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  • Knife-wielding sicko shoves NYC Total by Verizon store worker to ground, tries to rape her before stealing thousands in phones: cop

    Knife-wielding sicko shoves NYC Total by Verizon store worker to ground, tries to rape her before stealing thousands in phones: cop

    A sicko threw a teen Total by Verizon worker to the ground, threatened her with a knife and tried to rape her before robbing the shop in a terrifying broad-daylight ordeal in East Harlem, cops said.

    The 19-year-old victim had recently moved to the US and only worked for the Madison Avenue store a week when the strange barged in Sunday around noon and looked at an iPhone 11 display before he flashed a kniofe and followed her to the back of the store where he pinned her down, police and a coworker said.

    “The guy came in as a regular customer and was looking at the phones,” coworker Riaz Fahim told The Post. “Then suddenly he became aggressive towards her. He held a knife at her.

    “She ran to the back room and the guy ran in the room with her,” Fahim added. “She had hot tea in her hand and she tried to throw it at him, but he grabbed her arm and avoided it.”


    The stranger threw the teen to the ground before holding her at knifepoint and trying to rape her, cops said. NYPD

    The worker, who had apparently just moved from Bangladesh about seven or eight months ago, was alone in the store at the time, her coworker said.

    The callous criminal finally swooped up three cell phones and $1,000 before bolting, police said. The NYPD took an iPhone 11 from the display case that he had been fiddling with as part of its investigation, Fahim said.

    “She hasn’t come back to work,” he said Monday. “I wouldn’t be here but the police said everything should be good today. I don’t think she will come back to work here, she’s too traumatized.

    “Even in her home country, Bangladesh, she never faced any kind of assault,” Fahim added. “This was the first in her life. She moved to America to chase the American Dream.

    Video released by the NYPD shows the creep walking on the sidewalk wearing all black, with his hood pulled up.

    He is believed to be between 25 and 30 years old, around 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, with a dark complexion, slim build, short black hair and a short black beard, authorities said. 


    The 19-year-old victim was working inside the store at Madison Avenue and East 108th Street around noon when the stranger threw her to the ground and clutched a knife as he threatened the teen, police said.
    The thief ripped off three cell phones and $1,000 before fleeing, cops said. NYPD

    He had not been caught by Monday.

    The disturbing crime comes weeks after Kashaan Parks, 39, allegedly tossed a belt around a 45-year-old woman’s neck, dragged her to the ground and raped her in a horrific caught-on-video May 1 scene in the Bronx, authorities said.

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  • Actor Steve Buscemi Is OK After Being Punched in the Face in New York City

    Actor Steve Buscemi Is OK After Being Punched in the Face in New York City

    NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Steve Buscemi is OK after he was punched in the face by a man on a New York City street, his publicist said Sunday.

    The 66-year-old star of “Fargo” and “Boardwalk Empire” was assaulted late Wednesday morning in Manhattan and taken to a nearby hospital with bruising, swelling and bleeding to his left eye.

    “Steve Buscemi was assaulted in Mid-Town Manhattan, another victim of a random act of violence in the city,” according to a statement Sunday from his publicist. “He is ok and appreciates everyone’s well wishes.”

    The New York Police Department put out a nameless statement on the assault Wednesday. Buscemi’s representative confirmed Sunday that the unidentified assault victim in the police statement was the actor.

    The police department said there were no arrests and the investigation was continuing.

    Buscemi’s “Boardwalk Empire” co-star Michael Stuhlbarg was hit in the back of the neck with a rock while walking in Manhattan’s Central Park on March 31. Stuhlbarg chased his attacker, who was taken into custody outside the park.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Calls for accountability intensify after Houston police chief retires amid scandal over dropped cases

    Calls for accountability intensify after Houston police chief retires amid scandal over dropped cases

    For months, a police accountability group in Houston demanded that Police Chief Troy Finner resign after he revealed that thousands of cases, including those involving serious offenses such as sexual assault, were dropped over the years due to a lack of personnel.

    On Wednesday, Mayor John Whitmire announced that Finner was retiring effective immediately — a move that stunned even his fiercest critics.

    “I was relieved. The buck stopped with him,” said Hai Bui, founder of the activist group We the People Organize. “We’re very happy that the chief did the right thing.”

    But community activists say Finner’s sudden departure, which caps a three-year tenure as police chief in the nation’s fourth-largest city, does not put to rest concerns over those dropped cases. Now, groups are calling for continued accountability.

    Troy Finner speaks to the media (Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images file)

    Troy Finner speaks to the media (Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images file)

    “Today, more than ever, we have to make sure we’re standing up for survivors, ensuring that this kind of thing does not happen again,” said Sonia Corrales, the deputy CEO of the Houston Area Women’s Center, which offers an emergency shelter, a hotline and programs for people involved in sexual assault and domestic violence cases.

    Whitmire, who took office this year, said the scandal engulfing the department had become “such a distraction” that he accepted Finner’s decision to retire after a 34-year career. Two assistant chiefs were demoted and a third resigned in connection with an internal investigation, Finner had said in April.

    “Chief Finner was spending so much time dealing with the press, dealing with the department,” Whitmire told reporters in announcing his retirement, “it was affecting operations at HPD. That’s the bottom line.”

    The ‘final straw’

    While Finner was promoted to police chief in April 2021, the cases in question stretch back to 2016, when a code — “suspended: lack of personnel,” or “SL” — was used to dismiss incident reports.

    Finner revealed in February that he learned of the SL code in November 2021 and told officers at the time to stop using it. He said he discovered in February said that it was still being applied to sexual assault cases.

    The code had continued to appear in police policies approved as recently as December 2023, the Houston Chronicle reported in February.

    Finner launched an internal review, which found that about 264,000 incident reports were suspended since 2016 because of staffing challenges, representing about 10% of all incident reports in the past eight years. While about half of those suspended incident reports were linked to property and financial crimes, the others included allegations of crimes against people. Finner had said about 4,000 of those were reports related to adult sex crimes. He cautioned that some of those incidents were duplicates or mislabeled.

    Last month, Finner said the department was still combing through the reports that were filed under the “SL” code to determine whether they were properly investigated. Overall, he said, more than a third of the reports had been looked at and charges were brought against 27 suspects, mostly for misdemeanors but also for violent crimes. In the cases of sexual assault, officers were attempting to contact all the people who had filed reports, and they scheduled about 400 follow-up interviews.

    On Tuesday, Finner faced renewed scrutiny when local media reported that he was made aware about the use of the “SL” code on a 2018 email chain, contradicting his February statement that he had learned about it in 2021. Finner, then an executive assistant chief, was informed of a road rage case using that code, and he responded in an email to a police commander that “this is unacceptable, look into it and follow up with me.”

    The existence of the prior email cast doubt on Finner’s timeline. He could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

    Finner posted on X prior to retiring that he “never set out to mislead anyone,” but the email hadn’t stood out to him then because he was unaware of how the phrase was being used internally.

    Still, Whitmire told reporters on Wednesday, the email was the “final straw.”

    ‘Push the reset button’

    Finner’s exit is only the beginning of efforts to address the Houston Police Department’s ongoing troubles, observers say.

    A core problem remains staffing for a police force that has seen a decline in officers over the years, even as the city’s population has grown to more than 2.3 million people. Last November, the department said it had about 5,165 officers, 81 fewer than it did in 2016, Houston Landing reported.

    Finner in March said the city still had under 5,200 officers and told reporters he wanted “an additional 2,000 officers to properly patrol our streets and conduct investigations in this city.”

    But Ray Hunt, the executive director of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, said Houston is not alone as its struggles to retain and hire people into a profession that is increasingly scrutinized.

    “You’re one call away from getting shot and killed,” Hunt said, “and everything you do and say is on body camera.”

    But that’s not to say the Houston Police Department shouldn’t be doing its job to fully investigate cases, he said, particularly those that involve violent crimes and threats to public safety.

    “Whoever our new leader is will have to explain that we’re never going to be able to investigate every call,” Hunt said, “but every crime against a person is going to be responded to — every sexual assault, homicide and robbery must be.”

    With department morale suffering under the latest events, he added, “I’m hoping that we can push the reset button.”

    But Bui said community activists like himself want to see more transparency from the police department as it seeks to rebuild public trust, including how federal grant money awarded to the city for hiring additional officers has been spent.

    A Houston Police Department spokesman said Friday that a grant of more than $6 million received last November from the Justice Department will be used to finance classes this September and November with each class consisting of 25 recruits.

    But Bui questions if such grant money can be properly tracked and managed.

    “The community deserves clarity on how every dollar has been spent and how many officers have been hired, particularly in areas critical to public safety,” he said.

    Ultimately, the fallout from the controversy underscores a responsibility to ensure victims and survivors of crimes are delivered justice, and no one agency’s inaction hinders that, said Corrales, of the Houston Area Women’s Center.

    She said there are instances of sexual assault survivors, including those whose incidents were dropped for lack of staffing, now being connected with her organization, and that advocates are being brought into the process in a “multidisciplinary effort” so that no person is left wondering what happened in their case.

    “We’ve made significant improvements, and clearly we need to keep working at it,” Corrales said, “but these entities can’t do it by themselves.”

    This article was originally published on NBCNews.com



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  • Lawsuit Alleges Decades of Child Sex Abuse at Illinois Juvenile Detention Centers Statewide

    Lawsuit Alleges Decades of Child Sex Abuse at Illinois Juvenile Detention Centers Statewide

    CHICAGO (AP) — Child sexual abuse at Illinois juvenile detention centers was pervasive and systemic for decades, according to disturbing accounts in a lawsuit filed Monday by 95 men and women housed at the youth centers as children.

    The lawsuit details alleged incidents of abuse from 1996 to 2017, including gang rape, forced oral sex, beatings and groping of children by corrections officers, sergeants, nurses, therapists, a chaplain and others at nine youth centers. Many plaintiffs said they were threatened or rewarded to keep quiet.

    “The State of Illinois has allowed a culture of abuse at Illinois Youth Centers to flourish unabated,” the 186-page complaint said.

    The lawsuit, filed in the Illinois Court of Claims, follows similar harrowing allegations of child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers in Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California and New York City. Some cases have gone to trial or resulted in settlements; arrests have been infrequent.

    The Illinois lawsuit contends the state failed to supervise, discipline, remove or investigate alleged abusers, enabling the abuse to continue. The complaint alleges the abuse happened at youth centers in locations all over the state including Chicago, Joliet, Harrisburg, Murphysboro and Warrenville. Several locations have since closed.

    The lawsuit names the state of Illinois, the state’s Department of Corrections and Department of Juvenile Justice as defendants. It seeks damages of roughly $2 million per plaintiff, the most allowed under law.

    Photos You Should See – April 2024

    Messages left Monday with the governor’s office and both corrections agencies were not immediately returned.

    The 95 plaintiffs are among hundreds of victims of sexual abuse at Illinois detention centers, said Jerome H. Block, an attorney who brought the case and who expects to file more lawsuits. His firm has helped bring lawsuits in Maryland, New Jersey and New York City.

    “The very people that were entrusted with keeping our clients safe when they were children were the ones perpetrating the sexual abuse,” Block said. “This is long-term institutionalized sexual abuse.”

    The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly.

    Three of the 95 plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit, including Jeffery Christian of Maywood, who said it was important to come forward publicly because he thought it could help others who may be suffering in silence.

    The 36-year-old suburban Chicago man said he was sexually abused at two different detention centers beginning when he was about 13, including by a counselor who groped and fondled him during counseling sessions.

    Like many of the plaintiffs, Christian said the abuse was reported at the time, but facility administrators did nothing to address it. He said reporting the abuse made him more of a target. After the incidents, he became withdrawn and anti-social.

    “It prepared me to start looking at the world different,” he said. “It took some light out of me.”

    At least six detention center workers were identified as alleged repeat offenders with separate accusations from different plaintiffs. Some alleged offenders are named in the lawsuit, while others are identified only as the plaintiffs remembered them by physical attributes, initials or nicknames. Most plaintiffs are identified by initials in the complaint.

    Among other things, the complaint blames the state’s use of unconstitutional and systemic strip searches as perpetrating sexual abuse.

    “The State of Illinois has had notice of such abuse for decades and nonetheless neglected to protect its confined youth from sexual abuse and failed to implement policies necessary to ensure such protection,” the complaint said.

    It cites a 2013 U.S. Department of Justice survey of incarcerated youth that found Illinois was among the four worst states nationwide for sexual abuse in detention facilities. It also notes about half a dozen criminal cases from 2000 to 2021 where youth center employees were convicted of sexually abusing children and alleges that abuse continues to this day.

    Criminal charges are not beyond the realm of possibility in some of the more recent cases. Although there’s no longer a statute of limitations on crimes related to the sexual abuse of minors occurring after Jan. 1, 2020, a 20-year limit remains on alleged offenses committed prior to that, allowing for the possibility of criminal charges in cases allegedly occurring as long ago as 2004.

    Many plaintiffs said their abusers threatened them with violence, solitary confinement, transfers to harsher facilities and longer sentences if they reported the abuse. Others were given extra food, money in their commissary accounts, the chance to play videos games and other rewards if they kept silent.

    The plaintiffs ranged in age from 12 to 17 at the time they said they were abused, often while they were isolated in a bathroom, kitchens or in their cells. When detainees reported abuse, the lawsuit said it was laughed off, with one lieutenant saying, “He’s just playing around,” or a chaplain who told a 17-year-old boy he allegedly fondled and was upset, “This is what goes on” in the church.

    They are now adults, with the oldest in their early 40s. Most are men, but one of the detention centers was co-ed. They are from small communities and big cities, mostly in Illinois. Several are from Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa and Texas.

    “Children, that are detained in juvenile detention centers, are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse. That’s because the staff working at these juvenile detention centers have complete and total control over these children,” Block said. “There is no way for these children to escape the abuse.”

    Associated Press writer John O’Connor contributed to this report from Springfield.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Safety Lapses Contributed to Patient Assaults at Oregon State Hospital, Federal Report Says

    Safety Lapses Contributed to Patient Assaults at Oregon State Hospital, Federal Report Says

    Safety lapses at the Oregon State Hospital contributed to recent patient-on-patient assaults, a federal report on the state’s most secure inpatient psychiatric facility has found.

    The investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that staff didn’t always adequately supervise their patients and that the hospital didn’t fully investigate acts of aggression, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

    The federal agency opened the probe after receiving four complaints. Its findings were published following an unannounced, onsite survey conducted at the Salem hospital earlier this year.

    A major incident detailed in the report occurred on Feb. 10, when a patient placed another patient in a chokehold until they were unconscious. The victim required “extensive” medical care for their injuries, according to the report.

    Investigators also determined that the hospital failed to prevent sexual assault and sexual contact between patients.

    In January, a patient was transferred out of a unit due to another patient’s “hypersexual behavior,” the report said. But in the new unit, the patient reported being coerced into sex.

    Photos You Should See – April 2024

    The hospital received the federal report, known as a statement of deficiencies, on May 1. It has 10 calendar days to respond with a plan of correction.

    “There will always be things we can improve, and we will continue to do so, but what persists is our dedication to the humans we are privileged to care for,” interim superintendent Sara Walker said in a statement.

    Once the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approves the plan, it will conduct another unannounced survey to review its implementation.

    The state hospital has long struggled to address staffing shortages, overcrowding and other security lapses.

    Just days before receiving the statement of deficiencies, the hospital was placed on “immediate jeopardy status” by CMS after a patient died shortly after arriving at the facility. The federal agency noted that emergency response equipment was not stored in an organized way in the admissions area. They found that while this didn’t contribute to the patient’s death, it presented a potential future safety risk, the Oregon Health Authority said in a statement.

    The jeopardy status has since been lifted, state health officials said.

    Last summer, a man newly transferred to the hospital managed to escape while fully shackled and drove off in a stolen van. He was found in a pond and then taken into custody, authorities said. An ensuing federal investigation found that the hospital failed to adequately supervise and transport the patient.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Colorado School Bus Aide Shown Hitting Autistic Boy Faces More Charges

    Colorado School Bus Aide Shown Hitting Autistic Boy Faces More Charges

    DENVER (AP) — A school bus aide shown on surveillance video hitting a nonverbal autistic boy has been charged with 10 more counts of abuse involving two children, prosecutors said Friday.

    Kiarra Jones, 29, was arrested last month and initially charged with one felony count of third-degree assault on an at risk person. Eight additional charges of third-degree assault on an at-risk person and two misdemeanor counts of child abuse have been filed against her, Eric Ross, a spokesperson for 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner said. The new charges involve alleged abuse of the child originally named as a victim and a second child, he said.

    Jones is represented by lawyers from the public defender’s office, which does not comment to the media on its cases.

    The names of the victims were redacted in court documents but Qusair Mohamedbhai, a lawyer who represents the families of students who took the bus Jones worked on in suburban Denver, said they are both nonverbal autistic boys including a 10-year-old shown being hit in a video released by his mother last month.

    At the time, Jessica Vestal said her son came home from school with unexplained bruises all over his body in January. Later, he got a black eye, which Vestal said Jones blamed on him hitting himself with a toy, and later he suffered a bruised foot. Unable to explain the source of the injuries, Vestal asked the school district to review the bus surveillance video.

    Each of the new assault charges, which are felonies, represents a day in which there are multiple separate incidents of abuse against the children, Mohamedbhai said.

    Photos You Should See – April 2024

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • What difference did the national emergency make?

    What difference did the national emergency make?

    Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio took the bold step of declaring a national emergency over rape and sexual violence in 2019. Five years on, BBC Africa Eye explores whether survivors of attacks are getting justice.

    Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting.

    In the city of Makeni, a three-hour drive east of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, a young mother sits outside her home with her three-year-old daughter.

    Anita, which is not her real name, describes the day in June 2023 when she found her toddler with blood dripping from her nappy.

    “I worked for this woman, and she gave me an errand that Saturday morning to go to the market,” she says, explaining that she then left her child with her employer and her 22-year-old son.

    “He took my child, he said, to buy sweets and biscuits for her. It was a lie.”

    When she got back, she realised her daughter was missing. After searching for her for some time, they were reunited but the 22-year-old mother could see that the toddler was bleeding. She took her to the hospital and after two rounds of stitches, it was confirmed she had been raped.

    “The nurses began checking the child, and they said: ‘Oh my God, what has this man done to this child?’ The doctor who was treating my child even cried.”

    Anita went to the police but the man fled and a year on the police have not been able to find him.

    “The president created a law so that whoever rapes children, should be arrested and sent to jail,” she says, angry that nothing appears to have been done.

    She is referring to a tougher sexual offences law created five years ago after President Maada Bio declared the emergency over rape.

    Poster about rape

    The laws are in place but the authorities lack the resources to deal with the issue [BBC]

    It followed protests in December 2018 when hundreds of people wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Hands off our girls” marched through Freetown.

    News of another child rape had shocked the nation – a five-year-old girl who was left paralysed from the waist down. It was reported at the time that cases of sexual violence had almost doubled within a year, a third involving children. Sierra Leoneans had had enough.

    The four-month long state of emergency from February 2019 allowed the president to divert state resources into tackling sexual violence.

    An updated Sexual Offences Act brought in stricter penalties for sexual assault.

    Rape sentences were increased to a minimum of 15 years, or life if it involved a child. A Sexual Offences Model Court to fast-track trials was created in Freetown the following year.

    There appears to have been some progress – reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence have gone down by almost 17%, from just over 12,000 in 2018 to just over 10,000 in 2023, according to police statistics.

    Creating increased awareness and new structures is one thing, but making sure that people, like Anita’s daughter, get justice is another.

    The Rainbo Initiative is a national charity that works with survivors of sexual violence. It says that in 2022 just 5% of the 2,705 cases it handled made it to the High Court.

    One of the issues is the resources available to those who are supposed to enforce the law.

    At the police station in Makeni where Anita reported her daughter’s rape, Assnt Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu who leads the Family Support Unit (FSU) says they get around four cases of child sexual assault each week.

    "Doing the right thing at the right time is a challenge"", Source: Assnt Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu, Source description: Sierra Leone police, Image: Asst Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu"Doing the right thing at the right time is a challenge"", Source: Assnt Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu, Source description: Sierra Leone police, Image: Asst Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu

    “Doing the right thing at the right time is a challenge””, Source: Assnt Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu, Source description: Sierra Leone police, Image: Asst Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu


    The big challenge his team faces is a lack of transport to physically go and arrest suspects.

    He co-ordinates all seven police divisions in the region and between them they do not have a single vehicle.

    “There are times the suspect is available but because of lack of vehicles you can’t reach that suspect to arrest him or her,” says Assnt Supt Kanu.

    “Doing the right thing at the right time is a challenge.”

    Like many in Sierra Leone, he was impressed with the government action that followed the state of emergency.

    “We have enough… good laws and policy, but the structure and personnel are the challenge for us to holistically address the issues of sexual and gender-based violence in Sierra Leone.”

    Even if an alleged perpetrator is apprehended, to get them before a judge is an even bigger struggle.

    In order for the case against a rape suspect to be heard, there is only one person in the country who can sign the documents – the attorney general. It was meant to speed up the process and get the cases straight to the courts, but it has created a different bottle-neck.

    “Presently it is not possible to have any other law officer or any other counsel to sign an indictment for sexual-related offences,” says State Counsel Joseph AK Sesay, a lawyer employed by the government.

    “The 2019 amendment stipulates that it is only the attorney general that can rightly sign an indictment. So that has been posing a challenge when it comes to getting the indictments to courts.”

    "The new laws... have led to the overall feeling that we're not in the deep, dark days of 2019"", Source: Chernor Bah, Source description: Information Minister, Image: Chernor Bah"The new laws... have led to the overall feeling that we're not in the deep, dark days of 2019"", Source: Chernor Bah, Source description: Information Minister, Image: Chernor Bah

    “The new laws… have led to the overall feeling that we’re not in the deep, dark days of 2019″”, Source: Chernor Bah, Source description: Information Minister, Image: Chernor Bah


    Information Minister Chernor Bah admits this is not a perfect process but says it is “a process that we’ll continue to improve on”.

    Challenged on the question that many believe little has changed when it comes to getting justice for rape survivors, he acknowledged that “in some communities people feel that way”.

    But he rejects the idea that there has been no progress.

    “I think the systemic reforms that we’ve put in place are there. The new laws are there. And those steps, I think, have led to the overall feeling that we’re not in the deep, dark days of 2019.”

    For Anita, back in Makeni, it has been nearly a year since her toddler was raped.

    She has had no new information from the police, so has resorted to posting the alleged suspect’s photo on Facebook.

    “I want people to help me search for the boy. I’m tormented and I am not happy. What has happened to my child, I don’t want it to happen to any other child.”

    You can watch the full BBC Africa Eye documentary Behind Closed Doors – Sierra Leone’s Gender-Based Violence Epidemic on the BBC Africa YouTube channel.

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  • Two women escape sexual assault attempt by same man just minutes apart, cops say

    Two women escape sexual assault attempt by same man just minutes apart, cops say

    An Illinois man was arrested after police say he tried to sexually assault two women in the same night.

    Jeremy Mack, 28, was charged with attempted sexual assault, aggravated battery and public indecency, WGN reported.

    Around 9 p.m. April 22, a 25-year-old woman was walking when Mack grabbed her from behind, told her he had a gun and not to turn around, according to an April 23 news release from the Chicago Police Department.

    Mack then tried to sexually assault the woman, but the woman began to scream and nearby residents helped stop the attack before Mack took off, police said.

    Minutes later, around 9:10 p.m., a 23-year-old woman was walking when she heard someone walking behind her. Police say Mack grabbed the woman and took her to the ground.

    Mack got on top of the woman and made “sexually explicit statements” to her, according to police. But she was able to fight him off, authorities said.

    Mack was arrested April 25, according to WBBM. Attorney information for Mack was not available.

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    2 women sexually abused inmates while working at Nebraska prison, cops say

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  • Jury Finds Wisconsin Man Guilty in Killing, Sexual Assault of 20-Month-Old Girl

    Jury Finds Wisconsin Man Guilty in Killing, Sexual Assault of 20-Month-Old Girl

    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man has been convicted in the sexual assault and killing of a 20-month-old girl and abusing the child’s mother who then was his girlfriend.

    A jury on Friday found Marshawn Giles guilty of 15 charges including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree child sexual assault resulting in great bodily harm and second-degree sexual assault. Giles had faced 18 criminal counts, but three were dropped.

    Authorities have said the toddler died in 2022 in Madison from blunt force injuries to her head, leaving her with multiple skull fractures. An autopsy also noted blunt force injuries elsewhere that were consistent with sexual assault.

    The second phase of Giles’ trial is expected to start next week. Defense attorneys will attempt to show he suffered from a mental disease or defect and was not criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the child’s death, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Why Alvin Bragg Can Still Convict Harvey Weinstein

    Why Alvin Bragg Can Still Convict Harvey Weinstein

    After Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg finishes his trial with Donald Trump, he’ll have to turn to Harvey Weinstein.

    The disgraced former Hollywood mogul saw his 2020 conviction on sex crimes charges overturned Thursday by New York’s top court in a 4-3 decision that shocked the public.

    But Catherine A. Christian, a former prosecutor who spent more than 30 years in the Manhattan DA’s Office, wasn’t surprised.

    “A number of us were expecting that it probably would be reversed if there was some sort of intellectual honesty, because you don’t want to make bad law for bad defendants,” Christian told POLITICO Magazine.

    The state Court of Appeals determined Weinstein ultimately did not receive a fair trial because it included testimony from witnesses who accused him of sexual abuse and harassment, but were not part of the criminal charges directly at issue.

    Weinstein has been serving a 23-year sentence at an upstate New York prison for a conviction that helped fuel the #MeToo movement and a societal reckoning over sexual misconduct. But he’s not about to be set free. Not only did the top New York court order a new trial, but he also faces a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted by a California jury in 2022 of raping a woman at a hotel in Beverly Hills.

    The decision by the New York court was decried by victims advocates, who worry it could chill future sexual assault cases. But Christian said the case — which was initially led by Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr. — can be retried successfully. And she offered some advice on how to do it.

    The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

    The court’s decision to overturn Harvey Weinstein’s conviction came as much of a shock to the public. Were you surprised by the ruling?

    What I think the four judges said: I know this was a very high-profile case, this may be a despicable man, but the law is the law. And in this case, we have to follow the law, not how we feel about how despicable this particular defendant is.

    I’m not surprised. That they did overturn it shows that they just stuck to the facts and the law and not the celebrity, not how they may personally find him offensive. They looked at that transcript, and then just followed what they believe is the right take on the law.

    At the time of the original trial, did you think it was a mistake to have other women testify in this case as witnesses to Weinstein’s misconduct but who were otherwise not part of the criminal charges?

    The law allows you, if it’s not too prejudicial, in certain instances to bring out prior uncharged crimes if it goes to notice, intent, common plan or scheme. So, there’s a number of exceptions.

    It’s a legitimate decision that the prosecutors made. Yes, now that it’s overturned, you know, hindsight is 20/20. And let me say this, I know the two prosecutors who tried it, and they’re excellent. It was still up to the [lower court] judge, the judge could have said no. And the judge said, “You can do this,” and the Court of Appeals said, “Actually, you shouldn’t have.”

    I wouldn’t be overly critical of the trial prosecutors. There were a lot of legal minds in the office that went into the prosecution of this case. You always hope that if you get a conviction as a prosecutor, it will stick. But in a case like this, there were strategic decisions that now have turned out, according to the Court of Appeals, to have been a mistake.

    The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has already pledged to retry the case. Do you think there was any hesitation there? Are there risks to doing so?

    To me, you have to retry assuming all of the witnesses are available. Harvey Weinstein has been convicted in Los Angeles, so he’s not going anywhere.

    They’ll retry it and this time, they’ll do it the way the Court of Appeals says it should be done.

    The negative now in retrying it means these women have to come back and do it all over again, and be cross-examined all over again. So that’s the negative of a retrial for the prosecution.

    How will this shape sexual assault cases going forward? What about the trajectory of the #MeToo movement?

    First of all, the Court of Appeals didn’t say he can’t be retried because it’s so clear that he’s factually innocent. That’s not what this decision was. I don’t even want to call it a technicality.

    There was evidence that should not have been admitted, or should not have been allowed to be admitted, because it was too prejudicial. That’s really the gist. I don’t think it should be spread to all sexual assault cases. It’s limited to the facts of this specific case, and how this specific case was tried.

    It will affect the law, not just on sexual assault cases, but all criminal cases in New York about what a prosecutor is allowed to bring as evidence, of what uncharged crimes, can they put on their direct case, what prior, vicious, immoral criminal acts can they cross examine the defendant about. That’s in all cases.

    But I don’t think this is going to affect prosecutors from going after people who are charged with sexual assault if they can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. I don’t think, and I’m hoping, it won’t deter victims from reporting it, particularly against high-profile men, because this case happened to be reversed.

    Bill Cosby’s case at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court — he had his conviction reversed because of an error made by the prosecutor. It wasn’t like saying either of these men didn’t do it. That’s usually not what the appeals courts do. They just determine whether or not what was done at the trial was legally correct.

    DA Alvin Bragg is currently focused on the Trump trial in Manhattan. Could that have any impact on a new Weinstein trial? If not legally, then politically?

    No, because remember the Manhattan DA’s office is huge. The Trump trial is being tried by the investigations division.

    The Harvey Weinstein case will be done by the Special Victims division, it’ll be their sex crimes division. It’s very, very different. Different set of assistants, whole different thing. I always say about this Trump trial, there are assistants in that office who have their own trials that have nothing to do with this Trump trial.

    They probably were anticipating the decision, and it could have gone either way. They probably prepared themselves — suppose the conviction is overturned, what will our response be? I don’t think it was shocking to them.

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  • Louisiana man sentenced to 50 years in prison, physical castration for raping teen

    Louisiana man sentenced to 50 years in prison, physical castration for raping teen

    Preview: Christine Blasey Ford: I was “naïve” about Kavanaugh testimony


    Christine Blasey Ford: “I was naïve” about consequences of Brett Kavanaugh testimony

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    A Louisiana man has been sentenced to decades in prison and physical castration after pleading guilty to raping a teenager, according to a news release from the region’s district attorney. 

    Glenn Sullivan Sr., 54, pled guilty to four counts of second-degree rape on April 17. Authorities began investigating Sullivan in July 2022, when a young woman told the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office that Sullivan had assaulted her multiple times when she was 14. The assaults resulted in pregnancy, and a DNA test confirmed that Sullivan was the father of the child, the district attorney’s office said. Sullivan had also groomed the victim and threatened her and her family to prevent her from coming forward. 

    “So many of these types of cases go unreported because of fear. The strength it must have taken for this young woman to tell the truth in the face of threats and adversity is truly incredible,” Judicial District Attorney Scott M. Perrilloux said in the news release. 

    A 2008 Louisiana law says that men convicted of certain rape offenses may be sentenced to chemical castration. They can also elect to be physically castrated. Perrilloux said that Sullivan’s plea requires he be physically castrated. The process will be carried out by the state’s Department of Corrections, according to the law, but cannot be conducted more than a week before a person’s prison sentence ends. This means Sullivan wouldn’t be castrated until a week before the end of his 50-year sentence — when he would be more than 100 years old. 

    “Sex crimes against juveniles are the most malicious crimes we prosecute,” Assistant District Attorney Brad J. Cascio, who prosecuted the case, said in the release. “I intend on using every tool the legislature is willing to give us, including physical castration, to seek justice for the children in our community.” 

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  • US Government Agrees to $138.7M Settlement Over FBI’s Botching of Larry Nassar Assault Allegations

    US Government Agrees to $138.7M Settlement Over FBI’s Botching of Larry Nassar Assault Allegations

    DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department announced a $138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.

    When combined with other settlements, roughly $1 billion now has been set aside by various organizations to compensate hundreds of women who said Nassar assaulted them under the guise of treatment for sports injuries.

    Nassar worked at Michigan State University and also served as a team doctor at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics. He’s now serving decades in prison for assaulting female athletes, including medal-winning Olympic gymnasts.

    Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said Nassar betrayed the trust of those in his care for decades, and that the “allegations should have been take seriously from the outset.”

    “While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing,” Mizer said of the agreement to settle 139 claims.

    The Justice Department has acknowledged that it failed to step in. For more than a year, FBI agents in Indianapolis and Los Angeles had knowledge of allegations against him but apparently took no action, an internal investigation found.

    Photos You Should See – April 2024

    FBI Director Christopher Wray was contrite — and very blunt — when he spoke to survivors at a Senate hearing in 2021. The assault survivors include decorated Olympians Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

    “I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again,” Wray said. “And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.”

    After a search, investigators said in 2016 that they had found images of child sex abuse and followed up with federal charges against Nassar. Separately, the Michigan attorney general’s office handled the assault charges that ultimately shocked the sports world and led to an extraordinary dayslong sentencing hearing with gripping testimony about his crimes.

    “I’m deeply grateful. Accountability with the Justice Department has been a long time in coming,” said Rachael Denhollander of Louisville, Kentucky, who is not part of the latest settlement but was the first person to publicly step forward and detail abuse at the hands of Nassar.

    “The unfortunate reality is that what we are seeing today is something that most survivors never see,” Denhollander told The Associated Press. “Most survivors never see accountability. Most survivors never see justice. Most survivors never get restitution.”

    Associated Press reporters Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Lawsuit Alleges Negligence in Hiring of Maintenance Man Accused of Torturing Resident

    Lawsuit Alleges Negligence in Hiring of Maintenance Man Accused of Torturing Resident

    BALTIMORE (AP) — April Hurley’s attacker entered her apartment after identifying himself as the building maintenance man — a job he should never have obtained, according to a lawsuit filed Monday that accuses the property owner and management company of engaging in negligent hiring practices.

    Once inside the apartment, Jason Billingsley tortured Hurley and her companion, Jonte Gilmore, according to police and the lawsuit. The victims escaped by climbing out a basement window after being set on fire, the complaint says.

    Days later came the brutal killing of Baltimore tech CEO Pava LaPere in September, which police also linked to Billingsley. He was ultimately arrested and charged in both cases.

    But what if he’d never had the opportunity to commit that first attack, attorneys for Hurley and Gilmore asked during a news conference Monday morning.

    “Jason Billingsley acted alone but had an accomplice. That accomplice was the negligence and incompetence of the companies that hired him,” said attorney Andrew O’Connell. “By allowing this violent criminal to slip through the cracks, they not only endangered the safety of our clients but also shattered the tranquility of what it means to be home.”

    The lawsuit alleges that the companies failed to complete an appropriate background check on Billingsley, whose criminal record included sex offenses and violence.

    Photos You Should See – April 2024

    The west Baltimore apartment building is owned by Property Pals LLC and managed by Eden’s Homes LLC, according to the lawsuit. Property Pals didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Monday. Eden’s Homes didn’t respond to a call and text message. The Maryland Office of the Public Defender, which represents Billingsley in the criminal cases, also didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. He is also a named defendant in the civil suit.

    The night of her attack, Billingsley identified himself as building maintenance and said there was a flood in the kitchen, according to the complaint. As Hurley walked up the stairs, Billingsley overpowered her, beat her with a gun, bound her with duct tape, raped her and slit her throat with a serrated knife, the complaint says. He also handcuffed Gilmore and forced him into a closet before dousing both victims in gasoline and setting them on fire, according to police and the lawsuit.

    Police later found a backpack and other items in the bushes outside the house, including duct tape, a bleach container, a gas can and a lighter.

    “The fact that I’m sitting here in front of you guys today is honestly a miracle,” Hurley said during the news conference. “Jason Billingsley literally tried to take my life. He tried to take my life, and this could have been prevented.”

    LaPere, who founded a tech startup from her dorm room at Johns Hopkins University and was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list for social impact, died from strangulation and blunt force trauma. In a bail review hearing following Billingsley’s arrest, prosecutors said he had admitted to beating LaPere with a brick. He gained entry to her downtown Baltimore apartment building after waving her over to its glass door, but there’s no reason to believe they knew each other, according to police.

    Her body was found on the building’s rooftop six days after the attack on Hurley and Gilmore.

    Billingsley had been quickly identified as a suspect in the rape and arson case. Baltimore police said they were actively pursuing him, but they didn’t immediately alert the public because they didn’t think he was committing “random” acts of violence.

    Attorneys for Hurley and Gilmore criticized the department’s decision, saying they believe police failed to take the case seriously because it occurred in a disenfranchised neighborhood and the victims were people of color.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • A Convicted Rapist Is Charged With Murder in the Killing of a Connecticut Visiting Nurse

    A Convicted Rapist Is Charged With Murder in the Killing of a Connecticut Visiting Nurse

    A convicted rapist was charged with murder and attempted sexual assault Friday in the killing of a visiting nurse at a Connecticut halfway house for sex offenders in October — a crime that spurred calls for better safety measures for home health care workers.

    Authorities added the charges against Michael Reese, 39, as he appeared in state court in Danielson for a related larceny and drug paraphernalia case. Police arrested him on those allegations as he was leaving the Willimantic halfway house on the day when Joyce Grayson was found dead in the basement on Oct. 28. Officers said Reese had some of Grayson’s possessions on him.

    Grayson, a 63-year-old mother of six and a nurse for 36 years, had gone to the house to administer medication to Reese. Police responded there when someone reported she had missed later appointments.

    Reese was charged with murder, felony murder and attempted first-degree sexual assault, according to the court clerk’s office. Additional details of the allegations were not immediately available.

    Reese’s public defender did not immediately return phone and emails messages seeking comment Friday.

    Grayson was a nurse for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for 26 years before serving as a visiting nurse for over a decade, according to her family. She also was a beloved foster parent, taking in nearly three dozen children and being honored with the state’s Foster Parent of the Year award in 2017.

    Photos You Should See – April 2024

    After her death, state and federal lawmakers renewed pushes to prevent violence against health care workers.

    Reese, who was on probation after serving more than 14 years in prison for stabbing and sexually assaulting a woman in 2006 in New Haven, was taken into police custody while leaving the halfway house on the day Grayson was killed. He was released from prison in late 2020 and was sent back to detention two times for violating probation, state records show.

    Authorities said he had some of Grayson’s belongings, including credit cards, and was charged with violating probation, larceny and using drug paraphernalia.

    A judge on Friday set bail at $2 million on the new charges. Reese has been detained on bail since his arrest. He is due back in court on June 7.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Lawyers for Nassar Assault Survivors Have Reached $100M Deal With Justice Department, AP Source Says

    Lawyers for Nassar Assault Survivors Have Reached $100M Deal With Justice Department, AP Source Says

    The U.S. Justice Department has agreed to pay approximately $100 million to settle claims with about 100 people who say they were sexually assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar, a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

    The deal has not been finalized and no money has been paid, the source said on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak before a formal announcement.

    The settlement was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

    Nassar was a Michigan State University sports doctor as well as a doctor at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics. He is serving decades in prison for assaulting female athletes, including medal-winning Olympic gymnasts, under the guise of treatment.

    Lawyers filed claims against the government, focusing on a 15-month period when FBI agents in Indianapolis and Los Angeles had knowledge of allegations against Nassar but apparently took no action, beginning in 2015. The Justice Department inspector general confirmed fundamental errors.

    Photos You Should See – April 2024

    Nassar’s assaults continued until his arrest in fall 2016, authorities said.

    The assault survivors include decorated Olympians Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

    “I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told survivors at a Senate hearing in 2021. “And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.”

    The Michigan attorney general’s office ultimately handled the assault charges against Nassar, while federal prosecutors in western Michigan filed a child sex abuse images case against him.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • 2 High School Wrestling Team Members in West Virginia Are Charged With Sexual Assault

    2 High School Wrestling Team Members in West Virginia Are Charged With Sexual Assault

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Two West Virginia minors are facing sexual assault and other charges following an alleged incident at a hotel involving members of a high school wrestling team, authorities say.

    Raleigh County Sheriff James Canaday said the perpetrators are each facing two counts of second-degree sexual assault, unlawful restraint and conspiracy to commit a felony, according to a post on his office’s Facebook page. He said juvenile petitions were filed Tuesday regarding the charges, which stem from an ongoing investigation into an incident earlier this year in a hotel room in Raleigh County. The students attended Greenbrier West High School.

    Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield told The Associated Press on Wednesday that there are two victims, both of whom are minors, hence the two counts for each of the three charges. He said the crime is best characterized “as a completely avoidable situation that went so far beyond appropriateness” that it became violently criminal.

    “This is a situation that I believe was intentional, that I believe was done with a lack of impulse control and that I believe needs to be punished,” Hatfield said.

    He said at this early stage in the case, his office needs more information before deciding its desired course for pursuing punishment. Prosecutors will conduct their own investigation in addition to the sheriff’s department investigation. He said he knows what they did, now he needs to know why and whether it had ever happened before and to other students.

    “I need to determine whether or not this was a single incident in the micro, or whether or not this was some kind of prevailing issue that’s going on,” he said.

    Photos You Should See

    No further information can be released at this time because the case involves children, officials said.

    According to the West Virginia code, second-degree sexual assault is a felony punishable by a maximum of 25 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. A person is guilty of second-degree sexual assault when he or she has forced someone into non-consensual sexual intercourse or performed sexual intercourse or sexual intrusion on “another person who is physically helpless.”

    If the case progresses, a determination will be made by the court as to whether or not the juveniles should be tried as adults.

    Both Raleigh County and Greenbrier County, which borders Virginia, are located in the southern portion of the state.

    The Associated Press left messages on the Greenbrier County district office line Wednesday and emailed Greenbrier Board of Education President Jeanie Wyatt requesting comment.

    Just last week, the Greenbrier County School Board met in a special session to accept the retirement of Superintendent Jeffrey Bryant and the resignation of Greenbrier West Principal Adam Young, The Register-Herald reported. The board met the same week news reports revealed a racist incident at Greenbrier West High School in which a Black female student was called the n-word in graffiti on a classroom wall.

    Bryant’s last day as superintendent is scheduled to be Friday, the last day of spring break.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Indictment Accuses Rwandan Man of Lying About Role in His Country’s 1994 Genocide to Come to US

    Indictment Accuses Rwandan Man of Lying About Role in His Country’s 1994 Genocide to Come to US

    BOSTON (AP) — A Rwandan man who authorities say killed people with a machete and raped women in the country’s 1994 genocide before immigrating to the U.S. was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Boston.

    Eric Nshimiye, of Ohio, is accused of repeatedly lying about his involvement in the genocide in order to come to the United States as a refugee in 1995 and then gain citizenship eight years later.

    He was indicted on charges that include falsifying information, obstruction of justice and perjury. He was accused of striking men, women and children on the head with a nail-studded club and then hacking them to death with a machete, according to court documents.

    The obstruction and perjury charges stem from his testimony in the 2019 trial of his one-time medical school classmate, who was convicted of hiding his involvement in at least seven killings and five rapes during the genocide, which left at least 800,000 people dead in the African country.

    “For nearly 30 years, Mr. Nshimiye allegedly hid the truth about crimes he committed during the Rwandan genocide in order to seek refuge in the United States, and reap the benefits of U.S. citizenship,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy of Massachusetts said in a statement.

    In addition to lying about his involvement in murders and rapes, Nshimiye also lied about his former classmate’s involvement in the genocide, authorities said.

    Photos You Should See

    Nshimiye was being held in custody in Ohio following an initial court appearance last week and pending a detention hearing scheduled for Sunday. He is due to appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.

    A public defender in Ohio said he couldn’t offer any comment as he was no longer handling the case and that his understanding was that a public defender in Boston had not yet been assigned.

    Nshimiye was a medical student at the University of Rwanda campus in Butare in the early 1990s. Authorities accuse him of killing Tutsi men, women and children. His victims included a 14-year-old boy and a man who sewed doctor’s coats at the university hospital, authorities said.

    Witnesses in Rwanda have identified the locations of the killings and drawn pictures of Nshimiye’s weapons, authorities said. Nshimiye also participated in the rapes of numerous Tutsi women during the genocide, authorities said.

    Nshimiye fled Tutsi rebels and made his way to Kenya where, in 1995, he lied to U.S. immigration officials to gain refugee status in the United States, authorities said. Nshimiye has lived and worked in Ohio since 1995, according to officials.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Iowa Attorney General Not Finished With Audit That’s Holding up Contraception Money for Rape Victims

    Iowa Attorney General Not Finished With Audit That’s Holding up Contraception Money for Rape Victims

    DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa attorney general’s office said it is still working on an audit of its victim services that has held up emergency contraception funding for victims of sexual assault despite having a completed draft in hand.

    Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, paused the funding while awaiting the results of the audit to decide whether to continue those payments. Her office said the audit, which Bird announced when she took office 14 months ago, is in its “final stages” and a report would be released soon.

    The policy under her Democratic predecessor, Tom Miller, had been to partially cover the cost of contraception for sexual assault victims. In rare cases, the cost of abortion for sexual assault victims was also covered, Miller’s victim assistance division director, Sandi Tibbetts Murphy, told the Des Moines Register last year.

    “As a part of her top-down, bottom-up audit of victim assistance, Attorney General Bird is carefully evaluating whether this is an appropriate use of public funds,” said Alyssa Brouillet, Bird’s communications director. “Until that review is complete, payment of these pending claims will be delayed.”

    The current status of the audit was first reported by the Register, which filed an open records request in October. After five months, Bird’s office completed the records request but declined to release the document to the Register, citing a section of Iowa Code excluding preliminary documents from public records law.

    Federal and state law requires medical examination costs for victims of sexual assault are covered to ensure forensic evidence is collected readily and properly. In Iowa, costs are covered by the attorney general office’s crime victim compensation program, which is funded by state and federal criminal fines and penalties.

    Photos You Should See

    Materials from Miller’s administration show the costs for victims’ prescriptions for oral contraceptives and the Plan-B morning-after pill, as well as for the prevention or treatment of sexually transmitted infections, were reimbursed at 75%.

    Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa said in a statement that the audit is being used to justify the termination of payments.

    “It’s absolutely deplorable that sexual assault survivors in Iowa have gone more than a year without state-covered emergency contraceptives — all because of politics,” said Mazie Stilwell, director of public affairs.

    Bird campaigned to replace the 10-term Miller highlighting her opposition to abortion and her commitment to defending Iowa’s restrictive abortion law, which she will do again during oral arguments before the state Supreme Court in April. The law, currently on hold, would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy if it is upheld.

    Bird’s office said the crime victim compensation fund is being used to cover costs of sexual assault examinations, as well as rape kits and STI tests.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Convicted Sex Offender Who Hacked Jumbotron at the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Stadium Gets 220 Years

    Convicted Sex Offender Who Hacked Jumbotron at the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Stadium Gets 220 Years

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A convicted child molester has been sentenced to 220 years in federal prison for producing child sexual abuse material and hacking the jumbotron at the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium after the team learned he was a registered sex offender and fired him.

    A federal judge in Jacksonville sentenced 53-year-old Samuel Arthur Thompson, of St. Augustine, on Monday, according to court records. He was convicted in November of producing, receiving and possessing sexual images of children, producing such images while required to register as a sex offender, violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, sending unauthorized damaging commands to a protected computer and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.

    Thompson was arrested in early 2020 after being deported by the Philippines back to the U.S., officials said. He had fled to the Southeast Asian country about six months earlier, after the FBI executed a search warrant at his home and seized several of his computers, according to a criminal complaint.

    According to court records, Thompson was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Alabama in 1998. Among other things, the conviction required him to register as a sex offender and to report any international travel.

    The Jaguars hired Thompson as a contractor in 2013 to consult on the design and installation of their new video board network and later to operate the jumbotron on gamedays, investigators said. The team chose not to renew his contract in 2018 after learning of his conviction and status as a sex offender.

    According to prosecutors, before Thompson’s contract ended in March 2018, he installed remote access software on a spare server in the Jaguars’ server room. He then remotely accessed computers controlling the jumbotron during three 2018 season games, causing the video boards to malfunction repeatedly.

    Photos You Should See

    The Jaguars eventually found the spare server and removed its access to the jumbotron, prosecutors said. The next time the server was accessed during a game, the team was able to collect network information about the intruder, which the FBI traced to Thompson’s home, prosecutors said.

    The FBI executed a search warrant at Thompson’s residence in July 2019 and seized a phone, a tablet and two laptops, which all had been used to access the spare jumbotron server, according to log files. Agents also said they seized a firearm, which Thompson was prohibited from possessing as a convicted felon.

    The FBI also found thousands of images and hundreds of videos of child sexual abuse on the devices. The files included videos and images that Thompson had produced a month before the raid on his home that depicted children that had been in his care and custody, investigators said.

    The Jaguars released a statement in November, following Thompson’s conviction, thanking federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their work on the case.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Officer sexually assaulted 15-year-old girl he kidnapped on duty in Colorado, feds say

    Officer sexually assaulted 15-year-old girl he kidnapped on duty in Colorado, feds say

    A Colorado police officer sexually assaulted a teenage girl while on duty, according to federal prosecutors, who’ve announced he’s charged with depriving her of her civil rights.

    The charge stems from Aug. 4, when former Loveland Police Department officer Dylan Miller’s “conduct included aggravated sexual abuse and kidnapping,” an indictment unsealed on March 22 says.

    If he’s convicted, Miller, 28, could be sentenced up to life in federal prison, the Justice Department said in a March 25 news release.

    McClatchy News contacted Miller’s defense attorneys, Paul H. Sukenik and Reid J. Elkus, for comment on March 25 and didn’t receive an immediate response.

    In October, the 15-year-old and her family reported a Loveland police officer sexually assaulted her at a local park over the summer, according to a Nov. 6 statement from Loveland Police Chief Tim Doran.

    “She could distinctly remember his face, but never knew his name,” Doran said.

    The Loveland Police Department had the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office take over the investigation to “avoid any conflict of interest,” according to the sheriff’s office.

    Miller first encountered the teen and other people in late July during a traffic stop, the sheriff’s office said in a Nov. 6 news release announcing the officer’s arrest on state charges.

    A few days later, he found her and another individual at a local park “after hours,” according to the sheriff’s office, and “told the other person to leave.”

    Miller is accused of forcing the girl to a nearby “secluded area,” where the sexual assault occurred, the sheriff’s office said.

    Following the teen’s report, he was arrested Nov. 6 on charges of first-degree kidnapping, sex assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, unlawful sexual conduct by a peace officer, sex assault, official oppression and first-degree official misconduct, according to the sheriff’s office.

    “I spent years investigating crimes against children. These are difficult cases for everyone, most of all for victims and their families,” Sheriff John Feyen said in a statement.

    When Miller arrived to work on Oct. 27, he was put on administrative leave, according to Doran.

    He was fired the day of his arrest after he worked for the department since 2022, Doran said.

    Miller is due in state court for a disposition on April 15, according to the Larimer County District Attorney.

    He will appear in federal court for an arraignment, discovery conference and detention hearing on March 27, court records show.

    Loveland is about a 50-mile drive north of Denver.

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    Officer raped multiple women while transporting them as pretrial detainees, feds say

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