Marines, Sailors Need Permission to Visit Mexico

Permission denied?

Marines and sailors in San Diego County looking to make a run south of the border to Mexico must obtain written permission from their superiors as a result of escalating violence in Mexico.

The directive from Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland impacts some 40,000 Marines and sailors from Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, according to The North County Times. The ruling also impacts armed forces stationed at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

At least 5,300 people were killed in drug violence in Tijuana last year, and at least 12 have been killed so far this year.

Armed forces wanting permission to visit Mexico must be at least 18 and agree to use the buddy system by traveling with at least one other person who is also 18 or older. They must also carry the telephone numbers of the American Consulate in Tijuana, the border Shore Patrol and their unit command. Finally, before they exit the country, they must register online with the American Consulate in Tijuana.

Did Marines Save Woman's Life?

A pair of Marines checking on a comrade may have saved the life of his young wife.

According to authorities, two Marines went to the home of a friend Monday afternoon in Fallbrook to check on him after he failed to report to work. Once there, they reportedly discovered the Marine, 28, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and his wife, 23, who was taken to Palomar Hospital, in critical condition. Authorities believe it may have been an attempted murder-suicide.

According to neighbors, the couple, parents of young twins, had been renting the house for several months.

Former Marine Recruiter Had Sex With Enlistees

A former Marine Corps recruiter was sentenced Wednesday in San Diego on charges he had sexual relations with young women he had enlisted into the Marines.

Staff Sgt. Timothy J. Hall, 31, offered guilty pleas to charges of fraternization, obstructing justice and violating an order at his court martial at Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

Hall, who was tried in San Diego, was also found guilty of adultery after one of his victims – now a lance corporal at Camp Pendleton – testified he fondled her and made her have sex with him in 2007 on the floor of a recruiting office in Wisconsin. Hall was on a recruiting tour in Wisconsin, according to the Marines.

Hall was sentenced to one year in prison, reduction to the lowest enlisted rank and a bad-conduct discharge.

Due to a plea bargain, the prison term will be limited to four months.

THURSDAY HEADLINES..... SPECIAL REPORT

NEWS

* In a case that previously gained national attention, now the San Diego District Attorney's office said it will drop all charges against alleged Marine husband killer Cynthia Sommer.

The 34-year-old Sommer (www.cynthiasommerdefense.com), who was released from jail Thursday evening, was originally convicted of killing her husband, Todd, back in 2002. Todd Sommer collapsed at the couple's home at the Miramar Marine base, then died in a hospital on Feb. 18. His death was ruled a heart attack, but prosecutors said they believed his wife had poisoned him with arsenic. A military lab test said he had high levels of the substance in his system.

Two medical experts hired by the DA's office now say recent tissue sample tests lead them to believe that they could not conclude by a reasonable doubt that Mr. Sommer could have been poisoned by arsenic.

It was back in January of 2007 that a jury convicted Sommer of her husband's murder, saying she did it for financial reasons. Witnesses for the prosecution had testified that Sommer, who has four kids, often partied, slept with other men shortly after Todd's death, and used some of his life insurance earnings to pay for breast implants.

Last November, a San Diego Superior Court Judge said that Sommer, who could have gotten life in prison without parole, had received ineffective representation by her former defense attorney, therefore granting her a second trial this May.

While that trial will not happen now, it is rather evident that someone has some explaining to do here.

Just what did kill Todd Sommer? Which lab tests are right and which ones were wrong? And, did Cynthia Sommer receive a bad rap because she did not act like other widows may at the time of their husband's death or is she someone that just got away with murder?

So what do you think?