Watercooler Stories

Newlyweds to stand trial after brawl

PITTSBURGH, May 29 (UPI) -- A Pittsburgh judge has ruled a pair of newlyweds will stand trial on charges related to a hotel brawl with another wedding party.

District Judge Richard Opiela ordered David and Christa Wielechowski to report for a formal arraignment June 25 in Common Pleas Court, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Thursday.

David Wielechowski, 32, faces charges of disorderly conduct, criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated assault, six counts of simple assault and one count of harassment reduced from simple assault.

Christa Wielechowski, 25, is charged with five counts of simple assault and one count each of criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, public intoxication and criminal conspiracy.

The two were allegedly involved in an April 27 fight at the Ross Hotel between their wedding party and another party. A member of the other party suffered a fractured wrist and broken tooth in the fight.

Witnesses said the brawl began as a fight between the newly-married Wielechowskis.

Police say man sprayed woman's shoes

CINCINNATI, May 29 (UPI) -- University of Cincinnati police said a man has been arrested after he allegedly sprayed a substance onto a woman's shoes and then photographed her feet.

Police said Dwight Pannell, 43, was charged with voyeurism, assault and criminal trespass after the alleged incident in the university's library, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Thursday.

A female student told police she heard a mysterious noise coming from beneath her table Wednesday evening at Langsam Library.

"When I looked down, the person was on his knee with the syringe," the woman wrote in a court-filed affidavit. She said the man had sprayed a watery substance onto her shoes.

Police said they found images of the woman's feet on Pannell's camera. They said he told them he took the pictures because he was testing out his new camera.

Investigators said the substance from the syringe will be tested.

"There's really no way to explain people's fetishes," University of Cincinnati Police Capt. Karen Patterson said. "I've been in police work 24 years and I can't explain it. I don't know. It would take a psychologist or psychiatrist to explain it."

Woman pleads innocent to torturing rats

ISLIP, N.Y., May 29 (UPI) -- A woman has pleaded innocent in Islip, N. Y., to running over two rats with her car and smearing their guts on the porch of her ex-boyfriend's sister.

Michelle Brown, 23, pleaded innocent in District Court to a misdemeanor charge of animal torture, New York's Newsday reported Thursday.

Prosecutors allege Brown purchased the rats at a Petland Discounts store and took them to the home of Sabrina Laroy, where she allegedly ran over the animals with her car and then smeared their innards on Laroy's porch. Laroy is the sister of Brown's ex-boyfriend, whose name wasn't released. Laroy's brother wasn't in the home at the time of the incident, said Brown's lawyer, Steven Politi.

Politi said his client denies the accusations. Brown could be sentenced to a year in prison if she is convicted.

Man claims to have footage of real E.T.

DENVER, May 29 (UPI) -- A Denver man who is pushing the city to form an extraterrestrial affairs commission claims to have obtained video of a real space alien.

Jeff Peckman said he plans to reveal the video, an excerpt from a documentary by Colorado filmmaker Stan Romanek, to the news media Friday, the Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday.

"As impressive as it is, it's still one tiny portion in the context of a vast amount of peripheral evidence," Peckman said. "It's really the final visual confirmation of what you already know to be true having seen all the other evidence."

He said members of the media won't be allowed to film or copy the segment due to legal issues related to the documentary. However, he said there will be opportunities for the public to view the footage.

"There is an open, public meeting in about a month in Colorado Springs," Peckman said. "We'll hope to do one in Denver at some point, and then in a few months, there will be the documentary that anybody can have, and it'll have the footage."