Category Archives: US crime

Suspect arrested after manhunt over killing of young Baltimore tech chief

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Jason Billingsley charged with first-degree murder after Pava LaPere, 26, found dead in apartment complex on Monday

A suspect has been arrested over the murder of a Baltimore tech chief executive, following a citywide manhunt.

Jason Billingsley, 32, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder on Wednesday by Baltimore police over the killing of 26-year-old Pava LaPere. Billingsley was reportedly apprehended at a Maryland train station, ending a day-long manhunt for the suspect.

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Trump’s business empire could collapse ‘like falling dominoes’ after ruling

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Trump is effectively ‘out of business’ in New York, Michael Cohen says, after judge rules business fortune built on rampant fraud

Donald Trump’s real estate empire could collapse “like falling dominoes”, experts believe, following a New York judge’s ruling that the former president’s business fortune was built on rampant fraud and blatant lies.

According to Michael Cohen, his former attorney and fixer, Trump is already effectively “out of business” in New York after Judge Arthur Engoron on Tuesday rescinded the licenses of the Trump Organization and other companies owned by Trump and his adult sons, Eric and Don Jr.

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Chuck Schumer says he is ‘disturbed’ by Bob Menendez bribery charges

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Senate majority leader says fellow Democrat has fallen ‘way short’ of senatorial standards but stops short of calling for resignation

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said on Wednesday he was “disturbed” by the fraud indictment against his fellow Democratic Senator, Bob Menendez, and that the New Jersey lawmaker has fallen “way short” of senatorial standards.

Menendez pleaded not guilty earlier in the day to charges of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, as calls for his resignation from his fellow Democrats escalated.

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Trump lawyers plan to appeal judge’s ruling that he committed fraud while building empire

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On Tuesday judge Arthur Engoron refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former US president of illegally inflating assets and net worth

Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House, a New York judge ruled on Tuesday in a strongly worded rejection of the former president’s bid to throw out a civil lawsuit against him.

Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump and executives from his company, including his sons Eric and Donald Jr, routinely and repeatedly deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork.

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Third person charged for infant’s death from fentanyl in New York City daycare

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Prosecutors say Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, played a key role in selling the drugs that were stored at the childcare facility

A third person has been charged in the death of a toddler apparently poisoned by fentanyl inside a New York City daycare center, authorities said on Monday, as the search continued for the alleged ringleader of the drug peddling operation.

Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, was charged with narcotics distribution resulting in death, 10 days after authorities discovered four young children showing signs of opioid exposure at a Bronx daycare center. One of those children, one-year-old Nicholas Dominici, was pronounced dead last Friday.

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Runaway Florida siblings, 10 and 11, stopped after driving 200 miles in mother’s car

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Two children stopped on interstate highway attempting to run away to California after mother confiscated girl’s electronics

A 10-year-old Florida boy and his 11-year-old sister who were running away to California drove 200 miles (320km) in their mother’s car before sheriff’s deputies stopped the pair on an interstate highway, authorities said.

The two children had made a run for it after their mother confiscated the girl’s electronics as punishments, according to officials.

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Louisiana police accused of ‘unconscionable’ abuse in ‘Brave Cave’

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Baton Rouge officers allegedly brutalized and disrobed detainees in storage shed once used for anti-street crime unit

Across from an industrial hose and gasket supplier’s office, in a mostly empty and fenced-off lot behind a precinct house belonging to the police department of Louisiana’s capital city, there sits a white storage shed without any markings explaining its purpose.

That single-story warehouse – within a couple of blocks of a daycare center, an eatery specializing in chicken wings and a gasoline station frequented by unwary residents – is now the focus of local and federal authorities examining alarming claims that officers with the Baton Rouge police department (BRPD) took detained people there and brutalized them.

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US Capitol rioter who attacked photographer sentenced to five years

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Rodney Milstreed ‘prepared himself for battle’ with steroids and a wooden club disguised as flagpole, prosecutors say

A man who attacked an Associated Press photographer and threw a flagpole and smoke grenade at police officers guarding the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, was sentenced in a federal court on Friday to five years in prison.

Rodney Milstreed, 56, of Finksburg, Maryland, “prepared himself for battle” on January 6 by injecting steroids and arming himself with a four-foot wooden club disguised as a flagpole, prosecutors said.

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More fentanyl found under trapdoor in New York daycare where infant died

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Police make discovery in investigation after child dies and three others hospitalized after appearing to have been exposed to drug

Police investigating a New York City daycare where a one-year-old boy died of alleged fentanyl exposure have discovered additional fentanyl hidden in a space underneath the center’s floor.

Following a tip about a trapdoor in the floor, authorities on Wednesday night and Thursday searched the Divino Niño daycare center in the Bronx again after fentanyl residue was found underneath a mat earlier this month where children had napped, ABC reports.

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Ex-officer who left woman in car to be hit by train in Colorado given probation

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Jordan Steinke to serve 30 months’ probation for 2022 incident in which she handcuffed and placed woman in car parked on train tracks

A former Colorado police officer who put a handcuffed woman in a parked police vehicle that was hit by a freight train, inflicting serious injuries to the woman, has avoided a jail sentence and must serve 30 months on supervised probation.

Jordan Steinke, 29, was sentenced on Friday by Weld county district court judge Timothy Kerns, who found her guilty of reckless endangerment and assault for the 16 September 2022 crash near Platteville. Kerns acquitted the former Fort Lupton police officer of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter after her bench trial in July.

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Florida man arrested over allegedly hanging swastika flags from bridge

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Jason Brown, 48, linked to neo-Nazi group, charged with criminal mischief after police said hate banners were hung in Orlando

Florida authorities have arrested a man after he allegedly hung extremist hate symbols including swastikas over a bridge.

On Wednesday, the Florida department of law enforcement (FDLE) announced that 48-year-old Jason Brown of Cape Canaveral was arrested for allegedly hanging swastikas and other antisemitic banners along the Daryl Carter Parkway overpass in Orlando and charged him with criminal mischief.

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Virginia: baby and dog die after being left for hours in car, police say

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Police say woman, 40, arrested and charged with felony child neglect as sheriff’s office says charges could be upgraded

A 11-month-old baby and a dog died after being left in a car for over six hours in Virginia, authorities announced on Wednesday.

Police responded to a call at a hospital in Newport News at about 4pm on Tuesday after a man in his 80s entered the emergency room and said he had a “deceased child” in the back of his car, the York-Poquoson sheriff’s office said in a press briefing.

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Pennsylvania fugitive driving stolen van as he continues to elude capture

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Danelo Cavalcante who escaped prison over a week ago has slipped out of the search area and changed his appearance, police say

Authorities say an escaped murderer who has eluded capture since breaking out of a south-eastern Pennsylvania prison a week and a half ago has apparently slipped out of the search area, changed his appearance and is now being sought in a stolen vehicle.

Pennsylvania state police said in a statement on Sunday that Danelo Souza Cavalcante was seen overnight near Phoenixville in northern Chester county, more than 20 miles (32km) north-east of the area that until now has been the focus of the search.

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New Mexico officials call for governor’s impeachment after firearms restriction

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Democratic governor’s emergency order restricts carrying firearms for at least 30 days amid spate of gun violence

New Mexico state representatives Stefani Lord and John Block are calling for the impeachment of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham after Grisham issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque, the state’s largest city.

The governor on Friday issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least 30 days amid a spate of gun violence.

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By hook or by bike, car, boat and kayak: elusive Vermont robbery suspect caught

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Eric Edson, 52, gave police the slip in multiple ways and was finally caught after he jumped into a river to evade capture

A Vermont armed robbery suspect who police say eluded capture in the past week in a vehicle, on a stolen bike, on foot and in a stolen sailboat was arrested on Thursday after he was spotted in a kayak on a river, authorities said.

Eric Edson, 52, was wanted on accusations of a robbery of a store in Burlington on 24 August, impeding and assaulting two police officers and the theft of a sailboat and vehicles, police said.

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Actor Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for rape

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The actor, 47, who has been in custody since May, was found guilty of raping two women two decades ago

Actor Danny Masterson, who starred in That 70s Show, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on Thursday for the rapes of two women two decades ago.

Los Angeles superior court judge Charlaine F Olmedo handed down the sentence to Masterson, 47, after hearing statements from the women about the trauma and suffering they experienced.

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New York plan to monitor Labor Day parties with drones prompts outcry

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Police accused of playing ‘fast and loose’ with New Yorkers’ rights to due process and to freely hold peaceful gatherings

New York City police plan to monitor large gatherings and noise complaints over Labor Day weekend with surveillance drones, officials have announced, prompting outcry from privacy advocates.

Police said Thursday that the remote-controlled aircrafts would be deployed to keep tabs on large gatherings, including private events, as New Yorkers prepared to celebrate the weekend heading into Monday’s holiday.

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Trump legal team claims trial dates ‘by design’ clash with election campaign

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Alina Habba said trials’ schedules would cause them to overlap and clash with voting, preventing the ex-president from campaigning

Donald Trump’s legal spokesperson has predicted that forthcoming early trial dates in the former president’s four criminal cases will not hold, and that his multiple cases could clash with the final stages of the 2024 presidential election campaign and voting.

Alina Habba told the Fox News Sunday show that prosecutors’ plans for fast turnarounds in Trump’s two federal criminal cases and the state indictments in New York and Georgia amounted to “unrealistic theatrics”. She said that each of the trials would last from four to six weeks, raising the threat of overlapping schedules.

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Florida shooting: gunman left messages of hate before killing three Black people

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FBI opens civil rights investigation as Jacksonville sheriff names shooter and says suspect had no criminal history

The FBI on Sunday was investigating the shooting that killed three people inside a store in Jacksonville, Florida, the previous day, which officials said was racially motivated, as community leaders expressed horror.

A white man, armed with a high-powered rifle and a handgun and wearing a tactical vest and mask, entered the discount Dollar General store just before 2pm on Saturday and shot and killed two men and one woman, before fatally shooting himself. All three victims were Black.

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Two sex workers call Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect ‘violent’ and ‘aggressive’

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Two women say they were concerned for safety during encounters with Rex Heuermann as investigators seek more information

As investigators continue to build their case against the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, two Long Island sex workers have described the suspect as “violent” and “aggressive” during encounters they had with him.

The two women, who have not been identified, told members of an anti-human trafficking unit with the sheriff’s office in Long Island’s Suffolk county that they became concerned for their safety during encounters with the 6ft4in, 240lbs Manhattan architect.

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