Thursday, June 27, 2013
WHAT A WASTE OF AN NFL CAREER.!
ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) — In the final minutes of his life, Odin Lloyd sent a series of texts to his sister.
"Did you see who I was with?" said the first, at 3:07 a.m. June 17. "Who?" she finally replied.
"NFL," he texted back, then added: "Just so you know."
It was 3:23 a.m. Moments later, Lloyd would be dead in what a prosecutor called an execution-style shooting orchestrated by New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez because his friend talked to the wrong people at a nightclub. Hernandez was charged Wednesday with murder and could face life in prison, if convicted.
Hernandez was cut from the NFL team less than two hours after he was arrested and led from his North Attleborough home in handcuffs, and nine days after Lloyd's body was discovered by a jogger in a remote area of an industrial park not far from Hernandez's home. The 2011 Pro Bowl selection had signed a five-year contract last summer with the Patriots worth $40 million.
His attorney, Michael Fee, called the case circumstantial during a Wednesday afternoon court hearing packed with reporters, curiosity seekers and police officers. Fee said there was a "rather hysterical atmosphere" surrounding the case and urged the judge to disregard his client's celebrity status as he asked for Hernandez, 23, to be released on bail.
The judge, though, ordered Hernandez held without bail on the murder charge and five weapons counts.
Hernandez was scheduled to appear at a bail review hearing Thursday afternoon in Fall River court, according to Bernie Sullivan, spokesman for the Bristol County sheriff.
On Wednesday, Hernandez stood impassively with his hands cuffed in front of him as Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Bill McCauley laid out a detailed timeline of the events, cobbled together from sources including witnesses, surveillance video, text messages and data from cellphone towers.
Lloyd, 27, a semi-pro football player with the Boston Bandits, had known Hernandez for about a year and was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee, the mother of Hernandez's 8-month-old baby, McCauley said.
On June 14, Lloyd went with Hernandez to a Boston club, Rumor. McCauley said Hernandez was upset Lloyd had talked to people there with whom Hernandez had trouble. He did not elaborate.
Two days later, McCauley said, on June 16, Hernandez texted two unidentified friends. He asked them to hurry to Massachusetts from Connecticut. At 9:05 p.m., a few minutes after the first message to his friends, Hernandez texted Lloyd to tell him he wanted to get together, McCauley said.
Later, surveillance footage from Hernandez's home showed his friends arrive and go inside. Hernandez, holding a gun, then told someone in the house he was upset and couldn't trust anyone anymore, the prosecutor said.
At 1:12 a.m., the three left in Hernandez's rented silver Nissan Altima, McCauley said. Cell towers tracked their movements to a gas station off the highway. There, he said, Hernandez bought blue Bubblicious gum.
At 2:32 a.m., they arrived outside Lloyd's home in Boston and texted him that they were there. McCauley said Lloyd's sister saw him get into Hernandez's car.
From there, surveillance cameras captured images of what the prosecutor said was Hernandez driving the silver Altima through Boston. As they drove back toward North Attleborough, Hernandez told Lloyd he was upset about what happened at the club and didn't trust him, McCauley said. That was when Lloyd began sending texts to his sister.
Surveillance video showed the car entering the industrial park and at 3:23 a.m. driving down a gravel road near where Lloyd's body was found. Four minutes later, McCauley said, the car emerged. During that period, employees working an overnight shift nearby heard several gunshots, McCauley said.
McCauley said Lloyd was shot multiple times, including twice from above as he was lying on the ground. He said five .45 caliber casings were found at the scene.
Authorities did not say who fired the shots or identify the two others with Hernandez.
At 3:29 a.m., surveillance at Hernandez's house showed him arriving, McCauley said.
"The defendant was walking through the house with a gun in his hand. That's captured on video," he said.
His friend is also seen holding a gun, and neither weapon has been found, McCauley said.
Then, the surveillance system stopped recording, and footage was missing from the six to eight hours after the slaying, he said.
The afternoon of June 17, the prosecutor said, Hernandez returned the rental car, offering the attendant a piece of blue Bubblicious gum when he dropped it off. While cleaning the car, the attendant found a piece of blue Bubblicious gum and a shell casing, which he threw away. Police later searched the trash bin and found the gum and the casing. The prosecutor said it was tested and matched the casings found where Lloyd was killed.
As McCauley outlined the killing, Lloyd's family members cried and held each other. Two were so overcome that they had to leave the courtroom.
The Patriots said in a statement after Hernandez's arrest but before the murder charge was announced that cutting Hernandez was "the right thing to do."
"Words cannot express the disappointment we feel knowing that one of our players was arrested as a result of this investigation," it said.
Hernandez, originally from Bristol, Conn., was drafted by the Patriots in 2010 out of the University of Florida, where he was an All-American.
During the draft, one team said it wouldn't take him under any circumstances, and he was passed over by one club after another before New England picked him in the fourth round. Afterward, Hernandez said he had failed a drug test in college — reportedly for marijuana — and was up front with teams about it.
A Florida man filed a lawsuit last week claiming Hernandez shot him in the face after they argued at a strip club in February.
Hernandez became a father on Nov. 6 and said he intended to change his ways: "Now, another one is looking up to me. I can't just be young and reckless Aaron no more. I'm going to try to do the right things."
___
Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy in Boston and Howard Ulman in North Attleborough contributed to this report.
"Did you see who I was with?" said the first, at 3:07 a.m. June 17. "Who?" she finally replied.
"NFL," he texted back, then added: "Just so you know."
It was 3:23 a.m. Moments later, Lloyd would be dead in what a prosecutor called an execution-style shooting orchestrated by New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez because his friend talked to the wrong people at a nightclub. Hernandez was charged Wednesday with murder and could face life in prison, if convicted.
Hernandez was cut from the NFL team less than two hours after he was arrested and led from his North Attleborough home in handcuffs, and nine days after Lloyd's body was discovered by a jogger in a remote area of an industrial park not far from Hernandez's home. The 2011 Pro Bowl selection had signed a five-year contract last summer with the Patriots worth $40 million.
His attorney, Michael Fee, called the case circumstantial during a Wednesday afternoon court hearing packed with reporters, curiosity seekers and police officers. Fee said there was a "rather hysterical atmosphere" surrounding the case and urged the judge to disregard his client's celebrity status as he asked for Hernandez, 23, to be released on bail.
The judge, though, ordered Hernandez held without bail on the murder charge and five weapons counts.
Hernandez was scheduled to appear at a bail review hearing Thursday afternoon in Fall River court, according to Bernie Sullivan, spokesman for the Bristol County sheriff.
On Wednesday, Hernandez stood impassively with his hands cuffed in front of him as Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Bill McCauley laid out a detailed timeline of the events, cobbled together from sources including witnesses, surveillance video, text messages and data from cellphone towers.
Lloyd, 27, a semi-pro football player with the Boston Bandits, had known Hernandez for about a year and was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee, the mother of Hernandez's 8-month-old baby, McCauley said.
On June 14, Lloyd went with Hernandez to a Boston club, Rumor. McCauley said Hernandez was upset Lloyd had talked to people there with whom Hernandez had trouble. He did not elaborate.
Two days later, McCauley said, on June 16, Hernandez texted two unidentified friends. He asked them to hurry to Massachusetts from Connecticut. At 9:05 p.m., a few minutes after the first message to his friends, Hernandez texted Lloyd to tell him he wanted to get together, McCauley said.
Later, surveillance footage from Hernandez's home showed his friends arrive and go inside. Hernandez, holding a gun, then told someone in the house he was upset and couldn't trust anyone anymore, the prosecutor said.
At 1:12 a.m., the three left in Hernandez's rented silver Nissan Altima, McCauley said. Cell towers tracked their movements to a gas station off the highway. There, he said, Hernandez bought blue Bubblicious gum.
At 2:32 a.m., they arrived outside Lloyd's home in Boston and texted him that they were there. McCauley said Lloyd's sister saw him get into Hernandez's car.
From there, surveillance cameras captured images of what the prosecutor said was Hernandez driving the silver Altima through Boston. As they drove back toward North Attleborough, Hernandez told Lloyd he was upset about what happened at the club and didn't trust him, McCauley said. That was when Lloyd began sending texts to his sister.
Surveillance video showed the car entering the industrial park and at 3:23 a.m. driving down a gravel road near where Lloyd's body was found. Four minutes later, McCauley said, the car emerged. During that period, employees working an overnight shift nearby heard several gunshots, McCauley said.
McCauley said Lloyd was shot multiple times, including twice from above as he was lying on the ground. He said five .45 caliber casings were found at the scene.
Authorities did not say who fired the shots or identify the two others with Hernandez.
At 3:29 a.m., surveillance at Hernandez's house showed him arriving, McCauley said.
"The defendant was walking through the house with a gun in his hand. That's captured on video," he said.
His friend is also seen holding a gun, and neither weapon has been found, McCauley said.
Then, the surveillance system stopped recording, and footage was missing from the six to eight hours after the slaying, he said.
The afternoon of June 17, the prosecutor said, Hernandez returned the rental car, offering the attendant a piece of blue Bubblicious gum when he dropped it off. While cleaning the car, the attendant found a piece of blue Bubblicious gum and a shell casing, which he threw away. Police later searched the trash bin and found the gum and the casing. The prosecutor said it was tested and matched the casings found where Lloyd was killed.
As McCauley outlined the killing, Lloyd's family members cried and held each other. Two were so overcome that they had to leave the courtroom.
The Patriots said in a statement after Hernandez's arrest but before the murder charge was announced that cutting Hernandez was "the right thing to do."
"Words cannot express the disappointment we feel knowing that one of our players was arrested as a result of this investigation," it said.
Hernandez, originally from Bristol, Conn., was drafted by the Patriots in 2010 out of the University of Florida, where he was an All-American.
During the draft, one team said it wouldn't take him under any circumstances, and he was passed over by one club after another before New England picked him in the fourth round. Afterward, Hernandez said he had failed a drug test in college — reportedly for marijuana — and was up front with teams about it.
A Florida man filed a lawsuit last week claiming Hernandez shot him in the face after they argued at a strip club in February.
Hernandez became a father on Nov. 6 and said he intended to change his ways: "Now, another one is looking up to me. I can't just be young and reckless Aaron no more. I'm going to try to do the right things."
___
Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy in Boston and Howard Ulman in North Attleborough contributed to this report.
DON'T FUCK WITH TEXAS.!!
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas marked a solemn moment in criminal justice Wednesday evening, executing its 500th inmate since it resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.
Kimberly McCarthy, who was put to death for the murder of her 71-year-old neighbor, was also the first woman executed in the U.S. in nearly three years.
McCarthy, 52, was executed for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of retired college psychology professor Dorothy Booth. Booth had agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife and candelabra at her home in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. Authorities say McCarthy cut off Booth's finger to remove her wedding ring.
It was among three slayings linked to McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who became addicted to crack cocaine.
She was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. CDT, 20 minutes after Texas prison officials began administering a single lethal dose of pentobarbital.
In her final statement, McCarthy did not mention her status as the 500th inmate to be executed or acknowledge Booth or her family.
"This is not a loss. This is a win. You know where I'm going. I'm going home to be with Jesus. Keep the faith. I love you all," she said, while looking toward her witnesses — her attorney, her spiritual adviser and her ex-husband, New Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels.
As the drug started to take effect, McCarthy said, "God is great," before closing her eyes. She took hard, raspy, loud breaths for several seconds before becoming quiet. Then, her chest moved up and down for another minute before she stopped breathing.
Friends and family of Booth told reporters after the execution that they were not conscious that Texas had carried out its 500th execution since 1982. They said their only focus was on Booth's brutal murder.
Five-hundred is "just a number. It doesn't really mean very much," said Randall Browning, who was Booth's godson. "'We're just thinking about the justice that was promised to us by the state of Texas."
Donna Aldred, Booth's daughter, reading a statement to reporters, said that her mother "was an incredible person who was taken before her time."
Texas has carried out nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,300 executions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The state's standing stems from its size as the nation's second-most populous state as well as its tradition of tough justice for killers.
Texas prison officials said that for them, it was just another execution. "We simply carried out the court's order," said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark.
With increased debate in recent years over wrongful convictions, some states have halted the practice entirely. However, 32 states have the death penalty on the books. Though Texas still carries out executions, lawmakers have provided more sentencing options for juries and courts have narrowed the cases for which death can be sought.
In a statement, Maurie Levin, McCarthy's attorney, said "500 is 500 too many. I look forward to the day when we recognize that this pointless and barbaric practice, imposed almost exclusively on those who are poor and disproportionately on people of color, has no place in a civilized society."
Outside the prison, about 40 protesters gathered, carrying signs saying "Death Penalty: Racist and Anti-Poor," ''Stop All Executions Now" and "Stop Killing to Stop Killings." As the hour for the execution approached, protesters began chanting and sang the old Negro spiritual "Wade in the Water."
In recent years, Texas executions have generally drawn fewer than 10 protesters. A handful of counter-demonstrators who support the death penalty gathered in another area outside the prison Wednesday.
Executions of women are infrequent. McCarthy was the 13th woman put to death in the U.S. and the fourth in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume. In that same period, more than 1,300 male inmates have been executed nationwide, 496 of them in Texas. Virginia is a distant second, nearly 400 executions behind.
Levin, had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the punishment, arguing black jurors were improperly excluded from McCarthy's trial by Dallas County prosecutors. McCarthy is black; her victim white. All but one of her 12 jurors were white. The court denied McCarthy's appeals, ruling her claims should have been raised previously.
Prosecutors said McCarthy stole Booth's Mercedes and drove to Dallas, pawned the woman's wedding ring she removed from the severed finger for $200 and went
Kimberly McCarthy, who was put to death for the murder of her 71-year-old neighbor, was also the first woman executed in the U.S. in nearly three years.
McCarthy, 52, was executed for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of retired college psychology professor Dorothy Booth. Booth had agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife and candelabra at her home in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. Authorities say McCarthy cut off Booth's finger to remove her wedding ring.
It was among three slayings linked to McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who became addicted to crack cocaine.
She was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. CDT, 20 minutes after Texas prison officials began administering a single lethal dose of pentobarbital.
In her final statement, McCarthy did not mention her status as the 500th inmate to be executed or acknowledge Booth or her family.
"This is not a loss. This is a win. You know where I'm going. I'm going home to be with Jesus. Keep the faith. I love you all," she said, while looking toward her witnesses — her attorney, her spiritual adviser and her ex-husband, New Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels.
As the drug started to take effect, McCarthy said, "God is great," before closing her eyes. She took hard, raspy, loud breaths for several seconds before becoming quiet. Then, her chest moved up and down for another minute before she stopped breathing.
Friends and family of Booth told reporters after the execution that they were not conscious that Texas had carried out its 500th execution since 1982. They said their only focus was on Booth's brutal murder.
Five-hundred is "just a number. It doesn't really mean very much," said Randall Browning, who was Booth's godson. "'We're just thinking about the justice that was promised to us by the state of Texas."
Donna Aldred, Booth's daughter, reading a statement to reporters, said that her mother "was an incredible person who was taken before her time."
Texas has carried out nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,300 executions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The state's standing stems from its size as the nation's second-most populous state as well as its tradition of tough justice for killers.
Texas prison officials said that for them, it was just another execution. "We simply carried out the court's order," said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark.
With increased debate in recent years over wrongful convictions, some states have halted the practice entirely. However, 32 states have the death penalty on the books. Though Texas still carries out executions, lawmakers have provided more sentencing options for juries and courts have narrowed the cases for which death can be sought.
In a statement, Maurie Levin, McCarthy's attorney, said "500 is 500 too many. I look forward to the day when we recognize that this pointless and barbaric practice, imposed almost exclusively on those who are poor and disproportionately on people of color, has no place in a civilized society."
Outside the prison, about 40 protesters gathered, carrying signs saying "Death Penalty: Racist and Anti-Poor," ''Stop All Executions Now" and "Stop Killing to Stop Killings." As the hour for the execution approached, protesters began chanting and sang the old Negro spiritual "Wade in the Water."
In recent years, Texas executions have generally drawn fewer than 10 protesters. A handful of counter-demonstrators who support the death penalty gathered in another area outside the prison Wednesday.
Executions of women are infrequent. McCarthy was the 13th woman put to death in the U.S. and the fourth in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume. In that same period, more than 1,300 male inmates have been executed nationwide, 496 of them in Texas. Virginia is a distant second, nearly 400 executions behind.
Levin, had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the punishment, arguing black jurors were improperly excluded from McCarthy's trial by Dallas County prosecutors. McCarthy is black; her victim white. All but one of her 12 jurors were white. The court denied McCarthy's appeals, ruling her claims should have been raised previously.
Prosecutors said McCarthy stole Booth's Mercedes and drove to Dallas, pawned the woman's wedding ring she removed from the severed finger for $200 and went
Sunday, June 23, 2013
SHOES 2 DIE 4..
Greedy shoe companies making select sneakers needlessly exclusive paired together with consumer exuberance, desperation, and American gun culture on Saturday long enough to cost one would-be alleged robber his life. Shoppers waiting in line to purchase the latest incarnation of LeBron James’ signature shoe outside Atlanta were being harassed by a reported pickpocket until one patron decided to pull a gun out and shoot the as-yet unidentified man in what is being considered a move motivated by self-defense.
Wayne Washington at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the story:Witnesses told one man in line outside Wish, a clothing and shoe store on Moreland Avenue, pulled out a gun and shot the would-be robber.Only 22 pairs of the sneakers were available, but that didn’t stop nearly 50 shoppers from lining up hours before the store opened. The shooting took place at 5:30, five hours before Wish opened its doors to LeBron’s fans.
The shooter then got back in line, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Police have not charged anyone and for now consider the shooting to be self-defense. No additional information was being released Sunday morning, said Officer John Chafee, an Atlanta Police Department spokesman.
One witness says the deceased got what he deserved. From the Journal-Constitution:
“He [the shooter] really stood up for all of us,” said Taylor White, who told Channel 2 that he was in line when the shooting happened. “I salute the homie that did that.”Here is a picture of the shoes, retailing at $180, which caused the line, the panic, and the incident:
(Courtesy LeBron James' shoe sponsor)
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THE REAL-LIFE BLING RING..
Broussard, Claire Vivien and Katie Chang in a scene from "The Bling Ring." (AP Photo/A24 Films,
When Jenna Gering and her husband advertised their 2,700-square-foot Hollywood Hills home for rent in 2008, they were surprised when actress Lindsay Lohan showed up at their front door ready to pay the asking price of nearly $10,000 a month.
"We were desperate to rent the house, which was expensive, so we thought, 'What's the worst that could happen?' " says Ms. Gering, an actress who currently lives in the house with her family.
About nine months later, the Gering house made national news when it was burglarized. The culprits, dubbed the "Bling Ring," turned out to be fame-obsessed youths from the San Fernando Valley who used the Internet to locate celebrity homes and steal more than $3 million worth of goods from them in 2008 and 2009. In addition to the residence, homes owned by Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson and others were hit.
The Bling Ring, immortalized in a film directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Emma Watson, left a lasting imprint on the world of Hollywood real estate. Here, security and privacy are primary concerns—agents with famous clients are often required to sign confidentiality agreements—yet the exact locations of celebrity homes are hardly a secret. Encouraging interlopers are celebrity-gossip websites, aggressive paparazzi and reality-television shows, not to mention satellite mapping.
"Celebrity privacy is simply no longer—that's why everyone in L.A. now has hedges and gates and perimeter beams," says Jeff Hyland, president of brokerage Hilton & Hyland, which caters to celebrities. The sheer number of people involved in high-profile real-estate transactions—often 30 to 100 people—also contributes to the difficulty of keeping celebrity addresses under wraps, says David Kramer, a broker for Hilton & Hyland who recently listed Jodie Foster's home.
Bilson sold her Spanish-style Los Feliz, Calif., home last year for $2.106 million. (Michal Czerwonka/WSJ)
Because the erosion of privacy has created so many security issues for stars, brokers says that high-end gated communities, such as Mulholland Estates and Beverly Park, both located in the coveted 90210 ZIP Code, are increasingly popular with high-profile buyers. Both communities have full-time gatehouse security at their entrances.
And yet, even wrought-iron gates can't stop the most determined. Paris Hilton's 7,493-square-foot, Mediterranean-style mansion in Mulholland Estates was robbed repeatedly by the "Bling Ring" shortly after she bought it for $5.9 million in 2007. The teens climbed a hill to evade the gatehouse and found a key left under a mat by the front door to enter the home, according to journalist Nancy Jo Sales's book on the Bling Ring. The stolen items included "somewhere over $2.5 [million] to $3 million worth of jewelry," according to Ms. Hilton's grand-jury testimony.
Ms. Hilton, who still lives in the five-bedroom home with a nightclub room and a stripper pole, says she has added security since the burglaries. "I have new cameras and laser beams. I also now have security guards right outside my house, 24 hours a day," she says.
But Ms. Hilton says that even with those additional measures, she still feels vulnerable at home. "What happened with the Bling Ring would have never happened 10 years ago—kids would never have been able to find addresses of celebrities so quickly online. Nowadays, everyone knows where everyone is…you're not safe anywhere."
Although Ms. Hilton decided to remain in her home—and even allowed Ms. Coppola to film scenes for "The Bling Ring" there—some of the other celebrities targeted by the youths have moved away. In 2010, Brian Austin Green sold the four-bedroom Hollywood Hills house where he and Megan Fox lived to a businessman for $1.8 million, slightly more than the $1.65 million he paid for it in 2001 but well below the $2.395 million he listed it for in 2009. Rachel Bilson sold her white Spanish-style Los Feliz home last year for $2.106 million, a few hundred thousand dollars above the $1.88 million she paid for it in 2006, according to public records.
Ms. Lohan moved out of the Gering home immediately after the burglary. "Her security deposit was three months of rent, which was the remainder on her lease, so we basically shook hands and walked away," says Ms. Gering. She adds that Ms. Lohan left the house in excellent condition; the only areas of damage were the camera-lens-size holes in the tall hedges that screen the front of the home, left by persistent paparazzi. A spokeswoman said Ms. Lohan wasn't available to comment.
Green and Fox sold their Hollywood Hills house in 2010 for $1.8 million. (Michal Czerwonka/WSJ)
Websites that track where celebrities are buying, selling and renting have proliferated in recent years, making it easier and faster to discover where a high-profile person lives. A search warrant related to the Bling Ring case revealed in November 2009 that one of its members used a website called celebrityaddressaerial.com, as well as TMZ.com and Google Maps, to learn where Hollywood celebrities live.
"I don't feel responsible for what happened with the Bling Ring at all because there are so many sites like mine out there," says David Ruppel, 41, a Toronto-based computer programmer who runs celebrityaddressaerial.com, which displays addresses and aerial views of celebrity homes. Mr. Ruppel says that his site, which he began in 2008, has a loyal base of subscribers, mostly Los Angeles-based paparazzi. But he says that other websites provide similar information. "The business of blogging about celebrity real estate has really exploded," he adds.
That explosion is also fueling bus tours around Los Angeles of celebrity homes. Philip Ferentinos, the director of Starline Tours, one of the largest tour operators, which serves 1.5 million customers annually, says the company has seen a 40% to 50% increase in the number of people taking its movie stars' home tour compared with five years ago. To cater to that increased demand, the company is now also running a Malibu celebrity house tour, which passes the residences of Leonardo DiCaprio and Adam Sandler, among others.
Publicizing where celebrities live has angered more than a few high-profile people, many of whom move after their address becomes public, brokers say. But they've had little success when it comes to suppressing the publication of addresses of their properties, since they're in public records.
"We were desperate to rent the house, which was expensive, so we thought, 'What's the worst that could happen?' " says Ms. Gering, an actress who currently lives in the house with her family.
About nine months later, the Gering house made national news when it was burglarized. The culprits, dubbed the "Bling Ring," turned out to be fame-obsessed youths from the San Fernando Valley who used the Internet to locate celebrity homes and steal more than $3 million worth of goods from them in 2008 and 2009. In addition to the residence, homes owned by Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson and others were hit.
The Bling Ring, immortalized in a film directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Emma Watson, left a lasting imprint on the world of Hollywood real estate. Here, security and privacy are primary concerns—agents with famous clients are often required to sign confidentiality agreements—yet the exact locations of celebrity homes are hardly a secret. Encouraging interlopers are celebrity-gossip websites, aggressive paparazzi and reality-television shows, not to mention satellite mapping.
"Celebrity privacy is simply no longer—that's why everyone in L.A. now has hedges and gates and perimeter beams," says Jeff Hyland, president of brokerage Hilton & Hyland, which caters to celebrities. The sheer number of people involved in high-profile real-estate transactions—often 30 to 100 people—also contributes to the difficulty of keeping celebrity addresses under wraps, says David Kramer, a broker for Hilton & Hyland who recently listed Jodie Foster's home.
Between staging companies, inspectors, rival real-estate agents and even neighbors, there's a lot of potential for loose lips, adds Mr. Kramer. "While there's no way to shield a celebrity client completely," Mr. Kramer says, he often deliberately misleads curious observers about the identities of buyers and sellers until a deal is closed. To maintain anonymity, celebrities are encouraged to purchase homes in the name of a trust and appoint a neutral trustee from a generic trust company, since a business manager or a friend can be traced back to the celebrity.
Bilson sold her Spanish-style Los Feliz, Calif., home last year for $2.106 million. (Michal Czerwonka/WSJ)And yet, even wrought-iron gates can't stop the most determined. Paris Hilton's 7,493-square-foot, Mediterranean-style mansion in Mulholland Estates was robbed repeatedly by the "Bling Ring" shortly after she bought it for $5.9 million in 2007. The teens climbed a hill to evade the gatehouse and found a key left under a mat by the front door to enter the home, according to journalist Nancy Jo Sales's book on the Bling Ring. The stolen items included "somewhere over $2.5 [million] to $3 million worth of jewelry," according to Ms. Hilton's grand-jury testimony.
Ms. Hilton, who still lives in the five-bedroom home with a nightclub room and a stripper pole, says she has added security since the burglaries. "I have new cameras and laser beams. I also now have security guards right outside my house, 24 hours a day," she says.
But Ms. Hilton says that even with those additional measures, she still feels vulnerable at home. "What happened with the Bling Ring would have never happened 10 years ago—kids would never have been able to find addresses of celebrities so quickly online. Nowadays, everyone knows where everyone is…you're not safe anywhere."
Although Ms. Hilton decided to remain in her home—and even allowed Ms. Coppola to film scenes for "The Bling Ring" there—some of the other celebrities targeted by the youths have moved away. In 2010, Brian Austin Green sold the four-bedroom Hollywood Hills house where he and Megan Fox lived to a businessman for $1.8 million, slightly more than the $1.65 million he paid for it in 2001 but well below the $2.395 million he listed it for in 2009. Rachel Bilson sold her white Spanish-style Los Feliz home last year for $2.106 million, a few hundred thousand dollars above the $1.88 million she paid for it in 2006, according to public records.
Ms. Lohan moved out of the Gering home immediately after the burglary. "Her security deposit was three months of rent, which was the remainder on her lease, so we basically shook hands and walked away," says Ms. Gering. She adds that Ms. Lohan left the house in excellent condition; the only areas of damage were the camera-lens-size holes in the tall hedges that screen the front of the home, left by persistent paparazzi. A spokeswoman said Ms. Lohan wasn't available to comment.
Earlier this year, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr decided to rent out the ¾-acre compound in the Outpost Estates neighborhood of Hollywood Hills that the Bling Ring youths burglarized. The gated estate is currently on the market for $18,000 a month, says Venessa Blair, the couple's broker. Jennifer Mulberg, the broker who sold Mr. Bloom the house in 2007 for $2.75 million, points out one of the downsides to having a well-publicized address: "Even gates and security can't stop bus tours and paparazzi. When you stand outside that house, every 30 minutes you hear a bus come by with a guide shouting, 'This is Orlando Bloom's house,' over and over again."
Green and Fox sold their Hollywood Hills house in 2010 for $1.8 million. (Michal Czerwonka/WSJ)"I don't feel responsible for what happened with the Bling Ring at all because there are so many sites like mine out there," says David Ruppel, 41, a Toronto-based computer programmer who runs celebrityaddressaerial.com, which displays addresses and aerial views of celebrity homes. Mr. Ruppel says that his site, which he began in 2008, has a loyal base of subscribers, mostly Los Angeles-based paparazzi. But he says that other websites provide similar information. "The business of blogging about celebrity real estate has really exploded," he adds.
That explosion is also fueling bus tours around Los Angeles of celebrity homes. Philip Ferentinos, the director of Starline Tours, one of the largest tour operators, which serves 1.5 million customers annually, says the company has seen a 40% to 50% increase in the number of people taking its movie stars' home tour compared with five years ago. To cater to that increased demand, the company is now also running a Malibu celebrity house tour, which passes the residences of Leonardo DiCaprio and Adam Sandler, among others.
Publicizing where celebrities live has angered more than a few high-profile people, many of whom move after their address becomes public, brokers say. But they've had little success when it comes to suppressing the publication of addresses of their properties, since they're in public records.
In 2003, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit Barbra Streisand filed against an environmental activist who had posted an aerial photograph of her Malibu mansion on a website alongside thousands of photographs of the California coastline. That precedent has prevented other celebrities from taking action, says privacy lawyer Neville Johnson. It also led to the "Streisand effect," says Mr. Johnson, a term now widely used to describe the phenomenon of how fighting to conceal information winds up making it go viral instead.
"Celebrities are very reluctant to do anything about these issues because they're afraid of bad publicity," says Mr. Johnson.Saturday, June 22, 2013
PATRIOTS TE UNDER FIRE FROM POLICE..
Police were back at the home today of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, and entered this house carrying paperwork.
Hernandez is the subject of an arrest warrant drawn up on obstruction of justice charges based on the possible destruction of evidence in connection with the shooting death of his friend, ABC News has learned.
Police also want to know why a team of house cleaners were hired on Monday to scrub Hernandez's mansion, the sources said.
Hernandez returned to his home Friday evening, sitting in the backseat of a car driven by his lawyer.
Hernandez's attorney, Michael Fee, has not commented on the investigation but released a statement Thursday saying: "It has been widely reported in the media that the state police have searched the home of our client, Aaron Hernandez, as part of an ongoing investigation. Out of respect for that process, neither we nor Aaron will have any comment about the substance of that investigation until it has come to a conclusion."
Hernandez has been at the center of the investigation since Lloyd's body was found shot in the back of the head in a scrubby clearing of an industrial park roughly a mile from the Patriots star's $1.7 million mansion in North Attleborough, Mass., on Monday.
Police are also investigating "other incidents of violence" that Hernandez is suspected of being involved in, two sources told ABC News.
Hernandez is being sued by a former friend who lost his eye after he claims the Patriots player shot him in the face in February. A lawsuit in that case stated that Hernandez "possessed a gun he was not legally licensed to have."
In the lawsuit initially filed in federal court on June 13, attorneys representing Alexander Bradley, 32, said that Hernandez and several others were at Tootsie's strip club in Miami on Feb. 13 when Bradley and Hernandez got into an argument. The group then left the club, and while driving towards Palm Beach, Hernandez's gun discharged inside the vehicle.
"It fired, and a bullet went through my client's arm and blew out his right eye," attorney David Jaroslawicz told ABCNews.com. "It has been enucleated -- replaced with a prosthetic eye. He has also lost use of his right arm."
The victim, however, apparently did not tell Palm Beach County sheriffs who responded that the shooter was his friend Aaron Hernandez. The tight end's name is not mentioned on the police report.
Hernandez was also questioned about a shooting when he was a college student, but he was not charged in the case.
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Hernandez is the subject of an arrest warrant drawn up on obstruction of justice charges based on the possible destruction of evidence in connection with the shooting death of his friend, ABC News has learned.
But as of late Friday, a warrant had been drawn up but yet not issued by the court, according to a spokesman for the Attleborough District Court, which covers Hernandez's town.
Police sources told ABC News on Thursday that a major investigative tool -- the security system at Hernandez's home, which included video -- had been intentionally destroyed. His cell phone was handed over to police "in pieces," and appeared to have been smashed. Police also want to know why a team of house cleaners were hired on Monday to scrub Hernandez's mansion, the sources said.
Evidence is mounting that Hernandez and the victim, Odin Lloyd, 27, a semi-pro football player, had been together at several nightclubs during the course of the weekend, including the night before Lloyd's body was found, several law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The star NFL player has not been ruled out as a suspect in Lloyd's murder, sources said, but the warrant that has been issued does not include a murder allegation. Hernandez returned to his home Friday evening, sitting in the backseat of a car driven by his lawyer.
Hernandez's attorney, Michael Fee, has not commented on the investigation but released a statement Thursday saying: "It has been widely reported in the media that the state police have searched the home of our client, Aaron Hernandez, as part of an ongoing investigation. Out of respect for that process, neither we nor Aaron will have any comment about the substance of that investigation until it has come to a conclusion."
Hernandez has been at the center of the investigation since Lloyd's body was found shot in the back of the head in a scrubby clearing of an industrial park roughly a mile from the Patriots star's $1.7 million mansion in North Attleborough, Mass., on Monday.
Lloyd was believed to have been killed sometime before dawn on Monday, although his body was not discovered until Monday evening by a teenage jogger.
Surveilance videos from nightclubs and in the area of Hernandez's home show Hernandez, Lloyd and two other men together in the hours before Lloyd was shot in the head. Police are also investigating "other incidents of violence" that Hernandez is suspected of being involved in, two sources told ABC News.
Hernandez is being sued by a former friend who lost his eye after he claims the Patriots player shot him in the face in February. A lawsuit in that case stated that Hernandez "possessed a gun he was not legally licensed to have."
In the lawsuit initially filed in federal court on June 13, attorneys representing Alexander Bradley, 32, said that Hernandez and several others were at Tootsie's strip club in Miami on Feb. 13 when Bradley and Hernandez got into an argument. The group then left the club, and while driving towards Palm Beach, Hernandez's gun discharged inside the vehicle.
"It fired, and a bullet went through my client's arm and blew out his right eye," attorney David Jaroslawicz told ABCNews.com. "It has been enucleated -- replaced with a prosthetic eye. He has also lost use of his right arm."
The victim, however, apparently did not tell Palm Beach County sheriffs who responded that the shooter was his friend Aaron Hernandez. The tight end's name is not mentioned on the police report.
Hernandez was also questioned about a shooting when he was a college student, but he was not charged in the case.
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Colin Kaepernick taking over the reigns from injured and ineffective incumbent quarterback Alex Smith and leading the San Francisco 49ers to within one completed pass of a Super Bowl Championship is undoubtedly one of the best sports stories of the past 12 months. But here's something you may not have known or have possible forgotten about the Bay Area native, who now doubles as the NFL's newest hot shot QB.
In 2009, the Chicago Cubs selected Kaepernick in the 43rd round of the MLB draft despite the fact that he hadn't pitched competitively in over three years, just on the outside chance that the career he was committed to in football didn't pan out. He was that well thought of as a pitching prospect coming out of high school.
Now, with that in mind, I guess it shouldn't come as any great surprise that when given the opportunity to throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the San Francisco Giants home game against the Miami Marlins on Friday night, he blew everyone away with his presence on the mound and his velocity.
I say that figuratively, of course, but Giants closer Sergio Romo was almost literally blown away by the force of the 87 mph fastball, which came from 60 feet 6 inches away. Romo's not a catcher, folks, and even if Kaepernick warned him what was coming, I doubt he was really prepared for it. Also, had the Giants known what was coming, I doubt Romo would have been back there to begin with. The pitch was sizzling, and he had some nice tail to it as well.
Not a bad idea. I can think of 30 teams that would be willing to take their chances on a 6-foot-4, 230 pound, freakishly athletic human being with a successful background in pitching. And I believe the Cubs would be right at the top of that list.
Of course we know 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh is somewhere cringing at the very thought of Kaepernick throwing a baseball, let alone joking about a dual sports career. You know, as an unfortunate Michael Vick owner who picked up Kaepernick in fantasy football last season, I'm cringing, too. Granted, it would be fun to see him test his skills in baseball, but I'm really looking forward to watching Colin Kaepernick throw lasers around NFL stadiums and barrel through linebackers in September.
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