suspect in court this week

Posted on by
1

Antonio Z. Andrews, who allegedly broke into several neighborhood homes and garages in September will be in court this week on a felony burglary charge related to the breaking-and-entering spree.

The complaint states that Andrews was in possession of stolen property from six different neighborhoods residences or garages when he was arrested Sept. 13 on the west side of the Wisconsin Humane Society.

Andrews, who celebrated his 54th birthday on Thursday, has been in custody since his arrest on the morning of the burglaries. At the time, he was out of jail on bail on an unrelated misdemeanor theft charge. He was charged in October with a misdemeanor count of receiving or concealing stolen property.

His final pre-trial appearance on the felony charge is scheduled for Tuesday before Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz. He is scheduled to enter a plea on the misdemeanor charges on Wednesday before Circuit Judge Mary Triggiano.

Andrews is familiar to police, according to a misdemeanor complaint. When a Wauwatosa police officer was dispatched to investigate a suspicious person complaint in June, the officer stopped Andrews.

“Officer (Michael) Nelson stated that he recognized Andrews as Andrews has had numerous contacts with the police department in the past,” the stolen property complaint said.

Andrews maintained that the silver ipod he was carrying was his, but “when the I-pod was powered on a check of the menu revealed that the words ‘Brad and Cort’s IPOD’ comes up on the display screen.”

The iPod was allegedly stolen from a car parked in a garage in the 4600 block of N. 103rd St., according to the complaint.

Andrews is facing another misdemeanor charge of theft in connection with a May car break-in on Milwaukee’s  northwest side. Andrews allegedly stole about $2 in that case, according to the complaint.

Andrews was arrested “and found to have a screwdriver in his left pants pocket and a flashlight in his right pants pocket,” the complaint said. “The defendant also had on his person a large amount of coins — totaling $40.77 and 3 different brand opened cigarett packages, a pink cell phone the he didn’t know the number for and a silver colored ring. Andrews states that he carries the screwdriver for protection and the flashlight is used by him to look into yards.”

Pimping girls on craigslist

Posted on by
Reply

A Milwaukee man who pimped out his son’s juvenile girlfriends advertised their sexual services on craigslist and sold them both locally and in other states, federal prosecutors allege.

Craigslist has said it is attempting to reduce the number of erotic odds posted on its site. The popular advertising site was sued in federal court by Cook County, Illinois Sheriff Tom Dart who alleged craigslist is facilitating prostitution.

In the Milwaukee case, Todd Carter, 39, and Nicholas Harrison, Carter’s 19-year-old son, are facing charges of conspiracy to sex traffic in children and other related crimes.

The men allegedly were serious about their work: Carter even told a girl she should quit her job at Burger King to devote more time to prostitution, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors allege the two men ran their prostitution business out of their apartment in the 2300 block of N. 1st St. Harrison would entice girls into being his girlfriends, then Carter would set them up as prostitutes. Carter had one 16-year-old girl engage in sexual training with both him and his son, although on separate occasions.

“Carter took partially nude and pornographic photographs of (the girl) alone and with another prostitute with his Sprint cellular telephone, which he then downloaded to his computer and posted with prostitution advertisements…on the internet website, craigslist.org. Carter instructed CWl how to pose for the photographs,” according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

Customers would pay either $150 or $200 for the services, depending on what they wanted. The prostitutes would be driven to their “dates” in the rented cars that Carter used and traveled to Minnesota and Iowa to peddle their wares and parts of their anatomy.

Violence was not uncommon, with fights breaking out between the pimps and prostitutes at various times, according to the complaint.

A prostitute who later was a confidential witness in the case, the complaint said, “tried to stab another prostitute with a knife from the kitchen. Harrison knocked the knife out of CWl’s hand. CWl kicked Harrison, Harrison hit CWl with a skillet, and then CWl struck her head on the sink.”

There was an alleged upside, though.

“Carter instructed (the girl) to advise another underage girl on the benefits of the prostitution lifestyle, such as manicures and getting your hair styled,” according to the complaint.

City opposes protections for convicted criminals seeking housing

Posted on by
Reply

The Common Council went on record last week opposing a bill backed by some Milwaukee Democrats that would prohibit housing discrimination based on arrests or convictions that are more than three years old.

“My office, in meeting with landlords, regularly advises that one of the things that landlords can do to make sure their properties are not facilitating drug dealing or gang activity is to screen their tenants,” Assistant City Attorney Adam Stephens told the council’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee ealier this month.

“That would be a problem” if the landlords had to worry about becoming criminals themsleves, he said.

Under the proposed legislation, a felon who served four years in prison for a serious crime would be protected under the law because the conviction would be more than three years old, Stephens said.

“Obviously, that’s a very practical concern,” he said.

A less serious offender serving probation on a more recent conviction would not be protected, he said.

“I’m a little confused as to the point of this legislation,” Ald. Ashanti Hamilton said.

The major sponsor of the draft legislation, which has not yet been introduced,  is State Rep. Marlin Schneider (D-Wisconsin Rapids). Assembly co-sponsors  include Milwaukee Democrats Annette Williams, Tamara Grigsby and Fred Kessler, city officials said.

Schneider has long been concerned about the misuse of electronic court records in employment screening, and other legislators believe that convicted criminals need a place to live and deserve a second chance, city lobbyist Jennifer Gonda said.

“There’s sort of a sympathetic factor there,” she said.

Ald. Jim Bohl said he was confident the vast majority of constituents would support him in door-to-door debates with the legislation’s sponsors over the proposal’s merits.

“This is not something that would be positively viewed by most of their constituency,” he said.

Bohl predicted the committee’s recommendation to oppose the measure would sail through the full council.

It did — unanimously.

Animal cruelty…a nationwide fad and a Supreme Court case

Posted on by
Reply

In Wisconsin, we’ve got snowmobilers who get their jollies using their machines to bravely and cruelly slay  deer and ducks.

But Wisconsin isn’t the only place where sickos get their jollies by seeing animals in pain. It seems there is a certain segment of the population that gets a sexual kick out of seeing small animals crushed underfoot. The Supreme Court will decide whether depicting that crushing act is free speech or should be prohibited. From the New York Times:

A decade ago, Congress decided it was time to address what a House report called “a very specific sexual fetish.” There are people, it turns out, who take pleasure from watching videos of small animals being crushed.

“Much of the material featured women inflicting the torture with their bare feet or while wearing high-heeled shoes,” the report said. “In some video depictions, the woman’s voice can be heard talking to the animals in a kind of dominatrix patter. The cries and squeals of the animals, obviously in great pain, can also be heard in the videos.”

So, in 1999, Congress made it a crime to sell “crush videos” and almost all other depictions of unlawful cruelty to animals.

The conduct itself is disgusting, of course. But the law does not criminalize the cruelty, which was already illegal in all 50 states, only its depiction. By making such expressions illegal — adding a new category of speech to the very few that are entirely unprotected under the First Amendment — the law raised profound constitutional questions about whether and when the government can decide that some sorts of information have no social value at all.

The Supreme Court is likely to address those questions soon in the case of Robert J. Stevens, a Virginia man sentenced to 37 months in prison under the law for selling videos of dogfights.

Maybe now we know why those Wisconsin yahoos did what they did.