posted 08-19-2004 11:29 PM         

Bank robbery suspect in jail after ex-wife foils getaway
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Associated Press
Middletown, Ohio

A man who once served prison time for bank robbery has been arrested in another robbery, after being spotted during the getaway by his ex-wife, authorities said.

Police accuse Daniel Waggoner, 31, of robbing a Fifth Third Bank branch in a Kroger grocery store Tuesday.

Police and witnesses said he passed a note demanding money, received cash from tellers and then fled on foot.

Detective Frank Hensley said Waggoner's ex-wife later saw him driving on Ohio 122, and wondered what he was doing in Middletown.

"She is on her way to the bank at Kroger and sees his truck it's easy to spot. It's black with a chrome smoke stack," Hensley said. "Even their little boy says, There's Daddy's [truck].' "

When the woman reached the Kroger, she learned that the bank branch was closed because of the robbery.

She went to another branch and told the teller that her ex-husband had been in Middletown shortly after the robbery and that he had gotten out of prison a year ago after serving a sentence for bank robbery.

"She said he had no business being in Middletown, then she heard about the bank robbery and put it together," Hensley said.

The ex-wife identified Waggoner from a photograph taken by the bank surveillance camera, and police took Waggoner into custody Tuesday afternoon at his mother's home in Xenia, where he was living.

Waggoner previously served a prison sentence for robbing a bank in Yellow Springs at gunpoint, Hensley said.

Waggoner took officers to a creek bed in Greene County, where $1,391 believed to have been taken in the robbery was found wrapped in a scarf and hidden under a rock, Hensley said.

posted 08-23-2004 08:15 PM         

So last Thursday the 30-year Largo public works employee told two of his supervisors he planned to bring his mother, Catherine, to his Spring Hill home. Fine, they said. But show up for work Friday - the day the hurricane was expected to hit - or lose your job.

Gesicki, 61, and a year from retiring, chose to stay with his mother.

Monday, he was fired.

"I had to make a decision. There was only one decision to make and because of it, I lost my job," Gesicki said.

Largo, which also fired a wastewater treatment plant operator for the same reason this week, is the only major Tampa Bay area city so far to terminate anyone for refusing to work. St. Petersburg and Tampa are investigating cases of employee absenteeism that Friday, officials said.

Gesicki earned $35,000 a year as a Largo spray technician, clearing weeds and plants from city waterways. Allen Janosky, a wastewater treatment plant operator for the city for two years, earned $33,425.

Assistant City Manager Henry Schubert said public works employees like Gesicki must be on site to prepare and fuel equipment before disasters hit. And employees who were not at work during a storm might not be able to get there shortly after.

Both employees were considered primary responders, he said, who would have roles in an emergency. "When we call you in to work, if you refuse to come to work, we will terminate you," Schubert said.

Gesicki's termination will not affect his retirement benefits, but he said he will have to pay for his own health insurance.

All of Gesicki's performance reviews on file list him as meeting or exceeding expectations. He was disciplined in September 2001 for leaving chemicals on a boat.

Gesicki said that over the years, he showed up for work during several emergencies. But in this case, he felt he was pushed up against a wall.

"We are people too," he said. "We have family and we have homes."

Schubert said Gesicki could have taken his mother to a special needs shelter or a shelter reserved for the family of Largo employees at the Largo Cultural Center.

But Gesicki said he didn't feel comfortable leaving his mother by herself in a shelter, surrounded by strangers.

Janosky, the treatment plant operator, left a message with a clerical staffer last Thursday saying he was in a mandatory evacuation zone and was not coming to work, said his boss, Joe Carlini, director of environmental services. The city didn't hear from him Friday and he called in sick Saturday, Carlini said.

Stephen C. Sarnoff, president of the Communication Workers of America union's Local 3179, said the two employees should not be held to the same standard as police officers or firefighters.

"I don't think the citizens are demanding that these two be fired," Sarnoff said.

Ken Perry, labor relations manager in Tampa's human resources department, said city officials are investigating two employees who didn't report to work Friday. If it turns out they didn't have legitimate reasons for not reporting for work, they will face consequences based in part on their work history, he said. Possibilities range from verbal reprimand to suspension and dismissal.

Gesicki said he doesn't plan to fight his termination. He said he doubts he can persuade officials to change their minds.

posted 08-24-2004 11:33 PM         

WILDWOOD, N.J. - A live-target paintball game in which patrons shoot at runners dressed as Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden has drawn criticism that the game is tasteless and could encourage violence against Arabs.

"We don't need any more games that would encourage people to hate Arabs or kill them," said Aref Assaf, president of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Assaf called on local officials to shut down the game, which he considers hate speech. He also wants Wildwood visitors to boycott it.

The game, known as "Wack the Iraq" - not Iraqi - has been on the boardwalk in Wildwood for at least a year, but only recently has drawn complaints, said Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr.

Troiano agreed the game is tasteless but said it was no more likely to encourage violence than many popular video games. He also said the city was powerless to shut the game down because of the operator's free-speech rights.

The game's operator, Michael Rutkowski of Pittsburgh, has said he did not believe the game was offensive, and that he deliberately misspelled wack to underscore the ridiculous nature of the game.

posted 08-26-2004 09:52 PM         

» More From The Star Ledger

Sussex family sues Boy Scouts in 'spaghetti spat'
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
BY AMANDA GERUT
Star-Ledger Staff
The parents of a Vernon Boy Scout are suing the organization for ousting their son after he accidentally dumped an entire can of parmesan cheese on top of his spaghetti during a weekend campout in May.

According to the suit, filed Aug. 23 in Newton Superior Court, during a three-day campout in Sandy Hook with Troop 404 in May, 11-year-old Robbie Kent tried to sprinkle some parmesan on his pasta, but the cheese had "formed a large, ball-like chunk," according to legal papers.

When Robbie opened the top of the can to unglue the ball of cheese, it all dropped on his spaghetti.

Troop Leader William O'Mealy told Robbie "not to get up until he ate all of the cheese," the suit alleges.

The suit also alleges O'Mealy said Robbie was "wasting troop money." The exchange left Robbie so shaken that he refused to leave his tent, according to the lawsuit.

After the cheese incident, Robbie's parents, Timothy and Adahyliah Kent, requested a meeting with troop leaders. At the end, all three were kicked out of the troop, the suit said.

O'Mealy could not be reached for comment. The local Boy Scout council, Patriots' Path Council of the Boy Scouts of America, would not comment on the suit. The defendants had not been served with the lawsuit yet, said John McDermott, the Kents' lawyer.

The Kents are suing the local and national Boy Scouts of America along with troop leaders for unspecified damages, and to be reinstated in the troop.

McDermott said the family resorted to filing suit after they exhausted other remedies, including trying to work with the organization. He said the Boy Scouts closed ranks against them.