Baltimore police detective indicted on fake degree charge

The story: Baltimore police detective indicted on theft charges, allegations he used fake diploma - Baltimore Sun

He was a top forensic analyst who bought his degree from Harrington, a "University Degree Programs" phony. My co-author, Allen Ezell is doing the expert witness work. If the man is convicted, there are apparently a great many cases that are going to have to be reopened. What a mess.

(I've never seen the first name "Stacatto" before.)

 

Not quite the same circumstances, but here in Massachusetts, we had a mess of our own when a state lab employee who analyzed drugs for police all over the state claimed (and testified under oath in court and in depositions) to have a Master's degree in Chemistry from UMass-Boston, when in fact she never even took any graduate-level courses. Additionally, she admitted that she wasn't performing the tests necessary for analysis, and just signing off on the certifications. As a result, almost 34,000 drug cases were thrown into jeopardy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Dookhan

 

His father was Sotto and his mother was Voce.

 

The whole case was handled by Det. Sgt. Glissando of the Portamento Squad.

 

And heard by Judge Fortissimo?

J.

 

I found five:

Staccato Bueller
Staccato Hax
Staccato Rossini
Staccato Strom
Staccato Luminos

Trouble is, they're not given names of "real" people. All five are Second Life avatars. I couldn't find any other first-name Staccatos that were "real." Never met any "real" Sopranos either, but I'm sure there are some.
I can remember John Cassavetes as "Johnny Staccato" on TV back in the late 50s though. Private detective / jazz pianist. At 16, I loved the music. Still do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Staccato

J.

 

It's astonishing how much harm one person can do, entirely by neglect.
(It seems now that the Ghost Ship building in Oakland where 36 died was never even once inspected by the city, despite laws and urgent requests to do so, over the years.)

Incidentally and irrelevantly, Bruce, I'm delighted that you're listing your MOOCs among your credentials. I hope others will be doing this.

 

Can MOOCs be used by collegiate faculty for academic in-service training?

 

Not to hijack the thread, but . . . *

I can't help but notice that me again's sig line, which used to reflect pursuing an M.A. in Catechetics and Evangelization, now shows pursuing an M.A. in Theology.

Have we changed our major, me again? (If so, I compliment you - the latter seems both more marketable and less esoteric.)
__________________

* Get over it, Jan.

 

Hi Dr. Levicoff, fellow esteemed colleague. On a different note, your anecdotal prognostication of a possible Trump win, prior to the election and based on all the Trump yard signs that you saw during your travels, was extremely insightful. Thanks for sharing it.

Yes, I'm pursuing a theology degree instead of catechetics degree. It's similar to a difference between the following two degrees:
- MBA
- MSM (master of science in management).
Both are good degrees, but the MBA may be more utilitarian because it's more traditional and recognizable, while concurrently raising fewer questions from academics. Similarly, a degree in theology may be more utilitarian because it's more traditional and recognizable than a catechetics degree. Besides, it's too hard to spell catechics. Or is it catechetics?

 

I took my first one (International Criminal Law) purely out of interest, and to see how they were structured. It was no joke, it required a lot of reading and work, so I took another (Psychology of Criminal Justice) to compare, and it also was no joke.

I've thoroughly enjoyed taking the courses, and IMO, they're credentials to be proud of, so I decided to list them. I think it's also good to let everyone know that I have experience with them, so they can ask me any questions they may have.

Good question; I think they're much more informative and rigorous than most of the Psychology CEU courses I've taken. That might be something that we'll see in the future.