'Drivin drunk' Facebook status sends 'hit and run' teen to jail

Astoria Police Department, Oregon

Jacob Cox-Brown's mugshot.

Astoria, Oregon Police Department

The Facebook posting that led to the arrest.

By Suzanne Choney

An 18-year-old in Oregon joked on Facebook about driving drunk and getting in a hit-and-run accident, then was arrested after "friends" saw the posting and reported it to police. No one was injured, thankfully, but two cars were damaged.
"We have used Facebook previously as an investigative tool, but this is the first time I believe we have arrested someone who posted they had committed the crime," Brad Johnston, deputy chief of police in Astoria, Ore., told NBC News on Friday.
Here's what Jacob Cox-Brown of Astoria wrote on his Facebook page on New Year's Day, not realizing he'd hit two vehicles, not just one:

Drivin drunk... classsic ;) but to whoever's vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P

Two of Cox-Brown's 656-plus friends on the social network took notice and separately contacted Astoria police to report what they'd seen.

Astoria police "have an active Social Media presence. It was a private Facebook message to one of our officers that got this case moving," said Johnston in an incident report file shared on the department's website — which included a screenshot of Cox-Brown's Facebook posting.

"When you post [that] on Facebook you have to figure that it is not going to stay private long," Johnston said in the release.

The department's "active Social Media presence" includes its own Facebook page, on which Cox-Brown's booking mug shot was featured as part of another media story on the arrest, shared by the police:

Facebook

The Astoria Police Department's Facebook page.

On Jan. 1, the police responded to a call about a hit-and-run that left a white Toyota Scion sideswiped with "significant damage." Another car parked in front of the Scion also had damage, police said. They later went to Cox-Brown's house and found a car that "matched the damage done to the two vehicles at the early morning crash."
Cox-Brown was arrested and taken to the county jail. He has been charged with two counts of "failing to perform the duties of a driver" by not stopping and letting the cars' owners know about the accident and how to contact him.

Johnston said the charge is a "class A misdemeanor" that is "punishable by not more than one year in jail and a fine of $6,250."

The youth now joins others on the social network who have made similar incriminating posts on Facebook, including members of a New York street gang who last year boasted of their burglary feats, a South Carolina woman who shared her joy at trashing her ex-boyfriend's house and an 18-year-old from Pittsburgh who burglarized a market and posted with photos of his cohorts and the loot they got.

American Eagle pilot arrested at Minn. airport

NBC News and wire reports

Police at Minneapolos-St. Paul International Airport on Friday arrested an American Eagle pilot after he failed a blood-alcohol breath test. The 48-year-old pilot was preparing to fly from the Minnesota airport to New York City, authorities said.

Minneapolis/St. Paul Int’l Air

Kolbjorn Jarle Kristiansen, a pilot for American Eagle, was arrested early Friday after failing a blood-alcohol level test.

Kolbjorn Jarle Kristiansen of Raleigh, N.C., was arrested after "officers and (a) TSA agent at Checkpoint 1 detected the odor of a consumed alcoholic beverage" as they passed the pilot waiting for an elevator, according to a public arrest document released by airport police.

Charges are pending, the document showed, and Kristiansen was "released to airline personnel on own recognizance."
The pilot was conducting preflight checks about 6:30 a.m. when airport police officers acting on a tip boarded the aircraft, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said. Officers made him take a Breathalyzer test and arrested him on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol.
"There was a witness who smelled what they thought was alcohol on the pilot's breath and notified police," Hogan said. Passengers had not yet boarded the flight to La Guardia, New York City, he said.
The pilot has been suspended pending an investigation, according to Matt Miller, a spokesman for American Airlines, American Eagle's sister company. The airline is cooperating with authorities and will conduct an internal investigation, Miller said.
The flight was delayed about 2 ½ hours while a replacement pilot was arranged, he said.
After the pilot was taken to Fairview Southdale Hospital to have a blood sample taken for testing, he was returned to the custody of airport police, Hogan said.
The alcohol limit for flying is lower than for driving, Hogan said.
"In Minnesota, the legal limit for pilots is .04, much stricter than someone traveling on a road in the state," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Unruly passenger taped to seat on Icelandair flight

A. Pawlowski, NBC News contributor

Courtesy of andyellwood.tumblr.com

An Icelandic man who reportedly drank too much and became unruly on a New York-bound flight was taped to his seat, witnesses and authorities say.

The passenger who became unruly after allegedly drinking too much alcohol had to be taped to his seat on a trans-Atlantic flight, witnesses and authorities said.

A startling photo of the subdued man ended up on a blog run by New York businessman Andy Ellwood, who said he received the picture from an acquaintance who witnessed the incident.
“My friend was on the flight and he sent me the photo because we like to trade travel war stories,” Ellwood told NBC News.

His friend did not want to be identified or talk with the media, Ellwood said, but he recounted the story to him in detail.

The passenger “drank all of his duty free liquor on the flight from Iceland to JFK yesterday,” Ellwood wrote in his blog post.

“When he became unruly, (i.e. trying to choke the woman next to him and screaming the plane was going to crash), fellow passengers subdued him and tie(d) him up for the rest of the flight. He was escorted off the flight by police when it landed.”

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey confirmed the incident.
“A 46-year-old man was taken into custody last night at JFK off an Icelandic flight and then brought to the hospital because Port Authority police determined he was intoxicated,” said Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the port authority.

“He was not charged ... he’s free to go.”
The man had an Icelandic passport, Marsico said.
Prosecutors declined to charge him because passengers were reluctant to talk about his outburst to authorities, The New York Post reported.

Icelandair did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a spokesman for the airline confirmed the incident to Icelandic media, adding that plastic ties and tape are standard on board flights to help in such situations.