ReportWire

Tag: Assault and battery

  • Memorial set Monday for one of 4 Idaho university victims

    Memorial set Monday for one of 4 Idaho university victims

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    MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A memorial service was scheduled Monday for one of the four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in their home early Nov. 13, as police in the college town of Moscow have yet to identify a suspect in the slayings.

    The memorial service for Ethan Chapin was scheduled for Monday afternoon in Mount Vernon, Washington, a city on Puget Sound north of Seattle.

    Chapin, 20, was a triplet, and is survived by his parents and his siblings Maizie and Hunter. He attended Mount Vernon High School, where he played basketball. All three triplets enrolled in the University of Idaho last August.

    “Since attending the University of Idaho, Ethan lived his best life,” according to his obituary. “He loved the social life, intramurals and tolerated the academics. He also continued to play sports.”

    “If he wasn’t on the golf course or working, you could usually find him surfing, playing sand volleyball or pickle ball,” the obituary said.

    On Sunday, law enforcement officers investigating the deaths asked for patience after a week passed with no arrests.

    Authorities said they have no suspect or weapon in the killings, which shook Moscow, a town of 25,000 residents in the Idaho Panhandle that had not recorded a homicide in about five years.

    Students and residents have expressed concern about a lack of details from police, who initially said there was no danger to the public but a few days later acknowledged they couldn’t say there was no threat.

    “We know that people want answers — we want answers, too,” Idaho State Police Col. Kedrick Wills said. “Please be patient as we work through this investigation.”

    Moscow Police Chief James Fry said authorities have received nearly 650 tips and conducted 90 interviews. Police have also requested businesses and residences in specific parts of the city to share with them footage recorded between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on the day of the killings.

    The university is in recess this week for Thanksgiving.

    The victims were Chapin; seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; and junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho. The women were roommates, and Chapin was dating Kernodle.

    Authorities on Sunday said they were each stabbed multiple times, and that some had defensive wounds.

    Police said two other roommates who were in the house on the night of the killings slept through the attack, waking later that day. Police said one of their phones was used to call 911 from inside the residence at 11:58 a.m. Police on Sunday declined to say who made the 911 call.

    Police have said evidence leads them to believe the students were targeted, although they haven’t given details and declined to do so again on Sunday. Investigators say nothing appears to have been stolen from the victims or the home. Police have said there was no sign of forced entry, and first responders found a door open when they arrived.

    Dozens of additional law enforcement officers have arrived in Moscow, officials said.

    The Moscow Police Department said four detectives, five support staff and 24 patrol officers are working on the case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has 22 investigators helping in Moscow, and 20 more agents assisting from outside the area. The Idaho State Police has supplied 20 investigators, 15 troopers for patrols and its mobile crime scene team.

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  • Report: Dallas cop arrested for shooting at another officer

    Report: Dallas cop arrested for shooting at another officer

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    DALLAS — A Dallas police officer was arrested on an aggravated assault charge Friday for allegedly shooting at another officer while the pair were off duty.

    Officer Anthony Heims was being held in the Dallas County jail on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He has not been granted bond and jail records did not list an attorney who could speak for the 39-year-old.

    The Dallas Police Department announced that Heims has been placed on administrative leave pending outcome of an internal affairs administrative investigation, but did not explain the charge further.

    An arrest warrant obtained by the Dallas Morning News alleges that Heims and another officer were riding in a Uber Friday when he pointed a pistol at the other officer’s head. The Uber driver reportedly told investigators that the pair began struggling over the gun, which discharged into the car’s roof.

    The second officer, who was reportedly intoxicated, is not named in the newspaper’s report. It’s unclear whether he’s identified in the affidavit.

    A police spokesperson did not answer questions about what led to the charge against Heims and said the affidavit would have to be obtained from the county clerk’s office, which did not immediately respond to a request for the document.

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  • 2 Hawaiian men guilty of hate crime in white man’s beating

    2 Hawaiian men guilty of hate crime in white man’s beating

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    HONOLULU — A jury on Thursday found two Native Hawaiian men guilty of a hate crime for the 2014 beating of a white man who was fixing up a house he purchased in their remote Maui neighborhood.

    U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ordered Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr. detained pending sentencing scheduled for March 2, and marshals moved to handcuff the two men after the verdict was announced in the afternoon.

    Family members and supporters wept in the courtroom and called out to the men: “I love you,” and “Be good.” “God bless you daddy,” said Alo-Kaonohi’s son Kahue, 3.

    In an unusual move, the U.S. Department of Justice sought to prosecute Alo-Kaonohi and Aki and secured a federal grand jury indictment in December 2020 charging each with a hate crime count punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

    Prosecutors alleged during the trial in U.S. District Court in Honolulu that Alo-Kaonohi and Aki were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman’s race when they punched, kicked and used a shovel to beat him in Kahakuloa village. Kunzelman was left with injuries including a concussion, two broken ribs and head and abdominal trauma, prosecutors said.

    Alo-Kaonohi previously pleaded no contest to felony assault in state court and was sentenced to probation, while Aki pleaded no contest to terroristic threatening and was sentenced to probation and nearly 200 days in jail. The federal trial was held separately, to determine if they were guilty of a hate crime. It’s unclear why it took so long for U.S. prosecutors to pursue hate crime charges.

    Local attorneys say they’ve never heard of the federal government prosecuting Native Hawaiians for hate crimes before this case.

    Lawyers for Alo-Kaonohi and Aki did not deny the assault but said it was not a hate crime. It was not race that sparked the attack, they said, but Kunzelman’s entitled and disrespectful attitude.

    The men were upset that Kunzelman cut locks to village gates, their attorneys said. Kunzelman said he did so because residents were locking him in and out. He testified that he wanted to provide the village with better locks and distribute keys to residents.

    Kunzelman testified that while Alo-Kaonohi and Aki beat him, they told him no white people would ever live in Kahakuloa village. However, he acknowledged that’s not heard in video recorded during the attack.

    Kunzelman said he decided to take two pistols to Maui after hearing that a contractor he hired to do mold remediation had been assaulted when he showed up and after his realtor said the close-knit community of Native Hawaiians had a problem with white people.

    He also installed cameras on his vehicle, which were on during the attack. The vehicle was parked under the house and recorded images of what was happening downstairs, including Aki pacing with a shovel on his shoulder. The video only captured audio from the assault, which took place upstairs.

    Lawyers for Alo-Kaonohi an Aki told jurors the video shows that they didn’t use any racial slurs.

    “Haole,” a Hawaiian word with meanings that include foreign and white person, was central to the case, highlighting multicultural Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with race.

    At one point Aki is heard saying, “You’s a haole, eh,” using a Hawaiian word that can mean white person. Defense attorneys said he didn’t use the word in a derogatory way.

    “It’s not a hate crime to assault somebody and in the course of it use the word ‘haole,’” court-appointed attorney Lynn Panagakos said during her opening statement. She noted that Aki is part-Hawaiian and part-haole.

    “’Haole’ has multiple meanings depending on the context,” she said. “It’s an accepted word.”

    Megan Kau, a Native Hawaiian attorney not involved in the case, said it depends on the tone and manner in which the word is used.

    “These Native Hawaiians who live in a secluded, very traditional community who use the term ‘haole’ to describe people that are not from Hawaii — that’s the term that they use,” she said. “We all very often use the term ‘haole.’ It’s not derogatory unless you use it in a derogatory sense.”

    Wiping away tears outside the courthouse following the verdict, Alo-Kaonohi’s father, Chico Kaonohi, said bias was not a motivation behind the attack and “’Haole’ is not a racial word.”

    “Where we come from, we’re not racial people,” Chico Kaonohi, said. “It wasn’t about race.”

    Attorneys for both defendants declined to comment Thursday. Prosecutors did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

    Kunzelman testified that he and his wife decided to move to Maui from Scottsdale, Arizona, after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He said his wife loved the island.

    He said that a Hawaiian woman visited him in his dreams and told him to buy the dilapidated oceanfront house, which he and his wife purchased sight-unseen for $175,000 after coming across a listing for it online.

    Kunzelman and his family never got to live in the home, he testified. They now reside in Puerto Rico.

    He sat in the courtroom watching as the verdict was announced. He could not immediately be reached for comment afterward.

    ———

    This story has been corrected to reflect that the defendant’s son is 3 years old, not 4.

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  • Attorneys demand arrest of guards in jail detainee’s beating

    Attorneys demand arrest of guards in jail detainee’s beating

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    WOODBINE, Ga. — Attorneys for a Georgia jail detainee recorded by security cameras being punched by guards repeatedly in the head and neck called Wednesday for the deputies to be fired and arrested, insisting the videos show the violence was unjustified.

    “There is no way in hell that anybody should be beaten the way this man was beaten,” Harry Daniels, an attorney for the detainee, told reporters. “I don’t care what he did. I don’t care if he knocked the damn door down. You don’t beat a person like that.”

    Jarrett Hobbs, a 41-year-old Black man from North Carolina, was booked into the Camden County jail in coastal Georgia on Sept. 3 on traffic violation and drug possession charges. Security video from the same night shows Hobbs standing alone in his cell before five guards rush in and surround him. At least three deputies can be seen landing punches before Hobbs gets dragged from the cell and hurled against a wall.

    Two of Hobbs’ sisters joined his lawyers Wednesday for a news conference on a courthouse square within view of the jail where the violent confrontation took place. His siblings said they want justice for their brother, whose story even they initially found hard to believe.

    “He literally told me that he didn’t do anything wrong, they just came in and beat” him, said Taylor Wood, one of Hobbs’ sisters. “I’m like: Are you sure? It’s kind of hard to believe. And then you see the video and he really didn’t do nothing.”

    Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor, who oversees the jail, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have announced they’re conducting separate investigations.

    Hobbs’ attorneys are questioning why the sheriff didn’t investigate sooner, considering the incident involving Hobbs happened more than two months ago. Hobbs was charged immediately with fighting the guards.

    Capt. Larry Bruce, the sheriff’s spokesman, declined to answer questions Wednesday about the timing of the internal investigation and whether the deputies in the video remained on duty. The sheriff’s office has not released the names or races of the deputies involved.

    “The two independent investigations limit comment for now from the Sheriff’s Office,” Bruce said in an email.

    The jail videos came to light because Hobbs of Greensboro, North Carolina, was probation for a 2014 federal conviction. His Georgia arrest prompted an investigation into whether he had violated terms of his supervised release. The jail footage became part of the evidence in that case.

    Hobbs’ attorneys released the video publicly Monday.

    According to federal court records, guards went into Hobbs’ cell on Sept. 3 because he was kicking the door and refused orders to stop. The video shows a guard rush into the cell and grab Hobbs around the neck, trying to push him into a corner. Four others come in behind him.

    As jailers try to hold Hobbs by his wrists, one of them starts punching Hobbs in the back of the head and neck. The video shows at least two other guards throwing punches. A second video from a camera outside the cell shows jailers dragging Hobbs through the open door and hurling him against a wall. The struggle continues until Hobbs, who is out of the camera frame, appears to be pinned on the ground. The entire confrontation lasts about a minute.

    For most of the video, Hobbs is either obscured by the guards surrounding him or out of the camera frame. It’s unclear to what extent he fought the jailers. Daniels said Hobbs would have been justified to fight back against an unlawful attack by the guards.

    An Oct. 20 judge’s order in the probation case said a probation officer testified that Hobbs had “punched one deputy in the face while punching another deputy in the side of the head. One deputy sustained a bruised eye and a broken hand as a result of the incident.” It also noted that Hobbs was punched in the head and that the probation officer was “unaware of the exact sequence of events.”

    Hobbs’ probation was revoked on Nov. 7. However, the court dismissed alleged probation violations based on the struggle with jailers in Georgia. The court record doesn’t say why.

    Hobbs was released from the Camden County jail on Sept. 30, but he remains in custody in North Carolina.

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  • 2 critically stabbed at LA Target store; suspect shot

    2 critically stabbed at LA Target store; suspect shot

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    LOS ANGELES — A man walked into a downtown Target store on Tuesday and stabbed and critically injured two people, including a 9-year-old boy before he was shot and killed by a security guard, police said.

    The stabbings took place shortly before 6:30 p.m. in the Target store at FIGat7th, a large multi-level open shopping plaza located in the city’s Financial District.

    The man, described as 40 years old and homeless, came into the store, grabbed a large butcher-style knife from a shelf and approached a 9-year-old boy, saying several times that he was going to kill him, Police Chief Michel Moore said at a news conference.

    When the boy tried to move away, he stabbed the boy in the back, wounding him in the shoulder, then went to another area of the store where he stabbed a 25-year-old woman in the chest, Moore said.

    Other people in the store pulled the woman into a pharmacy and closed the gate to protect her, the chief said.

    A security guard tried to subdue the attacker with a baton but then shot him and he was declared dead at a hospital, Moore said.

    His name wasn’t immediately released.

    “Out of nowhere, we heard people screaming,” Kevin Zaragoza, who was shopping at the store with his brother, told KABC-TV. “We rushed to the front. Right there by the exit we see a girl on the floor, blood all over her.”

    “After that, we see the whole LAPD swarming in there with shotguns, all types of stuff. It was crazy.”

    The attacker didn’t know the victims, police said.

    A third person was slightly injured in what he termed a “stampede” as she and other customers fled the store, Moore said.

    LAPD officers were already on another service call in the shopping complex and they were abled to respond quickly, Moore said.

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  • Georgia sheriff investigates jailers shown punching detainee

    Georgia sheriff investigates jailers shown punching detainee

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    SAVANNAH, Ga. — Security video from a Georgia jail shows a detainee being pushed against a wall by guards and repeated punched in the head and neck after five deputies come into the man’s cell.

    An attorney for the detainee, 41-year-old Jarrett Hobbs, released the video Monday. Civil rights attorney Harry Daniels said authorities should pursue criminal charges against the sheriff’s deputies in Camden County who swarmed Hobbs after he was booked for traffic violations and drug possession charges Sept. 3.

    “It’s undeniable that Mr. Hobbs was approached by jailers and he was assaulted, punched multiple times in the back of his head, kneed in his head and dragged out of his cell,” Daniels said. “This is a brutal beating, a brutal attack.”

    Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor’s office said in a statement Monday that the sheriff had reviewed the video with members of his commend staff and ordered an internal investigation “to begin immediately.”

    Daniels questioned why nothing happened sooner. The confrontation between Hobbs and the jailers happened more than two months ago, and Hobbs was charged with fighting the deputies that same day.

    A spokesman for the sheriff, Capt. Larry Bruce, declined to answer further questions, including whether the guards involved remained on duty.

    Jail records show Hobbs, of Greensboro, North Carolina, was arrested Sept. 3 in coastal Camden County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Savannah. He was initially booked on charges of speeding, driving on a suspended or revoked license and possessing an illegal drug.

    The sheriff’s office released no details of what happened in Hobbs’ cell. But federal court records in North Carolina, where Hobbs was on probation for a 2014 federal criminal conviction, say guards entered Hobbs’ cell because he was repeatedly kicking his cell door and refusing orders to stop.

    The video shows Hobbs alone in a cell standing by the door, then turning toward the bed and picking up two objects. His attorney said they were a piece of paper and a sandwich. A guard rushes into the cell and grabs Hobbs around the neck, trying to push him into a corner. Four others come in behind him.

    As jailers try to hold Hobbs by his wrists, one of them starts punching Hobbs in the back of the head and neck. The video shows at least two other guards throwing punches. A second video from a camera outside the cell shows jailers drag Hobbs through the open door and hurl him against a wall. A deputy rapidly raises his right knee and foot a few times, though it’s unclear if he was striking Hobbs. The struggle continues until Hobbs, who is out of the camera frame, appears to be pinned on the ground. The entire confrontation lasts about a minute.

    Jail records show Hobbs was charged afterward with aggravated battery, simple assault and obstruction of law enforcement officers. Hobbs is a Black man. The sheriff’s office did not release any details about the jailers involved, including their races.

    There is no sound in the video released by Daniels. The attorney said he has a copy with audio, but he declined to share it.

    Federal authorities looked into the charges against Hobbs in Georgia to determine whether he had violated his probation stemming from his 2014 guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, according to court records.

    A judge’s order Oct. 20 said a probation officer testified that Hobbs had “punched one deputy in the face while punching another deputy in the side of the head. One deputy sustained a bruised eye and a broken hand as a result of the incident.”

    It’s unclear on the video recordings to what extent Hobbs fought the jailers. In most of the video Hobbs is either obscured by the guards surrounding him or is out of the frame.

    His attorney, Daniels, said Hobbs would have been justified to fight back against guards attacking him unlawfully. He said the guard with the broken hand injured himself by punching a wall as he swung at Hobbs.

    Court records show a federal judge in North Carolina revoked Hobbs’ probation Nov. 7 after finding he had violated the terms of his supervised release. However, the court dismissed alleged probation violations based on the struggle with jailers in Georgia. The court record doesn’t say why.

    Daniels said he obtained the video after it was submitted as evidence in the federal probation case. He said Hobbs remains in custody in North Carolina.

    “The physical wounds have healed the best they can,” Daniels said. “But mentally, no. He thought he was going to die.”

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  • Cops: Woman makes harrowing escape from vicious Seattle pimp

    Cops: Woman makes harrowing escape from vicious Seattle pimp

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    SEATTLE — A young woman made two harrowing attempts to escape her vicious pimp — including jumping out a third-story window — before being rescued by a ride-share driver who engaged in a gunfight with the man, prosecutors in Seattle said.

    Winston Burt, 30, who uses the street name “Dice Capone,” was arrested shortly afterward as he was leaving a rental home accompanied by other women he had trafficked, authorities said.

    The 20-year-old woman who escaped had been taken from California to Seattle to perform sex acts for money, prosecutors said in charging documents in King County Superior Court. She first tried to escape Burt by jumping nearly naked from the high window, they said. She finally succeeded after running from his car and sitting topless on a highway until the ride-share driver helped her.

    The woman, identified only by her initials, H.A., was taken to a hospital with injuries including black eyes, broken ribs, a broken leg and spinal injuries.

    Burt was being held on $750,000 bail and is set to be arraigned Thursday. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who might speak on his behalf. Details of the case were first reported by The Seattle Times.

    His street name was tattooed on the faces of at least two of the women he trafficked as a sort of brand, authorities said.

    “The defendant leads a sex trafficking enterprise that has operated in at least three U.S. states involving multiple victims, who have been exploited, harmed and maimed by the defendant’s violent and coercive actions,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Benjamin Gauen wrote in charging papers.

    According to investigators, Burt, H.A. and two other young women arrived in Seattle about a month ago. They stayed in a $1.4 million, six-bedroom home near Seward Park in South Seattle that was rented through Airbnb.

    Burt would drive the women to a stretch of Aurora Avenue in North Seattle where prostitution is common and ensure they had rooms at a motel for their “dates,” the charging papers said. Each woman was expected to make at least $2,000 per day; they turned over all the money, and he provided food, clothes and housing and controlled them completely, the charging documents said.

    H.A. told police she had been “working” for Burt for about four months in California and Arizona, as well as Seattle, according to documents. It was only in the past few weeks, after she and another woman said they wanted to quit prostitution and return home, that he started beating her, she said.

    He attacked the other woman, identified as S.T., in the rental home, kicking and pistol-whipping her until her eyes swelled shut, prosecutors said, and he forced the other women to participate in the attack, as well.

    On Nov. 2, he similarly beat and pistol-whipped H.A. after she said she wanted to leave, prosecutors said. Her lip split open so badly that it appeared to be hanging off her face, she told police.

    For three days after that, she remained stuck at the rental home, prosecutors said, with no phone, money or anywhere to go. Her face was swollen and she suffered extreme rib pain.

    Saturday evening, Burt began punching her again and ordered her to take off the clothes he had given her, Gauen wrote.

    Wearing only underwear, she tried to escape out the front door, but Burt picked her up and slammed her to the ground, he wrote. Fearing she would be killed, she ran upstairs with Burt chasing her and then jumped from the third-story window.

    She landed on the ground, hobbled into the street and flagged down a car with two women inside. As she spoke to them, the other young women came outside, saying that H.A. was “off her medication, that she was having an episode, and that she would be okay,” Seattle Police Detective Tammie Case wrote in an incident report.

    The others forced H.A. into Burt’s white Mercedes, telling the women who had stopped to help that they were taking her to a hospital. Instead, Burt drove them to the Emerald Motel on Aurora Avenue, where they had been previously trafficked, the charging papers said. Burt sent the others into the motel while H.A., still wearing only her underwear, remained in the vehicle with him.

    He told her he that would let her leave, but that he would knock her teeth out first, the prosecutor wrote. She escaped from the car and ran across a six-lane highway, trying to get help. Several motorists called 911, but no one stopped. To avoid being forced back into Burt’s car, she sat on the highway.

    “H.A. felt safer in the middle of a busy highway, practically naked, at night than being within arm’s reach of the defendant,” Gauen wrote. “Surveillance video from a nearby business has corroborated H.A.’s account of what happened.”

    The ride-share driver stopped and told H.A. to get in his van. Burt pursued them, shooting at the van, Gauen wrote. The ride-share driver was also armed and fired back over several blocks until he was able to get onto Interstate 5 and meet police at a gas station. No one appears to have been struck by the bullets, but the van’s windshield was riddled with holes.

    Police arrested Burt as he was leaving the rental home with the other women, the documents said. He faces charges that include human trafficking, promoting prostitution, assault and drive-by shooting, but given the “expansive reach of the defendant’s egregious behavior,” additional charges are likely, Gauen wrote.

    Prosecutors are also concerned about case tampering; one woman who continues to work for Burt has already been reaching out to H.A. in an attempt to learn her location and persuade her to return, Gauen wrote.

    ———

    This story has been corrected to show the motel is called the Emerald Motel not the Emerald Hotel.

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  • Filmmaker Paul Haggis is ordered to pay at least $7.5 million after being found liable in a sexual assault case involving a former publicist | CNN

    Filmmaker Paul Haggis is ordered to pay at least $7.5 million after being found liable in a sexual assault case involving a former publicist | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A jury found filmmaker Paul Haggis liable in a sexual assault case that was brought forward by a former publicist who alleged he raped her after a movie premiere in 2013.

    The jury ordered the Oscar-winning screenwriter to pay Haleigh Breest at least $7.5 million in damages Thursday, according to attorneys for both Breest and Haggis.

    Breest brought the case under the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act.

    Attorney Ilann Maazel, who represents Breest, told CNN by phone, “We’re grateful. We’re thankful. The jury was methodical and did justice today. We are proud, not just for Haleigh but for the entire #MeToo movement.”

    In a statement to CNN, Haggis’s attorney, Priya Chaudhry said, “We are disappointed and shocked by this verdict.”

    “It was impossible for Mr. Haggis to get a fair trial once the judge allowed the statements of 4 other women who never went to the police, never took any action against him, and 3 of 4 never even came into the courtroom,” the attorney added. “They used this to distort the truth, assassinate Mr. Haggis’ character, paint him as a monster, and use a ‘where there’s smoke, there’s fire’ strategy. No one could have had a fair trial in that courtroom under those circumstances. This is a shameful exploitation of the #MeToo movement where political sentiment trumps facts.”

    Breest alleged that Haggis sexually assaulted her on the evening of January 31, 2013, in his Manhattan apartment when she was 26 years old – “less than half Mr. Haggis’s age,” according to the complaint filed in the state Supreme Court’s branch in New York County in 2017.

    “The emotional and psychological damage to Ms. Breest from the attack cannot be overstated: it has been profound and lasting,” the complaint said.

    The incident occurred after Haggis and Breest were at a movie premiere, according to the complaint. Toward the end of the event, Haggis offered Breest a ride home, the complaint alleges.

    Once in his vehicle, Haggis invited Breest over for a drink.

    “Ms. Breest told him she was willing to go to a public bar, but stated she did not want to go to his apartment. Mr. Haggis insisted they go to his apartment,” the complaint said.

    Breest “relented” after being “faced with his persistence” and after recognizing that he was a “powerful member of the Hollywood elite who could influence her career,” according to the complaint.

    The complaint alleges that Haggis made unwanted sexual advances and forcibly kissed her.

    “She repeatedly told him ‘No’ but he would not stop,” the complaint said.

    Haggis got Breest into the bedroom where he forced himself on her and ultimately raped her despite her efforts to push him off, the complaint alleges.

    Maazel told CNN that the punitive damage trial will likely continue Monday where he expects Haggis to take the stand.

    Haggis is a director, producer and screenwriter. His film credits include “Crash,” which earned him Oscars for best picture and best original screenplay at the 2006 Academy Awards. He also received a nomination for his screenplay for the multi-Oscar-winning “Million Dollar Baby.”

    The filmmaker was detained in Italy over sexual assault allegations earlier this year while he was there to attend a film festival. An attorney for Haggis denied the allegations.

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  • Texas man accused of slipping abortion drug in wife’s drinks

    Texas man accused of slipping abortion drug in wife’s drinks

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    AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas grand jury has indicted a husband accused of slipping a medicine used for abortions into his wife’s drinks in hopes that it would end her pregnancy.

    Mason Herring, a 38-year-old Houston attorney, was indicted on two felony counts, including assault of a pregnant person, under charges handed up last week by a Harris County grand jury. Court records show he was originally arrested in May and released on a $30,000 bond.

    Nicholas Norris, an attorney for Herring, declined to immediately comment Thursday.

    Prosecutors told Houston television station KTRK that the baby was born prematurely but was healthy and well.

    According to court documents, Herring’s wife told authorities her husband in March began lecturing her on hydration and offering water. She said she became severely ill and after drinking from the first cup that appeared cloudy, which her husband allegedly explained was perhaps the result of the cup or water pipes being dirty.

    Herring’s wife became suspicious, according to court records, and began refusing multiple other drinks her husband offered. She said she later found in the trash packaging for a drug that contains misoprostol, a medicine used to induce abortion.

    The couple had separated earlier this year and were attending marriage counseling when she told him about the pregnancy, according to court documents. She said Mason Herring expressed to her in text messages multiple times that he was unhappy about the pregnancy.

    A spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Herring was also indicted on an assault charge of attempting to an induce an abortion.

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  • Alex Jones ordered to pay $473M more to Sandy Hook families

    Alex Jones ordered to pay $473M more to Sandy Hook families

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    HARTFORD, Conn. — Infowars host Alex Jones and his company were ordered by a judge Thursday to pay an extra $473 million for promoting false conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school massacre, bringing the total judgment against him in a lawsuit filed by the victims’ families to a staggering $1.44 billion.

    Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis imposed the punitive damages on the Infowars host and Free Speech Systems. Jones repeatedly told his millions of followers the massacre that killed 20 first graders and six educators was staged by “crisis actors” to enact more gun control.

    “The record clearly supports the plaintiffs’ argument that the defendants’ conduct was intentional and malicious, and certain to cause harm by virtue of their infrastructure, ability to spread content, and massive audience including the infowarriors,” the judge wrote in a 45-page ruling.

    Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said he hopes the award sends a message to conspiracy theorists who profit from lies.

    “The Court recognized the ‘intentional, malicious … and heinous’ conduct of Mr. Jones and his business entities,” Mattei said in a statement.

    On his show Thursday, Jones called the award “ridiculous” and a “joke” and said he has little money to pay the damages.

    “Well, of course I’m laughing at it,” he said. “It’d be like if you sent me a bill for a billion dollars in the mail. Oh man, we got you. It’s all for psychological effect. It’s all the Wizard of Oz … when they know full well the bankruptcy going on and all the rest of it, that it’ll show what I’ve got and that’s it, and I have almost nothing.”

    Eight victims’ relatives and the FBI agent testified during a monthlong trial about being threatened and harassed for years by people who deny the shooting happened. Strangers showed up at some of their homes and confronted some of them in public. People hurled abusive comments at them on social media and in emails. Some received death and rape threats.

    Six jurors ordered Jones to pay $965 million to compensate the 15 plaintiffs for defamation, infliction of emotional distress and violations of Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.

    Jones, who lives and works in Austin, Texas, has bashed the trial as unfair and an assault on free speech rights. He says he will appeal the verdicts. He also has said he doesn’t have the money to pay such huge verdicts, because he has less than $2 million to his name — which contradicted testimony at a similar trial in Texas. Free Speech Systems, meanwhile, is seeking bankruptcy protection.

    Jones said Thursday that he has only a “couple hundred thousand dollars” in his savings account.

    Jones’ lawyer, Norm Pattis, wrote in a text message to the The Associated Press, “To paraphrase Karl Marx, the verdict was tragedy, this latest ruling is farce. It makes our work on appeal that much easier.”

    Bellis found Jones and Infowars’ parent company liable for damages without a trial last year, as a consequence for what she called his repeated failures to turn over many financial documents and other records to the plaintiffs. After the unusual “default” ruling, the jury was tasked only with deciding on the amount of compensatory damages and whether punitive damages were warranted.

    Jones says that he turned over thousands of documents and that the default ruling deprived him of his right to present a defense against the lawsuit.

    The punitive damages include about $323 million for the plaintiffs’ attorney fees and costs and $150 million for violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act.

    In Connecticut, punitive damages for defamation and infliction of emotional distress are generally limited to plaintiffs’ legal fees. The Sandy Hook plaintiffs’ lawyers are to get one-third of the $965 million in compensatory damages under a retainer agreement.

    But there is no cap on punitive damages for violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act. The plaintiffs had not asked for a specific amount of punitive damages, but under one hypothetical calculation they said such damages could be around $2.75 trillion under the law.

    In a similar trial in Texas in August, Jones was ordered to pay nearly $50 million to the parents of another child killed in the Sandy Hook shooting for calling the massacre a hoax. A forensic economist testified during that trial that Jones and Free Speech Systems have a combined net worth as high as $270 million.

    Jones hawks nutritional supplements, survival gear and other products on his show, which airs on the Infowars website and dozens of radio stations. Evidence at the Connecticut trial showed his sales spiked around a time he talked about the Sandy Hook shooting, leading the plaintiffs’ lawyers to say he was profiting off the tragedy.

    In documents recently filed in Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case in Texas, a budget for the company for Oct. 29 to Nov. 25 estimated product sales would total $2.5 million, while operating expenses would be about $740,000. Jones’ salary was listed at $20,000 every two weeks.

    On Wednesday, Bellis, the Connecticut judge, ordered Jones to not move any of his assets out of the country, as the families seek to attach his holdings to secure money for the damages. Jones, meanwhile, has asked the judge to order a new trial or at least reduce the compensatory damages to a “nominal” amount.

    A third and final trial over Jones’ hoax claims is expected to begin around the end of the year in Texas. As in Connecticut, Jones was found liable for damages without trials in both Texas cases because he failed to turned over many records to the plaintiffs.

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  • Driver held after wild police chase in Southern California

    Driver held after wild police chase in Southern California

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    LOS ANGELES — A driver who stole several cars, rammed police cruisers and hit other cars during an hourlong chase across Southern California was arrested after a chase that ended in smoke, flame and gunshots.

    The wild chase across two counties began about 5 p.m. Wednesday with reports of a sedan speeding erratically in Anaheim in Orange County.

    After a while, the driver fled that car and stole a parked van, which was captured on video smashing several times into a Fullerton police cruiser that blocked it until it managed to speed off.

    The chase continued with the van sideswiping and rear-ending several cars as it sped and slid through street traffic before heading onto a freeway.

    The driver later abandoned the van and ran inside a home in Whittier in Los Angeles County, stole keys to a pickup truck parked in the driveway, and took off as people in the home who had confronted him were almost struck, KNBC-TV reported.

    Andres Benitez told the station that he had just returned from work.

    “I was just talking to my mom and we were having a normal conversation when I saw the back door open and it’s not supposed to open,” he said. The suspect came into the kitchen.

    Benitez said he grabbed a kitchen knife in order to defend his mother.

    “I started redirecting him to the front door” but the man grabbed the car keys from the kitchen table. Benitez said he cornered the suspect, who had a pair of scissors, and threatened to stab him as his mother tried to hold him back.

    The family and the man wound up outside, where he stole the truck and sped away.

    The pickup eventually lost a front tire, but the driver continued to weave erratically through traffic in the Hacienda Heights area at high speed, hitting several cars, crossing center dividers and running red lights.

    The truck ended up at a gas station after a Los Angeles County sheriff’s patrol car rammed the truck from behind.

    By this point, more than a dozen patrol cars ringed the gas station but the truck still backed up and smashed into a patrol car, prompting authorities to fire several shots through the driver’s window.

    Deputies with guns drawn surrounded the stopped truck as smoke erupted from it, and then flames that were quickly doused with a fire extinguisher.

    At last, deputies using a special shield came up to the car, smashed the driver’s window, opened the door and pulled out the driver, who was walked to a patrol car. It was unclear whether he was injured.

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  • Ex-student accused in racist attack banned from campus

    Ex-student accused in racist attack banned from campus

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    LEXINGTON, Ky. — A white University of Kentucky student accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs has been permanently banned from the school.

    Sophia Rosing is no longer a student at the university following the incident Sunday and will not be allowed to reenroll, university President Eli Capilouto said in a message to the UK community Wednesday. The school’s investigation continues.

    Rosing had been set to graduate in May. She will seek help for the issues she has, her attorney, Fred Peters, said Tuesday.

    Campus police charged Rosing with first and second offenses of alcohol intoxication in a public place, third-degree assault of a police officer, fourth-degree assault and second-degree disorderly conduct, according to an arrest report.

    Rosing pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday afternoon and bonded out of jail later in the day.

    “She’s very humiliated and embarrassed and remorseful,” Peters said of his client.

    Capilouto said in his message that “this behavior was disgusting and devastating to our community.”

    “We stand by our students who were targeted by this unacceptable hostility and violence,” he said.

    Rosing was suspended on an interim basis within hours after university officials learned of the incident. The suspension banned her from campus during the investigation, Capilouto said.

    The altercation at Boyd Hall was captured on video and posted to multiple social media platforms. Kylah Spring, a freshman working as a desk clerk, says in the video that Rosing hit her multiple times and kicked her in the stomach. Spring said the attack began when she asked Rosing, who appeared to be intoxicated, if she was OK.

    Rosing can be heard using racial slurs throughout the video, and a police report says she continued using derogatory language after being taken into custody.

    Spring, who was working an overnight shift, never retaliated and said at one point: “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

    After police arrived, Rosing told an officer that she has “lots of money and (gets) special treatment,” according to an arrest affidavit. “When I told her to sit back in the chair, she kicked me and bit my hand.”

    During a rally on campus Monday night, Spring addressed the woman accused of assaulting her.

    “You will not break my spirit and you will be held accountable for your actions,” she said. “I only pray that you open your heart to love and try to experience life differently and more positively after this.”

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  • Hawaii hate crime trial begins for beating of white man

    Hawaii hate crime trial begins for beating of white man

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    HONOLULU — Lawyers representing two Native Hawaiian men don’t dispute they brutally assaulted a white man who purchased a house in their remote village on the island of Maui.

    They acknowledged the 2014 attack was wrong, but they said it wasn’t a hate crime, as U.S. prosecutors allege.

    Trial began Tuesday for Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr., who are charged with one federal count each of a hate crime.

    Alo-Kaonohi punched and kicked Christopher Kunzelman and Aki hit him with a shovel when Kunzelman tried to fix up the house he purchased in Kahakuloa village, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Thomas told the jury.

    Alo-Kaonohi dragged his finger down Kunzelman’s face and said his skin was the wrong color, Thomas said.

    The attack, which left Kunzelman with injuries including a concussion, two broken ribs and head and abdominal trauma, never would have happened if it weren’t for his race, Thomas said.

    It wasn’t Kunzelman’s race that sparked the attack, attorneys for the men said, blaming their actions on his entitled and disrespectful attitude.

    The assault on Kunzelman is “hard to stomach,” said Craig Jerome, one of Alo-Kaonohi’s federal defenders. The attack was provoked by a belief that Kunzelman didn’t have a valid easement to the property and because he cut chains on village gates, Jerome said.

    The altercation escalated when the men realized Kunzelman had a gun, Jerome said.

    Kaonohi pleaded no contest to felony assault in state court in July 2019 in the case and was sentenced to probation. The trial in U.S. District Court in Honolulu is only to determine if they are guilty of a hate crime. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

    Footage of the attack from cameras on Kunzelman’s vehicle don’t show that Alo-Kaonohi uttered any racial terms or slurs, Jerome said.

    Aki later told police Kunzelman was acting like a “typical haole,” Thomas said.

    Haole, a Hawaiian word with meanings that include foreign and white person, is central to the case, which highlights multicultural Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with race.

    An enraged Alo-Kaonohi called Kunzelman “brah,” “buddy,” and various other terms attached to expletives, Jerome said: “”But he never calls him a haole, not once.”

    Aki didn’t use the word haole in a pejorative or hateful way, Jerome said.

    “It’s not a hate crime to assault somebody and in the course of it, use the word haole,” said Aki’s court-appointed attorney, Lynn Panagakos, noting that Aki is both part-Hawaiian and part-haole.

    “Haole has multiple meanings depending on the context,” she said. “It’s an accepted word.”

    Kunzelman testified Tuesday that he and his wife decided to move to Maui from Scottsdale, Arizona, after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis because she loved the island.

    “It’s just serene and beautiful,” he said.

    They purchased the four-bedroom oceanfront house after seeing a listing for it online, he said, and that he went to Maui first to renovate the house for his wife and their three daughters.

    Kunzelman said he decided to take two pistols to Maui after hearing that a contractor he hired to do mold remediation had been assaulted when he showed up and after hearing his realtor say that the close-knit community of Native Hawaiians had a problem with white people.

    Kunzelman said he and his family never got to live in the Maui house and now reside in Puerto Rico.

    He was expected to continue testifying Wednesday.

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  • Crewman gets 20 years for deadly stabbing on container ship

    Crewman gets 20 years for deadly stabbing on container ship

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    LOS ANGELES — A crewman who stabbed to death his supervisor on a container ship heading to Los Angeles was sentenced Monday to 20 years in federal prison.

    Michael Dequito Monegro, 44, of the Philippines, was sentenced in federal court in Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty in May to committing an act of violence against someone aboard a ship that is likely to endanger the vessel’s safe navigation.

    Monegro was working on the MSC Ravenna on a two-week run from Shanghai to Los Angeles in September 2020 when he stabbed the man as the vessel was about 92 miles (150 kilometers) off the Southern California coast, according to his plea agreement.

    Monegro attacked his supervisor in a hallway outside a locker room, prosecutors said.

    The two men struggled and fell down. Monegro got on top of his victim, stabbed him, pulled a second knife from his supervisor’s coveralls and attacked him with both knives despite other crewmembers trying to stop him, including throwing a trash can at him, prosecutors said.

    Monegro stabbed the victim 31 times, according to a statement Monday from the U.S. attorney’s office.

    “Monegro stopped stabbing the victim only when he became too tired to continue,” the statement said.

    The ship’s captain, chief mate and chief engineer arrived and the captain finally persuaded Monegro to get off the victim, who died on the ship, the statement said.

    Monegro was kept under guard in his cabin and arrested a week later when the ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles.

    Authorities didn’t indicate a motive for the attack. The victim, identified in court papers only by the initials “M.S.,” left a wife and a daughter who was 17 at the time. He was the only income earner “and his death caused significant financial strain on the family,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.

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  • Chicago man gets life in prison for killing 6 family members

    Chicago man gets life in prison for killing 6 family members

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    A judge on Monday sentenced a man to life in prison for killing six members of his family, including two young boys, inside their Chicago home in 2016

    CHICAGO — A judge on Monday sentenced a man to life in prison for killing six members of his family, including two young boys, inside their Chicago home in 2016.

    A jury last month found Diego Uribe Cruz guilty of six counts of first-degree murder in the slayings in the victims’ bungalow in the Gage Park neighborhood on the city’s Southwest Side.

    During his trial, prosecutors alleged Uribe Cruz shot his aunt, 32-year-Maria Martinez, after he tried to rob her on Feb. 4, 2016, before he fatally stabbed her sons, ages 10 and 13, and stabbed or beat to death other relatives to make sure there were no witnesses.

    Evidence against Uribe Cruz included DNA recovered from under Martinez’s fingernails and a small amount of blood that matched that of Uribe Cruz. Prosecutors also showed the jury a video in which Uribe Cruz confessed some of the details to Chicago police detectives.

    Also, Uribe Cruz’s former girlfriend, Jafeth Ramos, 25, testified against him. Ramos, who was originally charged with murder along with Uribe Cruz, testified as part of a plea deal that called for her to plead guilty to armed robbery and agree to cooperate with authorities.

    Investigators said DNA tests linked Uribe Cruz to the crime. They said cellphone records also connected both Uribe Cruz and Ramos to the scene.

    Ramos in her testimony described how Uribe Cruz methodically killed each victim. She’s expected to be sentenced next month.

    Uribe Cruz declined to give a statement before he was sentenced.

    His attorneys said in court that they intend to appeal. They said during his trial he could not have killed all six people by himself. They suggested he was present when the family was killed in a robbery by four masked men.

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  • A University of Kentucky student was arrested after hurling racial slur at Black student on campus | CNN

    A University of Kentucky student was arrested after hurling racial slur at Black student on campus | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A student at the University of Kentucky is facing several assault charges after hurling a racial slur repeatedly at Black students Sunday on campus, a university police report says.

    Sophia Rosing, a 22-year-old student who is White, has been charged with alcohol intoxication in a public place, fourth-degree assault without visible injury, second-degree disorderly conduct, and third-degree assault on a police officer or probation officer, according to Kimberly Baird, the Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney.

    An officer with the University of Kentucky police responded early Sunday morning to a dorm after reports that an unknown woman was “assaulting staff members,” a campus police report shows.

    When the officer arrived, they detained a “very intoxicated” woman who was repeating a racist expletive to a group of Black women, the report says.

    The woman told police she “has lots of money and get[s] special treatment,” the police report said. When told to sit back in a chair, the woman kicked the arresting officer and bit their hand, the police report said.

    The report identifies the woman as “unknown” because she had no identification and continuously refused to identify herself.

    Sally Woodson, the executive communications specialist for the University of Kentucky confirmed to CNN the police report pertains to Rosing.

    Rosing was initially booked as a Jane Doe in the Kentucky Department of Corrections’ records, Baird said.

    As of Monday afternoon, Rosing was detained and her bail was set at $10,000, Baird said. Rosing appeared in court Monday and entered a not guilty plea, according to CNN affiliate WLEX.

    CNN has reached out to Rosing’s attorney for comment.

    In a message to the campus community, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said the incident took place at one of the dorms and one of the victims was a student employee working an overnight shift at the front desk. The university staff is conducting a review and reaching out the victims, Capilouto said.

    “To be clear: we condemn this behavior and will not tolerate it under any circumstance. The safety and well-being of our community has been — and will continue to be — our top priority,” Capilouto said.

    Capilouto said he had reviewed video that appears to show the assault, which was posted online Sunday, and condemned the student’s behavior.

    “The video images I have seen do not honor our responsibilities to each other. They reflect violence, which is never acceptable, and a denial of the humanity of members of our community. They do not reflect civil discourse. They are deeply antithetical to what we are and what we always want to be as a community,” the university’s president said.

    CNN has independently obtained the video. Woodson, the spokesperson with the university, confirmed the woman in the video is Rosing and shows Sunday’s incident.

    CNN has made attempts to reach the female victim in the video.

    The video shows an intoxicated Rosing repeatedly saying racial slurs and continuously attempting to punch a Black woman, who attempts to restrain her.

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  • U. of Kentucky student accused of assault, racial slurs

    U. of Kentucky student accused of assault, racial slurs

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    LEXINGTON, Ky. — A white University of Kentucky student is accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs, officials said.

    The student was arrested Sunday at a residence hall and charged with assault, alcohol intoxication in a public place and disorderly conduct, according to the Fayette County jail. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday afternoon.

    The university said in a statement Sunday that a “disturbing incident” was captured on video in a residence hall. In the video, the female student worker says the other woman hit her multiple times and kicked her in the stomach.

    An arrest citation filled out by campus police said the suspect repeated a racial slur to a group of Black females and kept repeating the slur after she was detained, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

    The student employee was working an overnight shift at the front desk of Boyd Hall, the university said. At one point in the video she says, “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

    University President Eli Capiluto said he has reached out to offer support to the victims while officials conduct an immediate review.

    “From my view of a video of the incident, the student worker acted with professionalism, restraint and discretion,” his statement said.

    He said the video images reflect violence “and a denial of the humanity of members of our community.”

    “To be clear: we condemn this behavior and will not tolerate it under any circumstance. The safety and well-being of our community has been — and will continue to be — our top priority,” Capiluto said.

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  • Hate crime charges filed for assault on Asian American

    Hate crime charges filed for assault on Asian American

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    CINCINNATI — An Ohio man has been charged with a federal hate crime in connection with an alleged assault on an Asian American student at the University of Cincinnati last year.

    Darrin Johnson, 26, of Cincinnati was arrested Thursday following his indictment by a federal grand jury, the U.S. attorney’s office in the southern district of Ohio said in a news release.

    The victim was preparing to go for a run on a campus street in August 2021 when Johnson began yelling racial comments and threats at him, federal prosecutors said. Referring to COVID-19, he yelled, “Go back to your country. … You brought the kung flu here. … You’re going to die for bringing it,” prosecutors said.

    The indictment alleges that Johnson then punched the victim on the side of the head, causing him to fall and hit his head on the bumper of a parked car. The victim had a minor concussion and cuts to his face, prosecutors said.

    Arrested in a parking lot near a recreation center, Johnson pleaded guilty in municipal court in October 2021 to misdemeanor assault and criminal intimidation, and was sentenced to nearly a year in a county jail, federal prosecutors said.

    An email seeking comment was sent Sunday to the federal public defender representing Johnson on the hate crime charge.

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  • FBI warns of ‘broad’ threat to synagogues in New Jersey

    FBI warns of ‘broad’ threat to synagogues in New Jersey

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    HOBOKEN, N.J. — The FBI said Thursday that it had received credible information about a “broad” threat to synagogues in New Jersey, a warning that prompted some municipalities to send extra police officers to guard houses of worship.

    The nature of the threat was vague. The FBI’s Newark office released a statement urging synagogues to “take all security precautions to protect your community and facility,” but wouldn’t say anything about who made the threat or why.

    The alert was posted after officials discovered an online threat directed broadly at synagogues in New Jersey, a law enforcement official said. The posting did not target any specific synagogue by name, the official said. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

    Messages left with the FBI’s Newark office weren’t returned.

    Public warnings about nonspecific threats against Jewish institutions, made by a variety of groups including Christian supremacists and Islamist extremists, aren’t unusual in the New York City metropolitan area, and many turn out to be false alarms. But the area has also seen deadly attacks.

    In Jersey City, Mayor Steven Fulop said police would be posted at the city’s seven synagogues and foot patrols would be added in the broader Jewish community. In 2019, two assailants motivated by anti-Jewish hate killed a police officer, then drove to a kosher market in Jersey City and killed three more people, before being slain in a gunbattle with police.

    Police officers armed with rifles guarded a synagogue one city over, in Hoboken, where the public safety director also announced increased patrols in Jewish communities.

    Five years ago, two New Jersey men were sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted for a series of attacks in 2012 that included the firebombings of two synagogues. They also threw a Molotov cocktail into the home of a rabbi as he slept with his wife and children.

    In 2019, a man stabbed five people at a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City, fatally wounding one person.

    U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, said he was “concerned and outraged” by the latest threat against Jews.

    “I am deeply concerned and outraged by today’s alert from the FBI,” Gottheimer said. “This is what happens after years of antisemitic comments from public figures,” he added, citing recent comments by Kanye West and a social media post shared by NBA star Kyrie Irving.

    The FBI didn’t release any information suggesting the threat that prompted the warning was related to the public debate over those comments.

    ———

    Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press writer David Porter contributed to this report.

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  • Today in History: November 3, Iran-Contra affair is revealed

    Today in History: November 3, Iran-Contra affair is revealed

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    Today in History

    Today is Thursday, Nov. 3, the 307th day of 2022. There are 58 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Nov. 3, 1986, the Iran-Contra affair came to light as Ash-Shiraa, a pro-Syrian Lebanese magazine, first broke the story of U.S. arms sales to Iran.

    On this date:

    In 1839, the first Opium War between China and Britain broke out.

    In 1908, Republican William Howard Taft was elected president, outpolling Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

    In 1911, the Chevrolet Motor Car Co. was founded in Detroit by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant. (The company was acquired by General Motors in 1918.)

    In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the U.S. Agency for International Development.

    In 1970, Salvador Allende (ah-YEN’-day) was inaugurated as president of Chile.

    In 1976, the horror movie “Carrie,” adapted from the Stephen King novel and starring Sissy Spacek, was released by United Artists.

    In 1979, five Communist Workers Party members were killed in a clash with heavily armed Ku Klux Klansmen and neo-Nazis during an anti-Klan protest in Greensboro, North Carolina.

    In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd president of the United States, defeating President George H.W. Bush. In Illinois, Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

    In 1994, Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina, was arrested for drowning her two young sons, Michael and Alex, nine days after claiming the children had been abducted by a Black carjacker.

    In 1997, the Supreme Court let stand California’s groundbreaking Proposition 209, which banned race and gender preference in hiring and school admissions.

    In 2014, 13 years after the 9/11 terrorist attack, a new 1,776-foot skyscraper at the World Trade Center site opened for business, marking an emotional milestone for both New Yorkers and the nation.

    In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won the presidency in an election that saw more than 103 million Americans vote early, many by mail, amid a coronavirus pandemic that upended a campaign marked by fear and rancor, waged against a backdrop of protests over racial injustice. As vote counting continued in battleground states, Biden’s victory would not be known for more than three days; Republican President Donald Trump would refuse to concede, falsely claiming that he was a victim of widespread voter fraud. Kamala Harris made history as the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to become vice president. Democrats clinched two more years of controlling the House but saw their majority shrink. Republicans emerged with a two-seat Senate majority that would be erased by Democratic wins in two runoffs in Georgia in January.

    Ten years ago: The lights went back on in lower Manhattan to the relief of residents who’d been plunged into darkness for nearly five days by Superstorm Sandy, but there was deepening resentment in the city’s outer boroughs and suburbs over a continued lack of power and maddening gas shortages. New York’s newly relocated NBA team, the former New Jersey Nets, hosted the first regular-season game by a major sports team in Brooklyn since the Dodgers left in 1957; the Brooklyn Nets beat the Toronto Raptors 107-100.

    Five years ago: Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his post in Afghanistan and triggered a search that left some of his comrades severely wounded, was spared a prison sentence by a military judge in North Carolina; President Donald Trump blasted the decision as a “complete and total disgrace.” Netflix said it was cutting all ties with Kevin Spacey after a series of allegations of sexual harassment and assault, and that it would not be a part of any further production of “House of Cards” that included him. A massive report from scientists inside and outside the government concluded that the evidence of global warming was stronger than ever. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky suffered five broken ribs in an attack by a longtime next-door neighbor as Paul did yard work at his home. (Rene Boucher pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress and was sentenced to 30 days in prison.)

    One year ago: After serving more than seven years in an Indonesian prison for killing her mother at a luxury resort on the island of Bali, Heather Mack of Chicago was indicted on murder conspiracy charges in the United States and taken into federal custody on her arrival at O’Hare International Airport. Police in western Australia used a battering ram to enter a locked house and rescue a 4-year-old girl, Cleo Smith, who’d been abducted from a camping tent more than two weeks earlier; the suspect in the kidnapping was arrested nearby. (Terence Kelly pleaded guilty to the abduction.) A government advisory committee recommended that all U.S. adults younger than 60 be vaccinated against hepatitis B. The Federal Reserve announced a plan to gradually reduce bond purchases, a first step in withdrawing emergency aid for the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

    Today’s Birthdays: Actor Lois Smith is 92. Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis is 89. Actor Shadoe Stevens is 76. Singer Lulu is 74. “Vogue” editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is 73. Comedian-actor Roseanne Barr is 70. Actor Kate Capshaw is 69. Comedian Dennis Miller is 69. Actor Kathy Kinney is 69. Singer Adam Ant is 68. Sports commentator and former quarterback Phil Simms is 67. Director-screenwriter Gary Ross is 66. Actor Dolph Lundgren is 65. Rock musician C.J. Pierce (Drowning Pool) is 50. Actor Francois Battiste (TV: “Ten Days in the Valley”) is 46. Olympic gold medal figure skater Evgeni Plushenko is 40. Actor Julie Berman is 39. Actor Antonia Thomas (TV: “The Good Doctor”) is 36. Alternative rock singer/songwriter Courtney Barnett is 35. TV personality and model Kendall Jenner (TV: “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”) is 27.

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