Crime

The Daily Beast reports: On an afternoon in late April 1994, a young woman was raped in broad daylight in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Two days later, the biggest columnist in New York City’s biggest newspaper called her a liar. The woman—black, a lesbian, and an activist—became the target of a vicious smear campaign by a Daily News columnist and sources …

The New York Post reports: Sarah Palin’s oldest son pleaded not guilty Monday to a felony charge in the case accusing him of assaulting his father at the family’s Alaska home last month. Track Palin’s lawyer entered the plea on his behalf at his arraignment. The 28-year-old did not attend the hearing in person, but participated by phone. His parents …

Houston’s ABC affiliate reports: A Baptist pastor in The Woodlands who was arrested last summer on a charge of soliciting a prostitute pleaded guilty this morning to the charge and was sentence to a year of probation. Eddie Hilburn, 53, was arrested at a hotel in July 2017 during a sting operation. According to charging documents, Hilburn paid an undercover …

The Birmingham News reports: A nationwide GoFundMe drive has neared $150,000 in donations to help Roy Moore accuser Tina Johnson recover from her home’s destruction in a suspicious fire, but Johnson’s gratitude was mixed with continued troubles this weekend. “I just thank everyone all across America from the bottom of my heart,” Johnson said Saturday. “I just cannot give them …

AL.com reports: Roy Moore accuser Tina Johnson lost her home Tuesday in a fire that is now under investigation by the Etowah County Arson Task Force. Tina Johnson, who first came to public notice for accusing Senate candidate Roy Moore of grabbing her in his office in the early 1990s, said her home on Lake Mary Louise Road in Gadsden …

The Omaha World-Herald reports: A Missouri man with connections to white supremacists has been charged with terrorism after authorities said he brought a cross-country Amtrak train to a halt last fall in rural Nebraska. Taylor M. Wilson of suburban St. Louis intended to hurt passengers, authorities said. The 26-year-old has been charged in federal court in Lincoln with terrorism attacks …

CNN reports: Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman indicted on money laundering and other charges, filed a lawsuit challenging the broad authority of special counsel Robert Mueller and alleging the Justice Department violated the law in appointing Mueller. The suit brought Wednesday in US District Court in Washington where Manafort and another former Trump campaign aide are charged, challenges …

The New York Daily News reports: Sarah Palin rang in the New Year by sharing an image of her bruised beau. The one-term Alaska governor stated on Instagram she and her family were heading out to their cabin for New Year’s Eve, her photo also featuring her daughter Piper and son Trig along with her still-injured husband, Todd. After Todd …

Newsweek reports: A man who shot dead a sheriff’s deputy in Denver, Colorado, and wounded four others early Sunday posted alt-right content to his Facebook account. Matthew Riehl, 37, was killed in a shootout with law enforcement after barricading himself inside his apartment and opening fire on five deputies and two bystanders. The authorities had been responding to a noise …

The New York Times reports: It would have seemed unbelievable in 1990, when there were 2,245 killings in New York City, but as of Wednesday there have been just 286 in the city this year — the lowest since reliable records have been kept. In fact, crime has fallen in New York City in each of the major felony categories …

USA Today reports: Starting in January, Illinois will bar a rare criminal defense allowing the use of a victim’s sexual orientation as justification for violent crime, a ban gay rights advocates say they will attempt to replicate in about half a dozen states next year. Defense attorneys will no longer be able to mount the so-called “gay panic defense” in …

Newsweek reports: President Donald Trump should pardon his former national security adviser and campaign aide Michael Flynn, who “has taken the biggest fall,” Flynn’s brother said Tuesday. In a since-deleted tweet, Joseph Flynn said Trump must get the former Army general off the hook for his December 1 guilty plea stemming from his contacts with the former Russian ambassador. The …

NBC News reports: A Virginia couple was found fatally shot in their home on Friday, and a 17-year-old, who is in the hospital with self-inflicted gunshot wounds, is being charged with their deaths. The couple, husband Scott Fricker, 48, and wife Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, 43, of Reston, were found dead early Friday morning, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. “My …

San Francisco’s ABC affiliate reports: Officials have stopped a man who reportedly stated that “Christmas was the perfect day” for a terror attack in San Francisco and “did not need an escape plan because he was ready to die.” We’ve learned the FBI has arrested a man by the name of Everitt Aaron Jameson from Modesto. They say he wanted …

The Anchorage Daily News reports: A bearded, tattooed and silent Track Palin sat in a Palmer courtroom today as a judge signed off on house arrest for charges from Palin’s assault on his father Saturday. Palin, 28, was arrested by Wasilla police Saturday after his mother, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, called them for help. He is charged with felony …

The Washington Post reports: The Alexandria, Va., pastor told his parishioners they could benefit themselves while doing good if they invested in his Christian-based company lending small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Instead, a jury in Alexandria federal court agreed that Terry Millender and his wife Brenda Millender, who together ran Victorious Life Church, defrauded their friends …

The Anchorage Daily News reports: Track Palin, the son of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, opted not to finish a therapeutic court program for military veterans to address a 2016 domestic-violence arrest. Wasilla police arrested Palin, 28, on Saturday for beating his father, Todd Palin, at his parents’ home near the Parks Highway. It was Sarah Palin who called police. …

The Associated Press reports: A man convicted of leading an Islamic State-inspired plot to behead a conservative blogger who upset Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest was sentenced Tuesday to 28 years in prison. David Wright, who’s 28 years old, was sentenced by a judge in Boston’s federal courthouse two months after jurors found him guilty of …

CBS Chicago reports: A megachurch in Ohio is accused of coercing an elderly woman in Rogers Park to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars. The woman is mentally ill and has dementia. She is now under the care of the Cook County Public Guardian, who is fighting to reclaim that money — her life-savings. Bridget Pollard, 76, has lived …

The Los Angeles Times reports: New details emerged Monday about the arrest of Track Palin, the eldest son of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, with charging documents saying he broke into his parents’ home and beat his father. Track Palin, 28, was arrested Saturday and is charged with first-degree burglary, fourth-degree assault and criminal mischief; he remains in custody. A …