One must put the welfare of others ahead of their own well-being.

I’m serious. Can anyone please tell me why “we’re missing someone”?

A 46-year-old Farmington Hills man is facing life in prison after police say he videotaped himself raping an 11-year-old girl who apparently had been drugged.

Richard R. Gerard was charged Wednesday with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, second-degree criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography. He was arrested Tuesday after his ex-wife found a tape marked “wedding” while she was cleaning her basement, Farmington Hills Police Chief William Dwyer said Wednesday.

Gerard was arraigned Wednesday in 45A District Court in Berkley.

On the tape, Gerard is seen raping a girl — who is unconscious — and who was the daughter of one of his ex-girlfriends, Dwyer said. The tape was made about eight years ago in Berkley. The girl is now 19, Dwyer said.

“This is extremely disturbing,” said Dwyer, who said there might be other victims.

The ex-wife, whose name was not released, brought the tape to police in Farmington Hills on Monday. Dwyer said police searched Gerard’s condominium on Tuesday, seizing tapes, DVDs and a laptop.

“It is our firm belief that he is a serial pedophile and a rapist,” Dwyer said. “This is probably just the tip of the iceberg.”

Police will continue to investigate Gerard, who is being held in the Oakland County Jail on a $2-million bond. He’ll be back in court on Friday for a hearing.

Chief Deputy Oakland County Prosecutor Deborah Carley could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. It is unknown whether Gerard has an attorney.

According to the Michigan Department of Corrections Web site, Gerard does not have any prior felony convictions.

When commiting a crime, rule number one: don’t leave any evidence.
Whatever, DIE PEDOPHILE, DIE!

former suburban Chicago nursing home worker charged with raping a profoundly brain-damaged resident who later gave birth changed his plea to guilty Wednesday in DuPage County Circuit Court.

Authorities said Reynaldo Brucal Jr., 19, of Schaumburg, raped the 23-year-old woman, who suffers from cerebral palsy, at the Alden Village Health Facility for Children and Young Adults in Bloomingdale early last year.

In accepting the guilty plea to a count of aggravated criminal sexual assault, Circuit Judge George Bakalis said Brucal faces a sentence ranging from 6 to 30 years in prison.

Bakalis set a presentencing hearing for Dec. 13, at which time he said he would set a sentencing date for sometime in January.

The baby’s mother, who cannot walk or talk, and her twin sister had lived at Alden Village since they were 10 but were removed from the facility when the pregnancy was discovered, five weeks before the baby was born.

Bloomingdale police took DNA samples from all the male workers at the nursing home and matched Brucal’s to the infant, who was delivered by emergency Caesarean section on July 20, 2005.

Brucal, a nurse’s aide, worked at Alden Village from September 2004 until his arrest Nov. 1, 2005.

“What I find especially disturbing … is that he sexually assaulted a severely handicapped woman who was unable to fight back or to even communicate to others what had happened,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph E. Birkett said in a statement.

The Illinois Department of Public Health fined Alden Village $10,000 for lacking oversight and mishandling its investigation of the incident.

State officials said the facility failed to conduct a complete investigation into the alleged assault, and treated the swelling of the woman’s abdomen as constipation despite nursing staff reports that said she showed signs of pregnancy.

As a result, the woman didn’t receive prenatal care and took anti-convulsive medication until she was seven months pregnant, the agency said.

The victim’s mother now has custody of the baby, and filed a lawsuit last year in Cook County against the facility, the management company, her daughter’s doctor and Brucal.

As highlighted in bold, that’s what makes the matter even more saddening than it is. How sick do you have to be to do something like that. If you’re really that desperate, go to your nearby hooker street.

A 21-year-old woman’s attempt to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a gas station was foiled when the clerk realized it was blank on one side.

Leah R. Jarolimek, of Cedar Grove, was charged with a felony count of forgery following her failed attempt to buy chips and cigarettes, according to a complaint filed Friday in Sheboygan County Circuit Court.

Jarolimek handed her driver’s license to the clerk to prove she was old enough to buy cigarettes and the bill early Wednesday morning, according to the complaint. The cashier told police the bill was placed face up on the counter but it felt suspicious when she picked it up, the complaint said.

Cashier Teresa Wells said she flipped over the bill and found it blank. Jarolimek replied she didn’t know it was fake, the complaint said, and a man came into the store and said it was an accident or a joke and the bill had been recently grabbed off a printer.

But Wells said Jarolimek had to pay for the chips, which had been opened, the complaint said. And when Jarolimek went to her car to get money, Wells copied down her information from her driver’s license, it said.

Jarolimek told police the bill was given to her by the brother of her on-again, off-again boyfriend, the complaint said. That man said he took the bill off a desk at his mother’s house.

Jarolimek faces up to three years in prison and a fine of $10,000 if convicted.

So how much is the note worth?

Paramedics found the 22-year-old bleeding, with a Black Cat Thunderbolt Rocket lodged inside him, when they attended the scene in Sunderland.

He suffered a scorched colon and is now recovering in hospital, where his condition is described as stable.

A spokesman for the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said the prank could have been fatal.

Douglas McDougal, from the NEAS, said: “We received a call stating there was a male who had a firework in his bottom and it was bleeding.

“He sustained fairly significant injuries in the fact that there’s huge damage to that particular area.”

“There’s a lot of major blood vessels round that area, so infection would probably be a huge problem for him.

“And also the body naturally produces methane gas, so combine that with the firework and the exploding effect with methane’s flammability - it certainly could have been a lot worse than it really was.”

A spokesman for the Firework Association described the bizarre prank as “beyond belief”.

A while back I came across a video of a “Firework Man”, who lit real, full fireworks and let them blow on his stomach, hand, face, etc. I couldn’t find that particular clip again, but I found another - a guy lighting firecrackers strapped to him. Definitely something I want to try before I die. No, not lighting fireworks in my face, or strapping a case of firecrackers around my stomach, but maybe letting a single firecracker blow on my stomach.

Jay Villemarette said, “Some people would say that I am exaggerating when I say how greasy a human is. I am not exaggerating. It is nasty.”

Villemarette would know. He’s the founder of an Oklahoma City company that bills itself as the world’s leading supplier of osteological specimens — bones and skulls.

The former auto mechanic said he became fascinated with skulls in his youth, when he found a dog skull in some woods. He turned his hobby into a business in 1986, creating Skulls Unlimited in the kitchen of his home, boiling skulls on the family stove.

Almost all of the company’s business in human bones comes from museums and educational groups, with prices starting at $349 for a human skull to $3,700 for a full skeleton.

The company also has a catalog and offers more than 70 types of animal skulls for sale. Villemarette can’t foresee a day when he’d want to do anything else.

“I’m still having fun. I love what I do,” he said.

Boiling on the family stove? One would expect you’d need some sort of a permit for this kind of business!