Crime

NPR reports: Mississippi’s former welfare director, four colleagues and a former pro wrestler have been charged with carrying out a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme to siphon public money from needy families for their own personal use — from business investments to a luxury rehab stay in California. Special agents from the Office of the State Auditor arrested John Davis, who is …

Newsweek reports: A decorated U.S. Air Force colonel slated to take command of the base that hosts Air Force One has been sentenced to five years in prison for receiving child pornography. Mark Visconi, 48, of Fairfax, Virginia, was jailed on Friday after he plead guilty to receipt of child pornography in October. He was also sentenced to 15 years …

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: A former Uniting Church minister who also ran one of the country’s most prominent gay conversion therapy programs has been charged with committing historical child sexual offences more than 30 years ago. Former Reverend Ron Charles Brookman, 70, faced a Sydney court on Tuesday over allegations he indecently assaulted a 13-year-old who was in his …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: A 20-year-old Sauk Village man was charged in connection to recent robberies of men who arranged dates through the online app Grindr at Near North Side hotels. Davion Johnson was arrested Monday and charged in three incidents, one of which involved him allegedly threatening a 42-year-old man with a stun gun and stealing his property at …

The Informant reports: A man in Arizona has been accused by federal authorities of threatening to kill Congressman Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Court records show that Jan Peter Meister, a 52-year-old registered sex offender, told investigators he drunkenly left the threatening voicemail at Schiff’s Washington, D.C. office after watching Fox News …

The New York Daily News reports: The babyfaced killer from Oklahoma who murdered an Upper East Side man 40 years his senior — after meeting him on a dating app — used a knife or a sharp ceramic object to mutilate his victim’s head, a Manhattan prosecutor alleged at his arraignment early Saturday. The suspect, 24-year-old Alex Scott, had met …

Courthouse News reports: According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, leaders of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (KOJC) church obtained visas for members in the Philippines after telling U.S. authorities the members would perform music at church fundraisers. But once church members arrived in the U.S., KOJC leaders confiscated their …

Grand Rapids’ NBC News affiliate reports: A priest who admitted to holding a teen captive in a church janitor’s closet is headed to jail. In an Allegan courtroom Monday morning, Brian Stanley was sentenced to 60 days in jail with credit for two days served. He will also serve five years probation and must register as a sex offender for …

Reuters reports: Martin Shkreli, the “pharma bro” in prison for defrauding investors, faces a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and New York attorney general’s office for an alleged scheme to preserve his monopoly for the drug Daraprim, whose price increased by more than 4,000% in one day. The lawsuit accuses a company that Shkreli once ran of buying …

NBC News reports: A pilot allegedly scrawled racist messages and graffiti that appeared to support President Donald Trump around a Florida airport, authorities said. James Ellis Dees, 53, has been charged with nine counts of criminal mischief for allegedly writing racial slurs about African Americans and Hispanics, including the phrase “Send them ALL Back,” in restroom stalls and parking elevators …

Winston-Salem’s NBC News affiliate reports: A Wilkes County pastor was arrested Thursday on more than 100 counts of felony sex offenses that span 15 years, detectives said. Rodney Dean Luffman, 58, of Pleasant Ridge Road, was arrested by Detective Amanda Boyd of the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office. Luffman is charged with 115 felony sex charges — 80 counts of indecent …

NBC News reports: New Jersey on Tuesday became the ninth state to prohibit homicide defendants from claiming that panic brought on by a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity could be used a legal defense. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed the measure, saying it promotes “full equality for all our residents.” “Gay and trans panic defenses are rooted in homophobia …

Syracuse.com reports: A couple were leaving a Breaking Benjamin rock concert during the state fair in August when one man slung an arm over his boyfriend. That simple act triggered a hate-filled attack by a drunken stranger that included gay slurs, an unprovoked punch to the face of one victim and a shattered window to the car belonging to the …

The Associated Press reports: San Angelo’s former longtime police chief has been indicted on bribery and fraud counts accusing him of taking $134,000 in bribes to help a radio communications vendor obtain $11 million in city contracts. Timothy Ray Vasquez made an initial court appearance in federal court in San Angelo. He had served as police chief from 2004 until …

The San Jose Mercury News reports: A pastor at a Lutheran church in San Mateo was arrested after allegedly delivering letters full of shooting threats to a San Carlos church where he was formerly a congregation member, authorities said. In four separate instances between Jan. 7 and Jan. 16, Paul Michaelson, 79, dropped off letters to the Holy Trinity Church …

The Buffalo News reports: A judge Friday sentenced former Rep. Chris Collins to 26 months in federal prison for igniting an insider trading scheme that also prompted his son, Cameron, and his son’s future father-in-law to break the law. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick, according to a journalist tweeting from the courtroom, …

The Guardian reports: Prosecutors in Panama have found the corpses of six children and one adult in a clandestine burial pit where a religious sect was found torturing indigenous people in exorcism rituals. Prosecutors said the victims ranged in age from one to 17, and that the adult was a pregnant woman who was the mother of five of the …

ABC News reports: The U.S. Justice Department has charged a former Virginia college student with calling in fake emergencies to prompt law enforcement responses, in coordination with a group the FBI labelled as sympathetic to neo-Nazi ideology. John William Kirby Kelley, 19, was charged last week with conspiracy to make threats. He’s accused of being part of a network that …

The Detroit Free Press reports: Police now are seeking other men Mark Latunski met on Grindr. They know of two. A New York man born in 1973 fled Latunski’s home, jumped a fence and called police after becoming frightened during a consensual sexual encounter on Oct. 10. Then a 29-year-old Lansing man wearing only a kilt got “spooked” during a …

Roll Call reports: Former Speaker John A. Boehner is among a robust contingent of Republicans who want a judge to give convicted former Rep. Chris Collins a break on prison time. The requests for leniency say the New York Republican is a dedicated public servant, father and friend. But the attempt from current and former GOP lawmakers runs contrary to …