Crime Time

Police: Cabbie imprisoned, tried to extort woman for 10 percent tip

Police in Kenner, La., have charged a cab driver with extortion and false imprisonment after they said he refused to let a woman from Texas out of the cab until she paid him a 10 percent tip, the Times-Picayune reported.

The 57-year-old female passenger from Bellaire, Texas, took the cab from her hotel to Louis Armstrong International Airport and when she arrived, she tried to pay the tab with her credit card, the paper reported.

But the driver, Sohail Kahn, 37, told her that he was going to add a 10 percent tip to the $33 fixed rate fare. She refused that, the paper reported, and demanded to be let out and for Kahn to get her bags.

Instead of letting her out, police said Kahn locked the doors, turned off the engine and made a "grabbing motion" at her handbag. The newspaper, citing a police report, said he then clenched his fist, waived it in her face and said, "you will pay me my 10 percent tip, or I will not let you go."

The woman said she argued with the cabbie for about 30 minutes in the now-sweltering taxi before calling 911, the newspaper reported.

-- Lance Murray

Police: Couple tortured home loan officials after foreclosure

The bad economy raises its head in a new way.

Police in Los Angeles say a couple who lost their home to foreclosure are facing false imprisonment and torture charges after they allegedly lured two men who were involved in their attempt to modify their home loan to an office where they bound and beat them for hours in front of three other co-defendants.

Police say the couple felt like they'd been swindled by the men because nothing happened with their loan modification and the couple's home was put in foreclosure.

-- Lance Murray

Boy George gets 15 months in jail for false imprisonment

Boy George, the leader of the band Culture Club, has been sentenced to 15 months in jail for falsely imprisoning a male escort.

The singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was convicted of handcuffing  a Norwegian escort to a wall in the entertainer's east London apartment. O'Dowd denied the charges, but was convicted in December.

-- Lance Murray

Boy George convicted of handcuffing, beating male escort

 Boy George in prison stripes?

The oft garish lead singer of the band Culture Club -- his real name is George O'Dowd -- was convicted Friday of handcuffing a male escort to a bed and then beating him with a metal chain as the escort attempted to flee from a naked photo shoot. O'Dowd said he did it because he thought the man had tampered with his computer. The escort says it was because he had previously refused to have sex with O'Dowd.

The judge will sentence O'Dowd, shown with and without his makeup, in January and he says the singer could get prison time.

-- Lance Murray

Escort testifies Boy George really did want to hurt him

 Boy George famously sang "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"

A Norwegian escort testified in a London court Monday that's exactly what the Culture Club singer did to him.

The escort has accused George O'Dowd, 47, AKA Boy George, of accusing the man of hacking his computer and then manacling the escort to a bedroom wall and beating him with a metal chain.

O'Dowd, who is charged with false imprisonment, denies it.

The 29-year-old escort, Audun Carlsen, told the court that he met O'Dowd through a Web site and went to the singer's London home for a naked photo shoot. Later, according to testimony, O'Dowd accused the man of hacking his computer.

Even afte that, Carlsen returned for a second photo shoot and that's when Carlsen says O'Dowd and another man assaulted him.

-- Lance Murray