After The Rain

So, the whole thing is over. At round 10:30 this morning, Michael Rodriguez - escaped Clearfield County Jail inmate and fugitive for a little over 18 hours - blew through a roadblock in a stolen pick-up, busted his tires over spike strips, and crashed into an embankment.

However.

The media is only reporting that Rodriguez was injured, but able to walk to the staging area for LifeFlight. This is nothing compared to what I've heard: Rodriguez was indeed injured. I've heard broken legs and broken ankles, but in either case, something's broken.

Now, if Rodriguez is suffering from even one broken leg/ankle, he's also been through a pretty nerve-racking ordeal, and probably would have not been in any condition to put up any resistance.

And yet, I've been told that Rodriguez was forcibly removed from the pick-up, slammed to the ground face first - hard - and a boot was put into his neck - right after he was in a fairly nasty crash. Any emergency services worker on the planet will tell you that just moving an accident victim is tricky business and shouldn't be done lightly.

Furthermore, I've also been told that they spent a moment beating Rodriguez up a bit, probably to "teach him to not run again." After all, he had the gall to break out of jail and cause them to do their jobs! Oh noes!

After all that, he was then forced to walk UP A HILL to the extraction area where LifeFlight would take him to the hospital. So that's a reported two broken legs/ankles, one rough trip out of the vehicle, one rough meeting between ground and face, one boot to the neck to hold him down, a bit of the old Rodney King treatment, and then a Green Mile march up a fucking hill to the landing zone.

Something is seriously wrong here, people.

For the folks coming to this site from Buffalo: Obviously, you either know or know of Rodriguez, otherwise you wouldn't be searching for him. Whatever you do, don't stay quiet. Don't let Bill Shaw and the local authorities bully you. Speak up. Demand an investigation.

While Rodriguez was a sick puppy (burglary and assaulting his ex-girlfriend, among a probable laundry list of other violent crimes), no person deserves to be fucked with like that, especially after an accident. Seriously: What if Rodriguez died as a result of direct police action AFTER the crash? This place would make national news in a heartbeat if that had happened.

Thankfully, he's still alive as of yet, and the national eye can still be turned this way. If there's even a hint of possible police brutality, fan that motherfucker until the flames grow too high to not be noticed.

Clearfield County has long been in need of a good housecleaning: The corrupt elements here would surprise you. This is the second escape in three years from Clearfield County Jail: Sam Lombardo's job is in trouble, as are those of whatever COs were on duty at the time. And if local and State police are involved in any brutality, that creates a seperate fire. If the two meet and begin burning as one, then you just might see comissioners, attorneys, and judges in the other public eye: the one that doesn't like you or what you're doing very much at all.

As local residents, we have the right to know just what the hell is going on with the people we trust to protect us. If they're doing stuff that made national pariahs out of so many before them, then we need to know about it, and we need to make it stop. We need to weed out the corrupt and arrogant elements of our own local government if we even think we have a chance at making it as a community.

Otherwise, we'll still be overseen by incompetent fools who think it's all just a popularity contest and an easy paycheck at the expense of the "little people..."

CCJ Escapee: The Story Thus Far + Local Media Commentary

If you're here for just the story and not the commentary, scroll down to the big orange OK. Otherwise, some commentary:

Well well well. It looks like, apart from WQYX/WCPA (who originally reported the story locally over the air but not online) and WOKW (who first reported the inmate's capture), everybody's late to the party. Boy, it's a good thing SOMEONE was covering this story as it unfolded! Because then everyone would have to wait for these lame fuckers to get with the program and tell them what's going on.

From WJAC 6 in Johnstown, PA - who hadn't even heard this story until I called them - comes this little blurb on their website, including some of their news video. Yesterday, it was reported that WJAC's crew on the scene was pissing authorities off by not remaining in the designated press staging area. We figure that, since they were late to the game, they were trying to play catch-up by bending the rules and trying for a scoop. They're reporting that Rodriguez was injured but able to walk to the ambulance, which conflicts with my reports of Rodriguez's legs being barely able to bend correctly, let alone carry him up a hill. They also give the new location of Lecontes Mills, where the police began chasing him towards his fate on 879.

WTAJ 10 out of Altoona, PA has an article on their big advertising behemoth of a shit-tastic website, confirming that Rodriguez is, in fact, from Buffalo, NY (which would explain the big influx of traffic to my site from that area via Google searches), and reports that the time of capture as 10:30am. WTAJ was aware of the story when I called, and had dispatched reporter Danielle Kraut to the scene, who filed reports via phone on last evening's newscast.

Also on deck is the "blog" (another Blogger account, no less) of a so-called News Radio station, WESB 1490AM out of Bradford, PA (greetings to my friends there). Hahaha. Like WTAJ, they have a main Website that's totally ad-saturated, and doesn't have much content of interest at all.

One of my Twitter rivals, the Centre Daily Times (news rag out of State College, PA), has pretty much been silent on the whole story. That's some fine reporting there, Lou. Not one single tweet of theirs had anything to do with this story: They were more concerned about the tragic accidental death of a Penn State student (alcohol was a factor) and more bullshit Homeland Security nonsense about those ever-so-scary turr'sts.

(Note: I am in no way trying to marginalize the tragedy befalling Joseph Dado. It is a sad story indeed, and my sympathies are with his family and friends.)

What's the point of all this ranting? To illustrate the absolute and utter failure of the local news media - including affiliates from all the major networks - to inform the people in a timely manner. They failed to take advantage of the technology they obviously spend lots of money on, just to make look nice and generate ad revenue, apparently. They failed to use the Internet - the ultimate 24 hour, up-to-the-nanosecond communications tool - to inform people of updates. Instead, rumor and hearsay most likely dominated the conversations of people not looking to THIS FUCKING STUPID BLOG for their information.

How the hell did one kid, whom quite a number of people think of as innocuous and somewhat incapable of much, beat the absolute snot out of you when it came to coverage? That's a question I'd like answered, really. Why is it that you all have so much money and so many resources, yet one guy with a few friends and tools available cheaply to the common citizen beat you to the punch and DID YOUR JOB FOR YOU?!? Today, the local news media - if they can be called that, receives a big fat red F- for their absolute FAIL at keeping residents informed of what was obviously a very dangerous situation. You people should just resign and let a whole new team in now. Shame on you.

~*~

OK, here we go, piecing together the whole story from start to finish. The source for this info is by way of both PSP and Lawrence Township police departments:

Around 2pm yesterday, Michael Rodriguez escaped Clearfield County Jail (CCJ) by crawling under the frist yard fence, then climbing over the second. After a brief run-around, he stole the truck you saw in the previous photos from Megan and Missy, from some New York area workers who were running into a Cogos for a second, leaving their keys in the truck and allowing Rodriguez to nab it.

At some point, Rodriguez contacted a girlfriend he had in the DuBois area and was trying to get to her place. Unbeknowest to him, she was on the horn with PSP, telling them where he was and what his intentions were.

PSP and LTPD set up a roadblack with spike strips along the Shawville-Croft Highway, or State Route 879, north of Clearfield in front of the home of Sean Owens. Owens stated that you could hear the truck coming up the highway, and he had to have been doing at least 120. He hit the spike strips, lost control, and crashed at the turn shown in the photos Missy sent.

Due to the crash, Rodriguez is reported to have broken both of his legs (reports have also stated ankles). Despite this, PSP and LTPD forcibly removed him from the vehicle, slammed his face onto the ground, and someone put a boot on his neck while he was down. After this, despite the broken legs, police forced him to walk up the hill, where he was later airlifted to an unknown hospital.

Police are still searching the area along the chase route for a reported firearm, as well as impounding and searching the truck that Rodriguez stole.

Crazy, eh? A wee bit of police brutality? I think so! Even though this guy was clearly a dangerous and incredibly stupid individual, having two broken legs after a roadblock crash will certainly diminish your ability to do any sort of fighting back, thus eliminating the need for excessive force.

If these reports are true, PSP and LTPD - as well as any other agencies involved - could be in some serious trouble. Stay tuned. As I learn more, I'll be sure to post it here for all of you.

The Good Doctor 2: Electric Boogaloo

The saga of Dr. Larry Adams continues, dear readers, and it gets rather amusing. You see, despite all the hooplah over the raids on his practice, home, and van, The Good Doctor is still practicing. Yes, that's right, he hasn't been arrested or charged with anything yet (even though the general concensus is he's pretty-well fucked).

The downside? He can't write a perscription. Period. None whatsoever.

While this limits what he can do as far as pill distribution, it does pose a problem for his patients. Or rather, the ones who actually NEED the medication that he's suspected of offloading. Patients like one gent with two bad knees. Thanks to the virtual handcuffing of Dr. Adams, this poor gent has to drive all the way to State College for much more painful and less effective injections.

And what if a kid comes in with a cold, or bad allergies, or something worse like asthma or bronchitis? No antibiotics, inhalers, nothing.

Another gent discovered the no-script policy on a visit to The Good Doctor's office recently. Naturally, this guy genuinely needs his meds, so he throws an almighty fit, announcing it to the rest of the patients in the waiting area (who were also unaware of the no-script rule). Result? Alot of disgruntled people, probably most if not all in serious pain, in need of medication, and unable to get it.

Why? Because Larry Adams is a fucking moron. A selfish, greedy idiot. Way to go, Doc. Do you know how many lives you screwed up because of your actions? Let's start at the top and work our way down, shall we?

• Your Family: Let's face it, you're already sitting on a familial powder keg, what with your menagerie and all. Now that your practice is handcuffed (and you're most likely going to do some time for it), how are you going to afford to keep that up? Eh?
• The people of Philipsburg and the Moshannon Valley: How does this affect the hospital, Doc? I don't think the rest of the "Rosewood Group" is going to want to continue with their point man the subject of a State Attorney General's investigation into the illegal perscription drug trade. And that's if there even IS a "Rosewood Group." The people of this community NEED that hospital. For you to even think of screwing up such a monumental thing in an act of selfishness boggles the mind. You're a fucking DOCTOR. You're supposed to be INTELLIGENT. You're charged with HELPING PEOPLE. You took A FUCKING OATH.
• The people of the area addicted to the crap you push: I'm not going to lie to you. There's a SERIOUS PILL PROBLEM in this area. Big time. Bigger than anyone wants to admit. Anything and everything is sought after: Xanax, Percocet, Vicodin, Codine, I don't give a rat's ass how you spell all these, and of course, the big one: Hillbilly Heroine, Oxycontin. It's bad enough that the Big Pharmacuticals get away with pushing this crap on people to begin with. It's another thing to HELP THAT ADDICTION ALONG. And now that your little flow of goods has been cut off to what I'm sure is quite a few people. Where is their next fix coming from, Doc? And what will they do to get it? Nice job...
• You: There's no two ways around it, Doc. You're probably going to go to jail. And take it from me: Jail is not a fun place to be. They're not going to treat you like an Enron Executive, Martha Stewart or Paris fucking Hilton, Doc. No, the jail they send you to won't have a posh "high-profile protected custody" wing. No, if they have that, it'll be full of rapists and deviants, and at that point, I'm willing to bet that you'd rather be in General Population. Face it: For a few years, your life is going to suck major ass. If I were you, I'd start weight training now, because your pudgy ass is bound to become somebodies prison bitch for sure...

Sounds like fun, doesn't it. I pity the man in a way, but then again, I don't. The mistakes we make in life are our own. I've made my share, and I've paid (and continue to pay) for them. The Good Doctor will pay in his own way, appropriate to what he's done. There's no excuse for idiocy, whether it be his, my own, or anyone else's. The consequences are his alone to bear. I hope he's ready for it...

The Good Doctor

Oh yeah. Doc Adams is fucked. Big time. WTAJ (CBS 10) in Altoona is reporting that Dr. Larry Adams, prominant local physician and would-be hospital owner, is under investigation by PA's Attorney General.

We learned of the story on Thursday, more or less as the initial raid by PSP was in progress. A friend of ours noted on a short trip through town that Philipsburg was crawling with cops. There are busts and such occasionally (we've even had a meth lab go down in Sunny Slopes), so having most of the Philipsburg (and probably some of Woodland's) barracks in town isn't really big news.

And then came the phone call. Doc Adams' office was crawling with agents, and something big was going down. With the scanner on, we were able to hear a little, but nothing overtly important, probably due to on-scene raido silence when it came to major discoveries. We figured either he was going down for supplying pills, or his office (flush with samples and such) was broken into. A later theory also involved possible embezzlement.

A few minutes after that, we learned that both his house and his office were taped off as crime scenes, pretty much ensuring that it wasn't just a robbery, but an inside job run by the Good Doctor himself. Later on that night came word of the McDonald's bag mentioned in the WTAJ article, and we knew that he was screwed.

While the embezzlement hasn't been mentioned, it's still a very good possibility, and might just be the reason that the undercover agent mentioned. After all, Doc Adams had to get the money SOMEWHERE to buy and reopen Philipsburg Hospital. But where did that money come from? Let's take a look at that now, shall we?

First of all, Doc Adams may have a highly successful practice, but his personal life isn't the greatest. He's got a small collection of ex wives, and quite the brood of kids ranging in age from mid-teens to mid-20s. Divorces and Child Support probably suck quite a bit out of his paycheck, even on a private practice salary. Let's face it: Centre and Clearfield Counties - not to mention the State of Pennsylvania as a whole - LOVE to heap on the child support, and enforce it with jail time if you don't pay up.

Sure, he got a group of investors together, which would explain where a good majority of the money for the hospital's purchase came from. But what about the Good Doctor's share? With what has to be a personal financial nightmare straight out of a Lifetime movie, how did he get his share of the capital together, much less be able to spearhead the effort and be the public figure? Mario Lemieux he ain't, folks.

No, that money had to come from somewhere. The drugs? Sure. It's no big secret that Philipsburg and the surrounding area has a per capita pill addiction that rivals that of any major city on the map. But even if he were offing Hillbilly Heroin (Oxycontin) on top of the narcs he was nabbed with, he wouldn't be able to raise the money necessary to purchase and reopen something like a hospital.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it. If the money didn't all come from the drugs, where DID it come from? It's very possible that Doc Adams was embezzeling funds from Mid-State Medical. It's also possible that he used the practice to launder his drug profits. The fact that there's something deeper to this mystery (snigger Fred Jones snigger) is clear, and these are just some possibilities.

The reopening of Philipsburg's ER remains in doubt, which isn't good, because it's needed BADLY. With the closest ER being Clearfield, even a helicopter ride is a bit more than necessary sometimes, and not only complicates the emergency, but also ups the bill to the patient and/or their family. Local emergency medical care is an absolute must. Someone needs to step up and take the Good Doctor's place, and soon.

In the meantime, though, I'd worry more about a pillhead uprising. If I were CVS, Grattan's, and other local drug stores, I'd hire armed guards 24/7, because the supply couldn't meet the demand, even with Doc Adams' drugs on the street. What's it going to become now that the supply is WAY off?