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2005 State Legislative Update Senate Bill 251 Regulation of Traveling Sales Crews Position: FAVORABLE Status: SB 251 was referred to the Senate Job Creation, Economic Development and Consumer Affairs Committee. Read This Story Senate Bill SB 251 Passes Through Committee Hearing Read PDF Record Of Committee Proceedings Letters Of Support CLC - Child Labor Coalition Read PDF Child Labor Coalition Letter Of Support |
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GRANITE CITY The employment ad sounded so promising: Earn up to $1,000 a week. Get paid to travel. Cash advances daily. A perfect sales gig for a young guy, a high school dropout desperate for work. One phone call, and Christopher Fields, 20, of Granite City, had his paid bus ticket to sunny California. He thought he had a glitzy sales job, but once he arrived in West Sacramento, Fields says he instead found a culture of drugs, alcohol, lies and abuse as part of a door-to-door itinerant magazine sales crew. ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH stltoday.com Read This Story |
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MOUNT DORA, Fla. -- A judge Thursday ordered no bond for the man accused of attacking a woman inside her
home. Mount Dora police said he used his job as a magazine salesman to target the victim.
Charles Hartman was booked early Thursday morning and it was a scary night for one Lake County
resident who said a knock on her door turned suddenly violent.
"He grabbed me by my neck and forced his way in and I wrestled him to the ground and started screaming,
'Help me! Help me! Help me!'" explained the unidentified victim.
The victim, who didn't want to be identified, had no trouble identifying her attacker.
She said it was Charles Hartman.
"I know he was going to rape me. Why else would you come into somebody's house?" she questioned.
The door-to-door magazine salesman was arrested shortly after the attack and, while police don't
have proof of a sexual assault, they want Heartman off the streets.
"We are going with burglary of an occupied dwelling. We don't have any proof of a sexual assault,
but there were two small children in the house who were terrified," said Lt. Roger Children, Mount
Dora Police Department.
Along with arresting Hartman, the police dragnet picked up some of the other door-to-door marketers,
telling them to either leave town or go to jail. The salesman work for Integrity Sales of Arizona.
Their boss described the men as something other than upstanding citizens.
"We pull them off the street from doing drugs, homeless shelters and get 'em out there.
We teach them responsibly. We teach them structure," said Ryan Atkins, Integrity Sales.
WFTV wftv.com MOUNT DORA, Fla. Read This Story |
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FRANKLIN LAKES - The Borough Council unanimously passed an ordinance Wednesday night that will create a
"No-Knock" list.
Residents can register with the borough so that commercial solicitors cannot approach their homes.
It is similar to the National Do Not Call Registry.
Non-profit and religious groups are exempt from the No Knock law.
"This gives the municipality a tool to use against overly aggressive door-to-door sales organizations,"
Business Administrator Bob Hoffmann said Thursday.
Franklin Lakes Police Sgt. John Bakelaar said earlier this month that his department often gets
complaints about the solicitors' demeanor, that the product they're selling seems fraudulent or that
they hang around the neighborhood too long.
The ordinance requires that salespeople be photographed and fingerprinted.
Their names would also be run through a national database to see if they have a criminal history.
If the salespeople violate the No Knock law they will be subjected to a fine of up to $1,250
and a one-year loss of permit. The list will be updated twice a year, in January and July.
STAFF WRITER northjersey.com New Jeresy Read This Story |
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We have just been told 18-year-old Ashley Nicole Hanson is in the custody of California authorities.
She was able to call 911 and her mother after running from the hotel she was being held at.
Ashley left Bay County nearly six weeks ago to embark on a journey claiming to make her money and
show her the world.
"They spoke of $200 to $500 a day. Bonuses, football games, Las Vegas where their next stop was
supposed to have been."
An ad ran in our local newspaper in early November, seeking teens and young adults eager to
travel the country, making large profits, and selling popular magazines door-to-door.
Ashley Nicole Hanson, an 18-year-old Mosley High School graduate, joined the traveling
team against her parents’ best advice.
News Channel 7 WJHG wjhg.com Panama City Beach, FL Read This Story |
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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. -- The 18-year-old woman from Florida who went missing in Orange County has been
found in Dana Point and is safe, says Jim Amormino of the Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff's detectives searched Thursday for the woman who disappeared while selling magazine
subscriptions in Laguna Niguel.
Ashley Hansen was last seen at Camino Del Avion and Barkentine Boulevard around 12:30 p.m. on
Tuesday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Hansen works for a traveling magazine sales company that drops employees in designated areas
to go door-to-door selling subscriptions and later picks them up at a predetermined time and location,
according to a sheriff's department statement.
Hansen did not return to be picked up at the scheduled time on Tuesday and her co-workers spent
several hours in vain searching the area, the statement said.
California Read This Story |
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DMPG MISSING PERSONS ALERT Ashley Hansen Last Seen Working For A Traveling Magazine Sales Crew Please Contact Orange County Police If you have any information on Ashley (714) 628-7170 18 Year Old Woman Disappears While Selling Magazines Read It Here LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - Sheriff's detectives searched Thursday for an 18-year-old Florida woman who disappeared while selling magazine subscriptions in Laguna Niguel. Ashley Hansen was last seen at Camino Del Avion and Barkentine Boulevard around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Hansen works for a traveling magazine sales company that drops employees in designated areas to go door-to-door selling subscriptions and later picks them up at a predetermined time and location, according to a sheriff's department statement. Hansen did not return to be picked up at the scheduled time on Tuesday and her co-workers spent several hours in vain searching the area, the statement said. Hansen is not familiar with the area and has no friends or relatives in California, according to the sheriff's department. The missing woman is white, 5 feet 4 inches tall, 105 pounds, with red hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call (714) 628-7170. Or you can contact the DMPG WebMaster: WebMaster Posted on Info Site: January 14, 2006 Re-Posted on Info Site: January 23, 2006 |
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What appears to be a random home invasion struck the Lake George area of south Orange County early Tuesday.
Three robbers kicked in the front door of a house on Gatlin Place Circle about 3 a.m., abruptly waking the
homeowners asleep in their bed, sheriff's reports show.
The robbers then kicked open the bedroom door and ordered the husband and wife to hand over
their cash and jewelry.
While one of the men held the couple in their 60s at gunpoint, the other two ransacked the house
for about 20 minutes, reports show.
Robbery Detective A.J. Jones said the couple may have been targeted by solicitors selling magazines
door to door.
The men took jewelry, coins and the homeowners' 2001 black Lexus with Florida tag P51-3JY.
orlandosentinel.com Florida Read This Story |
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Traveling sales crew restrictions could prevent similar accidents
Hoping to avoid the kind of tragedy that struck along Interstate
90 in 1999, the Wisconsin State Senate approved a bill on
Wednesday that puts restrictions on traveling sales crews
spending time in the state.
Bill 251, co-authored by State Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit,
requires traveling sales crews to secure a certificate of
registration with the Department of Workforce Development (DWD)
in order to conduct business in Wisconsin. The bill also
prohibits minors from working on sales crews, requires all sales
crew members be employees and not independent contractors, and
limits the time of day crew members can work.
The bill was authored in order to restrict the chances of a
similar accident that took place in 1999. In that accident, the
crew chief of a traveling sales crew, Jeremy Holmes of Clinton,
Iowa, was driving without a valid driver's license on I-90 near
Janesville when he lost control of the van and the vehicle
rolled over several times. Seven crew members were killed and
five more were injured. The majority of the crew members were
under the age of 20.
Holmes, who was 19 at the time of the accident, pleaded guilty
to causing the accident and was sentenced to seven years in the
Wisconsin State Prison system. He was also sentenced to four
years probation and ordered to pay $492,000 in restitution to
the families of the dead and injured. Holmes has since been
released from prison.
“Traveling magazine sales crews are the child sweat shops of our
times,” Robson said. “Young people are lured into these jobs
with promises of exciting cross-country travel only to realize
that adventure involves sleeping on floors in seedy hotel rooms,
long hours for little pay, and difficulty getting out of the
job.”
Robson pointed out Wisconsin was one of the first states to pass
child labor laws, and if approved, Bill 251 would be one of the
toughest in the nation in dealing with the exploitation of young
workers.
In addition to making the company register with the DWD and
limiting the hours crew members can work, the bill also requires
semi-monthly payment of all wages earned, and allows local
enforcement to write tickets to any crew members found in
violation of the bill.
“This bill targets the traveling sales crews who operate outside
the law by moving their young workers from state to state.
Traveling sales crews take young employees for from home and
make them dependent on the crew chief for their lodging and
food. This bill would crack down on exploitative and dangerous
practices.”
The bill must now pass the Assembly before heading for Gov. Jim
Doyle's desk. Doyle has the final say if the bill will become
law.
Daily News staff writer Beloit Daily News Beloit, Wisconsin Read This Story |
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WISCONSIN -- Wisconsin state senators on Wednesday passed a bill tightening regulations on companies
that use itinerant magazine subscription sales crews.
Magazine subscription clearinghouses throughout the country use the traveling sellers, who act as
independent contractors. Critics say a lack of regulation has led to numerous fatal crashes involving
vans transporting door-to-door sellers.On Nov. 27, a van belonging to Alliance Service Co., a Rolling
Meadows magazine subscription company, crashed near Phoenix, killing two people and injuring seven.
The bill passed Wednesday would require subscription clearinghouses to hire the sellers as employees,
register with the state and prove their vehicles are roadworthy.
chicagotribune.com Read This Story |
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The Wisconsin Senate has passed a bill that will regulate traveling sales crews in Wisconsin.
The bill was created after a horrific van crash back in 1999. Seven young people died and five
others were injured when the large van they were traveling in overturned on the interstate.
They were part of a traveling sales crew selling magazines. The company involved hired the kids
to work as independent contactors.
Therefore, the company was not held responsible for the accident.
The bill approved today would require similar companies to hire the kids as employees.
Madison, Wisconsin nbc15.madison.com Read This Story |
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Daniel Ziegler left his Chicago home at 22 to strike out on his
own, selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door across the
country. The fast-paced, vagabond lifestyle and the chance to
make good money appealed to him.
He was dead two years later, killed in 1999 when a van rolled
over on a road about 30 miles from Phoenix. The crash also
killed a fellow magazine contract worker.
After a similar wreck last month on a highway near Phoenix
killed two young magazine sellers and injured seven others,
Ziegler's mother, of the Northwest Side, had a strong sense of
deja vu.
"It's the same thing," Marie Ziegler said of the crash, which
involved a van registered to a Rolling Meadows magazine
subscription company. "It's horrible."
With the push for federal legislation to rein in the itinerant
magazine sales business stalled, activists are targeting state
legislatures. The Wisconsin Senate was expected this week to
debate proposed restrictions on magazine clearinghouses.
"There's actually quite a few states that are interested in that
bill," said Phil Ellenbecker, whose daughter, Malinda Turvey,
died in a 1999 crash in Janesville, Wis., where seven young
magazine sellers were killed. "Little by little, the states are
trying to pick it up."
The Wisconsin legislation would make subscription clearinghouses
hire the salespeople as employees, register with the state and
prove their vehicles are roadworthy.
"As it stands right now, they're pretty much unregulated," said
state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, the legislation's sponsor.
After a number of fatal crashes in 1999, including the one that
killed Daniel Ziegler and the one in Janesville, activists hoped
publicity would spur tighter regulations.
Tribune staff reporter Chicago Tribune Published December 7, 2005 chicagotribune.com Read This Story |
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A District Court judge found probable cause Thursday to charge
four Midwestern magazine-subscription salesmen with second-degree
murder in connection with the October death of a Santa Fe man
outside a bowling alley.
However, District Judge Michael Vigil dismissed the remaining
counts against the four men — each was also charged with
conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence — while
acknowledging the culpability of the victim — 32-year-old
Benjamin Suazo — makes the case difficult for prosecutors to
prove.
“The hard one is the murder case,” Vigil said. “This is such a
tragedy for the Suazo family and for these four defendants.”
He said the violent situation that led to Suazo’s death — which
took place Oct. 20 in the parking lot of Silva Lanes off
Cerrillos Road — was “out of control” and that the four
defendants knew their acts created the possibility of death or
great bodily harm.
Suazo died after allegedly being beaten by the four defendants
and run over by the Chevrolet Suburban in which they were riding.
After Vigil announced his decision, the four men — James Combs,
20, of St. Clair Shores, Mich.; Jason D. Furden, 27, of Lawrence,
Kan.; Joshua Burgess, 23, of Miamisburg, Ohio; and Andrew Long,
22, of Liberty, Mo. — alternately hung their heads and cried.
Combs and Furden were allowed brief visits afterward with family
members.
freenewmexican.com Santa Fe, New Mexico Read This Story |
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The door-to-door salesman could soon be a thing of the past, at least in one North Jersey town.
The "No-Knock Registry" that's being considered by Franklin Lakes would allow residents to bar solicitors
from their homes. Addresses would be put on a list that would be given to salespeople who apply for
canvassing permits. If solicitors approach those homes they would be subject to a fine of up to $1,250
and a one-year loss of their permit.
The Franklin Lakes council is expected to vote on the registry, modeled after the National Do Not Call
List, at its Dec. 14 meeting.
"They're very high pressured and they're very aggressive," Mayor Thomas Donch said of some salespeople.
"This ordinance is probably overdue."
One resident said she was badgered by a pushy salesgirl three weeks ago, the same day she moved from
the Wyckoff side of town to the more affluent Walder Farms.
"She was here for, I'd say, probably a half-hour to 45 minutes while I was trying to get rid of her,"
said the woman, who identified herself only as Cindy.
Despite her best efforts, she couldn't shake the nagging salesgirl who was selling cleaning fluid.
"I just didn't want to buy it," Cindy said.
A No-Knock list "would be a good thing," she said.
Roja Singh, a five-year resident, said her doorbell hasn't been rung by salespeople but
she likes the idea of the list.
"You're tired of being treated as the consumer all the time," she said. "Inside the house ...
that's the space you really want to keep separate from being marketed."
Singh also said, with teenage and preschool-age sons, she worries about who might be knocking.
Under the proposed ordinance salespeople would be fingerprinted and photographed.
Their names would also be run through a national database to see if they have a criminal record.
If so, "they may not be allowed to solicit in Franklin Lakes," Borough Administrator Bob Hoffmann said.
The No-Knock Registry would be updated twice a year, on Jan. 1 and July 1. Residents would sign up with
the borough clerk and have the option to purchase a sticker to display their enrollment on the list.
The number of solicitors seeking permits in the affluent borough has increased steadily, as have
complaints from residents.
The peak selling season occurs during the summer, Franklin Lakes Police Sgt. Jack Bakelaar said.
Many salespeople are younger folks from out of state. They sell magazines, books and cleaning products.
"We get complaints one right after the other," Bakelaar said. "It takes up a lot of time."
Residents have called to say they are concerned about the solicitors' demeanor, that the
product they're selling seems fraudulent or because they hang around the neighborhood waiting
for a ride, he said.
"I know some residents who have purchased things ... just to get rid of them," he said.
The No-Knock Registry would only apply to for-profit groups. Charitable, non-profits,
governmental and religious groups would not be subject to the restriction. No-Knock
registries in other parts of the country that included non-profits or religious groups have been
ruled unconstitutional.
Several Ocean County towns have similar laws in place.
Those were spurred by the June 2004 murder of a 77-year-old Dover Township woman by a teenage
magazine salesman. Dover Township enacted a No-Knock law two months later. Beachwood, Berkeley,
Lavallette, Mantoloking and Point Pleasant have followed.
STAFF WRITER northjersey.com NORTHWEST BERGEN New Jersey Read This Story |
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A door-to-door salesman, who overheard a domestic disturbance, allegedly impersonated a police
officer and threatened to jail a woman who refused a body search, authorities said Tuesday.
Dustin Andrew Branton, 25, of Kingston, Ga., told Decatur police he was selling magazines at
Wheeler Estate Apartments on Saturday at 6 p.m. when he heard a man and a woman arguing.
Detective Jeremy Hayes didn't release the name of the victim but said Branton barged into her
134 McEntire Lane apartment and identified himself as a police officer.
After searching the woman's boyfriend and escorting him from the apartment, Branton returned,
Hayes said, and ordered the woman to submit to a body search so he could look for injuries.
She initially refused, Hayes said, but changed her mind when Branton threatened to take her to jail.
Hayes declined to describe details of the search but said the victim realized Branton wasn't a
police officer when he ordered her to drive him to a Madison hotel.
"The female transported Branton to the hotel due to fear and dropped him off," Hayes said.
"She called 911 from the Ramada Inn parking lot. She was not physically injured."
Police found Branton on Monday at the hotel at 9:30 p.m. and brought him to Decatur
for questioning, where he allegedly confessed in writing to the incident.
Hayes said Branton's criminal record prevented him from becoming a police officer,
but he has a relative in Georgia working in law enforcement.
"I think he saw an opportunity to use the knowledge he had and took advantage of it," Hayes said.
Branton told police he worked for Universal Subscription Agency, but a company spokeswoman
said an independent traveling sales company under contract with Universal Subscription Agency
employed Branton. An attempt to reach the contracting company wasn't immediately successful.
DAILY Staff Writer cpaschenko@decaturdaily.com · 340-2442 decaturdaily.com Decatur, Ala. Read This Story |
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A man claims to be a police officer. But the real men in blue say he's a door-to-door salesman.
Decatur Police say Dustin Andrew Branton walked into an apartment on McEntire Lane in South West Decatur.
He told the couple living there he was a police officer and he was investigating a domestic disturbance.
Branton searched the man staying at the apartment. He forced the man to leave for the night.
Branton then told the female to drive him to Madison to the Ramada Inn.
The woman realized Branton was not a police officer but did as she was told.
www.waff.com Huntsville, AL. Read This Story |
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A crash that killed two contractors for a Rolling Meadows
magazine subscription company probably was caused by speeding,
police said Monday, as activists renewed efforts to regulate the
traveling sales-crew industry.
Police were unable to speak to John Michael Wilds, 20, of Kiron,
Iowa, the driver of the Alliance Service Co. van that crashed
Sunday, because he was in critical condition at a Phoenix
hospital, authorities said.
Joshua James Wolf, 22, of Virginia Beach, Va., was killed, police
said. Also killed was a Texas woman whose identity was not
released, pending notification of her family.
"They were working in Arizona, and they were on a day off," said
Officer Frank Valenzuela of the Arizona state police.
"Apparently, they borrowed this van from someone in the company
and were headed to the Grand Canyon."
Wilds was driving the 2004 Chevrolet passenger van north on
Interstate Highway 17 just north of Phoenix about 12:30 p.m.
Sunday when he swerved right to avoid something, then swerved
back to the left and lost control, Valenzuela said. The van
flipped over three times, ejecting all nine people, he said.
On Monday, four people, including Wilds, remained hospitalized,
but other surviving victims were less seriously injured,
Valenzuela said. No victim has been identified from the Chicago
area.
Tribune staff reporter Chicago Tribune Published November 29, 2005 chicagotribune.com Read This Story |
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A rollover crash killed two young people this past weekend. The accident happened at Interstate 17 and
the Carefree Highway on Sunday. Several people remain in the hospital. One of them a 15-year old Phoenix
girl and six others were rushed to the hospital.
"Once we got here, it just kind of hit us all hard," Lesa Amoroso said, her daughter was in the van.
Lesa Amoroso's daughter fortunatley made it out alive, but, she hasn't seen her daughter Desiree since October.
Amoroso says her daughter is runaway.
"My daughter is a cronic meth user, the people that she hangs out with are cronic meth users and she won't
stay off the stuff," Amoroso said.
Desiree is recovering at Saint Joseph's hospital.
"She has contusions all over her back like she slid down the asphalt," Amoroso said.
Major concerns for Desiree is her pelvic area, Mom says she'll need to recover in a wheelchair
when she's released. Arizona Department of Public Safety Officers say in the crash, no one was wearing a
seatbelt and everyone was thrown from the van. Including 20-year old Michael Seamon from Indiana.
His mom learned of what happened while watching the news in her hometown.
"I started screaming, all that I heard was two were dead and I saw the vehicle," Linda Seaman said.
12 News KPNX-TV Phoenix, Arizona azcentral.com/12news/ Read This Story |
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A Merrimack County Superior Court judge has ruled that magazine salesman Joseph Haniffy will not get a new
rape trial, even though jurors saw more than they should have on Haniffy's cell phone during deliberations.
When jurors turned on Haniffy's phone, they saw the words "Joe Pimp," a discovery Haniffy's defense lawyers
said tarnished Haniffy's image and jeopardized his chance at a fair trial. In his ruling, Judge Edward
Fitzgerald dismissed that argument and said Haniffy was so crass on the stand that jurors would not have been
surprised or influenced to learn that he had programmed "Joe Pimp" into his phone.
Fitzgerald also said Haniffy's lawyers should have known the words were there before putting the cell phone
into evidence and agreeing to let jurors turn it on.
"In light of the evidence properly presented at trial, it can hardly be said that the sign-on message
'Joe Pimp' could have diminished the defendant in the eyes of the jury," Fitzgerald wrote. He went on.
"Moreover, the court finds that this information cannot have prejudiced the jury by conveying that the
defendant was out to satisfy his sexual needs and did not care about the victim, when the defendant's
own statements are far more telling in that regard."
Haniffy, 25, of Chicopee, Mass., was convicted in September of raping a 19-year-old woman in her Concord
apartment while selling magazines door-to-door with a company based in Florida.
Two of his colleagues, Cassidy Coburn, 20, of Utah, and Christopher Armstrong, 24, of Arkansas, were also
charged with raping the woman with Haniffy and await trial.
Haniffy has not been sentenced. Once he is, public defenders Donna Brown and Meredith Lugo will appeal
his conviction to the state Supreme Court. There, they will raise again their complaints with the word
"Joe Pimp" as well as other issues that came up during trial.
Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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A tragic van accident six and half years ago took the lives of seven young men and women. Now, the father of
one of those children fears their lives have been forgotten by those with the power to make changes.
27 news spoke with Phil Ellenbecker today who's daughter Malinda was one of seven killed while working
for a traveling sales crew.
Ellenbecker has tried for three years to get the state to regulate traveling sales crews and he fears it
will take another accident for changes to be made. The memories of the van accident that killed his
daughter and six other teenagers on I-90 near Janesville has scarred Phil Ellenbecker for life.
"I promised my daughter that I would put an end to this to stop this terrible situation from
happening to other families", said Ellenbecker.
He said traveling sales crews lack any state regulation. The companies are not required to do background
checks and the people they hire are often minors. An accident in Arizona on Sunday is a tragic carbon
copy of the Janesville accident.
"This recent accident in Phoenix brings all those memories back because two young kids were just killed in
Phoenix", said Ellenbecker.
He has worked tirelessly to pass a state law that would regulate traveling sales crews. He's even created a
website dedicated to the memories of people killed while working for the crews nationwide.
"The strength of this law is it would pretty much keep them out of the state of Wisconsin.
Unfortunately they can still go to 49 other states", said Ellenbecker. But, despite his efforts and the
deaths of the seven teens Malinda's Act has still not been scheduled for a vote.
"I think if one of these kids father was a senator or a representative either state or federal there
would have been a law years ago", said Ellenbecker, "I can't explain how important it is to get this
bill and this law into affect for protecting our kids and protecting homeowners."
Malinda's Act is currently in the senate organization committee waiting to be scheduled for a vote
along with at least 80 other bills. Ellenbecker said if senators act now, it could be a model for
other states across the country to pass similar bills.
WKOW TV wkowtv.com Read This Story |
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PHOENIX (AP) — Traffic along Arizona's Interstate 17 was backed up for 20 miles on the busiest travel
day of the year after a van carrying a magazine sales crew on a trip to the Grand Canyon overturned,
killing two and critically injuring five others, authorities said.
The noontime crash on Sunday backed up traffic in both directions as rescue crews brought in a helicopter
and ambulances to help the victims.
Police identified the driver as a 20-year-old man from Iowa and said the others in the van ranged in
age from 18 to 20. Details on their identities and conditions were not available early Monday.
The driver and all eight passengers were thrown from the van when the driver overcorrected and the
van rolled three times, ending up in the median, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Frank
Valenzuela said.
The driver, identified as John Michael Wilds, 20, of Kiron, Iowa, was in critical condition
at a Phoenix area hospital Sunday night, Valenzuela said.
The passengers were from several states and were members of a sales crew for the magazine sales
firm, Alliances Services Co., the Department of Public Safety said. The van had Illinois licenses plates.
usatoday.com Read This Story |
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ARIZONA -- Two teenagers were killed and seven more were injured Sunday when a van registered to a
northwest suburban company that sells magazine subscriptions crashed outside Phoenix, Ariz.,
authorities said. The crash was reminiscent of a 1999 accident in which a van carrying 14 magazine
sellers, ages 15 to 25, crashed on Interstate Highway 90 near Janesville, Wis. Seven died, and five
were seriously injured.
In Sunday's crash, a 2004 Chevrolet van registered to Alliance Service Co., 1875 Rohlwing Rd., Rolling
Meadows, was heading north on Interstate Highway 17 just before noon when it flipped over, crossed
the median and landed in the southbound lanes, said Frank Valenzuela, a spokesman for the Arizona
Department of Public Safety.
All nine occupants of the van were thrown from the vehicle, Valenzuela said. Two died at the scene,
about 15 miles north of Phoenix, and the remaining seven were taken to area hospitals.
One was in critical condition with severe head trauma, but the conditions of the other victims were
not known, Valenzuela said.
chicagotribune.com Read This Story |
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(CBS) ROLLING MEADOWS Nine people on a trip to the Grand Canyon
were involved in a deadly crash while riding in a van belonging
to a suburban Chicago company.
Witnesses to the deadly van crash scene say it's a disturbing
sight. The van rolled over on Interstate 17 near Phoenix, Az.
Sunday.
CBS 2's Dana Kozlov shows what went wrong.
The van came to a stop upright, after rolling across a Phoenix
area highway Sunday afternoon. The plates show it is from
Illinois, and investigators say it's hard to believe it was the
only vehicle involved.
"It’s incredible they didn't hit northbound traffic. They
actually squeezed their way as it was sliding sideways between
several vehicles, rolled over the median, landed on the
southbound lanes, blocked both lanes. Again, it's incredible no
one hit them," said Arizona investigator Rich Andrew Peles.
Peles isn't sure what caused the van's driver to veer right on
the highway. But he says at least six of the nine passengers were
ejected from the van. Two were pronounced dead at the scene.
The van is registered to Alliances Services Company, a magazine
sales company based in northwest suburban Rolling Meadows.
Investigators say those in the van may have been on their way to
the Grand Canyon.
Reporting CBS 2 Chicago cbs2chicago.com Read This Story |
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Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Dallas, Inc. dallas.bbb.org Door-to-Door Magazine Sales Company Delivers Complaints Read This Story |
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The Belmont Police Department is looking to hear from residents who may have been visited by members of a
magazine sales crew in late August or early September. Crew members may have represented themselves as
college students working on a project or earning points for a trip.
Police are investigating an allegation of fraud made in connection with one magazine subscription
sale, and suspect that other sales or attempts at making a sale followed in a similar pattern.
If you have any information please contact Lt. J. Peter Hoerr at 617-484-1215, ext. 121,
or jhoerr@belmontpd.org.
Belmont, MA. www.townonline.com Read This Story |
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RALEIGH, N.C. -- Authorities are investigating a home invasion that happened Tuesday in the North Raleigh
subdivision of Brier Creek.
Police said a man stopped by the house and asked if he could go inside to make a telephone call.
When a woman, who was taking care of her two grandchildren, answered the door told him that she would call
the number for him, authorities said the man entered the house and assaulted the woman.
"At which point she started screaming and pushing back; and he got behind her and put his hand over her mouth,"
said Lesley Bennett, the victim's daughter.
Investigators said the man stole jewelry and money from the house and fled the scene. No one was injured.
Raleigh police have been canvassing the area and even passed out a description of the suspect at a
roadblock Wednesday morning. They said people should be on the lookout for thieves casing their neighborhood.
While they are not sure if there is a connection, police said a magazine salesman had been reported
going door-to-door in the neighborhood Monday.
Reporter: Amanda Lamb Photographer: Tom Normanly Web Editor: Kelly Gardner RALEIGH, N.C. wral.com Read This Story |
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PORTLAND -- The Portland Police Bureau, in cooperation with Crime Stoppers, would like your help in
identifying and apprehending a rape suspect.
On Oct. 20, at about 5 p.m., the suspect knocked on the victim’s door, forcing his way inside, where
he physically and sexually assaulted the woman. Prior to the assault, the suspect may have walked
through the Sellwood neighborhood representing himself as a door-to-door magazine salesman, contacting
other residents.
Detectives have released an artist’s sketch of the suspect. He is described as a male with a dark
complexion, 21-25 years old, with a thin face and build. He was clean-shaven, wearing a dark suit with
a pink striped tie.
Anyone with information about this incident or who can identify the suspect is asked to call Crime Stoppers.
Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information, reported to Crime Stoppers,
that leads to an arrest in this case, or any unsolved felony, and you may remain anonymous.
Call Crime Stoppers at (503) 823-HELP (4357).
Portland, OR. koin.com Read This Story |
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The Portland Police, in cooperation with Crime Stoppers, would like your help in identifying and apprehending
a rape suspect.
Portland, Oregon. portlandonline.com Portland Info. On Rape Suspect |
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50,000 young people work in the sometimes shady and dangerous
world of traveling sales crews, such as the one involving the
death of a Santa Fe man.
When Carol Salter of Colorado Springs, Colo., heard about the
arrest of five door-to-door magazine salesman in connection with
the death of a Santa Fe man late last month, she got a big knot
in her stomach.
Salter’s 18-year-old daughter, LeAnn, had joined a similar crew
selling subscriptions door-to-door in Denver and Colorado
Springs.
LeAnn had quit the crew two weeks earlier, but Salter couldn’t
help but think how close her daughter had come to being in Santa
Fe at the time of the killing.
In late October, two crews selling subscriptions through the same
company had been staying at a Ramada Inn in the Denver area,
according to LeAnn. Her crew was preparing to go to Utah when she
quit. The other crew was headed to Santa Fe.
While LeAnn said in a telephone interview last week that she
didn’t know any of the people arrested in Santa Fe, she said the
traveling-sales environment was often rough. “I’d walk into the
hotel room and 20 people would be smoking marijuana and drinking
alcohol,” she said. “I didn’t feel safe.”
One night, LeAnn said, the crew tried to persuade her and her
boyfriend to go bowling, even suggesting it was mandatory. She
declined, saying she was too tired.
LeAnn’s crew and the Santa Fe crew both were independent
contractors selling subscriptions through Michigan-based World
Wide Circulation, one of many clearing houses in the United
States involved in door-to-door magazine sales.
Under this system, both the crew managers and crew members are
independent contractors. The clearing houses aren’t responsible
for the actions of crew members or subject to laws governing
direct employers.
There is high turnover among the crews. Managers are constantly
recruiting new members, often through ads in local papers
promising young people they will have the opportunity to make a
lot of money and travel the country. Most salesman are hired with
little or no background checks.
The job doesn’t usually appeal to high-school graduates heading
for college. But “if you’re a small-town kid and you want to
travel and you can’t find a job, the ads in the newspapers look
pretty good,” said Earlene Williams, director of an advocacy
group called Parent Watch Inc. Williams often helps distraught
parents find their children and bring them home.
freenewmexican.com Santa Fe, New Mexico Read This Story |
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The magazine salesman who rang Lauren Smith’s doorbell off Hyde Park Road at 7:30 p.m. late last month
claimed to live with his mother around the corner. He said he was trying to sell enough magazine
subscriptions to pay for a trip to London, and his deadline was that night.
James Combs showed Smith a list of magazines but she protested they cost too much. She said she’d prefer
to give him the money directly and offered to write a check for $40. Combs demurred. He said he would
have to give her check to someone else — he mentioned a local hospital — and argued she would be better
off buying the magazine subscription. She declined.
All during the conversation, he kept saying, “Don’t hate me,” Smith recalled recently. She said the
nervous but “likable-looking” young man “didn’t look threatening at all.” He even told her his
mother had suggested he offer to do slave labor for neighbors and gave her an address and
telephone number — which turned out to be false.
The next day, Combs and a few other door-to-door magazine salesmen associated with a company called
World Wide Circulation were charged with the murder of a 32-old Santa Fe man in the parking lot at the
Silva Lanes bowling alley.
“I will never again open the door at night,” Smith said. “But the neighbor thing —
and the mom thing — obviously worked on me.”
Combs’ spiel was typical of sales pitches used by traveling crews all over the country.
freenewmexican.com Santa Fe, New Mexico Read This Story |
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FLEMING - Fleming School Superintendent John Condie wants residents to be wary of a possible scam.
The superintendent said a male who appears to be high school or college-aged is going door to
door in the area selling magazine subscriptions. Condie said while the magazine subscriptions
could be legitimate, their proceeds will not benefit the school.
"We do not go door to door selling magazine subscriptions," Condie said.
Article Last Updated: Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 12:14:17 PM MST jklein@journal-advocate.com www.journal-advocate.com The Journal Advocate Sterling, CO. Read This Story |
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Carmel-by-the-Sea: A female suspect, age 18, was contacted for soliciting magazines without a
permit in the area of San Carlos and First. A records check revealed an outstanding warrant out of Oregon.
The subject was arrested and booked into county jail.
Volume 91 No. 45 Carmel, California carmelpinecone.com Read This Story |
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There has been some suspicious activity in the South Hills area of Charleston recently.
Subjects have been going door to door with different stories to possibly try to scam people.
They have used stories of selling magazines, door to door massages and even doing church visitation.
Both of the subjects are strangers to the neighborhood.
The subjects are described as white men. One about 19 years old and about 5 feet 8 inches tall
and the other about 30 years old and about 5 feet nine inches.
wboy.com Charleston, WV. Read This Story |
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MILTON-A Milton police sergeant is urging the city to adopt a
"no-knock" ordinance prohibiting out-of-town solicitors from
visiting residents whose names are on a register.
John Conger, the driving force behind the proposal, sees it as
another safeguard against unscrupulous and sometimes dangerous
door-to-door salespeople.
"I view someone coming to the front door as more of an intrusion
and potentially more dangerous than someone calling on the
telephone," he said.
The city's public safety committee will discuss the ordinance at
its Thursday meeting.
The ordinance would be similar to Wisconsin's No-Call List
because residents could choose to have their names on the
registry, Conger said.
The ordinance would not apply to religious groups, political
campaigns, Girl Scouts or another nonprofit organizations.
Other communities and some states already have passed "no-knock"
laws that carry stiff fines for violators, Conger said.
The days of door-to-door solicitors serving communities as
marketing links are gone, Conger said. Today, people can buy
things they need on the Internet, he added.
"How many times has someone come to your door selling something
that you don't already know about or have?" he asked. "I can't
imagine why this proposed ordinance wouldn't be well-received by
the community."
Conger believes the ordinance's benefits are two-fold: It would
protect residents, and it would help keep young people from being
lured into the world of traveling sales.
Conger has been a staunch advocate of proposed legislation to
regulate traveling sales crews since a March 25, 1999, van crash
on Interstate 90 in Milton Township near Janesville. The crash
killed seven young magazine salespeople and left several others
with permanent injuries.
Conger witnessed the crash. While moonlighting for the Town of
Milton Police Department, he was running radar where Interstate
90 runs through town when the van passed him.
Radar showed the van was traveling at 81 mph, Conger said in a
previous interview. He added that he only had time to turn on his
headlights and pull out from the median when the van flipped
several times, ejecting several occupants.
The driver, 20-year-old Jeremy Holmes, did not have a valid
driver's license. He attempted to protect himself by switching
seats with another salesperson.
The 14 occupants of the van ranged in age from 15 to 22. In
addition to the seven deaths, five others were seriously injured
and now suffer lifelong disabilities.
Conger testified before the state Legislature on a Senate bill
that would regulate traveling sales crews. The bill carries
strict guidelines that include making employers guarantee
transportation home for sales crews, setting safe living
conditions on the road and background checks for employers.
Although Conger did nothing to cause the accident, he lives with
the memory.
"Since the accident, it's clear something needs to be done with
pockets of this industry that are illegitimate," he said.
GazetteXtra gazetteextra.com Janesville, Wi. Read This Story |
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Charges were dropped Tuesday against one of five out-oftown
magazine-subscription salesmen accused of killing a Santa Fe man
in a bowling-alley parking lot last month.
The remaining four defendants, however, will have to wait to find
out if a District Court judge believes evidence exists to charge
them with murdering Benjamin Suazo, 32, because a Tuesday
preliminary hearing ended before all testimony could be given.
Judge Michael Vigil said he will resume the hearing — which
lasted approximately nine hours Tuesday — as soon as possible.
The five men began the day accused of beating Suazo until he was
unconscious during a fight Oct. 20 at Silva Lanes in Santa Fe,
then running him over as they fled the scene. The men — all from
the Midwest — had been in town about three days selling magazine
subscriptions doorto-door and were at the tail end of a “crew
night” out when the incident occurred, according to testimony.
At the start of Tuesday’s proceedings , each of the five men —
Dewell Keith Lafleur, 30, of St. Clair, Mich.; James Combs, 20,
of St. Clair, Mich.; Jason D. Furden, 27, of Lawrence, Kan.;
Joshua Burgess, 23, of Miamisburg , Ohio; and Andrew Long, 22, of
Liberty, Mo. — was charged with an open count of murder,
conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence.
But when lawyers returned from a lunch break, Deputy District
Attorney Barbara Romo announced that she would drop the charges
against Lafleur.
freenewmexican.com Santa Fe, New Mexico Read This Story |
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EDMOND - Police are warning residents to take more care when
dealing with door-to-door salesmen.
People selling magazines for Maryland-based Atlantic Circulation
have been arrested on suspicion of soliciting without a permit
and may be involved in attempting to break into a home and
looting packages left on doorsteps, Edmond police Detective Steve
Day said.
Door-to-door salesmen in Edmond are required to buy a $75 permit
and carry it on them while they work, he said.
"A lot of them don't carry any ID," he said. "If we arrest them,
they usually post bond and are gone, so without a permit, it's
hard to catch up to them."
Danny Joe Dews, 18, of South Port, N.C., was arrested and
ticketed on suspicion of selling magazines without a permit Oct.
22 near 4100 Sooner Court, according to police records.
Keeping tabs on visitors to the city is important, especially
after some were seen attempting entry into a locked home and near
the site of a larceny, he said.
One woman witnessed two young men trying to open the door of a
neighbor's home Oct. 15, according to police reports. When she
asked what they were doing, they approached her to sell her
magazines, police said.
On Oct. 21, the woman came home to find a cell phone that had
been delivered to her house was missing. During the same time it
was delivered, a magazine salesmen approached her next-door
neighbor, according to reports.
The salesmen work for Atlantic Circulation, but when contacted,
the company refused to aid in the investigation, Day said.
Police are still looking for the men in connection with the
larceny.
By Greg Elwell The Oklahoman newsok.com Oklahoma City, OK. Read This Story |
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A New York state man was convicted in Lackawanna County Court of
three sexual offenses Wednesday, but cleared of three others. A seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated more than six hours before finding Delmar Hooks, 27, of Elmira, guilty of statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault. He was acquitted of rape, sexual assault and indecent exposure. Police alleged Mr. Hooks, a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, sexually assaulted a 15-year-old Clarks Summit girl who allowed him into her residence twice the evening of March 9. The girl, now 16, identified Mr. Hooks as her assailant during testimony on Wednesday. The girl, who was home alone at the time, said Mr. Hooks pursued her before he sexually assaulted her on a stairway. STAFF WRITER The Times Tribune SCRANTON, PA zwire.com Read This Story |
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(11.03.05) — RON THEY GRAB OUR CAMERAS....AND MAKE VIOLENT THREATS -- WHY? A FOX 31 UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION IS EXPOSING THEY'RE CRIMINAL WAYS. WHO ARE THEY? A TRAVELING MAGAZINE SALES CREW. ¶((LIBBY)) FOX 31 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER CHARLES LEAF IS LIVE TONIGHT WITH A STORY THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO SEE. ((CHARLES LIVE)) ron and libby, if you want to get a magazine subscription, buy one off the shelves, take out that annoying little card in the center...and mail it in. our investigation makes it clear...buying a magazine from someone who comes to your door...is a bad idea. once you open the door...it's too late...they're in...and you could be in danger. Charles Leaf KDVR Denver, Colorado fox31news.com Read This Story |
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As Judge Edward Fitzgerald decides whether an evidence mishap
warrants a new rape trial for magazine salesmen Joseph Haniffy,
he's being asked to consult the law books - and a rap dictionary.
The lawyers from Haniffy's rape trial have been disputing the
meaning and significance of thewords "Joe Pimp" since they
learned that jurors inadvertently saw those words on Haniffy's
cell phone. In their latest court filing, Haniffy's lawyers asked
Fitzgerald to consult an Internet rap dictionary to understand
how damaging they believe "pimp" is to their case.
Attorneys Donna Brown and Meredith Lugo even photocopied the
definition for Fitzgerald from http://www.rapdict.org: "Pimp,"
among other things, is "someone who has a lot of hoes around."
Prosecutor George Stewart, disputing the significance of the
words, also pointed Fitzgerald to the Internet. ESPN, he said,
uses pimp on its site as a compliment. Furthermore, Stewart
argued, no juror who saw Haniffy on the stand would be surprised
or persuaded to vote guilty upon learning he had programmed "Joe
Pimp" onto his cell phone's screen.
Haniffy, Stewart said, was so rude, arrogant and vulgar that he
turned out to be the prosecution's strongest witness.
Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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BERKELEY -- The Township Council has adopted a "no-knock" ordinance, but not before making three
changes, including eliminating a $1 fee for a door sticker.
The ordinance, modeled after one passed in Dover Township earlier this year, prohibits
door-to-door solicitation by profit-making organizations. Nonprofit and religious groups still
will be able to canvass areas of the township and knock on doors, including those doors with no-knock
stickers.
TOMS RIVER BUREAU Asbury Park Press New Jersey www.app.com Read This Story |
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Jasmin K. Kermmoade, 19, Lincoln, died Monday (10/24/05) in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Born, Lincoln (2/21/86), to Daryl D'Wayne and Julie Kalleen (Wooten) Kermmoade.
Sales and bookkeeper for Tower of Power.
legacy.com Lincoln, Nebraska Read This Story |
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Clearinghouse: Pacific Coast Clearing Services, Inc. Sales Crew: Tower of Power WA Dept. of State, Division of Corporations: Pacific Coast Clearing Services Criminal Profiles: Search For: Pacific Coast Clearing Service BBB Report Jaguar Sales: JaguarSales BBB Report Pacific Coast Clearing Services: BBB Washington Wisconsin Consumer Protection: Door to door magazine sellers arrested Wyoming Attorney General's Office: Attorney General Press Release Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com PCCS Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com National Field Selling Association is a member of: Magazine Publishers of America: magazine.org |
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Pacific Coast Clearing Services Tower of Power |
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A 19-year-old woman from Washington drowned Monday morning at the Lanai Lookout after she was hit by a
large wave and swept out into the ocean, according to paramedics.
Witnesses say the woman was with a large group of people taking pictures on the lower shelf around
10:30 a.m.
Affiliation: NBC/WB Location: Honolulu, Hawaii khnl.com Read This Story |
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Abstract (Document Summary) The probable cause statements for each of the five defendants' arrests indicate that [Dewell Keith Lafleur] and Furden at first tried to break up the fight between [Benjamin Suazo] and the other magazine salesmen. But later, after Suazo broke the window of the SUV that Furden was driving, Lafleur is identified in the probable cause statements as having Suazo "in a head lock" and also as participating in punching, kicking and stomping on Suazo. Another of the salesmen, Jason Furden, 27, of Lawrence, Kan., is accused of running over Suazo after Suazo was already unconscious from the beating. Furden's attorney, Dan Marlowe, said Tuesday that Furden did not run over Suazo on purpose and did not deserve to be charged with murder. Journal Staff Writer ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL abqjournal.com ALBUQUERQUE, New Mwxico Read This Story |
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A lawyer representing one of the two traveling magazine salesmen still awaiting trial on charges of
raping a local woman says his client's interview with Concord police detectives should be suppressed
because they coerced the salesman with promises of favorable treatment and lies about nonexistent evidence.
Detectives have acknowledged that they told Cassidy Coburn, 20, of Utah, that the victim was injured and that
they had copies of her distressed e-mails to friends, when neither was true.
A prosecutor with the Merrimack County Attorney's office has objected to the request and told the court
that Coburn not only agreed to be interviewed but told detectives at the end of their meeting that they
had treated him fairly and promised him nothing.
Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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Jasmin Kermmoade grew up in landlocked Lincoln, Neb., not knowing the dangers of the ocean.
The 19-year-old woman was with a group of fellow employees in magazine sales when she was
swept off a rocky ledge near Lanai Lookout on the east shore of Oahu on Monday and drowned.
By Leila Fujimori lfujimori@starbulletin.com Star Bulletin Honolulu, Hawaii Read This Story |
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A 20-year-old man died early Sunday morning, Oct. 23, in a
single-vehicle wreck on
Interstate 75.
Cook County Coroner Ron
Lipsey identified the victim as
James Stephens Crawford, of
Hubert,N.C., a passenger in the
van. The van's driver, Steven A.
Smith III, 20, of Amherst, Mass.,
has been arrested and charged
with homicide by vehicle, first
degree, because he was allegedly
driving under the influence of
marijuana, according to the
Georgia State Patrol, Tifton Post.
Smith also was charged with
serious injury by vehicle (two
counts) because two other passengers were hurt in the wreck.
Additional charges against Smith
are failure to maintain lane, driving too fast for conditions (
construction zone), driving under
the influence of marijuana, and
misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
At last report, Smith was
being held in the Cook County
Jail.
According to State Trooper
D.L. Harnage, Smith was driving
a 15-passenger,Ford E-350 van
north on Interstate 75 about 3:50
a.m. Sunday. The van had five
occupants.
Smith stated to the GSP that
he fell asleep and drove off the
edge of the road around Mile
Marker 38 on I- 75 (between the
Adel Industrial Park Exit and
main Adel Exit). Smith awoke
and apparently oversteered. The
rear of the van came around and
the van crashed almost head-on
into the concrete barrier. The van
started flipping down the barrier.
Crawford, who was seated right
behind the driver, was ejected
and killed on impact, according
to Harnage. Crawford was pronounced dead at the scene at
4:10 a.m. Sunday, Ron Lipsey
said.
Harnage said he believes that
two of the other passengers also
were ejected. They were seriously injured. One passenger
received a severe laceration of
the scalp. At last report, the condition of the other ejected
passenger was unknown, but that
person reportedly was on a back
board at South Georgia Medical
Center. "Only the driver was
wearing his seatbelt," Harnage
said. Another passenger was
treated at the Memorial Hospital
of Adel and released.
According to warrants, less
than 1 ounce of marijuana was
found in a plastic container in the
van. Smith submitted to a blood
test, Harnage said.
The van had been accompanied by two other vehicles. The
vehicles were carrying 18 young
adults from Tampa, Fla., north to
Columbus. The young people
had planned to sell magazine
subscriptions for Fidelity
Readers Service Inc., said
Trooper Harnage. The Naple,
Fla.-based company offers
young people travel opportunities across the U.S.
The GSP Specialized
Collision Reconstruction Team
(SCRT) is continuing its investigation into the case, with plans
to do measurements at the accident
scene. Thus, the charges against
Smith may be revised or upgraded. Copyright 2005 - Adel News Tribune Adel Georgia 31620 Vol. 116 NO. 43 Adel News Tribune Adel Georgia Read PDF News Article |
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Fidelity Reader Service |
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FL Dept. of State, Division of Corporations: Fidelity Reader Service Criminal Profiles: Search For 'Fidelity' Magazine Scams: Fidelity Reader Service Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com FRS Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com National Field Selling Association is a member of: Magazine Publishers of America: magazine.org |
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The founder of a New York-based clearinghouse on child and
youth labor abuse issues said Friday that door-to-door magazine
sales organizations are a nationwide problem, recruiting young
people into situations in which they are exploited or can become
the victims of violence.
"This is a nationwide problem and it has been for many
years," said Earlene Williams, founder of Parent Watch, an
organization that tries to help youngsters and young adults who
join traveling groups that sell magazines.
"The great majority of these kids are innocent kids who are
lured into these sales crews because they want to travel and make
a lot of money, but criminals also jump on board, who are running
from the law," Williams said. "They are a danger to both kids on
the crews and people in their homes."
In Santa Fe on Thursday, five traveling door-to-door magazine
salesmen who list out-of-state addresses were charged with the
murder of Benjamin Suazo, 32, in a fight at the Silva Lanes
bowling alley parking lot.
The five homicide defendants are young— their ages range from
20 to 29. But Williams said the issues raised by the traveling
sales groups are not bound by age.
"There is no legal age for slavery," she said.
Journal Staff Writer ABQJournal ONLINE EDITION of the ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL abqjournal.com ALBUQUERQUE, New Mwxico Read This Story |
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A group of out-of-state magazine salesmen killed a 32-year-old father of two at Santa Fe's Silva Lanes
bowling alley early Thursday in a fight that started because one of the salesmen thought the victim was
staring at his girlfriend, court records state.
Benjamin Suazo of Santa Fe died after he was beaten to unconsciousness in the bowling alley parking lot,
then was run over with an SUV, according to the records.
Five of the traveling salesmen— Dewell Keith Lafleur, 29, and James Combs, 20, both of St. Clair Shores,
Mich.; Jason Furden, 27, of Lawrence, Kan.; Joshua Burgess, 23, of Miamisburg, Ohio; and Andrew Long, 22,
of Liberty, Mo.— were each arraigned Friday on an open count of murder for Suazo's death.
Furden is identified in an officer's statement as the driver of the sport utility vehicle that ran
over Suazo.
Furden is accused of dragging the beaten Suazo in front of his Chevy Suburban, then re-entering the
SUV before the group of salesmen "drove over Benjamin while he laid unconscious on the ground."
Journal Staff Writer ABQJournal ONLINE EDITION of the ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL abqjournal.com ALBUQUERQUE, New Mwxico Read This Story |
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Five door-to-door magazine salesmen pleaded not guilty Friday to
murdering a 32-year-old Santa Fe man in a bowling-alley parking
lot after a fight early Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, more details emerged Friday about the events that led
to the death of Benjamin Suazo and the activities of the salesmen
in the days before the killing.
The five men -- all from the Midwest -- are each charged with an
open count of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and tampering
with evidence. They are Dewell Keith Lafleur, 30, of St. Clair,
Mich.; James Combs, 20, of St. Clair, Mich.; Jason D. Furden, 27,
of Lawrence, Kansas; Joshua Burgess, 23, of Miamisburg, Ohio; and
Andrew Long, 22, of Liberty, Mo. Lafleur also was charged with
driving while intoxicated.
Magistrate Bill Dimas ordered each of the five held in lieu of a
$1 million cash-only bond.
freenewmexican.com Santa Fe, New Mexico Read This Story |
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Search For Mega Sales |
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Five out-of-state men have been arrested and charged with murder,
conspiracy and tampering with evidence after a fight at a bowling
alley ended with a homicide.
Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Eric Johnson says 32-year-old
Benjamin Suazo got in a fight with a group of men outside of
Silva's Lanes in Santa Fe at about 1:00 Thursday morning. Suazo
was killed.
"He was getting jumped by six guys," recalls an eyewitness who
didn't want to be identified. "And as he was getting up, he was
stumbling to get back into the bowling alley and he get knocked
down by two more guys and they jump into their truck and they
just run over him."
Seven men were taken into custody Thursday morning. By Thursday
evening, five had been charged with murder: 30-year-old Dewell
Lafleur of Chesterfield, Michigan; 20-year-old James Combs of St.
Clair, Michigan; 27-year-old Jason Furden of Lawrence, Kansas;
23-year-old Joshua Burgess of Miamisburg, Ohio; and 22-year-old
Andrew Long of Liberty, Missouri.
Deputy District Attorney Barbara Romo says the five are part of a
group who came to Santa Fe from Michigan to sell magazine
subscriptions door-to-door.
kobtv.com The Associated Press contributed to this report Santa Fe, New Mexico Read This Story |
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Students need to be wary of magazine solicitors on campus, said Detective Preston Perrenot with the UNLV
Department of Public Safety.
He explained how students can avoid being scammed and losing money they will ultimately never get back.
"I don't know what company they represent," Perrenot said. "It doesn't really matter because most of them
aren't legitimate."
The scam consists of solicitors who are dropped off at a certain areas and picked up hours later.
The person behind the scenes is rarely ever caught, Perrenot said.
"The way the scam works is that it's usually a mid-level distributor for magazines. You never see this guy.
He hires these kids to go out and take the heat for him," he said. "They get arrested, but they can't tell
anything about the guy who hired them. Whatever money they make, they give to the guy."
The solicitors have one or two real subscriptions of the 100 or so they offer to an unsuspecting consumer.
"There might be one or two [students] out there who actually get magazines," Perrenot said. "For the most part,
it's just a basic confidence scam."
The solicitors approach students – most recently in the dorms – and pressure them into subscribing to several
magazines.
Oftentimes, Perrenot stressed, students will sign up for magazines that they don't even need or want.
"They use real high-pressure tactics to the point where [the students] don't care what magazines they get,
just to get rid of them," he said.
The solicitors often give victims a story regarding their own financial status – usually some kind of guilt
or pity-inducing tale.
Either way, once a check is handed over, and there is no guarantee that the victim will receive his
or her magazines or ever get a refund.
The Rebel Yell unlvrebelyell.com University of Nevada, Las Vegas Read This Story |
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KEANSBURG — Three out-of-state residents remained in Monmouth County Jail, Freehold Township, on Tuesday
after police charged them with soliciting magazine subscriptions door-to-door without a permit.
Daniel Vermeer, 23, of Lincoln, Neb., Douglas Jarrell, 23, of Gulfport, Miss., and Jolene Reinhart, 21,
of Mansfield, Mo., each were charged Monday by Patrolmen Francis Wood and Dave Gogan with soliciting
without a permit, a municipal ordinance violation, Deputy Police Chief James Pigott said.
Vermeer also was charged with criminal trespassing after, police said, he entered a Ramsey Avenue home
around 12:40 p.m. without knocking and left only after realizing other people were in the house.
Jarrell additionally was charged with providing false information to a police officer, and Reinhart was
charged with obstruction of a police officer and operating an uninsured motor vehicle, Pigott said.
Vermeer's bail was set at $2,500, and Jarrell and Reinhart were jailed on $5,000 bail, according to
the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office.
The solicitors, Pigott said, work for Integrity Sales, which also will receive a summons for soliciting
without a permit. The Phoenix-based company could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
STAFF WRITER The Asbury Park Press www.app.com KEANSBURG, New Jersey Read This Story |
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Website
Integrity Sales On The Web |
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Lawyers for the magazine salesman convicted last month of raping a woman in her Concord apartment have
asked for a new trial because jurors inadvertently saw evidence they shouldn't have. The defense
lawyers said the state's case was so weak that the evidence could have persuaded jurors to convict
Joseph Haniffy.
Jurors discovered the words "Joe Pimp" on Haniffy's cell phone during deliberations, after a judge
gave them permission to turn the phone on. Haniffy's lawyers did not object to jurors request to
turn on the phone. But the discovery surprised lawyers, who had told jurors at trial that the phone
only contained the victim's name and phone number and photos of her performing oral sex on Haniffy.
Judge Edward Fitzgerald, who has since examined the phone, has indicated that jurors may have been
exposed to additional potentially inadmissible evidence, and he has questioned jurors privately about
what they saw. But Fitzgerald and the attorneys have declined to discuss what that evidence includes.
Jurors took about eight hours to convict Haniffy of three counts of rape and acquit him of two related
charges.
Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Sales-men and semitrailers are the focus of a
pair of ordinances scheduled to be introduced at the Oct. 25
meeting of the Township Committee.
One measure would revise the township’s solicitation and
canvassing ordinance, which currently divides solicitors into
three groups with three different sets of rules and time
restrictions.
The new, simplified ordinance would differentiate only between
commercial solicitors, including “vendors, peddlers, hawkers and
canvassers of commercial products or services,” and
non-commercial solicitors, including those involved in “political
campaigning, advocacy, education or proselytizing.”
Commercial solicitors would have to undergo a criminal history
check before they could obtain a solicitation license, under the
provisions of the ordinance. They would have their door-to-door
activities restricted to 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday through
Saturday.
Additionally, residents would have the option of joining a Do Not
Solicit list, which both commercial and non-commercial solicitors
would have to follow, if the new measure is adopted.
The proposed ordinance is a response to a murder in Toms River in
which a door-to-door magazine salesman stabbed a 77-year-old
woman to death, Mayor David M. Salkin said.
Correspondent newstranscript.gmnews.com FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, New Jersey Read This Story |
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MILTON, Wis. -- While Wisconsin's no-call list keeps solicitors
away from residents' phones, another list may keep solicitors
away from some doors.
It's called a "no-knock" ordinance and the small community of
Milton may be the first in the state to put one on the books.
Sgt. John Conger, of the Milton Police Department, is behind the
proposed ordinance.
Six years ago he vowed to do all he could to protect young people
and the communities in to which they are sent.
Conger made that promise after being one of the first responders
on the scene of the horrific Janesville van crash that killed
seven teenagers and seriously injured five others who were part
of a controversial traveling sales crew.
Madison, Wisconsin channel3000.com Read This Story |
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TELL CITY - An Alabama magazine salesman arrested in April for
allegedly attempting to rape a Tell City woman was sentenced late
last month to three years in prison.
Joey Evans, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual battery, a
Class D felony, and was ordered to serve three years in the
Indiana Department of Correction. Evans underwent a voluntary
polygraph examination in August under an agreement that charges
would be dismissed if he passed the state-police-administered
exam. Police said Evans failed the test.
By VINCE LUECKE Editor perrycountynews.com Tell City, IN. Read This Story |
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Hockessin Valley Falls resident Veronica Gallagher said she knew something wasn't quite right about
the the slick, young door-to-door salesman who showed up at her doorstep Thursday evening.
"I was thinking it was a neighbor's kid," Gallagher said Friday, "because he said he had just moved
into the neighborhood from Rhode Island."
She let the young man into her home. He told her he was a University of Delaware communications
major trying to earn points for a trip to London by selling magazines. So she gave him a check for $132.
The next day, she received an e-mail warning from a neighbor about a magazine scam in the area.
Gallagher canceled her check immediately. Now she's warning others to be careful.
"I want to save somebody else from being scammed," she said.
Gallagher has since reported the incident to the consumer protection division of the state Attorney
General's Office. She has also done research on the company, Integrity Sales in Glendale, Ariz.,
which listed only a post office box on its Web site.
The Better Business Bureau in Arizona has processed 71 complaints against Integrity Sales since
June 2003, when the company's file was opened.
University of Delaware spokesman John Brennan said anyone representing the university should
have a UD student identification card and be able to provide a document on university letterhead.
Lori Sitler, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office, said consumers should always
check the reputation of the sales company if contacted by a telemarketer or door-to-door salesperson.
Delaware's Home Solicitation Sales Act allows a buyer three days to cancel a transaction.
New Castle County police spokesman Cpl. Trinidad Navarro said police have received one complaint
about the magazine salesman.
But another door-to-door salesman was also seen in the Cooper Farms development Thursday,
and he was unable to produce any type of identification, police said. Contact Terri Sanginiti at 302-324-2771 or tsanginiti@delawareonline.com. Copyright © 2005, The News Journal. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (updated 10/3/2005) By TERRI SANGINITI The News Journal delawareonline.com New Castle, Delaware Read This Story |
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HAMPTON - Like a modern-day jungle drum, an e-mail from a Hampton woman warning of a magazine salesman
who put a vial of "perfume" under her nose that caused her arms and legs to go numb has been passed from
one mailing list to another in the area.
It originated from Mary Sue Sanderson, who said that a man, claiming to be raising money for the
University of New Hampshire by selling magazines, knocked on her door and tried to make her smell
perfume that she believes was drugged.
"Immediately, my arms and legs went numb," stated Sanderson. "With the grace of God,
I immediately stood up and ran inside and locked the doors."
Other neighbors told similar stories.
Sanderson said she’s heard about the so called "knock-out perfume scam" (where someone tries to
knock out another to steal their belongings or rape them) and thinks that’s what this
guy was trying to do.
In her e-mail, she wrote: "Please pass this on to everyone you know to protect them and their children."
pcronin@seacoastonline.com The Hampton Union seacoastonline.com Hampton, NH Read This Story |
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BAKERSFIELD - A door-to-door salesman is behind bars, accused of trying to rape a girl in Oildale.
Authorities said the attack only stopped when the girl’s family came home.
Bakersfield, California Read This Story |
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kern County deputies were dispatched to a possible victim of a rape in the 400 blk of Wilson Av, in Oildale.
When deputies arrived they discovered a 16 year old female had allowed a door to door magazine salesman into
her residence for the purpose of ordering magazines.
The salesman forced himself on the victim and attempted to rape her. The assault was interupted when a
relative of the victim arrived at the residence. The suspect then fled out the door. A short time later
the victim saw the suspect in the passenger seat of a blue Ford pick-up as it drove past her residence.
A sheriff's broadcast was put out over the sheriff's radio describing the suspect and vehicle. About
seven minutes later a deputy on patrol spotted the vehicle at Oildale Dr & Decatur St. The deputy made
an enforcement stop on the pick-up. A passenger in the pick-up was identified as the suspect by the victim.
The suspect was identified as Michael Anthony Prasser, 20 years of age,from Spokane, Washington. He had
identification showing he works for, Free X Press. Prasser was booked into the Kern County Jail for Attempt
Rape and Sexual Battery. The victim was not injured during the assault.
One Bakersfield bakersfieldonline.us Bakersfield, California Read This Story |
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Unwanted pressure from a magazine salesman quickly turned from annoying solicitation to violence for one Dayton
Complex resident Monday night.
A man identifying himself as John knocked on a student's door around midnight Monday and demanded money for
magazines. The victim had previously dealt with a salesman named Craig, whom he had asked to leave and had not
purchased any magazines from.
When the victim told John that he did not buy any magazines, John grew threatening and said he would hurt
the student.
John entered the victim's room and sat on the bed while his five colleagues stayed in the hallway.
Shortly after a heated debate, John grew agitated and began to beat his fists on the victim's bed.
Perrenot said that John also tried to take the victim's computer, but the victim grabbed his arm.
Scuffling ensued in which John gave more threats and one of his collaborators tried to enter forcefully.
The Rebel Yell University of Navada, Las Vagas unlvrebelyell.com Read This Story |
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Fort Collins Crime Prevention Officer Susan Vance explains how citizens can keep safe during a community
meeting Wednesday night at St. Johns Lutheran Church. The meeting was in response to a recent jump in
crime east of campus. Many of the residents attending the meeting showed their fustrartion with the way
the Fort Collins police are handling the situation in the area. Minimizing opportunities for criminals is key to crime prevention, a police officer said Wednesday night to a group of concerned residents whose neighborhood east of campus was recently rocked by two home-invasion robberies. Crime Prevention Officer Susan Vance outlined tips ranging from which kinds of lights to buy to what to do if you come home to a ransacked house-run-and what to do if a stranger knocks on your door. "Never, ever open your door to a stranger," she said. "I can't emphasize that enough." Vance mentioned recent cases where a robber would knock on a door and force his way past whoever opens it. In another instance, a woman let in a stranger claiming to be a magazine salesman. He grabbed her, forcibly kissed her on the mouth and fondled her before he left, Vance said. Colorado State University The Rocky Mountain Collegian collegian.com Read This Story |
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TOMS RIVER — A teenage magazine salesman from Chicago showed no emotion in court Tuesday as he admitted
using fireplace tools and a kitchen knife to beat and stab a 77-year-old widow to death last year
after she let him into her Dover Township home for a drink of water.
Azriel Bridge, now 19, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Edward J. Turnbach to murdering
Shirley Reuter on June 9, 2004, while he was going door to door selling magazines.
The case spurred several Ocean County towns to adopt "no-knock" ordinances that allow residents to
bar door-to-door salespeople from going to their homes.
Bridge faces a maximum of life in prison with no chance for parole before he serves 63 years and 9
months — the legal equivalent of 85 percent of a life term — under the state's No Early Release Act
for violent criminals, said Executive Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Ronald F. DeLigny.
Bridge is scheduled to be sentenced by Turnbach on Jan. 6.
BY KATHLEEN HOPKINS TOMS RIVER BUREAU TOMS RIVER, New Jersey app.com Read This Story |
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TOMS RIVER — A teenaged magazine salesman from Chicago showed no emotion today as he admitted using
fireplace tools and a kitchen knife to beat and stab a 77-year-old widow to death last year, after she
had let him into her Dover Township home for a drink of water.
Azriel Bridge, 19, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Edward J. Turnbach to the murder of
Shirley Reuter on June 9, 2004, while he was going door-to-door in the widow's neighborhood selling
magazines.
STAFF REPORT app.com TOMS RIVER, New Jersey Read This Story |
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Concord Jurors in Joseph Haniffy's rape trial inadvertently saw evidence during their deliberations that might have been inadmissible. Yesterday, Judge Edward Fitzgerald questioned jurors and gave lawyers in the case until late October to argue whether the development should affect the verdict. Haniffy, 25, was convicted two weeks ago of raping a woman in her Concord apartment in March while selling magazines door to door. Fitzgerald could let the guilty verdicts stand or decide the evidence was damaging enough to warrant a new trial. Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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Phil Ellenbecker is on a mission. He is determined to do everything he can to halt the door-to-door sales
of magazine subscriptions, and intends to personally call every single publisher on the Magazine
Publishers Association membership list to explain his concerns. "I talked to Reader's Digest yesterday,"
says Ellenbecker, "and they told me they would be active in looking into it."
FOLIO foliomag.com Read This Story |
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Des Moines Prosecutors have charged a 27-year-old door-to-door magazine salesman with second-degree rape in an alleged assault on a severely disabled woman in Des Moines. Police and prosecutors say Raymond H. Moultrie, a transient whose listed addresses are numerous hotels on Pacific Highway South, knocked on the door of a 28-year-old woman with Down syndrome on Sunday in an apparent attempt to sell magazines. Charging documents filed in King County Superior Court contend that Moultrie sexually assaulted the woman, who has the mental capacity of a grade-school child and is incapable of giving consent. Moultrie, who has a criminal history in at least four states, is being held in lieu of $750,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in the Regional Justice Center in Kent on Oct. 10. Read This Story |
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Concord The jury in the first of Concord's traveling salesman rape cases has issued its verdict. Jurors found Joseph Haniffy guilty. Often when a man is accused of rape and his defense is consent, there is no way to know with certainty what really happened. That's true in this case. But the jury unanimously agreed that at some point the victim said "no,"and that's all it takes. Continue, and it's rape. None of the players in the tawdry Concord case, including the victim, are sympathetic characters. None of their stories struck us as entirely truthful. In the end, the case turned not on whom the jury believed but on whom the jury believed more. The facts, as far as they can be known when four people's accounts of events differ and change with time, are sordid. The young woman who accused the three men of rape admits to inviting absolute strangers into her home, offering them beer, flirting with them, playing a kissing game, joking about her "stripper shoes" and dancing for them. At some point, she removed her skirt to reveal exceptionally short shorts. The sexual acts that occurred later are a matter of dispute, though at least one can be established with certainty since photographs of it appeared on Haniffy's camera phone. Was the sex, as the defendant claimed, consensual? As Concord defense lawyer James Moir said in this paper after the trial, "Juries tend to get it right," and they probably did in Haniffy's case. concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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Fed up with uninvited salespeople at her front door, Boxford resident Sandy Karcher wants her town do something
about it. Karcher has asked for a warrant article be placed on next month's Special Town Meeting agenda that
would establish a 'Do Not Solicit' list. Karcher, who has lived in town for about two years, said unexpected
visits from solicitors are an unwelcome intrusion on her privacy and that she decided to take action after
having a negative experience with a solicitor who came to her home.
"When this occurs, strangers obtain a great deal of information about our families (i.e. name, address,
whether children live at a residence, what the children look like, the hours we may or may not be home, etc.).
When this incident took place, I personally felt that my privacy had been violated," Karcher wrote in a letter
to the Selectmen.
www2.townonline.com Read This Story |
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Getting from one side of campus to the other without being interrupted by a solicitor may be difficult.
Whether it is on the Plaza or in the residence halls, solicitors have found seemingly endless ways to reach
students in hope of promoting their product.
One of the more recent accounts of illegal soliciting reported around campus included men and women selling
magazines as part of a contest to become a radio disc jockey.
"A magazine salesman walked into my dorm room to try to get me to buy a magazine subscription," said Lauren Bryant,
a freshman speech communications major .
According to rules and regulations set forth by Housing and Dining Services, unauthorized soliciting in residence
halls is a direct violation of the University Solicitation Policy.
"No direct or indirect sales or solicitation by commercial enterprises is allowed in residence halls,"
said Allison Fox, assistant director of residence life.
Not only are solicitors not allowed in the residence halls, they are not allowed in on-campus apartments either.
The Rocky Mountain Collegian www.collegian.com Read This Story |
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Students were victimized again Tuesday night when solicitors selling magazine subscriptions stole items from
Highland Quad. Police reports cite that one laptop was stolen from Morgan.
VUPD immediately paged Highland Quad Area Direction Brent McPherson after the incident occurred, and he
then released an e-mail notifying all of his residents about the occurrence.
Junior Andrew Bese was one of the residents who targeted by the magazine salesmen. He claimed the two
individuals pretending to sell magazines knocked on his door and asked if he would like to sign up for a
magazine subscription.
Although Bese said they did not look or act like Vanderbilt students, the salesmen claimed they attend
Vanderbilt and were selling magazines in order to compete in a contest to win a trip.
Bese said they seemed legitimate and they were smooth talkers so he listened to their sales pitch and agreed
to fill out an information card. The charlatans edged their way into Bese’s room as he filled out an information card.
One of them then asked Bese if he could use his bathroom.
At his point the person using the bathroom scoped out his room to see if anything was worth stealing.
The individuals involved in the scam targeted rooms in which the bathrooms were detached from the common room.
As the dorm resident filled out an informational card in the common area, the schemer checked out the bedroom
for any electronics or other valuable items.
The Vanderbilt Hustler www.vanderbilthustler.com Nashville, TN Read This Story |
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MILLSTONE — The township may create its own version of a do-not-call list.
The Township Committee introduced an ordinance on Sept. 14 that, if passed, would limit solicitation
and/or canvassing within the boundaries of Millstone through the creation of a do-not-solicit list.
Although the list would not prevent phone solicitations, it would keep anyone who is selling something from
knocking on the doors of those residents who have signed it.
“Can’t we just not have solicitation in Millstone at all?” Deputy Mayor Nancy Grbelja asked the township attorney.
Township Attorney Duane Davison said the township could not legally prevent all commercial solicitation.
Grbelja said she proposed creating such an ordinance when a commercial solicitor recently asked the Township
Committee for the opportunity to canvass Millstone residences door to door.
“I wouldn’t mind if any Millstone resident came to my door,” Grbelja said, “but I don’t want someone I don’t know,
from out of town, coming up and knocking on my door.”
Grbelja said she wanted to give residents the option of keeping solicitors off their premises.
Staff Writer examiner.gmnews.com Read This Story |
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CONCORD, N.H. A magazine salesman from Chicopee was convicted today of raping a New Hampshire teenager at her home. Twenty-five-year-old Joseph Haniffy was one of three salesmen charged with raping the 19-year-old Concord woman. The woman testified she met the men when two of them knocked on her door on March 28th to sell her magazines. She said she played a kissing game with them but did not agree to have sex. The woman said Haniffy showed up later and forced her to perform a sex act on her. RI. www.wpri.com Read This Story |
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Fidelity Reader Service |
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FL Dept. of State, Division of Corporations: Fidelity Reader Service Criminal Profiles: Search For 'Fidelity' Magazine Scams: Fidelity Reader Service Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com FRS Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com National Field Selling Association is a member of: Magazine Publishers of America: magazine.org |
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Concord A jury convicted Joseph Haniffy yesterday of raping a Concord woman in March while selling magazines door to door, but cleared him on a charge of conspiracy. Haniffy, 25, could face 20 to 40 years in prison. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about eight hours over two days before returning their verdict at 1 p.m. Haniffy did not visibly react in the courtroom. The victim and her husband wiped away tears when the verdicts were read. Haniffy's public defenders, Donna Brown and Meredith Lugo, could not be reached yesterday, and it was unknown if they will appeal. Some speculated a guilty verdict would prompt plea deals in the rape cases against two other salesmen who were with Haniffy, the first of whom is to stand trial late next month. Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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Concord After nearly eight hours of deliberations, a jury cleared Joseph Haniffy today of one charge but convicted him of raping a Concord woman in March while selling magazines in Concord. Haniffy, 25, of Massachusetts was acquitted of conspiring with his two sales colleagues to rape the woman. But he was convicted of raping her twice, once in her bathroom and once in her bedroom. He faces 20 to 40 years in prison. Judge Edward Fitzgerald ordered him held without bail until his sentencing, which has not been scheduled. He did not visibly react in the courtroom yesterday. Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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Concord Jurors in Joseph Haniffy's rape trial deliberated for four hours yesterday before going home without a verdict. They will reconvene today at 9 a.m. The case went to the jury at lunchtime, after lawyers on both sides made their closing remarks. Haniffy, 25, of Chicopee, Mass., is charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual assault. He and two colleagues are accused of raping a woman in her Concord apartment in March while they were selling magazines door-to-door. If convicted, Haniffy faces 30 to 60 years in prison. Jurors got the case after nearly five days of testimony. In her final remarks, Haniffy's public defender told jurors the case was about the inconsistencies in the alleged victim's accounts - not Haniffy's crass talk and loose ways. Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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CONCORD, N.H. --The first of three magazine salesmen charged in the gang rape of a 19-year-old Concord woman
`was convicted Wednesday of three counts of rape. He was acquitted of two other charges.
Joseph Haniffy, 25, of Chicopee, Mass., was acquitted of one count of sexual assault and conspiracy in the
Merrimack County Superior Court trial.
Cassidy Coburn, 19, of Monroe, Utah; and Christopher Armstrong, 23, of Jonesboro, Ark., will be tried later.
The three men say she consented to sex.
www.boston.com Read This Story |
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Concord Joseph Haniffy testified in his own defense yesterday, telling jurors in his rape trial that he had group sex with his alleged victim only after she agreed. He also said the woman was happy enough afterward to give him her phone number in hopes of joining his magazine sales crew. Prosecutor David Rotman asked Haniffy why, then, did she accuse him and his two colleagues of rape after they left. "She felt abandoned?" Haniffy ventured. "She lost the attention she got?" Jurors heard the last of the testimony yesterday afternoon and are expected to listen to closing arguments this morning. In five days, they have gotten conflicting accounts from most of the major witnesses, including the alleged victim and the other two salesmen. Of them all, Haniffy's story has remained the most consistent from what he told the police the day after the alleged assault to what he told jurors yesterday. Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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Sep. 19, 2005 - Prosecutors in the gang rape trial of a door-to-door magazine salesman plan to
present the defendant's alleged confession today. Meanwhile, two other salesmen charged in the
alleged assault are claiming the alleged victim wanted sex with the trio.
Joseph Hannify, 25, of Chicopee, Mass., along with Cassidy Coburn, 19, of Utah, and Christopher
Armstrong, 23, of Arkansas, is charged with raping a 19-year-old Concord, N.H., woman in March.
The woman said that Coburn and Armstrong talked their way into her apartment selling magazines.
Police said the two men drank beer they found in the woman's refrigerator and offered her one
that was already opened. The woman told police that a few minutes after drinking the beer she
started feeling as if she had been drugged.
After a short time, they were joined by Hannify, she said, and the three of them ultimately
gang-raped her.
She said Hanify first forced her to perform oral sex on him, and when she resisted the three
raped her.
The three men were arrested in Maryland, a few days after the incident.
ABC News affiliate WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., contributed to this report. Read This Story |
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Almost 6½ years have passed since a horrific van crash on Interstate 90 near Janesville killed seven
teenagers in a traveling magazine sales crew. Yet the state has done nothing to regulate such businesses.
Wisconsin gets another chance with Senate Bill 251, and it shouldn't miss the opportunity.
No one living here will ever forget that accident. Certainly not John Conger, the Milton police sergeant
who was moonlighting that night for the Town of Milton Police Department when he clocked the van at 81
mph near the rest stop north of Janesville. He never had a chance to pursue it.
Conger flipped on his headlights and started pulling out when the van started rolling, scattering
occupants on the highway and median. The van's driver, 20-year-old Jeremy Holmes, didn't have a
valid license and had tried to swap seats with another occupant. Besides those killed, five others
suffered lifelong disabilities.
Conger testified in support of a similar bill that passed a Senate committee last year. That
bill failed to get a vote in the full Senate before the legislative session ended. He also spoke in
favor of the new bill.
The legislation is designed to protect youths who work for meager pay and in poor living conditions
in an industry that sells magazine subscriptions and cleaning supplies. It specifically regulates sales
crews that travel overnight, not local companies employing local kids for door-to-door sales.
We would oppose such regulation of the latter.
www.gazetteextra.com Janesville, Wisconsin Read This Story |
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RAPID CITY -- Saying he wanted to "make things right" by taking his punishment, Neil Frame pleaded guilty
Wednesday to murdering a 21-year-old woman who came to his door last April selling magazines.
Frame, 41, will spend the rest of his life in prison as a result of his plea. In exchange,
prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against him.
Kristina Denise Moore, 21, of Lancaster, Calif., went missing April 21 after she was going
door to door selling magazines in Frame's Rapid Valley neighborhood. Her nude body was found two
days later in a field near Hermosa. Frame turned himself in April 26.
On Wednesday, Frame stood before 7th Circuit Judge Janine Kern and calmly told her how he killed
Moore in a moment of rage.
"Kristina Moore came to my house to sell magazines," Frame, a retired military man with no criminal
history, said. "I was pretty annoyed. ... I felt as though the magazine sales ... was pretty much an
overpriced scam."
www.rapidcityjournal.com Rapid City, South Dakota Read This Story |
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CONCORD, N.H. -- The rape trial of a door-to-door magazine salesman continued with dramatic
testimony from his co-defendants on Friday.
Joseph Hannify, along with Cassidy Coburn and Christopher Armstrong, is charged with raping a
19-year-old Concord woman in March. The woman said that the three talked their way into her apartment
selling magazines but ultimately gang-raped her.
www.thewmurchannel.com Read This Story |
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Concord A state toxicology expert told jurors yesterday that he believes the woman allegedly raped by three magazine salesmen in March had more to drink than the one beer she claimed and that neither a date rape drug nor her cold medicine played a role in this case. Based on blood and urine samples, Dr. Michael Wagner of the state police laboratory believes the woman's blood-alcohol level was as high as .06 percent at some point the night she was allegedly assaulted. The woman had initially told the police she believed the salesmen had weakened her defenses by lacing her beer with a drug. Later she said the cold medicine she had taken the night before may have made her feel hazy and ill. Joseph Haniffy, 25, of Chicopee, Mass., was the boss of the traveling magazine sales crew accused of raping the woman in her Concord apartment and is the first of the suspects to face trial. He is charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of conspiracy to commit assault. If convicted, he could face up to 60 years in prison. Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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Concord The woman allegedly raped by three magazine salesmen in March told jurors yesterday in sometimes tearful testimony that she agreed to dance for the salesmen, joked with them about her stripper shoes and played a kissing game with them, but did not consent to sex. She also acknowledged inviting friends to join her party with the men by phone and computer messages, but said she did not express fear or call for help because she thought the men might hurt her. Instead, she invited them to drink with her and her "friends." "I would have said pretty much anything to get (my friends) there,"the woman told a jury of eight men and six women. Yesterday, the first of the three accused magazine salesmen went to trial on four counts of sexual assault and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual assault. Joseph Haniffy, 25, of Chicopee, Mass., is charged with forcing the woman, now 20, to perform oral sex on him twice and of conspiring with the other two salesmen to sexually assault her. Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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The first of the three magazine salesmen accused of raping a
19-year-old Concord woman in March goes to trial this morning on
four counts of sexual assault and one of conspiracy to commit
sexual assault.
Over the weekend, Judge Edward Fitzgerald ruled on several
motions regarding what evidence will be allowed at trial, but
those rulings were not publicly available by press time. The
defense asked him to prevent the prosecutor from calling the
other two salesmen as witnesses at Joseph Haniffy's trial. And
the prosecutor does not want jurors to know that the person the
accuser reached out to during her alleged rape was a man she had
never met but only talked to through a Web site called
HotorNot.com.
Haniffy, 25, of Chicopee, Mass., has denied the charges and said
the sex was consensual. If convicted, he could face up 10 to 20
years in prison on each charge.
The other two salesmen, Cassidy Coburn, 19, of Utah and
Christopher Armstrong, 23, of Arkansas await trial. Armstrong is
scheduled to go to trial in late October; Coburn's trial has not
yet been scheduled.
All three are being held at the Merrimack County jail on high
cash bail, the lowest of which is $500,000.
Monitor staff concordmonitor.com Concord, New Hampshire Read This Story |
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Unlicensed Magazine Sales Crew Hits Treasure Valley "Several residents tell us that young adults claiming to be earning points toward a trip or scholarship have contacted them at their home, according to Nora Carpenter, executive director of the BBB. "At this time none of the solicitors are licensed to sell door-to-door in Boise or any of the Treasure Valley communities." The BBB confirms that no local College or University sends students door-to-door to sell magazines or other products on their behalf. To avoid problems with door-to-door purchases, the BBB offers these tips: " Never allow a solicitor into your home. " If you do make a purchase with a value greater than $25, the Federal three-day-cooling-off rule applies. However, you must act quickly to cancel the order. " All door-to-door solicitors must be licensed by the city or county in which the homeowner resides. " Never pay with cash. " Check the history of any soliciting company with the BBB before signing a contract. " Report questionable activity to the BBB or your local police authority. According to the BBB, it is common for traveling sales crews to move through Idaho and Oregon in early fall. Consumers purchases at their own risk. |
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HOWELL — The Township Council is advancing an ordinance that would require fingerprinting and criminal
background checks for peddlers, including door-to-door salespeople and ice cream truck vendors.
The change would expand the current peddler-licensing process, which includes a local records check by
the Police Department, verification of an applicant's residence, a motor-vehicle records review and a
search of outstanding police and court warrants.
Laws similar to the one being contemplated here were enacted in nearby towns following the 2004 beating and
stabbing death of a Dover Township woman who had let a 17-year-old door-to-door magazine salesman into her
home when he asked for a drink of water and to use the bathroom.
Dover now has a "do-not-knock" list, a registry that bars salespeople who work for profit-making entities
from soliciting at homes on the list and requires fingerprints and criminal background checks for peddlers.
FREEHOLD BUREAU Asbury Park Press app.com Howell, New Jeresy Read This Story |
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A Missouri teen selling magazines door to door in Scranton has been accused of malnourishing her infant son,
who at the age of 6 months weighed 9½ pounds.
Jessica Harrington, 19, was released Tuesday after she waived her right to a preliminary hearing in
Central Court. She is charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of children.
The baby is now in foster care, and Miss Harrington — herself a product of foster homes, authorities said —
is free on bail.
Miss Harrington’s lawyer argued Tuesday that she has done the best she can caring for her child while
moving state to state selling magazines.
The Scranton Times-Tribune newspapers thetimes-tribune.com Scranton, PA. Read This Story |
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SWOYERSVILLE – A 21-year-old man who was wanted on a probation violation out of New York was
arrested on resisting arrest charges on Slocum Street on Friday, police said.
John Bonilla, no address reported, was stopped after police reported to Slocum Street for a
report of a man going door to door trying to gain access into homes.
When stopped, Bonilla said he had no identification except a form
from the magazine company he represented, police said.
Police said they discovered Bonilla was wanted out of New York and
while arresting Bonilla, he pushed away from the officers and fled on foot.
After a short pursuit, Bonilla was arrested. He was charged with simple assault, harassment,
disorderly conduct, escape and resisting arrest. He was taken to the Luzerne County Correctional
Facility.
timesleader.com Northeastern, PA. Read This Story |
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Courts A 23-year-old Tennessee man who helped beat a Fort Wayne man to death in 2000 with four other traveling salesmen was granted early release from prison Friday in Allen Superior Court. Benjamin D. Brooks pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in August 2001 and agreed to testify against his co-defendants in exchange for leniency at sentencing. Five traveling magazine salesmen were charged and convicted in connection with the June 5, 2000, beating death of Brett D. King, whose body was found outside the Valu Lodge motel, 3527 Coliseum Blvd. W. His death was ruled a homicide. The Journal Gazette fortwayne.com Fortwayne, Indiana Read This Story |
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Aug 26, 2005 10:09 pm US/Eastern (WBZ) Quick action after an exclusive I-Team investigation uncovers door to door sales crews that are compromising your safety. The I-Team found crew members with criminal records doing a lot more than selling magazines. Kathy Curran has been working with the I-Team and has the latest on what’s being done to keep you safe. Donna Peltier-Saxe, Marblehead: “It made me extremely fearful, it went from an experience where I thought I was helping someone change his life to being really frightened.” Donna Peltier-Saxe says a good deed went bad when she realized a convicted murderer was knocking at her door. Donna Peltier-Saxe, Marblehead: “He told me he was selling magazines, part of a re-education program.” Steven Shores showed up at her Marblehead home hawking magazines. Shores was making a living traveling door to door after serving time for murder. Boston, MA. cbs4boston.com Read This Story |
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Aug 25, 2005 9:58 pm US/Eastern (AP) In this exclusive investigation, the I-Team focuses on door-to-door sales crews, young people who canvass your neighborhoods selling magazines. The problem, they are doing a lot more than making a sale. Kathy Curran has been working with the I-Team and shows you the danger that could begin with a knock on your door. Lt. James Pierce, Winchester Police Department: “They literally walk through the neighborhood and they can pick and choose their targets." It starts with a knock on the door, and in some cases ends with a crime. Lt. James Pierce, Winchester Police Department: “I think some of them are very dangerous. Our sister city, Woburn, a woman was killed. We've had breaks, thefts from various areas. ”From Winchester and Marblehead to every end of the state door-to-door magazine sales crews are hitting the pavement armed with a pitch. Boston, MA. cbs4boston.com Read This Story |
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A roving magazine salesman who assaulted an 80-year-old Menlo Park woman in 2004 was sentenced to 11
years in state prison today in San Mateo County Superior Court. D'Angelo Langford, 19, a door-to-door
solicitor from Georgia, pleaded no contest in June to assault with intent to commit rape and
physical elder abuse resulting in great bodily harm, according to Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The victim was attacked in her Alice Lane apartment at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 6, Wagstaffe said.
Langdon allegedly shoved the woman onto her bed, pulled up her blouse, and attempted to sexually
assault her while repeatedly beating her, Wagstaffe said.
California paloaltoonline.com Read This Story |
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Madison - Daniel Burrus went to work for a traveling magazine sales crew because he thought the
"rock 'n' roll job" would give him a chance to see the country while making money. Traveling Salesmen Quotable I've seen a lot of lives ruined and a lot of abuse, lies and it's definitely something that needs to be stopped. - Daniel Burrus, Former magazine salesman Section: State Politics After five years in the industry, Burrus, now 31, said the only thing that got rocked was him. Burrus, who lives near St. Louis, didn't attend a hearing Tuesday before the state Senate's Committee on Job Creation, Economic Development and Consumer Affairs to support a bill to regulate door-to-door, traveling sales crews working in the state. But now that he has left the business, Burrus said he is determined to prevent other people from being taken advantage of by businesses that operate under few guidelines. "I've seen a lot of lives ruined and a lot of abuse, lies and deceit . . . it's definitely something that needs to be stopped," Burrus said. The bill (SB 251) is intended to protect youths who are employed in the industry at low wages and who work under sweatshop-like conditions selling such products as magazine subscriptions or household cleaners. The push for the legislation was spurred by a 1999 van crash near Janesville that killed seven teenagers and injured other members of a sales crew. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sforster@journalsentinel.com jsonline.com Read This Story |
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MEDWAY -- Selectmen do not mind organizations approaching the board for permission to go door-to-door to
seek donations for a particular cause, or sell products.
If any of the solicitors have substantial criminal records, however, selectmen are going to have a problem.
This was apparent Aug. 8 when the board rejected applications from two solicitors.
"These two specific solicitors had highly questionable criminal records -- burglary, car theft,
battery -- there is no way we could subject the town of Medway and our citizens to
individuals who have recently been accused or convicted of those criminal acts," selectmen Chairman
Kent Scott said.
Millford Daily News milforddailynews.com Milford, MA. Read This Story |
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A magazine salesman from Cincinnati, Ohio, was robbed by two men in their early 20s, one of whom
put the victim in a "bear hug" before making off with $44 in cash, reports stated.
Police said the victim, Salem F. Shaun, 20, was selling magazine subscriptions door to door when
he was approached by two men, described as Hispanics, at about 8:05 p.m. Saturday on St. John Street
near Slade Avenue, reports stated.
The men reportedly feigned interest in Shaun's magazines before one of the assailants put him in a
bear hug and took his subscription envelope containing the cash in addition to the victim's white
gym shoes, according to reports.
Police officers canvassed the area for robbery suspects with negative results, according to reports.
Read This Story |
The Harris County Sheriff's Department, Sex Crimes Division, is asking for public assistance in identifying the white male in the composite drawing. The male is wanted for questioning in a sexual assault that occurred on June 16, 2005, at a residence located in the Perry Road and FM 1960 area, south of Tomball. The complainant, a 17-year-old female was at home alone at the time the suspect knocked on her door and told her that he was selling magazines. The suspect was able to talk his way into the residence eventually sexually assaulting the complainant. The man is described as 5-foot, 10-inches tall, in his late teens or early 20s, with blue eyes and blond hair. He was wearing a white T-shirt with blue jean shorts. It is believed that the suspect has been in the area before attempting to sell magazines door-to-door. The sheriff's department is seeking information in identifying the suspect or the name of the company that had individuals selling magazines door to door in the area. Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to contact the Harris County Sheriff's Office Sexual Assault Division at (713) 967-5743 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477). A reward of up to $5,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for this crime or any felony suspect. All calls are confidential. tribunenews.com Tomball, TX. Read This Story |
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Authorities are warning area residents about young scam artists going door-to-door selling books and
magazine subscriptions and falsely claiming they are raising money for school teams, sports clubs
and other nonprofit organizations.
In the last year, police and consumer groups in Virginia and Maryland have received complaints
from residents who say they have been subjected to high-pressure solicitations to buy items to benefit
local kids' programs. Some salespeople claim they attend local high schools or are members of local teams.
Washington Post Staff Writer washingtonpost.com Read This Story |
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For years, parents have been warning their children not to go door to door selling things unless they’re
accompanied by an adult. They worried that some adult might take advantage of them.
Now, there’s a new twist. Adults need to watch out for the children who are selling to them.
An alert put out to local neighborhood associations recently states that, “There are groups of people,
some as young as 13 to 14 years old, who are conducting a scam in our area, trying to sell magazine
subscriptions with the pitch that by getting a subscription, you are supporting Little League.
This is absolutely false and the operation is under investigation by the Fairfax County Police Department.
Gale Curcio connectionnewspapers.com Fairfax, VA. Read This Story |
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WOONSOCKET -- Two out-of-state men who claimed to be selling
magazines door-to-door on Blackstone Street Monday night were both
wanted on warrants.
Justin Liles, 22, of Philadelphia, Pa., was charged with being a
fugitive from justice in Gloucester County, N.J., police said.
Also, Richard J. Bogart, 22, of Augusta, Wis., was arrested on a
warrant for failure to appear for a hearing in District Court,
Providence.
At about 10:30 p.m., police said they ran background checks on the
two men after neighbors questioned their activities. The men
claimed they were selling magazines for a company identified as
Liberator Sales of Gig Harbor, Wash., for which they provided a
telephone number and the name of a supervisor.
The police said a woman on Blackstone Street divulged her credit
card number to someone on a cell phone provided by the two men.
Woonsocket, R.I. zwire.com Read This Story |
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WORCESTER, Mass. A magazine salesman from Tennessee who beat a 61-year-old Worcester man to death is
sentenced to serve up to 20 years in prison. Twenty-year-old Adam Lowery pleaded guilty yesterday to
manslaughter in the death of William Hollister. Prosecutors say the two men met at a Worcester bus
terminal last December after Lowery's girfriend kicked him out of her home. After Hollister agreed
to give Lowery a ride, the two men got into an argument in the car. That's when Lowery allegedly
struck Hollister in the head with a metal pipe and kicked him in the head and face. Lowery was arrested
a day later after police found him in Hollister's car. Lowery was originally charged with murder,
but prosecutors reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for his guilty plea.
All rights reserved. eyewitness news WPRI TV Channel 12 eyewitnessnewstv.com East Providence, RI Read This Story |
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It’s as much a part of summer as county fairs and dried-out lawns: college-age magazine solicitors going
door to door claiming to be raising money for their education or, say, a foreign-exchange program.
This week, Columbia residents in all parts of town have encountered young people claiming to be MU School
of Journalism students, specifically broadcast students, sponsored by Integrity.com and selling
magazine subscriptions.“We deal with this every year,” Columbia Police Sgt. Diane Bernhard said.
“Typically, somebody comes in with these college-aged kids, drops them off and picks them up later,
then move onto the next area.”
Columbia Missourian Columbia, Missouri columbiamissourian.com Read This Story |
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TOMS RIVER — A Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that he will allow the confession of a then-17-year-old
Illinois magazine salesman charged with the brutal killing of an elderly Dover Township woman last year
to be used as testimony in the murder trial. The victim's granddaughters looked on quietly as the
judge ruled that Azriel Rashad Bridge's confession to police in the June 9, 2004, killing of 77-year-old
Shirley Reuter can be used. Bridge had waived his right to an attorney when he confessed the slaying to
police on June 11 — eight days before he turned 18. Defense attorneys had requested the confession be
suppressed on the grounds that he was a juvenile. Superior Court Judge Edward J. Turnbach also
ruled the opinion of a forensic psychiatrist, who testified for the defense that Bridge was
borderline mentally handicapped, was flawed and "lacked any evidential value whatsoever."
BY MARGARET F. BONAFIDE TOMS RIVER BUREAU TOMS RIVER, NJ. app.com Read This Story |
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TOMS RIVER — While a detective was interrogating a young, door-to-door magazine salesman from Chicago
about the murder of a 77-year-old widow in her Dover Township home, documents that showed the subject
of the interrogation was under 18 lay in the detective's mailbox.
The defendant's attorney wants to use that fact to suppress his client's confession.
Superior Court Judge Edward J. Turnbach is scheduled to rule today on defense attorney
Philip Pagano's motion to suppress the confession of Azriel Bridge, now 19.
BY KATHLEEN HOPKINS TOMS RIVER BUREAU TOMS RIVER, NJ. app.com Read This Story |
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TOMS RIVER — The suspect in the brutal slaying of a 77-year-old Dover Township woman was a juvenile
lacking the IQ to understand what he was doing when he waived his right to legal representation prior
to his confession, his defense contended in seeking to suppress the defendant's statement.
In that confession, Azriel Rashad Bridge recalls how on June 9, 2004, he beat Shirley Reuter
unconscious before poking her with a knife to ensure her death after she tried to stop the magazine
salesman from Chicago from stealing her checkbook — from which Bridge later took a check to show
he had met his quota of subscription sales.
BY MARGARET F. BONAFIDE TOMS RIVER BUREAU TOMS RIVER, NJ. app.com Read This Story |
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Coral Springs' Pitts Sales lost a lawsuit that accused King World Productions, the producer of TV
program Inside Edition, of breaking federal laws by sending a producer undercover to obtain hidden-camera
footage for an exposé on the magazine sales company. The Inside Edition report, which aired in February
2004, found that Pitts Sales and other door-to-door magazine sales companies exploited and abused sales
agents -- many of them youngsters.
Miami Herald miami.com Mimia, Florida Read This Story |
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Coral Springs magazine sales company lost a lawsuit that accused the producer of the television news
program Inside Edition of breaking federal laws by sending an employee undercover to obtain hidden-camera
footage. Inside Edition reported in February 2004 that Pitts Sales Inc. and other magazine sales
companies exploited and abused sales agents. Pitts Sales sued Viacom Inc. subsidiary King World
Productions Inc. three months later, alleging violation of anti-wiretapping laws, fraud and trespass.
U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn ruled against Pitts on all three charges, with his latest decision
coming Friday. "We have maintained throughout the litigation that Inside Edition's news gathering
activities were proper, and we feel vindicated by the court's rulings," program spokesman Jim Kelly said.
Florida gainesville.com Read This Story |
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HOUSTON -- Sheriff's deputies are trying to find a man who forced his way into a northwest Harris County
home and sexually assaulted a teen, Local 2 reported Monday.Officials with the Harris County Sheriff's
Office released a sketch Monday of a man wanted for questioning in the June 16 sexual assault of a 17-year-
old girl inside her family's home near Perry Road and F.M. 1960.
Deputies said the man was in a northwest Harris County neighborhood on June 16 when the girl opened the
door and the man forced his way in.
Investigators believe the attacker had been in the area before, selling magazines door to door.
"She was very trusting, had no reason to believe anyone would hurt her and that trust has now been broken
and she's going to have to rebuild some of that," the girl's mother told Local 2.
Authorities need help identifying the man or the name of the company that had individuals selling
magazines in the area.
Houston, Texas Read This Story |
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(8/02/05 - HOUSTON) — A northwest Harris County neighborhood is on edge after a door-to-door salesman
sexually assaults a special needs teenage girl.
Police released this sketch of a man they say posed as a salesman and assaulted a young girl.
It happened back in mid-June in the home near Perry Road and FM 1960. Investigators released a sketch
of the man who they say was trying to sell magazines. He gained access inside the home by pretending to
have special needs himself. Authorities say that is what the suspect used to gain the 17-year-old's trust.
"This individual is a predator and he is out there and he's knocking on doors, going door to door.
If you or your children don't know already not to open your doors to anyone, please don't open the door,"
said the victim's mother, who we're not identifying.
The so-called salesman has not been found. But investigators believe the attacker is a young white man
with blonde hair and blue eyes either in his late teens or early twenties.
If you have any information, you are urged to call Houston area Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
You will remain anonymous.
(Copyright © 2005, KTRK-TV)
abclocal.go.com Houston, Texas Read This Story |
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Two young men recruited to sell magazines door-to-door found themselves out of a job and a long
way from home Thursday.
Daniel Bonney said, "I'm stuck in Nebraska. I can't get home."
Bonney quit his job Thursday and his friend Tyrone Allen joined him.
The two were stuck in Omaha with no money, 1,100 miles from New Orleans where they live.
Their boss dropped them off at the bus station shortly after they turned in their shirts and ties.
Tyrone says they were told, "We're not gonna pay your way home if you don't stay here for a month.
You have to find your own way home."
They quit because, in their words, they didn't like the lies of selling magazines door-to-door.
Omaha, Nebraska wowt.com Read This Story |
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Two men stole $220 from a 19-year-old woman who was selling magazines door-to-door near Fairfield
and 17 Mile on July 20. The woman told police the men inquired about purchasing magazines
around 6:30 p.m. when one of the men pulled a knife and took cash from a binder she was carrying.
The man told the woman that the other suspect was carrying a gun.
The woman was not injured, and the men fled when she used a cell phone to call for help.
STERLING HEIGHTS, MI. freep.com Read This Story |
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EAST NEWARK - The greeting "Ding, dong, Avon calling" may soon be
a thing of the past in East Newark, where officials recently
introduced an ordinance that would limit unsolicited door-to-door
canvassing.
The measure, which is up for adoption next month, would create a
"no knock" registry that would enable residents to register with
borough police and receive stickers to place on their front doors
notifying door-to-door canvassers of their inclusion on the
registry.
Violators could be fined up to $1,250 per offense and could have
their licenses for door-to-door sales revoked for a year.
If enacted, East Newark would be the first municipality in Hudson
County to pass such legislation, according to Acting Borough Clerk
Robert B. Knapp.
Local officials say that while the ordinance would help to control
unwanted intrusions into East Newark homes, it is really aimed at
protecting seniors from scammers who fabricate a story to enter
homes and victimize seniors.
Knapp said the borough based its proposed ordinance on a similar
measure recently enacted by Dover Township, the South Jersey
municipality where a 77-year-old grandmother was murdered last
year, allegedly at the hands of a door-to-door magazine salesman.
JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT nj.com Newark, New Jersey Read This Story |
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Boise Police cited nine people in a West Boise neighborhood for soliciting without a license July 11.
The incidents occurred in neighborhoods off McMillan and near Centennial High School. Boise Police
say they received numerous calls from residents of as many as 30 young adults going door-to-door selling
cleaner and magazines.
Residents say they suspect the solicitors were from Texas because they traveled in vehicles with
Texas license plates.
Two citizens also reported burglaries from their homes after the sales people had come knocking.
One resident reported that a salesperson came to the door, asked for a drink, which she went to get,
and after she returned, her purse and the salesperson were gone, police say.
On July 10, officers confiscated as evidence a large amount of checks, receipts, and purchases.
The checks and cash totaled several hundred dollars.
Also found by police was an instruction book the solicitors carried urging them to tell people
the sales were raising money for college or charities.
The Arbiter Boise, Idaho July 27, 2005 arbiteronline.com Read This Story For More Info Click Here |
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If a fresh-faced young man comes to your door selling magazine subscriptions to benefit Phoenix Children's
Hospital, turn him and down. It has happened a couple of times recently in a south Mesa neighborhood,
and Debbie Donahue wants to warn other residents not to fall for the same scam that took her and
some neighbors for $40 each. If it happens to you, report the incident to police, Donahue said. "If people
don't report it, they can't catch him," she said.
The Arizona Republic Jul. 16, 2005 12:00 AM azcentral.com Read This Story |
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"We had a lady that says she wrote a check to a magazine salesman, you know the ones that go
door-to-door, for $10," said Police Chief Mike McKenna. "She didn't want the magazines, so she
just wrote the check. "When she got the check back, it had been altered and forged to
read $110," McKenna said.
Baldwin City Signal signal.baldwincity.com Baldwin City, KS Read This Story |
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BRICK — Want to sell your wares door-to-door here? The Township Council is about to restrict the
number of homes where you can knock. The council Tuesday introduced an ordinance that, if adopted,
would prohibit door-to-door salespeople from knocking on the doors of residents who have signed
up for the township's "Do Not Knock" registry. If approved, Brick will join the list of Ocean
County municipalities with similar ordinances. Those ordinances were adopted last year, after
77-year-old Shirley Reuter was murdered on June 9, 2004, by a salesman selling magazines door-to-door.
Reuter, who lived on Dover Township's Chestnut Street, was beaten and stabbed to death
after she let a 17-year-old salesman into her home when he asked for a drink of water and to
use her bathroom.
BY NAOMI MUELLER TOMS RIVER BUREAU app.com TOMS RIVER, NJ. Read This Story |
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There have been reports made recently to the Boise Police Department of young people misrepresenting themselves
and their intentions in order to sell books or magazine subscriptions. These reports have come in from
throughout Boise and Ada County. One incident involved young men posing as BSU students soliciting cash
donations for the Children"s Home Society of Idaho. In another incident, a young woman selling magazines
forced her way into a west Boise home and then stole a DVD that was sitting on the table after she was asked
to leave. There were also reports of purses being stolen in two different Boise-area homes. 'It sounds
like a magazine crew,' says Sam, a former magazine salesperson. 'They say they are working with
organizations and posing as college students--it sounds like the kind of things that magazine crews do.'
Magazine crews, or 'magcrews,' are essentially traveling salespeople. These crews consist of a crew
leader and anywhere from ten to fifty salespersons. They travel from door to door and state to state
soliciting magazine subscriptions or selling books.
July 13, 2005 The Arbiter Boise, Idaho arbiteronline.com Read This Story |
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Jennifer and Richard Larson opened their Lakeville home to a man selling magazine subscriptions in the
name of at-risk youths.
They wrote the door-knocker a check on June 24, only to later find out he wasn't the person they
thought he was. A $20 "charity" check ended up costing them almost $600.
"We happen to be Christians, and he was using that to get to us," said Jennifer Larson, 33.
"We decided that we're too giving."
Police say the Larsons are the latest Lakeville residents to fall victim to scam
artists working the area.
Lakeville police have seen an increase in the number of such incidents and are warning residents
to make sure that solicitors have a city-issued permit that displays their photos for identification.
Door-knocking scams have become such a problem that last year the city made it a requirement for
peddlers and solicitors to register.
"We've seen an increase in the number of peddlers around town," said Det. Mike Sheady,
who estimates the number of illegal door-to-door sellers has increased 40 percent since May.
"We get one to two calls (from residents) a day. ... They're selling magazine subscriptions,
lawn services, trips for college students."
The scam artists have cited charities that benefit at-risk youths, veterans and other groups.
Last month, police arrested five illegal peddlers -- one from Lakeville, another from Georgia
and three from Florida. Authorities believe they took an approach similar to what the Larson family
encountered, selling magazine subscriptions to benefit a charity.
Despite the arrests, Sheady said, there are more scam artists out there. He estimates that at
least 30 illegal peddlers have canvassed Lakeville's neighborhoods this spring and summer.
"It's such a big city with so many young families that they might think this is the place to go," he said.
In the Larson case, the couple wrote a check to the door-knocker after he said he was part of a program
to get at-risk youths off the streets. He claimed to be a Chicago gang member who was trying to clean
himself up by selling magazines to earn points that could be exchanged for scholarship money.
Richard Larson wrote him a $20 check. The couple now believes that the door-knocker distracted them by
calling their attention to details of a receipt or magazine list while he took their checkbook.
In an odd twist, he rang the doorbell and returned the checkbook a few minutes later, claiming it
got mixed in with his papers.
A week later, the Larsons found the last check in their book had been written for $570.
Because authorities cannot ban the practice of soliciting or peddling because of interstate commerce,
Lakeville police are trying to thwart the problem by enforcing the permit program. Before they issue
a permit, police conduct background searches that include criminal records. Applicants who pass get a
city permit badge with their photo on it. They are then required to wear the badge where it is visible,
such as around their neck.
Larson said the badges will help her distinguish legitimate solicitors from illegitimate ones.
However, she said, the most recent experience will diminish her enthusiasm to give to anyone who
pulls at her heartstrings.
"We would never trust anyone at face value any more, which is sad because there are legitimate
people out there trying to do kind things," she said.
St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN) July 13, 2005 Edition: Dakota County Section: Local Page: B1 Nancy Ngo can be reached at nngo@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5172. |
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A Forest Lake, Minn., magazine salesman has been charged with four counts of sexual assault after a
reported assault at 8:14 p.m. on Friday, July 1.
Brandon Lee Green, 1001 7th Avenue S.W., #120, Forest Lake, Minn., is currently incarcerated in
Dunn County jail.
He is charged with second-degree sexual assault, burglary, battery and false imprisonment.
The battery charge is a misdemeanor, the other three felonies.
According to Menomonie police, the adult female victim reported that a man selling magazine subscriptions
forced entry into her home and physically and sexually assaulted her. The victim fought against the
suspect, who subsequently ran from the scene.
Menomonie, Wisconsin Read This Story |
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A reporter who went undercover to expose mismanagement of a magazine sales company could be liable for
trespassing, but not for wiretapping and fraud, a federal district court judge ruled last week. July 8, 2005 · The television news magazine "Inside Edition" will go to trial on trespass charges but cannot be held liable for wiretapping and fraud charges brought by a door-to-door magazine company that was the subject of an undercover investigation, a federal judge in Miami ruled last week. In moving the trespass claim forward, U.S. District Judge James Cohn relied in part on the 1999 Food Lion v. Capital Cities/ABC ruling in which the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond (4th Cir.) ruled that when reporters go undercover to obtain consent to enter otherwise private and inaccessible property, they may be liable for trespassing The Florida claims arose after "Inside Edition" reporter Matthew Yule misrepresented his qualifications to gain employment as a sales agent with Pitts Sales, Inc., a door-to-door magazine sales company based in Coral Springs, Fla. During his brief employment with Pitts in 2003, Yule used a hidden camera and microphone to record the inner activities of the company, which included cruel and abusive treatment of sales agents, deceptive sales practices and deficient employee supervision. The magazine company sued King World Productions Inc., which produces Inside Edition, for illegal wiretapping, fraud and trespass after the investigative expose aired. Cohn dismissed the wiretap claims because he concluded that Yule was a "party" in all of the recorded communications, exempting him from liability under federal wiretapping law. The judge also dismissed the fraud claim after determining that Yule's misrepresentations during the hiring process were not the actual cause of Pitts Sales' financial losses, which included administrative and training costs. Looking to the Food Lion case, the judge concluded that the magazine company did not have a reasonable assumption that Yule would remain employed there for any length of time because Florida is an at-will employment state where employment can be terminated at any time by either party, like North Carolina where Food Lion is headquartered. rcfp.org Read This Story |
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July 08. 2005 8:00AM The Concord woman allegedly raped by three magazine salesmen in March told the police she had instant messaged someone during the ordeal to ask for help. According to a defense attorney, that person told the police her message actually invited him to Concord for a party. That was one of several developments made public yesterday in the criminal cases against the three salesmen, who are being held on high bail. A defense lawyer also said the alleged victim played a kissing game, offering to kiss the salesman who had the best voice. And for the first time, court records said the woman had sex with two of the men a second time, after leaving the apartment and returning with them. Two of the three men were in Merrimack County Superior Court yesterday, in part to ask for reduced bail. The third was in with the same request on Wednesday. Judge Larry Smukler lowered bail for Joseph Haniffy, 24, of Chicopee, Mass., from $3 million cash to $500,000 cash or corporate surety because Haniffy has not skipped court hearings in other cases. Smukler maintained bail for the other two because they have failed to appear in other, less serious cases. Cassidy Coburn, 19, of Monroe, Utah, is being held on $1 million cash bail, and Christopher Armstrong, 23, of Jonesboro, Ark., is being held on $1.5 million cash. Monitor staff Concord Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot Concord, New Hampshire concordmonitor.com Read This Story |
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Police were called to investigate a group of suspicious people going door-to-door offering cleaning service. They were described as operating a maroon dodge van and an older pick-up truck with a gray primer bed.
Police remind residents not to allow strangers inside their residence without first investigating their legitimacy. Door-to-door sales in Parkesburg require the individual to possess a permit issued by the borough.
Police said they are investigating whether these persons are part of a burglary ring known to be stalking older residents in other areas, and have received information from the East Fallowfield and Sadsbury Township police departments on similar incidents in those areas. Residents are asked to call police if these persons are seen in the area.
zwire.com Parkesburg, Pennsylvania Read This Story |
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Data Source: Menlo Park California Police Case Number: 040121071 Twinsberg Ohio Police Department Case Number: 0414626 Synopsis: Derrick Todd Jones two time convicted sexual offender selling magazines door to door. Unified Stars Go Doers American Community Services, Inc. Selling Magazines Door to Door Sun Newspapers Cleveland, Ohio sunnews.com Read Complete Story |
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A 34-year-old man has been charged with raping a teenage baby sitter while selling magazines door to door in Loveland.
The 8th Judicial District Attorney’s Office filed a felony charge — sexual assault by overcoming someone’s will — against Marcus Wayne Ritchie.=
The man, who lives in Tulsa, Okla., has not entered a plea to the allegation. He is due in court Friday.
A 17-year-old girl called Loveland police June 29 and reported that she was assaulted by a man who came to the door of the home at which she was baby-sitting.
She told police she didn’t invite him in, while he said she did, according to Loveland police.
Once inside the home in the 100 block of Ranae Drive, he allegedly raped the teen, according to Loveland police.
The teen gave police a description of her attacker, and a short time later, police arrested Ritchie nearby at First Street and Tyler Avenue.
The Arizona-based company for which Ritchie worked takes vans of salespeople into cities to sell magazine subscriptions door to door, Loveland detective Paul Arreola said. They usually stay at a local motel and work the area for a few weeks, then move on, he said.
In Loveland, such door-to-door sales are illegal.
The Daily Reporter-Herald Daily Reporter-Herald LoveLand, Colorado Read This Story |
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5:18 PM Jul 5, 2005 Menonomine Police officials say twenty-year-old Brandon Green was working for a company selling magazines door-to-door last Friday. Police say he went into a 50 -year- old woman's home, beat her up, then sexually assaulted her. Police say people need to be aware of these types of solicitors. The police or city hall can be contacted to see if the companies are legitimate. Cash bond for Brandon Green is set at $50,000. He's charged with burglary, second degree sexual assault, and other crimes. He's also been charged with two burglaries and an assault in Minnesota. Green's last known address is Forest Lake, Minnesota, but says he's now homeless. weau.com WEAU.com Menonomine, Wisconsin Read This Story |
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A magazine salesman was arrested in Loveland after a 17-year-old girl reported to police that she had been sexually assaulted.
The alleged incident happened Wednesday evening at a home in which the girl was baby-sitting. She said the 34-year-old
suspect entered the house and attacked her.
Loveland Colorado Read This Story |
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A man police say sexually-assaulted a 17-year-old girl is in custody.
Loveland police arrested the 34-year-old man while he was selling magazines
door to door near West 1st Street and S. Tyler.
The teenager told police said she was babysitting at a home in the 100
block of Ranae Drive Wednesday evening when the man forced his way into the home and assaulted her.
Colorado Read This Story |
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A 19-year-old door-to-door magazine salesman pleaded no contest Tuesday to beating and trying to rape an elderly woman during an October home invasion that rattled her downtown Menlo Park neighborhood.
D'Angelo Langford, a Georgia resident, could face up to 11 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 25 for the attack, which left the 80-year-old woman hospitalized.
Mercury News mercurynews.com California Read This Story |
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REDWOOD CITY — A roving magazine salesman who assaulted an elderly woman inside
her Menlo Park apartment reached a plea agreement Tuesday in San Mateo County Superior Court.
D'Angelo Langford, 19, a magazine subscription solicitor from Georgia pleaded no
contest to two felonies — assault with intent to commit rape, and elder abuse with
the special allegations of an elderly victim and causing great bodily injury,
Deputy District Attorney Mary Allhiser reported.
Published: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 10:50 PM PDT sfexaminer.com California Read This Story |
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A roving magazine salesman who assaulted an elderly woman inside her Menlo Park apartment reached a plea agreement this morning in San Mateo County Superior Court.
D'Angelo Langford, 19, a magazine subscription solicitor from Georgia pleaded no contest today to two felonies, assault with intent to commit rape, and elder abuse with the special allegations of an elderly victim, and causing great bodily injury, Deputy District Attorney Mary Allhiser reported.
According to testimony at an April 19 preliminary hearing, Langford attacked the 80-year-old victim at her Alice Lane apartment about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 6.
California Read This Story |
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Last Seen Working For A Traveling Magazine Sales Crew Last Seen: May 1999 Read It Here Please help Cindi Firmingham find her missing sister, Alice Morgan. If you have any information about Alice Please contact Cindy here: (989)865-6435 or at niinimoshe@chartermi.net Or you can contact the DMPG WebMaster: WebMaster Posted on Info Site: 07/09/05 |
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If you recently purchased a magazine subscription from someone representing American Circulation Enterprise, you may have been lured into a scam, police say.
Sgt. Chris Edmonds of the Pikeville Police Department said members of American Circulation Enterprise, a company that travels the nation selling magazine subscriptions, have been preying on people in this area for more than two weeks.
STAFF WRITER NEWS-EXPRESS news-expressky.com Pikeville, Kentucky Read This Story |
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Disorderly conduct: Brandon T. Avery, 21, St. Charles; between 2 and 3:32 p.m on the 500 block of Bunning Drive; charged with two counts disorderly conduct and noncommercial solicitation without a permit while soliciting magazines. suburbanchicagonews.com Downers Grove, Illinois Read This Story |
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HURON COUNTY MEDIA RELEASES SALESMAN CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT - CENTRAL HURON HURON COUNTY MEDIA RELEASE Original URL |
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June 7, 2005 Lonnie Divine says he got into magazine sales while working undercover in Mississippi in the
1960s uncovering civil rights violations for the federal government. After he fell seriously ill, he said,
a federal agent – he won't say from which agency – told him his identity had been wiped from the
system and he had to avoid using his Social Security number from then on. As a result, he didn't file tax
returns. But everyone knows he or she has to pay taxes, a judge said yesterday before sentencing the
65-year-old former Vista man, now living in Boca Raton, Fla., to 18 months in prison for tax violations.
STAFF WRITER signonsandiego.com California Read This Story |
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On June 6, 2005, in San Diego, CA, Lonnie R. Divine, Yvonne R. Ruel and Deanna M. McKinnon were sentenced
for federal criminal tax offenses. Divine, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to serve 18
months in prison, ordered to pay a $6,000 fine, and serve three years supervised release.
Divine operated a door-to-door business that earned over $11 million in gross receipts from 1993 through 1997.
Divine evaded his taxes by converting a substantial portion of the gross receipts to cash, often after
transferring the money through several bank accounts; transferring gross receipts of the business from
business bank accounts to personal bank accounts for non-business purposes; and using the gross receipts
of the business to make payments of about $1.8 million to his casino accounts in Las Vegas and Tahoe, NV;
acquire assets and invest funds; and disguise his ownership in assets. Also sentenced were Divine's wife,
Yvonne Ruel receiving 5 months in prison, followed by 5 months home confinement and ordered to pay a $2,000
fine and daughter, Deanna McKinnon, who received three months in prison, followed by three months home
confinement and ordered to perform 192 hours of community service both admitting to failing to file a tax
return on income earned from Divine’s business.
California Read This Story |
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American Community Services Total Dedication Inc Omni-Horizons Inc Dedicated Too Inc Roussaw Enterprise Shirley's Globetrotters Unified Gold Key Inc Unified Producers Total Dedication Inc., Omni-Horizons Inc., Dedicated Too Inc., Roussaw Enterprise, Shirley’s Globetrotters, Unified Gold Key Inc., Unified Producers |
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Clearinghouse: American Community Services, Inc. Indiana Secretary of State: American Community Services Criminal Profiles: Search For: American Community Services Magazine Scams: American Community Services Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com Consumer Advocacy: Employer of man who killed Knoxville woman has other employees accused of same ACS Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com National Field Selling Association is a member of: Magazine Publishers of America: magazine.org |
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Clearinghouse: Pacific Coast Clearing Services, Inc. Sales Crew: Jaguar Sales WA Dept. of State, Division of Corporations: Pacific Coast Clearing Services Criminal Profiles: Search For: Pacific Coast Clearing Service BBB Report Jaguar Sales: JaguarSales BBB Report Pacific Coast Clearing Services: BBB Washington Wisconsin Consumer Protection: Door to door magazine sellers arrested Wyoming Attorney General's Office: Attorney General Press Release Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com PCCS Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com National Field Selling Association is a member of: Magazine Publishers of America: magazine.org |
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Pacific Coast Clearing Services Jaguar Sales |
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Fidelity Reader Service |
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FL Dept. of State, Division of Corporations: Fidelity Reader Service Criminal Profiles: Search For 'Fidelity' Magazine Scams: Fidelity Reader Service Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com FRS Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com National Field Selling Association is a member of: Magazine Publishers of America: magazine.org |
| This past weekend a women from Missouri was stranded in Fort Wayne after the magazine crew she worked for deserted her. The group of magazine sales people who travel around the country have a history of misconduct, so the Better Business Bureau is issuing an alert again. Each year as the summer approaches teenagers become the focus of magazine crews. "It start as a summer job, but its not easy to leave," Mike knows, he was a part of a magazine crew for 6 years until he left in the middle of the night. He doesn't wants to hide his identity but says he used to write the ads in the paper that would solicit new employees. "We offer everything someone young loves, travel, quick and easy money." But all that comes at a price, Mike says the company controls all the money, young women are sexually harassed, and he lost 3 of his friends who worked on crews. One a Fort Wayne girl named Crystal Mathey, she died in a car accident. "It was a mistake, but the cars are not in top condition and many are driving without insurance." In June of 2000, Two teens traveling with magazine crew confessed to beating another man to death, they were staying at the Valu-Lodge on West Coliseum . This past Saturday a local woman spent 3 hours helping a 26 year-old woman who came to Fort Wayne with a magazine sales crew, but they left without her. "She said they don't won't her anymore because she got sick," said Dunyal Tolliver who found the woman. A friend eventually took the Missouri woman home and Tolliver hasn't heard from the woman since. None of these stories are unheard of at the Better Business Bureau. "They have very little supervision, and are put in a motel with 10 people, sex assault occurs and beating," said BBB President Mile Coil. Mike says from a consumer standpoint don't buy door to door, and while not all door to door sales are bad, when a teenagers doing it, that should raise a red flag. Also check out the company before buying or working for them. If you feel your a victim of scam or fraud e-mail Justin at justin.robinson@wane.com |
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May 22, 2005 DMPG research into the above Felony Theft reveals that the 'traveling door to door' magazine salesman was working for Liberator Sales, Inc.. LSI is a Sales Crew clearing magazine subscriptions through Pacific Coast Clearing Services, Inc.. DMPG resource: OakDale Police Department, police report: CR-2005-622. |
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Clearinghouse: Pacific Coast Clearing Services, Inc. Sales Crew: Jaguar Sales WA Dept. of State, Division of Corporations: Pacific Coast Clearing Services Criminal Profiles: Search For: Pacific Coast Clearing Service BBB Report Liberator Sales, Inc.: Liberator Sales BBB Report Pacific Coast Clearing Services: BBB Washington Wisconsin Consumer Protection: Door to door magazine sellers arrested Wyoming Attorney General's Office: Attorney General Press Release Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com PCCS Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com National Field Selling Association is a member of: Magazine Publishers of America: magazine.org |
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Pacific Coast Clearing Services Liberator Sales |
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All Star Race |
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Fidelity Reader Service Platinum Plus Sales Crew 96 Joseph Haniffy Christopher Armstrong Cassidy Coburn |
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Fidelity Reader Service |
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FL Dept. of State, Division of Corporations: Fidelity Reader Service Criminal Profiles: Search For 'Fidelity' Magazine Scams: Fidelity Reader Service Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com |
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World Wide Reader's Services World Wide Readers Services World Wide Readers Service |
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Spokane sheriff's investigators Friday said they are seeking additional victims in a theft and
burglary spree that led to the arrest this week of a 22-year-old transient magazine salesman and
a woman who worked with him.
An unknown number of residents were victimized in a monthlong run of crimes associated with the
door-to-door sales operation. At least 10 victims have been identified so far. Blank checks and
cash were taken in break-ins or through thefts from residents who had answered their doors and
allowed a magazine salesman to enter, deputies said.
Duwane C. Walker, who has no permanent address, was being held in Spokane County Jail Friday on
19 separate charges, with another 24 charges pending. Together, they comprise nine counts of
residential burglary, 24 counts of forgery and 10 counts of identity theft.
Also being held in jail is a woman who identified herself as Ebony C. Daniel, 21, of New York, on
a single charge stemming from possession of stolen checks. Deputies said they had not confirmed her
identity Friday.
Deputies arrested Walker on Tuesday when a woman living near Colbert reported a suspicious
magazine salesman working in the area. The department had already identified Walker as a suspect
when the call was received.
Deputy Shawn Hause spotted a man later identified as Walker sitting on an outdoor utility box in
the vicinity of the call. He was carrying a large quantity of coins. While Walker was being detained,
the sheriff's department received a report of a home burglary in the same area. A footprint on the
kicked-in door was matched to Walker's boot and he was arrested, deputies said.
Through investigation, detectives learned that Walker and Daniel worked for World Wide Reader's
Services Inc., which is a legitimate Miami-based company that sends teams of sales persons
door-to-door around the country.
Detective Sgt. Steve Barbieri said that Walker is alleged to have used blank checks stolen
from victims to place large magazine and encyclopedia orders, for which he received as much
as 50 percent of the sales. His orders earned him $400 to $500 a day compared with sales of
$20 to $30 a day for other employees. "He sold a lot of encyclopedias," Barbieri said.
Crimes reported so far occurred in Stevens County, on the North Side, Spokane's city core and South Hill.
Some victims said the salesman was aggressive with them and sought access to other parts of their homes.
Walker has burglary and forgery convictions in Florida and Ohio, deputies said. He also had worked
for the company in Portland and Salt Lake City. He arrived in the Spokane area on March 5 and was
staying with his sales team at the Cedar Village Motel on 5415 W. Sunset Highway.
A search of three rooms there uncovered evidence and marijuana paraphernalia. No drugs were
found in the search.
Cpl. Dave Reagan, sheriff's spokesman, said people who may have been victimized should check
their supply of unused checks to make sure none were taken. Victims may not realize what happened
until magazines begin appearing in coming weeks. Crime reports may be made to the Spokane
Crime Reporting Center at 532-9266.
Reagan said door-to-door sales are common, and that many of the workers are legitimate.
However, he said residents should never let salespeople inside their homes and should be
cautious about any purchases.
Staff writer spokesmanreview.com Spokane, Washington Read This Story |
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World Wide Reader's Services World Wide Readers Services World Wide Readers Service |
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ARMED ROBBERY! Please help the Gainseville, Florida Police Department Capture Antonio M. Smokes. Wanted Bulletin Posted April 7, 2005 |
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American Global Paragon Management |
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Magazine Publishers of America Post New Educational Guides Guidelines on Relations with Subscription Agents MPA Guidelines |
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Fidelity Reader Service |
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FL Dept. of State, Division of Corporations: Fidelity Reader Service Criminal Profiles: Search For 'Fidelity' Magazine Scams: Fidelity Reader Service Consumer Advocacy: Edumacation.com Member of National Field Selling Association: nfsa.com |
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Great Lakes Circulation |
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Xtreme Marketing |
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World Wide Reader's Services World Wide Readers Services World Wide Readers Service |
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Palmetto Marketing |
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Dangelo Langford American Community Services |
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Dangelo Langford American Community Services |
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Atlantic Circulation Inc |
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January 7, 2005 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF ORANGE CENTRAL JUSTICE CENTER DANIEL WILKINSON, an individual; STEPHANIE LAURITO, an individual; and MARCUS HENKHAUS, an individual, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. HY-PRO CHEMICAL PRODUCTS, INC., a Texas corporation; EDGE SALES, INC., a Texas corporation; JOSEPH w. EDGE, an individual; and DOES 1 through 100, inclusive, Defendants. COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF |
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Hy-Pro Chemical |
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Return To Home Page FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TRAVELING SALES CREWS: Parent Watch || MagCrew || Dedicated Memorial Cagey Consumer Youth Field Sales Alert Disclaimer || Contacts || Site Map Introduction || Public Warning And Help Links Copyright ©2002 Dedicated Memorial Parents Group
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