9.
AUSTIN HATFIELD
In 2015, an 18-year-old Florida man named Austin Hatfield caught a cottonmouth snake
in his girlfriend’s yard and kept it as a pet.
For the next several days he kept the reptile in a pillowcase, occasionally removing the
creature to kiss it on the mouth.
The snake was unreceptive to its owner’s desire to form a bond when it began acting
strange one day.
Instead of taking the animal’s unusual behavior as a sign that perhaps it belonged in the
wild, Hatfield put the snake on his chest.
It jumped forward and clamped its jaws down on his face.
Hatfield jumped to his feet, ripped the reptile off him, and threw it to the floor.
By then, his face had already started swelling up.
He arrived at the emergency room in critical condition and received a life-saving antivenom.
Hatfield, who was said to be in critical condition at Tampa General Hospital, did not initially
respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
According to family members, they said they brought the dead snake to the hospital with
them.
Cottonmouths, also known as water moccasins, are a common snake in the southeast, according
to Terry Phillip, the curator of reptiles for Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Phillip said around 3,500 people in the United States are bitten each year by venomous snakes,
causing as many as four deaths.
About 70 percent of the victims are men between the ages of 16 and 25 and alcohol is usually
involved, he said.
The teen was lucky to survive the attack.
Cottonmouth snakes are highly venomous, ranking the species as one of the 10 deadliest snakes
in North America.
They’re not aggressive, but will defend themselves when threatened, which is why wildlife
officials recommend staying as far away from one as possible.
A Florida Fish and Wildlife spokesperson told the press that it’s illegal to capture or
keep a cottonmouth snake in the state of Florida without a permit and that doing so can result
in criminal charges.
8.
AUDRA ADAMS
The world was just months into the COVID-19 pandemic when police in Melbourne, Florida
were called to a local restaurant called the Monkey Bar & Grill.
The staff asked thirty-two-year-old Audra Adams to leave the restaurant for trying to
kiss random customers.
She initially refused before going out to the parking lot, where she was standing when
the cops arrived.
They offered to call the woman a cab or call a family member to come to pick her up, but
Adams refused to leave the property and sat down on the pavement.
During the strange and stubborn display, she called 911 at least five times and claimed
that the bar wasn’t following proper social distancing protocols.
The officers once again asked Adams to leave, and she responded by threatening to sit in
the parking lot all night.
But she instead found herself in police custody, facing charges of disorderly conduct, resisting
an officer, misusing 911, and trespassing after being warned.
Many bars and restaurants in parts of Florida were allowed to resume business after May
4th under Florida's Phase 1 rules, which state such establishments limit indoor seating to
25 percent of capacity or less, and make sure there is at least six feet of space between
customers both indoors and outdoors.
8.
GREG MANTEUFEL
One day in 2018, a Wisconsin man named Greg Manteufel began experiencing horrifying symptoms
out of nowhere at his home in West Bend.
His face turned deep red, his legs swelled up, and he got diarrhea.
Thinking it was the flu or something similar, he tried to sleep it off.
But things only got worse as the crimson hue of Manteufel’s skin deepened into a purple
and his mental state deteriorated, causing him to speak gibberish.
His son, Mike, rushed him to the emergency room, where he recalled telling doctors to
do whatever was necessary to save his life.
Manteufel’s skin turned black, leaving the doctors with no choice but to amputate his
legs, hands, and portions of his nose.
More than a week passed as they tried figuring out what was causing Greg’s illness.
An infectious disease specialist identified the culprit as bacteria called Capnocytophaga
canimorsus, which is found in dogs’ mouths and can spread to humans through bites and
licks.
Manteufel had recently been around several dogs, so it’s unclear which canine he contracted
the infection from.
He told Men’s Health that he refused to blame his pit bull, Ellie, and said that he
let her lick him right after surgery.
It’s rare for the pathogen to enter someone’s bloodstream, but that’s what happened to
Manteufel, who had come down with a deadly sepsis infection.
He underwent 14 reconstructive surgeries over a three-month period and had to re-learn basic
tasks like eating and showering.
Manteufel not only faced a long road to recovery, it forever changed his life.
His career as a house painter was over, and he had to sell his two-story home and move
in with his parents while he and his wife saved for a wheelchair-accessible house.
He said that he hoped to get prosthetic limbs and eventually start driving again.
7.
YOULETTE WEDGEWOOD
A 68-year-old Detroit man learned the hard way that “no means no” when his friend
bit off part of his tongue one day in 2020.
Fifty-two-year-old Youlette Wedgewood told the man not to put his tongue in her mouth,
but he did it again anyway, so she clamped her teeth down on the tip of his tongue.
The man was bleeding from his mouth and was missing part of his tongue when officers arrived.
They recovered the missing one-inch piece of flesh from his bedroom.
An ambulance took him to the hospital, but it’s unclear whether doctors reattached
the piece of tongue.
Wedgewood told police that she and the victim were old friends, but he claimed they were
in a romantic relationship.
Police charged her with aggravated assault.
Prosecutor Eric Smith told the Detroit Free Press that it was the first time he had encountered
a case of its kind throughout his 27-year career.
6.
KEITH LAMAR ROGERS
Forty-eight-year-old Keith Lamar Rogers, who also goes by the name “Peacock Birdman,”
committed his first of several bizarre sexual offenses in 2019 at a beach in La Jolla, California.
He stealthily approached an unsuspecting sunbather and kissed her on the rear, leading to his
arrest and conviction for sexual battery.
As a condition of his parole, they ordered him to wear an electronic tracking device
around his ankle so that they could trace his whereabouts.
Rogers was still wearing the ankle bracelet when he struck again last September at a beach
in San Diego.
He snuck up on a woman similar to how he carried out the first assault and kissed her the same
way.
The parolee wound up back in court, where a jury convicted him of sexual battery.
He received a six-month prison sentence, and the courts banned him from visiting local
beaches for three years.
Rogers was also required to register as a sex offender and they prohibited him from
having any contact with his latest victim.
San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott reassured the public that her office takes sexual assault
cases seriously and that it will continue to protect local communities from predators.
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5.
CLAUDIA RESENDIZ-FLORES
Mom-of-three Claudia Resendiz-Flores had recently moved in with her friend, James Jones, and
his girlfriend when the three drank together one day.
They were hanging out in the living room at the couple’s home in Rolling Meadows, Illinois
when Resendiz-Flores asked Jones for a kiss.
He said “no,” because he was in a relationship and instead kissed his girlfriend.
Claudia became angry and demanded that Jones kiss her, but he refused.
Jones noticed that the woman had slipped her hand between his couch cushions, where he
kept his gun.
He watched as she took the safety off and put her finger on the trigger, giving him
no opportunity to defend himself or escape before she raised the gun and shot him to
death.
Jones died from a single bullet wound to the chest.
Resendiz-Flores faces a first-degree murder charge and is currently being held without
bail.
The senseless killing has not only taken a man away from his family but has left the
suspect’s three kids without their sole caretaker.
4.
SHILPA SHETTY
During an AIDS awareness event in 2007, actor Richard Gere randomly kissed Bollywood star
Shilpa Shetty on stage, in front of an audience.
In a lot of countries, kissing in public is normal, even if it’s not everyone’s favorite
thing to look at.
But it’s heavily frowned upon and even illegal in some of the world’s more conservative
nations, including India.
The smooch outraged many people, including radical Hindu groups who burned effigies of
Shetty and Gere and accused the stars of insulting Indian values.
A judge issued arrest warrants against the pair for obscenity and indecency.
It wasn’t long before the court determined that they filed charges against Gere to gain
“cheap publicity.”
Authorities dropped the case, enabling the famous Buddhist to return to the country for
a meeting with the Dalai Lama.
Gere apologized for the controversial display, which he claimed he did to show that kissing
is safe and doesn’t transmit the HIV virus.
Meanwhile, Shetty’s case dragged through India’s notoriously slow court system for
15 years.
They finally cleared her of the charges this year.
The judge described the allegations as “baseless” and concluded that Gere had made an unwelcome
advance against the actress.
Shetty’s lawyer told the Guardian that the accusations against her were because she didn’t
protest when Gere kissed her.
3.
MARIEL SUAREZ
Late last year, Argentinian judge Mariel Suarez sat on a panel tasked with deciding whether
a convicted cop killer deserved a life sentence.
She was the only member to vote against locking him up and throwing away the key.
The killer, Cristian ‘Mai’ Bustos, shot officer Leandro Roberts to death in 2009 in
the village of Corcovado.
Roberts was attempting to arrest Bustos for escaping from prison when a gunfight broke
out.
The convicted man’s brother also died in the melee, and he also wounded a second officer.
Bustos, who authorities considered “highly dangerous,” admitted to the crime, and he
was found guilty of homicide.
Judge Suarez spared him from a life sentence with her vote for a lesser punishment.
Just days later, a prison surveillance camera captured footage of Suarez and Bustos kissing
during a visit to the penitentiary.
An officer who was on duty at the time also claimed to witness the pair locking lips.
Suarez denied having a romantic relationship with the man and claimed that she was visiting
him to discuss a book she planned to write about his case.
She denied she was leaning in for a smooch and insisted that Bustos was just showing
her his tattoos during the suspiciously close interaction.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the alleged inappropriate conduct, which
seeks to determine the circumstances of the visit and identify any signs of the judge
violating ethics laws or the judiciary code of conduct.
2.
PATRICK RANDALL
A 20-year-old man named Patrick Randall is facing many charges for allegedly entering
someone’s house through an open window on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
He’s accused of climbing into the dwelling around 3:15 in the morning and walking into
a back bedroom, where a resident confronted him and yelled at him to leave.
Randall responded by saying, “just give me a kiss,” according to a complaint filed
by the victim, whose three children were sleeping in the apartment when the home invasion occurred.
The resident called security, who came and escorted the man away.
He lives in the same building on another floor.
Police charged Randall with second-degree unauthorized entry into a dwelling.
He has many prior convictions for trespassing, driving under the influence of drugs, and
other charges and is awaiting sentencing for charges relating to four vehicle thefts.
Deputy Prosecutor Lewis Littlepage described the defendant as “a danger to the community”
and asked the judge to raise his bail to $25,000.
His public defender, Emily Collins, requested a supervised release for her client because
his mother relies on him for help.
The judge set Randall’s bail at $10,000 and ordered him to stay away from his victim
and the floor they live on while the case works its way through court.
1.
ROBERT CICMANSKY
In late 2019, police accused a 50-year-old Illinois man named Robert Cicmansky of accosting
several women at a Walmart in Janesville, Wisconsin.
He spent over an hour inside the store and allegedly tried to kiss and give money to
at least three or four women.
Walmart cameras captured some of his disturbing behavior on surveillance footage, which shows
one woman wiping her face after he leaned toward her.
The cameras also captured Cicmansky approaching an elderly woman on a scooter.
Investigators weren’t sure how many people the suspect harassed and believed that there
could be more victims than they knew about.
But it was the man’s decision to bother a 17-year-old employee that landed him in
trouble with the law.
He asked the young woman extremely invasive personal questions and offered her $50.
When she declined the money, Cicmansky allegedly put the bill in the teen’s pocket.
He then tried to kiss her on the cheek, slapped her rear, and claimed that he wasn’t a pervert.
The terrified employee fled into a bathroom and then reported the incident to a manager.
Police charged Cicmansky with physically abusing a child.
His wife told the court that he suffers from bipolar disorder, manic depression, and obsessive-compulsive
disorder.
A judge ordered a competency hearing to determine whether the defendant was mentally fit to
stand trial, but they ultimately dismissed the charge.
Thanks for watching!
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