Two members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua who pleaded guilty to robbing a Denver jewelry store at gunpoint were sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said.
Jean Torres-Ramon, 22, and Newman Castillo Delgado, 23, pleaded guilty to robbery and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, federal officials said Thursday.
Torres-Ramon and Delgado are two of at least seven suspects facing charges in the June 2024 robbery of Joyeria El Ruby jewelry store at 5108 W. 38th Ave. in Denver’s West Highland neighborhood.
The group is accused of entering the store, aiming guns at employees, beating employees with weapons and stealing nearly $4 million in gold and jewelry, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
An indictment in a different federal case alleges the robbery was approved by Tren de Aragua leaders to enrich the gang.
Torres-Ramon was sentenced to 235 months, or nearly 20 years in prison, and Castillo Delgado was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Both men must pay $3.9 million in court-ordered restitution.
Attorneys for the men could not immediately be reached for comment.
Five other suspects in the robbery, Oswaldo Lozada-Solis, Jesus Daniel Lara Del Toro, Derek Alexander Dun-Vargas, Briley Ballera-Farias and Edwuimar Nazareth Colina-Romero, still have open federal cases, according to court records.
A Colorado medical device company admitted to orchestrating an elaborate health care fraud scheme that resulted in the overbilling of patients and insurers by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Zynex Inc., an Englewood-based firm that manufactures and sells medical devices used for pain management and rehabilitation, entered into an agreement Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Justice to avoid prosecution.
The company, as part of the deal, agreed to pay between $5 million and $12.5 million in penalties — the final tally will depend on its earnings and profit during the settlement period — and will forfeit millions of dollars in unpaid claims.
Zynex admitted to participating in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud, securities fraud, mail fraud and other violations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island announced in a news release.
Zynex, in its deal with the government, also admitted to collecting more than $873 million for its products, including more than $600 million for supplies, “the vast majority of which were the result of fraud,” investigators said.
The company acknowledged that it shipped and billed for medically unnecessary supplies in excess quantities and misled investors who were unaware of the fraudulent billing practices.
Zynex agreed to implement enhanced compliance and corporate governance reforms “designed to prevent future misconduct,” the DOJ said, and will cooperate with the government’s ongoing investigations.
“This resolution addresses the seriousness of the fraud committed by Zynex while recognizing the substantial turnaround in conduct implemented under new management,” U.S. Attorney Charles C. Calenda said in the news release.
The company, in a subsequent news release, said the resolution “represents the fulfillment of the commitments we made as a new management team when we arrived in August 2025: to break from the past, rebuild the company as compliant-by-design and create a new future for the company, its customers and employees.”
Zynex leaders say they have completely overhauled their billing and supply replenishment practices, and enacted new marketing policies to ensure the company remains compliant with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Federal officials unveiled a slew of charges Tuesday against two Coloradans accused of ripping off a program that provides free rides to Medicaid patients, the first criminal charges filed in response to a sprawling fraud bonanza identified by state officials more than two years ago.
The indictments allege that Ashley Marie Stevens and Wesam Yassin separately participated in the transportation program and fraudulently collected seven-figure payouts — more than $3.3 million for Yassin alone, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. The two drivers, who ran separate companies, allegedly fabricated rides for appointments that didn’t exist. Stevens is accused of billing for rides for her husband while he was incarcerated, and Yassin allegedly billed $165,000 for driving a patient who was dead.
Both Stevens, of Mesa County, and Yassin, of Douglas County, were charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering and health care fraud for their participation in the driving service.
The program pays drivers to ferry Medicaid patients to and from doctor’s appointments, but it became a haven for fraud in 2022 and 2023, after state officials increased the service’s reimbursement rates. State officials told The Denver Post last month that an estimated $25 million was lost in the broader fraud.
Yassin’s indictment was still sealed Tuesday evening. In a statement, federal officials alleged that Yassin billed Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rides that never occurred between March 2022 and October 2023. She raked in $283,000 from rides for just one patient, most of which was paid to Yassin after the patient had already died.
Yassin allegedly used the proceeds to buy a home and furnishings, along with luxury vehicles, jewelry and cosmetic surgery. She was released on bond earlier this week, according to court records.
Stevens billed the state for more than $1 million between July 2022 and February 2023, according to the indictment. More than $400,000 came from rides she provided to herself or to her family members, for which there were “very few” actual medical appointments, federal authorities allege.
The trips included rides for her husband, who was incarcerated during some of the time when Stevens claimed she was driving him to the doctor. Another $150,000 was billed for rides that either never took place or were for trips that didn’t involve Medicaid services.
She was also paid more than $450,000 for rides that were at least 400 miles long, authorities allege. From east to west, Colorado is roughly 380 miles wide. Stevens allegedly used the proceeds from the scheme for travel and to buy a luxury car.
Stevens was already in Mesa County jail when she was indicted in December, according to court records. She remains in custody.
Yassin and Stevens are the first drivers to face any criminal repercussions for allegedly bilking the program. The fraud was in its heyday in 2023, state officials previously told The Post: A rash of new drivers entered the program then, shortly after the state increased the rate paid to transportation companies. Unscrupulous drivers, who were paid on a per member, per mile basis, allegedly packed their cars with patients and drove them across the state.
Some targeted homeless people in Pueblo and Colorado Springs, driving them to methadone clinics in metro Denver. Some patients were bribed with cash or drugs, state officials have said. Kim Bimestefer, the executive director of the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told lawmakers last month that the fraud scheme was “international.”
A Colorado man who pretended to be a teenager online will spend more than eight decades in federal prison for sexually exploiting children on the internet, federal officials said.
Austin Ryan Lauless coerced, exploited and threatened at least 84 children on social media into producing thousands of sexually explicit images and videos between 2019 and 2023, according to a news release from the Indiana U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The victims include children between the ages of 13 and 17 from nearly every state and at least five other countries, federal officials said in the release. Investigators believe there may still be more undiscovered victims.
Lauless pleaded guilty in September to 13 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, five counts of sex trafficking of a minor, two counts of advertising child sexual abuse material and possession of child sexual abuse material, court records show.
He was sentenced Wednesday to 84 years in federal prison, which will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, according to court records.
Lauless posed as “Cason Fredrickson” and “APOPHIS” on the internet, pretending to be a teenager from New York and other cities, federal officials said. He used photos from public Instagram pages to conceal his real identity: a man in his late 20s who lived in hotels and motels across Colorado and Texas.
The man misrepresented his age, identity, background and likeness to groom minors and create a false sense of safety, federal prosecutors said. He also used voice modulators and third-party image and video apps to edit content and keep up his disguise.
“He feigned romantic interest in victims, told them they were attractive and pretended to be in online relationships,” the news release stated. “He purchased items for many victims through Amazon — including fishnet stockings, sexual devices and customized t-shirts — which he instructed them to wear while producing sexually explicit material.”
Lauless threatened to publicly release the images and videos if his victims failed to comply with his demands or if they tried to tell their parents or law enforcement, federal prosecutors said.
He sold child sex abuse material at least 141 times and admitted to federal investigators that his collection included thousands of photos and videos, including videos of sadomasochistic abuse and bestiality.
“This case represents one of the most egregious forms of exploitation the FBI investigates,” Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. O’Malley of the FBI’s Indianapolis field office said in a statement. “This was not an isolated crime — it was a nationwide and international campaign of exploitation.”
The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative from the U.S. Department of Justice that focuses on battling child sex exploitation and abuse.
Anyone who believes they were, or who believes they know someone who was, a victim of Lauless should contact their local FBI office, call the FBI tip line at 1-800-225-5324 or submit information online at tips.fbi.gov.
New York — NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, nearly a month after he was among dozens of people arrested in a sweeping FBI crackdown on alleged illegal gambling rings. Billups is facing charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering.
The 49-year-old — who had served as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers until being suspended by the league in late October following his arrest — was released on $5 million bond secured by his home in Colorado. Billups’ bond was secured by his wife, Piper, and his daughter Cydney, who appeared in court to sign the document. He also agreed to surrender his passport, abide by travel restrictions and report financial transactions over $25,000.
Billups appeared alongside 30 other defendants in the Eastern District’s massive ceremonial courtroom to face charges over allegations of cheating in high-stakes poker games operated by mafia figures.
The elaborate cheating scheme netted more than $7 million from rigged games, prosecutors said. They said Monday there were at least 25 separate rigged games.
The hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Ramon Reyes also allowed defendants and their attorneys to update the court on scheduling, progress and deadlines for discovery, motion filings and settlement talks in the now–designated complex case.
Chauncey Billups arrives for his arraignment hearing at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Nov. 24, 2025.
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
Prosecutors said plea discussions have begun with some defendants but no formal plea deals have been offered. Prosecutors said the government would be ready to release discovery, which is expected to be more than a terabyte, within two weeks after a protective order is in place and a coordinating discovery attorney is assigned.
There are two federal cases in the crackdown. One focuses on high-stakes poker games while the other concerns a sports betting ring. The second indictment revolves around bets on NBA basketball games, which were allegedly placed using insider information related to injury reports.
The two indictments have a combined 34 defendants, 31 of whom are charged in the poker case.
Former NBA player Damon Jones has been indicted in both cases. He pleaded not guilty earlier this month in both indictments and was released on a $200,00 bond, secured by his parents’ Texas home. Jones appeared in court on Monday.
The indictment in the sports betting case has also ensnared Miami Heat playerTerry Rozier, who is accused of providing nonpublic information in exchange for a flat fee or a cut of the profits. In one game in particular, prosecutors allege, Rozier told a co-conspirator that he would fake an injury in order to leave a game early. Defendants charged solely under this indictment did not appear Monday in court.
Several alleged members of the mob appeared in court as prosecutors said many of the rigged ongoing poker games were backed by Mafia families. Most of the 31 accused defendants in the poker case had been released on bond over the past several weeks; however, defendants who prosecutors allege had strong ties to organized crime were not as fortunate.
Angelo Ruggiero, Jr., who prosecutors allege was a member of the Genovese crime family and an organizer of the Washington Place poker game, was denied bail after his attorney offered a bail application of $5 million. Thomas Gelardo, also known as “Juice,” who prosecutors allege isan associate of the Bonanno family, supervised the Lexington Avenue poker game and took a cut of the proceeds, prosecutors claim.
Because there are so many defendants, prosecutors filed a motion last week asking the court to divide the 31 defendants in the poker case into three groups, with each group having 10 to 11 defendants for status conferences for “convenience.” Some defense attorneys opposed the motion, saying the government is trying to “divide and conquer” the defendants. The judge reserved a decision during the hearing on whether or not the defendants would be broken up into groups, saying, “We will keep everyone together for the moment.”
Judge Reyes scheduled the next status conference for March 4 at 2:00 p.m.
Trucks and motels line Roosevelt Avenue in National City. (File image courtesy of Google Earth)
A Las Vegas man, Vincent Bailey, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for sex trafficking a 16-year-old, including for a time on a notorious National City strip that has been a magnet for prostitution for years, but which local law enforcement has failed to shut down.
Bailey’s sentencing followed a guilty plea to one count of sex trafficking. The 25-year-old was sentenced in late June, but the U.S. Attorney’s San Diego office didn’t release details of the case until Monday because of the government shutdown.
Bailey’s criminal activity in this case spanned less than a month in the summer of 2024, but prosecutors allege in a court filing that Bailey made enough in that time to buy a silver Tesla Model 3.
Bailey connected with the girl, identified only as ‘J F’ in the court filing, on Instagram and eventually drove her around Las Vegas pointing out prostitutes and asking if she would like to make money selling herself for him.
She declined, but spent the night with him, according to Bailey’s plea deal. The next day he took her to Los Angeles to pimp her out; he later took her to the South Bay.
In National City, J F called her mother for help. She had no money, a common strategy by pimps to maintain control over their prostitutes. The teen’s mother paid for a rideshare to a cafe, where she called National City police and asked them to meet her. When Bailey learned of this, according to court documents, he threatened to “smack the ‘F’ out of” her if he had to come get her.
She ignored his threat and returned to Las Vegas with a relative. But the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force by then had begun to investigate her case.
Ten days later, J F’s mother again reported her missing. Prosecutors traced online sex advertisements in Las Vegas at that time to Bailey, because he used the same language as in previous ads in Los Angeles and San Diego.
Interstate 5 connects National City to the so-called “pimp circuit.” A number of low-budget motels along Roosevelt Avenue east of I-5 offer easy access to the freeway. (Photo courtesy of Google Street View)
Finally, law enforcement arrested Bailey on Oct. 1, 2024 following a routine traffic stop by the California Highway Patrol. Investigators discovered the girl had been branded with a tattoo under her left eye, matching a tattoo Bailey had.
In National City, Bailey relied on a motel on the same stretch of Roosevelt Avenue described in a 2021 Times of San Diego story on extensive sex trafficking in the area.
The plea deal describes Bailey arriving in National City around 1 a.m., checking into a motel, and providing the teen a fake ID. He then told her to “go out on the ‘blade’ on Roosevelt Avenue for several hours.” “Blade” is how pimps refer to an area with a booming sex trade.
The earlier story described how this same area, Roosevelt along Interstate 5, was a magnet for sex trafficking, with several motels in the immediate area. National City Police Chief Jose Tellez, told Times of San Diego then that the street was a long-running problem the department had wrestled with for years.
“The area is frequented by pimps and traffickers” who have easy on-and-off access to the interstate, Tellez said. Former Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis said at the time her office was “making efforts to improve” the situation, including more and brighter street lighting and removing foliage along the street that provided cover for sex acts.
After Bailey’s sentencing, Mayor Ron Morrison said he believes his office and the police department have made things tougher for the sex trade. The problem, he said, has “fallen off, like a rock going over a cliff” and is “nowhere what it was.”
In addition, there is now a police tower in the area to observe behavior on the street.
“The truth is we can’t get all of them,” Morrison said, but he argued targeted efforts like “driving off the johns” are a strong deterrent in reducing the activity.
National City’s police department did not respond to a request for comment.
Before Bailey set up shop in National City, he had the young woman working what’s considered the “blade” in Los Angeles, a two-mile section of Figueroa Street in South Central LA.
The U.S. Attorney’s filing described ‘J F’ being sold in Los Angeles in two ways — “working street-based sex acts and through commercial sex advertisements” placed by Bailey. She told investigators she had “five commercial sex acts per day” and all of her earnings went to the defendant.
Stephany Powell — the executive director of a victim-serving nonprofit called Journey Out, and a former LAPD sergeant in charge of the city’s vice unit — said her LA cases regularly included victims from Bakersfield, Fresno, Las Vegas and San Diego.
Powell said a pimp like Bailey might leave Figueroa even when it’s still profitable if there is too much police activity.
“They’ll say ‘that the area’s hot,’ meaning that law enforcement’s paying a lot of attention to it,” she said. “So they’ll just move to another area until that gets hot, and they’ll move to another.”
The one thing the cities on the pimp circuit have in common, she said, “is the ability to make money there.”
Federal courthouse in downtown San Diego. (File photo by Chris Stone/Times of San Diego)
A former Qualcomm executive who was convicted of scheming to defraud the San Diego tech giant out of $180 million was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.
Karim Arabi, 59, was found guilty of hiding his role in the invention of a new microchip technology, as well as his part in a start-up company that sold the technology to Qualcomm.
Prosecutors said the one-time vice president of research and development’s employment agreement held that any inventions he created would belong to Qualcomm. Arabi’s attorneys, however, had argued that provision in his employment agreement was not enforceable under California law.
The technology sold to Qualcomm was purportedly invented by Arabi’s sister, Sheida Alan, but prosecutors alleged Arabi was the true inventor and also impersonated his sister in communications related to the start-up company behind the technology, Abreezio.
When Abreezio had to file new patent applications that would feature the inventor’s name, Arabi’s sister legally changed her last name from Arabi to Alan to hide her connection to her brother, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Qualcomm paid $150 million of the total purchase price before discovering the fraud. After the sale, which saw nearly $92 million go to Arabi’s sister, prosecutors said Arabi laundered the money to further conceal his involvement.
The Abreezio sale also resulted in Qualcomm filing a civil lawsuit against Arabi and his sister. The siblings reached a settlement with Qualcomm in which they agreed to pay more than $47 million to the company.
A San Diego federal jury convicted Arabi in April of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering charges. Along with prison, he was ordered to pay over $100 million in restitution, along with his co-defendants.
Arabi apologized in court during his sentencing hearing, saying, “I violated the trust of everyone who considered me a mentor, a leader and a role model.”
He also stated that money was not a motivating factor behind his actions, but instead that he was “driven by a desire to be part of an interesting project.”
His attorneys stated in court filings that he failed to disclose his involvement with Abreezio, but did not financially profit from the acquisition, while Qualcomm has since made millions from Abreezio’s technology.
Two other defendants involved in the company also have pleaded guilty and await sentencing next year.
Sanjiv Taneja, Abreezio’s CEO, admitted in his plea agreement that though Arabi’s sister was given the title of Abreezio’s “chief architect,” he had never met her and she wasn’t involved in any aspects of the company.
Ali Akbar Shokouhi, who also is a former Qualcomm employee and Abreezio’s primary investor, was fired by Qualcomm on conflict-of-interest grounds, prompting his role in the Abreezio deal to also be kept hidden.
A Colorado woman and two other activists opposed to President Donald Trump’s immigration raids in Los Angeles have been indicted on charges of illegally “doxing” a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, federal prosecutors said.
Ashleigh Brown, a 38-year-old woman from Aurora, is among the three accused of following the unidentified ICE agent home, livestreaming their pursuit and posting the agent’s address online, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Once they arrived at the agent’s home, prosecutors allege the women shouted “ICE lives on your street and you should know,” according to the indictment.
The defendants are each charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of publicly disclosing the personal information of a federal agent, the statement said.
Brown, who is being held in federal custody without bail, also faces charges of assault on a federal officer in a separate case stemming from a protest in Los Angeles in August, according to court records.
The Aurora woman was part of a small group of protesters who gathered outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building on Aug. 2 to protest immigration enforcement and raids in Los Angeles, according to court documents.
During that protest, Brown hit one of the Federal Protective Service officers trying to detain a man who jumped on the hood of a government car leaving the Roybal building, the criminal complaint alleges.
The Federal Protective Service is a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agency responsible for protecting federally owned and leased buildings.
Brown’s federal assault case is still ongoing.
Prosecutors said the second suspect accused of doxing an ICE agent, a 25-year-old woman from Panorama City in Los Angeles, is free on $5,000 bail. Authorities are still searching for the third defendant, a 37-year-old woman from Riverside, California.
“Our brave federal agents put their lives on the line every day to keep our nation safe,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. “The conduct of these defendants are deeply offensive to law enforcement officers and their families. If you threaten, dox, or harm in any manner one of our agents or employees, you will face prosecution and prison time.”
Doxing is a typically malicious practice that involves gathering private or identifying information and releasing it online without the person’s permission, usually in an attempt to harass, threaten, shame or exact revenge.
Attorneys for the women could not immediately be reached on Monday. An email was sent to the Federal Public Defender’s Office asking if its attorneys are representing the defendants.
According to the indictment, the three women last month followed an ICE agent from the federal building in downtown Los Angeles to the agent’s residence in Baldwin Park, east of LA. They livestreamed the entire event, court documents say.
In July, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to prosecute people for publishing federal agents’ personal information in response to fliers in Portland, Oregon, that called for people to collect intel on ICE.
Critics of the Trump administration’s raids have expressed outrage over federal agents wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves in public while arresting immigrants in California.
Last week, California became the first state to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while conducting official business.
A Nigerian national living in Minnesota has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison — and ordered to pay nearly $1.7 million in restitution — for defrauding a widowed Colorado woman through an elaborate cryptocurrency romance scam, federal authorities announced Tuesday.
The 37-year-old man, Adetomiwa Seun Akindele, will be deported to Nigeria once he serves his sentence, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.
Akindele pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in a scam in which authorities said he posed as a wealthy Italian-American businessman named Frank Labato on a dating website in 2018. Akindele and the woman began exchanging emails and phone calls during which Akindele “provided the victim with additional false details about his personal and work background, images, and photos, to substantiate his fictitious persona of ‘Frank.’”
Those conversations led to Akindele telling the woman she needed to open a cryptocurrency exchange account to help him out of a financial bind, authorities said. At his direction, she wired him nearly $1.7 million, which Akindele converted into various cryptocurrencies, laundered it across multiple crypto exchanges and then converted it back to U.S. dollars before depositing the money into his own bank accounts.
Akindele, according to federal authorities, fraudulently assured the woman he would repay her for what were characterized as loans to his business, even executing three fake “promissory notes” to reassure her she would be repaid.
“Romance scammers are relentless and cunning, preying on trust and emotion to exploit victims,” FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said in a statement. “This was an egregious case, and through relentless investigative work the perpetrator was tracked down and brought to justice.”
A former vice president at Colorado-based Arrow Electronics and the CEO of a contractor have been sentenced to federal prison for defrauding Arrow, a global provider of technology services and components, of nearly $2 million.
Michael Vergato, 52, who worked for Arrow, was sentenced to 46 months in prison. Mark Perlstein, 60, was sentenced to 25 months and fined $15,000.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said Monday that Vergato was convicted on six counts of wire fraud after a six-day trial in May. Perlstein pleaded guilty to wire fraud in June.
The men were jointly ordered to make restitution of $1.94 million. Each will serve three years of supervised release after their prison terms.
Authorities said according to Perlstein’s plea agreement and evidence presented at Vergato’s trial, the two devised a scheme to bill Arrow Electronics, based in Centennial, for performance tuning services. Vergato oversaw performance tuning of Arrow’s Oracle EBS data bases, including work by Perlstein’s company.
Perlstein and Vergato billed the data management company for services purportedly done by a shell company created by Vergato. The company, Oracle Performance Tuning and Optimization, or OPTO, submitted 21 fraudulent contracts and invoices to Arrow for work that was never performed, according to authorities.
Perlstein approved the invoices and wired payments to OPTO.
Nearly $2 million in company funds were funneled to OPTO, authorities said. Perlstein and Vergato divided the proceeds and concealed their involvement by using personal email accounts, other corporate entities, and fake identities.
Vergato used his stepdaughter’s identity to conduct business on behalf of OPTO, according to authorities. Tax records confirmed OPTO paid no salaries and issued no contractor forms.
Vergato kept approximately $874,000 of the $1.94 million, spending it on luxury vehicles, credit card payments, retirement accounts, and rent. Perlstein personally received more than $1 million.
“Corporate fraud of this magnitude undermines confidence in our business community and harms employees, customers, and shareholders alike,” said U.S.Attorney Peter McNeilly. “These sentences send a clear message: executives who abuse their authority for personal gain will be held accountable.”
U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang presided over the sentencing. The FBI investigated the case. The prosecution was handled by assistant U.S attorneys Nicole Cassidy, Bradley Giles and Bob Brown.
A federal judge excoriated the Justice Department over its handling of criminal cases during the Trump administration’s ongoing federal takeover of Washington, D.C., saying at a hearing Thursday that the department has brought “embarrassment and shame” on the government during its “rush” to charge individuals.
U.S. District Judge Zia Faruqui apologized to Edward Dana, a man who was charged for what the Justice Department and U.S. Secret Service said was a threat to kill President Trump last month. Dana spent a week in jail, only to have the charges against him dropped Thursday.
Faruqui said the U.S. is “past the point of constitutional crisis,” as the Trump administration “is playing cops and robbers, like children” during the federal takeover of Washington’s police department.
The judge also criticized the Justice Department over the D.C. U.S. attorney’s multiple failed indictments in recent weeks, saying he had a “grave concern” that in a “rush to get stats on Twitter or Truth Social” touting the takeover, the Justice Department has not given time to those who have been “illegally detained.”
Faruqui said there have been “too many misfires” by the Justice Department in attempting to prosecute people in D.C., and that the federal government is operating under the concept of “we’ll arrest people… then see what happens.”
Dana did not comment on the dismissal of charges when asked by CBS News for a reaction after the hearing.
Dana was arrested in August for allegedly destroying a light fixture and other property at a D.C. restaurant, but he was charged for threatening comments he made about Mr. Trump while he was being taken to a D.C. police station.
While he was seated in the back of a police car, charging documents allege Dana said he was “not going to tolerate fascism” and would “protect the Constitution by any means necessary,” before, the document alleges, he threatened to kill Mr. Trump and the officer driving him to the station.
“And that means killing you, officer, killing the President, killing anyone who stands in the way of our Constitution,” Dana said, according to a Secret Service affidavit. “You want to stand in the way of our Constitution, I will f****** kill you.”
Faruqui ordered the Justice Department to make a filing by Thursday night explaining its handling of Dana’s case, saying, “It’s Sept. 4. As of now we still have a constitutional democracy.”
At the end of Thursday’s hearing, Faruqui looked at Dana, who is a person of color, and said that “the government’s message to people who look like Mr. Dana is ‘be very afraid,’” before adding, “I’m afraid right now.”
In a post on X, U.S. Attorney in D.C. Jeanine Pirro said that Faruqui “took an oath to follow the law, yet he has allowed his politics to consistently cloud his judgment and his requirement to follow the law. America voted for safe communities, law and order, and this judge is the antithesis of that.”
Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump’s 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” where he worked with Brennan for two years on the broadcast. Rosen has been a producer for several CBS News podcasts, including “The Takeout,” “The Debrief” and “Agent of Betrayal: The Double Life of Robert Hanssen.”
One of the dozens of alleged gang members arrested and charged in federal court for their suspected involvement in gun violence across Minneapolis has been sentenced, court documents show.
Records filed earlier this week say Amarjah Lester entered a guilty plea to one charge of racketeer influenced corrupt organization and will spend two-and-a-half years in prison and another five years on probation.
Two other counts were dismissed following a motion by prosecutors, according to the sentencing document.
The crackdown was done via the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows federal authorities to prosecute a large number of gang members at once, after first establishing that the gang is part of a sizable criminal enterprise. This was the first time RICO had been used in the city since the law’s creation back in the 1970s.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana appliance store owner and supporter of former President Donald Trump was convicted Wednesday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol that interrupted certifying the 2020 Electoral College vote.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana announced the verdict.
Henry Phillip Muntzer of Dillon was arrested based on social media posts and videos taken inside the Capitol, according to court records.
Muntzer, 55, was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding and civil disorder, both felonies, following a bench trial before U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb. Muntzer was also found guilty of four misdemeanor charges. Sentencing is set for June 20.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Muntzer and a group of friends traveled to Washington to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally. After Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, Muntzer joined the crowd walking to the Capitol, where he spent about 38 minutes, including time on the Senate floor. He was among the last people to leave, according to court records.
Muntzer was involved in physical confrontations with law enforcement officers in the Senate chamber and in the Capitol Rotunda, prosecutors said.
Muntzer said he was unaware that the Electoral College certification was going on that day and that in any case the Senate and House had both recessed by the time he entered the building. He argues he therefore didn’t interfere with anything.
Muntzer said Wednesday that he was not allowed to present all the evidence he was aware of, including some classified documents, which he said gives him grounds to appeal.
In Dillon, Muntzer is known for a pro-QAnon mural on the building that houses his appliance store, according to the Dillon Tribune. Many QAnon followers believe in baseless conspiracy theories.
