Crime

The New York Times reports: Cody Wilson, whose push to post blueprints of 3D-printed guns online has made him a key figure in the national gun control debate, was charged on Wednesday with sexually assaulting a child in Texas. Mr. Wilson, 30, is accused of having sex with a girl under 17 at a hotel in Austin on Aug. 15 …

The New York Times reports: Four men who were repeatedly sexually abused as children by a religion teacher at a Catholic church in Brooklyn received a $27.5 million settlement from the Diocese of Brooklyn on Tuesday, in one of the largest settlements ever awarded to individual victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The settlement comes two weeks after …

Tulsa’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Republican state senator in Oklahoma has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on a child sex trafficking charge. Ralph Shortey was sentenced Monday in federal court in Oklahoma City. He had faced a sentence of up to life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Shortey pleaded guilty in November in …

Euronews reports: Pope Francis appealed to Sicily’s Mafia on Saturday to abandon a life of crime and violence, saying the island needed “men and women of love, not men and women ‘of honor,’” using the term mobsters apply to themselves. Francis, in the Sicilian capital, said organized crime members – many of whom go to church and worship openly – …

CNBC reports: Take his Trump Tower apartment. Please. Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort told prosecutors he preferred that they seize his apartment in Trump Tower than give up one of the four bank accounts special counsel Robert Mueller’s team was eyeing, Manafort’s plea agreement revealed Friday. President Donald Trump’s own New York residence is in that landmark Fifth Avenue …

Talking Points Memo reports: In a dramatic reversal, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty Friday morning to federal criminal charges and agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Manafort’s decision to cooperate with Mueller is a potentially grievous blow to President Trump. Prosecutors in the DC case against Manafort filed a Superseding Criminal Information on …

NBC News reports: Paul Manafort, formerly President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, is expected to plead guilty to a federal conspiracy charge that accused him of money laundering, tax fraud, and lying to investigators, according to a document filed in federal court. A superseding criminal information against Manafort, 69, was filed Friday in the District of Columbia, which alleges a conspiracy …

Bloomberg reports: Paul Manafort’s lawyers have talked to U.S. prosecutors about a possible guilty plea to avert a second criminal trial set to begin in Washington this month, according to a person familiar with the matter. By pleading guilty, Manafort could avoid the risk of a longer prison term if he’s convicted at a second trial, as well as the …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump on Friday mocked the two-week prison sentence given to former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russian operatives before the 2016 election, despite declaring hours earlier: “I don’t know him.” Papadopoulos, who was sentenced to 14 days in jail, is the first Trump adviser to …

ABC News reports: Nearly one year after aspiring foreign policy consultant George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty, the North Side Chicago native was sentenced Friday for lying to the FBI about his activities with the Trump for president campaign. In a DC federal courtroom, Papadopoulos was handed 14 days in prison and 12 months of supervised release by U.S. Judge Randolph Moss. …

The Associated Press reports: Hackers obtained the credit card details of some 380,000 British Airways travelers during a two-week data breach this summer that leaves the customers vulnerable to financial fraud, the airline says. BA’s CEO, Alex Cruz, said Friday that enough data was stolen to allow criminals to use credit card information for illicit purposes, and that police are …

Politico reports: The Justice Department is replacing the prosecutors overseeing the criminal case against former Rep. Aaron Schock, an unusual move that could delay the proceedings in the case. In a court document filed on Thursday, John Childress, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois, told U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly — himself new to the case …

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports: Peter Avsenew, convicted of killing a Wilton Manors couple days before Christmas 2010 and stealing their car to escape to north Florida, who told a jury in January that he had no regrets and a judge in March that he had killed before and would again, has been sentenced to die. He is the first …

Courthouse News reports: California man who made a series of calls to the offices of The Boston Globe threatening to kill journalists was ordered released on bond by a federal judge Thursday despite the objections of prosecutors who painted him as a danger to his community. While waiting to be called before Magistrate Judge Paul Abrams, 68-year-old Robert Chain sat …

Just in from the Department of Justice: A California man was arrested today and charged with making violent threats against Boston Globe employees in retaliation for the newspaper’s editorial response to political attacks on the media. Robert D. Chain, 68, of Encino, California, is charged with one count of making threatening communications in interstate commerce. Chain will appear in federal …

Politico reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team wants to review emails between Paul Manafort and one of his former lawyers — messages that would typically be protected by attorney-client privilege. Manafort’s emails are a special case, Mueller’s team argued in a court motion Wednesday. Attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply when the client enlists a lawyer’s help to commit a crime — …

The Dallas Morning News reports: A Dallas County jury found the former Balch Springs police officer who killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards guilty of murder Tuesday. Roy Oliver, 38, was found not guilty, however, on two counts of aggravated assault for firing his rifle into a car full of teens as they left a house party last year. Oliver was taken …

Reuters reports: Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Tuesday said they would seek to move his second trial, scheduled to start next month, out of Washington, D.C., due to the highly politicized environment in the nation’s capital. The motion for change of venue will be the second by Manafort after a failed attempt to move his first …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Investigators “have evidence that the Vatican had knowledge of the cover-up,” involving priests accused of sexually abusing thousands of Pennsylvania children over decades, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Tuesday morning on NBC’s Today show. “I can’t speak specifically to Pope Francis, but I think the broader issues here with the Vatican knowing about this, with …

The Hill reports: Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) holds an 8-point lead over his Democratic opponent despite being indicted on charges of misusing campaign funds, according to a new poll. A Survey USA poll published Monday found that among likely voters in California’s 50th District who were surveyed, 47 percent plan to vote for Hunter, compared to 39 percent who favor …