Hal Turner
-Hal Turner, the fat-assed white nationalist blogger who encouraged people to "take up arms" against Connecticut legislators proposing a bill regulating churches, dismissed his lawyer and is representing himself. Turner, 49, is asking potential jurors if they "think people are entitled to express their opinions … even if those opinions are nasty" or "the government should be able to put people in jail for political speech," reports the Hartford Courant. Prosecutors should perhaps ask equally loaded questions, pressing jurors if they "think death threats should not be investigated" or "elected officials should be killed for proposing controversial laws."
-The Master's School, a private Christian academy in Simsbury, kicked out a student for being gay. Rachel Aviles, 17, says an administrator questioned her about her sexual orientation and, when she admitted she was a lesbian, was told to leave or be expelled. A former Master's sports coach told the Hartford Courant, "I think God's up there shaking His head going, 'Really? Really?'" That's certainly our reaction.
-State Treasurer Denise Napier was involved in a bizarre incident in which police failed to recognize the registration of her state-issued vehicle and had it towed, causing her to walk through a rough neighborhood to get to her home. Napier had just dropped off a friend at a North Hartford housing project and, due to a "glitch," her license plate was not in the DMV registry. (Napier, who is black, says police have been too harsh and suspecting in the inner cities.)
-Tapia Pavla, a 22-year-old waitress at Hugo's Restaurant in Stamford, claims patron Fredy Catalan-Carias sexually harassed her and finally grabbed her buttocks, causing her to punch him, reports the Stamford Patch website. Catalan-Carias, 21, whose face police say showed bruising, claims Pavla got his table's drink orders wrong all night and, as a grand finale to this lousy service, popped him (without being provoked).
-We're not sure how Garrett C. Sprouse steered with a cell phone in one hand and a Budweiser in the other, but that's how police say Sprouse, 34, was occupying his hands when they spotted him cruising through Stratford, reports the Stratford Patch website.
-Don't assume that armed robbery will exclusively make you known for being a badass. Police gave a heavyset man who robbed two banks in Somers last year the nickname "the Burly Bandit" for his puffy physique. The crimes have been linked to Robert Ferguson, 48, whose figure was formed by years sitting behind the wheel of a Greyhound bus, reports the Hartford Courant.
-Keith Bondurant allegedly stole a television mounted to a wall in the Saugatuck Train Station and, lacking any better getaway, waited for a train. A police officer reportedly found him sitting with the TV, wrapped in garbage bags, on the New York-bound platform, reports The Hour.
-Police say they found Ceferino Alvarez and his wife Melissa sleeping in the parking lot of the Lucky Frog, a bar in Willimantic. When roused, Ceferino, 30, became confrontational and struck an officer several times and Melissa, 33, tried to intervene, hitting another office, police told the Courant. Ceferino Alvarez is a volunteer firefighter and Melissa is a 4th-grade teacher.
-Compiled by Nick Keppler
