Idaho
Families of Bryan Kohberger's victims ask judge to block crime scene photos
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Relatives of two of the four University of Idaho students murdered in 2022 have asked a judge to prevent the release of graphic crime scene photos and videos, saying that the images are traumatizing and making them public would violate their privacy.
Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life without parole last month for the stabbing murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at their off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho.
Even if crime scene images are somehow redacted, it's still traumatizing for the families, Ethan's mother, Stacy Chapin, wrote in a court document.
"They are heartbreaking and continue to reopen a wound that has yet to heal," she wrote.
The criminal case drew worldwide attention, and the Moscow Police Department received hundreds of requests to release investigatory records. Idaho law generally allows for the sealing of investigation records to be lifted once a criminal investigation is complete.
After Kohberger's sentencing, the city of Moscow responded to one such request for public records by releasing photos and videos taken by law enforcement at the crime scene, blurring out the bodies of the slain students as well as the faces of other victims and witnesses who talked to police outside the home.
The images still showed blood on the floors and walls of the home, however, and the videos included the sounds of sobbing friends and roommates.
Leander James, an attorney representing family members of Mogen and Chapin, told 2nd District Judge Megan Marshall that the blurring was ineffective, that the blood should also have been hidden from public view, and that the sounds of distress should have been muted.
"Blurring is not redacting," James said during a Thursday morning hearing. He asked the judge to carefully consider Stacy Chapin's statement, describing "how incredibly harmful and emotionally damaging it is for her to see images of her son and the other victims. They're in there, they're just blurred — they're harder to see."
The commodification of the killings by a whole industry of people obsessed with crimes makes it even more important to consider how the families have been victimized again by the release of such gory images, James told the judge.
"Images like this are disseminated within an instant, worldwide," James said, criticizing "this 'true crime' sort of industry that uses this stuff for economic gain, and misuses it."
Andrew Pluskal, an attorney representing the city of Moscow, said the city is required by law to release the images under the Idaho Public Records Act, and carefully weighed what to redact using the "balancing test" spelled out in the law, weighing the victims' right to privacy against the public's right to know.
"If there were options allowed in statute that allowed these records to be fired into the sun," the city would do it, Pluskal told the judge. He called the images "harrowing."
But he said the city could have been sued if it refused their release, and redacting or blurring the images was its best attempt to follow the law.
"The city is in the middle here — the city is going to get it from either side," Pluskal told the judge.
Marshall said she would consider both sides and issue a ruling at a later date.
Washington
Another rebuke for prosecutors: Grand jury refuses to indict woman accused of threatening President Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal grand jury has refused to indict an Indiana woman accused of threatening to kill President Donald Trump, another sign of a growing backlash against Trump's law enforcement crackdown in the nation's capital.
Nathalie Rose Jones was arrested on Aug. 16 in Washington, D.C., on charges that she made death threats against Trump on social media and during an interview with Secret Service agents.
But a grand jury composed of Washington residents refused to indict her based on evidence presented by Justice Department prosecutors, according to her attorney, assistant federal public defender Mary Manning Petras.
"Given that finding, the weight of the evidence is weak," Petras wrote in a court filing. "The government may intend to try again to obtain an indictment, but the evidence has not changed and no indictment is likely."
It is extraordinarily rare for a grand jury to refuse to return an indictment, but that has happened in other cases prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office since Trump ordered a surge in patrols by federal agents and troops in the District of Columbia.
A grand jury refused to indict a government attorney who was facing a felony assault charge for throwing a "sub-style" sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent — a confrontation captured on a viral video.
Three grand juries voted separately against indicting a woman accused of assaulting an FBI agent outside the city's jail in July, where she was recording video of the transfer of inmates into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
A grand jury also rejected an indictment against a man who was arrested on an assault charge by a U.S. Park Police officer with the assistance of National Guard members.
Grand jury proceedings are secret, so the reasons for their decisions don't become public. But the string of rebukes has fueled speculation that residents serving on grand juries are using their votes to protest against the White House's surge.
"Grand juries, judges, we will not simply go along with the flow," U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said during a hearing last week for a surge-related criminal case.
A spokesperson for Pirro's office didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Pirro posted a comment on Jones' case two days after her arrest.
"Threatening the life of the President is one of the most serious crimes and one that will be met with swift and unwavering prosecution. Make no mistake — justice will be served," Pirro wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Prosecutors said Jones, 50, of Lafayette, Indiana, posted a Aug. 6 message on Facebook that she was "willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea." When Secret Service agents questioned her on Aug. 15, Jones said she hoped to peacefully remove Trump from office but "will kill him out at the compound if I have to," according to prosecutors. Jones was arrested a day later in Washington, where she joined a protest near the White House.
Petras said Jones repeatedly told Secret Service agents that she had no intent to harm anyone, didn't own any weapons and went to Washington to peacefully protest.
Families of Bryan Kohberger's victims ask judge to block crime scene photos
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Relatives of two of the four University of Idaho students murdered in 2022 have asked a judge to prevent the release of graphic crime scene photos and videos, saying that the images are traumatizing and making them public would violate their privacy.
Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life without parole last month for the stabbing murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at their off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho.
Even if crime scene images are somehow redacted, it's still traumatizing for the families, Ethan's mother, Stacy Chapin, wrote in a court document.
"They are heartbreaking and continue to reopen a wound that has yet to heal," she wrote.
The criminal case drew worldwide attention, and the Moscow Police Department received hundreds of requests to release investigatory records. Idaho law generally allows for the sealing of investigation records to be lifted once a criminal investigation is complete.
After Kohberger's sentencing, the city of Moscow responded to one such request for public records by releasing photos and videos taken by law enforcement at the crime scene, blurring out the bodies of the slain students as well as the faces of other victims and witnesses who talked to police outside the home.
The images still showed blood on the floors and walls of the home, however, and the videos included the sounds of sobbing friends and roommates.
Leander James, an attorney representing family members of Mogen and Chapin, told 2nd District Judge Megan Marshall that the blurring was ineffective, that the blood should also have been hidden from public view, and that the sounds of distress should have been muted.
"Blurring is not redacting," James said during a Thursday morning hearing. He asked the judge to carefully consider Stacy Chapin's statement, describing "how incredibly harmful and emotionally damaging it is for her to see images of her son and the other victims. They're in there, they're just blurred — they're harder to see."
The commodification of the killings by a whole industry of people obsessed with crimes makes it even more important to consider how the families have been victimized again by the release of such gory images, James told the judge.
"Images like this are disseminated within an instant, worldwide," James said, criticizing "this 'true crime' sort of industry that uses this stuff for economic gain, and misuses it."
Andrew Pluskal, an attorney representing the city of Moscow, said the city is required by law to release the images under the Idaho Public Records Act, and carefully weighed what to redact using the "balancing test" spelled out in the law, weighing the victims' right to privacy against the public's right to know.
"If there were options allowed in statute that allowed these records to be fired into the sun," the city would do it, Pluskal told the judge. He called the images "harrowing."
But he said the city could have been sued if it refused their release, and redacting or blurring the images was its best attempt to follow the law.
"The city is in the middle here — the city is going to get it from either side," Pluskal told the judge.
Marshall said she would consider both sides and issue a ruling at a later date.
Washington
Another rebuke for prosecutors: Grand jury refuses to indict woman accused of threatening President Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal grand jury has refused to indict an Indiana woman accused of threatening to kill President Donald Trump, another sign of a growing backlash against Trump's law enforcement crackdown in the nation's capital.
Nathalie Rose Jones was arrested on Aug. 16 in Washington, D.C., on charges that she made death threats against Trump on social media and during an interview with Secret Service agents.
But a grand jury composed of Washington residents refused to indict her based on evidence presented by Justice Department prosecutors, according to her attorney, assistant federal public defender Mary Manning Petras.
"Given that finding, the weight of the evidence is weak," Petras wrote in a court filing. "The government may intend to try again to obtain an indictment, but the evidence has not changed and no indictment is likely."
It is extraordinarily rare for a grand jury to refuse to return an indictment, but that has happened in other cases prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office since Trump ordered a surge in patrols by federal agents and troops in the District of Columbia.
A grand jury refused to indict a government attorney who was facing a felony assault charge for throwing a "sub-style" sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent — a confrontation captured on a viral video.
Three grand juries voted separately against indicting a woman accused of assaulting an FBI agent outside the city's jail in July, where she was recording video of the transfer of inmates into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
A grand jury also rejected an indictment against a man who was arrested on an assault charge by a U.S. Park Police officer with the assistance of National Guard members.
Grand jury proceedings are secret, so the reasons for their decisions don't become public. But the string of rebukes has fueled speculation that residents serving on grand juries are using their votes to protest against the White House's surge.
"Grand juries, judges, we will not simply go along with the flow," U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said during a hearing last week for a surge-related criminal case.
A spokesperson for Pirro's office didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Pirro posted a comment on Jones' case two days after her arrest.
"Threatening the life of the President is one of the most serious crimes and one that will be met with swift and unwavering prosecution. Make no mistake — justice will be served," Pirro wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Prosecutors said Jones, 50, of Lafayette, Indiana, posted a Aug. 6 message on Facebook that she was "willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea." When Secret Service agents questioned her on Aug. 15, Jones said she hoped to peacefully remove Trump from office but "will kill him out at the compound if I have to," according to prosecutors. Jones was arrested a day later in Washington, where she joined a protest near the White House.
Petras said Jones repeatedly told Secret Service agents that she had no intent to harm anyone, didn't own any weapons and went to Washington to peacefully protest.
