Latest news with #FederalProsecutors
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
R Kelly denied release from prison just days after overdose
Disgraced singer R Kelly has been denied release from prison just days after his lawyers claimed he overdosed as a result of a botched murder plot. The former R&B star's legal team filed a motion on June 17 to have him sent to home confinement rather than being behind bars due to the 'imminent' threat to his life. But Judge Martha Pacold ruled that there was 'no legal basis for this court's jurisdiction' and threw the request out. The artist's lawyers claimed last week that Kelly had suffered an overdose after prison guards deliberately gave him too much anxiety medication. They also claimed that the 58-year-old, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was forcibly removed from hospital despite doctors finding blood clots in his legs that required surgery. Federal prosecutors rejected these allegations at the time as 'deeply unserious' and said the latest motion made 'a mockery' of the abuse suffered by Kelly's victims. They added that 'every convicted murderer, rapist, and terrorist will have a newfound shot at freedom' if Kelly was to be released from prison. Despite this and the recent rejection to have Kelly sent to home confinement, his lawyer Beau Brindley said he and his legal team would file a new motion based on what he called 'newly discovered evidence.' Mr Brindley said the request would also call for immediate bail 'pending its litigation'. 'We are not surprised by this ruling as we knew that technical jurisdiction would be a challenge under these circumstances,' Mr Brindley told USA TODAY. 'However, we had no choice but to act immediately given explicit evidence of a threat to Robert Kelly's life.' The news organisation said as of June 19, Mr Brindley and his team had not yet filed the new motion. Kelly was allegedly put in solitary confinement 'against his will' in response to a separate filing from his attorneys which claimed three prison officials hatched a plot to have him killed by a white supremacist gang. His legal team cited a sworn declaration from terminally ill inmate named Mikeal Glenn Stine in which he alleged the prison officials asked him to carry out the singer's murder. Kelly requested he be placed on house arrest for his crimes - which included convictions for child pornography and enticing minors for sex. Prosecutors called the attempt to be freed from his sex crimes sentence 'repugnant'. Stine, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood gang, alleged that high-ranking officials in the prison system offered him the opportunity to escape from prison and live out his final months as a 'free man' before his terminal illness kills him. In the filing, it was further alleged that Stine was pressured to carry out the killing in March when he was transferred to Kelly's unit, and was told by staff: 'You need to do what you came here for.' Stine said he stalked Kelly for months as he considered the assassination plot, but changed his mind and told the singer about the plan to kill him, according to the filing cited by The Independent. The singer's attorneys say they became aware of a second plot in June to have a different member of the Aryan Brotherhood kill both Kelly and Stine. Kelly's attorneys have also requested a pardon from President Donald Trump, saying the singer, 'does not have the luxury to wait for vindication from the Courts that will follow the exposure of the corruption at the heart of his prosecutions.' The attorneys previously claimed they 'are engaged in conversations with multiple persons close to the White House and to President Trump'. Kelly was convicted in 2021 and 2022 for racketeering, sex trafficking, child pornography and enticement. A New York City federal court sentenced him to 30 years in prison in 2022 and he was sentenced to 20 years in jail in a Chicago federal court the year after. Evidence at trial in New York included testimony from more than 10 victims, as well as video and DNA evidence. In the Chicago trial it emerged that Kelly enticed multiple underage girls to engage in sexual activity which he recorded. Kelly met his victims in the late 1990s and engaged in sex acts with them when they were as young as 14, 15 and 16 years old before covering up the acts. The singer has been behind bars since July 2019, and is now at the prison that housed late Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. He will be 78 when eligible for release in 2045. MailOnline approached The Bureau of Prisons for comment.
New York Times
13-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Ex-New York Assembly Candidate Charged With Campaign Finance Fraud
A former New York State Assembly candidate used fake donations and forged signatures to fraudulently inflate the share of public matching funds he received in last year's election, federal prosecutors said on Friday. The former candidate, Dao Yin, was charged with wire fraud in a federal criminal complaint. He was scheduled to make his initial appearance before a magistrate judge in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday afternoon. The charging of Mr. Yin, a Democrat who ran for a State Assembly seat in Queens, came a year after The New York Times published an investigation that found he appeared to have listed dozens of fake donors to increase his allotment of money under a new state matching-funds program meant to increase the power of donors making small political contributions. Prosecutors said Mr. Yin, 62, had abused the system by using a scheme that The Times found yielded him $162,000 in matching funds. It was one of the largest sums received by an Assembly candidate last year, despite Mr. Yin's relatively unheralded status. He ultimately received just 6 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, in which he challenged Ronald Kim, an incumbent assemblyman. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn opened a criminal investigation focused on Mr. Yin in November. A lawyer for Mr. Yin could not immediately be reached for comment. Mr. Yin's campaign filings contained glaring red flags, The Times found. Half of the money he raised directly from individuals came in cash, the least traceable form of donation. It was a much higher proportion than the 5.2 percent average for all other Assembly candidates who participated in the matching program. Only nine of 300 contribution cards he turned in contained the required contact information for the donors, including phone numbers and email addresses. Even so, the state Public Campaign Finance Board granted him matching public funds, records show. Candidates must disclose certain information about their donors. But in Mr. Yin's case, the board permitted waivers via 'good-faith letters' that supposedly documented his efforts to obtain the missing information from donors. After The Times published its investigation into Mr. Yin, the Public Campaign Finance Board unanimously adopted an emergency resolution meant to tighten its rules and prevent future abuses. More than two dozen donors listed as contributors to Mr. Yin's campaign told The Times they had given money to it. Many expressed outrage that their names had been used. This is a developing story and will be updated. William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
Fox News
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Milwaukee judge not immune from charges after allegedly helping illegal immigrant evade ICE, prosecutors say
Federal prosecutors are pushing back against Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan's motion to dismiss an indictment filed against her for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the Milwaukee County Courthouse last month. Dugan, 65, was indicted last month on federal charges of obstruction of proceedings before a U.S. agency and unlawful concealment of an individual subject to arrest. Her attorneys say she is entitled to judicial immunity and that the federal government overstepped its authority by arresting and charging her, violating her 10th Amendment rights and the principle of separation of powers, according to court documents filed in late May. On Wednesday, prosecutors filed a response to her motion to dismiss, noting that "the Supreme Court has made clear that judges are not immune from criminal liability." "In the end, Dugan asks for this Court to develop a novel doctrine of judicial immunity from criminal prosecution, and to apply it to the facts alleged in the indictment, all without reasonable basis—directly or indirectly—in the Constitution, statutes, or case law," prosecutors wrote. "In her lengthy memorandum, Dugan concedes that '[j]udges, like legislators and executive officials, are not above the law,'" they said. "Dugan's desired ruling would, in essence, say that judges are 'above the law,' and uniquely entitled to interfere with federal law enforcement," prosecutors added. Federal prosecutors allege that the Milwaukee Circuit Court judge personally escorted Mexican illegal immigrant and domestic battery suspect Eduardo Flores-Ruiz out of the courthouse on April 18 while ICE agents were attempting to serve a warrant. The surveillance footage recently released by Milwaukee County in response to an open records request appears to show Dugan, wearing her black robe, confronting ICE agents in the courthouse hallway. Federal prosecutors say members of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), along with federal partners from the FBI, DEA, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were preparing to serve Flores-Ruiz with a warrant in a public courthouse hallway on April 18 before his scheduled court appearance with Dugan. WATCH THE SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE: After becoming aware of what federal officials described as a valid immigration arrest warrant for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan allegedly told agents that they needed a judicial warrant and told them to go to the chief judge's office. The agents then left their place in the hallway, at which point Dugan allegedly chose not to hold a hearing for Flores-Ruiz and "personally escorted" the suspect and his attorney through a private exit while the victims of his alleged crimes were in the courthouse at the time, the Justice Department said in a press release. While Dugan argues that ICE agents interrupted goings-on in the courthouse on April 18, prosecutors say it was Dugan who disrupted proceedings. "The evidence also will show that agents were not in the courtroom when Dugan took the bench, but that—after being told by a member of her staff that ICE agents were present in the hallway—Dugan chose to pause an unrelated case, leave her courtroom, disrupt proceedings in a colleague's courtroom to commandeer her assistance, and then confront agents in the public hallway," the filing says. Prosecutors say evidence also shows Dugan directing agents to the chief judge's office even while knowing he was out, then she "quickly returned to her courtroom and, among other things, directed [Florez-Ruiz's] attorney to 'take your client out and come back and get a date; and then to go through the jury door and down the stairs' before physically escorting [Flroes-Ruiz] and his attorney into a non-public hallway with access to a stairwell that led to a courthouse exit," filings say. Dugan "did this all just days after thanking a colleague for providing information which explained that ICE could lawfully make arrests in the courthouse hall," prosecutors stated Wednesday. "Put simply, nothing in the indictment or the anticipated evidence at trial supports Dugan's assertion that agents 'disrupted' the court's docket; instead, all events arose from Dugan's unilateral, non-judicial, and unofficial actions in obstructing a federal immigration matter over which she, as a Wisconsin state judge, had no authority," the document reads. "At the very least, for purposes of deciding this motion, Dugan's claims to the contrary find no support in the indictment and should be rejected." One of Dugan's defense attorneys, Dean Strang, told Fox News Digital that her counsel has a "good reply" to prosecutors' Wednesday filing, but her team is waiting until their reply brief, due next Monday, to make it. The Milwaukee judge has pleaded not guilty to charges filed against her, and a federal judge has set her trial date for July 21. A federal indictment accuses Dugan of "falsely" telling federal officials in April that they needed a warrant to come into her courtroom during a scheduled appearance by Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented Mexican national facing three misdemeanor battery charges. Video footage appears to show Flores-Ruiz exiting the courthouse with his attorney, while an ICE agent follows him, and then running alongside the building for about a block before agents capture and arrest him. Federal officials arrested Dugan a week after the courthouse incident. Dugan could face a maximum sentence of six years. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against her. Fox News Digital has reached out to her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, for comment on the footage. In April, Dugan's legal team also filed a motion to dismiss the federal case against her, saying the judge "is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts." "Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset," the motion said.
CBS News
06-06-2025
- CBS News
Michigan man reported fake bomb threat on Spirit Airlines after missing flight to Los Angeles, feds say
A Monroe, Michigan, man accused of calling in a fake bomb threat that halted a Spirit Airlines flight Thursday at the Detroit Metro Airport was taken into custody, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. John Charles Robinson, 23, is charged after federal authorities say he reported the threat when he missed his flight to Los Angeles and was told to rebook. Officials say Robinson, who was supposed to board Spirit flight 2145, called the airlines and said that "there's gonna be someone who's gonna try to blow up the airport," according to a news release. The call forced the plane to evacuate. Passengers were then transported to Evans Terminal. Investigators did not recover any explosive device. Federal prosecutors say Robinson returned to the airport to board another flight to Los Angeles and was subsequently arrested. He appeared in court on Friday and was released on bond. His next court hearing is scheduled for June 27. "Anyone who threatens to bomb an aircraft and endanger public safety will be swiftly investigated and brought to justice," said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. "The alleged bomb threat prompted a coordinated response by our FBI Detroit Joint Terrorism Task Force, in partnership with the Wayne County Airport Authority Police Department and the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service, leading to the arrest of John Robinson as he attempted to board another flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. We remain committed to protecting the public and confronting those who seek to spread fear in our communities."
Reuters
06-06-2025
- General
- Reuters
Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones
June 5 (Reuters) - A federal jury in Texas on Thursday acquitted the first migrant tried for entering one of the new military zones on the U.S.-Mexico border, marking a legal challenge to the Trump administration plan to raise penalties for illegal crossings. The trial of the 21-year-old Peruvian woman was a test of whether the federal government could levy extra charges against migrants who cross the border unlawfully into areas in Texas and New Mexico designated as restricted military areas. Adely Vanessa De La Cruz-Alvarez faced two charges for entering a Texas military zone and a charge for illegal entry into the United States after her May 12 arrest near Tornillo, about 30 miles east of El Paso, according to court documents. An El Paso jury on Thursday found the migrant guilty of illegal entry to the United States but not guilty of unlawfully entering military property. The judge in the case on Wednesday acquitted De La Cruz-Alvarez of a trespassing charge, ruling federal prosecutors produced no evidence the migrant saw any signs warning her that she was entering a Department of Defense restricted area. "There was zero testimony that Ms. De La Cruz (1) ever saw any such signage, (2) knew that the area was designated as any kind of a military zone, (3) had any intention, willfully or otherwise, to enter upon a military zone," Federal Magistrate Judge Laura Enriquez wrote in her ruling. Federal prosecutors argued they did not need to prove De La Cruz knew she was trespassing on military land to charge her for the act, only that she knew she was illegally entering the United States. Alvarez's lawyer Veronica Teresa Lerma did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The El Paso trial comes after federal magistrate judges in New Mexico, opens new tab and Texas dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of migrants on grounds they did not know they were on military land due to inadequate signage. The National Defense Areas were set up along 240 miles of the border in New Mexico and Texas starting in April. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said migrants caught in them could face combined penalties of up to ten years' imprisonment.
