MANCHESTER, NH -A Manchester mom who barricaded herself in her home when police arrived to ask her why she didn’t pick up her children from daycare and why she sent a three-year-old to school with a Lyft driver has been arrested.

On January 8, 2021 at approximately 6pm, Manchester Police arrested 35 y/o Stephanie Goddu and charged her with Endangerment the Welfare of a Child.

Goddu was wanted in connection with two incidents involving her children. She was located at her Manchester residence. Goddu did not initially comply with officers orders to surrender and barricaded herself in her apartment. After a short time, Goddu did come out and was taken into custody.

The investigation into Goddu began on January 6, 2021 when officers were notified that Goddu’s two young children had not been picked up from daycare at Southern NH Services. Employees could not make contact with Goddu. Police were told that Goddu also had a three month old infant.

Officers responded to Goddu’s home to check on her and the baby. Goddu appeared “incoherent and disoriented” and had trouble answering questions.

The baby was found to be strapped to an infant carrier seat, and was wearing extremely warm clothing and a blanket. The carrier was not more than 6 feet away from a heater and there was concern that the child could overheat. The child was also found to be covered in urine.

Through their investigation, police also learned that on January 4, 2021 Goddu had hired a Lyft driver to take her 3 y/o old child to daycare. The child arrived safely, but was alone in the vehicle.
Both the condition of the infant and the unsupervised ride to day care were cause for police to charge Goddu. Since Goddu did not initially surrender, she was also charged with Resisting Arrest.

PIERCE, WA – A truck driver was stabbed a the Pierce Heartland Express truck stop on Sunday, according to police.  At 7:47 p.m. on Sunday January 10th, 2021 our deputies responded to a stabbing call at the Heartland Express trucking company on Steele Street and 21st Ave Ct S in Parkland. The 911 caller said he had been stabbed and the suspect was possibly still on scene.
Deputies were able to get a description of the suspect from the victim before he was transported to the hospital for his injuries. The incident started when two truck drivers argued about parking their trucks in the lot. The suspect then stabbed the victim with a knife several times.

Deputies setup containment around the lot and someone called in that a person similar in description to the suspect had left the lot just prior to deputies locking down the scene. A few minutes later the suspect walked up to a deputy trying to get back into the business lot. The suspect was wearing only a t-shirt and shorts and was not dressed for the weather, leading them to believe he left in a hurry or took off his outer clothing. The deputy believed the male matched the description of the suspect and took him into custody. When they checked the suspect’s truck, blood was found on his door handle.

The 61 year old male suspect was booked into the Pierce County Jail for Assault in the 1st Degree. The 63 year old victim had non-life threatening injuries and was treated at the hospital. Detectives and forensic investigators went out to the scene to assist with collecting evidence and surveillance footage of the incident. Police did not reveal the name of the suspect.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – A former Seattle college soccer star, currently serving time for sexual assault in Arizona and on a second sexual assault case in King County, Washington, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to making false statements on a tax return, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran. During a massive tax fraud scheme, 48-year-old DION L. EARL purchased the Seattle Impact FC franchise, a professional indoor soccer club. According to the plea agreement between 2008 and 2014, EARL used false documents to lie about his income, the amount of tax dollars withheld by employers, and his mortgage deductions so that he could attempt to claim tax refunds of more than $1.6 million. Under the terms of the plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend EARL serve a one-year consecutive federal sentence following his 12-year sentence in Arizona and 33-month consecutive sentence in Washington State, for a total sentence of nearly 16 years in prison.

The actual sentence is up to U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik who has scheduled sentencing for April 9, 2021.

In the 1990’s EARL was a soccer star at Seattle Pacific University. Between 2008 and 2014, EARL also worked in car sales in Washington State and Arizona and owned Dion Earl’s Total Soccer & Tennis Camps, LLC, d/b/a Total Business Ventures, and the Seattle Impact, FC. In today’s plea agreement, EARL admitted that he used his association with car dealers, Dion Earl’s Total Soccer & Tennis Camps, and the Seattle Impact to commit tax fraud.

EARL specifically acknowledged that, on his 2012 Form 1040 tax return, he claimed that (1) he made $1,600,000 working for eight different car dealers, which withheld more than $660,000 of his wages for taxes, and (2) his wife was employed by Dion Earl’s Total Soccer & Tennis Camps, which paid her $240,000 and withheld $51,000 in taxes, and (3) he made $520,000 in mortgage interest payments on four different properties. EARL admitted that, in fact, all these claims were false. That is, EARL admitted that during 2012, EARL made less than $45,000, from which he did not have any taxes withheld, and he paid limited mortgage interest. Pursuant to these false claims, EARL obtained a federal tax refund of $414,160.

EARL also admitted that even after the IRS began a civil audit of EARL’s taxes in 2013, he continued to make false claims and provide false information to the IRS. For example, Earl admitted that, as late as 2015, he falsely claimed he and his wife made $765,000 from Dion Earl’s Total Soccer & Tennis Camps, LLC, and the Seattle Impact FC, from which the businesses withheld $180,000 in taxes. In making these false claims, EARL sought a tax refund of $137,554. That refund was not paid, however.

In total, EARL sought $1.6 million in fraudulent tax refunds and was paid $1,093,534 by the IRS.

In the plea agreement, EARL also agreed to pay $600,000 in restitution to the State of Arizona, as a result of fraudulent tax returns he filed with that state. And, while EARL did not admit to submitting false income information to Key Bank in 2008, in order to qualify for a home equity line of credit—as was alleged in the Indictment—in the plea agreement, EARL agreed to make approximately $95,000 in restitution payments to Key Bank.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Arlen Storm.