other man

Former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez is facing a felony charge after his physical altercation with a 69-year-old truck driver this weekend left the other man with what the prosecuting attorney described Monday as “significant and very severe” injuries.

The driver, Indiana resident Perry Tole, also filed a civil lawsuit Monday against Sanchez, alleging that he had suffered “severe permanent disfigurement, loss of function, other physical injuries, emotional distress, and other damages” as a result of the 38-year-old former NFL player’s actions.

Marion County, Ind., prosecutor Ryan Mears told reporters at a news conference Monday that Sanchez was being charged with a level five felony of battery involving serious bodily injury, which Mears said could result in one to six years in prison.

After a preliminary probable cause affidavit was filed by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on Saturday, Sanchez was charged with three misdemeanors — battery resulting in injury, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication.

Further investigation by the IMPD preceded the filing of a second probable cause affidavit Monday morning, which led to the felony charge against Sanchez.

“Once we were provided with additional information about the victim’s current medical condition, it became clear to us that additional charges needed to be filed,” Mears said during the joint news conference with IMPD Chief Chris Bailey.

Mears added that it’s possible that more charges could come connected to the incident that occurred late Friday night and into early Saturday morning in an alley outside a downtown Indianapolis hotel.

“One of the things that I’m going to stress to everybody is that we are still in the early stages of this investigation,” Mears said. “Chief and his team have a number of search warrants that are still outstanding. They’re still tracking down additional information. This is, by no means, the end of this investigation. This, by no means, means that these are going to be final charges that we move forward with.”

Sanchez remained in the hospital and was listed in stable condition as of Monday morning. According to court documents, the 2009 Rose Bowl MVP was booked on the misdemeanor charges Sunday and a $300 bond was posted on his behalf at that time.

Mears said Monday that since the case will be now transferred to a major felony court, it would be up to the new court whether an additional bond will be issued based on the new charge.

Attorneys James H. Voyles Jr. and Jennifer M. Lukemeyer, listed in court documents as representing Sanchez in the criminal case, declined to comment to The Times.

An initial court hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning has been postponed until Nov. 4.

According to the first IMPD affidavit, which was based on hotel surveillance footage and a statement Tole gave to the police, Tole had backed his box truck onto the hotel’s loading docks while performing his job with a company that recycles and disposes of commercial cooking oil.

Sanchez allegedly confronted Tole and said that the hotel manager had told Sanchez he didn’t want the driver to replace the cooking oil. The Fox Sports analyst, who was in town to call Sunday’s Raiders-Colts game for Fox Sports, allegedly smelled of alcohol at the time.

During the ensuing altercation, Sanchez threw Tole toward a wall and also onto the ground, the affidavit said, before Tole, believing he was in danger, sprayed Sanchez with pepper spray and eventually stabbed him.

“Certainly the thing that stands out to us is this was a situation that did not need to occur,” Mears said Monday. “… We’re literally talking about people fighting over a parking space or a dispute about where people are parking, and it resulted in someone receiving just incredibly significant injuries.”

Tole suffered a laceration on his left cheek and was taken to a different hospital than Sanchez, the affidavit said. Max Lewis of WXIN-TV in Indianapolis reported Sunday that Tole’s family said that the cut “went through his cheek and hit his tongue,” making speech difficult.

Lewis also posted photos he said were provided by the family that showed the driver in a hospital bed with sheets that appeared to have several blood stains on them near the area of the cut on the man’s cheek. Tole, whose eyes had been blackened out to protect his identity at the time, is wearing what appears to be a neck brace and is hooked up to monitors.

Later on Sunday, family members told the New York Post of Tole, “He’s OK.”

They added: “We are talking to lawyers first. We want to be careful what’s said.”

Tole’s civil lawsuit, filed Monday in Marion County Superior Court, states that he suffered “significant injuries to his head, jaw and neck.”

Sanchez’s employer, Fox Corporation, is named as a co-defendant in the civil suit, on a count of neglient hiring, retention and supervision. Fox Sports did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times.

Tole is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

When my father was crossing the U.S.-Mexico border like an undocumented Road Runner back in the 1970s, la migra caught him more than a few times.

They chased him and his friends through factories in Los Angeles and across the hills that separate Tijuana and San Diego. He was tackled and handcuffed and hauled off in cars, trucks and vans. Sometimes, Papi and his pals were dropped off at the border checkpoint in San Ysidro and ordered to walk back into Mexico. Other times, he was packed into grimy cells with other men.

But there was no anger or terror in his voice when I asked him recently how la migra treated him whenever they’d catch him.

“Like humans,” he said. “They had a job to do, and they knew why we mojados were coming here, so they knew they would see us again. So why make it difficult for both of us?”

His most vivid memory was the time a guard in El Centro gave him extra food because he thought my dad was a bit too skinny.

There’s never a pretty way to deport someone. But there’s always a less indecent, a less callous, a less ugly way.

The Trump presidency has amply proven he has no interest in skirting meanness and cruelty.

“The way they treat immigrants now is a disgrace,” Papi said. “Like animals. It’s sad. It’s ugly. It needs to stop.”

I talked to him a few days after a gunman fired on a Dallas ICE facility, killing a detainee and striking two others before killing himself. One of the other wounded detainees, an immigrant from Mexico, died days later. Instead of expressing sympathy for the deceased, the Trump administration initially offered one giant shrug. What passed for empathy was Vice President JD Vance telling reporters, “Look, just because we don’t support illegal aliens, we don’t want them to be executed by violent assassins engaged in political violence” while blaming the attack on Democrats.

It was up to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem to try and show that the federal government has a heart. Her statement on the Dallas attack offered “prayers” to the victims and their families but quickly pivoted to what she felt was the real tragedy.

How ungrateful critics are of la migra.

“For months, we’ve been warning politicians and the media to tone down their rhetoric about ICE law enforcement before someone was killed,” Noem said. “This shooting must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences…The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”

You might have been forgiven for not realizing from such a statement that the three people punctured by a gunman’s bullets were immigrants.

This administration is never going to roll out the welcome mat for illegal immigrants. But the least they can do it deal with them as if … well, as if they are human.

Under Noem’s leadership, DHS’ social media campaign has instead produced videos that call undocumented immigrants “the worst of the worst” and depict immigration agents as heroes called by God to confront invading hordes. A recent one even used the theme song to the cartoon version of the Pokémon trading card game — tagline “Gotta catch them all” — to imply going after the mango guy and tamale lady is no different than capturing fictional monsters.

That’s one step away from “The Eternal Jew,” the infamous Nazi propaganda movie that compared Jews to rats and argued they needed to be eradicated.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) as prisoners stand, looking out from a cell, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in March.

(Alex Brandon/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Noem is correct when she said that words have consequences — but the “violence and dehumanization” she decries against ICE workers is nothing compared to the cascade of hate spewing from Trump and his goons against immigrants. That rot in the top has infested all parts of American government, leading to officials trying to outdo themselves over who can show the most fealty to Trump by being nastiest to people.

If there were a Cruelty Olympics, Trump’s sycophants would all be elbowing each other for the gold.

Politicians in red states propose repulsive names for their immigration detention facility — “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, for instance, or “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana. U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, Trump’s top prosecutor in Southern California, has trumpeted the arrests of activists he claimed attacked federal agents even as video uploaded by civilians offers a different story. In a recent case, a federal jury acquitted Brayan Ramos-Brito of misdemeanor assault charges after evidence shown in court contradicted what Border Patrol agents had reported to justify his prosecution.

La migra regularly harass U.S. citizens even after they’ve offered proof of residency and have ignored court-ordered restraining orders banning them from targeting people because of their ethnicity. Border Patrol sector chief Gregory Bovino continually squanders taxpayer dollars on photo ops, like the Border Patrol’s July occupation of a nearly empty MacArthur Park or a recent deployment of boats on the Chicago River complete with agents bearing rifles as if they were safari hunters cruising the Congo.

Our nation’s deportation Leviathan is so imperious that an ICE agent, face contorted with anger, outside a New York immigration court recently shoved an Ecuadorian woman pleading for her husband down to the ground, stood over her and wagged his finger in front of her bawling children even as cameras recorded the terrible scene. The move was so egregious that Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughin quickly put out a statement claiming the incident was “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE.”

The act was so outrageous and it was all caught on camera, so what choice did she have? Nevertheless, CBS News reported that the agent is back on duty.

Noem and her crew are so high on their holy war that they don’t realize they’re their own worst enemy. La migra didn’t face the same public acrimony during Barack Obama’s first term, when deportation rates were so high immigration activists dubbed him the “deporter-in-chief.” They didn’t need local law enforcement to fend off angry crowds every time they conducted a raid in Trump’s first term.

The difference now is that cruelty seems like an absolute mandate, so forgive those of us who aren’t throwing roses at ICE when they march into our neighborhoods and haul off our loved ones. And it seems more folks are souring on Trump’s deportation plans. A June Gallup poll found that 79% of Americans said immigration was “a good thing” — a 15% increase since last year and the highest mark recorded by Gallup since it started asking the question in 2001. Meanwhile, a Washington Post/Ipsos September poll showed 44% of adults surveyed approved of Trump’s performance on immigration — a six-point drop since February.

I asked my dad how he thought the government should treat deportees. Our family has personally known Border Patrol agents.

“Well, most of them shouldn’t be deported in the first place,” he said. “If they want to work or already have families here, let them stay but say they need to behave well or they have to leave.”

That’s probably not going to happen, so what should the government do?

“Don’t yell at people,” my dad said. “Talk with patience. Feed immigrants well, give them clean clothes and give them privacy when they have to use the bathroom. Say, ‘sorry we have to do all this, but it’s what Trump wants.’

“And then they should apologize,” Papi concluded. “ They should tell everyone, ’We’re sorry we’ve been so mean. We can do better.’”

Well, that ain’t happening, dad.

South Korean singer Taeil is facing the music for the sex crime that prompted his departure last year from popular K-Pop group NCT.

A Seoul Central District Court on Thursday sentenced the 31-year-old musician, born Moon Tae-il, to 3½ years in prison for raping an intoxicated Chinese woman who visited South Korea in 2024, according to numerous outlets. Taeil was sentenced a month after he and two other men, who also engaged in the assault, pleaded guilty in June to charges of special quasi-rape.

The Korea Herald reported on Thursday the three men were taken into custody after the ruling and were each ordered to complete 40 hours of a sexual violence treatment program. Prosecutors initially sought a seven-year sentence for each of the men, but the court took into account that they were first-time offenders and halved their sentences.

SM Entertainment, the agency representing NCT and its subgroups, announced in August 2024 that it would part ways with Taeil after confirming he “has been accused of a criminal case related to sex crimes.” At the time, SM Entertainment did not disclose additional information but wrote in its statement, “We recognized the seriousness of the issue, and we have decided that Taeil can no longer continue team activities.”

“We have discussed this matter with Taeil, and it has been decided that he will leave the group,” the K-Pop giant added at the time, noting that the singer was “faithfully working on the police investigation.” SM also apologized for “the controversy caused by our artist.”

Taeil and the two other men — identified by prosecutors by surnames Lee and Hong — met the woman in June 2024 at a bar in the Itaewon district of Seoul, and the four drank together.

The tourist became heavily intoxicated, according to the Herald, and the singer allegedly helped her into a taxi with Lee who took her home. Taeil and Hong followed them separately and raped the woman at Lee’s home.

“The defendants took turns committing sexual acts against the victim, who was severely intoxicated and unable to resist. The nature of the crime is particularly grave,” prosecutors reportedly said. “As a foreign tourist assaulted in an unfamiliar environment, the victim likely experienced significant psychological distress.”

Taeil debuted with NCT, or Neo Culture Technology, in 2016 and was most recently active with sub-group NCT 127 prior to his removal.

The Associated Press and former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.

One of the two detainees still missing after escaping from a New Jersey federal immigration detention center has been arrested, the FBI said Tuesday.

Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes, from Honduras, has been taken into custody, FBI spokesperson Amy Thoreson said in an email. Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon, from Colombia, is still missing from Thursday night’s escape, the bureau said.

Bautista-Reyes and Pineda-Mogollon and two other men busted out of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark during reports of disorder there by breaking through a wall and escaping from a parking lot, according to U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, and Homeland Security officials.

All four men were in the country illegally and had been charged by local police in New Jersey and New York City, federal officials said.

Bautista-Reyes was charged in May with aggravated assault, attempt to cause bodily injury, terroristic threats and a weapon crime. Pineda-Mogollon, from Colombia, was charged with minor larceny and burglary crimes.

The details surrounding Bautista-Reyes’ capture were not immediately clear. Messages seeking information were sent to the FBI and the Homeland Security Department, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The FBI on Monday had increased the reward for information leading to their arrest to $25,000 from $10,000.

Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, one of the other fugitives, was taken into custody in Passaic, N.J., on Friday, the day after the escape in nearby Newark. Then, on Sunday, Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada surrendered to federal authorities in Milleville, N.J. Sandoval-Lopez, from Honduras, was charged with unlawful possession of a handgun in October and aggravated assault in February, officials said. Castaneda-Lozada, from Colombia, was charged with burglary, theft and conspiracy, authorities said.

A message seeking comment on behalf of the men was left Tuesday with the New Jersey public defender’s office. It’s unclear who may be representing the men.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who’s been critical of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night and protesters outside the center locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there.

But GEO Group, the company that owns and operates the detention facility for the federal government, said in a statement that there was “no widespread unrest” at the facility.

Delaney Hall has been the site of clashes this year between Democratic officials who say the facility needs more oversight and the Trump administration and those who run the facility.

Baraka was arrested May 9, handcuffed and charged with trespassing. The charge was later dropped and U.S. Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting federal officers, stemming from a skirmish that happened outside the facility. She has denied the charges.

Catalini writes for the Associated Press.

NEW YORK — R&B singer Cassie was forced under cross-examination Thursday to read aloud explicit messages with her former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs, some of which expressed enthusiasm for sex with other men at Combs’ behest that she previously testified she “hated doing.”

Lawyers for Combs are seeking to show the jury that Cassie was a willing participant in his sexual lifestyle and say that, while he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

Prosecutors say he exploited his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in these drug-fueled encounters with sex workers, called “freak-offs,” which sometimes lasted days. He’s also accused of using his entourage and employees to facilitate illegal activities, including prostitution-related transportation and coercion, which is a key element of the federal charges.

Messages between Combs and Cassie — both romantic and lurid — were the focus of the fourth day of testimony in a Manhattan courtroom. Defense attorney Anna Estevao read what Combs wrote, while Cassie recited her own messages.

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, read messages to Combs containing graphic details about what she wanted to do during the freak-offs. At one point, she asked for a short break from the readings, which Judge Arun Subramanian granted.

In August 2009, Combs asked when she wanted the next encounter to be, and she replied “I’m always ready to freak off.” Two days later, Cassie sent an explicit message and he replied in eager anticipation. She responded: “Me Too, I just want it to be uncontrollable.” Combs’ lawyers have insisted that all the sex at the freak-offs was consensual.

Later that year, however, she also sent Combs messages that she was frustrated with the state of their relationship and needed something more from him than sex.

While reading their more affectionate conversations, Cassie testified that Combs was charismatic, a larger-than-life personality.

“I had fallen in love with him and cared about him very much,” Cassie said. Estevao spoke gently during the cross-examination, which had such a friendly tone at times that the lawyer and witness seemed like two friends chatting.

Cassie, however, did complain once that jurors weren’t hearing the full context of the messages the defense was highlighting, saying, “There’s a lot we skipped over.”

A packed courtroom watches Cassie’s testimony

As the messages were read, Combs appeared relaxed at the defense table, sitting back with his hands folded and his legs crossed. The courtroom was packed with family and friends of Combs, journalists, and a row of spectator seats occupied by Cassie’s supporters including her husband.

The 38-year-old Cassie — who is in the third trimester of pregnancy with her third child — has been composed on the witness stand. She cried several times during the previous two days of questions by the prosecution, but for the most part has remained matter-of-fact as she spoke about the most sensitive subjects.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.

During a break, Combs stood at the defense table, huddling with his lawyers, holding a pack of Post-It notes in one hand and a pen in the other. At one point, he turned to the gallery and acknowledged a few reporters who were studying his demeanor. “How you doing?” he asked.

Combs’ daughters were not in the courtroom Thursday as the explicit messages were read and shown to the jury.

Jurors leaned forward in their seats to follow along as the messages were displayed on monitors in front of them in the jury box. One woman shook her head as a particularly explicit message was shown. A man stared intently at the screen, pressing his thumb to his chin. Other jurors appeared curious and quizzical, some looking at Cassie or jotting notes.

Cassie rejects ‘swingers’ label

Cassie’s testimony on cross-examination was in contrast to Wednesday, when she described the violence and shame that accompanied her “hundreds” of encounters with male sex workers during her relationship with Combs, which lasted from 2007 to 2018.

While prosecutors have focused on Combs’ desire to see Cassie having sex with other men, she testified that she sometimes watched Combs have sex with other women. She said Combs described it as part of a “swingers lifestyle.”

Estevao asked Cassie directly whether she thought freak-offs were related to that lifestyle.

“In a sexual way,” Cassie responded, before adding: “They’re very different.”

Cassie said Tuesday that Combs was obsessed with a form of voyeurism where “he was controlling the whole situation.” The freak-offs took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms, unlike Combs’ very public parties that attracted A-list celebrities.

She testified she sometimes took IV fluids to recover from the encounters, and eventually developed an opioid addiction because it made her “feel numb” afterward.

When questioned by Estevao, Cassie agreed that Combs once communicated to drug dealers in Los Angeles to stop delivering drugs to her, and he suggested she get treatment. Cassie said Combs wanted her to do drugs with him only, not friends.

Cassie’s lawsuit sparked case against Combs

Cassie testified Wednesday that Combs raped her when she broke up with him in 2018, and had locked in a life of abuse by threatening to release videos of her during the freak-offs.

She sued Combs in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. Within hours, the suit was settled for $20 million — a figure Cassie disclosed for the first time Wednesday — but dozens of similar legal claims followed from other women. It also touched off a law enforcement investigation into Combs that has culminated in this trial.

Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.

Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. The AP’s Julie Walker in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.