Florida
Ex-law enforcement official says he was forced to resign for defying DeSantis orders
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered illegal surveillance of immigrants and ignored concerns that relocating them from Texas to another state could be considered kidnapping or false imprisonment, the former chief of staff at the state’s top law enforcement agency said in a whistleblower lawsuit.
DeSantis also ordered the arrests of neo-Nazi demonstrators who weren’t breaking the law, former Florida Department of Law Enforcement Chief of Staff Shane Desguin said in a lawsuit filed this week in Leon County Circuit Court.
Desguin said the administration retaliated against him with an internal investigation that claimed he had a sexual relationship with a subordinate and recklessly pointed his unloaded gun at a coworker in an impromptu lesson on how to defend against an armed attacker.
The investigation happened as a result of Desguin reporting violations of rules, regulations or laws and malfeasance, and his forced resignation was retaliation for failing to comply with those orders, the lawsuit said.
DeSantis’ office pointed at the internal investigation mentioned in the lawsuit when asked about the lawsuit. Spokesman Jeremy Redfern sent The Associated Press a post he made on X after news reports about the lawsuit.
“This guy was under a formal investigation, which revealed that he pointed his firearm at somebody in his office,” Redfern said on X. “If I did that while in the military, I would’ve been court-martialed..”
DeSantis ordered the state to fly nearly 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, two years ago. The flight made a brief stop in Florida. The action spurred a lawsuit and a criminal investigation amid claims the migrants were misled and not told where they were going.
Desguin claimed in his lawsuit that the DeSantis administration floated the idea of busing immigrants from Texas to Florida before flying them to Massachusetts, and he raised concerns the operation would be illegal.
But DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, said “it was imperative to complete at least ‘one flight’ of the migrants from Florida to another state,” the lawsuit said, adding that Uthmeier said he could be fired if the order wasn’t carried out.
Last year, Uthmeier’s temporary replacement, Alex Kelly, called Desguin and said DeSantis wanted neo-Nazi protesters in Orlando arrested. Desguin replied he couldn’t arrest anyone for exercising their First Amendment rights, the lawsuit said.
“I don’t think you understand,” Kelly told Desguin, according to the lawsuit. “If you look hard enough, you can find a way. The governor wants someone arrested today.”
DeSantis continued pressuring for an arrest despite being told arrests would be unconstitutional. After several days, the department began making arrests for illegally attaching a banner to a highway overpass.
Massachusetts
2 men convicted in 2021 armed standoff on highway
BOSTON (AP) — Two men have been convicted for their role in an armed standoff on a busy Massachusetts highway in 2021 that lasted more than eight hours and caused traffic delays during a busy Fourth of July weekend.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced Friday that Jamhal Tavon Sanders Latimer and Steven Anthony Perez were found guilty on multiple gun charges related to the standoff. They will be sentenced July 16.
“The defendants in this case disrupted multiple communities and jeopardized the safety of many residents who were traveling or intending to travel on a busy Fourth of July weekend,” Ryan said in a statement. “Both Jamhal Tavon Sanders Latimer and Steven Anthony Perez demonstrated a disregard for our laws and failed to comply with the directives of multiple police agencies on scene. In Massachusetts we have strict laws regarding the licensing of firearms. When individuals come here with weapons, especially high capacity firearms like the ones these defendants had, without being in compliance, they create a substantial danger.”
Phone numbers for Latimer and Perez could not be found.
The two were part of a group called Rise of the Moors that claimed they were on their way to Maine for training when a state trooper stopped to ask if they needed help. That sparked the hourslong standoff on Interstate 95 after some members of the group ran into the woods alongside the highway.
Nearly a dozen people were arrested and state police say they recovered three AR-15 rifles, two pistols, a bolt-action rifle, a shotgun and a short-barrel rifle. The men, who were dressed in military fatigues and body armor and were armed with long guns and pistols, did not have licenses to carry firearms in the state.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says the Moorish sovereign citizen movement is a collection of independent organizations and individuals that emerged in the 1990s as an offshoot of the antigovernment sovereign citizens movement. People in the movement believe individual citizens hold sovereignty over and are independent of the authority of federal and state governments. They have frequently clashed with state and federal authorities over their refusal to obey laws.
The vast majority of Moorish sovereign citizens are African American, according to the SPLC.
New York
Former NYPD officer pleads guilty in shooting that injured girlfriend, killed second woman
NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City police officer who shot her girlfriend and another woman in October 2021, killing the second woman, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and attempted murder, New York state Attorney General Letitia James announced Monday.
Yvonne Wu was off duty when she shot Jamie Liang and Jenny Li inside Li’s Brooklyn apartment on Oct. 13, 2021. Liang was killed and Li was wounded in the shooting.
Authorities said Wu, 34, had been in an intimate relationship with Li and was waiting for her in the apartment when Li arrived with Liang.
Wu initially pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder. The attorney general later took over the investigation because it involved a police officer.
Wu has been jailed since the shooting and will remain in custody until she is sentenced On Aug. 28. She is expected to receive a prison sentence of 22 years on the manslaughter charge and five years on the attempted murder charge, the attorney general said.
Wu had been with the police department for five and a half years at the time of the shooting.
A phone message seeking comment was left with her attorney.
Ex-law enforcement official says he was forced to resign for defying DeSantis orders
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered illegal surveillance of immigrants and ignored concerns that relocating them from Texas to another state could be considered kidnapping or false imprisonment, the former chief of staff at the state’s top law enforcement agency said in a whistleblower lawsuit.
DeSantis also ordered the arrests of neo-Nazi demonstrators who weren’t breaking the law, former Florida Department of Law Enforcement Chief of Staff Shane Desguin said in a lawsuit filed this week in Leon County Circuit Court.
Desguin said the administration retaliated against him with an internal investigation that claimed he had a sexual relationship with a subordinate and recklessly pointed his unloaded gun at a coworker in an impromptu lesson on how to defend against an armed attacker.
The investigation happened as a result of Desguin reporting violations of rules, regulations or laws and malfeasance, and his forced resignation was retaliation for failing to comply with those orders, the lawsuit said.
DeSantis’ office pointed at the internal investigation mentioned in the lawsuit when asked about the lawsuit. Spokesman Jeremy Redfern sent The Associated Press a post he made on X after news reports about the lawsuit.
“This guy was under a formal investigation, which revealed that he pointed his firearm at somebody in his office,” Redfern said on X. “If I did that while in the military, I would’ve been court-martialed..”
DeSantis ordered the state to fly nearly 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, two years ago. The flight made a brief stop in Florida. The action spurred a lawsuit and a criminal investigation amid claims the migrants were misled and not told where they were going.
Desguin claimed in his lawsuit that the DeSantis administration floated the idea of busing immigrants from Texas to Florida before flying them to Massachusetts, and he raised concerns the operation would be illegal.
But DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, said “it was imperative to complete at least ‘one flight’ of the migrants from Florida to another state,” the lawsuit said, adding that Uthmeier said he could be fired if the order wasn’t carried out.
Last year, Uthmeier’s temporary replacement, Alex Kelly, called Desguin and said DeSantis wanted neo-Nazi protesters in Orlando arrested. Desguin replied he couldn’t arrest anyone for exercising their First Amendment rights, the lawsuit said.
“I don’t think you understand,” Kelly told Desguin, according to the lawsuit. “If you look hard enough, you can find a way. The governor wants someone arrested today.”
DeSantis continued pressuring for an arrest despite being told arrests would be unconstitutional. After several days, the department began making arrests for illegally attaching a banner to a highway overpass.
Massachusetts
2 men convicted in 2021 armed standoff on highway
BOSTON (AP) — Two men have been convicted for their role in an armed standoff on a busy Massachusetts highway in 2021 that lasted more than eight hours and caused traffic delays during a busy Fourth of July weekend.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced Friday that Jamhal Tavon Sanders Latimer and Steven Anthony Perez were found guilty on multiple gun charges related to the standoff. They will be sentenced July 16.
“The defendants in this case disrupted multiple communities and jeopardized the safety of many residents who were traveling or intending to travel on a busy Fourth of July weekend,” Ryan said in a statement. “Both Jamhal Tavon Sanders Latimer and Steven Anthony Perez demonstrated a disregard for our laws and failed to comply with the directives of multiple police agencies on scene. In Massachusetts we have strict laws regarding the licensing of firearms. When individuals come here with weapons, especially high capacity firearms like the ones these defendants had, without being in compliance, they create a substantial danger.”
Phone numbers for Latimer and Perez could not be found.
The two were part of a group called Rise of the Moors that claimed they were on their way to Maine for training when a state trooper stopped to ask if they needed help. That sparked the hourslong standoff on Interstate 95 after some members of the group ran into the woods alongside the highway.
Nearly a dozen people were arrested and state police say they recovered three AR-15 rifles, two pistols, a bolt-action rifle, a shotgun and a short-barrel rifle. The men, who were dressed in military fatigues and body armor and were armed with long guns and pistols, did not have licenses to carry firearms in the state.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says the Moorish sovereign citizen movement is a collection of independent organizations and individuals that emerged in the 1990s as an offshoot of the antigovernment sovereign citizens movement. People in the movement believe individual citizens hold sovereignty over and are independent of the authority of federal and state governments. They have frequently clashed with state and federal authorities over their refusal to obey laws.
The vast majority of Moorish sovereign citizens are African American, according to the SPLC.
New York
Former NYPD officer pleads guilty in shooting that injured girlfriend, killed second woman
NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City police officer who shot her girlfriend and another woman in October 2021, killing the second woman, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and attempted murder, New York state Attorney General Letitia James announced Monday.
Yvonne Wu was off duty when she shot Jamie Liang and Jenny Li inside Li’s Brooklyn apartment on Oct. 13, 2021. Liang was killed and Li was wounded in the shooting.
Authorities said Wu, 34, had been in an intimate relationship with Li and was waiting for her in the apartment when Li arrived with Liang.
Wu initially pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder. The attorney general later took over the investigation because it involved a police officer.
Wu has been jailed since the shooting and will remain in custody until she is sentenced On Aug. 28. She is expected to receive a prison sentence of 22 years on the manslaughter charge and five years on the attempted murder charge, the attorney general said.
Wu had been with the police department for five and a half years at the time of the shooting.
A phone message seeking comment was left with her attorney.
