Newly released body-camera video shows a Sonoma County sheriff deputy fatally slamming a man’s head into his own car. The sheriff deputy, Charlie Blount, and his partner, Deputy Jason Little, apparently thought the driver, David Glen Ward, had stolen the car — which he in fact owned. Ward had been the victim of a carjacking days earlier and reported the car stolen.
He had somehow recovered the vehicle but hadn’t notified police yet. When the officers spotted the Honda Civic they attempted to pull the vehicle over thinking he was the perpetrator, which resulted in a police chase that lasted more than 5 minutes. Once Ward finally stopped, deputies can be heard shouting at Ward to put his hands up, with their guns drawn. Ward puts his hands up but repeatedly tries to put them back on the wheel before putting them up again.
In the video, Blount tries to pull Ward out of the vehicle but Ward says that his legs are in pain and Deputy Jason Little can be heard off-camera saying that his legs are stuck. Blount and Little both can be heard saying that Ward bit them. As the officers try to pull Ward from the vehicle, Deputy Blount grabs him by the hair and slams his head into the car’s frame. Deputy Little deploys the taser on Ward and Blount puts Ward in a “sleeper hold” to restrain him. The deputies then pull Ward’s limp body out of the car and handcuff him. They then call for medical assistance. Ward was declared dead at a local hospital later that day.
Later, Deputy Nick Jax can be heard telling the two officers that Ward was the owner of the vehicle. “Then why did he run?” Little asks. Jax responded that he didn’t know and there was no reason for him to respond that way. “Oh well,” Blount said.
Deputy Blount’s lawyer Harry Stern said “ Mr. Ward caused his own death by inexplicably taking a number of bizarre actions that confirmed in the deputies’ minds that he was an armed carjacker rather than the victim of that crime.”
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Several confidential military interviews with the Navy SEALs who accused Chief Edward Gallagher of war crimes were released to the public. Members of SEAL Team 7 Alpha Platoon described their platoon leader, retired Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher as “toxic” and “evil,” according to video recordings of the interviews. Navy SEAL Special Operations Cheif Edward Gallagher was found not guilty of murder and attempted murder by a military jury in San Diego.
Gallagher was accused of fatally stabbing a young wounded ISIS fighter, posing for a picture with the corpse and shooting two civilians from a sniper’s perch in Iraq in 2017. He was found guilty of the charge involving the photo with the corpse. Seven SEALS testified that Gallagher abruptly stabbed the boy just after he was treated by a medic without saying a word to any of them.
“The guy is freaking evil,” Special Operator First Class Craig Miller said of Gallagher during his interview with Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents. “You could tell he was perfectly O.K. with killing anybody that was moving,” Special Operator First Class Corey Scott said of his former platoon leader, the newspaper reported. “The guy was toxic,” Special Operator First Class Joshua Vriens told investigators, the report said.
In the videos, the platoon members accuse Gallagher of shooting at a 12-year-old, refer to Gallagher as a “psychopath,” and tell of rumors that Gallagher had targeted civilians and bragged about having killed women. “I think he just wants to kill anybody he can,” one said while another said “We can’t let this continue.” The testimony paints a chilling pattern of violence executed by their platoon chief.
In July, Gallagher was found not guilty by a military jury for the stabbing. He was, however, demoted after the jury convicted him of posing for a photo with the ISIS fighter’s corpse. The Navy Board also considered stripping Gallagher of his status as a Navy SEAL. But last month, President Trump intervened and restored Gallagher’s rank.
“They wanted to take his pin away and I said, ‘No, you’re not going to take it away,'” he said at the time. “These are tough people, and we’re going to protect our warfighters.” That move angered many in the Navy, including former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, who was ousted after requesting the president not get involved in Gallagher’s case. “I don’t think he really understands the full definition of a warfighter. A warfighter is a profession of arms, and a profession of arms has standards that they have to be held to and they hold themselves to,” Spencer said.
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Saudi Arabia has sentenced five people to death for the killing of prominent journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Three additional people were sentenced to prison over the brutal October 2018 murder carried out inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which sparked international outrage. Saudi Arabia has not announced who has been sentenced to death or imprisoned. The CIA has concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s assassination, but the prince remains a close ally to the U.S. government.
Saudi Arabia has cleared a former top adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. There was no evidence against Saud al-Qahtani, Saudi Deputy Public Prosecutor Shaalan al-Shaalan announced in a televised press conference. A court also dismissed charges against Ahmed al-Assiri, a former deputy intelligence chief, and Mohammed al-Otaibi, Saudi’s consul general in Istanbul when the murder took place. Al-Qahtani and al-Otaibi were sanctioned a year ago by the US Treasury for their alleged involvement in the murder. Both were part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s inner circle and were relieved of their duties in the immediate aftermath of Khashoggi’s killing.
The Saudi government investigation concluded that the murder was not premeditated and that the perpetrators agreed to kill the journalist when they found it would be too hard to move him to another location. They determined that “there was no prior intention to kill him at the beginning of the mission and the death happened on the spot.” Prosecutors investigated 31 people in relation to the murder of Khashoggi, 21 of whom were arrested. Eleven of the 21 were charged and tried in total secrecy.
UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard called the court rulings “anything but justice” in a series of posts on her official Twitter account. The UN expert previously found “sufficient credible evidence” that called for the Saudi Crown Prince to be investigated. Callamard criticized the court’s conclusion that the killing was not premeditated, citing “the presence of a forensic doctor,” how the “defendants had repeatedly stated they were obeying orders” and how the consul general “took all necessary precautions to ensure there will be no eye witness present. Bottom line: the hit-men are guilty, sentenced to death. The masterminds not only walk free. They have barely been touched by the investigation and the trial. That is the antithesis of Justice. It is a mockery.”
Khashoggi’s son eldest son Salah, who handles the family’s relations with the government, described the ruling as “fair” on Twitter. “A fair judiciary is based on 2 principles: justice and quick proceedings. Today’s judiciary was fair to us, the sons of Jamal Khashoggi. We affirm our confidence in Saudi judiciary on all its levels as it ruled in our favor and achieved justice.” Earlier this year, Salah denied that a settlement had been reached between his family and the Saudi government after a source claimed that Khashoggi’s family have received millions of US dollars in cash and assets as compensation for the killing.
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A Wisconsin teenager, Crystul Kizer, is facing life in prison after she confessed to killing
34-year-old Randall Volar at his home last year after she says he raped her, according to her attorneys. The killing incident occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee, in June 2018. Kizer allegedly shot Volar twice in the head, set his home on fire and then stole his luxury vehicle. Randy Volar began sexually abusing Chrystul Kizer when she was 16 years old, filmed the abuse and allegedly trafficked her for sex.
Kizer says she connected with Volar through the now-defunct Backpage.com, which was shut down last year for its involvement in human trafficking. Kizer reportedly told Volar she was 19 at the time, but she was actually 16 when he allegedly began paying her for sex and eventually selling her to other men. She admits to initially lying about her age but says Volar knew she was a minor because they had celebrated her 17th birthday together. The teen said she eventually tried to distance herself from Volar, because she wanted to get more serious with her boyfriend, Delane Nelson, who is three years older than her. Volar allegedly threatened to kill Kizer when she told Volar about her decision. Kizer didn’t report the threats to police, as she was convinced they would not help her. In June 2018, Kizer said she had reached out to Volar after getting into a fight with Nelson.
The teen claims she was afraid her boyfriend would hurt her, so she asked Volar if she could come to his house until things cooled down. Months before his death, in February 2018, Volar was arrested on charges of child sexual assault. He was taken into custody shortly after a 15-year-old girl called the police from his house, claiming Volar had given her drugs and was going to kill her. In a search of his home, they confiscated computers and other electronics, along with women’s bikini bottoms and underwear.
Although police found evidence Volar was abusing dozens of underage girls, he was released without bail. At the time of his death he was suspected of human trafficking and child pornography — and Chrystul Kizer was among the girls police had footage of him having sex with. In June 2018, Chrystul killed him after she says he attacked her when she refused to have sex with him. At the time of his death he was suspected of human trafficking and child pornography — and Chrystul Kizer was among the girls police had footage of him having sex with.
When confronted by police, Kizer, who was 17 at the time, allegedly confessed to killing him because she was tired of him sexually assaulting her. She also alleged that he sold her to other men for sex, which is why her attorneys say she should be protected under sex trafficking victim laws. Kizer faces multiple felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a firearm and arson, court records show. She is currently being held on $1 million bail and faces life in prison if convicted.
District Attorney Michael Graveley built a first-degree homicide case against her and wrangled with the public defenders about whether they had the right to review the case against Volar and the accompanying video, photographic, and financial evidence. Eventually Kizer’s lawyers were granted access to evidence that clearly showed Kizer had been trafficked. Federal law dictates that any child under the age of 18 who has been bought or sold for sex is a sex-trafficking victim, regardless of circumstance. Prosecutors say the law that protects those who are sex trafficked doesn’t apply wholly in this case. They said they do not believe she was engaged in prostitution at the time of the crime and they don’t believe her life was in danger at the moment. Prosecutors also said they have evidence, including communications with Kizer’s boyfriend and others, indicating that she plotted and planned the murder ahead of time
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Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and the board of his now-bankrupt company have reached a tentative $25 million settlement with the dozens of women who have accused him of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment. The deal would not require Weinstein to admit any wrongdoing, nor would Weinstein have to pay any of his own money to the dozens of actresses and female employees who have accused him of serial rape and sexual harassment.
The women who have brought civil suits against him would instead split a pool of money paid by insurance companies representing The Weinstein Company, which filed for bankruptcy in 2018, as a result of the scandal. Eighteen of Weinstein’s accusers would reportedly share $6.2 million, with none of the women receiving more than $500,000. Another $18.5 million would be split between accusers who are part of a class action lawsuit against Weinstein, the New York attorney general’s case, and future claimants.
The deal is far from complete since an official agreement must be drawn up and approved by a judge in federal court in Delaware, which is handling The Weinstein Company bankruptcy proceedings, and a judge in federal court in New York. Several accusers refused to go along with the agreement and could challenge it in court. Rebecca Goldman, Chief Operating Officer of the Time’s Up Foundation, said in a statement “This settlement is more than a math problem – it’s a symptom of a problematic, broken system that privileges powerful abusers at the expense of survivors. While this settlement is flawed, we know it represents the hard work of several survivors of Harvey Weinstein. We hope it brings them, and perhaps others, some small measure of justice and relief that is long overdue.”
Accusers who are not part of the settlement can still bring suits against him, including actress Ashley Judd. In January, a judge dismissed Judd’s sexual harassment claim against Weinstein, but stated she could continue with her defamation case against the disgraced producer. Weinstein is also facing criminal sexual assault charges in New York and is scheduled to go on trial for rape in Manhattan Supreme Court on January 6th. He has been charged with five counts of predatory sexual assault, criminal sex act and rape. He faces life in prison if convicted. Weinstein was accused of forcibly performing oral sex on a woman in 2006 and raping another woman in 2013. A judge recently increased Weinstein’s bail from $1 million to $5 million following allegations he had tampered with his electronic ankle monitor.
The disgraced Hollywood producer, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by more than 80 women, complained in an interview that the allegations have made him “a forgotten man.” While recovering from spinal surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Weinstein said “My work has been forgotten.”
Shortly after the interview was made public, the “Silence Breakers,” including actresses Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd and Rosanna Arquette, posted their response to the official Time’s Up Twitter account. The statement said “Harvey Weinstein is trying to gaslight society again. He says in a new interview he doesn’t want to be forgotten. Well, he won’t be. He will be remembered as a sexual predator and an unrepentant abuser who took everything and deserves nothing. He will be remembered by the collective will of countless women who stood up and said enough. We refuse to let this predator rewrite his legacy of abuse.”
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The University of Phoenix is paying a record $191 million to settle a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission accusing the for-profit university of using deceptive ads to lure students with the promise of future job opportunities with large companies such as AT&T, Adobe, Twitter, Microsoft and Yahoo. The settlement includes a plan to cancel $141 million in student debts that are owed to the school by people who enrolled from October 2012 through the end of 2016 – the period in which the FTC says prospective students might have been duped. The remaining $50 million in the settlement will be paid in cash, which the FTC says “will be used for consumer redress.”
Court documents show the settlement gives the University of Phoenix and its parent company, Apollo Education Group, 15 business days to send an email and letter to eligible students, informing them that they’re covered by the agreement. The letters inform eligible former students that they no longer owe any money to University of Phoenix and their account balance will be cleared within 45 business days. The letter also states that the school has 55 business days to tell credit reporting agencies to delete the debt from students’ credit reports.
The FTC says the university wrongly suggested that it worked closely with high-profile companies to develop its courses and the school’s “Let’s Get to Work” ad campaign was one example of how it hyped connections with potential employers that did not exist. The University of Phoenix successfully targeted minorities, military veterans, service members and their spouses for enrollment, the FTC says, calling the University of Phoenix “the largest recipient of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits since the program’s inception.” As part of the deal, the university did not admit or deny any wrongdoing alleged in the federal complaint.
Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said in a statement that it’s the largest settlement the FTC has obtained against a for-profit school. Smith added, “Students making important decisions about their education need the facts, not fantasy job opportunities that do not exist.” In response to the FTC settlement, the University of Phoenix issued a fact sheet touting both its achievements and its commitments to improve. In it, the school says it devoted 17% of its total spending in the 2018 fiscal year to marketing costs. The fact sheet concludes with a section titled “We Are Committed To Responsible Marketing.”
The settlement affects students who were enrolled between October 2012 and December 2016 but does not apply to those who owe money from federal and private loans. William Hubbard, a spokesman for Student Veterans of America, said the case “heavily underscores that questionable practices to aggressively recruit students are not acceptable,” but added the debt covered represented “a small piece of the pie.” “Ultimately private loans, those don’t fall under the debt cancellation rules,” he said. “If you’re a student that is paying for costs out of pocket, presumably through a private loan, you’re still on the hook for that.”
The FTC said in its statement that those who believe they have been defrauded can apply for loan forgiveness using the borrower defense to repayment procedures, and borrowers looking to lower monthly payments on their federal loans could obtain information from the Department of Education about income-driven repayment plans.
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On December 10, 2019, 6 people were left dead in what authorities are calling a hate crime at a Kosher store in Jersey City, NJ. A day later, the shooters, both of whom were killed by police during the siege, were identified as David N. Anderson, 47, and his girlfriend Francine Graham, 50. Anderson and Graham were suspects in the murder of an Uber driver in Bayonne the weekend prior to the attack. Authorities say Anderson had made posts on social media that were anti-police and anti-Semitic. They also reveal a prior connection with the Black Hebrew Israelites, a group which has no connection to mainstream Judaism but has been reported to be anti-Semitic.
The first victim was Police Detective Joseph Seals, 39, a 15-year law enforcement veteran and a father of five. Detective Seals was meeting an informant when he encountered the two shooters at the Bayview Cemetery. Authorities believe that he approached the suspects, who were in a stolen U-Haul van that was related to the murder of the Uber driver the previous weekend. Seals was shot and killed. The suspects then fled in the stolen van and drove about one mile to the grocery store and opened fire upon exiting the vehicle.
Once inside the store, they fatally shot the owner, a worker, and a customer. Two other customers were able to escape. In the ensuing shootout, the assailants exchanged gunfire with the police for over an hour until being shot and killed. A BearCat vehicle rammed through the storefront 4 hours after the incident began- ending the siege. Two officers, one male and one female, were wounded in the shootout and were released from the hospital the same day. A wounded man escaped out the back door of the store. He was also treated and released the same day.
The victims of the shooting were identified as Leah Minda Ferencz, 33, a member of the Hasidic community and a mother of three who co-owned the store with her husband; Moshe Deutsch, 24, a Hasidic male customer in the store and Miguel Douglas Rodriguez, 49, who worked in the Kosher grocery store but was not Jewish. Police say the suspects targeted the store in what they believe was a premeditated antisemitic hate crime. The stolen van the suspects were driving was later found to contain a live pipe bomb. Media outlets have reported that a handwritten note, which authorities call “manifesto-style’, was found inside the van. It said “I do this because my creator makes me do this and I hate who he hates.”
Authorities say Anderson had viewed anti-Semitic materials online, and published reports, linking him to the Black Hebrew Israelites movement, whose adherents believe African Americans are the true descendants of the ancient Israelites. Authorities say the extent of his involvement in that group remains unclear, the law enforcement official said. The Black Hebrew Israelites has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy group that tracks such movements.
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Four Rikers Island correctional officers were suspended for allegedly waiting several minutes to rescue an inmate who had tried to hang himself in a cell, authorities and law-enforcement sources said. Surveillance The video showed the officers stood by for seven minutes while a teenager attempted to hang himself. Video shows one officer even walked up to the holding pen where the teenager was hanging, opened the door, then closed the door and walked away without intervening. The city’s Department of Investigation opened an inquiry into the incident.
The guards — three correction officers and one captain — are accused of inaction during the near-fatal incident when Nicholas Feliciano, 18, allegedly attempted to hang himself at the George R. Vierno Center at about 12 a.m. on Nov. 28. The captain had witnessed the incident on surveillance footage and went to the inmate to cut him down, sources said. Feliciano was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition with no brain activity and remains in a medically induced coma. The 18-year-old had been jailed in Rikers since November 19th when he was arrested on a parole violation. Feliciano had been in an altercation at the jail earlier in the day of suicide attempt and had been moved from general population into a holding cell by himself.
Video footage of the suicide attempt described to the Times shows him wrap one end of a piece of clothing around his neck and another to a pipe on the ceiling of the cell. He then stepped off a wall that separates the toilet from the rest of the cell and hangs from his neck. At one point during the attempt, Feliciano appeared to have second thoughts and struggled to get his feet back on the wall. He hung from the pipe for about seven minutes before he was rescued. The area of the attempted suicide was in view of a guard desk where officers can monitor activity through video feeds. The actions of the officers were recorded by a separate camera.
Rikers Island has housed jail inmates since the 1930s and has long been known for brutality. The jail complex saw hundreds of stabbings every year during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 2014, an Associated Press investigation detailed dozens of inmate deaths including that of a homeless ex-Marine who essentially baked to death in a hot cell. In 2016, “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker reported that a lack of adequate training and a rising mentally ill population have made an already bad situation in the jail worse. New York City lawmakers voted in October to close the Rikers Island jail complex, which has become synonymous with violence and neglect, and replace it with four smaller jails in separate boroughs by 2026. The plan has been met with pushback from communities where the new jails would be located.
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Three Baltimore men who spent 36 years in prison were released after authorities say they were falsely convicted of a 1983 murder. Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart were granted a writ of innocence after being convicted of first-degree murder of a middle school student, DeWitt Duckett. According to police, Duckett, 14, was shot and killed for his coveted Georgetown University basketball jacket in November 1983.
Chestnut has maintained his innocence since his arrest and the parole board denied his early release in part because he refused to admit responsibility for the shooting, the state’s attorney said. After he filed an information request this past spring, he discovered new evidence that was kept from his attorneys during trial. He reached out to Baltimore’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which was reviewing old convictions.
Chestnut and Watkins were 16 at the time of their arrest and Stewart was 17. The three teenagers had been skipping high school classes to visit former teachers at Harlem Park Junior High. Their teachers said they were being “silly,” but not threatening. School security escorted them off campus about half an hour before the murder occurred, according to a joint petition filed by the men and Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
Watkins lawyer said the three teenagers were each arrested Thanksgiving morning, waking up with police with guns drawn on them. They were convicted based on witness testimony and what prosecutors at the time said was a crucial piece of evidence — a Georgetown jacket found in Chestnut’s bedroom. Chestnut’s jacket had no blood or gunshot residue and his mother was able to produce a receipt. A store clerk also testified that she had purchased it recently, the joint petition said.
Lawyers involved in the case said they were “horrified” to see the amount of exculpatory evidence that was hidden from the defense team and jury. Both the suspects and trial witnesses, all minors, were interrogated by police without their parents. Potential witnesses were interviewed in a group and told to “get their story together,” according to Chestnut’s lawyers. Anonymous calls identifying another shooter were kept from the defense, Mosby said. That teenager was seen after the shooting wearing what appeared to be Duckett’s jacket and confessing to the murder, she said. That suspect has since died and all trial witnesses have since recanted. “We have intentional concealment and misrepresentation of the exculpatory evidence, evidence that would have showed that it was someone else other than these defendants,” Mosby said.
Mosby apologized to the men “I don’t think that today is a victory, it’s a tragedy. And we need to own up to our responsibility for it,” Mosby said. “There’s no way we can repair the damage to these men, when 36 years of their life were stolen from them. You were all arrested on Thanksgiving 1983. Now you are free to spend the holidays with your loved ones for the first time in 36 years,” Mosby said in a press conference. The men are now in their early fifties preparing to enter adulthood on the outside for the first time and at least two have never driven a car before. Now, late in life, they will experience a world very different from the one they were barred from since their teens.
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An Arizona sheriff’s deputy has been placed on administrative leave after disturbing cellphone video footage surfaced showing the deputy tackling and pinning a 15-year-old quadruple amputee to the ground. The incident sparked an internal affairs investigation by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and a spokesman for the sheriff’s department said Deputy Manuel Van Santen was placed on leave pending the investigation.
The Sept. 26 incident started when the 15-year-old, who was in a group home after being abandoned by his family, allegedly knocked over a garbage can and verbally threatened a worker. Van Santen was called to the group home to restore order. In the video, Van Santen is seen holding the boy down for more than a minute as the teen struggles to break free. The deputy is shown in the video kneeling next to the amputee and putting the teen in a headlock. The teen can be heard becoming more upset, asking the deputy not to hold him down.
When Van Santen loosened his grip, the boy attempted to break free but did not get far before the deputy tackled him, wrapping his arms around the teen to subdue him. Eventually, the boy stops protesting and the officer lets him get up, asking him what his problem is, and why he kept moving when he was told not to move. As the 15-year-old insists he doesn’t have a problem and only threw a trash can, the deputy gets louder, bending over so that his face is inches away from the teenager’s as he yells and swears at him.
The teen recording says to the deputy, “Hey, you asked him a question, and he answered,” he tells the deputy. “Shut the hell up!” the deputy snaps back. He orders the teen out of the room and the boy responds that he can’t eat his cereal in his room. The deputy storms over, screaming at him to stay out of something that doesn’t involve him. “You shut the hell up!” he yells again. Both teens were arrested on disorderly conduct charges but Arizona prosecutors dropped disorderly conduct charges against the quadruple amputee.
Pima County public defender Joel Feinman said the incident likely would not have come to light if it had not been recorded by another teen living in the home since Van Santen was not wearing a body camera. It is not clear how long the incident lasted, as the 8 minute video began in the middle of the struggle. Feinman said the 16-year-old boy who recorded the incident had his head pushed into a wall by deputies during the incident. “These are kids who have already been traumatized in some way,” Feinman, whose office is representing both boys. “Men with badges should not be acting this way,” Feinman told the television station. “Men and women who do act this way should not have badges and guns.”
Feinman stated that given that Immanuel has no legs and is missing most of his arms — and wasn’t even wearing a shirt, making it unlikely that he could have somehow been hiding a concealed weapon –it is hard to fathom that he posed a threat to “this very large policeman with a badge and a gun.” Regardless of what the teenager said to the officer, he argues, the better response would have been to sit down and try to de-escalate the situation.
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