(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Bryan Kohberger, the suspect accused of killing four Idaho college students in an early morning attack, is expected on Monday to appear for an arraignment.
Kohberger, 28, is expected to enter a plea when he appears in court in Moscow, Idaho, on Monday. His hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. local time, according to court records.
He was indicted last week on charges that included four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, according to the documents filed in Latah County District Court.
Prosecutors allege that Kohberger, a Ph.D. student at Washington State University’s department of criminal justice and criminology, broke into a house where six University of Idaho students were staying early on Nov. 13, 2022.
He is alleged to have killed Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. Two other students who were in the house at the time survived and were not treated as suspects.
In the months since the murders, prosecutors have laid out evidence that included Kohberger’s white Hyundai Elantra allegedly passing by the victims’ house several times prior to the murders, according to court documents.
The suspect’s cellphone had been on route to Moscow, but was turned off from 2:47 a.m. to 4:48 a.m., a timeframe during which the murders were committed, police said.
DNA matching Kohberger’s was found on a knife sheath left on one of the victim’s beds, officials said.
Kohberger, who is from Pennsylvania, drove across the country after the end of the semester. He was arrested on Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in the Pocono Mountains. He agreed to be extradited to Idaho in early January.
Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, who represented Kohberger in the extradition hearing, said in a statement at the time that his client “is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”
(NEW YORK) — Kavian Thomas, a man currently incarcerated at Rice Street jail in Fulton County, Georgia, dug a hole in a shower wall, granting him access to the adjacent cell block, where he allegedly launched an attack on Derondney Russell, on May 17, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Thomas allegedly stabbed Russell multiple times once he tunneled through the wall and into Russell’s cell, the sheriff’s office said in a press release Thursday.
Russell sustained “superficial stab wounds to his upper body” and was treated in the medical unit of the jail for his injuries, officials said.
After the incident, officers checked both cells and discovered several weapons in both cells, some made “from parts of the dilapidated building infrastructure” according to the release.
“This jail has clearly outlived its useful life,” interim Fulton County Jail commander Curtis Clark said in the press release. “That reality makes it even more challenging for us to do our job providing the safest possible environment, not only for staff but for the inmates as well.”
The sheriff’s office said Thomas will face additional criminal charges for the attack.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — A quadruple homicide rocked the quiet Idaho college hamlet of Moscow last year. But the financial repercussions are only now coming into focus.
“It was a tragic and horrible event that no one saw coming,” Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said. “A difficult six months.”
The city’s already slim budget is straining under the weight of the investigation’s mounting expenses. Even before the killings, the police department alone cost $7.2 million, Moscow officials told ABC News — several hundred thousand dollars more than the $6.9 million in property taxes brought in, police and city officials said.
The police department is the largest chunk of Moscow’s funding for basic government services, at more than a third of general fund expenditures, according to city budget reports reviewed by ABC News.
Now, overtime and other expenses are growing exponentially with the ongoing need for increased patrols and law enforcement work — and shouldered by a short-staffed force putting in long hours.
“Moscow is not awash in a funding excess,” the mayor told ABC News. “We run a very, very lean budget and the impact of the investigation has been felt on the budget.”
Bottom line, officials said: The ongoing cost of the killings has burned through cash that could have gone to benefit the community and fix up city infrastructure.
Around noon on Nov. 13, four University of Idaho students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — were found stabbed to death at their off-campus house by officers responding at the scene. After an intensive hunt for more than six weeks, police zeroed in on a suspect: Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University.
Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30 in Pennsylvania, after driving cross-country to spend the holidays at his family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
Last Wednesday, a grand jury returned a multi-count indictment against Kohberger, including four counts of murder in the first degree. He is set to appear for his arraignment on Monday and enter a plea, according to court documents.
Even with a suspect in custody, the ongoing investigation has depleted Moscow’s coffers, and scrambled an already fragile balance sheet, city officials said.
“We weren’t prepared for this. This is such a horrific thing – how could you plan for this?” Moscow City Council member Sandra Kelly told ABC News.
“You budget for fires. You budget for floods. You prepare for natural disasters. This was not natural,” Kelly said. “The cost is astronomical. And of course you can’t skimp on keeping people safe. Yet, this is just not something you budget for – because it’s something you’d never dream could happen.”
Local business owner Mitchell Lopez, who co-owns the popular Main Street Mexican Restaurant “La Casa Lopez,” likened the effect of the killings to the COVID-19 pandemic’s pain.
“Owning and running a family business — we’ve always had our ups and downs — we’ve gone through two recessions, a pandemic and now, this unfortunate loss of life has caused the closest thing to the pandemic — in terms of financial loss — has been from these horrendous murders,” Lopez told ABC News.
His family moved to Moscow in 1994 and stayed for the vibrant culture and community atmosphere.
“We’ve all had some connection with these students — they ventured into our businesses, or they worked for us. We were all mourning. Completely heartbroken,” Lopez said. “This town emptied out so quickly, nobody would go out — they were scared. We’ve always been a very safe haven and this really caused a major financial burden on every business in the area.”
Before the killings, the mayor said his team had already planned to hike taxes by the allowed 3%, due to inflation and planned city improvement projects.
Investigating the four university murders diverts those additional dollars towards the extra police work.
“We’re just trying to tread fiscal water to avoid going under,” Bettge said.
After the killings, local law enforcement amped up their presence to ensure the safety of a community on edge, and to push forward the investigation. Security was posted outside the house where the four students were slain; patrols were increased on and around campus; and police accrued long overtime hours from round-the-clock work and evidence analyses even as they fielded an onslaught of national media attention.
Less than three weeks into the investigation last fall, the city had already incurred more than $70,000 in overtime and other expenses, according to a letter Mayor Bettge sent to Idaho Gov. Brad Little in early December, obtained by ABC.
That five-digit figure was expected to grow “to nearly $200,000 over the coming weeks as we face additional overtime, private security, data storage, and communications assistance costs,” Bettge wrote in the letter, and a further “significant financial burden” as the case unfolds.
Little has stepped in with roughly $93,000 reimbursement for public information expenses, overtime, security costs and electronic data storage, according to the governor’s office.
That will help but “does not cover the full, unanticipated impact on the budget,” Bettge said, adding, “That’s why we keep some reserves available to handle unexpected financial impacts.”
Some of those reserves come from money left over because of unfilled positions with the police department, the mayor said.
The Moscow Police Department has more than half a dozen vacant positions, Capt. Anthony Dahlinger said. They are down nine officers — a quarter of their full force.
When fully staffed, MPD has 36 sworn officers’ positions including the chief and command staff, Dahlinger told ABC News. They currently have 27 sworn and certified officers.
Those empty spots — and available, already appropriated financial resources — can offer a small financial “buffer” against unforeseen blows to their bottom line, Bettge said: Available “salary lapse” money from vacant MPD positions could be transferred toward upcoming infrastructure projects like renovating aging city buildings.
It now goes towards the homicide investigation, the mayor said.
“There was most certainly an impact due to the massive amount of hours worked,” Dahlinger said. “The true financial impact of the homicide investigation will not be known for quite some time as the case is still in process.”
While those other projects will eventually move forward, “it slows us down considerably and stops future investment in certain aspects of the city that clearly need to be done,” Bettge said, calling the situation a “complex puzzle” of “scarce resources.”
“It calls into question — if budgets really begin to get rough, where do you cut?” he said. “The community suffers … sooner or later something has to give, and I don’t know what that would be.”
The killings thrust Moscow into the national spotlight, with officials and citizens alike facing a flurry of media attention. With the case moving forward, Latah County will shoulder more of the financial burden, but meanwhile, grappling with the ongoing saga has required both additional dollars and manpower.
The city’s emergency medical services run on donated time: The Moscow Volunteer Fire Department’s roughly 60 emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics respond to as many as 2,000 medical calls a year on average, according to city statistics.
Moscow has contended with a “persistent” EMS staffing shortage, according to City Council strategic planning documents reviewed by ABC, which unaddressed, could create “significant damage” and have “widespread impact,” a majority of the city’s management leaders agreed.
“The Department is still trying to recruit/retain community volunteers and there are still challenges with paramedic coverage,” according to an April presentation of the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department Annual Report from fire chief Brian Nickerson.
The nearby university offers a seasonal labor pool for EMS volunteers that shrinks once classes let out — exacerbating that shortage, city officials told ABC.
“We do have less coverage when our student residents are out of school during breaks which does create challenges,” Nickerson said, “especially during the school breaks such as summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break,” even with the “very dedicated community volunteers” who work through those times.
The possibility of incentivizing summer volunteers with a weekly stipend is under discussion, officials said; where the money comes from remains an open question.
“You find cash for these major challenge areas that are identified as the truly important ones, and you make it happen. But stuff like this makes it a lot harder,” Bettge said.
This year, school lets out just as Kohberger’s highly scrutinized case is poised to move forward.
“For us, this is unknown territory. We’ve never gone through this before,” Bettge continued, pointing to his city’s resilience. “We’re feeling our way along as best we can to try to accommodate all of the needs — the competing needs: maintaining the city for our citizens — and seeing that justice is done.”
(NEW YORK) — When Jordan Neely was killed in a chokehold on the New York City subway by fellow subway passenger Daniel Penny, some conservative politicians declared him a “Good Samaritan” and “Superman” for his actions.
Neely, a homeless Black man, was allegedly ranting and yelling on a NYC subway train when Penny, a white former Marine, put him in a chokehold. Witness accounts say Neely had not become violent and had not been threatening anyone in particular.
Penny’s attorneys have maintained their client never intended to kill Neely and was just trying to protect himself and others as Neely was allegedly threatening him. Penny was placed under arrest for second-degree manslaughter. He did not enter a plea.
Elected officials have applauded Penny’s efforts to take his perceived idea of the law into his own hands. Those who study violence, power and vigilantism say they are alarmed.
Researchers told ABC News that Neely’s death highlights how marginalized groups are disproportionately impacted by vigilante efforts, which can manifest in violence and even death.
“There’s a power imbalance that determines who’s seen as upholding what’s good and what’s right … and who’s more likely to be seen as violating social norms or doing something that’s wrong?” said Regina Bateson, a political scientist and professor at the University of Ottawa, in an interview with ABC News.
The vigilante self-assigns the role of judge, jury and executioner, deciding who is breaking the law and enacting their punishment without the oversight of the criminal justice system, researchers say.
They argue the country’s history of terrorizing the Black community with lynchings and other violence is a prime example of vigilantism’s racial roots.
Lynchings were “to send a message of acceptable and unacceptable behavior,” and to “signify who is in power and who is disempowered,” said Amy Kate Bailey, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor and sociologist, in an interview with ABC News.
“These forms of collective violence and terror — the root of them across the board seems to be battles over access to power,” Bailey said.
With the influences of implicit and explicit bias, stereotyping, and more at play, the end result of vigilantism often leads to negative outcomes for marginalized people, according to experts.
Such an example was Gregory McMichael, and his son, Travis McMichael, being convicted of federal hate crimes in the death of Ahmaud Arbery which occurred in Feb. 2020. The McMichaels chased Arbery in their pickup truck after they saw him jogging in their neighborhood, falsely believing he had been responsible for several break-ins in coastal Georgia’s Satilla Shores neighborhood.
The McMichaels’ neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the chase and recorded video and was also convicted of federal hate crimes.
Another example was in 2012 when 17-year-old Black teen Trayvon Martin was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a man who followed Martin during his walk home from the store. Zimmerman said he believed Martin was suspicious.
Zimmerman was acquitted on all charges connected to Martin’s death in July 2013 after asserting self defense.
Bailey’s research has found that social marginality increases the likelihood of being targeted in violence, through her studies of lynching victims.
Mark S. Brodin, a professor at Boston College Law School, said his research has caused him to analyze the invoking of self-defense in court, and who this is more likely to protect. He asks, if the perception of fear is rooted in racism, classism or some other systemic discrimination — how should that justify self-defense measures?
“The fear of the other in our society usually plays itself out as fear of people of color,” Brodin told ABC News.
Research has shown that Black people are more likely to be seen as threatening or dangerous.
“If you have people who, either consciously or unconsciously, carry these biases and stereotypes about Black criminality and the menace of Black individuals — unless you have some enforcement of the law and accountability every time they act out their vigilantism, then you’re just gonna have a society where killings without accountability are gonna just continue,” he said.
Brodin points to another infamous instance of vigilantism or proclaimed self-defense in the New York City subway in the 1980s. Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teenagers on the subway. One of the boys is said to have asked Goetz for $5, but Goetz said they were trying to rob him.
A jury acquitted Goetz of attempted murder and only convicted him for carrying an unlicensed handgun.
“Race is at the center of virtually everything that goes on in this society, including the justification of killing on the basis that you feared for your life,” Brodin said.
As “stand your ground” and “self-defense” laws continue to be the subject of debate in the U.S., researchers say they fear vigilante efforts may flourish.
“It falls within a broad trend toward increasingly undemocratic rhetoric in U.S. politics,” said Bateson. “It’s illegal. It’s often violent. It’s violating the rights of their targets. It’s undermining the rule of law. And, undermining state institutions as well.”
As more legislative efforts target transgender identities, reproductive care, homelessness and more, researchers also wonder how far vigilante efforts might go in targeting marginalized communities affected by the incoming legislation.
“There’s an alarming amount of violence associated with vigilantism,” said Bateson. “It’s really important to emphasize that vigilantism is a human rights problem. Vigilantes are violating the rights of their targets. There’s no proportionality in vigilantism. It’s very common that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”
(WASHINGTON) — Just ahead of what airlines say could be the busiest Memorial Day weekend for travel since before COVID-19, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is sharing how his department is prepping for the potentially record-breaking season.
“We know for sure that there is going to be a very high level of demand, a lot of traffic and a lot of pressure on the system,” Buttigieg said in an interview with ABC News.
Amid an ongoing air traffic controller shortage that’s been partly to blame for disruptions across the system, Buttigieg said the Transportation Department continues to hire and train controllers even as key facilities remain below targets.
“If you look at the optimal numbers, the numbers we like to be at, it is higher than where we are right now. That’s why we’re doing so much hiring, and it’s why we’re pushing to make sure that we get a budget as these negotiations go on [between the White House and Congress] that allow us to continue to pick up the pace on that hiring,” he said, referring to current spending talks on Capitol Hill.
Major U.S. airlines are touting their expected passenger numbers and schedules ahead of the holiday weekend. United Airlines said it’s preparing for its busiest Memorial Day in more than a decade, expecting to carry nearly 2.9 million passengers.
Meanwhile Delta Air Lines said it’s expecting to fly 2.8 million customers over the holiday — a 17% increase from last year. And American Airlines said it will carry more than 2.9 million customers, operating over 26,000 flights.
Those numbers underline the airline industry’s continued bounce-back from its pandemic low even as some service periods have been marred by major flight delays and cancellations.
When asked if he thinks airlines can meet the high demand, Buttigieg said his department has been “pressing” the companies to be more realistic with scheduling and actively supporting those efforts in order to avoid more headline-grabbing meltdowns.
“In the New York airspace, we worked with airlines to permit an approach that would allow there to be larger aircraft, which means more passengers with fewer departures, which can mean less congestion,” Buttigieg said.
“There’s always a question whether airlines are properly aligning their schedules that they’re promising with their resources and staffing that they bring to the table, including enough of a buffer to deal with situations that may come up,” he said. “Look, there’s always weather, and you have to be ready to absorb those issues and respond and get back to normal as quickly as possible.”
After increased delays and cancellations among U.S. carriers last summer, Buttigieg called such disruptions “unacceptable.”
Now, the secretary said he’s seen “a lot of improvements coming into this year” but it’s “no guarantee that summer is going to go well.”
“We’ve been pressing the airlines to do better and better on things that are under their control and collaborating.” Buttigieg said.
The Biden administration recently announced it would seek to require airlines to provide consumers with boosted compensation, including meals and hotels, if they are left stranded and it’s the airline’s fault.
Critics say if the rule is put in place, it would end up passing the cost on to consumers. Buttigieg said he doesn’t buy that.
“Look, any time that we do a rule or we try to hold companies accountable, they tend to say this. But we already know that this is an approach that can work because there are many other countries that have rules that require airlines to compensate passengers and also have very competitive airfares,” he said.
Heading into summer, negotiations are ongoing between various pilot groups and airlines, with some unions voting to authorize strikes.
While the probability of a pilot strike occurring in the U.S. is very slim, Buttigieg said, “We’re urging the parties to come to agreements in each of the areas where a contract is in play and understand that the pilots who are a very essential part of the aviation system expect to be compensated well, and their quality-of-life concerns, too. And airlines need to be able to run their business.”
(NEW YORK) — Several regions in the U.S. are suffering from poor air quality as the smoke from the wildfires burning in Canada make its way south.
A large portion of the of the U.S. has been seeing smoky skies for days, presenting unhealthy conditions for residents with heart or lung conditions, officials said.
The National Weather Service has issued an air quality alert for all of Montana, as well as parts of Idaho, Colorado and Arizona.
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality urged residents on Friday to avoid outdoor activities in places with visible smoke and haze. Heavy smoke also began to pour into northeastern Colorado, including Denver, on Friday.
Health officials in Colorado and Montana issued air quality alerts through Saturday afternoon after conditions worsened.
The air quality index on the Front Rage in Colorado reached 168 on Friday, according to the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment. A reading between 151 and 200 indicates unhealthy conditions that affect sensitive groups as well as the general public, health officials say.
Idaho also saw widespread haze earlier in the week, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.
The wildfires burning in Alberta have prompted thousands of residents to evacuate, especially due to the health impacts from the smoke. There are also fires burning in British Columbia.
The air quality alerts will remain in Colorado through the afternoon, health officials said.
Many places in the Northeast will also be experiencing a haze in the sky on Sunday due to smoke lingering in the upper atmosphere. However, the smoke should not cause breathing issues in the area, as it is lingering roughly 20,000 feet above the surface.
The main impact from the smoke for much of the U.S. will be orange-red sunrises and sunsets.
ABC News’ Daniel Amarante contributed to this report.
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — Three people were killed and two were injured when gunfire broke out early Sunday at a nightclub in Kansas City, Missouri, police said.
No arrests were immediately announced and police were working to identify a suspect or suspects in the episode.
The shooting erupted at the Klymax Lounge southeast of downtown Kansas City around 1:30 a.m. local time, the Kansas City Police Department said in a statement.
Officers responded to reports of gunfire at the nightclub and discovered two people fatally shot, police said.
“One of those victims was located outside the lounge and the second was located inside the business,” police said.
Three other people wounded in the incident were taken to ambulance to hospitals, according to police. One of the victims died upon arrival at a hospital, police said.
The names of those killed were not immediately released.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The national NAACP Board of Directors has issued a formal advisory against traveling to Florida, alleging the state has become “hostile toward African Americans” under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The move by the NAACP board calling on travelers nationwide to forgo visiting Florida comes as AAA Travel estimates 42.3 million Americans plan to hit the road this coming Memorial Day weekend.
The board voted unanimously to issue the travel advisory, saying the decision “comes in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”
“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color,” the advisory states.
Derrick Johnson, the NAACP president and CEO, accused DeSantis and other state leaders of a “dereliction of duty” and called the trend of failing to teach an “accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face” a disservice to Florida students.
“Under the leadership of Governor DeSantis, the state of Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon,” Johnson said in a statement. “He should know that democracy will prevail because its defenders are prepared to stand up and fight. We’re not backing down, and we encourage our allies to join us in the battle for the soul of our nation.”
The travel advisory was initially proposed in March by the NAACP’s Florida State Conference. At the time, DeSantis called the proposal “a pure stunt.”
“We get involved in these stupid fights,” DeSantis said in March. “This is a stunt to try and do that.”
Following the vote by the national NAACP Board of Directors on Saturday, Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, issued a statement repeating the governor’s previous comment, saying, “This is a stunt.”
The NAACP’s travel advisory follows similar ones issued by the League of United Latin American Citizens, a Latino civil rights group, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group.
Florida’s economy heavily relies on tourism. An estimated 137.6 million people visited the state in 2022, the most ever, according to VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation. In 2021, tourism pumped $101.9 billion into the state’s economy, according to VISIT FLORIDA.
DeSantis, who won a second term as governor in November, is expected as early as this week to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring his candidacy for president in 2024, which would formally enter him in the race for the White House, two sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.
The governor and his administration recently rejected an AP African American studies course because it is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” according to state officials. The DeSantis administration has also vowed to remove funding from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, as well as certain lessons on race.
DeSantis also signed the so-called “Stop WOKE” Act into law in 2022, which restricts race-related curriculum and conversation in workplaces, schools and colleges. However, an appeals court has temporarily blocked the law from being implemented in colleges and universities.
Following DeSantis’ drive for the state to reject students’ access to AP African American studies courses in March, the NAACP distributed 10,000 books to 25 predominantly Black communities across the state in collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers’ Reading Opens the World program. The majority of the books donated were titles banned under state laws.
“Once again, hate-inspired state leaders have chosen to put politics over people. Governor Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida have engaged in a blatant war against principles of diversity and inclusion and rejected our shared identities to appeal to a dangerous, extremist minority,” Leon Russell, chair of the national NAACP Board of Directors, said in a statement.
Russell added, “We will not allow our rights and history to be held hostage for political grandstanding. The NAACP proudly fights against the malicious attacks in Florida, against Black Americans. I encourage my fellow Floridians to join in this fight to protect ourselves and our democracy.”
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — When Roland Conner was a teenager in the 1990s, he was imprisoned on a marijuana-related charge.
Conner told ABC News that he struggled with the stigma of that criminal record for a long time, but recently his past has helped him and his family in a major way. In January, Conner opened Smacked! Village in Manhattan and became the first Black-owned legal cannabis store in New York City.
“It was surreal because a lot of the time you try to hide your past, especially when it’s negative,” he told ABC News Live.
Conner’s story is one that New York officials, cannabis reform and criminal justice reform activists said can be replicated across the country to help the generations of Black Americans whose lives were marked by previous marijuana laws.
“We’ve been talking about the opportunity to take what was a tool of systemic racism in some ways being implemented in communities like New York and use it now as a tool for reparative and restorative justice and further opportunity for those communities,” Dasheeda Dawson, the founding director of Cannabis NYC, the city office that oversees legal cannabis businesses, told ABC News.
Last spring, a year after New York State legalized recreational marijuana, New York City Mayor Eric Adams created the Cannabis Equity Program. The program helps New Yorkers who were negatively affected by the state’s previous drug laws obtain a Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries license, or a “CAURD.”
At least 30% of the applicants applying for the license must have had a “justice-involved” history related to a previous marijuana arrest and shown entrepreneurial experience, according to state rules.
Dawson noted that the “justice-involved” criteria include applicants who had family members who were arrested on previous marijuana-related charges.
“CAURD is really intended to focus on those who have been directly impacted,” she said.
Conner, who operates Smash! with his family, said his store has helped him grow closer with his son.
“This means something to a lot of men who look like me and those who don’t even look like me,” he said. “Because a lot of times we lose our kids…They [are] like balloons, they get caught in the wind and they’re gone.”
Dawson said customers buy cannabis products for recreational purposes and to treat health issues such as chronic pain.
Arana Hankin-Biggers, the president and co-founder of the cannabis dispensary Union Square Travel Agency, partnered with the nonprofit agency the DOE Fund, which works to help formerly incarcerated New Yorkers learn new skills and get back on their feet, for her CAURD application.
Hankin-Biggers told ABC News that it was just to set up this partnership, where half of the proceeds from the store go to the DOE Fund’s projects.
“There are still over 40,000 in prison, primarily Black men on cannabis charges,” she told ABC News. “There are instances and stories of individuals who had a dime bag and who were arrested and sent to jail for seven years.”
Twenty-two states have legalized recreational marijuana and 13 of those states have implemented social equity programs. Dawson said other states purposely excluded entrepreneurs with previous drug-related records.
“By virtue of the fact that we are prioritizing that group, we are setting a standard not just in the United States, but globally. And that’s where I think New York can really be a pioneer,” she said.
Conner said he was grateful for the opportunity to come back from his past and to help others in the community.
“I made a lot of mistakes now, you know, but being able to correct those mistakes and move forward and be here right now and know the inadequacies is not there… I’m strong,” he said. “I feel powerful.”
(FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga.) — A woman accused of putting her newborn in a plastic bag and abandoning her in the Georgia woods nearly four years ago has been denied bond after prosecutors argued she could intimidate potential witnesses in the “Baby India” case.
Karima Jiwani, 40, made her first court appearance Saturday morning after being arrested this week, appearing virtually from the Forsyth County Jail.
The baby girl, known as India, was found alive in good condition in a wooded area in Forsyth County on the night of June 6, 2019, authorities said. A local family told “Good Morning America” at the time they had heard crying and called 911 after finding the newborn in a plastic bag.
Jiwani faces charges including criminal attempt to commit murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, aggravated assault and reckless abandonment. She faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.
Penny Penn, district attorney for the Bell-Forsyth Judicial Circuit, told the court that prosecutors have DNA evidence proving that Jiwani is the biological mother of the child, as well as corroborative evidence including the defendant’s own interview statements in the case.
Penn said evidence will show the baby was “dumped’ on the side of the road approximately 12 to 30 hours after India was born and that there was “no indication that this child was left for anyone else to find.”
“By the defendant’s own statement during the interview, this was a child that she tried to kill,” Penn said. “That was certainly her intent.”
Penn asked that Jiwani be held without bond, saying that the defendant’s husband and children are potential witnesses in the case and that the prosecution is “concerned about the risk of intimidation” if she were to return home.
Defense attorney E. Jay Abt said Jiwani is a stay-at-home mother with three minor children and noted she has no criminal history while arguing for $100,000 bond along with a house arrest and GPS ankle monitor.
“This woman suffered from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis,” Abt told the court. “There are extensive medical records to demonstrate that and ultimately expert testimony to prove that.”
Penn countered that postpartum depression was unlikely to be a factor and that “there is no evidence to suggest that the defendant was suffering from any kind of psychosis.”
Chief Magistrate Keisha Martin Chambless said she did have concerns about the risk of Jiwami fleeing and intimidating witnesses while denying bond at this time.
When the judge asked Jiwani if she had any questions, her defense attorney advised her not to say anything.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for June 13.
Jiwani, of Forsyth County, was arrested on Thursday following a nearly four-year investigation that saw the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office release body camera footage of the baby’s recovery as they attempted to identify her.
Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman told reporters in a press briefing announcing the arrest on Friday that investigators were able to identify the child’s father through “advanced DNA investigative practice” about 10 months ago. Further DNA evidence confirmed Jiwani to be the child’s biological mother, according to Freeman.
There is currently no evidence to suggest that the child’s father knew of the pregnancy or abandonment, the sheriff said.
Based on interviews with family and medical professionals, Jiwani reportedly had a “history of hidden and concealed pregnancies and surprise births,” and while pregnant with India “went to extremes to conceal this pregnancy,” Freeman said. Investigators have not found any prior criminal acts regarding Jiwani, he said.
Freeman said he would not discuss India besides saying she’s “happy and healthy.”
ABC News’ Jianna Cousin contributed to this report.
