Jack the Club

A 14-year-old teen is resting easy in the strong arms of Child Protection Services after serving a four year stint as a prisoner in his own home.

37-year-old LaRhonda McCall has been charged with 20 counts of child abuse and neglect after her teenage son “escaped” from a closet that she locked him in for nearly 4½ years.
Police were alerted to the situation after the teen made his way to a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City and caught the attention of a security guard on duty. 

“He was hungry. He was dirty. He had numerous scars on his body,” said Sergeant Gary Knightsaid, the first member of law enforcement to arrive on location.

Wearing only a pair of oversized shorts kept in place by a belt, the boy was severely malnourished, a fact slightly less shocking than the origin of his scars and bruises. Police say the teen told them that some scarring occurred from being choked, hit with an extension chord, and from being tied up. The more prevalent marks, located on his stomach and torso, are the result of repeatedly being doused in alcohol and set on fire.

McCall and an accomplice, 38-year-old Steve Vern Hamilton, are both being held on $400,000 bond. Six other children that were living at home were taken by the Department of Human Services.
They have not shown any signs of abuse.

Mayor Eric Brewer has to regret the day that he came out of the closet so to speak, lambasting a local television station for airing out his sequin-laced dirty laundry.

Coming less than a week before he faces poll goers via a voting booth, the mayor of East Cleveland has been sited in rare form; looking fabulous in an amber wig and Jimmy Choo's.

In a move lambasted by Brewer, WKYC's Channel 3 was the first media outlet to shed light on the startling revelation, sending the picture and subsequent mayoral race into the stratosphere.

Reading a statement outside his campaign headquarters, the incumbent mayor vented his frustration with the event via a statement that left more questions than answers.

“I had not seen any of the pictures until WKYC's broadcast yesterday evening.” To date, he has refused to say or deny whether the person pictured is him.

Members of Brewer's campaign have named his opponent, City Council President Gary Norton, as their chief suspect into their search to find whomever leaked and circulated the photos.

Mayor Brewer is also looking into whether police involvement may have played a part in the affair due mainly to the firing of multiple officers during his freshman term.

Former Mayor of East Cleveland, Saratha Googins, says that she knew of the picture for years.
Speaking to WKYC, the woman defeated by Brewer nearly four years ago explained how she knows it is in fact East Cleveland's current leader in drag.

“It's him, alive and well,” said Goggins. “The guy got demon eyes. You can't put them on a woman.”

According to the Chicago Tribune, 3 teens have been charged in the brutal beating death of 16-year-old honor roll student Derrion Albert as he walked home from school through the Roseland neighborhood of far South Side Chicago last Thursday (9/24).

The three teens charged with first-degree murder are Silvanus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, and Eric Carson, 16, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. All 3 will be tried as adults.

The three were caught on video wielding 2-by-4 wooden boards which they used to strike Albert repeatedly about the head causing massive head injuries during a melee involving students from Fenger Academy High School. Albert was pronounced dead three hours later at a local hospital.

Four others are being questioned in the assault. Joe Walker, Albert’s grandfather who helped raise him from a baby, said police expect to arrest 6 or 7 people in the case.

Six Connecticut women are facing assault charges for attacking a Westchester County woman for her amateurish karaoke performance at a bar, police said Friday. Leidy Alcantara, 25, was singing “A Dios Le Pido” by Colombian superstar Juanes on Wednesday night when suspect Kiana Strickland, 20, began heckling her, cops said. “I was singing the song in Spanish, and some girl said I was very annoying,” Alcantara told the Daily News. “I didn’t know she was talking to me, and I said, ‘Excuse me, are you talking to me?’”

“‘Yeah, you’re very annoying,’” Alcantara quoted Strickland as saying. “Then she said something else and punched me in my face,” Alcantara said. Stamford Police Lt. Sean Cooney said, “The verbal exchange didn’t go well.” Strickland slapped Alcantara, and then her five friends joined in, kicking, punching and pulling Alcantara’s hair, police said. “I was covering my face on the floor, crying, feeling all the punching and kicking,” Alcantara said. “I felt the pain all over my body.” Alcantara was treated for bruises and a chipped tooth and was released from Stamford Hospital, police said.

All six women – two 20-year-olds and four 19-year-olds from Stamford and Norwalk – were charged with misdemeanor assault, conspiracy to commit assault and breach of peace.

“What she’s saying is a lie. No one attacked her. No one jumped her,” suspect Michelle Rosedom said. “This wasn’t about her singing, it was about her putting her hands on one of the girls, and a fight started. All we were doing was eating wings,” Rosedom said. “We weren’t even drinking, she was. And now we’re facing three charges. I didn’t even touch her.”

The six suspects were released on $500 bond and are due in court Oct. 5. Alcantara’s lawyer Darnell Crosland said he plans to sue the six women and the sports bar. “Bar fights in general tend to be about really stupid stuff, and this appears to be the most stupid,” Cooney said.

Johnson publishing has had a rough time with keeping their publications a float during the recession and now it seems their most prized possession Ebony Magazine is seeking investors to keep the mag from shutting down.

Linda Johnson Rice the current CEO and daughter of late Founder John H. Johnson, has had a rough year of layoffs, cutbacks and hard decisions in order to keep the multi-publishing company afloat.  Yet with all the cutbacks and layoffs, Rice is still facing the closure of Ebony Magazine, if she can’t find enough investors to invest in the magazine.  According to sources, Rice has sought out investments from Time Inc., Viacom, and private investors.  Time Inc., the world’s largest periodical publisher which already owns Essence and Viacom which is home to MTV, BET and other major networks, declined comment.

Sources say that Rice is definitely trying to keep the publication in-house because of its historical roots in the black community and she would rather get investors than put the magazine up for sale.  With Ebony’s advertising taking a decline for the past  three consecutive years, the hope of keeping the magazine apart of Johnson publishing may be a far reach.