New Hampshire
Member of Zizian group says she did not kill parents
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The daughter of a Pennsylvania couple whose deaths are among six connected to a cultlike group says she has been falsely accused of killing her parents.
Michelle Zajko’s denial was part of a 20-page handwritten “Open Letter to the World” her attorney provided to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Dated March 9, the letter also attempts to defend Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, whom authorities have described as the apparent leader of the “extremist group” called the Zizians.
“You, the public, are being lied to,” Zajko wrote. “And while I don’t promise to answer all your questions, I think the truth about my friends and I will make a lot more sense than what you’ve been reading about in the papers.”
The group has been linked to killings in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California. A cross-country investigation into LaSota and the Zizians broke open in January when one member of the group died and another was arrested after the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont.
Authorities say Zajko provided the gun that was used in the Vermont shooting, and in February, she, LaSota and another associate were arrested in Maryland and charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement and illegal gun possession after a man told police that three “suspicious” people parked box trucks on his property and asked to camp there.
Zajko also was questioned but not charged in connection with the deaths of her parents, Rita and Richard Zajko, who were shot and killed in their Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, home on New Year’s Eve 2022. A few weeks later, LaSota was charged with disorderly conduct after refusing to cooperate with officers investigating the deaths, but Zajko said LaSota was just “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“The police lied to her & told her that I had confessed (to something I didn’t do),” she wrote.
“My friends and I are being described as like Satan’s lapdogs, the devil & the Manson family all rolled into one,” she wrote. “These papers are flagrantly lying. For instance, there were no truck-fulls of guns, no machine gun, & I didn’t murder my parents.”
A call and email sent to the Pennsylvania State Police was not immediately answered.
Members of the Zizian group also have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord in November 2022 and the landlord’s subsequent killing in January. Maximilian Snyder, who is charged with killing landlord Curtis Lind, had applied for a marriage license with Teresa Youngblut, who is accused of shooting at the Border Patrol agent in Vermont.
“The newspapers do not seem to realize that there are multiple groups, & that my friends & I are not with Snyder,” she wrote.
Youngblut is accused of firing at Maland during a traffic stop and has pleaded not guilty to federal firearms charges. Felix Bauckholt, a passenger in the car, also was killed in a shootout.
Bauckholt and LaSota were living together in North Carolina as recently as this winter, according to their landlord, who also was renting a duplex to Youngblut in the same neighborhood. Zajko’s lawyer said Tuesday that Zajko also had been living in North Carolina before the group moved north to Frostburg, Maryland.
Florida
Suspect in assassination attempt of Trump can hire expert to check rifle’s operability
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A suspect accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last September in South Florida can hire an expert to examine the rifle recovered from the scene, but only to determine its operability, a federal judge said Tuesday.
Ryan Wesley Routh’ s attorneys had asked that their expert be allowed to inspect, photograph and test the rifle in order to evaluate a government expert’s findings, as well as test it for other information that they thought was relevant.
In Tuesday’s order, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon limited the testing to just its operability, with a May 15 deadline. Routh’s trial is scheduled for September.
Prosecutors say Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. Before Trump came into view, Routh was spotted by a Secret Service agent. Routh allegedly aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot. Prosecutors say he left behind a note describing his intentions.
He was arrested a short time later driving on a nearby interstate.
New York
Prison guards indicted in connection with an inmate’s death, governor says
Multiple New York prison guards have been indicted in connection with the “disturbing” death of an inmate last month during a wildcat officers’ strike, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.
Messiah Nantwi, a prisoner at the Mid-State Correctional Facility, died at a hospital March 1 following what other prisoners said was a severe beating by several guards.
At the time, the state’s prisons were in a state of crisis caused by the walkout of thousands of prison personnel during an unauthorized 22-day strike that had forced the governor to call in the National Guard.
“The tragic death of Mr. Nantwi at the hands of correction officers who are responsible for protecting the incarcerated population is deeply, deeply disturbing,” Hochul said in a brief video message.
The governor didn’t immediately say how many guards had been indicted or reveal details about the charges. Her office did not respond to an email seeking more information.
A special prosecutor investigating Nantwi’s death, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, said earlier Tuesday that a “noteworthy development” in the case will be presented to a judge in Utica on Wednesday –- a signal that criminal charges might be imminent.
The Rev. Kevin McCall, a spokesperson for Nantwi’s relatives, said family members planned on attending.
The New York Times interviewed multiple inmates at the prison who reported that Nantwi was severely beaten by correctional officers before he died.
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a court filing last month there was “probable cause to believe” that as many as nine correctional officers either caused or could be implicated in Nantwi’s death.
Prison officials said Tuesday that seven officers have resigned in the wake of Nantwi’s death and 11 have been suspended without pay.
The special prosecutor’s office declined Tuesday to provide details on the new development. Fitzpatrick, who had said he would not comment on the case until a grand jury took action, has scheduled a news conference for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday following the court appearance.
Nantwi’s death came several months after another inmate, Robert Brooks, was fatally beaten at another prison, the Marcy Correctional Facility, that sits across the street from the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Six guards were charged with murder, three with manslaughter and one with evidence tampering in Brooks’ death. They have pleaded not guilty, and their cases are pending.
Correctional officers upset over working conditions began illegally walking off the job Feb. 17 at many state prisons. Incarcerated people and their advocates complained that services and conditions deteriorated during the walkout.
The strike ended when many guards returned to work and Hochul fired the remaining 2,000 holdouts.
Nantwi entered the state prison system last May and had been serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon related to an exchange of gunfire with police officers in 2021. At the time, he was shot multiple times, while the officers were uninjured.
Manhattan prosecutors say Nantwi shot and killed Jaylen Duncan, 19, on a Harlem street in April 2023. The following evening, they say, he shot and killed Brandon Brunson, 36, at a Harlem smoke shop after an argument.
Texas
Judge throws out rule that would have capped credit card late fees
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas judge on Tuesday threw out a federal rule that would have capped credit card late fees after officials with President Donald Trump’s administration and a coalition of major banking groups agreed that the rule was illegal.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth came a day after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a collection of major industry groups that had filed a lawsuit last year to stop the rule announced they had come to an agreement to throw out the rule. The groups that sued included the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The banks and other groups had alleged the new rule — proposed last year under the administration of President Joe Biden — violated the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure or CARD Act of 2009, which was enacted to protect consumers from unfair practices by credit card companies. The groups claimed the new rule did not allow credit card issuers “to charge fees that sufficiently account for deterrence or consumer conduct, including with respect to repeat violations.”
“The parties agree that, in the Late Fee Rule, the Bureau violated the CARD Act by failing to allow card issuers to ‘charge penalty fees reasonable and proportional to violations,’” attorneys with the CFPB wrote in a joint motion on Monday with the banking groups to vacate the rule.
The banks have been pushing hard to stop the late fee rule, due to the potential billions of dollars the banks would lose in revenue. The CFPB estimated when it issued the proposal last year that banks brought in roughly $14 billion in credit card late fees a year.
“This is a win for consumers and common sense. If the CFPB’s rule had gone into effect, it would have resulted in more late payments, lower credit scores, higher interest rates and reduced credit access for those who need it most. It would have also penalized the millions of Americans who pay their credit card bills on time and reduced important incentives for consumers to manage their finances,” the banking groups and others said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Even if the lawsuit had gone forward, the banking groups had a good chance of winning as Pittman in a December ruling had said they would have likely prevailed as he found that the new rule violated the CARD Act by not allowing credit card issuers to charge penalty fees that are reasonable and proportional to violations.
The CFPB has been in turmoil since the Trump administration earlier this year began dismantling it, targeting it for mass firings and dropping various enforcement actions against companies like Capital One and Rocket Homes. A federal judge last month issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily stopped the agency’s demise.
The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices by a wide range of financial institutions and businesses.
Member of Zizian group says she did not kill parents
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The daughter of a Pennsylvania couple whose deaths are among six connected to a cultlike group says she has been falsely accused of killing her parents.
Michelle Zajko’s denial was part of a 20-page handwritten “Open Letter to the World” her attorney provided to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Dated March 9, the letter also attempts to defend Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, whom authorities have described as the apparent leader of the “extremist group” called the Zizians.
“You, the public, are being lied to,” Zajko wrote. “And while I don’t promise to answer all your questions, I think the truth about my friends and I will make a lot more sense than what you’ve been reading about in the papers.”
The group has been linked to killings in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California. A cross-country investigation into LaSota and the Zizians broke open in January when one member of the group died and another was arrested after the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont.
Authorities say Zajko provided the gun that was used in the Vermont shooting, and in February, she, LaSota and another associate were arrested in Maryland and charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement and illegal gun possession after a man told police that three “suspicious” people parked box trucks on his property and asked to camp there.
Zajko also was questioned but not charged in connection with the deaths of her parents, Rita and Richard Zajko, who were shot and killed in their Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, home on New Year’s Eve 2022. A few weeks later, LaSota was charged with disorderly conduct after refusing to cooperate with officers investigating the deaths, but Zajko said LaSota was just “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“The police lied to her & told her that I had confessed (to something I didn’t do),” she wrote.
“My friends and I are being described as like Satan’s lapdogs, the devil & the Manson family all rolled into one,” she wrote. “These papers are flagrantly lying. For instance, there were no truck-fulls of guns, no machine gun, & I didn’t murder my parents.”
A call and email sent to the Pennsylvania State Police was not immediately answered.
Members of the Zizian group also have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord in November 2022 and the landlord’s subsequent killing in January. Maximilian Snyder, who is charged with killing landlord Curtis Lind, had applied for a marriage license with Teresa Youngblut, who is accused of shooting at the Border Patrol agent in Vermont.
“The newspapers do not seem to realize that there are multiple groups, & that my friends & I are not with Snyder,” she wrote.
Youngblut is accused of firing at Maland during a traffic stop and has pleaded not guilty to federal firearms charges. Felix Bauckholt, a passenger in the car, also was killed in a shootout.
Bauckholt and LaSota were living together in North Carolina as recently as this winter, according to their landlord, who also was renting a duplex to Youngblut in the same neighborhood. Zajko’s lawyer said Tuesday that Zajko also had been living in North Carolina before the group moved north to Frostburg, Maryland.
Florida
Suspect in assassination attempt of Trump can hire expert to check rifle’s operability
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A suspect accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last September in South Florida can hire an expert to examine the rifle recovered from the scene, but only to determine its operability, a federal judge said Tuesday.
Ryan Wesley Routh’ s attorneys had asked that their expert be allowed to inspect, photograph and test the rifle in order to evaluate a government expert’s findings, as well as test it for other information that they thought was relevant.
In Tuesday’s order, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon limited the testing to just its operability, with a May 15 deadline. Routh’s trial is scheduled for September.
Prosecutors say Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. Before Trump came into view, Routh was spotted by a Secret Service agent. Routh allegedly aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot. Prosecutors say he left behind a note describing his intentions.
He was arrested a short time later driving on a nearby interstate.
New York
Prison guards indicted in connection with an inmate’s death, governor says
Multiple New York prison guards have been indicted in connection with the “disturbing” death of an inmate last month during a wildcat officers’ strike, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.
Messiah Nantwi, a prisoner at the Mid-State Correctional Facility, died at a hospital March 1 following what other prisoners said was a severe beating by several guards.
At the time, the state’s prisons were in a state of crisis caused by the walkout of thousands of prison personnel during an unauthorized 22-day strike that had forced the governor to call in the National Guard.
“The tragic death of Mr. Nantwi at the hands of correction officers who are responsible for protecting the incarcerated population is deeply, deeply disturbing,” Hochul said in a brief video message.
The governor didn’t immediately say how many guards had been indicted or reveal details about the charges. Her office did not respond to an email seeking more information.
A special prosecutor investigating Nantwi’s death, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, said earlier Tuesday that a “noteworthy development” in the case will be presented to a judge in Utica on Wednesday –- a signal that criminal charges might be imminent.
The Rev. Kevin McCall, a spokesperson for Nantwi’s relatives, said family members planned on attending.
The New York Times interviewed multiple inmates at the prison who reported that Nantwi was severely beaten by correctional officers before he died.
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a court filing last month there was “probable cause to believe” that as many as nine correctional officers either caused or could be implicated in Nantwi’s death.
Prison officials said Tuesday that seven officers have resigned in the wake of Nantwi’s death and 11 have been suspended without pay.
The special prosecutor’s office declined Tuesday to provide details on the new development. Fitzpatrick, who had said he would not comment on the case until a grand jury took action, has scheduled a news conference for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday following the court appearance.
Nantwi’s death came several months after another inmate, Robert Brooks, was fatally beaten at another prison, the Marcy Correctional Facility, that sits across the street from the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Six guards were charged with murder, three with manslaughter and one with evidence tampering in Brooks’ death. They have pleaded not guilty, and their cases are pending.
Correctional officers upset over working conditions began illegally walking off the job Feb. 17 at many state prisons. Incarcerated people and their advocates complained that services and conditions deteriorated during the walkout.
The strike ended when many guards returned to work and Hochul fired the remaining 2,000 holdouts.
Nantwi entered the state prison system last May and had been serving a five-year sentence for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon related to an exchange of gunfire with police officers in 2021. At the time, he was shot multiple times, while the officers were uninjured.
Manhattan prosecutors say Nantwi shot and killed Jaylen Duncan, 19, on a Harlem street in April 2023. The following evening, they say, he shot and killed Brandon Brunson, 36, at a Harlem smoke shop after an argument.
Texas
Judge throws out rule that would have capped credit card late fees
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas judge on Tuesday threw out a federal rule that would have capped credit card late fees after officials with President Donald Trump’s administration and a coalition of major banking groups agreed that the rule was illegal.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth came a day after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a collection of major industry groups that had filed a lawsuit last year to stop the rule announced they had come to an agreement to throw out the rule. The groups that sued included the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The banks and other groups had alleged the new rule — proposed last year under the administration of President Joe Biden — violated the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure or CARD Act of 2009, which was enacted to protect consumers from unfair practices by credit card companies. The groups claimed the new rule did not allow credit card issuers “to charge fees that sufficiently account for deterrence or consumer conduct, including with respect to repeat violations.”
“The parties agree that, in the Late Fee Rule, the Bureau violated the CARD Act by failing to allow card issuers to ‘charge penalty fees reasonable and proportional to violations,’” attorneys with the CFPB wrote in a joint motion on Monday with the banking groups to vacate the rule.
The banks have been pushing hard to stop the late fee rule, due to the potential billions of dollars the banks would lose in revenue. The CFPB estimated when it issued the proposal last year that banks brought in roughly $14 billion in credit card late fees a year.
“This is a win for consumers and common sense. If the CFPB’s rule had gone into effect, it would have resulted in more late payments, lower credit scores, higher interest rates and reduced credit access for those who need it most. It would have also penalized the millions of Americans who pay their credit card bills on time and reduced important incentives for consumers to manage their finances,” the banking groups and others said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Even if the lawsuit had gone forward, the banking groups had a good chance of winning as Pittman in a December ruling had said they would have likely prevailed as he found that the new rule violated the CARD Act by not allowing credit card issuers to charge penalty fees that are reasonable and proportional to violations.
The CFPB has been in turmoil since the Trump administration earlier this year began dismantling it, targeting it for mass firings and dropping various enforcement actions against companies like Capital One and Rocket Homes. A federal judge last month issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily stopped the agency’s demise.
The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices by a wide range of financial institutions and businesses.
