Man sentenced to nearly 5 years in sextortion case
ATLANTA – A former U.S. State Department employee was sentenced Monday to serve nearly five years in federal prison for accessing young women’s online accounts from his computer at the American embassy in London and threatening to expose their sexually explicit photos.
Michael C. Ford, 36, sent “phishing” emails to women, specifically targeting members of sororities and aspiring models. He claimed to be a member of Google’s account deletion team, which doesn’t exist, to get them to hand over their passwords, prosecutors said.
Ford used the women’s passwords to access their email and social media accounts and searched for sexually explicit photographs and personal information. He sent messages threatening to put the images online or send them to the women’s families and friends if they didn’t do what he wanted, a practice known as sextortion, prosecutors said. In several instances, he followed through on those threats.
Witness helped lead police to Paris attacks suspect
BRUSSELS – Within 72 hours, a police sketch led to the capture of Salah Abdeslam, the most-wanted man in Europe.
On March 15, a six-member police team showed up to search an apartment believed linked to the Paris attackers, according to government and security officials. In the melee, four police officers were wounded, and two occupants of the apartment managed to slip away, reportedly via the rooftop.
A witness got a good enough look at one of the escapees to describe him to a police sketch artist, said Ahmed El Khannouss, the first deputy mayor of Molenbeek. The portrait that resulted “bore a very strong resemblance to Salah Abdeslam,” El Khannouss said. Forensic scientists found Abdeslam’s fingerprints in the apartment.
The 26-year-old Frenchman was arrested Friday. Much remains unclear about Abdeslam’s movements in the four months he managed to elude authorities multiple times.
Mother accused of putting her 2-year-old in oven
A Texas mother has been accused of putting her toddler in an oven, landing the child in a Fort Worth hospital with second- and third-degree burns.
Witnesses told investigators that Tasha Hatcher, the child’s 35-year-old mother, admitted to placing her child in the oven, according to a statement from the Somervell County Sheriff’s Department.
Hatcher has been charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony, the statement said.
Man shot dead by police after allegedly killing 2
Authorities said Clarence D. Briggs, a 55-year-old man who retired from the state police in 2012, showed up at a Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange on Sunday morning wearing a camouflage mask and cargo pants. He allegedly threatened two employees in a toll booth with a gun, ordering them inside the turnpike office building.
Meanwhile, an armored fare collection vehicle had arrived at the interchange. Once outside, Briggs allegedly killed a 55-year-old turnpike toll collector and a 72-year-old security guard for the collection vehicle. He then began firing at the collection vehicle as its driver fled.
Briggs then got behind the wheel and drove the vehicle a short distance to his own car, which he allegedly started loading with stolen money. But state troopers soon arrived on the scene, and exchanged fire with Briggs, killing him.
Associated Press & Washington Post
