German girl band singer sentenced to community service, suspended 2 year sentence for infecting "lover"

A German court has given pop singer Nadja Benaissa a two-year suspended sentence for having unprotected sex while failing to tell her sexual partners she was HIV positive.

The 28-year-old Benaissa is a member of the popular girl band No Angels. She discovered she was HIV positive in 1999 when she was three months pregnant. She was arrested in April 2009 for having unprotected sex with three men in 2004 and 2006 and failing to inform them of her HIV status. To do so can be classified as aggravated assault under German law.

Both the state prosecutor Peter Liesenfeld and her defense had asked the courts for the suspended sentence in the trial, which ended on Wednesday. Liesenfeld cited her confession and her expression of remorse as reasons for lighter sentence "I made a huge mistake," Benaissa said in an emotional apology during the closing arguments.

"I am sorry from the bottom of my heart," she said. "I would love to turn back the clock, but I can't."

But the 34-year-old man she infected with HIV gave an angry testimony during the trial, saying she had caused "a lot of suffering in this world." Because she and the man both have a strain of the virus that is relatively rare in Germany, medical experts had determined the man had almost certainly been infected by Benaissa.

She was also convicted of attempted aggravated assault for having unprotected sex with another man who did not contract the virus.She said she was afraid that her career would be negatively impacted if it became public that she is HIV positive.

Instead of jail time, the pop star is expected to complete 300 hours of community service and attend regular counseling sessions. No Angels, which first formed in 2000 and got back together in 2007 after a brief break, are expected to restart their tour. That tour was interrupted last year when Benaissa was arrested just before performing in Frankfurt.

Former sheriff's deputy gets probation for groping of 18 year old at Halloween party

A Rock County Sheriff's deputy was sentenced to 30 days in jail with work release (or Huber) privileges Monday, June 28 in a Rock County, WI courtroom. Steven L. Stenulson, a 39 year old man from Janesville, WI, was accused of sexually assaulting an 18 year old woman at a party November 1, 2009.

Milton police were called to the house in the 500 block of College Street at 2:46 a.m. after a sexual assault at a Halloween party was reported. A Milton woman told police she was drinking and got sick. She went to an upstairs bedroom to sleep and was awakened by Stenulson who was in bed with her allegedly attempting to grope her.

After the incident Stenulson was placed on administrative leave. Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden asked for and received Stenulson’s resignation from the sheriff’s office on Nov. 18.

Stenulson plead guilty to 4th degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor after initial charges of 3rd degree sex assault. He was ordered to complete sex offender and alcohol treatment and counseling and have no contact with the victim.

Boulder, CO woman who stabbed husband in heart pleads to negligent homicide - gets 90 days JAIL with work release

(Original Post 2-13-10)

A 32 year old Boulder, CO woman who stabbed her husband pled guilty to criminal negligent homicide after stabbing her husband, John Houseman, to death with a kitchen knife. Traci Housman was originally charged with 2nd degree murder, which carried a sentence of 10-32 years in prison. Criminally negligent homicide carries a 1-3 year prison sentence. In 2007, the couple met on Myspace after a 20 year off and on relationship. They were married in June 2008.

Boulder County District Court Judge Maria Berkenkotter has discretion in sentencing as the guilty plea was "blind." Matthew Connell, Traci's public defender, plans to ask for a probation sentence for his client because of the victim's history of domestic violence. Police reports and one of John's ex-wives tell of his violent tendencies. He was ticked by police in 2001 after death threats and "basking her face in."

According to police, Housman stabbed her husband once in the chest with a kitchen knife during an altercation in their 2994 23rd St. home early on Aug. 2. Housman told investigators that they had been drinking on the Pearl Street Mall earlier in the night and ended up at a nearby sushi restaurant, where John Housman started telling people, "I'm gay," according to a police report.

Traci Housman told detectives that her husband had told her years ago that he was bisexual, and she had no problem with it. But, according to police, she told him that night "that it was disrespectful for him to announce this to everyone since they were married."

They got into an argument, and Traci Housman decided to walk home, the report said. When she arrived, her husband was waiting, "and he was angry," according to the report.

Traci Housman told police that her husband pushed her into a wall, grabbed her hair and hit her head several times. She told detectives that he pushed her head into a glass framed picture, causing it to break, and she eventually got away to grab a knife from the kitchen, according to police.

"Traci said she poked out at John with one of the knives she had grabbed, and he suddenly stopped his attack," the report said.

Housman said she ran to the backyard, and when she went back into the house, she found John Housman sitting up against a wall with a large wound where she had "poked him," the report said. She immediately began CPR, according to police, and called 911 twice.

Stewart Lundstrom, Traci's brother, said "We are saddened that we can't be there for her with such an important choice to make. Please note that although we are stuck here, our hearts are with Traci, whatever her decision may be." Lundstrom and Traci's mother attended all of her hearings except the plea agreement, which they missed due to a snowstorm. Traci will be sentenced on April 23, and is being held in the Boulder County Jail on $250,000 bail.

(Update 4-27-10) Last Friday, Housman was sentenced by Boulder County District Court Judge Maria Berkenkotter to 7 years probation, 400 hours of community service and 90 days in the Boulder County jail's work release program. "It's completely undisputed that Mrs. Housman stabbed Mr. Housman...The dents in the wall that were made by John slamming Mrs. Housman's head into the wall are powerful evidence of what happened that evening...I am persuaded that Mrs. Housman is genuinely and profoundly remorseful for her actions."

Hope Housman, the victim's daughter, had a letter about the loss of her father read by Boulder County Deputy District Attorney David Cheval. "I was daddy's girl. I never thought about how life would be without daddy. Words can't explain how I feel. There's a hole in my heart."

None of John Housman's family members or friends were in the courtroom Friday, while numerous friends and family members showed up to support Traci Housman. Deputy District Attorney Amy Okubo said John Housman's supporters stayed away because they didn't want to hear bad things about the man they loved.

Matthew Connell, defense attorney for Housman, said he didn't want to insult John Housman during the hearing, "but I don't know how to talk about this case and ignore the fact that John Housman was very severely beating up Traci Housman that night."

Traci herself said in mitigation, "I know how excited they [John and Hope]were for all those things, and now [Hope will] have to feel his absence at all of those milestones...But John was different that night. I saw it in his eyes...I really loved John, and I still do. Know that I never wanted this to happen."

The 90 day jail sentence will be suspended once Traci finds employment, something a defense attorney said will be at a local gas station. As for the community service, her father John Lundstrom said "The community service -- that's not punishment to her. That's what she loves to do."

El Paso, TX woman gets light sentence for killing husband with knife

An El Paso, TX woman will only be in jail for a little under 2 months after her conviction of criminally negligent homicide in the stabbing death of her husband. Judge Bonnie Rangel sentenced the woman to 2 years after jurors acquitted her of murder and manslaughter on Friday. The killer, 25 year old Leslie Alvarado, was convicted of stabbing to death 32 year old Leopoldo Mosqueda, who bled to death after being attacked on November 4, 2007.

Both the prosecution and defense attorney accepted that Alvarado stabbed her husband in the arm intentionally. However, there were differences in their arguments about why the killing happened. The trial, presided over by 171st District Court Judge Bonnie Rangel, began Monday with closing arguments on Thursday.

During his closing argument Thursday, [defense attorney Ruben]Hernandez said that Alvarado stabbed her husband in self-defense.He argued that Leopoldo Mosqueda had tried to rape her the night he died. If Alvarado had wanted to kill Mosqueda, she would have stabbed him in a vital organ and not in the arm, he said.

But Assistant District Attorney Scott Ferguson argued that Alvarado purposely selected a large knife for the attack. Ferguson took the knife that killed Mosqueda and stabbed the air in front of the jury during his closing argument. "When you stab someone like this in the arm, two or three times, you know at the very least that she's intending to cause death or serious bodily injury," he said.

Ferguson also argued that a taped jail conversation of Alvarado showed that she had a motive for killing her husband because she had a relationship with a woman.

On Wednesday, April 21, prosecutors brought up an August 2003 incident in which Alvarado allegedly hit her husband with a bat, but the victim dropped charges. Dr. Timothy Proctor reviewed the records of both the victim and defendant, with the records showing that Alverado had been abused regularly, and Mosqueda was diagnosed as bipolar. "It was a very chaotic relationship, and what I saw was mutual aggression," Proctor said.

After Judge Rangel's sentencing, the victim's sister, Maria Teresa Mosqueda, said that despite the strained relationship with her brother, "I can never forgive you. Never." Hernandez told reporters "I think we're still happy with the result because it wasn't a murder. She didn't plan it, and she didn't want that result."

Judge Rangel sentenced Alvarado to 2 years for aggravated assault for attacking Vickie Dobson at a mall, causing head injuries.The aggravated assault sentence will be served concurrently with the homicide charges.

Cleveland woman gets probation for "sitting" death of boyfriend

A Cleveland mother who suffocated her "boyfriend" was sentenced to time served in jail, 3 years probation and 120 hours of community service after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter on Wednesday, January 20. Mia Landingham, 25, used her 300 pound heft to smother her "boyfriend," 120 lb Mikal Middleton-Bey, on Saturday August 15, 2009. Middleton-Bey was 29 when he was killed.

She had been drinking all day and the two argued, a police spokeswoman said. Landingham punched him in the face and he grabbed her. She pushed him to the ground and got on top of him. When she got off, he was not breathing. Middleton-Bey was pronounced dead at MetroHealth Medical Center at 5:46 a.m.

Sharon Phillips, the victim's stepmother, said that "I just want to let you know how much you have hurt us by taking Mikal away from us." Landingham's public defender pointed out the history of domestic violence between the couple and his client's lack of criminal record.

While Middleton-Bey's family hoped that the Landingham, the mother of his three kids would eventually have a change to be a part of their lives, they were upset at the lack of additional incarceration.  "So basically you can say that I can go sit on somebody and get probation. I feel there wasn't no justice."

Man sentenced to year of house arrest for raping wife

Judge James P. MacElree II sentenced a 33 year old mushroom company worker to 11½ to 23 months in Chester County Prison, but granted parole on the jail term, leaving a year of home confinement for the sexual assault of his 28 year old wife while she was visiting his home. The charge of sexual assault, a 2nd degree felony in Pennsylvania, carries a sentence maximum of 10 years.

The victim, who appeared in MacElree’s courtroom for the sentencing but did not address the judge, told a prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney John H. Pavloff, that she did not want the couple’s two children to have to visit their father in prison. “He’s a good father,” Pavloff said she told him.

According to court records, the man admitted to his estranged wife that he had had sex with her while she slept on his sofa one night when she visited him after their initial separation. When asked how many times he had had sex with her in that way, he replied that it was just “a one-time thing.”

He also told his victim that she had “like half woke up” during the incident.

MacElree also sentenced the man to one year’s probation and 200 hours of community service for a single count of invasion of privacy. That charge stemmed from the defendant’s admission that he had taken photos of the woman while she was asleep, exposing her breasts and buttocks.

The victim found out about the crimes when she stayed overnight at his East Nottingham trailer to see their daughter off on her first day of school. Later that month, she went to his home and saw pictured her husband took of her naked and in various states of undress. The worst pictures showed the woman being raped by her husband.

The victim determined that she had been sedated by her attacked because she saw his hands and clothes that she had been wearing the night of the assault. The husband gave his victim wife a cup of tea with a knockout drug.

She later confronted him with the information about the photos. In a telephone conversation that was taped by state police, he acknowledged having sex with her. “It was like a one-time thing,” he told the woman.

Pavloff said after the sentencing that there was no physical evidence to finally determine where and when the assault took place. The defendant admitted in his guilty plea to assaulting the woman in August 2006, but the victim maintains that it must have happened in September.
The woman, who has custody of their children, filed for divorce in February.

The man was also sentenced to a year probation for unlawful possession of a gun.

NYC voyeur who zooms in on male crotches immune from prosecution

A 27 year old voyeur who likes to take films of male NYC subway riders cannot be prosecuted, according to legal experts. His "master[bation] pieces" are currently on the Internet and he's free to zoom into men's crotches as often as he wants.

"The bulge on him just brings so much to the imagination . . . and the fact that he was oblivious to my filming is so great," the 27- year-old filmmaker - who calls himself househead7d5 - gleefully recounts.

On another of his dozen clips, titled "sexy guy on 5 train," as the subway pulls into 86th Street, househead7d5 tilts up from the man's crotch, briefly, to his face.
"See this guy, and he sees me back," says the description.

Because the voyeur focuses on clothed crotches, already on display on the subway, and because he's not making money off of his deviancy, no charges can be filed or arrests made, according to legal experts.

Doctor pleads from attempted rape to misdemeanor assault

Dr. Bret Sokoloff of Germantown was convicted of three counts of misdemeanor assault after charges of attempted rape, sexual battery and indecent exposure were dismissed. He assaulted three nurses, and was sentenced to three years of probation.

The 37-year-old was indicted last year on five counts of sexual battery and two counts of attempted rape that allegedly occurred between 2005 and February of this year.He was also charged last year with indecent exposure after a professional masseuse at Massage Envy in Collierville said Sokoloff removed his sheet and exposed himself during his massage therapy.

Sokoloff has not practiced since his arrest, even though he has not been formally suspended.
The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners will take action, if any, on his license.