Crime

The Washington Post reports: The Vatican on Friday announced sanctions against retired West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield, but stopped short of defrocking him, after investigating accusations of sexual harassment and financial misconduct. The sanctions, ordered by Pope Francis and detailed in a letter posted to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston’s website, prohibits Bransfield from public ministry and from residing in his …

The Christian Post reports: Leader of the 5 million-member Light of the World church Naason Joaquin Garcia was denied bail on child sex crime charges after a visibly angered Los Angeles Superior Court judge heard a witness describe video evidence that allegedly shows the pastor in a sexual threesome involving a minor. “ This is a man who preyed on …

The Daily Beast reports: George Nader, who was a key witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, has been hit with new federal charges of child pornography, sex trafficking, and obscenity, according to a person familiar with the case. The charges come on top of separate child-porn charges leveled by the same prosecutors last month. The new indictment is set …

CNBC reports: A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the criminal conviction of notorious “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli. The three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circut also upheld the more than $6.4 million in foreiture that a judge imposed on Shkreli last year when she sentenced him for his conviction on two counts of securities …

The Daily Beast reports: A Pentagon cybersecurity contractor has been charged with threatening to kill a member of Congress over the introduction of a bill that would require public schools to vaccinate children, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Maryland. Darryl Albert Varnum of Westminster, Maryland called the congressperson—identified only as “congressperson …

The Washington Post reports: Multimillionaire and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will remain jailed while he awaits trial on new allegations that he sexually abused children, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman announced the decision at a hearing, siding with prosecutors after they and defense attorneys traded arguments for more than a week about whether …

The Associated Press report: A man screaming “You die!” burst into an animation production studio in Kyoto, Japan, and set it on fire Thursday, authorities said, leaving 33 people confirmed or presumed dead, shocking anime fans in and outside Japan. Most of the dead and the 36 injured were workers at Kyoto Animation, known for mega-hit stories featuring high school …

The Daily Beast reports: Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers downplayed his possession of a foreign passport under a fake name by suggesting he’d never used it—but prosecutors said Wednesday that’s not the case. In a letter to the federal judge who will decide if the financier stays in jail until trial, the U.S. attorney’s office said that the travel document “contains numerous …

The Daily Beast reports: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the Mexican drug lord convicted of running “the largest drug-trafficking organization in the world,” was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years on Wednesday. Guzman, the 62-year-old former leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, was found guilty in February of all 10 counts brought against him after six days of deliberations. Guzman …

CNBC reports: A federal judge on Tuesday banned Republican operative Roger Stone from posting anything at all on major social media platforms after ruling that the longtime confidant of President Donald Trump violated an already strict gag order in his criminal case. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson walked through a litany of Stone’s recent posts from his Instagram …

The Associated Press reports: Financier Jeffrey Epstein will remain behind bars for now as a federal judge mulls whether to grant bail on charges he sexually abused underage girls. The judge said he needed more time to make a decision during a hearing Monday in New York. Federal prosecutors maintained the well-connected Epstein, 66, is a flight risk and danger …

The Idaho Statesman reports: Former Idaho GOP chairman and lobbyist Jonathan Parker now has three pending criminal charges. The latest charge, misdemeanor unlawful entry, stems from Parker allegedly entering a woman’s Meridian home without her consent. Parker pleaded not guilty to that charge on July 3, marking his third court appearance on three separate charges over the course of about …

Law & Crime reports: Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York said today that convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, 66, is worth more than $500 million dollars, citing “records relating to the defendant recently obtained by the Government from a financial institution (‘Institution-1’).” The detail came out in the government’s response to the accused child sex-trafficker’s motion for pre-trial …

CNN reports: A Detroit man is charged with shooting two men because they were gay, according to prosecutors. Demetris Nelson, 26, is accused of attempting to rob and then shooting Brian Anderson, 31, and Malcolm Drake, 26, on Saturday. Anderson died of his wounds while Drake was critically wounded. Nelson used the Grindr dating app to target, contact and find …

Politico reports: Indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter is sending Islamophobic mail pieces to voters in his Southern California district, attacking his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, for his deceased grandfather alleged ties to a 1972 terrorist attack. The mailers show a photo of one of the terrorists involved in an attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics wearing a ski mask …

The New York Times reports: Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing sex-trafficking charges in New York, was accused of witness tampering on Friday by federal prosecutors, who said he wired $350,000 to two people who were potential witnesses against him. Mr. Epstein sent the money to the potential witnesses in late November and early December, 2018, shortly after the Miami Herald …

The Associated Press reports: A convicted sex offender went on to establish an orphanage in Kenya where he preyed on children under the guise of missionary work, according to federal prosecutors who announced Friday that he was being charged with sexually molesting four teenage girls. Gregory Dow, 60, of Lancaster, is accused of four counts of violating a U.S. law …

The Miami Herald reports: At least a dozen new victims have come forward to claim they were sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein even as the multimillionaire money manager tries to convince a federal judge to allow him to await a sex trafficking trial from the comfort of the same $77 million Manhattan mansion where he’s accused of luring teenage girls …

The Associated Press reports: Singer R. Kelly, already facing sexual abuse charges brought by Illinois prosecutors, was arrested in Chicago Thursday on a federal grand jury indictment listing 13 counts including sex crimes and obstruction of justice. U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Joseph Fitzpatrick said the R&B singer was taken into custody about 7 p.m. local time and was being held …

Courthouse News reports: Wealthy pedophile Jeffrey Epstein asked a federal judge Thursday for leave to await trial inside his $77 million mansion — an Upper East Side building that allegedly doubled as his sex-trafficking hub, where authorities claim to have recovered a large stash of child pornography. “Mr. Epstein stands ready and willing to pay for 24-hour armed guards should …