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: What the Judge Ate for Breakfast

Head-shaving incident nets serious charges

By Ron Sylvester

If you’re considering shaving someone’s head to get back at them, you might want think again.

Such an attack has at least four people awaiting trial next month in Sedgwick County District Court, facing some serious charges that could land them in prison for more than a decade.

Michelle Glendening, 27, testified this week at a preliminary hearing for two of the defendants. Glendening has very short hair, although it used to flow almost to her waist, she told a judge Tuesday.

Last Aug. 22, Glendening had just picked up her children for visitation, when she said she saw a group of people she knew standing in a driveway in the 5100 block of West St. Louis.

“They yelled at me to get out of the car,” Glendening testified. “But I didn’t get out.”

Glendening said one of the women approached the car, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the garage. Several people held her down, Glendening said, and shaved her head.

One of the men bound her with duct tape, Glendening said, and scrawled a profane remark on her shirt. They also took her jewelry, she testified. She said she eventually was able to escape.

All this reportedly happened because of a laptop. Glendening said a friend gave her the computer, and she sold it for a piece of diamond jewelry. Upon taking the necklace to a pawn shop, it turned out to be a fake. Others in the group disputed that the laptop was hers to sell.

There was also some talk in court that drugs may be been involved.

Awaiting trial are Denise Galleher, 48; her daughter Crystal Galleher, 28; Earl Cooney, 33; and Joshua Freimark, 31.

They are charged with aggravated kidnapping — one of the most serious felonies under state law. It carries sentences between 12 and 55 years in prison.

They also face charges of aggravated battery and aggravated robbery.

Full post as published by What the Judge Ate for Breakfast on December 22, 2010 (boomark / email).