A three-judge panel appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents agreed Thursday that former Trump administration DOJ official Jeffrey Clark cannot remove his Georgia RICO prosecution to federal court, just as the appellate court ruled in the case of Mark Meadows. This time, one of the 11th Circuit judges noted in a concurrence that the removal statute is “not a get-out-of-state-court-free card.” The relatively brief per curiam ruling from Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant, a Donald Trump appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum, a Barack Obama appointee, has affirmed and...
‘Don’t go back to the hotel’: Mom intentionally drops 17-month-old daughter from 3rd-story balcony, leaves girl to die on street, cops say
A mother is accused of murder after she dropped her 17-month-old daughter from the third story of a Texas hotel. Galveston police Chief Doug Balli told reporters that his officers responded to an abandoned toddler call around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday near the Beachfront Palms Hotel. When they arrived they found the girl, later identified as Hannah Yonko, wrapped in a blanket and clinging to life after suffering from trauma from a fall, as well as three puncture wounds on her back, a probable cause arrest affidavit said. Paramedics rushed her to a hospital trauma center, but doctors were unable to...
Trump promises to immediately fire ‘scoundrel’ Jack Smith if elected, isn’t worried by potential third impeachment, and again praises ‘brilliant’ Mar-a-Lago judge
If former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, he’ll fire special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” and doesn’t think he’ll be impeached for a third time if he does so. That’s what Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday morning when asked if he’d pardon himself or can Smith to make his Mar-a-Lago and Jan. 6 federal prosecutions go away for good, according to a transcript. During the interview, Trump riffed on several legal issues, mostly his, but he also took the time to say he wouldn’t pardon fellow convicted felon Hunter Biden, bashed his 2020...
‘Surprised’ Florida AG sues Merrick Garland to ‘vindicate’ state’s ‘sovereign interest’ in investigating attempted Trump assassination suspect while federal case is ongoing
After Florida’s attorney general told the federal government in a letter last month that she was “surprised” by a move to sideline a state probe of the latest suspected attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Sunshine State has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to “vindicate” its “sovereign interest” in separately investigating Ryan Routh as ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The lawsuit, filed by AG Ashley Moody (R) in Fort Pierce but this time not assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, claims that the feds are violating the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution...
Superintendent hit with child abuse charges after allegedly fighting with student over cowboy hat
A Nebraska school superintendent is facing felony charges over forcing a student to remove a cowboy hat and then holding the student down. Mark Bejot, who has served as superintendent of Maywood Public Schools since 2020, is charged with intentional child abuse for an alleged fight with a 12-year-old student over a cowboy hat. Earlier this month, the Frontier County Sheriff’s Office investigated a reported confrontation between Bejot and the student on Oct. 1, 2024 in the Maywood Schools Commons Area. According to the Frontier County Sheriff’s Office, Bejot, 64, told the student to remove the hat, because wearing it...
Hells Angels member who allegedly ‘walked through’ and mopped up blood of victim in vicious beating pleads guilty to weapons charges
A member of the Hells Angels in California accused in a bloody clubhouse beating of two subordinates for breaking the gang’s rules has pleaded guilty to federal ammunition possession charges. Kenneth Caspers Jr., 57, entered his plea on Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Sacramento, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. He and other members of the gang beat two subordinates in October 2021 for breaking Hells Angels’ rules, authorities said. While executing a search warrant that December at Caspers’ home, authorities found several firearms and ammunition, including 18 rounds of .22 caliber, .25 caliber, and .38...
Dad charged after toddler dies covered in feces with injuries indicating a 2-story fall
A 34-year-old father in Massachusetts is facing multiple felony charges for allegedly killing his 4-year-old daughter, beating her to death so badly that medical experts said the damage to her skull appeared to have come from a two-story fall. Francisco Ortiz was taken into custody last week and charged with assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, permitting substantial injury to a child, assault and battery, two counts of permitting injury to a child, and reckless endangerment of a child, records show. According to a probable cause affidavit, officers with the Worcester Police Department at about 4:30 p.m....
‘A bridge too far’: After CNN adds Amber Heard lawyer, judge rules in favor of Navy veteran as major defamation case careens towards trial on Jan. 6
A Navy veteran suing CNN for defamation, alleging that a 2021 segment aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper” falsely painted him as an “illegal profiteer” exploiting “desperate Afghans” with “exorbitant” extraction fees amid the fallout of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, persuaded a Florida judge on Monday that he “did not act criminally or illegally,” a partial summary judgment ruling on a couple of issues in the plaintiff’s favor ahead of a trial currently set to begin on Jan. 6. Zachary Young, a U.S. citizen who lives in Austria and is the president of Florida-based corporation Nemex Enterprises,...
‘Butchered by my sister under his advisement’: Sibling of alleged spell-casting woman charged with mother’s murder says her brother is the mastermind
A high-profile and highly macabre murder case out of Kentucky has undergone a crease in the narrative after the filing — and granting — of a protective order that sheds new light on a troubled family. Torilena Fields, 32, allegedly killed and dismembered her mother — strewing pieces of flesh and hair about the yard and even cooking some in a steel pot, law enforcement in the Bluegrass State allege. The defendant stands accused of one count each of murder, obstructing governmental operations, tampering with physical evidence, torturing a dog with death, and abuse of corpse, according to a Robertson...
Dad left comatose after cops shocked him with Taser in water, watched him scream and didn’t get help: Lawsuit
A California police officer repeatedly used a Taser on an unarmed man who was standing in 50-degree water, watched the man beg for help as his lungs filled up, and only called paramedics after the man became unresponsive, according to a civil rights lawsuit. The civil rights lawsuit alleges that Deontae Faison, 35, who is Black, was the victim of police excessive force while at a park in Northern California with a friend on April 5. He has been in a coma since the incident. “The level of disregard and callousness the officers showed as they comfortably stood by and watched...