A Burlington County, New Jersey man who is wheelchair bound following a train accident is in police custody, charged with sexually assaulting two children at an in-home daycare operated by his now-deceased wife.
Dennis Alston, 54, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly sexually assaulting two siblings -- both under the age of 12 -- while they were in his now-dead wife's care at her licensed home daycare, Home Sweet Home, located at 25 Timber Lane in Willingboro.
An investigation into the alleged assaults was launched after the children's parent contacted police and told them the kids were forced to perform sex acts on Alston.
The suspect's sister, Valerie Johnson, maintains her brother's innocence.
"My brother is not a rapist," said Johnson. "The whole neighborhood loves him. You could ask the neighbors and they'll tell you about my brother."
Neighbors were shocked to hear the news of Alston's arrest -- all of them saying the same thing -- he is a nice guy.
Police say the sexual assaults occured multiple times from January 2013 to August 2013.
Alston is being held in Burlington County Jail. Bail is set at $300,000.
Investigators are urging anyone with knowledge of Alston's alleged inappropriate conduct to the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit.
The man accused of hunting down and raping a young doctor inside her Rittenhouse Square apartment remained behind bars Thursday after a Philadelphia judge set a new court date in the case.
Since his arrest in June, Milton Mateo Garcia has been held without bail.
Garcia, 28, stands charged with a bevy of counts related to the June 21 assault. On Thursday, Judge James DeLeon dropped kidnapping for ransom and robbery to inflict serious injury charges but held another 14 charges -- including forcible rape, sexual assault, theft, burglary, aggravated assault and false imprisonment -- for court.
Investigators say the South Philadelphia man followed the victim as she walked home from a bar after a night out with friends.
Surveillance video shows a man, alleged to be Garcia, biking past the woman along the 1900 block of Spruce Street, locking up his cycle and then grabbing her from behind and leading her into an apartment building.
Police say Garcia then forced his way inside and repeatedly raped the doctor before stealing her smartphone and keys. Three days later, police took the restaurant worker into custody. Investigators said they found the victim's smartphone inside a bedroom at Garcia's home and her keys in his pocket when he was taken into custody, detectives said.
A Honduran national, Garcia was removed from the United States in June 2013, according U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division. The agency has lodged a detainer against him to ensure they're notified before he's released from custody.
Detectives with the Special Victims Unit said they looked at whether Garcia was involved in any other assaults.
Garcia will be formal arraigned in October.
The jury in Christina Regusters' criminal case began to weigh the evidence against the alleged child rapist and kidnapper this morning. The first day of deliberations lasted 5 hours.
Judge Jeffrey Minehart gave the 12 jurors and two alternates their instructions. Just before lunch, the door closed to the jury room and 7 women and 5 men began sifting through the mountain of evidence.
Regusters is charged with six crimes -- aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a child involving serious bodily injury, kidnapping, unlawful contact with a minor, unlawful restraint of a minor and concealing the whereabouts of a child. It's the burden of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to prove Regusters committed those crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.
Three hours into deliberations, the jury submitted a handwritten note and asked a question of the judge: "Could we please see the police and FBI interview of Christina?"
Minehart answered "no."
The jurors would need to rely on their recollections of the testimony.
Attorney Tom Kline, who is representing the victim in a civil case, said such a request is not uncommon because the statements were presented to the jury as part of the law enforcement testimony and not entered as evidence.
Regusters' statement on Feb. 7, 2013 to Philadelphia Police was signed by her and in the format of question and answer. Her statement to the FBI was a narrative of the interview written by the agent.
Regusters gave a second statement to the police on February 14. Defense attorney Fred Harrison Jr. successfully argued that that statement should not be admissible because Regusters had not been read her Miranda Rights.
Regusters is accused of abducting the victim from her school day care last winter in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood, sneaking her home in a laundry bag, hiding her naked underneath a bed and sexually assaulting her with a sharp object, repeatedly. The victim was then taken to a nearby park. Her 19-hour ordeal ended when she was found that next morning by a passerby.
The victim's mother took the stand with emotional testimony and pictures during the trial describing how the attack changed her daughter's life.
Prosecutors allege Regusters acted alone. She is the only person charged in the case. Regusters maintains her innocence. Her attorney, Fred Harrison, Jr., says other people were involved.
A man put his head under the skirt of a woman leaving a Brooklyn subway station, then threw her down the stairs and attacked her when she tried to push him away, police say.
The 32-year-old woman was walking up the stairs at the Dekalb Avenue D/M subway station at about 10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8 when the man went up her skirt, police said.
When the victim tried to push the suspect away from her, he threw her down the stairs and began punching and kicking her, according to police. The suspect then ran away.
The victim suffered bruises and was not transported to the hospital.
The suspect is described as about 60 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches and 160 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
A Philadelphia judge sentenced a man who pleaded guilty to assaulting a robbing an elderly Temple University professor last year to serve at least 17 years in prison.
Darryl Moon, 46, pleaded guilty earlier this month to aggravated assault and robbery counts, according to court records.
On Friday. Common Pleas Court Judge Giovanni Campbell sentenced Moon to 17 to 35 years in prison.
Police say Moon entered Anderson Hall on Oct. 29, 2013, an academic building located off of 12th Street and Montgomery Avenue in a complex of buildings on the North Philadelphia campus, made his way to 81-year-old Gopalakrishnan Veeraswamy's office and then punched the professor in the face before demanding his wallet while placing a knife to Veeraswamy's throat.
Police say Moon then took the wallet and punched him in the face again, causing lacerations to his face and head as well as swelling and bleeding to his brain that require hospitalization.
Officers arrested Moon after video from the university was released.
A suburban Philadelphia County is taking on drug overdoses head on. Montgomery County officials plan to announce an Overdose Task Force to help combat growing heroin-use trends throughout the county.
The ultimate goal of the new task force will be to put together preventative strategies against drug and heroin overdoses in hopes of reducing overdose-related deaths in Montco.
County officials will unveil the new task force at noon Friday.
An increase in drug overdoses is a national trend that has made its way into local regions. The issue comes with unique differences from other drug use, making it especially difficult to address.
Other counties throughout the United States have implemented overdose task forces to combat their own local epidemics. Westmoreland County in Pennsylvania currently uses a task force to identify the roots of heroin overdoses in their area. Los Angeles has had an overdose task force since 2006 to establish unity between police, communities and medical responders.
Montgomery County emergency responders alerted the public after a mercury spill Friday morning.
The spill occurred around 9:30 a.m. along Lycoming Avenue, according to Cheltenham Township Emergency Management.
Firefighters ad public works crews rushed to the scene to contain the spill. Authorities said there was no threat to the public or environment.
The road, which runs from Lenape Avenue to Glenwood Road, could remain closed for several hours during the cleanup, according to authorities.
No word on what caused the spill.
Exposure to large amounts of mercury can cause nervous system damage, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
A deadly crash caused a traffic nightmare along a South Jersey roadway Friday morning.
A car crashed along Route 55 southbound south of the Route 40 interchange in Vineland, New Jersey shortly after 6 a.m. The driver died at the scene.
Crews closed all the southbound lanes as they investigated the deadly crash causing traffic to back up for a couple miles. Police turned traffic around back onto the northbound lanes. The road finally reopened just after 9:45 a.m.
State Police said that no other vehicles were involved. The force of the crash left the white sedan badly damaged.
It wasn't immediately clear what direction the sedan was gong in when it crashed.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia
