OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A former Oklahoma zookeeper sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot has filed a federal lawsuit seeking nearly $94 million in damages, claiming among other things that he was convicted based on false and perjured testimony. Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as “Joe Exotic,” filed the lawsuit […] More
April 3, 2020
A judge ordered rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine to be freed early, citing asthma and increased danger due to the COVID-19 outbreak. More
April 3, 2020
Can justice be served in the middle of a pandemic? Vinnie Politan and Seema Iyer will dig deep into the implications and discuss the monumental task of starting the court system up again when the pandemic ends. More
April 2, 2020
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A California woman was sentenced Tuesday to seven months in prison for paying bribes to rig her two daughters’ college admissions exams and get one of them into Georgetown University as a fake tennis recruit. In an unusual hearing held via videoconference due to the coronavirus […] More
April 1, 2020
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff is asking for new leads in the disappearance of the former husband of a big cat sanctuary owner featured in the new Netflix series “Tiger King.” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister posted on his personal Twitter account Monday that the popularity of the seven-part documentary made it a good time […] More
March 31, 2020
The mother and grandmother of baby Evelyn Boswell are behind bars as the investigation continues into the little girl’s death, law enforcement said. More
March 30, 2020
By MICHAEL TARM AP Legal Affairs Writer CHICAGO (AP) — R&B singer R. Kelly cited the novel coronavirus in asking a federal judge Thursday to free him from a federal jail in Chicago as he awaits trial on child pornography and other charges, a court filing by his lawyers saying scant precautions to stem the […] More
March 30, 2020
The rapid spread of COVID-19 has forced a judge to postpone the Los Angeles murder trial of millionaire Robert Durst. More
March 30, 2020
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) — Lonnie Franklin, the convicted serial killer known as the “Grim Sleeper” who preyed on the women of South Los Angeles for more than two decades, has died in prison. He was 67. California corrections officials said Franklin was found unresponsive in his cell at San Quentin State Prison on Saturday […] More
March 30, 2020
What does the latest court decision regarding Jussie Smollett's legal representation mean for his case and the law? More
March 27, 2020
NEW YORK (AP) — The judge who sentenced the rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine to prison said Wednesday he would have ordered home confinement instead if he had known about the coronavirus in December. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer commented in a written order even as he rejected a lawyer’s request that the 23-year-old performer, whose […] More
March 26, 2020
Despite courthouses across the country closing due to the spread of COVID-19, a Florida jury pressed on, rendering a guilty verdict in the capital murder trial of Andre Warner. More
March 26, 2020
Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli urged a judge to dismiss charges against them in the college admissions bribery case. More
March 26, 2020
California attorney Mike Avenatti has asked a judge to reject a jury's verdict that found he tried to extort Nike for millions of dollars. More
March 25, 2020
Two former aides of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and 18 others have been charged in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. More
March 25, 2020
By WALTER BERRY Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld Jodi Arias’ first-degree murder conviction and life prison sentence in the 2008 killing of her former boyfriend. Arias’ lawyers had argued that a prosecutor’s misconduct and a judge’s failure to control news coverage during the case deprived her of […] More
March 25, 2020
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee woman called authorities and admitted to killing her child nearly a decade ago, police say. Zohal Sakwall, 40, told Nashville detectives that she suffocated her 4-month-old daughter, Natalie, with a plastic bag in June 2010, according to a news release Tuesday from the police department. Sakwall called the Metro Nashville Police […] More
March 25, 2020
Former school teacher, Virginia Vertetis, has won a new trial after being convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering her boyfriend, retired NYPD officer Patrick Gilhuley in her Mount Olive home. Although the defense challenged the jury’s conviction on several grounds, the appellate court ultimately found in Vertetis’ favor ruling that trial […] More
March 23, 2020
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — A former teacher sentenced to 30 years in state prison for gunning down her boyfriend in 2014 will get a new trial after filing for appeal. Virginia Vertetis, 57, was convicted in 2017 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of retired New York City cop Patrick Gilhuley in her Mount Olive home. […] More
March 20, 2020
A Florida woman is behind bars after she reportedly confessed to killing her 81-year-old mother in their home. Crystal Marie Williams, 38, is accused of murdering Carmelina Kohler on March 9 in Vero Beach. Crystal told authorities she was helping move boxes when Carmelina “made a comment that sent (her) into a rage,” according to […] More
March 20, 2020
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein has sued Netflix and film director Ava DuVernay over her portrayal in the streaming service’s miniseries about the Central Park Five case, which sent five black and Latino teenagers to prison for a crime they were later absolved of committing. Fairstein claims in the lawsuit, filed […] More
March 19, 2020
A date with a stranger ended in death for young single dad Adam Hilaire who found himself on the violent end of a crime when Hailey Bustos, the woman he met on an online dating app, came to Hilaire’s apartment with the alleged trigger man Andre Warner, now facing the death penalty, and two other accomplices. More
March 19, 2020
One day before his 68th birthday, Harvey Weinstein was transferred to a New York state prison to serve a 23-year sentence. More
March 19, 2020
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — A woman accused of helping to cover up the disappearance and presumed killing of a Connecticut mother of five has asked a judge to block a variety of evidence, alleging police made false statements in several search warrant applications and didn’t show there was probable cause for the searches. Michelle Troconis […] More
March 18, 2020
LONDON (AP) — The younger brother of the suicide bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, was convicted Tuesday of murder for helping to plan the attack. A jury at London’s Central Criminal Court found Hashem Abedi, 22, guilty of 22 counts of murder, one count of attempted murder […] More
March 17, 2020
By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nearly two decades after the Roman Catholic priest-abuse scandal exploded in the U.S. in 2002, only one church official has ever gone to prison over it: Monsignor William Lynn, the longtime secretary for clergy in the Philadelphia archdiocese. After an appeals court found his sweeping 2012 trial […] More
March 16, 2020
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors hit R. Kelly with more criminal charges Friday, accusing the disgraced R&B singer of having unprotected sex with a girl in 2015 without disclosing he had herpes. The new racketeering charges were included in a revised indictment filed in New York City a week after the 53-year-old Kelly pleaded […] More
March 13, 2020
Joseph James DeAngelo is suspected of at least 13 murders and more than 50 rapes across California in the 1970s and 1980s. More
March 13, 2020
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Prosecutors have formally charged a Colorado woman suspected of killing her missing stepson. Letecia Stauch appeared in court for an advisement hearing in Colorado Springs on Wednesday on several charges, including first-degree murder of a child, in the presumed death of 11-year-old Gannon Stauch. The document laying out the […] More
March 13, 2020
GRANGEVILLE, Idaho (AP) — Two sisters from north-central Idaho pleaded guilty to amended chargings in a murder-for-hire scheme after trying to hire an undercover deputy to kill their neighbor earlier this year. The charges for 51-year-old Debra Wensman and 46-year-old Doris Wensman were amended from the original charges of criminal solicitation to commit a crime […] More
March 12, 2020
