During a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Montgomery Police Department Darryl Albert announced assault charges for the following men: Zachery Shipman, 25; Richard Roberts, 48; and Allen Todd, 23.

One of the men was in police custody and the two others were expected to turn themselves in to police by Tuesday afternoon.

The fight began when a crew member of a city-owned riverboat attempted to move a pontoon boat blocking the ship from docking along the riverfront around 7 p.m. on August 5.

Social media video showing a man shoving a crew member went viral on social media. 

“The people of Montgomery, we’re better than that. We’re a fun city and we don’t want this type of activity to shed a dark eye on what this city’s all about,” Albert said.

The incident escalated when several people could be seen joining the brawl and attacking the employee.

Albert said during the press conference that the FBI joined its investigation into the incident.

“Help the brother!” one person recording the fight could be heard saying.

Police are also seeking to interview Reggie Gray, 42, who was allegedly seen on social media using a folding chair in the incident.

In total, 200 people were on the riverboat, according to Albert. 

Police said that more charges could be filed in the incident.

The post Alabama riverfront brawl: Montgomery police announce charges in massive fight caught on video appeared first on Fox News.

The slew of candidates vying for the presidency on August 20 have promised to revitalise the Ecuadorian economy, which was battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and tackle a surge in violence.

But a lack of employment opportunities and rising insecurity – linked in part to increased activity among criminal groups – have pushed a growing number of people to leave Ecuador and seek opportunities elsewhere.

“We’re really tired of officials’ false promises, the hopes are nil,” Jefferson Goyburo, a 48-year-old taxi driver in the port city of Guayaquil, whose son Luis, 21, left for Spain, told the Reuters news agency.

“Sometimes I want to cry because there’s no work, nor any security, for anyone in this country.”

Outgoing President Guillermo Lasso, a banker who won a surprise election victory in 2021, called early elections in May to avoid his potential removal from office by the legislature.

Lasso had pledged to create two million jobs, but his government says 500,000 new jobs were created during his two-year administration.

The top candidates for the August elections have offered a variety of solutions for the country’s economic problems without committing to specific jobs targets.

Leading candidate Luisa Gonzalez has pledged to extend tax benefits to companies that hire young people, while Indigenous candidate Yaku Perez – who finished third in the 2021 vote – has said he will bring greater regulation to digital platforms.

Conservative candidates Otto Sonnenholzner and Jan Topic have said that they would support entrepreneurship initiatives and public works projects, respectively.

Voters have offered few signs that they believe any of the candidates will be able to improve things, however.

Some are voting with their feet, as about 822,000 Ecuadorians between the ages of 18 and 45 had left the country through June of this year, according to the government. About 1.4 million people left Ecuador during all of last year.

Meanwhile, a Tuesday poll by Ecuadorian polling firm Click Report showed Gonzalez, who is backed by former President Rafael Correa, holding 29.3 percent support. Perez held 14.4 percent while Sonnenholzner and Topic had 12.4 and 9.6 percent, respectively.

But more than 16.8 percent of potential voters said they would cast a ballot for no one.

None of the candidates, who must get more than 50 percent of valid votes or more than 40 percent if they are 10 points ahead of their nearest rival to win in a first round, have included migration policies in their campaigning.

Rising insecurity

A surge in violence, particularly in Ecuador’s prison system, is also high among voters’ concerns.

In late July, the government declared a state of emergency after dozens of people were killed in prison riots in Guayaquil. Much of the prison violence in Ecuador over the past few years has been linked to groups vying for control of drug trafficking routes, authorities have said.

“These elections are unusual due to the backdrop of intense anxiety stemming from organised crime,” said Santiago Cahuasqui, a political scientist at the International SEK University.

Highlighting the insecurity in the country, around 30 candidates, including six of the eight presidential candidates, are under police protection. The assassination of Agustin Intriago, mayor of the city of Manta in Ecuador’s Pacific coast province of Manabi, last month further raised tensions.

As a result, security has been a main focus of all the presidential contenders’ campaigns.

Their varied proposals include building a maximum security prison in the Amazon, deploying signal jammers in prisons, better equipping police and soldiers, and imposing harsher penalties on criminals.

“This wave of violence provides the ideal breeding ground for security-oriented populism. Most candidates are endorsing a hardline strategy as the sole solution,” said security expert Carla Alvarez.

The post Ecuador beset by crime, economic woes ahead of presidential vote appeared first on Al Jazeera.

A SWAT team fatally shot Daton Viel, 28, on Friday after he shot and critically injured two Orlando police officers during a traffic stop around 11 p.m. Investigators believe Viel’s vehicle may have been tied to a homicide in Miami.

Less than a year ago, on Dec. 1, 2022, Viel offered a ride to the 14-year-old girl walking to a local high school. She accepted, and when she got into his vehicle, he drove her to a park and allegedly raped her inside his vehicle before driving back to the school.

Once he dropped her off at the school, the victim told friends and school staff, who contacted law enforcement, Orange County records show.

Surveillance footage captured a red, four-door sedan entering the school’s front office parking lot once at 10:14 a.m. and again at 10:46 a.m., when the victim can be seen exiting the vehicle.

Medical staff examined the victim and obtained a sexual assault kit. Detectives then conducted an analysis of male DNA found on the victim and linked it to Viel, who was charged with sexual battery of a person between the ages of 12 and 18, lewd or lascivious molestation and lewd or lascivious exhibition.

He was released on $125,000 bond in that case, as FOX 35 Orlando first reported.

“The only individual who can be blamed for incidents like these is the individual who took those actions,” Monique Worrell, U.S. State’s Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, said during a Monday press conference. Worrell defended her office, repeating that bond is at the discretion of the court, not the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“Whether or not someone gets released on bond is in the discretion of the court, and bond is a right. It is not something that the state gets to decide or not decide,” Worrell said when asked whether the prosecutor’s office could have argued for no bond. “We can certainly make arguments. Ultimately, it’s the decision of the court, and in this case, the court decided that a $125,000 bond was appropriate.”

At the time of his arrest in the rape case, Viel was on probation for burglary, trespassing on a construction site and criminal mischief charges stemming from a December 2019 incident. He had also violated probation for alleged crimes out of Georgia earlier this year.

Additionally, there was a warrant out for Viel’s arrest in Orange County in July after he was caught driving a red Ford Fusion with a stolen license plate on June 30 near the University of Central Florida campus.

“The offender reported he’d come to the campus to see a girlfriend and he knew he shouldn’t be driving because his license was suspended, and he did not have any insurance on the car,” an amended complaint stated. “While Officer Smith was removing the stolen license plate from the vehicle, UCF Dispatch relayed the offender had an active warrant from Orange County for Trespassing.”

When officers told Viel to put his hands behind his back, he fled the scene. Police yelled commands at the suspect to stop, but he ignored them and got away.

“There were three warrants, and we just could not get to him,” Worrell said Monday. “…Until Saturday morning, he was never taken into custody.”

On Friday, after Viel shot at two Orlando officers, he initially fled the scene and then carjacked another vehicle in an effort to get away, and a vehicle pursuit ensued, according to a statement released from the Orlando Police Department. 

Viel barricaded himself inside a room at a Holiday Inn and refused to surrender despite multiple attempts by police to persuade him to give up. At 8:58 a.m., the suspect opened fire on SWAT officers “multiple times,” according to Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith. Police returned fire and hit the suspect, killing him.  

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

The post Florida man killed in shootout with police was out on bond after allegedly sexually assaulting girl appeared first on Fox News.

The pic, directed by Génesis Valenzuela and produced by Wendy Espinal, picked up three awards, including a CHF 20,000 ($22,000) Open Doors cash grant alongside a €8,000 development grand handed out by France’s CNC.

Set in 1992, the project tells the true story of Dominican immigrant Lucrecia Pérez, who was brutally murdered by four neo-Nazis while living in Madrid. The attack was the first case of racism and xenophobia recognized by the Spanish State.

The projects synopsis reads: Through a visually enthralling journey intertwining colonial history, displacement, and criminal investigation, the director will delve into Lucrecia’s life as a way to explore the diaspora experience and dislocate the grand narrative of history- as she currently shares Lucrecia’s undocumented status. The present and the past connect, while fictional representation will emerge as a mechanism to help fill the gaps in the Afro-descendant memory of the Caribbean.

The biggest Open Doors cash prize of CHF 25’000 was picked up by Pantasma, a co-production between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras by filmmaker Gloria Carrión. The pic ic produced by Leonor Zúniga. 

For the second of its three-year cycle, Open Doors this year focused on the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. A total of eight projects in development were selected for its coproduction platform, the Projects’ Hub, along with eight creative producers who participated in the program’s talent incubator, the Producers’ Lab. 

The Projects’ Hub jury consisted of Madeline Robert, Manager of visions sud est; Artistic Director of Fribourg International Film Festival Thierry Jobin; Michel Plazanet, Deputy Director of International Affairs at CNC; Head of Projects at ARTE France Cinema Eva Pons; and Lasse Skagen, Head of Programming at the Films from the South Festival. 

Check out the full list of winners below: 

Open Doors Grant

A total of CHF 50’000 sponsored by visions sud est (with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), the City of Bellinzona, and the Open Doors initiative.

CHF 25’000 to Pantasma

Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras

Directed by Gloria Carrión, produced by Leonor Zúniga

CHF 20’000 to Tres balas (Three Bullets)

Dominican Republic

Directed by Génesis Valenzuela, produced by Wendy Espinal

CHF 5’000 to Desidia

Bolivia, Chile

Directed by Leandro Grillo, produced by Alejandra Antequera

CNC Development Grant

EUR 8,000 for development provided by CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée

LOA. Mata a tus amos (LOA. Kill Your Masters)

Venezuela, Puerto Rico

Directed and produced by Carlos Zerpa

Prix ArteKino International

EUR 6,000 for development provided by ARTEKino.

Tres balas (Three Bullets)

Dominican Republic

Directed by Génesis Valenzuela, produced by Wendy Espinal

Sørfond Award

Participation in the project to the Sørfond pitching event in November including travel and accomodation.

Libertinas (Libertines)

El Salvador, Peru

Directed by Leslie Ortiz, produced by Adriana Morán

Rotterdam Lab Award

Provided by the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). One of the Producers’ Lab participants is offered the opportunity to take part in the next Rotterdam Lab, including accommodation covered by the International Film Festival Rotterdam along with a contribution to the travel costs by the Locarno Film Festival. Ivana Urízar

Cine Mío (Paraguay)

Open Doors – BR Lab Award

Participation at the project development workshop BR Lab in Sao Paulo in November with travel and accommodation covered, provided by BR Lab.

El último rey (Last of Kings)

Peru, Mexico, Germany

Directed by Victor Checa, produced by Jimena Ospina

Open Doors – World Cinema Fund Audience Strategy Award

The award provided by World Cinema Fund offers a specific program tailored and geared to closely follow the development of an audience engagement strategy, to a participant from a country in the ACP region and part of the Open Doors focus.

Tres balas (Three Bullets)

Dominican Republic

Directed by Génesis Valenzuela, produced by Wendy Espinal

Open Doors – OIF – ACP – EU Award

This collaboration provides a project or participant from an ACP country of the focus region with a consultancy for up to 18 months, script/treatment analysis, story editing, and polishing of the film dossier based on the specific needs of the awarded project. Provided by the Organisation Internationale Francophonie (OIF) and Initiative Film.

Raised by Goats

Jamaica

Directed by Gibrey Allen, produced by Nadean Rawlins

Open Doors – LEXIA Insights Award

This collaboration with experienced professionals will provide the awardee with research tools and methodologies to fine-tune the project’s pitch, script, dossier, mood board and teaser.

Via Láctea (Milky Way)

Costa Rica, Uruguay

Directed by Paz Fábrega, produced by Federico Moreira

Open Doors – Moulin d’Andé-CECI Award

Writing residency for the director of a first or second feature film project in development, with accommodation covered and a contrbution to travel costs, provided by the Moulin d’Andé-CECI and the Locarno Film Festival

Carlos Ormeño Palma, La Fiebre Films (Peru)

The post Dominican Pic ‘Tres Balas’ About Spain’s First Official Hate Crime Dominates Locarno’s Open Door Awards appeared first on Deadline.

The Fairway Police Department announced Monday that Officer Jonah Oswald, 29, died after he was critically wounded in a shooting Sunday morning. Oswald, who leaves behind a wife and two young children, was a four-year veteran of the police department.

“I am heartbroken at the tragic loss of Officer Jonah Oswald, who made the ultimate sacrifice while carrying out his oath to serve and protect,” Fairway Chief of Police J.P. Thurlo said in a statement. “Officer Oswald was an integral part of our team and made significant contributions to our department and to the Fairway community. We will remember him as a warm-hearted individual whose hard work and passion touched the lives of many.”

“On behalf of the entire Fairway Police Department, and the City of Fairway, I extend our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to Officer Oswald’s family and friends,” the statement continued. “We recognize that their loss is immeasurable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them.”

Lenexa police responded to reports of a stolen car at a QuikTrip convenient store located at 95th Street and Interstate 35 in the city of Lenexa at about 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, KCTV reported.

When officers arrived, the suspect driving the stolen vehicle allegedly struck a police car and drove off heading north on I-35. The driver arrived at another QuikTrip location on Lamar Avenue and the two people in the vehicle ran inside.

Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the incident, including the Fairway Police Department, Kansas Highway Patrol and the Mission Police Department.

A shooting took place between the suspects and law enforcement, which is when Oswald was struck by gunfire. He was transported to a hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead on Monday.

One of the suspects, 40-year-old Shannon Wayne Marshall, was shot and killed, KCTV reported.

The other suspect, 32-year-old Andrea Rene Cothran, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. She was due in court Monday afternoon.

The case remains under investigation.

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Researchers at University College London investigated how accurately humans can differentiate between AI-generated audio and organic audio, according to a report in the science and medical journal Plos One. The study comes amid the rise of deepfakes, videos and pictures that can be edited to appear as if they are actual images of other people.

“Previous literature has highlighted deepfakes as one of the biggest security threats arising from progress in artificial intelligence due to their potential for misuse,” researchers wrote in their paper published this month. 

“However, studies investigating human detection capabilities are limited,” the researchers continued, explaining why they launched the endeavor to find just how realistic speech deepfakes are to human listeners.  

The research team used a text-to-speech algorithm on two data sets that generated 50 deepfake speech samples. The researchers used both English and Mandarin speech “t​​o understand if listeners used language-specific attributes to detect deepfakes.”

The speech samples were then tested on 529 people who were asked if they believed a sample was an actual human speaking or if the speech was computer-generated. 

Participants were only able to accurately identify deepfake speech 73% of the time, while results only improved “slightly” after participants were trained on how to recognize computer-generated audio, according to the study.

“Our findings confirm that humans are unable to reliably detect deepfake speech, whether or not they have received training to help them spot artificial content,” Kimberly Mai, an author of the study, said in a statement. 

“It’s also worth noting that the samples that we used in this study were created with algorithms that are relatively old, which raises the question whether humans would be less able to detect deepfake speech created using the most sophisticated technology available now and in the future.”

The study is considered to be the first of its kind to investigate how humans detect deepfake audio in a language other than English.

English and Mandarin-speaking participants showed roughly the same rate of detection, with English-speakers citing they relied on listening to breathing to help determine if the audio was real or computer-generated. Mandarin-speakers said they paid attention to a speaker’s cadence and word pacing to help correctly identify audio.

“Although there are some differences in the features that English and Mandarin speakers use to detect deepfakes, the two groups share many similarities. Therefore, the threat potential of speech deepfakes is consistent despite the language involved,” the researchers wrote.

The study comes as a “warning” that “humans cannot reliably detect speech deepfakes,” with researchers highlighting that “adversaries are already using speech deepfakes to commit fraud,” and the tech will only become more convincing with the recent advancements in AI. 

“With generative artificial intelligence technology getting more sophisticated and many of these tools openly available, we’re on the verge of seeing numerous benefits as well as risks. It would be prudent for governments and organizations to develop strategies to deal with abuse of these tools, certainly, but we should also recognize the positive possibilities that are on the horizon,” study author and University of London computer science professor Lewis D. Griffin said in a statement published by the university. 

Audio deepfakes have already been used repeatedly across the U.S. and Europe to carry out crimes. 

The study pointed to a scam in 2019, for example, that left a U.K.-based energy firm roughly $243,000 in the red after a fraudster hopped on the phone with the firm’s CEO and pretended to be the boss of the organization’s Germany-based parent company.

The scammer was able to use AI technology to capture the boss’ slight German accent and “melody” of the man’s voice while demanding the CEO immediately transfer money to a bank account, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

Stateside, victims are sounding the alarm on phone scams that often target elderly Americans. The Federal Trade Commission warned last month that scammers are increasingly relying on voice cloning technology to convince unsuspecting victims to fork over money. The criminals can take a soundbite or video of a person that’s posted online, clone the voice and call the person’s loved ones while pretending to be in a dire situation and in the need of fast money.

Many victims later tell police that the cloned voice sounded so similar to their loved one that they didn’t immediately suspect it was a scam.

Mai told Fox News Digital that the research shows that training people to spot AI-generated speech will unlikely “improve detection capabilities, so we should focus on other approaches,” pointing to a handful of other avenues to potentially mitigate risks associated with the tech. 

“Crowdsourcing and aggregating responses as a fact-checking measure could be helpful for now. We also demonstrate even though humans are not reliable individually, detection performance increases when you aggregate responses (collect lots of decisions together and make a majority decision),” Mai explained. 

“In addition, efforts should focus on improving automated detectors by making them more robust to differences in test audio. In addition, organizations should prioritize implementing other strategies like regulations and policies.”

The post Researchers warn ‘humans cannot reliably detect’ audio deepfakes even when trained appeared first on Fox News.

Australian Federal Police Commander Helen Schneider said on Tuesday that 13 children had been rescued from the network, which allegedly used encryption and other means to share child exploitation material on the dark web.

“Criminals using encryption and the dark web are a challenge for law enforcement, but Operation Bakis shows that when we work together we can bring alleged offenders before the courts,” Schneider said.

“Viewing, distributing or producing child abuse material is a horrific crime, and the lengths that these alleged offenders went to in order to avoid detection makes them especially dangerous – the longer they avoid detection the longer they can perpetuate the cycle of abuse.”

Police said most of the suspects, aged between 32 and 81 years old, had careers requiring technical knowledge of computers and the Internet. Some of the accused are alleged to have produced child sex abuse material themselves.

Two of the Australian men, including a public servant in the Australian Capital Territory, have been convicted and given prison sentences while the others are awaiting trial.

Australian police began investigating the network after two FBI agents investigating child sex abuse offences were shot dead in 2021.

FBI special agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger were killed while executing a search warrant on the Florida apartment of 55-year-old IT worker David Lee Huber.

Authorities in the US have made 79 arrests and convicted 43 people so far as part of their investigations.

“The complexity and anonymity of these platforms means that no agency or country can fight these threats alone,” FBI Legal Attaché Nitiana Mann said.

“As we continue to build bridges through collaboration and teamwork, we can ensure the good guys win and the bad guys lose.”

The latest arrests come a week after Australian authorities charged a 45-year-old former childcare worker with sexually abusing 91 children in what has been described as one of the worst child sex abuse cases in the country’s history.

The post Australian police arrest 19 for child sex abuse offences after FBI tip-off appeared first on Al Jazeera.

The bizarre discovery came Friday at the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility in Pharr, Texas. CBP officers with the Office of Field Operations encountered a tractor trailer arrived from Mexico. 

An officer referred the vehicle for further inspection. A physical inspection of the cargo resulted in the discovery of 2,232 packages weighing nearly 500 pounds. 

The packages contained what the CBP officers believe was approximately $4.36 million worth of methamphetamine.

CBP OFO seized the narcotics and the tractor trailer. Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) opened a criminal investigation. 

“This massive shipment of narcotics will not make it to American streets thanks to our CBP officers who used their intuition and all our available tools and resources to stop this smuggling attempt,” Port Director Carlos Rodriguez said in a statement. 

“The criminal element continues to attempt to smuggle in the cargo environment, but our CBP officers remain vigilant and will continue to do their best to thwart these smuggling attempts.”

The post CBP officers in Texas seize ‘meth veggies’ worth more than $4 million appeared first on Fox News.

Several thousand people — their faces covered to conceal their identities — marched through Haiti’s capital on Monday demanding protection from violent gangs who are pillaging neighborhoods in the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond.

Haitians’ daily lives have been disrupted by incessant gang violence that has worsened poverty across the country as it awaits a decision from the U.N. Security Council over a potential deployment of an international armed force.

“We want security!” the crowd chanted as it marched for two hours from the troubled community of Carrefour-Feuilles to Champ de Mars in the downtown area and then to the prime minister’s official residence, where police broke up the demonstration with tear gas.

“I can’t work. I can’t go out. I’m like a prisoner in my own home,” said Wilene Joseph, a 36-year-old street vendor and mother of two who joined the march out of frustration.

“I worry about my kids being shot because bullets are flying from all directions all the time,” Joseph said of her children, ages 5 and 7. “The situation is unacceptable.”

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, experts say gangs have seized control of up to 80% of Port-au-Prince, killing, raping and sowing terror in communities already suffering endemic poverty.

From January to March, more than 1,600 people have been reported killed, injured or kidnapped, a nearly 30% increase compared with the last three months of 2022, according to the newest U.N. report.

On Monday, UNICEF announced an “alarming spike” in kidnappings, with nearly 300 confirmed cases so far this year, almost equaling the number reported for all of last year, and almost three times the total for 2021.

The agency noted that women and children are increasingly being kidnapped and used for financial or tactical gain. Among those kidnapped in late July was Alix Dorsainvil, a U.S. nurse from New Hampshire, and her young daughter. Dorsainvil works for El Roi Haiti, a Christian organization that offers medical care, education and other services. She and her daughter remain in the hands of their captors, who are demanding $1 million in ransom.

Parents of young children are particularly fearful that gangs will snatch them when they go to and from school. Nacheline Nore, 40, said her two boys, ages 10 and 8, have to call her every day as soon as they step inside their school, and she rides back home with them every afternoon: “You don’t know who’s going to be the next target,” she said.

Mario Jenty, a 36-year-old cell phone vendor who joined Monday’s march, said the increase in kidnappings is pushing Haitians into even deeper poverty. “They’re going to have to sell that home to pay for ransom, and there’s a chance they might not be released,” he said of the victims.

Jenty, who lives in Carrefour-Feuilles, said he would not allow gangs to take over his neighborhood. “I’m going to fight this,” he said. “I’d rather die than leave my community.”

Jenty joined the thousands of Haitians who yelled “Bwa kale!” on Monday as they marched, a reference to a violent uprising that began earlier this year, with civilians targeting suspected gang members. More than 200 people have been slain since then, and demonstrators vowed to keep the movement alive as gangs overwhelm Haiti’s understaffed and under resourced police department.

Last October, Haiti’s prime minister and other top-ranking officials requested the urgent deployment of an international armed force to help quell gang violence.

In late July, Kenya offered to lead a multinational police force, but the U.N. Security Council has yet to vote on a resolution to authorize a non-U.N. multinational mission. The U.S. said last week that it would put forward such a resolution.

The post Haitians march on Port-au-Prince by the thousands as gang violence fatigue boils over appeared first on Fox News.

Joseph Paul Putzulu, 55, was charged with two felony counts of burglary of an unoccupied structure and one count of third-degree grand theft. He was arrested by officers on Saturday.

Putzulu was out of felony bond when he was taken into custody, according to online records. He was previously charged with trespassing and possession of cocaine.

The investigation began when the Miami Police Department responded to a call from a business owner on July 26. The proprietor noticed that his restaurant’s food freezer was open, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital.

The business owner reviewed video surveillance and saw that the suspect was the same man who stole several packs of lobsters from the restaurant on July 23.

Surveillance video from the July 23 allegedly shows Putzulu loading the lobster packs into a garbage bin. He then threw the garbage bin and a hand truck over the fence and fled.

The suspect was seen throwing food in the July 26 video footage as well. The owner said that the stolen lobsters were worth over $1,000. 

“The defendant is seen throwing what appears to be packs of food over the rear gated fence,” the arrest affidavit read. “At approximately 2:51 a.m., the suspect is seen using a black cart to assist him to climb back over the gated fence to leave. The defendant is then seen loading the packets of food into the red shopping cart and leaving the area.”

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Putzulu was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center after his interview with detectives.

The post Florida suspect arrested for allegedly stealing lobsters from Miami restaurant appeared first on Fox News.

Heuermann, a Manhattan architect, is charged with killing three women – Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22 – whose remains were discovered in a wooded area near New York’s Gilgo Beach on Long Island in 2010. He is also suspected in the 2010 murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.

His two adult children, Victoria Heuermann, 26, and Christopher Sheridan, 33, are now dealing with the aftermath of their father’s shocking arrest in connection with the string of murders.

“They’re constantly… having to reevaluate what is happening to them, almost in real-time. Obviously, the deplorable conditions that their house was left in – torn apart from the floorboards to the shingles, basically, is their paramount concern,” Vess Mitev of Mitev Law Firm told Fox News Digital. “[They’re] trying to regain some basic sense of normalcy, which is completely impossible at this point. They’re living in a surreal, waking horror show.”

Mitev described Victoria and Christopher, who has developmental disabilities, as “bystanders who are caught up in this developing legal case of the century.”

They hired legal representation because their role in their father’s murder case “has yet to be determined,” Mitev explained. 

“Their rights and liberties have to be protected. And that investigation… is now heating up with the DA handing over troves of documents last week, and… the leads the DA may be pursuing, whatever they may be, at some point may intertwine… with the rights and remedies that my clients have and enjoy under the Constitution and under the laws of New York.”

The siblings are asking that their “privacy, which is completely eroded under the harsh glare of the spotlight,” be “maintained and to whatever minimum degree it can be at this point,” their attorney said.

A GoFundMe for Asa Ellerup, 59, to “start a new life” has raised more than $36,000 since last week. Ellerup filed for divorce last month after her husband’s arrest.

Her attorney, Bob Macedonio, previously told Fox News Digital that “her and her children’s lives have been completely turned upside-down.”

“They were home and the cops came in, and they were completely blindsided, and they told them what was going on,” he said.

The suspected serial killer appeared in court for the first time last week, when Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Santino Martino told the court that they would hand over eight terabytes of data by Sept. 27. The evidence includes 2,500 pages of documents, crime scene photos, autopsy reports and more than 100 hours of video surveillance, Martino said.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the murders, part of the four deaths dubbed the “Gilgo Four.” He faces three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in the slayings of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello, all of whom were sex workers at the time of their deaths. 

The murders had remained unsolved for more than a decade before police announced Heuermann as a suspect last month. The suspect has not been tied to seven other victims whose remains were discovered near Gilgo Beach between 2010 and 2011.

Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.

The post Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann’s kids ‘living in a surreal, waking horror show’: lawyer appeared first on Fox News.

While serving as guest anchor on Monday’s broadcast of The Faulkner Focus, Banderas interviewed former deputy assistant attorney general Tom Dupree about Trump’s attempt to move the Jan. 6 trial to West Virginia and force the judge to recuse herself.

After Dupree said Trump’s legal team faced an “uphill battle” on both fronts, Banderas then raged about how it was “impossible” for the thrice-indicted ex-president to be “impartially” tried in that case. She also noted that Trump is expected to soon be indicted for a fourth time, this time in Georgia over his election meddling efforts in that state.

“Politics written all over it,” she exclaimed. “Attorneys are supposed to represent the law, not politics, OK? Judges, same! Judges are the only ones able to recuse themselves, OK? So it is up to a judge to recuse themself. So if they have it in for one of the future cases, there is no way to recuse themselves. So obviously the system is a little bit broken, I would have to say.”

Bringing up the likely indictment in Georgia, Banderas said Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis was investigating whether had “committed crimes” in trying to overthrow the 2020 election, notably using air quotes.

“I want to talk about Trump’s alleged crimes for one second,” she said. “He hasn’t been indicted for incitement, we know that, right? So, it’s not a crime to tell lies.”

Banderas then added: “Being a narcissist is not a crime. Hatching schemes to stay in office is not a crime. And claiming you won an election you know you lost is not a crime.”

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While Banderas essentially claimed a coup plot isn’t necessarily criminal, the latest indictment of the former president lays out in detail that he’s been charged with conspiracy to overthrow a legitimate election “by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which these results are collected, counted and certified.”

Additionally, Special Counsel Jack Smith pointed out that Trump worked with a set of co-conspirators to organize fraudulent slates of electors to reverse the election results in seven states that had voted for President Joe Biden. He devised this scheme even though, according to the indictment, he knew claims that the election had been “stolen” from him were false.

“In fact, the Defendant was notified repeatedly that his claims were untrue—often by the people on whom he relied for candid advice on important matters, and who were best positioned to know the facts—and he deliberately disregarded the truth,” the indictment read.

Banderas is far from the only Fox News personality who has either downplayed the seriousness of the criminal charges against Trump or misrepresented the indictment. Furthermore, the conservative cable giant has repeatedly pushed the specious argument that Trump’s indictment criminalizes free speech, since all he was doing was expressing his frustration about the 2020 election.

Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr, meanwhile, has trashed the ex-president’s legal team’s claims that the indictment represented an “attack on free speech,” noting that “all conspiracies involve speech and all fraud involves speech, so you know, free speech doesn’t give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.”

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The post Fox News Anchor Says ‘Hatching Schemes to Stay in Office’ Isn’t a Crime appeared first on The Daily Beast.

East Palatka resident Casey Judd Howe, 49, was charged with first-degree felony trafficking in methamphetamines and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon on Friday night.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office announced that their deputies tracked the suspect down to a sequestered property in Flagler County.

“With the assistance of Flagler County Deputies and after an extensive search of the property, Howe was arrested on his warrants for first-degree felony trafficking in methamphetamines and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon,” the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

“As a little added bonus, the owner of the property had an unrelated warrant for his arrest,” police added.

Howe’s first Putnam County arrest was in 1992, according to online records.

Most of his arrests were related to drugs or driving.

The suspect’s latest arrest in Putnam County was in 2015, when Howe was booked for possession of methamphetamines. 

He was charged with selling synthetic narcotics the year before.

The post Florida drug dealer suspected of meth trafficking arrested for 25th time: police appeared first on New York Post.

Richard Tobin, the boyfriend of Rachel Morin — whose body was discovered off the Ma and Pa Trail in Maryland — took to the Facebook comments under the couple’s fresh Aug. 1 relationship status to shoot down any theories that he had anything to do with the mother of five’s death.

“I love Rachel, I would never do anything to her, let the family and I grieve. Yes I have a past but I also have 15 months clean and have changed as a person. Please,” Tobin wrote under the status.

Over 480 comments have built up under the now ominous seven-day-old relationship post, with some users speculating about Tobin’s involvement in her death and others expressing he remains innocent until proven guilty.

Tobin, 27, hinted at his lengthy history with law enforcement — including two arrests for criminal second-degree assault, malicious destruction of property, drug possession, and violating restraining orders, according to court records.

The 20 charges previously filed against him in Maryland also include resisting arrest and disorderly intoxication.

Police have confirmed that a homicide investigation into Morin’s death is underway, but Tobin has not been accused of any wrongdoing, nor has law enforcement named him as a suspect.

Morin, 37, was last seen home wearing a dark tank top, black sports bra, black spandex shorts, and gray sneakers, heading out to the Ma and Pa Trail, in Bel Air, on Saturday at around 6 p.m.

Tobin was confirmed to be the individual that first reported Morin’s disappearance after she failed to return home, police said.

He also provided information about where her vehicle was located, which law enforcement confirmed was correct during their search for the missing mother.

“At around 1:07 p.m. [Sunday], a citizen called 9-1-1 to report a female’s body had been located off the trail,” Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said during the press conference.

Gahler shared that upon arrival of law enforcement, “the investigation went from a missing persons investigation to a homicide investigation.”

“I’m not going to go into what, physically, they observed at the scene. But investigators believe sadly that it’s a homicide case,” Gahler revealed.

Investigators are still waiting on the coroner’s office to confirm the remains.

“While we firmly believe this is the body of Rachel Morin,” the sheriff said. 

“That final determination, that final say, belongs with the medical examiner and that has not happened yet.”

Police said they currently do not have any suspects in Morin’s death.

The trail is located near the center of Bel Air, about 46 miles northeast of Baltimore.

“My sister, Rachel Morin went missing on Saturday August 5 2023 around 6 pm. In less then 24 hours her body was found by local law enforcement,” Rebekah Morin, the victim’s sister, wrote in GoFundMe set up for funeral expenses for the mother of five.

Rachel Morin revealed just a week earlier that she lost her niece to sudden infant death syndrome and wrote that her sister “did not go willingly” as her family suffered another tragedy.

“This was not an accidentally (sic) death,” the sister shared. “She did not go willingly and she deserves a funeral worthy of her beauty.”

The post Boyfriend of Rachel Morin says ‘I didn’t do anything to her’ hours after her body found on hiking trail — as cops launch homicide probe appeared first on New York Post.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City, for example, recently confirmed that the city has deployed AI surveillance tools in seven subway stations in an effort to track how much money the city is losing to fare evasion rather than to track down people who jump turnstiles.

“The MTA uses this tool to quantify the amount of fare evasion without identifying fare evaders,” MTA spokesperson Joana Flores told Fox News Digital in a statement.

The public transportation authority released a report in May revealing it lost about $690 million to fare evasion last year. The AI fare evasion detector software will not only help the MTA keep track of how much money it’s losing, but it will also help the city’s government come up with ways to stop fare evaders by tracking exactly how they are getting through without paying.

For example, if people are jumping turnstiles, replacing them with doors may help reduce fare evasion, the report says.

The report notes that “AI technology has the potential to help reduce fare evasion” and “measure fare evasion… to plan effective and equitable interventions.” 

The MTA has partnered with the Spain-based AI software company called AWAAIT, according to government documents obtained by NBC, which has a tool called DETECTOR that helps detect fare evasion in real-time, according to its website. AWAAIT is currently deployed in three cities, including New York and Barcelona, according to local news reports.

Though the MTA said it is not using this AI technology to identify fare evaders, AWAAIT’s website describes how its “system alerts in real-time, forwarding screenshots of the fare infraction to the app installed on the smartphones of ticket inspectors.”

AWAAIT co-founder and CEO Xavier Arrufat declined to comment when asked about the third city and concerns about privacy related to AI surveillance tools.

David Ly, the founder of Iveda, an AI video platform and “smart city” technology company, told Fox News Digital that AI will make cameras in subway stations more effective.

“It could be applied almost anywhere. On construction sites, we’re making sure that people are wearing their hard hats right. And we’re making sure that people are wearing safety nets when… they walk on the worksite,” he said. “So… whether it’s to keep people safe, keep people honest and so on… technology can be trained to do almost anything when applied correctly.”

However, AI can also create public distrust when used incorrectly.

Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), told Fox News Digital he thinks it is “alarming” the MTA would contract with a “foreign company to track riders without their consent.”

“There are huge questions about how they collect it, how it’s used and what the long-term benefit is,” Cahn said. “We don’t need to pay for AI to know that people are jumping turnstiles. And… it’s never been clear from the MTA’s response what the point of this is.”

Used improperly, AI can detect, flag and ultimately fine people for even the most minor crimes. 

“If you can use it for fare evasion, you can use it for jaywalking.… You can use it for almost every other aspect of life,” Cahn said. “This is not what the creators of the Constitution envisioned when they drafted the Fourth Amendment.” 

Ly, meanwhile, says that while AI surveillance can be a very effective tool in combating and deterring crime, it only goes as far as the humans who monitor and operate that technology allow it to go. In other words, a camera might be able to identify a criminal suspect, but that suspect won’t get caught until a human law enforcement officer takes action.

“We tend to give technology more credit in the sense that it can do all this other stuff. It can, but we humans don’t have enough time, energy or resources to… spend on that,” Ly said. “…It’s just irrelevant.”

There are already cameras everywhere, he added – schools, gas stations, Walmart parking lots, and the like. But without “intelligence,” cameras just act as “paperweights,” he said, recording footage that may be useless until a human or AI picks up on something unusual, like a person carrying a weapon or a car crash. 

AI, like humans, is able to pick up on normal human behavior and how it compares to abnormalities, which is how it is able to flag potential danger.

He added that people tend to get paranoid when they think about the potential of AI surveillance technology impacting personal privacy or flagging very minor crimes to law enforcement.

“Citizens that have a lot of time on hand start thinking too much. We overthink things, and we get paranoid, and we start thinking of movies… and we’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ But… if there’s no follow-through [by law enforcement], it’s meaningless,” Ly said.

Cahn noted that the MTA spends more money on efforts to combat fare evasion than the amount that fare evasion costs the city each year. He added that New York City is already one of the most surveilled cities in the world and is more on par with Shanghai than it is with Stockholm, with about 42,000 surveillance cameras across the city. The privacy advocate described praise for surveillance to combat crime as Orwellian. 

“I refuse to accept that the price of safety is a country where no one can walk out the front door without being watched. I don’t think that sounds like a democracy,” he said.

The post AI targets turnstile jumpers to fight fare evasion, but experts warn of downside appeared first on Fox News.

During a press conference on Sunday evening, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said the body of a woman had been found off the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air just after 1 p.m.

The sheriff said 37-year-old Rachel Morin’s boyfriend reported to police at about 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night that she headed out from her home at about 6 p.m. to go for a walk on the Ma and Pa Trail.

When she did not return as expected, Morin’s boyfriend reported his girlfriend missing, telling police her car was at the trailhead in Bel Air, but she was not.

When deputies searched the area, they were able to locate the vehicle at the Williams Street entrance to the trail. The vehicle has since been taken to the criminal investigations’ division building to be processed.

At 1:07 p.m. on Sunday, a citizen called 911 to report they found the body of a woman off the trail, and Gahler said the investigation went from a missing person case to a homicide.

While Gahler said he believes the body is Morin, he would not say for certain until the medical examiner confirms the identity and cause of death, which has not happened.

“We have to let the process do what it’s supposed to do,” the sheriff said.

He went on to say he understands homicides cause a lot of concern in the community, especially at a trail like the Ma and Pa Trail, which is traditionally known as a safe space.

Within a 24-hour period, two women went missing: Morin and Karen Elliot, 58.

Elliott was last seen at her home in Bel Air at about 2:20 p.m. on Saturday, wearing a green shirt and blue jeans. She was also seen heading into the wooded area behind Cypress Drive in Bel Air.

On Sunday afternoon, a robo call went out to the surrounding community saying the second day of searching for Elliott had concluded, and that the sheriff’s office did not believe there was any danger to the community. Still, they asked anyone with information about Elliott’s whereabouts to call 410-612-1717.

Both cases, Gahler said, are unrelated.

The sheriff could not say whether a suspect had been arrested in the Morin investigation, or whether it was a targeted case.

But he said he hopes that will change in the coming hours.

Unlike the Elliott investigation, though, Gahler could not say if there was a threat to the community or not.

He warned community members who go out for a hike along the trails to change up their routine to make it less predictable and to be aware of their surroundings. The sheriff also suggested wearing a whistle or some sort of alert device to call for help, among other tips.

The sheriff’s office asks anyone with information about Rachel’s disappearance who may have seen anything to contact Detective Golden at 410-836-5430.

While it is still a highly active investigation, the sheriff’s office asked the community to refrain from posting any known details or guesses on its Facebook page, saying it could hinder the investigation or lead to false information.

“We want answers as much as you do,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook.

The post Maryland officials find body near trail woman reportedly vanished from after going for walk appeared first on Fox News.

Kansas resident Giovanny Zendejas-Castellanos, 24, was charged with operating while intoxicated (OWI), possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and resisting arrest on Thursday night.  He was also charged with endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon.

The Janesville Police Department reported that their officers responded to a traffic accident at Sidelines Sports Bar at around 10:24 p.m. 

Witnesses told police that they saw the driver, Zendejas-Castellanos, crash into a boulder in the parking lot.

“Just before officers were arriving, the reporting person advised the driver returned back on scene and was back by the vehicle,” the Janesville Police Department said in a press release.

After the suspect failed field sobriety tests and showed signs of impairment, he was arrested for a first-offense OWI.

After officers noticed that Zendejas-Castellanos came back to the scene without the backpack he left with, the police’s K-9 tracked it to a field. The backpack contained a stolen firearm, resulting in an additional charge.

“He later fought with officers at a local hospital and was eventually taken to the Rock County Jail where he is waiting for his initial appearance,” police said. The department did not disclose if their officers were injured.

The Janesville Police Department is actively investigating the incident.

The post Kansas suspect arrested for DUI, accused of fighting with officers at Wisconsin hospital appeared first on Fox News.

An image shows the suspect in the case:

A Sumter County man is facing manslaughter charges after he punched an 87-year-old repeatedly leading to his death. https://t.co/pIUdsH2CUr

— FOX 35 Orlando (@fox35orlando) August 5, 2023

However, Moore is accused of repeatedly punching the victim who tried to block the blows with his hands.

Following the confrontation, the suspect realized the vehicle that was involved was not his car, therefore, he left to go find it.

“Zook spoke with deputies following the incident but began to slur his words and stumble before the ambulance was called. Doctors later discovered that Zook was bleeding from his brain and ultimately died on July 16,” the Fox report said.

Video footage from inside the country club’s restaurant recorded Moore exiting the building that evening, then going back inside one minute after the incident occurred.

After law enforcement got a tip on June 29 about Moore, they learned he was at the Havana Country Club wearing the same outfit from the day before.

In a photo posted June 29, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office shared images of what appeared to be the suspect, wearing a light blue shirt and white hat:

Can you #identify? We know the pictures are not the best. Sumter County Detectives are asking for help identifying the…

Posted by Sumter County Sheriff’s Office-Florida on Thursday, June 29, 2023

The agency said detectives needed help identifying the man pictured who was involved in an incident on June 28 at the Glenview Country Club.

According to the Fox report, “A Google search for Moore led the detective to a news article from November 2022 referencing Moore scoring a hole-in-one at another golf course.”

The suspect also owns a car that is the same model as the one Zook hit.

“People who would go to this physical length to harm somebody in their 80s and beat them so badly they ultimately died, clearly have impulse and anger management issues of some sort,” ABC News Contributor and former FBI Special Agent Brad Garrett stated.

Moore reportedly told authorities Zook grabbed him and would not let go, therefore, he punched the man, per ABC News.

The outlet said the suspect was released on a $30,000 bond.

The post Police: Florida Golfer Repeatedly Punched 87-Year-Old Who Later Died appeared first on Breitbart.

Canton resident Ebony Michelle Mitchell, 48, was charged with six counts of felony exploitation and intimidation of disabled elderly adult. She was arrested on Wednesday.

The Cherokee Sheriff’s Office announced that the allegations were reported to them in May. After months of investigating, they found enough evidence to arrest the suspect.

Mitchell worked as a caretaker for a 77-year-old man in Alpharetta when the thefts happened. Officials believe Mitchell began stealing in February, and that the suspect used the money for luxury items and bills.

“Mitchell stole more than $17,000 from her patient by using his credit/debit cards to charge everything from jewelry and down payments on her car to paying off her rent,” the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office explained in a press release. 

Ben Naas, the son of the victim, told FOX 5 Atlanta that Mitchell would take advantage of his father’s dementia.

“She was holding his cell phone up to his face and having him use his voice as his identification to get into her bank account,” Naas said.

“She was so incredibly proficient at this that I can only imagine that she has done this to someone else,” he added.

Cherokee Sheriff’s Office Captain Jay Baker said that Mitchell used the victim’s information to apply for a $400,000 home loan, though the loan was never approved.

After being booked on Wednesday, Mitchell was released on a bond of $16,878.

The Cherokee Sheriff’s Office is actively investigating the incident.

The post Georgia healthcare worker accused of stealing $17,000 from elderly patient appeared first on Fox News.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s office said in a press release that 32-year-old Alvaro Jeronimo Juarez, of Houston, was sentenced by a judge to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of continuous sexual assault of a child after raping a 5-year-old numerous times starting in 2009.

Assistant District Attorney Dana Nazarova, one of the chief prosecutors on the case, said after the first victim came forward in 2018, the other three spoke out about what was happening to them, testifying in court that Juarez raped them, too.

The rapes typically started when the girls were 5 years old and continued until they were about 10, the DA’s office said.

Juarez was a friend of the family’s – sometimes living in the house.

While in and out of the house and taking advantage of the trust adults placed in him, the DA’s office said Juarez groomed, assaulted and intimidated the children.

“He had special ways to groom the children, like doling out their favorite snacks,” Nazarova said. “And then he had ways to scare them, like using a phony badge.”

Nazarova added that the family and children will be affected by Juarez’s actions for the rest of their lives, and she thanked the jury for convicting him of his crimes.

“Every adult in a child’s life has to stay vigilant because predators like this man lie, mislead and trick whomever they can in order to get close to children,” Ogg said. “This man stole the childhood from these girls, and the law rightfully puts him in prison without the chance of parole to serve every day of a 40-year sentence.”

The Houston Police Department conducted the investigation into Juarez.

The post Texas man sentenced to 40 years behind bars for sexually abusing 4 young girls several times appeared first on New York Post.

Harris County Constable Mark Herman’s office said in a Facebook post that on Aug. 4, deputies responded to a road rage incident on the 24000 block of Kuykendahl Road.

When deputies arrived, they learned from the complainant that while he was driving north on Kuykendahl Road, the driver in front of him could not stay in his lane while he was looking at his phone.

The two vehicles pulled up to a traffic light, and when the light turned green, the driver who was allegedly distracted by his phone did not start moving.

The person who filed the complaint told police he honked his horn when the driver did not go.

As the vehicles started moving, the accused distracted driver, Davis Winston, allegedly threw objects at the victim’s vehicle.

Eventually, the two vehicles came to a stop and an altercation broke out.

The victim told police Winston had a can of white spray paint, which he used to paint the victim’s face and vehicle. Winston was also accused of breaking the back window of the victim’s vehicle.

At one point, the victim got ahold of the spray paint and painted Winston’s face, too.

Deputies detained Winston and transported him to the Harris County Jail.

He was charged with criminal mischief, a felony, and his bond was set at $1,500.

The post Texas road rage suspect spray paints victim’s face before having can turned on him: authorities appeared first on Fox News.

Texarkana police officer Telvin Wilson, 31, was charged with online solicitation of a minor. Wilson had worked for the Texarkana Arkansas Police Department since 2016.

Texarkana refers to two different cities next to each other on the border of Texas and Arkansas. The sting was conducted by the Texas police department.

The Texarkana Texas Police Department detailed the operation in a Facebook post, explaining that officers originally posted a fake ad on a prostitution site. Authorities posed as an underage girl when they were contacted by the suspects.

“Even though the ‘girl’ told each of them that she talked to that she was underage, each of the three men still wanted to come meet up with her and offered to pay her for sex,” the Texarkana Texas Police Department wrote on Facebook. “When the guys showed up and knocked, they were shocked when several police officers answered the door instead of the young girl they were expecting.”

The Texarkana Arkansas Police Department told Fox News Digital that Wilson was terminated immediately after they learned about the arrest. In an old Facebook post, Wilson wrote that he became a police officer to make a difference in his community.

“I have always wanted to be that officer that is able to communicate with the public and be comfortable while doing so,” a department Facebook post from February read. “I like that I stand in the gap and be the one that our young people can come and talk to.”

The other two suspects were Adarius Wills, 33, and James Willis, 37. Wills was charged with online solicitation of a minor and delivery of marijuana, while Willis was charged with online solicitation of a minor, delivery of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and evading arrest.

Willis was also arrested for abandoning/endangering a child with intent to return and possession of a controlled substance. His bond has not been set – Wills and Wilson’s bonds are $85,000 and $100,000, respectively.

“Thank you to the investigators with the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, and Texas Department of Public Safety for their invaluable help with this operation,” the police’s press release added.

The post Arkansas police officer arrested in child sex trafficking sting in Texas appeared first on Fox News.

Leron Liggins conviction on two drug charges was vacated last week after a three-judge panel unanimously agreed the judge’s comment violated Liggins’ right to due process, according to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion. Liggins was sentenced in 2022 to more than 10 years in prison.

A Michigan grand jury indicted Liggins on a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin February 2018, but the case didn’t go to trial until years later.

A superseding indictment was also filed in 2019 that added one count of aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute heroin. Although Liggins initially indicated he’d enter a guilty plea, he changed his mind and decided to go trial.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III voiced his frustration during a January 2020 hearing after Liggins changed his attorney for a second time, delaying trial once again. He said he was “tired of this case.”

“What do you want me to do? This guy looks like a criminal to me,” Murphy said, according to the opinion. “This is what criminals do. This isn’t what innocent people, who want a fair trial do.”

Liggins filed a motion for Murphy to be recused the day before his trial, which Murphy denied. He did apologize for his remarks, saying he “lost his head” but that he could be still be fair to Liggins.

“I give Mr. Liggins the same rights and opportunities here to demonstrate his innocence or lack of guilt as any other litigant, and I believe that my conduct at the final pretrial conference… and in today’s hearing do not evidence any bias,” Murphy said.

The three-judge panel disagreed, ruling Thursday that Murphy should have recused himself after the comments he made. Prosecutors argued that Murphy made the comments regarding Liggins’ actions and not his race.

But the panel noted that any reasonable person could interpret the remarks differently and that the court must protect against the appearance of bias.

“Even if one were to assume a lack of racial bias on the part of the district judge, the remark nevertheless raises the specter of such bias…Beyond this remark, the district judge’s other remarks could be understood to demonstrate clear prejudgment of Liggins’ guilt,” the opinion said.

Murphy’s decision not recuse himself was a violation of Liggins’ Fifth Amendment rights, which ensure the right to a fair trial.

The panel did not rule on evidentiary issues presented by Liggins, meaning federal prosecutors could still file for a new trial.

A representative for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Michigan did not immediately return a request for comment Sunday.

The post Black man’s 10-year sentence vacated in case where white judge said he ‘looks like a criminal’ at trial appeared first on NBC News.

The victim was walking in the 1600 block of Neshaminy Valley Drive around 7:50 p.m. when the rider on the illegal dirt bike “intentionally” hit him, the Bensalem Police Department said.

The 64-year-old was knocked to the ground, and the dirt bike rode over him a second time, causing substantial injuries to his extremities and internal organs, according to police.

First responders rushed the victim to Jefferson-Torresdale Hospital, where he is currently listed in serious but stable condition.

Few details about the suspect were known. Police released a photo of the suspect appearing to ride away from the scene.

Police said the suspect was a male wearing a helmet, camouflage shirt and pants. The dirt bike was green and white.

A second male was riding a dirt bike with the suspect. He was described as White, wearing a black shirt and blue jeans and riding a red dirt bike.

“We need to ID this guy ASAP!” police wrote.

Authorities asked anyone with information about the identity of the rider or the location of the dirt bike to contact the Bensalem Police Department at 215-633-3719.

The post Dirt bike rider wanted in Pennsylvania after ‘intentionally’ hitting man, running him over twice: police appeared first on Fox News.

“I purposely didn’t comment on Nancy Pelosi’s very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me, with glee, that was really quite vicious,” Trump commented on his Truth Social website.

Pelosi on Friday said Trump looked like a “scared puppy” as he arrived at a D.C. courthouse for his arraignment on four charges related to alleged 2020 election interference.

Trump, the current 2024 GOP front-runner, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

“I saw a scared puppy,” Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

“I didn’t see any bravado or confidence or anything like that,” she added. “He knows the truth that he lost the election, and now he’s got to face the music.”

Trump fired back, writing that the “millions” of people watching him on television enter the courtroom “didn’t see that.”

“I wasn’t ‘scared,’” he said.” Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say! She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!”

Pelosi’s husband Paul was allegedly attacked during a home invasion in San Francisco on Oct. 28. The alleged attacker, David DePape, 42, faces state charges of attempted murder and elder abuse and federal charges for kidnapping after he allegedly broke into the Pelosi home and assaulted Paul with a hammer.

DePape will have a chance to state his case during a hearing Wednesday in San Francisco, with a federal trial set to begin Nov. 13.

Pelosi’s husband previously made headlines in May 2022 when he was arrested for causing a crash while driving drunk. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serving five days in jail, followed by three years of probation.

The alleged attack sparked a number of right-wing conspiracy theories that ultimately hushed once video and audio evidence from the incident was released by a court in February.

Pelosi’s office declined to respond to Trump’s comments when reached by Fox News Digital on Sunday.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report.

The post Trump responds to Pelosi’s ‘scared puppy’ jab with rant on husband’s ‘weird story’: ‘Sick & demented’ appeared first on Fox News.