(NEW YORK) — Six people were arrested Tuesday in connection with a scheme to smuggle thousands of pounds of raw goose and duck intestines from China, through Los Angeles, and ultimately to New York City for sale to restaurants and consumers.
Five of the defendants reside in Brooklyn and one in Queens, according to a criminal complaint. They are charged with importing and selling illegal merchandise from China.
According to the criminal complaint, shipments of the illegal products were falsely labeled. An August 19, 2022, a shipping container that arrived in Long Beach, California, from China falsely stated the container held “1,966 cartons of pet grooming tool pet nail clippers.”
Federal law prohibits the importation of raw goose and duck intestines from China and duck-blood products from any unapproved establishments in China. Federal prosecutors said the products seized in the investigation contained both.
In the August shipment, investigators said they observed 79 cartons containing approximately 1,800 pounds of illegal goose intestines and 960 pounds of illegal duck intestines.
In another shipment, the illegal products were concealed under packaged rattlesnakes, the complaint says.
“Each defendant knew of the illegal nature of their conduct,” federal prosecutors said. Five of the defendants had been warned previously by USDA authorities, they said. Investigators believe there are additional shipments of illegal products that have gone undiscovered.
“[S]hipment records for the companies involved in the shipments of illegal merchandise described above indicate a broader conspiracy than just the shipments that have been identified to date,” the complaint said.
The six defendants were expected to make an initial appearance in Brooklyn federal court later Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether they had lawyers.
(NEW YORK) — Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife faced new obstruction allegations and charges Tuesday in a superseding indictment filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
The superseding indictment charges the senator and Nadine Menendez with new counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice related to their alleged attempts to cover up the bribe payments the senator is accused of taking from several New Jersey businessmen.
The pair allegedly instructed their attorneys at the time to tell federal investigators they thought a mortgage payment on Nadine Menendez’s house and a payment for her Mercedes-Benz were loans when, in fact, prosecutors said they knew the payments were bribes.
The new accusations appear to result from last week’s guilty plea of co-defendant Jose Uribe, who admitted to providing Nadine Menendez with a Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for the senator’s help.
When Menendez and his wife learned of the federal investigation in 2022, prosecutors said they sought to cover up the bribe payments.
“In truth and in fact, as Menendez well knew, Menendez had learned of both the mortgage company payment and the car payments prior to 2022, and that they were not loans but bribe payments,” the superseding indictment said.
The senator, his wife and other defendants previously pleaded not guilty to charges in the bribery case. The trial was scheduled for May.
(NEW YORK) — More human remains were found in two locations in West Babylon, New York, on Tuesday a week after severed body parts belonging to two people were found in a Long Island park, according to police.
Human remains were found in Bethpage State Park and in a wooded area across 103 Lakeway Drive on Tuesday, according to Suffolk County police.
The remains found at both locations are believed to belong to the same two victims whose body parts were found in Southards Pond Park in Babylon last week, police said. Officials did not specify what new remains were found.
The identity of the woman, who was 59 years old, has been confirmed, police said, while they have tentatively identified the man, who was 53 years old, according to police. The woman’s name was not released pending notification of her next of kin.
Their last known address was the same location in Yonkers, but police said they are unsure when the two last resided there.
A search warrant was also executed at a home in Amityville, also on Long Island, on Monday, but officials said no human remains were found.
Police said the murders appear to be an isolated incident and there is no threat to the public.
The body parts were first found last Thursday by a young girl who stumbled across a severed limb on her way to school, police said. After telling her father, he called 911 and investigators found several severed body parts belonging to two people.
A severed head, right arm, left leg from the knee down and right upper leg found Thursday appear to belong to the adult woman, police said.
A right and left arm were also found and appear to belong to the man, according to police. Both arms had tattoos on them.
(BATON ROUGE, La.) — Louisiana on Tuesday became one of the toughest states in the nation on crime when Gov. Jeff Landry signed a series of bills that will keep criminals in prison longer, enables citizens to carry guns without a permit, and resurrects the electric chair and adds nitrogen gas to lethal injection as methods used to execute death row inmates.
During Tuesday’s signing ceremony at the state capital building in Baton Rouge, Landry – who was Louisiana attorney general before he was elected governor in 2023 – said he was fulfilling a campaign promise to victims of violent crime.
“One of the first promises we made [was] that we were going to deal with crime and we did it in a way we listened to you all,” Landry said.
With multiple strokes of his pen, Landry aimed to change a state justice system that he said has put the rights of violent crime perpetrators over those of victims.
“We all know the statistics of how poorly Louisiana ranks in safety and we all complain about the outward migration that has been going on in the state consistently decade after decade. It’s just logical that people will not come to a place where it’s not safe,” said Landry, a conservative Republican, adding that crime costs the citizens of Louisiana’s three largest cities – New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport – $6 billion a year.
“Today, we bring some justice to the victims,” Landry declared.
The bills were sent to Landry’s desk for signing after they were passed last month by the Republican-controlled state Legislature.
Clearing the path to resume executions
Among the laws Landry signed is one that clears the way to end a 14-year pause on executions in the state.
Under the new law, nitrogen hypoxia will be added to the available execution methods, along with the reintroduction of the electric chair, which death row inmates dubbed “Gruesome Gertie.” Executions by electrocution was retired in Louisiana in 1991 when the state moved to lethal injections.
“We do it in order to hopefully deter people, to let them know that in a peaceful civilization, these are not the types conduct and acts that will be tolerated here in the state of Louisiana,” said Landry as he signed the legislation while surrounded by the families of murder victims.
No permit needed to carry concealed firearm
Landry also signed into law legislation that will allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit or training. The law also makes Louisiana the first state to grant concealed carry license holders a degree of qualified immunity from lawsuits if they use their weapons in self-defense, a provision currently reserved primarily for law enforcement officers.
The law will also lower the age for a person to carry a concealed firearm from 21 to 18.
The governor signed the weapons bill despite critics, including New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, saying it would make it harder for police to prevent shootings and homicides.
“I’m very much concerned and I do not at all believe that this makes our city and our people safer,” Cantrell said at a news conference on Friday.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick added, “You will see more people who are armed that we cannot check to see whether or not they are law-abiding or not.”
But Landry said Tuesday that Louisiana joins 27 other states that have enacted the same type of legislation, and argued it will not make law enforcement more difficult.
“It’s ensuring that law-abiding citizens are not harassed or have to ask government permission to do that which the Second Amendment allows them to do,” Landry said.
He further asserted that the law “incentivizes” citizens who want to maintain a concealed carry permit by affording them some immunity if they are forced to defend themselves.
Parole eliminated, good behavior sentence reduction curbed
Landry also signed into law two bills that he said will ensure convicted criminals serve the majority of the sentences they are given, and that will eliminate the option of parole for convicted perpetrators.
One of the pieces of legislation Landry signed, the Truth in Sentencing Bill, would require an inmate to serve 85% of their sentence before they can receive a sentence reduction for good behavior, and reduces the amount of time by which a sentence can be reduced. The other bill eliminates parole altogether for anyone convicted of a crime after Aug 1, 2024.
Landry said the new laws will “place discretion and responsibility back where it belongs, on the judges.”
The governor is expected to sign more bills later this week. Among them is one that will lower the age at which a minor can be tried as an adult to 17 for all felony crimes. The law will also make juveniles convicted of first-degree and second-degree murder, first-degree rape, and aggravated kidnapping ineligible to have their sentences modified.
Under the same law, juveniles convicted of lesser felony offenses will have to serve at least half of their sentence before sentencing changes can be considered. Additionally, the legislation will for the first time allow some juvenile records to be made public.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is seeking a new trial in the defamation case brought by former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, arguing that the judge in the case improperly restricted his testimony.
Trump in January was ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegation that he sexually abused her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
Trump spent less than five minutes on the witness stand, during which he testified that “I just wanted to defend myself, my family and frankly the presidency.”
Judge Lewis Kaplan instructed the jury to disregard the remark because it fell outside the bounds of what Trump was allowed to say.
In a court filing Tuesday, defense attorneys argued “the Court’s restrictions on President Trump’s testimony were erroneous and prejudicial” because Trump was not allowed to explain “his own mental state” when he made the defamatory statements about Carroll.
“This Court’s erroneous decision to dramatically limit the scope of President Trump’s testimony almost certainly influenced the jury’s verdict, and thus a new trial is warranted,” defense attorneys Alina Habba and John Sauer said.
The defense also asked Judge Kaplan to reduce the $83.3 million damage award, arguing it “surpasses the permissible bounds for such damages and exceeds comparable awards” in the Southern District of New York.
(JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. ) — A new Missouri bill would make it a felony offense for school teachers or counselors to support or contribute to the social transitioning of a transgender minor. The proposed law would also have an offender be placed on the sexual offender registry.
Social transitioning, as defined in House Bill 2885, is when an individual adopts a name, pronouns and gender expression — such as clothing or a haircut — that does not match their assigned sex at birth.
If a teacher or counselor “provides support, regardless of whether the support is material, information or other resources,” they could be convicted of a Class E felony conviction, facing up to four years in prison or a fine up to $10,000, according to the Missouri Revisor of Statutes. The bill is in the early stages of consideration and is subject to amendments if it progresses through the state Legislature.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Jamie Gragg, told local news outlet KY3 the bill would likely apply to the inclusion of any LGBTQ-related books or signs in classrooms.
The bill, introduced in the Missouri House on Thursday, is the latest escalation of legislation targeting the LGBTQ community being seen across the state and country. Missouri has passed several anti-LGBTQ laws in recent years, including a transgender sports ban and a gender-affirming youth medical care ban. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there are currently 35 bills that would impact the LGBTQ community being considered by the Missouri Legislature.
Gragg told KY3 the bill was spurred by parents “who are frustrated with things that kids are being taught in school.”
“This is to put the social learning development of our children back in the hands of the parents,” Gragg said.
ABC News has reached out to Gragg’s office for comment.
Social transitioning allows young people to explore and play with how they want to express themselves, experts say.
“The kind of generally accepted consensus in the field for these pre-pubertal kids is that if they want to explore any of those things, that we let them while making sure that they’re doing it in a safe, supportive environment,” Jack Turban, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a past interview with ABC News.
Researchers have found that social transitioning had “positive and immediate” benefits on child development, with improvements in mood, self-esteem, and social and family relationships, as well as a reduction in anxiety, according to a January 2023 article published in Revista Española de Salud Pública, or the Spanish Journal of Public Health.
A separate study from the Journal of Adolescent Health found that trans youth may have worse mental health outcomes if they’re “not protected from K-12 harassment based on gender identity.”
“It is the responsibility of clinicians to emphasize the importance of adolescents having safe and affirming social environments,” the study read.
Transgender children make up an estimated 1.4% of the teen population between the ages of 13 and 17, according to a June 2022 data analysis from the UCLA School of Law.
PROMO, an LGBTQ advocacy organization in Missouri, said it’s “telling” that lawmakers are more worried about students’ gender expression than the other issues facing Missouri schools, including teacher shortages and drops in educational performance.
“It’s rather telling that someone would rather spend time increasing harm for children, rather than ensuring that every single child in our state can thrive, that every single child in Missouri has access to education, that every single child in Missouri should have a safe and welcoming environment for their school,” said Robert Fischer, PROMO’s director of communications.
(NEW YORK) — Severe thunderstorms are targeting the South this week, with states from Florida to Louisiana to Texas bracing for large hail, damaging winds, isolated tornadoes and flooding rain.
On Monday, the thunderstorms spanned from Wisconsin to Louisiana, bringing large hail and damaging winds.
Several inches of rain fell along the Gulf Coast Monday, causing flash flooding in New Orleans and other parts of southern Louisiana.
On Tuesday, more severe weather is possible in Louisiana and Arkansas.
But the bigger threat arrives Thursday, with large hail, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes in the forecast for Texas and Oklahoma, including major cities like Dallas.
On Friday, damaging winds, flash flooding and large hail are expected from Texas to Florida, including New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.
(NEW YORK) — A 19-year-old who was a quarter mile away from a fiery explosion in Michigan was struck and killed by a canister that flew into the air from the blast, according to fire officials.
The fire was reported at 8:50 p.m. Monday at a vaping distributing company in Clinton Township, about 25 miles outside of Detroit, the Clinton Fire Department said. The company had received a truckload of butane that caught fire, officials said.
The explosions prevented responders from reaching the fire immediately, the Clinton Fire Department said. When officers did arrive on the scene, they found “materials flying in all directions from the building,” officials said.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Five people have died after a single-engine plane crashed as it attempted to make an emergency landing in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday night, law enforcement said.
The control tower at Nashville’s John Tune airport received a message at about 7:40 p.m. from a pilot, who said their aircraft was experiencing engine and power failure and needed permission to land, Don Aaron, public affairs director for the Nashville Metropolitan Police, said at a press conference Monday night. The tower granted permission.
As the plane continued toward the airport, the pilot contacted the tower again to say the aircraft was not going to make it, Aaron said.
Witnesses told police the plane was in distress as it came over the interstate, the official said. The plane crashed behind a Costco just off the Eastbound lanes of Interstate 40, he said.
A spokesperson for the Nashville Fire Department said the plane imploded on impact. The “impact was catastrophic and did not leave any survivors,” the fire department rep said.
The fire department was met with heavy flames as they reached the scene, but they were able to extinguish it and preserve evidence from the scene.
The Federal Aviation Administration arrived at the scene, the Metro Nashville Police Department said. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board were en route to investigate the incident, Aaron said.
Local officials are working with federal authorities to determine where the plane originated from. Authorities also do not yet know who was onboard.
The interstate was shut down following the incident an the investigation into the crash is ongoing.
(LOS ANGELES) — Less than two months after the Los Angeles Innocence Project took up the case of convicted murderer Scott Peterson, a judge in San Mateo County, California, has scheduled a status hearing.
The court confirmed Peterson will be represented by the LA Innocence Project, and it is believed the status hearing will be in response to the group requesting new evidence from the original trial in an attempt to exonerate Peterson.
Peterson will appear remotely for the hearing, according to the court. His LA Innocence Project counsel will be in person before Judge Elizabeth Hill.
Laci Peterson, who was 27 years old and eight months pregnant, disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002. Her body was found in San Francisco Bay in April 2003.
Scott Peterson, 51, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son. He was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death in 2005. He was later sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In their filing, which ABC News reported on in January, attorneys with the LA Innocence Project claimed that Scott Peterson’s state and federal constitutional rights were violated, including a “claim of actual innocence that is supported by newly discovered evidence,” according to the court filings.
“New evidence now supports Mr. Peterson’s longstanding claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson,” the filings state.
His attorneys are seeking dozens of items they say they could not locate after reviewing the trial files from his prior counsel “after a thorough search,” according to the filings. The items include evidence from the investigations into a December 2002 burglary of a home across the street from the Petersons’ in Modesto in Stanislaus County, Laci Peterson’s missing Croton watch, and a van fire in the Airport District on Dec. 25, 2002, according to the filings. They are also seeking documents from interviews with several witnesses.
Paula Mitchell, the director of the LA Innocence Project, previously said she found “deficiencies” while reviewing the discovery of Scott Peterson’s case and sent a letter to Stanislaus County District Attorney Jeff Laugero on Nov. 14, 2023, “seeking informal production of numerous specific items of post-conviction discovery,” according to a declaration included in the filings.
The letter “includes private identifying information concerning numerous citizens, potential material witnesses, and possible suspects — as well as sensitive investigative leads relating to Mr. Peterson’s claim of innocence-information that was referenced throughout various police reports, tip sheets, and other investigative materials from both the prosecution and the defense that I reviewed,” she said in her declaration.
Mitchell also said during her investigation, she had come across “numerous witnesses” who have expressed hesitation or “outright unwillingness” to provide information due to the high-profile nature of the case.
Scott Peterson, who pleaded not guilty, has maintained his innocence and claimed he received an unfair trial based on possible jury misconduct. His lawyers have previously claimed that a woman, known as Juror 7, had not disclosed involvement in other legal proceedings.
In 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned Scott Peterson’s death sentence, citing that his jury was improperly screened for bias against the death penalty, according to court documents.
He was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in December 2021 and moved off death row in October 2022.
In December 2022, Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo denied Scott Peterson “relief” in his appeal based on stealth juror accusations.
Scott Peterson’s attorney, Pat Harris, previously said in a statement to ABC News that they are “thrilled to have the incredibly skilled attorneys at the LA Innocence Project and their expertise becoming involved in the efforts to prove Scott’s innocence.”
The LA Innocence Project — which provides pro bono legal services to people incarcerated in Central and Southern California who may have been wrongfully convicted — said in a statement in January that it was representing Peterson and “investigating his claim of actual innocence.”
