Rhode Island
Officer acquitted of assaulting woman at abortion rally
WARWICK, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island police officer charged with punching a political rival at an abortion rights rally was acquitted Wednesday of a misdemeanor simple assault charge by a judge who determined that his actions were justified because he was trying to maintain public order.
The judge at the jury-waived trial determined that Providence Police Patrolman Jeann Lugo acted within his authority as an officer when he punched Jennifer Rourke during the June 24 protest, even though he was off duty at the time. A man was also punched during the chaotic melee that was caught on video.
The protest came in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had provided a constitutional right to abortion since 1973.
Prosecutors say Lugo, who was a Republican candidate for a state Senate seat at the time, punched Rourke, who was his Democratic opponent. Lugo dropped out of the race the next day. Rourke lost the election to another Republican.
The judge acknowledged that Lugo struck Rourke, but said he did so after Rourke tried to restrain him from trying to intervene in the other altercation.
Lugo left court without speaking but his attorney spoke on his behalf.
“He never should have been arrested in the first place. It’s the right verdict,” Daniel Griffin said. Griffin said Lugo was “railroaded” and the whole process has “devastated” him.
Lugo was placed on paid suspension by the police department and an internal investigation found that he had violated department rules and regulations governing conduct. Chief Col. Hugh Clements recommended that Lugo lose his job.
A spokesperson said in an email that the police department will continue its efforts to fire Lugo through the state’s Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights process. Griffin said Lugo should keep his job.
Washington
2 teens charged in deadly Seattle high school shooting
SEATTLE (AP) — The King County Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against two teenagers for their alleged roles in the fatal shooting of a student at Ingraham High School in Seattle last week.
A 14-year-old who is lodged at the county’s youth jail is facing charges of first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm, KUOW reported.
Prosecutors said they requested the 14-year-old be tried in adult court because of the murder charge. A judge will determine whether the case will be transferred out of juvenile court.
A 15-year-old boy, who prosecutors say was arrested on a Metro bus Nov. 8 with the alleged shooter shortly after the shooting pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to unlawful firearm possession and rendering criminal assistance. Charging papers say a handgun was found in the 15-year-old’s backpack.
King County Chief Juvenile Judge Averil Rothrock on Tuesday also ordered the boys to remain in juvenile detention and called the case “highly charged” as she barred the media from photographing the teens, The Seattle Times reported.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released the name of the 17-year-old student who was killed.
The 14-year-old is accused of shooting the 17-year-old from behind in a school hallway and continuing to fire after the older boy fell, according to charging papers. The 14-year-old also is accused of firing at another teen, who ran and was not hit, the charges say.
About 10 minutes prior, the 17-year-old was involved in a fight with other students in a school bathroom in a failed attempt to take a gun from one of the 14-year-old’s friends, who had brought the weapon to school, the charges say. The Glock 32 handgun had been reported “lost” to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 28, but how it got into the hands of a North Seattle high school student wasn’t clear.
Florida
Prosecutors: HOA board members stole millions from residents
MIAMI (AP) — Several current and former board members on one of Florida’s largest homeowners associations have been charged with stealing more than $2 million of residents’ money.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced a mix of theft, fraud and money laundering charges on Tuesday against current president Monica Isabel Ghilardi, 52; board member Myriam Arango Rodgers, 76; former board member Yoleidis Lopez Garcia, 47; former president Marglli Gallego, 41; and Jose Antonio Gonzalez, 45, who is Gallego’s husband and accused of running two companies that were paid at least $1.26 million in HOA funds.
“This case is not closed,” Fernandez Rundle said during a news conference. “These are not the end of the criminal arrests.”
Gallego had been the Hammocks Community Association’s president until she was arrested in April 2021 on theft charges. That arrest was part of a long-running probe that also led to the new charges. The HOA oversees 40 communities and over 6,500 units in West Kendall, located southwest of Miami.
A significant part of the investigation centered around board members writing checks, in some cases for hundreds of thousands of dollars, to vendors for services that weren’t actually being provided, prosecutors said. Then the vendors would return laundered money after keeping a portion for themselves.
Residents have been fighting for years to get rid of Gallego and the board members who support her, the Miami Herald reported. Residents tried to oust the board in a January election when hundreds of voters standing in line were not allowed to vote because of a fake phoned-in bomb threat and again during a July recall election when the board threw out two-thirds of the ballots cast.
The association had been operating on an annual budget of about $3.7 million until this spring, when the board adopted of budget of more than $10 million, according to court documents. The new budget means residents face monthly maintenance and service fee increases of up to 400%. The increase has prompted a lawsuit, which is pending.
Fernandez Rundle pointed out during the news conference that HOAs in Florida fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, but state law gives the department little enforcement power.
An attorney listed for Gallego’s 2021 case didn’t immediately responded to an email seeking comment from The Associated Press. Court and jail records didn’t immediately list attorneys for Gallego’s husband or the other board members.
Arizona
Man executed for 1980 killings of 2 people
FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona man convicted of murdering two people in 1980 was put to death Wednesday in the state’s third execution since officials started carrying out the death penalty in May after a nearly eight-year hiatus.
Murray Hooper, 76, died by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence for his murder convictions in the killings of William “Pat” Redmond and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps, at Redmond’s home in Phoenix. Redmond’s wife, Marilyn, also was shot in the head during the attack but survived and testified against Hooper at his trial.
Authorities say the killings were carried out at the behest of a man who wanted to take over Redmond’s printing business.
Hooper’s death was announced by Frank Strada, a deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.
Arizona did not carry out the death penalty for nearly eight years after criticism that a 2014 execution was botched and because it encountered difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs. No other executions are currently scheduled in the state.
Arizona now has 110 people on death row.
Hooper was executed within a couple hours of the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting a last-minute appeal from him over his claim that authorities had until recently withheld that Marilyn Redmond had failed to identify him in a photo lineup. The high court made no comment in rejecting his appeal.
Authorities said that claim was based on a mistake a prosecutor made in a letter to the state’s clemency board and now insist that no such lineup was shown to Marilyn Redmond. She later identified Hooper in an in-person lineup.
Courts also rebuffed attempts by Hooper’s lawyers to order fingerprint and DNA testing on evidence from the killings.
Authorities say Hooper and two other men forced their way into the Redmond home on Dec. 31, 1980. The three victims were bound, gagged, robbed and shot in the head.
Two other men, William Bracy and Edward McCall, were convicted in the killings but died before their death sentences could be carried out.
Authorities say Robert Cruz, who was alleged to have had ties to organized crime, hired Hooper, Bracy and McCall to kill Pat Redmond, who co-owned a printing business. They said Cruz wanted to take over the business and was unhappy that Redmond had rejected his offers to enter several printing contracts with Las Vegas hotels, according to court records. Cruz was acquitted of murder charges in both deaths in 1995.
Hooper’s lawyers say Marilyn Redmond’s description of the assailants changed several times before she identified their client, who said he was not in Arizona at the time. They also raised questions about the benefits received by witnesses who testified against Hooper, including favorable treatment in other criminal cases.
London
Actor Kevin Spacey to face 7 additional sex charges in UK
LONDON (AP) — Actor Kevin Spacey will be charged with seven further sex offenses in Britain, all relating to the same alleged victim, U.K. prosecutors said Wednesday. It brings the number of charges the Hollywood star faces in the U.K. to 12.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution said Wednesday that charges against the former “House of Cards” star are three of indecent assault, three of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent. The charges relate to incidents between 2001 and 2004.
The prosecuting authority approved the charges following “a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation,’’ said Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division.
Spacey, a double Academy Award winner, has already pleaded not guilty to charges that he sexually assaulted three men between 2004 and 2015 when he was the artistic director at the Old Vic theater in London.
His trial is due to start on June 6, 2023 and last for three to four weeks. It is likely to be at the Old Bailey, the venue for Britain’s highest-profile criminal trials.
He also faces a Dec. 16 court hearing on the new charges.
Spacey, who has addresses in London and the U.S., was granted bail and allowed to return to the United States after a preliminary hearing in June.
Spacey, 63, won a best supporting actor Academy Award for the 1995 film “The Usual Suspects” and a lead actor Oscar for the 1999 movie “American Beauty.”
His celebrated career came to an abrupt halt in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp accused the star of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s, when Rapp was a teenager. Last month, a jury at a civil trial in New York cleared Spacey of those allegations.
