California
Family suing cemetery after remains missing from burial plot
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Relatives of a late Black businessman who helped popularize Juneteenth in San Diego are suing a cemetery after his remains were reported missing from the family’s burial plot.
Greenwood Memorial Park and Mortuary informed the family that Sidney Cooper’s body and casket were not in the plot where he was supposed to have been buried more than two decades ago. Cemetery staff discovered it was empty as they prepared to bury Cooper’s wife, Thelma, who died in March.
Staff said they did not know the whereabouts of Cooper’s remains, their daughter, Lana Cooper-Jones, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“I was absolutely distraught,” Cooper-Jones said Friday of the moment she learned her father’s body was missing. “It was like losing my father again, as well as my mom.”
Greenwood said it was working to rectify the problem.
“While the placement of this family’s loved one occurred over 20 years ago under previous ownership and management, we recently discovered an issue with placement and are diligently working to confirm the placement of the loved one,” the cemetery said in a statement. “Our hope is to reunite the loved ones as intended as soon as possible.”
The lawsuit filed Friday seeks to force the cemetery to find the patriarch’s remains and compensate the children for damages. The court filing was aimed to coincide with Saturday’s Cooper Family Foundation Juneteenth Freedom Festival at San Diego’s Memorial Park.
Cooper, who was 71 when he died in 2001, promoted Juneteenth for decades in his unofficial and affectionate role as “Mayor of Imperial Avenue,” near where ran businesses including a barbershop and a produce store.
The family’s Juneteenth celebrations grew from small events in the parking lot of Cooper’s store to larger gatherings at a city park.
After his death, the family created the foundation to carry on his legacy and celebrate the Juneteenth festival. The June 19 holiday marks the day in 1865 when word that of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached the final slave holdout of Galveston, Texas, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the order freeing enslaved Black people.
Cooper-Jones told the Union Tribune that when her father died, they held a graveside service, but they didn’t witness his casket being lowered into the ground.
Cemetery officials have said they might have an idea where his casket was buried, according to the family’s attorneys, Eric Dubin and Annee Della Donna. An underground probe detected the presence of a casket in a different plot that’s supposed to be empty, the attorneys said. The family wants that body exhumed and the DNA tested.
Washington
Hunter Biden charged with failing to pay income tax
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been charged with failing to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon and has reached an agreement with the Justice Department, according to a letter filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
As part of the agreement, made public Tuesday, Hunter Biden will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and is expected to reach an agreement with prosecutors on the felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user. It is somewhat unusual to resolve a federal criminal case at the same time the charges are filed in court, though it is not totally unheard of.
The deal ends a long-running Justice Department investigation into Biden’s second son, who has acknowledged struggling with addiction following the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden. It also averts a trial that would have generated days or weeks or distracting headlines for a White House that has strenuously sought to keep its distance from the Justice Department.
“I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life,” Christopher Clark, a lawyer for the younger Biden, said in a statement that it was his understanding that the five-year investigation had now been resolved.
“He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward,” Clark said.
The news comes as congressional Republicans pursue their own investigations into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of his finances. It also comes days after a 37-count indictment came down against former President Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents on his Florida estate, another case with even more dramatic political implications.
Joe Biden has also faced questions about his son’s business dealings and drug addiction.
The gun charge states that Hunter Biden possessed a handgun, a Colt Cobra 38 special, despite knowing he was a drug user for 11 days in October 2018. The count carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but the Justice Department says Hunter Biden has reached a pretrial agreement on that charge. Full details were not immediately available.
The White House had no immediate comment on the case.
Arizona
Case against ex- corrections boss in standoff with officers postponed
PHOENIX (AP) — A judge on Monday postponed until July the case against Arizona’s former corrections director in an encounter in which police say he fired a gun inside his Tempe home and pointed a firearm at two officers during a three-hour standoff.
The judge agreed to move Monday’s settlement conference for Charles Ryan until July 13 after attorneys for both sides said they wanted to examine additional evidence.
Police were called to the house on Jan. 6, 2022.
Ryan was injured when he fired his gun before police arrived, suffering a cut to the forehead after a bullet he apparently fired hit a bathroom sink and sent a splinter of porcelain flying.
The ex-prisons boss, who retired in 2019, also had a hand injury caused by a projectile that shot by police after Ryan pointed a handgun at officers.
Police reports show Ryan had consumed half of a bottle of tequila before officers arrived.
He was never booked into jail after he eventually surrendered to police and was taken to the hospital. Police seized about 15 guns from his home.
New Jersey
Lawyer convicted of murdering his girlfriend dies
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey lawyer who faced a lengthy sentence for murdering his longtime girlfriend before fleeing to Cuba five years ago died Sunday after he was found unconscious in his cell, authorities said.
James Ray III, 60, was pronounced dead Sunday at University Hospital in Newark, where he had been taken following a medical emergency call at the county correctional facility, Essex County’s chief of staff, Phil Alagia, said in a statement. The medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death and an investigation is underway, he said.
Ray had been found unconscious in his cell on Sunday evening, according to Jim Troisi, the vice president of the union representing high-ranking jail staff. A sergeant who found him administered Narcan, a drug that treats overdoses, before he was taken to the hospital, Troisi said.
Authorities said Ray shot 44-year-old Angela Bledsoe in October 2018 in their Montclair home after she dropped their daughter off at school. Prosecutors said she had been planning to move out and was scheduled to meet with a realtor that day. Ray argued he acted in self-defense.
After the slaying, Ray prepared several documents, withdrew checks and cash from a local bank, picked up his daughter from school and dropped her off with his brother at a New Jersey restaurant, and then fled to Mexico and Cuba, authorities said. His life as a fugitive didn’t last long — he was returned to the United States in November 2018 and has been in custody ever since.
Jurors deliberated for just three hours last month before convicting Ray of first-degree murder and weapons charges, prosecutors said. He faced 30 years to life in prison, NJ.com reported.
“He was reasonably stoic,” recalled Thomas Ashley, one of two defense attorneys at the two-month trial in Newark. “He didn’t show any emotion.”
Raised in Brooklyn, Ray served as a Marine and then spent two years as a New York City police officer before earning an M.B.A. and going to law school.
Ashley told NJ.com that he hadn’t met with Ray since his conviction, but he said Ray seemed resigned as the verdict was read.
“This is a tragic ending to a tragic story,” Ashley said.
New York
Gannett sues Google, Alphabet claiming they have a monopoly on digital advertising
Gannett has filed a civil lawsuit against Google and its parent company Alphabet, claiming that they unlawfully hold monopolies in the advertising technology tools that publishers and advertisers use to buy and sell online ad space.
The largest U.S. newspaper publisher by total daily circulation alleges in the suit that Google controls how publishers sell their ad slots and forces them to sell an increasing amount of ad space to Google at lower prices. This in turn results in less revenue for publishers and Google’s ad-tech rivals and more money for Google.
In January the Justice Department and eight states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, seeking to shatter its alleged monopoly on the entire ecosystem of online advertising as a hurtful burden to advertisers, consumers and even the U.S. government. The suit accused the company of unlawfully monopolizing the way ads are served online by excluding competitors.
The European Union launched an antitrust investigation into Google’s digital ad dominance in 2021. And last week EU regulators hit Google with fresh antitrust charges, saying the only way to satisfy competition concerns about its lucrative digital ad business is by selling off parts of the tech giant’s main moneymaker.
The unprecedented decision to push for such a breakup marks a significant escalation by Brussels in its crackdown on Silicon Valley digital giants, and follows a similar move by U.S. authorities seeking to bust Google’s alleged monopoly on the online ad ecosystem.
Gannett CEO Mike Reed, in an opinion piece published Tuesday by Gannett-owned USA Today, said that the company is looking to “restore fair competition in a digital advertising marketplace that Google has demolished.”
Reed claims that local news outlets are hurting because of unlawful bid-rigging practices used by Google.
“The core of the case and our position is that Google abuses its control over the ad server monopoly to make it increasingly difficult for rival exchanges to run competitive auctions,” Reed wrote.
Google didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment from The Associated Press.
Gannett’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks an unspecified amount of damages and injunctive relief. The Virginia company is seeking a trial by jury.
