Crime

The New York Daily News reports: A wacko customer at a Manhattan gay bar mailed a powder-filled envelope with a message reading “It’s called anthrax. Enjoy,” to an employee after he was threatened with a ban from the watering hole, prosecutors charged Monday. Unhinged patron Ameen Keshavjee, allegedly menaced the male employee at Nowhere Bar in the East Village starting …

Oregon’s Statesman Journal reports: A Turner woman is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for $9.54 million after her husband’s confession to church leaders led to his arrest, conviction and imprisonment on child sexual abuse charges. The lawsuit, which accuses local church leaders of violating confidentiality and the “priest-penitent privilege,” contrasts sharply with other cases accusing the …

Courthouse News reports: An elected official in metro Phoenix resigned Tuesday, months after being charged with running a human smuggling operation that paid pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to give up their babies in the US. The resignation of Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen came after leaders in the one of the nation’s most populous counties suspended and pressured …

The Denver Post reports: A Parker woman is accused of planning a raid to kidnap her child with help from a far-right conspiracy group, according to an affidavit filed by the Parker Police Department. Cynthia Abcug , 50, who does not have custody of her child, is accused of plotting the raid to take the child back with help from …

The Washington Post reports: Rep. Duncan D. Hunter will resign from Congress effective Jan. 13, two congressional aides with knowledge of the move said Tuesday, more than one month after the California Republican pleaded guilty in federal court to misusing campaign funds. Hunter submitted his letter of resignation to congressional leaders Tuesday, according to the aides, who spoke on condition …

The Detroit Free Press reports: A Michigan man has been arraigned for the murder and mutilation of 25-year-old Kevin Bacon who was found dead on Dec. 28. Bacon’s body was found in Mark Latunski’s home in the 700 block of W. Tyrrell Road in Bennington Township, a half-hour west of Flint. He was hanging naked from the ceiling, according to …

Variety reports: Harvey Weinstein has been hit with a new sex crimes charge for “raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents over a two-day period in 2013,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced on Monday. He’s being charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force …

The Associated Press reports: An Indonesian man described as “the most prolific rapist in British legal history” has been sentenced to life in prison with a possible release after 30 years following his conviction for sexual offences against 48 men. Authorities said the evidence against Reynhard Sinaga, 36, indicates he had many more victims, with roughly 195 men apparently having …

The San Jose Mercury News reports: U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California is staying silent on when he will resign after he pleaded guilty to using campaign money for personal expenses, drawing the ire of a fellow Republican who wants to replace him. The six-term congressman said last month that he would step down “shortly after the holidays” but has …

The Miami Herald reports: Ex-Florida Senate candidate and white nationalist Augustus Sol Invictus has been arrested on an out-of-county warrant on charges of kidnapping, “high and aggravated” domestic violence and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Invictus, who campaigned as a libertarian in a 2016 Senate run and later headlined the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally …

The Democrat & Chronicle reports: Assemblyman Brian Kolb was arrested and charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated following an Ontario County crash on New Year’s Eve. Deputies responded to a crash at 7980 County Route 41 in Victor at 10:27 p.m. Tuesday and identified Kolb as the driver of the 2018 GMC Arcadia involved in the incident. No one was …

NBC News reports: Police in Rio de Janeiro have identified one of the people responsible for a gasoline bomb attack targeting satirists behind a Christmas program on Netflix that some critics have described as blasphemous. Officers carried out a search warrant Tuesday morning and found money, a fake firearm, ammunition, a “political-philosophical” shirt and computers, police said in a written …

Michigan Live reports: The Shiawassee County Prosecutor’s Office has authorized murder and mutilation charges against a 50-year-old Morrice-area resident in the death of 25-year-old Kevin Bacon. The prosecutor’s office released the 50-year-old man’s name on Monday, but The Flint Journal-MLive is not naming him until his arraignment. Bacon’s friend and roommate, Michelle Myers, previously told The Flint Journal-MLive that at …

NBC News Dallas reports: The man who fatally shot two people at a White Settlement Church on Sunday before being killed by church security has been identified as a 43-year-old Keith Thomas Kinnunen, a River Oaks man with a criminal record, according to two law enforcement sources. Kinnunen is believed to have been wearing a disguise, including a fake beard, …

NPR reports: Federal prosecutors in New York have filed hate crime charges against the man accused of carrying out a stabbing rampage north of New York City over the weekend that wounded five people as they celebrated Hanukkah. According to the FBI, the suspect, Grafton E. Thomas, 37, appears to have been driven by anti-Semitism, citing journals written by Thomas …

CNN reports: The man accused of barging into a rabbi’s Monsey, New York, home and stabbing five people at a Hanukkah party has a “long history of mental illness and hospitalizations,” according to a family statement issued by his attorney. “We believe the actions of which he is accused, if committed by him, tragically reflect profound mental illness for which …

Mediaite reports: CNN aired footage on Monday morning from the moment when the gunman behind the West Freeway Church of Christ shooting pulled out his weapon and started attacking service attendees. Two victims were killed in the attack outside of Fort Worth, TX on Sunday, and the gunman also died from return fire from the parishioners. The violence was captured …

CNN reports: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attack by a machete-wielding man at a Hanukkah celebration at a New York rabbi’s home Saturday night an “act of terrorism” and challenged his state to fight the rise of anti-Semitism and hate. Standing out the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg in the town of Monsey on Sunday morning, Cuomo called …

NBC News reports: Five people were stabbed Saturday night at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, and a suspect was later arrested in New York City, police said. Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said a man armed with a blade attacked around 10 p.m., on the seventh night of Hanukkah. The attacker was arrested by the NYPD nearly two …

The Associated Press reports: Richard J. Poster served time for possessing child pornography, violated his probation by having contact with children, admitted masturbating in the bushes near a church school and in 2005 was put on a sex offender registry. And yet the former Catholic priest was only just this month added to a list of clergy members credibly accused …