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A foiled escape attempt at the Morgan County Jail could cost a 35-year-old Jefferson City woman five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines for supplying a hacksaw blade to an inmate serving time on drug charges.
A foiled escape attempt at the Morgan County Jail could cost a 35-year-old Jefferson City woman five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines for supplying a hacksaw blade to an inmate serving time on drug charges.
Amanda Leigh Lesh pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matt J. Whitworth on May 6 to conspiring to help an inmate at the jail. She was named in a federal indictment in Dec. 2012.
In the plea, Lesh admitted that she smuggled a hacksaw blade into the cell occupied by Mitchell Atterberry, who was being held in the Morgan County jail on federal charges related to distributing methamphetamine. Atterberry's cellmate, Steven Pyykola of Springfield, was also part of the escape attempt. Pyykola was convicted of three state murder charges and is serving three consecutive life sentences without parole.
According to the U. S. District's Attorney's office, Morgan County sheriff's deputies received a tip on Nov. 14, 2012 about the escape attempt. They searched Atterberry's cell where they found that the window had been damaged. The metal support beam had been cut most of the way through. They also found a 10-inch saw blade in the mat on the top bunk of the cell and a smaller two-inch saw blade that appeared to have broken off the larger blade.
Authorities reviewed telephone calls that Atterberry and Pyykola made to Lesh, in which they asked her to purchase saw blades and deliver them to the jail underneath their second story window.
Court documents said Atterberry and Pyykola would then slide a string out of a hole that had been made in the window to the ground where Lesh would tie on the items and they would pull them up and in through the window. Lesh also made references to picking up the two after the escape and buying them clothes to wear.
On Nov. 13, 2012, Atterberry told Lesh in a recorded telephone conversation that they "worked on it late last night, couldn't get it done" and in a later call that day said they hoped to get it done "by tonight." The next day, authorities received the tip about the escape plans.
According to Morgan County Sheriff Jim Petty, the incident was not made public at the time due to the investigation by the U.S. Marshal's Office.
Lesh was charged in federal court because Atterberry was a prisoner of the U.S. Marshal's Office. Morgan County contracts with various federal agencies to hold prisoners pending resolution of their cases.
A couple of months prior to the attempted escape, Pyykola had been found guilty by a Morgan County jury after a change of venue in a triple homicide case that occurred in Laclede County. He was still in the Morgan County Jail awaiting sentencing.
The sheriff said the inmates took advantage of some small holes at the cell's window that had been punched in over the years by inmates using pencils. Several windows have holes you can stick a thumb in, according to Petty.
The inmates were able to put a string through the hole to the outside to fish in the hacksaw blades as well as cigarettes and a small flashlight.
Petty doubted whether the men could have successfully escaped through the narrow upper story windows, but said the county is planning to put in plates to prevent prisoners from being able to create the holes in the future.
Under federal statutes, Lesh is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven R. Berry. It was investigated by the Morgan County Sheriff's Department, the U.S. Marshal's Service and the DEA.


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The daughter of slain San Francisco porn mogul Artie Mitchell is being sought by local and state authorities following an identity-theft spree and a hit-and-run crash last week that involved a Sonoma County Sheriff's Office unmarked patrol car.
Jasmine Mitchell, 33, of San Pablo, is wanted on a warrant in connection to the ID-theft case and may also be charged with assault on a police officer and hit-and-run for an April 29 incident, Sheriff's Office Sgt. Michael Raasch said.
About 7 p.m. that day, detectives were tipped that Mitchell and a second suspect, 34-year-old Roy Kim, were living at an apartment complex across from the San Pablo Lytton Casino, Raasch said.
The pair was wanted on warrants related to "multiple identity thefts," Raasch said, and Kim, who is on parole for possession of stolen property, was also being sought by state parole agents and for a burglary case in Santa Clara County.
Detectives searched the unit and detained three other people after investigators uncovered a large-scale identity-theft and credit-card operation, Raasch said.
One of the three people, who police identified as Harley Logsdon, 46, of San Pablo, was on probation out of Napa County for alleged forgery, Raasch said. He was arrested and booked into the Contra Costa County Jail on outstanding arrest warrants. He was being held without bail on Tuesday for a probation violation.
As detectives continued the search that day, Mitchell drove into the parking lot in a Mercedes, he said. When detectives attempted to arrest Mitchell she rammed an unmarked police car and a parked car then sped away, Raasch said.
The suspect vehicle was described as a white, four-door Mercedes sedan with the California license plate No. 5YGV637.
Detectives later located Kim inside a taxi in Richmond, Raasch said. He was arrested and booked into the Contra Costa County Jail for outstanding warrants.
Mitchell's father and her uncle, Jim Mitchell, were pioneers in the production of pornographic films in the Bay Area and founded the O'Farrell Theater on San Francisco's O'Farrell Street. In late February 1991, Jim drove to Artie's house in Corte Madera and shot him to death.
Jasmine Mitchell is only the latest family member facing criminal charges. In 2009, a son of Jim Mitchell -- James Mitchell -- was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison for killing the mother of his daughter with a baseball bat in Novato.
Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at 510-293-2469. Follow her at Twitter.com/nataliealund.

subset: commoncrawl


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LONGMONT -- Longmont's city manager got a raise. And a bonus. And he wants to give half of them back.
Just hours after getting a 4 percent raise and 5 percent bonus from the Longmont City Council on Tuesday, City Manager Harold Dominguez asked that he get only half the amount, with the rest being set aside for employee recognition and appreciation.
"It's a fundamental belief of mine that I'm as good as anyone else in the organization," Dominguez said. "It takes all of us to come together and work."
Dominguez started with Longmont in April 2012 at a base salary of $175,000. That would put his approved raise at $7,000 and his bonus at $8,750. If the council agrees to his suggestion -- proposed in a 2 a.m. email following a late-night meeting -- that would set $7,875 aside for employee recognition efforts.
Mayor Dennis Coombs said he wasn't surprised by the offer.
"Harold is the ultimate team player and he puts his team first," Coombs said. "I'm sure (the council) will fully support his decision. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I know I will."
The city has been looking at combining employee-centered groups such as the Employee Advisory Group or the Employee Recognition Committee into a single organization. But by whatever name, Dominguez said, the groups don't usually have a lot of funds to support what they do. This seemed like an appropriate way to help, he said.
"Without their support, it could have been a difficult year," Dominguez said of the city's employees. "And it wasn't."
Scott Rochat can be reached at 303-684-5220 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
BOSTON -- A former middle school student at the Pike School in Andover claims one of his teachers initiated a sexual relationship that continued after he graduated and was enrolled at the Groton School, according to a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday by the now 34-year-old man.
"Very confusing for a 15-year-old kid," the alleged victim said Thursday about a relationship he claims began in the fall of 1992 with a now 70-year-old Newburyport woman, Judith Elefante.
He agreed to speak to The Sun on condition of anonymity.
His suit claims Elefante, in her former role as his teacher at the Pike School, showered him with special attention and gifts before moving on to sex.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, names 16 defendants, including the Pike and Groton schools and 10 individuals who either still work there or have left. Criminal charges cannot be filed because the statute of limitations has expired.
Elefante could not be reached for comment Thursday, as her number is unlisted.
Boston attorney Carmen Durso said Elefante continued to maintain control over his client even after he graduated in 1993 from the Pike School, a private school for prekindergarten through grade 9. Once enrolled at the Groton School, Elefante mailed him letters every day, the suit alleges. There are also allegations of sexual activities happening inside his dorm room.
As a football player, the alleged victim said he never traveled on the bus with his team after a road game. Instead, he'd be picked up by Elefante, where his suit alleges she'd drive him to various public parking areas where the two would have sex.
The suit claims he spent his first few years of high school becoming more and more "emotionally and physically overwhelmed by the defendant's constant sexual demands, even suffering physical discomfort and injury as a result."
Durso, whose law practice specializes in sexual abuse, said his client initially tried contacting the Pike School and Groton School himself about two years ago. A different lawyer attempted to work with the schools to negotiate an out-of-court settlement and an agreement to acknowledge that there was a problem.
"The schools basically blew him off," said Durso.
Durso said one of the biggest admissions of guilt is the fact that in a letter to the Pike School community last month, Headmaster John Waters wrote that he responded in 2011 to the allegations by confronting Elefante.
"She confirmed that their relationship continued after he left Pike and that, in fact, the relationship developed into a sexual one," Waters wrote.
The Feb. 21 letter goes on to state that Waters immediately fired Elefante, although it does not acknowledge Durso's charge that sexual relations between his client and Elefante began at the Pike School.
Durso said the school only disclosed the fact Elefante admitted to her role in an inappropriate relationship after he announced his client would file a civil suit.
Pike spokeswoman Karen Schwartzman, who runs a Boston-based public relations firm specializing in crisis management, said Thursday that when the matter was first raised two years ago, the alleged victim's former attorneys "were quite clear the sexual activity began after the student graduated from Pike."
"It's news to us that a claim is being made asserting he had sexual relations while a student at Pike," she said, adding that when the school questioned all of Elefante's colleagues, no one reported hearing any such allegations.
"That's not to say it didn't happen, but nobody has ever brought that attention to us before," Schwartzman said.
The Groton School has not drafted any similar letters. Elefante was never employed by Groton, but Durso said she was known to the school due to her role as a secondary-school counselor at the Pike, meaning she helped students at schools like Pike gain admission to schools like Groton.
Once his client started classes at Groton, Durso said, Elefante started visiting the school. In an interview the victim said the only other person who knew of the alleged relationship was his roommate, who had previously walked in on Elefante and himself having sex.
The alleged victim claims there were weekends he'd spend with Elefante away from campus when he never had to tell school officials his whereabouts. The school, he said, had a tradition of students shaking the hand of his or her dorm parent each night as a form of checking attendance.
"I'm not making these check-ins when I'm at Groton," the victim said. "I'm not coming back on the weekends like I'm supposed to."
Durso said these types of revelations illustrate Groton's culpability. With each year, the alleged victim said he began to feel closer and closer to Elefante, "to the point of her talking about how we'd have a future together."
Groton School Headmaster Rick Commons issued a statement Thursday stating that "while Ms. Elefante was never an employee of Groton School and we were unaware of any abuse, we are deeply concerned about any allegation of sexual abuse, particularly involving children, and we will cooperate fully with authorities in any investigation of this matter."
Durso's client would drop out of Groton and enroll at Andover High School. The relationship with Elefante allegedly ended at around the time he turned 21.
Durso said another alleged Pike School victim is ready to come forward in support of his client's claims.
In the next few weeks, he said, all defendants will be served with papers. A discovery phase will begin and depositions will follow. It's still unclear what monetary damages his client will seek.
"We invite anybody who was harmed by this woman to contact us," said Durso.
Follow Evan Lips at Twitter.com/evanmlips.


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COLLEGE PARK, Md. –Thirteenth-ranked Maryland scored three goals in 11 minutes in the second half to earn a 3-1 ACC men's soccer victory over Duke this evening in front of a boisterous 8,397 fans at Ludwig Field. The match was the final regular season ACC match between the conference rivals as Maryland joins the Big 10 in 2014.
Duke falls to 1-1-1 for the season and 0-1-0 in conference action, while Maryland earns its first victory of the year to move to 1-1-1 and 1-0-0. Sean Davis netted the lone goal for the Blue Devils, his second of the season and second career score against Maryland.
Maryland controlled play in the early going, but Duke's defense maintained composure in keeping the high-powered offense off the board. Redshirt senior goalkeeper Alex Long came up with a big save in the 11th minute after Patrick Mullins rifled one from 18 yards.
The Terrapins' best chance of the half came less than 10 minutes later off of a set piece from 25 yards out. Sunny Jane lofted a ball to the far post where Alex Crognale sent a header off the post. Fighting to get into an offensive rhythm, the Blue Devils were able to get forward and draw a foul nearly 30 yards from goal.
Davis, who scored his first career goal at Maryland as a rookie in 2011, stepped behind the ball and bent his shot around the wall and past the outstretched hands of Zack Steffen for the 1-0 lead. The goal, against the run of play, helped quiet the electric crowd and built the Blue Devils' confidence for the final 20 minutes.
After Duke nearly made it 2-0 on a shot from Seo-In Kim, the Terrapins came right back and tied the game 1-1. A missed clearance by the Blue Devils and a good touch from Maryland allowed Endoh Tsubasa just enough room for a strike past Long from 25 yards. The Terrapins made it a two-goal game two minutes later with a score from Patrick Mullins.
The Blue Devils continued to fight all over the field, but were unable to get things going offensively. Overall, Maryland held a 19-4 advantage in shots, including nine shots on goal. Long added four saves in the second half to push his total to six for the game.
Duke returns to action in its first midweek contest against Georgia Southern Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.


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Police log for March 12
Police log
March 12
12:56 a.m. Arrest on North Norma Street for violation of court order to prevent domestic violence.
1:45 a.m. Warrant arrest and citation on West Wilson Avenue for driving on a suspended license.
3:23 a.m. Warrant arrest and citation at South Norma Street and West Rader Avenue for prowling.
6:31 a.m. Disturbance – subject on South Lincoln Street.
7:30 a.m. Noninjury-hit-and-run report on East California Avenue.
8:57 a.m. Warrant arrest on North Wayne Street.
9:45 a.m. Disturbance – subject on North Helena Street.
10:05 a.m. Fraud report on West Upjohn Avenue.
11:06 a.m. Theft report on North Fairview Street.
11:47 a.m. Found-bicycle report on East Ridgecrest Boulevard.
12:53 p.m. Subpoena service on West Robertson Avenue.
1:24 p.m. Theft report on North Sherri Street.
1:47 p.m. Warrant arrest on South College Heights Boulevard for possession of a controlled substance.
2:11 p.m. Terrorist-threats report on North Balsam Street.
3:01 p.m. Theft report on South Gemstone Street.
4:20 p.m. Cruelty-to-animals report on South Fountain Street.
4:45 p.m. Child Protective Services referral on West Ward Avenue.
4:46 p.m. Arrest on South Sorrel Street for using or being under the influence of a controlled substance.
6:30 p.m. Disturbance – subject on North Peg Street.
6:30 p.m. Disturbance – verbal on West Haloid Avenue.
6:46 p.m. Domestic-disturbance report on North Wayne Street.
6:55 p.m. Arrest on North Norma Street for attempted robbery and vandalism.
7:02 p.m. Warrant arrest on North Wayne Street for receiving stolen property.
7:28 p.m. Arrest on South China Lake Boulevard for driving under the influence.
7:35 p.m. Harassment report on East Commercial Avenue.
7:44 p.m. Fraud report on West Robertson Avenue.
8:46 p.m. Forgery report on West Robertson Avenue.
9:22 p.m. Annoying/obscene-phone-call report on West Church Avenue.
9:30 p.m. Citation at South China Lake Boulevard and West Bowman Road of unlicensed driver.
Officers made nine traffic stops.


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Chelsea Handler has jumped into bed with Netflix, before the ink is fully dry on her divorce papers from E!
The comedian has signed a seven-year deal with Netflix that will bring comedy specials to the streaming service this fall and launch her new talk show in 2016, the New York Daily News reports.
Earlier this year, Handler announced she was ending her late-night show on E! While the contract wasn't set to expire until December, her public criticism of the cable channel prompted E! to move up her final air date to Aug. 26.
Her first comedy special will hit Netflix Oct. 10, though she actually is taping it Friday in Chicago as part of her "Uganda Be Kidding Me" tour.
"If I was going to continue working in this industry, I knew I had to do something outside the box to keep myself interested," the 39-year-old Handler said in a statement Thursday. "I wanted to sit with the cool kids at lunch so I approached Netflix to make sure they were as cool as I thought they were, and when I confirmed my suspicions, like with any other future lover, I made my move.
"I'm more excited than I've been in awhile, and the team at Netflix is the most forward thinking, alert group I've sat down with in ages. No offense to the Shahs Of Sunset."
The execs at E! are probably already peeling her name off the dressing room door.
Netflix has become the king of streaming venues, with Emmy-nominated "House of Cards" and the blockbuster series "Orange Is the New Black."
Handler's deal includes four "docu-comedy specials" in 2015, Netflix said in a statement, that will showcase "her efforts to gain a better understanding of a variety of subjects ranging from NASCAR to politics and from Silicon Valley to the NBA draft." Details of the 2016 talk show were not yet revealed, except it will not be labeled "late-night" because streaming programs are designed to be watched whenever viewers want.