New York
Police: Father, son stole $41K worth of wings
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities say a father and son stole more than $40,000 worth of chicken wings from a New York restaurant where they worked and sold them on the street or to other businesses.
The Onondaga County Sheriff's Office says 56-year-old Paul Rojek and 33-year-old Joshua Rojek, both of Syracuse, were caught stealing wings from the Twin Trees Too Restaurant in Syracuse.
Deputies say both men were employed as cooks when they placed numerous chicken wing orders with the restaurant's wholesaler. Officials say the Rojeks would later pick up the orders and resell them at a reduced price.
Deputies say the men billed about $41,000 worth of wing orders to the restaurant's account between last February and Nov. 21.
Both have been charged with grand larceny and falsifying business records. It couldn't be determined if they have lawyers.
Virginia
Muslim cabbie awarded $350K after assault
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A Muslim cab driver who said a passenger berated and physically attacked him over his religion was awarded $350,000 in damages by a federal civil jury.
The jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found Monday that Ed Dahlberg assaulted Mohamed Salim in 2013 and that Dahlberg's actions were motivated by animosity toward the cabbie's religion. They awarded Salim $100,000 in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages.
Salim says he was punched by Dahlberg after Dahlberg spewed a stream of epithets at Salim because of his religion. Salim recorded parts of the encounter on his phone.
Salim sued Dahlberg in civil court in U.S. District Court in Alexandria after Fairfax County prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against Dahlberg.
Dahlberg admits using bad language but denies injuring Salim. Dahlberg told The Washington Post in a phone call, "I'm ruined. I'm absolutely ruined."
The key piece of evidence was an 11-minute smartphone recording of the conversation between Salim and Dahlberg. The conversation began as a friendly one, but took a turn when Dahlberg asked Salim about jihad. Dahlberg, who acknowledged he was drunk, became enraged when he felt Salim was unwilling to denounce the Sept. 11 hijackers, and Dahlberg unleashed a stream of expletives about Salim and the Muslim faith.
The recording was not definitive in terms of confirming Salim's allegation that Dahlberg punched him multiple times, causing a hairline jaw fracture.
Dahlberg's lawyers questioned Salim's truthfulness, saying he lied about being a veteran of the Iraq War when he talked to reporters about the incident, as well as in a court deposition.
Defense lawyer Steven Bancroft said Dahlberg is apologetic about his language on the recording but "there is much more to this case than that tape."
Salim's lawyer, Victor Glasberg, told jurors at the outset of the trial that Salim is a refugee from Islamic extremism in his home country of Somalia who served in the U.S. Army reserves, albeit not in Iraq as he claimed. He said the recording speaks for itself and included "astonishing and horrific" verbal abuse.
"We're here because he was punched in the face, cursed and abused as a Muslim," Glasberg said.
Pennsylvania
Police investigate pig's head left outside mosque
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The caretaker at a Philadelphia mosque said he found a severed pig's head on the sidewalk, and police were investigating whether someone may have thrown it out a car window.
The caretaker told police he found the head near the door of the Al Aqsa Islamic Society when he arrived around 6 a.m. Monday.
Police said surveillance video shows a red pickup slowing down in front of the mosque on Sunday night. The truck then circles the block and an object was thrown from the passenger window as the vehicle passes a second time.
The Quran, the holy book of Islam, prohibits Muslims from eating pork, and pigs have been used to taunt or offend Muslims. Last year, attackers in Greece placed a severed pig's head and painted anti-Muslim slogans outside an Islamic studies center in Athens.
The incident in Philadelphia was condemned by Mayor-elect Jim Kenney.
"The bigotry that desecrated Al-Aqsa mosque today has no place in Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection has a long history of coming together in the face of challenge," Kenney said in a statement Monday night.
New York
Police charge 6 in abduction of 2 college students
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Six people have been charged in connection with the abduction of two New York college students. But the details surrounding the incident, which ended when a SWAT team stormed a home near the school, remain unclear.
Rochester police announced the charges late Monday night. Lydell Strickland, 26, Dennis Perez, 23, and Leah Gigliotti, 20, all of Rochester, and Samantha Hughes, 19, of Pittsford, were charged with first-degree kidnapping. Inalia Rolldan, 19, and Ruth Lora, 19, both of Rochester, were charged with second-degree kidnapping. It was not immediately clear if they had attorneys.
Police provided no possible motive for the incident, which ended when a SWAT team rescued the two University of Rochester seniors from a home about four miles from the school Sunday night.
Police said Nicholas Kollias, of Northbrook, Illinois, and Ani Okeke Ewo, of Aurora, Illinois, were abducted and held hostage, and one suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Police said they were targeted by their assailants. They did not identify which student was shot or any other injuries either student may have suffered.
The students were reported missing Saturday evening, hours after they were last seen near the school.
Earlier Monday night, police said they recovered the BMW SUV that they believed the two were traveling in before they were abducted.
According to a 2015 roster posted on the university's website, Ewo is a cornerback for the football team, while Kollias was listed as a defensive end on the 2014 roster.
University President Joel Seligman issued a statement Monday saying: "I will, at an appropriate time in the near future, be able to provide more detail about this very serious, but isolated, incident."
Published: Wed, Dec 09, 2015
