xxxNews Of The Weirdxxx
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
William Rhode, 53, was arrested in February and charged in several incidents in which he visited daycare centers in the New Jersey towns of Hardyston, Jefferson and Pequannock and inquired about employment, even though at the time he was dressed in pink women’s tights and wore a large diaper. The first two visits were alarming enough to officials, but police arrived in force after the Holy Spirit School in Pequannock reported that Rhode had actually relieved himself in front of students.
Thinking Outside the Box: It was a black male police officer who arrested her, and a black female officer who searched her, but drunk-driving suspect Donna Mills, who is a black New York City judge, still played the race card at her March trial. According to a New York Post report, Mills’ lawyer said that the presence of the black officers meant that Mills’ race-card defense was being undermined, and that that in itself might be evidence of police racism. (Mills was acquitted, but in subsequent interviews, jurors said the racism argument was inconsequential.)
In Los Angeles in February, Michael Marks, 25, raising an insanity defense to attempted murder, said he was drug-crazed at the time of the crime because someone on a balcony above him had spilled PCP on top of his head and that it must have affected his thinking. (He was convicted.)
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Copyright © 2001 by Chuck Shepherd
NEWS OF THE WEIRD