Month: October 2022

On Sunday, new Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted and deleted a link to an article pushing an unfounded conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi.  In the since deleted tweet responding to a tweet from Hillary Clinton, Musk wrote: “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” with a link to a story from the right-wing website Santa Monica Observer — a site that has pushed an anti-LGBT conspiracy theory regarding the attack.

Clinton had tweeted a link to a story in The Los Angeles Times about 42-year-old David Wayne DePape, the man suspected of beating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer inside the Pelosi’s San Francisco home on Friday. Clinton tweeted: “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”

DePape allegedly broke into the Pelosi’s home on Friday and was immediately apprehended by police and will be charged with attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and several additional felonies, according to authorities.  A review of suspected social media posts by DePape shows him spreading conspiracy theories about Holocaust denial, pedophiles in the government, and claims that Democratic officials run child sex rings.

Musk’s deleted tweet was sent days after the Tesla CEO officially took control of the social media platform earlier this week after purchasing it for $44 billion. The tweet raises concerns about the type of content that will be allowed on the social media site under his control.

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Two American college students were identified Sunday as being among the 153 people killed in a stampede during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea. Kennesaw State University student and Georgia native Steven Blesi, 20, was spending the semester studying abroad in the South Korean capital, and Anne Gieske, 20, a student in her third year at the University of Kentucky, died in the crowd surge Saturday night.

President Biden tweeted that he and first lady Jill Biden are “devastated to learn that at least two Americans are among so many who lost their lives in Seoul. Our hearts go out to their loved ones in this time of grief, and we continue to pray for the recovery of all who were injured.”

Bless and Gieske’s schools both issued statements confirming the deaths on Sunday. University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said in a letter to the community that Gieske was a nursing student in her junior year from Northern Kentucky, who had been studying abroad in South Korea for the semester.

The crowd surge is one of South Korea’s worst disaster in years. As of Sunday evening, officials put the death toll at 153 and the number of injured people at 133, and the death count could further rise as 37 of the injured people were listed in serious conditions. More than 80% of those killed were in their 20s and 30s, and at least four were teenagers.

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Officials confirmed that seven people were hospitalized in southern Missouri after an amusement park train derailed from its tracks. The seven individuals transported to nearby hospitals included six guests and one staff member at Silver Dollar City, a theme park in Branson near the Arkansas border.

Few details are known about the circumstances surrounding the accident, although the park said in a statement that the derailment occurred as the Frisco Silver Dollar Line Steam Train, one of its attractions, was completing its usual route. Silver Dollar City wrote in a statement posted on Facebook and Twitter: “Silver Dollar City confirmed that earlier this evening, sections of the Frisco Silver Dollar Line Steam Train derailed from the track. Onsite paramedics provided emergency care until first responders arrived. Six guests and one employee have been transported by ambulance to nearby medical facilities. At this time, we are wholeheartedly focused on providing support for guests and team members in partnership with Stone County first responders. Further updates will be provided as information becomes available.”

The Missouri Division of Fire Safety confirmed that personnel from its amusement park ride unit responded to the scene after the train derailed, and said an investigation into what caused the accident is underway.

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On Thursday, a Jan. 6 rioter who dragged former D.C. Police Officer Michael Fanone into the crowd on the steps of the U.S. Capitol was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison. 43-year-old Albuquerque Head from Tennessee was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison, one of the longest sentences to date in the Capitol riot cases. Head will get credit for the roughly 18 months he’s spent locked up already.

Head dragged Fanone into the mob on Jan. 6 while yelling “I got one!” and used a police shield to push against a line of police officers in the western-facing tunnel of the U.S. Capitol, where some of the most violent acts of the insurrection took place. He pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers. Fanone suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury in the Jan. 6 assault, and ended up resigning from the Metropolitan Police Department.

Fanone urged Judge Amy Berman Jackson to sentence Head to the maximum, saying that Head had cut his career in law enforcement short.  Judge Amy Berman Jackson called Head’s actions “some of the darkest acts committed on one of our nation’s darkest days.” She described former Officer Fanone as Head’s “prey” and his “trophy.” She also described Fanone as “protecting America” during the riot.

Fanone has testified before the Jan. 6 committee and recently wrote a book about the insurrection, but said the injuries he received has left him devastated that he lost his career in law enforcement:  “I would trade all of this attention to return to policing,” he said. “But I can’t do that.”

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Three men face up to 20 years in prison after they were convicted in Jackson County Circuit Court on Wednesday morning in the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer, a Democrat running for reelection on Nov. 8, was never physically harmed.

After three weeks of testimony, Joe Morrison, his father-in-law Pete Musico, and Paul Bellar were found guilty of providing “material support” for a terrorist act as members of a paramilitary group, the Wolverine Watchmen. They said the men trained Adam Fox and Barry Croft, who were both convicted in a federal trial in August for being ringleaders in the Whitmer kidnapping plot, and were part of 14 arrested in early October 2020 on state and federal charges linked to an alleged plot to kid nap Whitmer from her summer home in Elk Rapids, Mich. According to court testimony, the men had planned to try her for treason and kill her. Undercover agents and informants were inside Fox’s group for months, with the scheme finally broken up with 14 arrests in October 2020.

Morrison, 28, Musico, 44, and Bellar, 24, were also convicted of a gun crime and membership in a gang. Prosecutors said the Wolverine Watchmen was a criminal enterprise. Morrison, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, and Musico watched the verdict by video away from the courtroom. Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson ordered all three to jail while they await sentencing scheduled for Dec. 15.

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On Wednesday, a Wisconsin man was convicted six counts of first-degree intentional homicide among other charges, after he plowed his SUV through a Christmas parade in downtown Waukesha. A criminal complaint stated that Brooks drove his vehicle into the parade on November 21, 2021, despite police warnings to stop and officers opening fire on him. Six people, including an 8-year-old boy, were killed and more than 40 others were injured.

The 40-year-old Brooks initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease, which could have resulted in him being sentenced to a mental institution rather than prison. He withdrew that plea in September, however, dismissing his public defenders and choosing to represent himself in the ensuing murder trial, which began Oct. 3. The trial concluded Wednesday after a Waukesha County jury deliberated for less than three hours before issuing the guilty verdict. Brooks Jr. was found guilty on all 76 charges, which included six counts of first-degree intentional homicide, 61 counts of reckless endangerment, six counts of hit-and-run causing death, and two counts of federal bail jumping and one count of battery.

The erratic trial found Brooks often shouting at the judge, stripping off his shirt, and being removed multiple times from the courtroom over his outbursts. As the verdict was read, Brooks held his head down and remained silent. Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow said after the verdict that there would be a hearing Monday to discuss setting a sentencing date. Brooks faces a mandatory life sentence on each homicide count.

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