Florida Sentinel Bulletin

CINCINNATI, OH — A 20-year-old woman is accused of having sex with the 7-year-old son of her boyfriend.

Alicia Gaston of North Fairmount confessed to engaging in sexual intercourse with the child in Winton Place, Cincinnati police said. She faces one count of rape.

Hamilton County Job and Family Services said they were unaware of the incident, or why it took so long for the case to be prosecuted.

Gaston was ordered to stay away from the boy when she appeared in Hamilton County Municipal Court today. Judge Lisa Allen set her bond at $75,000.

Pictured: Alicia Gaston, who is accused of raping a 7-year-old boy, stands with attorney Greg Cohen in Hamilton County Courtroom A Monday morning for her arraignment.

The NAACP passed a resolution Saturday endorsing same-sex marriage as a civil right and opposing any efforts “to codify discrimination or hatred into the law.”

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s board voted at a leadership retreat in Miami to back a resolution supporting marriage equality, calling the position consistent with the equal protection provision of the U.S. Constitution.

“The mission of the NAACP has always been to ensure political, social and economic equality of all people,” Board Chairwoman Roslyn M. Brock said in a statement. “We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law.”

Same-sex marriage is legal in six states and the District of Columbia, but 31 states have passed amendments to ban it.

The NAACP vote came about two weeks after President Barack Obama announced his support for gay marriage, setting off a flurry of political activity in a number of states. Pres. Obama’s announcement followed Vice President Joe Biden’s declaration in a television interview that he was “absolutely comfortable” with gay couples marrying.

Two former Florida A&M University band members, including one charged in the felony hazing death of drum major Robert Champion, today pleaded no contest to misdemeanor hazing for beating a female clarinet player last year, the Orlando Sentinel says.

Aaron Golson (pictured), 19, and Sean Hobson, 23, will serve a year’s probation in Georgia, their home state, and report to a jail-work camp for one month. They initially faced felony charges for hazing Bria Shante Hunter, 18. The freshman was seeking to join a group of FAMU band members from Georgia called the “Red Dawg Order.” She and Hobson attended the same high school.

Authorities arrested four students after their after-school fight with a classmate at a Broward County charter school was posted on YouTube and Facebook, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

Celina Bennett, 18, a student at the Life Skills Center, told investigators she was jumped by classmates a few blocks away from their school at 2360 W. Oakland Park Blvd. on Wednesday, the newspaper reported. She was given a bruised eye and was briefly hospitalized.

The video shows a group of girls attacking Bennett and pushing her to the ground.

Bennett told NBC 6 Friday that she was hit with a closed fist by a number of girls and even suckerpunched.

She said like many high schoolers she’s had to deal with bullying and taunting at school, but nothing like this.

“Being jumped for no reason is completely ridiculous,” she said.

Bennett said she doesn’t know her assailants. “I don’t know their names, I don’t know none of them, I just know their faces,” she said.

A former Houston police officer has been let of the hook for the vicious beating of a 15-year-old suspected of committing a burglary. Andrew Blomberg was found not guilty on the misdemeanor charge of official oppression, for attacking Chad Holley (pictured, center).

The 29-year-old was the first of four police officers to stand trial for kicking and beating the teen. While on the stand, Bloomberg testified to have done nothing wrong, blaming Holley for resisting arrest. In contrast, Holley, now 18, testified that he did not resist arrest and momentarily lost consciousness during the assault. Security footage, captured at the scene show the victim lying on the ground while being beaten by at least five officers kicking him in the head, abdomen and legs.

PORT ST. JOHN, FL — In the middle of the night, Tonya Thomas’ neighbors awoke to the sound of a gunshot and moments later heard a knock on their door.

Three of Thomas‘ four children were outside, including one who appeared to have been shot. Before the neighbors could offer help, Thomas came out of her house and called the children back home.

They complied. The neighbors dialed 911 after hearing more gunshots.

Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies found Thomas, 33, dead of an apparent self-inflicted wound and three of her children — Jaxs Johnson, 15; Jazzlyn Johnson, 13; and Joel Johnson, 12 — were fatally shot inside the house. A fourth child, Pebbles Johnson, 17, was found shot to death in the front yard of a neighbor’s house.

Investigators said they didn’t know a motive for the shooting and weren’t sure why the children followed their mother’s orders to return to the house.

“From what the neighbors said, she was very calm. She walked out and called them back. They turned around and walked back to the house,” said sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Tod Goodyear.

Another neighbor told deputies Thomas sent a text message in the middle of the night saying she wanted to be cremated with her children.

“He didn’t see the text until he woke up this morning,” Goodyear said.

The shooting happened in Port St. John, about 15 miles west of Cape Canaveral in an area known as the “Space Coast” because it is the home of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the location of numerous shuttle launches.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.– Florida A&M University‘s famed marching band is being suspended for at least one more school year as officials try to cleanse the hazing culture that led to the death of a drum major, the school’s president said Monday.

FAMU President James Ammons said the Marching 100 should stay off the field at least until a new band director is hired and new rules for the band have been adopted. Eleven FAMU band members face felony charges in the November hazing death of Robert Champion, while two others face misdemeanor counts. The band has been banned from performing since soon after he died, and band director Julian White recently retired after it was revealed that at least 100 band members were not students when Champion died.

George Zimmerman, 28, who has been charged with second-degree murder for the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26, in Sanford, Florida, may soon be facing a hate crime charge from the FBI.

Zimmerman admitted to killing Martin in February during a confrontation. However, he claims the shooting was in self-defense. He’s facing a second-degree murder charge, which carries a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. But if Zimmerman is charged and found guilty of a federal hate crime involving murder, he could face the death penalty.

FBI investigators are actively questioning witnesses in the retreat at the Twin Lakes neighborhood, seeking evidence for a possible federal hate crime charge.

The mother of an unarmed black teen who was shot by Pasadena police in March said Saturday that details released from her son’s autopsy report have only increased her pain and frustration.

Kendrec McDade was shot just before 11 p.m. March 24 while running away from a man claiming McDade and a juvenile friend had allegedly tried to rob him.

The case became the center of controversy because the 911 caller admitted to lying about being robbed by two males with guns so he could get a quicker police response.