(ALLENTOWN, Pa.) — A 1-year-old boy and a woman were killed and six other people were wounded in a streak of unrelated shootings that erupted in Allentown, Pennslyvania, over the weekend, according to police.
The toddler’s slaying marked the 295th child 11 years old or younger killed in shootings in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks shootings nationwide.
At least three shootings unfolded in Allentown in a streak of gun violence that began Friday night and spilled over into early Saturday morning, according to Capt. Daniel Gross of the Allentown Police Department.
The string of shootings began about 8:42 p.m. on Friday when police responded to reports of gunfire in the northeast section of Allentown, Gross said. When officers arrived at the scene, they found three victims, including the 1-year-old boy and two adults, suffering from gunshot wounds, Gross said in a statement.
The victims were taken to area hospitals, where the child and a 44-year-old woman were pronounced dead. A 66-year-old man was also shot and taken to a hospital in life-threatening condition, Gross said.
Lehigh County Coroner Dan A. Buglio told LehighValleyLive.com, a local news website, that the woman killed in the triple shooting was the toddler’s grandmother.
The names of the victims have not been released.
No arrests were immediately announced and a motive remained under investigation.
As police were investigating the triple shooting, gunfire broke out at about 9 p.m. Friday several blocks away, Gross said. Two adults, a man and a woman, were found on the street with gunshot wounds and taken to a hospital in serious condition, Gross said.
Gross said officers arrived at the scene quickly and arrested a suspect identified as Demitrius Bashir Campbell, 23, of Allentown.
“Based on the subsequent investigation, it was determined that this actor and an unidentified co-conspirator fired several rounds at the victims, striking them,” Gross said.
The second suspect remained unidentified and at large Sunday, according to police.
Campbell was booked at the Lehigh County Jail on charges of attempted homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, recklessly endangering and carrying a firearm without a license, according to Gross.
At 2:25 a.m. Saturday, three additional people were shot in northeast Allentown, according to Gross. Officers found one of the victims at the scene and two other men, linked to the same shooting, showed up at a hospital later with gunshot wounds, Gross said.
The three victims are expected to survive, Gross said. No arrests were announced in the early Saturday morning shooting.
While all three shootings occurred in the same general area, Gross said police have found no evidence linking them.
“I awoke this morning like many members of our community, sickened, angry and heartbroken over another night of senseless violence in our city,” state Rep. Josh Siegel said in a statement released Saturday. “I offer my sincerest condolences to the families afflicted by last night’s shootings, and I stand with the many Allentonians who are tired of watching their neighborhoods and streets be stained with the blood of gun violence.”
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of sealed court filings pertaining to the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein are set to be made public this week, and several prominent names — including Britain’s Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton — are expected to appear in the documents.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled earlier this month there was no legal justification for continuing to conceal the ex-president’s name and more than 150 names other “John and Jane Does” mentioned in the records. Preska ordered the unsealing to begin after Jan. 1.
The documents stem from a 2015 civil lawsuit centered on allegations that Epstein’s one-time paramour, Ghislaine Maxwell, facilitated the sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre, an alleged trafficking victim. Giuffre also accused Epstein and Maxwell of directing her to have sex with Prince Andrew and several other prominent men. Prince Andrew denied the allegations and claimed he could not recall ever meeting Giuffre. He later settled a lawsuit she filed against him.
Most of the prominent names that appear in the documents are already associated in some way with Epstein; for allegations of wrongdoing, for having worked for Epstein, flown on his planes, or visited his homes. Some were mentioned during Maxwell’s criminal trial in 2021. In some instances, the only appearances of the names are in potential witness lists or in proposed terms for searches of electronic records.
While Giuffre’s allegations against Prince Andrew, and his denials, have been widely reported around the globe, dozens of the sealed records are expected to contain additional details from “Jane Doe 162,” a witness who testified she was with Prince Andrew, Maxwell and Giuffre, then 17, at Epstein’s New York mansion. Giuffre has alleged that gathering, in 2001, was one of the occasions she was directed to have sex with Andrew.
Giuffre made no allegations of wrongdoing by Clinton, and there is no indication the sealed records contain evidence of illegal conduct by Clinton. But Giuffre’s claim that she met the ex-president on Epstein’s private Caribbean island emerged as a contentious issue in the litigation, which was settled in 2017. Maxwell contended Clinton had never been to Little St. James — as Epstein’s island was known — and assailed Giuffre’s claim as a fabrication that shattered her credibility.
Personal flight logs kept by one of Epstein’s pilots — which surfaced in separate lawsuits against Epstein — showed that Clinton and his entourage had flown extensively on Epstein’s jumbo-jet to international destinations such as Paris, Bangkok and Brunei in 2002 and 2003. But none of the available records included the former president on a trip to Epstein’s island.
The court documents to be unsealed this week represent the eighth, and likely final, round of unsealing records from the case since the Miami Herald intervened for access to the records in 2018. Previously unsealed items included multiple deposition transcripts of Maxwell and Giuffre, along with sworn, but unproven, allegations that Epstein and Maxwell directed Giuffre to have sex with several well-known men, including former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, the late model scout Jean Luc Brunel, billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, and others.
Maxwell denied the allegations, as did all of the men identified by Giuffre when their names surfaced.
This batch will involve the names of additional Epstein associates, alleged perpetrators, alleged co-conspirators, alleged victims, witnesses and former Epstein employees. Several of the “Does” mentioned in the documents are now deceased.
Former President Clinton, who ABC News has learned is identified as “Doe 36,” is mentioned in more than fifty of the redacted filings, according to court records. Several of those sealed or redacted entries are focused on an effort by Giuffre’s lawyers in mid-2016, first reported by ABC News, to subpoena the two-term Democratic president for deposition testimony about his relationship with Epstein.
According to portions of the court record that were not sealed, Giuffre’s legal team initiated informal discussions with attorneys for the then-unnamed witness on June 9, 2016. That was a few days after the former president’s wife, Hillary Clinton, clinched the Democratic nomination for president.
Representatives for Giuffre did contact the former president’s attorneys in 2016 about a potential deposition, a person familiar with the situation told ABC News. Clinton’s lawyers responded that his testimony would not be helpful to Giuffre because, the person said, the former president had never been on Epstein’s island, as she had claimed.
Maxwell called the move to question Clinton “utter nonsense” and a “transparent ploy by [Giuffre] to increase media exposure for her sensational stories through deposition side-show,” her attorney Laura Menninger wrote, according to an unredacted section of a court filing.
Giuffre’s legal team, in contrast, described the proposed testimony of Clinton as “highly relevant” and “important to the fundamental claims and defenses” in the case. The request was ultimately denied by U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet, in a redacted ruling in late June 2016.
Giuffre’s lawyers pressed the Clinton issue again at a hearing in March 2017, six weeks before a trial was scheduled to begin. According to a publicly available transcript, Giuffre’s team was then seeking to preclude Maxwell’s side from presenting testimony suggesting that Clinton hadn’t been on Epstein’s island. Her attorneys argued it would be “inherently unfair” to Giuffre because they had not been permitted to ask the former president if he had ever been to Little St. James, as Epstein’s private island estate was known.
“You did not allow us to depose him because you said it was irrelevant,” McCawley told Judge Sweet. “So now we’re in a position where at trial they want to put forth that information against my client, and I don’t have an under-oath statement from that individual saying whether or not he actually was,” she added.
Maxwell’s attorneys, according to the transcript, told the court Maxwell was prepared to take the stand and testify that Clinton was never on the island.
But because the trial never occurred, Giuffre’s motion to exclude testimony about Clinton was left unresolved. More information about the debate over the issue could become public in the documents to be unsealed.
Clinton’s name is also expected to be unsealed in filings surrounding separate efforts by Maxwell and Giuffre to compel Epstein to answer questions. The disgraced financier invoked his constitutional rights against self-incrimination to every inquiry during a September 2016 deposition, as he had done many times before in civil lawsuits against him.
According to a procedure established by Preska, attorneys for each of the “Does” were offered a preview of the court files containing their name before determinations were made about unsealing the records. Each person was afforded an opportunity to argue for keeping the records sealed. Clinton’s legal team, after reviewing the excerpts, did not lodge any objections to the publication of the documents, according to Preska’s order last month.
A spokesperson for Clinton declined to comment for this story.
Clinton’s association with Epstein was first noted publicly in 2002, after reporters learned of the former president’s journey that year on the mysterious multi-millionaire’s jet for a humanitarian mission to multiple African nations. Clinton told New York magazine through a spokesman at the time that “Jeffrey is both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of twenty-first-century science.”
“I especially appreciated his insights and generosity during the recent trip to Africa to work on democratization, empowering the poor, citizen service, and combating HIV/AIDS,” the statement said.
Clinton’s representatives have said the former president cut off contact with Epstein in 2005, before the financier came under investigation in Palm Beach, Florida, for allegedly luring underage girls to his seaside mansion for illicit, sexualized massages.
When Epstein first faced potential federal prosecution a few years later, one of the disgraced financier’s lawyers wrote to prosecutors to tout Epstein’s pedigree as “part of the original group that conceived of the Clinton Global Initiative,” according to a 2007 letter attached to a court filing several years later.
Following Epstein’s arrest for child sex trafficking in 2019, a spokesperson for Clinton, Angel Ureña, said in a statement that the former president “knows nothing” about Epstein’s crimes. “He’s not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade,” the statement added, “and has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida.”
Subsequent reporting after Epstein’s death has revealed that Epstein and Maxwell attended a 1993 reception for donors to the non-profit White House Historical Association. The smiling pair are seen greeting the president at the White House in photos unearthed from the archives of the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas.
Giuffre, now a 40-year-old mother living in Australia, filed the action against Maxwell in September 2015, alleging that the former British socialite defamed her when her publicist issued a statement referring to Giuffre’s allegations as “obvious lies.”
A substantial portion of the filings in the case were originally placed under seal or with heavy redactions under sweeping court orders intended to shield the identities of alleged victims, people not accused of wrongdoing, and “absent third-parties” facing allegations that could “implicate and potentially irreparably intrude on the privacy of individuals not present” before the court.
The morning after the first set of documents was unsealed by a federal appeals court in 2019, Epstein died by hanging in his jail cell in Manhattan, where he was being held pending trial on charges of child sex-trafficking and conspiracy. The New York Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide and a Justice Department Inspector General report concurred with that determination.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls. After the verdict, Maxwell’s attorneys cited her connection to former President Clinton’s charitable work as part of her effort for a reduced sentence, including a claim of “helping develop the Clinton Global Initiative,” according to a sentencing memo filed with the court.
Maxwell was sentenced to a 20-year prison term. She is appealing her conviction.
(NEW YORK) — A 39-year-old man has died following a shark “encounter” at Maui’s Paia Bay, officials said.
The Maui Police Department said it responded to the beach around 11:19 a.m. local time Saturday.
“Upon arrival, Ocean Safety Officers were transporting a male who sustained injuries from a shark encounter via jet ski to shore,” officials said in a statement. “Once onshore, life-saving measures were performed by first responder personnel until medic personnel arrived to transport the male to the Maui Memorial Medical Center for further treatment.”
The man “later succumbed to his injuries and died,” officials said.
His identity is being withheld so his family can notify extended family and friends, according to officials.
No further details were given. An investigation is ongoing.
The Baldwin Beach Park and Lower Pā’ia Park (Baby Beach) were closed Saturday following the shark incident, county officials said.
Shark warning signs were posted for 1 mile to either side of where the incident took place, from Tavares Bay to Baby Beach, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said.
“By noon on Sunday, if no further signs of shark activity are detected, signs will be taken down,” the department wrote on Facebook.
ABC News’ Amanda Morris contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — At least four people were killed and two others were critically injured when a house in a rural area of Michigan exploded and sent debris a mile away, authorities said.
The blast unfolded around 4 p.m. Saturday in Whitmore Lake near Northfield Township, about 14 miles north of Ann Arbor, and completely leveled a home, leaving just its foundation surrounded by splintered wood and other blast debris, Lt. David Powell of the Northfield Township Police Department said.
Six people were inside the home when the explosion occurred, Powell said. The names of those who perished have not been released, pending notification of their relatives.
The two survivors were taken to Michigan Medicine, a trauma center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where they were listed in critical condition, Powell said.
Residents 9 miles away reported hearing the blast, Powell told reporters at the scene.
“It sounded like something I remember from war. It was that loud,” said Scott McMillian, a 40-year resident of Whitmore Lake who lives about a mile from the explosion, told Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ. “Even in war, I have never heard of anything of this level at this distance.”
McMillian said he found debris from the explosion in his yard. Some residents posted videos on social media of a cloud of smoke and debris in the sky.
The cause of the explosion remained under investigation Sunday by the Northfield Township Police Department.
Powell said homes in the area of the explosion were not damaged.
McMillian told WXYZ he dove for cover when he heard the blast.
“I went facedown on the ground and covered the back of my head, and the whole house shook,” McMillian said. “It was scary.”
(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot has risen to an estimated $810 million after there was no winner in Saturday night’s drawing, Powerball said.
The estimated cash value for the next drawing, on Monday, Jan. 1, is $408.9 million, according to the lottery.
The winning numbers drawn for Saturday’s $760 million jackpot were: 10, 11, 26, 27, 34 and red Powerball 7. The power play was 4.
The estimated cash value of the prize had been $383.6 million. If a player had won the jackpot in Saturday night’s drawing, they will be offered the choice between annual payments worth $760 million — starting with one immediate payments and remaining payments over 29 years increasing by 5% each year — or a lump sum payment estimated at $383.6 million.
Saturday’s drawing marked the last one of 2023.
There have been 34 consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner. The last Powerball jackpot was won on Oct. 11.
The prize is the fourth jackpot this year to exceed more than $500 million. This year’s largest jackpot prize of $1.765 billion was won on Oct. 11 in California. The second largest prize was $1.08 billion that was won on July 19 in California, according to Powerball.
Powerball tickets are sold for $2 each.
The odds of winning the jackpot prize are one in 292.2 million.
The game’s largest prize ever — of $2.04 billion — was won on Nov. 7, 2022.
(LOS ANGELES) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released body camera footage on Friday of a deputy-involved shooting of a 27-year-old woman after they entered her home responding to a domestic violence call that she made.
Niani Finlayson was allegedly shot and killed in her home in Lancaster, California, after an officer fired four shots at her on Dec. 4, the LASD said. She called the police because she claimed that her boyfriend would not leave her alone, according to an LASD statement.
“It’s so unfair that we have to live our lives without Niani Finlayson,” Tracie Hall, Finlayson’s mother, told ABC News. “That was my best friend. I’m going to miss her so much. I miss her already.”
In the 911 call made by Finlayson for police to assist her, audio of which was released by LASD, Finlayson can be heard yelling for someone to get their hands off of her. She told the dispatcher she needed assistance getting a man out of her home.
Hall told ABC News that Finlayson’s daughter informed her that the estranged boyfriend choked Finlayson and would not get off her after she repeatedly demanded for him to. When Finlayson’s daughter tried to help her mother, the man grabbed the 9-year-old and forcefully threw her against a nearby dresser, according to Hall.
Three deputies arrived on the scene. In the body camera footage, yelling could be heard coming from inside of the apartment. After police tried to kick the door down, Finlayson answered the door and appeared to have a knife in one hand, according to the body camera footage.
In the body camera video Finlayson said, “I’m going to stab him.” Finlayson then disappeared off camera as she left the doorway and went back into her home. At this point, deputies had their guns drawn.
Deputies followed Finlayson into the home where she proceeded to yell at, who Hall says is, her ex-boyfriend to leave. Finlayson’s daughter could also be seen on camera saying, “He pushed me” or “He punched me.”
Finlayson then grabbed the alleged estranged boyfriend with one hand, as the knife was in her other hand. Deputy Ty Shelton then fired at Finlayson four times causing her to drop to the ground.
“No, no,” the alleged ex-boyfriend yelled at police after the shooting. “Why did you shoot?” Finlayson’s daughter also witnessed the shooting.
“We’re trying to, as a family, make her [Finlayson’s daughter] not feel guilty for helping her mother,” Hall said. “She was in no wrong. She did nothing wrong. And I want her to know that. I can’t express that enough to her.”
Deputies performed first aid until paramedics arrived and transported Finlayson to the hospital where she was later pronounced deceased, according to a statement from LASD.
After the shooting, the alleged ex-boyfriend became resistant to police and was arrested for child abuse and assault on a peace officer, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department. He was later released from custody pending further investigation.
Neither the police department nor Hall’s attorney, Bradley Gage, confirmed the identity of the ex-boyfriend to ABC News.
On Dec. 21, a claim was filed in court from Finlayson’s family asking for at least $30 million from LASD and Los Angeles County for the killing of Finlayson by an LASD deputy, according to Gage.
“The deputy involved in the shooting has been removed from the field pending the outcome of the Department’s critical incident review,” LASD said in a statement. “The Department will examine and evaluate every aspect of the shooting including the response, tactics, and background of the employee.”
The investigation will include a multi-level review process involving the Office of Inspector General, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Justice System Integrity Division, according to a statement from LASD.
(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot has risen to an estimated $760 million after there was no winner in Wednesday night’s drawing.
The winning numbers drawn for Wednesday’s jackpot were: 4, 11, 38, 51, 68 and red Powerball 5.
The estimated cash value of the prize is $383.6 million. If a player wins the jackpot in Saturday night’s drawing, they will be offered the choice between annual payments worth $760 million — starting with one immediate payments and remaining payments over 29 years increasing by 5% each year — or a lump sum payment estimated at $383.6 million.
The next drawing is Saturday night. It is the last Powerball drawings remaining in 2023.
There have been 33 consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner. The last Powerball jackpot was won on Oct. 11.
This prize is the fourth jackpot this year to exceed more than $500 million. This year’s largest jackpot prize of $1.765 billion was won on Oct. 11 in California. The second largest prize was $1.08 billion that was won on July 19 in California, according to Powerball.
Powerball tickets are sold for $2 each.
The odds of winning the jackpot prize are one in 292.2 million.
The game’s largest price ever — of $2.04 billion — was won on Nov. 7, 2022.
(NEW YORK) — As the holiday weekend starts, New York City ball drop watchers can expect potential showers while California’s coast is continuing to experience extremely dangerous beach conditions with dangerously large waves, life-threatening rip currents and coastal flooding.
New York City may have showers in the area as the ball drops in Times Square. Spectators should be prepared for mist, sprinkles and potential showers.
Elsewhere, much of the country is looking dry, besides snow showers in West Virginia and western Pennsylvania and parts of western New York like Binghamton and Ithaca.
Temperatures will likely be in the upper 30s at midnight in New York City and will be hovering near the freezing mark for Kansas City, Chicago and most places in the Midwest and North. Temperatures will be in the 40s and 50s in much of the South.
The California coast remains lined with a High Surf Warning until Saturday evening.
Powerful waves and strong rip currents will pose an exceptional risk of ocean drowning and damage to coastal structures like piers and jetties. Large breaking waves can cause injury, wash people off beaches and rocks and capsize small boats near shore.
Waves will be highest and strongest Saturday morning and slowly go down — but remain dangerous — throughout the day.
From Big Sur to the Bay Area, the threat for high surf and coastal flooding is a dangerous combination. Dangerously large breaking waves of 28 to 33 feet with isolated waves up to 40 feet are possible, especially in the morning hours of Saturday.
Numerous roads may be closed in these areas and low lying property including homes, businesses, and some critical infrastructure will be inundated. Some shoreline erosion will occur. Life-threatening swimming conditions and significant beach erosion can be expected.
In Southern California, the highest surf will be likely across west-facing beaches such as Hermosa, Manhattan, Palos Verdes Beaches and Ventura County Beaches. Dangerously large breaking waves of 10 to 15 feet with max sets to 20 feet and dangerous rip currents. San Luis Obispo County Beaches and Santa Barbara County Central Coast Beaches could see swells up to 25 feet.
Over the last 24 hours, much of the coast has seen 1-2 inches of rain, with a few isolated areas reporting over 3 inches of rainfall accumulation.
There will be more rain in California on Saturday. It will move quickly so accumulations are not expected to be too impressive. Snow in Sierra Nevada is expected to add 3 to 6 inches in places Saturday.
Sunday and Monday are expected to be dry and calmer for much of California.
The next storm to hit the West Coast is expected on Tuesday, intensifying Tuesday night into Wednesday.
By Thursday, this storm will bring rain to northern Arizona and rain for southern.
Next Friday, the energy and moisture from this storm may move into Texas and combine with additional moisture from the Gulf to bring rain throughout the state and eventually to the entirety of the Gulf Coast before exiting through the mid-Atlantic next weekend. By that time, the next storm may have already entered through the Pacific Northwest setting up a potential cross-country swing with rain and snow for the second week of the new year.
Toby Scott/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(GREENVILLE, N.C.) — Civil rights leader Rev. William Barber II spoke out in a press conference Friday after a Dec. 26 incident at an AMC theater in Greenville, North Carolina, in which he says he was escorted out of the theater.
Barber, a prominent activist in North Carolina who led the state’s large NAACP chapter for years, said he suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory disease that has prompted him to use a different type of chair to ease his pain.
He said he brought his own chair to the movie theater to watch “The Color Purple” with his 90-year-old mother. He said he placed it in a section specifically designated for guests with disabilities, which prompted safety concerns from theater employees.
According to Barber, he was threatened with trespassing charges when he refused to leave and was escorted out by local police officers.
“Our plans were interrupted when the managers of the AMC theater here in Greenville chose to call the police rather than accommodate my visible disability,” said Barber.
The incident later prompted a conversation about accommodations for disabled people and accessibility in public places.
“If I cannot sit in my chair in a theater in Greenville, North Carolina, there are thousands of other people who will be excluded from public spaces in this nation,” Barber said. “This is now about what systemic changes, policy changes, changes to training can ensure this happens to no one.”
In a statement to ABC-owned television station WTVD, AMC apologized to Barber for “how he was treated, and for the frustration and inconvenience brought to him, his family, and his guests.”
AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron has reached out to Barber and plans to meet with him to discuss the incident, according to the statement, which Barber confirmed in the press conference.
“AMC welcomes guests with disabilities,” the statement read. “We have a number of accommodations in place at our theatres at all times, and our theatre teams work hard to accommodate guests who have needs that fall outside of the normal course of business.”
AMC said it encourages guests who require special seating to speak with a manager in advance to see how the theater can best accommodate them. The company, which has 900 theaters and 10,000 screens worldwide, said it is reviewing policies “to help ensure that situations like this do not occur again.”
The NAACP North Carolina called for concrete steps to ensure accessibility in all AMC theaters across the nation.
“This incident serves as a powerful reminder that we must create spaces that are inclusive, fair, and respectful of the rights of every individual,” read a statement from the NAACP local chapter. “Discrimination based on physical abilities has no place in our society, and we must take decisive action to address this issue.”
AMC and the Greenville Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s onetime fixer Michael Cohen sent his attorney non-existent legal cases produced by the artificial intelligence program Google Bard as he sought to beef up his petition for early termination of his supervised release, according to a letter to the court made public Friday.
Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in 2018, sought an early end to his term of supervised release in a motion that included three cases he believed backed up his argument. His lawyer said Cohen mistakenly believed Google Bard “to be a supercharged search engine, not a generative AI service like Chat-GPT.”
That the invalid citations were included in Cohen’s motion his attorney insisted “was a mistake driven by sloppiness, not malicious intent” but Judge Jesse Furman is now considering whether to impose sanctions.
“As a non-lawyer, I have not kept up with emerging trends (and related risks) in legal technology and did not realize that Google Bard was a generative text service that, like ChatGBT, could show citations and descriptions that looked real but actually were not,” Cohen said in a sworn statement to the court made public Friday.
In his own letter to the court, Cohen’s attorney David M. Schwartz said he believed the legal citations came from a different attorney for Cohen, Danya Perry.
“If I had believed that Mr. Cohen had found these cases, I would have researched them. It was my belief, however, that Mr. Cohen had sent me cases found by Ms. Perry,” Schwartz said.
Judge Furman gave all parties until January 3 to submit additional comments about possible sanctions and whether Cohen deserves early termination of supervised release.
