(NEW YORK) — A group of high school students are being hailed as heroic Good Samaritans for their efforts to save a mother and her two young children.
The mom and her children, ages 2 and 3, were walking to their car in a school parking lot Tuesday afternoon in Layton, Utah, when they were run over by a car and became trapped underneath, Lt. Travis Lyman of the Layton Police Department told “Good Morning America.”
When police responded to the scene around three minutes after receiving a 911 call, a group of teenagers and school officials were already working to lift the car off the mom and her young kids, according to Lyman.
“Three minutes doesn’t sound like a long time, but certainly in a critical incident like that, when stress is high, that seems like a really long time,” Lyman said, adding of the students, “But they did rally and we’re proud of them for getting involved and helping the way they did.”
Surveillance video captured by the school, Layton Christian Academy, shows students rushing immediately to the scene to help.
Chris Crowder, the school’s CEO, told “GMA” that as soon as he saw that the mom and kids were trapped under the car, he ran to get even more students to help.
“I ran back in the building to grab as many students as possible,” Crowder said. “The car was just on top of them and squishing them. It was a small car, so there was very little clearance.”
Crowder said that the students helped to lift the car up on one side until it was high enough that a student was able to reach under the car and pull out the mom and one of her children, while the other child was able to escape from underneath the car on their own.
“They knew what to do, that they had to do something,” Crowder said of the students. “We’re very proud of them.”
Senior Airman Dominique Childress said he relied on his military training when he jumped into action to help after seeing the accident while picking up his children from the school. Childress described the students who ran to the scene to help as the “real heroes.”
“They’ve never had that [military] training, and so for each and every one of them to instinctively go out and do what they did in that traumatic experience is what makes them the real heroes of this story,” he told “GMA.” “Nobody ever told them that they were going to have to deal with something like this. They weren’t prepared for that, and they still did it.”
Crowder confirmed to “GMA” that the mom in the accident, whom he identified by her first name only, Bridgette, is an employee of the school.
She was transported to a hospital, where she underwent surgery and is being treated for non-life threatening injuries, according to Lyman.
Both of her children survived with only minor injuries, according to Lyman.
Lyman said the driver of the car, who has not been publicly identified, told police that she did not see the mom and kids in front of her car.
“One of the factors in this that the driver of the car said was a part of the cause for her not being able to see these people walking through the parking lot was the time of day and the fact that the afternoon sun was in her eyes and she couldn’t see,” Lyman said. “She was traveling pretty slowly through the parking lot but just didn’t see these people walking in front of her.”
Lyman said the incident has not yet been screened by the city attorney “to determine if any charges are appropriate.”
ABC News’ Kandis Mascall and Laryssa Demkiw contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Six more schools are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for reports of discrimination on their campuses, according to the agency.
Tulane University in Louisiana, Union College in New York, Cobb County School District in Georgia, University of Cincinnati in Ohio, Santa Monica College in California, and Montana State University in Montana have been added to the newly released list.
The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights released the list as part of the Biden administrations efforts to take action amid the “alarming nationwide rise in reports of antisemitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and other forms of discrimination” on both college and K-12 school campuses since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, a statement said.
The Department of Education would not release what type of alleged discrimination the schools are being investigated for. However, at least three schools have released statements detailing the incidents.
A district spokesperson from Cobb County told ABC News they are being investigated for a single complaint regarding a reported “anti-Muslim incident.”
“All students in Cobb should feel safe and welcomed, we do not tolerate hate of any kind,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
A Tulane University spokesperson said that the incident of discrimination in question “took place at a rally organized by a group that is not recognized by Tulane.”
“The rally was deliberately staged on public property contiguous to our campus but over which we have no control,” the university said. “As a result of assaults against Tulane students and a Tulane police officer at the rally, three individuals unaffiliated with the university were arrested on a variety of charges, including hate crimes.”
The university did not make clear in its statement what kind of discrimination is specifically under investigation, however school officials say the university has increased campus security and has increased its training regarding antisemitism.
“Antisemitism and other forms of hate have no place at Tulane University,” the university said. “We are proud to be home to a large Jewish population where students can feel safe to express their cultural and religious identities as Jews.”
The statement continued, “We will fully comply with the OCR’s investigation and look forward to sharing with them the facts of this incident and our continued effort to support a learning environment that is free of harassment and discrimination based on shared ancestry or national origin.”
Union College also released a public statement, saying that it is being investigated over a claim of discrimination toward Jewish students. The complainant, according to Union College, alleged that the school failed to respond to incidents of harassment in October and November.
“We remain confident that our response to the very small number of reported incidents has been consistent with published policies and procedures, and with how we have responded to reports of alleged bias on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion and other protected statuses,” the statement said.
It continued, “The College has seen no violence, or threats of violence, on campus since the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas on Israel.”
The University of Cincinnati, Santa Monica College, and Montana State University did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment on their respective DOE investigations.
These schools joins at least 9 other schools under investigation concerning Title VI, a law that bans discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any institution or program that receives federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told ABC News in a past interview that there will likely be more investigations into schools and universities as incidents continue to pop up across the country.
(LAS VEGAS) — Three faculty members were killed and one faculty member was injured in a mass shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The suspect — who had applied for a college professorship at UNLV, but was not hired, according to sources — died at the scene following a firefight with police.
Here’s what we know about the victims:
Cha Jan Chang
Cha Jan Chang, 64, who was known as “Jerry,” was a UNLV business professor who lived in Henderson, Nevada, according to the Clark County coroner.
Chang was an assistant professor at UNLV from 2001 to 2007 and had been an associate professor since 2007.
He received both his masters and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.
“Dr. Chang was a longtime educator of management information systems, spending more than 20 years of his academic career teaching a generation of UNLV Lee Business School students,” UNLV President Keith Whitfield said in a statement on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Patricia Navarro Velez
Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, was an assistant professor in accounting at UNLV and lived in Las Vegas, according to the coroner.
She had a Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida.
“Navarro’s current research focuses on cybersecurity disclosures and assurance, internal control weakness disclosure, and data analytics,” her UNLV biography said.
“Dr. Navarro-Velez, an assistant professor of accounting, had devoted her career to educating the next generation of accountants,” Whitfield said. “She joined UNLV nearly 5 years ago as a professor of accounting, where she focused on teaching accounting information systems.”
Naoko Takemaru
Naoko Takemaru, 69, a Las Vegas resident, was an associate professor of Japanese studies at UNLV, according to the coroner and the university.
Takemaru oversaw the entire Japanese Studies Program and “received the William Morris Award for Excellence in Teaching from the College of Liberal Arts at UNLV,” according to her biography.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday announced that it has approved Casgevy, the first CRISPR gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease, paving the way for thousands of patients in the U.S. to receive a treatment that has been described as a “functional cure” for eligible patients.
The FDA also approved a gene therapy called Lyfgenia. Collectively, these two therapies represent two “milestone” treatments for sickle cell disease, according to the FDA announcement.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic condition that affects approximately 100,000 Americans – primarily Black Americans with African ancestry, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Researchers estimate that roughly 20-25% of those with the disease are sick enough that they would be good candidates for the newly approved treatments, which were approved for people aged and older.
Although historic, the new treatments come with significant hurdles and potential risks. The treatment is difficult to manufacture and requires months of preparation for patients and their families. Patients will need to stay in the hospital for several weeks, and will receive preemptive chemotherapy that can place fertility at risk. Because of this, patients will likely be offered preemptive fertility preservation.
Still, in a world with few options, doctors and patients say this is a historic step forward.
“We’ve had nothing in our field for decades,” said Dr. Sharl Azar, Medical Director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Treatment Center at Mass General Hospital. “So this is part of the reason why this is such a large, seismic shift for us.”
According to the CDC, one out of every 365 Black or African American babies born in the U.S. is born with sickle cell disease, which is characterized by abnormal ‘sickle’-shaped red blood cells that can clog blood flow, causing severe pain episodes, fatigue, infections, stroke and sometimes organ damage and other complications. The average life expectancy for those living with sickle cell disease is roughly 52 years old.
The only cure is a risky bone marrow transplant – an option that is out of reach for most patients because it requires a donor match, typically an unaffected sibling.
The new treatments are technically not a cure in the same way a bone marrow transplant would be.
“What we are calling it is a ‘functional cure,'” said Dr. Haydar Frangoul, Medical Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Sarah Cannon Research Institute and HCA Healthcare’s The Children’s Hospital At TriStar Centennial. “I think it is better described by the fact that patients do not have any symptoms.”
Many of the clinical trial volunteers who have already undergone treatment say they have a new lease on life.
“I’m literally a different person,” said Jimi Olaghere, an early clinical trial volunteer for the Casgevy CRISPR trial, who was treated at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville. “Before, my life was me most of the time in bed writhing in pain, not present because of all the pain medications.”
Today, the Atlanta-based father of three says he takes joy in playing with his young children, picking them up and driving them to school.
“After this treatment, I have bounds and bounds of energy that I never imagined I’d ever have in my life,” says Olaghere.
The treatment Olaghere received is made jointly by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics and is the first FDA-approved treatment that uses the genetic modification therapy CRISPR. Often referred to as “genetic scissors,” CRISPR technology allows for easier and more precise gene editing than previous methods. The researchers behind the system won the Nobel Prize in 2020.
Rather than editing out the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell disease, the treatment instead makes another edit that prompts the body to start making healthy red blood cells.
The second FDA-approved gene therapy, Lyfgenia, made by BlueBird Bio, works differently, using a virus to deliver new genetic material. Both treatments significantly reduced pain episodes and the need for blood transfusions among patients who were treated as part of the clinical trials.
(NEW YORK) — Fifteen-year-old Jonathan Lubin, who received the CRISPR treatment as part of a clinical trial at New York Presbyterian, says he wasn’t intimidated by a treatment that would permanently edit his genes.
“I mean, it was pretty cool,” said Lubin. “Maybe the upside would be that I got superpowers! You never know.”
Lubin experienced his first pain crisis at 9 months old. Throughout his childhood, he was in and out of the hospital every few months. His parents were fearful he might die.
Since his treatment more than a year ago, he hasn’t had a pain crisis. He’s been able to enjoy his favorite activities, like basketball, playing the drums, and even swimming – an activity that was always out of reach because the water temperature could trigger a pain crisis.
Doctors say the new approved treatments are the first step toward a more hopeful future for patients with sickle cell disease.
“Well, I am very hopeful and very excited,” said Dr. Frangoul. “CRISPR used to be science-fiction correct five years ago, and now it is reality.”
Frangoul says the scientific advances wouldn’t have happened without volunteers like Lubin and Olaghere.
“The heroes of the story are not the physicians or the basic scientists that discovered this. They are the patients that … showed the world that this could be done,” Frangoul said. “I think they are the heroes.”
(NEW YORK) — A Black man whose arrest in Alabama earlier this month went viral on social media is speaking out amid an investigation into the local police department.
“I try to act OK but I am really traumatized. I don’t know how to feel about police now,” Micah Washington told ABC affiliate WBMA in Birmingham, Alabama, on Thursday.
Washington, 24, said he was on his way to pick up his brother on Dec. 2 when his tire “had a real bad blowout.” He said he was on the ground changing the tire when an officer approached him and demanded that he show her his ID.
“I was like, this is not a traffic stop, so why do you need my ID?” Washington said, adding that he gave it to her but continued to question why she needed it.
Cellphone video of the incident, which was obtained by ABC News, appears to show a female officer detaining Washington and using a stun gun on him as she holds Washington against a car.
After she shocks him, Washington begins to cry. She asks him, “You want it again?”
“No ma’am,” he said, according to the video.
Using expletives, the officer then tells him to shut up.
Washington’s attorney, Leroy Maxwell Jr., told ABC News on Thursday that Washington feared for his life during the arrest.
“The only thing that was going on in his mind was George Floyd, George Floyd, George Floyd,” Maxwell said. “Because at one point, [the officer] had her foot on his back while [he was lying] on the ground. And then he was having a hard time breathing. And he was yelling that, and that prompted his brother to start recording.”
The 45-second clip of the incident, which was filmed by Washington’s brother, doesn’t show what led to the arrest.
The Reform Police Department officer involved in Washington’s arrest was placed on administrative leave this week, according to a joint statement released by Reform Police Chief Richard Black and Reform Mayor Melody Davis.
The officer was not named but an arrest affidavit obtained by ABC News identifies her as Dana Elmore. ABC News’ requests for comment to the Reform Police Department were not immediately returned. ABC News’ attempts to reach Elmore directly were not successful.
According to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office booking records, Washington was arrested on five charges: obstructing governmental operations, resisting arrest, marijuana possession, drug trafficking and ex-felon in possession of a firearm. According to court documents, “ex-felon in possession of a firearm” is not listed.
“It looks like the DA’s office did not pursue that charge,” Maxwell said, claiming that his client is “not a felon.”
Related court records did not show any prior convictions for a felony. Court records also show that the drug trafficking charge against Washington was dismissed.
In a Dec. 4 motion obtained by ABC News, Andrew Hamlin, district attorney for the 24th Judicial Circuit, asked a judge to dismiss the drug trafficking charge, saying that Washington was charged with “trafficking in illegal drugs — fentanyl” but said that further testing “failed to yield a positive result for fentanyl.”
In a Dec. 5 response to the motion, District Judge Lance Bailey dismissed the drug trafficking charge and significantly reduced Washington’s bond from $500,000 to $5,000.
In an arrest affidavit, Elmore claims she found Washington in possession of seven grams of cocaine and fentanyl.
“The claim was that she pulled seven grams of cocaine laced in fentanyl out of his pocket and a gun, so that’s what they charged him with,” Maxwell said. “Once the video came out, all of a sudden, those charges get dismissed because the video clearly doesn’t show her pulling any drugs out of his pants.”
Maxwell said he plans to take legal action on behalf of his client.
“I just want justice,” Washington said, adding, “I would love an apology.”
Police Chief Black and Mayor Davis said in a joint statement that police are aware of the video of the incident, which occurred on Dec. 2, and have asked the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation to investigate.
“The department is in the process of turning over all materials related to this arrest to the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation and has requested a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest,” the statement said.
A spokesperson for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency at the Alabama Bureau of Investigation confirmed to ABC News that the ALEA is investigating the incident.
“On Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the request of the Reform Police Department, Special Agents with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s (ALEA) State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) launched an investigation into a situation involving an officer with the Reform Police Department. Nothing further is available as the investigation is ongoing,” the spokesperson said.
(LAS VEGAS) — The deceased suspect in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting has been identified as Anthony Polito, 67, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News Wednesday night. Las Vegas police named Polito as the suspect at a media briefing on Thursday.
Polito had applied for a college professorship at UNLV, but was not hired, sources said.
Polito was armed with a Taurus 9 mm handgun during Wednesday’s on-campus attack in which three people were killed, authorities said. The gun was purchased legally last year, authorities said Thursday afternoon.
Sources said investigators have now determined that the victims killed were faculty or staff, not students. Two of those killed were professors, authorities confirmed on Thursday.
During the investigation, authorities determined that Polito had a list of people “he was seeking” at UNLV and faculty from East Carolina University, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Thursday. None of the individuals listed on the list were victims in the shooting, he said.
The suspect was killed in a shootout with police detectives who responded to the scene, authorities said. The gunman fired on police, which is what led them to shoot him, according to preliminary investigative information.
Polito earned a master of business administration at Duke University in 1991, and he received a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Georgia in 2002, according to the universities.
In 2001, Polito started working as an assistant professor at East Carolina University in the College of Business’ Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, according to the university. He resigned from ECU in 2017 as a tenured associate professor.
Detectives have retrieved the suspect’s phone and are examining its contents for clues about what motivated the killer to mount his alleged attack.
Police are also combing his professional writings to determine whether something in those texts could shed light on the events that occurred on the UNLV campus.
Authorities said Thursday the suspect was armed with more than 150 rounds of ammunition
ABC News’ Jenny Wagnon Courts and Kate Holland contributed to this report.
(PONTIAC, Mich.) — Ethan Crumbley is scheduled to be sentenced Friday for killing four of his classmates and wounding others in the 2021 Michigan school shooting.
Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty last year to 24 charges, including first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole after a judge ruled that the sentence was appropriate despite his age at the time of the shooting.
The charges of first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death both carry a minimum sentence of 25 to 40 years.
Prosecutors have said there were no plea deals, reductions or agreements regarding sentencing.
Four students — Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17 — were killed when Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. Six students and a teacher were wounded in the shooting rampage.
Victims will have an opportunity to provide impact statements at the sentencing hearing.
During a hearing to determine whether Crumbley could be eligible for life in prison without parole, Judge Kwamé Rowe highlighted evidence against the teen in which he displayed violence, including Crumbley saying he felt something “between good and pleasurable” when he tortured a baby bird.
“There is other disturbing evidence but it is clear to this court that the defendant had an obsession with violence before the shooting,” Rowe said.
Issuing his decision, Rowe questioned the possibility that Crumbley could be rehabilitated in jail.
“The evidence does not demonstrate to this court that he wants to change,” Rowe said.
“The defendant continues to be obsessed with violence and could not stop his violence in jail,” Rowe added.
Victims of the shooting gave emotional testimony in court during the multiday hearing.
His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after allegedly failing to recognize warning signs about their son in the months before the shooting.
Both parents have pleaded not guilty and their trial is set to begin on Jan. 23.
During his plea hearing in October 2022, Crumbley admitted in court that he asked his father to buy him a specific gun and confirmed he gave his father money for the gun and that the semi-automatic handgun wasn’t kept in a locked safe.
Days before the shooting, a teacher allegedly saw Crumbley researching ammunition in class; school officials contacted his parents but they didn’t respond, according to prosecutors. His mother texted her son, writing, “lol, I’m not mad at you, you have to learn not to get caught,” according to prosecutors.
Hours before the shooting, according to prosecutors, a teacher saw a note on his desk that was “a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointing at the words, ‘The thoughts won’t stop, help me.’ In another section of the note was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above that bullet, ‘Blood everywhere.'”
Crumbley’s parents were called to the school over the incident, saying they’d get their son counseling but did not take him home.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A man was arrested Thursday afternoon after he allegedly fired off a shotgun in the parking vicinity of an Albany, New York synagogue, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
No one was injured during the incident at the Temple Israel around 2:27 p.m. and the suspect, only described as a 28-year-old local man, was quickly arrested the governor said.
“As we’ve talked about before, after the Oct. 7 attacks I’ve ordered our state police as well National Guard to be on high alert,” Hochul told reporters at a news conference.
The suspect allegedly made “threatening statements,” during the incident, Hochul said. The suspect, who has a criminal history, is pending an arraignment, according to the governor.
An early childhood center located on the premises was forced to lockdown but parents were later able to pick up their kids, according to the governor.
Hochul said she spoke with Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson and reassured her that her congregation would be kept safe. The governor said there is no other ongoing threat.
“And I remind everyone, as New Yorkers this is not who we are. This must stop. We reject hate, anti- Semitism [and] Islamophobia. All hate crimes must stop, and all violence in every form must cease,” she said.
The governor noted that the temple previously was the target of a bomb threat in September. Hochul noted that the incident also came at a sensitive time for the Jewish community as it was the first night of Hanukkah.
During the news conference, Eva Wyner, the deputy director of Jewish Affairs for the New York State Executive Chamber, lit the first candle of the menorah.
“We can not be intimidated. We can not be threatened in holding these traditions,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — In 2007, when Rudy Giuliani launched his presidential bid, he seemed both politically and financially at the height of his powers.
His image as “America’s mayor” in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks made him an immediate contender for the Republican presidential nomination. And in the half-decade since he left New York’s City Hall, lucrative consulting work and speaking fees had boosted his net worth to between $18 and $70 million, according to financial disclosures he filed at the time.
But Giuliani’s presidential ambitions fizzled almost immediately, and the former New York City mayor failed to make it though Super Tuesday. It was a humbling political tumble — and now, some 15 years later, his wallet appears to have taken an equally humbling hit.
A deluge of civil and criminal lawsuits has left Giuliani experiencing what his attorney called “financial difficulties.”
The twin threats of potential legal exposure and an apparent depletion of resources could continue to compound in the months and perhaps years ahead, as the onetime attorney to former President Donald Trump battles the fallout from his activities in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
Next week, a Washington, D.C.-based jury will determine what penalties Giuliani will owe a pair of Georgia election workers he was found to have defamed. He is already on the hook for some $230,000, and the election workers are seeking between $15 million and $43 million at trial.
Giuliani stands to owe millions more if he loses cases brought by two voting machine companies and his own longtime personal attorney, and he faces an unrelated sexual harassment suit for $10 million from a former business associate. In October, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden also sued Giuliani for unspecified damages, accusing him of mishandling personal data belonging to him.
Giuliani has denied all claims, and “unequivocally denies the allegations” in the sexual harassment suit.
But perhaps more concerning for Giuliani is the criminal racketeering indictment Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis returned in August against him and 18 other co-defendants, including Trump, accusing them of unlawfully seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Giuliani — who, like many of the other defendants, faces potential jail time in the case — has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Even if Giuliani emerges victorious from his legal tribulations, fighting them will undoubtedly rack up an immense cost.
“He has made it pretty clear that he doesn’t have the resources to handle litigation,” said one source familiar with Giuliani’s legal situation.
To help raise money, Giuliani has turned to a deep-pocketed former client — Trump himself. The former president reportedly recently hosted a $100,000-a-plate dinner at his Bedminster, New Jersey, estate, with proceeds going to Giuliani.
It was not immediately clear how much money the event raised — though Giuliani’s son has suggested it eclipsed $1 million — or how much of those funds have made it to Giuliani. But one thing is clear, according to Giuliani himself: He needs the help.
Election lies — and costs
In court filings over the summer, Giuliani’s lawyer wrote a federal judge asking to defer payments Giuliani was ordered to pay to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two former election workers, citing “financial difficulties” as a result of fighting a slew of litigation elsewhere.
“Giuliani needs more time to pay the attorneys’ fees,” an attorney for Giuliani wrote.
Since then, the judge in that case has issued a summary judgment finding Giuliani liable for defamatory remarks he made about the two women during the Georgia presidential election recount. In a December 2020 appearance before a committee of the Georgia state legislature, Giuliani told lawmakers that a video circulating online showed “Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Moss … quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports, as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine.”
The judge initially ordered Giuliani to pay roughly $132,000 to cover Freeman and Moss’ attorneys’ fees — but after Giuliani missed a deadline to submit payment earlier this month, the judge tacked on an additional $104,000. The judge ordered Giuliani to appear in person at a trial beginning next week to determine additional damages.
Beyond what Giuliani already owes in that lawsuit, he could lose even more substantial sums in his other suits.
In early 2021, voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems filed a string of lawsuits after Giuliani and others targeted the firm with false accusations that it orchestrated a plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Dominion’s $1.3 billion lawsuit against Giuliani accuses him of carrying out “defamatory falsehoods” about Dominion, in part to enrich himself through legal fees and his podcast.
Dominion has since won an historic $787 million settlement against Fox News after filing a similar lawsuit against the conservative media giant seeking $1.6 billion dollars. The suit was settled just minutes before opening statements were set to begin in the trial.
Days after the Dominion suit was filed, Smartmatic, a voting technology company, followed suit, claiming that Giuliani, Fox News, and others “engaged in a widespread disinformation campaign” about the company’s voting software rigging the election around the country.
Smartmatic is seeking a total of $2.7 billion in damages from Giuliani and the other defendants. Giuliani and other defendants have denied wrongdoing.
Paying his own attorneys
In September, Giuliani faced another potential legal blow from an unlikely source: his own longtime attorney and personal friend, Bob Costello.
Costello and his partners at Davidoff Butcher & Citron LLP accused Giuliani of owing them nearly $1.4 million for work defending him during numerous criminal, civil and congressional investigations. Giuliani has paid $214,000 to the firm since November 2019, when he retained Costello, the lawsuit said.
Costello represented Giuliani during criminal investigations in New York, Georgia and Washington and in 10 civil lawsuits in various state and federal courts, as well as during the House select committee’s Jan. 6 investigation, and in disciplinary proceedings involving Giuliani’s law license.
Giuliani has denied Costello’s claim, but the allegation leveled by Costello is not the first of its kind.
In May, Bruce Castor, a former Trump impeachment attorney who agreed to defend Giuliani in a 2020 election-related civil suit, accused the former New York mayor of bilking him out of his attorneys’ fees.
In court papers seeking to withdraw from the case, Castor, who said he had known Giuliani for decades, unloaded on Giuliani for his failure to cooperate with court-ordered documents on time — telling the court that Giuliani “failed to provide the retainer sum” or “work even in the slightest with [Castor] to advance this case.”
“That he promised to send the money and then didn’t was a shock to me, and not in keeping with the character of the man I thought I knew when we were both prosecutors and later watching him from afar as mayor,” Castor told ABC News. “Something had change in him.”
A spokesperson for Giuliani rejected the claims at the time, insisting that Giuliani had indeed paid Castor for his work.
In the Fulton County racketeering case, two attorneys who initially represented Giuliani have since withdrawn, without public explanation.
One of those attorneys, David Wolfe, had previously defended Giuliani’s payment record.
“Of course I’m getting paid for my work,” Wolfe said in an interview on CNN over the summer. “I’m doing my work, I’ve been paid to do my work, and it’s going to cause some problems for the state to respond to it.”
But a source familiar with the matter told ABC News at the time that it remained unclear how long Wolfe would remain on the case. Wolfe resigned weeks later.
In the bank
Despite his entreaties for help and his self-described “financial difficulties,” Giuliani’s actual financial picture remains opaque, and at times has seemed to contradict his declarations of poverty in court.
Giuliani earns some $400,000 annually from advertisers on his daily WABC radio program, according to the New York Times, and in August, he traveled by private jet from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport to his initial court appearance in Georgia to face the racketeering charges. The longtime New York resident also recently listed his Upper East Side apartment for more than $6.5 million, according to Insider.
The U.S. district judge overseeing Freeman and Moss’ defamation case, Beryl Howell, recently cited Giuliani’s luxury apartment and private flight in court documents, framing them as evidence that Giuliani’s request to defer payments to the election workers was “dubious.”
“In short, based on the current record, Giuliani has failed to show that he cannot pay the reimbursement fees he owes,” Howell wrote.
Judge Howell had ordered Giuliani to share detailed financial information with attorneys for Freeman and Moss ahead of their upcoming trial to determine damages owed. Giuliani was supposed to submit details about his “assets and net worth,” including “savings accounts, money market funds, mutual fund accounts, hedge fund accounts and certificates of deposit … and financial statements.”
Giuliani missed the Sept. 20 deadline to share all the information the judge requested; attorneys for Freeman and Moss said Giuliani only turned over a 2018 tax return and his divorce settlement from the same year. Judge Howell will instruct the jury to consider their request for additional sanctions against Giuliani at trial.
“It would be difficult to find a clearer example of an informed, sophisticated, and well represented party openly flouting orders of a federal court,” attorneys for Freeman and Moss wrote in a recent filing in the case.
“Accordingly,” they wrote, “severe sanctions are both warranted and necessary.”
(LAS VEGAS) — Three faculty members were killed and one faculty member was injured in a mass shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The suspect — who had applied for a college professorship at UNLV, but was not hired, according to sources — died at the scene following a firefight with police.
Here’s what we know about the victims:
Cha Jan Chang
Cha Jan Chang, 64, who was known as “Jerry,” was a UNLV business professor who lived in Henderson, Nevada, according to the Clark County coroner.
Chang was an assistant professor at UNLV from 2001 to 2007 and had been an associate professor since 2007.
He received both his masters and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.
“Dr. Chang was a longtime educator of management information systems, spending more than 20 years of his academic career teaching a generation of UNLV Lee Business School students,” UNLV President Keith Whitfield said in a statement on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Patricia Navarro Velez
Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, was an assistant professor in accounting at UNLV and lived in Las Vegas, according to the coroner.
She had a Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida.
“Navarro’s current research focuses on cybersecurity disclosures and assurance, internal control weakness disclosure, and data analytics,” her UNLV biography said.
“Dr. Navarro-Velez, an assistant professor of accounting, had devoted her career to educating the next generation of accountants,” Whitfield said. “She joined UNLV nearly 5 years ago as a professor of accounting, where she focused on teaching accounting information systems.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
