“This will be upsetting,” cautioned Justice Robert Graesser, addressing jurors in February in the Edmonton, Alberta murder trial of Brad Barton. At issue was the cause of the victim’s having bled to death from her genitals, and the judge, ruling that jurors would benefit by inspecting the actual wound, admitted the vagina itself (not a photograph) into evidence. The organ had been removed for autopsy and preserved, and the chief medical examiner donned rubber gloves and pointed out to jurors how “clean” the wound was (suggesting a sharp object), rather than the rougher, “scraping” wound that would have been created in other ways, such as by impalement. (At press time, the trial was still in progress.)
News you can use
Researchers from Cornell University, inspired by the book World War Z, recently computer-simulated the spread of a “zombie apocalypse” — and now advise the anxiety-prone to head for higher ground if infections break out, recommending Glacier National Park in Montana or, even better, Alaska. Using differential equations and “lattice-based” models, the statisticians demonstrated that infections would slow dramatically as fewer people became available to bite (but that, ultimately, we’re all doomed). The state most quickly wiped out? New Jersey.
Legislators’ war on science
• Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore told a radio audience in February that she would soon introduce a bill reforming end-of-life procedures for terminally ill cancer patients, such as administering baking soda intravenously to “flush out” the cancer “fungus.” Before her election in 2013, she was CEO of Always There Personal Care of Nevada (which she describes as being “in the healthcare industry”). (Bonus: Fiore blames her accountant for the company’s reported $1 million in IRS tax liens; the accountant is her ex-husband.)
• In February, Idaho state Representative Vito Barbieri, at a hearing on a proposed bill to ban doctors from prescribing abortion-inducing medications via remote telecommunication, asked expert witness Dr. Julie Madsen about one alternative he had in mind: Couldn’t a woman just swallow a small camera, he asked, and then have doctors “conduct” a remote gynecological exam on her? Dr. Madsen quickly reminded Rep. Barbieri that “swallowed” things do not end up in that part of a woman’s body.
Breaking bad
• Mark Rothwell made the news in Portland, Oregon in March 2010 when he prevented a bank robbery (and rescued the terrified Chase teller) by jumping the thief, knocking his gun away and holding him until police arrived. He was later awarded a coveted Portland police Civilian Medal for Heroism. However, on Feb. 19, 2015, according to an arrest report, Rothwell himself pulled a gun and robbed the Albina Community Bank in Portland, making off with $15,700.
• For Arthur Mondella, 57, a successful maraschino cherry supplier in Brooklyn, New York, the inspection by the district attorney’s office in February was to be routine, concerning possible pollution of local waters from discharges of cherry syrup. Mondella was cooperative until the investigator discovered odd shelving “attached” to a wall with magnets, revealing a “secret” room, and then the smell of marijuana — at which point Mondella calmly left the room and shot himself in the head. Ultimately, police found that the 75-year-old company was merely a side business to Mondella’s substantial marijuana-growing operation in the basement.
Big crime
Use What You Have: (1) Morrison Wilson, 58, was convicted of assault in Belfast (Northern Ireland) Magistrates Court in February for using his admittedly “big belly” to “bounce” an aggressive neighbor lady out of his garden in a dispute. The lady was injured as she fell backward. (2) In a March skirmish over a handicapped parking space at a Walmart in Greenfield, Wisconsin, Ms. Kezia Perkins, 32, was charged with assaulting a 71-year-old woman by, said a witness, “chest-butt(ing) her,” knocking her to the ground. Said Perkins, “It’s not my fault (she) bounced off my big (chest).” (The euphemism “chest” was substituted by WITI-TV of Milwaukee.)
