Minnesota

Craigslist murder suspect’s attorneys raise possibility of mental illness defense:

I should have seen this coming yet I was still surprised.

The attorneys for Michael John Anderson will be filing a motion stating that they might be using a mental illness defense for the murder of Katherine Ann Olson. They’re claiming that Anderson has Aperger’s syndrome. They’re basically claiming that he didn’t know the difference between right or wrong because of his Asperger’s. Last time I checked that’s not one of the effects of Asperger’s and is an insult to people who legitimately have it.

Aspereger’s patients have a hard time interacting socially because they are unable to detect things like sarcasm and some forms of humor. They also can be obsessed over a singular subject. It DOES NOT make you take an ad for a nanny job on craigslist for the sole purpose of shooting someone in the head.

This is not the first time I’ve read about a lawyer using this defense. For the most part this defense has been unsuccessful. If lawyers keep using this defense than people will begin to think that Asperger’s does make you criminally violent.

Woman pleads guilty in craigslist sex scam:

Do you remember the story about the couple that would lure horny people to their hose then steal their identities? No, well here’s the link. Now you have no excuse.

Anyway, both of the suspects in the case, Amy Ruth Bergquist, 30, and Eric Christopher Thorsen, 25, have both pleaded guilty to the charges against them.

They were able to use the information they stole from their guests to steal their mail, forge checks, and obtain illegal prescriptions.

Remember people even in the personals section of craigslist if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Craigslist job search leads to money scam:

Apparently the fake check scam on craigslist has many faces. This is a new one.

Terri Bourassa of Minnesota went looking for a new job on craigslist and applied to a company called Camelot Property Protection to be a property manager. They sent her a certified letter and a $3000 check and told her to deposit the check and that the money was for certain properties. They also told her to keep some of the money and wire the rest to another account.

Luckily Ms. Bourassa was not born yesterday. She took the check to her bank and even had to show them that the check was a fake. The bank informed the FBI who are investigating.

Like I keep saying even the employment ads on craigslist aren’t safe.

Man Faces Federal Charges in a Sex Ring in Minnesota:
41-year-old Liqing Liu, a Chinese national living in Minnesota, is facing federal charges of transporting women across state lines to engage in prostitution. He ran several massage parlors, some of which that advertised on craigslist, with women that were basically slaves to him…

Sgt. Grant Snyder of the Minneapolis Police Department, a lead investigator, said the women, all Chinese or Korean, were prohibited from leaving the place of business, kept under video surveillance, and had their passports and other forms of identification confiscated.

The women’s poverty, language barriers and immigration status were used against them, Sergeant Snyder said, and the authorities said they were treating the women as crime victims and not criminals.

The authorities described the patrons as mostly white upper-middle class men between 35 and 55, including doctors and business owners. They usually paid $80 a session, which the prostitutes were obligated to hand over to Mr. Liu, the police said.

The women could negotiate with customers for more money, the police said, but their earnings were marginal at best; one illegal South Korean immigrant mentioned in the criminal complaint had to pay Mr. Liu $40 a day for room and board. He booked her airfare, later deducting it from her prostitution wages, the police said.

Even if prostitution was legal there would still be scumbags like Liu forcing women like these into sex slavery.

Craigslist ad leads to bust in Baldwin:
37-year-old Tracey George of Baldwin Twp., Minnesota was arrested on prostitution charges after a “concerned citizen” tipped off police to a craigslist ad for “erotic messages” . I’m pretty sure they meant massages since she was arrested on prostitution charges. You gotta love small town news.

Stolen trailer finds its way back to Boy Scouts:
This is lower than low. A gopher looks at this story and goes “Damn, that’s low.”

Some nefarious cretin stole an equipment trailer from a Minnesota Boy Scout troop, with all their gear still inside. Where did it end up? Why craigslist of course. However the story has a somewhat happy ending. The man who bought the trailer from the crook discovered that it was a Boy Scout trailer and returned it to the scouts.

However the Scout’s equipment is still gone, the craigslist buyer is out $1,600, and the perp is still at large.

Web driving human trafficking:
Our favorite website has been mentioned in the same breath as human trafficking once again.

There was a human trafficking conference in Minnesota and this is what someone in the know had to say.

Heather Weyker, a 10-year veteran of the St. Paul Police Department had this to say.

“We’re on Craig’s List constantly, looking for girls who look young,” Weyker said at the conference, describing the popular online classifieds site. “They always have captors. How many 13-year-old girls think, ‘Hey, I think I’ll put myself on Craig’s List.”‘

And this is what you’re supporting when you use a craigslist or any other kind of prostitute.

They don’t have the option to quit their “work” without suffering physical or sexual punishment, conference participants said. They can’t even walk out the door unaccompanied by one of their captors.

“We’re not just talking about illegal aliens or about people who are disadvantaged,” said U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose. “These are also girls from the suburbs. It can affect anyone.”

Victimless crime my ass.

Eagan teen charged in prostitution ring pleads guilty:
19-year-old Justine Alex Reisdorf, aka Deja, of Eagan, MN has pleaded guilty to running a prostitution ring made up mostly of underage high school girls. Of course she advertised on craigslist.

Investigators believe that Justine Alex Reisdorf, also known as “Deja,” operated a prostitution ring of high school students through a condominium and a Burnsville motel where she had worked. They said she advertised in the “erotic services” section of Craigslist, as well with as the “Live Links” telephone chat line.

As part of a plea agreement, Reisdorf admitted placing an ad in February on Craigslist, and the government agreed to dismiss a charge of sex trafficking of a minor.

Eagan Police Detective Kurt Bratulich initiated the investigation in December after one of the girls who allegedly worked for Reisdorf confided in him. The Federal Bureau of Investigation took over the case “once we found that the Internet was used and that the victims were underage,” he said in a July interview.

And yet the naysayers continue to mock the Mayor of Atlanta who says that child prostitution is a problem on craigslist.