Crime

The disgraced Tennessee teacher who gave birth to the child of one of her multiple minor victims after raping him has been sentenced to 25 years in prison following a plea deal.

Alissa McCommon, 39, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of Rape of a Child, two counts of Statutory Rape by an Authority Figure, three counts of Aggravated Statutory Rape, three counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor by Electronic Means, two counts of Solicitation of a Minor: Aggravated Statutory Rape, and one count of the Child Protection Act, WREG reported.

The former Tipton County elementary school teacher was arrested in September 2023 and may have as many as 21 victims, according to Fox 13 Memphis.

Shortly after posting bond, McCommon was rearrested on separate charges of coercion of a witness, aggravated stalking, and harassment for messaging one of her 12-year-old victims to say he would “regret doing this,” police said.

BERWYN, Ill. — A suspect in a triple homicide in Central Illinois in was shot and killed late Wednesday night by police in Berwyn after authorities said he broke into a home and fatally shot two dogs.

Just before 11:40 p.m., Berwyn police responded to a report of a male with a gun in the 1800 block of Home Avenue.

Officers located the man, identified Thursday afternoon as John Lyons, 24, of Westchester, but he ran off. Lyons then forced entry into a home in the 1800 block of Wenonah Avenue and shot two dogs to death, according to police.

The resident of the home and owner of the dogs, Scott Wishecoby, said he found Lyons in his basement.

“When I turned on the light the guy was standing at the end of the basement and just started shooting. He shot, shot, shot. I blocked my son and I told him to get upstairs and get his mother and get out of the house. He ran. He was fast, and by the time I was running he was chasing me through the basement shooting,” Wishecoby told WGN.

His wife and son got out of the house and ran to a neighbors. Officers later saw Lyons head eastbound into a yard back in the 1800 block of Home Avenue and proceeded to shoot at officers, according to police. They returned fire and fatally shot him.

WARNING: The attached link contains footage and audio that could be disturbing to some viewers. The full collection of files can be viewed HERE on COPA’s website.

CHICAGO — Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) has released new videos capturing a shootout between Chicago police and the suspect accused of shooting a Jewish man who was on his way to synagogue on the city’s Far North Side in late October.

The newly released videos show the moments leading up to the police confrontation as well as the shooting that left the suspect incapacitated.

Alongside the videos, COPA also released several documents and 911 call audio related to the incident.

According to an initial report by Chicago police, the shooting allegedly unfolded in the 2600 block of West Farwell Avenue, in West Rogers Park, on Saturday, Oct. 26.

Officers said they were called to the scene just after 9:30 a.m., in response to a report that a man had been shot in the area.

The victim, a 39-year-old Jewish man, was on his way to synagogue when he was shot in the shoulder.

When officers arrived on the scene, the suspect, 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, allegedly began firing in their direction, striking a CFD ambulance, before fleeing from officers.

Officers continued to pursue the suspect and located him in the 6800 block of North Washtenaw Avenue where a gunfight between him and police allegedly broke out. During the shootout, Abdallahi was hit by gunfire and was treated at the scene before he was taken to the hospital.

No CFD members or officers were injured in the incident and a weapon was also recovered at the scene.

Judges in the French city of Avignon will hand down verdicts on 51 men on Thursday in a mass rape trial that has turned a 72-year-old woman into a feminist icon.

For almost a decade, Gisèle Pelicot was drugged by her ex-husband Dominique, who then invited dozens of men he had recruited online to have sex with her in her bed at home while she was unconscious and unaware.

It was her decision to waive her anonymity and throw this trial into the open - in her words, making "shame swap sides" from the victim to the rapist.

Although he admits the charges against him, most of the other men on trial deny what they did was rape.

Prosecutors have asked for jail sentences ranging from four years to 20 years, the maximum sentence for a charge of aggravated rape.

One of the defendants, who has admitted the charges, has said the trial was rushed and "botched".

Campaigners say this case proves the need for consent to be built into France's rape laws, as in other European countries.

From 2011 to 2020, Dominique Pelicot plied his wife with tranquilising drugs and sleeping pills without her knowledge, crushed them into powder and added them to her food and drink.

Gisèle Pelicot suffered memory loss and blackouts because of the drugs and she has spoken of 10 years of her life that have been lost.

He was eventually caught because a security guard reported him to police for taking photographs under women's skirts in a supermarket.

"I thought we were a close couple," she once told the court. Instead, her husband was going on a notorious but now banned website called Coco.fr to invite local men to their home to have sex with her while she was comatose.

"I was sacrificed on the altar of vice," Gisèle Pelicot said early in the trial.

Since the start of September, Judge Roger Arata and his four colleagues have heard how 50 men, now aged between 27 and 74, visited the Pelicots' home in the village of Mazan.

Dominique Pelicot has admitted all the charges against him - drugging and raping his wife and recruiting dozens of men to rape her. Prosecutors want the judges to hand him the maximum 20-year jail term for aggravated rape.

"I am a rapist," he has told the judges. "I acknowledge all the facts [of the case] in their entirety." He has begged his ex-wife and three children for forgiveness, but his actions have torn the Pelicot family apart.

The other defendants come from all walks of life and most of them are from a 50km (30-mile) radius of the Pelicots' village of Mazan. The fact they are firefighters, security guards and lorry drivers has earned them the name Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde (Mr Everyman). Most of them have children too.

Fifty of the 51 are accused of aggravated rape and attempted rape.

Romain V, 63, is facing 18 years in prison if found guilty. He is accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot on six separate occasions while knowing he was HIV-positive. His lawyer says he could not have passed on the infection as he had years of treatment.

Another 10 men could face sentences of 15-17 years, and prosecutors are seeking jail terms of 10-14 years for 38 of the others.

Ahead of the verdicts, one of the few men who has admitted rape told the BBC through his daughter that many people had made up their minds right away: "There was not enough time. For me it was botched work."

The average jail term for rape in France is 11.1 years, according to the French justice ministry.

A police force investigating the death of a young mother refused to release CCTV images of a man she was seen kissing hours earlier because it would “breach his human rights”, an inquest has heard.

Jamie Smith, 23, died after falling from a multi-storey car park in Portsmouth, following a night out in November last year.

Traces of the drug ketamine were found in her system and her devastated family believe she may have been spiked by an unidentified man she was spotted with in a club that evening.

Julie Stephenson, Smith’s mother, has urged detectives from Hampshire police to share images of the stranger in the hope of finding out why her daughter died.

But a detective sergeant, who gave evidence at the inquest, said while the force had made efforts to trace the man, they were unable to release CCTV because it would be “against his human rights”.

Smith spent the afternoon before her death visiting a Christmas market. But after meeting an unidentified man, she went to an adult entertainment club in Portsmouth, called Wiggle, where CCTV captured the pair kissing.

Footage of her final moments showed her unsteady on her feet as she left the club alone, followed about 30 seconds later by the unidentified man.

A former prison guard trainee who executed five women inside a Florida bank almost six years ago was sentenced to death on Monday as his judge called the slayings calculated, heinous and cruel.

Zephen Xaver, 27, appeared to gulp but otherwise showed no emotion as Circuit Judge Angela Cowden pronounced the sentence at the Highlands County Courthouse in Sebring. After a two-week penalty trial, a jury in June voted 9-3 to recommend that Cowden sentence Xaver to death.

Cowden said the weeks of planning that Xaver performed before the 2019 murders at Sebring's SunTrust bank, the enormity of the crime and the fear the victims felt as they were shot greatly outweighed the two dozen mitigating factors his attorneys had presented, including his history of mental illness, his benign brain tumor and his jailhouse embrace of Christianity.

...

Xaver pleaded guilty last year to five counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of customer Cynthia Watson, 65; bank teller coordinator Marisol Lopez, 55; banker trainee Ana Pinon-Williams, 38; teller Debra Cook, 54; and banker Jessica Montague, 31.

After weeks of intrigue about a possible deal, the remaining members of the Bali Nine have been released from prison in Indonesia and returned to Australia. The five Australians have served nearly 20 years of their life sentences for their involvement in a drug-smuggling operation.

The legal basis for their return is not yet clear because there is no prisoner transfer agreement between Indonesia and Australia. This is not surprising, given agreements of this sort are notoriously difficult to negotiate, due to the disparities in sentencing between countries for offences like these.

But it is clear the transition from former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to the country’s new leader, Prabowo Subianto, earlier this year was key to this deal happening now. There are three reasons for this.

A new president looking for credibility Jokowi was elected to his first term in 2014 after campaigning on a “tough on drugs” platform. He stuck to this pledge throughout his presidency, refusing to grant clemency to drug offenders and encouraging police to shoot drug traffickers if they resisted arrest.

The courts also imposed tough sentences on drug offenders during this time, which meant many people – mainly Indonesians, of course – went to jail for even relatively minor drug offences. This led to huge overcrowding in Indonesia’s prisons, creating horrendous conditions for prisoners and huge costs to the government.

A new president looking for credibility Jokowi was elected to his first term in 2014 after campaigning on a “tough on drugs” platform. He stuck to this pledge throughout his presidency, refusing to grant clemency to drug offenders and encouraging police to shoot drug traffickers if they resisted arrest.

The courts also imposed tough sentences on drug offenders during this time, which meant many people – mainly Indonesians, of course – went to jail for even relatively minor drug offences. This led to huge overcrowding in Indonesia’s prisons, creating horrendous conditions for prisoners and huge costs to the government.

But despite these problems and pressure from many countries – particularly those that had citizens imprisoned in Indonesia – Jokowi refused to budge on his “war on drugs” stance.

And so lengthy negotiations to bring the remaining members of the Bali Nine home were doomed to failure while Jokowi remained in office. This was perhaps most notable under prime minister Tony Abbott, when two members of the group were executed.

What’s shifted since then is Prabowo’s election in February this year.

At first glance, it seems surprising he would be the one to give mercy to the Bali Five, given his reputation. During his time in the military under the former dictator Suharto (then his father-in-law), he faced serious, credible allegations of human rights abuses involving troops under his command in East Timor and Papua, which he denies.

In 1998, the special forces he commanded were also accused of abducting and torturing more than 20 student protesters, 13 of whom are still missing, presumed dead. Prabowo never faced trial, although several of his men did.

When Prabowo made his third run for the presidency this year, however, he made a huge effort to rebrand himself and distance himself from his controversial past.

...

Given Jokowi refused to ever contemplate allowing the Bali Nine to return home, this move differentiates Prabowo dramatically from his predecessor. It also casts him in a pretty good light internationally.

Unlike Jokowi, who was much more concerned about domestic matters and was decidedly not a foreign affairs president, Prabowo is very focused on Indonesia’s place in the world.

We saw this during his time as defence minister, when he was active in international forums and even sought to broker an agreement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. This was unsuccessful, but it reflects the fact he sees himself as a player on the global stage.

A Filipino migrant worker who has spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia is expected to arrive home on Wednesday after a deal was struck between Manila and Jakarta.

Mary Jane Veloso, 39, was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of drug trafficking in 2010, but has always maintained her innocence, saying she had been duped into carrying a suitcase containing drugs as she travelled to a new job abroad.

She has described the decision to allow her to return home as “a miracle”.

“For almost 15 years I was separated from my children and parents, and I could not see my children grow up,” she told Associated Press. “I wish to be given an opportunity to take care of my children and to be close to my parents.”

A former British soldier who went out to Ukraine to help in the war effort against Russia was unlawfully killed by a "comrade", a coroner has found.

Daniel Burke, of Manchester, was assisting Ukrainian armed forces but was killed far from the frontline in August 2023 by someone he knew, his inquest was told.

Manchester Area Coroner, Zak Golombeck, said Mr Burke, 36, "died with bravery and valour and was sadly killed by cowardice and dishonour".

The suspect in the killing, an Australian national, is wanted by Ukrainian police after fleeing the war-torn country, the court was told.

Abdelfetah 'Adam' Nourine, a fighter in the Ukrainian army known as "Jihadi Adam", who was not named in the inquest but is known by Greater Manchester Police, told Ukrainian police he shot Mr Burke accidentally while the two of them were practising drills 27 miles (44 km) away from the frontline.

The remains of Mr Burke, a former paratrooper, were found buried in an underground pipe at a military training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region.

"Whilst there was evidence initially presented that it was an accident, I reject that based on evidence gathered by Ukrainian authorities and Greater Manchester Police," Mr Golombeck said

"[Mr Burke] was unarmed and unable to defend himself."

Detective Sergeant Danielle Bullivant told the hearing Mr Burke set up a company called Dark Angels which was a group of former military personnel who went to the frontline to evacuate the injured.

The inquest heard he had previously travelled to Syria to fight against the so-called Islamic State group, after being "heavily affected" by the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017.

...

CCTV showed him spending the day with Mr Nourine, and in the late afternoon travelling to an abandoned training ground.

As part of local police investigations after Mr Burke went missing, the suspect was interviewed and gave separate versions of events, the inquest heard.

He led Ukrainian police to Mr Burke's body and told them he had accidentally killed him during a training exercise.

He claimed he had fired at least two shots - one accidentally while he was carrying Mr Burke in a training exercise and a second for reasons unknown.

The court heard a post-mortem examination found Mr Burke had been shot at least three times - in his head, lower neck and central chest.

Results of ballistics investigations carried out in Ukraine suggested it was impossible to accidentally fire the weapon, an assault rifle, Det Sgt Bullivant told the inquest.

A woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Sean “Diddy” Combs has amended her lawsuit to include allegations that she was also assaulted by Jay-Z at the same party.

The lawsuit was initially filed against Combs in October, but on Sunday the woman added Shawn Carter, the rapper and businessman known as Jay-Z, as a defendant in the civil lawsuit.

Carter is the first celebrity to be accused of sexual assault in connection to Combs.

In a statement addressed to CNN, Carter called the allegations “so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!! Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?”

Combs was indicted in September on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and prostitution related charges. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denied all wrongdoing in roughly 30 civil lawsuits that have been filed against him.

The woman, who is identified as a Jane Doe, says she was 13 years old at the time she was allegedly assaulted by Combs and Carter at an after party following the Video Music Awards in 2000. The woman alleges she began to feel woozy after consuming a drink at the party and wandered into a nearby bedroom. The woman alleges Carter raped her first, followed by Combs. The woman says she hit Combs and ran out of the party, according to the amended lawsuit.

Carter was identified in the initial lawsuit as Celebrity A.

On Monday, Carter’s attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to require Doe to reveal her identity or dismiss the lawsuit.

“Mr. Carter should not have to defend himself in the brightest of spotlights against an accuser who hides in complete darkness while leveling allegations that describe the purported acts occurring in the plain sight of witnesses who could refute the plaintiff’s claims if only her identity was revealed,” the filing stated.

According to the lawsuit, Doe’s attorneys reached out to Carter to request a mediation but alleges Carter “responded to said letter by not only filing an utterly frivolous lawsuit, but by also orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation against Plaintiff’s lawyers, their families, employees and former associates in an attempt to silence Plaintiff from naming Jay-Z.”

A judge presiding over the trial of Daniel Penny, a former Marine accused of choking a homeless man to death on a New York City subway, has dismissed a charge of second-degree manslaughter against him, after jurors failed to reach an agreement.

New York jurors still have one less severe charge of criminally negligent homicide to consider.

On the fourth day of deliberations, the 12 jurors sent two notes saying they were "unable to come to a unanimous vote" on the first count, which would be required for a conviction.

The judge sent them back to try again, but they still could not agree, prompting prosecutors to ask the judge to dismiss the manslaughter count.

Simpson’s former bodyguard claims that the infamous ex-NFLer confessed on tape to killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, in 1994.

The alleged confession was said to be on a thumb drive that cops in Bloomington, Minn., seized from Iroc Avelli, Simpson’s ex-bodyguard, when he was arrested in an unrelated incident in 2022, TMZ reported on Tuesday.

However, police say they have no evidence to back up claims that any such recording exists.

Simpson’s former bodyguard claims that the infamous ex-NFLer confessed on tape to killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, in 1994.

The alleged confession was said to be on a thumb drive that cops in Bloomington, Minn., seized from Iroc Avelli, Simpson’s ex-bodyguard, when he was arrested in an unrelated incident in 2022, TMZ reported on Tuesday.

However, police say they have no evidence to back up claims that any such recording exists.

MIAMI — One of Colombia’s legendary drug lords and a key operator of the Medellin cocaine cartel has been released from a federal prison in the U.S. and is expected to be deported back home.

Records from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons show that Fabio Ochoa-Vasquez was released Tuesday after completing 25 years of a 30-year prison sentence.

Ochoa, 67, and his older brothers amassed a fortune when cocaine started flooding the U.S. in the late 1970s and early 1980s, according to U.S. authorities, to the point that in 1987 they were included in the Forbes Magazine’s list of billionaires. Living in Miami, Ochoa ran a distribution centre for the cocaine cartel once headed by Pablo Escobar.

Although somewhat faded from memory as the centre of the drug trade shifted from Colombia to Mexico, he resurfaced in the hit Netflix series “Narcos” true to form as the youngest son of an elite Medellin family into ranching and horse breeding that cut a sharp contrast with Escobar, who came from more humble roots.

Ochoa was first indicted in the U.S. for his alleged role in the 1986 killing of Drug Enforcement Administration informant Barry Seal — whose life was popularized in in the 2017 film “American Made” starring Tom Cruise.

He was initially arrested in 1990 in Colombia under a government program promising drug kingpins would not be extradited to the U.S. At the time, he was on the U.S. list of the “Dozen Most Wanted” Colombia drug lords.

Ochoa was arrested again and extradited to the U.S. in 2001 in response to an indictment in Miami naming him and more than 40 people as part of a drug smuggling conspiracy. Of those, Ochoa was the only one who opted to go to trial, resulting in his conviction and the 30-year sentence. The other defendants got much lighter prison terms because most of them cooperated with the government.

To crime-ravaged New Yorkers, former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny is a hero.

But to a woke assistant district attorney, the 26-year-old is a villain.

Penny is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the May 2023 death of Jordan Neely. Penny, who pleaded not guilty, allegedly used a fatal chokehold on Neely aboard an Uptown bound F train in Manhattan.

Witnesses said Neely was freaking out on the subway and terrifying other straphangers. Penny stepped in to try and quell the situation, and it spiralled out of control.

A Manhattan jury is now deliberating Penny’s fate.

“Those passengers were afraid. I’ve been on the subway system. I know what it is as a police officer to wrestle or fight with someone,” Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams said on the weekend.

“It is imperative that we look at the totality of this problem.”

Not so much for Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Dafna Yoran, who urged jurors to convict him of manslaughter on Tuesday.

This is the same prosecutor who asked for a reduced sentence for a violent mugger who murdered an 87-year-old man over $300 in 2019. She called the scheme “restorative justice.”

The victim in that case was hammered in the back of the head at an ATM. Instead of second-degree murder, the killer was convicted of manslaughter at Yoran’s behest.

Her motives align with those of soft-on-crime, George Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Yoran later claimed she “saw an opportunity for a transformative outcome” and jumped on it. It was the first use of a “transformative justice” program in a homicide case. That changed a 25-year sentence to just 10 years behind bars.

A model and her family were reportedly held captive for several hours in a shack infested with snakes and scorpions in São Paulo, Brazil.

Brazilian-born Luciana Curtis, her husband Henrique Gendre, and their 11-year-old child were approached by armed individuals and abducted as they were leaving a restaurant in an upscale São Paolo neighborhood on November 27, the New York Post reported on Monday:

Police said the suspects abducted them, forced them to transfer money, and stole their SUV before holding the family captive for 12 hours in a shack that contained a mattress, toilet, sink, and the crawling creatures.

When the couple didn’t come home, their older child, who did not accompany them to the restaurant, “alerted relatives.”

The shack was located in the Brasilandia area of São Paolo, according to the Post. The outlet noted the family was freed early Thursday.

The Post reported that as “specialist police teams” searched for the family, “the gang abandoned the family and fled,” according to police.

Police are still trying to find the suspects in the case. When they locate them, authorities plan to charge them with kidnapping, extortion, and robbery.

“Curtis, who was born in São Paulo, is the daughter of British businessman Malcolm Leo Curtis. She lives in New York but splits time between São Paulo and London,” the Post article said.

A teenager accused of killing four people while they slept appeared in a Los Angeles court to face the murder and arson charges on Tuesday, Nov. 26.

Miguel Sandoval, 19, was charged with six counts, including four counts of murder, one felony count of first-degree residential burglary with a person present, and one felony count of arson of an inhabited structure or property, according to an L.A. District Attorney Office press release.

Sandoval is accused of killing Matthew Montebello, 21, Montebello’s partner Janvi Maquindang, 21, Maquindang’s sister, Christine Aca-ac, 26, and Aca-ac’s fiancée Edwin Garcia, 24, inside their Lancaster, Calif. home on Nov. 16.

Sandoval appeared in court shirtless, per photos obtained by The Daily Mail. Per the L.A. District Attorney site, court attendees are instructed not to wear shorts, tank tops, clothing that shows their stomachs, beachwear, flip-flops, or clothing with inappropriate words or signs.

Man Fatally Stabs Wife and 3 Children Aged 10, 12 and 17 in Hawaii Apartment in Suspected Murder-Suicide Aca-ac and Maquindang’s 16-year-old sister was uninjured after she hid in the closet and called 911. The surviving family member was taken to the L.A. Sheriff’s office and said she heard the gunshots around 1:27 a.m. “She stayed in her room because she was scared, and that's when deputies were able to locate her and extract her," said LASD Lt. Steve Dejong, per ABC 7.

Around 1:30 a.m., Sandoval allegedly entered and burglarized the home while the residents were asleep. He then allegedly shot them and set the house on fire to cover-up his crimes. before fleeing the scene. He was later arrested on Nov. 21, per KTLA.___

...

Three dogs were also fatally shot, according to authorities. The motivation for the murders remains unknown, and the L.A. Sheriff’s Department’s investigation is ongoing.

Montebello's mother Maria told ABC7 she recognized Sandoval’s name but never met him. Maria told the news station she only knew of him as an ex-boyfriend of one of the younger siblings in the house.

The governor of the state of Sinaloa spoke about a statement in which he referred to "meetings" with organized crime groups and authorities and clarified that he was referring to clashes.

Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of the state of Sinaloa, has responded to insinuations of a possible link between authorities and criminal groups in the state. During an appearance on a national radio program, the president flatly ruled out any meeting with drug trafficking leaders.

"I categorically deny any meeting of any authority, of any of the three levels of government with criminals. In any case, they are confrontations. Until now, what the government is doing is confronting violence and confronting it with government operations against armed civilian groups, or groups of criminals," he said during an interview on Joaquín López Dóriga's radio program. In addition, he clarified that these security actions focus on the pacification of the region.

The security context in the state remains a matter of public interest, and Rocha Moya admitted that while clashes between criminal factions have been reduced, they have not been completely eliminated. In this regard, in the radio space he said:

"Confrontations between criminal groups and also confrontations between a criminal group and the authorities have been reduced, and those have been reduced, but they have not ended. Unfortunately they occur, but less so, and that tells us that the generation of violence has been reduced."

In the context of these events, Rocha was questioned about the existence of an alleged meeting with Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda and criminal leaders in a place identified as Huertos del Pedregal. Rocha categorically denied having participated in such a meeting, commenting that he was not even invited to the alleged event on July 25.

"That version has never existed either, that I agreed to go to a meeting with these characters, neither aware of it, nor invited by any means, I was not summoned to this meeting that took place on July 25, much less to have been there; So, I was not there, nor was I invited, nor did I have any knowledge of that meeting at all, there is no paper, call, statement, that someone has invited me to that meeting, definitely, I did not know about it and much less attend," he reiterated.

Warning: This article references allegations of sexual assault.

Three of the five former NHL players accused of sexual assault stemming back to when they were members of Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team were in a London, Ont., courtroom on Monday for the start of pretrial hearings.

Dillon Dubé, Michael McLeod and Alex Formenton arrived ahead of the proceedings, which are set to last three weeks and will allow lawyers and the judge to decide which evidence will be presented to a jury. On Monday, it was decided that Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia will preside over the trial.

The three players, alongside Carter Hart and Cal Foote, face one count each of sexual assault involving a woman who says she was violated in a hotel room in London following the gala celebrating Canada's world junior hockey win.

McLeod faces an additional charge of being party to the offence. All five players are expected to plead not guilty when the trial gets underway in April. Shortly after charges were laid, the players opted for a jury trial.

A publication ban preventing the release of information is in place for the pretrail hearings; there's also a publication ban on identifying the alleged victim and two witnesses. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

The accused played professional hockey following the alleged assault. McLeod and Foote were with the New Jersey Devils, Dubé was with the Calgary Flames and Hart was with the Philadelphia Flyers. Their NHL contracts expired in July. Formenton had been signed with the Ottawa Senators, but was playing in Switzerland at the time the charges were announced.

In August, two of the five players signed contracts to play in the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

“Child sex crimes and child trafficking. How could you nominate someone with allegations of child trafficking or trafficking across state lines and having sex with a 17-year-old?” Hostin asked on the yesterday’s (Nov. 19) episode of the show.

Minutes later, Whoopi Goldberg announced that Hostin has a “legal note” to share, as she often does on the show. However, this one felt a little poorly timed after Hostin had spent air time ripping the politician apart.

“I do have a legal note. Thank you, Whoopi,” Hostin replied, before reading the note. “Matt Gaetz has long denied all allegations, calling the claims, quote, ‘invented,’ and saying in a statement to ABC News that ‘this false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.’ The DOJ investigation was closed with no charges being brought.”

The show then promptly went to commercial break without any further discussion about the topic.

A Florida sheriff’s deputy accused of Tasing a gas-soaked biker during a botched arrest — and sparking a fire that burned more than 75% of the man’s body three years ago — has been acquitted of negligence charges.

Osceola County Deputy David Crawford tackled victim Jean Barreto at a Wawa gas station after Barreto had allegedly run red lights, ridden on the sidewalk and sped into oncoming traffic before stopping to refuel on Feb. 27, 2022, local reports said.

Crawford shouted to his partners to turn off the gas pump during the caught-on-camera encounter, which knocked Barreto’s bike over and soaked him with gasoline.

Prosecutors said that’s when Crawford raised his Taser, fired the weapon and ignited a blaze that torched Barreto from neck to ankles.

They charged the deputy with culpable negligence for the act. But on Friday, a jury declared him not guilty after a week-long trial, according to WESH 2 in Orlando.

...

The defense claimed Crawford didn’t actually shoot the Taser, but it went off on its own when he threw it to the side.

“Every single witness, every single video conclusively shows you that he never intentionally discharged that Taser,” Crawford’s attorney said at the trial’s end.

When Crawford was asked if he remembered the Taser going off either in his hand or after he tossed it, the deputy simply replied, “I have no memory of turning the safety off.”

He also said he wouldn’t have done anything differently during the arrest — even with the horrific second- and third-degree burns that covered most of Barreto’s body.