Woman Jailed After Miscarriage Wins $1.6M From Nevada County

A Nevada woman imprisoned for more than two years after a miscarriage has received a $1.6M settlement from Humboldt County, more than eight years after her arrest. According to The Nevada Independent, the deal was finalized in early August. The county admits no wrongdoing.

In February 2018, Patience Rousseau, then 26 and living in Winnemucca, found out she was pregnant. Unsure how far along she was, she wanted an abortion, but a broken-down car kept her from getting to an appointment in Reno. After searching online for natural ways to end a pregnancy, she began taking large amounts of cinnamon and lifting heavy objects. In April, she delivered a stillborn son.

About a month later, she was charged with manslaughter under a 1911 state law against taking drugs to end a pregnancy after 24 weeks. Her lawyer says she is the only person ever charged under it. A 2025 bill to repeal the law died without a hearing. Investigators, after first pointing to the cinnamon, argued her methamphetamine and marijuana use was meant to cause a miscarriage. She pleaded guilty on her public defender's advice.

In 2021, a judge vacated the conviction for ineffective counsel. Her new attorney argued that the cause of death could not be determined, that her drug use was a longstanding habit, and that she could not have known she was past 24 weeks. The charges were dismissed with prejudice in 2025.

Rousseau's lawyers say an arresting deputy, Jacqueline Mitcham, held personal resentment toward her, partly over anti-abortion beliefs. The Washington Post reported that Mitcham kept the baby's ashes at her home in Texas. Under the settlement, the ashes have been returned to Rousseau.

A Berkeley engineer caught on hidden camera pouring cadmium into his co-worker’s water bottle spent one day in jail. Now a judge has cleared his felony record.

The victim, Rong Yuan, is speaking publicly for the first time, according to ABC7 San Francisco. She says David Xu does not deserve a second chance.

Yuan says her health problems began in 2017. She suffered vomiting and hair loss. For more than two years, doctors could not find the cause.

Then her mother noticed an unusual smell coming from Yuan’s water bottle. Yuan installed a small camera at her desk.

The camera captured Xu pouring a substance into the bottle. Testing identified it as cadmium, a toxic heavy metal.

A water sample held cadmium at 3.5 million times the federal limit, according to a report reviewed by ABC7.

Yuan and her parents all tested positive for cadmium poisoning. She says the family cooked with water from that bottle.

Xu was charged in 2019 with premeditated attempted murder. In 2023, the case was resolved with a single felony poisoning count.

The San Francisco Standard reports the deal included one day of credit for time served and one year of probation. The sentencing judge called it “extremely generous” and doubled the probation to two years.

Yuan says she asked for $500,000 in restitution. She was awarded about $7,000.

On October 12, a judge granted Xu’s request to expunge the conviction. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office says it joined the victims in opposing it.

Yuan still has health problems and can work only part time. Her father died last year of heart failure.

She says she still does not know why Xu targeted her.

Finnish doctor kept parents’ bodies in freezers 30 years

A Finnish doctor kept his parents’ bodies in chest freezers for almost 30 years.

According to Yle, the man is 81 and trained as a physician. His parents died of natural causes in 1994 and 1995.

Their bodies were released to the family for burial. They were never buried.

In 1995, he picked up his father’s body from the University of Turku’s pathology department, where it had been kept for six months. He collected his mother’s body from a hospital in Åland and brought it to Turku by ferry.

He stored both bodies in chest freezers in an outbuilding at a house in Turku.

Police found them in June 2024. The freezers were buried under stored belongings. One had no electricity.

In court, he admitted storing the bodies. He said he was “only acting in accordance” with his father’s wishes. According to the Helsinki Times, he said his father wanted to be preserved for future scientific research. He also described plans for a family burial chamber in Washington state.

The court rejected that defense. It also ruled the storage was a continuing offence, so it was not too old to prosecute.

His 70-year-old brother was convicted as well. In October 2025, the two men dug a hole about 80 centimeters deep at the family grave without permission. They said they were fixing a leaning gravestone. The court found it was meant for a burial chamber.

The 81-year-old was fined about 2,000 euros. His brother was fined 640 euros. Both can appeal.

The parents were buried in Turku late last year.

A note to readers: Finnish news outlets rarely identify people in criminal cases. The country’s journalism code lets them name a convicted person, but not when doing so would be “clearly excessive” for who the person is and what they did. Names are usually kept for serious crimes or public figures. A case settled with fines, involving private people, almost never qualifies. Police there also don’t publish mugshots the way U.S. agencies do.

Fairfax school officer charged with Target shoplifting

A Fairfax County police officer is charged with shoplifting from Target. Police say he did it in uniform, while on duty.

According to a Fairfax County Police release, Master Police Officer Scott Abram is 44 and lives in Spotsylvania. He’s a 23-year veteran assigned to the department’s School Resource Officer unit.

Police say it happened on September 22.

At about 1 p.m., Abram was at the Target on New Guinea Road in Burke. Police say he was on duty and in uniform.

At the self-checkout, police say, he covered one item’s barcode with the barcode of a cheaper item. He paid for one item and walked out with both.

About four hours later, police say he did the same thing at the Target in Springfield Town Center. That time he was off duty.

Target’s loss prevention staff reported both incidents.

Police haven’t said what he took. Sources told WJLA the items were Magic: The Gathering trading cards. WJLA says there’s no sign they were rare or valuable cards.

On October 8, detectives charged Abram with two misdemeanor counts of shoplifting. He was released on two summonses.

Police Chief Kevin Davis said he was “disheartened that a police officer has betrayed the public trust with these intentional acts of criminal misconduct.”

According to FFXnow, Abram will retire on October 16 rather than face being fired.

A “vitamin shot” that wasn’t a vitamin: An automotive battery plant is accused of giving workers chelation drugs disguised as harmless injections right before mandatory medical exams, seemingly to push down lead readings and avoid failed health checks.

A deputy’s marathon of forbidden searches: A law‑enforcement officer allegedly used license‑plate cameras more than six thousand times to track partners and acquaintances, a pattern investigators say was driven by personal surveillance rather than legitimate police work.

Five government jobs at once: A London civil servant was paid for five full-time public jobs at the same time, 183 hours of work a week, and wore make-up on a video call to look sick, prosecutors say.

He made his kids help: A former Missouri corrections officer strangled his wife while one of his children poured hot water down her legs and another covered her mouth, court documents say.

Found a dog, wanted $1,000: A Florida woman who found a lost dog named Teddy sent his owners a selfie with him and demanded $1,000 to give him back, deputies say.

A DNA analyst’s string of fabricated results: A former forensic worker is accused of falsifying multiple lab reports, with investigators saying the altered DNA findings appeared aimed at shaping case outcomes rather than reflecting actual evidence.

A trove of racist messages inside a police unit: A group of officers is under investigation after allegedly sharing racist texts, a discovery that triggered an internal probe into whether the exchanges reflected broader misconduct or bias within the department.

Groped by a robot on livestream: A 1.2-metre robot touched a 16-year-old girl’s buttocks and made thrusting motions outside a Cologne fast-food restaurant while its owners streamed it live, police say.

Unopposed for police chief: A man charged with raping two 13-year-old girls is set to become police chief of a tiny Louisiana village because nobody is running against him, KPLC reports.

The man who worked more hours than exist: A civil servant allegedly used remote work and fake sick notes to secretly hold up to five full‑time government jobs at once, earning £350,000 before the overlapping fraud was uncovered.

The grad student who took “toxic work environment” literally: A University of Wyoming PhD student allegedly poisoned a colleague with antifreeze, then tried fleeing to China. She was arrested at the airport, and investigators say digital evidence strongly links her to the poisoning.

The woman who forged her way into a job: A woman, previously convicted of embezzlement and faking cancer to avoid prison, was sentenced again for submitting forged letters claiming she’d been exonerated and for faking a recommendation to secure new employment.

A grand jury’s unexpected twist in a murder case: Two sheriffs are accused of obstructing a high‑profile murder investigation, with allegations suggesting they may have tried to influence how evidence and witness credibility were handled.

He wrecked the roof he sold: A North Carolina roofer damaged a home’s shingles himself, then blamed the weather to collect an insurance payout and a commission for replacing the roof, state investigators say.

Forklift joyride at 12: A 12-year-old was spotted driving a forklift on the wrong side of an Adelaide city street at 10:45 p.m., police say.

$29.5 million for 16 years behind bars: Kirstin Lobato spent more than 16 years in prison for a Las Vegas killing she didn’t commit, and police have now paid her $29.5 million, her attorney says.

Framed at 14, paid $260.8 million: Seventeen people framed for murder by ex-Chicago detective Reynaldo Guevara, the youngest arrested at 14, spent more than 380 years in prison combined, and the City Council just agreed to pay them $260.8 million, the Sun-Times reports.

Evidence in the basement: A detective kept the withheld phone records from a 1999 New Haven murder case in her basement for 17 years, and now the city is borrowing $27 million to pay the two men it wrongly imprisoned, the New Haven Independent reports.