New York
Fashion creators sue Hailey Bieber over her new brand’s name
NEW YORK (AP) — Two former college roommates who created a successful clothing line under the “Rhode” trademark sued model Hailey Bieber on Tuesday, saying she’s creating market confusion by marketing a skin care line under the Rhode name.
The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court asked a judge to cite trademark infringement and block Bieber from selling or marketing any products with the Rhode name. It also sought unspecified damages.
The lawsuit said court intervention was necessary because Hailey Bieber is a celebrity with over 45 million Instagram followers who launched her skin care line last week and has filed trademark applications to sell clothing.
Hailey Bieber is married to singer Justin Bieber, and the lawsuit said her husband has promoted her business to his 243 million Instagram followers, generating 1.5 million likes with one posting. Her lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the lawsuit, Purna Khatau and Phoebe Vickers are seeking to protect the business they began in 2014 when they quit their day jobs to create a high-end clothing and accessories line, targeting “feminine, confident and well-traveled women.”
Since then, it said, their products have been featured in Vogue, carried in stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus worldwide and worn by celebrities including Beyonce, Mindy Kaling and Rihanna. Sales are projected to hit $14.5 million this year, the lawsuit said.
On the day her product was launched, Hailey Bieber said in a Forbes story that she’s had a “really hard time” with “a world of media that likes to perpetuate women against women,” the lawsuit said.
“But the reality is that the “world of media” Ms. Bieber describes is at her disposal. And she has chosen to use it to squash a woman and minority co-founded brand that simply cannot compete with her immense fame and following,” the lawsuit said.
When her product line was launched June 15, Hailey Bieber appeared on “Good Morning America” on ABC and “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon on NBC, the lawsuit noted.
The lawsuit said confusion and harm to the brand started by Khatau and Vickers is already widespread and it has only taken days for some consumers to believe that the 8-year-old company is trading off the name of the new competitor instead of the reverse.
North Carolina
Man pleads guilty in fatal kidnapping
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man described by law enforcement as a serial killer linked to the deaths and disappearances of at least four women pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping resulting in death.
Daniel Printz, 59, of Bostic was sentenced to life in prison without parole in return for his cooperation in helping law enforcement solve various kidnappings and killings with which he has been associated, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Printz pleaded guilty to kidnapping resulting in the death of Edna Suttles, 80, who disappeared from her Travelers Rest, South Carolina, home in late August 2021. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Holloway told the court that Printz sedated Suttles and then drove her back to North Carolina, where he killed her and buried her on a friend’s property.
Evidence showed Printz used a plastic bag to suffocate her, according a criminal complaint. In May, the FBI recovered Suttles’ remains in a wooded area in Rutherfordton, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Charlotte.
Printz accepted responsibility for the deaths or disappearances of three other women, including a mother and daughter, according to the plea agreement. Prosecutors said he has a prior conviction for kidnapping in Michigan and is a suspect in disappearances involving elderly women, according to court records.
Because of the number of his victims, federal prosecutors could have sought the death penalty against Printz but instead made the plea agreement.
Printz entered his guilty plea in federal court in Spartanburg. His crimes became a federal case because he transported Suttles’ body across state lines into North Carolina.
Ohio
Judge allows man to testify against his brother in killing of family
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man who has admitted to killing five members from a single family will be allowed to testify at the death penalty trial of his brother, who is charged in the same crime, according to a judge’s ruling Tuesday.
George Wagner IV, his parents and his brother, Jake Wagner, were charged in the 2016 fatal shootings of the Rhoden family near Piketon in southern Ohio. Authorities say the shootings of seven adults and a teenage boy stemmed from a dispute over custody of a child that Jake Wagner had with one of the victims.
Jake Wagner pleaded guilty last year in the shootings, admitting to killing five of the victims as part of a plea deal with prosecutors that spared him from being sentenced to death. Wagner’s mother, Angela Wagner, also pleaded guilty to helping plan the slayings.
John Parker, a lawyer representing George Wagner, argued Tuesday that the deal Jake Wagner struck with prosecutors limits his ability to conduct a thorough cross examination. Parker has said that Jake Wagner told prosecutors that his brother didn’t shoot anyone.
Jake Wagner isn’t in a position to testify truthfully because he faces the death penalty if he doesn’t strictly obey the terms of his plea deal, Parker said. “Our right to confrontation is more or less meaningless because he’s got a script he has to follow,” he said.
Special prosecutor Andrew Wilson argued that there’s nothing unusual about Jake Wagner’s plea deal, and added that his testimony will be bolstered by other evidence implicating George Wagner.
Pike County Judge Randy Deering, without comment, denied Parker’s request to keep Jake Wagner and his mother from testifying. Deering also denied a request from George Wagner’s attorneys to drop charges that involve crimes committed outside Pike County.
Special prosecutor Angela Canepa argued that the defendants were in and out of Pike and Scioto counties the night of the crimes and the killings were part of a single course of conduct.
Jake and George’s father, George “Billy” Wagner III, has pleaded not guilty.
California
Man gets 20 years for taking teen on interstate road trip
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A convicted sex offender has been sentenced in California to 20 years in prison for taking a 15-year-old girl on a three-month interstate road trip during which he gave the teen meth and had an unlawful sexual relationship with her, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Kenneth Wayne Fischer pleaded guilty in May 2020 to multiple charges including transportation of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter also ordered the 46-year-old to be placed on lifetime supervised release after he gets out of prison.
Fischer, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, met the victim in 2015 and took her through various states. He was arrested after a traffic stop in Fountain Valley, California, and police found sexually explicit images of the young victim on his cellphone, prosecutors said.
During the road trip, Fischer committed bank robberies in Kansas and Arkansas, according to prosecutors. He was convicted of the robberies and Judge Carter on Tuesday ordered Fisher’s 20-year prison sentence to run consecutive to his bank robbery sentence.
In February 2000, Fisher was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of sexual abuse in the second degree, requiring him to register as a sex offender, officials said.
Illinois
Ex-state senator sentenced to year in prison for embezzlement
CHICAGO (AP) — A former Illinois state senator was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in prison for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Teamsters union for a no-show job.
Thomas Cullerton, a Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Villa Park, was sentenced on a federal embezzlement charge for fraudulently receiving salary and benefits from the union, according to the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Cullerton, 52, pleaded guilty in March, two weeks after he abruptly resigned from the Legislature. He admitted that he improperly took more than $240,000 from the Teamsters.
He agreed to pay $248,828 in restitution.
Prosecutors allege that from 2013 to 2016, he collected $169,488 in salary, bonuses and allowances from the Teamsters, $57,662 in health and pension contributions and $21,678 in reimbursed medical bills while doing little or no work for the labor union.
Cullerton admitted that he used the embezzled money to pay personal expenses, such as his mortgage, utilities and groceries, prosecutors said Tuesday in a news release.
He resigned on Feb. 23, hours before his attorney notified a judge that they had reached a plea deal with prosecutors.
Cullerton was indicted in 2019 just days after former Teamsters boss John T. Coli pleaded guilty in an extortion case. Coli, who has not been sentenced, acknowledged arranging the job for Cullerton despite doubts that “the employment was legitimate.”
Cullerton is part of a Chicago political family that dates to the Great Fire of 1871. He is also a distant cousin of former Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat.
California
U.S. prosecutors will likely drop other charges for Avenatti
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say they expect to drop additional charges against incarcerated lawyer Michael Avenatti after he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud for swindling his clients out of settlement funds they were due.
In a court filing Tuesday, the U.S. attorney’s office said it “expects to move to dismiss the remaining counts of the Indictment after sentence is imposed.”
The move comes days after Avenatti entered guilty pleas in federal court to four counts of wire fraud and a tax-related charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced on those charges on Sept. 19.
Avenatti was indicted in 2019 on 36 counts, including bank and bankruptcy fraud. Prosecutors said Tuesday they aren’t planning to try Avenatti on six of the remaining charges and asked the court to delay trial on 25 other charges until next year.
Authorities said the 51-year-old lawyer — who is suspended from practicing law in California — cheated clients by negotiating and collecting settlement payments on their behalf and funneling the money to accounts he controlled. They said he owes his clients $9 million in restitution, but Avenatti said he disagrees with the estimate and the amount is much lower.
Avenatti is currently serving five years in prison for convictions in two cases in New York. He was convicted of stealing book proceeds from Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who catapulted Avenatti to fame as he represented her during her legal battles with then-President Donald Trump. He also was convicted of trying to extort Nike if the shoemaker didn’t pay him up to $25 million.
