The Criminal Report Daily : Investigation Discovery

Richard Gear Claims Self-Defense in Shooting Death of Motorcyclist Who Followed Gear's Teen Daughters

Police in Bogart, Georgia, arrested 45-year-old Richard Harold Gear earlier this week after he shot and killed 21-year-old Bryan Joseph Mough, a motorcyclist who had followed Gear's teenage daughters home from a Target department store in Athens. Gear claims that the shooting was in self-defense; however, authorities say that the evidence points to murder.

According to police, Gear's two daughters, ages 17 and 19, called their father from their cell phones Monday evening and told him that Mough was following them on a motorcycle. The girls allegedly said that the incident started when they made obscene gestures at him after he cut them off in the Target parking lot. The girls also claimed that Mough had run his motorcycle into the back of their Nissan Sentra.

When the girls pulled up to their family home, Gear was standing in the driveway with a loaded .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun. Mough initially continued driving down the road but then turned around to pass by the house again. When Mough drove by the second time, Gear raised his handgun and fired multiple shots. One of the bullets struck Mough in the back. Gear then called 911 and reported the shooting, allegedly claiming that he had fired the gun in self-defense when Mough attempted to run him over with the motorcycle. When paramedics arrived on the scene, they transported Mough to a local hospital, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Afterwards, police arrested Gear and charged him with the murder of Bryan Joseph Mough.

"I don't know how you can legally shoot someone in the back on a motorcycle and then claim that he was trying to run you down," Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry told ABC News...

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Police Investigate Alleged Sexual Assault of Infant at Texas Day-Care Center

Police in Killeen, Texas, are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a 4-month-old girl at a local day-care center. The incident, which is still under investigation, is horrible in its own right; however, retaliatory actions by the day-care center against the infant's mother are equally despicable and disturbing.

"Officers responded to the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 9:45 p.m. in reference to a welfare concern," reads a press release the Killeen Police Department posted to their Web site Monday. "The mother of the victim drove to Darnall after she left the day-care [center] and asked for her child to be checked for unusual bruising. An officer met with doctors at Darnall who advised that the 4-month-old female had bruising consistent with a sexual assault."

The incident allegedly took place at Little Blessings Child Care Center at 803 N. 10th St. in Killeen. Nishea Porter, a caregiver at the facility, told Temple-telegram.com that she discovered the injuries while caring for the infant. Porter pointed them out to the infant's mother, Kristie Simmons, when she came to pick up her daughter.

"When I saw it, I didn't think anything of it," Porter said. "I asked her if the baby had a diaper rash, and she said, 'No.' After I told her, she started pacing around, panting and fanning herself."

Porter denied media reports that police currently suspect a Little Blessings employee; however, Monday's police press release states that they have "identified an employee of the day-care [center] as a suspect in the case." In addition, News8austin.com posted an article yesterday that claimed, "There has been an arrest of an employee at the day-care [center], but charges are pending."

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Pennsylvania Teacher's Aide Arrested for Allegedly Hosting Teen Sex and Drug Party

Police in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, have charged 34-year-old Abbiejane Swogger, a former stripper and special education teacher's aide, in connection with an incident that occurred last week when police found her in a hotel room with drugs, alcohol, condoms, and three teens.

According to police, they went to New Kensington's Clarion Hotel on Feb. 21, 2008, to investigate a reported runaway of two teenage girls. When investigators arrived on the scene, they discovered that Swogger had a room there. They then questioned her about the runaways. Swogger allegedly told police that she had not seen the teens, who had been missing since the previous evening. When investigators asked her for permission to search her suite, she consented, at which time the stunned officers discovered the two missing teens, along with another teen, inside the room with alcohol, crack cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and condom wrappers. Investigators also reported smelling marijuana inside the room...

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