Mississippi
Missing student declared legally dead as trial for man accused in his death looms
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge has declared a missing University of Mississippi student legally dead more than two years after his disappearance.
Jimmie “Jay” Lee, 20, was last seen July 8, 2022, driving from an apartment complex in Oxford. His vehicle was later recovered at another complex, but neither Lee nor his body were found.
Lee was well-known in the LGBTQ+ community in Oxford, and his disappearance sparked fear among students and residents.
Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr. was arrested two weeks after Lee vanished and later indicted on a capital murder charge. Police have said Herrington’s cellphone history showed conversations between him and Lee on the morning Lee went missing. They said they found Google searches for “how long it takes to strangle someone” minutes after Lee reportedly told Herrington he was on his way to his apartment. Herrington has maintained his innocence.
Court documents show Lee’s parents filed a petition for declaration of death in the Lafayette County Circuit Court in September, The Clarion-Ledger reported. Judge Grady Tollison granted the request and signed the order in October, the newspaper said.
Tollison noted the court previously ruled the “proof is evident and the presumption great” that Lee was dead further stating the court’s opinion “has not changed.”
“(Lee) is a person that has undergone a catastrophic event that exposed him to imminent peril or danger reasonably expected to result in the loss of life. Further, that it is uncontradicted that Mr. Lee’s absence since the event cannot be satisfactorily explained after diligent search and inquiry by family, friends and multiple law enforcement agencies,” Tollison wrote in the one-page order.
Herrington’s attorney, Kevin Horan, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a telephone message seeking comment.
Herrington is set to face trial Dec. 2.
Virginia
Inspector general finds no fault in police shooting of man in 2017
McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A federal inspector general has exonerated two U.S. Park Police officers who fatally shot a Virginia man after a stop-and-go chase on a highway seven years ago.
A report issued Tuesday by the Department of Interior’s inspector general found that the officers, Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya, did not violate procedures when they fatally shot Bijan Ghaisar, 25, of McLean, in November 2017 after a chase on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It also concluded that they were justified in chasing Ghaisar after receiving a report that he fled the scene of an accident in which his sport utility vehicle had been rear-ended.
The report said the shooting was within police policy because the officers reasonably feared that Amaya’s life was in danger when he stood in front of Ghaisar’s stopped vehicle and it began to roll forward.
The only policy violation that did occur, according to the report, was when one of the officers used his gun to strike a window on Ghaisar’s SUV.
Ghaisar’s death and the shooting was the subject of years of legal wrangling, though neither officer was ever convicted of a crime. Ghaisar’s family did receive a $5 million settlement from the government last year in a civil lawsuit alleging wrongful death.
On Wednesday, in a written statement, Ghaisar’s mother, Kelly Ghaisar, disputed the inspector general’s findings.
“These officers should have never pursued Bijan,” she said. “Although they saw Bijan was in distress - probably frightened to death - they did not communicate that with their superior. They pulled Bijan over and drew a weapon, banged on his window, and kicked his tire. They then hunted him and pulled him over and shot him multiple times.”
Federal authorities declined to prosecute the officers after a two-year FBI investigation. At that point, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano filed manslaughter charges against the officers in state court. That set off a tug-of-war between state and federal officials over who had jurisdiction to prosecute the case.
In October 2021, a federal judge tossed out the manslaughter charges brought by Descano’s office. The judge ruled that the officers were entitled to immunity and that their actions were proper under the circumstances.
The Ghaisar family said the officers violated their own policies by chasing Ghaisar, who was unarmed when officers opened fire.
Dashcam video of the shooting shows the pursuit starting on the parkway, then continuing into a residential neighborhood. It shows the car driven by Ghaisar stopping twice during the chase, and officers approaching the car with guns drawn. In both cases, Ghaisar drives off.
At the third and final stop, the officers again approach with guns drawn, and Amaya stands in front of the driver’s door. When the car starts to move, Amaya opens fire. Seconds later, when the car begins moving again, both Amaya and Vinyard fire multiple shots.
West Virginia
Former jail officer pleads guilty to civil rights violation in fatal assault on inmate
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former correctional officer in southern West Virginia pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal civil rights violation in the death of a man who died less than a day after being booked into a jail.
Mark Holdren entered a plea agreement in U.S. District Court in which he admitted conspiring with other officers to beat Quantez Burks as retaliation at the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver.
Holdren was among five ex-correctional officers and a former lieutenant at the jail who were indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2023, the same month that two other former jail officers entered guilty pleas in the beating.
Burks, 37, was booked into the jail on a wanton endangerment charge in March 2022. According to court documents, Burks tried to push past an officer to leave his housing unit. Burks then was escorted to an interview room where correctional officers were accused of striking him while he was restrained and handcuffed.
Holdren admitted to his role in the assault, knew that the interview room had no surveillance cameras and was aware that inmates and pretrial detainees who had engaged in misconduct had previously been brought to the room to enable officers to use unreasonable force without being caught on video, according to court documents. Holdren also admitted he knew it was improper for officers to use such force to punish inmates and pretrial detainees.
Holdren faces up to 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. No sentencing date was immediately announced.
Two other former officers, Ashley Toney and Jacob Boothe, face sentencing in January for their guilty pleas to violating Burks’ civil rights by failing to intervene in the assault. Ex-officers Steven Wimmer and Andrew Fleshman are set for sentencing in February after pleading guilty last year to a felony conspiracy charge. Trial for the remaining three defendants is scheduled for Dec. 10.
The case has drawn scrutiny to conditions and deaths at the Southern Regional Jail. Last year, West Virginia agreed to pay $4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates who described conditions at the jail as inhumane. The 2022 lawsuit filed on behalf of current and former inmates cited such complaints as a lack of access to water and food at the facility, as well as overcrowding and fights that were allowed to continue until someone was injured.
Gov. Jim Justice’s administration fired former Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Executive Officer Brad Douglas and Homeland Security Chief Counsel Phil Sword after a federal magistrate judge cited the “intentional” destruction of records in recommending a default judgment in the lawsuit. That followed a hearing in October 2023 in which former and current corrections officials, including some defendants in the lawsuit, said no steps had been taken to preserve evidence at the jail, including emails and documents.
The state medical examiner’s office attributed Burks’ primary cause of death to natural causes, prompting the family to have a private autopsy conducted. The family’s attorney revealed at a news conference in 2022 that the second autopsy found Burks had multiple areas of blunt force trauma on his body.
Florida
Teen pleads guilty to making hundreds of ‘swatting’ calls across the US
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A California teenager pleaded guilty Wednesday in a case involving the swatting of a Florida mosque among other institutions and individuals, federal prosecutors said.
Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, entered the plea to four counts of making interstate threats to injure the person of another, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a news release. He faces up to five years in prison on each count. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Swatting is the practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address. Bomb threats go back decades in the U.S., but swatting has become especially popular in recent years as people and groups target celebrities and politicians.
“For well over a year, Alan Filion targeted religious institutions, schools, government officials, and other innocent victims with hundreds of false threats of imminent mass shootings, bombings and other violent crimes. He caused profound fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a news release.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said Filion intended to cause as much harm as possible and tried to profit from the activity by offering swatting-for-a-fee services.
“Swatting poses severe danger to first responders and victims, wastes significant time and resources, and creates fear in communities. The FBI will continue to work with partners to aggressively investigate and hold accountable anyone who engages in these activities,” Abbate said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Filion made more than 375 swatting and threat calls from August 2022 to January 2024. Those calls included ones in which he claimed to have planted bombs in targeted locations or threatened to detonate bombs and/or conduct mass shootings at those locations, prosecutors said.
He targeted religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials and people across the United States. Filion was 16 at the time he placed the majority of the calls.
Filion also pleaded guilty to making three other threatening calls, including an October 2022 call to a public high school in the Western District of Washington, in which he threatened to commit a mass shooting and claimed to have planted bombs throughout the school.
He also pleaded guilty to a May 2023 call to a historically black college and university in the Northern District of Florida, in which he claimed to have placed bombs in the walls and ceilings of campus housing that would detonate in about an hour. Another incident was a July 2023 call to a local police-department dispatch number in the Western District of Texas, in which he falsely identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer, provided the officer’s residential address to the dispatcher, claimed to have killed the federal officer’s mother, and threatened to kill any responding police officers.
Missing student declared legally dead as trial for man accused in his death looms
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge has declared a missing University of Mississippi student legally dead more than two years after his disappearance.
Jimmie “Jay” Lee, 20, was last seen July 8, 2022, driving from an apartment complex in Oxford. His vehicle was later recovered at another complex, but neither Lee nor his body were found.
Lee was well-known in the LGBTQ+ community in Oxford, and his disappearance sparked fear among students and residents.
Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr. was arrested two weeks after Lee vanished and later indicted on a capital murder charge. Police have said Herrington’s cellphone history showed conversations between him and Lee on the morning Lee went missing. They said they found Google searches for “how long it takes to strangle someone” minutes after Lee reportedly told Herrington he was on his way to his apartment. Herrington has maintained his innocence.
Court documents show Lee’s parents filed a petition for declaration of death in the Lafayette County Circuit Court in September, The Clarion-Ledger reported. Judge Grady Tollison granted the request and signed the order in October, the newspaper said.
Tollison noted the court previously ruled the “proof is evident and the presumption great” that Lee was dead further stating the court’s opinion “has not changed.”
“(Lee) is a person that has undergone a catastrophic event that exposed him to imminent peril or danger reasonably expected to result in the loss of life. Further, that it is uncontradicted that Mr. Lee’s absence since the event cannot be satisfactorily explained after diligent search and inquiry by family, friends and multiple law enforcement agencies,” Tollison wrote in the one-page order.
Herrington’s attorney, Kevin Horan, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a telephone message seeking comment.
Herrington is set to face trial Dec. 2.
Virginia
Inspector general finds no fault in police shooting of man in 2017
McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A federal inspector general has exonerated two U.S. Park Police officers who fatally shot a Virginia man after a stop-and-go chase on a highway seven years ago.
A report issued Tuesday by the Department of Interior’s inspector general found that the officers, Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya, did not violate procedures when they fatally shot Bijan Ghaisar, 25, of McLean, in November 2017 after a chase on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It also concluded that they were justified in chasing Ghaisar after receiving a report that he fled the scene of an accident in which his sport utility vehicle had been rear-ended.
The report said the shooting was within police policy because the officers reasonably feared that Amaya’s life was in danger when he stood in front of Ghaisar’s stopped vehicle and it began to roll forward.
The only policy violation that did occur, according to the report, was when one of the officers used his gun to strike a window on Ghaisar’s SUV.
Ghaisar’s death and the shooting was the subject of years of legal wrangling, though neither officer was ever convicted of a crime. Ghaisar’s family did receive a $5 million settlement from the government last year in a civil lawsuit alleging wrongful death.
On Wednesday, in a written statement, Ghaisar’s mother, Kelly Ghaisar, disputed the inspector general’s findings.
“These officers should have never pursued Bijan,” she said. “Although they saw Bijan was in distress - probably frightened to death - they did not communicate that with their superior. They pulled Bijan over and drew a weapon, banged on his window, and kicked his tire. They then hunted him and pulled him over and shot him multiple times.”
Federal authorities declined to prosecute the officers after a two-year FBI investigation. At that point, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano filed manslaughter charges against the officers in state court. That set off a tug-of-war between state and federal officials over who had jurisdiction to prosecute the case.
In October 2021, a federal judge tossed out the manslaughter charges brought by Descano’s office. The judge ruled that the officers were entitled to immunity and that their actions were proper under the circumstances.
The Ghaisar family said the officers violated their own policies by chasing Ghaisar, who was unarmed when officers opened fire.
Dashcam video of the shooting shows the pursuit starting on the parkway, then continuing into a residential neighborhood. It shows the car driven by Ghaisar stopping twice during the chase, and officers approaching the car with guns drawn. In both cases, Ghaisar drives off.
At the third and final stop, the officers again approach with guns drawn, and Amaya stands in front of the driver’s door. When the car starts to move, Amaya opens fire. Seconds later, when the car begins moving again, both Amaya and Vinyard fire multiple shots.
West Virginia
Former jail officer pleads guilty to civil rights violation in fatal assault on inmate
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former correctional officer in southern West Virginia pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal civil rights violation in the death of a man who died less than a day after being booked into a jail.
Mark Holdren entered a plea agreement in U.S. District Court in which he admitted conspiring with other officers to beat Quantez Burks as retaliation at the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver.
Holdren was among five ex-correctional officers and a former lieutenant at the jail who were indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2023, the same month that two other former jail officers entered guilty pleas in the beating.
Burks, 37, was booked into the jail on a wanton endangerment charge in March 2022. According to court documents, Burks tried to push past an officer to leave his housing unit. Burks then was escorted to an interview room where correctional officers were accused of striking him while he was restrained and handcuffed.
Holdren admitted to his role in the assault, knew that the interview room had no surveillance cameras and was aware that inmates and pretrial detainees who had engaged in misconduct had previously been brought to the room to enable officers to use unreasonable force without being caught on video, according to court documents. Holdren also admitted he knew it was improper for officers to use such force to punish inmates and pretrial detainees.
Holdren faces up to 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. No sentencing date was immediately announced.
Two other former officers, Ashley Toney and Jacob Boothe, face sentencing in January for their guilty pleas to violating Burks’ civil rights by failing to intervene in the assault. Ex-officers Steven Wimmer and Andrew Fleshman are set for sentencing in February after pleading guilty last year to a felony conspiracy charge. Trial for the remaining three defendants is scheduled for Dec. 10.
The case has drawn scrutiny to conditions and deaths at the Southern Regional Jail. Last year, West Virginia agreed to pay $4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates who described conditions at the jail as inhumane. The 2022 lawsuit filed on behalf of current and former inmates cited such complaints as a lack of access to water and food at the facility, as well as overcrowding and fights that were allowed to continue until someone was injured.
Gov. Jim Justice’s administration fired former Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Executive Officer Brad Douglas and Homeland Security Chief Counsel Phil Sword after a federal magistrate judge cited the “intentional” destruction of records in recommending a default judgment in the lawsuit. That followed a hearing in October 2023 in which former and current corrections officials, including some defendants in the lawsuit, said no steps had been taken to preserve evidence at the jail, including emails and documents.
The state medical examiner’s office attributed Burks’ primary cause of death to natural causes, prompting the family to have a private autopsy conducted. The family’s attorney revealed at a news conference in 2022 that the second autopsy found Burks had multiple areas of blunt force trauma on his body.
Florida
Teen pleads guilty to making hundreds of ‘swatting’ calls across the US
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A California teenager pleaded guilty Wednesday in a case involving the swatting of a Florida mosque among other institutions and individuals, federal prosecutors said.
Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, entered the plea to four counts of making interstate threats to injure the person of another, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a news release. He faces up to five years in prison on each count. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Swatting is the practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address. Bomb threats go back decades in the U.S., but swatting has become especially popular in recent years as people and groups target celebrities and politicians.
“For well over a year, Alan Filion targeted religious institutions, schools, government officials, and other innocent victims with hundreds of false threats of imminent mass shootings, bombings and other violent crimes. He caused profound fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a news release.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said Filion intended to cause as much harm as possible and tried to profit from the activity by offering swatting-for-a-fee services.
“Swatting poses severe danger to first responders and victims, wastes significant time and resources, and creates fear in communities. The FBI will continue to work with partners to aggressively investigate and hold accountable anyone who engages in these activities,” Abbate said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Filion made more than 375 swatting and threat calls from August 2022 to January 2024. Those calls included ones in which he claimed to have planted bombs in targeted locations or threatened to detonate bombs and/or conduct mass shootings at those locations, prosecutors said.
He targeted religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials and people across the United States. Filion was 16 at the time he placed the majority of the calls.
Filion also pleaded guilty to making three other threatening calls, including an October 2022 call to a public high school in the Western District of Washington, in which he threatened to commit a mass shooting and claimed to have planted bombs throughout the school.
He also pleaded guilty to a May 2023 call to a historically black college and university in the Northern District of Florida, in which he claimed to have placed bombs in the walls and ceilings of campus housing that would detonate in about an hour. Another incident was a July 2023 call to a local police-department dispatch number in the Western District of Texas, in which he falsely identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer, provided the officer’s residential address to the dispatcher, claimed to have killed the federal officer’s mother, and threatened to kill any responding police officers.
