Massachusetts
Former ride-hail driver faces multiple sex assault charges
BOSTON (AP) — A former driver for a ride-hailing platform is heading to court on Monday to face charges that he sexually assaulted multiple passengers in 2017, prosecutors said.
The 43-year-old Boston man faces arraignment in Boston Municipal Court on two counts of rape and one count of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 years or over, according to the Suffolk district attorney’s office. He also faces aggravated rape and kidnapping charges out of Quincy District Court, authorities said.
It’s not clear if the suspect has an attorney.
The assaults followed a pattern, according to the police report: They all took place in the early morning hours inside the suspect’s vehicle, and the victims were alone and intoxicated.
The suspect, arrested Friday, was identified through the Boston Police Department’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, expanded with a $2.5 million federal grant.
The investigation is ongoing.
Uber in a statement called the allegations “atrocious” adding that it cooperated with law enforcement and the suspect was banned from the platform years ago.
Nevada
Ex-deputy attorney general indicted on murder charge
HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii grand jury on Friday indicted a former deputy Nevada attorney general on charges of second-degree murder in connection with the 50-year-old cold case of a Honolulu woman killed in 1972.
Tudor Chirila, 77, is in custody in Reno, Nevada, where he is fighting extradition to Hawaii, saying his rights were violated when he was arrested last week.
Honolulu police said new DNA evidence linked Chirila to the crime scene at Nancy Anderson’s apartment in Waikiki, where she had been stabbed more than 60 times. She had recently moved to Hawaii from Bay City, Michigan, and was working at a McDonald’s restaurant.
A criminal complaint filed in Honolulu said police had reopened the cold case multiple times since the 1972 killing and received a tip in December that Chirila could be a suspect.
In March, police obtained a DNA sample from Chirila’s son that identified him as the biological child of a DNA sample found at the crime scene, according to the criminal complaint. Police served a search warrant and obtained a DNA sample from Chirila at his Reno apartment on Sept. 6, court records said.
Anderson’s family issued a statement Friday through the Honolulu prosecutor’s office thanking law enforcement for their work on the case.
“Despite the many hurdles, we (Nancy’s nine siblings) never gave up hope that justice would be served. We always had strong faith that all things would be resolved in God’s time,” the statement said.
Chirila said he’s fighting extradition because police forced him to provide saliva for the DNA sample in September and he believes his constitutional rights were violated when he was arrested.
Chirila has an Oct. 17 hearing in Reno, which was rescheduled from Oct. 3.
Honolulu prosecutors said a conviction on a charge of second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Mississippi
Man gets hate crime charge in cross burning
JACKSON, Miss (AP) — A Mississippi man has been charged with a federal hate crime for burning a cross in his front yard to threaten his Black neighbors, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday.
Axel Cox, 23, has been charged with one count of criminal interference with the right to fair housing and one count of using fire to commit a federal felony.
According to court records, Cox chose to burn a cross in front of a Black family because of their race. He also allegedly addressed the family with racially derogatory language, the records show. The incident occurred on Dec. 3, 2020.
Federal prosecutors said the Gulfport man violated his neighbors’ housing rights. The statute Cox is accused of violating falls under the Civil Rights Act of 1968. That law says it is illegal for an individual to interfere with any person’s housing rights based on race.
Vangela M. Wade, president of the Mississippi Center for Justice, said cross burnings harken back to the overt racism of the Jim Crow South.
“This is another stark reminder of how bigotry, racism, and hate-fueled violence are alive and well in our country. Mississippi is no exception,” Wade said. “The fight to dismantle Mississippi’s deeply entrenched culture of injustice and a better tomorrow continues. We are thankful for the courage of the members of the federal grand jury to indict this hate crime.”
A grand jury indicted Cox in September. Court records were unsealed before his first court appearance on Friday. Judge Robert Myers ordered Cox held without bond pending a jury trial, which is scheduled to start Nov. 7.
Cox could face multiple years in prison and a $250,000 fine concerning each charge if convicted.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Cabell Jones for the Southern District of Mississippi and Noah Coakley II of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.
Cox’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.
Illinois
Lawmaker enters plea in red-light camera scandal
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago state senator pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of lying to the FBI and seeking a bribe to oppose legislation that would have required a statewide evaluation of red-light camera systems.
Sen. Emil Jones III, the latest public official implicated in the bribery scheme, entered the plea by telephone before U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood.
“I plead not guilty, your honor,” he said in a calm voice.
Jones has an unsecured bond of $10,000.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday called for Jones to resign his seat, one day after Jones stepped down from his unpaid post as deputy leader for the Senate Democrats and his $11,098-per-year committee chair position at the request of Senate President Don Harmon.
Jones is running unopposed in the Nov. 8 general election.
Prosecutors allege that Jones, a South Side Democrat, told an individual with an interest in the camera system operator SafeSpeed that he would protect it from legislation in the General Assembly in exchange for $5,000 and a job for an unnamed associate.
Prosecutors have not named the red-light camera company, but SafeSpeed issued a statement Tuesday indicating that a former associate was involved.
Neither SafeSpeed nor its current owners have been charged with any wrongdoing.
Pennsylvania
Man faces life term after conviction in arson that killed 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man convicted of having set a house fire that killed a young child and two women in Pittsburgh 4 1/2 years ago now faces a life prison sentence without possibility of parole.
Jurors in Allegheny County deliberated for about six hours over two days before convicting Martell Smith of three counts of second-degree murder in the December 2017 fire, the Tribune-Review reported. He was also convicted of multiple counts of arson but acquitted of one attempted homicide count.
Prosecutors had been seeking a first-degree murder conviction and planned to pursue capital punishment if jurors convicted Smith on that charge, citing the multiple felonies, the child victim and the defendant’s criminal record. But Smith, 45, continued to assert his innocence and said “Life in prison is the death penalty. It’s just slower.”
“I understand they need somebody to pay for the crime, and everything lined up for me to be that person,” he told Common Pleas Judge Jill Rangos. “I’m just another in a long line of Black men sent to the correctional system to die there.”
Pittsburgh authorities allege Smith set the early morning fire after getting into a bar fight. Police say surveillance images show him buying a gas can and filling it at a gas station, and they allege he then drove to the Homewood neighborhood home, doused the three-story brick structure with the gasoline, lit it and drove away.
Killed were 21-year-old Shamira Staten, her 4-year-old daughter, Ch’yenne Manning, and 58-year-old Sandra Carter Douglas. A witness told police he overheard Smith muttering “yep, yep, I did it,” while fire crews battled the blaze around 2 a.m. Wednesday. The police complaint alleged Smith was also heard muttering “they made me do it.”
Deputy District Attorney Brian Catanzarite told jurors in closing arguments that none of the victims played any role in the bar fight involving Smith, but they “paid the ultimate price for his vengeance.”
“He gave these people no chance whatsoever,” he said.
Cecil Douglas said he met his wife, Sandy, in grade school more than four decades ago and married her in 1993. He said he most missed her “warmth and attentiveness. She really made you feel special.” Lasandra Hawthorne told the court that she desperately misses her mom, and felt “no one in this world loved me as much” as she did.
Defense attorney Michael Machen, who attacked the credibility of a prosecution witness and the timeline presented by authorities, told the court that his client was among the most polite that he’d ever had, calling him “a gentle soul.”
Washington
Murder charge dismissed because of treatment delays
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — An Edmonds man’s first-degree murder charge in the death of his father was dismissed this week because of delays in his mental health treatment.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Janice Ellis on Wednesday found John Fry’s continued wait for transport to Western State Hospital could violate his due process rights, The Herald reported.
“His dangerousness is obvious, yet it is not appropriate to maintain him in the Snohomish County Jail without a reliable path towards restoration services,” Ellis said in court Wednesday.
She said she was dismissing the case but that charges could be refiled.
Fry, 27, must be evaluated by a designated crisis responder before he is released from jail.
He had been diagnosed with schizophrenia years before his father Stephen Fry, 64, was killed, he reportedly told police.
Fry said he believed his father was abusing him, but said he was never assaulted, according to the court documents. Prosecutors said in November 2019 he looked up “justifiable homicide” on the internet.
On Nov. 21, Fry told police he thought he heard his father talking about a gun, but could have imagined it. Fry then confronted his father, punching and stabbing him repeatedly with a utility knife, court documents said.
Fry then went to police to report the “premeditated murder on my father,” charges said.
Snohomish County prosecutors charged Fry but Superior Court Judge Richard Okrent ordered 90 days of competency restoration treatment. At his intake, Fry reported feeling other people were putting thoughts in his head. A judge later ordered a second 90-day restoration period.
In October 2020, a judge determined he could stand trial.
But Fry stopped taking his medication and mental health concerns creeped back, his public defender Robert O’Neal said Wednesday. Last spring, a judge ordered Fry receive more restoration treatment. In such cases, defendants are required to be admitted within a week.
But months later, John Fry remained at the Snohomish County Jail because of a lack of beds at Western State Hospital.
Across Washington, orders for restoration treatment have spiked. The past eight years have seen a 145% increase in demand, assistant attorney general Andrew Logerwell said August.
