Category Archives: US crime

Cheer star Jerry Harris faces new charges of soliciting sex with minors

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  • Harris already faced charges relating to child abuse images
  • Accused featured in hit docuseries about cheerleading

A break-out star of the documentary series Cheer, Jerry Harris, already facing federal charges related to child sexual exploitation material, has been indicted on new charges that allege he solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and convinced teenage boys to send him obscene photographs and videos of themselves.

Related: Cheer star Jerry Harris arrested on charges of child sexual abuse images

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Zodiac: cipher from California serial killer solved after 51 years

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Message from still unidentified killer reads: ‘I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me’

It took 51 years and a team of experts from three countries to crack the code to a cipher left by the still unidentified Zodiac Killer, who haunted northern California communities in the 1960s and 70s. But, on Friday, the code-breaker David Oranchak revealed for the first time, the ominous message sent by the murderer.

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‘A nightmare’: why were an elderly black couple targeted in a shocking Texas police raid?

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Forth Worth police have still not said why Nelda Price and her husband John, who died weeks later, were restrained in their pajamas

While the police in Fort Worth, Texas, ransacked Nelda Price’s home, an officer directed her to put her hands together – as if she were praying – so he could restrain her with zip ties.

“I told him, ‘I am praying. Because I don’t understand why you’re here, and I don’t know what this is about,’” Nelda told the Guardian.

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Eight charged in alleged Chinese plot to coerce family to return from US

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  • Five individuals arrested, with three believed to be in China
  • Chinese government allegedly plotted to pressure ex-official

Eight people have been charged with conspiring to work on behalf of China’s government in a plot to coerce a Chinese family in the US to return to their home country to face charges.

Five of the individuals charged, including an American private investigator, were arrested on Wednesday in New Jersey, New York and California. The rest are believed to be in China, top justice department officials said in a news conference.

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Nxivm leader Keith Raniere sentenced to 120 years in prison

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Group leader was sentenced on convictions that he turned some female followers into sex slaves branded with his initials

Keith Raniere, a self-improvement guru whose organization Nxivm attracted millionaires and actors, was sentenced on Tuesday to 120 years in prison on convictions that he turned some female followers into sex slaves branded with his initials.

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Man who searched for Biden’s home had ‘execute’ on checklist, court says

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Alexander Hillel Treisman, who was indicted last month, traveled near Joe Biden’s home and purchased an AR-15

A North Carolina man searched earlier this year for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s home online, traveled near the home and wrote a checklist that ended with the word “execute,” according to federal court documents.

The information was contained in documents related to a detention hearing for Alexander Hillel Treisman, who was indicted last month on child abuse imagery charges, held in US district court in Durham. A magistrate, in an order signed 8 October, ordered Treisman to remain in custody.

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Ghislaine Maxwell deposition unsealed after court ruling

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  • Document contains details about Jeffrey Epstein relationship
  • Maxwell charged with involvement in Epstein’s sexual crimes

A court document containing detailed information about Ghislaine Maxwell and her relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unsealed on Thursday morning in New York just moments before a court-imposed deadline.

This document, an April 2016 deposition, is among about a dozen long-awaited Maxwell files that have been unsealed, with the first filing involving Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre’s lawyer alleging the British socialite avoided a question “about allegedly ‘adult’ sexual activity related to Jeffrey Epstein”.

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Ghislaine Maxwell deposition should be unsealed quickly, judge rules

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Lawyers had argued that the transcripts should remain sealed in part to protect her right to a fair trial

Transcripts of interviews lawyers conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell involving her former boyfriend, the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, should be released as soon as possible, a New York judge ordered on Tuesday.

Related: Coronavirus economic relief deal beckons as Pelosi, Mnuchin resume talks - live

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‘It is serious and intense’: white supremacist domestic terror threat looms large in US

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From the frequency of attacks to the scope of ambition, racist terror groups – encouraged by the president, are showing unparalleled activity in the modern era

On 6 October Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, released his department’s annual assessment of violent threats to the nation. Analysts didn’t have to dig deep into the assessment to discover its alarming content.

In a foreword, Wolf wrote that he was “particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists who have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years. [They] seek to force ideological change in the United States through violence, death, and destruction.”

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Amy Cooper made second call claiming black birdwatcher tried to assault her

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  • Cooper in court after altercation in New York’s Central Park
  • Prosecutors aim to deter others from ‘this racist practice’

Amy Cooper, the white woman charged with filing a false police report for calling 911 during a videotaped dispute with a black birdwatcher in New York’s Central Park, made a second, previously undisclosed, emergency call in which she added that the man had tried to assault her, it was revealed on Wednesday.

Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance called Cooper’s complaints a hoax and noted it was lucky that no one had been injured or killed that day as a result.

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Ghislaine Maxwell lawyers attempt to keep deposition details secret

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Lawyers say unsealing details related to Maxwell’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein will undermine her right to a fair trial

A lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell appeared remotely before three New York federal appeals court judges on Tuesday afternoon, in an attempt to keep under wraps a deposition from past civil litigation regarding her relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The British socialite is urging the US second circuit court of appeals to overturn Manhattan federal court judge Loretta Preska’s July decision to unseal the 418-page deposition.

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Who is Clare Bronfman, the Seagram’s heiress who financed Nxivm?

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Bronfman was the first sentenced in connection with the group led by Keith Raniere – but while she was part of Nxivm, she used her wealth ‘as a means of intimidation’

Clare Bronfman, daughter of a billionaire Canadian father and a British mother, was making a name for herself as a showjumper in Europe in 2002.

Riding a 12-year-old gelding called Charlton, Bronfman – the heir to the Seagram’s liquor fortune – won the Rome Grand Prix equestrian tournament, and later placed second in a show in Bremen.

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Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein facing six new sexual assault charges

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The disgraced film mogul, who is serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape, is accused of alleged LA attacks between 2004 and 2010

Harvey Weinstein, the convicted rapist and imprisoned film mogul, is facing six new sexual assault charges, prosecutors in Los Angeles announced on Friday.

Weinstein, 68, was charged with three additional forcible rape felonies and three forcible oral copulation charges stemming from alleged attacks between 2004 and 2010 in Beverly Hills. The new criminal complaint expands the LA case to a total of five victims, authorities said.

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Breonna Taylor: Kentucky attorney general agrees to release grand jury recordings

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Juror had sued to release transcripts, saying ‘absolute truth of how this matter was handled’ should be published

Kentucky’s attorney general has said he will release a recording of the grand jury proceedings in the Breonna Taylor case, after a judge ordered they be filed in court by noon on Wednesday. It follows an anonymous juror suing for them to be made public.

Attorney general, Daniel Cameron, said in a statement: “The Grand Jury is meant to be a secretive body. It’s apparent that the public interest in this case isn’t going to allow that to happen.”

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Leak reveals $2tn of possibly corrupt US financial activity

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Among those named in reports is Paul Manafort, former political strategist for Donald Trump

Thousands of documents detailing $2 trillion (£1.55tn) of potentially corrupt transactions that were washed through the US financial system have been leaked to an international group of investigative journalists.

The leak focuses on more than 2,000 suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with the US government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

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Two dead after mass shooting at party in Rochester, New York

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Male and female are killed and 14 are injured in shooting in upstate New York

Two people have died and 14 others have been wounded in a mass shooting at a party in Rochester, New York, police said.

A male and a female died in the shooting on Saturday, the interim police chief Mark Simmons told reporters. The wounded people were taken to two different hospitals. Simmons said none of them were reported to have life-threatening injuries.

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Georgia deputy filmed punching Black man in front of children is fired

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  • Video of incident after stop for broken taillight went viral
  • Victim Roderick Walker held over outstanding warrants

A sheriff’s deputy in Georgia has been fired after being captured on video repeatedly punching a Black man during a traffic stop, authorities said on Sunday.

Related: Two Los Angeles sheriff's deputies wounded in Compton attack

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Two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies wounded in Compton attack

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  • Sheriff expresses dismay as protesters gather at hospital
  • Donald Trump tweet says ‘animals must be hit hard’

The shooting of two Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputies in an apparent ambush prompted a manhunt, reaction from the president and protests outside the hospital where the wounded deputies were being treated on Saturday night.

The deputies were shot while sitting in their patrol car at a Metro rail station, around 7pm and not far from the the Compton sheriff’s station. They were able to radio for help, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said. The department shared video of the shooting, showing a person open fire through the passenger-side window.

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Officers charged in George Floyd killing seek to place blame on one another

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  • Former police quartet appear in court for special hearing
  • Floyd died after Derek Chauvin held his knee on his neck

Attorneys for four former Minneapolis officers charged in the killing of George Floyd say each should get his own trial, as the officers point fingers at one another.

Related: 9/11 remembered amid raging wildfires and coronavirus recriminations – live

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James Comey: ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon ‘in a world of trouble’

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  • Former aide pleads not guilty to fraud charge over fundraiser
  • Ex-FBI director: ‘They could almost start a crime family’

The former FBI director James Comey has said Steve Bannon is “in a world of trouble”, after the former Trump campaign manager and White House adviser was arrested on a charge of skimming donations from a fundraising campaign for a wall on the border with Mexico.

Related: 'Conmen, grifters and criminals': why is Trump's circle so at odds with the law?

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