This’ll Ruin Your Day

Some days, no matter our original plans, just don’t work out. For example, I recently met very nice young lady. I bought her a drink. She bought me a drink. I made her laugh. She made me laugh. All was moving along nicely until I realized she was a guy. That put the brakes on the budding romance. Not that I’m a prude, it’s just that my tree doesn’t bend that way. A buddy of mine had one of those days recently too. He purchased a used car for his son. He brought the car home. He proclaimed, loudly, what a great deal he’d gotten. His son went outside to start the car and the engine fell out. His family will never, ever, let him forget this moment. In fact, from this day forward he will never be allowed to shop for anything more complex than boxes of pasta. And, even then, he will be watched closely.

So it is with some sense of empathy that I write about today’s stories. 63 year old Bobby Coley went to apply for a job and ended up in jail for murder.

A man taken into custody when he went to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office to clear an arrest warrant from his record will be released Thursday due to insufficient evidence in a 1975 murder case.

State’s Attorney John McCarthy announced a murder charge against 63-year-old Bobby Coley will not be prosecuted at this time, but the Montgomery County Police Department Cold Case Squad will continue to investigate.

Coley, of southeast Washington, was applying for a temp job Tuesday when a background check found the outstanding warrant. He was unaware it existed and unaware it was for murder when he went to the sheriff’s office, News4’s Chris Gordon reported.

Leopold Lynwood Chromak disappeared July 26, 1975. In 1984, a detective learned that his disappearance was an alleged murder-for-hire. Chromak’s wife, Frances, allegedly hired three men, including Bobby Coley, to kill her abusive husband, according to the 1984 warrant.

But Coley was not detained after the warrant was filed.

Coley’s public defender argued there wasn’t enough evidence to hold Coley. There’s no direct evidence against Coley, and Chromak’s body wasn’t found.

The whereabouts of Frances Chromak, who is believed to have changed her name and moved to Laurel, are unknown, but authorities believe she is still alive.

That happens to me all the time.

I do have some good advice for you if you want to avoid having a bad day. If someone tells you you’ve dialed the wrong number, believe them. As John Tosta discovered, insisting that you know more than the person answering the phone will land you in jail every time.

Police in Middletown, Conn., arrested a man and woman after the couple allegedly called an on-duty police officer and offered up a prostitute.

According to police, John Tosta, 41, mistakenly dialed an undercover detective with the Middletown Police Street Crime Narcotics Unit Thursday afternoon around 5:30 p.m.

The detective initially told Tosta he had the wrong number, but Tosta insisted that he believed he had called the same number the day before, and that the caller was looking for a girl, according to the arrest affidavit. The officer played along, and worked out a price with Tosta, $100 for 30 minutes, according to police.

The detective then asked to speak to the girl. Tosta put her on the phone, and the woman again went over the price and asked how long the encounter would be, police said.

Tosta allegedly told the detective he would call back with an exact location to meet. The officer then notified other detectives and set up an undercover operation.

The detective received a second call, telling him to show up at East Street near Grandview Terrace. As they officers pulled up, they saw the man and woman standing waiting for them.

According to police, the officers recognized the woman, Lea Fuller, from previous arrests. She began to run, but was quickly taken into custody. Officers had to tackle Tosta, and handcuff him, police said.

Tosta is charged with third-degree promoting prostitution and interfering with police. Fuller is charged with prostitution and interfering with police. Both were held on $10,000 bond.

Cops love it when you run. They are just ecstatic at the thought of getting proper exercise on the job. But, to be honest, they still prefer to catch criminals the old fashioned way; on Facebook.

For the last year, 14 members of a New York street gang were on a spree of robberies, assaults and burglaries in the Brower Park area of Crown Heights, but their greed and their need to share information on Facebook, as well as friending a cop on the social network, helped lead to their arrests.
On Thursday, Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced a 102-count indictment against 14 members the gang, known as the “Brower Boys.” Two were charged are juveniles, including a 13-year-old; the other defendants are between 15 and 19.

The “Brower Boys” committed a series of burglaries, climbing up and down apartment building fire escapes after taking electronic equipment, like laptops and cell phones, that they pawned, police say in the indictment. Most of the break-ins happened when residents weren’t home. But in one apartment robbery, four of the defendants, including the 13-year-old, tied up the residents, sexually assaulted a female resident and threatened to kill the victims if they called the police, according to the indictment.

In another case, one gang member, age 18, shot a resident of the home he was burglarizing, then was shot and injured himself in a struggle with the victim.
With such a busy — and criminal — schedule, it seems hard to fathom that gang members would use Facebook to discuss their business, but they did. They not only boasted about their acts, but they even fought with each other on the social network over who should get what when it came to the loot.

“Although some were as young as 13, the Brower Boys were old hands at burglaries and worse — victimizing neighbors, but making the mistake of fighting over the proceeds on Facebook,” said Kelly in a statement.

The police know this because, well, they were monitoring it. Kelly gave kudos to several officers in the case, and named Det. Michael Rodriquez, in particular. It was Rodriquez who “friended” seven of the gang members on Facebook. (The detective probably didn’t have “detective” in his Facebook name or request, and police aren’t saying what name he did use.)

And the gang members telegraphed their upcoming heists on Facebook as well, which helped get the police in place to videotape and record some of those incidents.

On Facebook, the gang members “signed off on their messages with LOL — laughing out loud,” Kelly told the New York Post. “Well, there was a person who was laughing out loud. That was Police Officer Michael Rodriques of the 77th Precinct.”

Now, the police hope, the gang members can continue to LOL — from prison, if they are convicted.

This is going to put a crimp on their social lives for years to come. And, speaking as someone who was robbed, I’m fine with that.

I can’t leave you with nothing but depressing news. So I’ll wrap up with the story of a guy who died while cheating on his wife with another man and another woman. Nah, I’m kidding, I’ll leave that train wreck alone since it involves medical malpractice.

Instead I’ll close with the story of Diane Tran. Yes, she is the young lady who was jailed for missing school. But she’s also the young lady who turned down $100,000 in free money.

Earlier this week Diane Tran made national headlines after a Texas judge threw 17-year-old teen in jail for missing school. Now she’s in the headlines again for turning down a 100K check that a website started in her name fundraised for her.

ABC News reports:

“We saw her trying to work and trying to go to school and trying to do all these things and then to have the judge put her in jail for missing school just seemed a little harsh,” said Paul Dietzel, who helped raise the money for Diane Tran. HelpDianeTran.com is a project of the Louisiana Children’s Education Alliance.

But Tran didn’t want the money: “There’s some other kid out there struggling more … than me,” she said.

According to KHOU, Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Lanny Moriarty, at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s request, signed an order that vacates the contempt of court conviction that sent Diane Tran to jail last week.

I have no idea what life has in store for this young lady, but I do hope it’s all positive.

Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.