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TULT

It is about gawd damn time....

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When Melinda Denham lied about being raped, it resulted in two people being placed behind bars.

First, the man she accused, Shannon Hudson, was jailed for two months last year before Denham admitted she lied.

On Wednesday, a judge threw Denham into prison for six months, a rarity on a conviction for Ohio’s lowest-level felony, which usually results in probation.

“What you did in this case is, you caused a man to be incarcerated and he had done nothing and the worst part about that was you knew from the very start that he had done nothing,” Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Steve Martin told Denham. “What you did was terrible beyond any words.”

Denham, 25, told police she was sleeping at her father’s Blue Ash home Aug. 13 when Hudson, her former boyfriend, came into the bedroom and raped her. Later, though, she wrote a letter to the judge presiding over Hudson’s rape case stating the sex was consensual, that she’d not been raped and wouldn’t testify against Hudson. Hudson could have gone to prison for 30 years on those charges.

She said in the Sept. 15 letter that she loved Hudson, 36, and wanted to be with him.

Denham is now six months pregnant and Hudson isn’t the father, she previously told the judge.

“I don’t want to get in trouble no more,” Denham told Martin.

Prosecutors charged Denham with making false alarms and perjury for swearing to tell the truth before the grand jury and then lying.

In a plea deal, Denham pleaded guilty to making false alarms in exchange for prosecutors dropping the more serious perjury charge.

This was one of two instances in the last five years where Hamilton County prosecutors have charged women who recanted rape allegations.

“I think it’s kind of obvious that Ms. Denham is not the most sophisticated young woman,” her attorney, Roxann Dieffenbach, told the judge.

Hudson spent two months in jail before Denham recanted.

“He’s now got a rape allegation against him that is completely unfounded, completely untrue,” the judge told Denham, “but other people are still going to think ill of him because of that.”
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Bridgewater teen accused in car burglary dies 8 months after victim put him in choke hold

Published: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 9:43 PM Updated: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 7:39 AM
By Eugene Paik/The Star-Ledger

BRIDGEWATER — It was swift and emphatic.
One punch and a choke hold, and two car burglary suspects were on the ground, according to police reports.
The punched suspect, knocked unconscious, later awakened, but the choke hold injured the other suspect so severely he never fully recovered.
Douglas Uhler, 19, of Bridgewater, died Sunday at Morristown Memorial Hospital, more than eight months after the incident.
And with his death, new questions are being raised over when a person can use lethal force in self-defense.
The street justice was administered by a 42-year-old Bridgewater man who heard people breaking into his car. A grand jury considered charges against the man, identified in court papers as Alex Montalvo, but none were brought.
Prosecutors said that after Montalvo knocked out one of the suspects, later identified as Brian Johnston, Uhler ran out from nearby bushes and shouted: "You want a piece of me, (expletive)?!"
Uhler jumped on Montalvo, who put him in a submission hold, Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano said. The move blocked the teen’s oxygen flow, causing a brain injury, Soriano said.
In December, a Somerset County grand jury indicted Uhler and Johnston, also 19 and of Bridgewater, on third-degree burglary charges. Johnston has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
Uhler was dismissed as a defendant last month after a judge deemed him incompetent to stand trial. A once-strapping high school football player, Uhler spent his days in bed or in a wheelchair.
He had to be fed through a tube, according to court records. He was non-vocal and unable to walk, sit or roll. He also had poor head control.
Uhler had been in and out of several hospitals, including the Children’s Specialized Hospital and the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation.
His father wants charges filed against the car owner.
"He clearly said he attacked a kid in the street," Russell Uhler said.
At his home on Oak Street in Bridgewater tonight, where the fateful events occurred last July 31, Montalvo declined comment.
Authorities said Montalvo was awakened by the alleged burglary and chased the teens to Linden Street, a block away.
A criminal law expert described the case as "incredibly complicated."
"New Jersey law allows you to defend your physical self as well as your property," said Jenny Carroll, an associate professor at Seton Hall Law School. "You’re allowed to kill people under certain circumstances, particularly self-defense. If I jump on you, you’re allowed to do what is required to make me stop hurting you. But if I pause, you can’t just start kicking me in the head."
Carroll said there are no clear-cut answers.
"Here’s the trick in this case — did the homeowner exceed the need to protect his property?" she said. "If the kids are still in the process of taking the homeowner’s property, then he has a right to defend his property and to use force. The prosecutor must decide whether the homeowner used justifiable force, and whether it was reasonable.
"Even in the heat of passion, if you’re trying to subdue someone, it isn’t reasonable to kill them," Carroll said.
However, she said, the homeowner was defending himself against two people and might not have realized he was "using deadly force."
"I understand the dad’s emotional response and he may have a legal basis for it," Carroll said. "We have a dead kid and a homeowner who says his car was broken into. He could have stayed inside the house and just called the cops."
Russell Uhler said there wasn’t enough physical evidence to pin his son to the burglary.
The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office stands by its account of events.
Douglas Uhler had plans to attend William Paterson University, where he hoped to earn a degree in sports medicine. He played football at Bridgewater-Raritan High School and dedicated himself to sports and weight training, his father said.

Staff writers Benjamin Horowitz and Mike Frassinelli contributed to this report.
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Thanks Moe! I would have so won that competition. I make a mean grilled cheese sandwich.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9CkF0nOsGw&NR=1
 
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What are some things you LIKE about Americans?


Reddit asks the question of its non-American readers. Here are some of the answers:

  • The thing that stands out to me from times that I’ve visited to US is the phrase ‘Have a nice day’ and the sincerity with which Americans will say it and appear to mean it.
  • Your drive. As an Australian whose duties extend to leaving the hammock once a fortnight to grab more beer, I’m always amazed at how driven Americans are to do things. I sometimes wish I had that sort of passion for achievement.
  • Costco. Costco is amazing. I felt like Mitchell in the costco modern family episode the first time I went.
  • Imagination is an integral part of the educational system. This makes Americans IMO more interesting as adults.
  • They are charitable and often open to lending a helping hand.
  • Your breakfast items. The works with pancakes AND toast AND cornbread AND you name it. Amazing.
  • Stealth helicopters that thwart evil.
  • What do I admire most about Americans? They work hard. I know there’s the stereotype of laziness, but I think that this is inaccurate. Most Americans work their asses off, and many never complain.
  • Americans love innovation. It’s a great place to take a novel idea an run with it.
  • Americans are proud to be whoever they are, proud to be American, proud of American things. This sometimes goes too far but I wish the average Brit wasn’t so full of self loathing of themselves and their country.
  • I really like the fact that America is made up of so many cultures. If you migrate to America, you keep (and share) your old culture AND add some American. There’s no ******** about rejecting one or the other.
  • When I was over there I noticed how easy-going, social, friendly and open people seemed to be. I like it a lot, here in Norway people seem to be much more introvert.
  • Americans contribute the biggest portion of lulz available on the internet. We try.
  • I like your principles, especially your interpretation/application of Voltaire’s idea that: “I don’t agree with you but I will fight for your right to say it.”
  • Most Americans are ridiculously good looking. I like that.
  • Your military is what really keeps us safe, because ours is completely irrelevant.
  • I love that you can hold such a huge amount of cultural diversity within a single national identity.
  • Can do attitude and frontier spirit, Canadians have it too but Americans are a little bit more badass (for better or worse)
  • Almost all Americans I’ve met have been really nice persons and not like those fat gun loving muslim bashing health care hating abortion-doctor-killing death penalty loving guys we see on the news every other day.
  • Your contributions towards the ongoing development of the internet, for without it, I would have to talk to real people.
  • McChickens in Boston were only $1. In Canada they’re $4.19.
 
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