National Roundup

California
Hackers charged with making  threats to schools

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two computer hackers were charged with sending false shooting and bomb threats to hundreds of schools and other institutions in the U.S. and Britain, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The men are members of Apophis Squad, a worldwide collective of hackers intent on using the internet to “sow chaos,” the Department of Justice said in Los Angeles.

Timothy Vaughn of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was arrested this week by the FBI. The 20-year-old used the online handles “WantedbyFeds” and “Hacker_R_ US,” according to the indictment.

George Duke-Cohan, 19, of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, is currently serving a prison sentence in Britain for a hoax threat targeting an airliner. His internet usernames included “DigitalCrimes,” court papers show.

It wasn’t immediately known if the defendants have attorneys who could comment on the felony charges that include making threats to injure in interstate commerce and making interstate threats involving explosives.

The indictment alleges the Apophis Squad made false threats and engaged in “swatting,” in which a phony report is made to trigger deployment of emergency response teams.

The hackers made false threats of shootings and bombings last year that were intended “to cause fear of imminent danger and did cause the closure of hundreds of schools on two continents on multiple occasions,” the indictment said. One phony threat targeted Los Angeles International Airport.

Members of Apophis Squad used “spoofed” email addresses to make it appear some threats had been sent by innocent parties, including the mayor of London, according to court papers.

They also are accused of launching denial-of-service attacks, in which a hacker disables a computer network by flooding it with data, including ab attack that took down the website of a California motorsports company for three days.

Duke-Cohan is accused in the indictment of calling the FBI field office in Omaha, Nebraska, discussing the deployment of deadly pathogens in the building, and threatening to rape and kill the wife of an employee who answered the phone.

New Jersey
Church names 63 clerics accused of sexual abuse

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The Archdiocese of Newark released a list Wednesday of 63 Roman Catholic clergy members that it said have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors dating back to 1940.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop, said in a statement that he hoped the disclosure “will help bring healing to those whose lives have been so deeply violated.”

New Jersey is one of more than two dozen states where dioceses have released the names of abusive clergy members since a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August identified over 300 predator priests.

In the wake of the Pennsylvania report, New Jersey’s attorney general formed a task force last fall to conduct a criminal investigation into sexual abuse by clergy in the state.

Newark’s list includes Theodore McCarrick, a former Newark archbishop who served as Washington, D.C., archbishop from 2000 to 2006. McCarrick was removed from public ministry in June.

All of the clergy members on the list are described as deceased or having been removed from ministry, and about half have been named in previous news reports. About half are believed to be responsible for multiple victims.

New Jersey’s four other dioceses are expected to release names soon of clergy members suspected of abusing minors.

The number of named clerics on the Newark list is likely to grow larger, as the current list doesn’t include those who are currently the focus of lawsuits. The archdiocese said those names would be added if accusations are found to be credible.

The Newark list doesn’t include details about the allegations or when they are alleged to have happened. In a letter posted on the archdiocese’s website, Tobin wrote that all the names on the list were previously reported to law enforcement but didn’t say what steps were taken at the time.

Virginia
Indictment: Ex- ‘American Idol’ contestant was drug courier

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A recently unsealed court document says a former contestant on both “American Idol” and “Fear Factor” worked as a courier for a drug ring and was trying to deliver nearly 2 pounds (830 grams) of fentanyl when she was arrested last year.

The Virginian-Pilot reports 32-year-old Antonella Barba was back in custody Monday, following a federal indictment charging her with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, heroin and fentanyl. Barba was originally arrested last October in Norfolk Virginia.

She was previously charged with shoplifting in New York and has a felony marijuana case pending in Kansas.

Barba, of New Jersey, reached the top 16 on “American Idol” in 2007, the year Jordin Sparks won. She competed on “Fear Factor” in 2012.

New Jersey
Man allegedly left caged pit bull to drown in ­rising tide

FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — A man accused of leaving a young pit bull mix to drown in a cage at water’s edge in a rising tide last summer has been indicted on animal cruelty charges.

Aaron Davis is also charged with attempted animal cruelty in the indictment handed up by a Monmouth County grand jury. The 35-year-old Long Branch man could face nearly seven years in prison if he’s convicted on both counts.

A person walking their dog in Veterans Memorial Park in Highlands spotted the small dog cowering in the cage on a portion of sand between a bulkhead and the water as the tide came in July 31.

The person rescued the animal, now known as River.

Prosecutors have said Davis wanted revenge against his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend, who gave her the dog.

Illinois
Court: Embezzler took advantage of computer ­illiteracy

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago-based appeals court says a trial judge was right to enhance an embezzler’s prison sentence on grounds she took advantage of her Indiana victim’s computer illiteracy.

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported Tuesday that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Anastacia Vann Maclin’s arguments that her 15-month sentence was too high, including because the judge deemed her victim uniquely vulnerable.

Maclin worked for psychiatrist Farzana Khan’s practice in northern Indiana. She was convicted of Medicaid theft for redirecting over $80,000 from Khan’s business account to her personal account.

The sentencing judge said he’d never seen anyone “so technologically unsophisticated” as Khan, who neither used email nor banked electronically.

The 7th Circuit said had Khan been adept at monitoring accounts electronically she would have detected the fraud sooner.