Westminster Mall, a once-popular shopping center that has been desecrated by graffiti and vandalism since it closed last year, is on track for demolition soon.
It will be replaced with housing, a hotel and some shops and stores, part of a nationwide trend that is seeing outdated, failed malls in high-traffic locations swapped for mixed-use development that typically includes apartments. The process is often lengthy, leaving empty malls in danger of abuse
In recent weeks, videos have circulated on social media showing rampant paint tagging and destruction inside the structure that was a cultural touchstone in the Orange County city of Westminster for decades after it opened in 1974.
In its heyday, the mall was a gathering spot when there were few other places to hang out. It was where kids found the latest fashions and where “mall rats” roamed in packs after school.
The owner, Irvine-based Shopoff Realty Investments, has formally finished acquiring the property visible from the 405 Freeway and announced last week that demolition of the massive indoor mall would begin by April. Target will continue to operate during this time, the owners said.
The company paid nearly $93 million for the bulk of the old mall, according to real estate data provider CoStar. Shopoff Realty acquired the mall’s former Sears and Macy’s parcels in 2022.
Shopoff Realty now controls the mall and surrounding retail properties on an 89.3-acre site that it plans to turn into a mixed-use complex called Bolsa Pacific at Westminster.
Plans for Bolsa Pacific call for 2,250 residences involving a mix of for-sale housing and market-rate and affordable rental housing, the developer said.
Since its closing, vandals have broke into the mall, covered it in graffiti and destroyed the interior.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The project is also to include a 120-room hotel and more than 220,000 square feet of shops and restaurants. Bolsa Pacific is to include more than 15 acres of open space, including private spaces for residents, open-air promenades and a network of walking trails.
Shopoff Realty anticipates that city officials will approve its plans in the months ahead and that construction will begin by the end of the year after demolition is complete.
“The Westminster Mall meant a lot of things for a lot of people for many years,” Shopoff Realty President Willliam A. Shopoff said. “it was a gathering place and it was a place where people had their first jobs, or first dates or first kiss — or all of the above. We envision a new kind of gathering place that can have the same kind of meaning for people for the next 50 or 75 years.”
As many as 8,000 people will live there, he said, and hundreds will be employed at the hotel.
“It’s hard to accumulate this much land in Orange County,” Shopoff said. “This is a really special opportunity.”
The Westminster Mall opened in 1974 on the former site of the world’s largest goldfish farm, according to city documents. It underwent major renovations in the 1980s and in 2008.
As malls have closed because of shifting consumer shopping habits and a desire for more lucrative development opportunities, the expansive empty buildings have taken on a new draw as a kind of postapocalyptic wasteland, much to the chagrin of local officials. Leveling such large structures and building something new in their place often take years, leaving the malls vacant and ripe for abuse.
Videos on social media and YouTube show people tagging empty storefronts, skateboarding or riding bicycles indoors and urban explorers touring the abandoned spaces for posterity or to look for signs of paranormal activity.
After the Hawthorne Plaza closed in 1999, it became the eerie setting for music videos for artists including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Travis Scott. Graffiti, trash, trespassing and safety issues at the sprawling mall vexed local officials for so many years that they secured an injunction forcing the property owners to redevelop it or demolish it by August.
Valley Plaza in North Hollywood, once touted as the largest shopping center on the West Coast, had been abandoned for nearly a decade, becoming a hot spot for fires and criminal activity, before it was demolished last year.
Times staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.
Two Front Range cities are eyeing more oversight for their police departments.
Lakewood’s City Council voted last week to “work toward the establishment” of an independent civilian oversight board for the city’s police department. And in Aurora, the city set aside about $330,000 this year to fund an Office of Police Accountability — even as city officials say they are still considering how oversight should be structured.
The creation of an independent oversight board in Lakewood would put the city into the company of just a handful of Front Range cities with such boards, including Denver and Boulder. The push for more oversight came to a head in Lakewood after the death of Jax Gratton, a 34-year-old transgender woman who disappeared in April and was found dead in June.
Lakewood police faced criticism for their handling of the case, including for announcing Gratton’s death by using her deadname and, later, for a lack of transparency about the investigation. Gratton’s case spurred the move toward an oversight committee, but the push is also rooted in wider issues around trust between police and community, Lakewood Councilwoman Isabel Cruz said.
“Although this specific incident really brought this to the fore, and the demands of community activists really pushed us, it is rooted in a lot of different conversations,” she said.
City Council members overwhelmingly voted Jan. 26 to create a 12-month committee to work toward the creation of a permanent oversight board. The temporary committee will have access to police records, completed internal affairs investigations and body-worn camera footage, and will be able to review complaints submitted to the police department.
At the end of the 12-month period, the committee will report to the City Council about how a permanent police oversight committee would be staffed and structured, among other recommendations.
Council members will then have the power to move forward with the permanent board or end the oversight effort.
Lakewood Police Department spokesman John Romero declined to comment on the push for oversight. About three dozen police officers packed last week’s council meeting, where Lakewood police Agent Quinn Pratt-Cordova, an executive board member of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 21, spoke against independent oversight.
An oversight board would be redundant, he said, and could damage officers’ trust in the city. Such oversight might “deter top talent,” from the police department, Pratt-Cordova said.
“Civilian oversight boards are rare and often follow severe systemic issues like those in other cities, issues that the majority of you don’t agree exist in the local police department,” Pratt-Cordova told council members. “The unnecessary creation of an oversight board attempts to apply an unwarranted national narrative to Lakewood PD.”
Lakewood Mayor Wendi Strom said she hopes any permanent effort will be aimed at improving police-community relations in ways that go beyond traditional independent oversight.
“The oversight word, I think, it is a big sticking point and one that — especially for folks within the public safety realm — has a very specific meaning,” she said in an interview. “So what we end up with, it is hard to tell. But for me, and I think City Council has been pretty clear on this in multiple conversations over the last month, the end goal is ultimately to help our community members feel more comfortable reaching out when there is a need.”
In Aurora, the police department entered into a consent decree — court-ordered reforms overseen by an independent monitor — after the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after Aurora police officers violently restrained him and paramedics injected him with a too-large dose of a powerful sedative.
McClain’s death was part of a pattern of racial bias and excessive force within the Aurora Police Department, state officials later found.
Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor hopes the city’s two-person Office of Police Accountability will serve as an independent monitor for the police department when police exit the consent decree and are no longer under the supervision of the court-ordered monitor. The creation of such a position is a requirement of the consent decree.
The new office would report to the city manager, Batchelor said, but would be created with built-in protections aimed at ensuring its independence, including putting into city ordinance the office’s right to have free and unfettered access to information and budgetary safeguards to ensure it could not be defunded by the city manager. The protections would mirror Aurora’s approach to its internal auditor, which operates independently and would work in tandem with the new office, Batchelor said.
“I don’t get to tell the internal auditor, ‘That might make me look bad, don’t publish that,’” Batchelor said. “That can’t happen.”
The Office of Police Accountability, which Batchelor hopes to be ready to hire for in a few months, would have “contemporaneous oversight” of any city investigation, he said. The office would not oversee police discipline and would not conduct its own investigations into police misconduct. Instead, the employees would be able to flag problems or concerns about such investigations to Batchelor, the City Council or to the public.
Aurora Councilwoman Amy Wiles, who has helped to organize community meetings to discuss police oversight as recently as this week, said residents need a neutral place to report police misconduct.
“Right now, if you want to report something — you had a poor interaction with a police officer or you feel something wasn’t right — to call and report that is a bit invasive. You have to call the police department,” she said. “…So we are hoping this provides that level of security to community to say, ‘Hey if something went wrong, here is this neutral person you can reach out to.’”
The Office of Police Accountability could receive complaints of police misconduct directly from the public, Batchelor said, and then would “partner with the (police) department to make sure that any complaints are fully investigated.”
That approach concerns Omar Montgomery, Rocky Mountain state conference president for the NAACP.
“If you are going to have true transparency and true accountability, it can’t be that organization doing the investigation,” he said. “It has to be an independent organization. …If it goes back to the police department, I would have concerns (about whether) that is an independent department that is investigating abuse allegations.”
But he added that the Office of Police Accountability is “a good start,” and noted that it is already funded in a tough budget year.
Batchelor pointed out that some critical incidents, including police shootings, are already investigated by outside agencies. Colorado lawmakers banned police departments from investigating their own police shootings in 2015. Other types of complaints are handled solely by the police department’s internal affairs unit.
The city is still considering what the ultimate structure of the office and oversight will look like, Wiles said. The end design may include an advisory board of residents who work with the Office of Police Accountability in some fashion, though their role is limited by the city’s charter.
ESSEX — For Maureen Flatley , there is possibly no task greater than protecting children.
Flatley, who has lived in Essex since 2002, was recently named president of the Washington, D.C.-based organization Stop Child Predators. She comes to the position as the organization celebrates 20 years of child protection advocacy.
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Littleton Public Schools agreed Thursday to pay $3.85 million to the families of three children who are autistic and were abused by a school bus monitor.
The school board voted unanimously to approve the settlement Thursday, slightly more than two weeks after former bus monitor Kiarra Jones pleaded guilty to abusing the three boys while they were riding the bus to and from The Joshua School, a private school in Englewood.
Littleton Public Schools was contracted to bus the students, who are nonverbal and autistic, to and from school each day. Jones abused the boys on their bus rides for about six months, between September 2023 and March 2024, before authorities discovered surveillance video that showed the woman elbowing, stomping and punching the students.
The boys’ parents frequently asked teachers and officials at The Joshua School about their sons’ unexplained bruises and injuries while the abuse was going on, but school officials claimed the children were injuring themselves.
The families have filed a lawsuit against The Joshua School, alleging that school officials mishandled their concerns and never reported suspicions of abuse to outside authorities, enabling the monitor’s abuse.
In a statement, attorneys from Denver law firm Rathod Mohamedbhai said the three families appreciate the school district’s willingness to resolve the case early to allow for the children to start healing.
“No parent should have to wonder if their children will come home from school hurt by the very people entrusted to care for them,” attorneys for the families said Thursday night.
Littleton Public Schools has changed policies around reviewing and retaining bus surveillance, according to the statement.
“The families continue to advocate for the rights of their children and for the dignity and rights of the Autism community as a whole,” attorneys for the three families said. “They continue to seek accountability and justice from everyone who played a role in not ending the abuse against their children sooner through their ongoing lawsuit against The Joshua School.”
Joshua School Executive Director Cindy Lystad previously issued a statement that put blame for the abuse on Littleton Public Schools and said the school stands by teachers and staff members.
School board members did not comment on the settlement before or after approving it Thursday night, but district officials posted a letter online from Superintendent Todd Lambert addressing the settlement shortly after the vote.
The settlement will be “fully funded through insurance” and will have “no adverse impact on the educational services LPS students receive,” Lambert wrote.
“We will continue to look for ways to strengthen our practices, to communicate transparently with you, and to do everything in our power to ensure the safety, dignity and well-being of every student in our care,” he wrote.
BOSTON — State Auditor Diana DiZoglio said she plans to sue the agency that oversees Logan International Airport, accusing officials of withholding details of settlements with state employees her office was seeking for a required audit.
DiZoglio released an audit on Wednesday that found the Massachusetts Port Authority entered into a $1.37 million settlement agreement in 2022 which her office says took advantage of nondisclosure laws to conceal allegations that included gender- and disability-based discrimination as well as unequal pay.
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Melissa Wayne, 38, was arrested Tuesday night and booked into the Denver Downtown Detention Center on suspicion of child abuse resulting in death, according to the Denver Police Department and jail records.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Wayne was being held on a $200,000 cash-only bail, according to court records.
The arrests stem from the death of Wayne’s daughter, 2-year-old Valkyrie Erickson, police said. The toddler was found unresponsive early Sunday morning in the 100 block of Vrain Street and pronounced dead at the hospital, according to Stout’s arrest affidavit.
Other people living in the home told police they often heard yelling and slapping noises coming from the room where Valkyrie, Wayne and Stout slept, according to the affidavit.
Wayne told investigators that Stout slapped Valkyrie at least twice on the day before her death, and that she heard sounds she thought were smacks at other times when she was not in the same room as the two, according to the affidavit.
The mother briefly appeared Wednesday morning in Denver County Court for an advisement hearing, and Stout’s case was transferred to Denver District Court on Tuesday. Neither of their next court dates was available.
Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill catches a pass in the first half against the New York Jets at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Monday, September 29, 2025. Hill suffered a serious knee injury during the game.
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ
adiaz@miamiherald.com
The NFL will be reviewing parts of Tyreek Hill’s deposition in his divorce case as the league probes the star wide receiver for alleged domestic violence during his marriage, including accusations that he tried to punch his wife’s stomach while she was pregnant.
In court on Wednesday afternoon, attorneys for Hill and his wife, Keeta Vaccaro, told Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Spencer Multack that they had reached an agreement on providing Hill’s deposition transcript to league officials. The attorneys said the deposition will be handed to the NFL with some portions redacted.
In August, Multack issued an order to shield evidence in the case from being made public. The deposition may not be released publicly, and its use would be “limited strictly” to the NFL investigation, according to court documents.
A month later, Vaccaro, 29, filed an amended divorce petition, alleging eight incidents, including that Hill shoved her to the floor, ripped her hair out and tried to punch her stomach while she was pregnant. The couple was married for a year-and-half at the time of the divorce filing in April 2025. They had their daughter in November 2024.
The trial for the divorce — and domestic-violence claims — is expected to start in June, Multack noted in an order filed in January.
Vaccaro went to court in December asking for Hill’s deposition to be released to the NFL before her scheduled interview with league officials. The NFL is investigating Hill, 31, for possibly violating the league’s personal conduct policy, according to court records.
Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) talks with his wife, Keeta Vaccaro, before the start of his NFL game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. MATIAS J. OCNER mocner@miamiherald.com
The December filing marks the first time details about the NFL investigation have been publicly discussed. The NFL generally does not disclose which players are being investigated. From the document, it appears Vaccaro is cooperating with the probe.
The couple’s contentious divorce proceedings have painted an unflattering picture of Hill, who has faced previous allegations of violence toward women dating back to his days at Oklahoma State University.
In recent weeks, the judge admonished Vaccaro for purchasing a $196,000 Bentley as she asked the NFL star for almost $40,000 a month in temporary support and more than $325,000 in child support, according to Us Weekly.
Hill is recovering from a major knee injury, and a suspension would also likely affect his market value if the Dolphins release him.
Hill, who sustained a season-ending knee injury in Week 4 against the Jets, made $27.7 million this season. He’s due to make $29.9 million next season, but none of that money is guaranteed and the Dolphins aren’t expected to retain him on that contract.
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.
Timothy Busfield appears at the 2020 ABC Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 8, 2020 (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A judge has ordered that actor Timothy Busfield be released from jail during a detention hearing on child sex abuse charges.
The order Tuesday by state district court Judge David Murphy is linked to accusations that Busfield inappropriately touching a minor while working as a director on the set of the series “The Cleaning Lady.”
The judge ordered that the defendant was released on his own recognizance, pending trial. Busfield will be supervised upon release by a pretrial service in Albuquerque, and can leave the state to live at home, the judge said.
Busfield, an Emmy Award-winning actor who is known for appearances in “The West Wing,” “Field of Dreams” and “Thirtysomething,” was ordered held without bond last week at his first court appearance. Busfield called the allegations lies in a video shared before he turned himself in.
At the hearing Tuesday, Busfield was handcuffed and dressed in an orange jail uniform at the hearing in a New Mexico state district court, while wife and actor Melissa Gilbert watched from the court gallery.
Gilbert was tearful while exiting the courtroom after the judge ordered Busfield’s release.
Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls in the 1970s to ’80s TV series “Little House on the Prairie,” is on the list of potential witness submitted ahead of the hearing.
Albuquerque police issued a warrant for Busfield’s arrest earlier this month on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse. A criminal complaint alleges the acts occurred on the set of the series “The Cleaning Lady.”
According to the criminal complaint, an investigator with the police department says the child reported Busfield touched him on private areas over his clothing on one occasion when he was 7 years old and another time when he was 8. The boy’s twin brother told authorities he was also touched by Busfield, but did not specify where. He said he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get in trouble.
On Monday, Busfield’s attorneys submitted two brief audio recordings of initial police interviews in which the children say Busfield did not touch them in private areas. The attorneys in a court filing argue that the complaint characterizes the interviews as a failure to disclose abuse, but an “unequivocal denial is materially different from a mere absence of disclosure.”
According to the criminal complaint, one of the boys disclosed during a therapy session that he was inappropriately touched by the show’s director. Those records were obtained by police during the investigation.
Arguing Tuesday for Busfield’s continued detention, Assistant District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch called evidence of abuse against Busfield strong and specific.
“The boys’ allegation are supported by medical findings and by their therapist,” Brandenburg-Koch said. “Their accounts were specific and not exaggerated.”
She also described a documented pattern of sexual misconduct, abuse of authority and grooming behavior by Busfield over the past three decades. Prosecutors also say witnesses have expressed fear regarding retaliation and professional harm.
“GPS is not going to tell this court if he is around children or talking to witnesses,” Brandenburg-Koch said.
Busfield’s attorneys have argued that the allegations emerged only after the boys lost their role in the TV show, creating a financial and retaliatory motive. The filings detailed what the attorneys said was a history of fraud by both the boys’ father and mother. They cited an investigation by Warner Bros. into the allegations that found the allegations unfounded.
Busfield also submitted letters vouching for his character, and his attorneys say he passed an independent polygraph test.
Legal experts say New Mexico is among a few states that allow polygraph evidence in criminal cases, but a judge has final say over whether one can be used. There are strict requirements for admission.
A Jefferson County jury convicted a former Lakewood High School security officer on Friday of child sex assault, according to court records.
Rubel Martinez, 68, was arrested in August 2024 and charged with sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust in a pattern of abuse. The Jefferson County convicted him on that charge Friday after three hours of deliberation following a four-day jury trial, according to anews release from the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Martinez repeatedly sexually assaulted a student from 2014 to 2016 during and after school hours, and both on and off school grounds, according to the release. The victim was a junior and senior at Lakewood High School when the assaults happened.
The victim came forward to the police about the assaults in August 2024.
Martinez worked as a campus security officer at Jefferson Junior and Senior High Schools and at Lakewood High School from 2006 to 2022, according to the police department. He also ran an after-school clown club at Lakewood High School and was the pastor at Breakthrough Ministries in Weld County, the release stated.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a sentencing hearing on March 9, according to court records.
Timothy Busfield made a first appearance in New Mexico court Wednesday as prosecutors detailed a new sexual abuse accusation against the Emmy-winning actor.
Busfield, 68, has been charged with two felony counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and a single count of child abuse for allegedly inappropriately touching two child actors while he worked as a director and executive producer on the Fox drama “The Cleaning Lady,” filmed in Albuquerque. He was held without bond pending a hearing on a motion for pretrial detention.
In that motion, prosecutors argued Busfield should be jailed pending trial due to what they called “a sustained pattern of predatory conduct” that they said dated to at least 1994. That year, a 17-year-old extra on the film “Little Big League” accused Busfield of sexually assaulting her in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that was later settled privately, the motion states.
Most recently, a man named Colin Swift reported to law enforcement on Tuesday that, years ago, Busfield sexually abused Swift’s then-16-year-old daughter during an audition at B Street Theatre in Sacramento, the motion states. Swift alleged that Busfield begged the family to not report the abuse to law enforcement if he received therapy, and they initially agreed, the filing states.
No charges have been filed against Busfield in connection with that incident.
Busfield founded B Street Theatre as a touring company called Theatre for Children Inc. in 1986, according to its website. Although he is listed as an emeritus board member, he has not participated in the organization since 2001, and the incident recently reported to police is alleged to have taken place there about 25 years ago, according to a statement from B Street Theatre. The theater has retained legal counsel to conduct an internal investigation, the statement said.
Prosecutors allege Busfield’s conduct “reflects a calculated pattern of grooming, lack of boundaries, and exploitation of professional authority to gain access to minors,” according to the motion for pretrial detention. Witnesses have said they fear retaliation and career harm for speaking out against him, demonstrating “how individuals in positions of power are able to silence victims and witnesses, allowing abuse to persist unchecked,” they wrote.
A representative for Busfield could not be reached Wednesday. His attorney Stanton “Larry” Stein previously said in a statement that the actor is innocent and “determined to clear his name.” He also referenced an affidavit in which Busfield suggested to investigators that the child actors’ mother might have sought “revenge” on the director for “not bringing her kids back for the final season.”
The actor, known for his work on television series “The West Wing” and “Thirtysomething,” turned himself in Tuesday, which prosecutors allege was five days after he knew a judge had issued a warrant for his arrest. During that time, Busfield traveled from New York to New Mexico to avoid the extradition process and surrender at a convenient time, the motion alleges.
He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque, where he remained Wednesday.
Busfield is accused of inappropriately touching the two child actors, who are brothers, on the set of “The Cleaning Lady,” according to an affidavit. Their mother reported the abuse took place from November 2022 to spring 2024, according to the complaint. Police launched an investigation in November 2024 after being notified of the alleged abuse by a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital.
According to prosecutors, “Cleaning Lady” producer Warner Bros. conducted an investigation into Busfield’s behavior in February 2025 after the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists hotline fielded an anonymous complaint that the director entered a trailer on the set and kissed a 6-year-old boy on the face while he was getting a haircut. Another caller to the hotline claimed that, in September 2024, Busfield asked a parent to wait outside and took a minor — one of the alleged victims in the New Mexico case — behind closed doors for an audition at the Cinelease Studios office in Albuquerque, according to the motion.
A third-party investigator retained by Warner Bros., however, found no evidence that Busfield had been alone with the brothers on set or engaged in other inappropriate conduct, according to a statement from the investigator released by Stein, Busfield’s attorney. But the investigator failed to speak with one of the victims and his parents, as well as key witnesses, prosecutors allege in the motion.
Warner Bros. Television said in a statement that it takes all misconduct allegations seriously and has cooperated with law enforcement by expediting the sharing of the report by its third-party investigator, which it could have withheld as privileged. The studio has a clear non-retaliation policy to ensure employees feel comfortable reporting concerns, the statement said. “Our top priority is the health and safety of our cast and crew across all productions,” it said.
Busfield, who is married to actor Melissa Gilbert, was also accused of battery in March 2012 by a 28-year-old woman who said he sexually assaulted her in a Los Angeles movie theater, but prosecutors declined to file charges due to “slim evidence,” according to the motion for pretrial detention.
The hearing on the motion, during which a judge will decide whether Busfield remains in jail, will be scheduled in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque within the next five business days, said Camille Cordova, a public information officer for the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.
Before he surrendered, Busfield recorded a video at his attorney’s office in which he denied the allegations. “I’m gonna confront these lies,” he said in the video published by TMZ, “they’re horrible.”
Prosecutors called the move “troubling” and said it demonstrated “a willingness to prioritize personal narrative control and public relations” over complying with court processes.
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
In the days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, social media users circulated a document that portrayed her as an abusive mother.
“Renee wasn’t so ‘Good’… Domestic Abuse Child Endangerment is enough for me,” read a Jan. 11 X post that included a screenshot of what looks like an arrest history for someone named “Nicole Renee Good.”
“If you can abuse a child, abusing law enforcement is no stretch,” read a similar Jan. 11 Facebook post that shared the same screenshot.
The screenshot showed an image of a woman resembling Good, who was killed Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, after video showed an ICE officer shooting into her vehicle.
It listed what look like several arrests between 2022 and 2024, including one for a “domestic abuse child endangerment law” violation.
But the screenshot contains numerous reasons to doubt its authenticity:
The person named in the screenshot was listed as being 44 and having an Oct. 7, 1980 birthday. A person with that birthday would have been 44 at the time of the 2024 arrest and 45 as of Jan. 7, 2026, when Good died.
Good, the Minneapolis woman, was 37 years old when she died. She was born on April 2, 1988, according to a notarized Missouri court document from 2023, in which she requested a name change.
We also saw people sharing versions of the screenshot that showed a different age — 35 — with the same date of birth in 1980; that math doesn’t add up either.
The screenshot contained no information about what state or jurisdiction the supposed arrests took place, and we could not independently verify its authenticity.
The booking dates listed in the screenshot range from April 2022 to October 2024. Good lived in Kansas City, Missouri, during that time, documents show.
When we shared the screenshot with Kansas City Missouri Police Department spokesperson Phillip DiMartino he said, “I am unsure where that document is from.”
Good was born in Colorado Springs and later moved to Virginia and Kansas City. She studied at Old Dominion University in Virginia, graduating with an English degree in December 2020, the university said in a statement. She was married to Justin Sheppard of Colorado, the Wall Street Journal reported, and later to Timmy Ray Macklin Jr., who died in 2023. She had three children.
PolitiFact did not find any court records in Colorado, Missouri and Virginia showing that Good has ever been charged with child abuse or endangerment. We also searched news reports for information about possible arrests and reviewed statements from Good’s friends and family. None revealed any information showing Good has faced child abuse charges.
Her former brother-in-law, Joseph Macklin, described her as “a great and loving mother,” The Washington Post reported.
She had recently moved to Minneapolis with her wife and 6-year-old son, whom she had with her second husband, according to newsreports.
Good’s first husband called her a “devoted Christian” in an interview with The Associated Press. He said he never knew her to participate in any protests. Together, they had a daughter and son, now 15 and 12.
The AP also reported that Good “was never charged with anything” beyond a traffic ticket. PolitiFact found she was cited in 2019 in Virginia for failure to have her vehicle inspected. The Denver Post also reported that she had a 2012 traffic ticket in El Paso County, Colorado.
A screenshot showing an arrest record for a “Nicole Renee Good” contains numerous inconsistencies and does not prove Renee Nicole Good was accused of child abuse. We rate that claim False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
Hailey Bieber is setting the record straight when it comes to a recent rumor regarding her marriage to Justin Bieber!
A social media user posted a screen recording of the Rhode Beauty founder’s supposed TikTok re-posts to X (Twitter) on Saturday, and what did they find? The person allegedly discovered Hailey re-posted a video from another content creator back on Thursday that called out the “abuse” in her relationship with the pop star! Whoa! The TikTok user claimed in the clip:
“Most long-term relationships that we romanticize and congratulate only work because the woman is a tolerant co-dependent. And when I say tolerant, I mean she tolerates mediocrity, abuse, doing the majority of domestic and emotional labor, in exchange for being in a relationship. And that is a contract that I am opting out of. There is no better example than Hailey Bieber and Justin Bieber.”
Jeez. The woman went on to accuse Justin of struggling with addiction, saying:
“People wonder how this relationship is still lasting. It is because Hailey is a tolerant, co-dependent woman. Hailey will never leave Justin. She is a stayer. I know some of you all love Justin. Justin is an addict. You cannot be a good partner or an equal partner when you are in addiction. And in my opinion, an addicted partner is always an abusive partner. The disease of addiction is too selfish for you to be anything else, but this relationship will work and people romanticize it because Hailey will tolerate that abuse.”
A rep for the Never Say Never artist denied the persistent rumors that he’s using hard drugs last year, but is Hailey allegedly now confirming what many fans’ fear with this jaw-dropping video? Hmm. According to the social media user, the model “later deleted” the re-post. Ch-ch-check out the video (below):
Hailey Bieber caught people’s attention after reposting a TikTok that accuses Justin Bieber of being mediocre, abusive, and addicted, and suggests that Hailey tolerates this behavior and will stay with him. The repost was later deleted. pic.twitter.com/RZGmG2RWqW
Hailey DENIES ever even re-posting the video in the first place! The 29-year-old makeup mogul took to Instagram Stories on Saturday to fire back:
“Hey, I know you guys who live on the internet are really bored, but I didn’t repost any video speaking on my relationship. Have a beautiful Saturday!”
(c) Hailey Bieber/Instagram
So there you have it! Hailey insists it never happened!
What are your reactions, Perezcious readers? Tell us in the comments (below)!
When Ashlee Chaidez’s black Lab mix, Duck, charged toward her and rubbed his face — a little more gray than the last time she had seen him — against her cheek, she knew her struggles over the past several months had been worth it.
Six months ago, Chaidez, 27, and 6-year-old Duck were living out of her car around the Front Range. Chaidez dropped Duck off at doggy daycare to get him out of the summer heat while she delivered orders for Instacart, narrowly earning the money to board her beloved dog.
Chaidez barely broke even financially, was off her mental health medication and needed help, she said. But the thought of giving up Duck — her best friend and reason for getting up in the morning — while she sought inpatient psychiatric care was a blow that felt insurmountable.
After reaching out to animal shelters, Chaidez learned about a program through the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that finds foster caregivers for people’s pets while they recover from addiction, abuse or mental health problems.
Through that program, Duck lived with a foster family while Chaidez got back on her feet.
“One of the main things preventing me from getting help was that I didn’t want to give him up because he’s my family,” Chaidez said. “This gave me the peace of mind to get the help I needed, and I don’t think I would be where I am now without this program.”
The program, Pawsitive Recovery, launched in Denver in 2021 and is so popular that the organization is looking to expand it across the country.
“This program gave me a lot of hope when I didn’t really see any,” Chaidez said.
Serena Saunders got sober from alcohol about five years ago through an inpatient program. The former veterinary technician told her therapist at the time that she wished she could work with dogs while going through recovery. That was the impetus for Pawsitive Recovery, a nonprofit Saunders started out of her Denver home, where she cared for the cats and dogs of people in recovery.
Two years ago, Saunders met an employee with SPCA International who became interested in her work. The longstanding animal advocacy organization hired Saunders and folded her nonprofit into their mission.
“It was probably the best decision of my life,” Saunders said.
Pawsitive Recovery partners with mental health treatment and sober living facilities across Colorado. People who need inpatient care but have pets they don’t want to leave behind get referred to the SPCA and connected with a foster caregiver.
The organization and its host of volunteers care for around 30 to 40 animals at a time — mostly cats and dogs, although Saunders has looked after 10 tarantulas in her office and found temporary homes for guinea pigs, too.
The fosters are typically volunteers from the recovery space — therapists, people in long-term recovery, parents of family members impacted by addiction, Saunders said. (Anyone interested in volunteering or getting connected with the program can find information at spcai.org/our-work/pawsitive-recovery.)
Sometimes, due to challenges like homelessness, the pets have trauma that can lead to behavioral issues, Saunders said. The program partners with a training facility in Brighton that takes on behaviorally challenged animals, she said.
Ashlee Chaidez, right, hugs SPCA volunteer Sara Broene after being reunited with her dog, Duck, after six months apart while Chaidez sought psychiatric care, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Hounds Town dog daycare and boarding in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
They also have a standing arrangement with local boarding facility Hounds Town, which can take in pets quickly, Saunders said. A fast placement can be critical if a client is escaping a domestic violence situation and needs to leave right away, she said.
“We are not limited to dogs that are in perfect shape,” Saunders said. “We can take broken ones, too, which is amazing because the dog and the person get to heal simultaneously.”
Pawsitive Recovery commits to fostering pets for six months, giving the person in recovery time to figure out their next move, Saunders said. The SPCA charges $100 per month for a boarding fee, which Saunders described as an accountability tool for the person in recovery.
“It’s part of their responsibility, having a little skin in the game when it comes to the care of their animal,” Saunders said. “If they’re in treatment, a lot of these people are not working, so what we do is set up a fundraiser for them, and as they start rebuilding their life, they can go in and make payments. It’s all situational.”
For Chaidez, the program was life-changing.
She got the medical care she needed, secured a job at a Starbucks in Vail and got her own apartment.
When times in recovery got hard, the thought of reuniting with her furry friend kept her motivated, she said.
Ashlee Chaidez give a kiss to her dog, Duck, after being reunited after six months apart while Chaidez sought psychiatric care, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Hounds Town dog daycare and boarding in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
“I didn’t really notice how much he helped me out until I didn’t have him anymore,” Chaidez said. “He’s my best friend. He’s the whole point.”
On the day of reunification — a Saturday in mid-December — Chaidez grew nervous that Duck might not remember her or might be angry with her for leaving him.
But Duck was elated to see his favorite human again.
“I took a big sigh of relief because I made it,” Chaidez said.
That night, when Chaidez crawled into bed with Duck sleeping at her feet, she realized what a big milestone she had achieved.
“I did it,” Chaidez said. “I was in my own place, I have my own bed, my dog is back, and it really clicked. Even though it was so hard to give him up, I made the right decision.”
CALI, Colombia—They see themselves as the cowboys of the drug trade, highly experienced crews that ferry narcotics on small boats across the open seas, running on a mix of bravado, skill and dreams of a massive payday.
Now, designated as terrorists by the Trump administration, they face not only the perils of a capricious sea but the new danger of getting blown out of the water by the U.S. military. The trade’s unofficial motto—“deliver or die”—has never rung so true.
A Long Beach man who previously served time in prison for felony child abuse was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of torturing and murdering his 14-month-old daughter, authorities said.
The toddler’s father, Alfredo Munoz, 40, and stepmother Kelly Munoz, 34, were taken into custody in the 200 block of East Louise Street in connection with the child’s death, according to the Long Beach Police Department.
Officers initially responded to a hospital on Nov. 7 where the toddler was unresponsive with signs of severe trauma, police said. She was put on life support and died three days later. Her identity is being withheld.
Over the course of a two-week investigation, homicide detectives determined that the toddler had been a victim of ongoing abuse and that her death was a direct result of abuse from her father and stepmother, police said.
Both suspects are being held without bail at the Long Beach Jail, and detectives plan to present the case to the L.A. County district attorney’s office for filing consideration next week.
Alfredo Munoz was previously sentenced to four years in state prison in December 2021 after he pleaded no contest to one count of willful cruelty to a child causing possible injury or death, according to court records.
A law enforcement source confirmed the man charged in the prior Long Beach abuse case was the same man arrested Tuesday. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with the media.
Munoz had been released from custody at the time the alleged abuse of the now-deceased toddler took place.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Homicide Dets. Ethan Shear and Kelsey Myers at (562) 570-7244. Anonymous tips can be left at (800) 222-8477 or at www.lacrimestoppers.org.
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday accepted the resignation of an ailing Spanish bishop who is under church investigation for allegedly sexually abusing a young seminarian in the 1990s, the first known time the new pontiff removed a bishop accused of abuse.A one-line statement from the Vatican said Leo had accepted the resignation of Cádiz Bishop Rafael Zornoza, 76. It didn’t say why, but Zornoza submitted his resignation to the pope last year when he turned 75, the normal retirement age for bishops.It hadn’t been accepted though until the El País newspaper reported earlier this month that Zornoza had been recently placed under investigation by a church tribunal. The daily, which since 2018 has exposed decades of abuse and cover-up in the Spanish Catholic Church, said Zornoza was accused of abusing a young former seminarian while he was a young priest and directed the diocesan seminary in Getafe.The report, quoting a letter the former seminarian wrote the Vatican over the summer, said Zornoza fondled him and regularly slept with him from when he was 14-21 years old. The former seminarian’s letter said Zornoza heard his confession and persuaded him to see a psychiatrist to “cure” his homosexuality.The diocese of Cádiz denied the accusations against Zornoza but confirmed the investigation was being carried out by the church court in Madrid, known as the Rota. In a Nov. 10 statement, the diocese said Zornoza was cooperating with the investigation and had suspended his agenda temporarily “to clarify the facts and to undergo treatment for an aggressive form of cancer.”“The accusations made, referring to events that took place almost 30 years ago, are very serious and also false,” the statement said.It is believed to be the first publicly known case of a bishop being retired, and being placed under investigation for alleged abuse, since the Spanish church began reckoning in recent years with a decades-long legacy of abuse and cover-up that has rocked the once-staunchly Catholic Spain.Leo didn’t immediately name a temporary leader of the diocese.In 2023, Spain’s first official probe of abuse indicated that the number of victims could run into hundreds of thousands, based on a survey that was part of a report by the office of Spain’s ombudsman. The ombudsman conducted an 18-month independent investigation of 487 cases involving alleged victims who spoke with the ombudsman’s team.Spain’s Catholic bishops apologized but dismissed the interpretations of the ombudsman report as a “lie,” arguing that many more people had been abused outside of the church.The Spanish Catholic hierarchy then did its own report, saying in 2024 that it had found evidence of 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945. It then launched a plan to compensate victims, after Spain’s government approved a plan to force the church to pay economic reparations.
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday accepted the resignation of an ailing Spanish bishop who is under church investigation for allegedly sexually abusing a young seminarian in the 1990s, the first known time the new pontiff removed a bishop accused of abuse.
A one-line statement from the Vatican said Leo had accepted the resignation of Cádiz Bishop Rafael Zornoza, 76. It didn’t say why, but Zornoza submitted his resignation to the pope last year when he turned 75, the normal retirement age for bishops.
It hadn’t been accepted though until the El País newspaper reported earlier this month that Zornoza had been recently placed under investigation by a church tribunal. The daily, which since 2018 has exposed decades of abuse and cover-up in the Spanish Catholic Church, said Zornoza was accused of abusing a young former seminarian while he was a young priest and directed the diocesan seminary in Getafe.
The report, quoting a letter the former seminarian wrote the Vatican over the summer, said Zornoza fondled him and regularly slept with him from when he was 14-21 years old. The former seminarian’s letter said Zornoza heard his confession and persuaded him to see a psychiatrist to “cure” his homosexuality.
The diocese of Cádiz denied the accusations against Zornoza but confirmed the investigation was being carried out by the church court in Madrid, known as the Rota. In a Nov. 10 statement, the diocese said Zornoza was cooperating with the investigation and had suspended his agenda temporarily “to clarify the facts and to undergo treatment for an aggressive form of cancer.”
“The accusations made, referring to events that took place almost 30 years ago, are very serious and also false,” the statement said.
It is believed to be the first publicly known case of a bishop being retired, and being placed under investigation for alleged abuse, since the Spanish church began reckoning in recent years with a decades-long legacy of abuse and cover-up that has rocked the once-staunchly Catholic Spain.
Leo didn’t immediately name a temporary leader of the diocese.
In 2023, Spain’s first official probe of abuse indicated that the number of victims could run into hundreds of thousands, based on a survey that was part of a report by the office of Spain’s ombudsman. The ombudsman conducted an 18-month independent investigation of 487 cases involving alleged victims who spoke with the ombudsman’s team.
Spain’s Catholic bishops apologized but dismissed the interpretations of the ombudsman report as a “lie,” arguing that many more people had been abused outside of the church.
The Spanish Catholic hierarchy then did its own report, saying in 2024 that it had found evidence of 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945. It then launched a plan to compensate victims, after Spain’s government approved a plan to force the church to pay economic reparations.
WASHINGTON — For more than a year, detainees at a California immigrant detention center said, they were summoned from their dorms to a lieutenant’s office late at night. Hours frequently passed, they said, before they were sent back to their dorms.
What they allege happened in the office became the subject of federal complaints, which accuse Lt. Quin, then an administrative manager, of harassing, threatening and coercing immigrants into sexual acts at the Golden State Annex in McFarland. A person with that name worked in a higher-ranking post, as chief of security, at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana until August — the same month The Times sent questions to the company that operates the facilities.
The Department of Homeland Security said it could not substantiate the allegations. According to an attorney for one of the detainees, the California attorney general’s office opened an investigation into the matter.
Immigrant advocates point to the case as one of many allegations of abuse in U.S. immigration facilities, within a system which they say fails to properly investigate.
In three complaints reviewed by The Times that were filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), to a watchdog agency and with DHS, detainees accused Quin of sexual assault, harassment and other misconduct. The complainants initially knew the lieutenant only as “Lt. Quinn,” and he is referred to as such in the federal complaints, though the correct spelling is “Quin.”
The complaints also allege other facility staff knew about and facilitated abuse, perpetuating a culture of impunity.
The Golden State Annex, a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement detention facility, in McFarland last year.
The California and Louisiana facilities are both operated by the Florida-based private prison giant, the GEO Group.
A Dec. 10, 2024, post on Instagram Threads appears to allude to issues Quin faced in California. The post pictures him standing in front of a GEO Group flag and states: “Permit me to reintroduce myself … You will respect my authority. They tried to hinder me, but God intervened.”
Asked about the accusations, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Homeland Security public affairs secretary, said in a statement that allegations of misconduct by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees or contractors are treated seriously and investigated thoroughly.
“These complaints were filed in 2024 — well before current DHS leadership and the necessary reforms they implemented,” McLaughlin wrote. “The investigation into this matter has concluded, and ICE — through its own investigation reviewed by [the DHS office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties] — could not substantiate any complaint of sexual assault or rape.”
The GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Advocates for the detainees say they are undeterred and will continue to seek justice for people they say have been wronged.
Advocates also say the potential for abuse at detention facilities will grow as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown brings such facilities to record population levels. The population of detained immigrants surpassed a high of 61,000 in August, according to TRAC, a nonpartisan research organization.
The allegations against Quin by a 28-year-old detainee are detailed in his FTCA complaint, a precursor to a lawsuit, filed in January with DHS. The complaint seeks $10 million for physical and emotional damages.
The Times generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse and is referring to him by his middle initial, E.
McLaughlin’s response did not address the FTCA complaint that details E’s sexual assault allegations.
Reached by phone, Quin told The Times, “I don’t speak with the media,” and referred a reporter to the Golden State Annex. After being read the allegations against him and asked to respond, he hung up.
E alleged abuse in interviews with The Times, and in a recorded interview with an attorney, which formed the basis for the FTCA complaint.
In the complaint, he said that beginning in May 2023, Quin would call him into a room, where no cameras or staff were present, to say he had been given a citation or that guards had complained about him.
One day, the complaint alleges, Quin rubbed his own genitals over his pants and began making sexual comments. E told Quin he felt uncomfortable and wanted to go back to his dorm. But Quin smirked, dragged his chair closer and grabbed E in the crotch, the complaint says.
After E pushed Quin away and threatened to defend himself physically, the complaint alleges, Quin made his own threat: to call a “code black” — an emergency — that would summon guards and leave E facing charges of assaulting a federal officer.
Instead, E said, Quin called for an escort to take him back to his dorm.
After that, the late-night summons — sometimes at midnight or 2 a.m. — increased, E said in his complaint. Each time, Quin continued to rub his genitals over his clothes, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges Quin repeatedly offered to help with E’s immigration case in exchange for sexual favors. Then Quin found out E is bisexual and E alleged Quin threatened to tell his family during a visit. Afraid of his family finding out about his sexuality, E said in the complaint, he finally acquiesced to letting Quin touch his genitals and perform oral sex on him.
“I just, I ended up doing it,” E said in a recorded interview with his attorney.
Afterward, the complaint says, Quin told E that he would make sure to help him, and that no one would find out.
The complaint alleges that Quin brought E contraband gifts, including a phone, and, around Christmas, a water bottle full of alcohol.
“I feel dirty,” E said in the recorded interview. “I feel ashamed of myself, you know? I feel like my dignity was just nowhere.”
E said in his complaint that a staff member told him in December 2023 that a guard had reported Quin to the warden after noticing E had been out of his dorm for a long time; the guard had reviewed security cameras showing Quin giving E the bottle of alcohol.
E said the staffer told him that Quin was temporarily suspended from interacting with detainees, and the late-night summons stopped for a while.
Lee Ann Felder-Heim, staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, which filed a complaint with the federal government alleging mistreatment of detainees at the Golden State Annex in McFarland.
(Maria del Rio / For The Times)
A second, earlier complaint alleging mistreatment at the McFarland facility was filed on E’s behalf in August 2024 by the Asian Law Caucus with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL).
That complaint alleges that other GEO Group staff targeted him with sexually harassing and degrading comments. It does not address E’s sexual assault allegations, because E said he was initially too afraid to talk about them.
Once, when E was lying on his stomach in his cell, a guard commented loudly to other staff that he was waiting for a visit from Quin; the guard made a motion of putting her finger through a hole, insinuating that E sought to engage in sexual intercourse, the complaint states.
The broader issue isn’t one person, “but rather a system of impunity and abuse,” said Lee Ann Felder-Heim, a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus. “The reports make it clear that other staff were aware of what was going on and actually were assisting in making it happen.”
In addition to detailing E’s own experiences, the complaint also details abuse and harassment of five other detainees. One detainee is transgender, a fact that would play a role in how federal officials investigated the complaint.
In February and March, CRCL sent Felder-Heim letters saying it had closed the investigations into all but one case of alleged sexual abuse and harassment — including those regarding Quin — citing, as justification, Trump’s First-Day executive order concerning “gender ideology extremism.” The order prohibits using federal funds to “promote gender ideology,” so Felder-Heim said it appears the investigations were shut down because one of the complainants is transgender. The other case was closed earlier on the merits.
She called the investigation process flawed and “wholly inadequate.”
E filed a third complaint with another oversight body, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. To his knowledge, no investigation was initiated.
In March, the Trump administration shut down three internal oversight bodies: CRCL, OIDO and the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman. Civil rights groups sued the following month, prompting the agency to resurrect the offices.
But staffing at the offices was decimated, according to sworn court declarations by DHS officials. CRCL has gone from having 147 positions to 22; OIDO from about 118 to about 10; and the CIS Ombudsman from 46 to about 10.
“All legally required functions of CRCL continue to be performed, but in an efficient and cost-effective manner and without hindering the Department’s mission of securing the homeland,” said McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman.
Michelle Brané, who was the immigrant detention ombudsman under the Biden administration, said the civil rights office generally had first dibs on complaints about sexual assault. She recalled the complaint about Quin but said her office didn’t investigate it because the civil rights office already was.
Brané said the decrease in oversight amid increased detention will inevitably exacerbate issues such as allegations of sexual assault. Worse conditions also make it harder to hire quality staff, she said.
Around the same time that E was held at Golden State Annex, a gay couple from Colombia reported in April 2024 to the OIDO that Quin had sexually harassed them.
D.T., 26, and C.B., 25, were separated upon arrival at Golden State Annex. D.T. began to experience severe anxiety attacks, they said in the Asian Law Caucus complaint and in an interview with The Times. The couple asked to be placed in the same dormitory.
Before granting their request, Quin asked what they would give him in return, the couple recounted in the complaint. Afterward, the complaint alleges, he frequently invited them to his office, saying they owed him.
“We never accepted going to his office, because we knew what it was for,” C.B. told the Times.
In their complaint, they allege that Quin asked D.T. if he wanted to have sex and told C.B., “You belong to me.”
The couple became aware that Quin had also harassed other detainees and gave preferential treatment to those who they believed accepted his requests for sexual favors, according to the complaint; one detainee told them that he had grabbed Quin’s hand and placed it on his penis to avoid being taken to solitary confinement for starting a fight.
D.T. said in an interview with The Times that he believes “below him are many people who never said anything.”
In a Dec. 2, 2024, internal facility grievance from Golden State Annex reviewed by The Times, another detainee alleges that Quin retaliated against him for speaking out against misconduct.
In the grievance and in an interview with The Times, the detainee said he spoke up after, on several occasions, watching another man walk to Quin’s office late at night and come back to the dorm hours later. He also said in the grievance that Quin brought in marijuana, cellphones and other contraband.
Another witness, Gustavo Flores, 33, said Quin recognized him as a former Golden State Annex detainee when he was briefly transferred to the Alexandria facility, just before his deportation to El Salvador in May.
Quin pulled Flores aside and offered to uncuff him and get him lunch in exchange for cleaning the lobby; after he finished, Quin brought him into his office, where he peppered Flores with questions about Golden State Annex, Flores said.
Flores said he asked about certain staffers and detainees. He told Flores people wanted to sue him, calling them “crybabies.”
“He’s telling me everything, like, ‘Oh yeah, I know what goes on over there,’” Flores said.
When E tried to end the sexual encounters, his complaint says, Quin threatened to have him sent to a detention facility in Texas or have his deportation expedited.
In October 2024, E was transferred to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield.
Heliodoro Moreno, E’s attorney, said the California Attorney General’s Office confirmed to him in February that it was investigating. An investigator interviewed E in April and again in May, he said, and the investigation remains open.
California Department of Justice spokesperson Nina Sheridan declined to comment on a potential investigation. But in a statement she said the office remains vigilant of “ongoing, troubling conditions” at detention facilities throughout California.
“We are especially concerned that conditions at these facilities are only set to worsen as the Trump Administration continues to ramp up its inhumane campaign of mass deportation,” she wrote.
E, who had a pending claim for a special status known as withholding of removal, dropped his case in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Moreno said his client wished to no longer be detained.
“It’s very unfortunate that he’s in these circumstances,” Moreno said. His client was forced to forgo his appellate rights and leave “without really getting a conclusion to receiving justice for what happened to him.”
Federal immigration officials are out of control, and America’s third branch of government needs to rein in the gross abuse of power on display in Colorado and across the nation.
Gregory Davies, a high-level federal official overseeing deportation arrests in Colorado, told a judge last month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not have a warrant to arrest Fernando Jaramillo-Solano. But the agents arrested Jaramillo-Solano anyway after mistakenly pulling the Durango man over while he was on his way to drop off his 12-year-old and 15-year-old children at school. ICE officials detained all three, and they spent weeks in Durango before they were shipped to Dilley, Texas.
This is no simple mistake that is easily rectified.
ICE is causing real harm to contributing members of our community — teachers, nurses, mothers and fathers. And children are traumatized in the wake of these unjustified detainments.
President Donald Trump has upended the mission at ICE, a part of Homeland Security that was once dedicated to keeping Americans safe by deporting criminals. The president has said he plans to deport the more than 13 million people who live in the United States without legal immigration status, regardless of whether they have committed other crimes. But he has gone farther than that, and his agents are now detaining people who do have legal status. The intent is clear — push out immigrants even who are doing everything right.
Trump’s intent is that the people his agents wrongfully detain will either self-deport becasue conditions are so poor in the federal facilities or that if a judge orders their release, they will be silenced by their fear of reprisal, after all, they were detained once; who can protect these individuals from being detained again?
But Trump has calculated wrong. These brave victims of Trump’s mass deportation policy are speaking out, and have filed a lawsuit together to try and prevent ICE from terrorizing people.
Caroline Dias Goncalves, the 19-year-old college student who was detained in Grand Junction and held for almost three weeks in a detention center in Aurora because a sheriff’s deputy thought her perfect English was broken by an accent, testified that her detainment has dramatically affected her life.
She lost her driver’s license, moved back home and has reduced her course load at the University of Utah.
To Davies she might be “collateral” damage, but to us she is an injured kid trying to rebuild her life. Her arrest was completely unnecessary and likely illegal. If people like Davies don’t step up to make sure that ICE agents are doing their jobs – targeting and arresting criminals for deportation – then who will?
The answer of course is that the judicial branch must act as a strong check on the abuses of the executive branch.
Trump’s immigration enforcement squad cannot just smash and grab Coloradans because they suspect someone might be here illegally. And if these agents do, there must be legal consequences for them and their bosses, no matter how high the orders have come from.
Gonclaves was lucky. She was released.
Jaramillo-Solano and his children are still detained in Texas with no end to their nightmare in sight, despite the fact that a federal official just testified to a judge that their arrest was a mistake.
Marina Ortiz, who teaches fifth grade at the Global Village Academy, went for a routine check-in with ICE officials and she and her family never came home. The principal of the school says that Ortiz had work authorization to work legally in the United States. She said the school is working with immigration attorneys to see if Ortiz can be released from detention.
The sad truth is that unless the courts step up, these abuses will likely continue, and thousands of people like Ortiz and Jaramillo-Solano will never get home.
For years, the U.S. and China have been locked in a pattern on the deadly issue of fentanyl. The White House pressures Beijing to stop Chinese companies from exporting chemicals used to make the drug to Mexico. Beijing takes incremental steps in exchange for Washington dialing down economic pressure—only for China to drag its feet when relations deteriorate.
President Trump, after a summit on Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said tariffs he had imposed on China over its role in the fentanyl trade would be lowered to 10% from 20% because of Beijing’s “very strong action” in cracking down and Xi’s commitment to do more.
After a year of embarrassing sex allegations related to Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew on Thursday was stripped of his title by Buckingham Palace.
“Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor,” a statement said. “These censures are deemed necessary, not withstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him. Their majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
The move comes amid years of outrage over connections between Andrew and Epstein. Andrew has denied any wrongdoing but has been stripped of positions for several years.
Andrew stepped away from the spotlight after he was linked to the notorious late billionaire financier. This month Andrew publicly announced he would not use his title or honours, distancing himself even further from the royal family.
“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further,” he said in an Oct. 17 statement released by Buckingham Palace. “In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.”
Andrew continued to deny the accusations. But the royal family’s decision to strip him of his titles, after emails emerged that he remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted, is a grave consequence for King Charles III’s younger brother, who has faced questions about his relationship to Epstein.
Andrew faced accusations that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein, when she was 17. Giuffre sued Andrew and the two reached an out-of-court settlement in 2022, but Andrew did not admit any wrongdoing.
Guiffre died this year at the age of 41. After her death, her book, “Nobody’s Girl,” was published, in which she alleged that Andrew acted as if “having sex with me was his birthright.”
She also alleged in the book that Andrew’s team hired internet trolls to harass her.
