National Roundup

California
DA says woman arrested in sex fantasy hoax was really victim
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California woman has been exonerated of charges that she responded to “rape fantasy” ads on Craigslist in order to get men to attack her ex-boyfriend’s new wife. Prosecutors now say that it was the alleged victim in the case who was trying to frame her husband’s ex by responding to the ads.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced Monday that charges will be dropped for 30-year-old Michelle Susan Hadley of Ontario, California, calling her “the innocent victim of a diabolical scheme.”

Prosecutors instead have turned around and charged 31-year-old Angela Diaz of Arizona with kidnapping, false imprisonment and perjury. She was arrested in Phoenix on Friday and is awaiting extradition.

Court records show that the man who links the two women is an agent with the U.S. Marshals service.

Illinois
Man who disrupted ‘Hamilton’ banned from theaters
CHICAGO (AP) — A man has pleaded guilty to disrupting a Chicago performance of the musical “Hamilton” and is temporarily banned from some theaters.

John Palmer entered the plea Monday to a charge of misdemeanor trespassing and was sentenced to six months of court supervision. As part of his plea agreement, the 56-year-old can’t attend Broadway in Chicago productions for six months.
Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Lindsay Hicks told the judge that Palmer was “yelling,” ‘’cursing” and “making actresses fearful.”

Palmer’s attorney Jonathan Feldman had blamed the Nov. 19 incident on a “hostile” and “partisan” audience that was clearly against President-elect Donald Trump, whom Palmer supported. The “Hamilton” cast in New York City had made comments to Vice President-elect Mike Pence at a previous performance.

Feldman says Palmer “regrets the incident.”

Pennsylvania
Biological mom of dismembered teen says she trusted system
READING, Pa. (AP) — The biological mother of a 14-year-old Pennsylvania girl who authorities say was killed and dismembered by her adoptive mother says she trusted the system would give her child a “wonderful home” and she’s very angry.
Rose Hunsicker tells WFMZ-TV she gave her daughter Grace Packer up for adoption in 2004.

She says she hadn’t spoken to her daughter since then but always imagined Grace was in a good home with a wonderful family.

She says she knows justice will be served.

Sara Packer and her boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, are charged in Grace’s death.

Authorities say Grace was killed in July as part of a rape-murder fantasy the couple shared. Officials say they dismembered the body in October.

They haven’t entered pleas. But Sullivan says what he did “was wrong.”

Texas
Man extradited in throat-slashing of wife, son case
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A man suspected of slashing the throats of his wife and 3-month-old son has been extradited to Texas and is being held on a capital murder charge.

Thirty-five-year-old Craig Vandewege was booked Tuesday into the Tarrant County jail in Fort Worth, Texas.

He was arrested in Colorado after he told police during a traffic stop that he was having a “long week” because his wife and child had been murdered and he was being blamed.

He told officers that his family had moved from the Denver area in 2016 and that he had returned to bury them.

Police have said Vandewege called 911 on Dec. 15 and said he returned from work to his Fort Worth home and found his wife, Shanna Riddle Vandewege, and their son Diederik dead.

New York
Cash trail leads to arrest in $110K bank robbery
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say they’ve made an arrest in a six-figure bank robbery in New York, thanks in part to the trail of cash the suspect left behind.

Federal prosecutors say Joseph Peeples III has been charged with robbing a Chase Bank branch in Rochester on Jan. 5.

Officials say he walked out with nearly $110,000. They say Peeples then took a cab to a bus station, leaving nearly $10,000 in a jacket he left in the taxi and dumping $43,000 in the garbage in the bus station restroom where he changed clothes.

Peeples bought a bus ticket to New York City but got off in Bing­hamton, where he was arrested at a hotel. Officials say they found $50,000 in his hotel room.

It couldn’t be determined if he has a lawyer.

Illinois
Land-speed record breaker can sue museum
CHICAGO (AP) — A judge has ruled that Craig Breedlove can move forward with his legal claim that Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry damaged the jet car he used to set a land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1964.

The Chicago Tribune reports  the 79-year-old Breedlove says the museum caused more than $395,000 in damage to his Spirit of America car. It was displayed at the museum for 50 years and returned to Breedlove in October 2015.

Breedlove, of Rio Vista, California, filed an amended complaint in October, including supporting documents on the American Association of Museums’ standards and best practices. The judge ruled last week that he can sue.

Museum spokeswoman Renee Mailhiot said in an email Monday that the institution takes its responsibility to care for its collection seriously.

Pennsylvania
Comcast may sue Philadelphia over salary history ban
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cable TV giant Comcast is threatening a costly legal battle if Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney doesn’t veto a bill that would ban employers from asking job applicants for their salary history.

Daniel Cohen, a senior vice president at Comcast, tells Philly. com that a memo sent to the city is supported by Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce CEO Bob Wonderling, who objects to the bill’s “hassle factor.”

Councilman Bill Greenlee, the Democrat who sponsored the legislation, says the measure is about requiring employers to base salaries on what a job is worth and the applicant’s experience.

But Cohen says the bill is burdensome and makes no sense. Comcast has a pay scale for technical and call center workers, but couldn’t fairly craft a pay package for executives like Cohen without knowing what they made previously.