|
FREE WEBSITE
THROUGHOUT
Welcome to Desert Journal Online, established in May 2001 in New Mexico. Our website
offers our true crime book,
Satan's Den Exposed - The David
Parker Ray Story, and poetry and photo collections,
Bombshell
Liberation and
Interference, and provides free access to
our featured columns, photos and news archives.
Directory Page
Site Map |
|
EXTRA! EXTRA! READ THESE!
|
|
2012 began in 1999
by Peter Appleseed
of the Kyyboa Tribe
Book about true revolution, civilogy and creating positive alternatives. |
|
Satan's Den Exposed
The David Parker Ray Story
True crime book about a
criminal sexual sadist and cohorts busted in kidnap, rape and sexual
torture cases in New Mexico
By the Desert Journal's award winning investigative reporting team of Bill
Johnson, Fred Mramor & David Pierre
SPECIAL OFFERS EXTENDED
CLICK
HERE
FOR DETAILS!
|
|
CLICK ON THUMB TO SEE LEO DAILEY PERFORM
HIS NEW ROCK SONG, rallytime!
ALSO, SEE OUR NEW WEB PAGE
ANTI-WAR SONGS!!!
VISIT LEO DAILEY'S NEW WEBSITE -
www.LeoDailey.com |
|
BOMBSHELL LIBERATION
&
INTERFERENCE
Poetry & Photo Collections
By Leo Dailey
NEW RELEASES OCTOBER 2006!!!
Electronic Books - $2.95 each ($2 off)
For details, click
HERE!
 |
|
 |
|
FOR FREE CLASSIFIED ADS, CLICK
HERE! |
|
Desert Journal Online
Contact Information
Bill Johnson
Editor, Publisher & Webmaster
Vic Arvizu
Honorary Web Guru
-
-
Electronic mail
-
desertjournal@hotmail.com
desertjournalonline@yahoo.com
poet@leodailey.com
-
Location
-
We are an electronic
submissions only website located in Albuquerque, NM, and have no
physical business address.
-
-
Copyright ©
2001-2008 Desert Journal Online
-
Last modified:
April 14, 2008
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Special
recognition was paid to world class senior swimmer Norman Allish, 86, of
Truth or Consequences, when he participated with 100 other swimmers in the
New Mexico Master’s Swimming & White Sands Missile Range’s The
First Rocket Science Swimming Championships held Saturday, Feb. 9, at WSMR.
Allish won first place in six events including the 50 meter, 100 m. and
200 m. freestyle events and the 50 m., 100 m. and 200 m. backstroke
events. Allish said the judge lined up all the swimmers on their blocks,
then asked them to all sit down and, to his great surprise, called him up
to swim solo for the crowd, after which he was heavily cheered by the
audience and presented with the swim meet’s special trophy.
Photo
by Bill Johnson
|
|
|
|
Police
snitches hung out to dry?
Two Types of
Informants –
The Good, The Bad,
Says Police Chief
By
Carol Main
of
the Desert Journal
On Jan. 23 the
Truth or Consequences Police Department accepted help from Shannon Stokes
in setting up the arrest of alleged drug dealer David Freeman.
Stokes offered to make a drug buy from
Freeman while wearing a police “body wire,” becoming a buy-and-bust
informer.
Prior
to the drug buy, according to TCPD police chief David Bryant, Stokes was
told on tape, by detective Tom Schalkofski, that her name would go on
record as an informant against Freeman and that she would be called on in
open court to testify against him.
In
fact she would forfeit anonymity in the proceedings, and Stokes agreed to
this.
After
the drug buy and Freeman's arrest, Stokes, fearing reprisals from people
in the drug business, contacted the office of Deputy District Attorney
June Stein for protection. But Stein's office referred her back to law
enforcement, saying, “We are prosecution, see them for help.”
Stokes,
feeling she has been “hung out to dry” after helping to arrest her
drug pusher and seeing herself and her published name labeled
“informant” in another local newspaper, just wants it over.
“We
use two types of informants,” Chief Bryant said, “we have confidential
informants whose names are never given out, and who are known only to the
one officer they have spoken to. These informers are not called on to
testify in court and their names are never divulged to anyone.
“These
people give us information about on-going crimes and then, taking it from
there, we conduct our own investigation, developing evidence for court.
“Then,”
Bryant said, “we have what we call buy-and-bust informers, where the
informer makes a drug buy and we bust the dealer.”
“Our
buy-and-bust informants,” Schalkofski said, “know their identities
cannot be hidden because they are the last ones to make a drug buy before
their dealer is arrested. The timing of the arrest tells the dealer who
set him up.”
“There
is nothing undercover,” Bryant said, “about a typical buy-and-bust
arrest. The buy-and-bust informers know that we cannot protect them. We
don't have any ‘safe’ houses or protection budget like the FBI
does.”
“Normally
the buy-and-bust informer is trying to get something by helping us, while
the confidential informer is concerned about the community,” the police
chief said.
At
the time of the drug buy Stokes was fighting other charges against her in
court and hoped that if she helped the police the court would take that
into consideration.
“Sometimes,”
detective Schalkofski said, “an arrest is a long time in coming after a
tip from a confidential informant because we are doing an intense
investigation before moving in.”
“The
only way to get rid of drugs here is by displacement,” Schalkofski said.
“Make them move out of the area. The town has to want them gone bad
enough to stay after them, making it hard for them to do business here.”
Sudden
‘crack’ house activity in a quiet neighborhood of senior citizens is
easy to spot. The images of stop and go automobile traffic at all hours of
the day and night, and the groups of dirty people hanging around a certain
house are in stark contrast to the neighborhood’s normal activity.
And
when this conduct spreads to more than one location, and then suddenly all
the crack houses are gone, you know that some homeowner had become a
confidential police informant, initiating an investigation, and the police
moved the drug dealers out.
“We
know,” Schalkofski said, “when there are more drugs in town because
other crimes increase. When burglaries are up, more drugs are around. You
can count on it.”
Stokes
may feel she was left swinging in the wind, but had she been drug free
prior to the sting she might have understood just what she agreed to.
Maybe
she can reach the state run Victim’s/Witness’ Assistance Program
through District Attorney Clint Wellborn's office in Socorro, phone
1-505-835-0052.
<<<
>>>
|
|
|
|
Victims
begin to stack in
case
against accused
child
molester
By
Bill Johnson of
the Desert Journal
A young mother
reading the Desert Journal learned how another mother’s four-year-old
daughter was involved in a child molestation case.
Alarmingly concerned because she
recognized the name attached to the accused and confessed child molester,
Ryan Duran Sr., the mother immediately asked her four-year-old girl
whether she too had been touched by her friend’s father.
After hearing her daughter answer in
the affirmative, the mother called police – without probing for more
answers – to later learn from police that Duran not only touched her
daughter on her private parts - or “potty” as the young child dubbed
them – he allegedly had violated her in the most severe way.
He allegedly penetrated her. He
“hurt” her, he stole her childhood.
So says the most recent of criminal
complaints now seemingly stacking up against Duran as he now faces charges
stemming from two child molestation cases leveled against him in
magistrate court in just a few weeks.
Reliable sources said more victims
could be involved and that they suspect at least one more little girl may
have fallen victim to Duran, 26, of 513 Coleman St. No. 13, who is now
being held in the Sierra County jail with $100,000 all cash bond set for
his release.
The crimes occurred between June 1 and
30, 2001, in which Duran is accused in the criminal complaint of a charge
of criminal sexual penetration of the four-year-old girl, a first degree
felony, which is more severe than the first case filed against him last
month related to an incident in November.
Acording to the affidavit for arrest
warrant, filed Feb. 8 by Detective Thomas Schalkofski of the T or C Police
Department, the mother called dispatch at 9:32 p.m. Jan. 30 to report a
child molestation.
The mother told emergency dispatchers
she had read the article in the newspaper (confirmed to have been the
Desert Journal because it ran the story on the front page of its Jan. 25
issue) about Ryan Duran.
She said she became concerned because
she had on a few occasions let her four-year-old daughter visit with
Duran’s son, Ryan Jr.
“As a result of this concern, [the
mother] asked her daughter if Ryan’s father had ever touched her, and
she responded by indicating that [Duran] touched her, pointing to her
posterior. [The mother] was unclear whether [her daughter] meant her
posterior or her private parts,” the affidavit states.
Det. Schalkofski said he learned from
the mother that she and her family had become friends with Duran’s
family a few weeks after May 11, 2001, which was the birth date of her
youngest child.
According to sources, Duran moved to T
or C with his family in the spring last year, coming from Clovis, NM,
where he lived a short while, then before that he migrated from Oregon.
Once both families became friends, the
mother allowed her daughter to visit the Duran’s residence on Coleman
Street unaccompanied, according to the detective’s statement. “This
acquaintanceship lasted for [about] a month,” Det. Schalkofski said.
Det. Schalkofski said that after the
mother read the article in the newspaper – not specifying which one
anywhere in his statement – she asked her daughter if she had been
touched by Ryan’s father. Her daughter indicated that she had.
“At that point, [the mother] did not
want to inquire further of her daughter, fearing that she might upset her
daughter or that she might jeopardize the investigation (such as by
displaying any appearance of “coaching” her daughter as to what to
tell authorities),” Schalkofski said in the affidavit.
The detective said he then arranged for
the young girl’s interview in a “safe house” context by Sylvia Aldaz,
a forensic interviewer.
“During that interview [the girl]
distinguished between ‘Little Ryan,’ meaning her playmate, and ‘Big
Ryan,’ meaning Ryan’s father. She went on to state that ‘Big Ryan’
touched in my ‘potty.’ She then took a doll and showed with her own
finger that ‘Big Ryan’ had stuck his finger in her ‘potty’,” the
affidavit says.
“She said that it hurt. She also said
that this happened once when she was taking a nap in Ryan’s house. She
said that he put his finger in her ‘potty’ and when asked to name body
parts on a diagram, she indicated that her ‘potty’ was her vaginal
area,” the affidavit states.
“She also said that she was wearing
shorts and underpants, and she then made a gesture to indicate that he had
used his finger to push her clothing aside when he inserted his finger
into her vagina,” the detective said in the affidavit.
In addition to the charge of
first-degree rape, Duran also faces charges of second-degree kidnapping
and third-degree criminal sexual contact of another four-year-old girl
occurring Nov. 10 at his public housing apartment.
In this case, the girl went to play
with Duran’s son, but Duran allegedly held her captive against her will
and molested her (the account was graphically told in the Jan. 25 issue of
the Desert Journal), according to the criminal complaint in that case.
According to the affidavit for arrest
warrant, also filed by Det. Schalkofski, Duran allegedly confessed to the
November incident during three statements he gave to police on Nov. 10
(the day the incident occurred), Nov. 14 and Nov. 19.
Yet, it took police two months or until
Jan. 17 to arrest Duran – a chapter pending further journalistic
inquiry.
Bond at that time was set by Magistrate
Tom Pestak at $20,000 cash only and an attempt Jan. 29 by the defense to
reduce bond failed.
The magistrate court set the
preliminary examination for Duran at 9 a.m. Monday, Feb. 25.
So far, the Desert Journal has been
threatened twice with lawsuits – the first during a family member’s
visit to the DJ office the afternoon of Feb. 1 after the second story on
Duran’s case was published on the front page of the Feb. 1 issue of the
DJ, and secondly through anonymous e-mail purportedly coming from “a
concerned neighbor” at the e-mail address, aconcernedneighbor@yahoo.com.
In subsequent e-mail transmissions made
Tuesday, the alleged “concerned neighbor” told the mother of the
victim in November’s incident, “She (the little girl) got what she
deserved and when this is over and done with so will you.”
The mother responded, “No one messes
with my children. I won’t back down. I’m not afraid of anyone or any
empty threats. Mr. Duran is the only one who will get what he deserves…
It’s so sad no one got Mr. Duran help before this.”
“My children and I, with family
support and love, are much stronger than your words of hate. I pray for
peace and love in your life,” the mother told the anonymous e-mailer.
<<< >>> |
|
|
|
Suspected
meth dealer
released
on bond - again
Waives
preliminary hearing
By
Fred Mramor of
the Desert Journal
Suspected
methamphetamine manufacturer and dealer Philip Sanchez was released from
jail on bond Monday for a second time since his initial arrest by Sierra
County Sheriff’s deputies on Nov. 14.
Sanchez was arrested at his
attorney’s office less than five days after his release on bond Jan. 10
for failing to enroll in a drug rehabilitation program within one week of
release, according to defense attorney Albert Costales.
Costales said at Monday’s magistrate
court hearing that his client was re-arrested although he had been acting
in good faith trying to enroll in a drug rehab program in accordance with
Magistrate Tom Pestak’s order.
Costales said he is disturbed that his
client was arrested for violation of his conditions of release and even
more disturbed that he would “have to take a wad of money from this
gentleman” to file a writ of habeus corpus on his behalf.
With assurance from bail bondsman Karen
Leonard that she will continue to act as Sanchez’s third party
custodian, and with Assistant District Attorney June Stein’s agreement,
Magistrate James Blancq of Reserve (sitting in for Magistrate Pestak)
ordered Sanchez’s release on a $26,000 surety bond.
Sanchez must participate in a drug
rehabilitation program, will be subject to drug tests and must maintain
regular contact with his bail bondsman. Sanchez will be allowed to travel
within the state to work as a contractor.
To secure his release from jail,
Sanchez also had to waive his right to a preliminary hearing. Judge
Blancq bound his case over to district court where Sanchez will
face felony charges of manufacturing a controlled substance, trafficking
with intent to sell and receiving stolen property and a misdemeanor charge
of possession of drug paraphernalia.
<<< >>> |
|
|
|
|
|
…75MPH
The
limbs and branches of mesquite are blurred while traveling at 75 mph on
northbound I-25 past the Caballo Mountains.
Photo by Bill Johnson
|
|
City’s
Utilities Advisory Board
recommends
more rate increases
By
Fred Mramor of
the Desert Journal
The Truth or
Consequences’ Utility Advisory Board has recommended to city
commissioners an 11 percent increase to the city’s electrical rates.
“If subsidies to the general fund are
to remain at the test year level and transfers are to made to the capital
improvement fund, an overall rate increase of around 11 percent will be
needed, and this assumes no change in operating expenses,” the Advisory
Board stated in its Feb. 4 preliminary report of a Cost of Services study
conducted from October 2000 to September 2001.
The stated objective of the first of
four studies is to determine as accurately as possible the city’s costs
to provide power to a customer over the course of a year so that rates can
be designed to collect revenues that match costs as closely practical, and
so that each customer will pay a fair share of costs and one customer will
not subsidize another.
Tables included in the report indicate
“that a disproportionate share of revenues are being born by the large
commercial yard classifications, while other classes such as city
government, street lights and residential fall short of an equitable share
of the revenues. The large shortfall is in street light revenues is due
mainly to the fact that residential street lights are not billed nor are
they otherwise accounted for.”
“If and when rate increases are
instituted, it is recommended that they be applied so as to equalize the
burden on the rate payers. The development of a five-year plan for the
Electric Utility is now in progress,” the report says.
“When completed, the plan will allow
for a longer view of the need for rate changes. It is certain that
electric rates will need to be increased, the question being how much and
when,” according to the board’s report.
“We feel that good planning will
permit a more gradual increase in rates and will ease the burden on the
ratepayer and, hopefully, make the increases more acceptable to the
public,” the report states.
City commissioners only briefly
mentioned the Cost of Services study at their regular meeting Monday.
Commissioners took no action and will further discuss the report and its
recommendations in upcoming meetings.
A copy of the cost of services study is
available for public inspection at the city clerk’s office.
<<< >>> |
|
Sentinel
distributor
caught
messing up DJ
Desert
Journal Staff
Report
“I had said I
thought the local press lived by the golden rule, but the Sierra County
Sentinel has proven me wrong,” said Bill Johnson, editor and publisher
of the Desert Journal, after he learned that the Sentinel’s distributor
was caught tampering with Desert Journal displays at two stores this week.
Desert Journal reporter and salesman
Fred Mramor said Tuesday afternoon he witnessed the Sentinel’s
distributor tampering with the Desert Journal at Chili Bowl Lanes, which
was immediately after his girlfriend spotted the distributor leaving the
IGA Food Basket on North Date Street and then finding the Desert
Journal’s rack there having been disturbed, displaced and turned around
facing the wall so potential readers can’t see the newspapers.
Mramor said immediately after noticing
the DJ’s rack in a state of disarray at IGA, he and his girlfriend
followed the Sentinel distributor, who was making his usual Tuesday
afternoon deliveries of the Sentinel, to the bowling alley where Mramor
then saw the distributor throw a folded paper on top of the pile of Desert
Journals so as to obstruct their headlines from the public’s view.
“We depend on our front page
headlines selling our paper, so when they’re covered up like they were
at Chili Bowl on Tuesday, we are unable to sell them like we should,”
Johnson said.
Mramor said he then followed the
distributor outside in the parking lot where he confronted him and told
him, “Stop messing with the Desert Journal, jerkoff!” Mramor said a
Schwann’s truck driver was present in the parking lot and witnessed the
event.
Mramor reported that the distributor
seemed a bit scared and said he hoped that his comment to the distributor
would provide him an incentive to stop his lawless actions against the
Desert Journal, such as restraining its trade in an open and fair market
place.
“After receiving Mramor’s report on
the incident, I immediately called the Sentinel and Pat Kohs, co-owner,
answered the phone. I informed Kohs that his distributor was just caught
messing up the Desert Journal at two outlets and I asked him to please
stop any such actions against us,” Johnson said. “That was my first
and last warning.”
“If they continue, they’re headed
for trouble,” Johnson said. “And I’m not one to back down from a
promise.”
The story of the obstruction of the
proper display of the Friday tabloid has gone far and wide, first being
published by the New Mexico Press Association’s Shop Talk last
summer, then recounted in the Publisher’s Auxiliary (November
2001 issue) that the National Newspaper Association publishes and
circulates to subscribing publishers throughout the United States, Canada
and elsewhere in the world.
In the Publisher’s Auxiliary
account, Myrna Baird Kohs, owner of the Sentinel, was quoted as saying
that she had consulted with her attorney and was considering “filing
slander charges against Johnson for items printed in his paper.”
“It’s one thing to sue, but it sure
in hell isn’t fair to tamper with our livelihoods. Any further incidents
will result in punitive actions,” Johnson said. “I view this ugly
behavior as an enemy intrusion upon the First Amendment rights of our
readers. Now we have positive proof of the identity of at least one
intruder.”
The story of the “mob action” against
the DJ also is posted on the “archives” page of the DJ’s website that is safe and
sound and protected from mobsters while being viewed on the internet by
people around the globe.
<<<
>>> |
|
Cuchillo
Pecan Festival set Feb. 23
If
you want to get a homemade pecan pie at the 11th annual
Cuchillo
Pecan Festival, you better hurry.
The
festival, which received the REDTT 2001 Festival of the Year award, will
be held Saturday, Feb. 23, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Ritch's Pecan Farm,
located on the south side of New Mexico Highway 52 in Cuchillo, NM, 15
miles northwest of Truth or Consequences.
Last
year, the 333 homemade pies were gone in just a few hours. This year,
festival sponsors Bill and Bernice Ritch, along with few volunteers and
the ovens at Hodges Corner Restaurant in Elephant Butte, are making 400
pies. Even with the higher number, most of the pies probably will be gone
by noon.
There
is no charge to attend the festival. It will include:
400
homemade pecan pies, which will sell for $7 for a whole pie, or $1.50 per
slice. To reserve pies in advance (they ran out at last year's festival!),
call Bernice Ritch at (505) 743-3201.
Arts
and crafts booths (30-plus vendors - more this year than ever before),
including Ritch's candy, pecans, jewelry, hand-painted clothing, decorated
gourds, honey, Brazilian embroidery, pottery, pillows.
Food
including pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, coffee and soft drinks.
An
ice cream vendor - new this year.
Tours
of the Ritch Pecan Orchard and information about pecans.
Drawings
for pecan pies and vendor-donated prizes, held hourly, 10 a.m. - l p.m.
Live
music provided by Dennis Riddle and his Electric Campfire Band, 10 a.m.
– noon.
Children's
games beginning at 11 a.m.
Festival
proceeds benefit the New Mexico Boys and Girls Ranches. Last year, $1,200
was donated.
For
more information about the Cuchillo Pecan Festival, call Bill and Bernice
Ritch at (505) 743-3201.
The
New Mexico Department of Tourism is featuring the Cuchillo Pecan Festival
as its Destination of the Month for February 2002 on the department's web
site - www.newmexico.org.
Cuchillo
was founded in the 1850s as a stage stop between silver mines to the west
and the railhead to the east.
Just
east of the Ritch's property, as you first enter Cuchillo from the east,
is San Jose Catholic Church, built in 1907.
A
little further along the highway is Cuchillo Bar, Store and Museum, which
is more than 150 years old. Just east of the bar is Cuchillo Cafe.
<<<
>>>
|
|
|
|
…Graduating
from boot camp
Air
Force Airman Angelica N. Schoenradt has graduated from basic military
training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX. During the six weeks
of training, the airman studied the Air Force mission, organization, and
customs; performed drill and ceremony marches, and received physical
training and special training in human relations. In addition, airmen who
complete basic training earn credits toward an associate degree through
the Community College of the Air Force. Schoenradt is the daughter of
Susan and John Schoenradt of Hillsboro, NM. She is a 2000 graduate of
Mayfield High School, Las Cruces, NM.
....................................................................................
|
| |
|
