Crime

The Idaho Statesman reports: The Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, a longtime priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise who pleaded guilty to five felony crimes, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole and will be required to register as a sex offender. Faucher, 73, was accused of amassing thousands of child porn images and videos on …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis vowed Friday that the Catholic Church will “never again” cover up clergy sex abuse and demanded that priests who have raped and molested children turn themselves in. Francis dedicated his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy to abuse, evidence that a year of devastating revelations of sexual misconduct and cover-up has shaken his …

The New York Times reports: A scathing report by the Illinois attorney general accused the Roman Catholic Church in the state of failing the victims of clergy sexual abuse by neglecting to investigate their allegations against priests and finding flimsy reasons to dismiss their claims. The names of more than 500 priests who were accused of sexual abuse did not …

Engadget reports: Because we live in a world where we can’t have nice things, package theft is a real problem, and in recent times unscrupulous individuals stealing parcels from porches have prompted police sting operations, as well as longer-term tech innovation, such as Amazon’s smart locks. But neither of these things do a whole lot for theft victims longing for …

The Associated Press reports: Police say they have arrested a man suspected of sucker-punching a woman and fracturing her spine in an anti-gay attack aboard a New York City subway train. Allah Allasheed was charged Thursday with assault as a hate crime in the Nov. 30 attack in Queens aboard a Manhattan-bound E train. The 54-year-old’s arrest comes days after …

The New York Daily News reports: A homophobic straphanger sucker-punched a woman on a train, sending her to the hospital with a broken spine – all because he thought she was a lesbian, cops said Saturday. The man became incensed after he saw another woman peck the victim on the cheek Nov. 30 at about 5:10 p.m. aboard an E …

The Sioux City Journal reports: Northwest Iowa Christian activist Paul Dorr has been charged with fifth-degree criminal mischief in connection with publicly burning four LGBTQ-themed books he checked out from the Orange City Public Library. Dorr drew national attention for a half-hour long Facebook Live video on Oct. 19 that showed him tossing the books into a burning barrel. Dorr, …

The Washington Post reports: A man who worked as an investigator for conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman [photo above] will serve nine years in prison for shooting and wounding his ex-boss in a complicated plot involving a fake FBI exposé. Kevin Doherty, 46, said little as Judge William T. Newman Jr. sentenced him Monday for malicious wounding and use of a …

The Omaha World-Herald reports: Shock and questions abound after the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha made public on Friday the names of 38 clergy members accused of sexual misdeeds with minors. The archdiocese said “substantiated claims of sexual abuse of, or sexual misconduct with, a minor” had been made against 34 priests and four deacons on a list it provided to …

The Miami Herald reports: Indiana Parra was riding her moped with her girlfriend, Rimbow Gomez, when a white Dodge Ram van covered in bizarre political stickers pulled alongside.  The driver — a middle-aged man — began yelling at the younger couple. Without warning, he threw a cup of urine from the driver’s side window. It missed the moped, which was …

NBC News reports: Brandon McNamara, the suspect in a gay bashing in Brooklyn’s hip Williamsburg district, faces up to 15 years in prison for hate crimes he allegedly committed in late September. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said McNamara was arraigned Friday and charged with “second-degree assault as a hate crime, third-degree menacing as a hate crime, second-degree aggravated harassment …

The Birmingham Herald reports: A former state trooper shot Greg Griggers, the district attorney for Alabama’s 17th Judicial Circuit, in the face Thursday afternoon, according to Michael Jackson, district attorney for Alabama’s 4th Judicial Circuit. After he shot Griggers, the former trooper – whose name has not been released – was shot to death, reportedly by a law enforcement officer. …

NBC News Philadelphia reports: A New Jersey couple accused of scamming a homeless good Samaritan out of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of an online fundraiser that went viral a year ago had initially conspired with him to concoct a “fictitious story,” prosecutors allege. A complaint obtained by NBC Philadelphia says couple Mark D’Amico and Kate McClure made …

The Christian Post reports: Michael Hiskey, Liberty University’s senior director of academic planning and operations who also serves as a business professor at the popular evangelical Christian University in Lynchburg, Virginia, remained in jail Wednesday on charges of attempted murder, abduction and kidnapping as well as assault and battery of his wife. Hiskey, 27, was booked into the Blue Ridge …

The Voice Of America reports: The number of hate crime incidents reported in the United States jumped by 17 percent last year to more than 7,000 – the largest increase since 2001 when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led to a surge in bias-motivated crimes. The increase, reported Tuesday by the FBI, marks the third annual jump in …

From the National Catholic Reporter: The plenary meeting of the Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops opened with a bombshell. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the conference, announced that the Holy See had insisted the U.S. bishops not vote on any concrete action items regarding the clergy sex abuse crisis, pending the February meeting of the presidents of all episcopal …

CNN reports: Authorities have identified a Facebook post believed to have been made by the shooter around the time of the attack, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the ongoing investigation. In it, the writer says: “I hope people call me insane… (laughing emojis).. wouldn’t that just be a big ball of irony? Yeah.. I’m insane, but the …

The Associated Press reports: Thirty-three priests or religious brothers in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, have been “credibly accused” and/or removed from the ministry over sexual abuse of minors, the bishop of the central Missouri diocese said Thursday. Bishop W. Shawn McKnight released a complete list of the names that followed an internal investigation begun in February. …

USA Today reports: A 39-year-old Arkansas man was arrested on election day after he allegedly made more than 40 calls to CNN headquarters, some of which included death threats against CNN anchor Don Lemon. Benjamin Craig Matthews of Mountain Home faces five felony counts of terroristic threatening, nine misdemeanor counts of harassing communications and four misdemeanor counts of second-degree terroristic …

The Houston Chronicle reports: Former Congressman Steve Stockman, a Tea Party stalwart who represented East Texas during two non-consecutive terms, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Wednesday for his role in a wide-ranging scheme that included a spy operation aimed a fellow Republican challenger and $1.25 million in campaign funds pilfered from conservative megadonors. Stockman, who was …