Articles Posted in Odd Cases

Remember that post about the woman who refused to return the “obscene” library book she checked out? (Hint: It was yesterday’s post.) So do you think she returned the book, or was sent to jail? Wrong. Neither. The city (Lewiston, Maine) decided not to pursue the matter any further. Why? As reported in The Sun Journal:

[City Administrator Jim] Bennett .. said that proceeding with that kind of legal action [having Ms. Karkos put in jail] would have accomplished nothing. Putting the matter to rest, he said, is in the best interest of the city. It saves money that would need to be spent to pursue the case in court, he said, and will keep Lewiston from becoming the epicenter of the debate over decency in publications.

Ms. Karkos was pleased, no? No.

Maine resident JoAn Karkos said she’ll take jail. And it’s not because she likes the book, “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health.” It’s because “she claims [it] violates the city’s obscenity ordinance,” per The Sun Journal. What she’s doing is just “civil disobedience.” It’s not working.

After Karkos’ actions were picked up by the media, the library received eight copies of the sexual education book from people around the country, including parents and concerned educators, [Lewiston Public Library Director Rick] Speer said.

So, after she admitted to the Judge that she had the book, but wouldn’t turn it over, what did the Judge do? She gave Karkos a few days to turn it over – after which she will face contempt of court charges.

That’s what Heidi Dalibor, of Grafton, Wisconsin did. The result? After ignoring letters from the library and a court notice, per The News Graphic:

Still, the last thing she expected was a knock on her door by Grafton police.

“They showed me a warrant they had for my arrest,” said Dalibor, 20. “They said they had to cuff me and I said, Are you serious? “

And then, on a sunny summer morning, she did the perp walk through her Arapaho Avenue neighborhood, where most families knew her as the girl who used to baby-sit their kids.

Slight overreaction. Here’s the source, and an AP report.

Things must not be going well if you get to a place where you need to return a box of condoms for a refund. And, when the clerk won’t give you a refund, you call 911, claiming that you were robbed. As reported in the North Jersey Record,

Kadien Jackson, 21, of Blauvelt, N.Y., told police he made the bogus report to help him get his money back. Instead, he was charged with making a false report — a crime that carries prison time upon conviction.

“So, what are you in for?”

Okay, this not a new case, but it’s too wacky to omit on that basis. The waitresses at the Panama City Beach Hooters were told that whoever sold the most beer would get a new Toyota. As reported by the AP,

[Hooters waitress Jodee] Berry, 27, won a beer sales contest in last May at the Panama City Beach Hooters. She believed she had won a new Toyota car.

She was blindfolded and led to the restaurant parking lot, but when the blindfold was removed, she found she was the winner of a toy Yoda Star Wars doll.

Ha ha ha. So incredibly not funny. Ms. Berry sued and … won!

“She’s satisfied with it,” said [her] attorney, David Noll. He did say that Berry can now go to a local car dealership and “pick out whatever type of Toyota she wants.”

Berry 1, Hooters 0 (though they did get a lot of publicity from it – and it’s still making its way around the internet).

In Hamburg, Iowa, the owner of Shotgun Geniez was charged with violating obscenity laws after a 17-year-old danced nude there. The defense? It’s not a strip club. It’s a theater, and is therefore exempt from Iowa’s obscenity laws. The result? As reported in The Omaha World-Herald:

“The evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt Shotgun Geniez is primarily a strip club that features nude dancing. The transparent efforts to appear to be a museum or art center are not convincing. Calling a business a theater does not make it so.”

“Shotgun Geniez, nevertheless, meets the ordinary definition of theater.”

130 MPH on a motorcycle! As if that’s not bad enough, per Sky News,

[Christopher O’Donovan] led police on a 23-mile high speed chase across the Wiltshire countryside, racing through villages and tracks and along several A-roads.

Witnesses say up to 17 police vehicles pursued O’Donovan before the police helicopter took over the chase.

How did they catch Mr. O’Donovan?

He was eventually arrested after returning home.

Mr. O’Donovan was sentenced to 15 months in prison, at least half of which he’ll probably have to serve. Here a few more egregious speeding cases from the United Kingdom:

In 2002 motorcyclist Lee Beddis was caught on a speed camera travelling at 155mph. He was sentenced to 180 hours community punishment and a 12 month ban. Drivers on the A465 in Wales said they saw a ‘blur’ as he passed, and a traffic officer said the pressure from the bike shook his patrol car.

The following year Andrew Osborne was jailed for 28 days after overtaking a lorry at 157mph on an A-road near Buckingham.

Admittedly being a rocker is not your average profession. So, you would expect that, come tax time, they would claim some unusual business expenses, right? What about booze? Yup. As reported by UPI, a Swedish rocker …

tried to claim that because rockers drink a lot as part of their jobs, he should be allowed to import 12 gallons of spirits, 16 gallons of wine and 300 beers into Sweden without having to pay hefty import duties.

Said the rocker at his court hearing:

“I … drink a great deal more than the average Swede. I’m a singer in a rock band and whiskey is a part of it.”

The court’s ruling? Fuhgeddaboutit.

… and never toss a lighter to someone who has just doused himself with gasoline. Because if you do, charges of assisting suicide might await you, as they did a 30-year-old South Korean man. His girlfriend’s distraught ex poured gasoline on himself, then stopped the couple, and threatened to kill himself. As reported by Reuters,

The defendant then threw him a lighter, saying: “Go ahead and kill yourself.”

Unfortunately, he did. The current boyfriend was charged with assisting in a suicide and was convicted. He then appealed and prevailed. Why?

The appeal court ruled that the fact the ex-lover had given his own cigarettes and lighter to a friend so they would not get damaged by the petrol and had not left a will showed he had not planned to commit suicide.

Fortunately for the defendant, having a heart of stone is not a crime.

A 16-year-old Indiana boy had a 15-inch video screen in the rear window of his car. And he was driving around, playing porn on it! He was busted, and appealed the conviction. The ruling? The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the conviction. As explained by police Sgt. Paul Thompson:

People have to be responsible for what’s on those screens. We had a situation where someone had a pornographic video that was visible to people outside the vehicle. Indiana has laws that protect children from obscene matter.

It’s been awhile since I was 16. Maybe that’s why I’m still having a hard time trying to figure out why this kid would think this is funny … Here’s the source.