John Elway won’t be charged in the death of his business partner back in April.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco confirmed what he told the Times two months ago: His department’s investigation into the golf cart incident that led to the death of the Hall of Fame quarterback’s close friend Jeff Sperbeck found nothing criminal. Bianco described it as a tragic accident.
Bianco said in May that it appeared “nothing nefarious” happened when Sperbeck fell from a moving golf cart that Elway was driving in the Madison Club community of La Quinta on April 26 about 6:50 p.m. The 62-year-old San Clemente resident hit his head and was pronounced dead at 1:10 a.m. April 30 at Desert Regional Medical Center, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
“We have not learned anything that would indicate that this is anything other than a tragic accident,” Bianco told the Times in a phone interview May 2.
Elway, Sperbeck and their wives were in the Coachella Valley to attend the Stagecoach country music festival. Sperbeck was standing in the back of the cart when he fell off and hit his head on the asphalt, Bianco said.
The cart was designed for two to four people, according to Bianco. Five people including Sperbeck, Elway and their wives were in it at the time of the incident.
On April 30, Elway said in a statement that “there are no words to truly express the profound sadness I feel with the sudden loss of someone who has meant so much to me.
“I am absolutely devastated and heartbroken by the passing of my close friend, business partner and agent Jeff Sperbeck,” Elway stated. “Jeff will be deeply missed for the loyalty, wisdom, friendship and love he brought into my life and the lives of so many others.”
Sperbeck represented more than 100 NFL players — including Elway beginning in 1990 — in 30 years as an agent and business advisor. Sperbeck and Elway later founded 7Cellars winery.
Sperbeck attended Jesuit High School in Sacramento and played quarterback at Sacramento City College in 1981 and 1982 before transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He is survived by his wife, Cori, three children he shared with his first wife, Anne — Carly, 33, Samantha, 31, and Jackson, 27 — and granddaughters Josie and Bo.
Elway starred at Granada Hills High and Stanford before playing 16 seasons for the Denver Broncos, leading the team to five Super Bowls. The Broncos won the Super Bowl in Elway’s last two seasons, 1997 and 1998. He later served as the team’s general manager and executive vice president.
Times staff writer Chuck Schilken contributed to this story.
July 8 (UPI) — Italian authorities arrested a Chinese national accused by the United States of working at the direction of Beijing to steal COVID-19 vaccine research from U.S. universities, immunologists and virologists during the early days of the pandemic.
Xu Zewei, 33, of China, was arrested Thursday in Malan. The nine-count indictment charging him and his co-conspirator, 44-year-old Chinese national Zhang Yu, was unsealed Tuesday by the Justice Department as it seeks Xu’s extradition. Zhang remains at large.
The arrest and filing of charges are the latest U.S. law enforcement action targeting Chinese nationals accused of working at the behest of Beijing’s foreign intelligence arm, the Ministry of State Security, in recent months.
According to the indictment, Xu and his coconspirators were involved in the China state-sponsored HAFNIUM hacking campaign — also known as Silk Typhoon — that targeted vulnerabilities in the widely used Microsoft Exchange Server program to gain access to victims’ information from February 2020 to June 2021.
Federal prosecutors said they used the vulnerabilities in the Microsoft program to install code known as webshells on their victims’ computers, gaining remote access to the devices.
The victims were not named in the charging document, but are identified as a university located in the Southern District of Texas and a university based in North Carolina involved in “research into COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing,” as well as a second university based in the southern district of Texas and a law firm with offices in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, including internationally.
During a press conference Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei for the Southern District of Texas said Xu would be assigned targets from his handlers within the Ministry of State Security’s State Security Bureau with instruction to hack their computers and steal specific information.
Once with access to the requested accounts, he copied gigabits of COVID-19 research that he then transferred to China. Ganjei explained the law firm was targeted for the confidential information it had on its clients, specifically that of U.S. policy makers and government agencies.
“Although the Chinese state-sponsored hackers are, on occasion, indicted by the Department of Justice, it is exceedingly rare — indeed it is virtually unheard of — to actually get your hands on them,” he said.
“Since 2023, the United States has waited quietly and patiently for Xu to make a mistake that would put him within the reach of the American Judicial system. And last week, he did just that, traveling from Shanghai to Milan, Italy.”
Ganjei said Italian authorities took him into custody once his plane touched down.
He further described that alleged crimes as those not specifically targeting computers, but targeting “American scientific innovation” and the “American system of justice.”
“Although, the conduct in this case took place several years ago, we never lost sight of our goal to bring the perpetrators of these cyber intrusions to justice. Now, at least, some of that story can be told,” he said.
A little more than a week earlier, the Justice Department charged two Chinese nationals with spying on the U.S. Navy and its bases as well as assisting Beijing with recruiting others within the U.S. military as potential Ministry of State Security asstes.
Former Arsenal footballer Thomas Partey has been charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.
The offences are reported to have taken place between 2021-2022, the Metropolitan Police said.
The charges involve three women, with two counts of rape relating to one woman, three counts of rape in connection to a second woman and one count of sexual assault linked to a third woman.
The Ghanaian international denies the charges and “welcomes the opportunity to finally clear his name”, his lawyer said.
The 32-year-old’s contract with Arsenal ended on Monday after playing with the team since 2020.
BBC News has contacted Arsenal, the Football Association and the Premier League for comment.
The charges follow an investigation by detectives, which started in February 2022 after police first received a report of rape.
Det Supt Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “Our priority remains providing support to the women who have come forward.
“We would ask anyone who has been impacted by this case, or anyone who has information, to speak with our team. You can contact detectives about this investigation by emailing [email protected]”
Mr Partey, of Hertfordshire, is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 5 August.
In a statement, his lawyer Jenny Wiltshire said: “Thomas Partey denies all the charges against him.
“He has fully cooperated with the police and CPS throughout their three-year investigation.
“He now welcomes the opportunity to finally clear his name.
“Given that there are now ongoing legal proceedings, my client is unable to comment further.”
Mr Parteyjoined Arsenal for £45.3m from Atletico Madrid in October 2020, made 35 top-flight appearances last season and scored four goals as the London club finished second in the Premier League.
He also played 12 times in the Champions League as the Gunners reached the semi-finals before being knocked out by eventual winners Paris St-Germain.
Overall, he made 130 Premier League appearances for Mikel Arteta’s side, scoring nine goals.
Mr Partey has also made more than 50 appearances for Ghana’s national team, and most recently played at World Cup qualification matches in March.
July 3 (UPI) — Two minors were charged Thursday in connection with a shooting at a shopping center in Georgia.
Police in Savannah have confirmed two juveniles have been charged with possession of a firearm under the age of 18, but no arrests have been made.
Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones said in a press conference Thursday that she “is sending a specific message to each and every person involved in the shooting yesterday. We will find you, we will see you, we will prosecute you, to the fullest extent of the law.”
Gunfire broke out Wednesday at the Oglethorpe Mall around 5:45 p.m. The mall announced on its website Thursday that it will remain closed for the day, although select stores may be open. A related police investigation remains active at the mall.
The two people charged in the case are among three who have been hospitalized with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Seven people were injured in total as a result of the incident.
Chatham Area Transit Authority bus service had been suspended to the mall but announced at approximately 11 a.m. EDT Thursday that service has been restored.
Officials pledge to toughen laws after 26-year-old childcare worker charged with abusing eight children under his care.
Australia has announced plans to tighten oversight of childcare facilities after a man in Melbourne was charged with dozens of sexual offences against children in his care.
The moves come after police in the southern state of Victoria announced on Tuesday that they had charged a 26-year-old childcare worker with more than 70 child sex offences, including rape.
The man, identified as Joshua Dale Brown, is accused of abusing eight victims, aged between five months and two years, at a childcare centre in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Police have said they are also investigating evidence of abuse at a second childcare centre in the northwest of the city.
Authorities say the accused worked at 20 childcare facilities in total during an eight-year span that lasted until May.
Health authorities in Victoria have recommended that 1,200 children linked to facilities where the man worked be tested for infectious diseases as a precautionary measure.
On Wednesday, Australian Education Minister Jason Clare said he would press ahead with legislation to strip funding from childcare facilities that do not meet adequate safety standards and examine other potential measures, including strengthening background checks for those working with minors.
“Any Australian who heard the news from Victoria yesterday would be sickened by what they heard,” Clare said during a news conference in Sydney.
“And for every parent that is directly affected by this in Victoria, they would be frightened and they’d be angry.”
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she would introduce a state register of childcare workers and ban personal devices at childcare centres from September.
Allan said her government would also commence an “urgent review” to examine options for improving safety in the sector, including potentially installing security cameras in childcare facilities.
“We will adopt every recommendation of the review and implement them as quickly as possible,” Allan said in a statement.
“Following yesterday, I know too many families are suffering unbearable pain and uncertainty. I cannot imagine what they are going through.”
The latest safety scare to engulf Australia’s childcare sector comes less than a year after a Queensland man pleaded guilty to sexually abusing dozens of girls at childcare centres in one of the worst paedophile cases in the country’s history.
Ashley Paul Griffith was sentenced to life in prison in November after admitting to more than 300 offences against 69 girls at daycare facilities in Brisbane and Italy.
July 1 (UPI) — Two Chinese nationals made separate appearances in federal courts on Tuesday to face charges accusing them of acting as agents for the Chinese government.
Yuance Chen, 38, is a permanent legal resident of Happy Valley, Ore., and was arraigned on charges in the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Portland and accusing him of acting as an agent of the Chinese government without notifying the U.S. attorney general.
Liren “Ryan” Lai, 39, also is charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese government and was arraigned in the U.S. District Court ofSouthern Texas in Houston. Lai traveled to the United States on a tourist visa in April.
“This case underscores the Chinese government’s sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Tuesday in a news release.
“The Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in our country,” Bondi added.
The charges against both defendants were filed in the U.S.District Court of Northern California in San Francisco, and they were arrested on Friday, the Department of Justice. Each is innocent until proven guilty.
Both men are accused of “overseeing and carrying out various clandestine intelligence taskings in the United States on behalf of the [Chinese] government’s principal foreign intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security,” the DOJ said.
The pair allegedly were “attempting to recruit U.S. military service members on behalf of the People’s Republic of China,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.
“The Chinese Communist Party thought they were getting away with their scheme to operate on U.S. soil, utilizing spy craft, like dead drops, to pay their sources,” Patel continued.
He said the case was a “complex and coordinated effort” that involved counterintelligence work by FBI agents in San Francisco, Portland, Houston and San Diego and the agency’s Counterintelligence Division.
The DOJ accuses Lai of recruiting Chen on behalf of the MSS in 2021 and says the pair met in Guangzhou, China, in January 2022, to devise a dead-drop payment of at least $10,000.
They allegedly worked with individuals in the United States to leave a backpack with the cash inside a day-use locker at a recreational facility in Livermore, Calif., that same month.
The DOJ says Lai and Chen also conspired to obtain a list of personnel from a U.S. Navy recruitment center in San Gabriel, Calif., and a Navy installation in Washington state to identify potential intelligence assets and transmit the information to the MSS in China.
China’s MSS also instructed Chen in how to “engage and recruit future sailors and methods for minimizing his risk of exposure,” the DOJ alleges.
Chen also is accused of traveling to China in April 2024 and March 2025 to meet with MSS intelligence officers and discuss specific tasks and compensation.
Chen and Lai each could be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined up to $250,000 if found guilty of the charges against them.
The FBI has accused the pair of working on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security to gather naval intelligence.
The United States Department of Justice has charged two Chinese citizens for spying and trying to recruit from within the country’s military ranks.
According to Tuesday’s statement, Yuance Chen, 38, and Liren “Ryan” Lai, 39, are accused of working on behalf of China’s foreign intelligence arm, the Ministry of State Security (MSS).
The pair allegedly carried out a range of “clandestine intelligence taskings”, including facilitating payments in exchange for national security information, gathering intelligence on Navy bases and attempting to recruit MSS assets.
“This case underscores the Chinese government’s sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
According to an affidavit from the FBI, Lai was part of an MSS network “who could travel more easily” between China and the US “to facilitate clandestine operations”.
Starting around 2021, he began developing Chen, who is a legal permanent resident, into his asset.
After ascertaining that Chen knew people in the US military, Lai urged him to travel abroad to discuss his connections in person, even offering to pay for the tickets, according to the affidavit.
The men reportedly met with MSS agents, and in 2022, they left a backpack with $10,000 in cash in a California locker as payment to other individuals for intelligence gathering.
In the years that followed, the affidavit says that Chen collected information about the Navy and sent it to Lai, while also discussing recruitment efforts directly with the MSS.
Some of that information included personal details from Navy employees. In one case, Chen travelled to San Diego, California, to meet with a Navy hire and tour the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier.
Photos included in the affidavit show a visitor’s badge as well as Chen posing with the employee and their child on top of the aircraft carrier’s deck.
The FBI says that such interactions are part of China’s campaign to extend its military’s reach.
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] government seeks blue-water naval capabilities as part of their effort to modernize their navy and establish hegemony in the South China Sea,” the affidavit reads.
“Blue-water capabilities” generally refer to long-distance maritime efforts, as opposed to operations based closer to domestic shores.
“As such, the PRC government tasks and deploys the MSS to surreptitiously target the US Navy and collect intelligence,” the affidavit continues.
Both men were charged under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, or FARA, which requires that those working on behalf of another country register with the US government.
In recent years, the US government has ramped up its use of the law in its effort to combat alleged Chinese espionage activity.
Beijing typically denies such claims and has accused the US of discriminatory tactics.
“These charges reflect the breadth of the efforts by our foreign adversaries to target the United States,” US Attorney Craig H Missakian said in the Justice Department statement.
“We will continue to undertake counterespionage investigations and prosecutions, no matter how complex and sensitive, to disrupt attempts to weaken our national security.”
Former England captain Paul Ince has been charged with drink-driving after crashing into a central reservation, police said.
The ex-Manchester United and Liverpool midfielder was arrested after a black Range Rover crashed at 17:00 BST on Saturday on Chester High Road in Neston, Wirral.
Cheshire Police said the 57-year-old has been bailed to appear at Chester Magistrates’ Court on 18 July.
The former Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool manager, who also played for West Ham United and Inter Milan, won 53 caps for his country and played at Euro 96 and the World Cup in 1998.
He became the first black footballer to captain England in 1993.
After retiring, he moved into management, most recently working for Reading between 2022 and 2023.
A spokesperson for Cheshire Police said officers “were called following reports of a collision on Chester High Road, Neston”.
“The incident involved a black Range Rover which had collided with the central reservation barrier,” the spokesperson said.
“Officers attended the scene and arrested a 57-year-old man.”
June 27 (UPI) — Federal officials have charged four people from California with what they call the largest COVID-19 tax credit fraud scheme ever identified in the United States, amounting to more than $90 million in payouts.
Two of the defendants are also facing attempted murder charges for shooting one of their co-conspirators, the FBI’s Los Angeles field office confirmed in a release.
Kristerpher Turner, Toriano Knox, Kenya Jones and Joyce Johnson are all facing federal conspiracy to commit mail fraud; mail fraud; and conspiracy to submit false claims charges.
Jones and Knox are also facing gun and attempted murder charges for shooting Turner in 2023, in an attempt to prevent him from speaking to authorities.
A federal indictment was unsealed earlier this month against all four.
Officials allege Turner operated the fraud ring that invoiced close to $250 million in COVID-19 relief payments to the federal government.
“In total, from approximately June 2020 and December 2024, the defendants and their co-conspirators submitted and caused the submission of fraudulent forms for at least 148 companies, seeking a total of approximately $247,956,938 in tax refunds to which they were not entitled,” the FBI statement reads.
The group ultimately received at least $93 million in Treasury checks from the IRS.
According to authorities, while Turner ran the scheme, Knox, Jones and Johnson served as recruiters, even luring friends and family members aboard and obtaining their personal or business information to submit false benefits claims.
“At some point during the scheme, the now-defendants learned that the IRS and others were making inquiries about their fraudulent activity,” the FBI statement reads, alleging Knox and Jones of carrying out a shooting to prevent him from acting as a witness.
Turner was shot in August of 2023 and is now paralyzed.
The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation section and office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration were involved in the joint investigation.
All four defendants are facing maximum sentences of 20 years in federal prison for each fraud charge if convicted. Knox and Jones are also facing 30-year sentences if convicted of attempted murder charges, while the gun charges carry maximum penalties of life in prison.
The case is not the first multi-million-dollar fraud committed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, a June Chicago laboratory owner received a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted of falsifying COVID-19 test results. Authorities contend the fraud scheme generated $14 million.
Los Angeles County prosecutors on Wednesday charged 19 people with conspiring to murder a rapper who allegedly angered a member of the Mexican Mafia, a prison-based syndicate of Latino gang members.
In the complaint, prosecutors described a sprawling conspiracy that played out over TikTok messages and recorded jail calls, drawing in prisoners from Kern County, jail inmates in downtown Los Angeles and gang members in Paramount, the southeast Los Angeles County city that both Quintero and Abrego call home.
Quintero, 49, was arrested Wednesday and has yet to enter a plea. It wasn’t clear from court records whether he has a lawyer. A longtime member of the Paramount Varrio gang, Quintero has served prison time for assault, manufacturing methamphetamine and false imprisonment, court records show.
Manuel Quintero, shown in a Feb. 15, 2014 photograph from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, has been identified by law enforcement officials as a member of the Mexican Mafia.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
On New Year’s Eve in 2022, an alleged subordinate of Quintero, Giuseppe “Clever” Leyva, told an informant he’d notified gang members in Paramount, Compton and downtown L.A. that they had instructions to attack Abrego “on sight,” the complaint says.
Leyva, 34, is now in custody on an unrelated federal case that charges him with selling drugs and guns in Imperial County. He pleaded guilty to trafficking methamphetamine in March and has yet to be sentenced. His attorney in the federal case didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
After the informant asked if “Snuffs is mad” at the rapper, Leyva allegedly said of Abrego: “F— him.”
It’s unclear why Quintero was angry with Abrego, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
In a 2024 interview with The Times, the rapper declined to discuss any potential issues with the Mexican Mafia or “jailhouse politics.”
Abrego previously said his music resonates with people because “everybody wants to be a gangster.”
“Whether you’re a lawyer, a police or a kid going to school, everybody wants to be big, bad and tough,” he said in 2024.
Eight months after he spoke to the informant, the complaint says, Leyva warned another person in a TikTok message to stay away from the rapper.
“Let me give u a lil 411 s u won’t get mis guided with the internet,” he wrote, according to the complaint. “With Swifty his career is done.”
“I talked to him tried to guide him but he didn’t listen,” Leyva allegedly continued, adding that now the rapper was “getting his blues” in Men’s Central Jail.
In November 2023, Abrego was jailed on a gun possession charge. Onesimo “Vamps” Gonzalez, held two cells down from the rapper, called his mother and told her to ask an associate if “the one who sings” was “still good,” according to the complaint.
Gonzalez’s mother hung up. When her son called back, she allegedly said, “He’s no good.”
Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.
(Al Seib/Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
Both Gonzalez and his mother are charged in the conspiracy. Gonzalez was already in custody; Dominga Gonzalez, 66, was arrested Wednesday at her Bellflower home, according to a statement from the FBI.
Two days after mother and son spoke, another jail inmate, Jonathan “Dreamer” Quevedo, called a man imprisoned in Kern County who was using a contraband cell phone, according to the complaint.
After mentioning “Swifty Blue,” Quevedo allegedly asked Jacob “Eagle” David if he recalled a “raza rapper” who was “in the shower.”
Prosecutors believed this was a reference to Jaime Brugada Valdez, a rapper known as MoneySign Suede who was stabbed to death in the showers at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad in 2023.
“The end result should be the same,” allegedly replied David, who was imprisoned for carjacking and robbery.
The next day, the complaint says, David instructed Quevedo to tell the attackers: “Handle that s— with prejudice… You know how that’s like a court term? Well, this s— [is] with prejudice.”
Quevedo allegedly confirmed it was “already in motion.”
When inmates were let out of their cells at 5:50 the next morning to take a shower, Adrian “Slick” Bueno, Andrew “Largo” Shinaia and Jude “Crazy” Valle entered Abrego’s cell, the complaint says. While Michael “Weasel” Ortiz obstructed a nearby camera, Bueno, Shinaia and Valle beat the rapper and “sliced” him, prosecutors charged.
About five hours later, Quevedo called a woman from jail and asked her to tell David in state prison that “old boy got his rap session,” according to the complaint.
“They didn’t really get a good show,” Quevedo allegedly said. “Expect them to be performing in probably the 4000 floor” — another area of the jail — “here soon.”
The attempt on Abrego’s life was unsuccessful, and by March 2024, the complaint says, Leyva told Joshua “Demon” Euan in a TikTok message the rapper was recording a live stream outside his family home “as we speak.”
Euan drove to the house at 1 a.m. and sent Leyva a photograph of a gun in the cup-holder of a car, according to the complaint. “He ain’t here,” he wrote to Leyva.
Later, Euan allegedly told Leyva he sent people to vandalize Abrego’s family home. According to the complaint, he sent photographs of graffiti that read, “Swifty Blue 187,” a reference to the California penal code section for murder.
Euan, 37, eluded arrest Wednesday and remains at large, according to the FBI.
Los Angeles County prosecutors announced new charges Tuesday against people suspected of attacking the police during recent protests that rocked downtown L.A., including an incident in which a California Highway Patrol cruiser was set ablaze on the 101 Freeway.
Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said 39-year-old Adam Palermo was charged with two counts of assault on a peace officer and two counts of using a destructive device in connection with the June 8 incident.
As he announced the charges, Hochman stood alongside a TV screen looping a video that allegedly shows Palermo dropping a flaming item onto the CHP vehicle during the first weekend of protests against the Trump administration’s immigration raids.
That Sunday — the day after President Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections — thousands of protesters took to downtown. A number of CHP vehicles and officers wound up parked underneath an overpass on the 101 after clearing protesters from the freeway late in the afternoon.
Palermo also allegedly threw a large rock at one of the CHP vehicles. Hochman displayed social media posts allegedly made by Palermo saying “of all the protests I’ve been involved in, which is well over a hundred now, I’m most proud of what I did today,” accompanied by images and videos of the CHP cars being damaged and burned.
“It was not a productive day. It was a day of destruction,” Hochman said.
Palermo will also face federal arson charges in relation to the same incident, according to U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who joined Hochman for the news conference.
Hochman said his office has brought charges against 30 people in relation to the protests since they first erupted 10 days ago. Essayli said he’s brought about 20 cases, and both promised more prosecutions going forward.
In a separate alleged attack, Hochman said 23-year-old William Rubio threw fireworks at Los Angeles police officers responding to a dumpster that had been set on fire near First and Spring streets on June 8. When Rubio was arrested, police allegedly found 11 M-1000 fireworks in his backpack, which Hochman likened to a “quarter stick of dynamite.”
“These are lethal devices. Had any of these been thrown in a person’s direction, they could have killed or maimed that person,” Hochman said.
It was not immediately clear whether Rubio or Palermo had defense attorneys. Palermo is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon, according to a district attorney’s office spokesperson. Records show Rubio will be arraigned downtown on July 1.
Charges were also filed against defendants accused of firing a laser pointer at a police helicopter, being in possession of a firearm when they were detained for a curfew violation and breaking into an Apple store downtown that was being overrun by “looters,” Hochman said.
Essayli announced one new case against a defendant who allegedly spit on a National Guard member and federal law enforcement officers during a confrontation outside a federal building.
“As our President said, ‘If you spit, we hit,’ and we will hit you with a felony,” Essayli said.
L.A.’s top federal prosecutor also went into more detail about charges filed last week against Alejandro Orellana, who was charged with conspiracy to commit civil disorder and aiding and abetting civil disorder for handing out protective face shields to protesters.
Essayli said the masks were meant to protect “violent agitators” from law enforcement crowd-control munitions, adding that a search of Orellana’s home turned up a a bag of rocks, metal BB gun pellets and a notebook of anti-police scribbling including a page that read “Blue Lives Matter. 187,” the California Penal Code section for murder.
Asked why providing defensive materials to demonstrators was a crime, Essayli scoffed at the idea that peaceful demonstrators would need protective equipment.
“He wasn’t handing masks out at the beach,” Essayli said. “He was handing them out in downtown L.A. to people who were dressed similarly to those committing violence. They were dressed in gear from top to bottom, they were covering their face, they were wearing backpacks. We’ve talked about what’s been in the backpacks. You’ve got fireworks. You’ve got rocks … There’s no legitimate reason why a peaceful protester needs a face shield.”
Orellana faces at least five years in federal prison if convicted.
Essayli also reiterated his promise to go after “organizers and funders” of what he termed “violence” at protests. He hinted that the person who paid for the masks Orellana distributed could also face criminal charges.
Although some of the recent protest cases brought by Essayli’s office have involved severe instances of violence against police — including cases where defendants are accused of hurling Molotov cocktails or concrete blocks at deputies and officers — others have left legal experts wondering if the devout Trump appointee is straining to criminalize protest against the administration’s policies.
Essayli maintained Tuesday that his office is only going after those responsible for causing unrest in recent days.
“These weren’t peaceful protesters,” he said of the people who received masks from Orellana. “They weren’t holding up signs expressing a political message. They were agitators.”
Los Angeles lawyer Michael Avenatti was indicted Wednesday on charges of stealing from his former client Stormy Daniels by skimming money from her deal to write a memoir detailing her alleged sexual affair with Donald Trump.
It was the third time in two months that federal prosecutors have charged the celebrity attorney with criminal wrongdoing. Daniels is the sixth Avenatti client whose money he is accused of embezzling.
A federal grand jury in New York accused Avenatti of forging Daniels’ signature on a document instructing her literary agent to wire nearly $300,000 of her money to him.
Avenatti “blatantly lied to and stole from his client to maintain his extravagant lifestyle,” said Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“Far from zealously representing his client, Avenatti, as alleged, instead engaged in outright deception and theft, victimizing rather than advocating for his client,” Berman said.
Avenatti spent roughly half the money on personal expenses, including the lease of a Ferrari, according to prosecutors.
On Twitter, Avenatti denied the charges. “No monies relating to Ms. Daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled,” he said.
The indictment charges Avenatti with wire fraud and aggravated identify theft. If convicted on both counts, he faces up to 22 years in prison. Combined with previous criminal charges brought against Avenatti over the last two months, he now faces a maximum penalty of 404 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Daniels’ new attorney, Clark Brewster of Tulsa, Okla., said he brought the case to the FBI and federal prosecutors earlier this year after she showed him the documentation cited Wednesday in the indictment.
“What I witnessed here was just the most base of criminality,” Brewster said. “It really does take a calculated criminal mind to have done what he did over such a long period of time with such dishonesty — and all the while posing as her champion.”
Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Clark Brewster.
(Brandi Simons / Associated Press)
Under an April 2018 contract that Avenatti helped negotiate with Daniels’ publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and literary agent, Janklow & Nesbit Associates, Daniels was to receive an $800,000 advance in four installments for her memoir, “Full Disclosure.”
The book featured graphic details of her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump at a Lake Tahoe resort. It was published in October.
The publisher sent the first two installments — a total of $425,000 — to Daniels’ agent, which forwarded the money to her after taking a fee, according to the indictment.
But Avenatti embezzled the third and fourth installments, the grand jury alleged. They say he did it by emailing a letter to Janklow & Nesbit on Aug. 1, 2018, instructing the agent to wire the remaining money to a bank account that Avenatti controlled. The letter purported to be from Daniels, with her signature.
But Daniels neither authorized nor signed the “false wire instructions,” the indictment says.
When Avenatti received the two remaining installments, he spent the money on hotels, airline tickets, car services, restaurants, dry cleaning, a $3,900 lease payment on the Ferrari and various business expenses, according to the indictment.
Avenatti repeatedly lied to Daniels to cover up the theft, the grand jury alleged.
“When is the publisher going to cough up my money?” she asked him in December, according to the indictment.
Avenatti did not tell her he’d already received and spent the money, saying instead that he was threatening to sue the publisher for failing to pay her.
“They need to pay you the money as you did your part and then some,” he allegedly told her.
In January, the indictment says, Avenatti told her falsely that St. Martin’s Press was resisting making the payment due to purportedly poor sales.
Daniels made Avenatti famous last year by hiring him to sue President Trump to void a nondisclosure agreement she signed before the 2016 election. In exchange for her silence, the adult-film star was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer, pleaded guilty last year to a campaign finance felony for orchestrating the deal. Prosecutors say Trump directed Cohen to pay the hush money to Daniels, a stripper who has performed in more than 150 pornographic movies over the last two decades.
When the scandal broke in early 2018, Avenatti fueled the media frenzy in scores of interviews with Anderson Cooper, Megyn Kelly, George Stephanopoulos and other television news personalities.
Avenatti, who relished bashing Trump on television, explored a run for president, but his career in politics effectively died last fall when Los Angeles police arrested him on suspicion of domestic violence. Prosecutors declined to charge him.
Tensions between Avenatti and Daniels spilled into public view in November.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told the Daily Beast that Avenatti treated her with disrespect, ignored requests for an accounting of her crowdfunding money and, against her wishes, filed a second suit against Trump for defamation. Avenatti denied her allegations.
Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announces Michael Avenatti’s arrest on extortion charges in March.
(Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
A federal judge dismissed both of Daniels’ lawsuits against Trump. He ordered Daniels in December to pay Trump $292,000 to cover the president’s legal fees. Two months later, Daniels and Avenatti parted ways for reasons neither disclosed.
“He knew that I was unhappy and looking for new counsel,” Daniels told a crowd at a book promotion event in Washington.
The FBI arrested Avenatti in New York on March 25 after secretly recording what prosecutors allege was an attempt to extort sportswear giant Nike in conversations with the company’s lawyers. He was formally indicted in that case, too, on Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Avenatti threatened to hold a news conference that would take billions of dollars off Nike’s market value unless it paid a client $1.5 million and hired Avenatti and L.A. lawyer Mark Geragos for as much as $25 million to conduct an internal investigation.
Geragos, identified by prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator, was not charged with any crimes.
Still, the most serious legal threat to Avenatti is in California, where he faces a separate 36-count federal indictment.
In August, he is scheduled to be tried in Santa Ana on charges of embezzling millions of dollars from clients, dodging taxes, defrauding a bank by submitting fake financial papers to get loans and concealing assets from creditors and the federal court that oversaw his law firm’s bankruptcy.
Avenatti denies wrongdoing.
Makeup artist Michelle Phan.
(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
The clients whose money prosecutors say he stole include Geoffrey Ernest Johnson, a mentally ill paraplegic man on disability, and Michelle Phan, a makeup artist popular on YouTube.
He is also charged with embezzling most of a $2.75-million payment that Miami Heat basketball center Hassan Whiteside intended for an ex-girlfriend, Alexis Gardner, who was an Avenatti client.
A British woman has been charged in Australia over the death of a man she allegedly hit while riding an e-scooter after a night of drinking.
Prosecutors told magistrates that Alicia Kemp, 24, hit Thanh Phan, 51, from behind at speeds of 20-25km/h (12-15mph) on a pavement in Perth city centre on 31 May.
The father-of-two hit his head and died two days later, prompting police to charge Ms Kemp with death by dangerous driving while under the influence. The charge carries a maximum 20-year prison term.
In a subsequent court hearing, prosecutors alleged Ms Kemp, of Redditch, had been drinking with a friend before both boarded the same scooter. She was denied bail and faces court again on 15 July.
Prosecutors told Perth Magistrates’ Court that CCTV footage showed Ms Kemp’s “inexplicably dangerous” driving, “evasive action” taken by others in her path, and the moment of collision with Mr Phan as he waited to cross the road.
Ms Kemp was denied bail by a magistrate on the basis that she posed a “flight risk”, after prosecutors argued that she was in Australia on a working holiday visa and could attempt to leave.
British media reported on Saturday that her parents were flying to Australia to support her. Her boyfriend has been present at the court hearings in Perth.
Ms Kemp faces an additional charge of dangerous driving occasioning bodily harm while under the influence for injuries suffered by her passenger, who was thrown from the e-scooter and suffered a fractured skull and broken nose.
Police say Ms Kemp had a blood alcohol content level of 0.158 when she hit Mr Phan. The legal drink-driving alcohol limit in Australia is 0.05.
The court heard that the pair had been drinking on the day since 14:30 and were forcibly evicted from the bar because of intoxication.
The pair hired the e-scooter just before 20:30.
In a statement last week, Mr Phan’s family described him as a a beloved husband, father, brother and dear friend.
He had worked as a structural engineer and had previously lived in Sydney, as well as Vietnam and Singapore, Australian media reported.
They called for a review of safety regulations around the use of hire e-scooters “to help prevent further serious incidents that put lives at risk”.
Perth’s city council suspended the use of hire e-scooters on Thursday, with authorities removing the vehicles from the street this week. Deputy Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds called Mr Phan’s death a “tragic event”.
Western Australia’s police minister is also reviewing e-scooter regulations.
BOULDER, Colo. — A federal judge issued an order Wednesday to prevent the deportation of the wife and five children of an Egyptian man charged in a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo.
U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman to halt deportation proceedings of his wife and five children who were taken into federal custody Tuesday by U.S. immigration officials.
The family members have not been charged in the attack on a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Soliman faces federal hate crime charges and state charges of attempted murder in the Sunday attack in downtown Boulder.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that they are being processed for removal proceedings. It’s rare that family members of a person accused of a crime are detained and threatened with deportation.
Soliman’s wife, 18-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Noem said in a statement.
Noem also said federal authorities will immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas in response to the Boulder attack.
Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents that, at times, spelled his name as “Mohammed.”
Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of victims in the attack from 12 to 15, plus a dog.
Boulder County officials who provided updates on the number of victims said in a news release they include eight women and seven men, ranging in age from 25 to 88. The Associated Press left an email message Wednesday with prosecutors seeking more details on the newly identified victims and the dog.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman, an Egyptian man who federal authorities say has been living in the U.S. illegally, didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.
His wife and five children were taken into custody Tuesday by U.S. immigration officials, and the White House said they could be swiftly deported. It’s rare that family members of a person accused of a crime are detained and threatened with deportation in this way.
“Anyone who thinks they can come to America and advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism — think again,” Noem said in a statement. “You are not welcome here. We will find you, deport you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.
Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his plans for the attack, according to court documents that, at times, spelled his name as “Mohammed.”
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.
A vigil was scheduled for Wednesday evening at the local Jewish community center to support those affected by the attack.
Defendant’s immigration status
Soliman was born in el-Motamedia, an Egyptian farming village in the Nile Delta province of Gharbia that’s located about 75 miles north of Cairo, according to an Egyptian security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media.
Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, he spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.
He has been living in the U.S. illegally, having arrived in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that it also expired.
DHS did not respond to requests for additional information about the immigration status of his wife and children and the U.S. State Department said that visa records are confidential. The New York Times, citing McLaughlin, said his family’s visas have since been revoked and they were arrested Tuesday by ICE.
Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Homeland Security Department reports.
The case against Soliman
Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting for his daughter to graduate before carrying it out, the affidavit said.
A newspaper in Colorado Springs that profiled one of Soliman’s children in April noted the family’s journey from Egypt to Kuwait and then to the U.S. It said after initially struggling in school, she landed academic honors and volunteered at a local hospital.
Soliman currently faces federal hate crime charges and attempted murder charges at the state level, but authorities say additional charges could be brought. He’s being held in a county jail on a $10-million bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday.
His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday.
Witnesses and police have said Soliman threw two incendiary devices, catching himself on fire as he hurled the second. Authorities said they believe Soliman acted alone. Although they did not elaborate on the nature of his injuries, a booking photo showed him with a large bandage over one ear.
The attack unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. The attack happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
Six victims hospitalized
The victims ranged in age from 25 to 88, and the nature of some of their injuries spanned from serious to minor, officials said. They were members of the volunteer group called Run For Their Lives who were holding their weekly demonstration.
Three victims were still hospitalized Tuesday at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, spokesperson Kelli Christensen said.
One of the 15 victims was a child when her family fled the Nazis during the Holocaust, said Ginger Delgado of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, who is acting as a spokesperson for the family of the woman, who doesn’t want her name used.
Slevin, Bedayn and Santana write for the Associated Press. AP reporters Eric Tucker in Washington; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo.; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
US federal prosecutors have charged two Chinese nationals with smuggling a toxic fungus into the United States, which authorities claim could be turned into a “potential agroterrorism weapon”.
The charges against Jian Yunqing, 33, and Liu Zunyong, 34, two researchers from China, were unsealed by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan on Tuesday. The pair face additional charges of conspiracy, visa fraud and providing false statements to investigators.
Prosecutors allege that Liu smuggled the fungus, called Fusarium graminearum, into the US so he could carry out research at a University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend, Jian, worked.
Fusarium graminearum causes “head blight”, a disease in crops like wheat, barley, maize and rice, and is “responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year”, according to the charges.
The pathogen also poses a danger to humans and livestock, and can cause “vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects”.
Allegedly toxic plant pathogens that a Chinese scientist entered the US with last year, federal authorities said on Tuesday [US District Court For The Eastern District Of Michigan via AP]
The investigation was carried out by US Customs and Border Protection and the FBI, whose mandate includes investigating foreign and economic espionage as well as counterterrorism.
Jian was earlier arrested by the FBI and is due to appear in federal court this week, where her ties to the Chinese government are also under scrutiny at a time of increased paranoia within the US government about possible Chinese infiltration.
Jian allegedly received funding from the Chinese government to carry out research on the same toxic fungus in China, according to the charges.
The Associated Press news agency, citing the FBI, said that Liu was sent back to China from Detroit in July 2024 after airport customs authorities found the fungus in his backpack. He later admitted to bringing the material into the US to carry out research at the University of Michigan, where he had previously worked alongside his girlfriend, the AP said.
During their investigation, the FBI found an article on Liu’s phone titled “Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions”. Messages on the couple’s phones also indicated that Jian was aware of the smuggling scheme, and later lied to investigators about her knowledge.
It is unlikely that Liu will face extradition as the US does not have an extradition treaty with China.
FBI director Kash Patel claimed on X that China was “working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences”.
New… I can confirm that the FBI arrested a Chinese national within the United States who allegedly smuggled a dangerous biological pathogen into the country.
The individual, Yunqing Jian, is alleged to have smuggled a dangerous fungus called “Fusarium graminearum,” which is an…
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) June 3, 2025
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The University of Michigan on Tuesday issued a brief statement condemning “any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security, or undermine the university’s critical public mission”.
The case comes just a week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged to start “aggressively” revoking the visas of Chinese students in the US on national security grounds.
Targeted students include Chinese nationals with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an institution that counts about 100 million members. While some Chinese may join for ideological reasons, membership in the CCP comes with perks like access to better jobs and educational opportunities.
It is not uncommon for students from elite backgrounds, like those studying in the US, to also be members of the CCP.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has previously pledged to “firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests” of its students studying overseas following news of the visa crackdown.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman was already facing an array of state charges, including attempted murder, after the attack on Sunday in the city of Boulder on a group seeking to draw attention to hostages seized in Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the suspect would be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law for what was described as an “antisemitic terror attack”.
The affidavit said Soliman, 45, had planned the attack for more than a year. Investigators found 14 Molotov cocktails filled with petrol or gasoline near where the suspect was detained.
The police also found a petrol canister in his car parked nearby and a weed sprayer filled with petrol at the scene. Soliman told investigators that he had learned how to make the firebombs from YouTube.
The affidavit references a video posted on social media during the attack showing Soliman “shirtless, pacing back and forth while holding what appear to be Molotov cocktails”.
The suspect, who was being detained in lieu of $10m bail, according to official records, told police he “wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead”, the affidavit said.
The burst of violence at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, a four-block area in downtown Boulder, unfolded against the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza that continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in anti-Semitic violence in the United States.
The attack happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is marked with the reading of the Torah and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
‘Millions of individuals like this’
According to the complaint, Soliman lived with his wife and five children in Colorado Springs, a city about 161km (100 miles) south of Boulder. The affidavit says that he waited until after his daughter’s graduation to conduct the attack.
Few other details were available about him.
Todd Lyons, acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Soliman had overstayed a tourist visa and had an expired work permit.
Federal documents make no reference to his nationality, but the New York Times said he was Egyptian, citing the Department of Homeland Security.
The Departments of Homeland Security and Justice did not respond to requests for comment. The Denver office of the FBI, which is handling the case, did not immediately respond to emails or phone calls seeking details in the case.
Officials from the Boulder County Jail, Boulder Police and Boulder County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to inquiries.
“There are millions of individuals like this that we are attempting to locate from the past administration that weren’t properly screened that were allowed in,” Lyons said during a press conference in Boston. “I will tell you that’s a huge effort for ICE right now.”
Police gather after an attack that injured multiple people in Boulder, Colorado, the US on June 1, 2025 [Mark Makela/Reuters]
Under former US President Joe Biden, ICE prioritised arrests of serious criminals and called for officers to consider humanitarian factors when making arrests.
Lyons declined to provide more information, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously said Soliman had entered the country in August 2022 and filed for asylum the following month. “The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country,” the spokesperson said.
President Donald Trump criticised Biden over the incident.
“Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America,” Trump said on his Truth Social network, describing it as a “terrible tragedy”.
He blamed “Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy” for allowing Soliman into the country.
“This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland,” he wrote.
Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years of age were transported to hospitals after the attack, Boulder police said. Another four victims were identified on Monday, according to authorities.
The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district near the University of Colorado, during an event organised by Run for Their Lives, a group devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.
Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told CBS Colorado that the 88-year-old victim was a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe.
Sunday’s attack was not the first high-profile incident of mass violence in Boulder, a university town that attracts many young professionals and outdoor enthusiasts. In 2021, a gunman fatally shot 10 people, including an off-duty police officer, in a local supermarket.
May 31 (UPI) — The former leader of two rehab centers faces federal charges in the alleged harassment of New Hampshire Public Radio journalists in retaliation for an unfavorable news story about alleged sexual misconduct.
Eric Spofford, 40, was arrested Friday after being indicted by a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts on one count of conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and using a facility of interstate commerce; one count of stalking using a facility of interstate commerce; and two counts of stalking through interstate travel, the Departmentof Justice announced.
Each count is punishable by up to five years imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
Spofford is the founder and former chief executive officer of the for-profit Granite Recovery Centers in Salem, N.H., and Miami.
He has an arraignment hearing scheduled at 3:30 p.m. EDT Monday at the federal courthouse in Boston.
GRC is one of the largest drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers in New England, and Spofford sold it in 2021 for $115 million, The New York Times reported.
Many abuses detailed
NHPR on March 22, 2022, published an online article that discussed allegations of sexual misconduct, abusive leadership and retaliation by Spofford.
He allegedly harassed former patients and staff, and was accused of sexually assaulting at least two staff members.
One former patient said he sent her unwanted text messages and at least one photo of an obscene nature, which she said caused her to suffer a relapse.
Several staffers and a former chief operating officer left GRC due to the alleged behavior by Spofford, according to the article.
He denied the allegations, but the article gained a lot of attention locally and nationally, according to the DOJ.
He sued the public radio station for defamation, but a judge dismissed the case in 2023.
A scheme to ‘harass and terrorize’
From March 2022 through at least May 2022, Spofford allegedly “devised a scheme to harass and terrorize the journalist who authored the article, the journalist’s immediate family members [and] a senior editor at NHPR,” the DOJ said.
Federal prosecutors say he paid a close friend, Eric Labarge, $20,000 to undertake the scheme and provided him with names, addresses and instructions on how to stalk and harass the intended victims.
Labarge enlisted the help of three others to stalk and harass the victims, all of whom were charged and convicted of crimes related to the scheme, DOJ said.
Labarge, Tucker Cockerline, Keenan Saniatan and Michael Waselchuk last year were sentenced to between 21 months and 46 months in prison.
Rescue crews attend to victims after a man rammed a crowd gathered for a victory parade for the Liverpool FC soccer team in Liverpool on Monday. Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE
May 29 (UPI) — Police charged a 53-year-old man on Thursday in connection to this week’s car-ramming incident at a Liverpool parade that left scores injured.
At least 79 people were injured in the incident Monday when the man, identified as Paul Doyle from the West Derby area of Liverpool, allegedly drove a Ford Galaxy into the celebrants in the city center. Some tried to divert the car before it hit more parade-goers. The parade was in celebration of Liverpool FC’s title victory in the English Premier League soccer tournament.
Seven of the people who were injured remain hospitalized.
“I hope that all of those who were injured or witnessed this terrible incident are able — given time — to heal and recover,” Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said at a Thursday news conference.
Doyle was charged Thursday with two counts of unlawful and malicious grievous bodily harm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, two counts of attempted unlawful and malicious grievous bodily harm and one count of dangerous driving.
He remains in policy custody and is to make his first appearance at Liverpool Magistrates Court on Friday morning.
Doyle was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving offenses and driving while “unfit through drugs,” police reported. Police said the incident was not terrorism related and is believed to be an isolated event.
Local media reported that police believe that the driver of the vehicle followed an ambulance into the area that was supposed to have been restricted to traffic for the parade.
Doyle’s LinkedIn profile says that he is the head of cyber initiatives at a data center and served in the Royal Marines from 1990 to 1994. Local media reported that Doyle is a married father of three.
Neighbors described him as ” a normal Liverpool dad” and a “very sensible family man,” The Times of London reported.
Police said officers are continuing to investigate the incident.
Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Mersey-Cheshire Sarah Hammond said the charges will be kept under review amid the investigation.
“Criminal proceedings against the defendant are active and he has the right to a fair trial,” she said Thursday, as she warned against sharing information online that could prejudice the legal proceedings.
“Please allow the legal process to take its course without undue speculation,” she said.
Rescue crews attend to victims after a man rammed a crowd gathered for a victory parade for the Liverpool FC soccer team in Liverpool on Monday. Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE
May 29 (UPI) — Police have charged a 53-year-old man for driving his vehicle into a crowd of people who had gathered for a parade to celebrate Liverpool FC’s title victory in the English Premier League soccer tournament.
At least 79 people were injured in the incident Monday when the man, Paul Doyle, from the West Derby area of Liverpool, drove a Ford Galaxy into the celebrants in the city center, video verified by the BBC shows. Some fans tried to divert the car before it hit more parade-goers.
Seven of the people who were injured remain hospitalized.
“I hope that all of those who were injured or witnessed this terrible incident are able — and given time — to heal and recover,” Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Jenny Sims said at a news conference, local media reported.
Doyle was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving offenses and driving while “unfit through drugs,” police reported. He is scheduled to appear in court on Friday. Police said the incident was not terrorism related and is believed to be an isolated event.
Local media reported that the driver of the vehicle followed an ambulance into the area that was supposed to have been restricted to traffic for the parade, local media reported.
Doyle’s LinkedIn profile says that he is the head of cyber initiatives at a data center and served in the Royal Marines from 1990 to 1994. Local media reported that Doyle is a married father of three.
“Neighbors described him as ” such a normal Liverpool dad” and a “genuinely pleasant family man,” The Times of London reported. “When police arrived at his house late on Monday night, the neighbors said they had assumed there had been a burglary.”
Police said officers are continuing to investigate the incident.
A federal judge in Vermont on Wednesday released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher from immigration custody as she deals with a criminal charge of smuggling frog embryos into the United States.
Colleagues and academics testified on Kseniia Petrova’s behalf, saying she is doing valuable research to advance cures for cancer.
“It is excellent science,” Michael West, a scientist and entrepreneur in the biotech industry, testified on Petrova’s research papers. He said he does not know Petrova, but has become acquainted with her published work, citing one in which she explains that “mapping embryonic development [can produce] novel ways of intervening in the biology of regeneration and aging.”
West said that Petrova’s medical research skills are highly sought after and that he himself would hire her “in a heartbeat.”
Petrova, 30, is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in Louisiana. She is expected to be brought to Massachusetts as early as Friday in preparation for a bail hearing next week on the smuggling charge, lawyers said in court.
“We are gratified that today’s hearing gave us the opportunity to present clear and convincing evidence that Kseniia Petrova was not carrying anything dangerous or unlawful, and that customs officers at Logan International Airport had no legal authority to revoke her visa or detain her,” Petrova’s lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said in a statement. “At today’s hearing, we demonstrated that Kseniia is neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk, and does not belong in immigration detention.”
Petrova had been vacationing in France, where she stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples to be used for research.
As she passed through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint in Boston Logan International Airport in February, Petrova was questioned about the samples. She told the Associated Press in an interview last month that she did not realize the items needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak anything into the country. After an interrogation, Petrova was told her visa was being canceled.
After being detained by immigration officials, she filed a petition in Vermont seeking her release. She was briefly detained in Vermont before she was brought to Louisiana.
Petrova was charged with smuggling earlier this month as U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss in Burlington, Vt., set the hearing date on her petition. Reiss ruled Wednesday that the immigration officers’ actions were unlawful, that Petrova didn’t present a danger, and that the embryos were non-living, non-hazardous and “posed a threat to no one.”
Romanovsky had asked Reiss to issue an order to stop the possibility of ICE re-detaining Petrova if she is also released from detention in Massachusetts.
Reiss said she was reluctant “to enjoin an executive agency from undertaking future actions which are uncertain” and would rely on U.S. Department of Justice attorney Jeffrey Hartman’s comments that the government has no intention at this time to rearrest Petrova.
Romanovsky had said Customs and Border Protection officials had no legal basis for canceling Petrova’s visa and detaining her.
The Department of Homeland Security had said in a statement on the social media platform X that Petrova was detained after “lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country.” They allege that messages on her phone “revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them.”
Harvard had said in a statement that the university “continues to monitor the situation.”
