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(NEW YORK) — A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor accused of sexual harassment withdrew his candidacy for a position at New York University Langone Health, after news of his potential hiring received backlash from the NYU community.

Dr. David Sabatini, a biologist, resigned from MIT last month after a review found he violated its workplace policy on consensual relationships and recommended his tenure be revoked. Sabatini allegedly failed to disclose a sexual relationship he had with “a person over whom he held a career-influencing role” and didn’t take any steps to “relinquish his mentoring and career-influencing roles,” according to a letter by MIT President L. Rafael Reif.

The committee conducting the review also had “significant concerns regarding his unprofessional behavior toward some lab members,” the letter added.

Sabatini has denied allegations of sexual harassment and has said the relationship at the center of the investigation was consensual. He has sued his accuser, as well as others, for defamation. His accuser has also countersued.

Sabatini said he was withdrawing his name from consideration, but maintained that he will “eventually be vindicated.”

“False, distorted, and preposterous allegations about me have intensified in the press and on social media in the wake of reports last week that New York University Langone Health was considering hiring me. I understand the enormous pressure this has placed on NYU Langone Health and do not want to distract from its important mission. I have therefore decided to withdraw my name from consideration for a faculty position there,” Sabatini said in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday.

He added, “I deeply respect NYU Langone Health’s mission and appreciate the support from individuals who took the time to learn the facts. I remain steadfast in believing that the truth will ultimately emerge and that I will eventually be vindicated and able to return to my research.”

NYU Langone Health, the university’s academic medical center that includes the school of medicine, said in a statement Tuesday that both Sabatini and the NYU Grossman School of Medicine “reached the conclusion that it will not be possible for him to become a member of our faculty.”

“Our overarching mission at NYU Grossman School of Medicine is advancing science and medicine to save lives. That is what compelled us to give careful reflection to hiring Dr. Sabatini after he initially reached out to us,” NYU Langone Health said.

It added, “In the course of our due diligence, we heard voices of support from many dozens of Dr. Sabatini’s colleagues, lab alumni, and peers who described their first-hand experiences working with him. But we also heard clearly the deep concern from our own faculty, staff, and trainees. Our thorough review and deliberate approach was essential for us to make an independent evaluation consistent with our institutional priorities.”

News that Sabatini may be hired by NYU was first reported on science.org, which also reports that Sabatini has been forced out of or fired from three leading institutions for sexual harassment or for violating workplace or consensual sexual relationship policies.

Members of the NYU community, including its union for graduate workers, a group for women in STEM and a group of STEM researchers planning on forming a union, organized a protest against Sabatini’s hiring last week.

A petition against Sabatini’s hiring had gathered more than 400 signatures as of Tuesday. As long as Sabatini was being considered for a position, signatories pledged to not give or attend any talks, seminars, conferences or symposia hosted by NYU Langone Health. They also vowed not to teach any courses at NYU Langone or collaborate with any labs at NYU Langone.

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(TULSA COUNTY, Okla.) — A judge in Oklahoma ruled Monday that a Tulsa Race Massacre reparations lawsuit may proceed. The decision by Tulsa County Judge Caroline Wall was welcome news to 107-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher and two other survivors of the 1921 massacre.

Fletcher is the oldest living survivor of the destruction that ensued when white mobs attacked the prominent Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Incensed crowds flooded the streets of what is often referred to as Black Wall Street, killing the prosperous neighborhood’s Black residents and demolishing their homes over two days.

Fletcher said she and her family never returned to Tulsa after they fled the night of May 31, 1921. Her home had been ravaged by fire, leaving her and hundreds of others without any of their possessions and livelihoods.

“There wasn’t anything to come back to,” she told ABC News.

She recalls the sounds of shooting and people screaming as she walked past neighbors lying dead in the street. Those memories have stayed with her, sometimes waking her up at night.

“We still have fear,” she said.

She and her co-plaintiffs, Lessie Benningfield Randle, also 107, and Hughes Van Ellis, 101, were all young children at the time. Fletcher will celebrate her 108th birthday on May 10.

The plaintiffs are suing for a victims’ compensation fund, pushing for “whatever it takes to replace our loss,” according to Fletcher.

Judge Wall partially denied Tulsa’s motion to dismiss the public nuisance civil court lawsuit on Monday. Oklahoma’s public nuisance statute allows authorities to be sued for what attorneys say is their role in endangering the safety of Greenwood’s residents and their property. The plaintiffs must show that the “comfort, repose, health, or safety” of Greenwood’s residents was harmed, and that Tulsa officials failed to perform their duties to protect Greenwood and its residents from that harm.

However, some officials are hesitant to pay monetary reparations to the victims and their families seeking restitution.

“I am not opposed to cash payments to descendants and the victims. It’s where the money comes from that for me is important,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, who led the effort to help find missing Tulsa victims, said to ABC News, before adding that he is ”opposed to levying a tax on this generation of Tulsans who are at no fault.”

The Mayor’s office declined to comment on the judge’s ruling as the lawsuit is under litigation.

Driesen Heath, a Tulsa-born reparations researcher and advocate, spoke with ABC News about the need for reparations to be paid to the massacre’s survivors.

“The city of Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma have documented culpability in the massacre and they need to repay in all forms that are necessary, the harms that they have perpetrated and facilitated,” Heath said.

Heath said the consequences of these harms are still affecting families 100 years later, causing some intergenerational pain while others accrue intergenerational wealth.

“People make arguments about not wanting to pay for the sins of their forefathers and their ancestors, but they want to benefit from those sins continually,” she said.

If won, the lawsuit could mean hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to victims, accounting for financial losses that Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the survivors, said “would have made a tremendous difference” in the lives of those affected.

“I have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And I really want this for my younger generation, something that I wasn’t able to do for them,” Fletcher said.

Over a century later, this lawsuit may be the last known living survivors’ last chance to see justice served for the racist decimation of their community that left over 300 people dead, hundreds more injured, and countless more marked by the devastation.

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(NEW YORK) — At least 19 states plan to offer legal refuge to transgender youth and their families displaced by anti-LGBTQ legislation that criminalizes the families and physicians of trans children.

“When trans kids’ lives are on the line, playing defense doesn’t cut it. It’s time to play offense,” said Annise Parker, president and CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group Victory Institute.

She went on, “We are using the collective power of LGBTQ state legislators all across the nation to launch a counter-offensive that aims to protect trans kids and parents while also demonstrating that there is a positive agenda for trans people that lawmakers can support.”

Lawmakers in states like Texas, Louisiana, Arizona and Alabama have proposed bills criminalizing gender-affirming transgender care.

In a February opinion, Texas state attorney General Ken Paxton called gender-affirming care “abuse.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott followed Paxton’s opinion by directing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate such care as child abuse.

These investigations have been halted after a family sued the state alongside the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has also issued several anti-LGBTQ policies, including a ban on transgender youth health care that physicians said was riddled with misinformation.

He signed SB 184, the Vulnerable Child Protection Act, which states that anyone who provides gender-affirming care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy or physical gender-affirming surgeries — to an individual under age 18 could be convicted of a felony, face up to 10 years in prison and be fined $15,000.

To combat such efforts, a bill from California state Sen. Scott Wiener aims to make California a legal safe haven for parents who may have their transgender children taken away from them or be criminally prosecuted for providing care for their children.

“Starting with our legislation in California, we are building a coordinated national legislative campaign by LGBTQ lawmakers to provide refuge for trans kids and their families,” said Wiener. “We’re making it crystal clear: we will not let trans kids be belittled, used as political pawns and denied gender-affirming care.”

He has joined forces with LGBTQ advocacy groups from all over the country, including Victory Institute and Equality California.

“Parents should not live in fear of being hunted down by the government for loving and supporting their child,” said Tony Hoang, executive director of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality California.

He continued, “As a native Texan, I’m ashamed of Gov. Abbott’s hateful attacks against trans kids and their families. But as a Californian, I’m so proud of our state for serving as a beacon of hope and a place of refuge for those children and their parents.”

New York, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, New Mexico and more have followed suit, introducing similar protections for trans people who come from out of state.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, there have been more than 300 bills targeting the LGBTQ community nationwide in 2022.

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(NEW YORK) — A faulty fan caused the glitch that prevented cameras at a Brooklyn subway station from transmitting during a mass shooting on a rush-hour train last month, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The cameras were working until “less than 24 hours” before the April 12 shooting on the N train as it approached the 36th Street station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, MTA Chair Janno Lieber wrote in a letter to congressional representatives obtained by ABC News.

In the days before the incident, technicians worked to replace the fan unit for an issue that initially wasn’t impacting the transmission of the cameras’ feed, according to Lieber.

“Technicians replaced the fan unit on the morning of April 8, but the network diagnostics still indicated a problem,” Lieber wrote in the letter, dated May 2. “MTA technicians made a series of repairs in an effort to correct the issue, and on the morning of Monday April 11, as technicians were installing new communication hardware, the camera failed.”

Lieber characterized the cause of the outage as a “failure of hardware and software” at the communications room that governs the station’s cameras that prevented them from transmitting their feed. The outage also impacted the cameras at the 25th Street and 45th Street subway stations.

“Technicians were working in the communications room on the next morning, April 12, when the attack took place,” the chair wrote. “NYPD directed them to leave the communications room as the investigation began.”

The cameras were back online by 12:30 p.m. on April 13, according to Lieber.

Dozens of people were injured, including 10 by gunfire, in the shooting. Police arrested a suspect more than 24 hours after the incident.

The NYPD, which had initially said the cameras were out at the three stations due to a “technical issue,” called claims that the lack of operating cameras delayed the manhunt “unfair and misleading.”

“The MTA cameras in other parts of the system were essential elements in determining his movements before and after the shootings,” John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism for the NYPD, said in a statement in the wake of the attack.

In his letter, Lieber also said the MTA’s subway camera system played a “critical role in the manhunt.”

The alleged gunman, 62-year-old Frank James, faces a terror-related count. Last week, defense attorneys charged in a court filing that federal agents improperly questioned him. In response, the federal government said it was authorized and within its rights in its interactions with James.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump Organization and Donald Trump’s presidential inaugural committee have agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine over allegations that Trump and his family misused nonprofit inauguration funds to enrich themselves in early 2017.

The suit claimed that the nonprofit funds raised by the inaugural committee were improperly used for private benefit when the Trump campaign rented $1 million in ballroom space from Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel during the four days of inaugural festivities.

Trump’s company will repay $750,000 to settle the suit, according to the terms of the settlement.

“After he was elected, one of the first actions Donald Trump took was illegally using his own inauguration to enrich his family,” Racine said in a statement. “We refused to let that corruption stand.”

“Nonprofit funds cannot be used to line the pockets of individuals, no matter how powerful they are,” said Racine. “Now any future presidential inaugural committees are on notice that they will not get away with such egregious actions.”

Trump, in a statement, denied any wrongdoing.

“Given the impending sale of The Trump International Hotel, Washington D.C., and with absolutely no admission of liability or guilt, we have reached a settlement to end all litigation with Democrat Attorney General Racine,” the former president said. “As crime rates are soaring in our Nation’s Capital, it is necessary that the Attorney General focus on those issues rather than a further leg of the greatest Witch-Hunt in political history.”

“This was yet another example of weaponizing Law Enforcement against the Republican Party and, in particular, the former President of the United States,” Trump said in the statement. “So bad for our Country!”

The $750,000 in repaid funds with be redirected to nonprofit organizations.

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(FLORENCE, Ala.) — The corrections officer and escaped murder suspect who have been missing for days had “a special relationship,” the local sheriff confirmed.

Inmate Casey White and Lauderdale County Assistant Director of Corrections Vicki White — who are not related — went missing from Florence, Alabama, on Friday.

“Investigators received information from inmates at the Lauderdale County Detention Center over the weekend that there was a special relationship between Director White and inmate Casey White,” Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said in a statement Tuesday. “That relationship has now been confirmed through our investigation by independent sources and means.”

Vicki White “participated” in the escape with Casey White, Singleton said Monday, adding, “Whether she did that willingly or she was coerced, threatened … not really sure.”

Casey White was charged with two counts of capital murder in September 2020 for the stabbing of 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway, authorities said. He could face the death penalty if convicted, the sheriff said.

On Friday morning, Vicki White allegedly told her colleagues that she was taking Casey White to the Lauderdale County Courthouse for a “mental health evaluation,” though he didn’t have a court appearance scheduled, Singleton said. Vicki White violated policy by escorting Casey White alone, the sheriff said.

Vicki White also allegedly told her colleagues that she was going to seek medical attention after dropping the inmate off at court because she wasn’t feeling well, but Singleton said his office confirmed that no appointment was made.

Vicki White had been talking about retiring for the last few months and turned in her paperwork on Thursday, Singleton told ABC News. Friday — the day the two went missing — was set to be her last day at work, he said.

The U.S. Marshals Service is offering up to $10,000 reward for information leading to Casey White’s capture and a $5,000 reward for information leading to Vicky White.

Marty Keely, U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Alabama, noted that Casey White may stand out due to his height — he’s 6 feet, 9 inches tall. Anyone who sees them is urged to call 911, Keely said.

Singleton called Vicki White, a 17-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, “an exemplary employee.”

“The employees are just devastated,” the sheriff said. “Nobody saw this coming.”

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(MILFORD, Conn.) — Dozens of police officers from multiple states held a rally outside a Connecticut courthouse Tuesday as a white state trooper they contend was charged with manslaughter for doing his job was arraigned in the 2020 killing of a Black 19-year-old alleged carjacker.

Connecticut State Trooper Brian North, 31, appeared at a brief hearing in Superior Court in Milford, but did not enter a plea to a felony manslaughter charge stemming from the fatal shooting of Mubarak Soulemane.

North, who is free on $50,000 bail, did not speak at the hearing and a judge scheduled his next court date for June 2.

Soulemane’s mother, Omo Klusum Mohammed, attended the hearing and later said she and her family would not be intimidated from pursuing justice.

“I feel in my heart they were here to try to intimidate us,” Mohammed said at a post-hearing news conference outside the courthouse. “But there is no officer or any trooper who will intimidate us. We are here to stand for justice, and I’m here to stand for justice for my son, Mubarak Soulemane. And I hope and pray justice will be served and Brian North will go to jail.”

Mohammed vowed to attend every court hearing to ensure North is held accountable for her son’s death.

“We are here today for justice, justice for my son Mubarak Soulemane, who has been massacred by state Trooper Brian North,” Mohammed said.

Mohammed’s attorney, Stanford Rubenstein, added, “Ultimately, this case will be decided on the evidence. And I believe once pictures of the truth, video of what happened, is shown to a jury, they will come to the same conclusion I have: that this was an execution.”

North was arrested last month and charged in Soulemane’s death after the state inspector general released a lengthy report alleging North’s use of deadly force was not justified in the January 2020 shooting of Soulemane.

State Inspector General Robert Devlin Jr.’s investigation found that although Soulemane was allegedly armed with a steak knife, had stolen a Lyft rideshare vehicle and was apparently off his medication for schizophrenia, he was not a threat to North and other officers when he was shot multiple times.

Soulemane was killed when North allegedly fired seven times at him through the closed driver’s side window of a stolen Lyft vehicle after troopers stopped him and pinned him in on Interstate 95 in West Haven following a chase that reached speeds of 100 mph, according to the report.

Devlin’s investigation found that Soulemane was sitting behind the wheel of the car surrounded by troopers and officers from other agencies. He was trapped inside because North’s cruiser was blocking the driver’s side door.

An officer from the West Haven Police Department was bashing in the passenger-side window with a baton and another trooper was poised to deploy a stun gun on Soulemane when North opened fire as Soulemane reached into his pocket and pulled a knife, according to the report.

“Stated briefly, the investigation establishes that, at the time Trooper North fired his weapon, neither he nor any other person was in imminent danger of serious injury or death from a knife attack at the hands of Soulemane,” the inspector general concluded in his report. “Further, any belief that persons were in such danger was not reasonable. I therefore find that North’s use of deadly force was not justified under Connecticut law.”

But several dozen state police officers from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania who rallied in support of North outside the courthouse on Tuesday said they strongly disagree with Devlin’s findings.

Andrew Matthews, executive director of the Connecticut State Police Union, said he and other union members believe North should not have been charged.

“When our troopers are, what we believe, prosecuted for doing their job, we will defend them,” Matthews said at a news conference outside the courthouse prior to North’s hearing. “We will defend their actions when we believe that they are justified in doing and performing their duties to protect the public.”

Matthews said he and other members of the union felt “obligated” to rally around North, adding, “our troopers put their lives on the line every day to protect the public.”

“And when people make split-second decisions that others can review over and over again and form their own judgment of what they did or what they would have done, we have to stand up for our troopers,” Matthews said.

North’s attorney, Jeffrey Ment, declined to comment on the case, but said, “Trooper North appreciated the support of his brother and sister officers from not only Connecticut, but also from surrounding states.”

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(MIAMI) — A 23-year-old man featured in a video that went viral after he groped two flight attendants, punched a third, screamed his parents had $2 million and was duct taped to a seat of a Frontier Airlines flight was sentenced Tuesday to 60 days in jail followed by one year of supervised release.

Max Berry pleaded guilty to three counts of assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction and faced 1.5 years and a $15,000 fine. Berry had been drinking on a Frontier Airlines flight in August from Philadelphia to Miami when he spilled his drink on himself and a flight attendant. Berry went to the bathroom and came out without his shirt.

As flight attendants tried to help him, he groped them.

A fight ensued and Berry was eventually restrained with duct tape. The incident racked up more than 13 million views online.

In court documents, Berry’s attorney said, “Max Berry is a good man who committed a bad act, that was not planned, it was committed in an unsophisticated manner, and it is an aberration.”

According to WPLG, in court Tuesday, Berry apologized, took full responsibility for his actions and explained how he has been remorseful from the very start.

Two of the flight attendants gave victim impact statements about how this experience has affected them. After the hearing, both victims said the 60-day sentence was not enough, but better than nothing.

Before issuing the sentence, the judge said to Maxwell there’s “no delete button” and people can’t think they’re able to go on a plane and do this, adding that flight attendants shouldn’t feel unsafe at their job, WPLG reporter Annaliese Garcia told ABC News.

Court documents show several character witnesses’ statements detailing Berry’s hard work, good grades, leadership and volunteer service in the community.

Documents show he has received substance abuse treatment and therapy for depression and anxiety since the incident.

Berry, who recently graduated from college has struggled to find work.

“Due to the tremendous media attention that this case garnered, Max’s efforts to find a job utilizing his recently obtained college degree in finance economics were futile, as he was constantly being denied positions that he was applying for in the finance world and elsewhere without an explanation,” Berry’s attorney wrote in court documents.

Berry has until Aug. 2 to turn himself in.

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(NEW YORK) — Even though the U.S. successfully negotiated the release of Trevor Reed from a Russian prison, after nearly three years of captivity, the brother of another detained American isn’t sure that his family member will follow suit.

David Whelan, the brother of Paul Whelan, who’s been held by Russian officials since 2019, gave an update on his sibling’s condition to ABC News on Monday.

Paul Whelan spoke with his parents after Reed’s release and said the news was hard for him, according to David Whelan.

“He asked, ‘Why was I left behind?’ And we still don’t really have a good answer for that,” David Whelan told ABC News.

Paul Whelan was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct in 2008 after being convicted of larceny. He later worked as a global security executive for the auto parts supplier BorgWarner.

He was arrested in December 2018 while visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding and charged with espionage by Russian intelligence officials.

Paul Whelan and American officials have denied the charges.

Paul Whelan, an avid traveler who has Irish, British and Canadian citizenship, visited Russia numerous times in the 2010s, and previously told ABC News he was intrigued by the country’s the language and culture.

In June 2020, Paul Whelan was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison camp. His family has repeatedly called for his release.

Reed was also arrested in Moscow in 2019 after Russian authorities said he struck an officer. Reed and American officials refuted the charges.

Reed’s parents pushed President Joe Biden to bring him back home with a prisoner transfer. Last week, that request was fulfilled.

Reed was exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, a convicted drug trafficker.

Joey and Paula Reed, Trevor Reed’s parents, also advocated for Whelan during their discussions with the president and other officials.

David Whelan said now that Yaroshenko has been released to the Russians, he is concerned there are fewer concessions the U.S. can make.

“I think those sorts of negotiations, they take time, and they’re also very sensitive. It’s not just a matter of who’s involved,” David Whelan said. “It’s not really clear what their next steps are going to be.”

Biden has repeatedly called for Paul Whelan to be released and reiterated his commitment to bringing him back last week after Reed was released.

David Whelan said he hasn’t spoken with Biden recently but did talk with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the weekend.

“Hearing President Biden last summer in Geneva say that he wouldn’t walk away from Paul’s case, [and] hearing him this week on Wednesday say that he was still going to be working to bring Paul home to his loved ones, that’s really important for us,” David Whelan said. “That sort of outreach, both in private and in public is huge for us.”

The U.S. has also called on Russia to release WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia in February, right before the invasion of Ukraine, on drug charges.

David Whelan said he hopes the U.S. can bring back American citizens who are in similar situations.

“Paul is one of dozens and dozens who are arbitrarily detained by sovereign nations around the world. And they’re all very tricky, each one.” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — A special grand jury has been seated in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

For over a year, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating whether Trump and other Republican allies broke the law when they pressured state officials to try to switch the results in his favor.

On Monday, 26 jurors were selected in an Atlanta courthouse out of a pool of approximately 200 candidates — a major step forward in the only publicly known criminal investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The selection process took less than two hours.

The special grand jury does not have the ability to return an indictment, and can only make recommendations concerning criminal prosecution — a process that’s expected to take months.

Another grand jury would be needed in order to bring charges.

The move to seat the special grand jury was approved by a group of judges in January, after Willis said it was required because “a significant number of witnesses and prospective witnesses have refused to cooperate with the investigation absent a subpoena requiring their testimony.”

Last week, Willis said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution that “if there’s enough evidence that someone committed a crime … I’m going to bring an indictment. I don’t care who it is.”

Willis officially launched her probe in February 2021, sparked in part by a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he pleaded with him to “find 11,780 votes,” the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.

Trump has repeatedly defended his phone call to Raffensperger. In a January statement responding to the news that a grand jury would be seated as part of the investigation, he said the call was “perfect.”

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