ReportWire

Tag: Prisons

  • Crumbling ceilings in underground tunnels force closure of Terminal Island prison

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    Crumbling infrastructure has forced the closure of a low-security prison in San Pedro that has housed a host of infamous inmates over the years including Al Capone and Charles Manson, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed this week.

    Conditions at the Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island, which houses nearly 1,000 inmates, have been a years-long problem. An assessment conducted last year by an architectural and engineering firm identified more than $110 million in critical repairs needed at the prison over the next 20 years. The prison is currently home to disgraced celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti and former cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried.

    More recently, officials discovered problems involving the support structure of the steam system used for heating the facility, which “prompted immediate action,” including the relocation of inmates, said Donald Murphy, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

    “We take seriously our responsibility to safeguard the inmates in our care, our staff, and the broader community. Once we have assessed the situation further and ensured the safety of all those involved, we will determine the next steps for FCI Terminal Island,” Murphy said.

    Entrance to the Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island.

    (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

    The prison, which opened in 1938, is the latest federal correctional facility to close over the past year amid serious budgetary and operational challenges, including severe staffing shortages, lack of funding to repair aging infrastructure, sexual assault of inmates and contraband across the prison system.

    In late 2024, the Bureau of Prisons announced that seven facilities, including the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, would be shuttered. Inmates at that prison had dealt with years of sexual abuse that led to the firing of top officials and the prosecution of the facility’s former warden and chaplain.

    It is not clear how long the Terminal Island facility will be closed. Inmates will be moved to other facilities, though officials did not specify where, saying only that the agency is prioritizing keeping people “as close as possible to their anticipated release locations.”

    Federal Bureau of Prison Director William K. Marshall III cited problems with underground tunnels containing the facility’s steam heating system in a memo to staff on Tuesday obtained by the Associated Press.

    Ceilings in the tunnels have begun to deteriorate, causing chunks of concrete to fall and putting employees and the heating system at risk, he said.

    “We are not going to wait for a crisis,” Marshall told employees. “We are not going to gamble with lives. And we are not going to expect people to work or live in conditions that we would never accept for ourselves.”

    This isn’t the first time the prison has faced critical infrastructure problems.

    In 2019, as Los Angeles was experiencing the coldest February in decades, two units that housed more than 200 inmates at the Terminal Island facility lost heat after an underground steam line failed.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Hannah Fry, Clara Harter

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  • Brazil’s Former President Jair Bolsonaro Begins 27-Year Prison Sentence for Coup Attempt

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    BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro started on Tuesday to serve his 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt designed to keep him in office after losing the 2022 presidential elections, a move that many in the South American nation doubted would ever take place.

    Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has overseen the case, ruled Bolsonaro will remain at the same federal police headquarters where he has been since he was preemptively arrested on Saturday for being considered a flight risk.

    Bolsonaro will not have any contact with the few other inmates at the federal police headquarters. His 12-square-meter room has a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a TV set and a desk, according to federal police.

    Brazil’s criminal law also could have allowed the 70-year-old to be transferred to a local penitentiary or to a prison room in a military facility in capital Brasilia.

    The Supreme Court justice considered that Bolsonaro’s defense had exhausted all appeals of his conviction on Monday. His lawyers wanted him to be on house arrest due to his poor health.

    The embattled leader had been under house arrest since August when de Moraes first mentioned he could escape. The far-right leader said “hallucinations” had led him to break his ankle monitoring with a welder on Saturday, a claim that de Moraes dismissed in his preemptive arrest order.

    The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempted to overthrow Brazil’s democracy following his 2022 election defeat.

    The plot included plans to kill President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Justice de Moraes. The plan also involved egging on an insurrection in early 2023.

    The former president was also found guilty of charges including leading an armed criminal organization and of attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.

    Bolsonaro has always denied wrongdoing.

    Two others convicted, Augusto Heleno and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, both Army generals, were sent the military facility in Brasilia to start serving their sentences. Former justice minister Anderson Torres is now imprisoned at the Papuda penitentiary, also in Brazil’s capital.

    Adm. Almir Garnier will serve his term at Navy facilities in Brasilia.

    Bolsonaro’s running mate and former Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto, another army general, will remain in prison at military facilities in Rio de Janeiro.

    De Moraes also confirmed that lawmaker and former head of Brazil’s intelligence agency Alexandre Ramagem is on the loose in the United States.

    Bolsonaro remains a key figure in Brazilian politics, despite being ineligible to run again at least until 2030 after a separate ruling by Brazil’s top electoral court. Polls show he would be a competitive candidate in next year’s vote if allowed to run.

    The former president is an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called the trial of the former Brazilian leader a “witch hunt.” Bolsonaro was mentioned in a July order by the U.S. administration to raise tariffs on several Brazilian exports by 50% tariffs.

    Relations between the two countries have improved since, with Lula and Trump meeting in Malaysia at the ASEAN summit in October. Most of those higher tariffs have been dropped.

    As well as the tariffs, the U.S. also imposed sanctions on de Moraes and other Brazilian officials.

    The measures in support of Bolsonaro did not have their desired effect and the trial proceeded nevertheless. Lula’s popularity was boosted by the perception that he was defending Brazilian sovereignty.

    Bolsonaro is not the first former president to spend time behind bars. His predecessor Michel Temer (2016-2018) and his successor Lula have also been to prison. Fernando Collor de Mello, who governed between 1990 and 1992, is currently in house arrest due to a corruption conviction.

    Bolsonaro is the first to be convicted of attempting a coup.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

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    Associated Press

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  • Thousands of arrests by Trump’s task force in Memphis strain crowded jail and courts

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    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A task force ordered by President Donald Trump to combat crime in Memphis, Tennessee, has made thousands of arrests, compounding strains on the busy local court system and an already overcrowded jail in ways that concerned officials say will last months or even years as cases play out.

    Since late September, hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel tied to the Memphis Safe Task Force have made traffic stops, served warrants and searched for fugitives in the city of about 610,000 people. More than 2,800 people have been arrested and more than 28,000 traffic citations have been issued, data provided by the task force and Memphis police shows.

    The task force, which includes National Guard troops, is supported by Republican Gov. Bill Lee and others who hope the surge reduces crime in a city that has grappled with violent crime, including nearly 300 homicides last year and nearly 400 in 2023.

    From 2018 to 2024, homicides in Memphis increased 33% and aggravated assaults rose 41%, according to AH Datalytics, which tracks crimes across the country using local law enforcement data for its Real-Time Crime Index. But AH Datalytics reported those numbers were down 20% during the first nine months of this year, even before the task force got to work.

    Opponents of the task force in majority-Black Memphis say it targets minorities and intimidates law-abiding Latinos, some of whom have skipped work and changed social habits, such as avoiding going to church or restaurants, fearing they will be harassed and unfairly detained. Statistics released at the end of October showed 319 arrests so far on administrative warrants, which deal with immigration-related issues.

    The effects have rippled beyond the streets, into the aging criminal courthouse and the troubled jail. Officials are concerned about long waits in traffic court causing people to miss work and packed criminal court dockets forcing inmates to spend extra days waiting for bail hearings.

    “The human cost of it is astounding,” said Josh Spickler, executive director for Just City, a Memphis-based organization that advocates for fairness in the criminal justice system.

    The mayor of Shelby County, which includes Memphis, has requested more judges to hear cases that could span months or years. County officials are discussing opening court at night and on weekends, a move that would help manage the caseload but cost more.

    Meanwhile, Shelby County Jail inmates are being moved to other facilities because of overcrowding, officials say. Inmates at jail intake are sleeping in chairs, and jail officials are asking county commissioners for funding to help address problems, such as a corrections employees shortage.

    These issues raise concerns from activists and officials about safety in a jail that has seen 65 deaths since 2019, according to Just City. Court case backlogs mean defendants and crime victims could spend an unfair amount of time dealing with the criminal justice system, said Steve Mulroy, the county’s district attorney.

    “The task force deployment probably could have used more planning,” said Mulroy, a Democrat whose office is cooperating with the task force. “More thought could have been put into the downstream effects of the increased arrest numbers.”

    There were hundreds more jail bookings and bail settings during the first several weeks of the task force’s operation than during the comparable period last year, an increase of about 40% in each category, according to county statistics.

    The jail, which has a regular capacity of 2,400, had an average daily population of 3,195 inmates in September, the most recent month when statistics were available. County officials said that number was expected to rise for October.

    As of mid-November, 250 overflow jail detainees were being housed at other facilities, compared with 80 in November 2024. Some of those are outside Shelby County, which makes it harder for lawyers and relatives to visit and increases the cost of bringing defendants to Memphis for hearings.

    In a letter to commissioners, Chief Jailer Kirk Fields has requested at least $1.5 million in emergency funds, noting that more inmates means more expenses for food, clothing, bedding and linens.

    One issue is whether there are enough judges to hear cases, especially after lawmakers eliminated two judgeships during last year’s session.

    On Oct. 31, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris wrote to state court officials asking for additional judges, saying the county is preparing for at least 3,500 to 5,000 people being arrested. More arrests increase jail expenses and the possible hiring of more public defenders, prosecutors and jail employees, he wrote.

    “This places Shelby County in extreme financial peril,” Harris wrote.

    The Tennessee Supreme Court’s response said that while lower court judges reported more judges are not necessary at this time, it has designated two senior judges to help should they be needed.

    “Part of it is, understanding just what the cadence is going to look like over the next few months and then developing a strategy,” the governor said earlier this month, noting that the state is monitoring the situation.

    Some officials have proposed Saturday court sessions and night court sessions two or three nights a week, Mulroy said. They’ve considered having a clinic where people facing misdemeanor warrants could surrender, to help clear those up.

    Mulroy’s office also is reevaluating whether detention is necessary for people jailed in hundreds of low-level cases.

    “If there’s no basis to think they’re a danger to the community or a flight risk, and they’re in there just because they can’t afford their bail, we can take a second look,” he wrote.

    Ryan Guay, a U.S. Marshals Service and task force spokesperson, told The Associated Press that the high volume of arrests reflects the force’s effectiveness.

    “We recognize that this success places additional demands on the broader criminal justice system, including courts and detention facilities,” Guay said.

    The Federal Bureau of Prisons has said that it is making a satellite prison camp available to the task force. The bureau said the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office would assume oversight of the facility. A sheriff’s office spokesperson declined to comment on the camp’s location, citing operational security.

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed.

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  • ISIS Prisons and Camps Are Festering in a Fragile Syria as Aid Peters Out

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    HASAKAH, Syria—In a wing of the notorious Al Sina prison in northeastern Syria, where some of the world’s most dangerous inmates are held, guards wearing balaclavas stood along a corridor lined with cells. A prisoner pressed his face to a small, square hole in one of the cell doors. Behind him, some 20 other prisoners in brown jumpsuits sat barefoot on the floor.

    “Is Biden still the U.S. president?” he asked a visiting journalist. The prisoner, a British Islamic State member, didn’t get an answer.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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    Sudarsan Raghavan

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  • France will investigate Musk’s Grok chatbot after Holocaust denial claims

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    PARIS (AP) — France’s government is taking action against billionaire Elon Musk ‘s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok after it generated French-language posts that questioned the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz, officials said.

    Grok, built by Musk’s company xAI and integrated into his social media platform X, wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial.

    The Auschwitz Memorial highlighted the exchange on X, saying that the response distorted historical fact and violated the platform’s rules.

    In later posts on its X account, the chatbot acknowledged that its earlier reply to an X user was wrong, said it had been deleted and pointed to historical evidence that Auschwitz’s gas chambers using Zyklon B were used to murder more than 1 million people. The follow-ups were not accompanied by any clarification from X.

    In tests run by The Associated Press on Friday, its responses to questions about Auschwitz appeared to give historically accurate information.

    Grok has a history of making antisemitic comments. Earlier this year, Musk’s company took down posts from the chatbot that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler after complaints about antisemitic content.

    The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that the Holocaust-denial comments have been added to an existing cybercrime investigation into X. The case was opened earlier this year after French officials raised concerns that the platform’s algorithm could be used for foreign interference.

    Prosecutors said that Grok’s remarks are now part of the investigation, and that “the functioning of the AI will be examined.”

    France has one of Europe’s toughest Holocaust denial laws. Contesting the reality or genocidal nature of Nazi crimes can be prosecuted as a crime, alongside other forms of incitement to racial hatred.

    Several French ministers, including Industry Minister Roland Lescure, have also reported Grok’s posts to the Paris prosecutor under a provision that requires public officials to flag possible crimes. In a government statement, they described the AI-generated content as “manifestly illicit,” saying it could amount to racially motivated defamation and the denial of crimes against humanity.

    French authorities referred the posts to a national police platform for illegal online content and alerted France’s digital regulator over suspected breaches of the European Union’s Digital Services Act.

    The case adds to pressure from Brussels. This week, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said that the bloc is in contact with X about Grok and called some of the chatbot’s output “appalling,” saying it runs against Europe’s fundamental rights and values.

    Two French rights groups, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme and SOS Racisme, have filed a criminal complaint accusing Grok and X of contesting crimes against humanity.

    X and its AI unit, xAI, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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  • Ex-French President Sarkozy to publish prison memoir as appeal looms

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    PARIS (AP) — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will publish a book about his recent time behind bars, titled “Diary of a Prisoner,” on Dec. 10, his publisher Fayard announced Friday. The house is part of the media group controlled by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

    Sarkozy trailed the release in a post on X, writing that in La Santé prison “the noise is, unfortunately, constant” and that “the inner life of man becomes stronger in prison.” He spent three weeks in detention there this autumn.

    The former head of state, who governed France from 2007 to 2012, was convicted on Sept. 25 of participating in a criminal organization over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign. He was released pending appeal on Nov. 10, and his appeal against the conviction is scheduled to be heard from March 16 to June 3.

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  • France moves against Musk’s Grok chatbot after Holocaust denial claims

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    PARIS — France’s government is taking action against artificial intelligence chatbot Grok, which was launched by a company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, after it generated French-language posts that questioned the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz and listed Jewish public figures, officials said.

    Grok, built by Musk company xAI and integrated into his social media platform X, said in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial.

    The Auschwitz Memorial highlighted the exchange on X, and said that the response distorted historical fact and violated the platform’s rules.

    As of this week, Grok’s responses to questions about Auschwitz appear to give historically accurate information.

    Grok has a history of making antisemitic comments. Earlier this year, Musk’s company took down posts from the chatbot that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler after complaints about antisemitic content.

    The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that the Holocaust-denial comments have been added to an existing cybercrime investigation into X. The case was opened earlier this year after French officials raised concerns that the platform’s algorithm could be used for foreign interference.

    Prosecutors said that Grok’s remarks are now part of the investigation, and that “the functioning of the AI will be examined.”

    France has one of Europe’s toughest Holocaust denial laws. Contesting the reality or genocidal nature of Nazi crimes can be prosecuted as a crime, alongside other forms of incitement to racial hatred.

    Several French ministers, including Industry Minister Roland Lescure, have also reported Grok’s posts to the Paris prosecutor under a provision that requires public officials to flag possible crimes. In a government statement, they described the AI-generated content as “manifestly illicit,” saying it could amount to racially motivated defamation and the denial of crimes against humanity.

    French authorities referred the posts to a national police platform for illegal online content and alerted France’s digital regulator over suspected breaches of the European Union’s Digital Services Act.

    The case adds to pressure from Brussels. This week, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said that the bloc is in contact with X about Grok and called some of the chatbot’s output “appalling,” saying it runs against Europe’s fundamental rights and values.

    Two French rights groups, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme and SOS Racisme, have filed a criminal complaint accusing Grok and X of contesting crimes against humanity.

    X and its AI unit, xAI, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

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  • Congress agrees to publicly release Epstein files

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    WASHINGTON — Both the House and Senate acted decisively Tuesday to pass a bill to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a remarkable display of approval for an effort that had struggled for months to overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.

    When a small, bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills reach the House floor, it appeared a longshot effort — especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.”

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    By STEPHEN GROVES – Associated Press

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  • Human rights commission calls on El Salvador to protect 3 deported men it imprisoned

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    SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on the government of El Salvador to protect three Salvadoran men deported by the United States in a decision published Tuesday that said they had been held without the ability to communicate with their lawyers or relatives since arriving.

    The Salvadoran government said in the case that William Alexander Martínez Ruano, 21, and José Osmín Santos Robles, 41, where being held in a prison in Santa Ana and the third, Brandon Bladimir Sigarán Cruz, 22, who the government said was an active member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, had been held in the country’s new gang prison since March.

    This has been a generalized problem for the nearly 90,000 people arrested under emergency powers granted to President Nayib Bukele in March 2022, to fight the country’s powerful street gangs.

    Relatives and a lawyer filed habeas corpus petitions in El Salvador on behalf of the men, and the nongovernmental Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy requested the protective measures from the human rights commission.

    The commission, which is an arm of the regional Organization of American States, said it decided to grant the request because of a “serious risk to their rights to live and personal well being.” The commission grants such protections in cases to prevent irreparable harm.

    El Salvador responded to the commission about the status of the men, but the commission said the government did not deny the men were being held incommunicado despite a specific request that it provide information about the possibility of visits with their relatives and lawyers. The country is supposed to follow the commission’s instructions and report back, but El Salvador gave no indication of being willing to bend to the demands.

    The commission noted that it had granted protective measures in September to two Salvadoran lawyers, Ruth López and Enrique Anaya, critics of the government who were arrested and held without contact.

    Lawyer Jayme Magaña of the Wings for Freedom movement, who is not representing any of those arrested, said that people being held in El Salvador under the ongoing state of emergency generally do not have contact with relatives or their lawyers. “It is something that (the commission) has been saying since the start of the state of emergency,” which began in March 2022, he said.

    El Salvador’s government told the commission that it should avoid being used by people with criminal histories.

    Earlier this year, the Trump administration sent more than 250 Venezuelan men it accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang to be imprisoned in El Salvador. In July, they were released to Venezuela in exchange for the release of 10 Americans held by Venezuela.

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  • A Drug Kingpin Who Faked His Own Death and Fled Justice Runs Out of Luck

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    Wilmer Chavarria was living the good life after faking his own death.

    For four years, the Ecuadorean drug boss allied with Mexico’s Jalisco cartel moved among Dubai, Morocco and Spain, allegedly overseeing his drug empire and hit jobs back home—all while staying at the most exclusive hotels, Ecuador’s government said. To avoid detection, he underwent seven surgeries to alter his appearance and changed his name to Danilo Fernández.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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    Ryan Dubé

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  • Former customs officer sentenced to 15 years for helping drug traffickers

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    A former Customs and Border Protection officer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to working with Mexican traffickers to bring drugs into the U.S. Diego Bonillo pleaded guilty in July to multiple charges, including conspir…

    LOS ANGELES — A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to working with Mexican traffickers to bring drugs into the U.S., officials said Thursday.

    Diego Bonillo, 30, pleaded guilty in July to multiple charges, including conspiracy to import controlled substances such as cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.

    As part of his plea deal, he admitted to using his position to allow drug-filled cars into the U.S. from Mexico without inspection. He allowed at least 75 kilograms of fentanyl, 11.7 kilograms of methamphetamine, and more than 1 kilogram of heroin into the country, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego said in a news release Thursday.

    Prosecutors said in sentencing documents that Bonillo was using a secret phone to alert the drug trafficking group which lanes he would be overseeing at the Tecate and Otay Mesa border crossings so he could ensure their entry without inspection.

    Agents determined that Bonillo was part of the scheme no later than October 2023 and continued until April 2024, allowing at least 15 vehicles to enter uninspected, prosecutors said.

    Bonillo used his payments to travel internationally, purchase luxury gifts, attempt to purchase property in Mexico, and spend time at the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club in Tijuana, Mexico, prosecutors said.

    He was sentenced Nov. 7 to 15 years in federal prison.

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  • A Judge Said Luigi Mangione Could Have a Laptop to View Evidence in Jail. He Still Hasn’t Gotten It

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    The delay, Mangione’s lawyers said in a court filing made public Thursday, is putting the 27-year-old suspect in a time crunch with little more than two weeks before an important hearing in his state murder case.

    Mangione, also facing a federal death penalty case, has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail in Brooklyn, since his December 2024 arrest. He has pleaded not guilty.

    A judge approved the defense’s request for a laptop in August, but getting it in his hands has been slow because of modifications required to prevent misuse and the volume of evidence being saved to it.

    The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the state case, didn’t want him to have a laptop. Federal prosecutors didn’t take a position, and their spokesperson declined to comment Thursday.

    “Although the federal court has previously issued a laptop order, there is a lengthy and laborious process that must be completed before Mr. Mangione receives the laptop,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote.

    To comply with jail regulations, she said, the laptop had to be sent to an outside technology vendor to disable its connections to the internet, printers and wireless networks — a process that took “many weeks to complete.”

    The changes mean the tech-savvy Mangione, a former software engineer, won’t be able to use the laptop to view websites, send messages or post on social media.

    Now, the device is with federal prosecutors, who are loading the computer with some of the more than seven terabytes of evidence that has been collected in the case, Friedman Agnifilo said. The rest will be saved to an external hard drive that also will be provided to Mangione.

    Such evidence sharing, known as discovery, is routine in criminal cases and is intended to help ensure a fair trial. Defendants often assist their lawyers in reviewing evidence and shaping their defense.

    “Once Mr. Mangione receives the laptop and hard drive, he will need time to meaningfully review” the material before a Dec. 1 hearing on evidence and other issues in the state case, Friedman Agnifilo said.

    Mangione’s lawyers are seeking to have prosecutors barred from using certain evidence collected during his arrest, including a 9 mm handgun, a notebook in which authorities say he described his intent to “wack” an insurance executive, and statements he made to police.

    Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.

    Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

    Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later while eating breakfast at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

    As the anniversary of the killing nears, Mangione’s cases are at critical points.

    In the federal case, Mangione’s lawyers want prosecutors barred from seeking the death penalty and want at least some charges dismissed, arguing that authorities prejudiced him by turning his arrest into a spectacle and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9.


    Wait for laptop continues

    They told Carro that the amount of evidence being turned over by prosecutors — including video files, documents and other items — was so voluminous, Mangione couldn’t reasonably view it on the jail’s shared computers for inmates. Nor would they be able to go over it all during jail visits, they said.

    The district attorney’s office disagreed, arguing that instead of giving Mangione a laptop, his lawyers could simply show him key case material instead.

    Carro concluded that he had “no objection” as long as jail officials were on board.

    On Aug. 4, the judge in Mangione’s federal case signed an order approving Mangione for a modified, evidence-only laptop and requiring that the jail give him access to it each day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    More than 100 days later, still no laptop.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Chinese Scientist Pleads Guilty in US Smuggling Case and Will Be Quickly Deported

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    DETROIT (AP) — A Chinese scientist charged in Michigan with smuggling biological materials pleaded guilty Wednesday but was given no additional time in jail beyond the five months she already spent in custody.

    Yunqing Jian, who was a temporary researcher at a University of Michigan lab, will be released and quickly deported. A judge called it a “very strange” case involving an “incredibly accomplished researcher.”

    Jian, 33, was arrested in June and accused of conspiring with a boyfriend to study and nurse a toxic fungus at a campus lab. A pathogen known as Fusarium graminearum can attack wheat, barley, maize and rice. Zunyong Liu was caught carrying small samples while arriving at a Detroit airport in 2024.

    In China, Jian and Liu specialized in studying Fusarium graminearum, which is widely found in U.S. fields, depending on weather and growing conditions. But it is illegal to bring it into the U.S. without a government permit, which carries strict conditions. The university had no permits.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Martin said there was potential for “devastating harm,” though he didn’t elaborate.

    “I don’t have evidence that she had evil intent,” Martin told a judge, referring to Jian. “But I don’t have evidence that she was doing this for the betterment of mankind either.”

    Roger Innes, a University of Indiana expert who looked at the evidence for Jian’s attorneys, said there was “no risk to U.S. farmers, or anyone else” or any intent to create a more virulent strain. He noted that Liu likely wanted to work with a unique microscope at the lab.

    Martin asked for a two-year prison sentence for Jian — four times higher than a maximum six-month term scored under sentencing guidelines. U.S. District Judge Susan DeClercq settled on five months in jail, time already served by Jian.

    Jian, wearing chains around her ankles and waist, apologized but said little, relying instead on a letter filed with the court.

    “I did not follow the rules because I was under pressure to proceed with research and produce results,” Jian wrote. “The research was not to harm anyone, but instead to find ways to protect crops from disease.”

    The conspiracy charge against Jian was dropped in exchange for a guilty plea to smuggling and making false statements to investigators. She acknowledged that in 2024 that she had asked a colleague in China to send biological material hidden in a book. The book was intercepted by U.S. agents.

    Liu was also charged in the investigation, but he’s in China and is unlikely to return to the U.S.

    Jian was a postdoctoral scholar at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, before being granted a visa to conduct research at a Texas university. She has been working in Michigan since summer 2023.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Prosecutors Turn Over 130,000 Pages of Evidence in the Killing of a Minnesota Lawmaker

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    MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys in the case of a man charged with killing a top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband said Wednesday that prosecutors have turned over a massive amount of evidence to the defense, and that his lawyers need more time to review it.

    Federal prosecutor Harry Jacobs told the court that investigators have provided substantially all of the evidence they have collected against Vance Boelter. He’s pleaded not guilty to murder in the killing of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and to attempted murder in the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Some evidence, such as lab reports, continues to come in.

    Federal defender Manny Atwal said at the status conference that the evidence includes over 130,000 pages of PDF documents, over 800 hours of audio and video recordings, and over 2,000 photographs from what authorities have called the largest hunt for a suspect in Minnesota history.

    Atwal said her team has spent close to 110 hours just downloading the material — not reviewing it — and that they’re still evaluating the evidence, a process she said has gone slowly due to the federal government shutdown.

    “That’s not unusual for a complex case but it is lot of information for us to review,” Atwal told Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster.

    Jacobs said he didn’t have a timeline for when the Department of Justice would decide whether to seek the death penalty against Boelter. The decision will be up to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

    Foster scheduled the next status conference for Feb. 12 and asked prosecutors to keep the defense and court updated in the meantime about their death penalty decision. She did not set a trial date.

    Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle late the next day. He faces federal and state charges including murder and attempted murder in what prosecutors have called a political assassination.

    Boelter, who was wearing orange and yellow jail clothing, said nothing during the nine-minute hearing.

    Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case. But the Trump administration is pushing for greater use of capital punishment.

    Boelter claimed to the conservative outlet Blaze News in August that he never intended to shoot anyone that night but that his plans went horribly wrong.

    He told Blaze in a series of hundreds of texts via his jail’s messaging system that he went to the Hoffmans’ home to make citizens’ arrests over what he called his two-year undercover investigation into 400 deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine that he believed were being covered up by the state.

    But he told Blaze he opened fire when the Hoffmans and their adult daughter tried to push him out the door and spoiled his plan. He did not explain why went on to allegedly shoot the Hortmans and their golden retriever, Gilbert, who had to be euthanized.

    Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said when she announced Boelter’s indictment on state charges in August that she gave no credence to the claims Boelter had made from jail.

    In other recent developments, a Sibley County judge last month granted Boelter’s wife a divorce.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Ex-NFL star Antonio Brown pleads not guilty to attempted murder charge after shooting

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    Former NFL star Antonio Brown was returning Tuesday to Miami to face an attempted murder charge stemming from a May shooting, with his lawyer filing a not guilty plea on his behalf.

    Jail records in Essex County, New Jersey, show Brown was released late Tuesday morning for the transfer to Florida. The former All-Pro wide receiver had waived extradition to Florida from New Jersey, where he was brought following his arrest in Dubai.

    Brown’s lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, said in an email that he has already filed a written not guilty plea to the attempted murder charge. Brown could be in a Miami courtroom as early as Wednesday morning for a bond hearing, Eiglarsh said.

    According to an arrest warrant, Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match on May 16 and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier. The victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.

    Eiglarsh said Brown was simply protecting himself from a person he had problems with before.

    “The actions he was forced to take were solely in self-defense against the alleged victim’s violent behavior. Brown was attacked that night and acted within his legal right to protect himself,” Eiglarsh said.

    Brown was not immediately arrested that night because initially police did not identify Nantambu as a victim. It wasn’t until May 21 that Nantambu gave a full statement about the incident to police and identified Brown as the shooter, the affidavit says.

    Based on his social media posts, Brown had been living in Dubai for several months. In a social media post after the altercation, Brown said he was defending himself because he was “jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewelry and cause physical harm to me.”

    A second-degree attempted murder charge in Florida carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence and up to a $10,000 fine in the event of a conviction.

    Brown, who spent 12 years in the NFL, was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay but spent most of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and scored 88 total touchdowns counting returns and one pass. He was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection.

    Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously had been accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents.

    During a 2021 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his football career.

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  • China’s ‘cryptoqueen’ jailed in UK over $6.6 billion Bitcoin scam

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    LONDON — A Chinese woman who was found with 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) in Bitcoin after defrauding more than 128,000 people in China in a Ponzi scheme was sentenced by a U.K. court on Tuesday to over 11 years in prison.

    Police said the investigation into Zhimin Qian, 47, led to officers recovering devices holding 61,000 Bitcoin in the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the U.K.

    Qian, dubbed “cryptoqueen” by British media, was arrested in April 2024 after spending years evading the authorities and living an “extravagant” lifestyle in Europe, staying in luxury hotels across the continent and buying fine jewelry and watches, prosecutors said.

    Police said she ran a pyramid scheme that lured more than 128,000 people to invest in her business between 2014 and 2017, including many who invested their life savings and pensions. Authorities said she stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets.

    When she attracted the attention of Chinese authorities, Qian fled to the U.K. under a fake identity. Once in London, police said she rented a “lavish” house for over 17,000 pounds ($23,000) per month.

    Investigators found notes Qian had written documenting her aspirations — including her “intention to become the monarch of Liberland, a self-proclaimed country consisting of a strip of land between Croatia and Serbia.”

    The businesswoman, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering offenses and transferring and possessing criminal property, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years and eight months at Southwark Crown Court.

    She was sentenced alongside her accomplice Seng Hok Ling, 47, a Malaysian national who was accused of helping Qian transfer and launder the cryptocurrency. Ling was jailed at the same court for four years and 11 months after he pleaded guilty to one count of transferring criminal property.

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  • Opinion | The ‘Human Right’ to Smoke in Prison

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    If you want to see what a “living constitution” looks like, go to Europe. On Tuesday, in Vainik v. Estonia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that four longtime prisoners in Estonia were due restitution from the state for “weight gain, sleeping problems, depression, and anxiety” caused by not being allowed to smoke in prison.

    The decision was grounded on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The text of Article 8 doesn’t mention any right to enjoy a cigarette whenever one pleases. Rather, it protects a broad “right to private life,” which the court accused Estonia of violating in the Vainik case. “The Court,” the judges wrote, “was sensitive to the context of the already limited personal autonomy of prisoners, and that the freedom for them to decide for themselves—such as whether to smoke—was all the more precious.” An odd ruling, but perhaps Europe loves its cigarettes that much?

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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    John Masko

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  • 2 California prison officers hurt in alleged attack by inmate

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    FOLSOM, Calif. — Two California prison officers were hospitalized after an alleged attack by an incarcerated man, and authorities are investigating it as an attempted homicide, officials said Sunday.

    The incident happened Saturday at California State Prison, Sacramento, as the suspect was being escorted from his cell to allow staff to conduct a search, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

    “Staff used physical force and chemical agents to quickly quell the attack, and an improvised weapon was found at the scene,” the corrections department said in a statement.

    The officers were transported in fair condition, the statement said.

    The 48-year-old male suspect was placed in restricted housing during the investigation, officials said. He arrived at the facility in 2011 to serve a 17-year sentence for charges including corporal injury to a spouse. In 2022, he received an additional four years for possession/manufacture of a deadly weapon.

    The case will be referred to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office for possible felony prosecution.

    The prison northeast of the state capital houses more than 2,200 medium-, maximum- and high-security incarcerated people.

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  • News We Love: Dog training programs aim to give shelter pets, inmates a new ‘leash’ on life

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    IT’S A PROGRAM TRULY GIVING PUPS A NEW LEASH ON LIFE AS THEY WALK THE CORRIDORS OF LOUISIANA PRISON. YEAH. THE PARTNERSHIP, A COLLABORATION WITH THE SPCA, THE DOG SCHOOL AND THE LOUISIANA CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE. AND THIS WHOLE THING OPENS THE DOOR TO MORE PETS FINDING FOREVER HOMES WHILE GIVING INMATES A GREATER PURPOSE. FROM BEHIND THE GLASS TO BEHIND BARS. THESE ARE DOGS PULLED FROM KILL SHELTERS. THESE ARE INMATES THAT HAVE DONE HEINOUS CRIMES. BOTH ARE THINGS THAT PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT OR DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT, BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A UNIQUE PLACE FOR SECOND CHANCES. IT’S IT’S TOTALLY LIFE CHANGING FOR MY INMATE TRAINERS. A NEW LEASH ON LIFE FOR BOTH THE INMATES AT CIW AND SAINT GABRIEL. AND THESE DOGS FROM THE LOUISIANA SPCA THAT HAVE BEEN OFTEN OVERLOOKED. THE TRAINING PROGRAM, SPEARHEADED BY BROOKE DUFOUR, PITS THE TWO TOGETHER, HELPING THESE SHELTER PETS FIND FOREVER HOMES. AND IN RETURN GIVES THESE WOMEN PURPOSE. WE TAKE ABOUT 5 TO 6 DOGS. THEY’RE TAKEN FROM OUR FACILITY TO THE ACTUAL INSTITUTION, AND FROM THERE THEY’RE PAIRED WITH THEIR HANDLER, OR THEY’RE INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL. THE HANDLERS TRAIN THE PUPS. EVERYTHING FROM POTTY TRAINING, DOOR TRAINING, KENNEL TRAINING, REALLY WHATEVER MANNERS THEY NEED TO GET ADOPTED. IF WE HAVE DOGS THAT ARE ROCK STARS, LIKE THEY’RE JUST LEARNING EVERYTHING, THEN WE TRY TO MAKE THEM SERVICE DOGS. AND AFTER THE SIX WEEKS ARE UP, THE DOGS GRADUATE. FETCHING THAT DIPLOMA AND HOPEFULLY A FOREVER FAMILY. I THINK IT’S A REWARDING EXPERIENCE. IT’S ALL ENCOMPASSING BUT ALSO A VERY REWARDING EXPERIENCE. AND IT’S AT THE HEART OF OUR MISSION AS WELL. A MISSION THAT’S ALSO UNLEASHING HEARTS, LEAVING EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH VALUABLE SKILLS FOR A STABLE FUTURE. RANDI RANDI WDSU NEWS. SO FAR, 18 DOGS HAVE GRADUATED SINCE THAT PROGRAM STARTED JUST ABOUT A YEAR AGO, WITH FIVE MORE SET TO JOIN THE RAN

    Louisiana dog training programs aims to give shelter pets, inmates a new ‘leash’ on life

    The New Leash on Life program is giving inmates and shelter dogs a second chance at success

    Updated: 12:52 PM EDT Nov 1, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    It’s a program giving pups a second chance as they walk through the corridors of Louisiana prisons. The New Leash on Life program is a partnership with the LASPCA, The Dog School and the Louisiana Correctional Institute. “These are dogs from kill shelters. These are inmates that have done heinous crimes. Both are things that people don’t want to think about or don’t want to talk about,” said Brooke Defore, who oversees the New Leash on Life program. For six weeks, 5 to 6 shelter dogs from the LASPCA live with inmates at LCIW in St. Gabriel. Their inmate handlers teach them everything from potty training, kennel training, door training, essentially whatever manners they need to get adopted. “I think it’s a rewarding experience. It’s all encompassing, but also a very rewarding experience,” said Christian Moon, with the LASPCA. “It’s at the heart of our mission as well.”If the dogs are exceptional, they could then go back to help veterans or those with special needs. “If we have dogs that are rock stars, like they’re just learning everything, then we try to make them service dogs,” said Defore. By taking dogs overlooked behind glass kennels and taking them behind bars, it’s opening the door to getting them into forever homes while also giving inmates a greater purpose. So far, 18 dogs have graduated, with about five more waiting in the wings.For more information about the program or The Dog School, visit https://thedogschool.net/.

    It’s a program giving pups a second chance as they walk through the corridors of Louisiana prisons.

    The New Leash on Life program is a partnership with the LASPCA, The Dog School and the Louisiana Correctional Institute.

    “These are dogs from kill shelters. These are inmates that have done heinous crimes. Both are things that people don’t want to think about or don’t want to talk about,” said Brooke Defore, who oversees the New Leash on Life program.

    For six weeks, 5 to 6 shelter dogs from the LASPCA live with inmates at LCIW in St. Gabriel. Their inmate handlers teach them everything from potty training, kennel training, door training, essentially whatever manners they need to get adopted.

    “I think it’s a rewarding experience. It’s all encompassing, but also a very rewarding experience,” said Christian Moon, with the LASPCA. “It’s at the heart of our mission as well.”

    If the dogs are exceptional, they could then go back to help veterans or those with special needs.

    “If we have dogs that are rock stars, like they’re just learning everything, then we try to make them service dogs,” said Defore.

    By taking dogs overlooked behind glass kennels and taking them behind bars, it’s opening the door to getting them into forever homes while also giving inmates a greater purpose.

    So far, 18 dogs have graduated, with about five more waiting in the wings.

    For more information about the program or The Dog School, visit https://thedogschool.net/.

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  • Former jail building draws couples for Halloween weddings in Ohio

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    DELAWARE, Ohio — Nine couples got married Friday inside a former county jail in central Ohio that was decorated for Halloween.

    The vows were exchanged in Delaware County’s 18-cell jail building, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Columbus.

    These days the 1878 structure is owned by the Delaware County Historical Society, but until 1988 it served as the county lockup.

    Andrea Bates and Jessica Scales decided to tie the knot about a month ago — Bates had previously determined that if she ever got married, she’d do it on Halloween.

    “I feel like I just have a weird connection with Halloween. My daughter’s named Salem, so, it’s just my favorite. The spookiness, the atmosphere of the time, I just love it,” she said.

    Halloween is also the favorite holiday of Nicole Bond and Jacob Beatty, who got hitched after being together for a decade.

    “I think we were both kind of looking for an excuse to get married and this opportunity presented itself and we jumped on it,” Beatty said. “So it was such a cool, unique experience and kind of right up our alley.”

    Bond said they had sweet plans for after the ceremony.

    “Eat some lunch, take a nap and then go trick-or-treating,” she said.

    Court officials in Delaware County do weddings every other Friday, and when they realized that Halloween fell on a Friday this year, they began planning for the jailhouse weddings.

    Court employees wore costumes and decorated the space with pumpkins and a spider web. Couples were provided with a way to take mugshot-style photos.

    Organizers capped the number of weddings at 10 and nine couples showed up. There’s no word on whether the bride and groom who didn’t show up got spooked.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed.

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