Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 03.14.24

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

Alabama Judge seriously injured in stabbing and shooting attack by his son. Porsche employees aren't willing to accept a '$78 million dollar' check.  For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. Montgomery County, Alabama, Judge Johnny Hardwick is assaulted and shot at his home. He undergoes surgery for serious injuries. Suspect? His own son. Kalafani A. Hardwick flees the scene but is taken into custody after cops find him on the highway. Nancy Hardwick was also stabbed in the attack by his son. Hardwick has been a circuit judge since 2001 and is the current president of the Alabama Association of Circuit Court Judges. While the circumstances leading to the shooting remain under investigation, Kalafani Hardwick is no stranger to violence. The younger

Hardwick stood trial for attempted murder in 2014, eventually pleading the charge down to second-degree assault, for which he served no jail time. The son, Califani Hardwick, facing charges of first-degree domestic violence, now held without bond. Connor Litka, 21, stuns employees at a Kentucky Porsche dealership when he tries to buy a car with a $78 million check. They refuse the sale, so Litka heads to the parts department, insisting on keys. He ignores the pleas to leave, and employees call the police. The day before, he tried a similar stunt at a Land Rover dealership, but with only a $12 million check. Litka now facing misdemeanor charges for criminal trespass and D.C. disorderly conduct.

Maybe he should have just paid in cash. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. The mother of a three-year-old Wisconsin boy who disappeared last month has now been charged with additional counts of child neglect by prosecutors. This as a judge denies her plea for a lower bond. We hear the latest now from Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. Elijah Vu, Katrina Bauer's son, was last seen on February 20th

at a home in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, where prosecutors claim she sent him to stay with her boyfriend. The boy has not been found despite searches by authorities and locals, and a reward has grown to $25,000 for information leading to his whereabouts. Last month, two misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing an officer and one felony offense of party to a crime child neglect were brought against Bauer, a resident of Wisconsin Dells. The 31-year-old Bauer is currently jailed on a $15,000 cash bond. Prosecutors for Manitowoc County amended the felony count on Thursday to include a charge of chronic child neglect as a party to a crime. They also filed

a misdemeanor charge of child neglect against Bauer. Our friends with WLUK-TV say prosecutors presented the court with evidence that Bauer, along with her boyfriend Jesse Vong, had left the three-year-old alone for at least an hour on February 16th as they visited various places throughout Manitowoc County. Additionally, they claim to have proof that on February 14th, while temperatures outside were below freezing, Bauer left a six-year-old in a vehicle without the engine running. In February, a formal charge of one felony count of party to a crime child neglect was leveled against the 39-year-old Vong of Two Rivers. He's currently behind bars on a $20,000 cash bond. According to a criminal complaint, Bauer informed police that she had left her three-year-old with Vong on February 12th

because she wanted him to train her son to be a man. She planned to pick him up on February 23rd. It was on February 20th that Vong made a missing persons report to police, stating that he had taken the three-year-old into the bedroom with him while he took a nap, but that when he awoke hours later, the child was gone. Now to Texas, as Houston's police chief is promising to rebuild public confidence in his department in the wake of reports that over 264,000 cases, of which over 4,000 involved sexual assault, had been dismissed over the previous eight years because of a staffing shortage. Once again, Crime Online, Sidney Sumner. Chief Troy Finner said last month that officers had assigned an internal code to

hundreds of thousands of incident reports, including those involving sexual assaults and property crimes, which meant that the reports were never submitted for investigation due to a shortage of staff. About 10 percent of the 2.8 million event reports that have been submitted during the previous eight years are represented by this number. Finner's press conference was held the day after Mayor John Whitmire declared that the public, quote, wants answers and accountability and that he will form an independent panel to examine how the police handled the cases that were dismissed. Years before Finner was appointed chief in April of 2021, the internal code was developed in 2016 and is a component of the department's record management system. Both administrations before Finner's made use of the system and the code. Finner stated that

after learning officers were using it, he issued an order banning the code in November 2021. However, on February 7th of this year, he discovered that a sizable portion of adult sexual assault cases were still being dismissed through use of the code. According to Chief Finner, an internal affairs investigation is looking into why the directive to cease using the code was disregarded and how it was initially created as part of the department's record system. Thanks, John. 23-year-old Nicholas Smyer leaves his family's Pennsylvania home with an unknown male in a silver Honda Civic. For the next two days, he doesn't show up for his shift at Michael's craft store and his last cell phone ping two days after his disappearance. He sends a message to a friend through Discord, giving him passwords to his computer and other sites.

This is the last contact anyone has with 23-year-old Nicholas Smyre. His family says it's very out of character for him to disappear. They just want to know he's safe. If you have info on Nicholas Nick Smyre, age 23, contact Pennsylvania State Police 717-671-7500. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.