New York
Judge says woman accusing Jay-Z, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of raping her can proceed anonymously
NEW YORK (AP) — An Alabama woman who says she was raped by Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs when she was 13 can proceed anonymously, for now, in her lawsuit against the rap moguls, a judge ruled Thursday.
In her written order, Judge Analisa Torres also chastised the lawyer representing Jay-Z for what she described as his combative motions and “inflammatory language” against the plaintiff’s lawyer, calling them inappropriate.
The Manhattan jurist said the woman can proceed anonymously at this early stage of the litigation, but she may be required to reveal her identity at a later date, if the case proceeds. That would allow defense lawyers to collect facts necessary to prepare for trial. Torres also cited “substantial interest” from the public.
Combs remains jailed in New York awaiting a criminal trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He also faces a wave of sexual assault lawsuits, many of which were filed by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, a Texas attorney who says his firm represents over 150 people, both men and women, who allege sexual abuse and exploitation by Combs.
The lawsuits allege many individuals were abused at parties in New York, California and Florida after receiving drug-laced drinks.
Combs’ lawyers have dismissed Buzbee’s lawsuits as “shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs.” Jay-Z has said in a statement that Buzbee is trying to blackmail him to settle the Alabama woman’s allegations.
Buzbee said in an email that his firm does not comment on court rulings.
In her lawsuit, the woman who says she was raped at 13 identifies herself as “Jane Doe.” She said she was living in Rochester in 2000 when she made her way to New York City and befriended a limousine driver who drove her to an after-party for the MTV Music Awards, where she says she was eventually attacked by Jay-Z and Combs.
Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Jay-Z, asked the judge to dismiss the entertainer from the woman’s lawsuit and he requested a hearing on the case for the day after he made his requests in writing on Dec. 18.
Citing an interview the plaintiff did on NBC-TV, Spiro wrote that the broadcast revealed “glaring inconsistencies and outright impossibilities” in the plaintiff’s story. For one thing, the woman said she traveled for five hours from Rochester to watch the music awards show on a jumbotron outside the VMA even though permits and pictures show there was no jumbotron at the event.
Spiro also noted that the woman’s father has said he does not recall driving from Rochester to pick his daughter up in New York City, as she says he did.
The woman has admitted inconsistencies in her story.
Torres wrote in her order Thursday that Spiro, who has been on the case less than three weeks, has submitted a “litany of letters and motions attempting to impugn the character of Plaintiff’s lawyer, many of them expounding on the purported ‘urgency’ of this case.”
Referring to Jay-Z by his legal last name, the judge added: “Carter’s lawyer’s relentless filing of combative motions containing inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks is inappropriate, a waste of judicial resources, and a tactic unlikely to benefit his client. The Court will not fast-track the judicial process merely because counsel demands it.”
New York
Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, citing ‘emotional toll,’ seeks sentencing delay in wake of his wife’s trial
NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez asked a federal judge on Thursday to delay his end-of-January sentencing on bribery charges and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government, saying his family would suffer a “tremendous emotional toll” if the New Jersey Democrat were sentenced during his wife’s trial.
His lawyers told Judge Sidney H. Stein in a letter that Nadine Menendez would face a jury that might find it impossible not to hear about her husband’s sentencing if it occurred on its scheduled date, eight days into her trial.
“Put simply, the current timeline poses an unnecessary and overwhelming risk of poisoning the proceedings against Nadine,” the lawyers wrote.
They recommended moving the sentencing to a date immediately after his wife’s trial, which might not conclude until March.
The 70-year-old Menendez resigned in the weeks after his July conviction on 16 charges, including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud and obstruction of justice. He has challenged the conviction after prosecutors recently revealed that jurors were permitted to see some evidence during deliberations that was supposed to be excluded from the trial.
His wife, whose trial was postponed after it was learned she would need surgery for treatment of breast cancer, faces much of the same evidence as her husband in Manhattan federal court. Her trial is set to begin Jan. 21 while her husband is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 29.
Bob Menendez’s lawyers wrote that the former senator “often tends to his wife’s physical and emotional needs.”
“Sentencing him during his wife’s trial will of course take a tremendous emotional toll on both Senator Menendez and his family,” they said. “To ask him to face sentencing during the criminal trial of his wife, who is also in the midst of an ongoing battle against a life-threatening disease, is too much to ask of any man.”
In a separate letter to the judge, a lawyer for Nadine Menendez urged the judge to reject a suggestion by prosecutors that the sentencing occur immediately before the trial.
“If Mr. Menendez were sentenced shortly before our client proceeds to trial, that likely would have a devastating impact on our client, which, I believe, would make it difficult if not impossible for her to concentrate on, and participate meaningfully in, her trial,” attorney Barry Coburn wrote.
A spokesperson for prosecutors declined to comment.
Prosecutors say nearly $150,000 in gold bars, along with $480,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible found during a 2022 FBI raid at the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home that Nadine Menendez shared with her husband were given to the couple over a four-year span so that the senator would do favors for three New Jersey businessmen.
Two of the three businessmen were convicted along with Menendez while a third businessman pleaded guilty to charges and testified at his trial.
At the time he was charged in fall 2023, Menendez held a powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a post he was forced to give up.
Utah
Man arrested on Navajo Nation in fatal shooting of a boy on tribal lands
A man wanted in the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old boy on a tribal reservation in Colorado earlier this month has been arrested, authorities said.
Jeremiah Hight, 23, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon on a mesa west of Oljato, Utah, on the Navajo Nation reservation by members of the Navajo Police Department’s dog team and the Bureau of Indian Affairs drug enforcement division, Navajo police said. Authorities had been looking for Hight for several days before finding him in a remote area, Navajo police spokesperson Chrissy Largo said Thursday.
It was not immediately known if Hight had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Hight’s arrest came about 24 hours after the FBI announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction in a Dec. 11 shooting at a home in Towaoc, Colorado, on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. The town is about 110 miles (177 kilometers) east of where Hight was found.
The FBI investigates serious crimes on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in the Four Corners region, where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet.
Authorities have not released any details about what led up to the shooting.
The boy who died was identified as Zamias Lang. An online fundraiser for his funeral described him as a “bright and loving” child.
New York
Lawyers for ex-Abercrombie CEO say dementia may leave him incompetent to face sex charges
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — Defense lawyers say the former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch may have dementia, and a competency hearing is necessary to determine if he can face sex charges.
Lawyers for Michael Jeffries said in court papers unsealed Monday in federal court in Central Islip on Long Island that a neuropsychologist who examined Jeffries in October concluded he likely has dementia with behavioral disturbance, Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
The lawyers wrote that the neuropsychologist concluded that cognitive impairments, including impaired memory, diminished attention, processing speed slowness, and ease of confusion means Jeffries would not be capable of assisting his attorneys.
In a joint letter to the judge, defense lawyers and prosecutors suggested that experts who have evaluated Jeffries testify at a two-day competency hearing in June so that a ruling on competency can follow. A spokesperson for prosecutors said Tuesday that the office would have no further comment.
Jeffries, 80, is free on $10 million bond after pleading not guilty in October to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.
Prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man lured men into drug-fueled sex parties in the Hamptons, on Long Island, by dangling the promise of modeling for the retailer’s ads.
Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after more than two decades leading the clothing retailer once famous for its preppy, all-American aesthetic and marketing with shirtless male models.
In an indictment unveiled in October, prosecutors alleged that 15 accusers were induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to engage in sex parties from 2008 to 2015 in New York City and the Hamptons, the wealthy summertime resort on Long Island where Jeffries has a home, as well as at hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts.
Prosecutors say the men were sometimes directed to wear costumes, use sex toys and endure painful erection-inducing penile injections.
Judge says woman accusing Jay-Z, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of raping her can proceed anonymously
NEW YORK (AP) — An Alabama woman who says she was raped by Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs when she was 13 can proceed anonymously, for now, in her lawsuit against the rap moguls, a judge ruled Thursday.
In her written order, Judge Analisa Torres also chastised the lawyer representing Jay-Z for what she described as his combative motions and “inflammatory language” against the plaintiff’s lawyer, calling them inappropriate.
The Manhattan jurist said the woman can proceed anonymously at this early stage of the litigation, but she may be required to reveal her identity at a later date, if the case proceeds. That would allow defense lawyers to collect facts necessary to prepare for trial. Torres also cited “substantial interest” from the public.
Combs remains jailed in New York awaiting a criminal trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He also faces a wave of sexual assault lawsuits, many of which were filed by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, a Texas attorney who says his firm represents over 150 people, both men and women, who allege sexual abuse and exploitation by Combs.
The lawsuits allege many individuals were abused at parties in New York, California and Florida after receiving drug-laced drinks.
Combs’ lawyers have dismissed Buzbee’s lawsuits as “shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs.” Jay-Z has said in a statement that Buzbee is trying to blackmail him to settle the Alabama woman’s allegations.
Buzbee said in an email that his firm does not comment on court rulings.
In her lawsuit, the woman who says she was raped at 13 identifies herself as “Jane Doe.” She said she was living in Rochester in 2000 when she made her way to New York City and befriended a limousine driver who drove her to an after-party for the MTV Music Awards, where she says she was eventually attacked by Jay-Z and Combs.
Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Jay-Z, asked the judge to dismiss the entertainer from the woman’s lawsuit and he requested a hearing on the case for the day after he made his requests in writing on Dec. 18.
Citing an interview the plaintiff did on NBC-TV, Spiro wrote that the broadcast revealed “glaring inconsistencies and outright impossibilities” in the plaintiff’s story. For one thing, the woman said she traveled for five hours from Rochester to watch the music awards show on a jumbotron outside the VMA even though permits and pictures show there was no jumbotron at the event.
Spiro also noted that the woman’s father has said he does not recall driving from Rochester to pick his daughter up in New York City, as she says he did.
The woman has admitted inconsistencies in her story.
Torres wrote in her order Thursday that Spiro, who has been on the case less than three weeks, has submitted a “litany of letters and motions attempting to impugn the character of Plaintiff’s lawyer, many of them expounding on the purported ‘urgency’ of this case.”
Referring to Jay-Z by his legal last name, the judge added: “Carter’s lawyer’s relentless filing of combative motions containing inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks is inappropriate, a waste of judicial resources, and a tactic unlikely to benefit his client. The Court will not fast-track the judicial process merely because counsel demands it.”
New York
Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, citing ‘emotional toll,’ seeks sentencing delay in wake of his wife’s trial
NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez asked a federal judge on Thursday to delay his end-of-January sentencing on bribery charges and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government, saying his family would suffer a “tremendous emotional toll” if the New Jersey Democrat were sentenced during his wife’s trial.
His lawyers told Judge Sidney H. Stein in a letter that Nadine Menendez would face a jury that might find it impossible not to hear about her husband’s sentencing if it occurred on its scheduled date, eight days into her trial.
“Put simply, the current timeline poses an unnecessary and overwhelming risk of poisoning the proceedings against Nadine,” the lawyers wrote.
They recommended moving the sentencing to a date immediately after his wife’s trial, which might not conclude until March.
The 70-year-old Menendez resigned in the weeks after his July conviction on 16 charges, including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud and obstruction of justice. He has challenged the conviction after prosecutors recently revealed that jurors were permitted to see some evidence during deliberations that was supposed to be excluded from the trial.
His wife, whose trial was postponed after it was learned she would need surgery for treatment of breast cancer, faces much of the same evidence as her husband in Manhattan federal court. Her trial is set to begin Jan. 21 while her husband is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 29.
Bob Menendez’s lawyers wrote that the former senator “often tends to his wife’s physical and emotional needs.”
“Sentencing him during his wife’s trial will of course take a tremendous emotional toll on both Senator Menendez and his family,” they said. “To ask him to face sentencing during the criminal trial of his wife, who is also in the midst of an ongoing battle against a life-threatening disease, is too much to ask of any man.”
In a separate letter to the judge, a lawyer for Nadine Menendez urged the judge to reject a suggestion by prosecutors that the sentencing occur immediately before the trial.
“If Mr. Menendez were sentenced shortly before our client proceeds to trial, that likely would have a devastating impact on our client, which, I believe, would make it difficult if not impossible for her to concentrate on, and participate meaningfully in, her trial,” attorney Barry Coburn wrote.
A spokesperson for prosecutors declined to comment.
Prosecutors say nearly $150,000 in gold bars, along with $480,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible found during a 2022 FBI raid at the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home that Nadine Menendez shared with her husband were given to the couple over a four-year span so that the senator would do favors for three New Jersey businessmen.
Two of the three businessmen were convicted along with Menendez while a third businessman pleaded guilty to charges and testified at his trial.
At the time he was charged in fall 2023, Menendez held a powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a post he was forced to give up.
Utah
Man arrested on Navajo Nation in fatal shooting of a boy on tribal lands
A man wanted in the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old boy on a tribal reservation in Colorado earlier this month has been arrested, authorities said.
Jeremiah Hight, 23, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon on a mesa west of Oljato, Utah, on the Navajo Nation reservation by members of the Navajo Police Department’s dog team and the Bureau of Indian Affairs drug enforcement division, Navajo police said. Authorities had been looking for Hight for several days before finding him in a remote area, Navajo police spokesperson Chrissy Largo said Thursday.
It was not immediately known if Hight had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Hight’s arrest came about 24 hours after the FBI announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction in a Dec. 11 shooting at a home in Towaoc, Colorado, on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. The town is about 110 miles (177 kilometers) east of where Hight was found.
The FBI investigates serious crimes on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in the Four Corners region, where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet.
Authorities have not released any details about what led up to the shooting.
The boy who died was identified as Zamias Lang. An online fundraiser for his funeral described him as a “bright and loving” child.
New York
Lawyers for ex-Abercrombie CEO say dementia may leave him incompetent to face sex charges
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — Defense lawyers say the former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch may have dementia, and a competency hearing is necessary to determine if he can face sex charges.
Lawyers for Michael Jeffries said in court papers unsealed Monday in federal court in Central Islip on Long Island that a neuropsychologist who examined Jeffries in October concluded he likely has dementia with behavioral disturbance, Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
The lawyers wrote that the neuropsychologist concluded that cognitive impairments, including impaired memory, diminished attention, processing speed slowness, and ease of confusion means Jeffries would not be capable of assisting his attorneys.
In a joint letter to the judge, defense lawyers and prosecutors suggested that experts who have evaluated Jeffries testify at a two-day competency hearing in June so that a ruling on competency can follow. A spokesperson for prosecutors said Tuesday that the office would have no further comment.
Jeffries, 80, is free on $10 million bond after pleading not guilty in October to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.
Prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man lured men into drug-fueled sex parties in the Hamptons, on Long Island, by dangling the promise of modeling for the retailer’s ads.
Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after more than two decades leading the clothing retailer once famous for its preppy, all-American aesthetic and marketing with shirtless male models.
In an indictment unveiled in October, prosecutors alleged that 15 accusers were induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to engage in sex parties from 2008 to 2015 in New York City and the Hamptons, the wealthy summertime resort on Long Island where Jeffries has a home, as well as at hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts.
Prosecutors say the men were sometimes directed to wear costumes, use sex toys and endure painful erection-inducing penile injections.
