New York
Judge dismisses ex-NYPD commissioner’s lawsuit alleging ‘systemic corruption’ in police department
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by New York City’s former interim police commissioner that accused the previous mayor, Eric Adams, and his top deputies of operating the NYPD as a “criminal enterprise.”
The racketeering lawsuit was originally filed in July by Thomas Donlon, a longtime FBI official appointed by Adams to stabilize the scandal-scarred police department.
Instead, Donlon said he encountered “systemic corruption and criminal conduct” enabled by Adams and his allies, who routinely inflated overtime, blocked internal investigations and punished whistleblowers.
In a ruling Wednesday, Judge Denise Cote said the alleged misconduct did not meet the definition of racketeering activity because the lawsuit did not describe the defendants acting with “a common purpose.”
A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said they were “pleased the court agreed there was no legal basis for this case to continue.” An inquiry to Adams’ spokesperson was not returned.
John Scola, an attorney for Donlon, said his client had already appealed the decision.
“Mr. Donlon confronted corruption within the NYPD’s highest ranks and was forced out for refusing to engage in illegal conduct,” Scola said. “We are confident the Second Circuit will allow his claims to proceed.”
Donlon was appointed by Adams following the resignation of the previous police commissioner, Edward Caban, whose phone was seized by federal officials as part of a sprawling probe into the administration.
He served as the interim commissioner for about two months, and was later replaced by Jessica Tisch, who continues to lead the department.
Donlon’s lawsuit was one of several filed by veteran police officials that described a culture of rampant corruption and cronyism within the department under Adams.
In recent weeks, federal prosecutors have also brought multiple bribery cases against former police officials who served under Adams.
Pennsylvania
U.S. judge upholds Friday deadline to restore slavery exhibit on Independence Mall in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s request to delay a Friday deadline to restore an exhibit on the history of slavery at Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
The ruling Friday morning came as restoration work begun Thursday resumed at the site of the former President’s House. Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe had set a 5 p.m. Friday deadline for its completion, and she held to that timeline, even as the administration appeals her decision.
The Interior Department has said in court papers that it planned to replace the exhibit with its own narrative on slavery, as the administration works to remove information that it deems “disparaging” to Americans from federal properties. Rufe said it must work with the city on new material under a longstanding cooperative agreement.
“As this court established, “(t)he government can convey a different message without restraint elsewhere if it so pleases, but it cannot do so to the President’s House until it follows the law and consults with the city,” Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, said in Friday’s opinion.
In its own filing Friday to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department called her ruling “extraordinary” and “an improper intrusion on the workings of a co-equal branch of government.”
The appeals court asked the city to respond to the request for an emergency stay of Rufe’s order.
One of the panels being rehung Friday morning — titled “History Lost & Found” — details the surprising discovery of artifacts from the building during an archaeological dig in the early 2000s, as work was being done on a new pavilion for the Liberty Bell.
National Park Service employees worked with care on the exhibits, including those on the nine people enslaved by George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital. The Park Service describes the outdoor exhibit as one “that examines the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation.”
The Trump administration abruptly removed the panels in January, leading the city and other advocates to file suit. They had been on display since 2010, the result of years of research and collaboration between the city, the Park Service, historians and other private parties.
Rufe, in denying the federal government’s request for a delay, said that side was unlikely to succeed at trial. And she said the public –- and the city’s reputation -- was being harmed with each passing day.
The city, she said, “is responsible for the public trust in the city’s telling of its own history, its own integrity in telling that history, and preventing erasure of that history, particularly in advance of the semiquincentennial.”
Millions of people are expected to visit Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, this year for the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 1776.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, which is representing the administration in court, declined to comment on the restoration work Friday.
Kimberly Gegner, a teacher from Philadelphia, visited the site Friday with some of her 6th- to 9th-grade students. As a Black American, she said, it had pained her to see the history removed. But she was grateful to see it going back up.
“This whole case and what happened here — the taking it down and how Mayor Parker and other Pennsylvanians had to go to court to have it restored — is an excellent case of how the Constitution was applied to win this case for Philadelphia,” she said.
Ohio
Woman sentenced to life in prison for killing 4 men with fentanyl
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A judge on Thursday sentenced an Ohio woman to four consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole after 60 years after she pleaded guilty to charges alleging she used fentanyl doses to kill four men she was trying to rob.
Rebecca Auborn, 36, of Columbus, was indicted in 2023 following the accusation that she met men for sex before fatally drugging them. Auborn initially pleaded not guilty but changed that plea late last year.
A Franklin County judge sentenced her to the four consecutive life terms, each of which carries the possibility of parole after 15 years. Auborn also pleaded guilty to one count of felonious assault for an attempted overdose of another man, Ohio Attorney General David Yost said in a statement Thursday.
“This sentence reflects the defendant’s disregard for life and the callousness not only to kill, but to do it repeatedly,” Yost said. “My heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one - I pray that this measure of justice brings them closure and peace.”
Yost said the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force received information that a sex worker was dosing men with intent to steal their belongings. The investigation followed. The crimes all happened in 2022 and 2023, authorities have said.
Connecticut
Former police chief arrested over alleged $85,000 theft from department funds
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — The former police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested Friday on larceny charges following allegations he stole $85,000 from two department accounts.
Karl Jacobson, who abruptly retired from the department in January, turned himself in on an arrest warrant. He was later released on a court-set bond of $150,000, a state prosecutor said in a news release. Jacobson faces two counts of larceny related to defrauding a public community.
“An allegation of embezzlement by a police official is a serious matter and potentially undermines public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Chief State’s Attorney Patrick J. Griffin said in a statement.
Jacobson’s lawyer, Gregory Cerritelli, said he couldn’t respond to the specific allegations yet but reminded the public that “an arrest is not evidence of guilt and allegations are not proof.”
“This is the beginning of a very long process,” he said in an emailed statement. “ I urge everyone to keep an open mind and avoid a rush to judgment.”
Last month, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, when announcing Jacobson’s retirement, said the former chief admitted he took money from a city fund that compensates confidential informants for helping police solve crimes.
Elicker said the former chief had acknowledged taking the funds for personal use when three of his deputies confronted him over the financial irregularities.
The mayor has called the allegations “shocking” and a “betrayal of public trust.”
Jacobson had served for three years as police chief in one of Connecticut’s largest cities, which is home to Yale University.
The state prosecutor’s office said Friday the city of New Haven first reported the embezzlement allegations on Jan. 5, which prompted an investigation by the Connecticut State Police. The probe revealed $81,500 was unaccounted for or misappropriated from the New Haven Police Department Narcotic Enforcement Fund between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2026. Money from the fund is used to pay confidential informants who help in narcotics investigations.
“The defendant had access to money in that fund,” according to a news release, which said bank records showed checks associated with the fund were deposited into Jacobson’s personal checking account.
Two checks totaling $4,000 were also withdrawn from the New Haven Police Activity League Fund between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2025. The prosecutor’s office said both were found in Jacobson’s personal account.
Investigators said no one else at the police department was involved in the matter.
Jacobson had been with the department for 15 years before being named chief. He previously served in the East Providence Police Department in Rhode Island for nine years.
Judge dismisses ex-NYPD commissioner’s lawsuit alleging ‘systemic corruption’ in police department
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by New York City’s former interim police commissioner that accused the previous mayor, Eric Adams, and his top deputies of operating the NYPD as a “criminal enterprise.”
The racketeering lawsuit was originally filed in July by Thomas Donlon, a longtime FBI official appointed by Adams to stabilize the scandal-scarred police department.
Instead, Donlon said he encountered “systemic corruption and criminal conduct” enabled by Adams and his allies, who routinely inflated overtime, blocked internal investigations and punished whistleblowers.
In a ruling Wednesday, Judge Denise Cote said the alleged misconduct did not meet the definition of racketeering activity because the lawsuit did not describe the defendants acting with “a common purpose.”
A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said they were “pleased the court agreed there was no legal basis for this case to continue.” An inquiry to Adams’ spokesperson was not returned.
John Scola, an attorney for Donlon, said his client had already appealed the decision.
“Mr. Donlon confronted corruption within the NYPD’s highest ranks and was forced out for refusing to engage in illegal conduct,” Scola said. “We are confident the Second Circuit will allow his claims to proceed.”
Donlon was appointed by Adams following the resignation of the previous police commissioner, Edward Caban, whose phone was seized by federal officials as part of a sprawling probe into the administration.
He served as the interim commissioner for about two months, and was later replaced by Jessica Tisch, who continues to lead the department.
Donlon’s lawsuit was one of several filed by veteran police officials that described a culture of rampant corruption and cronyism within the department under Adams.
In recent weeks, federal prosecutors have also brought multiple bribery cases against former police officials who served under Adams.
Pennsylvania
U.S. judge upholds Friday deadline to restore slavery exhibit on Independence Mall in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s request to delay a Friday deadline to restore an exhibit on the history of slavery at Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
The ruling Friday morning came as restoration work begun Thursday resumed at the site of the former President’s House. Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe had set a 5 p.m. Friday deadline for its completion, and she held to that timeline, even as the administration appeals her decision.
The Interior Department has said in court papers that it planned to replace the exhibit with its own narrative on slavery, as the administration works to remove information that it deems “disparaging” to Americans from federal properties. Rufe said it must work with the city on new material under a longstanding cooperative agreement.
“As this court established, “(t)he government can convey a different message without restraint elsewhere if it so pleases, but it cannot do so to the President’s House until it follows the law and consults with the city,” Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, said in Friday’s opinion.
In its own filing Friday to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department called her ruling “extraordinary” and “an improper intrusion on the workings of a co-equal branch of government.”
The appeals court asked the city to respond to the request for an emergency stay of Rufe’s order.
One of the panels being rehung Friday morning — titled “History Lost & Found” — details the surprising discovery of artifacts from the building during an archaeological dig in the early 2000s, as work was being done on a new pavilion for the Liberty Bell.
National Park Service employees worked with care on the exhibits, including those on the nine people enslaved by George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital. The Park Service describes the outdoor exhibit as one “that examines the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation.”
The Trump administration abruptly removed the panels in January, leading the city and other advocates to file suit. They had been on display since 2010, the result of years of research and collaboration between the city, the Park Service, historians and other private parties.
Rufe, in denying the federal government’s request for a delay, said that side was unlikely to succeed at trial. And she said the public –- and the city’s reputation -- was being harmed with each passing day.
The city, she said, “is responsible for the public trust in the city’s telling of its own history, its own integrity in telling that history, and preventing erasure of that history, particularly in advance of the semiquincentennial.”
Millions of people are expected to visit Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, this year for the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 1776.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, which is representing the administration in court, declined to comment on the restoration work Friday.
Kimberly Gegner, a teacher from Philadelphia, visited the site Friday with some of her 6th- to 9th-grade students. As a Black American, she said, it had pained her to see the history removed. But she was grateful to see it going back up.
“This whole case and what happened here — the taking it down and how Mayor Parker and other Pennsylvanians had to go to court to have it restored — is an excellent case of how the Constitution was applied to win this case for Philadelphia,” she said.
Ohio
Woman sentenced to life in prison for killing 4 men with fentanyl
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A judge on Thursday sentenced an Ohio woman to four consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole after 60 years after she pleaded guilty to charges alleging she used fentanyl doses to kill four men she was trying to rob.
Rebecca Auborn, 36, of Columbus, was indicted in 2023 following the accusation that she met men for sex before fatally drugging them. Auborn initially pleaded not guilty but changed that plea late last year.
A Franklin County judge sentenced her to the four consecutive life terms, each of which carries the possibility of parole after 15 years. Auborn also pleaded guilty to one count of felonious assault for an attempted overdose of another man, Ohio Attorney General David Yost said in a statement Thursday.
“This sentence reflects the defendant’s disregard for life and the callousness not only to kill, but to do it repeatedly,” Yost said. “My heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one - I pray that this measure of justice brings them closure and peace.”
Yost said the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force received information that a sex worker was dosing men with intent to steal their belongings. The investigation followed. The crimes all happened in 2022 and 2023, authorities have said.
Connecticut
Former police chief arrested over alleged $85,000 theft from department funds
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — The former police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested Friday on larceny charges following allegations he stole $85,000 from two department accounts.
Karl Jacobson, who abruptly retired from the department in January, turned himself in on an arrest warrant. He was later released on a court-set bond of $150,000, a state prosecutor said in a news release. Jacobson faces two counts of larceny related to defrauding a public community.
“An allegation of embezzlement by a police official is a serious matter and potentially undermines public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Chief State’s Attorney Patrick J. Griffin said in a statement.
Jacobson’s lawyer, Gregory Cerritelli, said he couldn’t respond to the specific allegations yet but reminded the public that “an arrest is not evidence of guilt and allegations are not proof.”
“This is the beginning of a very long process,” he said in an emailed statement. “ I urge everyone to keep an open mind and avoid a rush to judgment.”
Last month, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, when announcing Jacobson’s retirement, said the former chief admitted he took money from a city fund that compensates confidential informants for helping police solve crimes.
Elicker said the former chief had acknowledged taking the funds for personal use when three of his deputies confronted him over the financial irregularities.
The mayor has called the allegations “shocking” and a “betrayal of public trust.”
Jacobson had served for three years as police chief in one of Connecticut’s largest cities, which is home to Yale University.
The state prosecutor’s office said Friday the city of New Haven first reported the embezzlement allegations on Jan. 5, which prompted an investigation by the Connecticut State Police. The probe revealed $81,500 was unaccounted for or misappropriated from the New Haven Police Department Narcotic Enforcement Fund between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2026. Money from the fund is used to pay confidential informants who help in narcotics investigations.
“The defendant had access to money in that fund,” according to a news release, which said bank records showed checks associated with the fund were deposited into Jacobson’s personal checking account.
Two checks totaling $4,000 were also withdrawn from the New Haven Police Activity League Fund between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2025. The prosecutor’s office said both were found in Jacobson’s personal account.
Investigators said no one else at the police department was involved in the matter.
Jacobson had been with the department for 15 years before being named chief. He previously served in the East Providence Police Department in Rhode Island for nine years.
