Florida
Teen accidentally kills younger brother with gun found in an alley
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A 14-year-old Florida boy told police he accidentally shot and killed his 11-year-old brother after finding a gun in an alley near their home, authorities said.
St. Petersburg police responded to the family’s home shortly after noon on Friday and found Amir Williams suffering from a gunshot wound, according to a police news release. The boy died at the scene.
Students had the day off from school on Friday, and Amir was home with his older brother and 13-year-old sister, police said. The children’s mother wasn’t home.
Amir’s brother told investigators he found the gun and that no one else in the family knew he had it. Police were working with prosecutors to determine if any criminal charges would be filed.
The gun was reported stolen on Wednesday in St. Petersburg.
Massachusetts
Flight attendant indicted in attempt to record teen girl in plane lavatory
BOSTON (AP) — An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Police have also alleged that Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, of Charlotte, North Carolina, had recordings of four other girls using lavatories on an aircraft where he worked.
Thompson was indicted on one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.
Thompson was charged and arrested in January 2024 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has been in federal custody since. A lawyer for Thompson said after the indictment by a federal grand jury that he was unable to comment.
Investigators said that about midway through a Sept. 2, 2023, flight from Charlotte to Boston, the 14-year-old got up to use the main cabin lavatory nearest to her seat but found it was occupied.
Thompson then told her the first-class lavatory was unoccupied and escorted her there, investigators said. Before she entered the bathroom, Thompson allegedly told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken, they said.
After he left, the teen entered the bathroom and she saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position, officials said.
Beneath the stickers, Thompson had concealed his iPhone to record a video, investigators said. The girl used her phone to take a picture of the stickers and concealed iPhone before leaving.
Prosecutors also allege hundreds of images of child sexual abuse generated through artificial intelligence were found stored on Thompson’s iCloud account.
Attempted sexual exploitation of children carries a sentence of 15-30 years in prison, while possessing images of sexual abuse of a prepubescent minor can mean up to 20 years in prison.
Both charges also provide for at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution.
American Airlines previously issued a statement saying the flight attendant was “immediately withheld from service” and hasn’t worked since the phone was discovered.
A search of Thompson’s iCloud account revealed four additional instances between January and August 2023 in which Thompson recorded a minor using the lavatory on an aircraft, according to investigators.
Those depicted in the recordings were 7, 9, 11 and 14 years old at the time, they said. Their families have been contacted by police, investigators said.
California
Berkshire Hathaway’s real estate firm to pay $250 million to settle lawsuits over commissions
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A real estate company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to pay $250 million to settle lawsuits nationwide claiming that longstanding practices by real estate brokerages forced U.S. homeowners to pay artificially inflated broker commissions when they sold their homes.
HomeServices of America said Friday that the proposed settlement would shield its 51 brands, nearly 70,000 real estate agents and over 300 franchisees from similar litigation.
The real estate company had been a major holdout after several other big brokerage operators, including Keller Williams Realty, Re/Max, Compass and Anywhere Real Estate, agreed to settle. Last month, the National Association of Realtors agreed to pay $418 million.
HomeServices said its proposed settlement payout represents a current after-tax accounting charge of about $140 million, though it will have four years to pay the full amount. The real estate company also noted that its parent company is not part of the settlement.
Berkshire, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, largely lets its subsidiaries run themselves and doesn’t directly intervene in litigation involving its many companies, which include Geico insurance, BNSF railroad and See’s Candy.
Including HomeServices’ proposed payout, the real estate industry has now agreed to pay more than $943 million to make the lawsuits go away.
The lawsuits’ central claim is that the country’s biggest real estate brokerages and the NAR violated antitrust laws by engaging in business practices that required home sellers to pay the fees for the broker representing the buyer.
Attorneys representing home sellers in multiple states argued that homeowners who listed a property for sale on real estate industry databases were required to include a compensation offer for an agent representing a buyer. And that not including such “cooperative compensation” offers might lead a buyer’s agent to steer their client away from any seller’s listing that didn’t include such an offer.
In October, a federal jury in Missouri ordered that HomeServices, the National Association of Realtors and several other large real estate brokerages pay nearly $1.8 billion in damages. The defendants were facing potentially having to pay more than $5 billion, if treble damages were awarded.
The verdict in that case, which was filed in 2019 on behalf of 500,000 home sellers in Missouri and elsewhere, led to multiple similar lawsuits being filed against the real estate brokerage industry.
The major brokerages that have reached proposed settlements in these cases have also agreed to change their business practices to ensure homebuyers and sellers can more easily understand how brokers and agents are compensated for their services, and that brokers and agents who represent homebuyers must disclose right away any offer of compensation by the broker representing a seller.
Teen accidentally kills younger brother with gun found in an alley
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A 14-year-old Florida boy told police he accidentally shot and killed his 11-year-old brother after finding a gun in an alley near their home, authorities said.
St. Petersburg police responded to the family’s home shortly after noon on Friday and found Amir Williams suffering from a gunshot wound, according to a police news release. The boy died at the scene.
Students had the day off from school on Friday, and Amir was home with his older brother and 13-year-old sister, police said. The children’s mother wasn’t home.
Amir’s brother told investigators he found the gun and that no one else in the family knew he had it. Police were working with prosecutors to determine if any criminal charges would be filed.
The gun was reported stolen on Wednesday in St. Petersburg.
Massachusetts
Flight attendant indicted in attempt to record teen girl in plane lavatory
BOSTON (AP) — An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Police have also alleged that Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, of Charlotte, North Carolina, had recordings of four other girls using lavatories on an aircraft where he worked.
Thompson was indicted on one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.
Thompson was charged and arrested in January 2024 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has been in federal custody since. A lawyer for Thompson said after the indictment by a federal grand jury that he was unable to comment.
Investigators said that about midway through a Sept. 2, 2023, flight from Charlotte to Boston, the 14-year-old got up to use the main cabin lavatory nearest to her seat but found it was occupied.
Thompson then told her the first-class lavatory was unoccupied and escorted her there, investigators said. Before she entered the bathroom, Thompson allegedly told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken, they said.
After he left, the teen entered the bathroom and she saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position, officials said.
Beneath the stickers, Thompson had concealed his iPhone to record a video, investigators said. The girl used her phone to take a picture of the stickers and concealed iPhone before leaving.
Prosecutors also allege hundreds of images of child sexual abuse generated through artificial intelligence were found stored on Thompson’s iCloud account.
Attempted sexual exploitation of children carries a sentence of 15-30 years in prison, while possessing images of sexual abuse of a prepubescent minor can mean up to 20 years in prison.
Both charges also provide for at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution.
American Airlines previously issued a statement saying the flight attendant was “immediately withheld from service” and hasn’t worked since the phone was discovered.
A search of Thompson’s iCloud account revealed four additional instances between January and August 2023 in which Thompson recorded a minor using the lavatory on an aircraft, according to investigators.
Those depicted in the recordings were 7, 9, 11 and 14 years old at the time, they said. Their families have been contacted by police, investigators said.
California
Berkshire Hathaway’s real estate firm to pay $250 million to settle lawsuits over commissions
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A real estate company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to pay $250 million to settle lawsuits nationwide claiming that longstanding practices by real estate brokerages forced U.S. homeowners to pay artificially inflated broker commissions when they sold their homes.
HomeServices of America said Friday that the proposed settlement would shield its 51 brands, nearly 70,000 real estate agents and over 300 franchisees from similar litigation.
The real estate company had been a major holdout after several other big brokerage operators, including Keller Williams Realty, Re/Max, Compass and Anywhere Real Estate, agreed to settle. Last month, the National Association of Realtors agreed to pay $418 million.
HomeServices said its proposed settlement payout represents a current after-tax accounting charge of about $140 million, though it will have four years to pay the full amount. The real estate company also noted that its parent company is not part of the settlement.
Berkshire, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, largely lets its subsidiaries run themselves and doesn’t directly intervene in litigation involving its many companies, which include Geico insurance, BNSF railroad and See’s Candy.
Including HomeServices’ proposed payout, the real estate industry has now agreed to pay more than $943 million to make the lawsuits go away.
The lawsuits’ central claim is that the country’s biggest real estate brokerages and the NAR violated antitrust laws by engaging in business practices that required home sellers to pay the fees for the broker representing the buyer.
Attorneys representing home sellers in multiple states argued that homeowners who listed a property for sale on real estate industry databases were required to include a compensation offer for an agent representing a buyer. And that not including such “cooperative compensation” offers might lead a buyer’s agent to steer their client away from any seller’s listing that didn’t include such an offer.
In October, a federal jury in Missouri ordered that HomeServices, the National Association of Realtors and several other large real estate brokerages pay nearly $1.8 billion in damages. The defendants were facing potentially having to pay more than $5 billion, if treble damages were awarded.
The verdict in that case, which was filed in 2019 on behalf of 500,000 home sellers in Missouri and elsewhere, led to multiple similar lawsuits being filed against the real estate brokerage industry.
The major brokerages that have reached proposed settlements in these cases have also agreed to change their business practices to ensure homebuyers and sellers can more easily understand how brokers and agents are compensated for their services, and that brokers and agents who represent homebuyers must disclose right away any offer of compensation by the broker representing a seller.
