Arizona
Family of killed professor reaches deal with school
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The family of a University of Arizona professor who was fatally shot on campus in the fall of 2022 has reached a multimillion-dollar agreement with the school, attorneys for the man’s wife and sons said Tuesday.
A statement by the law firm representing Kathleen Meixner, wife of professor Thomas Meixner, and their two sons, said that the family agreed not to sue the university as part of the agreement. The family in March filed a claim against the university as a precursor to a lawsuit, seeking $9 million.
In addition to an unspecified amount of money, the agreement includes “non-monetary commitments that affirm the university’s continuing support for the well-being of those most affected by these events,” the university and the Arizona Board of Regents said in a statement. It added that the family would continue to have a voice in the planning and implementation of safety measures on campus.
Thomas Meixner was shot on Oct. 5, 2022, inside the building where he headed the school’s Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. House later, police arrested Murad Dervish, a 46-year-old former graduate student later charged in Meixner’s killing.
An independent review released last March showed there were multiple missed opportunities to investigate and possibly arrest Dervish. The company contracted to conduct the review interviewed nearly 140 people.
Dervish faces a first-degree murder charge when he goes on trial later this year. He had been expelled from the school and barred from campus after being accused of sending threatening text messages and emails to Meixner and other professors.
Kathleen Meixner said the family welcomed the increased security measures instituted on campus after the report came out.
“We must look to the future, and with urgency, ensuring that tragedies like ours do not happen to others,” she said in her statement.
California
Sailor sentenced to over 2 years for accepting bribes from Chinese officer
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. Navy sailor has been sentenced to just over two years in federal prison for transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to a Chinese intelligence officer.
Wenheng Zhao, who is also known as Thomas Zhao, of Monterey Park, was sentenced Monday to 27 months by a federal judge in Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of receiving a bribe in violation of his official duties. He was also fined $5,500.
His defense lawyer, Tarek Shawky, called Zhao “a dedicated serviceman with an exemplary service record before this incident.”
“He was the target of a sophisticated Chinese intelligence operation, and he made the mistake of sharing controlled, unclassified information with a foreign operative,” Shawky said. “He fully appreciates the severity of his actions and admitted guilt at an early stage of the proceedings.”
Zhao, based at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, north of Los Angeles, collected nearly $15,000 in bribes in 14 different payments from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for information, photos and videos of involving Navy exercises, operations and facilities between August 2021 through at least May 2023, prosecutors said.
He held a U.S. security government clearance and underwent routine trainings on efforts by hostile nation states to acquire sensitive information, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The information included plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, which detailed the location and timing of naval force movements. The Chinese officer told Zhao the information was needed for maritime economic research to inform investment decisions, according to court documents.
The Chinese officer offered to pay Zhao bonuses for controlled and classified information, according to prosecutors.
Zhao used encrypted communications to transmit the information to the intelligence officer and destroyed the evidence to hide their relationship, prosecutors said.
“Mr. Zhao abdicated his oath to the United States and put American troops in harm’s way when he accessed and handed over sensitive information to China for a payout,” said Donald Alway, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office in a statement.
Zhao was one of two U.S. Navy sailors based in California who were charged last summer with providing sensitive military information to China.
The two sailors were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese but Zhao’s defense lawyer said there was no connection between the cases.
Jinchao Wei, known as Patrick Wei, was assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex when he was arrested last August while boarding the ship. He is accused of providing detailed information on the weapons systems and aircraft aboard the Essex and other amphibious assault ships that act as small aircraft carriers.
He could receive a life sentence if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty and that case is ongoing.
U.S. officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.
U.S. officials said the cases exemplify China’s brazenness in trying to obtain insight into U.S. military operations.
Illinois
Chicago man sentenced in the hit-and-run death of a retired police officer
CHICAGO (AP) — A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty in a hit-and-run crash that killed a retired Chicago police officer in 2022.
Ted Plevritis pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of failure to report the crash and was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, WLS-TV reported. He was given credit for almost two years already spent behind bars.
Plevritis was originally charged with several felonies, including failure to report an accident resulting in death and reckless homicide in a motor vehicle in the death of Rick Haljean, 57.
Haljean was crossing a road in January 2022 in Chicago’s Edison Park neighborhood when he was struck and killed by a vehicle Plevritis, then 62, was driving, Chicago police said.
Plevritis didn’t stop to help Haljean, continued driving and fled the scene, according to a police accident report. A passerby gave CPR to Haljean, who was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The retired officer, a father of three, had served more than 30 years as a Chicago police officer.
Plevritis surrendered to police about a month after Haljean’s death.
Family of killed professor reaches deal with school
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The family of a University of Arizona professor who was fatally shot on campus in the fall of 2022 has reached a multimillion-dollar agreement with the school, attorneys for the man’s wife and sons said Tuesday.
A statement by the law firm representing Kathleen Meixner, wife of professor Thomas Meixner, and their two sons, said that the family agreed not to sue the university as part of the agreement. The family in March filed a claim against the university as a precursor to a lawsuit, seeking $9 million.
In addition to an unspecified amount of money, the agreement includes “non-monetary commitments that affirm the university’s continuing support for the well-being of those most affected by these events,” the university and the Arizona Board of Regents said in a statement. It added that the family would continue to have a voice in the planning and implementation of safety measures on campus.
Thomas Meixner was shot on Oct. 5, 2022, inside the building where he headed the school’s Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. House later, police arrested Murad Dervish, a 46-year-old former graduate student later charged in Meixner’s killing.
An independent review released last March showed there were multiple missed opportunities to investigate and possibly arrest Dervish. The company contracted to conduct the review interviewed nearly 140 people.
Dervish faces a first-degree murder charge when he goes on trial later this year. He had been expelled from the school and barred from campus after being accused of sending threatening text messages and emails to Meixner and other professors.
Kathleen Meixner said the family welcomed the increased security measures instituted on campus after the report came out.
“We must look to the future, and with urgency, ensuring that tragedies like ours do not happen to others,” she said in her statement.
California
Sailor sentenced to over 2 years for accepting bribes from Chinese officer
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. Navy sailor has been sentenced to just over two years in federal prison for transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to a Chinese intelligence officer.
Wenheng Zhao, who is also known as Thomas Zhao, of Monterey Park, was sentenced Monday to 27 months by a federal judge in Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of receiving a bribe in violation of his official duties. He was also fined $5,500.
His defense lawyer, Tarek Shawky, called Zhao “a dedicated serviceman with an exemplary service record before this incident.”
“He was the target of a sophisticated Chinese intelligence operation, and he made the mistake of sharing controlled, unclassified information with a foreign operative,” Shawky said. “He fully appreciates the severity of his actions and admitted guilt at an early stage of the proceedings.”
Zhao, based at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, north of Los Angeles, collected nearly $15,000 in bribes in 14 different payments from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for information, photos and videos of involving Navy exercises, operations and facilities between August 2021 through at least May 2023, prosecutors said.
He held a U.S. security government clearance and underwent routine trainings on efforts by hostile nation states to acquire sensitive information, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The information included plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, which detailed the location and timing of naval force movements. The Chinese officer told Zhao the information was needed for maritime economic research to inform investment decisions, according to court documents.
The Chinese officer offered to pay Zhao bonuses for controlled and classified information, according to prosecutors.
Zhao used encrypted communications to transmit the information to the intelligence officer and destroyed the evidence to hide their relationship, prosecutors said.
“Mr. Zhao abdicated his oath to the United States and put American troops in harm’s way when he accessed and handed over sensitive information to China for a payout,” said Donald Alway, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office in a statement.
Zhao was one of two U.S. Navy sailors based in California who were charged last summer with providing sensitive military information to China.
The two sailors were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese but Zhao’s defense lawyer said there was no connection between the cases.
Jinchao Wei, known as Patrick Wei, was assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex when he was arrested last August while boarding the ship. He is accused of providing detailed information on the weapons systems and aircraft aboard the Essex and other amphibious assault ships that act as small aircraft carriers.
He could receive a life sentence if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty and that case is ongoing.
U.S. officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.
U.S. officials said the cases exemplify China’s brazenness in trying to obtain insight into U.S. military operations.
Illinois
Chicago man sentenced in the hit-and-run death of a retired police officer
CHICAGO (AP) — A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty in a hit-and-run crash that killed a retired Chicago police officer in 2022.
Ted Plevritis pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of failure to report the crash and was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, WLS-TV reported. He was given credit for almost two years already spent behind bars.
Plevritis was originally charged with several felonies, including failure to report an accident resulting in death and reckless homicide in a motor vehicle in the death of Rick Haljean, 57.
Haljean was crossing a road in January 2022 in Chicago’s Edison Park neighborhood when he was struck and killed by a vehicle Plevritis, then 62, was driving, Chicago police said.
Plevritis didn’t stop to help Haljean, continued driving and fled the scene, according to a police accident report. A passerby gave CPR to Haljean, who was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The retired officer, a father of three, had served more than 30 years as a Chicago police officer.
Plevritis surrendered to police about a month after Haljean’s death.
