Hello! Hope all of you are doing well—or on the way of doing better.

Here’s this week’s news…

A former Pensacola police officer who worked security at an elementary school is charged with possessing child sexual abuse material, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

FDLE arrested 47-year-old Matthew Baxter on October 26. He faces four counts of possessing child sexual abuse material, 30 counts of sexual activity involving animals, four counts of digital voyeurism, and two counts of using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony.

WEAR reports that Baxter’s probable cause report says investigators found more than 1,800 bestiality files on his iPad. It also lists four files of child sexual abuse material and four photos he allegedly took of unknown people in restrooms.

It began with a drug arrest. On October 12, agents arrested Baxter, then a part-time officer, in uniform and in his patrol car. Police say he bought hydrocodone on his way home from an airport shift. Investigators then searched his devices.

Police Chief Eric Winstrom says Baxter is accused of buying images of children online. Police say the children are not local.

Baxter, described by a shocked parent as “our protector,” worked security at A.K. Suter Elementary School and at a church. The school district says there is no indication that any Suter student is involved.

The Pensacola News Journal reports that the church told its congregation that authorities said no allegations involve its members.

Winstrom says paperwork from Baxter’s polygraph is missing from his personnel file. The department is now reviewing every officer’s background check.

Baxter has been released from Escambia County Jail on $300,000 bond. FDLE says the investigation is active, with additional charges pending.

Montreal police have fired seven officers over allegations of racist and discriminatory conduct, according to The Canadian Press.

Chief Fady Dagher announced the dismissals Monday and called them a first in the force’s history. Five of the officers were at Station 39 in racially diverse Montréal-Nord. Two were at downtown’s Station 21.

Station 39 is where police dismantled a 16-member patrol unit in June. Dagher has confirmed that the allegations there include officers cutting the hair of racialized civilians to keep as trophies.

At Station 21, Dagher says the dismissals involve racism and conduct toward vulnerable people. La Presse reports that police sources say one of those officers urinated on a person’s bed during an intervention while the person was not in it. Dagher called it a disgusting act, but not one committed on a person.

The officers have turned in their guns and badges and will no longer serve. Dagher called the firings administrative. The criminal investigations are separate and ongoing.

The firings come three days after Dagher said evidence still to emerge from the misconduct investigations will be “catastrophic,” adding that “there’s more to come.”

The force has submitted its files to the Crown prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to file charges.

Based on a true story: A Texas man allegedly wrote a novel about how he murdered his mother, staged it as an accident, and told investigators he killed her because she was ill and he wanted to return to his children.

A playlist of lies: A mother accused of covering up her 1-year-old daughter’s homicide by playing fake baby cries over the phone to fool the grandparents was sentenced to two years’ probation instead of prison.

A detox with no exit: A father and son who ran Los Angeles treatment facilities are accused of ordering that patients who tried to leave be drugged so they could keep billing insurers, which paid about $210 million, according to a federal complaint.

Roach motel, library edition: Surveillance video appears to show someone throwing a box of cockroaches at a library employee, forcing the branch to close for the day, with no motive or charges announced.

Tampon tender: A Florida woman allegedly tried to pay for her Taco Bell order with tampons and then told cops her mom lived close by.

A scammer’s sore-loser stunt: A Nova Scotia woman who refused to follow a fake bank-fraud caller’s instructions was swatted with a false armed-hostage report, which police call apparent retribution.

Done driving, apparently: A private ambulance driver taking a patient with chest pain to the hospital allegedly got lost, told her he was done driving for the day, and called an Uber home.

First body, bragged early: A New Hampshire man, 40, pleaded guilty to killing his father at 17 after he bragged to a police officer about beating his “first body” at that age; the father was found wrapped in carpet in 2003.

Vodka-powered 911 call: A woman, 33, allegedly told 911 her husband had a chainsaw and planned to cut her up, then admitted drinking a half-gallon of vodka; police found no chainsaw and charged her with a felony false report.

Sting, meet badge: A police officer was arrested and released without charges after an amateur sting group says he showed up to meet someone he believed was a 16-year-old girl and tried to run.

Judge ghosts panel: A federal judge under a misconduct probe failed to appear at her own investigative hearing, Reuters reports.

Same threat, new DUI: A driver with a .23 reading allegedly threatened to shoot an officer after his DUI arrest while out on pretrial release for allegedly making the same threat after a 2023 DUI arrest.

Witness changes tune: A woman who was 13 at a 2008 drive-by murder trial now says she never saw the defendant fire a gun, saying police and a family member pressured her, while prosecutors say three other witnesses identified him.

Badge, meet border: A grand jury indicted a former police detective for smuggling a person into the US and hiding them from law enforcement, with trial set for January 2027.

A sick note with fins: A teacher on sick leave since 2009 is charged with fraud after prosecutors say she forged two scuba-diving fitness certificates under the name of a nonexistent doctor while collecting about €248,000 in pay she wasn’t owed between 2021 and 2025.

Two of the three eyewitnesses who put a New Mexico man in prison later said they lied.

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Carl Case was convicted in 1982 of the rape and murder of Nancy Mitchell. She was a teenage girl found dead on the banks of the Pecos River near Carlsbad. The case rested almost entirely on three eyewitnesses, who were kids themselves.

The two who recanted said law enforcement pressured them, and they feared being prosecuted. That was not enough. Case lost several appeals. The paper reports that three generations of lawyers from the Rothstein Donatelli firm worked on his case over the years.

What changed the outcome, according to KRQE, was three categories of new evidence.

First, forensic entomology, which was not available at trial. Analysis of insect larvae in photos of the body indicated decomposition began well before the date given at trial.

Second, later statements by the third eyewitness that, the judge wrote, show a guilty conscience. KRQE reports the order says this supports a theory that he was the true perpetrator.

Third, testimony from a juvenile convicted in the same case. He said he was offered immunity if he admitted involvement. The order says this shows the state used pressure to obtain false testimony.

Judge Lisa Riley wrote that the court has “no doubt” Case met the standard. Case walked out of the Penitentiary of New Mexico on Oct. 27, after 44 years. He was 65.

The state has appealed. Riley ordered him released while the appeal is pending.