Texas
Man accused of using drone to smuggle contraband into prison
BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — A Houston man was indicted on charges accusing him of trying to use a heavy-duty drone to drop a bag of forbidden items to inmates at a federal prison in Texas, authorities announced Tuesday.
Federal officials unsealed an indictment charging Davien Philip Turner with two counts of unlawfully flying an aircraft. Each count is punishable by up to three years in prison.
At a news conference in Beaumont, U.S. Attorney Britt Featherston said there was no evidence that Turner succeeded in delivering contraband with his drone, but there have been cases of such items being dropped from drones into the federal prison complex south of Beaumont.
Photos displayed during the news conference showed Turner is accused of trying to deliver wire cutters and other tools, as well as money, cellphones, cellphone charges, and bulk amounts of tobacco.
This is the third federal case involving smuggling attempts by drones to be charged in the United States, and the first in Texas, Featherston said.
“Around the country, drones use in smuggling into prisons has been on the rise,” Featherston said.
A multi-agency investigation of the use of drones to deliver contraband to prisons continues, he said.
The Biden administration has called on Congress to expand authority for federal and local governments to take action to counter these and other nefarious uses of drones, which are a growing security concern and nuisance.
Turner was to remain jailed without bond pending a Thursday detention hearing, according to court records. A message left for Turner’s federal public defender was not immediately returned.
Violence at the Beaumont prison, including a Jan. 31 gang fight that left two inmates dead and two others injured, led to a nationwide lockdown of federal prisons. Seven inmates who are members of the MS-13 gang were charged with attacking and killing members of the Mexican Mafia and its affiliate, the Sureños, prosecutors said.
Before that, security measures at the minimum- and medium-security section of the complex had become so lax that local law enforcement officials privately joked about its seemingly “open-door policy.” An inspector general’s report prompted officials to build a fence around the prison, repair broken door alarms, add and upgrade video cameras, and install additional lights.
Indiana
Feds charge ex-officer over three violent arrests
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a former eastern Indiana police officer with civil rights violations, alleging that he used excessive force during three arrests, including by kicking a man in the head and shooting another with beanbags from close range.
The U.S. Attorney’s office announced Friday that former New Castle police officer Aaron J. Strong has been indicted on three counts of “deprivation (of civil rights) under color of law” and a single count of witness tampering.
According to the charging documents, Strong, 44, kicked a man “in and about the head” during an arrest on July 12, 2017, The (Muncie) Star Press reported. On the same day, he used a beanbag shotgun to shoot another man “at close range” in the back during an arrest, prosecutors allege.
The federal grand jury that indicted Strong found that both of those incidents took place “without legal justification” and resulted in injuries to both men.
The third incident Strong was indicted for stemmed from a 2019 arrest in which he allegedly used an expandable baton to repeatedly strike a man who had reportedly already surrendered. That man later filed a federal lawsuit accusing Strong of hitting him more than 20 times with the baton, resulting in injuries to his “head, jaw, arms and back.”
The 2019 encounter also led to Strong’s conviction, in March 2020, on a misdemeanor count of criminal recklessness.
Strong’s attorney, Guy Relford, declined to comment about the case.
Strong was a lieutenant in the New Castle Police Department when he resigned in December 2019.
Massachusetts
U.S. man gets prison for exploiting child from Philippines
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man previously convicted of indecently assaulting a child has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for inducing a minor in the Philippines into sharing sexually explicit photos, federal prosecutors said.
Charles Fox, 47, of Greenfield, was also sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Springfield to 10 years of probation.
“Mr. Fox exploited a helpless child on the other side of the world, robbing them of their innocence,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement. “He engaged in this repugnant behavior while he was a registered sex offender.”
Fox used Facebook Messenger to communicate with the minor and to receive pornographic images, prosecutors said. In exchange, Fox wired money to the Philippines.
Fox is a registered sex offender for a 2010 conviction of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years of age, prosecutors said.
He pleaded guilty in November to two counts of receipt of child pornography.
Indiana
Man accused of dismembering girlfriend’s body
FOWLER, Ind. (AP) — A western Indiana man is accused of dismembering his girlfriend with a chain saw and putting her remains in trash bags after she died while they were smoking methamphetamine.
Edward A. Bagwell, 60, was charged July 8 with abuse of a corpse and failure to report human remains. He’s being held at the Benton County Jail on a $300,000 bond.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by prosecutors, Bagwell told Indiana State Police detectives that he and Rita Spigner smoked methamphetamine and then she began acting erratically and scratching at his leg. He said he slapped Spigner in the head to get her to stop, but she fell and began convulsing and he later found her dead, court records state.
Prosecutors believe she died July 1.
Bagwell told officers he used his electric chain saw to cut off Spigner’s legs and placed them in one trash bag, and her torso in another, according to the affidavit.
Bagwell told a friend what he had done, and that friend called the police, according to the affidavit. Benton County deputies arrived at Bagwell’s home in Ambia, a small town just east of the Illinois border, on July 3 and found Spigner’s bagged remains.
The (Lafayette) Journal & Courier reports that an autopsy showed Spigner died from heart troubles.
Online court records do not list an attorney who can speak on behalf of Bagwell.
West Bloomfield
Man sent to prison for trying to kidnap Michigan woman
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A Massachusetts man was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison Tuesday for driving his Mercedes-Benz to Michigan to try to kidnap a former girlfriend whom he hadn’t seen in roughly 20 years.
Police found handcuffs in a Louis Vuitton bag, brass knuckles, zip ties, a stun gun, duct tape and more when they stopped Damon Burke in suburban Detroit in 2021.
“Burke committed an offense so serious, and with a fact pattern so bizarre and frightening, that it sounds more like a movie than real life,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Rawsthorne said in a court filing.
Burke, 49, was arrested soon after assaulting his former girlfriend’s roommate at a golf course and stealing the man’s house key.
Burke in March pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping. He is from Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, on Martha’s Vineyard.
Defense attorney Richard O’Neill said Burke was a personal trainer and soccer coach before his arrest.
“He would not have been able to hold those positions if the community did not have trust in him and further indicate that his actions here were out of character,” O’Neill said.
Burke will serve a separate prison sentence for the assault at the same time as the federal sentence.
California
Suspect charged in assault of Olympic volleyball player
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man with a criminal history was charged Tuesday with assaulting a former Olympic volleyball player last week in downtown Los Angeles, prosecutors said.
Kim Glass, a silver medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, said she suffered multiple facial bone fractures when someone hurled a metal object — possibly a pipe — at her last Friday.
Bystanders restrained the man — identified by police as Semeon Tesfamariam — until officers arrived to take him into custody. He was held without bail.
Tesfamariam, 51, faces a felony count of assault with a deadly weapon that includes allegations of being previously convicted of a violent felony, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Glass been leaving a lunch when she saw a man run up with something in his hand and throw it at her head, the athlete said in videos posted to social media.
“He just like looked at me with some pretty hateful eyes,” she said in videos posted to Instagram. “It happened so fast, he literally flung it from the street, he was not even close to me at all.”
Glass, a Los Angeles native, posted videos showing her injuries to her eye, nose and cheek. She said she believes her vision will be OK and thanked a doctor for giving her stitches near one of her eyebrows.
The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to an email asking if Tesfamariam has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Tesfamariam had arrests for felony assaults in 2018 and in 2019, the district attorney’s office said. He was initially sentenced to a probationary sentence and later received a state prison term and was on parole at the time of this latest alleged offense, the statement said.
His arraignment had been scheduled for Tuesday, but doubts were raised in court regarding Tesfamariam’s competency to stand trial, the district attorney’s statement said. He was scheduled to appear at an Aug. 17 court hearing.
Massachusetts
Man who tried to kill police gets lengthy prison sentence
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — A Rhode Island man who engaged in a gunfight with police officers responding to reports of an armed man inside a Massachusetts church has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Eric Lindsey, 45, of Coventry, Rhode Island, was sentenced Monday in Superior Court after pleading guilty to armed assault with intent to murder, breaking and entering, and several gun charges, the Bristol district attorney’s office said in a statement Tuesday.
Two officers went to the Assembly of God church in Attleboro after the pastor called 911 and reported seeing an armed man inside the building at about 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2018, authorities said.
The officers saw Lindsey nearby and ordered him to stop and drop two backpacks he was carrying. Instead, he opened fire at one officer and both officers returned fire until Lindsey fell to the ground and dropped a gun, authorities said.
Neither officer was struck by gunfire, but bullets struck one cruiser’s windshield, and driver’s seat and headrest. Lindsey’s femoral artery was severed by a bullet and his life was saved by the officers who applied tourniquets, authorities said.
Lindsey had two handguns, as well as multiple high-capacity magazines and loose ammunition, authorities said.
