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  • Amid crises, rural roots anchor Southern Baptists’ president

    Amid crises, rural roots anchor Southern Baptists’ president

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    FARMERSVILLE, Texas — A sweating Bart Barber trekked across a pasture in search of Bully Graham, the would-be patriarch of the rural pastor’s fledgling cattle herd.

    With the temperature in the mid-90s, the 52-year-old Texan found the bull — whose nickname reflects his owner’s affection for the late Rev. Billy Graham — and 11 heifers cooling under a canopy of trees.

    “Hey, baby girl,” Barber said as he patted a favorite cow he dubbed Lottie Moon after the namesake of his denomination’s international missions offering.

    For nearly a quarter-century, Barber enjoyed relative obscurity as a minister in this town 50 miles northeast of Dallas. That changed in June as delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, chose Barber to lead the nation’s largest Protestant denomination at a time of major crisis.

    The previous month a scathing, 288-page investigative report hit the denomination’s 13.7 million members. It laid out the findings of an independent probe detailing how Southern Baptist leaders stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations.

    In August, SBC leaders revealed that the Department of Justice was investigating several of its major entities, giving few details but indicating that the inquiry concerned the sex abuse allegations.

    Barber’s background as a trusted, small-town preacher — not to mention his folksy sense of humor — helps explain why fellow Baptists picked him.

    “In this moment where I think there’s a lot of widespread distrust of these big institutions, I think a lot of people find it refreshing that the one leading us is an everyday pastor,” said Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

    A staunch theological conservative, Barber touts biblical inerrancy, opposes women serving as pastors and supports abortion bans. In running for SBC president, he expressed a desire to be a peacemaker and a unifier.

    The SBC faces multiple challenges. Rank-and-file Baptists have demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing sex abuse reforms, but the final outcome remains unclear. The denomination also has a problem with falling membership, which has slid 16% from its 2006 peak.

    Nathan Finn, a church historian and provost of North Greenville University in South Carolina, agreed that Barber’s small-town appeal is a big part of why Baptists turned to him.

    “Though he is a well-educated church historian and an expert on SBC history and polity, Bart is not an elitist,” Finn said via email. “He gives the impression that he would rather be working on his farm than hobnobbing with denominational leaders.”

    After recently appointing an abuse task force that will make recommendations at next year’s annual meeting in New Orleans, Barber said identifying solutions to the problem is his top priority.

    Barber grew up in a Southern Baptist family in Lake City, Arkansas. Baptized just before his sixth birthday, he felt God calling him to ministry at age 11 and preached his first sermon at 15.

    His late father, Jim, ran the home office for an Arkansas congressman, a Democrat named Bill Alexander. His stay-at-home mother, Carolyn, now 77, taught him to read by the time he entered kindergarten.

    Often his dad would bring politicians by the house, he recalled, and his mom would make chicken pot pie or smothered steak with mashed potatoes and gravy.

    “Here we were in very small-town Arkansas — not a lot of money, not a lot of fame or anything like that — and a gubernatorial candidate would stop by the house,” Barber said.

    He attended Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he met his future wife, Tracy, in a campus ministry. They have two children: Jim, 19, and Sarah, 16.

    He also earned a master’s in divinity and a doctorate in church history from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He pastored in Mill Creek, Oklahoma, and Royse City, Texas, before moving to Farmersville in 1999.

    “He has the heart of a pastor. He is someone who really cares about folks,” Tracy Barber said of her husband of 30 years. “The people in our church are our family.”

    Steve Speir, 74, is a 42-year member of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, which averages Sunday attendance of about 320. His wife, Linda, plays the church organ.

    Barber is “very organized,” Speir said. “He won’t keep anything hidden. Our entire church has full disclosure on all financial matters.”

    Another longtime member, Donna Armstrong, 75, said: “We never doubt whether he’s biblically based or loves the Lord.”

    On a recent Sunday, Barber got up at 4:30 a.m., attended a deacons meeting at 7 and preached at 8:30 and 11. After a nap, he drove to Dallas and flew to Nashville, Tennessee, for meetings at the Southern Baptist Convention headquarters.

    “It is stressful. It is time-consuming. I do enjoy it,” Barber said of his new job.

    Back home later in the week, he rose before the sun on Saturday to help his daughter load a 1,000-pound heifer named Iris into a cattle trailer. They drove a half-hour to a livestock show.

    There, Barber greeted special-needs children who came to see the animals, used clippers to help Sarah shave Iris and periodically shoveled manure into a garbage can.

    He also enjoyed a friendly chat with rancher Joni Brewer about her miniature Hereford cows. Brewer attends a Southern Baptist church, but she had no clue about Barber’s role with the SBC.

    “I live out in the country,” she said, “so you don’t always see all of those things.”

    But James Callagher, who knows Barber through 4-H Club activities, described his friend as perfect for the job.

    “The thing that sticks out to me is just authenticity,” said Callagher, who is Catholic. “He lives his faith, and as Christians we have a lot of common ground.”

    In addition to such in-person contacts, Barber maintains an active Twitter presence. Just in the last week, he posted pictures of his cows, debated biblical qualifications for church leaders and shared SBC plans for Hurricane Ian relief.

    Barber and his family live in a church-owned parsonage, but last year they bought 107 acres of land where they’re raising their Santa Gertrudis beef cattle.

    In a recent sermon, Barber joked that a boyhood job chopping cotton and hoeing soybeans was what inspired him to go into ministry. Asked on the drive back from the livestock show if he’s now enjoying life as a farm owner, Barber smiled.

    “Not only that, but I’m surviving everything else because of how I’m enjoying it,” he said. “It’s a great source of tranquility for me.”

    ———

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • A look at some of the world’s major crowd disasters

    A look at some of the world’s major crowd disasters

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    MALANG, Indonesia — Police fired tear gas after riots broke out at an Indonesian soccer match in East Java province when Persebaya Surabaya beat Arema Malang 3-2. Panic and a rush for the exit left over 170 people dead, most of whom were trampled, police said Sunday. Here’s a look at some of the major crowd disasters in recent decades:

    Dec. 3, 1979 — Eleven people are killed as thousands of fans rush to get into a concert by The Who at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.

    Jan. 20, 1980 — A temporary four-story wooden stadium collapses at a bullfight in Sincelejo, Colombia, killing some 200 spectators.

    Oct. 20, 1982 — Sixty-six people die in a crush of fans leaving a UEFA Cup match between Spartak Moscow and Haarlem, of the Netherlands, at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

    May 28, 1985 — Thirty-nine people died in fan violence at the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels.

    March 13, 1988 — Ninety-three people are killed when thousands of soccer fans surge into locked stadium exits to escape a sudden hailstorm in Kathmandu, Nepal.

    April 15, 1989 — Ninety-seven people die and hundreds are injured in a crush of fans at overcrowded Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. One victim died in 2021 of aspiration pneumonia, to which he had been left vulnerable because of injuries from the disaster.

    July 2, 1990 — During the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia, 1,426 Muslim pilgrims, mainly from Asia, die in and around a long pedestrian tunnel leading from Mecca to Mina.

    January 13, 1991 — Forty-two people are killed when fans try to escape brawls at Oppenheimer Stadium in South Africa.

    May 23, 1994 — A crush of pilgrims at the hajj leaves 270 Muslim pilgrims dead.

    Nov. 23, 1994 — A panicked crush during a political protest in Nagpur, India, leaves 113 dead.

    Oct. 16, 1996 — Eighty-four people die and 147 are injured as panicked fans are crushed and smothered before a World Cup qualifier between Guatemala and Costa Rica in Guatemala City.

    April 9, 1998 — A crush of pilgrims on a bridge in Mecca leaves 118 hajj pilgrims dead.

    April 11, 2001 — At least 43 people are crushed to death during a soccer match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    May 9, 2001 — More than 120 people are killed when police fire tear gas into the rowdy crowd in a stadium in the Ghanaian capital Accra, leading to panic.

    Feb. 17, 2003 — Twenty-one are crushed to death in the stairway exit to E2, a nightclub in Chicago.

    Feb. 20, 2003 — Stage pyrotechnics during a Great White concert at the Station nightclub in Warwick, Rhode Island, spark a fire that kills 100 people and injures more than 200 others.

    Feb. 1, 2004 — A panic during a hajj ritual at the Jamarat Bridge near Mecca leaves 251 people dead.

    Jan. 25, 2005 — A panic among Hindu pilgrims near Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India, leaves 265 people dead.

    Aug. 31, 2005 — At least 640 Shiite Muslim pilgrims in Baghdad are killed when a railing on a bridge collapses during a religious procession, sending scores into the Tigris River.

    Jan. 12, 2006 — A panic among Muslim pilgrims during a hajj ceremony near Mecca leaves 345 people dead.

    Feb. 4, 2006 — Seventy-eight people are killed in a panicked crush that happened at PhilSports Arena stampede in Manila, Philippines, as they were waiting for a TV variety show audition.

    Sept. 30, 2008 — At least 168 people are killed and 100 are injured when thousands of Hindu pilgrims are caught in a panic at a temple in Jodhpur, India.

    July 24, 2010 — Twenty-one people die and more than 650 are injured in a crush in a packed tunnel that was the sole access point to the Love Parade music festival in Duisburg, Germany.

    Nov. 22, 2010 — More than 340 people are killed and hundreds of others are injured during a panicked crush at a festival in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

    Jan. 27, 2013 — A fire kills more than 200 people at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil.

    Sept. 24, 2015 — At least 2,411 Muslim pilgrims die in a crush during the hajj in Saudi Arabia.

    April 30, 2021 — Forty-five people are killed and dozens more are wounded in a panicked crush at the annual Mount Meron pilgrimage in Israel.

    Nov. 5, 2021 — Fans at a Houston music festival surge toward the stage during a performance by rapper Travis Scott, triggering panic that leaves 10 people dead and many more injured.

    Oct. 1, 2022 — Police fire tear gas after riots break out following an Indonesian soccer match, setting off a rush for the exit that leaves at least 174 dead and 100 more injured.

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  • UN, abuse survivor groups seek Vatican investigation of Belo

    UN, abuse survivor groups seek Vatican investigation of Belo

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    VATICAN CITY — The United Nations and advocacy groups for survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging Pope Francis to authorize a full investigation of Catholic Church archives on three continents to ascertain who knew what and when about sexual abuse by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East Timor.

    The Vatican’s sex abuse office said last week that it had secretly sanctioned Belo in 2020, forbidding him from having contact with minors or with East Timor, based on misconduct allegations that arrived in Rome in 2019. That was the year Francis approved a new church law that required all cases of predator prelates to be reported in-house and established a mechanism to investigate bishops, who had long escaped accountability for abuse or cover-up during the church’s decades-long scandal.

    But a brief statement by the Vatican, issued after Dutch magazine De Groen Amsterdammer exposed the Belo scandal by quoting two of his alleged victims, didn’t reveal what church officials might have known before 2019.

    Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon Jose Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to conflict in their home country as it struggled to gain independence from Indonesia. He is revered in East Timor and was celebrated abroad for his bravery in calling out human rights abuses by Indonesian rulers despite threats against his life.

    But six years after winning the prize, in 2002, Belo suddenly retired as the head of the church in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. At 54, he was two decades shy of the normal retirement age for bishops, and he never held an episcopal appointment after that.

    He has said he retired for health reasons and because of stress and to give the newly independent East Timor different church leadership. But within a year of his retirement, Belo had been sent by the Vatican and his Salesian missionary order to another former Portuguese colony, Mozambique, to work as a missionary priest. There, he has said, he spent his time “teaching catechism to children, giving retreats to young people.”

    He is currently in Portugal, where the Salesians have said they took him in at the request of their superiors. His whereabouts are unclear, and he didn’t respond when contacted by Portuguese media.

    Advocates for survivors cite the in-house investigation that Francis authorized and published in 2020 into defrocked American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in calling for a similar forensic study of church archives for Belo.

    The McCarrick investigation, which began after new allegations surfaced in 2018 that McCarrick sexually abused a teenage altar boy, exposed how a series of bishops, cardinals and even popes over two decades dismissed or downplayed reports that he slept with his seminarians and allowed him to rise through the church hierarchy.

    There is no indication yet that Francis is prepared to authorize a similar investigation into Belo. There doesn’t appear to be any groundswell of indignation within East Timor’s Catholic community, as there was among U.S. Catholics over McCarrick. On the contrary, in the impoverished, overwhelmingly Catholic country, where the church holds enormous influence, many rallied behind Belo despite the allegations.

    Francis did meet Saturday with his ambassador to Portugal as well as the head of the Portuguese Bishops Conference, who himself is reportedly accused of covering up for other abuser priests.

    Anne Barrett-Doyle, of the online resource Bishop Accountability, called for Francis to order a “full and sweeping investigation of the Belo case including past and present church officials from all ranks and dicasteries and from every relevant region, from East Timor to Portugal to Rome to Mozambique.”

    She noted that Belo’s Salesian superiors as well as Vatican officials, up to and including even Pope John Paul II, would have been involved in his 2002 retirement and subsequent transfers. East Timor is and was then under the jurisdiction of the powerful Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which handles all church matters in mission territories in Africa, Asia and some other regions. But ultimately a pope decides when bishops retire and whether they are subject to any sanction.

    “The Vatican’s suggestion that it first learned of the allegations in the last few years doesn’t pass the smell test. It is wholly implausible,” Barrett-Doyle said in an email. “Signs point to the real possibility that Belo is another McCarrick – an acclaimed churchman whose predations were known to many church officials.”

    The United Nations’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, also backed a full investigation.

    “These allegations are truly shocking and need to be fully investigated,” he told The Associated Press. The United Nations organized a referendum on East Timor’s independence in 1999 and then provided a U.N. peacekeeping force to quell widespread violence that broke out until independence was finally declared in 2002.

    The main U.S.-based advocacy group for survivors of priestly sex abuse, SNAP, joined the call for a more thorough inquest, especially given that Belo was allowed to continue ministering to children while in Mozambique.

    “We learn from many allegations of sexual abuse against children that there are often more victims. In this tragedy, the Vatican set Belo free to have access to potentially more victims,” said SNAP communications manager, Mike McDonnell.

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  • Chinese billionaire Richard Liu settles US rape allegation

    Chinese billionaire Richard Liu settles US rape allegation

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    MINNEAPOLIS — Chinese billionaire and JD.com founder Richard Liu agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a former University of Minnesota student who alleged he raped her in her Minneapolis apartment after a night of dinner and drinks with wealthy Chinese executives in 2018, attorneys for both sides announced Saturday.

    Richard Liu, who stepped down as the CEO of Beijing-based e-commerce company JD.com this year amid increased government scrutiny of China’s technology industry, has denied raping the woman, Jingyao Liu.

    In a joint statement released Saturday night, attorneys for both sides said: “The incident between Ms. Jingyao Liu and Mr. Richard Liu in Minnesota in 2018 resulted in a misunderstanding that has consumed substantial public attention and brought profound suffering to the parties and their families. Today, the parties agreed to set aside their differences, and settle their legal dispute in order to avoid further pain and suffering caused by the lawsuit.”

    A settlement amount was not disclosed. The settlement was announced just two days before a trial was set to begin in a Minneapolis courtroom.

    Richard Liu was arrested on suspicion of felony rape in August 2018, but prosecutors said the case had “profound evidentiary problems” and declined to file criminal charges.

    Jingyao Liu sued Richard Liu in 2019, saying he and the other businessmen coerced her to drink alcohol at a group dinner, and that he forced himself on her in his vehicle and later raped her in her apartment.

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  • Chinese billionaire Richard Liu settles US rape allegation

    Chinese billionaire Richard Liu settles US rape allegation

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    MINNEAPOLIS — Chinese billionaire and JD.com founder Richard Liu agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a former University of Minnesota student who alleged he raped her in her Minneapolis apartment after a night of dinner and drinks with wealthy Chinese executives in 2018, attorneys for both sides announced Saturday.

    Richard Liu, who stepped down as the CEO of Beijing-based e-commerce company JD.com this year amid increased government scrutiny of China’s technology industry, has denied raping the woman, Jingyao Liu.

    In a joint statement released Saturday night, attorneys for both sides said: “The incident between Ms. Jingyao Liu and Mr. Richard Liu in Minnesota in 2018 resulted in a misunderstanding that has consumed substantial public attention and brought profound suffering to the parties and their families. Today, the parties agreed to set aside their differences, and settle their legal dispute in order to avoid further pain and suffering caused by the lawsuit.”

    A settlement amount was not disclosed. The settlement was announced just two days before a trial was set to begin in a Minneapolis courtroom.

    Richard Liu was arrested on suspicion of felony rape in August 2018, but prosecutors said the case had “profound evidentiary problems” and declined to file criminal charges.

    Jingyao Liu sued Richard Liu in 2019, saying he and the other businessmen coerced her to drink alcohol at a group dinner, and that he forced himself on her in his vehicle and later raped her in her apartment.

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  • Chinese billionaire Richard Liu, founder of JD.com, settles lawsuit over alleged rape of ex-Minnesota student in 2018

    Chinese billionaire Richard Liu, founder of JD.com, settles lawsuit over alleged rape of ex-Minnesota student in 2018

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    Chinese billionaire Richard Liu, founder of JD.com, settles lawsuit over alleged rape of ex-Minnesota student in 2018

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  • Migrant-death suspect ran detention center accused of abuse

    Migrant-death suspect ran detention center accused of abuse

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    AUSTIN, Texas — One of two Texas brothers who authorities say opened fire on a group of migrants getting water near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one and injuring another, was warden at a detention facility with a history of abuse allegations.

    The shooting happened Tuesday in rural Hudspeth County about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from El Paso, according to court documents filed Thursday. One man was killed; a woman was taken to a hospital in El Paso where she was recovering from a gunshot wound in her stomach, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

    DPS said the victims were among a group of migrants standing alongside the road drinking water out of a reservoir when a truck with two men inside pulled over. According to court documents, the group had taken cover as the truck first passed to avoid being detected, but the truck then backed up. The driver then exited the vehicle and fired two shots at the group.

    Witnesses from the group told federal agents that just before hearing the gunshots, they heard one of the two men in the vehicle yell derogatory terms to them and rev the engine, according to court documents.

    Authorities located the truck by checking cameras and finding a vehicle matching the description given by the migrants, according to court records.

    Michael Sheppard and Mark Sheppard, both 60, were charged with manslaughter, according to court documents. Court records did not list attorneys for either man. Contact information for them or for their representatives could not be found and attempts to reach them for comment since their arrest have been unsuccessful.

    Records show that Michael Sheppard was warden at the West Texas Detention Facility, a privately owned center that has housed migrant detainees. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Associated Press that no ICE detainees had been held at that detention facility since October 2019, following the opening of a larger detention facility nearby.

    Scott Sutterfield, a spokesman for facility operator Lasalle Corrections, responded to an AP email asking whether Sheppard had been fired as warden. Sutterfield said the warden had been fired “due to an off-duty incident unrelated to his employment.” Sutterfield declined further comment, citing the “ongoing criminal investigation.”

    A 2018 report by The University of Texas and Texas A&M immigration law clinics and immigration advocacy group RAICES cited multiple allegations of physical and verbal abuse against African migrants at the facility. According to the report, the warden “was involved in three of the detainees’ reports of verbal threats, as well as in incidents of physical assault.” The warden cited in the report was not named.

    However, Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat, said in a press conference Saturday that Sheppard was in fact the warden at the facility at the time of the allegations and when the report was published. According to information provided by Doggett’s office, the webpage for Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections listed Sheppard as an employee at West Texas since 2015.

    Doggett, along with other Texas Democratic congressmen, called on Saturday for a federal investigation into the shooting.

    “The dehumanizing, the demeaning of people who seek refuge in this country, many of whom are people of color, is what contributed to the violence we see here,” Doggett said.

    In one account detailed in the report, a migrant told the lawyers that the warden hit him in the face while at the nurse’s station and when he turned to the medical officers he was told they “didn’t see anything.”

    “I was then placed in solitary confinement, where I was forced to lie face down on the floor with my hands handcuffed behind my back while I was kicked repeatedly in the ribs by the Warden,” a migrant referred to as Dalmar said in the report.

    The attorneys submitted a civil rights complaint over the allegations that year but according to response letter sent to the lawyers in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties conducted an onsite investigation, made multiple recommendations to ICE, but did not find evidence of “any excessive use of force incidents” or “incidents of wrongful segregation” and found some uses of force to have been appropriate.

    Fatma Marouf, a co-author of the report and director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Texas A&M, said it was difficult for authorities to follow up on the allegations because many of the people interviewed for the report were deported shortly after.

    Marouf said current views on immigration enforcement based in deterring people at all costs have “spiraled out of control.”

    “We don’t even see people as humans anymore,” Marouf said.

    The number of Venezuelans taken into custody at the U.S.- Mexico soared in August, while fewer migrants from Mexico and some Central American countries were stopped, officials said earlier this month. Overall, U.S. authorities stopped migrants 203,598 times in August, up 1.8% from 199,976 times in July but down 4.7% from 213,593 times in August 2021.

    Silky Shah, executive director of advocacy organization Detention Watch Network, said this is both a problem of the current rhetoric around immigration, including the use of terms like “invasion” by GOP leaders including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and inaction from federal officials to move away from the previous administration’s immigration policies that added to this sentiment.

    “I think there is no question that there is a discourse that is stoking actions like this,” Shah said.

    ————

    Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat and Paul Weber contributed to this report.

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  • Man shot several times at California youth football game

    Man shot several times at California youth football game

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    ONTARIO, Calif. — A 34-year-old man was shot several times and seriously wounded at a youth game Saturday morning in Southern California, police said.

    Ontario police said the man was targeted on a sidewalk between the playing field and parking lot at Colony High School.

    No one else was injured, and there was no further threat.

    The wounded man was taken to a nearby hospital and listed in serious condition, spokesperson Sequoia Payton said.

    An unknown number of suspects fled, and the motive was not known, Payton said.

    Police were interviewing witnesses for more information.

    The game was not a school-sponsored event, police said.

    ———

    This story has been corrected to reflect that the man was not shot on the field as police previously reported.

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  • Mormon leader calls abuse ‘abomination’ amid policy scrutiny

    Mormon leader calls abuse ‘abomination’ amid policy scrutiny

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    SALT LAKE CITY — Russell M. Nelson, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told members of the faith on Saturday that abuse was “a grievous sin” that shouldn’t be tolerated and would bring down the wrath of God on perpetrators.

    Though the leader of the nearly 17-million member faith did not mention it directly, the remarks were the first on abuse from a senior church leader since The Associated Press published an investigation into how the church handles reports of sexual abuse when brought to its attention.

    “Let me be perfectly clear: any kind of abuse of women, children, or anyone is an abomination to the Lord,” Nelson told members of the faith gathered in Salt Lake City for its twice-yearly conference.

    The AP’s investigation found the hotline the church uses for abuse reporting can be misused by its leaders to divert accusations away from law enforcement and toward church attorneys. The story, based on sealed records and court cases filed in Arizona and West Virginia, uncovered a host of concerns, including how church officials have cited exemptions to mandatory reporting laws, known as clergy-penitent privilege, as reason to not report abuse.

    Since its publication, the church has said the investigation mischaracterizes its policies, while underlining how its teachings condemn abuse in the strongest terms.

    The church has historically used its conference to set a tone for its members, reflect on current events and announce changes in doctrine. Nelson’s remarks on Saturday echoed the statements the church has released since the publication of the AP’s investigation — condemning abuse, while also defending the church’s policies.

    “For decades now, the Church has taken extensive measures to protect — in particular — children from abuse,” Nelson, the church’s 98-year-old president, said sitting on a stool behind a conference center lectern, imploring listeners to research church policy themselves.

    Nelson described abuse as an influence of “the adversary,” employing a term the church frequently uses to describe forces that oppose the gospel and its teachings.

    Amid the church’s insistence that reporting mischaracterizes its sexual abuse hotline, Nelson also said “the adversary” worked “to blur the line between what is true and what is not true.”

    Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe Nelson is a prophet.

    This weekend’s event, which runs Saturday and Sunday, is broadcast to members around the world.

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  • Untested rape kits plagued Memphis long before jogger case

    Untested rape kits plagued Memphis long before jogger case

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    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Problems with rape kit evidence testing keep haunting Memphis.

    A city long plagued by a heavy backlog of untested sexual assault kits was shaken by Cleotha Henderson’s arrest in the killing of Eliza Fletcher after she was abducted during a morning jog last month.

    So when authorities said his DNA was linked to a rape that occurred nearly a year earlier — charging him separately days after he was arrested in Fletcher’s killing — an outraged city turned to the obvious question: Why was he still on the streets?

    The case of Henderson, who already has served 20 years in prison for a kidnapping he committed at 16, has reignited criticism of Tennessee’s sexual assault testing process. That has included calls for shorter delays from the testing agency, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and questions about why Memphis didn’t seek to fast-track a kit that could have been tested in days.

    Instead, it took nearly a year, unearthing key evidence too late to charge Henderson before Fletcher’s killing.

    The tragic outcome brings back memories from the early 2010s, when Memphis revealed a backlog of about 12,000 untested rape kits that took years to whittle down and led to a lawsuit that’s still ongoing. The new rape charges have spurred another lawsuit accusing the Memphis Police Department of negligence for the delay.

    The scenario also has raised broader concerns about Tennessee’s struggles with a problem that has been in the national spotlight for decades and that some states have addressed.

    In response, GOP Gov. Bill Lee and Republican legislative leaders have fast-tracked money for 25 additional TBI lab positions, including six in DNA processing. The agency had requested 50 more this year, but Lee funded only 25 in his proposed budget and lawmakers approved that amount.

    Meghan Ybos, a rape victim involved in the backlog lawsuit, blames the city for not curbing a problem known for years despite receiving more than $20 million in grants to address the backlog.

    “I don’t think the shortcomings of Memphis law enforcement are limited to the handling of rape kits,” Ybos said, “but I think the public should be outraged at the lack of transparency about what Memphis has done with tens of millions of grant money that the city and county have received to test rape kits, train police, hire victim advocates, prosecute cold rape cases and more.”

    As of August, Tennessee’s three state labs averaged from 28 to 49 weeks to process rape kits under circumstances that don’t include an order to rush the test. More than 950 rape kits sat untested in labs.

    TBI attributed the delays to staffing woes and low pay that complicates recruiting and keeping scientists.

    TBI Director David Rausch laid out further moves in hopes of processing all evidence in eight to 12 weeks within the next year: Overtime, weekend hours, more outsourcing to private labs and using retired TBI workers for new worker training to free up current employees.

    Tennessee doesn’t require specific turnaround times for newly collected rape kits, though 19 other states do, according to the Joyful Heart Foundation, which is pushing Tennessee to follow suit. Massachusetts requires processing kits within 30 days, but most of the states require testing within 60, 90 or 120 days.

    Tennessee’s House and Senate speakers haven’t flagged turnaround mandates as a priority. TBI, meanwhile, said any turnaround requirement would need proper funding.

    Ilse Knecht, policy and advocacy director for the Joyful Heart Foundation, said Tennessee’s problems aren’t unique. Without an official U.S. count of rape kits awaiting analysis, Knecht estimated there are likely more than 200,000 untested kits in law enforcement or hospital storage nationally.

    “Every single one of these kits that is sitting on a shelf could represent someone like the offender in this case, where you look at their criminal history and they’re committing all kinds of crime, they’ve been doing it for decades, and the evidence that could stop them is sitting on a shelf somewhere,” Knecht told The Associated Press.

    Henderson was charged with first-degree murder in the kidnapping and killing of Fletcher, a mother of two and a kindergarten teacher who was on a pre-dawn run Sept. 2 when she was forced into an SUV on the University of Memphis campus. Her remains were found on Sept. 5 behind a vacant Memphis house.

    Henderson, who also has gone by Cleotha Abston, has not entered a plea in the killing but was rebooked in jail on Sept. 9 on charges related to the September 2021 rape of a Memphis woman. Henderson has pleaded not guilty to charges in that attack, including aggravated rape.

    The new lawsuit brought by the woman who says she was raped in that attack says Memphis police could have prevented Fletcher’s death if they had investigated the 2021 rape more vigorously.

    “Cleotha Abston should and could have been arrested and indicted for the aggravated rape of (the alleged victim) many months earlier, most likely in the year 2021,” the lawsuit says. The AP isn’t naming the woman.

    Rape kits contain semen, saliva or blood samples taken from a victim. Specimens containing DNA evidence are uploaded to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, to check for a match.

    In Memphis, backlogs have long been a problem. About 12,000 untested rape kits were disclosed there in 2013. A task force was formed, and police began using results to start investigations — and get some convictions.

    The city has said the backlog revealed in 2013 has been eliminated. But long delays in testing rape kits persist in Tennessee, including cases from Memphis.

    In the Henderson case, Memphis police said a sexual assault report was taken Sept. 21, 2021. A rape kit was submitted two days later to TBI, the bureau said.

    “An official CODIS hit was not received until after” Fletcher’s abduction, police said, and probable cause to make an arrest “did not exist until after the CODIS hit had been received.”

    TBI said no request was made for expedited analysis and no suspect information was included in the submission.

    The kit eventually was pulled from evidence storage and an initial report was completed Aug. 29, the bureau said.

    The 2021 DNA matched Henderson’s in the national database on Sept. 5, three days after Fletcher’s abduction, authorities said. TBI reported the match to Memphis police.

    Under Tennessee law, police agencies generally have 30 days to send rape kit evidence to TBI or another lab, but there’s no mandate on processing times.

    TBI said its budget request was conservative — $10.2 million for 40 scientists and 10 lower-level positions. A West Virginia University forensic calculator said TBI labs needed another 71 positions, the bureau noted.

    In DNA testing, the labs currently have six supervisors and 26 special agent/forensic scientist positions, some in hiring or lengthy new hire training. TBI hopes to start the 40 scientists — 14 in DNA — by late this month and others by late March.

    Still, many have grown impatient at a situation they say called for urgency.

    “These are our most vulnerable victims,” said Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City, a Memphis organization pressing for a fairer criminal justice system. “To have a backlog like that build up, and still, to this day, have it be the norm that a rape kit test takes the many months that it does, is really not acceptable.”

    ———

    Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee.

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  • 1 teen killed, 1 wounded in Tulsa homecoming game shooting

    1 teen killed, 1 wounded in Tulsa homecoming game shooting

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    TULSA, Okla. — A teenager was killed and another was wounded in a shooting at a high school homecoming game in Oklahoma Friday night, police said.

    The victims, both 17, were shot during the event at McLain High School for Science and Technology shortly before 10 p.m., according to a statement by the Tulsa Police Department posted on Twitter and Facebook.

    “When Officers arrived, we found two victims amongst the crowd of hundreds. One 17-year-old male was pronounced dead at the scene,” the post said.

    The surviving victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition but has improved to stable condition, the statement said.

    Several officers and a K-9 unit searched nearby neighborhoods but were not immediately able to find the suspected shooter, who fled the scene on foot, police said.

    The school on N. Peoria Avenue has an enrollment of 666 students, according to the McLain High School website.

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  • Myanmar accuses rebels in east of shooting passenger plane

    Myanmar accuses rebels in east of shooting passenger plane

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    BANGKOK — Myanmar’s military government accused rebel forces in the eastern state of Kayah of firing at a passenger plane as it was preparing to land Friday, wounding a passenger who was hit by a bullet that penetrated the fuselage. Rebel groups denied the allegation.

    State television MRTV said the Myanmar National Airlines plane, carrying 63 passengers, was hit as it was about to land in Loikaw, the capital of the eastern state of Kayah, also known as Karenni.

    It said Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s ruling military council, said the shooting was carried out by “terrorists” belonging to the Karenni National Progressive Party, an ethnic minority militia battling the government, and their allies in the People’s Defense Force, an armed pro-democracy group.

    “I want to say that this kind of attack on the passenger plane is a war crime,” he told MRTV by phone. “People and organizations who want peace need to condemn this issue all round.”

    MRTV said the bullet entered the plane’s lower fuselage as it was flying at an altitude of 3,500 feet about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) north of the airport. It said the injured passenger was taken to a hospital.

    The state news agency released photos it said were of the bullet hole and the passenger being treated.

    Myanmar National Airlines’ office in Loikaw announced that all flights to the city were canceled indefinitely.

    Kayah state has experienced intense conflict between the military and local resistance groups since the army seized power last year, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

    The Feb. 1, 2021, takeover was met with peaceful nationwide protests, but after the army and police cracked down with lethal force on street demonstrators opposing military rule, thousands of civilians formed militia units as part of a People’s Defense Force to fight back.

    The PDF groups are allied with well-established armed ethnic minority groups such as the Karenni, the Karen and the Kachin which have been fighting the central government for more than half a century, seeking greater autonomy in border regions.

    Khu Daniel, a leader of the Karenni National Progressive Party, denied the government’s accusation and said his party had not ordered its armed wing, the Karenni Army, to shoot at civilians or passenger planes.

    “The military always blames other organizations for the shootings. Our armed wing didn’t shoot the plane this morning,” he told The Associated Press.

    Government spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said it has been providing security around the airport and accused the KNPP and PDF of creating chaos in Loikaw by firing artillery into the city and the area near the airport.

    Since the military seized power, there have been frequent clashes in Kayah between the army and local anti-government guerrillas near a base belonging to the government’s 54th Light Infantry Battalion, located south of the airport. State-run media reported last Christmas that the KNPP and PDF attacked a Myanmar National Airlines passenger plane with four 107mm rockets, which exploded about 2,000 meters (1.2 miles) east of the airport, injuring no one.

    The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, another ethnic rebel group, earlier advised against traveling on Myanmar National Airlines because it is state-owned, so its revenues go to the military, and the army uses it to supply its forces.

    The information officer of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, who spoke on condition of anonymity to safeguard his personal security, called the government’s allegation about Friday’s shooting “nothing more than defamatory propaganda against the revolutionary forces by the Military Council.”

    “The runway and the area of the airfield are surrounded by infantry battalions and high security areas. So to say that PDFs attacked the plane is only an accusation,” he said.

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  • 5 slain in Texas neighborhood identified; suspect charged

    5 slain in Texas neighborhood identified; suspect charged

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    McGREGOR, Texas — Officials have disclosed the identities of five people killed in a Central Texas neighborhood, as well as the suspect in the slayings.

    The Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that Nicolas Jaimes-Hernandez, 35, of Mexico, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. More charges are pending.

    He was shot and wounded Thursday in a gunfight with officers at the scene where five people were found shot dead, officials said. He was treated at a hospital before being booked into the McLennan County Jail without bond.

    The five bodies were found at two houses in McGregor, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Waco. The DPS identified them as Monica Delgado, 38, Miguel Avila, 15, and Natallie Avila, 14, along with next-door neighbors Lorena Aviles, 47, and her daughter, Natalie Aviles, 20.

    Esme Ortuno, Delgado’s cousin, said that Jaimes-Hernandez was Delgado’s husband and stepfather of the two slain children. Renee Flores, sister of Lorena Aviles, said her sister and niece were innocent bystanders.

    The Texas Rangers were leading the investigation. No motive for the shootings has been released.

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  • Woman charged with setting fire at apartment that killed 4

    Woman charged with setting fire at apartment that killed 4

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    A former tenant is heading to court to face arson and murder charges in connection with a fire at a Massachusetts apartment building that claimed the lives of four people, including a man who had sued right-wing radio host Alex Jones’ Infowars website

    WORCESTER, Mass. — A former tenant is heading to court Friday to face arson and murder charges in connection with a fire at a Massachusetts apartment building last May that claimed the lives of four people, including a man who had sued right-wing radio host Alex Jones ‘ Infowars website.

    Yvonne Ngoiri, 36, faces four counts of second-degree murder and was also indicted on multiple assault charges, the office of Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said in a statement late Thursday. It was not immediately clear if she had an attorney who could comment.

    The cause of the fire at the three-story, six-unit building in Worcester in the early morning hours of May 14 was determined to be “incendiary,” according to the district attorney’s office, but no motive was disclosed.

    The victims have previously been identified as Joseph Garchali, 47; Christopher Lozeau, 53; Vincent Page, 41; and Marcel Fontaine, 29. They died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries, authorities said.

    In addition, several residents were injured, including one who jumped from a third-story window. The building had about 20 tenants.

    Fontaine sued Infowars in Texas in 2018. The complaint, seeking unspecified damages, said Infowars posted his photograph on its website the day of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, depicting him as the gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people died.

    Lawyers for Infowars countered that Fontaine failed to show any evidence of malice or any injury because of his photo’s publication.

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  • Man arrested in fatal stabbing of New York City EMS worker

    Man arrested in fatal stabbing of New York City EMS worker

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    NEW YORK — A man has been arrested in the fatal stabbing of a veteran emergency medical worker with New York City’s fire department, police said Friday.

    Peter Zisopoulos, 34, was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the fatal attack on EMS Lt. Alison Russo-Elling, police said in a news release.

    Russo-Elling was on duty when she was stabbed Thursday afternoon near her station in the Astoria section of Queens, authorities said.

    The 61-year-old Russo-Elling was heading to a corner store to get something to eat when Zisopoulos allegedly stabbed her multiple times, police said. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

    Zisopoulos ran to his apartment nearby barricaded himself inside, police said. He was arrested after he was eventually talked into coming out. It wasn’t clear if he had an attorney who could comment on the charges against him.

    The motive for the stabbing is under investigation.

    Russo-Elling had served the city for 25 years and was among the first responders at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Acting Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said at a news conference Thursday.

    “She was cited multiple times for her bravery and her life-saving work,” Kavanagh said. “And she was absolutely beloved on this job.”

    Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement, “Our hearts are with her family, her fellow EMS members, and with all New Yorkers who lost a truly amazing woman to a senseless act of violence. The City of New York will remember Lt. Russo-Elling’s bravery and commitment to service as we mourn her loss along with the FDNY.”

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  • Police: Teen saw father shoot, kill mother in California

    Police: Teen saw father shoot, kill mother in California

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    LOS ANGELES — The Southern California teenager killed this week alongside her father in a shootout with law enforcement was with him a day earlier when he fatally shot her mother, police said Thursday.

    Savannah Graziano, 15, was in the back of her father’s pickup truck when he gunned down her mother, Tracy Martinez, on Monday, according to Fontana police. Witnesses and two videos — one from a bystander and another from a doorbell — show she stayed still as her mother screamed.

    “She’s just sitting in the backseat,” Sgt. Christian Surgent said in a phone interview Thursday.

    Authorities had previously said the teen was somewhere else during her mother’s killing and was later abducted by her father, Anthony Graziano. But the two videos obtained Wednesday showed her inside the truck between 30 and 60 seconds before the gunfire began, police said.

    Witnesses did not report seeing Savannah get out of the vehicle, Surgent said, as Martinez tried to escape and Graziano — her estranged husband — jumped out wielding a handgun.

    Graziano, 45, shot Martinez multiple times and also turned and fired on a nearby car. No one else was hurt.

    Martinez was able to identify her killer as Graziano before she died, Surgent said, but never mentioned her daughter being there. Neither video showed the shooting.

    Savannah and her father were both killed a day later after a long chase along an desert interstate east of Los Angeles in Hesperia — about 35 miles (56.33 kilometers) north of the homicide scene. Rifle shots were fired at the pursuing officers from Graziano’s pickup truck, which became disabled after driving off the highway. The shooter put several rounds through a patrol car’s windshield and later disabled a second pursuing vehicle, authorities said.

    Graziano died in the truck while Savannah, wearing tactical gear and a helmet, was fatally shot as she ran toward deputies amid a hail of gunfire. Authorities are investigating whether she was shot by deputies, her father, or both.

    The California Department of Justice is reviewing the teen’s death under a state law requiring the agency to investigate police shootings involving the death of unarmed civilians. Meanwhile, detectives in Fontana still have not determined a motive for the slaying.

    Investigators later searched the family’s Fontana home — which Graziano and his daughter moved out of weeks prior — and Graziano’s storage unit. Inside the storage pod they found numerous AR-15-style rifles, handguns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, smoke grenades and other tactical gear, Surgent said.

    The firearms were legally owned by Graziano, who was not or probation or parole. Savannah’s younger brother told investigators that the siblings grew up around guns.

    Authorities have said they have police video showing the freeway shootout but have not made that public, nor did they release the two videos showing Savannah in the pickup truck just before her mother was killed.

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  • Ex-PG&E execs to pay $117M to settle lawsuit over wildfires

    Ex-PG&E execs to pay $117M to settle lawsuit over wildfires

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    OAKLAND, Calif. — Former executives and directors of Pacific Gas & Electric have agreed to pay $117 million to settle a lawsuit over devastating 2017 and 2018 California wildfires sparked by the utility’s equipment, it was announced Thursday.

    The settlement was announced by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust, which was established to handle claims filed by more than 80,000 victims of deadly wildfires ignited by PG&E’s rickety electrical grid. The trust’s lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that former officers and board members neglected their duty to ensure the utility’s equipment wouldn’t kill people.

    The complaint was an offshoot of a $13.5 billion settlement that PG&E reached with the wildfire victims while the utility was mired in bankruptcy from January 2019 through June 2020.

    As part of that deal, PG&E granted the victims the right to go after the utility’s hierarchy leading up to and during a series of wind-driven wildfires that killed more than 100 people and destroyed more than 25,000 homes and businesses, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed much of the town of Paradise in Butte County.

    PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter for causing the fire and was fined $4 million, the maximum penalty allowed.

    All told, PG&E has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires since 2017 that wiped out more than 23,000 homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people.

    Those sued by the fire trust included two of PG&E’s former chief executives, Anthony Earley and Geisha Williams, who were paid millions of dollars during their terms, and former board members. They were covered by liability insurance secured by the utility, the trust has said.

    PG&E is the nation’s largest utility, with an estimated 16 million customers in central and Northern California.

    In a statement, PG&E said the settlement is “another step forward in PG&E’s ongoing effort to resolve issues outstanding from before its bankruptcy and to move forward focused on our commitments to deliver safe, clean and reliable energy to our customers, and to continue the important work of reducing risk across our energy system.”

    The settlement money won’t go to fire victims. Instead, under a bankruptcy court order, the money will be used to satisfy “the vast majority” of claims made by federal agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, that helped fight the blazes and assist the victims, said a statement from Frank M. Pitre, lead attorney for the trust.

    That means the money won’t have to come out of funds earmarked for the trust, which has paid out $4.9 billion to victims.

    The trust has said it faces a huge shortfall because half of the promised settlement consisted of PG&E stock that has consistently traded at less than what was hoped for when the deal was struck toward the end of 2019.

    The stock closed Thursday at $12.38 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, down more than 30 cents.

    Would-be investors might be spooked by PG&E’s continuing wildfire woes. In June, the company pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges it faces after its equipment sparked the Zogg Fire, which killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Northern California two years ago.

    Also earlier this year, PG&E agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution for two other major wildfires sparked by its aging Northern California power lines. But the company didn’t acknowledge wrongdoing in those cases.

    And last week, federal investigators seized a utility transmission pole and attached equipment in a criminal probe into what started the Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

    The fire that broke out on Sept. 6 destroyed nearly 80 homes and other buildings. The fire, which has burned nearly 120 square miles (311 square kilometers), was 85% contained Thursday.

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  • Authorities: Texas man shoots 2 migrants near Mexico border

    Authorities: Texas man shoots 2 migrants near Mexico border

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    Two brothers in Texas have been arrested after authorities say one of them opened fire on a group of migrants getting water near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one man and shooting a woman in the stomach

    AUSTIN, Texas — Two brothers in Texas have been arrested after authorities say one of them opened fire on a group of migrants getting water near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one man and shooting a woman in the stomach, according to court documents filed Thursday.

    The shooting Tuesday was in rural Hudspeth County about 90 miles from El Paso, where the woman was transported and recovering at a hospital, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

    DPS said the victims were among a group of migrants standing alongside the road getting water when a truck with two men inside pulled over. According to court documents, the group had taken cover as the truck first passed to avoid being detected but the truck then backed up.

    Michael Sheppard and Mark Sheppard, both 60, were charged with manslaughter, according to court documents. It was not clear whether either man had an attorney and no contact information could immediately be found Thursday.

    Records show that Michael Sheppard was a warden at the West Texas Detention Facility, a privately owned center that houses migrant detainees and contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Scott Sutterfield, a spokesman for facility operator Lasalle Corrections, said Thursday that the center’s warden had been fired “due to an off-duty incident unrelated to his employment.” He declined further comment.

    Authorities located the truck by checking cameras and finding a vehicle matching the description given by the migrants, according to court records.

    ————

    Associated Press writer Acacia Coronado contributed to this report.

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  • ‘Serial’ case: Victim’s family wants to redo Syed hearing

    ‘Serial’ case: Victim’s family wants to redo Syed hearing

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    BALTIMORE — The family of a young woman who was killed in 1999 will appeal a Baltimore judge’s recent order overturning the conviction of Adnan Syed, the man imprisoned for decades for Hae Min Lee’s death, according to an attorney for the family.

    Attorney Steve Kelly said Lee’s family is not challenging Syed’s release, but instead wants the judge to hold another hearing that the family can attend in-person and address the court — Lee’s brother Young Lee appeared via videoconference on short notice during the previous hearing.

    “We’re not challenging the ruling, but asking for the hearing to be redone in accordance with the law,” Kelly told The Associated Press.

    Syed, whose case was examined in the popular true-crime podcast “Serial,” was released earlier this month after prosecutors told a judge they had uncovered doubts about the fairness of the investigation. Syed has always maintained that he never killed Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend.

    On Wednesday, Young Lee filed a notice of appeal, alleging violations of the family’s right to meaningfully participate in the Sept. 19 hearing in which Syed secured his release, according to Kelly. It’s the first step in seeking the Maryland Court of Special Appeals’ review of the potential violations of victim’s rights statutes, Kelly said.

    Syed was serving a life sentence after he was convicted of strangling Lee, whose body was found buried in a Baltimore park. He was 17 at the time of her death.

    Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn’s order to release Syed and vacate his murder conviction came after State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby asked the judge to vacate the conviction, saying a lengthy investigation conducted with the defense had uncovered new evidence that could undermine the conviction.

    During the hearing, Young Lee spoke via videoconference, saying he felt betrayed by prosecutors since he thought the case was settled.

    “This is not a podcast for me. This is real life,” he said.

    Prosecutor Becky Feldman told the judge in the hearing that she contacted Young Lee before the motion was filed, and went over the motion with him. A day before the hearing, Young Lee indicated by text message that he would attend virtually, Feldman said. But that evening the Lee family hired Kelly, who filed a motion to postpone the hearing for seven days so Young Lee could attend in person. Phinn denied that motion, but paused the hearing by more than 30 minutes so that Lee, who was at work, could join the call.

    Kelly said at the time that prosecutors shut the family out of the legal process, calling it “inexcusable” and a violation of Maryland law. The family is interested in the truth and might have supported Syed’s release if they had understood the basis, he said.

    “The family is disappointed with the way that they were treated. They’re disappointed with the process. They want more than anybody to have the person who killed Hae Min Lee brought to justice,” Kelly said. “If that is not Mr. Syed then they’re open to the possibility of anybody else who actually did it being prosecuted.”

    The Office of the Public Defender declined Thursday to comment on the notice of appeal. Syed’s case captured the attention of millions in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” focused on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used.

    Mosby, who entered office in 2015, has applauded the judge’s decision and has said investigators are awaiting the results of “DNA analysis” before determining whether to seek a new trial date or throw out the case against Syed and “certify his innocence.”

    State’s Attorney’s Office spokesperson Zy Richardson said in a statement that they empathize with Lee’s family, “who believed they had resolution and are now being re-traumatized by the misdeeds of the prior prosecutors,” but they must ensure that the right person is held accountable, news outlets reported.

    “We refuse to be distracted from this fundamental obligation and will never give up in our fight for the Lee family,” she said.

    Feldman, who led a unit reexamining cases in which juvenile defendants were given life sentences, found notes written by a predecessor describing two phone calls in which people gave them information before Syed’s trial about someone with a motive to harm Lee. That information wasn’t given to the defense at the time, according prosecutors, an omission that Phinn said violated Syed’s rights.

    In a new “Serial” episode released a day after Syed was freed, host Sarah Koenig noted that most or all of the evidence cited in prosecutors’ motion to overturn the conviction was available since 1999. The case against Syed involved “just about every chronic problem” in the system, Koenig said, including unreliable witness testimony and evidence that was never shared with Syed’s defense team.

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  • Suspect in Arkansas hospital shooting pleads not guilty

    Suspect in Arkansas hospital shooting pleads not guilty

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    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas man charged with fatally shooting a man visiting a patient at a Little Rock-area hospital pleaded not guilty Thursday to capital murder and aggravated assault.

    A judge set bond at $500,000 for Raymond Lovett, 24, during a brief video arraignment. Lovett was arrested Wednesday in the shooting death of Leighton Whitfield at CHI St. Vincent North in Sherwood, a city of about 33,000 people northeast of Little Rock.

    The hospital was placed on lockdown as authorities responded to the shooting, and Whitfield was found shot dead on the fourth floor of the facility. Lovett was arrested a little over an hour later at a gas station in Little Rock, about 15 miles away from the hospital.

    Police have said the men knew each other and that Whitfield was visiting a patient at the hospital. Lovett’s next court appearance is set for Nov. 8.

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