Extra Credit

Houston - A chemistry teacher gave passing grades to failing students in exchange for stealing and torching her car. A fire investigator said that Tramela Lashon Fox, 32, has been charged with insurance fraud and arson, and the two students were charged with arson. It seems that the Adeline Senior High School teacher was at least three months behind on her car payments and wanted to collect the insurance money.
---The teens initially thought her scheme was a joke, but Fox continued to pursue them. On May 27, the last day of school, the students took the unlocked 2003 Chevrolet Malibu from a shopping mall, drove it to a wooded area, and set it on fire. As their reward, Darwin Arias, 17, and Robert Luna, 18, were given grades of 90 and 80 respectively on their final exams. The scores were high enough to pass them for the semester. Dustin Deutsch, the senior fire investigator, also reported that Fox had bought a 2005 Toyota Corolla, the same day the Malibu was reported stolen.

From the Boston Police Blotter

Brighton --- A man on a bicycle rode up to a Brighton Avenue gas station and asked the attendant if he wanted to buy a bike. When the man refused, Louis Armando Lasanto, quite literally threw a fit! Enraged, he began screaming at the unidentified clerk beofe grabbing items off the shelves, including a 12-pack of coke, and hurling them at the man. After striking the man in the head with a rack of cigarette lighters, Lasanto took off on the bike. He was arrested a short time later. While being booked on charges of assault and battery, a report came in about a stolen bicycle in the same neighborhood as the gas station. Mr. Lasanto has more than assault charges to worry about, it seems he must also answer to charges of possession of stolen property, namely a bicycle.

Dorchester --- Tyrone Antoine Taylor, 18, got into the Fourth of July spirit a bit early Tuesday night. He had ignited a Roman candle from a porch on Stonehurt Street. Unfortunately for Tyrone, one of several cars that had stopped to watch the show, was a police car. When the officers searched a backpack next to to Taylor, they found it full of illegal fireworks. Hidden under the fireworks they found a fully loaded handgun. Taylor was charged with the illegal possession of a firearm along with the fireworks. The fireworks will spend the holiday in the evidence room rather than soaring above the city from a porch.

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