(NEW YORK) — A woman pleaded guilty in court on Wednesday to fatally pushing an 87-year-old woman on a New York City street last year.
Lauren Pazienza, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter in the first degree for the unprovoked attack that killed Barbara Gustern, prosecutors said.
Pazienza will be sentenced to eight years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision under the terms of the plea, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 29.
“Lauren Pazienza aggressively shoved Barbara Gustern to the ground and walked away as the beloved New Yorker lay there bleeding. Today’s plea holds Pazienza accountable for her deadly actions,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “We continue to mourn the loss of Barbara Gustern, a talented musical theater performer and vocal coach who touched so many in New York City and beyond.”
Prosecutors said that on the evening of March 10, 2022, Pazienza crossed the street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and “shouted obscenities” at Gustern, a well-known and beloved member of the city’s cabaret scene. Pazienza then “intentionally shoved her to the ground,” prosecutors said.
Gustern hit her head on the ground, causing a hemorrhage to the left side of her brain, and died five days later in the hospital after she was removed from life support, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Pazienza left the scene as Gustern lay bleeding on the ground, but stayed in the area for about 20 minutes before heading back with her fiance to their apartment in Astoria, Queens, according to prosecutors.
Following the incident, Pazienza deleted her social media accounts, took down her wedding website and “eventually fled to Long Island to stay with family,” according to prosecutors, as police released surveillance footage of a suspect in the attack.
She eventually turned herself in to police nearly two weeks after the incident and was initially charged with one count of first-degree manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault.
Pazienza’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, did not make any comments to reporters upon leaving court on Wednesday.
Gustern’s grandson, AJ Gustern, told reporters following the hearing that he has “little to no forgiveness or sympathy for Lauren or her family.”
“This is what happens when you don’t raise a child right and you let them get away with whatever they want their entire lives,” he said.
(PHILADELPHIA) — A Philadelphia police officer who fatally shot a 27-year-old man while he was sitting in his car was suspended for 30 days and the city’s police commissioner said she intends to fire the officer at the end of the suspension.
The announcement by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw at a press conference on Wednesday came a day after the family of Eddie Irizarry Jr. released security video appearing to show Officer Mark Dial firing his weapon multiple times at Irizarry through the driver’s side window of the car within seconds of getting out of his patrol vehicle.
“Today, I am announcing that I’ve made the decision to utilize Commissioner’s Direct Action to suspend police officer Mark Dial with the intent to dismiss him at the end of 30 days due to administrative violations,” Outlaw said.
Specifically, Outlaw said an administrative investigation found Dial violated department rules against “insubordination” by allegedly refusing to obey “proper orders from a superior officer.” She said the administrative investigation also accuses Dial of “conduct unbecoming” an officer for “failure to cooperate in any departmental investigation.”
Efforts by ABC News to reach Dial have been unsuccessful. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing police officers, has told ABC Philadelphia station WPVI that it is standing by Dial.
Commissioner Outlaw added at Wednesday’s press conference, “I want to make it clear that the investigation into the shooting itself continues along with the administrative investigation, in which there may be additional disciplinary charges in the event that Officer Dial violated additional PPD policies.”
Outlaw emphasized that the disciplinary action taken against Dial only concerns administrative violation and not the actions he took during the shooting.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who attended Outlaw’s news conference, said Irizarry’s shooting is “certainly a tragedy.”
“My heart breaks for the family and for the loss of Mr. Irizarry,” Kenney said. “Again, this is an ongoing investigation and I’m not going to have any comment on what I think or feel about what I’ve seen or know until this investigation is concluded.”
Kenney added, “The investigation is going to bring out whatever it brings out and we’ll move on from there.”
On Tuesday, Irizarry’s family released video footage taken from a Ring doorbell camera, described by a lawyer representing the family as proof that police officials allegedly fabricated the initial narrative they gave of how the fatal shooting unfolded.
Following the Aug. 14 officer-involved shooting, a Philadelphia police spokesperson originally said Irizarry was killed outside his car when he “lunged” at an officer with a knife. Two days after the shooting, Outlaw said at a news conference that police body-worn camera footage, which has not been made public, showed the initial report was inaccurate.
“We know that is that was a patent lie. It’s a fabrication. It did not happen that way,” Shaka Johnson, an attorney for the Irizarry family, said.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Johnson released the Ring doorbell camera obtained by his investigators. The footage appeared to show Irizarry driving the wrong way down a one-way street and parking as two officers in a marked SUV pulled up alongside him and one of them, identified as Dial, fired multiple shots through the closed driver’s side window of Irizarry’s car within seconds of getting out of his patrol vehicle.
The footage shows that Irizarry was still inside his car when he was shot and killed. Just prior to the shooting, both officers yelled at Irizarry to “show me your hands.” As he raced across the front of Irizarry’s car to the driver’s side window, Dial could be heard in the footage yelling to Irizarry, “Don’t move” and “I’ll f—— shoot you.”
Dial’s partner shouted, “He’s got a f—— knife,” prompting Dial to fire five times into the car and then a sixth time through the front windshield as he retreated, the footage shows.
Dial’s partner, who has not been identified by the police department, also drew his gun when he got out of his patrol car but never fired a shot, according to police officials.
The video then shows Dial and his partner pulling the mortally wounded Irizarry from his vehicle and carrying him to their patrol vehicle to be rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Johnson alleged the initial narrative given by a Philadelphia police spokesperson was an “intentional misleading of the public about what happened.”
He alleged that police officials attempted to “corrupt the court of public opinion.”
Johnson also said that there was no police chase as initially reported by the police spokesperson and noted that Dial and his partner did not activate their lights and siren when they followed Irizarry, purportedly for driving erratically, and pulled up alongside his car.
“We’re asking for full transparency from the Philadelphia Police Department and we’ve not gotten it thus far,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he and the family are asking the police department to release the police body-camera footage of the shooting. He said the city solicitor had invited Irizarry’s family members to view the video on Friday in private, but the invitation was rescinded by the Philadelphia District Attorney, who cited the ongoing investigation.
On Aug. 16, two days after the shooting, Outlaw held a news conference to clarify the initial report, saying, “The body-worn camera footage made it very clear that what we initially reported was not actually what happened.”
Outlaw conceded that Irizarry remained inside his vehicle throughout the incident and never “lunged” at an officer with a knife.
Police officials said they found two knives in Irizarry’s car, which they described as a “kitchen-style knife” and a “serrated folding knife.” But Outlaw has declined to say if Irizarry had a knife in his hand when he was shot.
Johnson said Irizarry’s father, Eddie Irizarry Sr., who also attended Tuesday’s news conference, gave his son the folding knife, which the younger Irizarry used in his job as a mechanic to strip wire.
He called Outlaw’s correction about the shooting akin to “saying you’re sorry after you were caught.”
“This officer really took someone very special to us and I just want him to pay for what he did,” Irizarry’s aunt, Zoraida Garcia, said during Tuesday’s news conference.
Johnson said Irizarry, a native of Puerto Rico, could not speak English and suffered from schizophrenia.
On Wednesday, Outlaw, again, addressed the inaccuracies in the initial statement police gave of the shooting.
“The police department takes accuracy and transparency, and incident reporting very seriously. We are investigating the inaccuracies in the initial report of this incident and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken if warranted upon the conclusion of that investigation,” Outlaw said.
She went on to say, “I completely understand that today’s announcement as well as the press briefing held yesterday by the Irizarrys’ counsel will give rise to additional questions. I must again reiterate that our primary duty is to safeguard the integrity of the ongoing investigation, a task currently undertaken by the District Attorney’s Office.”
Robert Boyce, a retired chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, said Wednesday after viewing the video released by the Irizarry family that he is not surprised by Outlaw’s decision to suspend Dial with the intent of dismissing him.
Boyce said Dial could also face criminal charges, possibly manslaughter.
“He’s going to have to answer to somebody,” Boyce said of Dial, alleging the officer’s conduct during the shooting was “reckless.”
(PITTSBURGH) — Police are at the scene of an ongoing “active shooting situation” in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood, according to authorities.
Officers are working to evacuate people from houses in the area, according to Pittsburgh Public Safety. People inside are urged to shelter in place and call 911.
HAPPENING NOW:
Shots continue to be fired on Broad Street in city’s Garfield neighborhood.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump’s multiple criminal indictments have led to unprecedented times in the country’s legal system, particularly when it comes to the allegations of his interference with the 2020 election, legal experts said.
Prosecutors in Georgia and the federal special counsel have charged Trump with racketeering and conspiracy charges, respectively, with similar allegations including targeting states like Georgia and Arizona with misinformation tactics, and multiple attempts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence into not certifying the election, and goading his followers before the riot at the Capitol.
Trump is expected to turn himself into the Fulton County sheriff’s office in a Georgia court this week on his charges and has pleaded not guilty to the federal indictment. He has consistently contended he has done nothing illegal.
Erica Hashimoto, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, told ABC News that it’s not uncommon for federal and state criminal cases that involve similar charges against a defendant to run consecutively, and likely one jurisdiction will hold off its trial while the other goes forward with its case.
However, the complexities of both probes against Trump and other co-defendants, and his two other indictments in New York and Florida, will complicate the prosecutions, and could lead to completely different types of prosecutions and defense arguments, she said.
“Multiple trials have been scheduled in other cases. Four is a lot,” Hashimoto told ABC News.
Dovetailed charges use similar allegations, evidence
The Jan. 6 indictment by Special counsel Jack Smith listed instances where the former president allegedly conspired with others to overthrow the results of the 2020 election.
This included targeting key states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin- and trying to get fake electors, according to the indictment.
The federal indictment also cites Trump’s tweets saying he falsely claimed Pence had the power to not certify the election and the former’s president’s speech during the rally on Jan. 6 where he repeated those falsehoods.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ indictment of Trump and 18 other defendants on racketeering charges also included similar allegations that Trump and his co-defendants targeted Georgia and the six other states with a fake elector scheme.
The Georgia indictment also lists Trump’s tweets and words before the Jan. 6 riot that promoted his false claims about Pence’s role in certifying the election in its arguments.
Scheduling complications will arise
Hashimoto and other legal experts said a key factor in both the Georgia and federal cases is timing. She said that if the cases go to trial, it’s highly unlikely they will be scheduled at the same time, and this creates more strategies for the defense and prosecution in the case that goes second.
“The prosecutors in the second case will have a good look at how his defense lawyers will defend him and be more prepared,” she said. “The defense will also adapt and learn how to make their arguments for the same allegations.”
David Sklansky, a law professor at Stanford Law, told ABC News, that he predicts the special counsel’s trial will take place before the Georgia trial, given that the state case involves 19 defendants.
“There may be defendants in the Georgia case who want to go soon, but if other defendants are interested in delaying, that will create a complication,” he said.
Smith said in an Aug. 10 court filing that he is seeking a start date for Jan. 2, 2024, in the federal trial and indicated it would take no longer than four to six weeks to present his case to a jury.
Trump’s attorneys have pushed for a 2026 trial date.
Willis proposed a March 4, 2024 start date for her trial against Trump and the 18 other defendants. They have been given a deadline of Friday to turn themselves in and be arraigned on their charges.
Attorney strategies hinge on specific court, timing
The special counsel’s office and Wills’s office will likely have discussions on the timing of their trials, but it is highly unlikely that they will share any evidence, grand jury testimony or other prosecution materials before their trials Hashimoto said.
Instead, the prosecutors in the second case will likely use testimony from the first case to help formulate their arguments. This situation also puts more pressure on the defense, according to Hashimoto, who previously served as a federal public defender.
“It is unlikely that President Trump will testify,” she said. “Anything that he says in one trial can be used against him in the other.”
Sklansky, who previously served as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said despite the overlap in charges and similarities, the public should expect to see two different cases play out in Washington D.C. and Georgia.
Sklansky said the federal government’s conspiracy indictment is more narrow since there is currently only one defendant and focuses only on his actions that they allege defrauding the country and depriving Americans of their voting rights.
In Georgia, there are more allegations and criminal counts including the intimidation of witnesses and alleged theft of voting equipment that are not part of the federal case, he noted.
“There is significant overlap and things the fed indictment does and the state does and vice versa, but in the end, the federal case is more narrow, and more focused,” he said.
Sklansky reiterated that the multiple criminal and civil cases against Trump, who is still campaigning around the country will leave the legal community in uncharted territory, and there may be other factors and complications to come before any of the former president’s trials begin.
“It’s not something we have useful precedence for,” he said.
(ATLANTA) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to surrender at the Fulton County Jail on Wednesday, multiple sources told ABC News. Lawyers for Giuliani will be meeting with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office early Wednesday to finalize a bond package before a surrender in the Georgia election interference racketeering case.
Giuliani, according to sources, has secured local counsel but is expected to be joined by his longtime friend and former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who is assisting him through the process.
Attorney John Eastman was booked and released on bail Tuesday at the Fulton County Jail, as some of the 18 defendants charged alongside former President Donald Trump in the case began turning themselves in.
Eastman told reporters on his way out of the facility that he plans to “vigorously contest every count of the indictment.”
“I am confident that when the law is faithfully applied in this proceeding, all of my co-defendants and I will be fully vindicated,” he said outside the jail.
Trump and 18 others were charged last week by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis 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.
In a late Tuesday night release, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said it will release mugshots of those charged in the election fraud case every day at 4 p.m. until all the defendants have turned themselves in.
Giuliani has been charged with 13 counts, including violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Eastman is charged with nine counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree. The indictment names Eastman as among those allegedly involved in a scheme to solicit public officers to unlawfully appoint Georgia presidential electors.
When asked if he still believes the 2020 election was stolen, Eastman replied, “Absolutely, no question.”
Eastman said he is paying for his own legal fees and added that he has not spoken to Trump about the charges.
Eastman is also currently facing 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Monday set bond for Eastman at $100,000.
Co-defendant Scott Hall, like Eastman, was also processed and released Tuesday, one day after Judge McAfee set his bail at $10,000
Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, is charged with seven counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud. He is among those accused of conspiring to commit election fraud in Coffee County.
All 19 defendants in the case are also charged with violating Georgia’s RICO Act.
Trump and the other defendants have until Friday to voluntarily surrender to authorities in Atlanta.
Trump wrote on his social media platform Monday night that he intends to surrender in Georgia on Thursday, after Judge McAfee set the former president’s bond at $200,000 on Monday.
Trump himself is facing 13 counts in the indictment, including three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, after he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call, to “find him” enough votes to win the state.
Co-defendant Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official charged in the case, filed a motion in federal court Tuesday seeking an emergency stay of the Fulton County proceedings, including his arrest warrant, until after Labor Day, so a judge could rule on his motion to remove his case to federal court. A judge ruled that Willis must respond to Clark’s motion by Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET.
Clark filed a separate motion to remove his case to federal court on the basis that he was serving as a high-ranking DOJ official during the timeframe alleged in the indictment. It followed a similar motion to remove filed last week by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Meadows, on Tuesday, filed an emergency motion asking a federal judge to rule on his prior motion by noon on Friday, the deadline for his surrender to the Fulton County Jail.
Earlier Tuesday, co-defendant David Shafer, the former Georgia GOP chair, also filed his own notice of removal to federal court.
Shafer, one of Trump’s so-called “false electors,” argues in his filing that “as a contingent Presidential Elector, Mr. Shafer was an officer of the United States.”
The filing claims Shafer was charged for conduct that “stems directly from his service as a Presidential Elector nominee” and that he was working “at the direction of the President and other federal officers.”
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Meredith Deliso and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEBRASKA) — The driver of a day care van was arrested after a 1-year-old girl who was left in the vehicle for several hours amid sweltering temperatures died, police said.
Police responded to a day care center Monday afternoon “for an unresponsive child who was left in a van,” the Omaha Police Department said in a statement.
Authorities believe the child was left in the van for approximately five hours, an Omaha Police spokesperson told ABC News.
The 1-year-old was transported to Nebraska Medical Center but was declared dead at the hospital, police said. The official autopsy results are pending, the police spokesperson said.
The child was identified by her family on Tuesday as Ra’Miyah Worthington. Her distraught mother told Ra’Miyah she loved her at a rally outside the day care center, Kidz Of The Future Child Development Center II, as family members demanded justice for the toddler.
“My baby did not come home. Her siblings did. She didn’t. How did y’all forget her?” the child’s mother, Sina Johnson, said at the rally. “Y’all picked all of ’em up, took ’em off the van. How did y’all forget my baby?”
“My baby suffered, she suffered,” Johnson said at the rally.
Hot, humid conditions made it feel as if it was triple-digit temperatures in Omaha on Monday. The National Weather Service in Omaha warned on Monday that the region is facing “dangerous record-breaking heat,” as an excessive heat warning remains in effect through Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — A Queens, New York, man was convicted last week on multiple counts of attempted murder for attacking peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators in 2020, according to prosecutors.
Frank Cavalluzzi, 57, was found guilty on nine counts of attempted murder in the second degree, nine counts of attempted assault in the first degree, seven counts of menacing in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree and reckless driving, prosecutors said on Monday.
His conviction comes after a two-week trial where prosecutors said Cavalluzzi attempted to kill Black Lives Matter activists in June 2020, over a week after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis officer.
Prosecutors said that Cavalluzzi went after demonstrators while wearing gloves adorned with jagged blades and then tried to run them over driving his vehicle on the sidewalk, the Queens District Attorney Office said.
“A dangerous man is going to jail. It’s a good day for New York and the First Amendment,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.
Cavalluzzi faces up to 25 years in prison for each count of attempted murder, prosecutors said. He will be sentenced on Oct. 13.
Prosecutors said on the afternoon of June 2, 2020, a group of demonstrators were hanging up signs in support of the Black Lives Matter movement when Cavalluzzi noticed the group while driving, pulled over his SUV across the street and started to curse and scream racial slurs at the group.
“You are in the wrong neighborhood,” Cavalluzzi reportedly said, according to prosecutors.
Cavalluzzi allegedly made a U-turn, left his vehicle while wearing a leather glove with four serrated blades attached to his arm and chased several members of the group while waving the glove and yelling at them, before getting back into his SUV, screaming, “I will kill you” to the demonstrators and attempted to run them over, prosecutors said.
“The world will see this case through a prism of politics, but I see it involving a single man with mental health challenges struggling to understand the evolving city where we live. It’s a sad situation,” Cavalluzzi’s attorney Michael Horn told ABC News in a statement.
Horn said that they are going to appeal the decision.
(ATLANTA) — A Fulton County Superior Court judge has set bond for more than half of the 19 defendants charged in District Attorney Fani Willis’ election interference case.
Judge Scott McAfee on Tuesday set former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis’ bail at $100,000, a day after he set former President Donald Trump’s bond at $200,000.
Later Tuesday he set bond for Stephen Lee, a pastor, at $75,000, and for Georgia lawyer Robert Cheeley at $50,000.
Ellis is accused of making false statements to overturn the 2020 election and of soliciting public officials to unlawfully appoint presidential electors. She, Trump and 17 others were charged last week 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.
Ellis is facing two counts, including one count of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer. Following her indictment last week, she responded on social media, saying, “The Democrats and the Fulton County DA are criminalizing the practice of law. I am resolved to trust the Lord.”
According to investigators, Cheeley presented video clips to legislators of election workers at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta and alleged that the workers were counting votes twice or sometimes three times.
Prosecutors say Lee worked with others to try to pressure Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter after Trump and his allies falsely accused them of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during the vote count.
McAfee also Tuesday set bail of $75,000 for former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham, and $50,000 for former Trump campaign official Michael Roman.
Latham is one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state, while Roman served as director of Election Day operations for Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign and was involved in the plan to organize the so-called “fake electors” in battleground states.
Those defendants for whom bail has been set have begun turning themselves in for processing at the Fulton County Jail.
All have been been given until Friday at noon to surrender. The former president said Monday evening on his social media platform that he intends to surrender in Georgia on Thursday.
In addition to Trump, Judge McAfee set bond Monday for attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro at $100,000, for Ray Smith III at $50,000, and for Scott Hall at $10,000.
All the defendants’ bond agreements include a provision that they “shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice.”
Trump’s bond agreement says that includes “no direct or indirect threat” against codefendants or witnesses.
“The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media,” his agreement says.
All defendants are also prohibited from communicating about the facts of the case with codefendants, except through counsel.
Earlier Tuesday, McAfee signed off on a $75,000 bond for David Shafer and a $10,000 bond for Shawn Still. A current Georgia state senator, Still faces seven counts, including two counts of forgery in the first degree.
According to indictment, Still, who was elected to the state senate in January, was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
“The evidence at trial will show that Sen. Still is innocent as the day is long,” his attorney said in a statement to ABC News. “We look forward to our day in court to clear his good name.”
Shafer, a former Georgia GOP, is charged with eight counts, including three counts of false statements and writings. He was one of the so-called “false electors,” and reserved the room where fake electors met at the Georgia State Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, according to the indictment.
“Listen. Tell them to go straight to room 2016 to avoid drawing attention to what we are doing,” he allegedly wrote in a text regarding the meeting, according to the indictment.
Attorneys for Shafer said in a statement to ABC News that he is “totally innocent of the charges” in Fulton County and that his conduct regarding the 2020 election was “lawful.”
Shafer’s attorney, Craig Gillen, on his way out of the building after negotiating with the DA Tuesday told ABC News that everything “went fine.”
An attorney for Cheseboro said on his way out of the district attorney’s office Monday that the bond negotiation process was a “pretty good process” and that he would “look forward to moving forward.”
“It was very straightforward, we had a meeting with the DA’s office, worked out the negotiated deal, signed the paperwork, and honestly it took longer to get copies than it did to negotiate,” the attorney, Scott Grubman, said.
Grubman said Cheseboro would surrender for processing at the Fulton Country Jail before the Friday deadline.
Asked if he was concerned about the conditions at the jail, where seven inmates have died this year, Grubman said, “Just like any jail, there’s clearly issues in the Fulton Rice Street Jail.”
“But I think its going to hopefully be as soon as possible, and we appreciate their cooperation,” Grubman said, praising the sheriff’s team.
As ABC News has previously reported, after an indictment has been handed down in Georgia, bond and conditions of release are typically worked out prior to any surrender. The bond can be paid through cash, a commercial surety, or a court program that requires a payment of 10% of the bond amount.
Trump is charged with 13 counts, including three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, related in part to the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Trump’s campaign called the indictment “un-American and wrong.” The former president contends his actions were not illegal and that the investigation is politically motivated.
Eastman is charged with nine counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree. The indictment names him as among those allegedly involved in a scheme to solicit public officers to unlawfully appoint Georgia presidential electors.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Eastman’s attorney said, “The indictment in Georgia versus Donald Trump and 18 others sets out activity that is political, but not criminal.”
Chesebro faces seven counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree. According to the indictment, he allegedly acted “in furtherance of the conspiracy” by, among other acts, sending emails to co-defendant Michael Roman regarding Trump presidential elector nominees in other states.
Grubman, Chesebro’s attorney, called the charges “unfounded” and said his client was never in Georgia on behalf of the campaign.
Smith, a Georgia lawyer, is charged with 12 counts, including three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. The indictment alleges he was involved in the scheme to solicit public officers to unlawfully appoint Georgia presidential electors.
Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, is charged with seven counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud. He is among those accused of conspiring to commit election fraud in Coffee County, according to the indictment.
All the defendants are also charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO.
ABC News’ Laura Romero, Meredith Deliso and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(MAUI) — For nearly two agonizing weeks, Dana Condrey said she and her parents lived in horror as they watched the death toll climb from the wildfire that devastated the Hawaiian Island of Maui and not knowing if her big brother perished or survived.
Her brother, 56-year-old Phillip Hudelson, who lived and worked in hard-hit Lahaina, vanished when the deadliest U.S. blaze in more than 100 years destroyed his residence and the restaurant where he worked as a bartender.
Instead of sitting by the phone waiting for news of her brother’s fate, Condrey, a married mother of two, booked a flight to Hawaii from her home in California and set out on a long-shot mission to find her only sibling, telling ABC News, “I told my mother I’d find him.”
Thanks to the information, including a DNA sample, she gave the Red Cross soon after arriving on Sunday in Maui, Condrey was reunited with her brother, finding him at a hotel resort where emergency workers had sheltered him, she said.
“I didn’t know I had so much love out there. I really didn’t,” Hudelson told ABC News on Monday, just three hours after being reunited with Condrey and wearing the same clothes he said he had on when he escaped the flames that leveled his neighborhood.
As search-and-rescue officials said there are still hundreds of people unaccounted for, Hudelson’s story of survival is providing a glimmer of hope for the families still looking for their loved ones.
“Don’t give up. Have faith,” Hudelson said in his message to those searching for relatives and friends.
On Tuesday, his mother, Laura Hudelson of Arizona, told ABC News, “My prayers were answered.”
“It just lifted a thousand pounds off my head,” she said of finally speaking to her son by phone on Monday. “I know what every mother, father, sibling of someone who hasn’t been found, is going through.”
Phillip Hudelson said his terrifying experience began Aug. 8 when he fled the fire that consumed his neighborhood in the hills above Lahaina, leveling his home and those of his neighbors.
“The fire happened so fast. We had to get off the mountain where I was living and it followed me,” he said of the fire.
Hudelson said he initially evacuated to the beach in Lahaina, but soon found himself on the move again when the intense flames and smoke caught up to him. He said he left his home on a scooter with just the clothes on his back and his cellphone, but no charger.
Forced to keep moving away from the fire, he said he found a safe haven on a beach in the neighboring town of Kaanapali, where he bedded down in a lounge chair he found at one of the hotels. By then, his cellphone battery was dead because power was out in the area, and he had no way of recharging his device, which contained the unmemorized phone numbers of his family members.
He said the next day when the fire died down, he drove his scooter back to Lahaina, but the town was barely recognizable with nearly every structure, including the restaurant where he worked, Cheeseburger in Paradise, burned to the ground. He said he saw a body on the ground.
“I knew my mother was dying to hear from me and I really wanted to get access to a phone, but there was no way to do it,” said Hudelson, adding that the remaining businesses still standing were all closed and everyone he encountered was in a similar situation — cut off from any kind of electronic communication.
Hudelson said he stayed at the beach in Kaanapali for 10 days, living off cans of soup he was able to purchase at the only grocery store in the area still open.
“They were ringing stuff up on a calculator because they had no power,” he said of the grocery store workers.
He said eventually two men camping out on the beach near him, informed him that the Red Cross was giving out hotel rooms to evacuees at a hotel close by.
“I jumped right up and went over there and by the grace of God, they gave me a room,” Hudelson said.
He said the hotel also directed him to Red Cross workers, who took his personal information. He said he had no idea his family had put him on a missing persons list.
Condrey said she and her family worked the phones calling authorities and acquaintances in Maui, trying desperately to locate Hudelson and chasing down every tip from afar to no avail.
“There was a social media post from Cheeseburger in Paradise for him to pick up his paycheck and then when I found out he didn’t pick that up that day, that night I booked a flight here,” Condrey told ABC News.
She said a high school girlfriend’s brother’s wife who lives in Maui heard of her plight and reached out, inviting her to stay with her as she searched for her brother.
Condrey said she hit the ground running once she reached Maui, passing out flyers and putting up posters of her missing brother.
She said that when she contacted the Red Cross, they asked for a DNA sample.
“I gave my DNA, which I didn’t want to do because it made me feel like he’s dead,” Condrey said.
She said that after the first day of searching for her brother, she said she felt “defeated.”
Then a Red Cross worker called her out of the blue that same night and informed her, “‘We found your brother.'”
Condrey said she called her parents right away, but her father told her he couldn’t believe the promising news until she actually saw him in person.
She said the next morning, she went to the hotel where she was informed her brother was staying, but the staff stopped her from going directly to his room, citing the hotel’s rules.
“We had to wait an hour for security to come and bang on his door,” Condrey said.
Hudelson said when he heard the knock at his door, he looked through the peephole and heard a security guard saying, “‘Your sister is downstairs.”
“I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘My sister is downstairs? I felt overwhelmed,” Hudelson said. “I walked through the lobby and she was out on a lounge chair, and I looked at her and said, ‘Oh my gosh.'”
Condrey said she started to cry and called their mother, putting her brother on the phone.
“He said to me, ‘Now mom, you didn’t think a little fire is going to hurt me,'” Laura Hudelson told ABC News.
She added, “My son’s a survivor and I knew that about him. He’s been through a lot. He went to Hawaii to get his life back.”
Phillip Hudelson said he’s lived in Maui for four years and plans to stay.
“I love this place,” he said.
ABC News’ Ashley Riegle and Maria Villalobos contributed to this report.
(ATLANTA) — Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has set former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis’ bail at $100,000 in District Attorney Fani Willis’ election interference case.
The arrangement, which makes Ellis the eight of 19 defendants in the case to have bail set, comes a day after McAfee set former President Donald Trump’s bond at $200,000.
Ellis is accused of making false statements to overturn the 2020 election and of soliciting public officials to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.
Earlier Tuesday, McAfee signed off on a $75,000 bond for David Shafer and a $10,000 bond for Shawn Still, two of the 19 charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last week in her sweeping racketeering indictment that alleges they “knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump” in Georgia.
Those defendants for whom bail has been set have begun turning themselves in for processing at the Fulton County Jail.
All have been been given until Friday at noon to surrender. The former president said Monday evening on his social media platform that he intends to surrender in Georgia on Thursday.
Ellis is charged with two counts, including one count of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer. Following her indictment last week, she responded on social media, saying: “The Democrats and the Fulton County DA are criminalizing the practice of law. I am resolved to trust the Lord.”
In addition to Trump, Judge McAfee set bond Monday for attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro at $100,000, for Ray Smith III at $50,000, and for Scott Hall at $10,000.
All the defendants’ bond agreements include a provision that they “shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice.”
Trump’s bond agreement says that includes “no direct or indirect threat” against codefendants or witnesses.
“The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media,” his agreement says.
All defendants are also prohibited from communicating about the facts of the case with codefendants, except through counsel.
Still, a current Georgia state senator, faces seven counts, including two counts of forgery in the first degree. According to indictment, Still, who was elected to the state senate in January, was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
“The evidence at trial will show that Sen. Still is innocent as the day is long,” his attorney said in a statement to ABC News. “We look forward to our day in court to clear his good name.”
Shafer, a former Georgia GOP, is charged with eight counts, including three counts of false statements and writings. He was one of the so-called “false electors,” and reserved the room where fake electors met at the Georgia State Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, according to the indictment.
“Listen. Tell them to go straight to room 2016 to avoid drawing attention to what we are doing,” he allegedly wrote in a text regarding the meeting, according to the indictment.
Attorneys for Shafer said in a statement to ABC News that he is “totally innocent of the charges” in Fulton County and that his conduct regarding the 2020 election was “lawful.”
Shafer’s attorney, Craig Gillen, on his way out of the building after negotiating with the DA Tuesday told ABC News that everything “went fine.”
An attorney for Cheseboro said on his way out of the district attorney’s office Monday that the bond negotiation process was a “pretty good process” and that he would “look forward to moving forward.”
“It was very straightforward, we had a meeting with the DA’s office, worked out the negotiated deal, signed the paperwork, and honestly it took longer to get copies than it did to negotiate,” the attorney, Scott Grubman, said.
Grubman said Cheseboro would surrender for processing at the Fulton Country Jail before the Friday deadline.
Asked if he was concerned about the conditions at the jail, where seven inmates have died this year, Grubman said, “Just like any jail, there’s clearly issues in the Fulton Rice Street Jail.”
“But I think its going to hopefully be as soon as possible, and we appreciate their cooperation,” Grubman said, praising the sheriff’s team.
As ABC News has previously reported, after an indictment has been handed down in Georgia, bond and conditions of release are typically worked out prior to any surrender. The bond can be paid through cash, a commercial surety, or a court program that requires a payment of 10% of the bond amount.
Trump is charged with 13 counts, including three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, related in part to the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Trump’s campaign called the indictment “un-American and wrong.” The former president contends his actions were not illegal and that the investigation is politically motivated.
Eastman is charged with nine counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree. The indictment names him as among those allegedly involved in a scheme to solicit public officers to unlawfully appoint Georgia presidential electors.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Eastman’s attorney said, “The indictment in Georgia versus Donald Trump and 18 others sets out activity that is political, but not criminal.”
Chesebro faces seven counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree. According to the indictment, he allegedly acted “in furtherance of the conspiracy” by, among other acts, sending emails to co-defendant Michael Roman regarding Trump presidential elector nominees in other states.
Grubman, Chesebro’s attorney, called the charges “unfounded” and said his client was never in Georgia on behalf of the campaign.
Smith, a Georgia lawyer, is charged with 12 counts, including three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. The indictment alleges he was involved in the scheme to solicit public officers to unlawfully appoint Georgia presidential electors.
Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, is charged with seven counts, including two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud. He is among those accused of conspiring to commit election fraud in Coffee County, according to the indictment.
All the defendants are also charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO.
ABC News’ Laura Romero, Meredith Deliso and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
