National Roundup

Massachusetts
14-year-old accused of trying to drown Black youth in pond
CHATHAM, Mass. (AP) — A 14-year-old white boy was indicted Thursday on charges of attempted murder and assault in Massachusetts after investigators say he tried to drown a Black youth in a pond on Cape Cod.

The incident occurred on July 19 at Goose Pond in Chatham when the 14-year-old met at the pond with the alleged victim, a young Black male, as well as another juvenile, according to Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois.

After meeting, the 14-year-old white juvenile male picked up a stone and threatened the Black youth, referring to him with a racial slur, investigators said.

Before entering the water, the Black juvenile put on a life vest and told the others he couldn’t swim, according to authorities. All three then entered the pond.

Once in the water, the 14-year-old pulled on the life jacket submerging the alleged victim four to five times and causing him to experience breathing distress, Galibois said. The prosecutor added that the third juvenile laughed at him during the attempted drowning, calling him “George Floyd.”

The 14-year-old then swam under the Black juvenile and tried to grab his feet in an attempt to pull him under the water, according to investigators.

The incident ended when the alleged victim called out for help and a bystander on the beach intervened.

The 14-year-old was indicted on charges of attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon.

After a hearing Thursday in Barnstable Juvenile Court, the 14-year-old was ordered held without bail and is due back in court on Sept. 13.

Galibois said the 14-year-old is “known to the court.” None of the three juveniles were named by authorities.

Alabama
AG: State can prosecute those who help women travel elsewhere for abortions
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s attorney general argued in a court filing that the state has the authority to bring conspiracy charges against groups who help women travel to another state for an abortion.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office made the assertion in a Monday motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by an abortion assistance fund and others arguing such prosecutions would be unconstitutional. The groups are seeking a legal ruling clarifying that Alabama can’t prosecute people for providing financial, appointment or travel assistance for an Alabama woman to obtain an abortion in another state.

Alabama bans abortion at any stage of pregnancy. Marshall argued while it’s legal for a woman to travel out of state for an abortion, he suggested groups that help her do so could face prosecution.

“An elective abortion performed in Alabama would be a criminal offense; thus, a conspiracy formed in the State to have that same act performed outside the State is illegal,” the attorney general’s office wrote in the court filing.

His office wrote that the Alabama Legislature categorized abortion as among the highest wrongs, “comparing it to murder” and “Alabama can criminalize Alabama-based conspiracies to commit abortions elsewhere.”

Marshall has not prosecuted anyone for providing abortion assistance, but he has made statements saying that his office would “look at” groups that provide help. Those words have had a chilling effect on advocates, the groups said.

The Yellowhammer Fund, a group that provided financial assistance to low-income abortion patients, stopped the work because of the prosecution concerns.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued Marshall is illegally trying to extend Alabama’s abortion ban outside its borders.

A federal judge has scheduled a Sept. 5 hearing in the case.

Wisconsin
FBI updates photo of University of Wisconsin bomber wanted for 53 years
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 50 years after a Vietnam War-era bombing on the University of Wisconsin campus that killed a researcher, the FBI on Thursday released age-processed photographs of a suspect who has thus far evaded law enforcement and been referred to as “Wisconsin’s state ghost.”

Leo Burt was placed on the FBI’s most wanted list immediately after the 1970 bombing of Sterling Hall and remains the last fugitive sought by the FBI in connection with radical anti-Vietnam War activities.

The bombers parked a stolen van packed with fertilizer and fuel outside the university’s Army Math Research Center in Sterling Hall and lit the fuse in the early morning hours of Aug. 24, 1970. The bomb attack, which was the nation’s most powerful until the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, killed 33-year-old graduate student Robert Fassnacht, who was doing research in the middle of the night. It also injured other people and caused millions of dollars in damage. The bombers fled to Canada.

Three of the four wanted men were captured in the 1970s after trying to live underground. They were convicted, served short prison terms and resumed their lives.

Burt, who grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, came to Wisconsin on an ROTC scholarship and joined the rowing team, vanished. One former prosecutor called him “Wisconsin’s state ghost.”

The FBI received tips and alleged sightings from all over the world for decades, often spiking around anniversaries of the bombing. Some theorize that Burt is dead, while others compare him to D.B. Cooper, the hijacker who disappeared after parachuting out of an airliner with $200,000. There was even a theory in the 1990s, proven untrue with Theodore Kaczynski’s arrest, that he may have been the Unabomber.

The FBI continues to offer $150,000 for information leading to Burt’s arrest.

The FBI’s Milwaukee field office on Thursday released the photos that envision Burt as a 75-year-old man. The photo was done in conjunction with the 53rd anniversary of the bombing, which was last week, said FBI spokesperson Leonard Peace.

In his photo from 1970, Burt is wearing glasses and has a full head of dark, curly hair. In the new age-processed depiction, he is mostly bald and shown with and without glasses.

Madison attorney Lester Pines, 73, was a UW student at the time of the bombing. As a young attorney in 1975 he was part of a team that defended one of the bombers.

“If the FBI is correct, Leo Burt’s visage has changed much worse than mine has,” Pines said in reaction to the updated photo simulation. “I guess that Leo has not taken good care of himself, if he’s even still alive.”