New York
NYC mayor claims prosecutorial misconduct, asks judge to dismiss criminal case
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked a federal judge to toss out the corruption case against him Wednesday, alleging prosecutorial misconduct, even as the Justice Department seeks dismissal of the charges on the Democrat’s behalf.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, his lawyers alleged that the misconduct occurred when the government publicly leaked a letter then-U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi explaining why charges should not be dropped.
She wrote the letter, offering to resign as she refused to follow acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s directive to drop the charges against the embattled mayor two weeks ago. Bove accepted the resignation.
Bove had written a letter to Sassoon, saying the mayor was needed to assist President Donald Trump’s law-and-order priorities, particularly the fight against illegal immigration and violent crime. He also said the charges were interfering with this year’s New York City mayoral race.
In their court papers Wednesday, Adams’ lawyers wrote that the public release of Sassoon’s “unhinged resignation letter” to Bondi was “part of an extraordinary flurry of leaked internal Justice Department correspondence” that occurred after Bove issued his directive to Sassoon in writing.
The lawyers said Sassoon notified Bondi that prosecutors were planning to add an obstruction charge against Adams in a superseding indictment and made the “wildly inflammatory and false accusation” that Adams and his lawyers had offered to help the Trump administration in return for the dismissal of charges.
Adams was indicted in September on charges alleging he accepted over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and travel perks from a Turkish official and others seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. He faces multiple challengers in June’s Democratic primary. He has pleaded not guilty and insisted he is innocent.
The lawyers said the public exposure of the unusual Justice Department internal fight had violated Adams’s constitutional rights and interfered with his ability to receive a fair trial.
They said the leaks also violated statutory and court rules, including the Justice Department’s longstanding policies designed to prevent prosecutorial misconduct.
A request for comment was made to the Justice Department in Washington. Bove and two Justice Department lawyers are currently trying to get a Manhattan judge to dismiss the charges.
The judge, who has canceled an April trial, has appointed outside counsel to advise him as he decides what to do over the next few weeks.
Bove’s request to dismiss charges had included the possibility that charges could be reinstated after the mayoral election, but lawyers for Adams said that possibility should be eliminated.
“Mayor Adams was prosecuted in the media long before there was ever an indictment. The Court should take a moment to consider this inescapable reality. This case, which was once just a farce, has now become a cancer, and its pendency continues to cause real and irrevocable harm each and every day,” they said.
Georgia
Deputy won’t be charged for killing an exonerated man during a violent traffic stop
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia sheriff’s deputy won’t face criminal charges for fatally shooting a Black man during a 2023 traffic stop that spiraled into a violent struggle, the district attorney who examined body-camera video and other evidence in the killing said Tuesday.
Leonard Cure, 53, was killed just three years after Florida authorities had freed him from prison after serving 16 years for a crime he did not commit.
A white deputy in Camden County, Georgia, pulled Cure over for speeding on Interstate 95 near the Florida line on Oct. 16, 2023. The deputy ordered Cure to get out of his pickup truck and shocked him with a stun gun when Cure refused to put his hands behind his back. Body- and dash camera video showed Cure was fighting back and had a hand at the deputy’s throat when he was shot point-blank.
“Use of deadly force at that point was objectively reasonable given that he was being overpowered at that time,” District Attorney Keith Higgins told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday.
Higgins, Georgia’s top prosecutor for the coastal Brunswick Judicial Circuit, said he told Cure’s family of his decision during a meeting Monday and also notified the deputy, Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge.
Attorneys for Cure’s family have insisted Aldridge used excessive force.
Aldridge still works for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, assigned to its administrative division, said Deputy Dalton Vernakes, a spokesman for Sheriff James Kevin Chaney. Aldridge had been placed on administrative leave while Cure’s shooting was investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“The GBI did a thorough investigation and the district attorney came to the right conclusion regarding Mr. Aldridge’s use of force in this instance,” Aldridge’s attorney, Adrienne Browning, said by email. “We’re happy he’ll be able to continue to serve the citizens of Camden County as he’s done for the past 12 years.”
Relatives have said Cure likely resisted because of psychological trauma from his long imprisonment in Florida for an armed robbery he didn’t commit. Officials exonerated and freed him in 2020.
Cure was killed after being pulled over on suspicion of reckless driving as he was traveling home to Atlanta after visiting his mother in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
The sheriff’s office released Aldridge’s body- and dash camera video of the traffic stop two days after the shooting. It showed the deputy ordering Cure to get out and stand with his hands on his pickup truck, telling Cure that he was going more than 100 mph (160 kph).
In the video, Aldridge shocks Cure with a stun gun after he ignores commands to put his hands behind his back. Cure then spins around, flailing his arms, and grabs the deputy as traffic speeds past.
The video shows both men grappling as Cure gets a hand on the deputy’s lower face and neck and begins forcing his head backward. The deputy strikes Cure in the side with a baton, but Cure maintains his grip.
“Yeah, bitch!” Cure says on the video. Then a single pop sounds and Aldridge can be seen holding his handgun as Cure slumps to the ground.
Lawyers for Cure’s family have said the Camden County sheriff should never have hired Aldridge, who was fired by the neighboring Kingsland Police Department in 2017 after being disciplined a third time for using excessive force. Personnel records show the sheriff hired him nine months later.
A year ago, Cure’s family filed a federal lawsuit against Aldridge and then-Sheriff Jim Proctor in U.S. District Court, seeking $16 million. It accuses Aldridge of using excessive force and Proctor of ignoring the deputy’s history of violence. Both have denied wrongdoing in court filings. The case is still pending in U.S. District Court.
Idaho
Prosecutors seek to limit Bryan Kohberger’s alibi evidence at murder trial
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho prosecutors say a man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students shouldn’t be allowed to offer an alibi defense unless he takes the stand himself during the murder trial later this year.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson asked a judge to limit any alibi evidence during Bryan Kohberger’s trial in a court document released on Tuesday. He also asked 4th District Judge Steven Hippler to limit evidence about any psychiatric evaluations Kohberger might have undergone, as well as arguments about an alternate perpetrator of the crimes.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, students who were killed in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022, at a rental home near their campus in Moscow, Idaho. When asked to enter a plea last year, Kohberger stood silent, prompting a judge to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted.
Thousands of pages of court documents have been filed in the complicated case as attorneys on both sides attempt to set the ground rules for what will and won’t be presented to jurors during the three-month trial set to begin Aug. 11.
Kohberger’s defense team filed a court document last year that said he was, “ out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars.” The defense also said an expert in cellphone tracking would partially back those claims by testifying about where Kohberger’s mobile device was during those hours.
But Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson wrote in his motion that the defense team hasn’t provided enough specific details about exactly where Kohberger claims to have been, and that they failed to meet disclosure deadlines set by the judge.
“It would be unrealistic at this late date to expect the State to effectively investigate and respond to any new or additional alibi-related disclosures,” Thompson wrote, and so any alibi evidence should be barred unless it comes from Kohberger himself.
Thompson also asked the judge to limit the defense from offering any arguments about other possible perpetrators unless the judge first decides the evidence is relevant and admissible in court.
“In this case, during the course of the investigation, literally thousands of tips regarding possible perpetrators were received by law enforcement. With the exception of information regarding the Defendant, none of these tips were substantiated,” Thompson wrote.
He also asked that some testimony on neuropsychological and psychiatric evaluations of Kohberger be barred, arguing it’s not allowable under state rules.
Defense attorney Anne Taylor, meanwhile, asked the court for permission to file a lengthy court document that will include motions on a variety of things including improperly disclosed expert testimony, references to “touch” and “contact” DNA, and “witness identification by bushy eyebrows.” The judge approved Taylor’s request to file the long document, but it has not yet been released to the public.
Florida
Orlando museum and late ex-director’s estate drop lawsuits over forged artworks
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Orlando Museum of Art and the estate of its former director, who died last month, have agreed to drop lawsuits against each other that arose from the 2022 FBI seizure of two dozen forged paintings that were falsely attributed to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The museum said in a statement Tuesday that the dismissal ends all litigation between it and the estate of its former director, Aaron De Groft, who died Jan. 18. The museum had accused De Groft of not fulfilling his fiduciary duty to the museum by championing the exhibit, while he claimed that his firing was unjust.
“It is OMA’s sincere hope that this step will allow OMA to continue forward with its mission in partnership with its valued constituencies,” the museum said.
De Groft negotiated to have the museum be the first institution to display more than two dozen artworks said to have been found in an old storage locker decades after Basquiat’s 1988 death from a drug overdose.
There were persistent questions about the authenticity of the works, culminating in the FBI’s 2022 raid of the museum. In 2023, former Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of making false statements to the FBI, admitting that he and an accomplice had created the fake artwork and falsely attributed the paintings to Basquiat.
NYC mayor claims prosecutorial misconduct, asks judge to dismiss criminal case
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked a federal judge to toss out the corruption case against him Wednesday, alleging prosecutorial misconduct, even as the Justice Department seeks dismissal of the charges on the Democrat’s behalf.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, his lawyers alleged that the misconduct occurred when the government publicly leaked a letter then-U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi explaining why charges should not be dropped.
She wrote the letter, offering to resign as she refused to follow acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s directive to drop the charges against the embattled mayor two weeks ago. Bove accepted the resignation.
Bove had written a letter to Sassoon, saying the mayor was needed to assist President Donald Trump’s law-and-order priorities, particularly the fight against illegal immigration and violent crime. He also said the charges were interfering with this year’s New York City mayoral race.
In their court papers Wednesday, Adams’ lawyers wrote that the public release of Sassoon’s “unhinged resignation letter” to Bondi was “part of an extraordinary flurry of leaked internal Justice Department correspondence” that occurred after Bove issued his directive to Sassoon in writing.
The lawyers said Sassoon notified Bondi that prosecutors were planning to add an obstruction charge against Adams in a superseding indictment and made the “wildly inflammatory and false accusation” that Adams and his lawyers had offered to help the Trump administration in return for the dismissal of charges.
Adams was indicted in September on charges alleging he accepted over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and travel perks from a Turkish official and others seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. He faces multiple challengers in June’s Democratic primary. He has pleaded not guilty and insisted he is innocent.
The lawyers said the public exposure of the unusual Justice Department internal fight had violated Adams’s constitutional rights and interfered with his ability to receive a fair trial.
They said the leaks also violated statutory and court rules, including the Justice Department’s longstanding policies designed to prevent prosecutorial misconduct.
A request for comment was made to the Justice Department in Washington. Bove and two Justice Department lawyers are currently trying to get a Manhattan judge to dismiss the charges.
The judge, who has canceled an April trial, has appointed outside counsel to advise him as he decides what to do over the next few weeks.
Bove’s request to dismiss charges had included the possibility that charges could be reinstated after the mayoral election, but lawyers for Adams said that possibility should be eliminated.
“Mayor Adams was prosecuted in the media long before there was ever an indictment. The Court should take a moment to consider this inescapable reality. This case, which was once just a farce, has now become a cancer, and its pendency continues to cause real and irrevocable harm each and every day,” they said.
Georgia
Deputy won’t be charged for killing an exonerated man during a violent traffic stop
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia sheriff’s deputy won’t face criminal charges for fatally shooting a Black man during a 2023 traffic stop that spiraled into a violent struggle, the district attorney who examined body-camera video and other evidence in the killing said Tuesday.
Leonard Cure, 53, was killed just three years after Florida authorities had freed him from prison after serving 16 years for a crime he did not commit.
A white deputy in Camden County, Georgia, pulled Cure over for speeding on Interstate 95 near the Florida line on Oct. 16, 2023. The deputy ordered Cure to get out of his pickup truck and shocked him with a stun gun when Cure refused to put his hands behind his back. Body- and dash camera video showed Cure was fighting back and had a hand at the deputy’s throat when he was shot point-blank.
“Use of deadly force at that point was objectively reasonable given that he was being overpowered at that time,” District Attorney Keith Higgins told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday.
Higgins, Georgia’s top prosecutor for the coastal Brunswick Judicial Circuit, said he told Cure’s family of his decision during a meeting Monday and also notified the deputy, Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge.
Attorneys for Cure’s family have insisted Aldridge used excessive force.
Aldridge still works for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, assigned to its administrative division, said Deputy Dalton Vernakes, a spokesman for Sheriff James Kevin Chaney. Aldridge had been placed on administrative leave while Cure’s shooting was investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“The GBI did a thorough investigation and the district attorney came to the right conclusion regarding Mr. Aldridge’s use of force in this instance,” Aldridge’s attorney, Adrienne Browning, said by email. “We’re happy he’ll be able to continue to serve the citizens of Camden County as he’s done for the past 12 years.”
Relatives have said Cure likely resisted because of psychological trauma from his long imprisonment in Florida for an armed robbery he didn’t commit. Officials exonerated and freed him in 2020.
Cure was killed after being pulled over on suspicion of reckless driving as he was traveling home to Atlanta after visiting his mother in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
The sheriff’s office released Aldridge’s body- and dash camera video of the traffic stop two days after the shooting. It showed the deputy ordering Cure to get out and stand with his hands on his pickup truck, telling Cure that he was going more than 100 mph (160 kph).
In the video, Aldridge shocks Cure with a stun gun after he ignores commands to put his hands behind his back. Cure then spins around, flailing his arms, and grabs the deputy as traffic speeds past.
The video shows both men grappling as Cure gets a hand on the deputy’s lower face and neck and begins forcing his head backward. The deputy strikes Cure in the side with a baton, but Cure maintains his grip.
“Yeah, bitch!” Cure says on the video. Then a single pop sounds and Aldridge can be seen holding his handgun as Cure slumps to the ground.
Lawyers for Cure’s family have said the Camden County sheriff should never have hired Aldridge, who was fired by the neighboring Kingsland Police Department in 2017 after being disciplined a third time for using excessive force. Personnel records show the sheriff hired him nine months later.
A year ago, Cure’s family filed a federal lawsuit against Aldridge and then-Sheriff Jim Proctor in U.S. District Court, seeking $16 million. It accuses Aldridge of using excessive force and Proctor of ignoring the deputy’s history of violence. Both have denied wrongdoing in court filings. The case is still pending in U.S. District Court.
Idaho
Prosecutors seek to limit Bryan Kohberger’s alibi evidence at murder trial
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho prosecutors say a man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students shouldn’t be allowed to offer an alibi defense unless he takes the stand himself during the murder trial later this year.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson asked a judge to limit any alibi evidence during Bryan Kohberger’s trial in a court document released on Tuesday. He also asked 4th District Judge Steven Hippler to limit evidence about any psychiatric evaluations Kohberger might have undergone, as well as arguments about an alternate perpetrator of the crimes.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, students who were killed in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022, at a rental home near their campus in Moscow, Idaho. When asked to enter a plea last year, Kohberger stood silent, prompting a judge to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted.
Thousands of pages of court documents have been filed in the complicated case as attorneys on both sides attempt to set the ground rules for what will and won’t be presented to jurors during the three-month trial set to begin Aug. 11.
Kohberger’s defense team filed a court document last year that said he was, “ out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars.” The defense also said an expert in cellphone tracking would partially back those claims by testifying about where Kohberger’s mobile device was during those hours.
But Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson wrote in his motion that the defense team hasn’t provided enough specific details about exactly where Kohberger claims to have been, and that they failed to meet disclosure deadlines set by the judge.
“It would be unrealistic at this late date to expect the State to effectively investigate and respond to any new or additional alibi-related disclosures,” Thompson wrote, and so any alibi evidence should be barred unless it comes from Kohberger himself.
Thompson also asked the judge to limit the defense from offering any arguments about other possible perpetrators unless the judge first decides the evidence is relevant and admissible in court.
“In this case, during the course of the investigation, literally thousands of tips regarding possible perpetrators were received by law enforcement. With the exception of information regarding the Defendant, none of these tips were substantiated,” Thompson wrote.
He also asked that some testimony on neuropsychological and psychiatric evaluations of Kohberger be barred, arguing it’s not allowable under state rules.
Defense attorney Anne Taylor, meanwhile, asked the court for permission to file a lengthy court document that will include motions on a variety of things including improperly disclosed expert testimony, references to “touch” and “contact” DNA, and “witness identification by bushy eyebrows.” The judge approved Taylor’s request to file the long document, but it has not yet been released to the public.
Florida
Orlando museum and late ex-director’s estate drop lawsuits over forged artworks
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Orlando Museum of Art and the estate of its former director, who died last month, have agreed to drop lawsuits against each other that arose from the 2022 FBI seizure of two dozen forged paintings that were falsely attributed to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The museum said in a statement Tuesday that the dismissal ends all litigation between it and the estate of its former director, Aaron De Groft, who died Jan. 18. The museum had accused De Groft of not fulfilling his fiduciary duty to the museum by championing the exhibit, while he claimed that his firing was unjust.
“It is OMA’s sincere hope that this step will allow OMA to continue forward with its mission in partnership with its valued constituencies,” the museum said.
De Groft negotiated to have the museum be the first institution to display more than two dozen artworks said to have been found in an old storage locker decades after Basquiat’s 1988 death from a drug overdose.
There were persistent questions about the authenticity of the works, culminating in the FBI’s 2022 raid of the museum. In 2023, former Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of making false statements to the FBI, admitting that he and an accomplice had created the fake artwork and falsely attributed the paintings to Basquiat.
