LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has thrown out the double murder conviction of a Louisville man sentenced to life in prison for the 2020 ambush killing of a father and his 3-year-old daughter.
The court said Thursday that the trial judge erred when he didn’t declare a mistrial after a juror learned that a witness was accused of perjury during the 2022 trial of Kevon Lawless.
Prosecutors said Friday that they will seek to retry Lawless.
“Our prosecutors will proactively pursue a conviction based on the evidence and ensure accountability,” Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Gerina Whethers said in a news release. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said the child’s killing was “personal” for him, since he stood with the girl’s mother by her coffin in 2020.
Lawless was convicted of gunning down Brandon Waddles and Waddles’ 3-year-old daughter, Trinity Randolph, in front of their home. Lawless had a girlfriend lure Waddles outside the home, where Lawless was waiting and opened fire on him and his daughter, according to court records.
A man who drove Lawless to the shooting was accused of committing perjury while testifying at Lawless’ trial, according to the court. While in deliberations, jurors sent a note to Circuit Judge McKay Chauvin revealing they were aware that the man had been arrested for “lying on the stand,” and one juror said they could “no longer make a decision truthfully.”
Chauvin rejected Lawless’ attorneys motion seeking a mistrial, but one juror was replaced by an alternate. Lawless was later convicted of two counts of murder and one count of burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The high court said Chauvin “committed reversible error by denying Lawless’s motion for a mistrial after the jury became aware of the trial court arresting a … witness for perjury.”
Lawless remained in prison on Friday, according to online records. State corrections records show he has previous convictions for attempted murder and assault.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW YORK — Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people accused of participating in schemes involving illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia, authorities said.
Rozier is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said. Billups, a Denver native who starred for the Nuggets during a long playing career, is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by Mafia families, authorities said.
Both men face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges and were expected to make initial court appearances later Thursday.
In the first case, six defendants are accused of participating in an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about NBA athletes and teams, said Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. He called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
The second case involves 31 defendants in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games, Nocella said. The defendants include former professional athletes accused of using technology to steal millions of dollars in underground poker games in the New York area that were backed by Mafia families, he said.
“My message to the defendants who’ve been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out,” Nocella said.
A message seeking comment was left Thursday morning with Billups. A message was also left with Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty. Trusty previously told ESPN that Rozier was told that an initial investigation determined he did nothing wrong after he met with NBA and FBI officials in 2023, the sports network reported.
In the sports betting scheme, players sometimes altered their performance or took themselves out of games early, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, told people he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing them to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, Tisch said.
The indictment of Rozier and others says there are nine unnamed co-conspirators, including a Florida resident who was an NBA player, an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021, as well as a relative of Rozier. Billups played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and currently resides in Portland as the Trail Blazers’ head coach.
Rozier and other defendants “had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players’ performances and provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says.
The NBA placed Billups and Rozier on immediate leave Thursday and released a statement: “We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”
Rozier was in uniform as the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday evening in Orlando, Florida, in the season opener for both teams, though he did not play in the game. He was taken into custody in Orlando early Thursday morning. The team did not immediately comment on the arrest.
The case was brought by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn that previously prosecuted ex-NBA player Jontay Porter. The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.
Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The five-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA point guard led the Detroit Pistons to their third league title in 2004 as NBA Finals MVP.
The Denver-born phenom graduated from George Washington High School and played basketball at CU before being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. Known as Mr. Big Shot nationally and the King of Park Hill locally in Denver, Billups also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Nuggets.
The 49-year-old Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record. The Trail Blazers opened the season Wednesday night at home with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota. Billups’ brother, Rodney, is currently the Nuggets’ director of player development and an assistant coach on David Adelman’s staff.
A game involving Rozier that has been in question was a matchup between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans on March 23, 2023. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that game — and not only did not return that night, citing a foot issue, but did not play again that season. Charlotte had eight games remaining and was not in playoff contention, so it did not seem particularly unusual that Rozier was shut down for the season’s final games.
In that game, Rozier finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists in that opening period — a productive quarter but well below his usual total output for a full game.
Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.
A prop is a type of wager that allows gamblers to bet on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether the player will finish over or under a certain total of points, rebounds or assists.
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Durkin Richer reported from Washington, and Reynolds reported from Miami. Associated Press writers David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups — a Denver native and former basketball star at the University of Colorado and with the Denver Nuggets — allegedly participated in a years-long scheme to rig Mafia-led poker games through sophisticated technological means, scamming wealthy players out of millions of dollars, according to a sweeping federal indictment unsealed Thursday.
Billups was arrested Thursday in Oregon and faces federal charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. The NBA said he was placed on immediate leave.
The 49-year-old coach appeared in court later in the day, and attorneys from both sides told the judge they had agreed on Billups’ release from custody on the condition he secure “a substantial bond,” though the amount wasn’t discussed in court. He is also prohibited from gambling-related activity.
Chris Heywood, Billups’ attorney, released a statement to ESPN on Thursday night denying the allegations.
“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” the statement read.
“Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to.”
The arrest came as part of a massive federal investigation into illegal, high-stakes poker games with ties to organized crime families. A second, related criminal case involved professional basketball players and coaches allegedly using inside information to set up fraudulent bets for their associates.
The 22-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleges the poker games began as early as 2019 and spanned New York state, Las Vegas and Miami.
Victims of the scheme thought they were playing in “straight” illegal poker games, according to the indictment.
In reality, a group of people — referred to as the “cheating team” — worked together to scam them out of more than $7 million, investigators said.
They used a variety of high-tech methods to rig the games, federal authorities alleged. Wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each hand. Rigged shuffling machines. Electronic poker chip trays that could secretly read cards placed on the table. Card analyzers that could surreptitiously detect which cards were on the table. Playing cards that had markers visible only to people wearing specially designed contact lenses or glasses.
Billups, investigators allege, was known as a “face card.” He and other former professional athletes were used to attract victims to the poker games. In exchange, they received portions of the criminal proceeds, authorities said.
The indictment spells out one game in April 2019, in Las Vegas, when the group defrauded poker players of at least $50,000. Billups, along with four others, “organized and participated in these rigged games using a rigged shuffling machine,” according to the indictment.
‘Threats of force and violence’
Authorities say the games operated “with the express permission and approval of” members of certain organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra.
These individuals — with nicknames like “Spanish G,” “Flapper Poker,” “Sugar” and “Albanian Bruce” — provided support and protection for the games and collected debts in exchange for a portion of the illegal proceeds
The organized crime families used “threats of force and violence” to secure repayment of debts from these poker games, according to the indictment.
All told, the poker scheme defrauded participants of at least $7.15 million, investigators said.
“Using the allure of high-stakes winnings and the promise to play alongside well-known professional athletes, these defendants allegedly defrauded unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars and established a financial pipeline to La Cosa Nostra,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said in a statement. “This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families.”
Thursday’s indictment “sounds the final buzzer for these cheaters,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The second criminal case involved NBA players and coaches divulging nonpublic information to their associates for the purpose of placing bets.
The 23-page indictment does not name Billups, but does list nine unnamed co-conspirators, including an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021. Billups played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and was hired by the Blazers in 2021.
That individual, referred to as “co-conspirator 8,” allegedly told a bettor that several of the Blazers’ best players would be sitting out a March 23, 2023, game against the Chicago Bulls in order to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick.
The gamblers wagered more than $100,000 that Portland would lose the game. The Blazers lost by 28.
Chauncey Billups with the Denver Nuggets during practice at the Pepsi Center in Denver on April 6, 2010. (Photo By Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post)
The Denver-born phenom graduated from George Washington High School and played basketball at CU before being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.
Known as Mr. Big Shot nationally and the King of Park Hill locally in Denver, Billups also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Nuggets.
Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record. The Trail Blazers opened the season Wednesday night at home with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota. Billups’ brother, Rodney, is currently the Nuggets’ director of player development and an assistant coach on David Adelman’s staff.
The Portland coach also serves as executive director of the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy, a summer program affiliated with Denver’s Regis University. The academy helps third through 12th-graders “cultivate character development through an extensive academic curriculum and exposes young leaders to career opportunities in their pursuit of individual success.”
Academy representatives said in a statement that they are “deeply troubled by the indictment against Chauncey Billups, co-founder of the Porter Billups Leadership Academy. We respect the legal process and will closely monitor developments as the facts emerge. Our unwavering commitment to the underserved youths through the PBLA program and our institutional integrity remains steadfast.”
Billups’ attorney indicated in the statement to ESPN that Billups planned to fight the charges made by the federal government.
“Chauncey Billups has never backed down. He does not plan to do so now,” the statement read. “He will fight these allegations with the same tenacity that marked his 28-year career. We look forward to our day in court.”
TORONTO — The leader of Canada’s most populous province posted remarks by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan on social media on Friday showing Reagan opposed tariffs, hours after President Donald Trump announced he’s ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad that Trump said misstates Reagan’s opposition to tariffs.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn’t back down and said Canada and the U.S. are friends, neighbors and allies “and Reagan knew that both are stronger together.” Ford then provided a link to a Reagan speech where the late president voices opposition to tariffs.
On Thursday Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”
Trump doubled down on his criticism of the Ontario ads again on Friday and accused Canada of trying to influence an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on his global tariff regime.
Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations has further inflamed trade tensions between the neighbors and longtime allies.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said this week he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Canadian officials remain ready to continue talks to reduce tariffs in certain sectors, he said.
“We can’t control the trade policy of the United States. We recognize that that policy has fundamentally changed from the 1980s,” Carney said Friday morning before boarding a flight to Asia. “We have to focus on what we can control and realize what we can’t control.”
Carney is trying to secure a trade deal with Trump, but tariffs are taking a toll, particularly in the aluminum, steel, auto and lumber sectors.
The Ontario government paid about $75 million Canadian (US$54 million) for the ads to air across multiple American television stations using audio and video of former president Reagan speaking about tariffs in 1987.
Earlier Thursday night, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute posted on X that an ad created by the government of Ontario “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” It added that Ontario did not receive foundation permission “to use and edit the remarks.”
The foundation said it is “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan’s address.
Ford said earlier this week he had heard that Trump had seen the ad.
“I’m sure he wasn’t too happy,” Ford said.
Ford has said the aim is to “blast” the pro-trade message to Americans, particularly Republican districts.
“It’s real, because it was coming from the best president the country’s ever seen, Ronald Reagan,” Ford said. “I feel the Reagan Republicans are going to be fighting with the MAGA group, and let’s hope, Reagan Republicans win.”
Ford is a populist conservative who doesn’t belong to the same party as Carney, a Liberal.
Trump has been threatening Canada’s economy and sovereignty with tariffs, most offensively by claiming Canada could be “the 51st state.”
Jason Kenney, a former Conservative cabinet minister under ex-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, called Trump’s posts “just embarrassing.”
“The Ontario ad does not misrepresent President Reagan’s anti-tariff radio address in any respect whatsoever. It is a direct replay of his radio address, formatted for a one minute ad,” Kenney posted on social media.
“Everything that Reagan said in his pro-free trade April, 1987 radio message is consistent with the ad. In fact, everything he ever said about trade, before and after becoming President, is consistent with his principled opposition to tariffs.”
Kenney also took aim at the Reagan foundation.
“They know perfectly well that the Ontario ad captures precisely President Reagan’s opposition to tariffs, and support for free trade. But it is obvious that the Foundation now has gormless leadership which is easily intimidated by a call from the White House, yet another sign of the hugely corrosive influence of Trump on the American conservative movement,” he posted
NEW ORLEANS — A federal jury found a private company running a Louisiana jail liable for the 2015 death of a man who died of head injuries he received while in custody, and awarded the family more than $40 million in damages.
Attorneys representing Erie Moore Sr.’s family say they believe the verdict handed down this week in the Western District of Louisiana is among the highest ever jury awards for an in-custody death in the U.S.
“For the past 10 years, my sisters and I have been tormented knowing he is not resting easy,” said his son, Erie Moore Jr. “This trial has shined light where there was darkness. It has brought our family truth, justice, and peace.”
Moore was a 57-year-old mill worker father of three with no criminal history who was arrested on Oct. 12, 2015, for disturbing the peace at a doughnut shop in Monroe, Louisiana.
Moore became “agitated and noncompliant” while being taken into custody at Richwood Correctional Center, according to court filings. His attorney, Max Schoening, says Moore was “mentally unwell” at the time he was taken into custody.
Schoening says guards pepper-sprayed him at least eight times during the 36 hours he was in jail.
Court records, including footage from jail security cameras submitted as evidence and viewed by The Associated Press, show Moore being brought down forcefully by several guards. Other footage shows the guards picking up Moore by his legs and handcuffed hands when one of the guards stumbled, and Moore’s head lands on the ground.
Moore was then brought to a secluded area of the jail without security cameras. He was kept there, out of sight, for nearly two hours, during which no one called for medical attention, court records show.
“The jury found the guards continued to use excessive force against Mr. Moore in the camera-less area,” Schoening said. “When sheriffs from another law enforcement agency arrived to pick him up to transport him to another jail they found him unconscious and completely unresponsive.”
When Moore eventually arrived at the hospital hours he was already in a coma and died about a month later, court records show. The Ouachita Parish coroner ruled Moore’s death a homicide due to the head injuries.
A federal jury found three guards liable for negligence, battery and excessive force. The jury also found LaSalle Management Co., which runs Richwood Correctional Center, liable for causing the death of Moore due to the negligence of at least one of its guards.
No one has been criminally charged in Moore’s death, Schoening added.
The jury ordered LaSalle and Richwood to pay $23.25 million in punitive damages and $19.5 million in compensation to Moore’s three adult children.
“This is the largest compensatory damage award I have ever heard of,” said Jay Aronson, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and author of “Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do about It.”
The city of Monroe contracted the Richwood Correctional Center facility for its jail from 2001 to 2019. LaSalle, which is part of the same business enterprise as Richwood Correctional Center, operates detention facilities across Louisiana and Texas, court filings show.
The Richwood Correctional Center now serves as a federal immigration detention site. Last year, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency stated that LaSalle is an “important part of ICE’s detention system.”
LaSalle did not respond to requests for comment sent to its attorneys or a spokesperson. The City of Monroe declined to comment.
“Erie Moore Sr.’s life was a gift to his family and community. LaSalle Management Co. ended it with utter indifference,” Schoening said. “It is a testament to his children’s love, courage, and resilience that, in the face of enormous obstacles, they obtained justice for their father and a historic victory for civil rights in this country.”
___
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal jury found a private company running a Louisiana jail liable for the 2015 death of a man who died of head injuries he received while in custody, and awarded the family more than $40 million in damages.
Attorneys representing Erie Moore Sr.’s family say they believe the verdict handed down this week in the Western District of Louisiana is among the highest ever jury awards for an in-custody death in the U.S.
“For the past 10 years, my sisters and I have been tormented knowing he is not resting easy,” said his son, Erie Moore Jr. “This trial has shined light where there was darkness. It has brought our family truth, justice, and peace.”
Moore was a 57-year-old mill worker father of three with no criminal history who was arrested on Oct. 12, 2015, for disturbing the peace at a doughnut shop in Monroe, Louisiana.
Moore became “agitated and noncompliant” while being taken into custody at Richwood Correctional Center, according to court filings. His attorney, Max Schoening, says Moore was “mentally unwell” at the time he was taken into custody.
Schoening says guards pepper-sprayed him at least eight times during the 36 hours he was in jail.
Court records, including footage from jail security cameras submitted as evidence and viewed by The Associated Press, show Moore being brought down forcefully by several guards. Other footage shows the guards picking up Moore by his legs and handcuffed hands when one of the guards stumbled, and Moore’s head lands on the ground.
Moore was then brought to a secluded area of the jail without security cameras. He was kept there, out of sight, for nearly two hours, during which no one called for medical attention, court records show.
“The jury found the guards continued to use excessive force against Mr. Moore in the camera-less area,” Schoening said. “When sheriffs from another law enforcement agency arrived to pick him up to transport him to another jail they found him unconscious and completely unresponsive.”
When Moore eventually arrived at the hospital hours he was already in a coma and died about a month later, court records show. The Ouachita Parish coroner ruled Moore’s death a homicide due to the head injuries.
A federal jury found three guards liable for negligence, battery and excessive force. The jury also found LaSalle Management Co., which runs Richwood Correctional Center, liable for causing the death of Moore due to the negligence of at least one of its guards.
No one has been criminally charged in Moore’s death, Schoening added.
The jury ordered LaSalle and Richwood to pay $23.25 million in punitive damages and $19.5 million in compensation to Moore’s three adult children.
“This is the largest compensatory damage award I have ever heard of,” said Jay Aronson, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and author of “Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do about It.”
The city of Monroe contracted the Richwood Correctional Center facility for its jail from 2001 to 2019. LaSalle, which is part of the same business enterprise as Richwood Correctional Center, operates detention facilities across Louisiana and Texas, court filings show.
The Richwood Correctional Center now serves as a federal immigration detention site. Last year, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency stated that LaSalle is an “important part of ICE’s detention system.”
LaSalle did not respond to requests for comment sent to its attorneys or a spokesperson. The City of Monroe declined to comment.
“Erie Moore Sr.’s life was a gift to his family and community. LaSalle Management Co. ended it with utter indifference,” Schoening said. “It is a testament to his children’s love, courage, and resilience that, in the face of enormous obstacles, they obtained justice for their father and a historic victory for civil rights in this country.”
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LOS ANGELES — A 29-year-old man accused of sparking the deadly Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges.
Jonathan Rinderknecht appeared in federal court Thursday afternoon after arriving in Los Angeles from Florida earlier in the day, his attorney Steve Haney said. A judge ordered that he remain in custody ahead of his trial.
Federal officials said Rinderknecht, who lived in the area, started a small fire on New Year’s Day that smoldered underground before reigniting nearly a week later and roaring through Pacific Palisades, home to many of Los Angeles’ rich and famous.
The fire, which left 12 dead in the hillside neighborhoods across Pacific Palisades and Malibu, was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, killing more than 30 people in all and destroying over 17,000 homes and buildings while burning for days in Los Angeles County.
Haney told the judge he took issue with the fact that Rinderknecht was facing charges for the Palisades Fire when he allegedly started the smaller fire beforehand known as the Lachman Fire.
“My client is being charged with a fire that started seven days after,” he said.
Rinderknecht was staying at his sister’s house in Orlando when he was arrested by federal officials on Oct. 7. He made his first court appearance the next day in Florida on a charge of malicious destruction by means of a fire.
A week later, a grand jury indicted him on additional charges including one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and one count of timber set afire. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Rinderknecht’s trial is set for December 16.
On Thursday, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rozella Oliver wearing a white jumpsuit. His attorney argued that he should be released on bail, based on the evaluation of court officials in Florida.
Rinderknecht has no documented history of mental health issues, drug use, or prior criminal activity, Haney said.
However, the judge in Florida who ordered Rinderknecht to be detained said he had concerns about the Rinderknecht’s mental health and his ability to get to California for future court hearings.
He appeared agitated when the judge in Los Anglees again ordered that he remain in jail, interjecting into the microphone, “Can I actually say something about detainment?”
Haney said they planned to return to the judge with additional evidence for why Rinderknecht should be released on bail.
“He’s a frustrated young man,” Haney said after the hearing. “He doesn’t know why he’s in jail right now.”
Haney said they plan to argue that even if Rinderknecht was the cause of the initial smaller fire on New Year’s Day, there were several “intervening factors” in the week between that day and when the Palisades Fire ignited, mainly the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Rinderknecht made several 911 calls to report the fire, according to a criminal complaint. Federal officials called the Palisades blaze a “holdover fire” from the Jan. 1 fire, which was not fully extinguished by firefighters, the complaint said.
The city’s interim fire chief said such fires linger in root systems and can reach depths of 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to over 6 meters), making them undetectable by thermal imaging cameras.
“They had a duty to put the fire out,” Haney said. “I do think he’s a scapegoat.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 29-year-old man accused of sparking the deadly Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges.
Jonathan Rinderknecht appeared in federal court Thursday afternoon after arriving in Los Angeles from Florida earlier in the day, his attorney Steve Haney said. A judge ordered that he remain in custody ahead of his trial.
Federal officials said Rinderknecht, who lived in the area, started a small fire on New Year’s Day that smoldered underground before reigniting nearly a week later and roaring through Pacific Palisades, home to many of Los Angeles’ rich and famous.
The fire, which left 12 dead in the hillside neighborhoods across Pacific Palisades and Malibu, was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, killing more than 30 people in all and destroying over 17,000 homes and buildings while burning for days in Los Angeles County.
Haney told the judge he took issue with the fact that Rinderknecht was facing charges for the Palisades Fire when he allegedly started the smaller fire beforehand known as the Lachman Fire.
“My client is being charged with a fire that started seven days after,” he said.
Rinderknecht was staying at his sister’s house in Orlando when he was arrested by federal officials on Oct. 7. He made his first court appearance the next day in Florida on a charge of malicious destruction by means of a fire.
A week later, a grand jury indicted him on additional charges including one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and one count of timber set afire. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Rinderknecht’s trial is set for December 16.
On Thursday, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rozella Oliver wearing a white jumpsuit. His attorney argued that he should be released on bail, based on the evaluation of court officials in Florida.
Rinderknecht has no documented history of mental health issues, drug use, or prior criminal activity, Haney said.
However, the judge in Florida who ordered Rinderknecht to be detained said he had concerns about the Rinderknecht’s mental health and his ability to get to California for future court hearings.
He appeared agitated when the judge in Los Anglees again ordered that he remain in jail, interjecting into the microphone, “Can I actually say something about detainment?”
Haney said they planned to return to the judge with additional evidence for why Rinderknecht should be released on bail.
“He’s a frustrated young man,” Haney said after the hearing. “He doesn’t know why he’s in jail right now.”
Haney said they plan to argue that even if Rinderknecht was the cause of the initial smaller fire on New Year’s Day, there were several “intervening factors” in the week between that day and when the Palisades Fire ignited, mainly the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Rinderknecht made several 911 calls to report the fire, according to a criminal complaint. Federal officials called the Palisades blaze a “holdover fire” from the Jan. 1 fire, which was not fully extinguished by firefighters, the complaint said.
The city’s interim fire chief said such fires linger in root systems and can reach depths of 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to over 6 meters), making them undetectable by thermal imaging cameras.
“They had a duty to put the fire out,” Haney said. “I do think he’s a scapegoat.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Colorado man charged in the death of four teenagers in a fatal wrong-way crash on the New Jersey Turnpike was drunk when he struck the group’s car head-on, according to court documents.
Christopher Neff, a 41-year-old man from Westminster, was found to have a blood-alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit at the time of the crash, according to an arrest affidavit released to The Denver Post on Thursday.
Police obtained a sample of Neff’s blood from the hospital for testing and found he had a 0.22% blood-alcohol content at the time of the blood draw, investigators wrote in the document. The legal limit for driving is 0.08%.
Several witnesses told investigators that they smelled “the strong odor of an alcohol beverage emanating from Mr. Neff’s breath,” police wrote.
Surveillance videos from multiple businesses in the area captured Neff arriving at the nearby Turnpike Inn at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police said in the affidavit. He was seen drinking multiple alcoholic beverages and, at one point, urinating outside the bar.
Neff left the bar shortly after 12:30 a.m. Sunday and drove across the street to a truck stop, where he purchased food, police said.
The man then drove onto an exit ramp for the Turnpike, almost colliding with another vehicle, and entered the highway headed the wrong direction, according to videos obtained by investigators. The fatal crash happened minutes later, at about 12:40 a.m. Sunday.
Neff, driving northbound in the southbound lanes, crashed his 2021 Dodge Ram 2500 into a Mazda CX-5, with four teenagers inside, according to the New Jersey State Police. A semitrailer then hit the Mazda from behind.
The crash killed 19-year-old Yaakov Kilberg of Lakewood, N.J.; 18-year-old Aharon Lebovits of Lakewood, N.J.; 18-year-old Chaim Grossman of Fallsburg, N.Y.; and 18-year-old Shlomo Cohen of Lakewood, N.J., police said.
Paramedics took Neff to the hospital with serious injuries, where he remained as of Wednesday afternoon.
When New Jersey officers searched Neff’s pickup truck, they found:
Two rifles, one with an attached suppressor;
A handgun;
A BB gun;
Several high-capacity handgun and rifle magazines;
Hundreds of rounds of ammunition, including hollow points and full metal jackets;
Psilocybin mushrooms, a criminalized hallucinogenic in New Jersey;
And methadone.
Neff faces four charges of aggravated manslaughter, four counts of vehicular homicide and multiple weapons and drugs charges for the items discovered in his truck, according to New Jersey court records.
As of Thursday, he had not been charged specifically with driving under the influence, but investigators said additional counts may be added as the investigation continues. A court date had not been scheduled.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR and two of its teams returned to court Thursday after two failed days of mediation and resumed their bitter antitrust fight with a hearing that included team owner Michael Jordan laughing in disbelief at some of the testimony as the two sides hurtle toward a trial.
“Today’s hearing confirmed the facts of NASCAR’s monopolistic practices and showed NASCAR for who they are — retaliatory bullies who would rather focus on personal attacks and distract from the facts,” Jeffrey Kessler, who represents the two teams, said afterward. “My clients have never been more united and committed to ensuring a fair and competitive sport for all teams, partners, drivers and fans. We’re going to trial to hold NASCAR accountable.”
The lawsuit was filed a year ago by 23XI Racing, co-owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Bob Jenkins-owned Front Row Racing. They are the only two organizations out of 15 to refuse to sign extensions for new charter agreements following more than two years of negotiations. Charters are at the heart of NASCAR’s business model, guaranteeing revenue and access to weekly races, and without them both teams say they will almost surely go out of business.
Other teams have called for a settlement to clear the air and move the stock car series forward, but three mediation sessions have apparently gone nowhere and the hearing laid bare how far apart they are. The trial is scheduled for Dec. 1.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell and Jeffrey Mishkin, a former executive vice president and chief legal officer of the NBA, both participated in mediation Monday and Tuesday and Bell opened the session by thanking both sides for working in good faith during the sessions. NASCAR wants Bell to throw the lawsuit out and the hearing focused on the series’ bid to narrow the scope of damages the two teams say they are owed.
NASCAR has accused 23XI and FRM of manipulating other teams and conducting themselves with “classic cartel behavior, ultimately because they received less than they would have” under charter extensions signed late last year. It struggled to make those arguments Thursday.
NASCAR repeatedly insisted that teams are free to compete in both IndyCar and F1, failing to disclose that entry into F1 is nearly impossible and the financials of IndyCar are simply not even close to the value of competing in the stock car series. Kessler likened a NASCAR move to IndyCar to a Major League Baseball team moving to the minors.
“Experts found that the (IndyCar) prize money and TV ratings were too low to make them a minor league team,” Kessler argued. “Michael Jordan, if you put a gun to his head and said you have to join IndyCar, it better be a pretty big gun.”
NASCAR also mischaracterized Chip Ganassi Racing’s sale of its NASCAR team to Trackhouse Racing ahead of the 2021 season as an opportunity for Ganassi — whose name was repeatedly mispronounced by NASCAR attorney Christopher Yates — to reinvest in IndyCar and expand that program to four cars. Ganassi has long run three to four cars in IndyCar and for more than three decades has been considered one of the top two teams in IndyCar.
Jordan multiple times laughed and smiled at NASCAR’s claims, and at one point Hamlin and Jenkins vehemently shook their heads at NASCAR’s assertion that it pays its teams a higher percentage of revenue than F1 does to its teams. Jordan did not speak with reporters afterward.
The original charters lasted from 2016 through 2020 and were automatically renewed to continue through Dec. 31, 2024. NASCAR contends they have added more than $1 billion in equity for its teams but owners have pushed for changes.
23XI and FRM initially won a preliminary injunction to be recognized as chartered teams this season while the case played out, but that was overturned and the combined six cars have competed as “open” teams as the season nears its season finale Nov. 2.
Kessler argued that damages in the case should date to the 2021 season because of 28 exclusionary items he says prevent NASCAR teams from competing in any motorsports series that closely resembles their version of stock car racing. NASCAR conceded that there was at least one exclusionary item in that charter agreement that began in 2021.
Bell was supposed to hear testimony from expert witnesses but scheduled two November court dates, two weeks after Hamlin will race for the Cup Series title in suburban Phoenix.
LONDON (AP) — The only British soldier ever charged in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre will learn his fate Friday in a Northern Ireland courtroom.
Judge Patrick Lynch is due to deliver his verdict in Belfast Crown Court on whether the former paratrooper identified only as Soldier F committed murder and attempted murder in the deadliest shooting of the three decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles.”
Prosecutors said the lance corporal, who has not been named to protect him from retaliation, killed two people and tried to kill five others when he and other troops fired at fleeing unarmed civilians on Jan. 20, 1972, in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
Thirteen people were killed and 15 were wounded in the event that has come to symbolize the conflict between mainly Catholic supporters of a united Ireland and predominantly Protestant forces that wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
While the violence largely ended with the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, tensions remain. Families of civilians killed continue to press for justice, while supporters of army veterans complain that their losses have been downplayed and that they have been unfairly targeted in investigations.
Soldier F, who was shrouded from view in court by a curtain, did not testify in his defense and his lawyer presented no evidence. The soldier told police during a 2016 interview that he had no “reliable recollection” of the events that day but was sure he had properly discharged his duties as a soldier.
Defense lawyer Mark Mulholland attacked the prosecution’s case as “fundamentally flawed and weak” for relying on soldiers he dubbed “fabricators and liars,” and the fading memories of survivors who scrambled to avoid live gunfire that some mistakenly thought were rounds of rubber bullets.
Surviving witnesses spoke of the confusion, chaos and terror as soldiers opened fire and bodies began falling after a large civil rights march through the city.
The prosecution relied on statements by two of Soldier F’s comrades — Soldier G, who is dead, and Soldier H, who refused to testify. The defense tried unsuccessfully to exclude the hearsay statements because they could not be cross-examined.
Prosecutor Louis Mably argued that the soldiers, without justification, had all opened fire, intending to kill, and thus shared responsibility for the casualties.
The killings were a source of shame for a British government that had initially claimed that members of a parachute regiment fired in self-defense after being attacked by gunmen and people hurling fuel bombs.
A formal inquiry cleared the troops of responsibility, but a subsequent and lengthier review in 2010 found soldiers shot unarmed civilians fleeing and then lied in a cover-up that lasted decades.
Then-Prime Minister David Cameron apologized and said the killings were “unjustified and unjustifiable.”
Soldier F has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder for the deaths of James Wray, 22, and William McKinney, 27, and five counts of attempted murder for the shootings of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon, Patrick O’Donnell, and for opening fire at unarmed civilians.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A lawsuit by actor Alec Baldwin alleging malicious prosecution in the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the Western movie “Rust” has been reinstated and moved to federal court by the defendants.
Baldwin initially filed the lawsuit in state court in January, claiming civil rights violations and seeking damages after a charge of involuntary manslaughter against the actor was dismissed at trial in 2024 on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.
A petition to move the malicious prosecution case to federal court was filed Monday by the defendants — special prosecutor Kari Morrissey and Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, along with three investigators from the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office and the county board of commissioners.
The change of court venue raises the stakes in Baldwin’s yearslong conflict with New Mexico authorities. Here are some things to know.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
Few people testified at Baldwin’s July trial before it was upended by revelations that ammunition was brought into the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office in March 2024 by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins’ killing.
Prosecutors said they deemed the ammo unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin’s lawyers say investigators “buried” the evidence in a separate case file and filed a successful motion to dismiss. A judge threw out the charge against Baldwin and later refused a request from prosecutors to reconsider.
“Rust” movie weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has fulfilled a 1.5 year prison sentence on an involuntary manslaughter conviction in Hutchins’ death in a jury trial. An appeal of the conviction to a higher court has been initiated.
“Rust” assistant director David Halls pleaded no context to unsafe handling of a firearm and was sentenced to six months of probation.
A settlement agreement was reached in 2022 in a wrongful-death lawsuit against Baldwin and other “Rust” producers by Matthew Hutchins, widower of Halyna Hutchins, and their son.
But the parents and younger sister of Hutchins are still pursuing damages and compensation from Baldwin and “Rust” producers in New Mexico civil court. Those claims could result in a deposition by Baldwin under oath in November, according to recent court documents.
The allegations in Baldwin’s tort claim include defamation, with his attorneys saying that prosecutors and investigators targeted the actor and co-producer for professional or political gain.
Defendants say it is a matter for federal authorities to resolve under terms of the Constitution and other U.S. laws.
Baldwin’s lawsuit for damages initially lingered with little activity, was dismissed in July, only to be reinstated in September at Baldwin’s request. Attorneys for the “Rust” lead actor and co-producer say they have approached state and county officials about the prospects for a settlement.
Prosecutors and an attorney for Baldwin did not immediately respond to requests Wednesday for comment.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI and three other entities on Wednesday, alleging their involvement in an “industrial-scale, unlawful” economy to “scrape” the comments of millions of Reddit users for commercial gain.
Reddit’s lawsuit in a New York federal court takes aim at San Francisco-based Perplexity, maker of an AI chatbot and “answer engine” that competes with Google, ChatGPT and others in online search.
Also named in the lawsuit are Lithuanian data-scraping company Oxylabs UAB, a web domain called AWMProxy that Reddit describes as a “former Russian botnet,” and Texas-based startup SerpApi.
It’s the second such lawsuit from Reddit since it sued another major AI company, Anthropic, in June.
But the lawsuit filed Wednesday is different in the way that it confronts not just an AI company but the lesser-known services the AI industry relies on to acquire online writings needed to train AI chatbots.
“Scrapers bypass technological protections to steal data, then sell it to clients hungry for training material. Reddit is a prime target because it’s one of the largest and most dynamic collections of human conversation ever created,” said Ben Lee, Reddit’s chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday.
Perplexity said it has not yet received the lawsuit but “will always fight vigorously for users’ rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge. Our approach remains principled and responsible as we provide factual answers with accurate AI, and we will not tolerate threats against openness and the public interest.”
Oxylabs and SerpAPI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. AWMProxy could not immediately be reached for comment.
Reddit compares the companies it is suing to “would-be bank robbers” who can’t get into the bank vault, so they break into the armored truck instead. The lawsuit alleges they are evading Reddit’s own anti-scraping measures while also ”circumventing Google’s controls and scraping Reddit content directly from Google’s search engine results.”
Lee said that because they’re unable to scrape Reddit directly, “they mask their identities, hide their locations, and disguise their web scrapers to steal Reddit content from Google Search. Perplexity is a willing customer of at least one of these scrapers, choosing to buy stolen data rather than enter into a lawful agreement with Reddit itself.”
Much like its lawsuit against Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, Reddit claims that Perplexity has accessed Reddit’s content despite being asked not to do so.
Reddit made a similar argument in its lawsuit against Anthropic. That case was initially filed in California Superior Court but was later moved to federal court and has a hearing scheduled for January.
Along with digitized books and news articles, websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language.
Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI and other companies that are paying to be able to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddit’s more than 100 million daily users.
The licensing deals helped the 20-year-old online platform raise money ahead of its Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company last year.
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A former New York state trooper who shot himself, then falsely claimed he was wounded by an unknown gunman on a Long Island highway, sparking a regionwide search, was sentenced to six months in jail on Wednesday.
Thomas Mascia was also given five years of probation and ordered to undergo mental health treatment and pay nearly $290,000 in restitution in Nassau County court in Mineola.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly called the former officer’s actions “disgraceful.”
“His lies wasted hundreds of hours of law enforcement manpower, deeply cost taxpayers in Nassau County, and betrayed the public’s trust of those in uniform,” she said in a statement after the sentencing.
Mascia claimed he was shot in the leg on Oct. 30, 2024, by a driver while parked on the shoulder of the Southern State Parkway, about a mile from his home. He described the fictitious driver as a “dark-skinned” man who fled in a car bearing temporary New Jersey plates heading toward New York City.
Instead, prosecutors say, Mascia staged the scene of the alleged shooting by scattering shell casings, then shot himself at a park, stashed the .22-caliber rifle, drove back to the highway and called for backup.
Jeffrey Lichtman, who represents Mascia and his parents, said in an email that the former trooper is “mortified by his actions and happy to finally get on with his life.”
He’s previously said Mascia, who became a trooper in 2019, was suffering from an undiagnosed mental health problem at the time of the shooting and has been undergoing treatment.
Mascia’s parents had also pleaded guilty to possessing an illegal firearm, which was found during a search of the family’s home.
Thomas A. Mascia, the defendant’s father, was sentenced to five years of probation Wednesday. Dorothy Mascia was given a one-year conditional discharge.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Eight children were killed in domestic violence incidents across Colorado in 2024 — the highest number since the state began tracking annual domestic violence deaths eight years ago, according to a report released Tuesday by the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board.
The youngest child to die was 3-month-old Lesley Younghee Kim, who was found dead with her mortally injured mother in a Denver home in July 2024.
“It’s a wakeup call, I hope, for people in Colorado,” said Whitney Woods, executive director of the Rose Andom Center, which helped compile the board’s report. “This is a real problem.”
Seventy-two people died in domestic violence incidents statewide in 2024. That’s up 24% from the 58 domestic violence deaths in 2023 but remains below pandemic-era peaks, when 94 people died in 2022 and 92 people died in 2021.
The pandemic years also saw elevated numbers of children killed, with four children killed in 2021 and six in 2022. Across the other years, no more than three children died in any given year, the board’s reports show.
Five of the eight children killed in 2024 died amid custody disputes between their parents, the report found.
“These findings highlight custody litigation as a high-risk period for families experiencing domestic violence and point to the urgent need for stronger safeguards within family court proceedings,” the report concluded. The legislatively-mandated board, chaired by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, began tracking domestic violence statewide in 2017 and makes annual recommendations for policy changes aimed at preventing deaths.
The fatality review board last year recommended that the state’s child and family investigators and parental responsibilities evaluators go through training on domestic violence, particularly around understanding the dynamics of domestic violence and how to evaluate the risk of lethality during the custody process. The Colorado Judicial Department is still developing such training, with work continuing in 2026, the report noted.
“That is to my mind a call to action,” Weiser said. “And we are working with the court system on this right now — how do we make sure our family courts and the general system for addressing domestic violence provides protection, support, services, so that we don’t see these deaths happen?”
The increase in domestic violence deaths came even as statewide homicides declined 17% to a five-year low. Roughly one in six homicide victims in Colorado in 2024 died during domestic violence incidents. Domestic violence victims account for 18% of all homicide victims statewide, the highest proportion in five years, the annual review found.
“That is really alarming in this line of work, for us,” Woods said.
The increase in domestic violence homicides amid the drop in overall homicides “suggests that while broader public safety interventions may be reducing general violence, they are not having the same impact on (domestic violence fatalities),” the report found.
The increase also comes at a time when many organizations aimed at preventing domestic violence and supporting survivors are facing funding shortfalls and uncertainty, Woods noted.
Among the 72 people killed in 2024, 38 were victims of domestic violence, 26 were perpetrators of domestic violence and eight — all of the children — were considered ‘collateral victims.’ The victims were overwhelmingly female and the perpetrators overwhelmingly male.
Across all 72 deaths, guns were used 75% of the time. The second most common type of attack was asphyxiation, which was involved in 8% of all deaths, followed by a knife or sharp object, used in 7% of deaths.
“Occasionally, people will make comments like, ‘If someone wants to kill someone they can kill them with a knife,’” Weiser said. “I think it’s fair to say access to firearms makes it far more likely that a domestic violence perpetrator will kill somebody.”
Removing guns from a suspect when domestic violence begins can be an effective prevention strategy, Woods said.
The report makes a number of recommendations aimed at preventing domestic violence deaths, including passing a new state law that would require police officers to take guns (those in plain sight or discovered during a lawful search) from domestic violence suspects at the time of arrest and hold onto those guns for 48 hours or until the suspect first appears in court. Suspects could then retrieve their guns if they were allowed to legally posses them.
“By empowering officers to disarm abusers immediately at the scene, the proposed law would provide urgent protection for victims and responding officers, create a period to reduce the chance of lethal escalation, and provide a tool for law enforcement to fill the relinquishment gap,” the report reads.
The report also recommends adjusting Colorado’s laws around third-degree assault, suggests law enforcement should give resources to both people involved in a domestic violence incident even when there is not enough evidence to make an arrest, and widening the scope of material gathered by local fatality review boards.
Denver prosecutors on Tuesday opened their long-awaited criminal case against former business owner Jay Bianchi, who is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting three women at his Grateful Dead-themed bars between 2020 and 2024, as well as drugging another man and a woman during that time period.
“This is not about character or lifestyles or choices the victims may have made,” said chief deputy DA Chris Curtis in his opening statements. “It’s not a memory test … (and) it’s absolutely not some kind of gigantic conspiracy against Jay Bianchi. So don’t get distracted. Focus on the evidence.”
Bianchi, 56, was arrested in April 2024 and charged with three counts of sexual assault dating to Oct. 31, 2020, in the 700 block of East Colfax Avenue; one count of unlawful sexual contact, a misdemeanor, on Nov. 1, 2020, in the 900 block of West First Avenue; and three counts of felony sexual assault on April 7, 2024, in the same block of West First Avenue.
He has pleaded not guilty on all counts.
The first sexual assault, alleged by Bonnie Utter, took place following a Halloween party at Sancho’s Broken Arrow, formerly at 741 E. Colfax Ave., in 2020. Utter’s friend Kylie Heringer, who worked as a sound engineer for Bianchi, also alleged that Bianchi groped her the next day in his office at So Many Roads Brewery, formerly at 918 W. First Ave., and that Bianchi attempted to discredit the women with character assassination and coercion. Both of his businesseshave since closed.
The Denver Post is identifying Utter and Heringer because they previously agreed to speak to the newspaper about their experiences.
Another woman identified during the proceedings alleged she was sexually assaulted by Bianchi in March 2024, and a man and a woman separately said that Bianchi drugged them — in the man’s case, for attempting to intervene in a conflict at Sancho’s. All will testify as part of the case, Curtis said.
Bianchi, dressed in a black jacket with a maroon tie, sat expressionless most of Tuesday as he watched each witness and speaker, occasionally taking notes. His case has been delayed multiple times as more people have come forward to make claims against him. Bianchi, who has several past arrests and convictions for drug charges and assault, has denied those allegations in multiple interviews with The Denver Post. His past convictions and arrests were not mentioned on Tuesday.
The trial, which could potentially last through mid-November, began Friday with a jury and evidence review that ran through Monday. On Tuesday, the first witnesses were called: a pair of police detectives and a former nurse from Denver Health who conducted a sexual-assault examination of Utter after she reported it on Nov. 1, 2020.
Bianchi’s defense team on Tuesday vigorously maintained his innocence. In her opening statements, deputy state public defender Megan Jungsun Lee previewed a strategy that will cast the prosecutor’s witnesses and experts as tainted by misinformation and rumors on social media, as well as news reports in The Denver Post and Westword.
“You will hear that during this time … that gossip, speculation assumptions were repeated again and again,” Lee said during opening statements. She also cast doubt on the years-long, on-and-off Denver Police Department investigation into the assaults, which she said had been compromised by the gossip-driven narrative and by news reports.
“Ms. Utter was alert,” Lee said of the events before the alleged assault on Nov. 1, 2020, noting that defense witnesses saw Bianchi and Utter “cuddled up.” The pair was laughing and holding hands as they went downstairs to the basement at Sancho’s that night, Lee said.
That’s where Utter said the assault took place. However, there was no evidence she was unable to make her own choices despite consuming alcohol, cocaine and cannabis that night, Lee said.
“(Bianchi) did not hand her a drink, touch her drink, offer her food or offer her drugs,” Lee added. “There is no evidence he caused her any kind of fear or made any threat. She was fully capable of exercising her own free will.”
The District Attorney’s Office spent much of Tuesday afternoon establishing the physical layout of So Many Roads with dozens of on-site photos, which included an unidentified substance in a baggie in Bianchi’s office, where Heringer’s assault allegedly took place.
In March 2024, a woman alleged she was raped by Bianchi, also at So Many Roads Brewery, which was co-owned by Tyler Bishop. That bar closed the next month, having been the subject of Denver Police Department stings for underage drinking and drug sales. Bianchi had also been the subject of protests outside the brewery in June 2021, after Utter and Heringer came forward to discuss their experiences, first on social media and later with The Denver Post. Local musicians who felt they had been mistreated by Bianchi rallied during the protest.
“We will sit here as long as it takes,” Curtis said, noting that the DA’s office will call a mix of eyewitnesses, detectives and experts who can comment on toxicology and crime lab results, sexual assault, consent, how memory works, and various firsthand details of the investigation.
Bianchi has been a fixture of Colorado’s jam-band scene for more than two decades, previously owning and booking bands at “Don Quixote”-inspired venues including Quixote’s True Blue, Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey, Be on Key Psychedelic Ripple, and Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom.
Hernandez was charged as an adult, but his plea deal dropped five felonies from his case: first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder with extreme indifference, attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and illegal discharge of a firearm, court records show. Two violent crime sentence enhancers also were dismissed.
Denver officers responded to the fatal shooting in the 500 block of North Sheridan Boulevard just before 6:30 p.m. June 8, 2024.
When they arrived, they found Quintana with gunshot wounds, police said. Paramedics took Quintana to a hospital, where he died. A woman who was with Quintana also was shot but survived, according to the district attorney’s office.
Denver police identified Hernandez and his codefendant, Simon Eugene Elijah Gurule, as suspects through automated license plate readers and community tips.
The 29-year-old’s jury trial is scheduled to start in January, according to court records. He faces the same five felonies that Hernandez originally was charged with and, if convicted of first-degree murder, will be sentenced to life in prison.
NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration has agreed to resume student loan forgiveness for an estimated 2.5 million borrowers who are enrolled in certain federal repayment plans following a lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers.
Under the agreement reached Friday between the teachers union and the administration, the Education Department will process loan forgiveness for those eligible in certain repayment plans that offer lower monthly payments based on a borrower’s earnings. The government had stopped providing forgiveness under those plans based on its interpretation of a different court decision.
The agreement will also protect borrowers from being hit with high tax bills on debt due to be forgiven this year.
“We took on the Trump administration when it refused to follow the law and denied borrowers the relief they were owed,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “Our agreement means that those borrowers stuck in limbo can either get immediate relief or finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Education Department said the Trump administration is reviewing forgiveness programs to identify ones that were not affected by court rulings that blocked much of the Biden administration’s efforts to cancel student debt.
“The Administration looks forward to continuing its work to simplify the student loan repayment process through implementation of the President’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the department said in a statement.
According to the deal, the Trump administration must cancel student debt for eligible borrowers enrolled in the following plans: income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, income-contingent repayment plans, Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) plans.
If borrowers have made payments beyond what was needed for forgiveness, those payments will be reimbursed. The Education Department must also continue to process IDR and PSLF “buyback” applications. Balances forgiven before Dec. 31 will not be treated as taxable income, as they will in 2026 due to a recent change in tax law.
The administration must also file progress reports every six months with the court to show the pace of application processing and loan forgiveness, according to the AFT.
An estimated 2.5 million borrowers in IDR plans will be affected by the agreement, and another 70,000 are waiting for forgiveness through the PSLF program.
Even with the agreement in place, mass layoffs at the Education Department could factor into processing times for forgiveness, said Megan Walter, senior policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
If borrowers continue to make payments while their application is pending forgiveness, that will be refunded to them if they are successful, Walter said. “But keep really good records,” she said.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which has been in place since 2007, forgives federal student loans for borrowers who have worked at non-profit organizations or in public service after 120 payments, or 10 years. The Biden administration also created an option for borrowers to “buy back” months of payments they missed during forbearance or deferment in 2023, to allow more people to qualify for that forgiveness.
The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
Federal law says the president of the United States may only call state National Guard members “into Federal service” when certain specific conditions are met, such as when “there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against” the federal government, or when “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
According to President Donald Trump, he alone gets to decide when or if such conditions exist. Or, as Trump recently argued in a legal filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, “such decisions are committed to the discretion of the President and are unreviewable” by the federal courts.
You’re reading Injustice System from Damon Root and Reason. Get more of Damon’s commentary on constitutional law and American history.
This particular claim of “unreviewable” executive discretion came in Trump v. Illinois, the case arising from Trump’s immigration crackdown in the greater Chicago area. On October 9, Judge April Perry of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found that Trump’s federalization and deployment of state National Guard members in Chicago failed to satisfy the requirements of federal law because there was no rebellion and because the execution of federal law was not being prevented.
Then, on October 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit mostly affirmed Perry’s order. “Even giving substantial deference to [Trump’s] assertions,” the 7th Circuit said, Trump’s claim that an actual rebellion against the federal government was unfolding in Chicago did not withstand judicial scrutiny. Furthermore, the court stated, “there is insufficient evidence that protest activity in Illinois has significantly impeded the ability of federal officers to execute federal immigration laws.”
As a result, the 7th Circuit left in place the district court order barring Trump from deploying the federalized National Guard forces in Chicago. For those keeping score at home, the unanimous three-judge panel that issued this ruling included Judge Amy St. Eve, who was appointed to the 7th Circuit by Trump.
Which brings us back to SCOTUS. In an emergency filing on October 17, the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to void the 7th Circuit’s order and allow the federalized National Guard deployment to proceed in the Windy City. “The President’s decision whether to federalize the Guard,” the Trump administration told the Court, “is not subject to second-guessing by the State of Illinois or a federal district court.”
As a supposed authority for this claim of unfettered executive discretion, the Trump administration pointed to the Supreme Court’s 1827 decision in Martin v. Mott. Yet the 7th Circuit reviewed that same ruling and found that it offered no support for Trump’s position.
In a recent guest post at The Volokh Conspiracy, law professors Joshua Braver and John Dehn offered a detailed look at Martin v. Mott that explained why the case is no help to Trump. As they point out, Martin did not involve any question about the proper use of the military in particular situations. Rather, the case dealt with events that occurred during the War of 1812, a declared war in which British forces had literally invaded the U.S. There was thus no question in Martin about whether sufficient conditions existed for the president to call forth state forces into federal service.
By contrast, in Trump v. Illinois, the overriding question is whether the requisite conditions (such as “rebellion”) even exist in Chicago at all. In other words, Trump v. Illinois asks the federal courts to look at a federal statute and determine whether or not Trump’s assertions can be reconciled with the specific requirements imposed by the statute’s text. Meanwhile, the Trump administration maintains that the president’s assertions in the case deserve to be entirely shielded from judicial review.
The question now is whether the Supreme Court will submit to the terms of judicial surrender that have been proposed by Trump. We’ll see.
HONOLULU (AP) — A lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. court in Honolulu challenges an admissions policy of a wealthy and prestigious private school that gives preference to applicants who are Native Hawaiian.
A leading opponent of affirmation action launched a campaign last month to test the policy’s legality and stop Kamehameha Schools from favoring Hawaiians. It’s part of a movement to expand the legal definition of racial discrimination in education, which comes on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in college admissions and is bolstered by the Trump administration’s war against diversity, equity and inclusion.
Now, they’re targeting scholarships, academic programs and admissions policies tied directly or indirectly to race.
The lawsuit was expected after Students for Fair Admissions — led by Edward Blum, a leading opponent of affirmative action — set up a website posing the question, “Is your child barred from Kamehameha Schools based on ancestry?”
The lawsuit doesn’t include any named or anonymous plaintiffs other than Students for Fair Admissions. But the complaint says the group has members who are “injured by Kamehameha’s discrimination,” and members who are “ready and able” to apply to the private school system, which has an endowment valued at more than $15 billion.
A Kamehameha spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Trustees said previously they are confident the policy aligns with established law.
Kamehameha Schools was founded by the will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I. When she died in 1884, her will directed the establishment of schools that give preference to Native Hawaiians.
Each year, the number of applications exceeds the number of spaces by as much as 17 to 1, depending on the campus and grade, according to the Kamehameha website. Alumni and parents of current students say a Kamehameha education is highly desirable because it’s affordable, offers stellar academics and is grounded in the culture of Hawaii’s Indigenous people.
“Nothing about training future leaders, or preserving Hawaii’s unique culture, requires Kamehameha to block its students from learning beside children of different ancestries — Asian, black, Hispanic, or white,” the lawsuit said.
The comment shows the group behind the lawsuit doesn’t understand what is means to be Hawaiian or multiracial, said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who is running for Congress.
He noted that his mother, Marilyn Stewart, is a white woman from Medford, Oregon, making him Scottish, German, French, Tahitian and Hawaiian.
The challenge to Kamehameha Schools is coming from “tone deaf outsiders who know nothing about Hawaii,” said Keohokalole, who applied in 1995 for seventh grade, and two years later for high school, but was rejected and graduated from a Catholic boys school.
There’s an understanding among Hawaii residents that only students with Hawaiian blood will be admitted. Many see the policy as a way to remedy disparities stemming from U.S. colonization and the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by a group of American business owners.
The lawsuit says that if not for the admissions policy, there are non-Hawaiian families who would apply for reasons including: “bad experiences with local public schools,” Kamehameha’s “high-quality programs” and for its networking and career opportunities “that would benefit the daughter for the rest of her life.”
This isn’t the first time Kamehameha has had to defend its admissions policy.
More than 15,000 people protested after a 2005 ruling by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the policy of restricting admission to Hawaiians, ruling it violated federal civil rights law. Kamehameha sought a rehearing.
The following year, the court upheld the policy. Kamehameha later settled with the family of the white student who brought the case when he was denied admission.
According to the recent lawsuit, that settlement was $7 million.
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