Crime

Charlotte’s CBS affiliate reports: Cornelius Police stated that on Aug. 2, 2023, they began investigating the alleged inappropriate relationship between a student and teacher at Southlake Christian Academy. Officials state that after the investigation, they were able to obtain warrants on Tyler Melton, 26, for felony sex acts with a student and indecent liberties with a student. Melton turned himself …

The Guardian reports: As he reached the end of his 41-year life, Kevin Portier had endured child rape at the hands of a southern Louisiana Catholic priest for whom he had served as an altar boy; a highly publicized trial that sent the clergyman to prison for the rest of his days; and the trauma associated with those experiences. But …

Portland’s Fox affiliate reports: A 46-year-old former pastor at a church in Aurora was indicted Wednesday on 16 counts of sexual assault, and at least some of the victims were children, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday. According to deputies, Seferino Tosie’s victims attended Missionary Memorial Church in Aurora where he worked as a pastor. Following his indictment, another …

The Yakima Herald-Republic reports: A new memorial stone in Yakima’s Calvary Catholic Cemetery is meant to prompt “quiet reflection and prayer” for clergy sex abuse victims. It also has generated criticism from statewide victims’ advocates and a demand to update the list of diocesan sex offenders. Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson [photo] dedicated the monument. The granite memorial, on the south …

The Washington Post reports: Inside the high walls of the Holy See, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu — former head of the office of “miracles” that minted saints — was considered papabile, a possible next pope. Then his career collided with church prosecutors, who charged the 75-year-old Italian and nine other officials with corruption, setting up the Vatican’s trial of the …

Dallas’s ABC affiliate reports: A former North Texas youth pastor has been arrested for possessing child porn, and police are asking for possible victims to come forward in the case. The Frisco Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit says it received a cyber tip that 36-year-old Kyle Timothy Poff was possibly in possession of child pornography. During the investigation, …

Dallas’s Audacy affiliate reports: The former chaplain at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth has just received a life prison term for the sexual exploitation of children. Because Michael Dale Downs is 71 years old, the 60-year prison term imposed by a federal judge is effectively a life prison term. Federal sentences don’t carry early parole. Investigators say Downs’ wife …

The Rome News-Tribune reports: A former youth minister of a Floyd County church was sentenced Thursday to serve 15 years in prison on child molestation and possession of child pornography charges, alongside another 25 years on probation. When Austin Wray Perkins was arrested on March 9, 2022, as part of a sting targeting child pornography, police discovered he was also …

ABC News reports: A U.K. judge on Friday issued a ruling in Prince Harry’s lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Daily Mirror, saying the Duke of Sussex’s phone was probably hacked “to a modest extent” by Mirror Group Newspapers. The Duke of Sussex has been awarded £140,600 ($179, 658) after bringing a High Court phone hacking claim …

Click On Detroit reports: New charges approved Thursday against the 42-year-old son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer included an upgraded homicide count in a crash that killed a North Dakota sheriff’s deputy. Ian Cramer initially faced a manslaughter charge related to the Dec. 6 death of Mercer County Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Martin on a highway near Hazen. A judge on …

The Insider reports: Four hours after testimony wrapped in the civil fraud trial against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, the lower Manhattan courthouse was evacuated after someone set papers on fire, then pulled and used multiple fire extinguishers on the same floor as the courtroom. The judge in the case, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, was in …

The Providence Journal reports: Calling his crimes egregious and an enormous violation of the trust to the parishioners he once served, a federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a former Roman Catholic priest to serve six years in prison. “I’m strongly inclined to give you more than that,” U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith said in sentencing Rev. James Ward …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide whether a defendant arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol can be charged with obstructing an official proceeding in a dispute with potential implications for one of Republican former President Donald Trump’s four criminal cases. The justices took up an appeal by a Jan. …

NBC News reports: The FBI has arrested an “internet pornography personality” who went by the name “GodHypnotic,” accusing him of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. Paul Caloia was arrested last week, according to court records, and faces four misdemeanor charges. An FBI affidavit features images of the man identified as Caloia climbing in through a broken window. An FBI …

The New York Daily News reports: Ex-Rep. George Santos got a reprieve Tuesday when a judge turned back a prosecution push to move up his trial on charges of fraud and campaign finance law violations. Prosecutors had hoped to have the trial as soon as April or May — but Judge Joanna Seybert backed Santos’ lawyers, who said they needed …

From the Justice Department: A federal jury today convicted a Lame Deer pastor of sexually abusing three children while they were staying at his home, on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said. After a six-day trial that began on Dec. 4, the jury found Dean Alan Smith, 67, guilty of aggravated sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact …

CBS News reports: The Diocese of Sacramento will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after more than 250 lawsuits claiming sexual abuse by clergy and other staff, Bishop Jaime Soto said on Saturday. “There are many victim-survivors awaiting compensation for the reprehensible sins committed against them,” Soto said in a statement to his parishioners. “It is the sickening sin of sexual …

CNBC reports: A New Hampshire man was arrested on a charge of threatening to kill Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and his supporters at a campaign event in the state, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday. The man, Tyler Anderson, last week allegedly responded to a Ramaswamy campaign text message about a meet-and-greet breakfast in Portsmouth on Monday with …

The New York Daily News reports: According to authorities who uncovered the scheme during their “Operation Bad Elf” crackdown, a shocking number of gift cards were found to have been tampered with. Police say thieves have been stealing gift cards, replacing the barcodes with their own, and putting them back on the shelves. “When the consumer goes to check out, …

The New York Times reports: A national lobbying group has retracted its startling estimate that “organized retail crime” was responsible for nearly half the $94.5 billion in store merchandise that disappeared in 2021, a figure that helped amplify claims that the United States was experiencing a nationwide wave of shoplifting. The group, the National Retail Federation, edited that claim last …