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sexta-feira, 28 de setembro de 2012

Arizona woman sentenced after faking cancer

Eyewitness NewsPHOENIX -- A Phoenix woman who pretended to have cancer in order to raise money for breast implants has been sentenced to a year in jail and three years of probation.

Court spokesman Kelly Vail says 27-year-old Jami Lynn Toler was sentenced Wednesday. She pleaded guilty in August to a theft charge in a plea agreement.

Authorities say Toler helped organize fundraisers and collected more than $8,000 beginning last September. Medical records obtained by Mesa police show she didn't have cancer and paid a plastic surgeon with the cash.

Court Commissioner Brian Kaiser also ordered Toler to pay restitution.

Police reports show Toler told her former boss she needed a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction but was uninsured. She told the same story to her mother and grandparents.

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quarta-feira, 26 de setembro de 2012

Woman shoots husband in fight over pet cat

Eyewitness NewsTEXAS (WABC) -- Police say a woman in Texas shot her husband after an argument about one of their cats.

Audrey Deen Miller, 42, apparently used a .40 caliber semi-auto handgun to shoot her husband after he threatened to hurt the feline during an argument.

"She made comments of some nature that he was going to harm her cat, and...she pointed the weapon at him and shot him in the stomach," a police spokesperson said.

Miller's 42-year-old husband is recovering.

The cat was not hurt.

Shortly after police arrived on the scene at 7:15 a.m. Miller was placed in the back of a police car.

She is is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

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sábado, 22 de setembro de 2012

Caught on tape: Hero cop saves woman from car

Eyewitness NewsTEXAS (WABC) -- A quick-thinking police officer's split-second decision may have saved a woman's life, and it was all caught on video.

The Lubbock, Texas, officer was investigating an accident when an out-of-control driver hit his police cruiser.

The impact was caught by the officer's DashCam.

The officer pushed a woman involved in the first accident out of the way.

The driver that hit the police car was charged with drinking and driving.

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sexta-feira, 14 de setembro de 2012

DashCam: Cop drags elderly woman out of car

Eyewitness NewsTEXAS (WABC) -- A grandmother in Texas is demanding an apology from a police officer who dragged her out of her SUV.

The officer's dash and chest cameras were both rolling during last month's traffic stop.

Authorities say 77-year-old Lynn Bedford refused to show her license after being pulled over for speeding.

She says she was explaining to the officer that he had to hurry because she had a bladder infection and had to go to the bathroom when he became rude.

The department says the officer did not violate procedures.

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quarta-feira, 12 de setembro de 2012

Woman pulls gun on man during sex in car

A Florida woman pulled a gun on a man during sex and demanded money, causing him to lose control of his moving car, police said.

Amanda Jean Linscott, 26, fled the scene on foot after the vehicle struck a palm tree, went airborne and plowed through two front yards, said police in Port Charlotte, Fla..

After a weeklong investigation, Linscott was arrested today on an armed robbery charge.

Her left eye, visibly bruised in her mug shot, was injured as a result of the victim punching her in the face during the skirmish, which occurred during the early hours of Sept. 3, police said.

Hours earlier, Linscott, who was accompanied by a friend, met the victim and two of his friends at the Paddy Wagon Irish Pub in Port Charlotte, police said.

After the bar closed, the men invited the women to come to a private residence, where the victim and another woman went into a bedroom to have sex, police said.

"The girl said she needed $250, which [the victim] said he didn't have. She asked how much he had and he gave her $120," Bob Carpenter, a spokesperson for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, said in a statement.

When the victim went to the bathroom, both women left the home, police said.

The victim then called Linscott's friend's cell phone and agreed to meet her at a local convenience store. Instead of encountering the woman who left with his $120, the victim met Linscott, who claimed her friend had ditched her, police said.

Linscott got into the victim's Nissan Sentra, at which point she began touching the man and having sex with him while he was driving, the man told police.

Linscott allegedly demanded money. When the man told her he had already given her friend $120, she put a .357 Taurus revolver to the man's head, police said.

During the melee, the victim lost control of his car, striking a palm tree and barreling through two front yards before his vehicle came to a stop, at which point Linscott fled the scene.

The victim managed to drive his wrecked car to his two friends' home, where he gave them the gun that had been left behind and called police.

When deputies responded to the area, they saw an elderly man in a driveway who told them his daughter, Amanda Linscott, was in a crash and had been punched in the face, police said.

After gathering statements from all parties and examining evidence, there was reason to arrest Linscott on an armed robbery charge, police said.

She is being held at Charlotte County Jail without bond.

It was not yet clear whether Linscott had an attorney.

sábado, 8 de setembro de 2012

Handcuffed woman spits on cop, gets tasered

Eyewitness NewsOKLAHOMA (WABC) -- An Oklahoma police officer was suspended after he was caught on camera using a taser on a woman in custody.

Nakina Williams was in handcuffs, accused of public intoxication, when she spit on the officer.

In response, Officer Sterling Taylor shocked her with a taser. Taylor was seen circling Williams while the probes were still on her for a little more than minute.

The incident happened last June.

"Obviously, spitting in the face or on a police officer is inexcusable," said the American Civil Liberties Union Board Member William H. Hinkle."The only justification for him tasering her is if she was somehow able to physically attack him in some way that looked capable of injuring him seriously. I don't know how she could have done that with her hands cuffed behind her back."

The department ultimately found Taylor violated the McAlester Police Department's policy for handling Tasers. Taylor has been placed on a two week unpaid suspension, and will have to undergo more training.

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quinta-feira, 21 de junho de 2012

Teen saves woman after car plunges into pool

Eyewitness NewsCALIFORNIA (WABC) -- A young man in California is being called a hero for saving a woman trapped inside a car that ended up in a swimming pool.

Police say 33-year-old Robert Anderson lost control of his car, crashed through a fence and landed in the pool.

Anderson managed to swim to safety, but his girlfriend was tangled in her seat belt.

That's when neighbor Jarit Wells jumped in the water and pulled her to safety.

The woman remains in critical condition.

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terça-feira, 5 de junho de 2012

Connecitcut woman, family killed in Nigeria plane crash

Eyewitness NewsLAGOS, Nigeria (WABC) -- A Connecticut woman and her children are believed to be among those killed in a plane crash in Nigeria.

Maimuna Anyene, of West Hartford, was traveling with her family to her brother's wedding.

Their plane crashed sunday in Lagos.

The pilots had radioed about engine trouble.

Anyene, her four young children and her Nigerian-based husband all died.

Meanwhile, anxious families and diplomats crowded into a hospital in Lagos on Tuesday and tried to identify corpses from the plane crash, which killed the 153 people aboard the airliner and an unknown number of others on the ground.

The stench of the dead carried outside the air-conditioned morgue. Guards parking cars outside wore surgical masks to block out the smell.

Professor David Oke, the chief medical director of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, told the dozens of families that the morgue had received about 40 bodies. He said among those already identified were the bodies of a Chinese citizen and a Canadian.

Outside the hospital, Ugonna Nwoka said his uncle had been aboard the Dana Air flight that went down in a congested neighborhood on Sunday, turning much of it to rubble. Nwoka said he tried to go to the crash site on Monday but was pushed away by security forces.

"We stayed for hours trying to plead to see what happened," Nwoka said. Asked why he needed to see the crash site, Nwoka said if he didn't it would be "all like a dream, like a drama, like it's not real."

On Tuesday, he went to the hospital to see if his uncle's body was there. He had worked for the aviation ministry and needed to take a last-minute trip to Lagos, Nwoka said. The flight had originated on Abuja, the capital. About 10 U.S. and Chinese diplomats also joined the families at the morgue.

By midday Tuesday, searchers with police dogs recovered 150 bodies, including those of a mother cradling an infant, according to Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. It's not yet known how many people died on the ground. Emergency workers were still looking through the debris for bodies, and one damaged building seemed on the verge of collapse.

After the hospital's director spoke to families, Jennifer Enanana leaned against a car, quietly sobbing. She said her younger brother had been on board the flight. She said her other brother had died within the last year.

"We are without eyes," she said, her sobs growing louder. "We don't have anybody that will protect us that can stand like a man and defend us. Dana stole him."

The MD-83 plane went down in Lagos' Iju-Ishaga neighborhood, about nine kilometers (five miles) from Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport. The crew radioed the tower that they had engine trouble shortly before the crash, but the exact cause remained unclear. The weather was clear at the time.

A torrential downpour and strong winds that flooded roads and downed power lines and trees prevented emergency crews from getting to the site early Tuesday morning, said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. The rain had stopped by midday.

The scene is marked by charred metal from the plane, rubble from destroyed buildings, thick mud and standing water. A three-story apartment building at the site struck by the nose of the MD-83 aircraft began shaking Monday as rescuers dug through debris, and they are afraid it might collapse.

"It's going to be messy," Shuaib said.

Late Monday, emergency workers recovered both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, said Tunji Oketunbi, a spokesman for the Accident Investigation Bureau, which probes airplane crashes in Nigeria.

"We will take them abroad for decoding and that will help our analysis," Oketunbi said Tuesday. "We will know what happened to the aircraft shortly before it crashed."

An investigator from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board also is expected to join Nigerian authorities on Tuesday to help them determine a cause for the crash, Oketunbi said.

President Goodluck Jonathan wept as he visited the crash site Monday and pledged to make air travel safer, but the crash called into question the government's ability to protect its citizens and enforce regulations in a nation with a history of aviation disasters.

Some U.S. citizens were aboard the flight, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, but he could not provide a firm number. A woman from West Hartford, Connecticut, her husband and four young children died on board the flight. The Tuesday edition of the Hartford Courant newspaper identified the family as Maimuna Anyene, her Nigerian husband Onyeke, and their children, a 5 month old, 1-year-old twins and a 3 year old.

The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that the crash also killed Josephine and Jennifer Onita, sisters from Missouri City, Texas.

Others killed in the crash included at least four Chinese citizens, two Lebanese nationals and one French citizen, officials said.

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domingo, 20 de maio de 2012

Surgeon offers 10K to meet dream woman

sábado, 19 de maio de 2012

Why does this woman eat rocks?

“Mmm-hmm, yeah. They crunch on my teeth,” said Teresa Widener while eating her favorite snack.

Chocolate-covered pretzels? Everyone likes those.

“I like that it has an earthy flavor,” added Widener, who is 45 and lives in Bedford, Va.

French fries? Terra chips?

No, “crunch” and “earthy” aren’t culinary terms of art — they’re literal. Widener, a mother of two who works with special-needs children, eats rocks.

She doesn’t wash them. Sometimes she just sucks off the dirt. Other times, she takes a hammer and smacks them into bite-size pieces.

It’s a behavioral and/or mental-health condition called pica, the Latin word for magpie, a bird that will eat anything.

Again, the name isn’t poetic hyperbole.

“People will eat anything when it comes to pica,” said Dr. Jordana Mansbacher, a clinical social worker and therapist who specializes in eating disorders, including pica. “They will eat toilet paper. They will eat fabric. They will eat carpet. They will eat paper. They will eat wood. They will eat clothing. They will eat skin. They will eat metal.”

Widener said rocks were an emotional crutch, but she also said she has anemia and that the rocks help treat her iron deficiency.

This phenomenon is fairly common among women, especially pregnant women, according to Mansbacher.

“Pregnant women tend to be anemic,” said Mansbacher, because their nutrients go straight to the fetus. “And a lot of times they develop cravings … for ice, which is rich in zinc, and soil and clay, which is rich in iron.”

But around the world and even in parts of the South, Mansbacher said, even non-pregnant women crave and eat soil because of iron deficiency. Widener is not pregnant and said she has been eating rocks for more than 20 years.

While the practice shouldn’t be hidden or stigmatized, Mansbacher said, eating rocks and soil is unhealthy; it can introduce parasites, and rocks can puncture or tear internal tissue, causing bleeding.

“I suggest that a woman have a blood test to determine if there are any mineral or vitamin deficiencies,” Mansbacher said via email. “If there is a deficiency, I would then ask your M.D. for a treatment plan to include vitamin or mineral supplements or an alteration in one’s diet.”

Watch the full story on “20/20? Friday at 10 p.m. ET.

quinta-feira, 17 de maio de 2012

Ga. woman sees bacteria-ravaged hands

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A Georgia graduate student fighting a rare flesh-eating infection has been looking at her ravaged hands and asking about the damage, all without tears, her father said Wednesday.

What Aimee Copeland still doesn't know is that doctors plan to amputate her all of her fingers, just as they had to remove most of her left leg in order to save her life.

"Her fingers are basically mummified. The flesh is dead," Andy Copeland said in a phone interview from Doctors Hospital in Augusta more than two weeks after a zip-lining accident left a gash in his daughter's leg that developed into the infection.

Copeland's father said she held one of her hands close to her face Wednesday and asked family members about it. He said they told her "your hands have been damaged ... and we're trying to bring back as much of the life into the hands as possible."

"She was well accepting," Andy Copeland said. "No tears or anything."

The 24-year-old student from an Atlanta suburb remains in critical condition as she battles an infection called necrotizing fasciitis. Doctors initially feared they might have to remove her remaining foot and both hands. But her father said she now faces losing only her fingers after two days of treatment using a hyperbaric chamber, in which patients breathe pure oxygen to boost white blood cells and accelerate healing. Flesh on her palms that had been purple was turning pink again, he said.

Copeland's father said she was still unaware of plans to amputate her fingers, an emotional disclosure that will likely require a counselor's help.

"We don't know if she's aware of her (amputated) leg yet," he said. "We're in a don't ask, don't tell policy."

The flesh-eating bacteria, Aeromonas hydrophila, emit toxins that cut off blood flow to parts of the body. The affliction can destroy muscle, fat and skin tissue.

Copeland contracted the infection days after she suffered the deep cut May 1 when the zip line snapped over rocks in the Little Tallapoosa River near the University of West Georgia, where she studies psychology.

The bug is found in warm and brackish waters. Many people exposed to these bacteria don't get sick. When illnesses do occur, it's often diarrhea from swallowing bacteria in the water. Flesh-eating Aeromonas cases are so rare that only a handful of infections have been reported in medical journals in recent decades.

In addition to the damage to her extremities, Copeland is on a respirator and a dialysis machine as her lungs and kidneys recover. Doctors also had to remove much of the skin from her torso to keep the infection from spreading, her father said.

Though still heavily medicated, Copeland has become more alert and communicates with her parents and older sister despite the breathing tube in her throat. Her father said Wednesday doctors were removing that tube and inserting another directly into her trachea to make her more comfortable.

"If they take the tube out, I believe reading her lips is going to be a lot easier," he said. "And she might be able to actually cover the tube up and be able to talk."

Andy Copeland said his daughter has been asking for her cell phone, her laptop and a book to read, but is still in no condition to use any of those things. He said her sister, Paige, has been reading to her from a book on meditation.

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domingo, 13 de maio de 2012

Woman battles flesh-eating disease after zip lining

AUGUSTA, GA -- Doctors say a woman fighting a flesh-decaying bacteria she contracted after a zip line accident will lose her hands and remaining foot to the infection.

But Aimee Copeland's father says the 24-year-old college student is improving.

Andy Copeland told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday his daughter is "coherent and alert." Doctors treating her at an Augusta hospital say there is no indication of any brain damage and her lungs are slowly healing, but her hands and remaining foot will have to be amputated.

Copeland cut her leg after falling from a homemade zip line May 1.

The University of West Georgia graduate psychology student was diagnosed Friday with necrotizing faciitis, a bacteria that destroys human tissue. She lost most of her right leg to the infection.

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quarta-feira, 9 de maio de 2012

Woman fired for living in sin?

A Colorado woman claims she was unfairly fired from her job at a private, Christian liberal arts university after administrators asked if she was "living in sin" with her boyfriend.

Ashlie Simpson, 31, was a student service advisor at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colo., from September 2009 until January 2012 when she was terminated.

"I was shocked to learn that CCU was concerned about my personal life, and even more distressed when they chose to fire me because of it," Simpson told ABC news. "When they refused to discuss it further, I felt I had no choice but to take legal action."

Simpson's attorney, Elwyn Schaefer, said a coffee break may have sparked offensive questions about his client and her lifestyle by university staff.

"We believe she was penalized for her lifestyle, mainly living with her boyfriend," Schaefer said. "We had attempted to approach [the university] prior to filing a lawsuit and were told the usual, that our case had no merit and they would defend it vigorously of course."

The suit, filed on May 2 with the Denver County District Court, states that Simpson and a married, male enrollment counselor had gotten coffee and donuts in the same car in June 2010; that incident led the vice president of development to express concern to Simpson about her alleged relationship with that married coworker – one Simpson said never existed --- and subsequent questions about her personal life up until she was fired.

That same day, the vice president told Simpson that he had discussed the "alleged relationship" with three of his team members, who had witnessed Simpson and the counselor "laughing and joking together in the office," according to the filing.

The vice president stated that Simpson was a "distraction to [the counselor's] marriage" and the "perception of indiscretion and disregard for the sanctity of Christian marriage" would hinder her career progression at the university, the suit stated.

Steve Miller, university counsel, said, "these are just false allegations."

"As you know, anybody can sue anybody for anything," Miller told ABC News. "We have an ample record demonstrating that she was let go for purely business reasons because she wasn't doing her job and she has chosen to [file a lawsuit]. That's about all we can say at this point."

Later, health problems caused Simpson to miss work, the suit states, but the university did not allow her to have the appropriate leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which can provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

In February 2011, she was diagnosed with a herniated disc, severe muscle strain and degenerative disc disorder, the suit states, and inquired with the human resources department about her intent to file for leave under the FMLA.

The human resources director then asked Simpson questions "directly related to Simpson's private life including, but not limited to, whether Simpson was living with and having sexual relations with Simpson's boyfriend," the suit states, saying "this was potential grounds for termination."

Simpson said as a student service advisor for the university's College of Adult and Graduate Studies, she assisted continuing adult students, ages 23 and older, with questions about their degree plan and courses.

"She was basically an administrative person," Schaefer said. "She has a right to live her life outside the workplace as she wishes."

Simpson is suing for damages for her lost back pay, front pay, future benefits, personal humiliation, and mental anguish.

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sexta-feira, 4 de maio de 2012

Woman allegedly fakes cancer to get breast implants

Eyewitness NewsARIZONA (WABC) -- An Arizona woman is accused of pretending to have breast cancer in order to get money for breast implants.

Investigators say the website Jami's Hope is a fraud.

It says Jami Toler has no health insurance and needed surgery.

In fact, prosecutors say, the 27-year-old raised $8,000 for a double mastectomy she didn't need.

They say she actually used the money for breast augmentation.

Toler is charged with fraud and theft.

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quarta-feira, 2 de maio de 2012

Woman who tossed $1M lotto ticket to get money

CHUCK BARTELSARKANSAS -- An Arkansas woman who cashed a $1 million lottery ticket may have to give up the winnings to a woman who threw away the ticket after she bought it, according to a judge's ruling Tuesday.

The judge decided that Sharon Duncan was entitled to the prize money, not Sharon Jones, who claimed the prize money after she took the ticket from a trash can of discarded lottery tickets at a convenience store in Beebe, a city about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock.

Jones' attorney, James Simpson, said he plans to appeal. Jones had testified that she already spent some of the money on a new truck and cash gifts to her children.

Simpson noted that Duncan testified she threw away the ticket after the read-out on a ticket scanner said, "Sorry. Not a winner." The attorney argued that people shouldn't be allowed to throw items away and then say, "'ooh, I want to un-abandon it.'" "We'd have garage-sale law all over the place," he said. "It became trash when someone threw it away."

White County judge Thomas Hughes, however, said Jones never met the burden of proof that Duncan abandoned her right to claim $1 million.

"The $1 million was never found money," Hughes said.

Earlier Tuesday, Jones testified that she gathered a handful of discarded tickets from the trash can - as she had done many times before - and said there was no sign alerting customers not to take tickets.

That contradicted Super 1 Stop store manager Lisa Petriches' earlier testimony that she had taped a sign that read "Do not take" on the can. But a former store clerk testified that Petriches posted the sign only after Jones claimed the prize.

Petriches brought the lawsuit against Jones, and Duncan joined it after the judge said at a January hearing that she may be the true owner of the ticket. Hughes ruled that Petriches and the store's owner, Louie Dajani - whose corporation, Summer One LLC, joined the suit - weren't entitled to anything.

The judge instructed the winning side to write the judgment for his signature, and it will become official once Hughes signs it. Jones' attorneys will then have 30 days to file an appeal.

Hughes found that the evidence weighed in Duncan's favor that she bought the winning ticket, even though lottery records and store security video didn't synch up to the precise timing of the purchase.

Arkansas Lottery Security Chief Lance Huey testified that he investigated the circumstances of the ticket falling into Jones' hands. He said the lottery was satisfied with the investigation and awarded the prize.

Duncan's attorney, James "Red" Morgan, argued that she simply made a mistake by throwing away a $1 million ticket and that the only right she willingly parted with was to enter the ticket for the possibility of a secondary prize.

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sábado, 28 de abril de 2012

Woman coughs up seed that led to cancer diagnosis

Eyewitness NewsFLORIDA (WABC) -- A woman from Florida is feeling very fortunate Friday after growing problem in her lungs led to a suspected cancer diagnosis.

For 28 years, Blanca Riveron had breathing problems, and doctors recently told her that a tiny spot on an X-ray could be cancerous.

She had been treated several times for asthma and pneumonia, but after she coughed up blood in December, her daughter took the 62-year-old to the doctor's again. This time, doctors found a mass in her lung.

Then, she remembered she had inhaled a fruit seed nearly three decades ago.

Blanca managed to cough up the seed while sitting at a traffic light and is now breathing much easier.

She is breathing much better and will head to the doctor next week to get the exact diagnosis.

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quarta-feira, 11 de janeiro de 2012

Van der Sloot pleads guilty to killing Peru woman

Eyewitness NewsLIMA, Peru -- Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the 2010 murder of a young Peruvian woman he met at a Lima casino who was killed five years to the day after the unsolved disappearance in Aruba of an American teen in which he remains the main suspect.

"Yes, I want to plead guilty. I wanted from the first moment to confess sincerely," he told the panel of three judges that will decide his fate, hoping for a reduced sentence. "I truly am sorry for this act. I feel very bad."

Prosecutors are asking for a 30-year prison sentence under charges that carry a 15-year minimum.

The 24-year-old Dutch citizen did not show emotion during his brief confession in fractured Spanish and did not call on the services of a Dutch translator provided for the proceeding.

He bowed his head later when his lawyer, Jose Jimenez, argued that he killed Stephany Flores, 21, as a result of "extreme psychological trauma" he suffered from being "persecuted" over the disappearance of Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean island of Aruba, "something he says he never did and for which no evidence at all exists."

He said judges, in sentencing, should consider the "post-traumatic stress" his client suffered.

Conferring privately with Jimenez before leaving the courtroom, Van der Sloot briefly smiled.

The judges have 48 hours to render a sentence and the presiding magistrate, Victoria Montoya, said it would reconvene Friday to do so.

Van der Sloot's trial opened last week but was adjourned to Wednesday after he asked for more time to decide how to plead. He said then that he was inclined to confess but did not accept the aggravated murder charges the prosecution sought.

Van der Sloot, who wore faded jeans and an untucked light-blue button-down shirt, had confessed to the May 30, 2010, killing long ago.

He told police shortly after the murder that he killed Flores in a fit of rage after she discovered his connection to the disappearance of Holloway on his laptop while they played poker online. His lawyer argues it was manslaughter, for which the minimum sentence is 5 years.

Police forensic experts disputed that claim and the attorney for the victim's family contends Van der Sloot killed Flores, a business student from a prominent family, in order to rob her.

Prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder and theft.

The prosecution maintained Van der Sloot killed Flores with "ferocity" and "cruelty," beating then strangling her with his bare hands in his Lima hotel room, concealing the crime and fleeing to Chile, where he was caught two days after Flores' rotting body was found in his hotel room.

Prosecutors say he took more than $200 in cash plus credit cards from the victim and made his initial getaway in her car, leaving it in a different part of Lima.

The length of the sentence is completely at the judges' discretion, said court officials and a leading Peruvian criminal attorney, Luis Lamas.

The attorney for the family of the victim, Edwar Alvarez, has argued for life in prison and deemed a sentence reduction "unacceptable."

"In the court record, this man has submitted to psychological examinations and they have concluded that he is a psychopathic person," he told reporters. "What judge would give a psychopath a penal benefit?"

The victim's father, circus impresario and former race car driver Ricardo Flores, attended the opening of the trial but not Wednesday's hearing.

Reached by phone before Van der Sloot's plea, he said he could not bear to even watch the proceedings on TV.

"There is nothing in the is matter hurts us," he told The Associated Press.

Ricardo Flores told the AP Friday said the family, as a party to the trial, had planned to introduce testimony from friends of his daughter and casino employees proving that she won $10,000 there and that Van der Sloot had learned of it. He said the casino had videotape of his daughter cashing in the chips.

Video taken at the Atlantic City Casino where the victim met Van der Sloot shows the two leaving together, and closed-circuit images from the downmarket TAC hotel shows the pair entering together and Van der Sloot leaving alone hours later, bags packed.

After strangling Flores, Van der Sloot left the hotel room and, to hide the crime, bought two cups of coffee across the street, asking a hotel employee to open his room when he returned, Prosecutor Jose Santiesteban said in the trial's opening argument Friday.

Van der Sloot continues to be dogged by the case of Holloway, a Mountain Brook, Alabama, 19-year-old who disappeared during a high school graduation trip in 2005 to the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba where Van der Sloot grew up.

She was last seen leaving a nightclub with him. Her body has never been found.

The case received a storm of media attention and the tall, garrulous Dutchman became a staple of true-crime TV shows, in several interviews describing himself as a pathological liar. In a clandestinely taped conversation, he is seen telling a Dutch TV reporter he was involved in Holloway's disappearance.

Van der Sloot's trip to Lima may have been funded by continued fallout from that case.

U.S. officials, who indicted him on extortion and fraud charges days after the Flores killing, say Van der Sloot had just extorted $25,000 from Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, by offering to lead her attorney, John Q. Kelly, to Holloway's body in Aruba.

After meeting with Kelly there, without delivering on his offer, he flew to Lima on May 14, 2010, they say. Two weeks later, Flores was killed.

Ricardo Flores said he doesn't think Van der Sloot is contrite over his daughter's death and wants the defendant placed in conditions of greater deprivation.

That could include being extradited to the United States to stand trial there once he's been sentenced in Peru.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Kelly said that after Van der Sloot is sentenced "we anticipate that U.S. authorities will move quickly to bring him to Alabama to face pending federal charges, and to answer for his past conduct in Aruba."

Peru's Foreign Ministry says it has no U.S. extradition request for Van der Sloot.

U.S. authorities have requested his arrest through Interpol "should he be released on the charges there" so he could be brought to Alabama, for trial, said Peggy Sanford, a spokeswoman the U.S. Attorney's office in Birmingham, Ala.

No members of Van der Sloot's family have attended the trial.

His lawyer said his client's mother, Anita, did not want the media attention. The defendant's father, a prominent lawyer, died of a heart attack at age 57 in February 2010.

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Woman sues over alleged hotel sex assault

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Alison Fournier says the frightening attack in a hotel room changed her life and forced her from a career she loved.

The former investment banker says it happened last January in Helsinki, Finland in the Hotel Kamp.

That's when she says she woke up naked in bed to find a strange intoxicated man groping her. She got away unhurt, but learned later, he has been given a key to her room at the hotel desk simply by claiming to be her husband.

"The attack on Alison could have been avoided if the Hotel Kamp had taken even the most basic security precautions such as asking the man for identification, checking the hotel registration, or calling Alison's room to ask whether this man was authorized to receive a key," attorney Gloria Allred said.

Allred filed suit against Starwood Hotels, the parent company of the Hotel Kamp, alleging negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress and seeking unspecified damages.

"Alison has chosen to speak out today because she hopes by doing so she will be able to warn other women who may be traveling alone of the danger that they may face," she said.

Starwood Hotels issued a statement:

"We are taking this allegation seriously and are working with the hotel in question to understand the facts and any breach of security that may have contributed to this very unfortunate event."

Because of the lingering trauma, Fornier says she left her job and New York City.

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Police: Ark. woman, 73, forced to try bank robbery

Eyewitness NewsFAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Authorities were searching Monday for man suspected of holding a 73-year-old woman and her husband hostage at their home, then forcing her to try to rob a bank with what she thought was a bomb strapped to her ankle.

The woman, Betty Davis, told employees at the bank in Fayetteville about the device, and authorities were able to safely evacuate the building on Monday before a bomb squad could remove it from Davis' leg, police said. Authorities were testing the device to see if it really was dangerous.

Davis told police that a man had been holding her and her husband captive in their Washington County home, and sheriff's deputies dispatched there found her husband tied up but unharmed.

Authorities didn't release Davis' husband's name.

The couple's pickup truck was missing, and Fayetteville TV station KHOG reported Monday evening that sheriff's deputies found an abandoned truck believed to be the couple's.

The couple could only vaguely describe the suspect as a white male of an indeterminate age who was wearing blue jeans.

Washington County sheriff's Lt. Emily Augustine said Monday night that investigators believe the couple's story.

"The evidence we have supports the witness statements so far," Augustine said.

Fayetteville police spokesman Sgt. Craig Stout told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Davis was cooperative and didn't show any signs of deception.

Fayetteville is in northwest Arkansas and is about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock.

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