THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY. AUGUST 16, 2012
CRIME
PAGE 3B
KU employee in prison for sexual battery
RACHEL SALYER
rsalyer@kansan.com
A University employee was recently terminated after being sentenced to 32 months in prison for aggravated sexual battery Aug.
10 in Dougas County District Court.
Gary Baker, a 50-year-old former supervisor in facilities operations, admitted to touching a
Baker
20-year-old Lawrence woman with "intent to arouse or satisfy (his) sexual desires," during his July 13 guilty plea according to court documents.
Douglas County District Court Judge Michael Malone's decision went against a plea agreement between the defense and the prosecution that recommended probation.
Baker, who did not have a criminal history, was originally charged with rape after the March 24 incident occurred in his home.
The charge was reduced to aggravated sexual battery in exchange for a guilty plea and the recommendation of probation.
John Kerns, Baker's defense attorney, said in court Baker worked for the University for 25 years.
"He still has that position and hopes to continue to have it after today," Kerns said in court Friday before the sentencing.
Malone disapproved of Baker's in-court apology during the sentencing, saying he focused too much on the alcohol he drank when the assault occurred and his own loss of friends and family instead of focusing on the victim.
"I don't see anything in this court that shows you've taken any responsibility for what you did," Malone said.
As part of the state statute on aggravated sexual battery, Baker will have to register as a sex offender for 25 years.
Baker was employed by the University up until his sentencing date, including the time after his July conviction.
"University policy requires criminal background checks for newly hired or rehired employees," Jess said.
According to the University's background check policy, it considers the seriousness of the candidate's crime "in relationship to the job requirements and related responsibilities of the position." Other factors, including someone's rehabilitation and post-employment records, are also considered.
Jill Jess, a University spokeswoman, said there were no other
"The University takes its responsibilities seriously," Jess said. "If an employee is charged with a felony offense, the University will take appropriate personnel action if warranted and supported by available facts."
known sex offenders employed by the University.
In an April interview, Jess said the University did not have a policy requiring action against employees charged with a felony, but the University could take action.
Edited by Vikaas Shanker
SHOOTING
Texas A&M shooter kills three, dies in police standoff
I ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — In the months leading up to Monday's shootout near Texas A&M University that killed three, gunman Thomas Alton Caffall III had cut off contact with his family, even though his mother was seriously ill.
Caffall's family said the 35-yearold told them he had his own issues, an unspecified mental illness they declined to comment on.
Police said officers shot and killed Caffall during the 30-minute shoot-out. A bystander also died and four others were wounded; police did not say whose gunfire struck them.
On Monday, Caffall opened fire on a law enforcement officer who was trying to serve him with a court summons for being two months behind on rent. The officer was killed.
"It breaks our hearts his illness led to this," Caffall's family said in a statement released through an attorney. Authorities continued their investigation Tuesday, saying Caffall was in possession of multiple weapons and fired numerous times.
W. Tyler Moore, the family's attorney, had known Cattall since he was 4 years old.
"He wasn't the same kid that he used to be, let's just say that," Moore said. "He was sweet, very bright, good sense of humor, just a good kid, a sweet kid."
Moore said the Caffall he used to know may have surfaced when, just before dying, Caffall offered an apology to the officer he had fatally shot.
College Station Police Chief Jeff Capps said Tuesday that Caffall had "some long guns and pistols" in his home, but would not give details and did not say whether the weapons had been obtained legally.
"The crime scene is still being processed." Capps said.
Capps said he wasn't aware of any previous law enforcement contact with the gunman
Just after noon Monday, College Station police fielded frantic 911 calls about gunfire in the neighborhood near the university's football stadium. Responding officers found Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann, 41, shot on the lawn of the house.
"Either upon approach to the house or shortly after, it appears he was shot by the suspect," Capps said Tuesday.
Bachmann had volunteered to deliver a notice for Caffall to appear in court on Aug. 23 because he was at least two months behind paying his rent, owing $1,250, said Michael McCleary, a justice of the peace in Brazos County.
"Another deputy was planning on taking the (notice), but Brian grabbed it from him and said, 'Bill take it.' He enjoyed doing it," McCleary said.
Before Caffall was taken from the scene, Rigo Cisneros, a neighbor and former medic, treated him.
"I started identifying his wounds and at that point he asked me to apologize to the officer he had shot,"
The former medic said he has not put any thought into whether Caffall was being sincere.
"My only thought was with the officers that were wounded and killed. I could care less if I ever knew (Cafall's) name," Cisneros said.
said Cisneros, 40.
The Miami doctor fled to his native Panama after coming under investigation in 2004, and Panamanian authorities say they do not extradite their own citizens. Given the unlikelihood of capturing Angulo and the inconvenience of maintaining so much evidence, prosecutors gave up the long pursuit.
The case started in 2003 with a raid of a small Iowa drugstore and eventually secured the conviction of 26 defendants, including 19 doctors. The investigation dismantled two Internet pharmacies that illegally sold 30 million pills to customers. Investigators also recovered $7 million, most of which went to Iowa police agencies that helped with the case.
"Continued storage of these materials is difficult and expensive," wrote Stephanie Rose, the U.S. attorney for northern Iowa. She called the task "an economic and practical hardship" for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
When a major drug suspect flees the country, federal authorities often leave the charges pending in case the fugitive tries to sneak back into the U.S. or a country with a friendly extradition process. But in Angulo's case, the volume of evidence posed
Armando Angulo was indicted in 2007 in a multimillion dollar scheme that involved selling prescription drugs to patients who were never examined or even interviewed by a physician. A federal judge in Iowa dismissed the charge last week at the request of prosecutors, who want to throw out the many records collected over their nine-year investigation to free up more space.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A fugitive doctor charged in the nation's largest prosecution of Internet pharmacies is getting off in part because there's just too much evidence in his case: more than 400,000 documents and two terabytes of electronic data that federal authorities say is expensive to maintain.
Angulo, 59, was accused of improperly authorizing thousands of prescriptions for pain pills, diet medication and other drugs while working for Pharmacom International Corp., a Florida-based Internet company that operated from 2003 to 2004.
Two-terabyte memory drives are widely available for $100, but the DEA's data server must be relatively small and may need replacement, a costly and risky proposition for an agency that must maintain the integrity of documents, said University of Iowa computer scientist Douglas Jones.
Randy Stock, who runs the website whatsabyte.com, which explains electronic storage, said he doubted that storing the data would have been that problematic for the government.
"I'm thinking that excuse is just their easy way out," he wrote in an e-mail.
"A responsible organization doesn't upgrade every time new technology is available. That's all they would be doing." Jones said. "But the result is you end up in situations like this where the capacity they have is not quite up to the incredible volume of data involved."
U. S. District Judge Linda Reade dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
The company's doctors approved prescriptions without examining patients, communicating with them or verifying their identities, prosecutors said. Three Pharmacom officials and a person who recruited doctors were sentenced to prison.Eight physicians pleaded guilty to
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fugitive Armando Angulo, who was charged in the nation's largest prosecution of Internet pharmacies, is getting off in part because of the huge volume of evidence in his case:
Angulo fled to Panama around the time Florida regulators suspended his medical license for prescribing controlled substances to Medicaid patients "in excessive quantities and without medical justification." An audit found his prescriptions cost Medicaid $6.5 million over six years and caused addiction and dangerous health risks.
The evidence took up 5 percent of the DEA's worldwide electronic storage. Agents had also kept several hundred boxes of paper containing 440,000 documents, plus dozens of computers, servers and other bulky items.
Two terabytes is enough to store the text of 2 million novels, or roughly 625,000 copies of "War and Peace."
conspiracy to illegally distribute controlled substances and launder the proceeds.
Investigators know Angulo's whereabouts in Panama, which has an extradition treaty with the U.S. to return fugitives. But a spokeswoman for the Panamanian Embassy in Washington said the country never received a formal extradition petition for Angulo and that the country's constitution bars the extradition of Panamanian citizens.
The investigation began after agents raided the Union Family Pharmacy in Dubuque and found evidence that it had illegally dispensed medication over a six-month period for Pharmacom and another Internet company, Medical Web Services, which pleaded guilty. Eleven of its physicians were also prosecuted.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Evidence overload forces prosecution to drop charges
COURT
a bigger burden.