(NEW YORK) — The grandmother of a pregnant 21-year-old, who was fatally shot by an Ohio police officer, spoke out Wednesday during a virtual press briefing following the release of the police body camera video of the incident.
Nadine Young said the body camera video of her granddaughter Ta’Kiya Young’s fatal shooting on Aug. 24, which was released by the Blendon Township Police Department on Friday, made her feel “real sick.”
“It was void of any humanity or any decency at all. He must be held accountable, full stop,” Nadine Young said.
Ta’Kiya Young, 21, of Columbus, was seven months pregnant when she was shot and killed, her family said. Her funeral will be held on Thursday.
Young was a potential shoplifting suspect when she was approached by police in a Kroger’s parking lot, according to police. Body camera video shows Young refusing to leave the car despite orders from officers and one officer was on the driver’s side while the other stood directly in front of the vehicle.
The video shows that as Young accelerated in an apparent attempt to drive away, the officer who stood in front of the vehicle fired the fatal shot.
The officer who shot Young is on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting, which is standard practice.
Family attorney Sean Walton Jr. criticized the officer who fired the fatal shot during the press briefing and claimed that he escalated the situation by immediately pulling his gun out.
“Ta’Kiya was in fear of her life. Ta’Kiya was in fear for her baby’s life,” he said. “I can’t imagine that at the point when Ta’Kiya saw that gun come out that she was thinking about anything other than her baby.”
The officer also should not have placed himself in front of the vehicle, Walton said. But to avoid hitting him, Young moved the steering wheel away from him.
Video footage shows Young moving the steering wheel away from the officer.
“Blendon Township’s policy provides that a five-person use of force review board will evaluate and review the evidence to determine if the officer who fired the shot acted within policy. Because it would be irresponsible to make any decisions about what happened without knowing all of the facts, the administrative review won’t begin until BCI completes its investigation and shares its findings,” Police Chief John Belford told ABC News in a statement.
Steven Irwin, a press secretary for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, told ABC News that BCI’s investigation into the incident remains “active and ongoing.”
Irwin told ABC News that the bureau “does not release the name of involved officer(s) in an officer-involved shooting investigation as they amount to uncharged suspects in the ongoing criminal investigation.”
Police officers were in a Kroger’s parking lot assisting a driver who was locked out of her car when a store employee told one of the officers that someone who had allegedly stolen bottles of alcohol was fleeing, Belford said in a statement after the shooting.
The body camera footage released last week shows Young parked in front of the store refusing to leave the vehicle despite repeated orders from police.
The video shows the officer on the driver’s side telling Young that she was accused of stealing, which she denies.
The officer again tells her to get out of the car, according to the video, which Young appears to verbally refuse to do.
In footage from the officer in front of the car, he pointed his gun at Young and yelled for her to exit the vehicle while using an expletive.
The car then accelerates forward, pushing against the officer in front of the car, who then fires a single shot through the windshield, according to the video. The car continued to move forward.
The officers announce “shots fired” as they chase the vehicle for several feet before it comes to a stop, video shows.
As they chase the car, one officer orders Young to stop the car while pointing a gun at her, according to the footage. The video then shows the officers smashing the driver’s side window.
Officers had to break the window to give Young medical assistance due to the door being locked, the police chief said.
Belford said Young later died at St. Ann’s hospital.
Ahead of Young’s funeral Thursday, her grandmother said “It’s going to tear us up.”
“I’ve been trying to be strong for everybody, but I know the closer it gets, it’s going get really bad tomorrow,” she added.
(NEW YORK) — An 11-year-old Wisconsin boy accused of murdering his mother has been ordered to stand trial.
The boy is charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The district attorney’s office is seeking to try him as an adult. The court has ordered that the boy’s name not be revealed because he may still be tried as a child.
In July, the court found the boy competent, according to court records.
The court found “probable cause and bound defendant over for trial” denying the defense’s motion to dismiss the case, according to court records.
The boy is accused of killing his mother last November, when he was just 10 years old, according to court records.
Milwaukee Detective Timothy Keller testified in court on Tuesday about speaking with the boy about his mother’s death.
“Originally he informed me that he wasn’t sure what had occurred. That he had just found his mother in the basement, believed she was deceased,” Keller said in court, according to Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN-TV.
The detective said he questioned the boy the next day and the 10-year-old admitted shooting her but called it an accident, according to WISN.r
“[The boy] stated that he took up a shooting stance and was pointing the gun at her as she was walking towards him and asking him to put it down. And that’s when he indicated that he fired the gun with his intent to scare her by shooting the wall behind her,” Keller testified.
“He had made a purchase on his mother’s Amazon account for some virtual reality goggles the morning after this homicide occurred. And [family] were concerned because he had had an argument with her about whether he could have these prior to the homicide,” Keller said.
The boy pleaded not guilty and remains in custody, according to court records.
(NEW YORK) — A judge in New York on Wednesday said there would be no delay to the start of the civil trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and his namesake real estate company.
Judge Arthur Engoron said that arguments Trump and others made to delay the case were not convincing.
“Defendants’ arguments are completely without merit,” Engoron wrote in his ruling.
The attorney general’s office alleges that Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and Trump Organization executives inflated his net worth by, in some years, billions of dollars so they could obtain better terms from lenders and insurers.
The former president called his real estate portfolio “the Mona Lisa of properties” during an April deposition in the suit, according to a transcript of the deposition that was made public last week.
(SAN BERNADINO, Calif.) — A California judge has issued a temporary restraining order on what Attorney General Rob Bonta calls Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education’s “forced outing policy.” The policy would require schools to inform parents if a student requests to use a name or pronoun different from the gender listed on their official records.
“The concern is how do we safeguard these students that identify as LGBTQ, and in my view, it’s a situation that is singling out a class of protected individuals differently than the rest of the students,” said Judge Thomas Garza in an oral ruling. He issued the restraining order out of an “abundance of caution.”
The ruling comes a week after Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit to challenge the enforcement of the policy, which Bonta has said “infringes on several state protections safeguarding students’ civil and constitutional rights.”
“San Bernardino Superior Court’s decision to issue a temporary restraining order rightfully upholds the state rights of our LGBTQ+ student community and protects kids from harm by immediately halting the board’s forced outing policy,” said Bonta in a statement.
He continued, “While this fight is far from over, today’s ruling takes a significant step towards ensuring the physical, mental and emotional well-being of transgender and gender-nonconforming students. As we continue challenging the policy in court, my office will continue providing our unwavering support to ensure every student has the right to learn and thrive in a school environment that promotes safety, privacy and inclusivity.”
The Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education, which serves about 26,000 students, recently adopted a mandatory gender identity disclosure policy that requires schools to tell parents if a student asks to use a name or pronoun that’s different from what is listed on their birth certificate or other official records.
The policy also requires parental notification if a student asks to use facilities or enter programs that don’t align with their sex as it is on official records.
A Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) spokesperson told ABC News in a statement that “past and current practices of the district solidify staff’s priority to provide all students with a safe and positive educational experience.”
They argue “the Parent Notification policy does protect transgender students and takes their safety extremely seriously.”
The spokesperson said staff are required to notify child protective services or law enforcement if the student or staff member “believes the student is in danger or has been abused, injured or neglected due to their parent or guardian knowing of their preferred gender identity.”
“In these circumstances, CVUSD staff will not notify parents or guardians, but rather, wait for the appropriate agencies to complete their investigations regarding the concerns shared by the student,” the statement read.
ABC News has reached back out to the district for comment on the judge’s decision.
The Chino Valley school board held public hearings on the policy throughout the summer, garnering protesters from both sides of the issue. Board members also used anti-transgender rhetoric in their arguments in favor of the policy.
“There has always been man and woman, and then you have this transgender, and it is not going to stop there … it is a mental illness,” board clerk and member Andrew Cruz said. He also claimed, “women are being erased.”
In that same meeting, the board president, Sonja Shaw, also stated that transgender and gender nonbinary individuals needed “non-affirming” parents to “get better.”
The policy passed with a 4-1 vote, with member Donald L. Bridge as the sole vote against the policy.
LGBTQ advocates say that forcibly “outing” transgender students could be dangerous for some students, who may not feel safe or supported at home or elsewhere.
Transgender people make up 0.5% of the adult population in California, and 1.93% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17, according to research from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Transgender youth are more likely to experience anxiety, depressed moods, and suicidal thoughts and attempts due to gender-related discrimination and stigma, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has found.
Schools with inclusive policies that protect and affirm transgender youth’s identity are “associated with positive mental health and academic outcomes,” according to research published by the Society for Research in Child Development.
The lawsuit asserts the policy violates California’s Constitution and state anti-discrimination laws, including California’s Equal Protection Clause, California’s Education and Government Code and California’s Constitutional Right to Privacy.
Bonta has also condemned several other school districts across the state that have implemented similar gender identity disclosure policies.
The hearing on the attorney general’s motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Oct. 13, 2023.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — As a new school year begins in New York City, advocates are calling on the city to boost its services for the thousands of migrant children enrolling in classes.
New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks told reporters last week that over 19,000 school-aged children who have arrived as asylum seekers will attend school this year.
Roughly 2,500 new students who are living in temporary housing enrolled in July for the 2023-2024 school year, which begins on Thursday, the chancellor said Wednesday.
“They’re still coming every day,” Banks said.
The chancellor said that the city’s school system has the space to handle the new influx of students since tens of thousands of families have disenrolled their kids from public schools since the pandemic.
However, non-profit groups that specialize in helping immigrants get a good education, said the migrant children who are currently in temporary housing are going to need more than classroom space.
Liza Schwartzwald, the director of economic justice and family empowerment for the non-profit New York Immigrant Coalition, told reporters Tuesday that there is a shortage of bilingual teachers in schools.
The city’s Department of Education said there are 3,400 English as a second language teachers and 1,700 certified bilingual teachers fluent in Spanish.
Diana Aragundi, the assistant project director, of the Advocates for the Children of New York’s Immigrant Students’ Rights Project, said that she has heard from schools, parents and students that the migrant children are placed in the same classroom as other students.
“It’s really about providing them the support to learn English,” she said.
Schwartzwald also noted that because many of the migrant families are being placed in select shelters throughout the city, some schools will have more migrant students than others.
“Most of the students are being placed in schools that are geographically close to them. For those parents that are able to travel a little bit or willing to go further, then those families can absolutely get enrolled in schools that have stronger immigrant supports,” she explained.
The city said it has been sending education specialists to shelters to provide information and resources about New York’s public education services.
Schwartzwald said that the growing number of new migrants has made it hard for families to get in touch with these specialists, and many families aren’t learning about the educational opportunities and other programs, such as free meals.
She said the DOE should do what it can to increase this outreach to shelters and other locations that are housing migrants. Schwartzwald added that the city’s non-profits will also be spreading the word about education services.
“We’re trying to make sure we know where people can get their resources,” she said.
Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom told reporters Wednesday that some of the migrant children may not be in “the exact right place,” on the first days of school, but said they will be helped.
“We are going to figure it out. I promise you that. And if there are a couple of first days of children not getting to the exact right place, we will figure it out and they will be in a good place,” she said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said over 110,000 migrants have been transported to the city since the spring of 2022. As of Wednesday, there are 60,000 asylum seekers are seeking shelter, according to the mayor’s office.
Adams has called on the federal government to provide the city with more resources and support to handle these additional migrants and has also called on Washington D.C. to expedite work permits to get these individuals jobs.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(POCOPSIN TOWNSHIP, Pa.) — As a Pennsylvania manhunt for an escaped killer went into its seventh day Wednesday, an investigation has found he followed a strategy used by an inmate who bolted from the same county facility in May, officials said.
Fugitive Danelo Cavalcante absconded from the Chester County Prison on Aug. 31 by scaling a wall to gain access to the roof and pushing through razor wire before jumping down to a less secure area to make his getaway, Howard Holland, the acting warden of the Chester County Prison, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The 34-year-old Cavalcante, who was at the facility awaiting a transfer to the state prison after being convicted of murder in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend, followed the same method of escape and route used by an inmate at the Chester County Prison, Holland said.
Inmate Igor Vidra Bolte broke out of the prison in Pocopson Township on May 19 by scaling a wall in an exercise yard to gain access to the roof, according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC News.
A Chester County Prison surveillance camera captured Bolte’s escape, according to the complaint.
“While the defendant was in the exercise yard for Section 6, he is observed scaling a narrow hallway by placing his feet on one wall and his hands on the other. The defendant then climbs the walls in a horizontal position until reaching the roof,” according to the complaint. “Once at the roof, the defendant is able to use an exposed I-beam to climb up onto the roof of the building. The defendant then runs out of frame across the roof of the prison traveling west.”
The 30-year-old Bolte, who later told authorities he was a rock climber, was caught within 5 minutes after getting out of the prison by climbing down from the roof by the visitors’ entrance where there is less security and running off the grounds on the south side of the prison, according to the complaint.
“This escape was similar to the methodology of the escape by Cavalcante,” Holland said.
He noted “one key difference” between the two escapes was the actions of a tower guard whose primary responsibility was to monitor inmates in the exercise yard.
“In Bolte’s escape, the tower officer observed the subject leaving the yard area and contacted control immediately. That is why Bolte was apprehended within 5 minutes,” Holland said. “In the escape of Cavalcante, the tower officer did not observe nor report the escape. The escape was discovered as part of the inmate counts that occur when the inmates come in from the exercise yard.”
Holland laid out a timeline of Cavalcante’s escape, noting that the fugitive was missing for nearly an hour before anyone noticed.
He said security video showed Cavalcante escaping at 8:51 a.m. on Aug. 31.
Cavalcante escaped from the prison by “crab walking” up a wall, pushing his way through razor wire installed after Bolte’s escape, running across the prison roof and scaling more razor wire, Holland said.
He said Cavalcante was first noticed missing when inmates were brought back in from the exercise yard at 9:35 a.m. and that the prison was placed on lockdown and a head count confirmed he had vanished. He said a public escape siren was sounded at 10:01 a.m.
Bolte’s brief escape came less than two months before Michael Burham, a murder suspect and a self-taught “survivalist,” broke out of the Warren County Jail in northern Pennsylvania on July 6, using similar climbing techniques as both Bolte and Cavalcante.
Like Bolte, Burham escaped from a recreation yard by “elevating himself” on top of exercise equipment and exiting the yard through a hole in the metal-grated roof, Warren County officials said. He then used bed sheets fashioned into a rope to lower himself to the ground and flee on foot, officials said.
An official who viewed surveillance video of the Burham’s escape said the inmate “looked like a spider” as he quickly climbed to the roof and got away.
Burham was captured after a massive nine-day manhunt.
Cavalcante, who authorities said is also wanted in his native Brazil in a homicide investigation, is the subject of a manhunt involving hundreds of state and local agencies as well as the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service.
The search for Cavalcante is centered in an area near the Chester County Prison, where he has been spotted at least five times, officials said. On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania State Police, which is leading the search for Cavalcante, released images of the fugitive taken by a trail camera Monday night in Longwood Gardens, a sprawling horticulture attraction about 5 miles southwest of the prison he escaped from.
Lt. Col. George Bevins, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police, said the most recent credible sighting of Cavalcante occurred Tuesday evening, when a resident in the search area spotted him in a creek bed behind their home.
Bill LaTorre, a retired Pennsylvania State Police sergeant who now runs his own security consulting firm, told ABC News on Wednesday that he is not surprised Cavalcante is suspected of using the same escape method as the one Bolte. But he said he was surprised that officials didn’t do more to “defeat that strategy to escape.”
Holland said that after Bolte’s escape, security advisors were brought in and recommended placing razor wire on the wall where he escaped to block the route.
“One of the issues brought up was the once the razor wire was put in place, it was determined by our security advisors that this one level of security was sufficient,” Holland said. “In fact, what was perhaps overlooked was the fact that addressing the single point of security countermeasure should have been bolstered by additional means.”
He said steps are being taken now to completely enclose the eight exercise yards at the prison, which are now open air. He said additional security cameras will also be installed and additional officers will be on the ground to help the tower officers monitor the inmates in the exercise yards.
LaTorre noted that another high-profile escape involving a suspect accused of killing four people occurred at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on May 7. In that case, inmate Ameen Hurst, 18, the suspected killer, and a second inmate, 24-year-old Nasir Grant, fled the facility through a hole in the recreation yard’s fence, officials said.
Hurst was captured in Philadelphia following a 10-day manhunt while Grant was taken back into custody by U.S. Marshals a few days earlier.
“The common thread across all these is they’re county facilities,” LaTorre said.
He said that compared to state and federal prisons, county jails and prisons have the least funding and resources to guard against escapes or to conduct threat and vulnerability assessments on a regular basis.
“Yet we have these people on trial for homicide, people who have been convicted of homicide and that’s where they are. They’re in a less secure facility and these are the guys who have every reason to escape,” LaTorre said. “I know these county prisons sometimes have more secure areas within the building, but the prisoners generally traverse throughout parts of the building and that’s where they find these vulnerabilities. Capitalizing on these vulnerabilities is what allows them to escape.”
Holland said prison officials are rethinking protocols for housing inmates suspected in violent crimes, including those alleged to have committed homicides or convicted of killings.
LaTorre said taxpayers should be aware that the alternative of not doing risk assessments and fortifying prisons and jails is having to pay millions of dollars to search for often dangerous inmates who escape.
“Isn’t that money better spent at the county level to secure the prison?” LaTorre said.
He added, “It does have to be taken seriously. There needs to be oversight of these prisons. Wardens are put in charge of these prisons and we trust that they’re doing the things they’re supposed to be doing, but what I would say for the citizens is, you have to take escapes seriously. Anyone who escapes is making the decision that they’re willing to take the risk of the additional penalty to escape over whatever it is they are running away from, and that is what makes them dangerous.”
A 2016 report titled “Escape from Correctional Custody: A New Examination of an Old Phenomenon” analyzed 611 inmates involved in 503 escape incidents at 398 different U.S. lock-up facilities. Bryce Peterson, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who co-authored the report, told ABC News earlier this year that many of the escapees also appear to have the motivation to run, saying inmates serving long sentences or facing serious charges like murder “are the most likely to escape.”
“It just comes down to when they have a chance to do it,” Peterson told ABC News.
ABC News’ Bernie Lubell contributed to this report.
(HONOLULU) — The father of a woman who died in Maui’s wildfires has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Maui County and the state of Hawaii accusing them of negligence and wrongful conduct in allowing the fires to ignite or spread without being contained or suppressed.
Harold Dennis Wells’ 57-year-old daughter, Rebecca Rans, died in the Lahaina fire, according to a suit filed Monday.
Rans was killed trying to escape the fires on Aug. 8. Rans and her long-term boyfriend, Doug Gloege, were found burned to death a few blocks from her house, according to court filings.
Defendants named in the suit also include Maui Electric Company, Hawaiian Electric Company, Hawaiian Electric Industries and Kamehameha Schools, formerly known as the Bernice Pauahi Bishop estate — a charitable foundation that owns large areas of land in the state.
In the suit, Wells alleges that Maui has continued to get drier and hotter for years and there was a spread of non-native flammable grasses and brush vegetation that “took over the island.”
Wells alleges the potential for increased fires that originated in or was fueled by the grasslands was “actively discussed among governmental officials, utilities, and informed academics, and was well-known to owners of such grasslands,” according to the suit.
The suit accuses officials of not taking action to prevent or mitigate the risk of fires after the 2018 wildfires.
“Despite this history of serious fires caused by predictable weather conditions, no one in a position to effect change did anything to prevent or substantially mitigate the risk,” the suit said.
“The result of these years of neglecting and disregarding the risk that the 2018 Fires would be repeated when similar conditions inevitably occurred was the greatest single-day loss of life and property in Hawai‘i history on August 8, 2023, a catastrophe and tragedy for which all Defendants named herein should share in the fault,” the suit said.
The lawsuit also accuses power companies of “taking no measures to harden its grid, increase power line safety, or de-energize its lines ahead of a foreseeable fire event.” Hawaii Electric has said it de-energized its lines after a morning wildfire, which was extinguished, and they were not energized when the afternoon fire broke out that consumed Lahaina.
Hawaii Electric, which owns Maui Electric, said in a statement, “As has always been our policy, we don’t comment on pending litigation. We continue to focus on supporting emergency response efforts on Maui and restoring power for our customers and communities as quickly as possible.
Wells accuses Maui County of negligence, alleging it “failed to have proper emergency preparedness procedures,” resulting in Rans’ death.
The state, county and Bishop trustees are accused of landowner negligence for failing to “exercise reasonable care in the maintenance of vegetation on their property,” according to the suit.
“At this time, our hearts are with all affected by the Maui fires and their ‘ohana,” a spokesperson for Kamehameha Schools said in a statement to ABC News. “Kamehameha Schools is an indigenous educational institution. We are committed to restoring our Native Hawaiian people and culture through education, which includes stewarding and uplifting the health and resiliency of our ‘āina (lands) and Native communities. As many aspects of the fires are still under investigation, we have no further comment at this time.”
The suit accuses them of failing to maintain their property in a way to “avoid causing injury to members of the public.”
Wells is asking for a jury trial and damages including his future medical care expenses, Rans’ burial and funeral expenses, and for other economic losses in addition to punitive damages.
Wells also asked for an injunction against defendants to stop them from engaging in dangerous activities outlined in the suit that “have and will likely in the future cause harm to the public.”
(MADISON, Wisc.) — A man has been arrested for allegedly beating and sexually assaulting a University of Wisconsin-Madison student, Madison police announced at a news conference Wednesday.
There was no connection between the victim and the suspect, who was identified as Brandon Thompson, police said.
Authorities called the randomness of the crime “frightening.”
The victim, a woman in her 20s, was “violently attacked” while walking early Sunday, police said. She was found around 3:20 a.m. off-campus on a block in downtown Madison, police said. Someone who lives in the area called police after finding the victim “severely beaten,” the Madison Police Department said.
A witness told police that Thompson was at the scene of the crime. Thompson allegedly told that witness he had “just found” the survivor and was “pretending to be an innocent bystander,” police said.
Thompson then allegedly fled the scene.
Police said video submitted by the community showed a license plate that helped lead authorities to Thompson.
Police also said Wednesday that they used body-worn camera footage from police in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, who had pulled Thompson over while he was driving, to link him to public cameras that allegedly captured Thompson walking behind the victim just before the assault.
The victim was taken in critical condition to a local hospital, police said. Authorities said Tuesday that she was expected to survive her injuries. Police on Wednesday did not elaborate on her condition.
“We are deeply concerned for this individual, keeping them and their family in our thoughts and providing all possible support,” UW-Madison Dean of Students Christina Olstad and UW Police Chief Kristen Roman said in an alert to the school community regarding the “violent and severe attack.”
Police this week urged people to be on “high alert” and said patrols in the area were increased.
Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal Constitution/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — A Fulton County judge has ordered two defendants in the Georgia election interference case to stand trial together on Oct. 23.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he was “very skeptical” of District Attorney Fani Willis’ desire to try the remaining defendants’ cases together on that date, but that he would hear more arguments on the matter.
“I’m willing to hear what you have to say on it,” McAfee said.
Both defendants — attorney Kenneth Chesebro and former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell — had sought speedy trial demands as well as motions to sever their cases from the other defendants, including from each other.
The judge, however, said that severing them from each other would not be needed to achieve a fair trial.
Chesebro, Powell, and 17 others, including former President Donald Trump, have pleaded not guilty to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. The former president says his actions were not illegal and that the investigation is politically motivated.
Prosecutors told McAfee during the hearing that they expected the trial against the 19 defendants would take four months — not including jury selection — and that the state plans to call over 150 witnesses.
Prosecutor Nathan Wade argued that even if the case was broken up and Chesebro and Powell were tried separately, the DA’s office would “absolutely” need the same amount of time and same number of witnesses to try the case, given they have to prove the entire conspiracy.
“So the court, in the interest of judicial economy, would have to make the decision as to whether or not the court wants to try the same case 19 times,” Wade said.
Chesebro’s attorney Scott Grubman argued that trying Chesebro with the other defendants would be unfair, since Chesebro only engaged in a portion of the conduct alleged in the indictment. Grubman argued that the Fulton County case boils down to three distinct conspiracies: one related to the alternate elector scheme, a second related to tampering with ballot computers in Coffee County, and a third related to the effort to intimate poll worker Ruby Freeman.
“Mr. Chesebro is only concerned in terms of the evidence or allegations with what I’m going to call the alternate elector alleged conspiracy,” Grubman said.
While Grubman recognized that Georgia’s racketeering statute gives prosecutors the ability to charge broader criminal conduct, he argued that connecting Chesebro to unrelated conduct would be unfair to his client.
“Why should Mr. Chesebro have to deal with a jury who’s going to sit there for weeks, if not months, and listen to all of this evidence related to Coffee County and Miss Powell? He’s never been there. He’s never met Miss Powell. He’s never emailed or called her,” Grubman said.
Chesebro’s other attorney, Manubir Arora, said that severing his client from the others would ultimately result in a “clean trial [that] would be much shorter.”
But prosecutors pushed back on that assertion.
“The state’s position is that whether we have one trial or 19 trials, the evidence is exactly the same,” said Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Will Wooten. “The number of witnesses is the same.”
Powell’s attorney argued that she should be tried alone, not with Chesebro, so that he can prove that the DA’s allegations against her regarding the Coffee County data breach are “incorrect” — an effort he says would be “prejudiced” by going to trial alongside Chesebro.
Chesebro faces seven counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree and two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings. According to the indictment, he allegedly conceived “multiple strategies for disrupting and delaying the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”
Powell also faces seven counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud. She allegedly helped people tamper with ballot markers and machines inside an elections office in Coffee County, according to the indictment.
Earlier Wednesday, former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows filed his own motion seeking to sever his case, and asked the judge to halt the state prosecution against him while he awaits a decision from a federal judge regarding his earlier request to remove his case to federal court.
Meadows is seeking to have his case moved on the basis of a federal law his attorneys argue requires the removal of criminal proceedings brought in state court to the federal court system when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting “under color” of their office.
(SAN ANTONIO) — Police in San Antonio are searching for a man and woman who were kidnapped from their home Wednesday morning.
Officers responded to the couple’s home around 6 a.m. and found five children — believed to be the victims’ — inside and unharmed, San Antonio police said.
The children told police the unknown suspects broke in and “forcefully” took the victims, who are in their late 30s.
A motive is not known, police said.
Police did not release a description of the alleged kidnappers.
