Brenda Miguel admitted to stealing nearly $165,000 from an elderly New Jersey man in a sweetheart scam. She was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to make restitution.

Read Woman who swindled West Orange man out of $165K is sentenced to 5 years probation on Nj.com.

Brenda Miguel must also testify against her accomplice, a woman who is still at large.

For more about the scam, read Newark fugitive accused of stealing $164K from elderly man in captured in Florida after 3 years on Nj.com.

James E. House of Kentucky is facing bigamy charges for marrying two women in one week. And, that’s not all—he allegedly has two other wives.

Read Man facing bigamy charges may have up to four wives on Wlky.com.

Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader.

The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 makes it illegal for anyone to claim military decorations that he or she did not earn. It’s a straightforward law that states:

Whoever falsely represents himself or herself, verbally or in writing, to have been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States, any of the service medals or badges awarded to the members of such forces, the ribbon, button, or rosette of any such badge, decoration, or medal, or any colorable imitation of such item shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

On August 17, 2010, the law was found to be unconstitutional by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. According to the court, the Stolen Valor Act violated the right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an in-depth article about Carl Greene’s reign of terror as executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority. It’s a classic illustration of an executive sociopath.

Read At PHA: Humiliation, groping, banishment—Ex-employees and others describe a fiefdom of abuse under Carl Greene at Philly.com.

After the sociopath, when the fog starts to lift, many of us ask ourselves, “Why didn’t I see what was going on?” According to a new book, we should probably cut ourselves some slack.

Read Book Review: The Invisible Gorilla on Scienceblogs.com.

Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader.

Tonight I’ll be a guest on Radio Amerika Now, hosted by Barb Adams. The show airs from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Central Time. I’m on for the first two hours, talking about:

• Sociopaths as human predators
• Spiritual lessons from a run-in with a sociopath

The show is available over the Internet. If you have questions, you can call in on the show’s toll-free line. If you miss the show, you’ll be able to listen to a podcast later.

For more information, see Radio Amerika Now.

This week we are continuing to discuss The Psychopathic Mind by J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D. The author is diplomate in forensic psychology, former Chief of the Forensic Mental Health Division for San Diego County and Past President of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. As I said last week, my initial reaction to the book was rather negative because I believe this author has made some assertions that have become the basis for inaccurate folklore that has spread over the internet (to be discussed in the coming weeks). But Dr. Meloy made up for all that by setting the record straight on a very important issue—the spectrum of psychopathy.

David Fairbaim of the UK was released from prison, given £45 to get home, spent all the money drinking, spent three hours in a hospital, and then robbed a garage. He’s been doing it all his life.

Read Career criminal, 37, jailed for the 73RD TIME for robbing shop only hours after release from prison, on Dailymail.co.uk.

Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader.

The public relations folks for the Investigation Discovery TV show, Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?, arranged for me to be interviewed by a blogger at Marieclaire.com. She asked me how people get deceived by con artists, which gave me an opportunity to talk about sociopaths.

Read Are you dating a cheater?, at Marieclaire.com.

It’s easy to get obsessed with, fixated on, “labels” and diagnostic categories like sociopath, psychopath, malignant narcissist, narcissist, etc. To be sure, labels and diagnoses can be important and informative.

In the case of “sociopathic” individuals, for instance, we know that there’s no changing them; we know that there’s no real hope for their redemption; and so, if you’ve correctly identified a sociopathic type, you can know that it’s pointless, self-destructive to invest another minute of your time in him. And this is a good thing to know.

But it’s also the case, I’d suggest, that an overfocus on labels and diagnoses can sometimes be a distraction, a form of avoidance, sometimes of obsession, and, in some cases, a habitually poor use of one’s time.