UPDATED::Suspect in Las Vegas ‘psychic reading’ case died under house arrest
A 46-year-old man who died last week while under house arrest was one of five suspects awaiting trial in what authorities have called a long-running “psychic reading” scam that bilked a Las Vegas lawyer out of more than $1 million.
David Marks of Las Vegas died on Nov. 25 at Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center after suffering a medical episode at his home, according to Las Vegas police and the Clark County coroner’s office. His cause and manner of death had not been determined as of Monday.He and his co-defendants — Sherry Marks, Peaches Marks, Nancy Marks and Rita Stevens — were indicted in June on 14 counts of theft and one count of multiple fraudulent transactions, according to court records.
UPDATE:: 3 more charged in Las Vegas ‘psychic readings’ $1M scamA California lawyer who responded to a flyer for psychic readings was swindled out of $1.5 million by scammers who said she had to pay them to clear her chakras and eliminate her bad karma, police say.
Las Vegas prosecutors on Thursday named three more people in a sweeping indictment in a long-running “psychic reading” scam that bilked a California lawyer out of more than $1 million.Chief District Judge Linda Bell issued arrest warrants for Peaches Marks, Nancy Marks and Rita Stevens, whom prosecutors said had a roll in the scam that netted cash, jewels, airfare and a pair of $130,000 BMWs.Stevens had previously been named in the case as an uncharged co-conspirator.Two others, David Marks and Sherry Marks, were previously arrested in the case. Sherry Marks remains behind bars, while David Marks is free on his own recognizance.
Las Vegas Metro police are investigating an early morning shooting in the central Valley that left two people injured.Police: Two people shot in central Las Vegas - FOX5 Vegas - KVVU
Officers responded to reports of a shooting at 900 East Karen Avenue, near Maryland Parkway.
On arrival, officers located the two victims. One suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and the second person was shot in the stomach, according to Lt. Isaac Auten.
The victims were transported to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The suspect has not been located at this time, police said.
A local man was arrested for robbing the M Resort a total of three times since August. Henderson Police said Gregory Bolusan has stolen more than $63,000 from the casino.
Man arrested for allegedly robbing M Resort numerous times
According to officers, Bolusan showed a gun each time he allegedly robbed the casino cage. Police say the incidents happened on Aug. 24, Sept. 10 and Oct. 28.
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Bolusan who was taken into custody by Henderson Police faces burglary, attempted robbery and robbery charges. Police say Bolusan is a pastor at a local church.
UPDATE:: Former pastor found guilty in Las Vegas child sex case
A former Las Vegas area pastor who fled the country after he was accused of sexually assaulting girls as young as 7 in his congregation has been found guilty.
A Clark County District Court jury on Thursday found Otis Holland, 59, guilty of 15 felony charges, including child sexual assault and lewdness. He faces life in prison, with sentencing scheduled for March 16.
Prosecutors filed 22 new charges against Holland Thursday afternoon after five additional victims came forward, CBS affiliate KLAS reported. The new allegations involve victims from age 6 to adults.
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Prosecutors said Holland focused on sex as a path to spirituality. He taught from the pulpit that most women have burning desires blocked by sexual hang-ups that he could teach them to get past, if given the chance.
Multiple women have testified that they had sex or sexual contact with the former pastor when they were teens. They said that at the time, they didn’t talk about the abuse with their parents, who had sent them to Holland for counseling against misbehavior like skipping school or smoking cigarettes.
UPDATE:: Trial opens for former Las Vegas pastor on sex charges
"Mr. Holland's church was unique in one very dark way: he had a fundamental belief about spirituality and sexuality," said Robert Langford, who is prosecuting on the case. "And that's what this case is going to be about. He believes you could not begin to attain spirituality if you were troubled by your sexuality. And that's what he preached."
Holland was the pastor for United Faith Church, which held services in a storefront on Hacienda Avenue, near Tropicana and Eastern avenues. He met privately with the girls under the guise of "counseling" them about sexual issues, and then performed sex acts on them, Langford said.
Holland's defense lawyer Carmine Colucci told jurors that many parents in the congregation approached Holland about counseling their children on various subjects, such as family struggles and "many teenage-type problems."
"It wasn't like a sneaky, come-behind-the-building type of thing, or let's get in my car and go somewhere," Colucci said. "He was eccentric, and he didn't always follow the traditions of a traditional type of church, but you have to look at what he was trying to say and how he was trying to say it, and look beyond just the surface of what you see and here... He's not this sinister person planning and scheming to commit heinous crimes."
UPDATE:: Jury seated in trial of former pastor__
Before becoming an antigovernment “sovereign citizen,” Rick Van Thiel worked as a porn star, male escort and sex toy inventor in Las Vegas.According to a report by the Las Vegas Journal-Review on October 7, "authorities are trying to determine whether Van Thiel is connected to the so-called sovereign citizens movement." Which was hinted at above:
Now Van Thiel is in jail there, accused of practicing medicine without a license and claiming to have performed dozens of abortions, circumcisions, castrations, root canals, even cancer treatments.
Meanwhile, the FBI, the Southern Nevada Health District and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department are attempting to locate more than 100 former “patients” of the sovereign citizen-physician who calls himself “Dr. Rick.”
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Newman pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge and received probation after agreeing to talk with investigators about receiving cancer treatment from Van Thiel. That now seems to suggest Van Thiel has been on investigators’ radar for at least two years, apparently while they worked to build a strong criminal case against him.
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The ongoing investigation of David “Rick” Van Thiel and his associates rekindled on Aug. 7 when the City of Las Vegas business licensing officials received a complaint about an unlicensed medical practice in a residential neighborhood located near the intersection of Owens Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.
FBI agents, armed with a federal search warrant, raided the property on Sept. 30 and shut down the illegal medical practice that day, the Las Vegas Journal-Review reported.
Van Thiel used typical sovereign citizen rhetoric in a 2012 suit against a Las Vegas police detective who arrested him on suspicion of soliciting prostitution on the Strip.We also have this development added on,
"Natural born people are sovereign," he wrote in the suit. "The very meaning of sovereignty is that the decree of sovereign makes law... A sovereign's rights are not derived from a government. His rights are natural and unalienable."
In a police report on his prostitution arrest, the detective said he was a five-time felon convicted of attempted battery with substantial bodily harm in Nevada.
Van Thiel said an officer solicited sex from him, which he offered for free, but he spoke to the Review-Journal about two convictions that previously led to his incarceration. After his release from prison, he "expatriated" and sent out letters to have his Social Security number canceled, he said.
Las Vegas Justice Court records show the solicitation charges were dropped, as was Van Thiel's lawsuit.
In media interviews, Van Thiel said Wednesday he knew two suspected sovereign citizens charged with conspiring to kidnap at random a Las Vegas police officer in 2013.
A judge set bail at $1 million Wednesday for an alleged phony doctor after prosecutors said they were considering a murder charge against him.Sovereign Citizen “Doctor” Accused of Performing Abortions, Circumcisions and Treating Cancer | Southern Poverty Law Center
Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman said she considered Rick Van Thiel, 52, a danger to the community after listening to prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo describe the allegations.
Van Thiel had 87 so-called "patients" he kept records on, the prosecutor said, and one of them was a young man who died of AIDS.
DiGiacomo said he intended to seek a second-degree murder charge for Van Thiel's "reckless disregard."
The prosecutor is also pursuing sexual assault charges against Van Thiel. In September, a woman who had an abortion had gone to Van Thiel and he performed sexual acts on her, DiGiacomo said.
In a jail interview last week, Van Thiel said he treated people for cancer and HIV, among other serious diseases.
The unfolding drama in the Nevada desert over a deadbeat cattle rancher's refusal to pay customary grazing fees like every other rancher, continues to excite the Tea Party pseudo-patriots who believe that threatening a range war in defense of personal greed is a mark of virtue. However, Cliven Bundy's domestic terrorism serves nothing more than his own selfish financial interests, and the crusade he purports to lead is rooted in the worst sort of perversion of constitutional principles.An abbreviated look at rancher Cliven Bundy's family history
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Now we have evidence of where Bundy may have picked up his constitutional delusions. In a recent media appearance, Bundy was proudly displaying a copy of the Constitution in his shirt pocket.
After searching for the distinctive cover of the document in Bundy's pocket, the publisher turned out to be the innocuously named National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS). However, the NCCS is not the commendable educational organization it purports to be. It began life as the Freemen Institute, a vehicle for the far-right, Mormon, anti-commie, history revisionist, W. Cleon Skousen. Skousen taught that the Constitution was inspired by a God who intended America to be a Christian nation. He also professed the canon of white supremicism that Anglo-Saxons are descended from a lost tribe of Israel. The Southern Poverty Law Center chronicled the NCCS curriculum based on Skousen's philosophy saying that he...
It has been widely reported that Cliven Bundy’s family claims to have ranched in the Bunkerville area since the 1870s even though a federal judge held a different view of Bundy’s history.
Bundy repeated a similar claim Thursday when he told TheBlaze website: “My family has preemptive, adjudicated livestock water rights filed with the state of Nevada. They were established in 1877 when the first pioneers entered the valley. Among those first pioneers were my grandparents from my mother’s side. My father either bought or inherited his Nevada state livestock water rights and I, in turn, have done the same.”
Contrast that with the 1998 opinion from U.S. District Judge Johnnie Rawlinson in a case where it was determined Bundy wouldn’t be allowed to use federal land for his cattle because of failure to pay grazing fees to the Bureau of Land Management. Rawlinson wrote that it wasn’t until roughly 1954 that “Bundy or his father or both have grazed livestock on public lands owned by the United States and administered by the BLM.”
Clark County Recorder documents show the 160-acre Bunkerville ranch Bundy calls home was purchased by his parents, David and Bodel Bundy, from Raoul and Ruth Leavitt on Jan. 5, 1948. The purchase included the transfer to the Bundys of certain water rights, including water from the nearby Virgin River. Cliven Bundy was born in 1946.
