Buster

The octogenarian couple accused of lewd behavior in a park near their Connecticut home denied wrongdoing in a TSG interview, saying that they were caught up in a morals sweep targeting men engaging in public sex acts.

Joyce Butler, 85, and her husband Richard, 82, were cited last week for breach of peace at a Fairfield park about four miles from their home in Bridgeport.

After receiving complaints about inappropriate behavior in the park, police conducted a surveillance operation that netted the couple, who have been married for 60 years, and four men ranging in age from 62 to 75.

A police press release announcing the roundup does not specifically describe what the Butlers allegedly did at the park.

But in an interview today, the couple--who were branded “sexual deviants” in a New York Post story--vehemently denied engaging in lewd activity while parked in their Toyota. “We were just sitting there and we just got caught in what was going on,” said Joyce Butler. “And they were perfectly all wrong. There was nothing going on at all.”

The couple, who have five adult children and 14 grandchildren, said they went for a drive last Friday and stopped at the Grace Richardson Conservation Area.

“We were just sitting in the car to get a little air and that was it,” said Joyce, who added that, “We’ve gone there for years. We used to take the children to go find golf balls years ago when they were little.” The 87-acre park is adjacent to a public golf course.

When Joyce handed the phone to her husband, the first thing Richard Butler told TSG was, “I haven’t had sex in maybe 10 years. I got no blood flow. I got three doctors that would back me up.” The retired factory worker then echoed his wife’s account of their visit to the park.

“What the fuck can I do in the fucking front seat of a car?” asked Richard, who said he uses a walker and can no longer navigate the park on foot, as he used to do with his wife. 

Richard said he was behind the wheel of the couple’s car when police pulled the vehicle over while they drove home. He initially thought he was going to be ticketed for driving without his seatbelt on, but then several cop cars approached. Joyce recalled her husband saying, “I feel like I just killed somebody.”

Despite their protests, the couple said, police issued them breach of peace citations requiring a court appearance next Tuesday. “When we do go, we will tell the truth,” Joyce said. “Which we tried to tell [the police], but they didn’t listen. We will tell the judge when we go next week.”

Richard said the couple has not hired a lawyer due to the prohibitive cost. “We didn’t do nothing. I’m not gonna pay some lawyer because we didn’t do nothing,” he declared.

A New Jersey woman set fire to a man’s home after accepting a booty call invitation only to discover when she arrived that he had fallen asleep, police charge.

According to cops, Taija Russell, 29, torched Curtis Stokes’s home around 4 AM on August 4. Russell was arrested this week on several felony charges, including attempted homicide, aggravated arson, and aggravated assault.

As detailed in a probable cause affidavit, Russell had initially texted Stokes “hello,” to which he responded, “Bring ya ass.” But Stokes, 32, told cops that he fell asleep after inviting Russell over and that he “later awoke to his house on fire.” During a police interview, Stokes referred to Russell as a “side chick.”

Investigators say that when Russell (seen above) arrived at the residence, the snoozing Stokes did not hear her at the front door. He also did not respond to a series of text messages sent by Russell while she was outside his home.

In those texts, Russell complained, “You wasted my money to come out here.” She then allegedly sent a series of threats declaring, “U smoked,” “I see you wanna die,” and “I swear to god I hope you die."

Unable to contact Stokes, cops say, Russell went to a nearby Conoco gas station, where she purchased lighter fluid, matches, and a cigarette lighter. She then returned to the property and allegedly set a fire outside the door.

As seen in the below photos, the resulting blaze destroyed the one-story home in Woodbury, a city just south of Camden and Philadelphia.

Stokes, who escaped the flames through a window, was transported to a local hospital “suffering from burns and smoke inhalation,” cops reported. The man’s dog was rescued from the home by firefighters.

Investigators quickly recognized signs of arson, like the presence of an accelerant, and launched a criminal investigation. Through interviews with Stokes and other witnesses, and a review of surveillance video, cops identified Russell as the alleged perpetrator.

Russell was busted Tuesday and booked into the Salem County jail, where she is being held without bail.

A suspect who used a stolen debit card to purchase a cell phone, beer, and cigarettes signed the sales receipts as “Thief,” according to a Pennsylvania court filing.

Police report that the male suspect swiped the card from a woman who gave him a ride home from a bar last week. The debit card, cops say, was inside a purse in the center console of the woman’s vehicle.

The victim, Joei Thompson, noticed the purse was missing the following day and filed a report with police in Butler, a Pittsburgh suburb. But Thompson’s debit card had already been used to purchase a $200 iPhone 6S at a MetroPCS store and a case of beer and pack of cigarettes from Butler Beer and Tobacco.

When cops examined the sales receipts for the two transactions, they discovered that the purchaser signed his name as "Thief."

The suspect used the surname “Latimore” during the iPhone purchase, which prompted Butler police to check a database that yielded the name Marc Latimore, who “matched the description” given by Thompson “as to the male she gave a ride to.”

Latimore, records show, has a rap sheet that includes convictions for disorderly conduct; marijuana possession; reckless endangerment; possession of drug paraphernalia; public drunkenness; and making terroristic threats.

But after police filed a six-count criminal complaint accusing Latimore, 28, of theft, fraud, and receiving stolen property, they withdrew the charges, according to court records. Investigators now say that the theft suspect used Latimore’s name during the phone purchase. Additionally, when a cop called the number assigned to the iPhone purchased with the stolen debit card, the man who answered “identified himself as Marc Latimore and provided the correct date of birth and address that we have on file for him.”

Butler police did not return TSG calls seeking comment about the withdrawal of the charges against Latimore (seen at left).

In a Facebook post, Thompson wrote that, “My whole life got flipped” by the theft of her purse, which also contained two phones. She urged her followers to “be a decent fucking human being and tell someone if you see anyone selling them or hear any idiots bragging.”

8/14 UPDATE: Police have charged Ewari Ellis, 36, with stealing the victim’s debit card. In addition to the counts initially filed against Latimore, Ellis, a Butler resident, is facing an additional misdemeanor count of falsely incriminating another person.

Ellis, pictured in the below mug shot, is a convicted felon whose lengthy rap sheet includes convictions for drunk driving; disorderly conduct; assault; burglary; criminal mischief; receiving stolen property; theft; narcotics possession; reckless endangerment; and firearms possession.

The Indiana man who accidentally shot himself in the penis with an unlicensed handgun has pleaded guilty to a weapons charge for which he was sentenced to 60 days in jail, according to court records.

Mark Anthony Jones, 47, was arrested in late-February after the Hi-Point 9mm handgun he was carrying in his waistband discharged as he was walking on a street in Marion.

Seen at right, Jones told cops that when the gun “began to slip,” he “reached down to adjust the firearm,” which then discharged.  Police reported that, “The bullet entered just above his penis and exited his scrotum.”

Jones, who was charged with carrying an unlicensed handgun, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor count during an August 1 court appearance (at which he also copped to a separate driving with a suspended license rap). A Marion City Court judge sentenced Jones to 60 days in the county jail.

Since Jones was already in custody, his housing arrangements have not changed post-plea.

Weeks after shooting himself, Jones was arrested on a complaint charging him with dealing methamphetamine. Since that felony collar, Jones has been incarcerated in the Grant County jail in lieu of $30,000 bond. He is scheduled for trial in mid-November on the drug charge.

A California woman whose Instagram page is filled with photos chronicling her world travels was arrested this week for the unglamorous crime of stealing a Juul vaping device from a Florida gas station, a heist from which she first sought to flee in a Lyft car and then an Uber van, police report.

According to investigators, Kate Lamothe, 23, asked to purchase a Juul device around 11 PM Tuesday at an Exxon in Pinellas Park (where she was staying in a home about three miles from the gas station).

Lamothe, who arrived at the Exxon in a Lyft car, allegedly took the $42.79 Juul device from a clerk and bolted from the convenience store. When she attempted to flee in her Lyft, the driver declined the opportunity to be Lamothe’s wheelman.

Undeterred, Lamothe called for an Uber and began walking away from the Exxon.

When cops arrived, they found Lamothe inside an Uber van in a parking lot adjacent to the gas station. Lamothe, who reportedly confessed, was charged with retail theft, a misdemeanor, and booked into the county jail. She was released from custody early Wednesday after her mother posted $150 bond.

Lamothe’s mug shot would not pass muster on her carefully curated Instagram account, which includes photos of her beach, ski, and European vacations, and a private jet trip to Las Vegas. In addition to an assortment of contemplative poses, Lamothe’s page--which was made private today--also advises visitors to “be Humble, it looks good on you.”

7/30 UPDATE: Police today arrested Grace Marina Brown, 20, in connection with last week’s potato tampering at Walmart. Brown, a Pittsburgh resident, has been charged with open lewdness, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness, according to court records. During police questioning, Brown reportedly “identified herself as the person urinating on the potatoes,” according to investigators. A criminal complaint notes that a Walmart official estimated that the store suffered $200 in damages as a result of Brown “pulling her pants down and squatting on a produce rack where potatoes and other vegetables are offered for sale.”

Brown has been arrested multiple times over the past two years (by four different Allegheny County police departments) for disorderly conduct, drunk driving, and purchasing alcohol while underage.

Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying a young woman suspected of urinating on a stack of potatoes at a Walmart in suburban Pittsburgh.

According to investigators, the woman being sought relieved herself in Walmart’s produce section during a visit to the store Wednesday evening. Police yesterday released surveillance photos showing the suspect inside the store on July 24.

The morning after the incident, a Walmart worker “noticed urine on the floor near the potatoes in the produce area,” prompting a loss prevention officer to review security footage. A store surveillance camera captured a woman “urinating in the potato bins” around 10:10 PM the prior evening, police reported.

The Walmart in West Mifflin is open 24 hours a day, so 10 hours passed before the store determined that the potatoes had been urinated upon. A Walmart spokesperson said that the store disposed of “affected products” and sanitized the area “to ensure cleanliness and safety for our customers.”

The suspect, who was by herself in the Walmart, was wearing a graphic t-shirt which appeared to include the word “Adrenaline.”

Anyone with information about the woman’s identity is asked to contact the West Mifflin Borough Police Department.