GREENVILLE, S.C. — A South Carolina police officer was shot and wounded while sitting in his patrol car Sunday in what one official called an “ambush-style attack,” and local sheriff’s deputies later shot and killed a suspect in a shootout, authorities said.
The Greenville police officer was repeatedly shot early Sunday, the city of Greenville said in a statement. The officer was treated at a hospital and was released, the city said.
Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis described the shooting as an “ambush-style attack” in a video from the scene posted on Facebook. Lewis said that authorities identified a suspect and pursued his vehicle, leading to “an exchange of gunfire.”
The suspect received “at least one fatal gunshot wound,” the Greenville County Coroner’s Office said in a statement. It identified the person as David William Lane, 42, of Greenville.
Relatives of Lane could not be reached Sunday for comment.
The Greenville Police Department did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about a possible motive for the attack or the identity of the officer who was shot.
The city said authorities asked the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to conduct an investigation and that the Greenville Police Department is “fully cooperating.”
Greenville, with a population of around 70,000, is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of the state capital of Columbia.
A person was taken into custody late Saturday after a fire ripped through a synagogue in Mississippi, heavily damaging the historic house of worship in what authorities say was an act of arson.
No congregants were injured in the blaze, which broke out at the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday, officials said. Photos showed the charred remains of an administrative office and synagogue library, where several Torahs were destroyed or damaged.
Jackson Mayor John Horhn confirmed that a person was taken into custody following an investigation that also included the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“Acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and freedom to worship,” Horhn said in a statement.
He did not provide the name of the suspect or the charges that the person is facing.
The synagogue, the largest in Mississippi, was the site of a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1967 — a response to the congregation’s role in civil rights activities, according to the Institute for Southern Jewish Life, which also houses its office in the building.
“As Jackson’s only synagogue, Beth Israel is a beloved institution, and it is the fellowship of our neighbors and extended community that will see us through,” the institute said in a statement.
The synagogue’s president, Zach Shemper, said the congregation was still assessing the damage and had received outreach from other houses of worship, according to Mississippi Today.
One Torah that survived the Holocaust was not damaged in the fire, the outlet reported.
MEDINA, Ohio — The four suspects involved in the burglary of Shedeur Sanders’ home on Nov. 16 are from Atlanta and used a stolen rental car in the break-in, authorities said Thursday.
The Medina County Sheriff’s Office also said during a briefing that the group had robbed others, including professional athletes.
Jarvet Myrick, Deandrez Jackson and Maurice Exavier Taylor are in custody after being arrested in Georgia and are awaiting extradition to Northeast Ohio. Carlos DeAnthony Morris remains at large and has an active warrant.
Detective Rodney Rees said that the suspects stole the rental car in the Atlanta area, drove to Ohio and stayed at a hotel in Medina Township the night before the burglary took place.
The suspects then robbed a house in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven upon returning to Georgia on Nov. 17, Rees said.
Myrick, the alleged driver, was arrested on Nov. 26. Jackson was arrested Dec. 16 and Taylor on Dec. 29. All three are facing second-degree felony burglary charges. All three were also arrested with guns. Jackson had warrants from when he was a juvenile and Taylor also had outstanding warrants. Myrick also was in possession of marijuana when he was arrested.
“They’re violent. They’re part of two burglaries we know of and possibly a third one where they were seen running away with guns in their hands,” Rees said. “They target high-end individuals who have a lot of money, and they go to their houses, they break in, and they take anything of value, and they go and sell it.”
It wasn’t immediately clear who would represent the suspects when they get to Ohio.
Sanders’ home in Granger Township, a Cleveland suburb, was burglarized while he was playing in his first regular-season NFL game during the second half of the Browns’ 23-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Approximately $200,000 in property was stolen from the home, which included totes, luxury bags and a ring.
The sheriff’s office previously stated that three people entered the home at 6:46 p.m. ET. Surveillance cameras in the home captured video of the people entering different parts of the house. They were wearing masks and gloves and were seen leaving the home just before 7 p.m.
Rees said they haven’t been able to recover the stolen items.
Investigators were able to use the security cameras at Sanders’ home and a neighbors as well as the Flock camera system, which can read license plate numbers, to identify the suspects and the stolen rental car as well as the camera at a Red Roof Inn, where the suspects stayed on Nov. 15.
The burglary added Sanders to a growing list of NFL players whose homes have been burglarized during games. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, and New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan have dealt with break-ins since the start of last season.
“Unfortunately, right now, they’re just targets. They’re taking advantage of them being some type of stature in the community and they’re hitting them when they’re away from home and they know they’re away from home,” Rees said.
Rees said authorities believe there is a ringleader who leads people to the high-profile athletes, but that has not been proven yet. He said the cases involving other professional athletes the suspects are accused of burglarizing were not made public yet.
Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons’ home was also burglarized last month while the team had a road game against San Francisco, but Rees said no one from this group is suspected.
Sanders, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, played in eight games during his rookie NFL season. The fifth-round pick started the Browns’ final seven games and passed for 1,400 yards with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia’s government announced Wednesday it has arrested and extradited to China a prominent tycoon who allegedly led a huge online scam operation and was wanted by U.S. authorities on related criminal charges.
Cambodia’s Interior Ministry said Chen Zhi and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited Tuesday following months of investigation and at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen has dual nationality and his Cambodian citizenship was revoked in December, it said.
Chen, chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, was accused in October by the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.K. Foreign Office of heading a transnational criminal network that defrauded victims worldwide and exploited trafficked workers.
Scam centers have proliferated across Southeast Asia, swindling money from victims by persuading them to join bogus investment schemes. According to estimates from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, scam victims worldwide lost between $18 billion and $37 billion in 2023.
The U.S. and U.K. imposed sanctions against Chen, 38, and his companies, which were primarily involved in real estate development and financial services.
U.S. authorities seized what they said was an estimated $14 billion in bitcoin linked to Chen or his operations, and charged him with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies. He was accused of sanctioning violence against workers, authorizing bribes to foreign officials and using his other businesses, such as online gambling and cryptocurrency mining, to launder illicit profits.
Prosecutors in the U.S. charged that his organization scammed 250 Americans out of millions of dollars, with one losing $400,000 in cryptocurrency. In 2024, Americans lost at least $10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scams, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
There was no immediate comment on the extraditions from the federal prosecutors’ office in Brooklyn where Chen had been indicted. Chen and the Prince Holding Group had denied any wrongdoing.
Chinese authorities had no immediate comment on the extradition of Chen and the two other individuals named by Cambodia’s Interior Ministry as Xu Ji Liang and Shao Ji Hui.
Jacob Daniel Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center, said the Cambodian government had faced so much sustained international pressure that inaction was no longer an option.
“Handing Chen Zhi to China was the path of least resistance. It defuses Western scrutiny while aligning with Beijing’s likely preference to keep a politically sensitive case out of U.S. and U.K. courts,” Sims said.
Amnesty International last year published the findings of an 18-month investigation into cybercrime in Cambodia, which the human rights group said “point towards state complicity in abuses carried out by Chinese criminal gangs.”
“What we are seeing here is a mafia state actor backed into a corner and choosing the best among bad options, not signs of legitimate reform,” Sims said.
In addition to the bitcoin seized by the U.S. government, British authorities froze Chen’s British businesses and assets, including a 12 million-euro-mansion and a 100-million-euro office building in London. Other assets were later seized in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Cybercrime has flourished in Southeast Asia where law enforcement is weak, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar, with casinos often serving as hubs for criminal activity. Trafficked foreign nationals were employed to run “romance” and cryptocurrency scams, often recruited with false job offers and then forced to work in conditions of near-slavery.
Chen’s U.S. indictment alleged that Prince Holding Group built at least 10 compounds in Cambodia.
The operations became an embarrassment to the Chinese government, especially when they targeted Chinese citizens. Beijing in mid-2023 pressured Myanmar to crack down on the crimes, and some kingpins were extradited to be tried in China. Several received death sentences.
A 2023 report by the U.N. human rights office estimated that at least 120,000 people across Myanmar and 100,000 people in Cambodia may have been held in situations where they were forced to work on online scams. Experts believe that such operations are continuing.
___
Associated Press writer Grant Peck reported from Bangkok. AP writers Michael Sisak in New York and Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this report.
His scheduled appearance in a Los Angeles Superior Court comes 3 1/2 weeks after the beloved actor-director and his wife of 36 years were found dead with stab wounds in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles, authorities said.
Nick Reiner, 32, the youngest of Rob Reiner’s four children, was arrested hours later, and has been held without bail since. He was charged two days later with two counts of first-degree murder. He did not enter a plea during a brief first court appearance Dec. 17, when he wore shackles and a suicide prevention smock.
His attorney, Alan Jackson, has given no indication of the plans for his defense. Nearly all defendants in criminal cases plead not guilty at this stage. Jackson could also ask for another delay before a plea is entered.
If Nick Reiner pleads not guilty, the case would normally head toward a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence for him to stand trial. His mental competence for trial could also be a factor.
A decade ago, Nick Reiner publicly discussed his severe struggles with addiction and mental health after making a movie with his father, “Being Charlie,” that was very loosely based on their lives.
Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were killed early on the morning of Dec. 14, and they were found in the late afternoon, authorities said. The LA County Medical Examiner said in initial findings that they died from “multiple sharp force injuries,” but released no other details, and police have said nothing about possible motives.
Jackson is a high-profile defense attorney and former LA County prosecutor who represented Harvey Weinstein at his Los Angeles trial and Karen Read at her intensely followed trials in Massachusetts. After the initial Reiner hearing, Jackson called the case “a devastating tragedy.” He said the proceedings will be very complex and asked that the circumstances be met “not with a rush to judgment.”
The counts against Reiner come with special circumstances of multiple murders and an allegation that he used a dangerous weapon, a knife. The additions could mean a greater sentence.
Prosecutors have said they have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.
The prosecution is being led by Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian, whose recent cases included the Menendez brothers’ attempt at resentencing and the trial of Robert Durst.
Rob Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. His credits included “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men,” and “When Harry Met Sally,” during whose production he met Michele Singer, a photographer, and married her soon after.
FAIR LAWN, N.J. — One of the New York City area’s most notorious serial killers has confessed to another killing.
Police in New Jersey announced Tuesday that Richard Cottingham, known as the “Torso Killer,” admitted killing Alys Eberhardt in 1965.
The 18-year-old was found dead in her family’s home in Fair Lawn, a suburb about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan.
Investigators reopened the cold case in 2021, and “through countless interviews” over several years, extracted a full confession from Cottingham, “including details that were never publicly known,” the department said in a statement.
Fair Lawn Police Chief Joseph Dawicki said Cottingham will not face additional charges as the department closes the case.
The 79-year-old has been imprisoned since his arrest in 1980. He is serving three life sentences at the South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey.
“Alys was a vibrant young nursing student who was taken from our community far too soon,” Dawicki said in a statement. “While we can never bring her back, I am hopeful that her family can find some peace knowing the person responsible has confessed and can no longer harm anyone else.”
Lawyers in New York and New Jersey who have represented Cottingham over the years didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.
Cottingham has claimed responsibility for up to 100 homicides going back to the 1960s, though authorities in New York and New Jersey have officially linked him to about a dozen.
In 2022, he admitting killing five women in the New York City suburbs of Long Island in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He was sentenced to 25 years to life for the 1968 slaying of 23-year-old Diane Cusick but received immunity from prosecution for the four other killings as part of the plea deal.
Cottingham was previously convicted of killing five other women — three in New York City and two in northern New Jersey. He has since admitted to killing several others while behind bars.
He is known as the “Torso Killer” because he dismembered some of his victims.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — New Haven’s police chief abruptly retired following allegations he stole money from a department account, Mayor Justin Elicker announced Monday.
The Democrat said Chief Karl Jacobson admitted he took money from a city fund that compensates confidential informants for helping police solve crimes.
He said the chief acknowledged taking the funds for personal use when three of his deputies confronted him Monday morning over the financial irregularities.
Elicker called the allegations “shocking” and a “betrayal of public trust.”
“No one is above the law,” he said in an evening press conference at the police station. “We put our trust in law enforcement to uphold the law, not to violate the law themselves.”
Jacobson didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment Monday. He had served as police chief in one of Connecticut’s largest cities and home to Yale University for more than three years.
The mayor said he was set to meet with Jacobson and place him on administrative leave when the chief instead submitted his paperwork to retire, effective Monday.
Elicker said it’s unclear how much and for how long Jacobson had been taking money from the informants’ account and that it doesn’t appear others were involved. He said city officials are cooperating with state investigators looking into the matter.
Elicker said he has tapped Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli, who was among the officers to confront Jacobson over the funds, to serve as interim chief.
Five officers were arrested in connection with the mistreatment of Richard “Randy” Cox, who suffered a neck injury and was left paralyzed from the chest down when the police van with no seat belts he was in braked hard to avoid an accident and sent him flying into a metal partition.
Jacobson recommended firing four of the officers, and the city’s police commissioners terminated them. The fifth officer retired before he could be disciplined. One of the fired officers won his job back after an appeal.
Jacobson had been with the department for 15 years before being named chief. He previously served in the East Providence Police Department in Rhode Island for nine years.
A man has been taken into custody by police after officers and Secret Service agents responded to the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance overnight.William DeFoor, 26, has been charged with criminal damaging/endangering, obstructing official business and criminal trespass, all misdemeanors, as well as one count of vandalism, a fifth-degree felony, according to a police report.Cincinnati Police say DeFoor is accused of being seen by a Secret Service agent and on security footage walking onto the property without permission and damaging four windows, as well as a vehicle. Sister station WLWT’s cameras captured what appears to be damage to the windows of the home. Officers were on scene for several hours, going in and out of the house. The Secret Service said the incident happened shortly after midnight early Monday morning. The Secret Service is coordinating with CPD and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Vance had been in Cincinnati for the last week. He left Sunday afternoon. This is a developing story and will be updated when we learn more.
CINCINNATI —
A man has been taken into custody by police after officers and Secret Service agents responded to the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance overnight.
William DeFoor, 26, has been charged with criminal damaging/endangering, obstructing official business and criminal trespass, all misdemeanors, as well as one count of vandalism, a fifth-degree felony, according to a police report.
Cincinnati Police say DeFoor is accused of being seen by a Secret Service agent and on security footage walking onto the property without permission and damaging four windows, as well as a vehicle.
Sister station WLWT’s cameras captured what appears to be damage to the windows of the home. Officers were on scene for several hours, going in and out of the house.
Hearst Owned
WLWT’s cameras captured what appears to be damage to the windows of the home. Officers were on scene in the East Walnut Hills area for several hours, going in and out of the house.
The Secret Service said the incident happened shortly after midnight early Monday morning. The Secret Service is coordinating with CPD and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Vance had been in Cincinnati for the last week. He left Sunday afternoon.
This is a developing story and will be updated when we learn more.
Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day is nowhere to be found.
A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot stands outside the office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot hangs outside the office of Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot stands outside the office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot hangs outside the office of Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot hangs outside the office of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Determined to preserve the nation’s history, some 100 members of Congress, mostly Democrats, have taken it upon themselves to memorialize the moment. For months, they’ve mounted poster board-style replicas of the Jan. 6 plaque outside their office doors, resulting in a Capitol complex awash with makeshift remembrances.
“On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021,” reads the faux bronze stand-in for the real thing. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”
Jan. 6 void in the Capitol
In Washington, a capital city lined with monuments to the nation’s history, the plaque was intended to become a simple but permanent marker, situated near the Capitol’s west front, where some of the most violent fighting took place as rioters breached the building.
But in its absence, the missing plaque makes way for something else entirely — a culture of forgetting.
Visitors can pass through the Capitol without any formal reminder of what happened that day, when a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building trying to overturn the Republican’s 2020 reelection defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. With memory left unchecked, it allows new narratives to swirl and revised histories to take hold.
Five years ago, the jarring scene watched the world over was declared an “insurrection” by the then-GOP leader of the Senate, while the House GOP leader at the time called it his “saddest day” in Congress. But those condemnations have faded.
Trump calls it a “day of love.” And Johnson, who was among those lawmakers challenging the 2020 election results, is now the House speaker.
“The question of January 6 remains – democracy was on the guillotine — how important is that event in the overall sweep of 21st century U.S. history,” said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University and noted scholar.
“Will January 6 be seen as the seminal moment when democracy was in peril?” he asked. Or will it be remembered as “kind of a weird one-off?”
“There’s not as much consensus on that as one would have thought on the fifth anniversary,” he said.
Memories shift, but violent legacy lingers
At least five people died in the riot and its aftermath, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police while trying to climb through a window toward the House chamber. More than 140 law enforcement officers were wounded, some gravely, and several died later, some by suicide.
All told, some 1,500 people were charged in the Capitol attack, among the largest federal prosecutions in the nation’s history. When Trump returned to power in January 2025, he pardoned all of them within hours of taking office.
Unlike the twin light beams that commemorated the Sept. 11, 2001, attack or the stand-alone chairs at the Oklahoma City bombing site memorial, the failure to recognize Jan. 6 has left a gap not only in memory but in helping to stitch the country back together.
“That’s why you put up a plaque,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa. “You respect the memory and the service of the people involved.”
Police sue over Jan. 6 plaque, DOJ seeks to dismiss
The speaker’s office over the years has suggested it was working on installing the plaque, but it declined to respond to a request for further comment.
Lawmakers approved the plaque in March 2022 as part of a broader government funding package. The resolution said the U.S. “owes its deepest gratitude to those officers,” and it set out instructions for an honorific plaque listing the names of officers “who responded to the violence that occurred.” It gave a one-year deadline for installation at the Capitol.
This summer, two officers who fought the mob that day sued over the delay.
“By refusing to follow the law and honor officers as it is required to do, Congress encourages this rewriting of history,” said the claim by officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges. “It suggests that the officers are not worthy of being recognized, because Congress refuses to recognize them.”
The Justice Department is seeking to have the case dismissed. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and others argued Congress “already has publicly recognized the service of law enforcement personnel” by approving the plaque and displaying it wouldn’t alleviate the problems they claim to face from their work.
“It is implausible,” the Justice Department attorneys wrote, to suggest installation of the plaque “would stop the alleged death threats they claim to have been receiving.”
The department also said the plaque is required to include the names of “all law enforcement officers” involved in the response that day — some 3,600 people.
Makeshift memorials emerge
Lawmakers who’ve installed replicas of the plaque outside their offices said it’s important for the public to know what happened.
“There are new generations of people who are just growing up now who don’t understand how close we came to losing our democracy on Jan 6, 2021,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the Jan. 6 committee, which was opposed by GOP leadership but nevertheless issued a nearly 1,000-page report investigating the run-up to the attack and the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Raskin envisions the Capitol one day holding tours around what happened. “People need to study that as an essential part of American history,” he said.
“Think about the dates in American history that we know only by the dates: There’s the 4th of July. There’s December 7th. There’s 9/11. And there’s January 6th,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-calif., who also served on the committee and has a plaque outside her office.
“They really saved my life, and they saved the democracy and they deserve to be thanked for it,” she said.
But as time passes, there are no longer bipartisan memorial services for Jan. 6. On Tuesday, the Democrats will reconvene members from the Jan. 6 committee for a hearing to “examine ongoing threats to free and fair elections,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York announced. It’s unlikely Republicans will participate.
The Republicans under Johnson have tapped Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia to stand up their own special committee to uncover what the speaker calls the “full truth” of what happened. They’re planning a hearing this month.
“We should stop this silliness of trying to whitewash history — it’s not going to happen,” said Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., who helped lead the effort to display the replica plaques.
“I was here that day so I’ll never forget,” he said. “I think that Americans will not forget what happened.”
The number of makeshift plaques that fill the halls is a testimony to that remembrance, he said.
Instead of one plaque, he said, they’ve “now got 100.”
JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian court on Monday opened the trial of a co-founder of the country’s ride-hailing and payments company Gojek, who is accused of corruption in a government project to procure Google Chromebook laptops for schools.
Nadiem Anwar Makarim, 41, was a former education, culture, research and technology minister when he was arrested Sept. 7. His arrest came during an investigation by the attorney general’s office in Jakarta into an alleged $125 billion corruption scandal linked to the project.
The laptop procurement initiated under the government’s “digitalization of schools” policy aimed to equip schools in remote areas with digital devices and infrastructure.
Makarim, who was education minister between 2019 and 2024, allegedly favored Google’s Chromebook despite a ministry research team refusing to recommend the laptop model due to ineffectiveness in regions lacking internet access.
The indictment claims Makarim steered the nationwide procurement in 2020–2021 “entirely for personal business interests.” Prosecutors said he pressed Google to invest in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa, known as PT AKAB. The company is the parent of Gojek.
Makarim received about 809 billion rupiah ($48.2 million) in connection with the program, prosecutors claimed.
He faces a possible sentence of life imprisonment for causing state losses and misusing public funds under Indonesia’s 2001 Corruption Law.
“The procurement ignored proper pricing benchmarks and technical needs, especially for remote or under-resourced regions,” lead prosecutor Muhammad Fadli Paramajeng told a panel of three judges at Jakarta’s Corruption Court on Monday.
The purchase of more than 1.2 million Chromebooks was designed to strengthen Google’s dominance in Indonesia’s education tech ecosystem and linked to subsequent Google investments of about $787 million in PT AKAB through Google Asia Pacific, he said.
Makarim, a Harvard University graduate, was a tech CEO who co-founded Gojek in 2009 and remained until 2019, when the company was valued at over $10 billion. He stepped down to join the cabinet of former Indonesia President Joko Widodo.
Prosecutors allege his resignation from PT AKAB and Gojek was a “strategic concealment” to mask conflicts of interest while Makarim appointed close associates as directors and “beneficial owners,” allowing him to maintain indirect control over company decisions.
Makarim has denied the allegations, saying he did not personally receive funds from the Chromebook procurement or related services.
Makarim’s defense attorneys argue Google’s investment largely predated his ministerial tenure and was routine corporate activity that was not tied to the laptop deal.
Makarim divested from PT AKAB upon taking office, his wealth fell by more than 50% during his term and procurement decisions were made by technical teams and officials, not the minister, they said.
“The defendant was not involved in the procurement process, as his role was limited solely to formulating policy,” defense lawyer Ari Yusuf Amir told the court. He called the indictment “unclear, inaccurate and incomplete,” saying it conflated Makarim’s ministerial authority with the work of other government officials.
Two former education ministry officials and a former tech consultant also were charged in the case, while another staff member is wanted by authorities but remains at large.
Police respond to Ohio home of VP JD Vance as part of hours-long investigation
PEOPLE LINE UP TO WATCH THE HISTORIC ARRAIGNMENT. THIS IS WLWT NEWS 5 LEADING THE WAY WITH BREAKING NEWS. LET’S GET RIGHT TO THAT BREAKING NEWS. WE ARE STILL WORKING TO GET ANSWERS AFTER CINCINNATI POLICE AND THE U.S. SECRET SERVICE RESPONDED TO THE HOME OF JD VANCE OVERNIGHT. THEY WERE THERE IN EAST WALNUT HILLS FOR SEVERAL HOURS. WLWT NEWS FIVE’S NICOLE APONTE LIVE FOR US THERE THIS MORNING. NICOLE, WHAT CAN YOU TELL US? KELLY, WE’RE IN THE VICINITY OF WHERE JD VANCE HOME IS IN EAST WALNUT HILLS. THERE IS STILL VERY LIMITED INFORMATION RIGHT NOW, BUT WE DO KNOW THAT CINCINNATI POLICE AND SECRET SERVICE AGENTS RESPONDED TO VANCE’S HOME OVERNIGHT. IN THIS VIDEO, RIGHT HERE, OUR PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURED WHAT APPEARS TO BE DAMAGE TO THE WINDOWS. OFFICERS WERE ON SCENE IN THE AREA FOR SEVERAL HOURS, GOING IN AND OUT OF THIS HOME, BUT POLICE HERE COULD ONLY TELL US THEY, QUOTE, HAVE A SUSPECT. IT’S NOT CLEAR IF THAT PERSON IS IN CUSTODY, WHAT THEY’RE CHARGED WITH, OR IF THEY’RE CONNECTED TO THIS INVESTIGATION. VICE PRESIDENT VANCE WAS IN CINCINNATI FOR THE LAST WEEK AND LEFT YESTERDAY AFTERNOON. WE’VE SPOKEN WITH SECRET SERVICE AGENTS HERE ON THE SCENE. THEY TELL US THAT THERE SHOULD BE A STATEMENT MADE LATER THIS MORNING. MEANTIME, WE’LL STILL MONITOR THE SITUATION HERE IN EAST WALNUT HILLS AND BRING YOU THESE UPDATES AS THE
Police respond to Ohio home of VP JD Vance as part of hours-long investigation
Police and Secret Service agents responded to the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance overnight.Sister station WLWT’s cameras captured what appears to be damage to the windows of the home. Officers were on scene for several hours, going in and out of the house.Cincinnati police there could say only that they “have a suspect.”It’s not clear if that person is in custody or what they’re charged with.WLWT has spoken with Secret Service agents who say a statement will likely be made later Monday morning.Vance had been in Cincinnati for the last week. He left Sunday afternoon. This is a developing story and will be updated when we learn more.
CINCINNATI —
Police and Secret Service agents responded to the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance overnight.
Sister station WLWT’s cameras captured what appears to be damage to the windows of the home. Officers were on scene for several hours, going in and out of the house.
Hearst Owned
WLWT’s cameras captured what appears to be damage to the windows of the home. Officers were on scene in the East Walnut Hills area for several hours, going in and out of the house.
Cincinnati police there could say only that they “have a suspect.”
It’s not clear if that person is in custody or what they’re charged with.
WLWT has spoken with Secret Service agents who say a statement will likely be made later Monday morning.
Vance had been in Cincinnati for the last week. He left Sunday afternoon.
This is a developing story and will be updated when we learn more.
Embattled Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan, who was convicted of obstruction last month for helping an immigrant evade federal officers, has sent her resignation letter to the governor.
The letter was sent Saturday. Republicans had been making plans to impeach her ever since her Dec. 19 conviction. A spokesperson for Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, said his office received Dugan’s letter, and he would work to fill the vacancy without delay.
Dugan wrote that over the past decade she handled thousands of cases with “a commitment to treat all persons with dignity and respect, to act justly, deliberately and consistently, and to maintain a courtroom with the decorum and safety the public deserves.”
But she said the case against her is too big of a distraction.
“As you know, I am the subject of unprecedented federal legal proceedings, which are far from concluded but which present immense and complex challenges that threaten the independence of our judiciary. I am pursuing this fight for myself and for our independent judiciary,” Dugan said in her letter.
Last April, federal prosecutors accused Dugan of distracting federal officers trying to arrest a Mexican immigrant outside her courtroom and leading the man out through a private door. A federal jury convicted her of felony obstruction.
The case against Dugan was highlighted by President Donald Trump as he pressed ahead with his sweeping immigration crackdown. Democrats insisted the administration was trying to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to the operation.
Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos praised Dugan’s decision.
“I’m glad Dugan did the right thing by resigning and followed the clear direction from the Wisconsin Constitution,” Vos said.
Democrat Ann Jacobs, who is chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission board, said she agreed with Dugan that Milwaukee should have a permanent judge in place while this fight plays out.
“Despite her situation, she is ever the champion of justice, wanting to remove the judiciary from a political battle over her fate. I’m sure this is terribly hard for her but she is true to her faith and her principles,” Jacobs said in a post on X.
On April 18, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.
Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the office of her boss, Milwaukee County Chief Judge Carl Ashley, because she told them their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient grounds to arrest Flores-Ruiz.
After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in November he had been deported.
HOUSTON — Former Uvalde, Texas, schools police Officer Adrian Gonzales was among the first officers to arrive at Robb Elementary after a gunman opened fire on students and teachers.
Prosecutors allege that instead of rushing in to confront the shooter, Gonzales failed to take action to protect students. Many families of the 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers who were killed believe that if Gonzales and the nearly 400 officers who responded had confronted the gunman sooner instead of waiting more than an hour, lives might have been saved.
More than 3½ years since the killings, the first criminal trial over the delayed law enforcement response to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history is set to begin.
It’s a rare case in which a police officer could be convicted for allegedly failing to act to stop a crime and protect lives.
Here’s a look at the charges and the legal issues surrounding the trial.
Gonzales was charged with 29 counts of child endangerment for those killed and injured in the May 2022 shooting. The indictment alleges he placed children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his active shooter training. The indictment says he did not advance toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told where the shooter was located.
Each child endangerment count carries a potential sentence of up to two years in prison.
State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology and questioned why officers from multiple agencies waited so long before confronting and killing the gunman, Salvador Ramos.
Gonzales’ attorney, Nico LaHood, said his client is innocent and public anger over the shooting is being misdirected.
“He was focused on getting children out of that building,” LaHood, said. “He knows where his heart was and what he tried to do for those children.”
Jury selection in Gonzales’ trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 5 in Corpus Christi, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Uvalde. The trial was moved after defense attorneys argued Gonzales could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.
Gonzales, 52, and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are the only officers charged. Arredondo was charged with multiple counts of child endangerment and abandonment. His trial has not been scheduled, and he is also seeking a change of venue.
Prosecutors have not explained why only Gonzales and Arredondo were charged. Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s “extremely unusual” for an officer to stand trial for not taking an action, said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a University of Houston Law Center professor.
“At the end of the day, you’re talking about convicting someone for failing to act and that’s always a challenge,” Thompson said, “because you have to show that they failed to take reasonable steps.”
Phil Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University who maintains a nationwide database of roughly 25,000 cases of police officers arrested since 2005, said a preliminary search found only two similar prosecutions.
One involved a Florida sheriff’s deputy, Scot Peterson, who was charged after the 2018 Parkland school massacre for allegedly failing to confront the shooter — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting. He was acquitted by a jury in 2023.
The other was the 2022 conviction of former Baltimore police officer Christopher Nguyen for failing to protect an assault victim. The Maryland Supreme Court overturned that conviction in July, ruling prosecutors had not shown Nguyen had a legal duty to protect the victim.
The justices in Maryland cited a prior U.S. Supreme Court decision on the public duty doctrine, which holds that government officials like police generally owe a duty to the public at large rather than to specific individuals unless a special relationship exists.
Michael Wynne, a Houston criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor not involved in the case, said securing a conviction will be difficult.
“This is clearly gross negligence. I think it’s going to be difficult to prove some type of criminal malintent,” Wynne said.
But Thompson, the law professor, said prosecutors may nonetheless be well positioned.
“You’re talking about little children who are being slaughtered and a very long delay by a lot of officers,” she said. “I just feel like this is a different situation because of the tremendous harm that was done to so many children.”
___
Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed.
METHUEN — Five years ago, Anthony Nunez-Romano faced five weapons charges in Lawrence District Court, four of which were felonies.
But for the 26-year-old Methuen resident now charged with murdering his mother, all five counts were dismissed in 2020, roughly a year after they were filed, court records reveal.
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CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland — About 40 people were killed and 115 injured, most of them seriously, after a fire ripped through a bar’s New Year’s celebration in a Swiss Alpine resort less than two hours after midnight Thursday, police said.
Authorities did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased.
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By JAMEY KEATEN, STEFANIE DAZIO and JOHN LEICESTER – Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
The action comes after years of investigation that began with the $300 million scheme at the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.
A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants are Somali Americans, they said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said then that fraud will not be tolerated and that his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”
Noem on Monday posted a video on the social platform X showing DHS officers going into an unidentified business and questioning the person working behind the counter. Noem said that officers were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.”
“The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found,” U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement posted.
The action comes a day after FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the agency had “surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”
Patel said that previous fraud arrests in Minnesota were “just the tip of a very large iceberg.”
President Donald Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases to date.
In recent weeks, tensions have been high between state and federal enforcement in the area as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown focused on the Somali community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is the largest in the country.
Among those running schemes to get funds for child nutrition, housing services and autism programs, 82 of the 92 defendants are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.
Walz spokesperson Claire Lancaster said that the governor has worked for years to “crack down on fraud” and was seeking more authority from the Legislature to take aggressive action. Walz has supported criminal prosecutions and taken a number of other steps, including strengthening oversight and hiring an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, Lancaster said.
LAS VEGAS — The attorneys for the man accused of killing rap icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 are pushing to suppress evidence obtained in what they claim was an “unlawful nighttime search.”
Las Vegas criminal defense attorneys Robert Draskovich and William Brown filed a motion this week on behalf of their client, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who was charged in the drive-by shooting of the iconic rapper off the Las Vegas Strip.
Davis’ attorneys argue a judge relied on a “misleading portrait” of Davis as a dangerous drug dealer to grant the execution of a search warrant at night, which should only be done in exceptional circumstances, such as if there’s a risk that evidence will disappear if officers wait until morning.
In reality, Davis, an ex- gang leader from Southern California, had left the narcotics trade in 2008 and began doing inspection work for oil refineries, his attorneys say. He was a 60-year-old retired cancer survivor with adult children and grandchildren and had been living with his wife in Henderson, a city outside of Las Vegas, for nine years at the time the warrant was executed.
“The court wasn’t told any of this,” his attorneys wrote in the motion. “As a result, the court authorized a nighttime search based on a portrait of Davis that bore little resemblance to reality — a clearly erroneous factual determination, in other words.”
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department — which conducted the search and collected Davis’ electronic devices, “purported marijuana” and tubs of photographs — declined to comment Friday, citing the pending litigation. At the time of the search, police said executing the warrant under the cover of darkness would allow officers to surround and secure the residence, and that if Davis barricaded himself, the darkness would allow officers to evacuate the surrounding homes with the least exposure to residents.
Davis was arrested in September 2023. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and sought to be released since shortly after his arrest.
His attorneys claim Davis’ arrest stems from false public statements Davis had made in which he claimed to be present in the white Cadillac from which Shakur was shot. They say he has never offered details that would firmly corroborate his presence in the car, and that he benefited from saying he was present. He dodged drug charges by telling the story in a proffer agreement, and he has made money by repeating it in documentaries and his 2019 book, according to his attorneys.
He sought to dismiss his murder charges in the Nevada Supreme Court, but in November his petition was denied.
“Think of it this way: Shakur’s murder was essentially the entertainment world’s JFK assassination — endlessly dissected, mythologized, monetized — so it’s not hard to see why someone in Davis’s position might falsely place himself at the center of it all for personal gain,” his attorneys wrote.
SALEM — A Lynn man was arrested on three counts of distributing cocaine following a joint operation by Salem and Lynn police.
The Criminal Investigation Divisions of the Salem and Lynn police departments completed a lengthy joint investigation on Thursday with the arrest of Derrick Poe of 46 Mall St., Apartment 4, in Lynn on three counts of distributing a Class B substance.
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SALEM — A Lynn man was arrested on three counts of distributing cocaine following a joint operation by Salem and Lynn police last Thursday.
On Dec. 18, the Criminal Investigation Divisions (CID) of the Salem and Lynn police departments completed a lengthy joint investigation with the arrest of Derrick Poe of 46 Mall St., Apartment 4, in Lynn, on three counts of distributing a Class B substance.
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