Crime

Kansas City’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Shawnee, Kansas, children’s pastor who attacked his family and set their house on fire to hide financial problems has pleaded guilty in connection with the incident. Matthew Lee Richards was charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated arson with risk of bodily harm after the Sept. 16, 2023, …

Memphis’s CBS affiliate reports: A priest at a church in West Memphis, Arkansas has been arrested in connection with a case involving two cats who police say appeared to have been drowned, city officials said Tuesday. Charles Thessing, 63, is listed in the Crittenden County jail log, charged with two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals. On Feb. 7, West …

Florence, South Carolina’s ABC affiliate reports: Florence County Magistrate, Jerry F. Rivers is presiding over a bond hearing Tuesday morning for four employees at a private school after being arrested on Monday in connection with allegations of child abuse, according to the Florence County Sheriff’s Office. Laurin B. Boyce, 73, was charged with two counts of unlawful conduct toward a …

Metro Weekly reports: Nine students from Salisbury University have been sentenced for taking part in the assault of a gay man whom they reportedly lured to a house using the gay dating app Grindr. When the man — whose name has not been revealed — arrived at the apartment, a group of 15 students affiliated with the university’s Sigma Alpha …

The Daily Beast reports: Months after the slaying of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, suspect Luigi Mangione has garnered over $300,000 for his legal defense via donations on GiveSendGo. His lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, confirmed that Mangione would be using the funds for his defense and that he “very much appreciates the outpouring of support.” The fund has a goal of $500,000, with …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Former Utah County therapist Scott Owen admitted in a Provo courtroom on Monday that he sexually abused several of his patients during sessions. Owen, 66, pleaded guilty to three charges of first-degree felony forcible sodomy, admitting that he sexually abused two male patients “using his position as a therapist” and led them to believe that …

New York City’s NBC affiliate reports: Three men accused of drugging and robbing men at Manhattan gay bars and nightclubs were found guilty Monday, more than two years after the deaths of two of their victims. Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert Demaio, and Jacob Barroso were found guilty on all charges following a three-week trial in downtown Manhattan. Prosecutors had accused the …

Houston’s ABC affiliate reports: Cell phone video captured several passengers restraining a man on a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Houston. But what happened before those dramatic moments is what scared Victoria Clark and her grandmother, Charlotte Jones. “The lady in front of the gentlemen asked to move seats, and right when she did, he started kicking profusely and …

Gothamist reports: Salvatore Bonaccorso, the former longtime mayor of Clark, New Jersey, was sentenced Friday to three years probation and barred from holding public office again after pleading guilty to charges of official misconduct and forgery. Bonaccorso, 64, a Republican who served as mayor of the Union County township from 2001 until last month, was also fined $15,000. He resigned …

Memphis’s NBC affiliate reports: A Bartlett man is behind bars indicted on rape charges. John Miller, a former youth volunteer at Hope Church, is charged with rape of a child—a class-A felony. According to the indictment, the crime allegedly occurred in 2006; the case was presented to a grand jury last month. Hope Church says all its volunteers must undergo repeated …

Tampa’s ABC affiliate reports: A Hillsborough County jury found Gerald Declan Radford not guilty for the shooting of a gay man at a Tampa dog park last year. Radford was charged with second-degree murder for the death of a gay man at a Tampa dog park in 2024. According to prosecutors, Radford fatally shot Walt Lay last February after witnesses …

Houston’s NPR affiliate reports: A Houston man released from federal prison in Colorado last month, after being pardoned for his crimes during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, was arrested Thursday on a charge of online solicitation of a minor dating back to 2016. Andrew Taake, 36, was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2024 after pleading guilty to …

Florida’s Mid Bay News reports: Police charged Aaron Craig Gleason with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under the age of 12 by a person over the age of 18 on Tuesday. Okaloosa County Jail records show that Gleason remains in jail and has been denied bond. Profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook with the names A.C. Gleason and Aaron …

Montgomery’s ABC affiliate reports: A local youth group volunteer from Troy was arrested last month on child pornography charges. Pike County District Attorney James Tarbox says Samuel Andrew McCall was arrested on Wednesday, January 29, and charged with one count of Possession of Child Pornography with Intent to Disseminate. McCall was arrested by state agents after an investigation with the …

The Bangor Daily News reports: The Aroostook County man who was killed by police late Monday following an hours-long standoff — in which he allegedly shot an officer and a police dog while holding his 4-week-old child captive — appeared to post a video on social media during the ordeal, in which he could be seen holding a rifle with …

CNN reports: Authorities in at least three states have arrested individuals allegedly impersonating ICE officers at a time when real ICE agents have ramped up immigration enforcement efforts under the Trump administration, adding to existing fears of law enforcement among migrant communities. In South Carolina, Sean-Michael Johnson, 33, was charged with kidnapping and impersonating a police officer after allegedly detaining …

The Tennessee Mountain Press reports: A Sevier County grand jury has charged the pastor of a local church with rape of a child and five counts of sexual battery. Sixty-nine-year-old Dwight Daniel Suttles was booked at the Sevier County Jail Tuesday night, according to arrest warrants. He was charged through a sealed presentment issued by a Sevier County grand jury, …

The Deseret News reports: A former Latter-day Saint bishop faces felony charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl in his office nearly 20 years ago. Mark Lehnhof Stevens, 68, of Washington, Utah, is charged in 3rd District Court in with one count of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, and two counts second-degree of forcible sexual abuse. Between 2006 and …

The Roys Report reports: Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer-Kansas City (IHOPKC) groomed and sexually abused 17 women, some of whom were minors, according to an independent investigation released tonight. In some cases, the abuse constituted rape, the investigation found. “Throughout the investigation, we have identified and interviewed seventeen (17) Survivors who were either sexually abused or …

The New York Times reports: Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide in Manhattan in December, has been hired by one of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious venture capital firms to join its “American Dynamism” team. Mr. Penny, a Long Island native and former architecture student, will work in a group that supports American interests, …