The Mysterious Case of Roger Von Bergendorff

May 20, 2008

On Friday, May 2, 2008, unemployed graphic designer and mystery man Roger Von Bergendorff, 57, pleaded not guilty to possession of a biological toxin, in this case, ricin.  He also pleaded not guilty to weapons charges.  Poisoned by the deadly substance that is derived from castor beans, Von Bergendorff has been in federal custody in Las Vegas, Nevada since his April 16 arrest following his prolonged recovery from the presumably accidental ricin exposure that occurred in his extended stay suite, only blocks from the Las Vegas Strip, on February 14, 2008.  A June 17, 2008 trial date has been scheduled.  If convicted of all of the alleged charges, Von Bergendorff could face 30 years behind bars and a $750,000 fine.

When the story broke this past Valentine's Day, Von Bergendorff had placed an emergency call for assistance from his suite, complaining that he was having trouble breathing.  He was immediately transported to a local hospital where he remained unconscious for the next two months, purportedly because of a coma and sedation.  Because his symptoms were consistent with ricin exposure, and despite his attorney's denials that ricin had caused Von Bergendorff's problems, the police searched his suite two weeks later, on February 28, and found approximately 4 grams of "crude" powdered ricin, along with guns, illegal silencers and anarchy literature that contained information on ricin.

Although police officials claimed that Von Bergendorff's case did not have any ties to terrorism despite the items found inside his suite (could it be that authorities feared what a case of suspected terrorism could do to the Las Vegas tourist industry?), it was noted that amounts of ricin small enough to fit on the head of a pin, about 500 micrograms, can be lethal to an adult.  Federal prosecutor Gregory Damm told the Associated Press that the amount found in Von Bergendorff's Extended Stay America suite, located on Valley View Boulevard and Flamingo Road just west of The Strip, was enough to kill...

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Bizarre Crimes Roundup

May 19, 2008

During the past week there have been a number of crimes committed that can best be described as, well, bizarre, from locations in the U.S., Malaysia, and Australia.  Here is a digest of sorts of a few of them in which the criminals, and in one of the cases a victim, seemed to straddle the line that separates the stupid from the moronic.

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Out of Cleveland, Tennessee, located near Chattanooga, a man attempting to enter the courtrooms area of the Bradley County Justice Center on Monday, May 12, 2008, was stopped at the security area and asked to empty the contents of his pockets into a plastic container before being allowed to continue into one of the courtrooms.  According to Sheriff Tim Gobble, the man allegedly included a small amount of marijuana and rolling papers among the items he placed into the plastic container for inspection.  When security personnel questioned him about it, he fled the building but was captured by police only minutes later.  He faces charges of carrying contraband into a penal institution and evading capture.  Certainly not the sharpest tool in the shed....

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Another dullard, this time from down under, was pulled over while driving an unregistered and uninsured car on Friday, May 9, 2008, in Alice Springs, Australia, located in the central part of the country.  Constable Wayne Burnett said that he was "shocked and appalled" when he observed a case of beer seat-buckled between two adults sitting in the car's back seat while a child sat unrestrained on the floor beneath the 30 cans of beer.

"The child was sitting in the lump in the center, unrestrained," Burnett said.  "I haven't ever seen something like this before.  This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child."

The driver was...

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Finally-An Indictment in the MySpace Suicide Case

In a case that has been in and out of the news somewhat regularly since 13-year-old Megan Meier committed suicide by hanging herself on October 16, 2006 after becoming the butt-end of a cruel hoax that was allegedly perpetrated by an adult and a juvenile, the case appears to be moving forward-at last-with the indictment of Lori Drew, 49, on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without proper authorization, handed down by a Los Angeles federal grand jury on Thursday, May 15, 2008.

To recap for those readers who are not familiar with the story, when the case began some nineteen months ago young Megan believed that she had made a new friend in Josh Evans, described as a cute teenage boy who began exchanging messages with Megan on MySpace.  Josh claimed that he was born in Florida and had recently moved to O'Fallon, Missouri, located east of St. Louis and not far from Megan's residence in Dardenne Prairie.  Megan, who suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder and was on medication, continued the correspondence with Josh for several weeks before he suddenly broke off his friendship with her on October 15, 2006 by telling Megan that someone had told him that she was cruel and unpleasant toward her friends.  The problem was that Josh didn't exist, and the following day Megan hung herself.  She died a day later.

On the day that Megan hung herself, she had received very cruel messages from someone logged into "Josh's" MySpace account.  The messages that were being posted were stating things such as, "Megan Meier is a slut; Megan Meier is fat."  Megan, upset, told her mother about the messages as her mother left the house for an appointment.  When she returned home, she viewed the messages in question and was surprised to see that her daughter had engaged in vulgar language in her responses.  She expressed to Megan that she was upset over the language that Megan had used.  Megan went to her father in another area of the house because she was feeling so badly about what had happened, and he attempted to raise her spirits by telling her that everything would be okay.  Less than half an hour later, Megan was found...

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