Eideard

Laura Chavez did not pass go. She did not collect $200.

Instead, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies took the 60-year-old directly to jail after they say she repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend Wednesday after arguing during a game of Monopoly.

Police responded to a stabbing call at 1:21 a.m. Wednesday in the Casa Villita Apartments…Deputy Kurt Whyte arrived at the apartment where he says he found the 48-year-old male stabbing victim, “bleeding heavily from his head and right wrist area.”

Chavez, who police say admitted stabbing the man with a kitchen knife, was arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a household member with a deadly weapon, battery upon a peace officer, assault upon a peace officer and resisting or evading a police officer…Her boyfriend, meanwhile, remained hospitalized late Wednesday but was in stable condition, according to Lt. Adan Mendoza.

Police say both Chavez and her boyfriend appeared to be intoxicated.

According to the statement of probable cause filed for Chavez’s arrest drafted by Detective Andrew Quintana, Chavez and her boyfriend were playing a late Tuesday night game of Monopoly with her 10-year-old grandson. The young boy told police the couple began fighting because his grandma thought her boyfriend was cheating at the classic Parker Brothers game…

Investigators say they were not aware of past domestic violence calls regarding the couple, but jail records show Chavez has been booked into the Santa Fe County jail nine times since June 2006, many of which were related to violations of probation and the conditions of her release from a 2009 felony drug possession case in which she eventually received a conditional discharge.

Every aspect of life in a banana republic culture can be exciting. Even a board game can turn into an assault.

A Las Cruces woman was jailed after allegedly stabbing her boyfriend for not buying her another 40-ounce bottle of Olde English 800 malt liquor.

Dona Ana sheriff’s deputies were called to a house on the 9500 block of Butterfield Boulevard around 5:30 p.m. Thursday after Alexa Monet Rodriguez, 22, allegedly became enraged at her boyfriend and stabbed him in the arm with a 14-inch stainless steel knife, according to sheriff’s office spokeswoman Kelly Jameson.

Rodriguez also allegedly had thrown a 3-pound weight at her boyfriend so hard it got lodged in the wall, then struck him in the back with a TV tray and a chair, Jameson said. After the alleged stabbing, Rodriguez allegedly threw the knife at the victim and fled.

She was arrested soon after and charged with aggravated battery against a household member with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault against a household member with a deadly weapon and two counts of battery against a household member. Magistrate Judge Richard Silva set Rodriguez’s bond at $15,000 cash.

The victim, a Farmington man who just moved to Las Cruces three months ago, was transported by ambulance to an area hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

I don’t know about that last paragraph. Looks to me like she tried like hell to threaten his life!

Dalia Dippolito never planned to have her husband killed, her attorney told a jury on Tuesday. Rather, she thought she was acting in a reality show orchestrated by her husband to achieve fame and publicity.

In his opening statement in her murder-for-hire trial, defense attorney Michael Salnick said Michael Dippolito was a controlling husband who duped his wife into taking part in his hoax.

“Michael Dippolito’s hoax to orchestrate his own murder to achieve fame and fortune was a bad prank,” Salnick said. “It was never anyone’s intention to harm anyone…”

Video from an undercover sting by Boynton Beach police showed Dalia Dippolito in August 2009 trying to hire an undercover officer to kill her husband. Video of her wailing at news of his murder went viral and will be featured on the television show “COPS.”

Salnick told jurors that Dalia Dippolito knew the entire time that she was being recorded, because her husband persuaded her to take part in his reality-show idea. Michael Dippolito won’t admit it, Salnick said…

Dippolito faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Her alleged plan to have a hit man kill her husband backfired when the man she hired to do the job was the undercover Boynton Beach police officer.

Boynton Beach police were fooled by Michael Dippolito’s staged murder-for-hire scenario, Salnick said, and were more focused on pleasing COPS producers…

On Aug. 5, 2009, police staged the elaborate crime scene, and recorded video of her shrieks and tears when they told her that her husband had been killed.

Later they confronted her, brought her face-to-face with her husband and arrested her. Her reaction and arrest also were caught on video, which will be evidence in the trial.

Michael Dippolito was the victim in the case, Parker said, and was blinded by his love for his wife of six months.

Do you think this is going to work better than the twinkie defense used in San Francisco to justify the murder of Harvey Milk? You have to admit it’s creative and including in a reasonably sleazy reality TV show like COPS is brilliant.

For young, single city professionals, the Spring Festival holidays present many reasons to be fearful: standing in line for hours to get a train ticket, exhausting long journeys, stuffing red envelopes with cash. Arguably the No 1 reason is the prospect of turning up at home alone. Not only does it give parents the opportunity to nag – “Your classmates and cousins are married and have children. What’s wrong with you?” – but it is also likely to result in a holiday spent on blind dates. To ease the pressure, Chinese singletons are simply paying people to pose as partners for their holiday homecoming.

On Dec 14, Tang Yongxue stood on a street in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and waved a placard that read: “Fake boyfriend needed for Spring Festival – 10,000 yuan ($1,500) for five days’ work.” She told reporters she wanted to rent a man to accompany her home to reassure her parents. The candidate had to be aged 26 to 30, at least 1.75 meters tall and “insightful”.

Although dismissed as a publicity stunt by many people, the incident highlights the huge pressure on China’s growing population of single urbanites to marry.

Tang’s tactic has been widely adopted online by desperate bachelors and bachelorettes. Want ads for fake holiday partners run for pages on many popular Chinese micro-blogging websites, such as Sina, while some stores on Taobao, the online marketplace, also offer boyfriends and girlfriends for hire.

“It’s a fun idea to help another person temporarily release the pressure of getting married,” said netizen “Howe.C”, who declined to give his real name. “Plus, spending the holiday with total strangers is interesting.”

The office worker, who is in his late 20s and lives in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, said he will not go home this Spring Festival as he fears the long journey may stop him from returning to work on time. He posted an advertisement on Douban, a major online community, offering to pretend to be someone’s boyfriend in Wuhan or neighboring cities. He describes himself as athletic, outgoing and humorous, not handsome but well educated and polite.

Speaking for his generation, “Howe.C” said: “We shouldn’t marry simply because we reach marital age. We’ll find true love but it takes time. Sometimes parents push us too hard. The pressure is especially bad for women who are almost 30. The general conception goes that the older a woman gets, the fewer marriage opportunities she is left with. I empathize with them…”

Although renting a boyfriend or girlfriend sounds like cheating the people who care most, supporters often defend the practice by saying it is a white lie with mutual benefits. Not only does it bring comfort to elderly family members, they argue, but it also saves singles from a holiday of arguing with their parents. For hired lovers, they get their fee, as well as free accommodation and travel.

There’s already been an episodic drama based on this “solution” on Chinese TV. It probably would make a decent film on the order of “You’ve got mail”. Which Hollywood would copy and set in New York City for Xmas, no doubt.

The interest for me is in the dynamics of a rapidly-changing society. It ain’t ever easy.

Happier days – on camera at least
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, is fighting for his political life over claims that he failed to inform the authorities about a £50,000 loan his wife passed on to her then 19-year-old boyfriend.

Robinson said he had agreed to an independent inquiry into his actions by a QC appointed by Stormont after calls from within the power sharing coalition for him to consider his position.

In a statement tonight he said he would fight “smears” against his personal integrity, adding that he had been “tried in the media and the press”…

The main allegations against the Robinsons include:

• That Iris Robinson gained £50,000 for McCambley from two major property developers, Ken Campbell and Fred Fraser.

• That Iris Robinson lobbied on behalf of Campbell for a building scheme he was involved with in her Strangford constituency.

• That she took £5,000 of the money for herself.

• That when Peter Robinson found out about the loan and his wife’s affair he insisted she pay the money back, but did not inform the authorities about her conduct.

• That when her relationship with the young man broke down she demanded the loan back and wanted £25,000 paid into the account of her church, the Light and Life Free Methodist church in east Belfast…

RTFA. It goes on and on.

I didn’t realize the U.S. Republican party had a branch in Belfast.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

A 20-year-old woman in Hannibal, Mo., used her 1-year-old son as a shield against a stun gun during an arrest, police allege.

Hannibal Police Capt. James Hark said Maliea A. Martin attempted to protect a man from possibly being shot with a Taser gun by holding her baby in front of him, The Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Press reported…

The responding officers said that while talking with Martin, 22-year-old Joshua A. McAtee, who lives in Martin’s apartment complex, approached them and began issuing threats.

The officers said when their attempts to calm the man failed one officer threatened to use his Taser on McAtee.

Martin then held the baby in front of McAtee, the officers said.

Martin was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and McAtee was charged with resisting arrest.

There really is nothing like mother’s love.

A frantic two-day search for a 6-month-old child ended as a hoax — with police arresting the 22-year-old woman who spun the tale.

Meagan McCormic had told police her child, Riley Archer Buchness, had disappeared Tuesday afternoon with a nanny named Camille.

But McCormic never had a child — she had a miscarriage six months ago, police said. And the nanny with a heavy French accent never existed.

McCormic admitted to police that she had used the fake existence of the baby to lure back John Buchness, an ex-boyfriend who had traveled south to Miami from whereabouts unknown to meet his supposed son.

Police are now asking for the state attorney’s office to force McCormic to pay for the resources used to locate the supposed child. According to police, up to 20 detectives worked the case throughout all of Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Miami police spokesman Willie Moreno said the incident was a terrible misuse of the department’s resources. ”Those resources could have been used for someone in real need,” Moreno said.

A terrible abuse of resources dedicated to good – by someone thinking only of herself.