Alabama
Judge: No bond for suspects in Sweet 16 shooting
DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday denied bond for five suspects charged with reckless murder in connection with a shooting at a Sweet 16 birthday party that killed four people and injured dozens in Alabama, according to court records and state investigators.
Tallapoosa County District Judge Clayton Turner ordered Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., 20, of Auburn; Johnny Letron Brown, 20, of Tuskegee; and Willie George Brown Jr., 19, also of Auburn, to be held without bond. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said that the judge also denied bond for two juvenile suspects. The state agency previously identified the pair as Tyreese “Ty Reik” McCullough, 17, and Travis McCullough, 16, both of Tuskegee.
A sixth suspect, a 15-year-old from Tuskegee, is awaiting a hearing, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.
The six are each charged with four counts of reckless murder in connection with the April 15 shooting in Dadeville that killed four people and injured 32 others. Two Dadeville High School seniors, Phil Dowdell, 18, and Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith, 17, were killed. Also killed were Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, and Corbin Holston, 23.
During a Tuesday bond hearing, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Special Agent Jess Thornton testified that 89 bullet casings were found at the scene.
Survivors described a bloody and chaotic scene as gunfire erupted at the birthday celebration for Dowdell’s sister. Thornton said investigators believe seven handguns were used during the shooting and that at least one may have been altered with an illegal “switch” to make it fire more rapidly.
Investigators have not discussed a motive or what they believe led to the shooting. How the shooting began and who fired first is expected to a key issue for the defense as the case moves forward.
New York
Writer says Trump rape trial fuels new attacks against her
NEW YORK (AP) — A writer who accused Donald Trump of raping her in a luxury department store in the 1990s testified for a second day Thursday at a civil trial, saying a fresh onslaught of insults on social media did nothing to diminish her pride to be in court.
The testimony in Manhattan federal court came a day after columnist E. Jean Carroll bluntly told the jury she came to court “because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen.”
Carroll, 79, said social media users lobbed new attacks against her as people labeled her a “liar, slut, ugly, old.”
“But I couldn’t be more proud to be here,” she testified.
A day earlier, she told how a chance encounter with Trump at a Bergdorf Goodman store in late 1995 or early 1996 turned from flirtatious frivolity in the desolate lingerie section into a violent sexual attack inside a dressing room. Carroll said Trump slammed her against a wall, yanked down her tights and raped her before she kneed him and fled.
Her lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a retraction of Trump’s allegedly defamatory comments. She never pursued criminal charges.
Trump, 76, is not expected to appear at the trial. He has repeatedly claimed the encounter never happened, that he doesn’t know Carroll and that she’s not his “type.” He launched a counterattack Wednesday against the trial on social media, telling followers on his Truth Social platform that the case was “a made up SCAM” and that her lawyer is a political operative.
The outburst drew a rebuke and a warning from Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who called it “entirely inappropriate.”
“What seems to be the case is that your client is basically endeavoring certainly to speak to his ‘public,’ but, more troublesome, to the jury in this case about stuff that has no business being spoken about,” the judge observed.
After Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, promised to speak with Trump and ask him not to make further posts, Kaplan warned: “We are getting into an area, conceivably, in which your client may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability.”
Later in the day, Kaplan warned Tacopina again to speak with Trump after the ex-president’s son Eric tweeted criticism of funding Carroll’s lawyer received from a wealthy Democratic contributor.
The trial results from a lawsuit Carroll filed in November after the state of New York enacted a law allowing adult victims of sexual assault to sue their attackers even if the assault occurred decades earlier.
The lawsuit contains one claim related directly to the alleged rape and a second claim stemming from remarks Trump made about Carroll’s claims last October.
Carroll testified that writing about her encounter with Trump in a 2019 memoir led to her firing from Elle magazine, where she had worked as an advice columnist for 27 years, and even brought her death threats, leading her to buy bullets for a gun she possessed.
The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
Iowa
Judge says Nunes not defamed by story about Iowa dairy farm
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge in Iowa has ruled against former U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, who filed lawsuits claiming he was defamed by articles published by Esquire magazine about his family’s Iowa dairy farm.
U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams ruled Tuesday in favor of reporter Ryan Lizza and Esquire publisher Hearst Magazines in a lawsuit Nunes filed, according to the Des Moines Register.
Nunes served for 19 years representing California in the U.S. House before leaving Congress to run the social media platform Truth Social, which is largely owned by former President Donald Trump.
Nunes filed the lawsuits in 2019 after Lizza’s story on the Nunes family’s dairy farm in northwest Iowa published in 2018. The article claimed the family kept their move from California to Iowa a secret and delved into questions about immigrants living illegally in Iowa who work at the state’s dairy farms.
In his ruling, Williams said a reasonable jury couldn’t find the article’s statements defamatory.
It marks the second time the court has ruled against Nunes. Williams in 2020 also rejected Nunes’ claims, but he appealed, and in 2021 the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals found Lizza may have committed a new defamatory act when in November 2019 he tweeted a link to the original article.
Williams noted in his second ruling that evidence supported the article’s reporting about the Nunes family’s immigrant workers. The judge said the family didn’t offer material evidence that the story’s claims were false.
An email sent to Nunes at his website wasn’t immediately returned.
Lizza now works for the news organization Politico, and an email left with Lizza at Politico wasn’t immediately returned. An email left with Esquire magazine also wasn’t immediately returned.
