New Hampshire employees of day care arrested after six-month investigation and each face 10 charges of endangering children
Four New Hampshire daycare employees allegedly spiked children’s food with the sleep supplement melatonin and were arrested on Thursday.
The arrests stem from a November 2023 investigation at a daycare in Manchester, New Hampshire, about 30 minutes outside the state capital of Concord.
Continue reading...DePape, a rightwing conspiracy theorist, broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home in 2022 and hit Paul Pelosi with a hammer
David DePape, a rightwing conspiracy theorist who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s northern California home in 2022 and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
A federal jury convicted him of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official in November 2023, just over a year after the attack in the former House speaker’s San Francisco home.
Continue reading...In texts received in Spanish and translated to English, the girl tried to describe her location, though she did not know where she was
Authorities rescued a 17-year old girl after she was trafficked to Ventura county, California, from Mexico two months ago and texted 911 for help.
On Thursday, the Ventura county sheriff’s office announced that on 9 May authorities rescued the girl after she sent messages to 911. The text message correspondence began with a call taker at a 911 communication center, according to the sheriff’s office, which added that the messages were received in Spanish and translated into English.
Continue reading...Greg Abbott on Thursday pardoned Daniel Perry, who has been serving a 25-year sentence since 2023 murder conviction
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas issued a full pardon on Thursday to a former US army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice.
Abbott announced the pardon just minutes after the Texas board of pardons and paroles disclosed it had made a unanimous recommendation that Daniel Perry be pardoned and have his firearms rights restored. Perry has been held in state prison on a 25-year sentence since his conviction in 2023.
Continue reading...After receiving a word puzzle, Oklahoma police say they’re closer to identifying another victim of murderer Dennis Rader
A newly re-examined word puzzle sent to a Kansas City TV station in 2004 could strengthen leads in a cold-case investigation into the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl in Oklahoma and link it to the convicted serial killer Dennis Rader, nicknamed BTK for “bind, torture, kill”.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Osage county sheriff Eddie Virden said he had received a package from a woman in April containing a crossword puzzle Rader allegedly used to taunt investigators.
Continue reading...Kouri Richins, 33, charged in Utah with murder over death of Eric Richins, who prosecutors say was fatally poisoned with fentanyl
A Utah judge on Wednesday postponed a hearing to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed to trial in the case of a woman charged with fatally poisoning her husband before she published a children’s book about coping with grief.
Judge Richard Mrazik delayed the hearing until 18-20 June after prosecutors said they would need three days to present their evidence against Kouri Richins, whose lawyer says she is innocent.
Continue reading...Trial for New Jersey senator will start Monday as he insists he’s innocent of 16 felony charges, including bribery and extortion
The criminal corruption trial of Democratic US senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is scheduled to get under way in a Manhattan federal court Monday, with prosecutors preparing a colorful tale of a greedy politician with a fondness for gold bullion, fast cars, and almost half a million dollars in cash found hidden around his home.
Menendez, 70, insists he is innocent of the 16 felony charges brought against him by the US attorney’s office of the southern district of New York, including bribery, extortion, obstruction, and acting as a foreign agent.
Continue reading...About 1,000 were at party when altercation began and gunfire erupted, resulting in victims that sheriff says are mostly ‘younger’
Three people were killed and at least 12 were wounded Saturday night in a shooting at party in south Alabama.
Andre Reid with the Baldwin county sheriff’s office’s investigation division told WALA-TV that about 1,000 people were attending a May Day party near the community of Stockton when an altercation started and gunfire erupted. Reid said most of the victims were “younger people”.
Continue reading...Police had arrested Marianne ‘Mair’ Smyth at a rental home after a podcast on her crimes prompted a listener to reveal her location
A US-born woman who disguised herself as an heiress to a $30m fortune while scamming nearly $100,000 from a television producer – who later sent her to prison and documented her misdeeds on a hit podcast – has been ordered extradited to Northern Ireland on a separate set of fraud charges.
Marianne “Mair” Smyth’s extradition to the UK was authorized by John Nivision, a US federal magistrate judge, on Thursday, more than two months after she was arrested at a short-term rental home in Bingham, Maine, court records show.
Continue reading...Lawrence Hecker pleaded the fifth 117 times as he detailed how the Catholic church protected him for more than two decades after he admitted to molesting children
Longtime New Orleans Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker received a special honor from the Vatican nearly 25 years ago despite having confessed to molesting children. Then, for another two decades, church leaders in the city strategically shielded him from law enforcement and media exposure – while also providing him with financial support ranging from paid limousine rides and therapeutic massages to full retirement benefits, according to his own, previously unreported testimony.
A sworn deposition Hecker gave in private in 2020 shows exactly how high-placed Catholic church officials in New Orleans let him keep his elevated position for years, even after they had been advised to oust him from the clergy and – much later – publicly acknowledged that he was a child predator.
Continue reading...In unearthed deposition, Lawrence Hecker pleaded the fifth 117 times, but still provided damning details of decades-long predatory behavior
The Guardian and CBS affiliate WWL Louisiana have obtained a long suppressed, eight-and-a-half-hour deposition of a 92-year-old Catholic priest charged with physically overpowering and raping a boy in a New Orleans church in 1975.
Taken in 2020 as part of a civil lawsuit demanding damages from him and the church, clergyman Lawrence Hecker provides in the deposition the most complete account yet of how the US’s second-oldest archdiocese spent much of its recent history taking extreme measures to keep the public from finding out about his abusive past. The questioning – which the church has fought in court for years to keep hidden – also reveals steps the city’s last four archbishops took to help him avoid accountability for decades.
Continue reading...Stephanie Scott and Stefanie Lambert charged for promoting ‘baseless conspiracies’ and showing ‘disregard for voter privacy’
Michigan’s attorney general announced charges against a former township clerk and a lawyer who had supported attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, alleging they accessed voting systems without authorization in a search of fraud.
Stephanie Scott and her attorney, Stefanie Lambert, were charged on Wednesday with multiple felonies, including unauthorized access to a computer and using a computer to commit a crime.
Continue reading...Appeals court said it would allow Trump to challenge decision not to disqualify Willis over relationship with her deputy
The Georgia state court of appeals on Wednesday said it would consider an appeal from Donald Trump of an order allowing Fani Willis, the district attorney, to continue prosecuting his election interference case in Fulton county.
In a one-page order, the appeals court said it would allow Trump to challenge the decision not to disqualify Willis over her relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to lead the Trump case. Scott McAfee, the trial judge overseeing the case, ruled in March that Willis could stay on the case as long as Wade resigned. Wade subsequently resigned the same day McAfee issued his decision.
Continue reading...Jury hears from adult film star on 13th day of ex-president’s criminal trial in New York
Donald Trump’s criminal trial entered a new stage on Tuesday with testimony from Stormy Daniels, an adult film star at the center of his hush-money scandal, who told jurors that they had a sexual liaison in 2006 that left her nervous and ashamed.
“My hands were shaking so hard that I was having a hard time getting dressed,” said Daniels, who told jurors that she had gone to Trump’s Lake Tahoe hotel room under the belief that they would be getting dinner after meeting there.
Continue reading...Jeremy Skibicki, charged with four counts of first-degree murder, is believed to have left bodies of at least two victims in a landfill
An accused serial killer in Canada, who police believed disposed of his victims by dumping some of them in landfills, has admitted to killing four Indigenous women, with his lawyers arguing a mental disorder meant he was not criminally responsible for the crimes.
Jeremy Skibicki is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified woman, who was named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by Indigenous leaders. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and had been due to stand trial this week.
Continue reading...Yolanda George, mother of Christopher Gilbert, calls on police to make arrest after incident in Louisiana in April
The family of a 26-year-old Louisiana man who has brain damage after a friend allegedly pushed him into a lake despite him being unable to swim is calling on authorities to deliver them justice.
Christopher Gilbert’s family’s pleas came after he nearly drowned on 14 April while at a lakefront restaurant by Lake D’Arbonne in the northern Louisiana town of Farmerville.
Continue reading...Texas Democrat says he and his also accused wife are innocent amid claims they took money from Azerbaijan and Mexican bank
The US justice department on Friday accused the Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, of accepting about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.
The Cuellars had made their first appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Houston by the afternoon, but it was not clear how they pleaded. Earlier, the congressman, who has represented a swath of Texas’s border with Mexico in the US House since 2005, issued a statement denying unspecified “allegations” against him.
Continue reading...Clarence Yoder was reportedly injured by animal in return, before police arrested him for disorderly conduct and other charges
A man who allegedly harassed bison at Yellowstone national park by kicking one of the animals was injured in return and arrested in the first such encounter at the famed site this year.
Officials said on Monday that police received a report about a man kicking a bison in the leg and being injured by one of the animals about seven miles from the park’s entrance, near Seven Mile Bridge, on 21 April.
Continue reading...Dazhon Darien arrested over fake recording of principal complaining about students and faculty members
A high school athletics director suspected of using artificial intelligence to create a fake, racist recording of a principal in Baltimore has been arrested by police.
Police arrested 31-year-old Dazhon Darien of Pikesville high school on Thursday after an investigation into an AI-generated recording which featured the duplicated voice of the school’s principal, Eric Eiswert. Officers allege that Eiswert was investigating Darien in connection with the potential mishandling of school funds when the latter man purportedly created the recording.
Continue reading...Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, 37, worked at a mortuary and arranged to transport remains to buyers across state lines
A former mortuary worker in Arkansas has admitted to stealing parts of corpses and trying to sell them.
On Thursday, the US attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas announced that 37-year-old Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, Arkansas, had pleaded guilty to transporting stolen body parts across state lines and conspiring to commit mail fraud.
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