A twenty-one-year-old Burke woman is dead and her twenty-seven-year-old brother has been arrested and charged with Driving While Intoxicated and Manslaughter after a July 4th crash in Fairfax.

Sara Ghaffari-Nik was killed when the 2009 Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by her brother Hossein Ghaffari-Nik struck a tree and rolled. According to police reports, the siblings were heading south on Shirley Gate Road by the intersection of Matte Moore Court just before 4 a.m. at the time of the crash.

The chain of events leading to the death of the younger Ghaffari-Nik began when the vehicle her brother was driving struck a curb and lost control of the car. The Mitsubishi Eclipse crashed into a tree, causing the vehicle to flip onto the driver's side and spin, according to police reports. The car hit a second tree after it flipped.

The deceased woman was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, and was ejected from the vehicle. She was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Fairfax County Police Spokesman Officer Don Gotthardt commented on the woman's death:

"This has tragically changed the life of this family... We take this very seriously. Anytime you mix alcohol with driving, there's the potential for serious trouble. We place a great emphasis on safety and facilitating safe travel," Gotthardt said.

Gotthardt also commented on some of Fairfax County's "high intensity DWI enforcement" policies. The Fairfax County officer says there are "weekly DWI enforcement efforts" involving random sobriety checkpoints within Fairfax County and "six pack patrols." He added:

"These are teams of officers roving the streets looking specifically for impaired drivers."

The accident is still being investigated by Fairfax County Police, and anyone with information has been asked to contact Fairfax Crime Solvers at fairfaxcrimesolvers.org. It was unclear whether Ghaffari-Nik had been assigned or had retained a Fairfax DUI lawyer to defend him.

A 33-year-old special education teacher has been placed on unpaid administrative leave from Deer Park Elementary school in Centreville, and the experienced educator stands accused of "mistreating" two autistic students who were assigned to her classroom. Jennah Billeter of Fairfax surrendered to police Sunday, and was charged with two counts of felony cruelty to children and one misdemeanor count of simple assault. It is not currently clear whether the teacher has retained or been assigned a Virginia criminal lawyer to face the charges against her.

Billeter, who turned herself in to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, was first reported to Child Protective Services in early July. An investigation by those authorities centered around the teacher's treatment of two boys in her class, aged four and five. Law enforcement officials, the school district administration and Deer Park Elementary Principal Carol Larsen opted not to provide further information on what type of incidents may have lead to the investigation and subsequent charges, but Larsen described the series of events that lead to the charges in a letter distributed Monday to parents. The principal stated that the potential abuse was first brought to her attention by a school staffer, and that observation was what led to the involvement of Child Protective Services.

While police did not provide details of the alleged assaults on the two boys, they confirmed neither child required medical treatment as a result of the incidents. The spokesman for Billeter's school district, Paul Regnier, indicated that Billeter has been an employee of the district since she began working as a substitute in 2002. After she became a permanent teacher in 2003, Billeter worked at Clifton Elementary and Bull Run Elementary before being placed at Deer Park in 2007.

This article is presented by The Law Office of Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland Criminal Attorneys and DC Criminal Attorneys websites.

A 20-year-old former Chuck E Cheese employee who has also worked with the Boys and Girls Club of Frederick County has been charged with 15 misdemeanor counts of possessing child pornography. Artes Levelle Diggs calls the allegations that he was found in possession of images showing boys under the age of 16 engaging in sexual acts "out of control" and claims that the images came to be on his computer while he was still a child himself.

Diggs has been assigned a Virginia Criminal Lawyer by the state, and denied the charges to press, saying:

"(Police) found stuff that was on my computer when I was a child. It was old stuff."

Diggs first became the subject of an investigation back in December, when Fairfax County police were alerted to a case of alleged child exploitation. Two illicit photographs and a phone number were posted for a 17-year-old boy on Craigslist, and the teen in the pictures told police he'd been chatting with a person online known to him only as "Artes." Contact between the two is said to have lasted several weeks, during which time Diggs is said to have asked the minor to engage in sexual acts using a webcam. When the teen attempted to cease contact with "Artes," the man threatened to post the pictures publicly if the victim discontinued contact.

When approached by police on December 30th of last year, Diggs admitted to possessing the images, but denied that the relationship was inappropriate or that he is a danger to children:

"I love children," he said. "I would never touch a child. This is all happening because of a fight with a guy."

A Fairfax District Court hearing regarding Diggs' case was originally scheduled for July 20th, but has been canceled after prosecutors filed to have the case heard in Fairfax District Court. A date for the trial has not been set, but each count carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $2,500 fine.

This article is presented by The Law Office of Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland DUI Lawyer and DC Criminal Lawyer websites.

Jing Hong Kang- a father, husband and Virginia Tech graduate from Fairfax, Virginia who was visiting California for an interview with Google, was killed during a robbery while on his trip. Kang, 45, was born in Beijing, but was educated in the states, and was just hours away from his interview at the top-tier tech company when he was gunned down by two armed men who demanded money.

Kang had traveled to Oakland Sunday for the Monday morning interview. He was with a friend, who has not been named, and the pair were programming directions to Google into a rental car's GPS at around 11:30 PM. Around that time, two perpetrators are said to have approached the vehicle. Police in Oakland say that the incident appears to be a bungled robbery:

"Through our preliminary investigation, it appears it was a robbery gone bad. We are looking for two African American suspects," said a police officer.

Neighbors in Kang's "quiet" neighborhood back home in Fairfax expressed shock and horror at learning his murder to local press outlets. Wife Wendy, with whom Kang had three sons, says the two were coming up on their 20th anniversary:

"He was the best father and the best husband and the center of our home. We all loved him."

Google released a statement about Kang's murder, expressing condolences to his family:

"We were saddened to hear the news. Our hearts go out to Jing Hong Kang's family in this difficult time."

Police in Oakland are said to be looking for suspects in the robbery turned murder, and a $20,000 reward for information in the Fairfax man's death is currently being offered.

This article is presented by The Law Office of Price Benowitz, LLP, serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information, please visit our Maryland DUI Lawyer and DC Criminal Lawyer websites.

A Fairfax criminal lawyer often has firsthand knowledge of the sobering statistics surrounding domestic violence and the military. The rate of deaths resulting from domestic violence incidents domestic violence incidents and resulting deaths are often far higher in military populations; and. Aa report from 2008 indicates that more than 150 cases of fatal domestic violence or child abuse in the US involving service members and returning veterans were recorded between the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the 2008 report. A double homicide that first came to light on Monday, June 14th in Fairfax County seems to be a part of fall into that trend.

Retired Army lieutenant colonel Kenston K. Yi, 49, entered the emergency room at DeWitt Army Community Hospital on the Fort Belvoir Army base in Fairfax County shortly after 8 a.m. on June 14th. According to an affidavit by Fairfax homicide Detective Robert Bond, Yi initially told a doctor that he had taken the sleep aid Ambien and that he wanted to cause himself harm. Yi then requested a visit with clergy, and confessed to a minister that he had strangled his wife and daughter in their home in Lorton. Yi did not request a Virginia criminal attorney at that time.

Police investigated Yi's claims, and found the door to his apartment closed but not locked. Inside the apartment, law enforcement officials discovered the bodies of Hyon Yi, 47, and Joy Yi, 15. Autopsies performed on Tuesday indicate that the elder Yi died of blunt force trauma, while the younger Yi was asphyxiated. Police declined to provide specific details regarding the injuries suffered by the Yi women.

Kenston Yi retired from the Army in August after 30 years of active duty. He attended and graduated from West Point, and worked mainly in IT prior to his retirement. In recent years, Yi was part of the staff for the Chief Information Officer of the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, according to Army officials.

The retired Army lieutenant colonel did was not present at his June 15th arraignment, as he remained hospitalized after expressing suicidal thoughts. Yi did not have retain a Virginia criminal lawyer, and Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Teena Grodner assigned a public defender to his case. Because the victims are Yi's wife and daughter, the case is being heard in domestic relations court. Information regarding future court appearances for Yi is not currently available.

This article is presented by The Law Offices of Price Benowitz, LLP, representing clients in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. For more information, please visit our Washington DC Homicide Attorney and Maryland Homicide Lawyer websites.

Fairfax County Police have arrested and charged a former America Online ("AOL") executive with "unlawful filming, videotaping or photographing of another" after a teenage guest discovered a hidden camera in a changing room. 51-year-old Craig Dykstra, one of the founding employees of AOL, is accused of hiding a camera in a dressing room used by teenaged houseguests near a pool at his Centreville home. It is unclear whether Dykstra has retained a Virginia criminal lawyer to face the misdemeanor charge, but a conviction could result in his incarceration for up to a year.

Dykstra is said to have been hosting a pool party following the Westfield High School prom during the early hours of June 5th. One of the guests, a teenaged male, noticed the hidden digital video camera dangling from a pair of shorts in the changing room. According to a search warrant affidavit filed in Fairfax Circuit Court on June 7th, the teenager seized the device and handed it over to his parents, who in turn notified the police about the situation.

In an affidavit filed with Fairfax Circuit Court, Detective Nickolas Boffi states that the video content seized and viewed by police shows a "white male in his 50s" placing the camera in the unobtrusive location before adjusting it into place. Further footage captures eight teenagers of both genders in swimsuits, towels and varying states of undress. The video that police reviewed also depicts at least one teenager completely undressed. The teenage girl who was filmed nude was identified and contacted by police, Boffi states, and law enforcement officials confirmed that the girl did not give permission to be filmed.

The affidavit suggests that Dykstra may have used the hidden camera at pool parties that occurred prior to the one on June 5th. Law enforcement officials searched the former AOL executive's home on June 7th. Several items were seized according to court records, including twenty data storage units, two video storage units, seven cameras, five cellular phones and twelve computers. Fairfax police spokesperson Lucy Caldwell confirmed that Dykstra was charged with misdemeanor unlawful filming.

As technology advances, the scope of charges stemming from possibly criminal use of these devices also increases. Cases such as Dykstra's with video evidence of the alleged crimes will benefit from an experienced Virginia criminal lawyer who can protect a defendant's rights and ensure that proper procedures have been maintained throughout the investigation. Even in the presence of footage suggesting guilt, an experienced Virginia criminal lawyer can review each case and serve as a defendant's advocate within the judicial system.

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