Massachusetts
DA: Former youth minister pleads guilty to child rape
SALEM, Mass. (AP) — A former youth minister has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three vulnerable boys that he met through church, prosecutors said.
Russell Davis, 70, of Seabrook, New Hampshire, and formerly of Newbury, Massachusetts, was sentenced in Salem Superior Court on Wednesday to up to four years in state prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including child rape, according to a statement from Essex District Attorney Paul Tucker.
The victims ranged in age from 12 to 16 and the assaults occurred in Massachusetts between 1988 and 2006, prosecutors said.
Davis, a 20-year postal service employee, befriended and offered to mentor the victims he met through the United Methodist Church, prosecutors said.
The boys “came from homes lacking a complete family unit and, in some cases, sought assistance from the church to provide structure in their lives,” the district attorney’s office said.
Davis served in churches in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, according to the United Methodist Church New England Conference.
“Our pastors hold a position of authority and trust, and when that trust is violated, harm is done,” the conference said in a statement. “We share the grief and sense of betrayal experienced by the victims and those close to them.”
Georgia
Charges dropped against detainee beaten inside jail
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped charges of assault, obstruction and other counts against a Georgia jail detainee after video from security cameras showed him being beaten by sheriff’s deputies who rushed into his cell.
The decision to dismiss charges against 41-year-old Jarrett Hobbs came several months after an investigation following the video’s release in November led to the arrest of three Camden County deputies on battery charges in the jail beating.
“When the video came out, it was abundantly clear that Mr. Hobbs was not the aggressor,” Harry Daniels, a civil rights attorney representing Hobbs, said Thursday.
Daniels said Camden County officials had also agreed to pay Hobbs a “significant monetary settlement” rather than face civil claims in a lawsuit. He declined to give the dollar amount. John Myers, the county’s attorney, confirmed a settlement but gave no further details.
Hobbs of Greensboro, North Carolina, was booked into jail in coastal Camden County for traffic violations and drug possession charges Sept. 3. Later that day, a security camera recorded deputies charging into Hobbs’ cell and pushing him against a wall before repeatedly punching him in the head and neck. Another camera recorded Hobbs being hurled against a wall and pinned to the floor.
Hobbs was charged afterward with aggravated battery, simple assault and obstruction of law enforcement officers. A court filing by prosecutors Tuesday dismissed those charges, citing “insufficient evidence” against Hobbs. Also dropped were the traffic and drug counts that initially landed Hobbs in jail.
Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins had no further comment on the case, said Cheryl Diprizio, his executive assistant.
Hobbs’ beating at the Georgia jail came to light after federal authorities in North Carolina looked into his September arrest. They wanted to determine whether Hobbs had violated his probation stemming from his 2014 guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, according to court records.
The jail videos were first obtained by Hobbs’ attorney in the federal probation case, Daniels said.
Daniels shared the security videos with reporters in November. Sheriff Jim Proctor ordered an internal investigation more than two months after the beating occurred and Hobbs was the only one charged. Higgins, the district attorney, asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to get involved.
The following week, three Camden County deputies were arrested on charges of battery and violating their oath of office. They were also fired. Two others faced disciplinary action but weren’t charged with crimes.
Hobbs is Black. The three deputies charged are all white, according to Capt. Larry Bruce, the sheriff’s spokesman.
Hobbs was returned to federal prison after authorities determined he violated terms of his probation by leaving North Carolina. Daniels said having his charges dismissed in Georgia should improve Hobbs’ standing in the federal case.
“He’s now eligible for release to a halfway house because he no longer has pending charges, which is major,” Daniels said.
New Jersey
Hit man in political murder-for-hire sentenced to 20 years
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The man who admitted to helping carry out a murder-for-hire plot engineered by a former New Jersey political consultant was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison.
Bomani Africa appeared in federal district court for sentencing in the 2014 death of Michael Galdieri, the son of a former state senator, after pleading guilty just over a year ago.
According to prosecutors, Africa and George Bratsenis stabbed Galdieri and then set his Jersey City apartment on fire in exchange for cash at the request of political consultant Sean Caddle. Bratsenis and Caddle both pleaded guilty in the case that stunned New Jersey politics but have yet to be sentenced.
A number of questions about the case remain unanswered: Why did Caddle want Galdieri, his one-time friend, dead? Why was he given house arrest after pleading guilty last year? And were the guilty pleas connected to other investigations?
The revelations about Galdieri’s killing jolted political circles in New Jersey — a state infamous for dozens of political corruption convictions over the past three decades, as well as skullduggery like the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal involving traffic jams purposely created near the busy George Washington Bridge for political retribution.
Caddle was well-known in northern New Jersey politics, with past clients including current Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and former Democratic state Sen. Raymond Lesniak.
Africa, already imprisoned in Rhode Island, was sentenced last week to a decade in prison over a pair of Connecticut robberies.
Bratsenis was sentenced last year to eight years for his role in one of those robberies.
Bratsenis and Caddle are scheduled to be sentenced in the killing plot next month.
New York
Justice Department indicts 13 alleged leaders of MS-13 gang
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced charges against more than a dozen alleged high-ranking leaders of the international gang MS-13, accusing them of directing criminal activities including murder in the United States, El Salvador, Mexico and other countries over the past two decades.
An indictment unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the Eastern District of New York details charges against 13 defendants including racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to provide or conceal material support to terrorists and narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Four of the alleged gang leaders were expelled from Mexico and arrested by the FBI at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Wednesday, according to a Justice Department statement. They face additional charges including alien smuggling conspiracy resulting in death and could receive the death penalty if convicted, prosecutors said.
Four other co-defendants are at large, while the rest are believed to be in custody in El Salvador pending possible extradition, the statement said.
The 13 defendants are part of MS-13’s command structure and play significant leadership roles in the organization’s international operations, according to the court filing.
Prosecutors said they authorized and directed violence including multiple murders in the United States, Mexico and elsewhere as part of an effort to expand MS-13’s influence and territorial control.
In El Salvador the alleged gang leaders operated military-style training camps for firearms and explosives, according to the indictment.
“The defendants have actively engaged in public displays of violence to threaten and intimidate civilian populations, to obtain and control territory and to manipulate the electoral process in El Salvador,” the DOJ statement said.
MS-13 is suspected of forging alliances with Mexican cartels and engaging in narcotics trafficking; immigrant smuggling and extortion; kidnappings; and weapons trafficking, the indictment said.
Louisiana
Teen charged in rape case of LSU student later killed by car
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A teenager has been charged as an adult in the case of Madison Brooks, a Louisiana State University student who was allegedly raped then left on the side of a road where she was struck and killed by a car.
A grand jury indicted Desmond Carter, 17, Wednesday on charges of first-degree rape and third-degree rape. The Associated Press does not normally name juveniles accused of a crime but is identifying Carter because he has been formally charged as an adult.
First-degree rape is the gravest sexual assault charge available to prosecutors under Louisiana law. If found guilty, the charge carries a punishment of life in prison without parole. In addition, the grand jury also weighed whether to charge Carter with second-degree kidnapping but chose not to indict him.
The Associated Press reached out Thursday to the East Baton Rouge public defender’s office, which is representing Carter, but did not receive an immediate response.
The charges stem from Jan. 15, when Brooks, a 19-year-old LSU student, met Carter at a bar in the Tigerland entertainment district in Baton Rouge. Police say Brooks asked Carter for a ride home and left with him and three other men.
Deputies allege that while in the car, the group stopped on the side of the road, where Carter and Kaivon Washington, 18, raped Brooks in the back of the vehicle. During the assault, Everett Lee, 28, and Casen Carver, 18, remained in the car, police say.
Soon after, the group dropped Brooks off near a sub-division and drove away. Less than an hour later, around 3 a.m., Brooks — who was standing on the dark street — was struck by a ride-share vehicle. She died at a hospital. The driver — who police say was not impaired, contacted emergency personnel and remained at the crash scene — was not charged.
The Associated Press does not normally name rape victims, but the attorney representing Brooks’ family, Kerry Miller, has publicly identified her.
In addition to Carter’s charges, Washington was charged with third-degree rape. Under Louisiana law, the charge generally involves a victim who is “incapable of resisting or of understanding the nature of the act by reason of a stupor or abnormal condition of mind produced by an intoxicating agent or any cause and the offender knew or should have known of the victim’s incapacity.”
Lee and Carver were both charged with principle to third-degree rape, meaning they were present but did not take part in the alleged crime.
Similar to Carter, the three defendants could face heightened charges, but that will be left up to the grand jury, District Attorney Hillar Moore told The Advocate.
