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(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) — William McNeil, Jr., the 22-year-old college student whose violent arrest was captured in a viral cell phone video earlier this year, filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against two sheriff’s deputies involved in his arrest, the sheriff and the city of Jacksonville, Florida, after prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against the officers in the case.

McNeil was arrested during a traffic stop on Feb. 19 after police said he was pulled over for allegedly not having his headlights on while it was raining. He appeared alongside his attorney Ben Crump and Harry Daniels during a press conference in Jacksonville on Wednesday where the lawsuit was announced.

“I really just wanted my side of the story to be heard … I hope my story gets heard today,” McNeil said in brief remarks on Wednesday.

Court records say that McNeil was arrested and charged with “resisting arrest without violence to his or her person,” possessing not more than 20 grams of marijuana with intent to use drug paraphernalia, driving while driver’s license is suspended, not wearing a seatbelt and no headlights in rain/fog/or smoke.

Additionally, court records show that McNeil was sentenced to and served two days in jail for resisting arrest without violence and driving with a suspended license.

Crump said on Wednesday that the legal team filed the lawsuit “not just because of the violent, brutal attack on this young college student who wasn’t violent,” but also because prosecutors declined to file charges against the officers involved in this case.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida – Jacksonville Division, accuses the officers of “excessive force” and alleges that the policies of the sheriff’s office and the city allow “officers to utilize unwarranted and excessive physical force against an individual who poses no immediate threat to the officer or to others.”

The lawsuit also claims that the policies of the sheriff’s office do not require officers to report all incidents of force.

“This policy creates a setting that promotes its officers to engage in illegal or excessive use of force without the fear of encountering any repercussions or consequences, nor the obligation to report such actions,” the complaint alleges.

According to the lawsuit, McNeil suffered a laceration to his chin and his lip, a fractured tooth and a closed head injury that led him to be “diagnosed with an ongoing traumatic brain injury.”

He is seeking a jury trial and at least $100,000 in damages for physical and emotional distress, at least $100,000 in punitive damages, as well as attorneys fees and other costs, the complaint says.

“As a result of pending litigation, we would be unable to comment further on this incident,” a spokesperson for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office told ABC News on Wednesday.

ABC News reached out to the city of Jacksonville but a request for comment was not immediately returned.

The officers involved are named in the lawsuit as D. Bowers and D. Miller. It is unclear if they have retained attorneys. ABC News has reached out to the Jacksonville Consolidated Lodge No. 5-30 of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which is the union representing the officers, but a request for comment was not immediately returned.

Prosecutors announced the decision not to file any criminal charges against the officers in this case in a 16-page memo released on Aug. 13 by the state attorney for the 4th Judicial Circuit Court, which serves Clay, Duval, and Nassau counties in Florida.

“Officer Bowers conducted a lawful traffic stop and gave McNeil 12 individual lawful commands, which McNeil refused to obey. Repeatedly requesting a supervisor and arguing the merits of the traffic stop did not absolve McNeil from following lawful orders,” the memo said. “McNeil’s refusal to provide his identification, registration, and proof of insurance, followed by his refusal to exit the SUV, show his hands, and obey the officers’ orders, created a dangerous situation for all involved.”

Crump criticized that decision on Wednesday, saying, “Just because they say it’s legal, that doesn’t make it right.”

In response to the memo, the police union defended the officer’s actions in an Aug. 13 statement posted on its Facebook account.

“When you allow due process and thorough investigations to occur you get facts and evidence. Not emotions, agendas and politics being pushed by radical people in our community and some elected officials who felt like they had to hear themselves speak before all the facts were known,” the union said.

Crump and Daniels criticized prosecutors for not filing charges and called on the U.S Department of Justice to investigate this case in a Sept. 8 statement.

“It’s not just how violent and brutal these officers were. It’s that they were absolutely unapologetic because they knew no one was going to hold them accountable,” Daniels said. “It’s clear that the State Attorney’s Office refuses to do anything about it. So we’re calling on the Department of Justice.”

ABC News reached out to the DOJ but a request for comment was not returned.

Sheriff T.K. Waters announced an internal review of the incident during a July 21 press conference and said that the actions of the officers were being examined in an “administrative review,” which will determine if the deputies “violated [Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office] policy.”

“Pending the outcome of this administrative review, Officer Bowers has been stripped of his law enforcement authority,” Waters said at the time. It is unclear if other deputies involved in the arrest have been placed on administrative leave.

Asked about the status of the investigation and the employment status of officers named in the lawsuit, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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(FORT PEARCE, Fla.) — A jury has been selected in the criminal trial of Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump on his golf course last year.

After three days of jury selection, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon finalized a group of twelve jurors and four alternates Wednesday.

Routh, who is representing himself at the trial in Fort Pierce, Florida, has pleaded not guilty to five criminal charges that risk sending him to prison for life, including attempting to kill a presidential candidate and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The selection of the jury came after Routh accused prosecutors of discriminatory practices, causing tensions to flare in the courtroom.

Prior to Judge Cannon finalizing the jury, Routh — who lacks any legal education or training — made what is known as a “Batson challenge” after he said prosecutors struck two Black potential jurors.

“We have a racist situation that is occurring,” Routh alleged. “It is blatantly obvious.”

Judge Cannon responded to the allegations by accusing Routh of improperly conferring with his standby lawyers, who remain in court to assist him with technical matters. She said she heard “whispers” from the defense table that suggested Routh was getting legal advice from his standby attorneys — something Judge Cannon has prohibited as a condition for Routh to represent himself.

She did not elaborate any further on the “whispers” and declined to inquire further into Routh’s alleged conversation with his lawyers, which is protected by attorney-client privilege.

“It seems to me you are using your attorneys for more than just technical things,” Cannon said.

Routh denied the claim, saying he is turning down their help and came up with the Batson challenge on his own.

“I am hearing whispers,” Cannon said. “I heard a whisper that sounded like more than technical advice.”

The situation deescalated after prosecutors explained their rationale for excluding one of the jurors, and Judge Cannon denied Routh’s challenge. Prosecutors claimed they only removed one Black juror after he provided inconsistent answers to some of the questions on the jury questionnaire.

“The U.S. has offered a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for their preemptory strike,” Judge Cannon said.

Prosecutors allege that after planning his attack for months, Routh hid in the bushes of Trump’s Palm Beach golf course with a rifle in the predawn hours of Sept. 15.

With Trump just one hole away from Routh’s position, a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle poking out of the tree line and fired at him, causing him to flee, according to prosecutors. Routh was subsequently arrested after being stopped on a nearby interstate.

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(NEW YORK) — A 350-billion-year-old rock discovered on the Red Planet is “the closest we’ve come to discovering ancient life on Mars,” according to NASA.

Potential signs of microbial life were found in a rock sample collected by the rover in 2024 from an ancient dry riverbed on Mars’ Jezero Crater — an area of rocky outcrops on the edges the Neretva Vallis, a river valley carved by water rushing to the canyon billions of years ago, NASA officials announced in a press conference on Wednesday.

The sample, named “Sapphire Canyon,” contains potential biosignatures, which are substances or structures that might have a biological origin, NASA said.

“To be clear, it’s not life itself, but a signature, like seeing a fossil or leftovers from a microbial process,” Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said Wednesday. “It could have been formed billions of years ago. We’re sharing this first result with the world and inviting continued analysis.”

The finding is the closest astronomers have ever come to discovering life on Mars, Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator, told reporters in Wednesday’s news conference.

“The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars,” he said.

The sample was collected in 2024 from a rock named “Cheyava Falls.” The arrowhead-shaped rock measures about 3.2 feet by 2 feet and contains what appears to be colorful spots that could have been left behind by microbial life.

Fox said the leopard-spotted rock had never been seen before on the Martian surface. Using the rover’s organic chemical detector to analyze the spots, scientists at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) found iron, phosphorus and sulfur arranged in patterns consistent with minerals like vivianite (hydrated iron phosphate) and greigite (iron sulfide) that could have “potentially been made by ancient life.”

Higher-resolution images revealed a distinct pattern of minerals arranged into reaction fronts — or points of contact where chemical and physical reactions occur, according to NASA.

NASA said that vivianite is frequently found on Earth around decaying organic matter and in sediments and peat bogs. Greigite is produced by certain forms of microbial life on our planet.

“On Earth, these minerals are often byproducts of microbial metabolisms. Non-biological explanations exist, but this is the strongest evidence yet for a possible biosignature on Mars,” said Joel Hurowitz, a planetary scientist at Stony Brook University, who is one of the experts involved in the project. “To be certain, we must eventually return these samples to Earth.”

Hurowitz said that other non-organic reasons could explain the findings, but added that “The combination of chemical compounds we found in the Bright Angel formation could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms.”

The findings were released on Wednesday in a peer-reviewed scientific journal article published in Nature.

The formation’s sedimentary rocks are composed of clay and silt — materials that are “excellent preservers” of past microbial life on Earth, NASA said.

The discovery was “particularly surprising” because the sample was taken from the youngest sedimentary rocks the mission has investigated, contrary to an earlier hypothesis that assumed signs of ancient life would be confined to older rock formations, according to NASA.

NASA said the only way to confirm the findings is to return the sample to Earth. However, the Trump administration has recommended eliminating the funding for a program that would have returned Mars samples to Earth.

“This is a potential biosignature. That means it could have a biological origin, but more study is required. These findings are the result of decades of strategic exploration, thousands of scientists, and missions building on each other,” said Lindsay Hays, senior scientist for Mars Exploration at NASA.

Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021 and has been studying the red planet’s Jazero Crater region ever since. It’s collected and analyzed 30 samples so far and has room for six more.

“NASA’s commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue as we pursue our goal of putting American boots on Mars’ rocky soil,” Duffy said in a statement.

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(NEW YORK) — Following the near deportation of 76 Guatemalan minors over Labor Day weekend, attorneys for the minors are scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday to seek a preliminary injunction blocking similar removals.

A judge over the weekend temporarily blocked the deportation of the unaccompanied minors without due process, just as they were sitting on the planes preparing to depart.

In a new court filing, the minors’ attorneys said that immigration officials are interviewing unaccompanied minors from other countries with an eye toward removing them in the same manner.

Justice Department officials have said the 76 minors were being removed in accordance with the law and at the request of the Guatemalan government and the minors’ legal guardians, but attorneys for the minors say some of children did not have parents who had requested their return, and that some minors expressed a fear of returning to Guatemala.

The new filings included declarations from immigrant advocates and minors from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

“I recently received a visit from HSI [Homeland Security Investigations], but they never asked me if I wanted to go back to Honduras,” said a 17-year-old from Honduras, whose name was redacted in the declaration.

The teenager, who said they are afraid to return to their home country, said that at an immigration hearing last month, a judge said he had a list of minors who had agreed to voluntary removal, and that the teen’s name was on it.

“I do not know why I was on the list,” the 17-year-old said.

According to a declaration filed by Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a number of Honduran children have been questioned by Department of Homeland Security officials.

“We have no details as to how these children were chosen, or who is in charge of the plan,” she said. “We have no information as to whom we need to reach out to share that children have expressed fear or have possible relief.”

In another declaration, a 16-year-old from El Salvador, who said they fled their home country because they fear they will be “harmed or killed by the police,” stated they have been asked to participate in interviews with government officials.

According to several declarations, many of the minors who immigration attorneys and advocates believe are being targeted for removal have pending immigration proceedings. The attorneys argue that the Trump administration is violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which outlines specific procedures for unaccompanied minors, including ensuring they are placed in immigration proceedings.

“Defendants’ argument that they can expel hundreds of children in the middle of the night with two hours’ warning relies on the fallacy that they were acting pursuant to authority to ‘reunify’ them with their parents,” attorneys representing the minors said. “That argument is illogical and illegal.”

In court filings, the attorneys also argued that the Trump administration does not have authority to transfer unaccompanied minors from the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement to DHS.

They said the court should reject the Trump administration’s “invocation of nonexistent statutory authority'” arguing that the administration is putting hundreds of children “at risk of imminent, irreparable harm if they are expelled with no remedy.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is demanding the suspect who was charged for fatally stabbing a 23-year-old Ukrainian woman on a Charlotte light rail be “awarded THE DEATH PENALTY.”

“The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a ‘Quick’ (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY. There can be no other option!!!” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday.

Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, who was arrested on Aug. 22 after he fatally stabbed 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of North Carolina with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, which could make him eligible for the death penalty, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

“This brutal attack on an innocent woman simply trying to get to her destination is an attack on the American way of life. Of course, crimes like this affect the victim the most — Iryna deserves justice, and we will bring justice to her and her family,” U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said in a statement on Tuesday.

There was no apparent interaction between Brown and Zarutska before the unprovoked stabbing, officials said.

Ferguson described the incident Tuesday as a “terroristic act” and said he and North Carolina FBI Special Agent James Barnacle Jr. spoke to Zarutska’s mother and uncle to alert them of the federal charges. Ferguson said the family is “suffering like any of us would be.”

Zarutska’s family said in a statement on Tuesday they are “heartbroken beyond words” and are “calling attention to a broader crisis in public safety and systemic failure.”

“Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way. No family should have to go through this,” the family said.

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(NEW YORK) — The sun was getting ready to rise over a rural lake in Green Lake County, Wisconsin, when a sheriff’s deputy shined his flashlight inside Ryan Borgwardt’s minivan parked just yards away from the water’s edge.

There was no one inside the car.

As the deputy took out his binoculars and gazed over the pier to see if he could spot anyone in the distance that morning in August 2024, he almost certainly could not have imagined that not only would Borgwardt not be found stuck in the lake, but would end up being traced across the world to the country of Georgia.

“I guess everything kind of hinged on me dying in the lake,” Borgwardt told investigators in a December 2024 interview obtained by ABC News this week.

A husband and father of three, Borgwardt gained national attention last year after disappearing following an apparent trip to the lake to kayak and resurfacing months later in a video recorded in an undisclosed location where he maintained he was safe.

Borgwardt, who could not be reached for comment for this report, pleaded no contest last month to obstructing an officer and was sentenced to 89 days in jail. He also agreed to pay $30,000 in restitution to law enforcement to cover what was spent searching for him and apologized for his actions at his sentencing.

According to law enforcement, Borgwardt texted his wife of 22 years on the day he went kayaking that he was getting ready to head back to shore.

He never made it home that night. A team of first responders eventually found Borgwardt’s kayak, but he was nowhere to be found.

Now, hundreds of records released by the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office are shedding light on how Borgwardt made it from that Wisconsin lake all the way to Georgia, where he sought to build a life with a woman he met on the internet, according to prosecutors.

Officials previously declined to release these records to ABC News while the case against Borgwardt was pending.

The newly released documents range from receipts for Borgwardt’s bus tickets –from Madison, Wisconsin, to Canada’s Toronto Pearson International Airport — to footage of Borgwardt crossing the border into Canada, and communications between American law enforcement and the woman he was in contact with while he was overseas.

“It is extremely important to explain why we want to speak with you,” Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Matthew Vande Kolk wrote to the woman, who had written in Russian that Ryan had become a good friend of hers over the previous year when she had been going through problems in her life.

“When is the last time that you spoke with Ryan,” Vande Kolk asked in one email. “We need to know he is ok.”

The communications show that Vande Kolk was ultimately able to get in touch with Borgwardt over email and Telegram, a messaging app.

“I realize I created this mess and now everyone is trying to put the pieces together,” Borgwardt wrote in one email to Vande Kolk. “I am really sorry about that. It would have just been much easier if no one looked for me.”

In another email, Borgwardt explained how, back in Wisconsin, he made it from the edge of the lake all the way to the bus station in Madison.

“I kayaked out there with my small fishing net,” he wrote. “I tossed the phone. I inflated a small child inflatable raft good for about 250 lbs. After flipping the kayak, I spent the next 1 – 2 hours trying to paddle back to shore. (seemed like forever) But the winds, waves and the short “toy” paddles didn’t work well that night, but worked enough. I got to shore somewhere across from the area that I parked.”

Borgwardt wrote that he then rode an electric bike he had left in the brush for 66 miles.

“No one will truly ever forgot [sic] what I did, even if they somehow forgive me,” Borgwardt wrote to Vande Kolk. “I can possibly come back to try and clean up as much as possible.”

Borgwardt ultimately made the choice to fly from Batumi, Georgia, back to the United States, where he was ultimately brought in for questioning by the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

“I think the only thing I was keeping secret was where I was at,” Borgwardt told investigators, according to a video of the interview. “I was adamant not to lie … so I really don’t think there’s anything that was a lie. I think I just didn’t say too much.”

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