Chicago Releases Emails Surrounding Police Killing Of 17-Year-Old Boy

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks to the media.

AP / M. Spencer Green

The city of Chicago on Thursday released more than 1,000 emails from city officials surrounding the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald — a killing that rocked Rahm Emanuel's mayoral administration, jettisoned the police chief, and, most recently, triggered an investigation by the Justice Department.

Provided by the city's Law Department, the emails were given to numerous news outlets that had requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. They range from October 2014 to present and were posted by Chicago Tonight, among others.

Officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times in October 2014, but the case did not gain major national attention until this year, when a judge ordered the release of dashcam video of the incident. The video revealed discrepancies between official police reports and the incident — such as claims McDonald was menacing officers and moving toward them, when the video shows him moving away.

The emails reveal how the administration reacted to the shooting.

Mayor Emanuel had initially resisted a federal investigation; however, he backtracked and announced the chief was resigning and the city would welcome a federal probe. Earlier this month, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced an investigation of the Chicago Police Department.

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LINK: How Investigators Would “Hide And Cover-Up” Alleged Chicago Police Abuses

LINK: Chicago Officer Who Shot Laquan McDonald Pleads Not Guilty

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Cruise Ship Worker Killed While Working On Elevator

A Carnival spokesperson said the crew member died while working on the elevator, causing blood to spill between the doors. WARNING: This post has a graphic image.

Carnival Ecstasy cruise ship leaves the Port of Miami on July 24, 2015.

Lynne Sladky / AP Photo

Passengers aboard the Carnival Ecstasy cruise line encountered a graphic sight on Sunday when a crew member died while working on one of the ship's elevators, causing blood to spill between its doors.

The incident took place around 6:15 p.m. on December 27, according to a Carnival statement sent to BuzzFeed News.

Matt Davis, a passenger aboard the Carnival Ecstasy, was headed to dinner with his family Sunday night when they saw blood in the elevator.

CNN / Via cnn.com

He told CNN that he saw "the elevator with just blood coming down like a sheet and not stopping."

"It was a real life scene of The Shining," David added.

Miami-Dade Police officers identified the victim as 66-year-old Jose Sandoval Opazo from Italy. He was an electrician for Carnival.

The MDPD homicide bureau is still investigating the cause of Opazo's death.

"The company extends its heartfelt sympathy to the family and loved ones of our team member," the Carnival statement read.

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The Pied Piper Of North Carolina

In November 2009, seven men got off a bus in Monterrey, Mexico, and made their way through the crowded and chaotic downtown to the concrete box that housed the United States Consulate.

Inside, the men told a consular officer that they had been invited to work as janitors at the Sugar Mountain ski resort in Banner Elk, North Carolina. They had gone the previous season and were returning; all they needed were their new guest worker visas, which had already been approved, and they would be on their way north.

The Monterrey consulate is one of the world’s busiest, processing more than 400,000 visas each year, and it’s the single largest issuer of the kind the men were awaiting: H-2 visas, given to unskilled “guest workers” for temporary jobs in everything from tobacco farms to landscaping to shellfish peeling. The consulate cranks out an average of nearly 300 every single day.

But on this day, the State Department employee hesitated, then placed a call to the ski resort. It had been a warmer autumn than usual, and Sugar Mountain wasn’t yet open to the public; the consular officer was told that the resort needed snowmakers, not janitors. Stranger still was that the guest worker visa application, filed by a year-old company called Winterscapes, proposed sending nearly 250 Mexican janitors to two small ski resorts in the Blue Ridge Mountains that winter.

Something wasn’t right.

The visas were denied. And the consular official dashed off an urgent cable raising serious doubts about Winterscapes. Two months later, federal agents launched Operation Hammerlock, a criminal investigation that quickly grew, spreading over multiple states and encompassing several federal law enforcement agencies as its focus shifted to the country boy in North Carolina who helped line up the visas.

He lobbied Washington, worked the courts, and negotiated the underworld of Mexican recruiters to provide customers across the country the cheap foreign labor they wanted — and build himself a vast and lucrative empire.

That man, a former state employee by the name of Stan Eury, is widely credited as the largest importer of H-2 guest workers in American history: a legal coyote who saw in the complicated crenellations of federal immigration law a way to expand a little-known program into a giant. He lobbied Washington, worked the courts, and negotiated the underworld of Mexican recruiters in order to provide customers across the country the cheap foreign labor they wanted — and in the process build himself a vast and lucrative empire.

Living unobtrusively in Vass, North Carolina, playing drums in his church band, and providing devoted care to a disabled daughter, Eury, 63 years old, has kept a relatively low profile in the immigration debates that have roiled the country. But over more than a quarter of a century, he has been responsible for procuring hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers on H-2 visas for farmers, landscapers, seafood processors, restaurants, golf courses, concrete companies, and ski slopes. There are strong indications that some of those workers never returned home, as required by law. And at virtually every step — from recruiting the workers, to busing them north, and even to charging them for baggage — Eury’s businesses collected a fortune in fees from all concerned.

Perhaps most importantly, he became the guest worker industry’s dominant power broker, an implacable visionary who helped shape the program into what it is today. Thousands of companies directly employ H-2 workers, and giants such as Wal-Mart and the U.S. Forest Service have relied on their labor indirectly by buying from or contracting with those companies. Just this month, Congress voted to dramatically expand parts of the visa program.

But as previous BuzzFeed News stories have shown, employers frequently exploit foreign H-2 workers, stealing their wages, housing them in squalid conditions, and even endangering their lives. At the same time, many companies use the program to avoid hiring qualified Americans, who by law are are supposed to get first crack at those jobs. Officials at the U.S. Department of Labor say the H-2 program is “part of a wider immigration system that widely acknowledged to be broken.” They claim they have only limited power to fix problems and protect workers, foreign or American.

Overshadowed by the larger immigration debate, the H-2 program is virtually unknown to the general public. But one major constituency champions it: American business, which prizes the steady supply of cheap and pliant labor. The entire program, from its expansive reach to its weak regulation, has been shaped by the businesses that benefit from it. No one personifies that influence more than Stan Eury.

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Stan Eury and his wife, Susan.

Via facebook.com

He has waged and won battle after battle in the courts and in Congress to push wages down, to reduce regulation, to bat back worker protections, and to discourage and disqualify American job seekers. Most importantly, he has fought and won to maintain the flow of Mexicans — and money.

In 2014, more than 150,000 workers came into the country on H-2 visas, far more than the roughly 13,500 that came in the year before Eury first helped a North Carolina farmer look to Mexico for its staffing needs. Last year, Eury’s companies won approval for more than 20,000 visas, charging clients roughly $1,000 for each one.

Eury has built up an ample array of critics and former friends who say he has made a mockery of an already broken immigration system. In addition to his work as a labor broker, some of them claim, he also procured H-2 visas outright for people for whom no jobs were waiting, even people just looking for an easy way to get into the United States.

But Eury’s tactics have also earned him boundless loyalty from the thousands of employers who became dependent on the guest workers he was so good at getting. Even after federal investigators alleged that Eury and companies he created were defrauding clients by charging them millions of dollars in spurious fees, few, if any, customers walked away.

All that seemed to matter was that Eury, more than anyone else, could get them what they wanted: cheap, abundant, uncomplaining, desperate, pliable, dependable foreign labor.

Standing on his front porch last month in worn jeans, brown slip-ons, and a gray sweater, Eury eagerly discussed the H-2 program and his role in its growth, noting that he has spawned many imitators.

“Back in the day, there were no agents except us. And it became something much bigger,” said Eury, who talked enthusiastically for three-quarters of an hour before his wife, Susan, summoned him to end the conversation.

Before disappearing, however, Eury waved off talk of the government’s investigation. “I had a long and contentious relationship with the Department of Labor,” he said, squinting. “This is political.”

The entrance to the North Carolina Growers Association in Vass, North Carolina.

Andrew Craft for BuzzFeed News

A BIT OF “DUMB LUCK”

The business that would do more than anything to influence the shape of America’s guest worker program was born from a drug bust.

It was a Wednesday afternoon in the hot middle of July 1989, and Moore County Narcotics Detective Sergeant D.T. Monroe and his partner had rolled out to check on a tip that almost 200 marijuana plants were growing on an unsuspecting farmer's land.

The officers found the drugs and then, to their surprise, heard voices amid the rustle of the leaves. There, in a bit of “dumb luck,” Monroe said, they found Craig Stanford Eury Jr., whom everybody just called Stan, with his friend and colleague Ken White, watering their contraband crop.

Ten minutes earlier or later, Monroe would have missed them and been forced to dig up the plants himself. Instead, Monroe arrested Eury and White and forced them to help with the work. The department also seized the Subaru the two had driven to the field, Monroe said. “We used it for a long time for undercover work.”

Eury — who just weeks earlier had signed a pledge to abide by his employer’s “Policy for an Alcohol and Drug Free Workplace” — was able to escape serious legal trouble. But he lost his job as a North Carolina rural manpower representative, a kind of agrarian matchmaker who helps farmers find seasonal workers to plant, tend, and harvest their crops.

For a father of three small children, including a 7-year-old daughter severely disabled by cerebral palsy, losing a $24,000-a-year government salary might seem like a crisis. But Eury turned it into an opportunity.

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Stan Eury and his wife Susan with their daughter Sarah.

facebook.com

A month after being fired, Eury founded what would become his biggest and best-known outfit, the North Carolina Growers Association. The group’s articles of incorporation pledged it would “operate as an agricultural trade association,” helping its members “by providing assistance in the areas of labor management, legislation, marketing and other such related activities.”

Eury would do essentially the same job he had done for the state. Except this time, the workers would come from Mexico on H-2 visas. And Eury would collect fees on every one. White soon joined him in the venture.

Their timing couldn’t have been better.

Three years earlier, Congress had passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which made it illegal to knowingly hire an “unauthorized alien,” and which set the stage for massive government raids on employers, including farmers who had long relied on undocumented workers.

He has won battle after battle to push wages down, to bat back worker protections, and to discourage and disqualify American job seekers. Most importantly, he has maintained the flow of Mexicans — and money.

To encourage legal employment, the bill also resuscitated the little-used H-2 guest worker program, which dated from a generation earlier, creating a special category just for agricultural workers, H-2A, and another for nonagricultural workers, H-2B. Critically, it also contained provisions for special associations that could apply for visas for all of their members at once.

Rather than relying on local workers who might make demands about their working conditions, or risk hiring undocumented workers in an era of immigration raids, farmers could now get government permission to bring in foreign laborers who were desperate for the work. Under the program’s rules, guest workers could stay here legally for up to 10 months, but they were tethered to the employer that sponsored their visa and could not seek any other job. When their visa expired, they had to leave the country.

The North Carolina Growers Association offered busy farmers a turnkey guest worker experience. It would serve as a joint employer, applying for all the visas its members wanted en masse, busing the workers across the border from Mexico, and then moving them from farm to farm as needed. And in addition to a membership fee, the growers association could charge for each and every visa, rolling in the cost of transportation and a nice chunk of overhead.

In 1990, the North Carolina Growers Association brought in its first batch of visa holders: 400 workers for a handful of farmers, more than double the number that all the farms in North Carolina combined had imported the previous year.

By 1999, the association was getting approval from the Labor Department to bring in 10,000 or more workers a year.

The back of the North Carolina Growers Association office in Vass, North Carolina.

Andrew Craft for BuzzFeed News

On top of his own familiarity with North Carolina’s agricultural employment regulations, Eury hired a number of former state officials who brought their own knowledge and connections to his business.

His team included Jay Hill, another rural manpower representative with agricultural ties thanks to his father, a prominent tobacco and sweet potato farmer in the state. He rounded out his inner circle with Lee Wicker, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who had been working as a rural manpower representative, and Mike Bell, a Spanish speaker who had lived in Latin America and had also been working in the same agency.

Perhaps Eury’s most important contact was the man he didn’t hire. William “Bubba” Grant, an avid East Carolina University football fan and the brother of an actress who played a pageant official in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine, had been Eury’s direct subordinate when he worked for the government.

Grant took the job Eury vacated and rose quickly; by the mid-1990s he was running the whole division. Every H-2 visa application in the state crossed his desk, which made him a great person to know, particularly since the North Carolina Growers Association often requested more than 80% of all agricultural guest worker visas in North Carolina. For years, employers in North Carolina obtained approvals for more such guest worker visas than employers in any other state.

By law, jobs must go to qualified American applicants before any H-2 workers can be hired. But Frank Gore, a former Rural Manpower Representative who retired in 2009, said it seemed to him that state regulators didn’t prevent the growers association from passing over American workers in favor of cheaper, more pliable foreigners.

Grant did not respond to requests for an interview. A spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Commerce said the agency is in compliance with federal law.

Gore said he noticed that many of his colleagues did not even bother referring local workers to North Carolina Growers Association jobs, despite their obligation to do so. He said he quickly discovered one of the reasons why.

By law, jobs must go to qualified American applicants before any H-2 workers can be hired.

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13 Photos Of The Devastating Floods Sweeping Through Missouri

At least 14 people have died as a result of rising flood waters from a recent storm and breached levees.

Massive storms and a breached levee have caused heavy flooding in Missouri.

John Tosti, owner of Tosti's Transmission, wades in the water after inspecting his business on Dec. 30, 2015 in Fenton, Missouri.

Michael B. Thomas / Getty Images

Pacific, Missouri on December 30.

Jeff Roberson / AP Photo

Volunteers create a wall of sandbags to protect homes from flooding in Arnold, Missouri, Dec. 30, 2015.

Kate Munsch / Reuters

According to the Missouri Department of Public Safety, at least 14 people have died as a result of the floods.

A Circle K gas station in Fenton, Missouri.

Michael B. Thomas / Getty Images

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Hawaii Will Become First State To Raise Minimum Smoking Age To 21

Hawaii’s new tobacco laws go into effect Friday and limit sales of both cigarettes and electronic cigarettes to people 21 or older.

Ronen Zilberman / AP

On Friday, Hawaii will become the first state in the U.S. to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21. A secondary measure specifically prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes to anyone under 21.

On Jan. 1, Hawaii's State Department of Health will start a three month campaign to let the public know about the new law, which was signed in June by Governor David Ige. After that, people under 21 caught smoking will be fined $10 the first offense and $50 every time after that.

Businesses that are caught selling tobacco products to people under the age of 21 will be fined $500 for their first violation and up to $2,000 for subsequent offenses.

The bill to raise the minimum smoking age was in part inspired by the rising use of electronic cigarettes by young people. Officials cited a University of Hawaii study by the Cancer Center that found e-cigarettes were used by teens three times the national average.

Ronen Zilberman / AP

The U.S. Marine Corps said in a statement that they will enforce the rules for anyone under 21 who is enlisted as well as for any base residents or guests. Additionally, all stores on Marine Corps bases have been ordered to stop selling tobacco product to anyone under 21.

According to Department of Defense statistics from 2011, more than 30% of Marines smoke tobacco — the highest rate in the Armed Forces — and Marine Corps data shows that nearly 30% of all enlisted Marines are under age 21. By comparison, only 17% of the national population over the age of 18 smokes, the Center for Disease Control reported in 2014.

A few cities in the U.S., such as New York, have already made it illegal to sell cigarettes to customers under 21, while other states, including California, are considering similar bans.

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Grand Jury Indicts Friend Of San Bernardino Shooters On Terrorism Charges

Bill Robles / AP

A grand jury on Wednesday indicted the 24-year-old friend of the San Bernardino gunman for allegedly conspiring to plan two previous terrorist attacks, as well as four other federal charges.

Enrique Marquez, who was once the neighbor of Sayed Rizwan Farook, was arrested Dec. 17 on suspicion of providing two assault rifles to Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik. The couple went on to kill 14 people at a Riverside County holiday party after allegedly pledging their allegiance to ISIS.

In the days after the attack, authorities said Marquez was cooperating with them. He was later arrested and held without bail after prosecutors said he was a flight risk and potential danger to the community.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Marquez is charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, as well as two counts of making a false statement about the purchase of the rifles. He is also charged with marriage fraud and making a false statement on immigration paperwork.

According to prosecutors, Marquez and Farook plotted in 2011 and 2012 to bomb and shoot up Riverside Community College and a section of the busy 91 Freeway.

"This indictment demonstrates that we will hold accountable all individuals who collaborate with terrorists in executing their plans,” U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in a statement. "Defendant Marquez’s extensive plotting with Syed Rizwan Farook in 2011 and 2012, and his purchase of explosive powder and two firearms, provided the foundation for the murders that occurred this month."

Marquez is also accused of entering into a sham marriage with the sister of Farook's sister-in-law, accepting $200 a month to say they were married and help her immigration status, when she was actually living with another man.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 6.

Jae C. Hong / AP

If convicted, Marquez faces up to 15 years in prison in connection with the terrorism charge, as well as 10 years each for each of the false statements and five years for marriage fraud.

"Mr. Marquez is charged for his role in a conspiracy several years ago to target innocent civilians in our own backyard with cold-blooded terror attacks, and with providing weapons to an individual whose endgame was murder," FBI Los Angeles Assistant Director David Bowdich said in a statement. "The covert nature of the defendant’s alleged actions is a stark reminder of the challenges we face in preventing attacks planned in the name of violent jihad, and underscores the critical need for those with knowledge about terror plots to come forward."

LINK: Gun Buyer In San Bernardino Terror Attack Ordered Held Without Bail

LINK: At Least 14 Victims Dead After Shooting In San Bernardino; Two Suspects Also Killed

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Woman Sent To Prison For Failing To Protect Toddler Is Up For Parole

Arlena Lindley

Dallas County Sheriff's Department

A Texas woman who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for failing to protect her toddler son from a fatal beating exacted by her abusive partner is now up for parole after nine years behind bars.

Arlena Lindley's boyfriend, Alonzo Turner, beat her son, Titches, to death in October 2006. Lindley saw some of the abuse but was thwarted when she tried to intervene, and there was no suggestion she hurt Titches herself.

But authorities said she didn't call 911 in the hours immediately after she witnessed the beating and while Titches was still alive and conscious. Prosecutors in Dallas charged her with "injury to a child by omission," and she pleaded guilty.

A judge handed down a 45-year sentence for Lindley after she turned down a plea deal for a 10-year term.

Lindley's case was the subject of a BuzzFeed News investigation in 2014 showing how the law in many states turns battered women into criminals. The investigation found at least 28 mothers in 11 states who were sentenced to a decade or more in prison for failing to protect their children from their partners — despite evidence that they had also been battered.

Lindley told BuzzFeed News that prior to her son's fatal beating, Turner had punched and chocked her, pulled her hair, and sat on her.

Parole hearings in Texas are not held in public. Instead, a parole officer interviews Lindley and prepares a case file for a three-member parole panel to review.

Panel members can decide whether they want to interview her. Then they vote on whether or not to grant parole. The three panel members for Lindley's case will be Ed Robertson, Troy Fox, and Elvis Hightower.

A parole board has already denied Lindley once before in early 2013. The official reason given was "nature of offense," a designation for offenders whose crimes were too violent for them to be released, or who still pose a threat to public safety. The board allowed her to re-apply three years later.

Turner, who is serving a life sentence for murder, was also charged with domestic assault for hitting and shoving Lindley as she tried to stop him from beating Titches. He will become eligible for parole in 2036.

According to court testimony from a third-party witness, Lindley was there as Turner whipped Titches with a leather belt and threw him against a wall. He also warned Lindley that if she attempted to take Titches out of the home he would kill her. When Lindley tried anyway, she was stopped by Turner and kicked out of the home.

Lindley didn't call the police, later testifying that she was scared it might further ignite Turner's rage. But while she was gone, a separate witness saw Turner abuse Titches further, kicking him repeatedly in the stomach.

Lindley testified that she planned to leave with Titches that evening, when Turner was at work. But after Lindley negotiated a return to the apartment, Titches stopped breathing and died soon thereafter.

Titches' father, William Wade, and paternal grandmother, Cathy Lee, both testified in Lindley's defense at her sentencing hearing, asking Judge Jeanine Howard for leniency.

“I think that our family has really suffered enough," Lee said. "We lost Titches. I don’t want to lose her.”

LINK: Battered, Bereaved, And Behind Bars

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The New Age Of Celebrity Stalkers

Illustration by BuzzFeed News; Getty (4)

Bathroom selfies, photos of restaurant menus, children playing in the yard, baby bumps — celebrities are putting their personal lives into the public domain at an unprecedented rate.

Fans can't seem to get enough. Neither can their stalkers.

The social media arms race that has sprung up in recent years has forced many celebrities into an uncomfortable catch-22. Social media engagement and popularity has become a major barometer used by Hollywood execs and corporate sponsors when sizing up potential hires. Keenly aware of the competition, stars are using intimate peekaboos to grow their base of followers and keep them engaged. But those peeks are also feeding another beast: the legions of obsessed fans, many of whom have mental disorders that lead them down the path of stalking.

Via Twitter: @JamesBlunt

With the torrent of intimate, everyday content posted by celebrities on Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms, stalkers now have unprecedented access to their targets and, with it, greater ability to make contact, track, and issue threats from the privacy of their own homes.

“That is just the nature of the beast,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Jeff Dunn, a 31-year veteran who heads the department’s Threat Management Unit, which was established in 1990 to deal with the influx of stalkers to Hollywood. “We do our best to try to educate victims, but from the celebrity standpoint, they have to put themselves out there to their fans. That is their career.”

It’s a risky calculus that has become the norm in a highly competitive entertainment field where the number of social media followers — and their level of engagement — can often be the key to landing acting roles or securing lucrative business deals.

“It is almost at the nucleus of everything that is being considered,” Ryan Schinman, founder of Platinum Rye Entertainment, one of the top talent brokerage firms in Los Angeles, told BuzzFeed News. “Social prowess is a huge determining factor. If someone just blows them away in their social following, they are probably going to get the job.”

Only top box office A-listers like Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock, or Jennifer Lawrence can afford to opt out. Most others are bound by a new set of rules: Promote, engage, and invigorate your social fanbase or else.

“In many cases, mandatory social promotion is now included in a movie contract,” said Jo Piazza, author of Celebrity, Inc.: How Famous People Make Money. “Almost every tweet or post you read has a motive. Either they are doing it to be paid by a brand, to receive something for free, or to make themselves seem more accessible in order to breed that intimacy. Everything a celebrity is posting will serve to make them money in some way.”

Drew Barrymore / Via Instagram: @drewbarrymore

MANAGING THE THREAT

When LAPD Detective Mary Lopez started at the Threat Management Unit 16 years ago, threats came primarily through the mail, but now more than 90% of her cases are internet related. In 2008, celebrity stalkers were only 10% of the unit’s caseload. That has now doubled.

Part of the problem is a naïve grasp of social media on the part of celebrities, Lopez said. She recalled one actress who was shocked after flowers from a stalker showed up at her hotel room. She wanted to know how her location could have been discovered in such short order.

“I held up her Twitter and it wasn’t until that moment that she realized that she had told them,” Lopez said. “To them they are just tweeting. You don’t know who you are communicating with. You don’t know their mental stability. You have very obsessed people out there who want to be with you, and now you just communicated with them. You just made their obsession bigger.”

Experts say the obsession is driven in large part by a diagnosable condition: erotomania. They typically suffer from schizophrenia, clinical bipolar disorder, and manic depression and believe their “relationship” with a celebrity is reciprocated via a “like,” follow back, or, worse, a direct mention on social media.

“From a celebrity’s perspective, they are doing something they do hundreds of times a day, but for the fan to get a personal response from the celebrity could be the most monumental thing that has ever happened,” Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist, told BuzzFeed News. “And a lot of times, celebrities forget that. They forget the power of just the notion of fame.”

Via Twitter: @chelseahandler

The more serious problems begin when the fan, euphoric from a direct or perceived interaction online, feels like they’re being ignored, Meloy said.

That’s when the admiration turns.

“Then they become very angry,” Meloy said. “That starts with rejection, because they are not getting the response again.”

In years past, an obsessed fan who felt slighted posed less of a problem — the path from obsession to stalking required much more sleuthing, shoe leather, time, and effort. Now, through the power of social media, these fans have unfettered access to their celebrity targets — what their home looks like and where they eat, live, and go on vacation.

Kris Mohandie, a forensic psychologist who works closely with the LAPD, said obsessed fans with mental illnesses can also be cutthroat and target third parties they perceive as getting in their way of their celebrity match. Common personality traits include extreme determination and resourcefulness.

Lana Del Ray / Via Instagram: @lanadelrey

THE CASE OF ZACHARY BENTON SELF

Austin Valenca told BuzzFeed News he had a ringside seat to Zachary Benton Self’s unraveling.

“That kid could do anything with a camera and a computer — absolute whiz kid,” Valenca said of his high school friend. “We have always had great aspirations to become famous through our hobbies, but never managed to make it past our local scene.”

Self had been making videos since the fourth grade, when his father taught him production. By the time he was 19, he was into motorcycles, cars, and music, and had dreams of going to film school.

But somehow, Self took a wrong turn in March and was arrested in a local park for possession of marijuana, according to court records. He was ordered to pay a fine, and a few months later, he told friends he wanted to get his life on track.

Self had a job at a graphic arts studio and was working on a film project with a friend about attention deficit disorder.

“He wanted to get away from his past and start fresh,” Self’s friend Taylor Gang told BuzzFeed News.

Then one day, Self fell apart.

Valenca said his friend started rambling about how he had been touched by God and suddenly knew how the universe worked.

“He said he could control fire and make people do things against their will,” Valenca said.

It’s also when Self started talking incessantly about Lana Del Rey, saying she was leaving him breadcrumbs in her music and on social media posts. He changed his “about” section on Facebook to say, “#Engaged to Heaven on Earth #with @LanaDelRey.” He meticulously analyzed her social media and would tell Valenca how the singer’s messages were directed at him because of their spiritual connection.

Self broadcast his devotion to Del Rey on Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat, even as those he knew joked about it behind his back. Then, without telling anyone, Self disappeared and began a pilgrimage across the country to Del Rey’s Malibu house.

On Nov. 28, he posted a message to Facebook with a map of the border between Nevada and California: “So close.” The next day, he posted a photo of the book The Satanic Witch with the caption “Thanks for leaving me a good read at the crib that’s my witch.”

The book was in Del Rey’s garage.

On Nov. 30, construction workers reporting seeing Self at Del Rey’s Malibu house, which was undergoing renovations, but by the time police arrived, he had run off. However, in his rush to escape, authorities say Self left behind his computer and all the notes about his devotion to Del Rey. The next day, sheriff’s deputies arrested Self at a nearby Starbucks, and he was charged with two felonies: stalking and first-degree burglary. If convicted, he faces nearly seven years in prison.

instagram.com

SEA CHANGE

The growing obsession with Hollywood’s elite fills Wendy Segall’s court calendar.

As the lead Los Angeles County deputy district attorney in charge of prosecuting high-profile celebrity-stalking cases, she’s seen how deeply the prongs of delusion can run, even when confronted with the reality of a courtroom.

“It’s just so delusional,” Segall said. “Or they believe that if the victim just sees them they will have this connection. They just have to meet and they will get to know each other.”

But that meeting can prove deadly, as was illustrated by the shocking shooting death in 1989 that sparked the creation of L.A.’s anti-stalking units. A 19-year-old fan incensed that Mork and Mindy actress Rebecca Schaeffer appeared in a heated love scene onscreen traveled to Los Angeles to fatally shoot her as she answered her front door.

Segall is currently prosecuting Joshua Corbett, who broke into Sandra Bullock’s home in 2014, forcing her to barricade herself in a bedroom closet and call 911. In a recording of the call, Bullock can be heard breathing heavily and telling the 911 operator, "I'm in my closet. I have a safe door. I'm locked in the closet right now."

Actress Sandra Bullock on Sept. 11, 2015 in Toronto, Canada.

Jason Merritt / Getty Images

Corbett was arrested at the scene and charged with 19 felonies involving the possession of assault guns and other weapons, an arsenal of which was discovered in his car and home.

The case served as a chilling reminder of just how dangerous obsessed stalkers can be, but local police resources can only go so far.

Dunn, who heads LAPD’s Threat Management Unit, said he tries to keep the caseload manageable for detectives due in large part to the relentless nature of the suspects — according to the Department of Justice, 11% of stalking victims have been pursued for five or more years.

Over that time, the frequency of unwanted contacts varies. The Journal of Forensic Sciences reported that two-thirds of stalkers pursue their victims at least once per week, and 46% of stalking victims experience at least one unwanted contact per week. Even so, arrests in California can’t be made until there is a “credible threat with the intent to place a person in reasonable fear for his or her safety.” As a consequence, LAPD detectives can end up managing the same stalker for years.

But for every high-profile stalking case that hits the media, Dunn said there are 10 to 15 that his Threat Management Unit handles quietly, due in large part by early intervention and direct contact. Detectives have dropped in on stalkers mailing out their own “fantasy” wedding invitations or sitting at their celebrity’s favorite coffee shop — locations that targets frequently broadcast on Twitter. But instead of hauling the suspects off to jail, the LAPD makes its initial approach with psychologists who can immediately evaluate the situation and follow up with periodic welfare checks.

Segall likens the approach to a sort of homicide prevention. Under current law, a first-time offender can be sentenced to prison for up to three years.

“At least we can stop something before it happens,” she said. “We don’t know the behavior of these people and we don’t know what they are going to do.”

Justin Bieber / Via Instagram: @justinbieber

CATCH-22

For all the potential danger celebrities expose themselves to by revealing more of their personal lives, more often than not, they’re not even controlling the content, let alone interacting with fans.

Celebrities like Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, and Kim Kardashian are not sitting at their computers spending their days responding to fans and trying to grow their base of followers — “not even a little bit,” said Piazza, the author of Celebrity, Inc.

“The majority of celebrities will never touch their own social accounts,” she told BuzzFeed News.

Instead, many celebrities have their own social media manager on staff making a six-figure salary. And if the social ecosystem is too large for one person, a new niche industry has popped up to provide young teams of social media super users who respond, retweet, and like fan posts, while at the same time helping to craft carefully choreographed Instagram and Facebook posts.

Having an engaged base of followers is key, and an important factor for corporate sponsors and studio executives looking to maximize their investment in someone with a built-in, devoted fanbase.

“When a birthday is coming up, we try to like and comment on as many posts as we can, instead of doing a big video sent out to everyone,” said Lisa Jammal, who runs Social Intelligence Agency, which specializes in managing social accounts. “We know that the engagement is important. It’s beyond important. That is what is going to build your fanbase. They become more loyal to you.”

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The Long Road To Criminal Charges Against Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby.

Mark Makela / Reuters

One night early in 2004, Andrea Constand, the director of operations for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, headed to the Pennsylvania home of the man she considered her mentor: Bill Cosby, a comedian so famous that many called him “America’s dad.”

The meeting was supposed to be about Constand’s career prospects, but she didn’t get to do much talking. Ten minutes after she arrived at Cosby’s house, the comedian, according to a criminal complaint filed against him Wednesday in Pennsylvania, told her that he “wanted her to relax” and offered her three blue pills.

“These will make you feel good,” Cosby told Constand. "Yes. Down them. Put 'em down. Put them in your mouth." (All statements in this article are contained in criminal court documents, civil court documents or were made publicly or to BuzzFeed News. Cosby’s attorneys said they expect him to be exonerated.)

The former college basketball star had been feeling “drained” and “emotionally occupied.” She also trusted Cosby, who was 37 years her senior and had always seemed interested in her well-being. She took the pills. When he offered her wine, she hesitated — “just taste the wine,” he insisted — and she drank a few sips.

Half an hour later, she began to feel sick. Her vision got blurry. She lost all strength in her legs. She started to feel nauseous.

Cosby told Constand — who is gay and was in a relationship with a woman at the time — to lie on the couch. The comedian then lied down behind her and began fondling her breasts, the criminal complaint states. He “penetrated her vagina with his fingers” and took her right hand and “placed it on his erect penis,” according to the complaint.

At 4 a.m. the next morning, the complaint states, Cosby gave Constand a muffin and showed her they way out of his house.

“Alright,” he said as he opened the door in a bathrobe, according to the complaint. She left without a word.

On Wednesday, nearly 12 years after the alleged assault, prosecutors in Pennsylvania charged Cosby with three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Constand — a felony that could send him to prison for ten years. Although more than 40 women have publicly accused the 78-year-old comedian of assaulting them over the course of four decades, the entertainer had never been charged with a sex crime.

Cosby and his attorneys have strenuously denied the allegations. They have said that the nearly three dozen women who say they were assaulted by Cosby are lying in an attempt to to exploit his celebrity and wealth for their personal gain. The comedian has filed defamation lawsuits against some of his accusers, but not Constand.

For Constand, Wednesday’s charges represent the culmination of a series of legal battles that have stretched over more than a decade. In the process, she has seen a previous prosecutor decline to open a criminal case against Cosby, won a civil settlement from the entertainer in court, fought to have the confidentiality clause in the settlement removed, and sued the original prosecutor for defamation. Constand’s attorney declined to comment on the criminal case.

Constand met Cosby in 2002, who is one of Temple University’s most famous alums and supporters, in a professional capacity as the head of the university’s basketball team. The two, however, quickly became friendly. In her civil lawsuit against Cosby and in her declarations to the police, Constand described how the entertainer appeared to take an interest in her future and well-being, taking her to dinners and introducing to influential people — such as the President of Swarthmore University; University of Pennsylvania professors — who those could help her build a career in broadcasting, which was her dream at the time.

The alleged assault left Constand traumatized, the complaint states. Less than three months after Cosby allegedly gave her the pills, the former college basketball star quit her job and moved back to her mother’s house in her native Ontario, Canada. There, the complaint states, she isolated herself from her friends and suffered from nightmares.

Then, in January of 2005, nearly a year after the alleged assault, Constand told her mother about what had happened. The two went to the local police office to file a report.

In the following days, according to the complaint, Constand’s mother had a number of phone conversations with Cosby — one was 2.5 hours long. When she confronted him with what her daughter had told her, the complaint states, Cosby admitted to giving Constand medication — he said he couldn’t read the label on the prescription bottle, he said, and promised to write down and mail her the name of the drug — and to touching her sexually. He offered to pay for the alleged victim’s therapy and education, according to the complaint, and tried to arrange a meeting with the two of them in Florida to discuss what had happened.

Andrea Constand.

Mark Blinch / Reuters

“You’re a very sick man,” Constand’s mother told him. The complaint said he agreed, and apologized several times.

In a sealed deposition taken for a civil lawsuit that Constand filed against Csoby later that year and that was obtained by the New York Times, Cosby said he worried that Constand’s mother would consider him a “dirty old man.”

“Tell your mother about the orgasm,” Cosby told investigators he remembered thinking at the time of the phonecall. “Tell your mother how we talked.”

The local police in Ontario eventually forwarded Constand’s report to the authorities in Pennsylvania. A team of detectives with the Chelthenham Township Police interviewed Cosby in the presence of his lawyer. According to the complaint, the comedian admitted to giving Constand “over-the-counter Benadryl” and that he “touched her bare breasts and her private parts.”

Cosby, however, insisted that the victim “never told him to stop,” the complaint states. He also told investigators that he and Constand had kissed before. When asked whether he’d had sex with his mentee, Cosby responded he hadn’t, neither “asleep or awake.”

The detectives bought their report to Bruce Castor, who was then the district attorney for Montgomery County, which comprises the Philadelphia suburb where Cosby lived. At some point, news of the investigation was leaked to the press. Castor began giving press conferences on the inquiry’s investigation, telling reporters at one point that he “had not determined” that Constand’s testimony was credible, and that the fact that she had waited so long to report the incident could damage her credibility.

Then, on February 17, 2005, Tamara Green, an attorney from California, publicly accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her. Three days later, Castor announced that he would not seek criminal charges against Cosby, citing a lack of evidence.

"Much exists in this investigation that could be used to portray persons on both sides of the issue in a less than flattering light,” Castor said at the time.

The following month, Constand filed a federal civil lawsuit against Cosby. The complaint included the testimony of 13 anonymous women who said they had suffered similar abuses at the hands of the comedian. In the course of litigating the lawsuit, Cosby submitted to a lengthy deposition in which he admitted to procuring quaaludes — a powerful sedative — for the purpose of giving them to women he wanted to have sex with.

The litigation over the civil suit grew increasingly bitter, with more and more of the 13 anonymous women cited as witnesses going public with their identities. At one point, Constand filed a defamation lawsuit against one of Cosby’s attorneys and the National Enquirer tabloid, which had run an interview with the entertainer in which he disparaged her claims.

In Nov. 2006, Cosby settled with Constand for an undisclosed amount. The settlement came with a confidentiality agreement.

But then, in July, as more and more women kept coming forth with allegations against Cosby, Constand and her attorneys asked the judge in the civil case to void the confidentiality agreement in the settlement and let her make parts of the court file available to the public. They argued that Cosby’s repeated denials — both explicit and implicit — of the other women’s allegations constituted a violation of agreement and had rendered it void.

Cosby fired back with a request that Constand return her settlement money.

Before those issues could be resolved, in October, Constand filed a new defamation lawsuit, this one against former District Attorney Castor, who’d given an interview in which he said Constand’s police report did not contain all the information that was later revealed in her civil lawsuit.

“Troublesome for the good guys,” Castor wrote on his Facebook page after he shared the article. “Not good.” (Castor did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.)

At the time, Castor, a Republican, was running again for his old position as District Attorney against Kevin Steele, a Democrat who at the time served as first assistant DA. Both men ran advertisements in which they referenced the Cosby case.

Constand’s lawsuit against Castor and the litigation surrounding the confidentiality of the settlement remain pending — but Steele eventually won the election. One of his first acts as DA-elect was filing charges against Cosby.

“Reopening this case was not a question,” Steele said at a news conference Wednesday, explaining that new evidence unearthed in the years since Castor declined to prosecute had made the case viable again.

The indictment came just days before the statute of limitations would have prevented Constand from seeking criminal charges against Cosby, as has happened with every other woman who has publicly accused the comedian.

Cosby turned himself in on Wednesday afternoon as was released after posting $100,000 of his $1 million bail.

LINK: 18 Moments That Led To Bill Cosby’s Stunning Downfall

LINK: Pennsylvania Prosecutors Charge Bill Cosby With Felony Assault

LINK: Women Who Have Accused Bill Cosby Of Sexual Assault React To Criminal Charge

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Chicago Mayor Announces More Tasers, Use Of Force Training For Police

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Dec. 7.

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said the police department will double its number of Tasers and officers will get additional training on using deadly force as part of a new reform effort.

The changes, announced during a joint news conference with Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante, come at a time of increased scrutiny for the police department as one of its own faces first-degree murder charges in the shooting of Laquan McDonald.

The department also faces a federal civil rights investigation after daschcam video was released showing an officer firing 16 shots at McDonald.

During the news conference, Emanuel said the additional training and influx of Tasers was meant not meant solely to reduce the number of deadly incidents, but rebuild public trust.

"When an officer, or an individual is not following the standards, they are undermining the other officers," Emanuel said.

Paul Beaty / AP

The department is currently equipped with 700 Tasers, but officials expect to double that by June 2016. It won't be enough to equip every officer, but it will mean every patrol car will have at least one.

Emanuel said the additional Tasers would also prevent similar situations like what happened during the shooting of McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014, when several officers requested someone with a Taser to respond to the call before Officer Jason Van Dyke arrived and opened fire.

"When we're finally done and implemented," Emanuel said, "you won't have a situation when an officer is calling out, asking for a Taser."

nbcchicago.com / Via nbcchicago.com

The department will also be implementing additional "de-escalation tactics" to reduce the number of fatal police shootings, and teach officers when, or if, to use deadly force, officials said.

Though it will take time to have all officers in the department retrained, Escalante said police were focusing on new hires and officers in the street first.

The additional training, which Escalante said will include 26 classes next year, will also include better training to deal with people who are mentally ill.

"Our goal is to get those frontline officers," Escalante said. "They have to get the training first."

Emanuel, who has faced louder calls to resign from protesters and some elected officials, said the problems facing the Chicago Police Department were not unique.

"Every city is going through a change in police practice, tactics and culture," he said.

LINK: Chicago Officer Who Shot Laquan McDonald Pleads Not Guilty

LINK: Chicago Mayor Apologizes for Police Shooting Recall Bill Introduced

LINK: Attorney General Announces Investigation Into Chicago Police

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Family Of Mentally Ill Woman Killed By Cleveland Police Pushes "Tanisha's Law"

Tanisha Anderson with her brother, Joell Anderson

Cassandra Johnson

Nine days before 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by Cleveland police, Tanisha Anderson experienced her own fatal run-in.

One Nov. 13, 2014, Anderson’s family called 911 for help in convincing Tanisha, who suffered from bipolar disorder, to go to the hospital for a mental episode she was experiencing. Instead, Tanisha died after being handcuffed and allegedly tackled to the pavement by responding police officers.

Her family still doesn't know why Cleveland police Det. Scott Aldridge and his partner, Brian Meyers, who helped hold Tanisha, 37, down on the ground, showed up at the house instead of medical personnel.

Tanisha’s death was ruled a homicide by the coroner, who wrote that the cause was “sudden death in association with physical restraint in a prone position in association with ischemic heart disease and bipolar disorder with agitation.”

A year later, the family is still waiting to learn if Aldridge and Meyers will face criminal charges. When the case is resolved, it will be the next high-profile ruling involving Cleveland officers. Earlier this week, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty announced that a grand jury declined to indict officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback in the fatal shooting of Rice.

“Some days I get frustrated. I talk to God about it. Patience is a virtue," Tanisha’s mother, Cassandra Johnson, told BuzzFeed News.

Like Rice’s family, Johnson has waited over a year to learn the outcome of the criminal investigation, which is being led by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department. Family members have not heard from investigators, other than to take their statements in the case.

Meanwhile, the family has filed a civil lawsuit in federal court that, if successful, could bring them a sense of justice regardless of what happens with the criminal investigation. Litigation in that case, however, is for the most part on hold until the sheriff’s department concludes its assessment and the county prosecutor decides whether to file charges, attorneys for the family told BuzzFeed News.

In the civil complaint, Tanisha's family alleges that Aldridge “slammed her to the sidewalk and pushed her face into the pavement. He placed his knee onto her back, placed his weight on her and placed Tanisha in handcuffs.”

When they are able to move forward with the civil suit, Johnson would like to seek not just monetary compensation for Tanisha’s death, but unprecedented changes to policy that would alter how police officers are trained to deal with mentally ill people they encounter in the line of duty.

"It's not enough to just train officers [in Crisis Intervention Training]. You have to train and test for competency. Just training doesn't make them skillful. You have to measure. Right now, there's no measuring stick," said family attorney David Malik. "We would like to see this implemented as a policy at the state or federal level."

Johnson calls it “Tanisha’s Law.”

Malik said he plans to hire a Department of Justice approved consultant to review, audit, and write new policies that he says will be built into the lawsuit.

However, even if a judge were to approve the policy changes during negotiations, they would only technically be treated as suggestions for a given police department. In Cleveland, for instance, it would be up to the mayor and the city’s legal department to work to push through institute something like “Tanisha’s Law.”

And therein lies the issue. Malik said that in his 36 years of fighting civil rights cases, he's never been successful in getting a police policy recommendation enacted. He puts the onus for blocking the recommendations on the city’s legal department.

"For me, the law department is the problem," Malik says. "How do you have a law department that works to negotiate a consent decree, but historically refuses to make policy changes submitted by civil rights lawyers?"

What is working in Anderson’s family’s favor is that a law dealing with CIT training appears to align with the goals set out by the Justice Department in the agreement outlined in May to reform the Cleveland Police Department. In that agreement, the DOJ said Cleveland police will provide “all officers with sufficient training to identify and appropriately respond to situations involving individuals in crisis.”

Despite the similarities between the two cases of Tanisha and Tamir Rice — the timing, location, and the length of the investigations — Johnson does not like comparison. But when asked about the possibility of her daughter's case going the same route — no indictment and relatively little change — Johnson simply says, "That's not an option."

LINK: Mentally Ill Woman Killed During Altercation With Cleveland Police

LINK: Tanisha Anderson’s Death, At Hands Of Police, Ruled A Homicide

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Women Who Have Accused Bill Cosby Of Sexual Assault React To Criminal Charge

A Pennsylvania district attorney charged the comedian with aggravated indecent assault Wednesday morning.

Kena Betancur / AFP / Getty Images

A district attorney in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania charged Bill Cosby with one count of aggravated indecent assault Wednesday morning.

It is the first time the comedian has been criminally charged after several allegations of sexual assault have been brought against him by different women. BuzzFeed News spoke to some of the women, and the attorneys representing them, about their reaction to Wednesday's announcement.

Joe Cammarhea, the attorney who represents accuser Joan Tarshis, called today's announcement of the charge "a positive step."

"It undermines his contention, at least with respect to Andrea, that his encounter with her was consensual," he told BuzzFeed News. "This is going to have a significant impact on the other cases pending against him."

Tarshis was unable to comment because of a defamation countersuit Cosby filed against her and several other women earlier this month. Between October and November, a total of 10 women sued him for defamation.

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Driver In Fatal Las Vegas Strip Crash Tested Positive For Marijuana

Lakeisha Nicole Holloway.

Chase Stevens / AP

The woman charged with murder after plowing into pedestrians on the Las Vegas strip earlier this month, killing one, had active marijuana in her blood at the time, officials announced Wednesday.

Lakeisha Holloway, 24, is accused of intentionally driving through a crowd on the Las Vegas strip on Dec. 20, killing 32-year-old Jessica Valenzuela of Buckeye, Arizona, and injuring 35 others.

Her 3-year-old daughter was in the car during the crash.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson on Wednesday announced the results of Holloway's toxicology tests, which found that the level of active marijuana in her blood at the time of the crash was 3.5 ng/mL.

The test results, however, would not affect the murder case against her, Wolfson added.

“There is no reasonable explanation or excuse for the actions of this defendant,” Wolfson said in a statement. “The results of the toxicology test do not change the initial charges filed against Ms. Holloway.”

Police and emergency crews respond to the scene.

John Locher / AP

The crash occurred at around 6:30 p.m., when police say Holloway drove into a crowd of people in a 1996 Oldsmobile along Las Vegas Boulevard near the Paris hotel and casino.

Holloway then backed up and allegedly drove back into the crowd a second time as several people jumped onto her front window in an attempt to stop her.

About 30 minutes after she drove away from the scene, Las Vegas police said Holloway asked an employee in the valet area of the Tuscany Hotel to call 911.

Days later at her first court hearing, attorneys for Holloway said she was “heartbroken” by what happened.

Holloway had previously appeared in a video about overcoming homelessness and family drug addiction.

She is due back in court for a status hearing on Jan. 20.

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Cosby Prosecutor Promised To Seek Justice For Sexual Assault Victims During Campaign

First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele announces a felony charge of aggravated indecent assault against Bill Cosby.

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Montgomery County's incoming District Attorney Kevin Steele made a promise during his campaign to prosecute perpetrators of sexual assault and just one month after getting elected he's moving forward with that promise.

Steele, who was elected in November, promised voters that he would be "tough" on Bill Cosby over allegations that he sexually assaulted a number of victims.

The issue of charging Cosby for sexual assault became central to his campaign against Brian Castor, a Republican and former District Attorney vying to return to office after serving eight years as a county commissioner.

In an October advertisement attacking Castor, Steele, who takes office Tuesday but currently serves as the county's First Assistant District Attorney, accused the former district attorney of refusing to prosecute Bill Cosby when allegations against the comedian first emerged in 2004.

youtube.com

Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who is now the lead plaintiff in Cosby's felony sexual assault charge, first filed charges against Cosby in 2004.

But Castor declined to charge Cosby with sexual assault even though he told press in 2014 that he remembers thinking Cosby “probably did do something.”

In an interview with NBC 10 in Philadelphia, Castor said that he believed there was “insufficient, admissible, and reliable evidence upon which to base a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Castor added that Constand’s then one-year-delay in speaking out prevented police from being able to test whether or not she was drugged and gather other physical evidence.

Montgomery County's outgoing District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and Steele revisited the investigation into Constand's allegations against Cosby this year.

In September, two county detectives traveled to Canada to reinterview Constand about the alleged assault, according to the Associated Press.

Jennifer Storm, the Pennsylvania commonwealth's victim advocate, praised Steele on Wednesday after the charges were announced for "not giving up on this victim when so many others had in the past."

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Facebook: ThePAOfficeoftheVictimAdvocate

"Sometimes justice moves slowly and often for victims in high profile sexual assault cases, it never comes," she wrote on Facebook. "The victims who have watched their accuser walk above the law because of his status will hopefully feel some redemption in the face of all the speculation and condemnation they have endured over these years."

Steele positioned himself throughout his campaign as a passionate advocate for victims of a variety of crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault and drug abuse.

His victory in November was celebrated as historic because he was the first democrat to be elected as district attorney in Montgomery county and promised justice for Cosby's victims.

"You made a choice to take it forward, to fight for victims, to fight for people who have been the subject of crimes," he told a chanting crowd during his victory speech in November according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. "And that is where I will continue to make a difference every day. . . . We're going to take a great office and we're going to make it greater."

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Tons Of People On Facebook Were Tricked Into Sharing This Photo Of A Dog With Ham On Its Face

You see, if you look closely, you can definitely see that this is actually just a dog with a piece of ham on its face.

This photo of a dog posted to Facebook by Stephen Roseman has been shared over 100,000 times since last week.

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facebook.com

"This poor dog was badly burned and disfigured trying to save his family from a house fire," Roseman wrote in the caption. "One like = one prayer, one share = ten prayers."

Facebook: stephen.roseman.18

People are sharing the photo, writing things like "poor baby" or asking Jesus to heal him.

Twitter: @martynhett

Except, if you look very closely, you'll realize that this picture is actually not of a brave dog that's been burned in a house fire.

Facebook: stephen.roseman.18

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5 Dead After Woman Drives The Wrong Way On Miami Highway

The female driver and four people in another vehicle were killed in the wrong-way crash on I-95 in Miami-Dade county early Wednesday morning.

Five people were killed in a wrong-way crash on the I-95 in Miami-Dade county early Wednesday morning.

miami.cbslocal.com

A woman in her 20s drove a pick-up truck the wrong way in the express lane causing a head-on collision, killing herself and four other people inside another vehicle, authorities said.

miami.cbslocal.com

The woman was driving a white pickup truck southbound in the northbound express lane when she sideswiped one car and collided head-on with a Chevy sedan killing all four occupants inside. The woman driver in the pick up was also declared dead at the scene.

Authorities do not know if she was under the influence of alcohol.

Five vehicles were impacted in the crash, and two people were transported to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.

Two of the passengers in the sedan, who were identified as foreign nationals, were not wearing seat belts and were ejected from the car, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper told reporters.

miami.cbslocal.com

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Watch Live: Pennsylvania Prosecutors Will Reportedly Charge Bill Cosby In 2004 Assault Allegations

The District Attorney for Montgomery County in Pennsylvania is expected to make an announcement about embattled comedian Bill Cosby on Wednesday morning, multiple outlets reported.

John Minchillo/Invision / AP

The Associated Press is reporting that Cosby will be charged.

Several women have accused Cosby of sexual assault over several decades. The comedian denies all allegations and has sued several of the alleged victims for defamation.

In 2004, former Temple University employee Andrea Constand accused the comedian of drugging her with “herbal pills” and then “touched her breasts and vaginal area, rubbed his penis against her hand, and digitally penetrated her,” ABC News reported in 2005.

This is a developing story. Check back here and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter for more updates.

LINK: Here Are All The Women Who Have Accused Bill Cosby Of Sexual Assault

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SeaWorld Sues California Regulators Over Orca Breeding Ban

Representatives of the San Diego park sued on Tuesday, saying the California Coastal Commission didn’t have the authority to limit the breeding of killer whales in captivity.

Chris Park / AP

SeaWorld filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to reverse a ban of its orca breeding program, the Associated Press reported.

The California Coastal Commission, which regulates land use along the coast, in October banned the San Diego theme park from breeding captive orcas even as it also approved a $100 million expansion. The breeding ban was praised by animal rights activists, including PETA, who called it a victory for "long-suffering orcas."

At the time, SeaWorld officials said they cared for the orcas as family, and it would be wrong to deny their 11 whales reproduction. The park has faced increased scrutiny since the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which accused SeaWorld of mistreating its animals.

Damian Dovarganes / AP

In the new lawsuit, SeaWorld claimed the commission had overstepped its authority with the ban.

"The orcas are not, in any way, part of the coastal or marine environment," their suit said. "All of SeaWorld's activities with respect to the care, breeding and transportation of orcas occur onshore in the orca pools and not in the marine environment and are specifically governed by federal law."

Since 1976, development in California's coastal zones has required a permit from the commission. Its mission includes preserving public access as well as the environment of the state's coast.

In October, the commission approved the park's plan to build a 5.2-million gallon tank and 450,000-gallon pool for the Shamu killer whale facility, demolishing part of an old facility. The expansion was granted under the condition that the new facility not house wild orcas or "utilize any genetic material from" orcas that were taken from the wild.

A spokeswoman for the commission told the AP that it stands by its October decision.

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These Were The Craziest Los Angeles Police Chases Of 2015

Every year is a crazy year in L.A., but 2015 brought us a horse chase-turned-police beating, an acrobatic motorcyclist, a slow moving “victory parade,” and much, much more.

Open Road Films/ Bold Films

There are a lot of things people will tell you define Los Angeles — beaches, palm trees, plastic surgery, kale, gentrification, yoga mats. But there's something more L.A. than all of those things combined: police chases.

Maybe it's because chases represent the convergence of the city's iconic freeways, Nightcrawler-esque news culture, and entertainment, but they've become a big and often weekly part of the culture here in the City of Angels, covered relentlessly from helicopters in the sky.

There were too many chases in 2015 to list them all, but here are a few of the ones that stood out, from offroading to a galloping horse.

March: An acrobatic motorcyclist flipped off the police.

vine.co

Police chased 22-year-old Phillip Resendez across two Southern California counties in March, sometimes at speeds of over 100 mph. Resendez eventually surrendered, but first he repeatedly stood on the motorcycle seat and flipped off the pursuing officers.

Police reportedly first began chasing Resendez because he was driving recklessly.

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An Elephant Seal Keeps Trying To Cross A Highway In California

This is one very determined pinniped.

One caller told the CHP that the seal was in the slow lane, and another said it had tried to attack a car, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

When officers arrived to the scene, the seal was out of the roadway — but causing traffic problems as drivers slowed down to take a look.

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15 Memorable Crime Stories We Published This Year

An exoneree trying to rebuild his life. A woman arrested for reporting her rape. Illegally imported execution drugs. The charismatic leader of a shady religious group. A cop accused of sexually assaulting a dozen women. A black man beaten in an Oakland Whole Foods. Bongs as the new banks. The mystery of an epidemic of murder in Detroit. Here are 15 of the most moving, unnerving, infuriating, revelatory, and memorable crime stories published by BuzzFeed News in 2015.

Exonerated And Out Of Prison — And That’s When The Trouble Starts – Albert Samaha

Scores of former convicts are exonerated every year, and the number is growing. But for Clarence Harrison and many others, walking out of the pen with a clear name and cash for all the years lost doesn’t mean living happily ever after.

Georgia Innocence Project

The Propheteer – David Noriega

Over the past two decades, Colombia’s Iglesia de Dios Ministerial de Jesucristo Internacional — La Ministerial — has built a massive following with almost 900 churches worldwide. The Ministerial calls itself a prophetic faith, but defectors call it a cult that targets immigrants to fill its charismatic leaders’ coffers.

Photo Illustration BuzzFeed News / Piraquive:Mauro Fernando Diaz / Church: Diana Sanchez Revista Semana

"They Told Me It Never Happened" – Katie J.M. Baker

What’s at stake when police arrest women who they believe falsely reported rape? For Lara McLeod, it was her reputation, her mental health, and maybe even her baby nephew’s life.

Jovelle Tamayo for BuzzFeed News

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Cleveland Judge Calls Prosecutor's Approach In Tamir Rice Case "Unorthodox"

"R.I.P. Tamir Rice" is written on a block of wood near a memorial for Rice outside the Cudell Recreation Center, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, in Cleveland.

Tony Dejak / AP

CLEVELAND — A judge who notably ruled that there was probable cause to criminally charge the officers involved in the Tamir Rice shooting told BuzzFeed News Tuesday that he found County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty’s handling of the case odd.

“It certainly was unique, the way they went about it. It was unusual,” says Judge Ronald B. Adrine, a municipal court judge in Cleveland.

Shortly after McGinty announced the grand jury declined to bring charges against officers Frank Garmback and Tim Loehmann — the latter shot Rice on November 22, 2014 because he thought the toy gun he was holding was real — he came under criticism for how he told the public he presented evidence in the case.

McGinty said during a news conference Monday that he recommended the grand jury not charge the officers. He also said his team showed the grand jury how similar the toy gun looked to a real weapon.

In a statement released Monday, Rice’s family said the prosecutor's office "deliberately sabotaged the case, never advocating for my son, and acting instead like the police officers' defense attorney." The family added, "In our view, this process demonstrates that race is still an extremely troubling and serious problem in our country and the criminal-justice system."

Asked about the criticisms by the Rice family and others, Adrine told BuzzFeed News, “I'm not going to try and second guess him if that was the best way to do it, but it certainly was unorthodox.” He added that it was apparent to him that McGinty was being as transparent as he possibly could be, so nobody “could come back at him and say he withheld any evidence.”

The approach helped McGinty "establish that the conclusion that the grand jury came to was correct," Adrine said.

Still, Adrine added, "given the high level of angst that there has been, it's unfortunate that it didn't get a full public hearing" such as a criminal trial.

In July, after a public petition to arrest the officers, Adrine ruled that there was enough probable cause to bring charges against them.

The Ohio statute — which Adrine calls “kind of quirky” — that allowed him to review materials and make a ruling allows for citizens to call for a judge to review affidavits in any case and make a recommendation to a prosecutor.

Following Adrine’s ruling, McGinty said publicly that the judge’s findings would not alter his office’s approach in presenting the case to a grand jury. Adrine says he never heard from the prosecutor’s office after his ruling and has no idea if his ruling was presented to the grand jury.

"Obviously the fact that this is not going to go before a judge, before a jury...there are going to be lots of portions of the community that feel that this case was treated differently than if the police rolled up and someone killed one of the police officers," Adrine said.

On Monday, McGinty stressed that the death of Tamir Rice, while tragic, occurred due to an unfortunate confluence of a number of factors — including the fact that the 911 dispatcher did not relay to Loehmann and Garmback that Rice was believed to be a juvenile and the weapon he was playing with in the park that day was likely a toy.

"Given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and communications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police," McGinty said.

Still, Adrine believes that this was decision for a jury.

"If this had gone to trial and both officers were found not guilty, I would have been content with that. I think this is the kind of case that our justice system was meant to handle, "Adrine said.

"In any circumstance, it was a hard case to make, but it is a hard case that somebody should have tried to make."

LINK: Here’s A Brief History Of The Tamir Rice Shooting

LINK: No Criminal Charges For Police Officers Who Shot Tamir Rice

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Surveillance Video Shows Man Defacing Las Vegas Mosque With Bacon

Surveillance Footage / KSNV News

Police in Nevada are considering opening a hate crime investigation after a man defaced a mosque early Sunday morning, the authorities confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

Surveillance footage from a camera directly outside the Masjid-e-Tawheed in Las Vegas captured an unidentified man appearing to wrap strips of raw bacon around the handles of the mosque's doors around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday. Eating pork products is understood to be forbidden in Islam.

A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told BuzzFeed News that, as of Tuesday, no federal agencies are involved in the investigation. The spokesperson added that no arrests had been made.

"I hope that in his conscience, in his heart, he feels ashamed of what he did," Rokai Yusufzai, a founding member of the mosque, told KSNV.

The surveillance video that caught the Nevada incident also shows the attacker stuffing several strips of raw bacon into his mouth.

Sunday's incident is just the latest in a series of acts of vandalism against mosques in which attackers have used pork products. Earlier this month, horrified congregants found a severed hog's head outside their mosque in Philadelphia. And Muslims in California were recently forced to clean bacon from the parking lot of the Manteca Islamic Center near San Francisco.

LINK: A Severed Pig’s Head Was Left Outside A Philadelphia Mosque

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Martha Stewart Frying Pans Recalled After Metal Parts Pop Off And Hit Customers

At least seven people have reported receiving bruises or burns from small metal pieces popping off the pans.

Martha Stewart uses a pan similar to the one recalled.

Rob Kim / Getty Images

Macy's has recalled thousands of Martha Stewart frying pans after several customers reported being hit by metal disks that popped off while cooking.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on Tuesday announced that the round metal pieces that cover the rivets on two different types of pans can "pop off and hit consumers, causing an injury hazard."

So far, seven people have reported sustaining injuries from the faulty pans, including bruises, burns, and welts.

A total of 121,000 pans have been recalled.

The pans were included in a larger 10-piece cookware set, and were sold at military bases in addition to Macy's.

According to the CPSC announcement, Macy's customers may return the full set for store credit. Those who purchased them through the Military Exchange are eligible to receive a full refund.

BuzzFeed News has reached out to both retailers for comment.

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"Glee" Star Mark Salling Arrested For Allegedly Possessing Child Pornography

Paul A. Hebert / AP

Former Glee star Mark Salling was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possessing child pornography, Los Angeles police said.

Salling, 33, was arrested at his home in Sunland after investigators served a search warrant at his home in the early morning, LAPD spokesman Ricardo Hernandez told BuzzFeed News.

The warrant was served by officers from the LAPD's Crimes Against Children Task Force.

The arrest comes two years after Salling was sued by his ex-girlfriend, Roxanne Gorzela, who alleged sexual battery, assault, emotional distress and negligence. She claimed that Salling forced her into unprotected sex and that he later assaulted her when she went to his house to confront him regarding her fears that he had given her a sexual transmitted disease.

Salling settled that lawsuit earlier this year for $2.7 million.

Salling's publicist did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.

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Missouri Floods Kill 13, Prompt Mass Evacuations

Rising flood waters have swept away vehicles and practically submerged whole buildings after breaching a levee north of St. Louis.

Two cars are submerged in floodwater in a park in Kimmswick, Mo.

Jeff Roberson / AP

Widespread flooding on Tuesday continued to ravage Missouri, where the death toll has risen to 13 as authorities tried to evacuate whole towns ahead of advancing waters.

Gov. Jay Nixon at a news conference said most of the deaths involved those who were in vehicles that drove onto flooded roadways, where swift currents can prove deadly. He made the announcement in Perry County, where the Mississippi River is expected to a make a record crest in the coming days.

Nixon also declared a state of emergency as officials struggled with the rising flood waters after a storm system dropped more than half-foot of rain.

Meanwhile, a levee just north of the St. Louis-area was breached, prompting officials there to order everyone out of the town of West Alton, which sits near where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers converge.

The rising flood waters are the result of a massive weekend storm moving up from the southwest that were also blamed for at least three deaths in Oklahoma, state health officials reported.

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Police Offer Reward For Information In Attack Against Elderly Sikh Man

Sikhs dressed as "Panj Pyaare", or the five beloved of Sikh Gurus, hold swords as they take part in a religious procession in Ahmedabad, India, November 21, 2015.

Amit Dave / Reuters

A 68-year-old resident of Fresno, California, was attacked by two men who he believes mistook him for a Muslim and the FBI and local police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Amrik Singh Bal, who follows the Sikh faith, was heading to work early in the morning of Dec. 26 when he noticed a dark-colored car make a sudden turn and park against traffic. Then, two white then men got out of the car and started yelling at him, according to a report in the Fresno Bee.

Bal ran away, but the men followed him. When they caught up with him, they hit him in the face and chest, and pushed him into the middle of the street. The two then got back in the car, made a U-turn, and drove towards Bal hitting -- him with their fender.

Bal, who has a long beard and wears a turban as an expression of religious devotion, fell to the ground, hitting his head and breaking his collarbone. He speaks limited English, but reportedly told investigators that he believed the men who attacked him were upset by his presence in the United Sates.

Now, police in Fresno are offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the two men. The FBI and the local authorities told reporters they are investigating the incident as a hate crime — one of a recent wave of attacks in California against people perceived to be Muslim.

"I'm confident these two people have bragged to someone about what they did," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer told the Bee.

Sikhism is a monotheistic faith that originated in South Asia in the 15th century. It is a completely separate religion from Islam, but that has not protected its members from suffering violent attacks whenever a new wave of anti-Muslim sentiment spreads across the United States.

In the month after 9/11, for example, the Sikh Coalition — a non-profit group that advocates for the rights of Sikhs — recorded no less than 300 cases of violence and discrimination against members of the faith in the United States.

LINK: 36 Anti-Muslim Incidents In The United States In The Last Month

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