National Roundup

Minnesota
Man accused of concealing ID, stalking ex-wife
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota man has been charged with stalking for allegedly striking up an online relationship with his ex-wife using a fictitious persona with borrowed photographs.
Dakota County prosecutors say the West St. Paul woman had no idea the man who called himself Aaron Carpenter was actually her ex-husband, Brian Matthew Cornelius, 36, of Sturgeon Lake. Authorities say she “confided intimate details of her life and daily activities” after meeting “Carpenter” online.
The criminal complaint alleges Cornelius even persuaded his unknowing ex-wife to skip a court appearance on an order of protection she was seeking against him, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Friday. Cornelius and the woman were married in 2000, but divorced in 2011. They have two children together and have sparred in court over custody issues.
He is charged with two counts of gross misdemeanor stalking, a charge that carries up to a year in jail and a $3,000 fine. His first court date is July 1.
West St. Paul police Investigator Shawna Curtis said the woman pieced the situation together after Cornelius started showing up in places she told Carpenter she would be. She said Carpenter also started saying things only Cornelius would know.
It’s not uncommon for men who are estranged to keep tabs on their former partners or try to make illicit contact online, she said.
“Sometimes if they’re that obsessive, that’s how they’re getting around to harassing or stalking or monitoring,” Curtis said.
The complaint, filed Tuesday, says the woman met Carpenter through a dating website about three months after her divorce and they struck up an extensive online relationship, exchanging emails, text messages and other electronic communications. Their discussions included her difficulties with Cornelius, and she let him see her in her home via a webcam, the complaint states.
Cornelius’s ex-wife confronted him with her suspicions last summer, and he admitted to using images from Google and Facebook to create the online persona of Carpenter, according to the complaint. She then obtained an order for protection that’s still in force, prohibiting him from contacting her except to facilitate phone calls with their children.
The woman told police she felt “terrorized by Cornelius,” doesn’t feel safe in her own home and is “constantly fearful that he is watching her.”

Ohio
Prosecutor fired for his Facebook falsified identity 
CLEVELAND (AP) — A fired northeast Ohio prosecutor said he doesn’t think he did anything wrong by posing as a woman on Facebook to chat with witnesses in a murder investigation.
Aaron Brockler was fired from the Cuyahoga County’s prosecutor’s office this week. He told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland that law enforcement workers have often engaged in ruses to get information from people and that he didn’t think he should have been fired.
“I think the public is better off for what I did,” he told the newspaper.
His former boss, county prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty, didn’t think so. He said Brockler’s behavior was unethical.
“This office does not condone and will not tolerate such unethical behavior,” McGinty said. “He disgraced this office and everyone who works here.”
Brockler was the lead prosecutor in the aggravated murder case of Damon Dunn, 29, who was scheduled to stand trial in the shooting death of another man on May 18, 2012, on the city’s east side.
Dunn’s attorney listed names of two witnesses expected to testify he was elsewhere when the slaying occurred. Brockler said that in chats with the women on Facebook, he posed as a fictitious former girlfriend of Dunn’s, hoping to persuade the women not to testify.
“Unless I could break this guy’s alibi, a murderer might be walking on the street,” he told the newspaper. “There was such a small window of opportunity, I had to act fast.”
Brockler said he was motivated by a sense of justice and sympathy for the victim’s mother.
“I felt her pain over losing her son,” he said. “I made a promise to her that he wasn’t going to walk out the front door of the courthouse. This was a horrible killer, and I didn’t want him to get out and go kill someone else’s son.”
Common Pleas Judge Jose Villanueva ordered that all future court filings in the case be sealed. The next hearing is later this month.

Alabama
American Indian graduate fined for hat feather
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — An American Indian student says she’s being fined $1,000 for wearing a feather on her mortarboard when she graduated from high school in south Alabama in late May.
Chelsey Ramer tells WPMI-TV that she feels like she’s being discriminated against by her alma mater, Escambia Academy in Atmore.
The 17-year-old is part of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and she says she wore a feather at graduation last month to honor her heritage.
The school now is making Ramer pay a $1,000 fine to get her diploma and official transcript. She’s accused of violating school policy.
A school contract says students and staff are not allowed to wear extra items during graduation unless they’re approved in advance by the administration.

Texas
Teacher accused of taping student to chair in class
A suburban San Antonio school district said it’s reviewing training guidelines after a teacher allegedly duct taped an 8-year-old student to a chair — a year after another teacher was accused of ordering kindergartners to take turns hitting a classmate.
Judson Independent School District spokesman Steve Linscomb said Thursday that school officials would review training guidelines to make sure “there isn’t something we are missing.” He promised appropriate changes will be made.
Linscomb said a teacher at Woodlake Elementary School taped an 8-year-old boy to a chair in May because the child was too rowdy and couldn’t be controlled. The teacher and a teacher’s aide resigned soon after.
Last year, another teacher in the district was fired and indicted for allegedly encouraging 20 students to hit a 6-year-old student who was accused of being a bully.
Natasha Crutchfield, the mother of the 8-year-old boy, told KENS-TV in San Antonio that she was upset at what happened to her son. “I feel that your child should be safe at school,” she said.
Police are investigating the incident at Woodlake Elementary School. Linscomb said the Bexar County prosecutor’s office would review the case once that investigation is complete.