Iowa
Families of two school shooting victims sue program, founder
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The families of two teenagers shot to death in a Des Moines alternative high school have filed a lawsuit alleging the program and its founder were negligent in not keeping the premises safe.
The families of Rashad Carr, 16, and Gionni Dameron, 18, filed the lawsuit Monday against the program Starts Right Here and its founder Will Keeps.
Both teens were killed Jan. 23 in a shooting in the school, an educational program designed to keep at-risk youth out of trouble. Keeps, an activist and rapper whose given name is Will Holmes, also was shot and seriously injured but survived.
Student Preston Walls, 18, has been accused of the shooting, and police allege Bravon Tukes, 19, drove a getaway car. Both Walls and Tukes faces charges including two counts of first-degree murder.
Prosecutors have said in court filings that the shootings revolved around a dispute between rival gangs.
In the lawsuit, the families of Carr and Dameron argue that Keeps and the school knew of potential dangers but didn’t take needed steps to protect the two teens. At the time, Starts Right Here did not have security guards, but after the shootings the program reopened with guards and metal detectors.
The program has a contract with Des Moines schools to work with students who have struggled in their traditional high schools. The school is located at an office park on the edge of downtown Des Moines.
In a text message sent to Des Moines media outlets, Keeps said he was “surprised and deeply hurt” that the families would sue him.
“I am crushed that after being thanked for helping to save and change the lives of their sons that I am now their target,” Keeps said. “My focus is on our students — being shot did not distract me and neither will this lawsuit.”
A trial for Walls is scheduled for Aug. 28, and Tukes’ trial is scheduled for Oct. 2.
New York
US Virgin Islands seeks to subpoena Musk in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit
NEW YORK (AP) — The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands is trying to subpoena billionaire Elon Musk for documents in its lawsuit seeking to hold JPMorgan Chase liable for sex trafficking acts committed by businessman Jeffrey Epstein.
Musk has never been publicly accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 as he awaited sex trafficking charges in a federal jail in Manhattan.
But over the years, there had been unconfirmed speculation — encouraged by Epstein himself — that Epstein had advised Musk on certain business matters.
Spokespeople for Musk have denied those reports, but the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands said in a court filing that it believes Epstein may have referred or tried to refer Musk to JPMorgan as a potential client.
The Virgin Islands, where Epstein had an estate, sued JPMorgan last year, saying its investigation has revealed that the financial services giant enabled Epstein’s recruiters to pay victims and was “indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise.”
Lawyers for JPMorgan did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday.
In the past, they have said victims are entitled to justice but litigation attempting to blame the financial institution for Epstein’s actions were legally meritless, directed at the wrong party and should be dismissed.
Authorities alleged that Epstein recruited and sexually abused dozens of underage girls at his mansions in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, in the early 2000s. He had pleaded not guilty.
Lawyers for the Virgin Islands told a federal judge Monday that they haven’t been able to locate Musk to serve him with the subpoena.
They asked the court to serve Tesla, his electric vehicle company, instead.
They said they hired an investigative firm to search public records databases for possible addresses for Musk and reached out to one of his lawyers by email, but received no response.
A message sent to a lawyer for Musk seeking comment Monday was not immediately returned.
The subpoena — one of several sent to prominent business figures — sought documents from Jan. 1, 2002, to the present reflecting communications between Musk and JPMorgan or Musk and Epstein regarding Epstein or Epstein’s role in Musk’s accounts, transactions or financial management.
It also sought all documents reflecting or regarding Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and his procurement of girls or women for commercial sex.
And it sought information about fees Musk might have paid to Epstein or JPMorgan and any documents concerning communications between Musk, Epstein and JPMorgan regarding accounts, transactions or the relationship at JPMorgan.
Washington
Monopoly concerns push FTC to sue to block Amgen’s deal for Horizon
The U.S. is attempting to block a proposed $26 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics by biotech drug developer Amgen on antitrust grounds.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that the deal, announced in December, would give Amgen unfair leverage to block competition for Horizon medications. The FTC said the deal would entrench Horizon’s monopoly position on treatments for thyroid eye disease and chronic refractory gout.
Amgen did not immediately respond to a request by The Associated Press for comment.
The California company said in December that the acquisition would allow it to expand into rare disease treatments.
Horizon Therapeutics PLC, based in Dublin, Ireland, develops potential treatments for autoimmune and severe inflammatory diseases. Its best-seller, Tepezza, is only approved in the United States and treats eye bulging and double vision from thyroid eye disease.
The FTC said Tuesday that the deal would allow Amgen to use rebates on its existing drugs to pressure bill payers like pharmacy benefit managers into favoring Tepezz and Krystexxa, a treatment for chronic refractory gout.
New Jersey
Judge: 29-year-old who posed as teen student can enter pretrial program
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A 29-year-old woman accused of using false documents to enroll as a New Jersey high school student and attend some classes over a four-day period will be allowed to enter a pretrial intervention program, a state judge ruled Monday.
The woman had pleaded not guilty in March to a charge of providing a false government document. Her lawyer has said she did so because she was lonely and longed to return to her days with friends in school but now realizes she made a mistake. She will have to undergo a mental health evaluation and, if she completes the program, the charge against her could eventually be dismissed.
The woman is a South Korean citizen who came to the United States by herself when she was 16 to attend a private boarding school, the lawyer said. She later graduated from Rutgers University in 2019.
The lawyer said his client had no nefarious intentions when she enrolled at New Brunswick High School in January. She was just seeking to return to “a place of safety and welcoming and an environment that she looks back on fondly,” he said.
Authorities have said the woman got the phone numbers of students who helped her find her way through the school and continued to text some of them days after her ruse was discovered. She was barred from entering school grounds in the district and officials have advised students to not have any contact with her.
The woman provided district officials with a false birth certificate when she enrolled, officials have said. The district has nearly 10,000 students.
Schools in the state are required to immediately enroll unaccompanied children, even in the absence of records normally required for that purpose. Proof of guardianship is also not needed to immediately enroll an unaccompanied youth. Once enrolled, students have 30 days to provide additional proof of identity.
Minnesota
Man sentenced to 103 years for killing 4 people, dumping bodies in cornfield
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man convicted of killing four passengers in his Mercedes Benz SUV in Minnesota and dumping the bodies in a Wisconsin cornfield has been sentenced to 103 years in prison.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Judge JaPaul Harris on Monday sentenced 39-year-old Antoine Suggs of Scottsdale, Arizona, to consecutive sentences for the killings of Jasmine Sturm, 30; her brother, Matthew Pettus, 26; her boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35; and her friend, Nitosha Flug-Presley, 30. Sturm, Pettus and Foreman were from St. Paul, Minnesota. Flug-Presley was from Stillwater, Minnesota.
Suggs was convicted in April of four counts of second-degree murder in the September 2021 deaths. He testified that he shot the four in self-defense because he thought they were going to rob him.
Prosecutors said his motive was unclear but that Suggs meant to kill the victims after a night of drinking in St. Paul.
Suggs’ father, Darren McWright, who also goes by the last name Osborne, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to helping his son hide the victims’ bodies at a Wisconsin cornfield about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of St. Paul.
Suggs told the judge on Monday that he was wrongfully convicted. Harris responded that Suggs showed no remose or sympathy and “cast blame on others.”
California
Man sentenced for BB gun attacks on Planned Parenthood clinic
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man who waged a year-long series of BB gun attacks on a Southern California Planned Parenthood clinic was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison.
Richard Royden Chamberlin, 53, was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles federal court, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
At least 11 attacks targeted a Planned Parenthood facility in Pasadena between June 2020 and May 2021. No one was hurt but a person waiting outside for a patient was nearly struck, staff was terrified and the building was damaged, prosecutors said.
Pasadena police stopped Chamberlin after a May 7, 2021, attack and found he had eight BB guns and a backpack containing a loaded .22-caliber pistol.
The U.S. attorney’s office said that Chamberlin, who was convicted in Arizona in 2012 of felony attempted transportation of a narcotic for sale, subsequently tried to sell or transfer ownership of other firearms. A search of his home found thousands of rounds of ammunition, gun powder, a dozen BB guns, and other weapons-related items.
Chamberlin pleaded guilty in December 2022 to one count of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
