Crime

The Chicago Tribune reports: The U.S. Supreme Court has for the second time rejected an appeal by imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich of his convictions on corruption charges. The justices did not comment Monday in letting stand the convictions and 14-year prison term that Blagojevich is serving. He’s scheduled to be released in 2024. His convictions included trying to extort …

Earlier this week locally famous Alabama evangelical Acton Bowen was arrested on multiple charges of sex with a boy under 16 years old. Now his wife says she’s physically afraid of him and wants a divorce, a restraining order, the house, and her maiden name back. The Birmingham Herald reports: Ashley Nabors Bowen filed for divorce from Acton Bowen on …

The Texas Tribune reports: Steve Stockman, a Republican former congressman from Texas, has been convicted of defrauding two conservative mega-donors and funneling their $1.25 million into personal and campaign expenses as part of what prosecutors have described as a “white collar crime spree.” A jury in federal court in Houston ruled Thursday afternoon that Stockman is guilty of all but …

San Diego’s NBC affiliate reports: A former pastor at a Carlsbad church who pleaded guilty to repeatedly molesting a child over the course of nearly two years was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday. Prosecutors said the man, who was a pastor at the North Coast Calvary Chapel at the time of his arrest, only turned himself in because …

Miami’s ABC affiliate reports: Four men have been released on bond after being arrested and accused of beating a gay couple. The four men — who police identified as 20-year-old Luis Alonso, 21-year-old Adonis Diaz, 21-year-old Juan C. Lopez and 21-year-old Pablo Reinaldo Romo — bonded out of jail on Wednesday. According to a Miami Beach Police spokesperson, all four …

The Toronto Star reports: Another murder charge was laid Wednesday against Bruce McArthur, bringing the number of people he is alleged to have killed to seven. McArthur, 66, appeared in court via video this morning to face his latest first-degree murder charge in the death of 42-year-old Abdulbasir Faizi, one of three missing men at the centre of Project Houston. …

The Birmingham News reports: A well-known Alabama evangelist, public speaker and author was arrested in Hoover Tuesday on child sex charges. Paul Edward Acton Bowen, a 37-year-old Gadsden native who now lives in Etowah County’s Southside community, was taken into custody by Hoover police about 12:35 p.m. The founder of Acton Bowen Outreach Ministries is charged with second-degree sodomy, enticing …

The Miami Herald reports: Four men turned themselves in to Miami Beach police on Tuesday afternoon in the case of a gay couple brutally attacked after the city’s gay pride parade. The men surrendered through an attorney and will likely face felony charges, the Miami Beach Police Department said in a statement. The attack occurred Sunday evening around 7:40 p.m. …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Former Silicon Valley star T.J. Miller has been charged with calling in a false bomb threat from an Amtrak train, federal authorities say. Miller was arrested Monday night at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. Miller appeared today before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven and was released on a $100,000 bond. The charge …

The Miami Herald reports: Two victims were attacked by four young men in Miami Beach after the city’s Gay Pride Parade Sunday in what police think may have been a hate crime. In video footage of the incident, four young men — one wearing a Florida International University T-shirt — are seen walking up to a bathroom area on Ocean …

The BBC reports: Police at the Vatican have arrested a priest who previously worked at the Holy See’s US embassy on suspicion of possessing child pornography. Carlo Alberto Capella was taken into custody after an investigation. Monsignor Capella was recalled from the US in September 2017 after US authorities told the Vatican about a possible violation of child pornography laws …

Flint, Michigan’s Fox affiliate reports: Robert DeLand, a Saginaw priest who had been arrested and charged with sex crimes in March is now facing new charges. The new charges include: second degree criminal sexual conduct, second degree criminal sexual conduct causing personal injury, controlled substance delivery, and contributing to a delinquency of a minor. DeLand was out on bond, but …

Go Erie reports: The Catholic Diocese of Erie on Friday opened a long-locked vault of secrets and released the names of priests and lay people accused of sexually abusing minors while working in the diocese. The list is made up of 51 names — 34 priests, 21 of whom are dead, according to revised diocesan figures, and 17 lay people, …

Arkansas Online reports: Oren Paris III, former president of Ecclesia College in Springdale, pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to a fraud charge in a kickback scheme involving state grants for his school. Paris was scheduled to go to trial Monday alongside former state Sen. Jon Woods (R) of Springdale and consultant Randell G. Shelton Jr., formerly of Alma but currently of …

Mexico News Daily reports: A Catholic priest was sentenced yesterday to 90 years in jail for aggravated rape, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and corruption of minors. Jorge Raúl Villegas Chávez, 50, the confessor and spiritual guide for the students of an all-girls’ private school in Guanajuato, was arrested in February last year after two mothers filed criminal complaints, …

The New York Daily News reports: Suspected YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam drove more than 500 miles from San Diego to reach the tech giant’s San Bruno, Calif., headquarters because “she was angry,” according to her father. Ismail Aghdam feared his daughter had a bone to pick with the video company and spent the weekend trying to reach her by phone. …

CBS News reports: The designer of the Kansas waterslide on which a 10-year-old boy was decapitated in 2016 was taken into custody in Dallas Monday evening after arriving on a flight from China, the U.S. Marshals Service says. John Schooley, 72, was detained at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. He’s charged with second-degree murder. Schooley will be held in the …

New Hampshire’s ABC outlet reports: A Seabrook man is being held without bail after he was accused of raping a child while he was serving as a pastor in the Methodist Church. Russell Davis, 65, faces several charges in Massachusetts. Seabrook police said they arrested Davis Thursday on a fugitive from justice warrant. The Essex County District Attorney’s Office said …

Reuters reports: Retailer Hudson’s Bay Co on Sunday disclosed that it was the victim of a security breach that compromised data on payment cards used at Saks and Lord & Taylor stores in North America. One cyber security firm said that it has evidence that millions of cards may have been compromised, which would make the breach one of the …

The Tennessean reports: Metro police have arrested a pastor accused of molesting several children across two decades while he was leader of a South Nashville congregation. Matthew Dennis Patterson, known as Denny, served as pastor of Nolensville Road Baptist Church for more than 20 years. He resigned on Sept. 24. Days later, members of the congregation came to the police …