Stupid people of the week

VW Type 1 aka the Beetle

‘Gravitational pull’ of bathroom ‘black hole’ that drew middle school boy was curiosity, not crime, court says

The Oregon Court of Appeals found that a middle school student’s curiosity doesn’t amount to criminal mischief in a case that involved a toilet and an enticing hole in the boys bathroom ceiling.

The Appeals Court this week threw out the judgment against the student, finding no evidence to suggest he had intended to cause a “substantial inconvenience” at Azalea Middle School in Brookings.

In the boy’s own words, he was simply “messing with it,” Chief Judge Erin C. Lagesen wrote.

“Thoughtlessly tampering with property without regard for the interests of others is problematic for its own reasons, but it’s not third-degree criminal mischief,” the judge wrote in a three-page opinion.

It was seventh period on a Monday at the school when the student called a friend into the boys bathroom, then climbed onto a toilet, reached his hand through the tempting hole where a ceiling tile was missing and began “pushing and pulling” on the tile next to the hole, according to the court’s summary of the case.

A ceiling tile fell to the floor and broke, and the student and his buddy ran out of the bathroom.

The school’s janitor was able to replace the tile quickly because the school district buys the tiles in bulk, the opinion said. The janitor described the task as familiar because that particular tile rarely stayed in place, requiring frequent replacements, Lagesen wrote.

The chief judge said the bathroom hole represented a figurative black hole that “exerted a gravitational pull” on the student’s natural inquisitiveness.

The only evidence before the court was that the boy “gave no thought” as to how his “efforts to explore the hole in the ceiling” might affect the school or others, Lagesen wrote.

A three-judge panel of the court reversed Curry County Circuit Judge Jesse C. Margolis’ third-degree criminal mischief finding against the boy after two public defenders challenged the 2023 charge. Oregon Department of Justice lawyers defended the conviction.

The court record doesn’t identify the boy or give his age at the time his curiosity got the better of him. Juvenile Court records aren’t open to the public. The only information on the case is in the Appeals Court opinion.

The principal of the middle school didn’t return emailed or phone messages seeking comment.

The Curry County judge in this case was the same one reversed by the Appeals Court in 2021.

In the earlier decision, the appellate court threw out the 2018 prosecution of a disabled woman who was convicted in Margolis’ court of trying to elude police on her motorized scooter after she was stopped earlier in the night for using the scooter in a crosswalk, unsafe operation of the scooter and failure to wear a helmet.

Appeals Court Presiding Judge Darleen Ortega wrote then that the trial judge was in error for not acquitting the woman because she “should not have been convicted of fleeing or attempting to elude” police for using her “mobility device to get home after a traffic stop.”

Source; Oregon Live

Minnesota man allegedly tried to put Boy Scout cabin fire out with beer, now charged with arson

A man has been charged with first-degree arson after allegedly lighting a cabin owned by the Boy Scouts of America on fire in September.

According to court documents, on Sept. 13, 2024 at approximately 6:52 p.m. deputies from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call at the 5000 block of Taft Road about a cabin fire.

Upon arrival, deputies say volunteer firefighters were working hard to extinguish the fire and noted to Deputy Twaddle that they smelled gas in the back northwest corner of the cabin.

St. Louis County Sheriff’s Sergeant Labore contacted interim CEO for the Boy Scouts of America, Richard Avery, who said that no one was supposed to be at the cabin that day, and that the cabin is locked up and no longer in use, court documents say.

Later, around 8:52 p.m., Investigator Pikul was notified that the department had received a call about a lost hiker.

Deputies found the lost hiker approximately three and half miles from the cabin fire and say he was carrying a gas cannister. When asked about it, the man told law enforcement that he wanted to start a fire but had gotten lost, court documents say.

The court documents go on to say that on Sept. 30, Investigator Pikul met with the man again and this time he denied carrying a gas cannister. Eventually, the man later admitted to having the gas cannister but said he wasn’t going to start a fire with it.

The man then told Pikul he “accidentally did something bad, and he really tried to put it out,” court documents say.

The man later confessed that he broke through a plexiglass window in the back of the cabin with a little hatchet and dumped gasoline inside the cabin, court documents say. Then, he said he panicked when it [the cabin] “went up” [in flames] and he tried to dump a beer on it to put it out.

According to the man, he had two gallon cans of gasoline in his truck but only poured about a cup’s worth of gasoline in the window of the cabin.

Court documents say that the man could not remember why he did it, stating he was “blacked out” at the time of the incident and only remembers bits and pieces.

A first-degree arson conviction carries a 20-year prison sentence, $20,000 fine or both.

Source; CBS News

Mom sues Missouri school that suspended 13-year-old son for making rifle out of Dr. Pepper cans

A mom is suing a Missouri school for suspending her 13-year-old son after he arranged cans of Dr. Pepper in the shape of a rifle and posted a photo of the creation on Snapchat.

“This is unconscionable—my son never hurt or threatened a single person,” Riley Grunden, the mother of the student, who is being called W.G., said in a statement released by Goldwater Institute, who is representing the 13-year-old.

“Instead of using common sense, our own school district treated my child like a criminal for arranging empty soda cans in a way they didn’t like,” Grunden added. “What happened to his First Amendment rights?”

W.G. posted a photo of the Dr. Pepper cans on Snapchat with audio titled “Ak47” which had a musical beat with a voiceover saying, “This is the famous AK47, with over 50 million manufactured in ten countries, the AK47 is the most popular assault rifle in the world.”

After the post, which was made off of school grounds, W.G.’s belongings were searched on Sept. 16, 2024, and he was subsequently suspended by the Mountain View-Birch Tree R-III School District for three days. Grunden met with the superintendent and principal on Sept. 17, 2024.

The school allegedly made a permanent note on his school record that he had taken part in “cyberbullying.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Lanna Tharp, Mountain View-Birch Tree R-III School District superintendent, said, “The School District is aware of the lawsuit that was recently filed. Unfortunately, because the lawsuit involves a student, we are significantly limited in what we are legally permitted to share publicly. For now, we can only say that we have legal counsel, who will present our side of the story and defend against these allegations.”

The Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit on April 10, 2025, alleging that the Mountain View-Birch Tree R-III School District and school officials misinterpreted W.G.’s post “in order to justify punishing him for creative expression protected by the First Amendment.”

The Goldwater Institute maintains that because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., schools have a narrow amount of power to control speech that is made off-campus.

They also highlight the Missouri’s Constitution’s protections for free speech in Article I, Section 8, which gives a Missourian the right to “communicate whatever he will on any subject,” which the Institute says makes “clear that creative expression like this soda can art project falls squarely within protected activity,” in an April 15, 2025, post about the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, Tharp allegedly said, “We have enough information to believe the video has caused fear to at least one student and understandably so. The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority, and we responded swiftly to address the concerns.”

This despite Tharp also allegedly saying, “We want to inform you that we have become aware of a rumor circulating on social media regarding a potential threat. Following a thorough investigation, we have found no credible evidence of any danger.”

The aim of the lawsuit is to clear W.G.’s record and prevent the school from taking further action against the student in regard to the Dr. Pepper cans photo. It also asks the court to declare the school district’s actions unconstitutional.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Dave Roland, director of litigation and co-founder of the Freedom Center of Missouri, said that Goldwater Institute is “pursuing this case to turn the tide against a troubling national wave of schools overreaching their proper authority when it comes to policing and punishing off-campus student expression.”

Through Goldwater’s American Freedom Network of pro bono attorneys, Dave Roland, director of litigation and co-founder of the Freedom Center of Missouri, Marc Ellinger and Stephanie Bell, partners at the Missouri-based firm Ellinger Bell, are representing W.G.

“From students suspended for posting memes to punishments for fictional creative writing, schools are increasingly treating ordinary adolescent communication as grounds for disciplinary action,” Roland added. “The consequences extend far beyond individual cases – each unjust punishment sends a message to all students that their constitutional rights disappear the moment they log onto social media.”

Source; Yahoo!

Self-proclaimed Hamas operative in US Air Force indicted over pipe bomb plot: ‘Been a terrorist since I was a kid’

A self-described Hamas operative who infiltrated the US Air Force and once boasted that he’s “been a terrorist since he’s been a kid” was hit with additional charges this week alongside two Pittsburgh women after the feds foiled an apparent terror plot involving a pair of pipe bombs.

Mohamad Hamad, 23, who has dual citizenship in the US and Lebanon, was already charged for defacing a synagogue was hit Tuesday with a nine-count superseding indictment along with Talya Lubit, 24, and Micaiah Collins, 22.

“Mohamad Hamad lied about his loyalty to the United States, among other false statements, in an attempt to obtain a Top-Secret security clearance,” Acting US Attorney Troy Rivetti said.

“During that time, he openly expressed support for Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Hamas. In addition to his previously charged role in defacing Jewish religious property, he also conspired with others named in this Superseding Indictment to manufacture and detonate destructive devices.”

Hamad and Lubit, were both previously indicted for scrawling red anti-Zionist graffiti on the Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s synagogue and defacing the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s office building.

The new charges center around Hamad’s alleged lying to federal officials during his bid to gain a top-secret security clearance and his development of explosive devices.

Shortly after enlisting in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, a reserve component of the Air Force, in June 2023, Hamad, who lived in Coraopolis, Pa., privately messaged an associate in Ohio that “[i]t’s still Palestine on top though make no mistake,” prosecutors allege.

During his Air Force training, Hamad privately shared footage of Hamas’ violent attacks against Israel with an associate and wrote that “Us Muslims never surrender or back down,” the indictment claims.

In December of 2023, Hamad completed the paperwork to obtain a top-secret security clearance and later had three interviews and a background check with the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, during which he allegedly lied about his loyalty to the US.

“Been a terrorist since I was a kid in Lebanon, real s–t,” Hamad wrote in a June 2024 Signal message to Collins alongside a photo of him as a child holding up a gun, prosecutors said.

Around that time, Hamad and Collins conspired to develop a “destructive device” and detonated a prototype, while musing over the damage it could do.

“That s–t was a blast,” Hamad wrote in a July 7, 2024 message to Collins per prosecutors.

Hamad later built two pipe bombs and additional “destructive devices” before detonating them as well.

Following the initial test explosion, Hamad proudly declared himself a “Hamas operative” in private messages and mused about the “terror” residents may have felt if they saw him dressed in a mask while ripping up Israeli flags in “white suburbia,” the indictment alleges.

On Instagram, Hamad paid homage to Hamas leaders, writing, “Without these men our resistance would be 100 years behind.”

Prosecutors did not divulge any specific plot Hamad may have had with the explosive devices.

Later that July, he and Lubit scrawled red “Jews 4 Palestine” graffiti on Chabad of Squirrel Hill and “Funds Genocide Jews, Hate Zionists” on the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s office building.

“I can literally feel myself starting to see Jews as my enemies,” Lubit wrote in a message to Hamad that July.

“Like, I’m ANGRY. I’m so tired of feeling like being Jewish means I have to second guess being anti oppression,” she said in another message. “

I will not survive being Jewish if I don’t learn to get past that. I’ll just end up abandoning it.”

Lubit also allegedly helped Hamad identify Jewish buildings in the area to target.

Authorities ultimately traced the graffiti back to Hamad and later uncovered his development of pipe bombs and other explosive devices, according to the FBI.

“We always rely on tips from the public,” a spokesperson told The Post. “This really started with the vandalism to the religious institutions here … determining the suspects in that and determining what their motivations were for the fairly strict criteria for a federal hate crime.”

Both Hamad and Lubit have a history of supporting “Squad” reps in Congress.

Hamad gave $10 to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in 2023 after she publicly pushed for a ceasefire shortly after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack against Israel.

He also gave $5 to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) last year after she was censured by Congress for calling Israel an “apartheid government” and defending the Palestinian “resistance.”

Lubit joined over 130 Jews in signing a letter defending Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), who pushed for a ceasefire less than two weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Hamad is facing charges for making false statements, possession of destructive devices, conspiracy, defacing and damaging a religious building, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

If convicted, he could get sentenced to up to 10 years behind bars and get hit with up to $250,000 in fines.

Collins is also facing charges of conspiracy, which entails up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Lubit is facing charges for conspiracy and defacing and damaging a religious building, which includes up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

“The FBI and our partners are committed to investigating and prosecuting individuals who reportedly choose to lie about being loyal to this country and instead engage in dangerous, menacing, and illegal activities,” FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said in a statement.

Source; NY Post

Category: Crime, Police, Stupid Criminals