Florida
Judge to murder suspect on run for 40 years: ‘You knew you were running from something.’
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A judge in Florida has ordered a 65-year-old California fugitive held without bond in connection with the death of a woman nearly 40 years ago.
Donald Santini was arrested by U.S. marshals in California last month, and extradited to Florida. He had used at least 13 aliases over the years.
Santini was the last person seen with 33-year-old Cynthia “Cindy” Ruth Wood. The arrest warrant said a medical examiner determined she had been strangled, and Santini’s fingerprints were found on her body.
“You being on the run for almost 40 years is a consciousness of guilt. You knew you were running from something,” Judge Catherine Catlin told Santini during a hearing in Tampa on Thursday.
Photos taken in the courtroom showed Santini weeping before the judge denied bond.
Wood’s stepdaughter, Denise Kozer told the Tampa Bay Times she’s hoping to find closure in a case that resulted in “total devastation” for her family.
Back in 1984, Santini was known as Charles Michael Stevens, which was an alias he used to flee a warrant in Texas. At the time of his arrest, he was living under the name Wellman Simmonds in Campo, California, which is in southeastern San Diego County. He served on the local water board.
“He has a wife and children in California, and I feel sorry for them because they probably didn’t know, either,” Kozer said. “But they’re all still alive. Our lives were devastated, changed forever.”
Kozar told the Times that both Barry Wood and the older son of Cindy Wood had died since the slaying, and her younger half-siblings have suffered from mental health issues since their parents’ deaths.
She told the newspaper she’s spent years knowing that the man who destroyed her family has been free. The case has been featured on “America’s Most Wanted” several times.
Wood met with Santini, who had called her with promises of providing information about her husband, Barry Wood, that could possibly help her win custody of their two children, who were 3 and 5, according to previous reports by the Bradenton Herald. Wood also had a son from a previous relationship. Kozar was Barry Wood’s daughter from another marriage.
Kozar, who was 20 when Wood was killed, said she hopes Santini doesn’t get another chance to escape.
“If they need extra evidence, we’re willing to let them exhume the body — whatever it takes to make sure that he doesn’t go anywhere,” Kozer said.
Santini’s attorney asked the judge for bail. But prosecutors noted that Santini killed Wood after fleeing a charge in Texas related to a convenience store robbery.
The judge didn’t need extra evidence.
“You are the definition of flight risk,” the judge told Santini during the hearing. “There is nothing I can do to preserve the safety of this community if I was to let you go.”
Florida
Lawsuit claims Republican lawmaker sexually harassed aide
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida lawmaker was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed Thursday by a former aide and a former intern, a Miami newspaper and television station reported.
The two staffers said Republican Rep. Fabian Basabe repeatedly talked about sex with them and showed them a photo of a naked man on his phone. The aide said Basabe “slapped” him from behind while the two were in the back of a full elementary school classroom and said, “I want all of that.”
The intern said Basabe advised him to break off his engagement with his girlfriend and explore sex with men. The suit claims Basabe also
groped and tried to kiss the intern when the staffer drove him to a hotel after a night of drinking. The lawsuits were filed as CBS affiliate WFOR-Miami and the Miami Herald were investigating Basabe’s behavior.
Republican House Speaker Paul Renner’s office acknowledged receiving a sexual harassment complaint about Basabe and said that an outside lawyer will investigate the claims.
“The Florida House has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment,” Renner’s office said in an emailed statement. “Every employee of the Florida House is provided a copy of the administrative policy manual which outlines how to report allegations of sexual harassment with Florida House staff and leadership.”
Basabe’s lawyer, Robert Fernandez, said the lawmaker wouldn’t comment on the suit.
“Representative Basabe will not be litigating this frivolous and meritless lawsuit in the media or giving it any more public attention than it deserves — which is none,” Fernandez said in a statement to CBS.
Pennsylvania
Authorities charge 5 more in probe of child sexual abuse
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Pennsylvania grand jury investigating child sexual abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses community has charged another five people with raping or molesting children as young as 4, the latest developments in an ongoing probe that has identified 14 suspects.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, at a Friday news conference, said that while the misconduct dates back years or even decades, “the trauma endures for these victims.”
Henry did not address the church’s handling of complaints, but said the investigation would continue.
Critics say that Jehovah’s Witnesses elders have treated child sexual abuse as a sin rather than a crime, documenting complaints in internal files but not reporting them to authorities. And they say the church often required a second witness to substantiate a complaint, a standard that can be impossible to meet when perpetrators often isolate their victims.
Church spokesman Jarrod Lopes has challenged those conclusions, saying that elders comply with reporting requirements and that members are also free to report sexual assault to authorities. He has also said the second-witness rule applies only to internal church discipline. Lopes did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.
Attorney Matt Haverstick, who has represented the church, did not immediately return a call for comment on Friday.
The grand jury probe of Jehovah’s Witnesses began with a referral from a county district attorney who felt the state should take a broader look at the issue. Dozens of witnesses then testified before the secret grand jury in Harrisburg or provided information to the attorney general’s office.
In the charges announced Friday, Henry said that the men had groomed or gained access to the children through the church, sometimes when the child’s family took the person into their home. One person said that she was raped 50 or more times between the ages of 7 and 12 by a church member who was 18 when the assaults began. Others involved less serious charges of inappropriate touching.
Four of the five suspects are in custody, with bail set, while the other person is being sought, she said. One of the nine earlier defendants killed himself before he was arrested, she said. It was not immediately clear if any of the new defendants had lawyers representing them.
In a case with some parallels, a state grand jury investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests culminated in a lengthy 2018 report that concluded hundreds of priests had abused children in Pennsylvania over seven decades and church officials had covered it up. More recently, a similar report was issued in Maryland.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses, an international Christian denomination founded in the Pittsburgh area more than a century ago and headquartered in New York state, claims 8.7 million members worldwide, including 1.2 million in the United States.
Members will not bear arms, salute a national flag or participate in secular politics. Believers are known for their evangelistic efforts, including knocking on doors and distributing literature in public spaces.
New York
6 charged in alleged straw donor scheme to help get Adams elected NYC mayor
NEW YORK (AP) — Six people were charged Friday in an alleged scheme to divert tens of thousands of dollars in public funds to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign months before his election.
The indictment announced by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg does not implicate Adams or any other city employees. Rather, it describes a straw donor scheme orchestrated by individuals with business before the city who hoped to maximize their donations to the future mayor in exchange for political favors.
“We allege a deliberate scheme to game the system in a blatant attempt to gain power,” Bragg said in a statement. “The New York City Campaign Finance Board program is meant to support our democracy and amplify the voices of New York City voters. When the integrity of that program is corrupted, all New Yorkers suffer.”
Prosecutors said the scheme was led by Dwayne Montgomery, a former NYPD inspector currently listed as the director of integrity for the Teamsters Local 237, which represents municipal workers.
According to the indictment, Montgomery recruited friends and relatives to take advantage of the city’s generous matching funds system, which provides an eight-to-one match for the first $250 donated by a city resident.
In addition to Montgomery, the indictment names as defendants Shamsuddin Riza, Millicent Redick, Ronald Peek, Yahya Mushtaq, and Shahid Mushtaq.
According to prosecutors, between 2020 and 2021, those who made donations in their own name were reimbursed by Montgomery, who provided more than $40,000 of his money. He worked with a string of co-defendants to help recruit donors, including Riza, who indicated he was hoping to secure work from the city.
“FYI ! This is the one I want , Safety , Drywall , and Security one project but we all can eat,” Riza wrote in a July 2021 email to Montgomery, sending along the information for a construction project called Vital Brooklyn, prosecutors allege.
Montgomery also worked alongside a campaign representative to organize a virtual fundraiser for Adams in August, 2020, prosecutors contend. The representative is not named in the indictment.
None of the defendants could immediately be reached for comment.
Adams’ campaign released a statement denying any involvement in the alleged scheme.
“There is no indication that the campaign or the mayor is involved in this case or under investigation,” a spokesperson for Adams’ campaign, Evan Thies, said in a statement. “The campaign always held itself to the highest standards and we would never tolerate these actions.”
The defendants each face charges of conspiracy, attempted grand larceny, and offering a false instrument.
