Month: December 2021

Jussie Smollett was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct on Thursday, stemming from a January 2019 incident in which the actor alleged he had been attacked because of his race and sexual orientation. A Chicago jury reached guilty verdicts on five of six charges against Smollett. The decision came after nearly 10 hours of deliberation spread across two days from a panel of six men and six women. The charges, class four felonies, could result in up to three years of prison time. Given Smollett’s lack of a criminal history, it is unclear if he will be sentenced to any time in prison.

During the trial, Smollett testified that he had been attacked by two masked men while walking home around 2 a.m. The actor said the men beat him, shouted racist and homophobic comments, poured a chemical substance on him, looped a rope around his neck and then fled. Two brothers, Ola and Abel Osundairo, were arrested in February 2019 for allegedly being connected to the attack. The Osundairos told police that Smollett wrote them a check for $3,500 to carry out the purported attack. Smollett contested that the $3,500 check was given to the brothers for meal and workout plans. His attorneys alleged that the brothers made up the story about the attack being staged and said they would not testify against Smollett if they were paid $1 million each.

Jussie Smollett’s attorney, Nenye Uche, said he “respectfully disagrees” with the jury’s verdict, adding that he feels “100% confident” that Smollett’s case will be won on appeal.”  Uche said:  “He [Smollett] is 100% confident that this will be reversed on appeal. At the end of the day, we believe justice will prevail. We don’t believe it was done today but we’re very confident that he will be cleared and he will be found to be innocent.”

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A federal jury in Arkansas on Thursday convicted former reality TV star Josh Duggar of downloading and possessing child pornography. The jury in Fayetteville found the 33-year-old Duggar guilty on one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography. He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count when he’s sentenced at a later date.

Duggar and his family starred on TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” until the network canceled the show in 2015, following revelations that he had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. Authorities began investigating the abuse in 2006 after receiving a tip from a family friend but concluded that the statute of limitations on any possible charges had expired. At that time, Duggar’s parents said he had confessed and apologized; and Josh Duggar himself later apologized for a pornography addiction and for cheating on his wife.

Federal authorities said they began investigating Duggar on the child pornography charges after a Little Rock police detective found child porn files were being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. A federal agent testified in May that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned. Duggar’s attorney argued that someone else downloaded or uploaded the images onto Duggar’s computer.

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Scott Peterson was resentenced to life in prison on Wednesday, nearly two decades after the California man was convicted of killing his wife Laci and the couple’s unborn child.

Laci Peterson disappeared in 2002 after visiting a salon in Modesto, Calif., near San Francisco. Her remains were found several months later. Peterson was convicted and sentenced to die for the killing, spending more than 15 years on death row in California; however the California Supreme Court overturned the death sentence due to an error made by the original judge. Scott Peterson, now 49 years old, appeared in court in San Mateo County to receive his new sentence.

Scott Peterson’s attorney said he had plans to speak during Wednesday’s hearing, but Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo wouldn’t allow him. Laci Peterson’s mother, Sharon Rocha said in a statement directed at Peterson: “I still feel the grief every day after 19 years. Your evil, self-centered, unforgivable selfish act ended two beautiful souls. And for what reason? There was no reason other than that you just didn’t want them anymore. You didn’t want a baby nor the responsibility of being a father. You’re a coward. And sometimes when I wake up, I cry because they’re so realistic and I know I’ll never see her again.”

Prosecutors argued at his original trial that Scott Peterson killed Laci Peterson and dumped her remains into San Francisco Bay. Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant with the couple’s son, whom they planned to name Conner, when she disappeared. Prosecutors also argued that Scott Peterson, who was having an affair at the time or Laci’s murder, was motivated to kill his wife and child out of concerns for accumulating debts and a desire to be single again.

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New York State Parks Police said a woman who was pulled from a submerged car near the brink of Niagara Falls on Wednesday has died. Earlier in the day, a U.S. Coast Guard rescue diver deployed from a helicopter and climbed into the partially submerged car, pulling the woman out of the frigid water. Onlookers said the car was stuck on rocks about 100 feet from the edge of waterfall.

Police Capt. Chris Rola said the woman, who was in her late 60s, was unresponsive as a swimmer was eventually lowered from a Coast Guard chopper into the water to pull her from the vehicle. She was taken from the scene by an ambulance. A state parks spokeswoman later confirmed the woman had died. Rola did not say whether the woman, a local to Western New York, drove into the water intentionally or by accident, citing a pending investigation.

Rola said police first received a 911 call at 11:50 a.m. ET about a black vehicle in the Niagara River floating towards the Falls, away from a pedestrian bridge upstream. “We’ve never had a vehicle in the water this close to the brink,” Rola said. After determining someone was inside the car, officials contacted the Coast Guard, having concluded that a helicopter was the only safe means to conduct a rescue.

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Hawaii’s governor declared a state of emergency as a major winter storm left hundreds without power and threatened catastrophic flooding across the islands. In a statement, Hawaiian Gov. David Ige said he signed the emergency declaration as heavy rains from a “Kona low,” a type of seasonal cyclone in the Hawaiian Islands, were expected to “continue to cause flooding and damage” across the state.  The decision will allow Hawaii to use funds to provide “quick and efficient relief of suffering, damage, and losses caused by flooding and other effects of heavy rains.” Ige said the emergency relief period would run until at least Friday

The Oahu Department of Emergency Management reported cases of vehicle rescues, water evacuation requests, inundated homes and road closures, and images and videos from Twitter showed indoor flooding and cars and buses driving in and stranded in floodwater. While the threat of significant flooding had diminished in some parts of the islands, the possibility of “catastrophic flooding” was still a concern, with the “threats and impacts” of the storm “focused over the western half of the state.” The weather service said “numerous landslides” could occur in areas with steep terrain, while “many roads could become impassable due to severe runoff and flooding.”

U.S. President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in a video call Tuesday that the United States and its allies would respond with strong measures if Russia invades Ukraine.

During their 2-hour secure virtual meeting, the White House said that President Biden “voiced the deep concerns” of the United States and its allies about Russia’s escalation of forces around Ukraine and “reiterated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” while calling for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy. Biden also asserted that the United States and its allies would respond with “strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation.”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a press conference: “He told President Putin directly that if Russia further invades Ukraine, the United States and our European allies would respond with strong economic measures. There was a lot of give and take” between Biden and Putin, adding that Biden was “crystal clear about where the United States stands.” Sullivan added the administration was prepared to send supplies and other resources to Ukraine and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies if Russia further invades Ukraine.

Tuesday’s meeting came amid a U.S.-Russia relationship that’s been in decline for years. The White House said that Biden and Putin also discussed other issues, such as “the U.S.-Russia dialogue on Strategic Stability, a separate dialogue on ransomware, as well as joint work on regional issues such as Iran.”