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Tag: Indictment

  • First Brands founder Patrick James and brother Edward indicted on fraud charges

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    The founder of First Brands and his brother were indicted on fraud charges Thursday, the latest development in a legal saga involving the beleaguered auto parts company, which filed for bankruptcy in September.

    The indictment, unsealed in a federal courthouse in New York on Thursday, accuses Patrick James and Edward James of bankrupting First Brands and fraudulently obtaining billions of dollars behind the backs of the company’s lenders and financing partners.

    The legal filing alleges that from 2018 to 2025, the brothers enriched themselves by falsely inflating invoices for accounts receivable and payable, falsifying financial statements and hiding substantial liabilities from lenders, among other practices.

    “These schemes yielded billions of dollars in financing to First Brands and enabled Patrick James and Edward James to reap millions of dollars in proceeds derived from their fraud,” the legal filing claims.

    A First Brands spokesperson said the company plans to pursue all available claims and causes of action against the James brothers, and that its board of managers is conducting an independent review of the company’s historical business practices.

    “This is a tragic situation that has disrupted the lives of employees, families, and communities who depend on this business,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We recognize the very real human toll of these events and the uncertainty many are facing.”

    $9 billion in liabilities

    The James brothers face charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, bank fraud and wire fraud.

    Seth DuCharme, the attorney for Edward James, told CBS News that his client has “conducted himself with integrity and dignity over decades of hard work.”

    “Today, the government issued a long list of accusations, but has not produced a shred of evidence against him,” he added.

    The indictment claims the brothers’ actions destabilized First Brands finances and were ultimately responsible for the company’s demise. 

    The company filed for bankruptcy in September 2025. At the time, more than $2 billion in funds couldn’t be accounted for, leaving investors scrambling.

    At the time of its bankruptcy filing, First Brands had $12 million in cash in its corporate bank accounts and over $9 billion in liabilities, according to the Department of Justice. Patrick James resigned from the company in early October.

    Patrick James founded First Brands in 2013 and grew it into a dominant automotive parts manufacturer. The Cleveland, Ohio-based company sells brakes, windshield wiper blades and other automotive products. Edward James had served as a senior executive at First Brands, according to the Justice Department.

    Part of Patrick James’ growth strategy involved acquiring other businesses through borrowed money, which the indictment says created additional financial pressure. Fram filters, Autolite sparkplugs and Anco windshield wiper blades were among the companies First Brands acquired, helping it expand its foothold in the auto industry. 

    First Brands also used a financial arrangement known as factoring, which involved selling its accounts receivable to retail partners in exchange for near-term cash. The practice left the company exposed to cash-flow disruptions, increased its dependence on external financing, and became a vehicle for fraud, the indictment alleges.

    “First Brands factored billions of dollars’ worth of customer invoices through arrangements with lenders,” the legal filing claims.

    Edited by

    Aimee Picchi

    The Associated Press

    contributed to this report.

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  • Illinois surgeon pleads not guilty to the killings of his ex-wife and her dentist husband in Ohio

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    An Illinois doctor indicted on murder charges in the December shooting deaths of his ex-wife and her dentist husband in their Columbus home pleaded not guilty to the killings in an Ohio courtroom on Friday.Michael David McKee, 39, appeared remotely on camera from jail for his arraignment in Franklin County, where he faced four aggravated murder counts and one count of aggravated burglary while using a firearm suppressor in connection with the Dec. 30 double homicide of Monique Tepe, 39, and Dr. Spencer Tepe, 37. He was garbed in prison attire and did not speak during the brief hearing. Defense attorney Diane Menashe waived a request for bond, at least for now.The mystery that first surrounded the case — which featured no forced entry, no weapon and no obvious signs of theft, additional violence or a motive — drew national attention. McKee, of Chicago, was arrested 11 days later near his workplace in Rockford, Illinois. He was returned to Ohio on Tuesday to face the charges against him.Who is Michael David McKee?McKee attended Catholic high school in Zanesville, a historic Ohio city about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of the capital, according to the Diocese of Columbus. He enrolled at Ohio State University in September 2005 — the same semester that his future wife, then Monique Sabaturski, enrolled, university records show. Both graduated with bachelor’s degrees in June 2009. Sabaturski earned a master of education degree from Ohio State in 2011, and McKee earned his medical degree there in 2014.Sabaturski and McKee married in Columbus in August 2015 but were living apart by the time Monique filed to end in the marriage in May 2017, court records show. Their divorce was granted that June. McKee was living in Virginia at the time, court and address records show. He completed a two-year fellowship in vascular surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in October 2022, according to the school.McKee also lived in and was licensed to practice medicine in both California and in Nevada, where he was among doctors named in a personal injury lawsuit in a Las Vegas court in 2023. OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, Illinois, where McKee was working at the time of his arrest, declined to provide specific information on the dates of his employment. His Illinois medical license became active in October 2024.What is McKee accused of?An Ohio grand jury indicted McKee in the double homicide last week.McKee is accused of illegally entering the Tepes’ home with a firearm equipped with a silencer, shooting the Tepes — whose bodies were found in a second-floor bedroom — and leaving the property along a dark alley alongside the house.Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant has said that McKee was the person seen walking down that alley in video footage captured the night of the killings. She also said a gun found in his Chicago apartment was a ballistic match to evidence at the scene and that his vehicle’s movements were tracked from Columbus back to Illinois.A message seeking comment was left with McKee’s attorney.McKee is charged with two aggravated murder counts for each homicide, one for prior calculation and design and one for committing the crime, as well as facing the aggravated burglary count. If convicted, he faces a minimum of life in prison with parole eligibility after 32 years and a maximum term of life in prison without parole.How were the killings discovered?Columbus police conducted a wellness check on Spencer Tepe at around 10 a.m. on Dec. 30, after his manager at a dental practice in Athens, Ohio, reported that he had not shown up to work on that day, saying tardiness was very worrying and “out of character” for Tepe, according to a 911 call.Someone else called to request a wellness check before a distraught man who described himself as a friend of Spencer Tepe called police and said, “Oh, there’s a body. There’s a body. Oh my God.” He said he could see Spencer Tepe’s body was off the side of a bed in a pool of blood.The Franklin County Coroner’s Office deemed the killings an “apparent homicide by gunshot wounds.”Who were the Tepes?Family members said the Tepes were “extraordinary people whose lives were filled with love, joy and deep connection to others.”They have described Monique as a “joyful mother,” avid baker and “thoughtful planner.” According to their obituaries, which were issued jointly, the pair were married in 2020.Spencer Tepe got his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University in 2012 and earned his doctor of dental surgery degree in 2017, according to school records. He was a member of the American Dental Association and had been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.They had two young children. Both were home at the time of the killings and left unharmed, as was the family dog.

    COLUMBUS, Ohio —

    An Illinois doctor indicted on murder charges in the December shooting deaths of his ex-wife and her dentist husband in their Columbus home pleaded not guilty to the killings in an Ohio courtroom on Friday.

    Michael David McKee, 39, appeared remotely on camera from jail for his arraignment in Franklin County, where he faced four aggravated murder counts and one count of aggravated burglary while using a firearm suppressor in connection with the Dec. 30 double homicide of Monique Tepe, 39, and Dr. Spencer Tepe, 37. He was garbed in prison attire and did not speak during the brief hearing. Defense attorney Diane Menashe waived a request for bond, at least for now.

    The mystery that first surrounded the case — which featured no forced entry, no weapon and no obvious signs of theft, additional violence or a motive — drew national attention. McKee, of Chicago, was arrested 11 days later near his workplace in Rockford, Illinois. He was returned to Ohio on Tuesday to face the charges against him.

    Who is Michael David McKee?

    McKee attended Catholic high school in Zanesville, a historic Ohio city about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of the capital, according to the Diocese of Columbus. He enrolled at Ohio State University in September 2005 — the same semester that his future wife, then Monique Sabaturski, enrolled, university records show. Both graduated with bachelor’s degrees in June 2009. Sabaturski earned a master of education degree from Ohio State in 2011, and McKee earned his medical degree there in 2014.

    Sabaturski and McKee married in Columbus in August 2015 but were living apart by the time Monique filed to end in the marriage in May 2017, court records show. Their divorce was granted that June. McKee was living in Virginia at the time, court and address records show. He completed a two-year fellowship in vascular surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in October 2022, according to the school.

    McKee also lived in and was licensed to practice medicine in both California and in Nevada, where he was among doctors named in a personal injury lawsuit in a Las Vegas court in 2023. OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, Illinois, where McKee was working at the time of his arrest, declined to provide specific information on the dates of his employment. His Illinois medical license became active in October 2024.

    What is McKee accused of?

    An Ohio grand jury indicted McKee in the double homicide last week.

    McKee is accused of illegally entering the Tepes’ home with a firearm equipped with a silencer, shooting the Tepes — whose bodies were found in a second-floor bedroom — and leaving the property along a dark alley alongside the house.

    Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant has said that McKee was the person seen walking down that alley in video footage captured the night of the killings. She also said a gun found in his Chicago apartment was a ballistic match to evidence at the scene and that his vehicle’s movements were tracked from Columbus back to Illinois.

    A message seeking comment was left with McKee’s attorney.

    McKee is charged with two aggravated murder counts for each homicide, one for prior calculation and design and one for committing the crime, as well as facing the aggravated burglary count. If convicted, he faces a minimum of life in prison with parole eligibility after 32 years and a maximum term of life in prison without parole.

    How were the killings discovered?

    Columbus police conducted a wellness check on Spencer Tepe at around 10 a.m. on Dec. 30, after his manager at a dental practice in Athens, Ohio, reported that he had not shown up to work on that day, saying tardiness was very worrying and “out of character” for Tepe, according to a 911 call.

    Someone else called to request a wellness check before a distraught man who described himself as a friend of Spencer Tepe called police and said, “Oh, there’s a body. There’s a body. Oh my God.” He said he could see Spencer Tepe’s body was off the side of a bed in a pool of blood.

    The Franklin County Coroner’s Office deemed the killings an “apparent homicide by gunshot wounds.”

    Who were the Tepes?

    Family members said the Tepes were “extraordinary people whose lives were filled with love, joy and deep connection to others.”

    They have described Monique as a “joyful mother,” avid baker and “thoughtful planner.” According to their obituaries, which were issued jointly, the pair were married in 2020.

    Spencer Tepe got his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University in 2012 and earned his doctor of dental surgery degree in 2017, according to school records. He was a member of the American Dental Association and had been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.

    They had two young children. Both were home at the time of the killings and left unharmed, as was the family dog.

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  • What to know about Nicolás Maduro’s indictment

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    Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores pled not guilty to drug trafficking charges Jan. 5 in New York federal court.

    “I’m innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country,” Maduro told the judge.

    U.S. troops captured Maduro and Flores at their home in Caracas, Venezuela, in the early hours of Jan. 3 and transferred them to the U.S.

    The Justice Department first indicted Maduro in 2020 for alleged drug-related actions dating to 1999. A newly unsealed and updated indictment filed in the Southern District of New York charges Maduro and two co-defendants with narcoterrorism conspiracy and he, Flores and the four other co-defendants with cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns.

    The indictment calls Maduro an illegitimate leader who transported cocaine under Venezuelan law enforcement protection, enriching his family and cementing power. 

    “This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” the indictment says.

    In August, the Trump administration offered a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction.

    The U.S. government’s indictment focuses on cocaine and weapons and is silent about other topics Trump has cited to justify pressure on Venezuela in recent months, such as oil and fentanyl. 

    The case of Manuel Noriega of Panama, whom the U.S. ousted from power to face drug charges 36 years ago, offers some precedent about the U.S. government’s strategy and challenges. 

    Here’s what to know about the government’s case and what could come next.

    What does the indictment say Maduro did?

    In addition to Maduro and Flores, others named as co-defendants include Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello and Maduro’s son, Nicolás, who is a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly. Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, the leader of Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, was added as a codefendant in the indictment. 

    According to the indictment, Maduro “engaged in a relentless campaign of cocaine trafficking … resulting in the distribution of thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.”

    When he was Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister, Maduro issued diplomatic passports to known drug traffickers to help with moving drugs from Mexico to Venezuela, the indictment says. 

    It also says Maduro and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and “ordered kidnappings, beatings, and murders against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation.” 

    The indictment focuses on cocaine trafficking and does not mention fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid responsible for most drug overdose deaths in the U.S. Without evidence, Trump has said the boats his administration has struck off of Venezuela’s coast were carrying fentanyl. However, most illicit fentanyl in the U.S. comes from Mexico.

    In his comments about Maduro’s capture, Trump also accused Maduro of stealing and seizing American oil.

    “The defense will certainly argue that this is what the case is really about, not drug trafficking,” David Oscar Markus, a Miami-based criminal defense attorney, said. “It gives the defense a hook on both pretrial motions and jury arguments.” 

    In this Jan. 4, 1990 file photo, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega watches as U.S. Drug Enforcement Agents place chains around his waist aboard a C-130 transport plane. (AP)

    How can the U.S. indict a foreign leader? 

    The Trump administration might have relied on a 1989 memo by then Assistant Attorney General William Barr giving the FBI authority to arrest people for violating U.S. law even if it contravenes international law. It was written months before the U.S. invaded Panama to capture Noriega.

    In 1989, President George H.W. Bush sent U.S. forces into Panama to seize Noriega, the country’s strongman, after his indictment by a U.S. grand jury on drug-related charges. (Noriega’s status as head of government was contested in Panama, and the U.S. did not recognize his status.)

    After turning himself in and being extradited to Florida, Noriega was tried and convicted on eight counts of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison. 

    An armored vehicle leaves Manhattan Federal Court where Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arraigned with his wife Cilia Flores, Jan. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP)

    What are the biggest challenges prosecutors could face? 

    Maduro might try to claim “head of state immunity.” 

    Under international law, heads of state are generally entitled to absolute immunity in other nations’ courts, Curtis A. Bradley, University of Chicago law professor, said.

    However, the U.S. government doesn’t recognize Maduro as the lawful head of state, so U.S. courts likely would not grant him head of state immunity. U.S. courts tend to defer to the executive branch about whether to confer immunity. 

    “Sure, he can claim it,” said Dick Gregorie, a retired federal prosecutor who indicted Noriega. “Is that going to work? I don’t think so.”

    An appeals court panel upheld Noriega’s conviction in 1997, dismissing his argument that his position as head of state should have preempted his prosecution.

    Even if Maduro’s capture violated international law, it would not be a basis for dismissing prosecution, per the “Ker-Frisbie doctrine” of U.S. law. In 1992, for example, the Supreme Court in United States v. Alvarez-Machain found that a Mexican national’s abduction from his home did not prohibit his U.S. trial.

    Jon May, a former Noriega defense attorney, said that prosecutors face a general challenge of relying on witnesses who could have credibility issues.

    “The challenge of building a case like this comes down to corroboration,” May said.

    Gregorie said that the biggest problem in the case will be discovery, which likely includes intelligence information about Maduro and witnesses. 

    What are the next steps in the prosecution?

    Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the next court hearing for March 17. Maduro’s defense attorney is Barry Pollack, who also represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 

    Markus predicted that the start of a multi-month trial is at least a year away. 

    PolitiFact Staff Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this article.

    RELATED: Fact-checking Donald Trump following U.S. attacks on Venezuela and capture of Nicolás Maduro

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  • How cocaine and corruption led to the indictment of Maduro

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    A newly unsealed U.S. Justice Department indictment accuses captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of running a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by an extensive drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S. with thousands of tons of cocaine.The arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a stunning military operation early Saturday in Venezuela sets the stage for a major test for U.S. prosecutors as they seek to secure a conviction in a New York courtroom against the longtime leader of the oil-rich South American nation.Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and Flores “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”Here’s a look at the accusations against Maduro and the charges he faces:Drug and weapons chargesMaduro is charged alongside his wife, his son and three others. Maduro is indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.Maduro is facing the same charges as in an earlier indictment brought against him in Manhattan federal court in 2020, during the first Trump presidency. The new indictment unsealed Saturday, which adds charges against Flores, was filed under seal in the Southern District of New York just before Christmas.Maduro is due to make his first appearance Monday in federal court in Manhattan. A video posted Saturday night on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in New York by two federal agents grasping his arms. He was expected to be detained while awaiting trial at a federal jail in Brooklyn.’Cocaine-fueled corruption’ flourishedThe indictment accuses Maduro of partnering with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to allow for the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S.Authorities allege powerful and violent drug-trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange.But a U.S. intelligence assessment published in April, which drew on input from the 18 agencies that comprise the intelligence community, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.Maduro allowed “cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members,” the indictment alleges.U.S. authorities allege that Maduro and his family “provided law enforcement cover and logistical support” to cartels moving drugs throughout the region, resulting in as much as 250 tons of cocaine trafficked through Venezuela annually by 2020, according to the indictment.Drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or on planes from clandestine airstrips, the indictment says.”This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” the indictment says.Successive U.S. administrations have warned about Venezuela’s role as a transit point for cocaine and a haven for criminal gangs, terrorist groups and drug-smuggling leftist rebels from neighboring Colombia. While reliable data is hard to ascertain, the vast majority of cocaine departs South America from Colombia and Ecuador, making its way northward through the eastern Pacific Ocean, not the Caribbean.Allegations of kidnappings and murders orderedThe U.S. accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders “against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation.” That includes the killing of a local drug boss in Caracas, according to the indictment.Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office. In a corrupt deal, the drug trafficker then agreed to pay a monthly bribe to the director of the anti-drug office as well as about $100,000 for each cocaine-carrying flight “to ensure the flight’s safe passage.” Some of that money then went to Maduro’s wife, the indictment says.Nephews of Maduro’s wife were heard during recorded meetings with confidential U.S. government sources in 2015 agreeing to send “multi-hundred-kilogram cocaine shipments” from Maduro’s “presidential hanger” at a Venezuelan airport. The nephews during the recorded meetings explained “that they were at ‘war’ with the United States,” the indictment alleges. They were both sentenced in 2017 to 18 years in prison for conspiring to send tons of cocaine into the U.S. before being released in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for seven imprisoned Americans.Rubio calls operation a ‘law enforcement function’During a news conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cast the military raid that captured Maduro and his wife as an action carried out on behalf of the Department of Justice. Caine said the operation was made “at the request of the Justice Department.”Rubio, as he responded to a question about whether Congress had been notified, said the U.S. raid to get the couple was “basically a law enforcement function,” adding that it was an instance in which the “Department of War supported the Department of Justice.” He called Maduro “a fugitive of American justice with a $50 million reward” over his head.

    A newly unsealed U.S. Justice Department indictment accuses captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of running a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by an extensive drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S. with thousands of tons of cocaine.

    The arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a stunning military operation early Saturday in Venezuela sets the stage for a major test for U.S. prosecutors as they seek to secure a conviction in a New York courtroom against the longtime leader of the oil-rich South American nation.

    Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and Flores “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

    Here’s a look at the accusations against Maduro and the charges he faces:

    Drug and weapons charges

    Maduro is charged alongside his wife, his son and three others. Maduro is indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

    Maduro is facing the same charges as in an earlier indictment brought against him in Manhattan federal court in 2020, during the first Trump presidency. The new indictment unsealed Saturday, which adds charges against Flores, was filed under seal in the Southern District of New York just before Christmas.

    Maduro is due to make his first appearance Monday in federal court in Manhattan. A video posted Saturday night on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in New York by two federal agents grasping his arms. He was expected to be detained while awaiting trial at a federal jail in Brooklyn.

    ‘Cocaine-fueled corruption’ flourished

    The indictment accuses Maduro of partnering with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to allow for the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S.

    Authorities allege powerful and violent drug-trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange.

    But a U.S. intelligence assessment published in April, which drew on input from the 18 agencies that comprise the intelligence community, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.

    Maduro allowed “cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members,” the indictment alleges.

    U.S. authorities allege that Maduro and his family “provided law enforcement cover and logistical support” to cartels moving drugs throughout the region, resulting in as much as 250 tons of cocaine trafficked through Venezuela annually by 2020, according to the indictment.

    Drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or on planes from clandestine airstrips, the indictment says.

    “This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” the indictment says.

    Successive U.S. administrations have warned about Venezuela’s role as a transit point for cocaine and a haven for criminal gangs, terrorist groups and drug-smuggling leftist rebels from neighboring Colombia. While reliable data is hard to ascertain, the vast majority of cocaine departs South America from Colombia and Ecuador, making its way northward through the eastern Pacific Ocean, not the Caribbean.

    Allegations of kidnappings and murders ordered

    The U.S. accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders “against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation.” That includes the killing of a local drug boss in Caracas, according to the indictment.

    Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office. In a corrupt deal, the drug trafficker then agreed to pay a monthly bribe to the director of the anti-drug office as well as about $100,000 for each cocaine-carrying flight “to ensure the flight’s safe passage.” Some of that money then went to Maduro’s wife, the indictment says.

    Nephews of Maduro’s wife were heard during recorded meetings with confidential U.S. government sources in 2015 agreeing to send “multi-hundred-kilogram cocaine shipments” from Maduro’s “presidential hanger” at a Venezuelan airport. The nephews during the recorded meetings explained “that they were at ‘war’ with the United States,” the indictment alleges. They were both sentenced in 2017 to 18 years in prison for conspiring to send tons of cocaine into the U.S. before being released in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for seven imprisoned Americans.

    Rubio calls operation a ‘law enforcement function’

    During a news conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cast the military raid that captured Maduro and his wife as an action carried out on behalf of the Department of Justice. Caine said the operation was made “at the request of the Justice Department.”

    Rubio, as he responded to a question about whether Congress had been notified, said the U.S. raid to get the couple was “basically a law enforcement function,” adding that it was an instance in which the “Department of War supported the Department of Justice.” He called Maduro “a fugitive of American justice with a $50 million reward” over his head.

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  • Maduro indicted on federal drug-trafficking and weapons charges

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    Washington — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from what prosecutors said was his role in a scheme to import “thousands of tons” of cocaine into the United States and enrich himself, his family and senior members of the Venezuelan government.

    The indictment was unsealed Saturday after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into military custody in an overnight operation and brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges. Maduro, Flores and four others are named as defendants in the indictment, including Maduro’s son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro; Venezuela’s interior minister, Diosdado Cabello; its former interior minister, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín; and a leader of the gang Tren de Aragua, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores.

    File: Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores

    Alfredo Lasry R / Getty Images


    It’s unclear whether the U.S. has arrested Maduro’s son. The other three defendants were not taken into custody.

    “Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil,” Mr. Trump said in a press conference from his South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, earlier Saturday.

    The case was brought in the Southern District of New York, where Maduro and 14 others were first indicted in March 2020, during the first Trump administration. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein is overseeing the case.

    The plane carrying Maduro landed at an airport in the Hudson Valley on Saturday afternoon. The Venezuelan leader was expected to be turned over to federal authorities and arraigned at the U.S. district court in the Southern District of New York next week, two sources told CBS News.

    Secured by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, the superseding indictment alleges that for more than 25 years, “leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.”

    Prosecutors place Maduro at the “forefront of the corruption,” and say that he and his associates worked with drug traffickers and narco-terrorists to flood the U.S. with “thousands of tons of cocaine.” This drug trafficking, according to the indictment, enriched Maduro, his family and members of Venezuela’s political and military elite.

    “This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect and transport tons of cocaine into the United States,” the indictment states.

    Maduro faces four charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy; cocaine importation conspiracy; possession of machineguns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices.

    The indictment alleges that Maduro has used his various positions in the Venezuelan government to transport cocaine. Prosecutors said that as minister of foreign affairs, Maduro sold diplomatic passports to known drug traffickers to help them move drug proceeds from Mexico back to Venezuela under diplomatic cover and facilitated the movement of private planes under diplomatic cover to evade law enforcement scrutiny.

    Maduro and his wife also allegedly worked together between 2004 and 2015, with the help of military escorts, to traffic cocaine seized by Venezuelan law enforcement. Prosecutors said the two maintained their own groups of state-sponsored gangs to facilitate and protect their drug-trafficking operation. They are accused of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders against people who owed them money or who undermined their drug-trafficking operation.

    Prosecutors said that after Maduro became president in 2013, he and others authorized the arrest of certain Venezuelan military officials to divert scrutiny away from them after French authorities seized 1.3 tons of cocaine that had been dispatched on a commercial flight from Venezuela to Paris.

    Maduro’s wife is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to broker a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the head of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, Nestor Reverol Torres, according to the indictment. The trafficker then arranged to pay a monthly bribe to Reverol Torres to ship cocaine, and Flores received a portion of it, prosecutors said.

    Reverol Torres was charged with narcotics offenses in 2015 and is a fugitive.

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  • Florida politicians react to US capture of Venezuelan President Maduro

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    Above: Venezuelans in Florida react to U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.In the overnight hours on January 2 into January 3, 2026, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured in a strike by U.S. forces in the South American country.The capture of the foreign leader comes after months of escalation from President Donald Trump against the nation, including more than a dozen strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats and a blockade on all “sanctioned oil tankers” going into and out of the country.U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would face charges after an indictment in New York. Maduro was also indicted on “narco-terrorism” charges in 2020.In October, Trump said the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels after several strikes on boats in the Caribbean.Floridian lawmakers reacted to the overnight strikes in Venezuela and the capture of Maduro.U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), co-chair of the Congressional Venezuela Democracy Caucus, released a statement on President Maduro’s capture: “The capture of the brutal, illegitimate ruler of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who oppressed Venezuela’s people is welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule. However, cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows. Venezuelans deserve the promise of democracy and the rule of law, not a state of endless violence and spiraling disorder. My hope is it offers a passage to true democracy and liberation. This action offers beleaguered Venezuelans a chance to seat their true, democratically elected president, Edmundo González. I’ll demand answers as to why Congress and the American people were bypassed in this effort. The absence of congressional involvement prior to this action risks the continuation of the illegitimate Venezuelan regime.”Bondi shared the below indictment of Maduro and other Venezuelan officials on social media.

    Above: Venezuelans in Florida react to U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    In the overnight hours on January 2 into January 3, 2026, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured in a strike by U.S. forces in the South American country.

    The capture of the foreign leader comes after months of escalation from President Donald Trump against the nation, including more than a dozen strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats and a blockade on all “sanctioned oil tankers” going into and out of the country.

    U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would face charges after an indictment in New York. Maduro was also indicted on “narco-terrorism” charges in 2020.

    In October, Trump said the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels after several strikes on boats in the Caribbean.

    Floridian lawmakers reacted to the overnight strikes in Venezuela and the capture of Maduro.

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    You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

    This content is imported from Twitter.
    You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

    This content is imported from Twitter.
    You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

    U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), co-chair of the Congressional Venezuela Democracy Caucus, released a statement on President Maduro’s capture: “The capture of the brutal, illegitimate ruler of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who oppressed Venezuela’s people is welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule. However, cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows. Venezuelans deserve the promise of democracy and the rule of law, not a state of endless violence and spiraling disorder. My hope is it offers a passage to true democracy and liberation. This action offers beleaguered Venezuelans a chance to seat their true, democratically elected president, Edmundo González. I’ll demand answers as to why Congress and the American people were bypassed in this effort. The absence of congressional involvement prior to this action risks the continuation of the illegitimate Venezuelan regime.”

    Bondi shared the below indictment of Maduro and other Venezuelan officials on social media.

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  • Director Carl Rinsch found guilty of scamming $11M from Netflix and buying luxury cars, watches and mattresses

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    A Hollywood director was convicted Thursday on charges that he scammed Netflix out of $11 million for a show that never materialized, while he instead used the cash for lavish purchases that included several Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari and about $1 million in mattresses and luxury bedding.

    Carl Erik Rinsch, best known for directing the film “47 Ronin,” was convicted of wire fraud, money laundering and other charges, according to court records and a spokesperson for federal prosecutors in New York.

    In a statement, Rinsch’s attorney, Benjamin Zeman, said he thought the verdict was wrong and “could set a dangerous precedent for artists who become embroiled in contractual and creative disputes with their benefactors, in this case one of the largest media companies in the world, finding themselves indicted by the federal government for fraud.”

    Prosecutors said Netflix had initially paid Rinsch about $44 million for an unfinished sci-fi show called “White Horse,” and then sent over another $11 million after he said he needed additional funding to wrap up the production.

    But instead of putting the money toward the show, Rinsch steered the cash to a personal account where he made a series of failed investments, losing around half of the $11 million in a couple months, according to prosecutors. He then put the remaining funds into the cryptocurrency market, netting some profit, though Rinsch then deposited the money into his own bank account.

    Then came the lavish purchases, prosecutors said, with Rinsch buying five Rolls-Royces and one Ferrari, along with $652,000 on watches and clothes. He also bought two mattresses for about $638,000 and spent another $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens. In addition, he used some of the money to pay off about $1.8 million in credit card bills, prosecutors said.

    Rinsch never finished the show. His sentencing date is set for April.

    Netflix declined to comment.

    U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement, said Rinsch “took $11 million meant for a TV show and gambled it on speculative stock options and crypto transactions.”

    “Today’s conviction shows that when someone steals from investors, we will follow the money and hold them accountable,” Clayton said.

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  • Des Moines schools

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    Iowa’s largest school district released a report Friday claiming that it received an abbreviated background check and what was likely a forged transcript when it was hiring its former superintendent, who was charged in a federal indictment with falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen on a federal form.

    Des Moines Public Schools hired Ian Roberts in 2023 with the help of a national consulting firm, JG Consulting, which had initially recommended Roberts and four other candidates to the school board, according to the report from an investigator hired by the district.

    The investigator, Des Moines-based attorney Melissa Schilling, concluded based on the contract and communications at the time that the school board reasonably relied on JG Consulting to vet Roberts or disclose limitations in their vetting process. The district is likely to cite the report in their ongoing lawsuit against the Texas-based consulting company, who has said the district is trying to shift blame.

    A federal grand jury issued a two-count indictment against Roberts, who is originally from Guyana in South America and was arrested by federal agents on Sep. 26. Roberts resigned his position, is in federal custody and is awaiting trial, which is currently scheduled for March.

    Schilling is a labor and employment lawyer who also co-leads her firm’s new crisis management practice, according to the firm’s announcement in July. A district spokesperson said the firm was retained to investigate the selection of JG Consulting for the superintendent search process and the school board’s awareness of discrepancies in Roberts’ records.

    The district declined to detail how much the firm was paid for the investigation, which JG Consulting attorney Josh Romero called one-sided.

    “It is no surprise that the school district that filed a misguided lawsuit against our company has generated a report – for which JG Consulting was not even interviewed – that misrepresents the facts and attempts to deflect the district’s responsibilities for the hiring of Dr. Roberts,” Romero said in a statement.

    Des Moines Public Schools paid JG Consulting $35,000 for facilitating the superintendent search, according to the contract.

    Roberts had claimed to be a U.S. citizen on his work eligibility form, providing a driver’s license and Social Security card as supporting documentation. Schilling said Des Moines schools relied on the consulting firm to identify immigration issues since JG Consulting told the district that they were a registered agent with the government’s employment eligibility system, ” E-Verify.”

    E-Verify compares information entered by an employer from an employee’s documents with records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration. But the system has its flaws, recently highlighted in the case of a Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities even though he was vetted using E-Verify.

    Schilling said it was “unknown” whether the firm used E-Verify at the time.

    JG Consulting disputes that it was their responsibility, according to a court filing.

    “The District had the legal duty and obligation to verify Roberts’ immigration status and work authorization as his employer, and it apparently failed to do so. JG Consulting legally could not, as the non-hiring entity, confirm Roberts’ immigration or work-authorization status,” the court document reads.

    Schilling’s report said the background check provided to Des Moines Public Schools by JG Consulting, via a subcontracted third-party company, Baker-Eubanks, only looked at records for the past seven years despite federal law that allows more extensive disclosure for positions paid more than $75,000.

    Schilling acknowledged in the report that many state laws prevent access to records, such as arrests or charges, if they did not result in a conviction.

    Since his arrest, federal authorities have provided a list of criminal charges in Roberts’ record, including drug possession and intent to sell in 1996 in New York, where state law could have prevented full disclosure of such charges. Officials did not specify the outcome of that charge.

    Still, Schilling said a 2012 conviction for reckless driving in Maryland likely would have been disclosed in the background check if it had looked beyond seven years.

    The background check did identify — and Roberts did address — a 2022 weapons charge in Pennsylvania, where he was convicted of a minor infraction for unlawfully possessing a loaded hunting rifle in a vehicle. Schilling wrote that JG Consulting called the conviction a “blemish” when they recommended Roberts to the board.

    Roberts has also been charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm while being in the country illegally. Officials said he had four firearms, including one found wrapped in a towel in the school-issued vehicle he was driving when he was arrested.

    In his application, Roberts had to say whether he was ever charged with a misdemeanor, felony or major traffic violation, such as driving under the influence, according to JG Consulting’s profile for the job. It is not clear how Roberts responded at the time.

    Roberts falsely claimed on his application that he obtained a doctorate in urban educational leadership from Morgan State University in 2007, according to documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request.

    Schilling confirmed that board members were provided that resume by JG Consulting during the hiring process, though Roberts himself brought paper copies of a different resume — where he indicated he completed “abd,” or all but dissertation — to his in-person interview with the school board.

    Although Roberts was enrolled in that doctorate program from 2002 to 2007, the school’s public relations office confirmed in an email that he didn’t receive that degree. It declined to say which degree requirements he hadn’t met, and it would not provide a copy of his transcript to the AP or to Schilling.

    Schilling wrote that she was “fairly confident” that the transcript Roberts provided in his application was forged. She wrote that the background check flagged the discrepancy but interviews with board members indicate the issue was not raised by JG Consulting.

    JG Consulting has said the district was aware that he had not obtained a doctorate from that university.

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  • Man arrested after groping Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on street

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    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that the harassment she suffered from a drunk man in the street near Mexico’s seat of government was an assault on all women, and that’s why she decided to press charges against him.

    Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada had announced overnight that the man was arrested.

    In a video circulating widely on social platforms, the man appeared to lean in for a kiss and touch the president’s body with his hands on Tuesday. She gently pushed his hands away, maintaining a stiff smile as she turned to face him. She could be heard saying, in part, “Don’t worry.”

    On Wednesday, Sheinbaum was firm in emphasizing that this was not the first time she had suffered such harassment and that the problem went far beyond her. 

    “No man has the right to violate that space,” she said, in a video the Mexican government shared on social media when it announced charges had been filed. 

    “I decided to press charges because this is something that I experienced as a woman, but that we as women experience in our country,” Sheinbaum continued, adding that she also experienced it earlier in her life, as a student.

    “My reflection is that if I do not report the crime, what condition does that leave Mexican women in?” she said. 

    The incident also raised questions about the president’s security. Sheinbaum explained that she and her team had decided to walk from the National Palace to the Education Ministry to save time. She said they could walk it in five minutes, rather than taking a 20-minute car ride. She said she would not change how she acts.

    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025.

    Marco Ugarte / AP


    Speaking out in solidarity with the president, Brugada used some of Sheinbaum’s own language about being elected Mexico’s first woman president to emphasize that harassment of any woman — in this case Mexico’s most powerful — is an assault on all women. When Sheinbaum was elected, she said that it wasn’t just her coming to power, it was all women. 

    “If they touch the president, they touch all of us,” Brugada wrote in a statement released Wednesday. Her statement went on to note that Sheinbaum’s references to the collective “arrival” of women to power in Mexico is “not a slogan, it’s a commitment to not look the other way, to not allow misogyny to continue to be veiled in habits, to not accept a single additional humiliation, not another abuse, not a single femicide more.”

    Mexico’s National Governors Conference also voiced their support for the president as news broke that she would bring charges against the man.

    “From CONAGO we condemn any aggression against women, in this case the aggression toward the president of Mexico,” the group said in a statement shared on social media. “Every form of violence against a woman is unacceptable and should have no place in a society that aspires to live with respect and equality.” 

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  • Comey seeks to have indictment tossed, arguing senator’s questions were “confusing,” “ambiguous”

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    Washington — Former FBI Director James Comey is urging a federal court to dismiss the two federal charges brought against him over allegedly false testimony he gave to Congress in September 2020. He’s arguing that the questions he answered, which were asked by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, were “confusing” and “fundamentally ambiguous.”

    In a new filing with the court in Alexandria, Virginia, Comey’s lawyers argued that his testimony in response to Cruz’s questions was “literally true” and cannot support a conviction. The former FBI director’s legal team suggested that the government is attempting to try Comey on “cherry-picked statements” given during a four-hour long Senate hearing without specifying which parts of his testimony it believes were false or misleading.

    They argued that while the government has the authority to prosecute witnesses who mislead federal investigators by giving false answers to clear questions, “it does not authorize the government to create confusion by posing an imprecise question and then seek to exploit that confusion by placing an after-the-fact nefarious interpretation on the ensuing benign answer.”

    Comey’s lawyers also asserted that “basic due process principles in criminal law require that the questioner frame his questions with clarity so that a witness does not have to guess.”

    A federal grand jury in Alexandria indicted Comey late last month on charges he lied to Congress and obstructed a congressional investigation. The alleged offenses stem from testimony Comey gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to both counts.

    Comey has already filed one tranche of motions with the court that argue the indictment should be tossed out on the grounds that it is based on a vindictive and selective prosecution. He is also challenging the validity of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan‘s appointment to that role. 

    Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in one of those filings that he would seek to dismiss at least the first count of the indictment — the allegation that Comey lied to Congress — because of Cruz’s questioning.

    In addition to his latest bid to have the charges dismissed, Comey’s lawyers are asking for more details about the conduct underlying the two counts. They are claiming the indictment is “sparse” and has a “total absence of factual allegations.”

    The indictment against Comey references an exchange the former FBI director had with an unnamed senator, believed to be Cruz, during the Judiciary Committee hearing more than five years ago. During the questioning, Cruz asked Comey about testimony he gave in May 2017, in which the former FBI chief was questioned about whether he had ever been an anonymous source or authorized anyone to be an anonymous source about matters relating to investigations into President Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.

    Cruz then referenced comments from Andrew McCabe, who was Comey’s deputy at the FBI, and claimed McCabe publicly said that Comey authorized him to leak information to the press.

    “Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true; one or the other is false. Who’s telling the truth?” Cruz asked Comey.

    Comey said in response, “I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what, the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.”

    Cruz reiterated that Comey was testifying that he “never authorized to leak. And Mr. McCabe when if he says contrary is not telling the truth, is that correct?”

    “Again, I’m not going to characterize Andy’s testimony, but mine is the same today,” Comey replied.

    But prosecutors have claimed that Comey’s testimony was false because he authorized Daniel Richman, a longtime friend of his, to serve as an anonymous source in news reports about the FBI investigation involving Clinton.

    The government confirmed to Comey’s lawyers that an unidentified individual referred to as “Person 3” in the indictment is Richman. A Columbia University law professor, Richman is a former federal prosecutor who also served as a “special government employee” at the FBI when Comey was director.

    Richman has not been charged with any wrongdoing. His name also did not come up in the exchange that appears to have led to the charges against Comey.

    In their bid to have the indictment dismissed, Comey’s lawyers said that any false-statements charge that rests on an interpretation of a “fundamentally ambiguous question” must be dismissed.

    “Fundamental to any false statement charge are both clear questions and false answers,” they wrote. “Neither exists here.”

    Comey’s lawyers argued that a “reasonable person” would’ve interpreted Cruz to be asking only about whether the former FBI chief had authorized McCabe to be an anonymous source, rather than broadly inquiring about Comey’s interactions with anyone at the FBI.

    “The indictment contains no allegations that Mr. Comey’s answers were false: it never alleges that Mr. Comey made a false statement regarding Mr. McCabe,” they wrote. “On the contrary, the indictment omits Senator Cruz’s statements about Mr. McCabe, obscuring the context necessary to understand both the questions themselves and Mr. Comey’s responses.”

    Comey’s legal team reiterated that he maintains that his 2017 testimony was truthful, but was also argued that his “statement that he stood by his prior testimony was truthful regardless of whether that prior testimony was itself truthful.”

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  • Father Charged After OR Toddler’s Drowning – KXL

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    Two-year-old Dane Paulsen disappeared Saturday in Siletz, Oregon. His father has now been indicted for child neglect.

    LINCOLN COUNTY, OR – The father of a young boy who drowned in the Siletz River earlier this year is now facing child neglect charges.

    Two-year old Dane Paulsen was reported missing at the beginning of March. His family told authorities he was last seen playing in the yard of his family’s Siletz home next to the Siletz River. A weeklong search was conducted but turned up no leads. Then, ten days after he disappeared, the little boy’s body was discovered by a diving team in the river approximately two miles from his home. Authorities said there was no evidence of foul play.

    In the middle of this month, a grand jury indicted Dane’s father, Aaron Paulsen, on a charge of second-degree child neglect. His bail has been set at his bail at $20,000, and he is due to be arraigned on November 3rd.

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  • Grand Jury Indicts WA Man For Murder In Clackamas County – KXL

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    A Washington man has been arraigned on one count of murder in the first degree and one count of harassment for an attack that allegedly took place at the Clackamas County Jail. Credit: MGN

    CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OR – The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office reports that on October 28, 2025, Sapastian Year, 23, from Renton, Washington, was arraigned on one count of murder in the first degree and one count of harassment.  The arraignment came just days after Year was indicted by a Clackamas County Grand Jury.

    The murder charge is the result of an assault that occurred on October 18, 2025, inside the disciplinary housing area at the Clackamas County Jail. The victim, Reece Warren Richeson, 26, of Cedar Hills, was taken to a local hospital after the assault, and he died from his injuries the next day.  Year and Richeson had shared a cell since October 10, 2025.

    Year’s harassment charge is from a confrontation with a different inmate at the jail on October 9, 2025, prior to Year being housed with Richeson.  Richeson was moved to the disciplinary housing area on October 7, 2025.  Richeson was housed in the disciplinary housing area after unrelated misconduct classified as high on the jail’s misconduct severity scale.

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  • Denton police officers indicted on charges of oppression, tampering with evidence

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    One former and two current Denton police officers were indicted on charges of official oppression and evidence tampering, officials said on Thursday.

    One former and two current Denton police officers were indicted on charges of official oppression and evidence tampering, officials said on Thursday.


    Courtesy: Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives

    One former and two current Denton police officers were indicted Thursday on charges of official oppression and evidence tampering, following a monthslong investigation, officials said.

    Officer Ronald Foy was indicted for official oppression, officer William Hulslander for official oppression and tampering with a governmental record, and former officer Joel Weinstein for tampering with a governmental record, according to a news release from the Denton Police Department.

    The indictments come after the Denton County District Attorney’s Office in February dismissed pending criminal charges against an individual experiencing homelessness who was arrested in March 2024, after the probable cause affidavit written by Hulslander did not align with the body-worn camera video evidence, which showed “Foy deploying his department-issued chemical spray in a manner inconsistent with policy and training,” the release stated.

    Officers Foy and Hulslander were immediately placed on administrative leave, officials said.

    The DA’s Office also notified the department of concerns involving other arrests made by former officer Weinstein, according to the release.

    After the internal affairs and criminal investigation by the department and police Chief Jessica Robledo concluded, it was determined that Foy and Hulslander violated department policies, according to the release.

    Foy was suspended indefinitely without pay and has filed an appeal, which is pending, the release stated. Hulslander was suspended for 90 days without pay.

    “When allegations of misconduct arise, we owe it to the Denton community and to the men and women who serve honorably every day to confront them directly,” Chief Robledo said in the release. “Denton PD regularly reviews policies and procedures to identify gaps between performance and expectations. When we discover we have fallen short of our core values, we commit to taking steps to restore the trust that the community has placed in us. We remain committed to transparency, accountability, and strengthening community trust.”

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    Shambhavi Rimal

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    Shambhavi covers crime, law enforcement and other breaking news in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. She graduated from the University of North Texas and previously covered a variety of general assignment topics in West Texas. She grew up in Nepal.

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  • Feds reveal mafia-linked gambling probe that led to arrests of Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and NBA star Terry Rozier

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    (CNN) — Portland Trail Blazers head coach and basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA journeyman Damon Jones are among 34 people indicted in connection with two separate federal gambling investigations announced by the Eastern District of New York on Thursday.

    At a lengthy and at times spirited news conference that included FBI Director Kash Patel, US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr., and others detailed the sweeping multi-year investigations that spanned 11 states, resulted in the arrests of 34 people, involved tens of millions of dollars and included members of the notorious Bonanno, Genovese, Gambino and Luchese crime families.

    Billups, who coached in the Trail Blazers’ opening game on Wednesday night, was arrested in Portland on Thursday morning and is expected to appear in federal court there later on Thursday. Rozier, arrested in Orlando, will appear there.

    Both will be arraigned at a later date in Brooklyn.

    Jones, who retired in 2012, is one of three people to be charged in both cases.

    “My message to the defendants who have been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended,’’ Nocella said. “Your luck has run out. Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that.’’

    Billups, the Portland head coach since 2021, is charged in an elaborate scheme in which marks were lured to participate in rigged poker games in part with the opportunity to play alongside the NBA five-time All-Star as well as Jones.

    Billups, Nocella said, knowingly served as the so-called “face card,” to attract the “fish,” to underground games in Miami, New York, Las Vegas and the Hamptons that they had no chance of winning. Those involved in the scheme used rigged card-shuffling machines, poker chip trays and even special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards. In some instances, the alleged conspirators used X-ray tables that reveal cards when they are placed face down.

    Nocella said the scheme, deemed “Zen Diagram” by the feds, “fleeced” victims out of tens of millions of dollars. One alleged victim lost $1.8 million. The money was then laundered by the crime families.

    “And when people refused to pay, these defendants did what organized crime has always done,’’ New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “They used threats. They used intimidation. And they used violence. It’s the same pattern that we have seen for decades, traditional mob enforcement methods combined with new technology to expand the reach of their operations.’’

    Rozier, who was arrested in an Orlando hotel, was alleged to participate in a game-fixing scheme that included prop bets on his availability.

    Investigators allege between December 2022 and March 2024, Rozier tipped people about his availability for games, citing seven specific games in their investigation including one, against the New Orleans Pelicans, already flagged by sportsbooks for irregular activity.

    Terry Rozier is pictured for the Miami Heat during the game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on December 29, 2024. Credit: Alex Slitz / Getty Images via CNN Newsource

    In that March 2023 game, Rozier, then with the Charlotte Hornets, left the game after just nine minutes with an injury. According to investigators, Rozier shared that inside information, and his co-conspirator bettors made $200,000 in wagers on the under.

    “Those bets paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit,’’ Tisch said. “The proceeds were later delivered to his home, where the group counted their cash.’’

    That investigation, deemed “Nothing But Net,” also included the previous arrest of former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter, who was banned from the NBA in 2024 and later admitted to manipulating his performance in two games. He is awaiting sentencing.

    Nocella said other defendants involved in the case threatened Porter, who had pre-existing gambling debts, in order to get the inside information.

    “This is the insider trading saga of the NBA,’’ FBI Director Patel said.

    The NBA has said previously it looked into the game involving Rozier against the Pelicans and that no rules had been broken. He was with the Heat, who opened their season on Wednesday, but did not play due to a coach’s decision.

    Jim Trusty, Rozier’s attorney, strongly disputed the accusations, saying that prosecutors characterized Rozier as a subject of their investigation and not a target.

    “But at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel,’’ Trusty said.

    “They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case. They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”

    CNN has reached out to the Trail Blazers and other teams mentioned in the news conference. Attorney information for Billups was not immediately available.

    In a statement, the NBA said, “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.”

    The Heat directed press inquiries to the NBA statement. The Trail Blazers noted that Tiago Splitter will be taking on interim head coaching duties as Billups is on leave.

    “We are aware of the allegations involving head coach Chauncey Billups, and the Trail Blazers are fully cooperating with the investigation. Billups has been placed on immediate leave, and Tiago Splitter will assume head coaching duties in the interim. Any further questions should be directed to the NBA,” the Blazers said in a statement.

    This story has been updated with additional reporting.

    CNN’s Kara Scannell and Mark Morales contributed reporting to this story.

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  • Man accused of fatal Charlotte light rail stabbing formally indicted, could face death penalty

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    The man accused of stabbing a Ukranian woman two months earlier was formally indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury.

    34-year-old Decarlos Brown was charged with knowingly and unlawfully using a dangerous weapon with intent to cause death on the Charlotte Area Transit System.

    The charge stems from the August 22 killing of Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed multiple times while riding the Lynx blue line in the South End area of Charlotte. According to prosecutors, Brown intentionally killeed Zarutska and acted with “reckless disregard for human life.”

    Brown had previously been indicted on murder charges in Mecklenbur County court in September. Under federal law, violence against a mass transportation system resulting death carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or the death penalty.

    Zarutska, 23, had fled Ukraine seeking safety from the country’s war with Russia and was working full-time at a Charlotte pirzzareia while attending community college.

    In the wake of the stabbing, lawmakers in North Carolina passed a bill known as “Iryna’s Law,” which bars cashless bail for certain violent crimes and for many repeat offenders.

    It also limits the discretion magistrates and judges have in making pretrial release decisions, gives the state chief justice the ability to suspend magistrates and seeks to ensure more defendants undergo mental health evaluations.

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  • Man accused of sending Wisconsin’s chief justice intimidating emails, stalking her

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    Prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin man with stalking after he allegedly sent liberal state Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky a series of intimidating emails.

    Ryan Thornton, 37, of Racine was charged Monday with one felony count of stalking. He faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison if convicted. His attorney, listed in court records as public defender Britney Dickey, declined to comment on the case when reached at her office Tuesday.

    According to a criminal complaint, Thornton sent Karofsky nine emails between the beginning of August and the beginning of October, accusing her of being manipulative, telling her to “eject” herself from office and asking for her home address.

    In one message, he told her to call the Capitol Police Department. “What a democrat idea, tho,” he wrote, according to the complaint. In another message, he asked if she wanted to be part of his helicopter videos, which police took to mean that Thornton believed helicopters were watching him.

    Karofsky told investigators she has received numerous threats since she became a judge in 2017, but Thornton’s messages frightened her to the point that she was afraid to leave her house to get her mail and asked police to escort her to her seat during a Milwaukee Brewers game and a Wisconsin Badgers game.

    Thornton made profane remarks about Karofsky and said she was “going down” during an interview with investigators, according to the complaint. He told the investigators to call President Donald Trump and that Karofsky “better start running or something for the hills of the feds because it’s a conspiracy.”

    Thornton said he was upset with an attorney that he hired to represent him in a 2019 strangulation case and that the Office of Lawyer Regulation, a Supreme Court office that disciplines attorneys, hasn’t investigated the lawyer. According to the complaint, Thornton called the office more than 70 times from Aug. 1 to Oct. 1 to complain about the attorney.

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    CBS Minnesota

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  • Trump calls Bolton a

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    President Trump is reacting to news that John Bolton, his former national security adviser, was indicted by the Department of Justice in Maryland. CBS News’ Rebecca Roiphe reports.

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  • Federal prosecutors charge Smartmatic in $1 million foreign bribery case in Miami

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    Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate was charged with foreign corruption and money laundering in Miami federal court Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, related to securing voting machine elections contracts in the Philippines.

    Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate was charged with foreign corruption and money laundering in Miami federal court Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, related to securing voting machine elections contracts in the Philippines.

    Smartmatic

    Smartmatic, a London-based company with roots in Venezuela and a subsidiary in South Florida, was charged Thursday with foreign corruption by conspiring to pay more than $1 million in bribes to a Filipino election official to obtain voting machine contracts in the Philippines, according to an indictment filed in Miami federal court.

    The indictment added Smartmatic to the same conspiracy case filed last year against two of its top executives.

    Roger Alejandro Piñate, the Venezuelan-American founder of Smartmatic, which has a subsidiary in Boca Raton, surrendered to authorities in August of last year. He pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit foreign corruption and money laundering to secure voting-machine contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the Philippine government for the 2016 election.

    Piñate, 50, of Boca Raton, was granted an $8.5 million bond. He’s no longer president of Smartmatic.

    Piñate was charged along with Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 64, the company’s former vice president of hardware development, who also surrendered last year. Vasquez, of Davie, was given a $1 million bond and pleaded not guilty to the same conspiracy charges.

    Both Piñate and Vasquez are accused of paying more than $1 million in bribes to the former chairman of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections, Juan Andres Donato Bautista, 61, who is also named as a defendant in the indictment, between 2015 and 2018.

    Per the indictment, Piñate, Vasquez and Smartmatic paid the bribes to secure more than $182 million in contracts with the Philippines to provide voting machines and other services for the May 2016 election for president, vice president and other official positions.

    Federal authorities said the two Smartmatic executives, along with the company, financed the bribes by overbilling the cost per voting machine for the election. To conceal the operation, they allegedly used coded language in referring to a slush fund that was used to make the illicit payments, and they created fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify the transfers.

    The co-conspirators then allegedly laundered bribery payments through bank accounts located in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including in the Southern District of Florida, according to the indictment.

    In a statement, Smartmatic denied the allegations: “This is again, targeted, political, and unjust,” the company said. “Smartmartic will continue to stand by its people and principles. We will not be intimidated by those pulling the strings of power.”

    Smartmatic became a household name after it accused Fox News of airing false claims about the company being involved in vote rigging during the 2020 presidential election in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump. Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News in 2021.

    Piñate, Vasquez and Smartmatic are each charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

    Piñate, Vasquez, Bautista and Elie Moreno, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel who oversaw Smartmatic’s contracts in the Philippines, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments. Smartmatic is also charged with those offenses, according to the indictment.

    Piñate, Vasquez, Bautista and Moreno each face a maximum penalty of 20 years if convicted of those charges. If convicted, Piñate and Vasquez each also face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to violate it.

    Probe began with wife

    The federal probe in South Florida was launched after Bautista’s wife in August 2017 informed the Philippine National Bureau of lnvestigation that her husband had “large amounts of unexplained wealth,” according to a Homeland Security Investigations criminal complaint filed in 2023.

    She informed the Bureau’s Anti-Fraud Division that her husband had approximately one billion Philippine Pesos, or approximately $20 million of ill-gotten wealth.

    They were going through a divorce at the time, according to published reports.

    Piñate, alongside Venezuelans Antonio Mugica and Alfredo José Anzola, founded Smartmatic in 2000. The trio gained notoriety after the company was chosen by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez to replace the country’s voting machines in 2004. The company grew by acquiring the much larger Sequoia Voting Systems in 2006, though the company later announced that it had divested its stake in that company.

    This story was originally published October 16, 2025 at 7:53 PM.

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    Jay Weaver

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  • Ex-Trump National Security Adviser Bolton Charged In Probe Of Mishandling Of Classified Information – KXL

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    GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton was charged Thursday in a federal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

    The investigation into Bolton, who served for more than a year in President Donald Trump’s first administration before being fired in 2019, burst into public view in August when the FBI searched his home in Maryland and his office in Washington for classified records he may have held onto from his years in government.

    The existence of the indictment was confirmed to the AP by a person familiar with the matter who could not publicly discuss the charges and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

    Agents during the August search seized multiple documents labeled “classified,” “confidential” and “secret” from Bolton’s office, according to previously unsealed court filings. Some of the seized records appeared to concern weapons of mass destruction, national “strategic communication” and the U.S. mission to the United Nations, the filings stated.

    The indictment sets the stage for a closely watched court case centering on a longtime fixture in Republican foreign policy circles who became known for his hawkish views on American power and who after leaving Trump’s first government emerged as a prominent and vocal critic of the president. Though the investigation that produced the indictment began before Trump’s second term, the case will unfold against the backdrop of broader concerns that his Justice Department is being weaponized to go after his political adversaries.

    It follows separate indictments over the last month accusing former FBI Director James Comey of lying to Congress and New York Attorney General Letitia James of committing bank fraud and making a false statement, charges they both deny. Both of those cases were filed in federal court in Virginia by a prosecutor Trump hastily installed in the position after growing frustrated that investigations into high-profile enemies had not resulted in prosecution.

    The Bolton case, by contrast, was filed in Maryland by a U.S. attorney who before being elevated to the job had been a career prosecutor in the office.

    Questions about Bolton’s handling of classified information date back years. He faced a lawsuit and a Justice Department investigation after leaving office related to information in a 2020 book he published, “The Room Where it Happened,” that portrayed Trump as grossly uninformed about foreign policy.

    The Trump administration asserted that Bolton’s manuscript included classified information that could harm national security if exposed. Bolton’s lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked for months, said the manuscript no longer contained classified information.

    A search warrant affidavit that was previously unsealed said a National Security Council official had reviewed the book manuscript and told Bolton in 2020 that it appeared to contain “significant amounts” of classified information, some at a top-secret level.

    Bolton’s attorney Abbe Lowell has said that many of the documents seized in August had been approved as part of a pre-publication review for Bolton’s book. He said that many were decades old, from Bolton’s long career in the State Department, as an assistant attorney general and as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

    The indictment is a dramatic moment in Bolton’s long career in government. He served in the Justice Department during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and was the State Department’s point man on arms control during George W. Bush’s presidency. Bolton was nominated by Bush to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but the strong supporter of the Iraq war was unable to win Senate confirmation and resigned after serving 17 months as a Bush recess appointment. That allowed him to hold the job on a temporary basis without Senate confirmation.

    In 2018, Bolton was appointed to serve as Trump’s third national security adviser. But his brief tenure was characterized by disputes with the president over North Korea, Iran and Ukraine.

    Those rifts ultimately led to Bolton’s departure, with Trump announcing on social media in September 2019 that he had accepted Bolton’s resignation. Bolton subsequently criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government in his 2020 book, including by alleging that Trump directly tied providing military aid to the country’s willingness to conduct investigations into Joe Biden, who was soon to be Trump’s Democratic 2020 election rival, and members of his family.

    Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a “washed-up guy” and a “crazy” warmonger who would have led the country into “World War Six.” Trump also said at the time that the book contained “highly classified information” and that Bolton “did not have approval” for publishing it.

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • The Indictment of Letitia James and the Collapse of Impartial Justice

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    “One tier of justice for all Americans,” the U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, wrote Thursday on X, shortly after a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted the New York attorney general, Letitia James, on charges of bank fraud and making false statements. Bondi had made a similar point, two weeks before, after the indictment of the former F.B.I. director James Comey. “No one is above the law,” she proclaimed. This self-satisfied triumphalism misconstrues the danger posed by the prosecutions of James and Comey—and by the other cases that President Donald Trump has demanded be brought against his perceived political enemies, which may soon follow. The issue here, contrary to the Administration’s framing, is not that these individuals had previously evaded accountability for allegedly criminal activity. (Those worried about the powerful being able to skirt the law should refer to Trump v. United States, in which the Supreme Court granted Presidents near-complete immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. Some people, it turns out, actually are above the law.) Rather, the problem with the Trump-directed prosecutions is about a different, and even more pernicious, form of unequal treatment: that this Administration will use the justice system to selectively punish those who incur the President’s wrath. The essence of impartial justice is treating like conduct alike—not identifying the target and then finding the crime.

    Trump’s supporters often insist that Democrats, including James, weaponized the justice system against him first. Indeed, James, while running for attorney general back in 2018, had some intemperate and ill-advised words for Trump. “I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate President,” she vowed. After she was elected, her statements were even more pointed, and even more arguably improper for a law-enforcement official: “As the next attorney general of his home state, I will be shining a bright light into every dark corner of his real-estate dealings.” In office, James delivered. She brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, his children, and his company, accusing them of having inflated the value of their properties to lenders and insurers in order to obtain more favorable terms. The judge who heard the case, Arthur Engoron, sided with James. “The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience,” he wrote in his decision, imposing a fine that, with interest, grew to more than half a billion dollars. (In August, a divided appeals court ruled that the penalty was excessive, but let the fraud conviction stand so that it could be reviewed by a higher court.)

    More to the point, even if James misused her office to go after Trump, the acceptable reaction is not to repeat that offense. Trump may be a self-described counterpuncher, but payback has no place in the “Principles of Federal Prosecution,” the bible that governs how federal prosecutors should conduct themselves. And so the question raised by the indictment of James is: would any other federal prosecutor have brought this case against any other defendant? The indictment is, like the Comey charges, notably lacking in detail—but the answer seems to be a resounding no.

    Given that Trump had publicly demanded that James be prosecuted, her indictment was hardly unexpected. The precise fraud alleged, however, was a surprise. In April, Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sent the Department of Justice a “criminal referral” that cited James’s 2023 purchase of a house in Norfolk, Virginia. James, Pulte charged, had said on one form that the property would be her “primary residence,” though it was actually for her niece—a fact that James had stated elsewhere. Instead, the indictment focussed on James’s purchase of another house in Norfolk in 2020, for a hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars. In the process of buying this other property, James had signed a “second-home rider” that, according to the indictment, required her “to occupy and use the property as her secondary residence.” The rider itself, containing standard language from Fannie Mae, stipulated that James would “keep the Property available primarily as a residence for Borrower’s personal use and enjoyment for at least one year.”

    The indictment alleges that James did not use the property as her second home; instead, it asserts, she rented the house to a family of three, although it does not provide specifics. It also states that James’s application for homeowner’s insurance described the property as “owner-occupied,” even though her federal tax forms treated it as “rental real estate.” By obtaining the mortgage for a second home rather than for an investment, according to the indictment, James was able to borrow at a lower rate (three per cent as opposed to 3.815 per cent) and receive a larger seller credit. This “scheme and artifice to defraud” lenders “by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises” resulted in nearly nineteen thousand dollars in “ill-gotten gains” over the life of the loan, the indictment alleges.

    Does all this rise to the level of a crime that federal prosecutors usually pursue? Do these actions constitute “tremendous breaches of the public trust,” as the newly Trump-installed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, an insurance lawyer with no previous prosecutorial experience, claimed? Federal mortgage-fraud prosecutions are exceptionally rare. In 2024, only thirty-eight people were sentenced for federal mortgage fraud, four more than in the previous year, according to statistics compiled by the United States Sentencing Commission. The amount allegedly at issue in the James case is so paltry that it would not normally draw the attention of federal prosecutors. The fraud that James supposedly committed is seldom prosecuted as a standalone offense. “I do not know of a single instance in which a prosecution was brought based solely on occupancy fraud, much less for renting out a second home,” Adam Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown who specializes in consumer-finance law and mortgage contracts, told me. For example, the former Trump-campaign chair Paul Manafort, was accused of occupancy fraud, after he claimed that his daughter lived in a SoHo condominium in order to obtain a larger mortgage, but it was part of a sprawling twenty-five count indictment. In addition, as Molly Roberts noted on Lawfare, it’s unclear whether James even violated the second-home restrictions; Fannie Mae rewrote the rider language in 2019 to clarify that homeowners can indeed let their properties, even during the first year of ownership. James’s New York State financial-disclosure forms only reported income from the property—between one thousand and five thousand dollars—in a single year, 2020. According to a source familiar with James’s finances, the house was occupied by James’s great-niece, who did not pay rent and has lived there for years.

    Even if prosecutors can show that James violated the terms of the loan, they will also face the hurdle of proving that any such deception was intentional. “An occupancy fraud charge like the one brought against James is very hard to prove standing alone because it requires proving that the borrower never intended to keep the occupancy promise,” Levitin observed. It’s no wonder that Halligan’s predecessor reportedly refused to bring the charges against James, and career prosecutors balked as well. “Bottom line: this is a very, very weak case that looks like prosecutorial misconduct, frankly,” Levitin said. “It’s a case that would never be brought if there were not a political vendetta against James.”

    This case does not reflect “one tier of justice for all Americans.” Prosecutors, who have limited resources, are supposed to exercise discretion, not exact retribution. The “Principles of Federal Prosecution” caution that a “determination to prosecute represents a policy judgment that the fundamental interests of society require the application of federal criminal law to a particular set of circumstances.” The indictment of James serves only one fundamental interest: Trump’s insatiable thirst for revenge. ♦

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    Ruth Marcus

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