Scott airman admits having bombs possibly intended for child molesters

4-23-2014 Missouri:

An airman at Scott Air Force Base admitted in federal court here Wednesday that he possessed three illegal pipe bombs at his home in Shiloh, but there was no explanation at the hearing of why.

Previously filed charging documents claim that Justin VanGilder told an unnamed visitor to his home that he was suicidal and had fantasies of killing child molesters.

VanGilder, 24, of Twin Oaks Drive, acknowledged in court that he had two bombs with plastic casings and one made of metal. All were packed with smokeless powder, bird shot and nails, and equipped with fuses, his plea documents say. He pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing unregistered destructive devices, and could face up to 10 years in prison on each when sentenced Aug 1. Federal sentencing guidelines are likely to call for much less time, however.

Convicted Boulder sex offender, Zachary Meints, stabbed 2nd time in eight days by masked attacker

4-8-2014 Colorado:

BOULDER, Colorado - Boulder police say a convicted sex offender has been stabbed by a masked attacker for the second time in eight days.

Police say 26-year-old Zachary Meints told investigators he was stabbed by a male assailant wearing a bandana over his face as he walked in downtown Boulder just before 3 p.m. Tuesday.

He said he couldn't identify the attacker who thrust a folding knife into his abdomen in the 2100 block of Pine Street.

Meints told police he tried to spray the attacker with pepper spray, but believed he missed. The attacker fled toward to the east and officers searched the area without success, police said.

"Meints drove himself to a local emergency room for treatment. The wound does not appear to be serious," Boulder Police spokeswoman Kim Kobel said in a news release on Tuesday night.

The attacker was described as a white man who was wearing a black-and-white bandana over his face and a long-sleeve black shirt. He was 5-feet-10-inches tall and weighed about 175 pounds.

Sheriff: Jared Remy fought child sex offender

4-8-2014 Massachusetts:

Accused killer Jared Remy told investigators from the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, “I did what I had to do — I got a child molester,” when he allegedly threw scalding water in the face of fellow detainee Jemery Hodges before a fight with a green plastic chair, soap and his fists, according to court documents released today.

“I had a plan and I did it. I took water, boiling hot water, and threw it in the guy’s face. I took a piece of soap and threw it at the guy’s face and hit him with a chair. Once I slipped, I punched him in the face,” Remy reportedly said during a videotaped interview following the incident Thursday morning in an overflow room of the Special Management Unit at the Cambridge jail, records state.

Hodges, 27, was watching television when Remy snuck up on him, a report by Sheriff Peter Koutoujian’s Investigations Unit states. The violent dustup was captured by surveillance video, the report states, and reportedly shows Remy striking Hodges with the chair five times with “overhead swings.”

Hodges was treated internally for burns on his face and cuts to his left hand.

Detroit neighborhood takes vigilante action against rape suspect

8-11-2013 Michigan:

On a pleasant, partly sunny afternoon, an armed security guard stood watch over an apartment building in the Hubbard Farms neighborhood in southwest Detroit.

The guard wouldn’t say why he was there. But behind him last Tuesday, scrawled onto the ornate stone facade of the building on West Grand Boulevard, the word “rapist” could still be seen, even after efforts that morning to scrub it off. A faded blue arrow sprayed above the graffiti letters still pointed to an apartment window, still condemning whoever lived in that first-floor home.

But the 43-year-old occupant wasn’t there any longer. His family moved him, afraid he’d be killed.

Inside the homes on these tight-knit blocks and along the thriving businesses and vacant storefronts of Vernor Highway in Detroit’s Mexicantown, the former resident of that apartment is widely believed to be a rapist. His accuser is a 15-year-old girl who, as the streets have it, was cajoled into his apartment on July 17 and attacked. She’s from the neighborhood, too. She has Down syndrome. The neighborhood is furious.

The man has not been charged. Police still are investigating. And last Monday, nearly three weeks after the alleged attack, frustration over the slow pace of justice went from simmer to boil.

During the lunch hour, people located the man, whose name and image had been circulated in the community, walking along Vernor. They beat him repeatedly. Witnesses at one point saw five attackers. At least one had a baseball bat. The man spent several hours in the hospital that day and then went into hiding.

Now the community is torn. Some residents are horrified and wonder how this vigilantism happened. Others have applauded the attackers, posting hallelujahs on Facebook. The Free Press spent last week interviewing neighbors and witnesses and talking to police and prosecutors to piece together how it all came to this.