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By TIMES WIRES
Published March 16, 2007

Dumb criminals

Discretion key to successful drug deals

"Male, 32 years old, seeks police officer to come arrest me." Okay, that's not the ad that Joshua O'Neil of Albany, N.Y., put on the classified ad Web site Craigslist, but he might as well have. What he actually advertised was that he would supply cocaine to any female who responded. This intrigued a female narcotics officer, who set up a meeting with him. The terms of his offer: crack cocaine in return for sex favors. Her counteroffer: he gets to wear a set of handcuffs while they ride down to the police station. He couldn't refuse.

Card-carrying crook drops his card

It's always easy to track down the criminals who leave their driver's licenses at the crime scene. Robert Alan Fry of Bettendorf, Iowa, saved police another step, though. Released from prison in January after serving time for burglary, Fry, 43, is accused of breaking into an apartment and stealing a plastic jug containing about $400 in change. The reason they think it was Fry is that his Corrections Department ID card was used to pry open the apartment door. Police know this because the card was also left at the scene. So, now he's a guest of the Corrections Department again. He'll probably get a brand new ID.

He's a TV hero

Need a kidney? Here, have mine

Phillip Palmer and Dale Davis work at competing television stations in Los Angeles. Palmer is a morning co-anchor at KABC and Davis is a video editor at KCBS. But network affiliations went out the window when Palmer heard that Davis needed a new kidney, and that his fit the bill. "By giving Dale a kidney, it also gives him a chance at returning to a normal life, a life that will hopefully allow him to see his cousin play college football and his two daughters one day walk down the aisle," Palmer said. Palmer and Davis are doing fine after surgery. "All you hear is about what a bad place the world is, and I just couldn't disagree more," Davis said before the surgery.

Boredom in the court

Judges: Remain awake at trials

Remember this when picking a career: "When a judge takes the bench and is doing the public's business, now it becomes very important to stay awake," Appeals Judge Gregory Orme said. "A judge is just duty-bound to stay awake whatever it takes." Apparently, staying awake is a problem lately among judges in Utah, and Orme felt compelled to comment on it after a lawyer sent a letter to the Utah Bar Journal. "I'd like to think I'm not the only boring attorney in Utah," the anonymous letter writer said. Orme offers these tips to sleepy jurists: Get enough sleep, drink caffeinated beverages and see a sleep specialist if needed.

Compiled from Times wires and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster.

[Last modified March 16, 2007, 01:28:39]