WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been arrested on charges of making online threats against President Donald Trump, police said Saturday.
A tip to the FBI threat center led to the arrest Friday night of Shannon Depararra Atkins, 46, West Palm Beach police said in a news release. He is charged with one count of written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury or conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism.
Atkins was arrested after a traffic stop and was found in possession of cocaine, leading to a drug charge as well. He was being held without bond Saturday.
The nature of the alleged online threats was not immediately released. Atkins lives a few miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, but there was no indication he took any steps toward going there.
West Palm Beach police said the Secret Service will determine whether any federal charges will be filed.
MENOMONIE, Wis. (AP) — A Minnesota man accused of helping his son hide four bodies in a Wisconsin cornfield has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, online court records show.
Dunn County Circuit Judge James Peterson sentenced 59-year-old Darren Osborne of St. Paul on Thursday. A jury found him guilty of four counts of hiding a corpse in October. Peterson gave him four years in prison for each victim.
According to prosecutors, Osborne’s son, Antoine Suggs, of Scottsdale, Arizona, shot the four after a night of drinking in St. Paul in September 2021. Killed were 30-year-old Jasmine Sturm; her brother, 26-year-old Matthew Pettus; her boyfriend, 35-year-old Loyace Foreman III; and her friend, 30-year-old Nitosha Flug-Presley.
Suggs told his father that he “snapped” and shot a couple of people, according to a criminal complaint charging him with four counts of second-degree murder. Osborne followed Suggs to a Dunn County cornfield, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of St. Paul. They left the bodies in Suggs’ Mercedes Benz SUV, abandoned the vehicle in the cornfield and left in Osborne’s vehicle. A farmer who owned the cornfield discovered the bodies.
Suggs testified he shot the four in self-defense because he thought they were going to rob him but prosecutors countered that his motive was unclear but he meant to kill them. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 103 years in prison in 2023.
A Minnesota judge sentenced Osborne to almost five years in prison in 2022 for helping his son. He’ll serve what remains of the Minnesota sentence and the Wisconsin sentence concurrently.
Court records indicate that three attorneys who have represented Osborne in Wisconsin case have each withdrawn and Osborne represented himself at sentencing.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday sided with the Biden administration’s Department of Justice and kept a temporary block on an Iowa law that makes it a state crime for a person to be in Iowa if they are in the U.S. illegally.
But a second order from the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals raises questions on future court proceedings now that President Donald Trump is in the White House.
The department and an immigrant rights groups sued Iowa in May over the law, which looks similar to Texas and Oklahoma laws that are also on hold while courts consider whether they unconstitutionally usurp federal immigration authority. A district court judge granted the Biden administration and the immigrant rights group a temporary block on the law, and Iowa appealed.
The law would let state and local officials arrest and charge people who have outstanding deportation orders or who previously have been removed from or denied admission to the U.S.
The federal appeals court said that “contrary to Iowa’s belief,” the state law would likely contradict federal officials’ discretion in how to enforce immigration policy and complicate U.S. foreign policy.
But the federal appeals court issued a second decision Friday that might complicate the legal battle in Iowa if Trump’s administration withdraws the Department of Justice’s complaint.
The federal appeals court said that the lawsuit filed by Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice on behalf of its organization and two individuals should be dismissed by the district court judge — because the U.S. v. Iowa lawsuit makes it moot.
“Right now we’re just figuring out what our legal next steps are,” said Veronica Fowler, communications director for the ACLU of Iowa, one of the legal teams representing Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, “because obviously we are committed to doing everything we can to strike down this really terrible law.”
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the future of the lawsuit, which would proceed in the lower court.
Under President Joe Biden, Republican governors and lawmakers across the country accused the president of a failure to enforce federal immigration law and manage the southern border. Most are now lining up to support Trump in his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and deport many who are living in the U.S. illegally.
A December joint statement from 26 Republican governors, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, said they “stand ready to utilize every tool at our disposal — whether through state law enforcement or the National Guard — to support President Trump in this vital mission.”
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement Friday that the “battle is far from over.”
“As President Trump works nationally to fix the mess Biden and (Vice President Kamala) Harris created on the southern border, we will continue fighting in Iowa to defend our laws and keep families safe,” Bird said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man who shot at Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg when he was a candidate in 2022 was sentenced Friday to 17 years and 6 months in federal prison after a tense sentencing hearing where Greenberg spoke of the harm the attack has caused.
Quintez Brown was arrested shortly after leaving Greenberg’s campaign office, where one of his six shots grazed Greenberg’s sweater. Four other staffers were in the room with Greenberg, and one of them rushed to close the door on Brown after he fired.
Greenberg, who was elected mayor later that year, said in court Friday that he saw a man he didn’t recognize come to the door of his campaign headquarters, and when a staffer tried to engage the man in conversation, “I saw a gun pointed directly at me and I’ll never forget the sound of those gun shots fired,” Greenberg told the court. Greenberg said in the ensuing days, he felt “fear and confusion that made me physically numb for days.”
Brown, 24, pleaded guilty in July to federal charges of interfering with a federally protected activity and discharging a firearm in relation with a crime of violence. The plea agreement called for a sentencing range of 15 to nearly 18 years.
U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton said Brown’s attack was premeditated and was a threat to the community’s political system. He ordered Brown be on supervised release for five years after he is out of prison.
Brown, a former standout student and Louisville newspaper columnist who was running for city council at the time, apologized to Greenberg and his staff who were present at the Feb. 14, 2022, shooting.
“When I shot that gun, I taught everybody a wrong lesson,” he said, looking in the direction of Greenberg, who was sitting in the front row of the gallery with his wife. “I want to tell those who were in the room that I’m sorry. I can’t believe I caused all this.”
After the shooting, Brown was charged with attempted murder but was bailed out of jail a few days later by a nonprofit bail fund group, outraging Greenberg and other city leaders. At the time, Greenberg said it was “nearly impossible to believe that someone can attempt murder on Monday and walk out of jail on Wednesday.”
Federal officials investigated the case, and in April of that year unsealed an indictment charging Brown. Federal prosecutors said Brown searched the Internet for Greenberg’s campaign headquarters, along with searches of his family, according to a sentencing memo from federal prosecutors. Brown bought a gun and even went to Greenberg’s home in the night before the shooting, but prosecutors believe he had a problem with the gun jamming.
So Brown bought another gun from a pawn shop the next day and traveled to Greenberg’s campaign office, where he fired multiple shots at Greenberg, who was sitting at a desk, according to prosecutors.
Defense attorneys for Brown pleaded for a lighter sentence, arguing that the shooting was aberrant behavior from a person suffering a mental illness episode who had not prior criminal record.
Brown still faces charges in state court of attempted murder and wanton endangerment. Those cases have been on hold while the federal case proceeded, but they are not expected to add to the length of Brown’s sentence.
DALLAS (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Friday dropped the case against a Texas doctor who called himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors and was accused of illegally obtaining private information on patients who weren’t under his care.
The dismissal of the case against Dr. Eithan Haim in U.S. district court in Houston comes as the Trump administration in its first week has already issued executive orders rolling back transgender rights.
Prosecutors had said that Haim, a 34-year-old surgeon, took the information and shared it with a conservative activist with “intent to cause malicious harm” to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, one of the nation’s largest pediatric hospitals.
Haim pleaded not guilty in June to four counts of wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information, saying outside the courthouse that he had “done nothing wrong.”
“We’re going to fight this tooth and nail, stand up for whistleblowers everywhere,” Haim said in June.
Ryan Patrick, one of Haim’s attorneys, said the dismissal speaks to the veracity of their case, and they “’are very happy for Dr. Haim and his family that this ordeal is finally over.”
Haim works in the Dallas area but had previously worked at Texas Children’s Hospital as part of his residency. The indictment alleged that Haim asked to reactivate his login there and in 2023 began accessing information on pediatric patients not under his care and then turned it over to a media contact.
Haim has publicly identified himself as the person who gave the information about patients at Texas Children’s to a conservative activist, who published a story that the hospital was providing transgender care for minors in secret.
At the time, transgender care for minors was legal in Texas, but the hospital had announced in 2022 that it would stop would stop gender-affirming care. A ban in Texas on transgender care for minors went into effect in September 2023.
Texas Children’s said in a statement Friday that they “defer to and respect” the Justice Department’s decisions in the case. In previous statements, hospital officials said its doctors have always provided care within the law.
Haim, who had been released on bond, faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.