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Tag: Indictments

  • Mom of suspect in Georgia school shooting indicted and is accused of taping a parent to a chair

    Mom of suspect in Georgia school shooting indicted and is accused of taping a parent to a chair

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    FITZGERALD, Ga. — The mother of a Georgia teenager charged with fatally shooting four people at his high school has been indicted in connection with an alleged domestic incident last year.

    The indictment handed down Monday charges Marcee Gray, 43, with exploiting an elderly person and other crimes in Ben Hill County, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. It appears unrelated to the school shootings at Apalachee High School, which occurred in a different Georgia county nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) away.

    Gray is the mother of 14-year-old Colt Gray, who was charged with murder after surrendering to police at the high school on Sept. 4. Authorities say the boy brought an assault-style rifle to school in his backpack and opened fire during morning classes, killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others.

    The indictment charging Marcee Gray stems from a domestic incident late last year, the Atlanta newspaper reported. It said a police incident report states Gray’s 74-year-old mother told authorities Nov. 4 that Gray had taken her phone, taped her to a chair and left her for nearly a full day.

    The incident report said Gray bound her mother before traveling to Barrow County to confront her ex-husband, who lived with their son and two other children. The Atlanta newspaper said records show Gray was arrested in Barrow County on Nov. 6, two days after her mother was found and was sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading guilty to charges of criminal trespassing, using a license plate to disguise her car and causing property damage.

    Messages left Saturday at possible phone numbers for Gray were not immediately returned. It was not immediately known if she had an attorney.

    Gray has said she called her son’s high school the morning of the shootings to warn the staff after Colt Gray sent her a text message saying, “I’m sorry.” Days later, she issued a statement saying her son “is not a monster.”

    The teenager’s father, Colin Gray, has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. Authorities say he gave his son access to the rifle used in the shootings.

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  • Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will stay in jail after bail is denied for a second time

    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will stay in jail after bail is denied for a second time

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs is staying locked up after a judge Wednesday rejected the hip-hop mogul’s proposal that he await his sex trafficking trial in the luxury of his Florida mansion instead of a grim Brooklyn federal jail.

    U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter ruled that Combs’ plan — which included a $50 million bail offer, GPS monitoring and strict limitations on visitors — was “insufficient” to ensure the safety of the community and the integrity of his case.

    Carter, agreeing with prosecutors who fought to keep Combs in jail, found that “no condition or set of conditions” governing his release could guard against the risk of him threatening or harming witnesses — a central charge in his case.

    Combs’ lawyers were making their second attempt in as many days to spring him from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he has been held since pleading not guilty Tuesday to charges he physically and sexually abused women for years.

    Combs has been in federal custody since his arrest Monday night at a Manhattan hotel. A federal magistrate on Tuesday rejected Combs’ initial bail request. On Wednesday, he and his lawyers struck out with Carter, the judge who will preside over his trial.

    Defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo says he will now ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Carter’s ruling and release Combs. In the meantime, he wants Combs moved from the Brooklyn lockup, which has been plagued by rampant violence and horrific conditions, to a jail in New Jersey. Carter said decisions on placement are entirely up to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

    “I’m not going to let him sit in that jail a day longer than he has to,” Agnifilo said to reporters outside the courtroom.

    Combs looked at family members and tapped his heart several times as Wednesday’s hearing began, then sat stoically as he listened to arguments. Afterward, as federal agents led him away, his relatives somberly embraced and exchanged hand slaps.

    Combs, 54, is accused in an indictment of using his “power and prestige” to induce female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that Combs arranged, participated in and often recorded on video. The events would sometimes last days and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids to recover, the indictment said.

    The indictment alleges Combs coerced and abused women for years, with the help of a network of associates and employees, while using blackmail and violent acts including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings to keep victims from speaking out.

    Arguing to keep Combs in jail, prosecutor Emily Johnson told Carter that the once-celebrated rapper has a long history of intimidating both accusers and witnesses to his alleged abuse. She cited text messages from women who said Combs forced them into “Freak Offs” and then threatened to leak videos of them engaging in sex acts.

    Johnson said Combs’ defense team was “minimizing and horrifically understating” Combs’ propensity for violence, taking issue with his lawyer’s portrayal of a 2016 assault at a Los Angeles hotel as a lovers’ quarrel. Security video of the event, which only came to light in May, showed Combs hitting and kicking his then-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, in a hotel hallway.

    “What’s love got to do with that?” an incredulous Carter asked.

    Johnson also seized on a text message from a woman who said Combs dragged her down a hallway by her hair. According to Johnson, the woman told the rapper: “I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child.”

    “There is a longstanding pattern of abuse here,” Johnson said.

    Combs’ Florida house is on Star Island, a man-made dollop of land in Biscayne Bay near Miami Beach, reachable only by a causeway or boat. It is among the most expensive places to live in the United States. Combs’ request echoed that of a long line of wealthy defendants who have offered to post multimillion-dollar bails in exchange for home detention in luxurious surroundings.

    If he had been granted bail, Combs would have been confined to his home, with visits restricted to family, property caretakers and friends who are not considered co-conspirators, his lawyers said. After prosecutors said they served a search warrant Tuesday on Combs’ private security chief, his lawyers offered to hire a new firm to monitor him and ensure he abided by the proposed agreement.

    Carter was unmoved, questioning the plan as an “allegedly fool-proof system.”

    Many allegations in Combs’ indictment parallel accusations in a November lawsuit filed by Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura. Combs settled the suit the next day, but its allegations have followed him since.

    The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura did.

    Without naming Ventura but clearly referring to her, Agnifilo argued that the entire criminal case is an outgrowth of one long-term, troubled-but-consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity. The “Freak Offs,” he contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.

    “The sex and the violence were totally separate and motivated by totally different things,” Agnifilo said, contending that Combs and Cassie brought sex workers into their relationship because “that was the way these two adults chose to be intimate.”

    Prosecutors portrayed the scope as larger. They said they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses.

    Like many aging hip-hop figures, Bad Boy Records founder Combs had established a gentler public image. The father of seven was a respected businessman whose annual Hamptons “White Party” was once a must-have invitation for the jet-setting elite.

    But prosecutors said he facilitated his crimes using the same companies, people and methods that vaulted him to power. They said they would prove the charges with financial and travel records, electronic communications and videos of the “Freak Offs.”

    In March, authorities raided Combs’ Los Angeles and Florida homes, seizing drugs, videos and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, prosecutors said. They said agents also seized guns and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.

    A conviction on every charge would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.

    ___

    This story has been edited to correct the spelling of Cassie’s legal first name: Casandra, not Cassandra.

    ___

    Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

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  • Judge rejects former Trump aide Mark Meadows’ bid to move Arizona election case to federal court

    Judge rejects former Trump aide Mark Meadows’ bid to move Arizona election case to federal court

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    PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has rejected a bid by Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, to move his charges in Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court, marking the second time he has failed in trying to get his charges out of state court.

    In a decision Monday, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows missed a deadline for asking for his charges to be moved to federal court, didn’t offer a good reason for doing so and failed to show that the allegations against him related to his official duties as chief of staff to the president.

    Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what authorities allege was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor. He had unsuccessfully tried to move charges in the Georgia case last year. It’s unknown whether Meadows will appeal the decision. The Associated Press left phone and email messages for two of Meadows’ attorneys.

    While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Georgia.

    In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.

    The decision sends Meadows’ case back down to Maricopa County Superior Court.

    In both Arizona and Georgia, Meadows argued his charges should be moved to federal court because his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law.

    Arizona prosecutors said Meadows’ electioneering efforts weren’t part of his official duties at the White House.

    Meadows last year tried to get his Georgia charges moved but his request was rejected by a judge whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. Meadows has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling.

    The Arizona indictment says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy.

    Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case.

    Meadows’ attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or “seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president’s campaign.”

    In denying the former chief of staff’s request, Tuchi said Meadows wasn’t indicted for facilitating communications to and from the president or staying updated on what was going on in Trump’s campaign.

    “Instead, the State has indicted Mr. Meadows for allegedly orchestrating and participating in an illegal electioneering scheme,” the judge wrote. “Few, if any, of the State’s factual allegations even resemble the secretarial duties that Mr. Meadows maintains are the subject of the indictment.”

    In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona’s fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide and five lawyers connected to the former president.

    In August, Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

    The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona.

    Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

    The 11 people who were nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state.

    A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

    Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.

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  • Former prominent BBC news anchor gets suspended sentence for indecent images of children on phone

    Former prominent BBC news anchor gets suspended sentence for indecent images of children on phone

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    LONDON (AP) — Former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards, once one of the most prominent media figures in Britain, was given a suspended prison sentence Monday for images of child sexual abuse on his phone.

    Edwards, 63, pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates’ Court in July to three counts of making indecent images of children, a charge related to photos sent to him on the WhatsApp messaging service by a man convicted of distributing images of child sex abuse.

    Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring sentenced Edwards to a six-month prison term suspended for two years. He will be listed on a sex offenders register for seven years.

    “It is not an exaggeration to say your long-earned reputation is in tatters,” Goldspring said.

    Edwards’ fall from grace over the past year has caused turmoil for the BBC after it was revealed the publicly funded broadcaster paid him about 200,000 pounds ($263,000) for five months of his salary after he had been arrested in November while on leave. The BBC has asked him to pay it back.

    “We are appalled by his crimes,” the BBC said in a statement after the sentencing. “He has betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him.”

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    Edwards had been one of the BBC’s top earners when he was suspended in July 2023 over separate claims made last year involving a teenager he allegedly paid for sexually explicit photos. Police investigated and decided not to bring charges.

    Although Edwards was not publicly named at the time those allegations surfaced, his wife later revealed he was the news presenter investigated and said he was hospitalized for serious mental health issues.

    He never returned to the air but the BBC kept him on the payroll until he resigned in April for health reasons.

    Edwards began his BBC career in Wales four decades ago. He went on to become lead anchor on the nighttime news for two decades and led the coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 as well as election coverage.

    The BBC said at the time of his guilty plea that it was shocked to hear the details of the charges against him.

    More than 375 sexual images were sent to him on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021. More than 40 were indecent images of children, including seven classified as “category A” — the most indecent — with children estimated to be between 13 and 15. One child was aged between 7 and 9.

    In chats with Alex Williams, who was later convicted of distributing child sex abuse images, Edwards was asked if he wanted sexual images of a person whose “age could be discerned as being between 14 and 16,” and Edwards replied, “yes xxx,” prosecutor Ian Hope said.

    “From that chat in December 2020, Alex Williams said that he had ‘a file of vids and pics for you of someone special,’” Hope said.

    Edwards asked who the subject and was then sent three images that appeared to be the same person who appeared to be aged 14 to 16, Hope said.

    Williams later sent Edwards a video in February 2021 that involved two children, one possibly as young as seven and the other no older than 13, involving penetration, Hope said.

    Edwards did not respond, but when asked by Williams if the material was too young, he said, “don’t send underage.” He also said he didn’t want him to send anything illegal.

    Defense lawyer Philip Evans said Edwards was “truly sorry” for the offenses and the damage he had done to his family.

    “He apologizes sincerely and he makes it clear that he has the utmost regret and he recognizes that he has betrayed the priceless trust and faith of so many people,” Evans said.

    Evans said Williams had reached out to Edwards on Instagram at a time when he was mentally vulnerable and began sending him images. He said Edwards never received gratification from the images and hadn’t saved them or sent them to anyone.

    Hope said Edwards paid Williams “not insignificant sums of money,” as gifts that Williams used while studying at a university.

    At one point, Williams asked for a “Christmas gift after all the hot videos” he had sent. Edwards remarked that some of the images were “amazing,” Hope said.

    Williams, 25, was given a suspended 1-year sentence in March for possessing and distributing indecent images as well as possessing prohibited images of children.

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  • Change-of-plea hearings set in fraud case for owners of funeral home where 190 bodies found

    Change-of-plea hearings set in fraud case for owners of funeral home where 190 bodies found

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    DENVER (AP) — A federal judge has canceled an October trial date and set a change-of-plea hearing in a fraud case involving the owners of a Colorado funeral home where authorities discovered 190 decaying bodies.

    Jon and Carie Hallford were indicted in April on fraud charges, accused of misspending nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, jewelry and other personal expenses. They own the Return to Nature Funeral Home based in Colorado Springs and in Penrose, where the bodies were found.

    The indictment alleges that the Hallfords gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes and buried the wrong body on two occasions. The couple also allegedly collected more than $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services they never provided.

    The 15 charges brought by the federal grand jury are separate from the more than 200 criminal counts pending against the Hallfords in state court for corpse abuse, money laundering, theft and forgery.

    Carie Hallford filed a statement with the court Thursday saying “a disposition has been reached in the instant case” and asking for a change-of-plea hearing. Jon Hallford’s request said he wanted a hearing “for the court to consider the proposed plea agreement.”

    The judge granted their request to vacate the Oct. 15 trial date and all related dates and deadlines. The change-of-plea hearings were set for Oct. 24.

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  • Ahmaud Arbery’s family is still waiting for ex-prosecutor’s misconduct trial after 3 years

    Ahmaud Arbery’s family is still waiting for ex-prosecutor’s misconduct trial after 3 years

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    SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Three years after a former Georgia district attorney was indicted on charges alleging she interfered with police investigating the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the case’s slow progression through the court system has sputtered to a halt, one the presiding judge insists is temporary.

    Jackie Johnson was the state’s top prosecutor for coastal Glynn County in February 2020, when Arbery was chased by three white men in pickup trucks who had spotted him running in their neighborhood. The 25-year-old Black man died in the street after one of his pursuers shot him with a shotgun.

    Johnson transferred the case to an outside prosecutor because the man who initiated the deadly chase, Greg McMichael, was her former employee. But Georgia’s attorney general says she illegally used her office to try to protect the retired investigator and his son, Travis McMichael, who fired the fatal shots.

    Both McMichaels already have been convicted and sentenced to prison in back-to-back trials for murder and federal hate crimes. So has a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, whose cellphone video of the shooting triggered a national outcry over Arbery’s death. A court heard their first appeals six months ago.

    The criminal misconduct case against Johnson has moved at a comparative crawl since a grand jury indicted her on Sept. 2, 2021, on a felony count of violating her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of hindering a police officer.

    While the men responsible for Arbery’s death are serving life sentences, the slain man’s family has insisted that justice won’t be complete until Johnson stands trial.

    “It’s very, very important,” said Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother. “Jackie Johnson was really part of the problem early on.”

    Johnson has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. After losing reelection in 2020, she told The Associated Press that she immediately recused herself in the handling of Arbery’s killing because of Greg McMichael’s involvement.

    Dozens of Black Lives Matter and Black Panther protesters gather outside the Glynn County Courthouse where the trial of Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan is held, Nov. 22, 2021, in Brunswick, Ga. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File)

    Johnson’s case has stalled as one of her attorneys, Brian Steel, has spent most of the past two years in an Atlanta courtroom defending Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug against racketeering and gang charges. Jury selection in the case took 10 months, prosecutors began presenting evidence last November and they are still calling witnesses.

    Senior Judge John R. Turner, who was assigned to Johnson’s case, insists there is nothing he can do but wait.

    “If anyone’s concerned that the case is being shuffled under the rug, I can guarantee you it’s not,” Turner told the AP in a phone interview. “It’s moving at a snail’s pace, but it will move forward eventually.”

    After Arbery was killed, Greg McMichael told police that he and his son had armed themselves and chased the Black man, suspecting he was a fleeing criminal. Bryan, who didn’t know any of the men, made a similar assumption after seeing them pass his home and joined in his own truck.

    The indictment against Johnson alleges she told police they shouldn’t arrest Travis McMichael. It also accuses her of “showing favor and affection” to Greg McMichael by calling on George Barnhill, a district attorney in a neighboring judicial circuit, to advise police about how to handle the shooting.

    Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr appointed Barnhill four days later to take over as outside prosecutor. Carr has said he picked Barnhill without knowing he already had advised police that he saw no grounds for arrests in Arbery’s death.

    Barnhill stepped aside after a few weeks, but not before he sent a letter to police captain arguing the McMichaels acted legally and Arbery was killed in self-defense.

    After Johnson was charged, she reported to jail for booking and was released without having to post bond. Her attorneys waived a formal reading of the charges before a judge and she has yet to appear in court. The judge denied legal motions by Johnson’s lawyers to dismiss the case last November. Court records show no further developments over the past 10 months.

    “Securing an indictment is just one step in our ongoing pursuit of justice for Ahmaud Arbery and his family,” Carr said in a statement. “We have never stopped fighting for them, and we look forward to the opportunity to present our case in court.”

    Johnson’s attorneys, Steel and John Ossick, did not respond to emails and a phone message seeking comment. They have argued in court filings there is “not a scintilla of evidence” that she hindered police.

    Prosecutors responded with a court filing that listed 16 calls between phones belonging to Johnson and Greg McMichael in the weeks following the shooting.

    Two legal experts who aren’t involved in the case said there is no deadline for Johnson to stand trial. She hasn’t been jailed, so there is little pressure to expedite her case.

    Steel’s prolonged absence because of the Atlanta gang trial likely isn’t the only factor slowing the case, Atlanta defense attorney Don Samuel said.

    Courts remain saddled with a backlog of cases since the COVID-19 lockdowns, he said. And the attorney general’s office has a limited staff of criminal prosecutors with their own busy caseloads.

    Samuel also questioned whether prosecutors have a strong case against Johnson. Even if she opposed charging the McMichaels in Arbery’s death, he said, prosecutors haven’t accused her of taking bribes or similar blatant corruption.

    District attorneys “have a huge amount of discretion to make decisions about what cases to pursue,” Samuel said. “The notion that we’re going to start prosecuting DAs for prosecuting or not prosecuting strikes me as really being on the edge of propriety.”

    Danny Porter, the former district attorney for Gwinnett County in metro Atlanta, said prosecutors like Johnson have a legitimate role in advising police on whether or not to arrest suspects before an investigation is complete.

    As for Johnson’s recommendation in 2020 that the attorney general replace her with another prosecutor who concluded Arbery’s killing was justified, Porter said: “I don’t think that’s a violation of the law, though it might have made them mad.”

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  • 2 charged in plot to solicit attacks on minorities, officials and infrastructure on Telegram

    2 charged in plot to solicit attacks on minorities, officials and infrastructure on Telegram

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    WASHINGTON — Two people who prosecutors say were motivated by white supremacist ideology have been arrested on charges that they used the social media messaging app Telegram to encourage hate crimes and acts of violence against minorities, government officials and critical infrastructure in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.

    The defendants, identified as Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison, face 15 federal counts in the Eastern District of California, including charges that accuse them of soliciting hate crimes and the murder of federal officials, distributing bombmaking instructions and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

    Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho were arrested Friday. Humber pleaded not guilty in a Sacramento courtroom Monday to the charges. Her attorney Noa Oren declined to comment on the case Monday afternoon after the arraignment.

    It was not immediately clear if Allison had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

    The indictment accuses the two of leading Terrorgram, a network of channels and group chats on Telegram, and of soliciting followers to attack perceived enemies of white people, including government buildings and energy facilities and “high-value” targets such as politicians.

    “Today’s action makes clear that the department will hold perpetrators accountable, including those who hide behind computer screens, in seeking to carry out bias-motivated violence,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the Justice Department’s top civil rights official, said at a news conference.

    Their exhortations to commit violence included statements such as “Take Action Now” and “Do your part,” and users who carried out acts to further white supremacism were told they could become known as “Saints,” prosecutors said.

    Justice Department officials say the pair used the app to transmit bomb-making instructions and to distribute a list of potential targets for assassination — including a federal judge, a senator and a former U.S. attorney — and to celebrate acts or plots from active Terrorgram users.

    Those include the stabbing last month of five people outside a mosque in Turkey and the July arrest of an 18-year-old accused of planning to attack an electrical substation to advance white supremacist views. In the Turkey attack, for instance, prosecutors say the culprit on the morning of the stabbing posted in a group chat: “Come see how much humans I can cleanse.”

    A 24-minute documentary that the two had produced, “White Terror,” documented and praised some 105 acts of white supremacist violence between 1968 and 2021, according to the indictment.

    “The risk and danger they present is extremely serious,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s top national security official. He added: “Their reach is as far as the internet because of the platform they’ve created.”

    Telegram is a messaging app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats and large “channels” that let people broadcast messages to subscribers. Though broadly used as a messaging tool around the world, Telegram has also drawn scrutiny, including a finding from French investigators that the app has been used by Islamic extremists and drug traffickers.

    Telegram’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, was detained by French authorities last month on charges of allowing the platform’s use for criminal activity. Durov responded to the charges with a post last week saying he shouldn’t have been targeted personally and by promising to step up efforts to fight criminality on the app.

    He wrote that while Telegram is not “some sort of anarchic paradise,” surging numbers of users have “caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Trân Nguyễn contributed from Sacramento, California.

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  • Hunter Biden enters surprise guilty plea to avoid tax trial months after his gun conviction

    Hunter Biden enters surprise guilty plea to avoid tax trial months after his gun conviction

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, pleaded guilty Thursday to federal tax charges, a surprise move meant to spare his family another painful and embarrassing criminal trial after his gun case conviction just months ago.

    Hunter Biden’s decision to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors caps a long-running saga over his legal woes that have cast a shadow over his father’s political career. It came hours after jury selection was supposed to begin in the case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.

    The president’s son was already facing potential prison time after his June conviction on felony gun charges in a trial that aired unflattering and salacious details about his struggles with a crack cocaine addiction. The tax trial was expected to showcase more potentially lurid evidence as well as details about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which Republicans have seized on to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt.

    “I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment,” Hunter Biden said in an emailed statement after he entered his plea. “For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty.”

    Although President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election muted the potential political implications of the tax case, the trial was expected to carry a heavy emotional toll for the president in the final months of his five-decade political career.

    “Hunter put his family first today, and it was a brave and loving thing for him to do,” defense attorney Abbe Lowell told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Los Angeles.

    Hunter Biden, 54, quickly responded “guilty” as the judge read out each of the nine counts. He showed no emotion as he walked out the courthouse holding his wife’s hand. He ignored questions shouted at him by reporters before climbing into an SUV and driving off.

    The charges carry up to 17 years behind bars, but federal sentencing guidelines are likely to call for a much shorter sentence. He faces up to $1.35 million in fines. Sentencing is set for Dec. 16 in front of U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who was nominated to the bench by former President Donald Trump.

    He faces sentencing in the Delaware case on Nov. 13 — the week after the general election. Those charges are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, though he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.

    More than 100 potential jurors had been brought to the courthouse Thursday to begin the process of picking the panel to hear the case alleging a four-year scheme to avoid paying taxes while spending wildly on things like strippers, luxury hotels and exotic cars.

    Prosecutors were caught off guard when Hunter Biden’s lawyer told the judge Thursday morning that Hunter wanted to enter what’s known as an Alford plea, under which a defendant maintains their innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction.

    Special counsel David Weiss’ team objected to such a plea, telling the judge that Hunter Biden “is not entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him.”

    “Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.

    After a break in the hearing, Hunter Biden’s lawyers said he had decided to plead guilty to all nine charges.

    Last year, it had looked like he was going to be spared prison time under a deal with prosecutors that would have allowed him to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses. Prosecutors would have recommended two years of probation and he would have escaped prosecution on a felony gun charge as long he stayed out of trouble for two years.

    But the agreement imploded after a judge questioned unusual aspects of it, and Hunter Biden was subsequently indicted in the two cases. The defense has accused special counsel Weiss of caving to political pressure to indict the president’s son after Trump and other Republicans blasted what they described as a “sweetheart deal.”

    The indictment brought last year grew out of an investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes that began in 2018 under the Trump administration. Hunter Biden confirmed the existence of the investigation in December 2020 — the month after his father won the election — saying he learned about it for the first time the previous day.

    Prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on things like strippers and luxury hotels — “in short, everything but his taxes.”

    The charges in both the gun and tax cases stemmed from a period in Hunter Biden’s life in which he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse before becoming sober in 2019. His lawyers had been expected to argue that his substance abuse struggles affected his decision-making and judgment, so he could not have acted “willfully,” or with intention to break the tax law.

    “As I have stated, addiction is not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case,” Hunter Biden said in a statement. “When I was addicted, I wasn’t thinking about my taxes, I was thinking about surviving. But the jury would never have heard that or know that I had paid every penny of my back taxes including penalties.”

    His decision to plead guilty came after the judge issued some unfavorable pre-trial rulings for the defense, including rejecting a proposed defense expert lined up to testify about addiction. Scarsi had also placed some restrictions on what jurors would be allowed to hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden’s family, friends and attorneys say led to his drug addiction.

    Hunter Biden’s attorneys had asked Scarsi to also limit prosecutors from highlighting details of his expenses that they say amount to a “character assassination,” including payments made to strippers or pornographic websites.

    Prosecutors had also planned to introduce evidence about Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, including his work for a Romanian businessman who prosecutors said in court papers sought to “influence U.S. government policy” while Joe Biden was vice president.

    ___

    Lauer reported from Philadelphia. AP writer Zeke Miller contributed from Washington.

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  • Prosecutor challenges Mark Meadows’s bid to move Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court

    Prosecutor challenges Mark Meadows’s bid to move Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court

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    PHOENIX (AP) — A prosecutor urged a judge on Thursday to reject former Donald Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows’ bid to move his charges in Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court, saying his actions in trying to overturn the 2020 election results weren’t part of his job at the White House.

    Meadows has asked a federal judge to move the case to U.S. District Court, arguing his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law.

    The former chief of staff, who faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what state authorities alleged was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor, had unsuccessfully tried to move state charges to federal court last year in an election subversion case in Georgia.

    Prosecutor Krista Wood said Meadows’ electioneering efforts weren’t part of his official duties at the White House. “He is not authorized to meddle in the state’s administration of elections,” Wood said.

    The prosecutor pointed to messages received and sent by Meadows in the weeks after the 2020 election, including a text Meadows sent to then-Republican Gov. Doug Ducey two weeks after Election Day saying former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was trying to reach the governor to talk about the election results.

    Meadows attorney George Terwilliger maintained his client’s messages and actions were part of his official duties and suggested important context about the messages was missing. “I don’t think the court can rely on those text messages,” Terwilliger said.

    While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat.

    In 2020, President Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.

    While Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office had said Meadows missed the deadline for asking a court to move the charges to federal court, Meadows’ attorneys say another federal law allows for cases to be moved to federal court at a later time for good cause.

    Terwilliger said he waited to try to move Meadows’ Arizona charges to federal court until after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a July ruling that gave former presidents broad immunity from prosecution. U.S. District Judge John Tuchi, who was nominated to the federal bench by then-President Barack Obama, didn’t say when he would issue his ruling on Meadows’ request.

    Last year, Meadows tried to get his Georgia charges moved to federal court, but his request was rejected by a judge, whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. The former chief of staff has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling.

    The Arizona indictment also says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy.

    Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case.

    Meadows’ attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or “seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president’s campaign.”

    In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona’s fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide and five lawyers connected to the former president.

    In early August, Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino also became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

    Meadows and the other remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona.

    Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

    Eleven people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors had met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state in the 2020 election.

    A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

    Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.

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  • Police say a man will face charges after storming into the press area at a Trump rally

    Police say a man will face charges after storming into the press area at a Trump rally

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    JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Police said Saturday that a man will face misdemeanor charges after he stormed into the press area at Donald Trump’s rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, before being surrounded by authorities and eventually subdued with a Taser as the former president spoke at the campaign stop.

    The incident Friday came moments after Trump had criticized major media outlets for what he said was unfavorable coverage and had dismissed CNN as fawning for its interview Thursday with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.

    It was not immediately clear what motivated the man or whether he was a Trump supporter or critic.

    The man made it over a barrier ringing the media area and began climbing the back side of a riser where television reporters and cameras were stationed, according to a video of the incident posted to social media by a reporter for CBS News. People near him tried to pull him off the riser and were quickly joined by police officers and sheriff’s deputies.

    The crowd cheered as a pack of police led the man away, prompting Trump to say, “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?”

    Johnstown’s police chief, Richard M. Pritchard, confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday that the man was arrested, released and will be formally charged next week. Pritchard said the man, whose identity will be disclosed when charges are filed, will face misdemeanors in municipal court for alleged disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and disrupting a public assembly.

    Pritchard, who was not directly involved in the arrest, declined to speculate on the man’s motives.

    Fierce criticism of the media is a standard part of Trump’s rally speeches, and his supporters often react by turning toward the press section and booing; some use their middle finger to demonstrate their distaste for journalists.

    Moments before the man ventured into the media’s designated section, Trump had reprised his familiar assertion that the media is a collective “enemy of the people.” Video of the incident does not make clear what the man was yelling as he climbed barriers or as he was being subdued and arrested.

    Trump’s campaign tried to distance the former president from the man and his actions, suggesting he was a Trump opponent.

    “Witnesses, including some in the press corps, described a crazed individual shouting expletives at President Trump,” said campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez. “His aggression was focused on the president and towards the stage as he entered the press area.”

    Alvarez did not identify the witnesses she cited or expound on what the man may have shouted. Alvarez added that the campaign appreciates the response of local law enforcement officials and the U.S. Secret Service for acting quickly.

    Shortly after the incident, police handcuffed another man in the crowd and led him out of the arena. It was not immediately clear whether that detention was related to the initial altercation.

    The incident happened amid heightened scrutiny of security at Trump rallies after a gunman fired at him, grazing his ear, during an outdoor rally in July in nearby Butler, Pennsylvania. Security at political events has been noticeably tighter since the shooting.

    A Secret Service spokesperson referred questions to local authorities.

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  • Authorities arrest ex-sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Black airman at his home

    Authorities arrest ex-sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Black airman at his home

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    A former Florida sheriff’s deputy charged with killing a Black U.S. Air Force senior airman who answered his apartment door while holding a gun pointed toward the ground was arrested Monday, officials said.

    Former Okaloosa County deputy Eddie Duran, 38, was charged with manslaughter with a firearm in the May 3 shooting death of 23-year-old Roger Fortson, Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille announced Friday. The charge is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

    Duran was booked into the county jail Monday, records show. Marcille confirmed his arrest to The Associated Press.

    “He did, in fact, turn himself in,” Marcille said in a telephone interview, adding that Duran’s initial court appearance will be via video link Tuesday morning. “He will be held in custody pending his initial appearance.”

    An attorney representing Duran did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

    Authorities say Duran had been directed to Fortson’s Fort Walton Beach apartment in response to a domestic disturbance report that turned out to be false.

    After repeated knocking, Fortson opened the door while holding his handgun at his side, pointed down. Authorities say that Duran shot him multiple times; only then did he tell Fortson to drop the gun.

    On Friday, the day the charge was announced, candles and framed photos of Fortson in uniform graced the doorway of the apartment where he was killed.

    According to the internal affairs report of the shooting, Duran told investigators that when Fortson opened the door, he saw aggression in the airman’s eyes. He said he fired because, “I’m standing there thinking I’m about to get shot, I’m about to die.”

    Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden fired Duran on May 31 after an internal investigation concluded his life was not in danger when he opened fire. Outside law enforcement experts have also said that an officer cannot shoot only because a possible suspect is holding a gun if there is no threat.

    Duran is a law enforcement veteran, starting as a military police officer in the Army. He joined the Okaloosa County sheriff’s office in July 2019, but resigned two years later, saying his wife, a nurse, had been transferred to a Naval hospital out of the area. He rejoined the sheriff’s office in June 2023.

    Okaloosa personnel records show he was reprimanded in 2021 for not completing his assignment to confirm the addresses of three registered sex offenders by visiting their homes, telling a colleague he didn’t care about them. Then assigned to a high school as its on-campus deputy, he was also disciplined that year for leaving the school before the final bell and the students’ departure. Florida law requires that an armed guard be on campus when class is in session.

    Records of 911 calls show deputies had never been called to Fortson’s apartment previously but they had been summoned to a nearby unit 10 times in the previous eight months, including once for a domestic disturbance.

    ___

    Anderson reported from St. Petersburg, Florida. Martin reported from Atlanta.

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  • Rudy Giuliani did nothing illegal in Arizona’s fake elector case, his lawyer says

    Rudy Giuliani did nothing illegal in Arizona’s fake elector case, his lawyer says

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    PHOENIX (AP) — A lawyer for Rudy Giuliani said Monday that the charges against his client in Arizona’s fake elector case should be thrown out because Giuliani did nothing criminal in contesting Joe Biden’s narrow 2020 victory in the state over Donald Trump.

    An indictment said Giuliani spread false claims of election fraud in Arizona after the 2020 election and presided over a downtown Phoenix gathering where he claimed officials made no effort to determine the accuracy of presidential election results.

    Attorney Mark Williams said Giuliani was exercising his rights to free speech and petition the government. “How is Mr. Giuliani to know that, oh my gosh, he presided over a meeting in downtown Phoenix,” Williams asked sarcastically. “How is he to know that that’s a crime?”

    Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bruce Cohen is hearing arguments over whether to dismiss charges against Republicans who signed a document falsely claiming Trump won Arizona and others who are accused of scheming to overturn the presidential race’s outcome.

    Cohen hasn’t yet issued decisions on the dismissal requests. Arguments over whether to throw out the case will continue Tuesday.

    While not a fake elector in Arizona, the indictment alleged Giuliani pressured Maricopa County officials and state legislators to change the outcome of Arizona’s results and encouraged Republican electors in the state to vote for Trump in mid-December 2020.

    At least a dozen defendants are seeking a dismissal under an Arizona law that bars using baseless legal actions in a bid to silence critics. The law had long offered protections in civil cases but was amended in 2022 by the Republican-led Legislature to cover people facing most criminal charges.

    The defendants argue Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes tried to use the charges to silence them for their constitutionally protected speech about the 2020 election and actions taken in response to the race’s outcome. They say Mayes campaigned on investigating the fake elector case and had shown a bias against Trump and his supporters.

    Prosecutors say the defendants don’t have evidence to back up their retaliation claim and they crossed the line from protected speech to fraud. Mayes’ office also has said the grand jury that brought the indictment wanted to consider charging the former president, but prosecutors urged them not to.

    Dennis Wilenchik, an attorney for defendant James Lamon, who had signed a statement claiming Trump had won Arizona, argued his client signed the document only as a contingency in case a lawsuit would eventually turn the outcome of the presidential race in Trump’s favor in Arizona.

    “My client, Jim Lamon, never did anything to overthrow the government,” Wilenchik said.

    Prosecutor Nicholas Klingerman said the defendants’ actions don’t back up their claims that they signed the document as a contingency.

    One defendant, attorney Christina Bobb, was working with Giuliani to get Congress to accept the fake electors, while another defendant, Anthony Kern, gave a media interview in which he said then-Vice President Mike Pence would decide which of the two slates of electors to choose from, Klingerman said.

    “That doesn’t sound like a contingency,” Klingerman said. “That sounds like a plan to cause turmoil to change the outcome of the election.”

    In all, 18 Republicans were charged with forgery, fraud and conspiracy. The defendants consist of 11 Republicans who submitted a document falsely claiming Trump won Arizona, two former Trump aides and five lawyers connected to the former president, including Rudy Giuliani.

    So far, two defendants have resolved their cases.

    Former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino also became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

    The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their trial is scheduled to start Jan. 5, 2026.

    Former Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows is trying to move his charges to federal court, where his lawyers say they will seek a dismissal of the charges.

    Trump was not charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

    In a filing, Mayes’ office said as grand jurors were considering possible charges, a prosecutor asked them not to indict Trump, citing a U.S. Justice Department policy that limits the prosecution of someone for the same crime twice. The prosecutor also didn’t know whether authorities had all the evidence they would need to charge Trump at that time.

    It also accused him of pressuring Maricopa County officials and state legislators to change the outcome of Arizona’s results and encouraging Republican electors in the state to vote for Trump in mid-December 2020.

    Eleven people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state in the 2020 election.

    President Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document later was sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

    Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme. Arizona authorities unveiled the felony charges in late April.

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  • Utah judge to decide if author of book on grief will face trial in husband’s death

    Utah judge to decide if author of book on grief will face trial in husband’s death

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    PARK CITY, Utah — A Utah woman who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband then published a children’s book about coping with grief is set to appear in court Monday for the start of a multiday hearing that will determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence against her to proceed with a trial.

    Kouri Richins, 34, faces several felony charges for allegedly killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at their home in a small mountain town near Park City. Prosecutors say she slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a Moscow mule cocktail that Eric Richins, 39, drank.

    Additional charges filed in March accuse her of an earlier attempt to kill him with a spiked sandwich on Valentine’s Day. She has been adamant in maintaining her innocence.

    Utah state Judge Richard Mrazik had delayed the hearing in May after prosecutors said they would need three consecutive days to present their evidence. The case was further slowed when Kouri Richins’ team of private attorneys withdrew from representing her. Mrazik determined she was unable to continue paying for private representation, and he appointed public defenders Wendy Lewis and Kathy Nester to take over her case.

    In the months leading up to her arrest in May 2023, the mother of three self-published the children’s book “Are You with Me?” about a father with angel wings watching over his young son after passing away. The book could play a key role for prosecutors in framing Eric Richins’ death as a calculated killing with an elaborate cover-up attempt. Prosecutors have accused Kouri Richins of making secret financial arrangements and buying the illegal drug as her husband began to harbor suspicions about her.

    Both the defense and prosecution plan to call on witnesses and introduce evidence to help shape their narratives in the case. Mrazik is expected to decide after the hearing whether the state has presented sufficient evidence to go forward with a trial.

    Among the witnesses who could be called are relatives of the defendant and her late husband, a housekeeper who claims to have sold Kouri Richins the drugs, and friends of Eric Richins who have recounted phone conversations from the day prosecutors say he was first poisoned by his wife of nine years.

    Kouri Richins’ former lead defense attorney, Skye Lazaro, had argued the housekeeper had motivation to lie as she sought leniency in the face of drug charges, and that Eric Richins’ sisters had a clear bias against her client amid a battle over his estate and a concurrent assault case.

    A petition filed by his sister, Katie Richins, alleges Kouri Richins had financial motives for killing her husband as prosecutors say she had opened life insurance policies totaling nearly $2 million without his knowledge and mistakenly believed she would inherit his estate under terms of their prenuptial agreement.

    In May, Kouri Richins was found guilty on misdemeanor charges of assaulting her other sister-in-law shortly after her husband’s death. Amy Richins told the judge that Kouri Richins had punched her in the face during an argument over access to her brother’s safe.

    In addition to aggravated murder, assault and drug charges, Kouri Richins has been charged with mortgage fraud, forgery and insurance fraud for allegedly forging loan applications and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her husband’s death.

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  • Men face trial for allegedly damaging ancient rock formations

    Men face trial for allegedly damaging ancient rock formations

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    LAS VEGAS — An Oct. 8 trial date has been set for two Nevada men accused of damaging rock formations estimated to be 140 million years old at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

    A federal indictment charged Wyatt Clifford Fain, 37, and Payden David Guy Cosper, 31, with one count of injury and depredation of government property and one count of aiding and abetting. The U.S. Department of Justice said the men could each face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

    The two Henderson residents were arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service and made their first court appearance Friday, at which they both pleaded innocent and were released on a personal recognizance bod, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

    Authorities said Fain and Cosper allegedly pushed rock formations over a cliff edge around Redstone Dunes Trail at Lake Mead on April 7, resulting in damages of more than $1,000.

    The Lake Mead National Recreation Area just outside of Las Vegas draws around 6 million visitors every year and spans 2,344 square miles (6,071 square kilometers) of mountains and desert canyons.

    Authorities said staffing levels mean park officials often rely on the public to also keep watch over resources within park boundaries.

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  • Who is Mike Lynch? A look at the British tech tycoon killed when his yacht sank off Sicily

    Who is Mike Lynch? A look at the British tech tycoon killed when his yacht sank off Sicily

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    Tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who died after his yacht sank off Sicily, had been trying to move past a Silicon Valley debacle that had tarnished his legacy as an icon of British ingenuity.

    Lynch, 59, struck gold when he sold Autonomy, a software maker he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. But the deal quickly turned into an albatross for him after he was accused of cooking the books to make the sale and fired by HP’s then-CEO Meg Whitman.

    His death, confirmed on Thursday by Italian officials after they recovered his body and five others from the sea, was a dramatic turn of events that came after he was cleared of criminal charges in the U.S. in June.

    Before becoming entangled with HP, Lynch was widely hailed as a visionary who inspired descriptions casting him as the British version of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

    Lynch was science and technology adviser to two British prime ministers. He also founded Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm that was a founding investor of British cybersecurity company Darktrace, and Luminance, an artificial intelligence platform for the legal industry.

    Lynch was “an instrumental figurehead from the Cambridge (England) technology scene,” said friend Brent Hoberman, former CEO of travel website lastminute.com. Hoberman told the BBC that Lynch was “leading the path forward for U.K. entrepreneurs to commercialize their inventions at a global scale.”

    A decade-long legal battle had resulted in Lynch’s extradition from the U.K. to face criminal charges of engineering a massive fraud against HP, a company that helped shape Silicon Valley’s zeitgeist after starting in a Palo Alto, California, garage in 1939.

    Lynch steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, asserting that he was being made a scapegoat for HP’s own bungling — a position he maintained while testifying before a jury during a 2 1/2 month trial in San Francisco earlier this year. U.S. Justice Department prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses in an attempt to prove allegations that Lynch engaged in accounting duplicity that bilked billions of dollars from HP.

    The trial ended up vindicating Lynch and he pledged to return to the U.K. and explore new ways to innovate.

    Although he avoided a possible prison sentence, Lynch still faced a civil case in London that HP mostly won during 2022. Damages haven’t been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $4 billion. Lynch made more than $800 million from the Autonomy sale.

    Forbes pegged his wealth $1 billion in 2015, the only year he was on the magazine’s rich list. Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper estimated this year that Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares were worth 500 million pounds ($655 million).

    Lynch, a Cambridge-educated mathematician, made his mark running Autonomy, which made a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly. Autonomy’s steady growth during its first decade resulted in Lynch being awarded one of the U.K’s highest honors, the Office of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2006.

    John Browne, chair of Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research institute, and former head of energy giant BP, said Lynch’s “ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally.”

    The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Lynch was a Fellow, said it was “deeply saddened” to learn of his death and that he played an “active role” as a mentor and donor.

    In the months leading up to the deal that would go awry, HP valued Autonomy at $46 billion, according to evidence presented at Lynch’s trial.

    The trial also presented contrasting portraits of Lynch. Prosecutors painted him as an iron-fisted boss obsessed with hitting revenue targets, even if it meant resorting to duplicity. But his lawyers cast him as entrepreneur with integrity and a prototypical tech nerd who enjoyed eating cold pizza late at night while pondering new ways to innovate.

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  • Police raid Andrew Tate’s home in Romania as new allegations emerge involving minors

    Police raid Andrew Tate’s home in Romania as new allegations emerge involving minors

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    BUCHAREST, Romania — Masked police officers in Romania carried out fresh raids early Wednesday at the home of divisive internet influencer Andrew Tate, who is awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

    Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said it was searching four homes in Bucharest and nearby Ilfov county, investigating allegations of human trafficking, the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering. The agency added that hearings will later be held at its headquarters.

    Tate’s spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said in response to the raids that “although the charges in the search warrant are not yet fully clarified, they include suspicions of human trafficking and money laundering” and added that his legal team is present. Petrescu did not address the allegations involving minors.

    Dozens of police officers and forensic personnel were scouring Tate’s large property on the edge of the capital Bucharest. “During the entire criminal process, the investigated persons benefit from the procedural rights and guarantees provided by the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as the presumption of innocence,” DIICOT noted in its statement.

    The 37-year-old Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, 36, both former kickboxers and dual British-U.S. citizens who have amassed millions of social media followers, were arrested in 2022 near Bucharest along with two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year. They have denied the allegations.

    In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that the prosecutors’ case file against the four met the legal criteria and that a trial could start but did not set a date for it to begin. That ruling came after the legal case had been discussed for months in the preliminary chamber stages, a process in which the defendants can challenge prosecutors’ evidence and case file.

    After the Tate brothers’ arrest in 2022, they were held for three months in police detention before being moved to house arrest. They were later restricted to the Bucharest and Ilfov counties, and later to all of Romania.

    Last month, a court overturned an earlier decision that allowed the Tate brothers to leave Romania as they await trial. The earlier court ruled on July 5 that they could leave the country as long as they remained within the 27-member European Union. The decision was final.

    Andrew Tate, who is known for expressing misogynistic views online and has amassed 9.9 million followers on the social media platform X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He was previously banned from various social media platforms for misogynistic views and hate speech.

    In March, the Tate brothers also appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case, after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a U.K. case dating back to 2012-2015. The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the the Tates to the U.K., but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.

    ___

    McGrath reported from Sibiu, Romania.

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  • Former DC employee convicted of manslaughter in fatal shooting of 13-year-old boy

    Former DC employee convicted of manslaughter in fatal shooting of 13-year-old boy

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Washington, D.C., city employee was found guilty of manslaughter Friday in the fatal shooting of an unarmed 13-year-old boy that sparked public uproar in the nation’s capital.

    Jurors found Jason Lewis, 42, not guilty of second-degree murder, but convicted him of manslaughter and other charges after the trial in D.C. Superior Court over the killing of seventh grader Karon Blake.

    Lewis, a longtime Parks and Recreation Department employee, turned himself in last year to face charges in Blake’s killing, which happened in January 2023 around 4 a.m., across the street from the middle school Blake attended, authorities said.

    Lewis was seen on video leaving his house and firing at two young people who had been breaking into cars, prosecutors said. After a car was hit with gunfire, Blake ran in Lewis’ direction, and Lewis fired two shots, killing him, prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors played for jurors a video in which Blake could be heard repeatedly saying “I’m sorry” and telling Lewis, “I’m just a kid,” according to media reports.

    An attorney for Lewis didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment from The Associated Press on Friday.

    Lewis took the witness stand in the case, arguing that he acted in self-defense. He told jurors that he thought he saw another person open fire on him and feared for his life, local media reported.

    He is scheduled to be sentenced in October. The manslaughter charge carries up to 45 years in prison.

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  • Woman charged in brazen plot to extort Elvis Presley’s family and auction off Graceland

    Woman charged in brazen plot to extort Elvis Presley’s family and auction off Graceland

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A Missouri woman has been arrested on charges she orchestrated a brazen scheme to defraud Elvis Presley’s family by trying to auction off his Graceland mansion and property before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure sale, the Justice Department said Friday.

    Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, falsely claimed Presley’s daughter borrowed $3.8 million from a bogus private lender and had pledged Graceland as collateral for the loan before her death last year, prosecutors said. She then threatened to sell Graceland to the higher bidder if Presley’s family didn’t pay a $2.85 million settlement, according to authorities.

    Finley posed as three different people allegedly involved with the fake lender, fabricated loan documents, and published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing the auction of Graceland in May, prosecutors said. A judge stopped the sale after Presley’s granddaughter sued.

    Experts were baffled by the attempt to sell off one of the most storied pieces of real estate in the country using names, emails and documents that were quickly suspected to be phony.

    Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. A large Presley-themed entertainment complex across the street from the museum is owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises. The announcement of charges came on the 47th anniversary of Presley’s death at the age of 42.

    “Ms. Findley allegedly took advantage of the very public and tragic occurrences in the Presley family as an opportunity to prey on the name and financial status of the heirs to the Graceland estate, attempting to steal what rightfully belongs to the Presley family for her personal gain,” said Eric Shen, inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group.

    AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports an arrest had been made in an effort to steal away the ownership of Elvis Presley’s Graceland property.

    An attorney for Findley, who used multiple aliases, was not listed in court documents. A voicemail left with a phone number believed to be associated with Findley was not immediately returned, nor was an email sent to an address prosecutors say she had used in the scheme.

    She’s charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. The mail fraud charge carries up to 20 years in prison. She remained in custody after a brief federal court appearance in Missouri, according to court papers.

    In May, a public notice for a foreclosure sale of the 13-acre (5-hectare) estate said Promenade Trust, which controls the Graceland museum, owes $3.8 million after failing to repay a 2018 loan. Riley Keough, Presley’s granddaughter and an actor, inherited the trust and ownership of the home after the death of her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, last year. An attorney for Keough didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Friday.

    Keough filed a lawsuit claiming fraud, and a judge halted the proposed auction with an injunction. Naussany Investments and Private Lending — the bogus lender authorities now say Findley created — said Lisa Marie Presley had used Graceland as collateral for the loan, according to the foreclosure sale notice. Keough’s lawsuit alleged that Naussany presented fraudulent documents regarding the loan in September 2023 and that Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany.

    Kimberly Philbrick, the notary whose name is listed on Naussany’s documents, indicated she never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarized any documents for her, according to the estate’s lawsuit. The judge said the notary’s affidavit brings into question “the authenticity of the signature.”

    The judge in May halted the foreclosure sale of the beloved Memphis tourist attraction, saying Elvis Presley’s estate could be successful in arguing that a company’s attempt to auction Graceland was fraudulent.

    The Tennessee attorney general’s office had been investigating the Graceland controversy, then confirmed in June that it handed the probe over to federal authorities.

    A statement emailed to The Associated Press after the judge stopped the sale said Naussany would not proceed because a key document in the case and the loan were recorded and obtained in a different state, meaning “legal action would have to be filed in multiple states.” The statement, sent from an email address listed in court documents, did not specify the other state.

    After the scheme fell apart, Findley tried to make it look like the person responsible was a Nigerian identity thief, prosecutors said. An email sent May 25 to the AP from the same email as the earlier statement said in Spanish that the foreclosure sale attempt was made by a Nigerian fraud ring that targets old and dead people in the U.S. and uses the Internet to steal money.

    _____

    Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee.

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  • Matthew Perry’s death leads to sweeping indictment of 5, including doctors and a reputed dealer

    Matthew Perry’s death leads to sweeping indictment of 5, including doctors and a reputed dealer

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nearly 10 months after the death of Matthew Perry, the long-simmering investigation into the ketamine that killed him came dramatically into public view with the announcement that five people had been charged with having roles in the overdose of the beloved “Friends” star.

    Here are key things to know about the case, including the two key figures who could be headed for trial and the possibility of the steepest of prison sentences.

    A sweeping set of indictments

    One or more arrests had been expected since investigators from three different agencies revealed in May they had been conducting a joint probe into how the 54-year-old Perry got such large amounts of ketamine.

    The actor had been among the growing number of patients using legal but off-label medical means to treat depression, or in other cases chronic pain, with the powerful surgical anesthetic.

    Recent reports suggested indictments might be imminent, but few outside observers, if any, knew how wide-ranging the prosecution would be, reaching much further than previous cases stemming from celebrity overdoses.

    When Michael Jackson died in 2009 from a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol, his doctor was charged with providing it. After rapper Mac Miller died in 2017, two men who prosecutors described as a dealer and a middleman were convicted of providing fentanyl-laced oxycodone that helped kill him.

    But Perry’s case pulled in both, with indictments against doctors and illegal distributors who prosecutors say preyed on his long and public struggles with addiction. The investigation even went after the live-in personal assistant who prosecutors say helped him get ketamine and injected it directly into him before Perry was found dead in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023.

    “They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry. But they did it anyway,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in announcing the charges.

    The prosecution was well under way even before the announcement. Two people including the assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and a Perry acquaintance, Eric Fleming, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute the drug. A San Diego physician, Dr. Mark Chavez, has agreed to enter a guilty plea.

    That leaves prosecutors free to pursue their two biggest targets.

    The doctor and the ‘Ketamine Queen’

    An indictment unsealed Thursday alleges Perry turned to Los Angeles doctor Salvador Plasencia when his regular doctors refused to give him more ketamine. Prosecutors allege Plasencia cashed in on Perry’s desperation and addiction, getting him to pay $55,000 in cash for large amounts of the drug in the two months before his death.

    “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted a co-defendant, according to his indictment.

    He pleaded not guilty to seven counts of distribution of ketamine in an appearance in federal court on Thursday afternoon.

    Plasencia’s attorney, Stefan Sacks, said outside court that he “was operating with what he what he thought were the best of medical intentions,” and his actions “certainly didn’t rise to the level of criminal misconduct.”

    Prosecutors allege Jasveen Sangha, whom they describe as a drug dealer known to customers as the “Ketamine Queen,” provided the doses of the drug that actually killed Perry, injected into the actor by Iwamasa with syringes supplied by Plasencia.

    Sangha also pleaded not guilty. Her attorney Alexandra Kazarian derided the “queen” moniker as made-for-media consumption during the hearing. The lawyer declined comment on the case outside court.

    Prosecutors say the other doctor in the case, Chavez, helped Plasencia obtain the ketamine he gave to Perry, while Perry’s acquaintance, Fleming, helped get ketamine from Sangha to Perry.

    Chavez could get up to 10 years in prison, Iwamasa up to 15 years and Fleming up to 25 years.

    Multiple messages seeking comment from attorneys for the three men were not returned.

    Looking ahead to trial

    Sangha could get life in prison if convicted as charged, while Plasencia could get up to 120 years. Each has a trial date in October, but it is highly unlikely any would be facing a jury by then, and the two may be tried together. They also could face testimony from the co-defendants who reached plea agreements.

    Magistrate Judge Alka Sagar ruled Sangha should be held without bond while awaiting trial, citing prosecutors’ contentions that she had destroyed evidence and funded a lavish lifestyle with drug sales even after Perry’s death.

    The judge agreed to release Plasencia after he posted a $100,000 bond.

    His attorney argued the Perry case was “isolated” and the doctor should be allowed to treat patients who depended on him at his one-man practice while awaiting trial.

    “I’m not buying that argument,” Sagar said, but agreed Plasencia could see patients so long as they signed a document in which he acknowledged the charges.

    “People have probably already heard about it from the amount of press,” Sacks told the judge, noting if they hadn’t, they would soon.

    Records show Plasencia’s medical license has been in good standing with no records of complaints, though it is set to expire in October and he could face action. He already has surrendered his federal license to prescribe more dangerous drugs.

    What is ketamine?

    Ketamine is a powerful anesthetic approved by U.S. health regulators for use during surgery. It can be given as an intramuscular injection or by IV.

    The drug is a chemical cousin of the recreational drug PCP. Ketamine itself has been used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It can cause hallucinations and can impact breathing and the heart.

    Pushing back against ketamine

    Prosecutors and police presented the Perry case as part of a major pushback against a rise in the illegal use of ketamine that has shadowed the broadening of its legal use.

    Los Angeles police said in May they were working with the U.S. Drug Enforcment Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with a probe into how Perry got the drug. His autopsy, released in December, found the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery.

    “As Matthew Perry’s ketamine addiction grew, he wanted more and he wanted it faster and cheaper. That is how he ended up buying from street dealers and stole the ketamine that ultimately led to his death,” U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Anne Milgram said Thursday. “In doing so, he followed the arc that we have tragically seen with many others. The substance use disorder begins in a doctor’s office and ends in the street.”

    Perry had years of struggles with addiction dating back to his time on NBC’s megahit sitcom, “Friends,” for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. Playing Chandler Bing, he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer.

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  • Kim Dotcom loses 12-year fight to halt deportation from New Zealand to face US copyright case

    Kim Dotcom loses 12-year fight to halt deportation from New Zealand to face US copyright case

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    WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Kim Dotcom, founder of the once wildly popular file-sharing website Megaupload, lost a 12-year fight this week to halt his deportation from New Zealand to the U.S. on charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.

    New Zealand’s Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith divulged Friday that he had decided Dotcom should be surrendered to the U.S. to face trial, capping — for now — a drawn-out legal fight. A date for the extradition was not set, and Goldsmith said Dotcom would be allowed “a short period of time to consider and take advice” on the decision.

    “Don’t worry I have a plan,” Dotcom posted on X this week. He did not elaborate, although a member of his legal team, Ira Rothken, wrote on the site that a bid for a judicial review — in which a New Zealand judge would be asked to evaluate Goldsmith’s decision — was being prepared.

    The saga stretches to the 2012 arrest of Dotcom in a dramatic raid on his Auckland mansion, along with other company officers. Prosecutors said Megaupload raked in at least $175 million — mainly from people who used the site to illegally download songs, television shows and movies — before the FBI shut it down earlier that year.

    Lawyers for the Finnish-German millionaire and the others arrested had argued that it was the users of the site, founded in 2005, who chose to pirate material, not its founders. But prosecutors argued the men were the architects of a vast criminal enterprise, with the Department of Justice describing it as the largest criminal copyright case in U.S. history.

    The men fought the order for years — lambasting the investigation and arrests — but in 2021 New Zealand’s Supreme Court ruled that Dotcom and two other men could be extradited. It remained up to the country’s Justice Minister to decide if the extradition should proceed.

    Three of Goldsmith’s predecessors did not announce a decision. Goldsmith was appointed justice minister in November after New Zealand’s government changed in an election.

    “I have received extensive advice from the Ministry of Justice on this matter” and considered all information carefully, Goldsmith said in his statement.

    “I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving,” German-born Dotcom wrote on X Thursday. He did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

    Two of his former business partners, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, pleaded guilty to charges against them in a New Zealand court in June 2023 and were sentenced to two and a half years in jail. In exchange, U.S. efforts to extradite them were dropped.

    Prosecutors had earlier abandoned their extradition bid against a fourth officer of the company, Finn Batato, who was arrested in New Zealand. Batato returned to Germany where he died from cancer in 2022.

    In 2015, Megaupload computer programmer Andrus Nomm, of Estonia, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit felony copyright infringement and was sentenced to one year and one day in U.S. federal prison.

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