Crime

From the Justice Department: A Pennsylvania man was sentenced today for assaulting law enforcement during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election. Mikhail Edward …

The New York Times reports: A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who posted dozens of secret intelligence reports and other sensitive documents on a gaming server, on six counts of retaining and transmitting classified national defense information. The filing of criminal charges against Mr. Teixeira, 21, comes two months after F.B.I. agents arrested him …

North Carolina’s Stanly County Press reports: A former pastor and founder of a ministry to help individuals dealing with substance use problems has been arrested for sex crimes against children. Stanly County Sheriff’s Office said it received a report May 30 of sexual assault involving a juvenile. Following an investigation, detectives charged Lawrence “Larry” Francis Wilkins, 44, with four counts …

Tucson’s CBS affiliate reports: Federal court documents paint Eric Ridenour, the suspect in the Douglas church fires, as a man with a violent criminal history who doesn’t like women or gay men preaching. Authorities have said Ridenour set fires at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and First Presbyterian Church in Douglas on May 22, 2023. Both buildings were extensively damaged. St. …

From the Justice Department: Special agents with the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service this morning arrested two Orange County men on federal charges alleging they used a Molotov cocktail to firebomb a Costa Mesa clinic operated by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine, and Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, an active duty …

The New Castle News reports: A New Castle man accused of child sex trafficking and corrupting children in Ohio has been found guilty by a jury in Mahoning County Court. The Ohio jury’s verdict was delivered Wednesday against 35-year-old Jarod Mills of West Terrace Ave. of unlawful attempted sexual contact with a minor. Mill was arrested in Mahoning County in …

The New York Daily News reports: A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Daniel Penny for the May killing of Jordan Neely, a law enforcement source told the Daily News on Wednesday. Penny, a Marine veteran, was charged with second-degree manslaughter for the May 1 killing aboard a northbound F train. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment. …

From the Justice Department: A Montana man was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris to 18 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for shooting into a residence and attempting to shoot others with the intent of ridding a town of LGBTQI+ residents. John Russell Howald, of Basin, was convicted by a federal jury …

The Washington Post reports: A D.C. chiropractor who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Tuesday to two months in jail for a misdemeanor offense. But he still faces a wrongful-death lawsuit accusing him of assaulting a police officer who later died by suicide. The D.C. officer, Jeffrey Smith, 35, suffered a brain …

The Christian Post reports: A former financial director of a Colorado church has been charged with stealing over $340,000 from the church to purchase several items for personal use, such as adult sex toys. According to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Sara Ann Mock-Butler turned herself into El Paso County Jail on May 31 to answer for charges related …

Michigan Live reports: A former Flint-area Catholic priest convicted of the attempted sexual abuse of a 5-year-old boy in the late 1980s, was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail and probation. Vincent DeLorenzo, 84, was sentenced June 13 by Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Brian S. Pickell after previously pleading guilty to a single count of attempted first-degree criminal …

Chattanooga’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Walker County deacon is facing a laundry list of charges, from Sexual Battery to Exploitation and Intimidation of disabled adults. Deputies say this has stemmed over the last two to five years. Deputies picked up 75-year-old Dennis Laman on June 2nd, and he’s been in the county jail since. Officials with the Walker County …

Via press release from the Alaska State Troopers: On Wednesday, May 24, 2023, the Alaska State Troopers received a report of sexual abuse of a minor. Investigation revealed that Dwight Chris John, age 71 of Ketchikan, sexually assaulted a minor at different times, over a period of seven years. The sexual assaults occurred in Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island. …

From the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation: An investigation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office, and the Gallatin Police Department has resulted in the indictment of a Bethpage man accused of stealing thousands from the food bank where he worked. In May 2022, at the request of 18th Judicial District Attorney General Ray …

The Associated Press reports: The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to using marijuana while possessing a firearm, which is illegal under U.S. law. The federal crime is facing increasing scrutiny as more states legalize the drug. But federal prosecutors in Virginia said Monday that such laws protect communities. …

First, a reminder from my April 2023 report: It took a Webster County jury just under two and a half hours late Friday afternoon to convict a former Christian missionary of sexual abuse. Jordan Dee Andrew Webb, 30, of Fort Dodge, was found guilty of one count of second-degree sexual abuse with persons under the age of 12, a Class …

The Associated Press reports: Ted Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” who carried out a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died by suicide, four people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Kaczynski, who was 81 and suffering from late-stage cancer, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, …

Staten Island Advance reports: A former Staten Island priest already accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a minor in New York pleaded no contest to several charges in Pennsylvania Friday in connection with abuse allegations more than a decade ago. Rev. James Garisto, 74, pleaded no contest to charges of corruption of a minor and indecent assault after a …

ABC News reports: Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, was found dead in his prison cell Saturday morning, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson. He was 81. Kaczynski was previously in a maximum security facility in Colorado but was moved to a medical facility in North Carolina in December 2021 due to poor health. Kaczynski, who went nearly …

The Washington Post reports: The man who crashed a U-Haul truck into a security barrier outside the White House last month wanted to overthrow the government and replace it with a dictatorship “fueled by Nazi ideology,” and he had planned other attacks, a federal prosecutor said in court Friday. The revelations came during a hearing before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. …