Irony Is So Ironic

Overland Police Officer charged with Manslaughter-updated

2010-03-30T07:53:00.006-05:00

Now I generally am a big fan of the police, until the police force in question proves that they are not heroes. Some have, don't get me wrong. But people who put their life on the line to protect mine are a cut above and I am more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Here is a run down of the story. Police are called to a gas station for an altercation. Assailant has gone home. Police go to home to follow up.

Now, in my mind, if the person in question has gone home and his victim knows where that is, or at least his name, this isn't random. If the police know where to go, he is known to them. I mean seriously, I can be mad at my neighbor and call the police and say her dog bit me. They will come to me and if I have no scratch they aren't going to follow up w/ her. There must have been something to cause these officers to continue their investigation.

So police go to the home. In the midst of subduing the 49 year old suspect, he is injured, but its clear it was not with weapons or tasers. He later dies. All the police are put on suspension with pay. A few days later Officer Ringeisen is charged with manslaughter, and an arrest warrant is issued with a 40k cash bond.

Posters on various news sites are alternately calling for his head, all their heads, and for the criminals' family's heads. Some are screaming scapegoat. I am not ready to scream any thing from my little mountaintop yet.

a) If the gentleman was in a previous altercation, and then another with the police, who is to say it was not a heart attack from excessive physical exertion? What if several officers laid blows, and he fell onto this guys car? What if he wiggled while in a choke hold, lost blood to his brain, and the family decided to pull the plug? True, death would've been from the injury, but was the force excessive?

b) If you're known to your victim, and to the police, and you know the police are coming and you leave anyway, doesn't that give you some of the responsibility?

I am reserving judgment until more facts come in. Like perhaps the autopsy results. Bad cops give good cops bad reps. That's harder to type than it is to say. We so often hear of cops hurting criminals, and criminals hurting criminals and innocent bystanders, but seldom do we hear of police injured in the line of duty unless it's something truly horrendous. We don't hear about the hit and runs unless its a slow news day. We don't hear about a stray shot let off when someone gets jostled, or the dog bites, or human bites for that matter. Remember, you do not leave your house for work with the intention of getting hit, spit on, bled on, ran over, fought with, ran from, or shot at. Officers do.

Post Dispatch Article

Ksdk Article

**UPDATE**
According to new details published this morning by the post, the officer in question pushed the original assailant down some stairs.

Apparently, the original incident appears to be road-rage, and the accused has lights and a siren on his jeep. When police responded to his home, a verbal argument ensued, and the man was pushed down some stairs by the officer. Overland asked SLCPD to investigate.

I am still waiting for a verdict, and I need to digest this info before I decide what I think.... but if the guy rides around in a rusty jeep with lights on it, pulls people over with it in a road rage situation, I would almost guess he's nuttier than a squirrel's breakfast.

***3/31/10
Just saw a picture of the steps. Its like 3, not a flight like some (including me) thought. I'd say SLCPD got it right. Good job, Overland, for turning this over right away. Stupid? Yes. Reckless? Sure. Excessive? Probably not.

2010-03-29T13:54:00.003-05:00

There have been a rash of cyber-bullies teens committing suicide as of late. The burning question is really this: Is it happening more, or is it steady and we hearing about it more?

Are these kids suicidal, or is this driving them mad. Are they already depressed kids made more vulnerable by the "plugged in" society we've given them?

Two recent cases have brought the Megan Meier story back to the forefront of my mind.

Phoebe Prince and Alexis Pilkington.

Phoebe was a beautiful girl, a freshman, who had the audacity to date a senior football player. Girls followed her around school, followed her home, constantly texting, emailing, and name calling. As adults, put away the object of your worries and move on.

Its harder for kids as its all they know. They have been wired since they could talk. I know one day as I sat down to my daughter's facebook there was a message from a boy in Texas that I didn't recognize. They were both getting off the computer but were going to continue to talk by texts. I was immediately alarmed. Giving some strange person in Texas your cell number. It could be anyone. It turned out, it wasn't anyone. It was a former classmate that I did remember after prompting, she pointed out I had taught her better than that.

We also talked about how cell phones these days are not for emergencies. They are basically communication pdas. Your cell # is like your Aol screen name from days of yore. Its a lot bigger deal to give out your facebook than it is your phone number, I'm told.

Then you have kids who want to be popular so bad they will do anything to get on the good side of the bully. Change your phone number -sounds easy enough. Until you think you have a friend in another outcast and they sell you out for sitting at lunch with the cool kids for a few days.

Alexis Pilkington had it bad, as well. Popular, athletic and smart. She graduated early and was on her way to college with a soccer scholarship. No one is saying what transpired that last night, but facebook messages left behind were cruel, spiteful, disrespectful and downright brutal to a girl already undergoing counseling.

Friends set up a memorial page on facebook, that too was defiled with horrible messages that her family could not tear themselves away from.

Two beautiful girls, gone in the space of a few months, because they were too pretty, too smart, too something, for others to handle. Who teaches their kids to behave this way, or doesn't correct them when they do.

I hope I am able to give my children hope in their future if they are ever faced with adversity such as this.

2010-03-28T19:12:00.002-05:00

Resurrection and all....

This was once a clearing house for me to find easily forgotten websites. When the Megan story happened back in 2007 I joined a true crime site, first as a poster then as moderator and pretty much put this blog to bed. I have decided with all the nastiness going on, I'm reopening it.

As before, I'll be posting news bits from the area, focusing but not limited to crime stories.

Fun fun fun

2007-11-14T22:33:00.000-06:00

http://tinyurl.com/2danho

Readers react to Megan Meier story

By Steve Pokin
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 12:41 PM CST

This newspaper has received an incredible response to Sunday's story on the
death of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old who lived in Dardenne Prairie and
committed suicide last year.

Many of you expressed appreciation to me and to the Journal for running the
story.

Some of you have asked your children to read the story and have
requested/demanded to look at their MySpace pages.Of course, there has been
outrage over the fact that Josh Evans - a 16-year-old who never existed -
was created not by a teen, but by an adult. That anger is reflected in the
comments posted on the Journal's Web sites.

Since the story ran Sunday Tina Meier, Megan's mother, has been contacted by
other media outlets.

In brief, here's what happened.

Josh Evans had taken an interest in Megan, who for much of her life had
battled depression and struggled with her weight. But according to her
parents she was the happiest she had ever been.

Megan ended her life after Josh, whom she never actually met, suddenly
became mean to her.

Six weeks after she died her parents discovered that Josh was created by a
neighbor down the block, an adult woman whose own daughter had once been
Megan's friend. This woman knew of Megan's depression, says Tina Meier.

According to a police report filed by the woman down the block, she created
the account to check to see what Megan was saying, if anything, about her
daughter. According to the police report, the woman, her daughter and an
18-year-old part-time employee monitored the Josh Evans account.

In Sunday's story the Journal did not name the woman because the newspaper
did not want to identify her daughter. It was a decision I supported.

A few of you took us to task for not naming this woman.

I understand the loss the Meiers feel. But I told Tina in our very first
conversation that even though we might have the legal right to publish a
name, it doesn't necessarily mean we will.

Here are some of your comments. Many are taken from our Web sites.

"I have never responded to a news article before, but your story has not
only moved me, made me cry, but has angered me. You are right. These laws
need to change along with our so-called child predator laws." - Lisa K.

"The realization this can actually happen is truly frightening. THANK YOU
for printing it" - R. W. Bross

"Your story in today's paper about Megan was sad but unfortunately an eye
opener for every parent out there with a child that loves the Internet." -
Heidi

"I hope your article strikes a chord with kids who may be planning (or may
be currently doing) similar pranks on their friends, and make parents 'take
notice.'" - Raymond Stone, St. Charles

"Your article in this morning's St. Charles Journal regarding the tragic and
senseless suicide of young Megan Meier last fall, and the resulting
criminal, legal, and familial progress and aftereffects, was a very powerful
and moving piece, and I thank you for telling it." - Mandy Matthews

"I admire the courage of the Meiers to tell this story, and am astounded
that it was actually ADULTS behind the fake identity that caused this young
person so much unnecessary grief. It seems to me that justice has not been
served in this matter." - GS

"This is a wake up call and I hope this story is out on the Internet for all
parents to read and realize this could happen to them." - Kellie Keling,
Wentzville

"I am a journalist myself, and I know the policy regarding not naming sexual
assault victims, but none are involved here, and I cannot understand how you
came to the decision not to name them." - Brian Russell, Alton

"This article was so upsetting that it made me sick to my stomach." - Ashley

"Parents today are so worried about being their child's friend and playing
these adolescent games to prove how cool they are to their kid and the kid's
friends, when what the kid needs is a parent." - Rachel

"This story is touching and sad. There should be a law and the Meiers would
have my support. … Mrs. Meier, don't blame yourself for your daughter's
death." - Tammy

And finally, a letter from someone who still feels the pain, and still
struggles to look to the future, not to the past.

"I am hopeful that with this article we can start our journey to change the
law and not let another family go through what we have gone through." - Tina
Meier, St. Charles

http://bluemerle.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-you-said-to-megan-meier.html

2007-11-14T21:48:00.000-06:00

Suburban Journals - News

My Space' hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen

By Steve Pokin
Sunday, November 11, 2007 11:00 AM CST

His name was Josh Evans. He was 16 years old. And he was hot.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at him!" Tina Meier recalls her daughter saying.

Josh had contacted Megan Meier through her MySpace page and wanted to be added as a friend.

Yes, he's cute, Tina Meier told her daughter. "Do you know who he is?"

"No, but look at him! He's hot! Please, please, can I add him?"

Mom said yes. And for six weeks Megan and Josh - under Tina's watchful eye - became acquainted in the virtual world of MySpace.

Josh said he was born in Florida and recently had moved to O'Fallon. He was homeschooled. He played the guitar and drums.

He was from a broken home: "when i was 7 my dad left me and my mom and my older brother and my newborn brother 3 boys god i know poor mom yeah she had such a hard time when we were younger finding work to pay for us after he loeft."

As for 13-year-old Megan, of Dardenne Prairie, this is how she expressed who she was:

M is for Modern

E is for Enthusiastic

G is for Goofy

A is for Alluring

N is for Neglected.

She loved swimming, boating, fishing, dogs, rap music and boys. But her life had not always been easy, her mother says.

She was heavy and for years had tried to lose weight. She had attention deficit disorder and battled depression. Back in third grade she had talked about suicide, Tina says, and ever since had seen a therapist.

But things were going exceptionally well. She had shed 20 pounds, getting down to 175. She was 5 foot 5½ inches tall.

She had just started eighth grade at a new school, Immaculate Conception, in Dardenne Prairie, where she was on the volleyball team. She had attended Fort Zumwalt public schools before that.

Amid all these positives, Tina says, her daughter decided to end a friendship with a girlfriend who lived down the street from them. The girls had spent much of seventh grade alternating between being friends and, the next day, not being friends, Tina says.

Part of the reason for Megan's rosy outlook was Josh, Tina says. After school, Megan would rush to the computer.

"Megan had a lifelong struggle with weight and self-esteem," Tina says. "And now she finally had a boy who she thought really thought she was pretty."

It did seem odd, Tina says, that Josh never asked for Megan's phone number. And when Megan asked for his, she says, Josh said he didn't have a cell and his mother did not yet have a landline.

And then on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006, Megan received a puzzling and disturbing message from Josh. Tina recalls that it said: "I don't know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I've heard that you are not very nice to your friends."

Frantic, Megan shot back: "What are you talking about?"

SHADOWY CYBERSPACE

Tina Meier was wary of the cyber-world of MySpace and its 70 million users. People are not always who they say they are.

Tina knew firsthand. Megan and the girl down the block, the former friend, once had created a fake MySpace account, using the photo of a good-looking girl as a way to talk to boys online, Tina says. When Tina found out, she ended Megan's access.

MySpace has rules. A lot of them. There are nine pages of terms and conditions. The long list of prohibited content includes sexual material. And users must be at least 14.

"Are you joking?" Tina asks. "There are fifth-grade girls who have MySpace accounts."

As for sexual content, Tina says, most parents have no clue how much there is. And Megan wasn't 14 when she opened her account. To join, you are asked your age but there is no check. The accounts are free.

As Megan's 14th birthday approached, she pleaded for her mom to give her another chance on MySpace, and Tina relented.

She told Megan she would be all over this account, monitoring it. Megan didn't always make good choices because of her ADD, Tina says. And this time, Megan's page would be set to private and only Mom and Dad would have the password.

'GOD-AWFUL FEELING'

Monday, Oct. 16, 2006, was a rainy, bleak day. At school, Megan had handed out invitations to her upcoming birthday party and when she got home she asked her mother to log on to MySpace to see if Josh had responded.

Why did he suddenly think she was mean? Who had he been talking to?

Tina signed on. But she was in a hurry. She had to take her younger daughter, Allison, to the orthodontist.

Before Tina could get out the door it was clear Megan was upset. Josh still was sending troubling messages. And he apparently had shared some of Megan's messages with others.

Tina recalled telling Megan to sign off.

"I will Mom," Megan said. "Let me finish up."

Tina was pressed for time. She had to go. But once at the orthodontist's office she called Megan: Did you sign off?

"No, Mom. They are all being so mean to me."

"You are not listening to me, Megan! Sign off, now!"

Fifteen minutes later, Megan called her mother. By now Megan was in tears.

"They are posting bulletins about me." A bulletin is like a survey. "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat."

Megan was sobbing hysterically. Tina was furious that she had not signed off.

Once Tina returned home she rushed into the basement where the computer was. Tina was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back at people.

"I am so aggravated at you for doing this!" she told Megan.

Megan ran from the computer and left, but not without first telling Tina, "You're supposed to be my mom! You're supposed to be on my side!"

On the stairway leading to her second-story bedroom, Megan ran into her father, Ron.

"I grabbed her as she tried to go by," Ron says. "She told me that some kids were saying horrible stuff about her and she didn't understand why. I told her it's OK. I told her that they obviously don't know her. And that it would be fine."

Megan went to her room and Ron went downstairs to the kitchen, where he and Tina talked about what had happened, the MySpace account, and made dinner.

Twenty minutes later, Tina suddenly froze in mid-sentence.

"I had this God-awful feeling and I ran up into her room and she had hung herself in the closet."

Megan Taylor Meier died the next day, three weeks before her 14th birthday.

Later that day, Ron opened his daughter's MySpace account and viewed what he believes to be the final message Megan saw - one the FBI would be unable to retrieve from the hard drive.

It was from Josh and, according to Ron's best recollection, it said, "Everybody in O'Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you."

BEYOND GRIEF INTO FURY

Tina and Ron saw a grief counselor. Tina went to a couple of Parents After Loss of Suicide meetings, as well.

They tried to message Josh Evans, to let him know the deadly power of mean words. But his MySpace account had been deleted.

The day after Megan's death, they went down the street to comfort the family of the girl who had once been Megan's friend. They let the girl and her family know that although she and Megan had their ups and down, Megan valued her friendship.

They also attended the girl's birthday party, although Ron had to leave when it came time to sing "Happy Birthday." The Meiers went to the father's 50th birthday celebration. In addition, the Meiers stored a foosball table, a Christmas gift, for that family.

Six weeks after Megan died, on a Saturday morning, a neighbor down the street, a different neighbor, one they didn't know well, called and insisted that they meet that morning at a counselor's office in northern O'Fallon.

The woman would not provide details. Ron and Tina went. Their grief counselor was there. As well as a counselor from Fort Zumwalt West Middle School.

The neighbor from down the street, a single mom with a daughter the same age as Megan, informed the Meiers that Josh Evans never existed.

She told the Meiers that Josh Evans was created by adults, a family on their block. These adults, she told the Meiers, were the parents of Megan's former girlfriend, the one with whom she had a falling out. These were the people who'd asked the Meiers to store their foosball table.

The single mother, for this story, requested that her name not be used. She said her daughter, who had carpooled with the family that was involved in creating the phony MySpace account, had the password to the Josh Evans account and had sent one message - the one Megan received (and later retrieved off the hard drive) the night before she took her life.

"She had been encouraged to join in the joke," the single mother said.

The single mother said her daughter feels the guilt of not saying something sooner and for writing that message. Her daughter didn't speak out sooner because she'd known the other family for years and thought that what they were doing must be OK because, after all, they were trusted adults.

On the night the ambulance came for Megan, the single mother said, before it left the Meiers' house her daughter received a call. It was the woman behind the creation of the Josh Evans account. She had called to tell the girl that something had happened to Megan and advised the girl not to mention the MySpace account.

AX AND SLEDGEHAMMER

The Meiers went home and tore into the foosball table.

Tina used an ax and Ron a sledgehammer. They put the pieces in Ron's pickup and dumped them in their neighbor's driveway. Tina spray painted "Merry Christmas" on the box.

According to Tina, Megan had gone on vacations with this family. They knew how she struggled with depression, that she took medication.

"I know that they did not physically come up to our house and tie a belt around her neck," Tina says. "But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old - with or without mental problems - it is absolutely vile.

"She wanted to get Megan to feel like she was liked by a boy and let everyone know this was a false MySpace and have everyone laugh at her.

"I don't feel their intentions were for her to kill herself. But that's how it ended."

'GAINING MEGAN'S CONFIDENCE'

That same day, the family down the street tried to talk to the Meiers. Ron asked friends to convince them to leave before he physically harmed them.

In a letter dated Nov. 30, 2006, the family tells Ron and Tina, "We are sorry for the extreme pain you are going through and can only imagine how difficult it must be. We have every compassion for you and your family."

The Suburban Journals have decided not to name the family out of consideration for their teenage daughter.

The mother declined comment.

"I have been advised not to give out any information and I apologize for that," she says. "I would love to sit here and talk to you about it but I can't."

She was informed that without her direct comment the newspaper would rely heavily on the police report she filed with the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department regarding the destroyed foosball table.

"I will tell you that the police report is totally wrong," the mother said. "We have worked on getting that changed. I would just be very careful about what you write."

Lt. Craig McGuire, spokesman for the sheriff's department, said he is unaware of anyone contacting the department to alter the report.

"We stand behind the report as written," McGuire says. "There was no supplement to it. What is in the report is what we believe she told us."

The police report - without using the mother's name - states:

"(She) stated in the months leading up Meier's daughter's suicide, she instigated and monitored a 'my space' account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter.

"(She) said she, with the help of temporary employee named ------ constructed a profile of 'good looking' male on 'my space' in order to 'find out what Megan (Meier's daughter) was saying on-line' about her daughter. (She) explained the communication between the fake male profile and Megan was aimed at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people.

"(She) stated she, her daughter and (the temporary employee) all typed, read and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan ..

"According to (her) 'somehow' other 'my space' users were able to access the fake male profile and Megan found out she had been duped. (She) stated she knew 'arguments' had broken out between Megan and others on 'my space.' (She) felt this incident contributed to Megan's suicide, but she did not feel 'as guilty' because at the funeral she found out 'Megan had tried to commit suicide before.'"

Tina says her daughter died thinking Josh was real and that she never before attempted suicide.

"She was the happiest she had ever been in her life," Ron says.

After years of wearing braces, Megan was scheduled to have them removed the day she died. And she was looking forward to her birthday party.

"She and her mom went shopping and bought a new dress," Ron says. "She wanted to make this grand entrance with me carrying her down the stairs. I never got to see her in that dress until the funeral."

NO CRIMINAL CHARGES

It does not appear that there will be criminal charges filed in connection with Megan's death.

"We did not have a charge to fit it," McGuire says. "I don't know that anybody can sit down and say, 'This is why this young girl took her life.'"

The Meiers say the matter also was investigated by the FBI, which analyzed the family computer and conducted interviews. Ron said a stumbling block is that the FBI was unable to retrieve the electronic messages from Megan's final day, including that final message that only Ron saw.

The Meiers do not plan to file a civil lawsuit. Here's what they want: They want the law changed, state or federal, so that what happened to Megan - at the hands of an adult - is a crime.

THE AFTERMATH IS PAIN

The Meiers are divorcing. Ron says Tina was as vigilant as a parent could be in monitoring Megan on MySpace. Yet she blames herself.

"I have this awful, horrible guilt and this I can never change," she said. "Ever."

Ron struggles daily with the loss of a daughter who, no matter how low she felt, tried to make others laugh and feel a little bit better.

He has difficulty maintaining focus and has kept his job as a tool and die maker through the grace and understanding of his employer, he says. His emotions remain jagged, on edge.

Christine Buckles lives in the same Waterford Crossing subdivision. In her view, everyone in the subdivision knows of Megan's death, but few know of the other family's involvement.

Tina says she and Ron have dissuaded angry friends and family members from vandalizing the other home for one, and only one, reason.

"The police will think we did it," Tina says.

Ron faces a misdemeanor charge of property damage. He is accused of driving his truck across the lawn of the family down the street, doing $1,000 in damage, in March. A security camera the neighbors installed on their home allegedly caught him.

It was Tina, a real estate agent, who helped the other family purchase their home on the same block 2½ years ago.

"I just wish they would go away, move," Ron says.

Vicki Dunn, Tina's aunt, last month placed signs in and near the neighborhood on the anniversary of Megan's death.

They read: "Justice for Megan Meier," "Call the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney," and "MySpace Impersonator in Your Neighborhood."

On the window outside Megan's room is an ornamental angel that Ron turns on almost every night. Inside are pictures of boys, posters of Usher, Beyonce and on the dresser a tube of instant bronzer.

"She was all about getting a tan," Ron says.

He has placed the doors back on the closet. Megan had them off.

If only she had waited, talked to someone, or just made it to dinner, then through the evening, and then on to the beginning of a new day in what could have been a remarkable life.

If she had, he says, there is no doubt she would have chosen to live. Instead, there is so much pain.

"She never would have wanted to see her parents divorce," Ron says.

Ultimately, it was Megan's choice to do what she did, he says. "But it was like someone handed her a loaded gun."

2006-11-18T12:45:00.001-06:00

petite anglaise
Joe Dirt

2006-11-11T22:26:00.000-06:00

Blogger is too dumb to let me publish this slide show that every other website lets me use. I can preview it as well... but it STILL won't let me use it.

But click the link.. its a nice little slideshow of a Veteran's Day Ceremony. My nephew flew into StL from Florida to freeze and take part in the Color Guard Ceremony.

2006-08-22T23:30:00.001-05:00

Okay, so this really isn't a blog, I keep a blog of boring, random events on myspace.

I started a *blogspot* blog so I can keep track of blogs/sites I like to read. Much easier than adding to favorites because eventually you get so many that its hard to locate what you're looking for. If a web browser made the favorites easy to organize I wouldn't have to take up this space! HINT HINT

Okay--to the sites

My favorite Mizzou brothers & fellow tigerboarders:
Stiffy in Iraq - Part Deux
Stiffy -A Marine's Story

Suburban Fringe
Bob Writes Stuff,but only on Tuesdays
and sometimes on other days

Scott Adams:
The Dilbert Blog

Silent Bob Speaks
And speaks again

This chick has one weird story, I hope she finishes it someday:
63days.com

More random links:
http://crimeblog.us/ (true crime)
http://crimerant.com/ (true crime)
http://janescrime.blogspot.com/ (true crime)
http://1947project.blogspot.com/ (history)
Lowell,he's a delusional Cub's fan, but I forgive him because he makes me laugh
Mil Millington&stuff
We all have a George