Louisiana
Ex-priest pleads guilty to rape and kidnapping in sexual abuse case ahead of trial
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A disgraced 93-year-old New Orleans priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges involving the sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1975.
Lawrence Hecker, who left the ministry in 2002, had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday. Hecker’s eyes were focused on the ground as a sheriff’s deputy pushed him toward Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Nandi Campbell’s courtroom, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.
Hecker entered his plea to aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, first-degree rape and theft before Campbell, moments before jury selection was scheduled to begin, multiple news outlets reported. Sentencing was set for Dec. 18. He faces life in prison.
The trial had been delayed for months over concerns about Hecker’s mental competency and because District Judge Ben Willard recused himself from the case, citing a conflict with prosecutors. The case was reassigned to Campbell, who ordered Hecker to undergo routine physical and psychological evaluations before the trial.
A doctor confirmed that Hecker has Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, but Hecker was found competent to stand trial, according to his attorney Bobby Hjortsberg, WDSU-TV reported.
A grand jury indicted Hecker last year following an investigation that revealed he had confessed to molesting multiple juveniles over his decades of service with the Archdiocese of New Orleans. But, the charges brought against him stem from a single alleged incident that happened between 1975 and 1976, prosecutors have said.
The indictment comes amid a years-old legal battle over a trove of secret church records that were shielded by a sweeping confidentiality order after the archdiocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020 following a flood of abuse claims. The records are said to chronicle years of such claims, interviews with accused clergy and a pattern of church leaders transferring problem priests without reporting their crimes to law enforcement.
The alleged survivor in the criminal case against Hecker is among those who have filed abuse claims against the archdiocese in its long-running bankruptcy case. To date, more than 600 alleged abuse survivors have filed claims against the archdiocese.
Georgia
Man convicted in nursing student’s killing asks for new trial
ATLANTA (AP) — The Venezuelan man convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and sentenced to serve life in prison without parole has requested a new trial.
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard found Jose Ibarra guilty of murder and other charges in the February killing. Ibarra, 26, had waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Haggard heard and decided the case.
Attorneys for Jose Ibarra on Monday filed a motion for a new trial. The filing says the verdict is “contrary to law” and “contrary to the evidence,” and that the court “committed other errors of law that necessitate a new trial.” The lawyers didn’t elaborate, but they wrote that Ibarra reserves the right to supplement the motion “after a full and thorough view of the facts and circumstances attendant to the trial of this case.”
The killing became a flashpoint in the national debate about immigration during this year’s presidential campaign. Federal immigration authorities said after Ibarra’s arrest that he had illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case.
Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22 and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta.
Haggard on Nov. 20 found Ibarra guilty of all 10 counts against him and sentenced him to the maximum possible term for each.
Under Georgia law, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of a conviction becoming final, which is the date of sentencing or the denial of a motion for a new trial, whichever is later. Therefore, the filing of a motion for new trial effectively extends the deadline to file an appeal.
Missouri
Freedom is permanent for longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman in U.S.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Years of legal wrangling have come to an end for a woman who spent 43 years behind bars for a killing that her attorneys argue was committed by a discredited police officer.
A judge ruled Tuesday that Sandra Hemme can’t be retried, the final step in a tumultuous journey to making her freedom permanent. Hemme had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to her legal team at the Innocence Project.
She was freed in July but under a cloud as Attorney General Andrew Bailey continued to argue that she should remain imprisoned. Last month, an appellate court found that some arguments raised by Bailey’s office bordered “on the absurd” and sided with the lower court judge that overturned her murder conviction. The ruling gave prosecutors 10 days to refile charges.
Once that time ran out, Hemme’s attorneys filed a motion seeking her “unconditional release.” They had no immediate comment on the decision to grant their request.
Hemme was being treated with heavy doses of antipsychotic drugs when she was first questioned about the 1980 murder of 31-year-old library worker Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph. One of Hemme’s attorneys, Sean O’Brien, likened the drugs to a “chemical straightjacket” in an October hearing and said they raised questions about her ultimate confession.
O’Brien also outlined evidence that was withheld that pointed to Michael Holman — a former police officer, who died in 2015. Evidence showed that Holman’s pickup truck was seen outside Jeschke’s apartment, that he tried to use her credit card, and that her earrings were found in his home.
Judge Ryan Horsman in Livingston County cited some of that evidence when he found that Hemme’s attorney had established “clear and convincing evidence” of “actual innocence.”
But Bailey asked the appellate court to review Horsman’s decision, leading to a monthlong fight over whether she should be freed while that review took place. A circuit judge, an appellate court and the Missouri Supreme Court all agreed Hemme should be released, but she was still held behind bars as Bailey argued that she still had time to serve on decades-old prison assault cases.
Hemme walked free only after Horsman threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt.
Now it is over. Tuesday’s ruling from Horsman orders her “permanently and unconditionally discharged from custody.”
New York
Founder of failed crypto lending platform Celsius Network pleads guilty to fraud
NEW YORK (AP) — The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network could face decades in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to federal fraud charges, admitting that he misled customers about the business.
Alexander Mashinsky, 58, of Manhattan, entered the plea in New York federal court to commodities and securities fraud.
He admitted illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices to pocket about $48 million before Celsius collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022.
In court, he admitted that in 2021 he publicly suggested there was regulatory consent for the company’s moves because he knew that customers “would find false comfort” with that.
And he said that in 2019, he was selling the crypto tokens even though he told the public that he was not. He said he knew customers would draw false comfort from that too.
“I accept full responsibility for my actions,” Mashinsky said of crimes that stretched from 2018 to 2022 as the company pitched itself to customers as a modern-day bank where they could safely deposit crypto assets and earn interest.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a release that Mashinsky “orchestrated one of the biggest frauds in the crypto industry” as his company’s assets purportedly grew to about $25 billion at its peak, making it one of the largest crypto platforms in the world.
He said Mashinsky used catchy slogans like “Unbank Yourself” to entice prospective customers with a pledge that their money would be as safe in crypto accounts as money would be in a bank. Meanwhile, prosecutors said, Mashinsky and co-conspirators used customer deposits to fund market purchases of the Celsius token to prop up its value.
Mashinsky made tens of millions of dollars selling his own CEL tokens at artificially high prices, leaving his customers “holding the bag when the company went bankrupt,” Williams said.
An indictment alleged that Mashinsky promoted Celsius through media interviews, his social media accounts and Celsius’ website, along with a weekly “Ask Mashinsky Anything” session broadcast that was posted to Celsius’ website and a YouTube channel.
Celsius employees from multiple departments who noticed false and misleading statements in the sessions warned Mashinsky, but they were ignored, the indictment said.
A plea agreement Mashinsky made with prosecutors calls for him to be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison and to forfeit over $48 million, which is the amount of money he allegedly made by selling his company’s token.
Sentencing was scheduled for April 8.
New York
Ex-Abercrombie CEO’s partner pleads not guilty to sex trafficking charges
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — Matthew Smith, the partner of former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, was released on $10 million bond Tuesday in their sex trafficking case with conditions including home detention and GPS monitoring.
Smith, 61, pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and prostitution charges in a federal court on New York’s Long Island.
Smith was arrested Oct. 22 along with Jeffries and a third man, James Jacobson, on charges of luring men into drug-fueled sex parties by dangling the promise of modeling jobs with the trend-setting retailer.
Prosecutors said in court papers that the men were induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to engage in sex parties between 2008 and 2015 in which they were sometimes directed to wear costumes and endure painful erection-inducing injections.
Jeffries and Jacobson have pleaded not guilty and were previously released on bond. But Smith, a dual U.S.- British citizen, was initially detained after prosecutors raised concerns that he might flee the country.
Under the terms of the bail agreement, Smith will turn over his passport and he and Jeffries will be limited to $125,000 in monthly withdrawals from a trust set up for their benefit.
Smith’s attorney, Joseph Nascimento, said his client is happy that prosecutors agreed to bail conditions “that will allow Mr. Smith to respond to these allegations in court while on home confinement.”
Jeffries took over as CEO of Abercrombie in 1992 and led the company’s transformation into a mainstay of early 2000s teen culture.
Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014, and the Ohio-based company said in a statement posted on Instagram that it was “appalled and disgusted” by the allegations against him.
Ex-priest pleads guilty to rape and kidnapping in sexual abuse case ahead of trial
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A disgraced 93-year-old New Orleans priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges involving the sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1975.
Lawrence Hecker, who left the ministry in 2002, had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday. Hecker’s eyes were focused on the ground as a sheriff’s deputy pushed him toward Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Nandi Campbell’s courtroom, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.
Hecker entered his plea to aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, first-degree rape and theft before Campbell, moments before jury selection was scheduled to begin, multiple news outlets reported. Sentencing was set for Dec. 18. He faces life in prison.
The trial had been delayed for months over concerns about Hecker’s mental competency and because District Judge Ben Willard recused himself from the case, citing a conflict with prosecutors. The case was reassigned to Campbell, who ordered Hecker to undergo routine physical and psychological evaluations before the trial.
A doctor confirmed that Hecker has Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, but Hecker was found competent to stand trial, according to his attorney Bobby Hjortsberg, WDSU-TV reported.
A grand jury indicted Hecker last year following an investigation that revealed he had confessed to molesting multiple juveniles over his decades of service with the Archdiocese of New Orleans. But, the charges brought against him stem from a single alleged incident that happened between 1975 and 1976, prosecutors have said.
The indictment comes amid a years-old legal battle over a trove of secret church records that were shielded by a sweeping confidentiality order after the archdiocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020 following a flood of abuse claims. The records are said to chronicle years of such claims, interviews with accused clergy and a pattern of church leaders transferring problem priests without reporting their crimes to law enforcement.
The alleged survivor in the criminal case against Hecker is among those who have filed abuse claims against the archdiocese in its long-running bankruptcy case. To date, more than 600 alleged abuse survivors have filed claims against the archdiocese.
Georgia
Man convicted in nursing student’s killing asks for new trial
ATLANTA (AP) — The Venezuelan man convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and sentenced to serve life in prison without parole has requested a new trial.
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard found Jose Ibarra guilty of murder and other charges in the February killing. Ibarra, 26, had waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Haggard heard and decided the case.
Attorneys for Jose Ibarra on Monday filed a motion for a new trial. The filing says the verdict is “contrary to law” and “contrary to the evidence,” and that the court “committed other errors of law that necessitate a new trial.” The lawyers didn’t elaborate, but they wrote that Ibarra reserves the right to supplement the motion “after a full and thorough view of the facts and circumstances attendant to the trial of this case.”
The killing became a flashpoint in the national debate about immigration during this year’s presidential campaign. Federal immigration authorities said after Ibarra’s arrest that he had illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case.
Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22 and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta.
Haggard on Nov. 20 found Ibarra guilty of all 10 counts against him and sentenced him to the maximum possible term for each.
Under Georgia law, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of a conviction becoming final, which is the date of sentencing or the denial of a motion for a new trial, whichever is later. Therefore, the filing of a motion for new trial effectively extends the deadline to file an appeal.
Missouri
Freedom is permanent for longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman in U.S.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Years of legal wrangling have come to an end for a woman who spent 43 years behind bars for a killing that her attorneys argue was committed by a discredited police officer.
A judge ruled Tuesday that Sandra Hemme can’t be retried, the final step in a tumultuous journey to making her freedom permanent. Hemme had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to her legal team at the Innocence Project.
She was freed in July but under a cloud as Attorney General Andrew Bailey continued to argue that she should remain imprisoned. Last month, an appellate court found that some arguments raised by Bailey’s office bordered “on the absurd” and sided with the lower court judge that overturned her murder conviction. The ruling gave prosecutors 10 days to refile charges.
Once that time ran out, Hemme’s attorneys filed a motion seeking her “unconditional release.” They had no immediate comment on the decision to grant their request.
Hemme was being treated with heavy doses of antipsychotic drugs when she was first questioned about the 1980 murder of 31-year-old library worker Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph. One of Hemme’s attorneys, Sean O’Brien, likened the drugs to a “chemical straightjacket” in an October hearing and said they raised questions about her ultimate confession.
O’Brien also outlined evidence that was withheld that pointed to Michael Holman — a former police officer, who died in 2015. Evidence showed that Holman’s pickup truck was seen outside Jeschke’s apartment, that he tried to use her credit card, and that her earrings were found in his home.
Judge Ryan Horsman in Livingston County cited some of that evidence when he found that Hemme’s attorney had established “clear and convincing evidence” of “actual innocence.”
But Bailey asked the appellate court to review Horsman’s decision, leading to a monthlong fight over whether she should be freed while that review took place. A circuit judge, an appellate court and the Missouri Supreme Court all agreed Hemme should be released, but she was still held behind bars as Bailey argued that she still had time to serve on decades-old prison assault cases.
Hemme walked free only after Horsman threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt.
Now it is over. Tuesday’s ruling from Horsman orders her “permanently and unconditionally discharged from custody.”
New York
Founder of failed crypto lending platform Celsius Network pleads guilty to fraud
NEW YORK (AP) — The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network could face decades in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to federal fraud charges, admitting that he misled customers about the business.
Alexander Mashinsky, 58, of Manhattan, entered the plea in New York federal court to commodities and securities fraud.
He admitted illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices to pocket about $48 million before Celsius collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022.
In court, he admitted that in 2021 he publicly suggested there was regulatory consent for the company’s moves because he knew that customers “would find false comfort” with that.
And he said that in 2019, he was selling the crypto tokens even though he told the public that he was not. He said he knew customers would draw false comfort from that too.
“I accept full responsibility for my actions,” Mashinsky said of crimes that stretched from 2018 to 2022 as the company pitched itself to customers as a modern-day bank where they could safely deposit crypto assets and earn interest.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a release that Mashinsky “orchestrated one of the biggest frauds in the crypto industry” as his company’s assets purportedly grew to about $25 billion at its peak, making it one of the largest crypto platforms in the world.
He said Mashinsky used catchy slogans like “Unbank Yourself” to entice prospective customers with a pledge that their money would be as safe in crypto accounts as money would be in a bank. Meanwhile, prosecutors said, Mashinsky and co-conspirators used customer deposits to fund market purchases of the Celsius token to prop up its value.
Mashinsky made tens of millions of dollars selling his own CEL tokens at artificially high prices, leaving his customers “holding the bag when the company went bankrupt,” Williams said.
An indictment alleged that Mashinsky promoted Celsius through media interviews, his social media accounts and Celsius’ website, along with a weekly “Ask Mashinsky Anything” session broadcast that was posted to Celsius’ website and a YouTube channel.
Celsius employees from multiple departments who noticed false and misleading statements in the sessions warned Mashinsky, but they were ignored, the indictment said.
A plea agreement Mashinsky made with prosecutors calls for him to be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison and to forfeit over $48 million, which is the amount of money he allegedly made by selling his company’s token.
Sentencing was scheduled for April 8.
New York
Ex-Abercrombie CEO’s partner pleads not guilty to sex trafficking charges
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — Matthew Smith, the partner of former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, was released on $10 million bond Tuesday in their sex trafficking case with conditions including home detention and GPS monitoring.
Smith, 61, pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and prostitution charges in a federal court on New York’s Long Island.
Smith was arrested Oct. 22 along with Jeffries and a third man, James Jacobson, on charges of luring men into drug-fueled sex parties by dangling the promise of modeling jobs with the trend-setting retailer.
Prosecutors said in court papers that the men were induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to engage in sex parties between 2008 and 2015 in which they were sometimes directed to wear costumes and endure painful erection-inducing injections.
Jeffries and Jacobson have pleaded not guilty and were previously released on bond. But Smith, a dual U.S.- British citizen, was initially detained after prosecutors raised concerns that he might flee the country.
Under the terms of the bail agreement, Smith will turn over his passport and he and Jeffries will be limited to $125,000 in monthly withdrawals from a trust set up for their benefit.
Smith’s attorney, Joseph Nascimento, said his client is happy that prosecutors agreed to bail conditions “that will allow Mr. Smith to respond to these allegations in court while on home confinement.”
Jeffries took over as CEO of Abercrombie in 1992 and led the company’s transformation into a mainstay of early 2000s teen culture.
Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014, and the Ohio-based company said in a statement posted on Instagram that it was “appalled and disgusted” by the allegations against him.
