A woman charged with conspiring to bilk actor John Stamos of hundreds of thousands of dollars had a brief romantic fling with him when she was a 17-year-old high school student during a spring break trip to Florida in 2004, an attorney said Monday.
Defense lawyer Sarah Henderson made the allegation during opening arguments in the U.S. District Court trial of Allison Coss and Scott Sippola, even though the presiding judge last week ruled that testimony about whether the ‘ER’ and ‘Full House’ star had an intimate relationship with Coss would not be allowed. Opening statements are not testimony and cannot be considered by jurors as evidence but allow attorneys to outline the case they will present.
Stamos, who attended the trial’s opening day, declined comment to The Associated Press but is expected to testify.
His attorney, William Sobel, issued a statement through publicist Matt Polk that said: “The allegations made today in the courtroom by the defendants’ attorneys during opening statements will not be proven because they are simply untrue.”
Polk declined further comment.
Coss, 24, and Sippola, 31, both of Marquette, are accused of conspiring to extort $680,000 from Stamos by telling him they had photos of him with cocaine and strippers. Prosecutors contend the pictures don’t exist, and FBI agents testified Monday they found no such photos while searching the defendants’ house after their arrest.
Henderson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Maarten Vermaat agreed in their opening statements that Coss and Stamos met in Orlando, Fla., in 2004 — shortly after Stamos had separated from his wife, actress and supermodel Rebecca Romijn. The couple divorced the next year.
Henderson said Stamos, now 46, noticed Coss and another girl at a club, asked friends to bring them over and later invited the star-struck teens to his hotel room. Stamos ordered a drink for Coss even after she told him she was 17, Henderson said.
Two women who worked as strippers eventually showed up in the room with a bag of cocaine, she said, and Coss and her friend took a picture of Stamos bending over a table where the drugs had been laid out.
Henderson said Stamos and Coss later kissed on a bed and got into a hot tub together after Stamos undressed and Coss stripped to her underwear. She said Stamos offered to perform oral sex on Coss, but she declined. Florida law makes it a second-degree felony for someone 24 or older to have oral sex with anyone 16 or 17 years old. It carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
Stamos eventually became frustrated, broke a bedpost with his hand and left the room before apologizing and inviting Coss to spend the night, which she did, Henderson said.
For the next few years, they maintained a “flirty kind of relationship” by e-mail, Henderson said.
Vermaat also said the two exchanged e-mails “with some regularity” but did not discuss details of the alleged 2004 encounter.
Stamos received two e-mails last fall from a “Jessica T” who claimed she was pregnant and Stamos was the father, Vermaat said. Later came a series of e-mails from a “Brian L” describing allegedly compromising photos and saying they would be sold to tabloids if Stamos did not buy them for $680,000.
Prosecutors contend Coss and Sippola sent the e-mails.
Stamos contacted the FBI, Vermaat said. During testimony, two agents described a sting operation that ended with Coss and Sippola’s arrest at K.I. Sawyer International Airport near Marquette, where an agent posing as a Stamos representative had promised to leave a bag of cash.
“This is really just a get-rich-quick scheme that is based on lies and betrayal,” Vermaat told the jury of eight men and four women.
Defense attorneys acknowledged their clients tried to sell photos to Stamos but insisted they had a right to do so and considered it a legitimate business transaction, not a crime.
“Human beings make mistakes,” Henderson said. “Not all mistakes are illegal.”
source: Stamos testifies in extortion trial of Mich. pair [associated press]
Switzerland have announced that Roman Polanski won’t be extradited to the U.S. and he has also been released from house arrest. The Justice Ministry released a statement today saying…
“The reason for the decision lies in the fact that it was not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty a fault in the US extraditionary request.”
Polanski fled the U.S. back in 1978 after pleading guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl but he was arrested last September when honored with a lifetime achievement award in Switzerland, he was then held in custody for two months before placed under house arrest since December. But he is now a free man.
I hope the police in Los Angeles are keeping their eye on Lindsay Lohan, if she knows that Roman Polanski won’t be extradited then she might just book a one way ticket to Switzerland. For a vacation of course.
source: Swiss reject US Polanski extradition [Digital Spy]
Lawrence Taylor was arrested for rape in New York last week after he was accused of raping a 16-year-old prostitute but his defense is that he touched himself and didn’t go near her.
Sources say that his defense team are going to admit he took the prostitute to a hotel room in Rockland County but they are insisting that he only engaged in a “masturbatory act” and did not have sexual intercourse with her.
The reason he could be saying this is because under New York law, “A person is guilty of rape in the third degree when … he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person less than seventeen years old.” Meaning if he just masturbated he can’t be charged with third-degree rape.
As we all know there was a condom found in the hotel room and the prostitute is insisting she did have intercourse with him and he paid her $300 in cash when they finished up. She also said the condom got stuck insider her and he had to put his fingers in to get it out.
Lawrence Taylor‘s lawyers say that the condom was not his and was left behind by someone else who stayed in the hotel room.
source: Lawrence Taylor rape defense: I didn’t touch teen hooker, I touched myself [NY Daily News]
The anti-rape ad from Egypt above is a few months old but I’m only coming across it now and is basically says that if women want to avoid being raped they should cover up.
As you can see on the left is a lollipop with it’s wrapper on with a fly flying around it but on the right is a lollipop with it’s wrapper off surrounded by fly’s.
This means that if women remain covered up they will be fine, but if they start showing off some skin then they should expect to be raped. This ad makes me realize how backwards some parts of the world still are.
The original “LT“, NFL superstar Lawrence Taylor, has been arrested for rape in New York today.
Police picked up the Hall of Famer after he was accused of raping a 15 year old girl at a Holiday Inn in Montebello, NY this morning. LT’s lawyer, Kenneth Gribetz says that Taylor is “adamant that he is not guilty”.
Reports say that the alleged victim was a 15 year old runaway from the Bronx who was taken to the hotel by a pimp.
Ramapo Police supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence said:
“She was a runaway since March and there was a pimp involved. She got punched in the face. We’re not sure who did it.â€
A news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern, where police will discuss the charges. Taylor is being charged with third-degree rape because the alleged victim is a minor.
TMZhas reported that a condom and “other physical evidence” was discovered when LT was found sleeping in the hotel room this morning. More as this story develops…
UPDATE: During the press conference, police have said that the girl is 16, not 15. They claim that LT paid $300 to have sex with the girl, and has been charged with statutory rape. If convicted, Taylor could be facing up to four years in prison. The accuser did have visible injuries to her face, but police say that LT did not attack her. Police also say that Taylor, 51, was “very cooperative” during the arrest.
UPDATE: The judge just set LT’s bail at $75,000… which I’m guessing he can afford. He also ordered a six month order of protection against Taylor for the unnamed (initials are C.F.) 16 year old, so LT can’t be anywhere near the chick. I doubt he was planning on taking her to lunch, anyway. LT is scheduled to appear in court again on Thursday, June 10.
Source: Lawrence Taylor Arrested After Rape Allegation [NY Times]
Eric Green, former corner-back for the Arizona Cardinals, is being sued by a New York City transgendered woman, Angelina Mavilia, because she accuses him of sexually assaulting her.
Mavilia filed a $10 million sexual assault lawsuit against Green in federal court in Florida, where the NFL player was born and currently lives.
According to the court papers she claims they met early 2009 in a casino in Scottsdale, Arizona, when he was still playing for the Cardinals after that they went back his condo which is when he apparently assaulted her.
The papers say, “he got extremely agitated and threatening, and warned: ‘this never happened. You’d better not tell.’”
On top of suing Green, she has also filed papers against New York City for a separate incident in which she says she was dehumanized after getting arrested for trespassing in a housing complex back in 2008.
In the papers filed in a Manhattan Federal Court, she is claiming that a female police officer told her to take off her bra and panties twice before examining her genitals then screaming “It’s a girl!”
Then when she was at the booking center an officer ordered once again had her strip down to her undies and then put her in a cell with a man before declaring “You’re not fooling me; I know you were not born a woman, I can see your plastic surgery.”
Eric Green currently doesn’t play for any football teams and wouldn’t comment on the case. This is very messed up, I feel so bad for this Angelina Mavilia woman.
source: NFL player Eric Green forcibly sodomized transgender New Yorker Angelina Mavilia, her lawsuit claims [NY Daily News]
In a new documentary, The Carter Documentary, Lil Wayne has said that he was raped when he was just 11-years-old. The rapper is drunk out of his head in a room of his entourage when he starts telling of the time when his “daddy” Baby took him into a room of a bunch of people and then told women to give him oral sex.
What’s even worse about this story is that when he is telling it and he is obviously upset, everyone in the room is just laughing at him. God what a depressing day for child molestation stories.
When most people are raped they go to the police or a shrink to talk about their troubles, well Katie Price (aka Jordan) talks to a magazine.
Last month Katie opened up saying she was raped numerous times when she was younger but didn’t want to discuss it. Well she is kind of discussing it now.
She said “a famous celebrity raped me and Peter knows who it was. It was years ago before I was with Pete, and my friends and family knew about it at the time.”
Her ex husband Peter Andre says he knew nothing about this, asked why he would say this she goes on to say “I have no idea. He’s not the Pete I knew any more. He’s being really cruel when he knows exactly who did it.”
She was then asked why she didn’t report the crime, she said “next question. I don’t want to go down that road. I don’t want to talk about that ever again.”
This is totally going to turn into a guessing game of which celebrity raped her and I have a feeling a lot of names will get dragged into it thus ruining a lot of careers.
I should have sympathy for Katie Price but we all know she is a famewhore and is totally going to drag this thing out.
The songwriter and director behind ‘You Light Up My Life’ has been indicted on charges of raping or sexually assaulting women who answered audition ads on Craigslist. Joseph Brooks, who’s 71, will be arraigned later Tuesday.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau says nine of the 11 victims answered an ad seeking women to audition for acting roles. He allegedly lured them to his Upper East Side apartment to see the Oscar he won for Best Original Song for the 1977 ballad ‘You Light Up My Life.’
According to the Daily News, two of the victims were doped up with date-rape drugs. Toxicology results have been inconclusive.
Brooks’ attorney, Jeff Hoffman, says “there will be lengthy arguments” during the arraignment.
He also wrote and directed the ‘You Light Up My Life’ movie. It’s about a comedian who has a one-night stand with a director.
source: Oscar Winner Joseph Brooks Indicted for Rape; Lured Women Via Craigslist [popeater]
An actor with a small but memorable part in the first ‘Austin Powers‘ movie has been charged in connection with an unsolved 1990 gang rape, according to a FOXNews.com report.
Joe Son, who played the shoe-throwing character Random Task (prompting the Mike Myers line “Who throws a shoe?”), was hit with a slew of charges on Oct. 1, including: Five felony counts of forcible rape, two felony counts of forcible sodomy, two felony counts of sodomy in concert by force, seven felony counts of forcible oral copulations and one felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object by force, according to an Orange County District Attorney’s Office release.
Son pleaded guilty to a felony vandalism charge in May, and when he was required to give a DNA sample, he was linked back to the 18-year-old Christmas Eve gang rape.
After some unsavory rumors that Sarah Palin faking a pregnancy to protect her daughter surfaced, Palin revealed yesterday that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant but scheduled to marry the 18-year-old hockey playing father, Levi Johnston. One hesitates to delve into the story of candidates’ minor children, who are not public figures. Now, though, the focus has turned to where it should: The vetting process that yielded the unexpected selection of the relative unknown Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate.
There had already been reports that McCain and his inner circle decided on Palin outside the normal process set up to ensure that there would be no surprises. This revelation — of what was apparently an open secret in Alaska would seem to vindicate that charge. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell both report that a bunch of GOP lawyers are now heading to Alaska for “a deeper vet.†As Josh Marshall puts it, “Face It: They Didn’t Vet Her.â€
Team McCain insists this is nonsense and that they were fully aware of the situation with Palin’s daughter. AP’s Liz Sidoti reports that,
Sarah Palin’s path to the Republican ticket started with her name on a list — and a team of some 25 people poring through public records searching for trouble spots without her knowledge. Then came the 70-question survey and a nearly three-hour interview.
[...]
Stoking the notion of a rushed examination, a timeline issued by the campaign indicated that McCain initially met Palin in February, then held one phone conversation with her last week before inviting her to Arizona, where he met with her a second time and offered her the job.
[...]
[Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., the lawyer who conducted the review] said Palin’s review, like others, began with a team of two dozen people culling information from public sources. The team reviewed speeches, financial records, tax information, litigation, investigations, ethical charges, marriages and divorces, for a number of potential running mates.
For Palin specifically, the team studied online archives of the state’s largest newspapers, including the Anchorage Daily News, but didn’t request paper archives for Palin’s hometown newspaper for fear the secret review would become public. Among the findings: Palin had once received a citation for fishing without a license.
[...]
Culvahouse then conducted a nearly three-hour interview. He said the first thing Palin volunteered was that her daughter was pregnant, and she also quickly disclosed her husband’s two-decade-old DUI arrest. The public search also unearthed details of the Legislature’s investigation into the dismissal of Alaska’s public safety commissioner, allegedly because he would not fire Palin’s former brother-in-law as a state trooper.
It sounds like, at a minimum, Team McCain valued maximum surprise and buzz from the announcement more than thorough vetting. Similarly, they seemed determined to avoid further annoying social conservatives, given that pro-choicers Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge were clearly McCain’s preferred running mates.
Drawing comparisons with George McGovern’s disastrous choice of Thomas Eagleton as his running mate, Jeralyn Merritt has started a pool: “What Day Will Sarah Palin Drop Out?†Given Palin’s popularity with the party’s conservative base and McCain’s own combativeness, I doubt it’ll come to that.
One wonders, though, why they chose Palin even with this story out there. ABC’s Jake Tapper asks the not unreasonable question, “What would the response be if Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and his wife Michelle had a pregnant unmarried teenage daughter?â€
