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Schwarzenegger outlaws sex with corpses
SAN FRANCISCO Having sex with corpses is now officially illegal in California after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) signed a bill barring necrophilia, a spokeswoman says.
The new legislation marks the culmination of a two-year drive to outlaw necrophilia in the state and will help prosecutors who have been stymied by the lack of an official ban on the practice, according to experts.
"Nobody knows the full extent of the problem. ... But a handful of instances over the past decade is frequent enough to have a bill concerning it," said Tyler Ochoa, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law who has studied California cases involving allegations of necrophilia.
"Prosecutors didn't have anything to charge these people with other than breaking and entering. But if they worked in a mortuary in the first place, prosecutors couldn't even charge them with that," Ochoa said on Friday.
The state's first attempt to outlaw necrophilia, in response to a case of a man charged with having sex with the corpse of a 4-year-old girl in Southern California stalled last year in a legislative committee.
Lawmakers revived the bill this year after an unsuccessful prosecution of a man found in a San Francisco funeral home drunk and passed out on top of an elderly woman's corpse.
The new law makes sex with a corpse a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison.
SAN FRANCISCO Having sex with corpses is now officially illegal in California after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) signed a bill barring necrophilia, a spokeswoman says.
The new legislation marks the culmination of a two-year drive to outlaw necrophilia in the state and will help prosecutors who have been stymied by the lack of an official ban on the practice, according to experts.
"Nobody knows the full extent of the problem. ... But a handful of instances over the past decade is frequent enough to have a bill concerning it," said Tyler Ochoa, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law who has studied California cases involving allegations of necrophilia.
"Prosecutors didn't have anything to charge these people with other than breaking and entering. But if they worked in a mortuary in the first place, prosecutors couldn't even charge them with that," Ochoa said on Friday.
The state's first attempt to outlaw necrophilia, in response to a case of a man charged with having sex with the corpse of a 4-year-old girl in Southern California stalled last year in a legislative committee.
Lawmakers revived the bill this year after an unsuccessful prosecution of a man found in a San Francisco funeral home drunk and passed out on top of an elderly woman's corpse.
The new law makes sex with a corpse a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison.
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Burning wasp sets house on fire
A burning wasp set fire to a house in Germany.
Police in Drebach said a roofing worker used his blowtorch to protect himself against a swarm of the insects.
A wasp was set on fire and flew back to its nest located in the rafters and set it on fire.
The blaze spread to the attic, causing an estimated £1,350 of damage.
A burning wasp set fire to a house in Germany.
Police in Drebach said a roofing worker used his blowtorch to protect himself against a swarm of the insects.
A wasp was set on fire and flew back to its nest located in the rafters and set it on fire.
The blaze spread to the attic, causing an estimated £1,350 of damage.
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Man Charged With Selling Skull on EBay
Youthful indiscretion and the power of EBay have landed a Huntington Beach man in hot water with the feds.
Thirty-five years ago, Jerry David Hasson, 55, found a prehistoric skull in the sands of Hawaii; today he faces up to five years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine for allegedly violating the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act by selling the skull on EBay.
"These are the ancestors of our native Hawaiians," said Assistant U.S. Atty. William Carter, who is prosecuting the case. "All of these remains are part of our historical and cultural heritage, and we have to preserve them for the [native] people and for ourselves."
Hasson could not be reached for comment.
According to authorities, Hasson said he found the skull while he and Charlton Heston's son Fraser were living on Maui during the 1969 filming of "The Hawaiians," a feature film starring the elder Heston and in which Hasson played a bit part.
One day, Hasson said, he and two friends, including Fraser Heston, decided to explore a guarded archeological site on Kaanapali Beach.
"Being a teenager, I along with some friends ... decided to sneak over late one night and see what we could find," Hasson wrote in an EBay ad he posted this year.
"While digging in the sand, we began to uncover an entire skeleton and, of course, I decided to keep the skull. For the last 35 years, I've kept this 200-year-old Hawaiian Warrior as a souvenir of my youth but now it's time to give him to the highest bidder."
Hasson's high bidder turned out to be John Fryar, a special agent with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
His job includes posing as an eBay buyer to enforce federal laws that protect archeological artifacts and the human remains of Native Hawaiians by prohibiting their interstate sale.
Members of a Native Hawaiian organization, Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei (Group Caring for the Ancestors of Hawaii), alerted Fryar to the ad and told him they found it deeply offensive.
Over the next three days, Fryar communicated with Hasson by telephone and e-mail, eventually winning the auction for $2,500. But Hasson knew such a sale was illegal, Fryar said. To "cover it up," Fryar agreed to bid the same $2,500 for another item - a 1966 Fanzine comic book worth $50 - and Hasson would "gift" him the skull, Fryar wrote in his affidavit.
The FBI contacted Fraser Heston, who recalled finding a skeleton as a teenager in Hawaii but reportedly said he had never heard of Hasson, according to Fryar's affidavit.
After Hasson mailed the skull to a New Mexico address, it was examined by a University of Hawaii anthropologist who confirmed the remains to be those of a Polynesian woman who died at about age 50.
Hasson is expected to be arraigned within two weeks.
Youthful indiscretion and the power of EBay have landed a Huntington Beach man in hot water with the feds.
Thirty-five years ago, Jerry David Hasson, 55, found a prehistoric skull in the sands of Hawaii; today he faces up to five years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine for allegedly violating the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act by selling the skull on EBay.
"These are the ancestors of our native Hawaiians," said Assistant U.S. Atty. William Carter, who is prosecuting the case. "All of these remains are part of our historical and cultural heritage, and we have to preserve them for the [native] people and for ourselves."
Hasson could not be reached for comment.
According to authorities, Hasson said he found the skull while he and Charlton Heston's son Fraser were living on Maui during the 1969 filming of "The Hawaiians," a feature film starring the elder Heston and in which Hasson played a bit part.
One day, Hasson said, he and two friends, including Fraser Heston, decided to explore a guarded archeological site on Kaanapali Beach.
"Being a teenager, I along with some friends ... decided to sneak over late one night and see what we could find," Hasson wrote in an EBay ad he posted this year.
"While digging in the sand, we began to uncover an entire skeleton and, of course, I decided to keep the skull. For the last 35 years, I've kept this 200-year-old Hawaiian Warrior as a souvenir of my youth but now it's time to give him to the highest bidder."
Hasson's high bidder turned out to be John Fryar, a special agent with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
His job includes posing as an eBay buyer to enforce federal laws that protect archeological artifacts and the human remains of Native Hawaiians by prohibiting their interstate sale.
Members of a Native Hawaiian organization, Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei (Group Caring for the Ancestors of Hawaii), alerted Fryar to the ad and told him they found it deeply offensive.
Over the next three days, Fryar communicated with Hasson by telephone and e-mail, eventually winning the auction for $2,500. But Hasson knew such a sale was illegal, Fryar said. To "cover it up," Fryar agreed to bid the same $2,500 for another item - a 1966 Fanzine comic book worth $50 - and Hasson would "gift" him the skull, Fryar wrote in his affidavit.
The FBI contacted Fraser Heston, who recalled finding a skeleton as a teenager in Hawaii but reportedly said he had never heard of Hasson, according to Fryar's affidavit.
After Hasson mailed the skull to a New Mexico address, it was examined by a University of Hawaii anthropologist who confirmed the remains to be those of a Polynesian woman who died at about age 50.
Hasson is expected to be arraigned within two weeks.
