Man, That Was Tense

WORCESTER —  An online video allegedly showing the beating of a patron inside the locked bathroom of a Southbridge Street strip club last year has led to the arrest of a bouncer at that club. 

Easton Byfield, 35, of Thayer Pond Drive, Oxford, was arrested Friday night and charged with assault and battery, kidnapping, unarmed robbery and filing a false crime report. Records show he was arrested at Platinum Premier, 241 Southbridge St. He is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in Worcester Central District Court. 

The video, which was on Youtube.com and other Internet sites yesterday, shows a man being punched several times and money allegedly being taken out of his wallet by the strip club employee. 

Police received several anonymous tips Thursday referring to the video of the Platinum Premier employee allegedly assaulting a patron, police said in a press release. The information police received included the date of the incident and the suspect’s name. Mr. Byfield was then arrested. 

After reviewing the video and obtaining information, detectives tracked down the victim, a 25-year-old Worcester resident, police said. Police were told during the investigation that the incident occurred May 25, police said. (more.)



Let me tell you, this was right out of Pulp Fiction.  I felt like that Jules Winnfield wannabe was going to yell, "What? Say what again! They speak English in What?" at any second.  But you have to love the bouncer's real motivation (as he explained), it's not that he's against selling drugs. It's that he's against people spending money on the drugs because that's less money that's going to be spent in the club. 


And language and (obvious) violence warning if you click on the video. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• True Lies is a silly movie that sucks me in every time.
• Was getting my oil changed yesterday when I was accosted in the waiting room by a little girl who insisted on getting one foot from from my face and dang near yelling: "My dad and brother are getting their oil changed in the truck!!!" "What are you doing here!!!" "Are you playing a game on your phone!!!" "I like Angry Birds!!!" "Do you want to watch me play Angry Birds???!!!"  So there I was, watching her play Angry Birds.
• What's Tech got against Baylor? On Saturday, they beat the #1 women's team as well as the men's team (basically eliminating them from the NCAA tourney)
• Horrifying: Having a four year old fall off of a fifth store apartment balcony in Addison over the weekend. 
• The neighbor's cat is huge and hangs around outside most of the time. But now it spends all its time peering in a window at the Family Cat. You want to know chaos? When somehow it got in the house through the the front door in the middle of the night on Saturday and was then confronted loudly by the Family Pup and Family Cat. Let me tell ya, that'll wake you up.
• Lots of hubbub today about the Texas Legislature being poised to allow Concealed Handgun License holders to be able to carry the weapon on college campuses. I seriously doubt that anyone who is over 21, took the time to get licensed, and is enrolled in college is going to cause some random problem. 
• When the pick-up-your-kid time after a slumber party keeps getting pushed back and back, you kind of become a free babysitter.
• It seems like I've got 1,000 TV channels and most of the time I still can't find anything good that's on. 
• I don't see how a NASCAR race that lasts over four hours, involves cars so similar that they can't get away from each other, and having a twenty year old nobody win its premiere race is supposed to be entertaining. 
• But I should be a fan: I had to do some concealed car body work using a zip tie yesterday.  That just felt wrong.
• The official DPS twitter feed posted this on Friday: "All driver license offices are CLOSED on Monday (to allow our employees to take advantage of all the department store Presidents Day sales)." So now government employees are taking a paid taxpayer day off and mocking you at the same time. 
• I can't believe I'm saying this but Justin Bieber looked like a legitimate athlete in the NBA celebrity basketball game. 
• Cowtown Half Marathon is this weekend, but they've moved it to Sunday -- I don't like that. 
• Britney is accused of ripping off the rock ballad "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me" by the Bellamy Brothers?  I don't think her new single sounds anything like it. 
• Saw a very young couple waiting in line at the grocery store on Saturday night while the dad entertained their baby. Mom had all the signs of a meth addict and looked as unhappy as anyone you've ever scene. It was one of those "how did I get to this point?" looks. 

Idiocracy Part 1021

As I've said a million times, I don't watch the NBA because it's a cure for insomnia. (And, to reiterate my earlier prediction, your Dallas Mavericks will go one or two rounds into the playoffs and then be booted.) But, getting back to my point,  apparently the All Star Game Slam Dunk Competition was last night which ended with Blake Griffin jumping over a car while a choir (yes, a choir) sang "I Believe I Can Fly".

You guys over in the Middle East having revolutions? The heck with that -- we've got a guy dunking over a car!!  [Insert song from Team America: World Police.]

I know one thing, however, if I'm the owner of Blake's team, the Clippers, I'm having a heart attack at the risk of injury.

Fox 4's Mike Doocy: The Man, The Myth

Hanging with Fiona and some chick from Channel 5.

Arkansas Frat Boys Perform Katy Perry's "Firework"

After watching that, I feel more manly than I ever have in my life.

What Am I Thinking Of?

I originally thought that Micky and the Motorcars was a one hit wonder from the 1990s. What band am I thinking of? Killing me.

(Bono's is in Decatur.)

Friday Morning Pick Me Up

But you might not want to be her passenger.

Punishment News

That's on the No Body Murder Case

And a Wise County jury is deliberating punishment on the Intoxication Manslaughter case right now. Edit: He received 20 years. The maximum. (The prosecutor asks for no less than 12.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• I think we're having the 5,000th slumber party to night at the house. That is, after they all get back from the Justin Bieber movie. Think they'll be ratcheted up? 
• The Texas Senate has passed the Sonogram Bill. It's comical that Rick Perry has designated it as "emergency" legislation.
• If all the school districts have to layoff people for the next school year, they'll have to make that decision pretty quickly, won't they?
• Azle motorcycle death.
• DPS had a press conference yesterday and released surveillance footage of a potential suspect in the fire at the Governor's Mansion. Hey, that fire took place in 2008! What took you so long?
• I updated the post yesterday but you may have missed it: The guy who was arrested for poisoning the trees at Auburn says on his Facebook page that he is a former Texas DPS Trooper.
• Preseason Rangers prediction: They won't make the playoffs.
• I jogged with an OU T-shirt yesterday and met a guy wearing a Longhorn T-shirt. He looked genuinely angry with me. Funny. (I bet I've got 20 different T-shirts with random college names on them. I even got one for Vanderbilt.) 
• The Star-Telegram has a headline/story today that says a jury has "recommended" a 25 year sentence in case involving the death of a baby.  A jury never "recommends" a sentence. What they say is the sentence. 
• Weather talk is boring, but is this not the craziest February ever? One week in the deep freeze and then two weeks of the warmest February weather I've ever seen. 
• I've preached for years that conservative Republicans will lose power in the future for one simple reason: Demographics.  Yesterday's Census data proves the point. And is there any doubt that the percentage of Hispanics will be significantly greater in the 2020 Census?
• Other Census nuggets: Bridgeport is 42% Hispanic. And Bridgeport has only 66 less people than Decatur.
• Did you realize that Jerry Jones hasn't been seen or heard since the Super Bowl?

Dallas Officer Reprimanded --- Wise County Ties

Channel 8 had a story last night on a Dallas police officer who posted some "inappropriate" things on her Facebook page. She lists herself as a 1996 Bridgeport High School graduate.

Another Reason Obama Will Be Re-Elected

I can write his campaign speech: "At the time I was sworn in, the stock market had plunged unlike anything since the Great Depression. But from that moment, based upon my Administration's sound economic policy, the market has recovered. The American People truly believed in Change That We Can Believe In, and we are once again the economic power that the world can look up to."

Yeah, it's all BS, but it'll work.

Jury Deliberates Punishment On No-Body-Murder-Case

Yeah, I'm borderline obsessed with this case. It's because we have rules that we live by, and one of those rules is that no one will be convicted unless, after considering all the evidence, there is no doubt about that person's guilt in any of the juror's minds -- that is, no doubt that they consider to be reasonable.

My problem with this case is that (1) We don't know the lady is dead, (2) If we assume she's dead, we don't know she was murdered, and (3) is we assume she was murdered, we don't know who did it.

Nothing proves my point more today than the prosecutor's argument during the punishment phase today.

In summation, prosecutor Cary Piel told jurors that he was not going to presume to tell them the number of years they should assess as punishment.

He told them to close their eyes and imagine the murder.

"You don’t want to do it, but you have to,” he said so quietly that those not in the jury box barely heard him.

“You know it was some sort of hand-to-hand thing.”

He said she likely knew she was dying and suffered.

What a load of crap. If every juror, at that moment, didn't realize they have no idea what happened because the government failed to prove it to them, they aren't smarter than a 5th grader. But I think the prosecutor realizes that. 

Our Own Little Egypt: Protesters In Wisconsin State Capitol Right Now

Wisconsin Police officers are looking for Democratic lawmakers who left the capitol before a scheduled vote on a bill that would strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights on Thursday. And it is those state workers that are protesting. Full story.

Official Census Data To Be Released Today

What we know so far:

• Latinos now make up 38 percent of the Texas population, up from 32 percent in 2000, according to the AP
• The Texas Anglo population has now dropped to 45.3 percent, down from 52.4 percent in 2000. 
• About 11.5 percent of the population is black, unchanged from 10 years ago
• Wise County's new population is 59,127

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For My Twitter Friends

I've discovered a bug. If someone tries to mention someone else but goes over the maximum characters (i.e @bsgsomeoneelse), there's a chance that person's name you tried to mention gets truncated and you end up referencing someone else. Like me!!!!

That was funny. At least until I clicked on @shakesthesky's profile and found out it was a guy.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Uncle Leo from Seinfeld has died. (I never really liked that character.)
• There was a double murder near the SMU campus last night which prompted the school newspaper to immediately post a story about it. Judging by the comments, the story contained a photograph of a dead body that was later taken down because of complaints.
• We've always said we need to close the borders, just not this Borders.
• Not sure I needed to see Mark Davis and Bob Ray Sanders yell at each other about John Wiley Price for the first 13 minutes of Fox 4 News last night.
• That computer winning the Jeopardy match should be bigger news. Truly, that was a machine that could listen to the question and come up with the answer. There were no tricks. And Time has a feature article this week on what happens when computers become smarter than humans (which, at the current rate, would be in about 30 years.)
• Someone commented a couple of times saying "Why does Egypt mean anything to me?"  Well, let a few more countries go down and have one of them launch an attack on Israel, and you'll learn very quickly what it means to you. 
• Wise County lawyer the other day said that he thought "all that Egypt stuff was just some kind of pyramid scheme." (Insert WBAP Hal Jay wheeze laugh.)
• Saw a guy on a small motorcycle on 287 yesterday going 55 mph and you could tell he was getting bounced around by the wind. Scary.
• Wondering what ever happened to Marcia Clark?
• I never watch NASCAR but I saw where Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole position last weekend for the Daytona 500 and then wrecked the car yesterday. Now he has to use a backup car and start at the back of the pack. That guy is a knucklehead.
• The Intoxication Manslaughter case is still going on in Decatur. I really haven't had time to follow it but I did see a Messenger reporter in the gallery yesterday.
• Girl attaches camera to her booty and films people checking her out. (Credit bagofnothing.com)
• Any comments about the No Body Murder Trial can be left on the post down below, but I'll say this morning that it's most disturbing criminal justice verdict I've ever heard of.
• A very innocent and normal question that for some reason I find very intrusive: "Where do you live?"
• How music has changed: Glee has had 113 singles on Billboard's Top 100 list in less than two years breaking the all time record of Elvis who had 108 over the course of his lifetime. 

Bizarre Vandalism Admitted To On Radio Show?

Georgia has the Hedges, Ole Miss the Grove, and at Auburn Tiger fans have the 130 year-old live oaks that sit at famous Toomer's Corner and are "rolled" after Tiger victories. But sadly, thanks to the work of one unknown vandal, Auburn may not have them much longer.

The University announced this afternoon that the trees have been intentionally poisoned with a lethal dose of herbicide, and though every effort is being made to save them, are unlikely to survive. A police investigation has been launched to identify the vandal.

In the biggest twist behind the story, the only-in-Alabama tip that alerted Auburn authorities to the poisoning may also become the lead towards apprehending the culprit:

The university learned that a caller to The Paul Finebaum Show, a nationally syndicated radio show based in Birmingham, on Jan. 27, claimed he had applied the herbicide. As a precaution, soil samples were taken the next day ... and sent to the lab at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss., to expedite results. The lowest amount detected was 0.78 parts per million, described by horticulture experts as a "very lethal dose." The highest amount detected was 51 parts per million, or 65 times the lowest dose. 

More.

And here's the audio of the call to the radio show.

Edit: Arrested. And he identifies himself as a former Texas Trooper on his Facebook page!!

The No Body Murder Case

Story on closing arguments this morning.

A Denton jury is on the clock. A high school Civics class would acquit this guy in five minutes.

(They actually misspelled his name in the headline.)

Edit: At 9:24 p.m., the jury returned a guilty verdict. Stunning is not even close to my reaction. I'll bet my house it will be reversed on appeal because even with the standard of "reviewing the evidence in a light favorable to the State, no rationale jury could have found the defendant guilty", it will happen. But this verdict should scare each and every one of you.

Amazing. Shocking. Wait..........a better term........Idiocracy.