Actor Michael Pitt arrested on sexual abuse charges

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
"Boardwalk Empire" actor Michael Pitt was arrested and indicted in Brooklyn on Friday on charges of sexual abuse, criminal sex act, assault and strangulation, according to court documents.
The actor pleaded not guilty and was released until his next court date in June.
Steve Buscemi on his role in the new satirical comedy 'The Death of Stalin'
The charges stem from alleged incidents that occurred in 2020 and 2021, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.
The indictment alleges Pitt sexually abused an unnamed individual in April 2020 "by means of forcible compulsion."
PHOTO: Michael Pitt seen at 'Day Of The Fight' Special Screening at DGA Theater Complex on December 06, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Eric Charbonneau/KCFEOLA PR via Getty Images)
In August 2020, the indictment claims he allegedly forced oral sex on an individual.
The indictment claims Pitt allegedly injured an individual with "a four by four" that same month.
In June 2021, the indictment claims Pitt allegedly assaulted an individual with a cinderblock.
In August 2021, the indictment claims he allegedly tried to strangle someone.
Individual identities are redacted in the indictment, so it is unclear if one or more persons is making allegations against Pitt.
In a statement to ABC News on Wednesday, Pitt's attorney James Goldman said, "Unfortunately, we live in a world where somebody like Mr. Pitt -- an accomplished professional who would never so much as contemplate these crimes -- can be arrested on the uncorroborated word of an unreliable individual. In reality, this baseless claim is suspiciously raised some four or five years after the alleged incident, from a time when the two parties were in a completely consensual relationship. We have already uncovered exonerating evidence and this case will be dismissed."
Pitt is best known for his role as Jimmy Darmody in the hit Atlantic City-based period crime drama "Boardwalk Empire."
Haley Joel Osment arrested at California ski resort for alleged public intoxication
In his role, Pitt starred opposite Steve Buscemi as an up-and-coming gangster in the underground crime world portrayed in the show.
Pitt, who also appeared in "Dawson's Creek" earlier in his career, has taken on several television roles since the end of "Boardwalk Empire," appearing in several episodes the NBC show "Hannibal." He's also starred in film roles such "The Dreamers" and "Last Days."
Actor Michael Pitt arrested on sexual abuse charges originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

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Miami Herald

an hour ago

• Miami Herald

Haiti's presidential council confirms use of mercenaries in anti-gang fight

The head of Haiti's presidential transition panel acknowledged for the first time the government's use of foreign contractors to help in the fight against armed gangs. But Fritz Alphonse Jean, in an interview he afforded a group of five local Haitian journalists on Friday, declined to provide details on the private security firm including how much Haiti's dysfunctional transitional government is paying for the service and the group's obligations under the contract. The presence of foreign mercenaries in Haiti's anti-gang fight and the lack of transparency around the players, most notably the former head of Blackwater, Erik Prince, and the rules of engagement, have been raising concerns both inside the country and in international circles since the group was first tied to the dropping of weaponized, explosive drones into gangs' strongholds by an equally opaque government task force. 'When there is a weakness, we look for other people to support the national police,' Jean said. 'The money that is being spent, the resources that are being poured in, are that of the population.' Last month, after the government's private security firm deal went public, the Port-au-Prince-based human rights group Fondasyon Je Klere/Eyes Wide Open Foundation demanded that authorities inform 'the population about the duration and amount of the contract' and the mercenaries' obligations to limit the collateral damage against innocent civilians. On Friday, while Jean assumed his and the government's role in seeking out international support 'to help the security forces move forward,' he would neither confirm nor deny reports that the government was paying $44 million. 'I cannot answer that question,' he told Radio Kiskeya's Marvel Dandin when he opened the questioning about the contract and reports that the government had employed Blackwater, the controversial private military contractor that was involved in a deadly civilian massacre in Iraq in 2007, in its gang fight. 'Blackwater hasn't existed for a long time, but there is someone who was with Blackwater whom they've seen in Haiti,' Jean said, declining to cite Prince's name or that of his new firm, which is overseeing the dropping of explosive drones by a Haitian government task force. 'What I can assure everyone is with this level of violence compounded by what they call transnational criminality .... it is simply not true that our security forces can confront these challenges alone.' Jean's interview comes at a pivotal time. More than year into its existence, the nine-member Presidential Transitional Council, which is tasked with governing the country and leading it back to democratic order, is consumed by infighting and dysfunction. Their public bickering and lack of cohesion is fueling frustrations and disappointment both inside and out of Haiti at a moment when any solution to the security crisis on the international front appears to be stalled. U.S. officials, outside of saying they cannot keep shouldering the cost of an international armed mission led by Kenya, have yet to say what their policy on Haiti will be and a U.N. Security Council, presented with a proposal by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres back in February, has yet to make a decision. Meanwhile, armed gangs continue to escalate their violence, leading to 1.3 million people now being displaced. Demanding government action after gangs recently took over their town, angry residents in the city of Mirebalais decided to plunge Port-au-Prince into blackout this week by dismantling a transmission tower at the main power plant in central Haiti. The sabotage of the Péligre hydroelectric plant, its second in weeks, is just one action in a list of crises that has Haiti on edge. Jean acknowledged the frustrations and said soon the people will see a scale up in the security response. He did not go into details, but several people close to the government have pointed to the increased use of weaponized drones. Such use has raised concerns both inside and out of the country about the legality of their use and the possible collateral damages. Already, armed gangs have tried to either create their own or purchase them. Three Haitians were recently arrested in the Dominican Republic and turned over to the Haitian police authorities after they were caught trying to purchase drones in the neighboring country, the Haitian police recently confirmed. Weeks earlier, the Miami Herald confirmed that a gang member had died at a hospital after he arrived with over 90% burns after he tried to create his own weaponized drones. Fate of Kenyan-led mission remains unknown Though Haitians only recently learned about the mercenaries' presence after armed gangs began confirming the use of weaponized, kamikaze drones against them, the Herald was informed in February about Prince's presence. He had an initial contract, a source said with the government but didn't sign a more extensive one until last month. State Department officials have said they have no involvement in the company's hiring, though sources with knowledge say given the aversion of U.S. officials in the past to the use of private security firms in the fight, they do not see how Prince's involvement in Haiti could have happened without an OK from Washington. Either way, Prince's arrival on the scene in Haiti coincides with both escalating violence by armed gangs that now control up to 90% of Port-au-Prince while extending to other regions, and ongoing uncertainty about the fate of the armed international security response being led by Kenya. None of the journalists during the hour-and-a-half interview later broadcast by Jean's team asked about the Multinational Security Support mission. Wednesday will mark a year since the first contingent of about 200 Kenyan police officers first arrived in Haiti, and according to Kenyan authorities are due to be rotated out. What is unclear is whether the Kenyan police will be replaced. At issue is the U.S.-built military base where the approximately 1,000 members of the MSS are housed, and whether Washington will continue funding its operations. The U.S. had a deadline of this month for informing the contractor whether they will extend operations until at least March of next year. Neither the State Department, Pentagon nor MSS has responded to Herald inquiries about whether the payment, reportedly $200 million for six months, was made. 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The report cited at least 15 foreign trips by council members and government officials. In addition to noting the unresolved bank bribery corruption scandal involving three of the council's members, who continue to assert their innocence, the human rights report said there have been at least 13 massacres and armed attacks recorded in Haiti since the council was installed on April 25, 2024. 'The human and material losses recorded during these episodes of violence are immense,' the report said, noting that 4,405 people were murdered between April 2024 and March 2025 including 805 people the first three months of this year. The reporting period also saw at least 3,792 women and girls who were victims of sexual and gender-based violence, according to the combined data from the National Human Rights Defense Network and the feminine organizations, Nègès Mawon and the Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn, SOFA; and the deaths of 31 Haiti National Police officers, eight soldiers from the Haitian Armed Forces, and two agents of the Multinational Security Support Mission. The period also saw the deaths of two journalists after armed gangs opened on them ahead of a government press conference, and multiple attacks against media companies. Jean didn't address the report directly, but said reports about members' privileges were a manipulation of figures. 'Since we are in a political campaign, they are utilizing this file as, what the Americans call, a 'smear campaign,' ' he said, without providing precision on the actual figures each of the nine presidential-counters are drawing. He also dismissed assertions that since the council has come into power, more territories have been lost to gangs. When challenged by Frantz Duval, the editor of the Nouvelliste, on his assessment that there was no political will to combat gangs before November, he doubled down despite his reading contradicting that of others, including foreign diplomats. They have repeatedly credited Haiti's national police force with preventing Port-au-Prince and the government from collapsing in March of 2024 when the country's most powerful gangs joined forces under the Viv Ansanm banner and carried out coordinated attacks across the capital in order to bring down the government. 'Everyone has to admit there are serious operations that the police is carrying out,' he said. 'They are fighting in Mirebalais, they are fighting in Kenscoff, they are in Delmas 30.'

Chicago Tribune

2 hours ago

• Chicago Tribune

Review: Giancarlo Guerrero steps into new Grant Park Music Fest role with a pair of genial and dynamic programs

Talk about a perfect storm. On Wednesday, Giancarlo Guerrero's much-fêted debut as principal conductor and artistic director of the Grant Park Music Festival was dampened by relentless rain. Audiences scrunched under the Jay Pritzker Pavilion fringe, only to play musical chairs dodging the structure's many (and ever-changing) leaky spots. When they weren't doing that, seat shuffles and squabbles competed with the evening's violin concerto. But if Guerrero appeared unflappable onstage, it's because he's been there before. He made his sophomore appearance with the orchestra in 2014 under nearly identical circumstances, down to the solo string showcase and contemporary American opener. Despite the lousy weather, that appearance impressed festival musicians enough to fast-track Guerrero to the top of their director wishlist a decade later. While last week's storm never erupted into thunder, musical lightning struck twice here with yet another exuberant, water-resistant stand by Guerrero on Wednesday, followed by a masterful account of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 on Friday. Wednesday's concert included two harbor works: 'An American Port of Call,' by Virginia-based composer Adolphus Hailstork, and Leonard Bernstein's 'On the Waterfront' suite. Conducting with his pointer fingers rather than a baton, and sporting a new goatee, Guerrero led a sparky, whistle-clean run of Hailstork's eight-minute curtain raiser. But when the music dissipated into quietude — recalling a boat drifting far off from shore, surrounded only by blue horizon — Guerrero guided the music with expansive ease. Bernstein's 'Waterfront' benefited from the same balance of gusto and intuitive pacing. Patrick Walle's horn solo up top sounded suspended in time, before an increasingly feral orchestra jerked us back to street level. Amid the ferocity, the Grant Parkers always sounded whetted and clean, moving through the works' shifting meters with fearsome precision. In the final windup to the end, electric energy gave way to ringing, Mussorgskyan grandeur. Between the Hailstork and Bernstein, Jeremy Black returned to the festival as both concertmaster and featured soloist, offering up the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Even the brunt of the evening's downpour couldn't wash away the strong impression left by this filigree, soulful performance. Black's sound in the opening theme and balladic second movement was sugared but never treacly. Meanwhile, the Allegro molto vivace coasted along serenely, Black's bel canto phrasing and pristine intonation never betraying its finger-flying briskness. Promisingly, Guerrero's orchestral accompaniment was every bit as tasteful. Negotiating solo string balance in the park is always just that — a negotiation — but Guerrero hit the sweet spot of clarity and restraint. The orchestra was able to be a bit more gutsy under Friday's soloist, Pacho Flores. The Venezuelan trumpeter has a sparkling sound, which he dispatched with doting attention to phrase and line in Arturo Márquez's lively, if unseasonal, 'Concierto de Otoño' ('Autumn Concerto'). The work was specifically composed for Flores in 2018, taking unabashed advantage of not just the trumpeter's lyricism but his gatling-gun articulation, unflappable stamina and chameleon flexibility. (He traded four different horns across the 20-minute piece: C and D trumpets in the outer movements, then a flugelhorn and soprano cornet in the middle.) Flores also knows how to work a crowd. Rather than shooting to the stratosphere in his third-movement cadenza, he crawled to the bottom of his range — an amusing subversion of trumpet tropes. He then turned his bell directly at Guerrero and playfully pppththhed at him through his horn, prompting a teasing 'what gives?' shrug from the conductor. That said, it's hard to endorse Márquez's concerto beyond a mere virtuoso vehicle. The orchestral backing is often trite, cycling through the same progressions for what feels like minutes at a time. If the concerto's many flavors of theme-and-variation were engrossing at all, it was entirely thanks to Friday's soloist and orchestra, both playing with tempera-rich color and joie d'vivre. For pops-adjacent music under a more skillful hand, look to Flores himself. He opened and closed his appearance with two self-penned numbers: 'Morocota' (named for a $20 Venezuelan coin) and 'Lábios Vermelhos' ('Red Lips'). Originally recording both with guitar accompaniment for a 2017 Deutsche Grammophon release, Flores sang through his horn with a suave melodiousness that would have done the Rat Pack proud, with just a shimmer of vibrato where it counted. His lush orchestral arrangements would have been right at home in that milieu, too. At one point in 'Lábios Vermelhos,' section trumpets got in on the fun, with a sneering little interjection. Yet another short, Latin-inspired curtain raiser opened the concert: 'Baião n' Blues,' by Chicago composer Clarice Assad. A staple of the Carlos Kalmar years, Assad's inclusion in Guerrero's opening week bodes well for the new festival chief's attention to local composers. Ultimately, though, this performance had some of the same early-season jitters as last week's opener, with a scraggly opening and subdivision disagreement among the violins. 'Baião n' Blues' already isn't Assad's most compellingly structured piece, but a more honed performance might have made a better case. While Mahler sought to depict the world's natural beauty and bizarre juxtapositions in his music, he perhaps didn't anticipate contending with throbbing helicopters, the squeal of a coach's whistle, and hot rods sputtering down Lake Shore Drive on Friday. The Grant Park corps rose above the usual downtown backing track with a fresh, focused Mahler 1. Guerrero cued the unearthly, whistling first bars with an ambiguous gesture that invited the orchestra to melt in freely. Offstage trumpets were piped through the crown of the pavilion stage, sounding mysteriously heaven-sent. When the theme arrived in the cellos, Guerrero maintained their levity and grace throughout the movement — and, in fact, throughout much of the piece, bringing an aerodynamic lightness even to the symphony's final cadence. Because Grant Park 'does things a little differently,' per Guerrero, Friday's performance reinserted Mahler's discarded 'Blumine' movement. Through a complex change of hands, the only surviving manuscript copy of 'Blumine' ended up in in New Haven, Connecticut, where it was rediscovered as part of the Mahler renaissance of the 1960s. If 'Blumine' is heard at all, it's usually as a standalone piece, for good reason: It's arresting but nearly always out-of-place amid the lustiness of the rest of the symphony. Friday's performance gave the same impression — gauzy and subtle, but stopping short of the richness and emotional abandon that would make a better case for its inclusion. Elsewhere, other idiosyncratic touches intrigued and often convinced: more perky staccatos by oboist Alex Liedtke, orchestral accents like bitter twists of a knife in the funeral march, and a slower reading of the klezmer-band interludes. In all, it endorsed Guerrero's warhorse chops as enthusiastically as his new-music acumen. Rain or shine, Grant Park is looking like a fair place to be under his baton.

CNBC

2 hours ago

• CNBC

Walmart to pay $10 million to settle lawsuit over money transfer fraud

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