Alabama
Wife of man, 72, beaten to death by cellmate sues three deputies
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The wife of a 72-year-old veteran who was beaten to death by a cellmate in an Alabama jail filed a civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against three deputies working at the jail, alleging that the officers ignored his pleas for help.
Attorneys for the wife of John Reed say the deputies working at the Macon County jail that morning in October were made aware of the assault but ignored his cries and need for medical attention. Reed required a wheelchair and 24-hour oxygen for a lung disease.
The three deputies named as defendants entered the holding cell where Reed was injured and neglected to separate him from the cellmate during the attack, according to the lawsuit.
“This is one of the worst cases of prison neglect that I’ve seen,” said civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, who is representing Reed’s wife, Regene Brantley-Reed.
Court records did not list attorneys representing the three deputies on Wednesday. The Macon County sheriff did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.
Reed’s cellmate, Daniel Pollard, 24, has been charged with murder in Reed’s death. His attorney, Jennifer Tompkins, said he has severe mental health issues.
Pollard pleaded guilty to attempted murder and burglary in 2022 and was sentenced to a 20-year split sentence, with five to be served in jail or prison, according to his arrest records. He was released on probation in May 2024, according to a spokesperson from the Alabama Department of Corrections.
For Brantley-Reed’s Montgomery-based attorney Chuck James, questions remain about why Reed, who had been arrested for alleged drunken driving, was being held with Pollard in the first place.
“These deputies had multiple opportunities to do the right thing and, if they had, John Reed would be alive today,” James said.
Tompkins said the problem goes beyond the Macon County jail.
“The mental health system in Alabama is so broken that we’re not getting the mental health treatment quick enough to prevent crime,” Tompkins said. “We’re creating a bad environment for not only other inmates but for the jailers too.”
Brantley-Reed said she was waiting outside the jail with less than $300 to bail her husband out while the beating was happening. She didn’t know anything was wrong until she saw first responders arrive at the jail, she said. She was told by an administrator her husband was dead shortly after.
Reed’s beating was so severe that his wife had to bring photographs of him to the funeral director so that he could reconstruct his face for the funeral.
Georgia
College WR to serve 12 months probation on charges of assault and battery
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia wide receiver Colbie Young will serve 12 months probation after reaching a plea deal with the Solicitor’s Office in Athens-Clarke County on Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of battery and assault involving his former girlfriend.
Young pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. The resolution of the case came after Young’s ex-girlfriend retracted statements which led to his arrest on Oct. 8.
Though Young returned to practice with the Bulldogs late in the season, coach Kirby Smart continued to withhold Young from games because the legal matter had not been resolved.
There was no update from Smart or Georgia officials on Wednesday concerning Young’s status for the 2025 season.
Young’s attorney, Kim Stephens, told ESPN.com and the Athens Banner-Herald that Young will pay a $500 fine and attend a family violence intervention program in addition to serving the probation.
According to the Athens-Clarke County police report obtained by The Associated Press following the arrest, the pregnant woman told police she went to Young’s apartment and became involved in a “heated” discussion after she found out he was on the phone with another woman.
According to the police report, the woman told police she believed Young “was trying to harm her.” The arresting officer said Young denied being responsible for a bruise, discoloration and redness the officer found on the woman and denied grabbing her.
In a public statement released on Nov. 7, the women retracted “any statements attributed to me that imply or state that Colbie Young attempted to cause any injury to my unborn child or me.”
Young transferred to Georgia following two seasons at Miami. He had 11 receptions for 149 yards and two touchdowns in five games, including two starts, in 2024.
Texas
Man who killed five people gets life in prison
COLDSPRING, Texas (AP) — A man accused of killing five people in Texas in 2023 after a neighbor complained that he was keeping a baby awake by firing a gun in his yard late at night pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder charges and will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a prosecutor said.
Francisco Oropeza, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty to capital murder of multiple persons as part of a deal to avoid a possible death sentence, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon told The Associated Press. Oropeza was offered the deal after prosecutors had lengthy discussions with family members of the victims, he said.
U.S. immigration officials said Oropeza had been deported four times between 2009 and 2016. But Dillon said he will spend the rest of his life behind bars in Texas.
“He is not eligible for deportation. He is not eligible for anything,” Dillon said. “He will stay in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice until he breathes his last breath.”
Oropeza entered the pleas Wednesday after listening to emotional testimony from family members of the victims, Dillon said.
Oropeza’s attorney, Anthony Osso Sr., didn’t immediately respond to a Wednesday phone message seeking comment. He previously said that tension between Oropeza and his neighbors had been building for quite some time.
Police say Oropeza stormed into his neighbor’s house on April 28, 2023, after being asked to stop firing his gun late at night. All five victims, including a 9-year-old boy, were from Honduras. The baby wasn’t harmed.
The shooting happened in the rural town of Cleveland, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Houston. Police say Oropeza fled the neighborhood after the shooting, setting off an intense search. He was eventually arrested near Conroe, roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the crime scene.
Washington
Prosecutors seek dismissal of campaign finance case against ex-congressman
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge to dismiss their case against a former Nebraska congressman charged with lying to authorities about a foreign billionaire’s illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign.
A one-page court filing doesn’t explain why the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., is seeking the dismissal of charges against former U.S. Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry, a Republican who resigned after a related conviction in 2022.
Ed Martin, a conservative activist, has served as the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Martin also has overseen the dismissal of nearly 1,600 cases stemming from the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
A spokesperson for Martin’s office declined to elaborate on its move to end Fortenberry’s case. Attorneys for Fortenberry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A jury trial for Fortenberry in Washington was scheduled to start in July.
In 2022, a Los Angeles jury convicted Fortenberry of lying to the FBI about receiving illicit funds from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent. A person who cooperated with the FBI investigation repeatedly told Fortenberry about the illegal contributions, according to his indictment.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Fortenberry’s conviction, ruling that the case should not have been tried in Los Angeles. Fortenberry was subsequently charged in May with two counts: falsifying and concealing material facts and making false statements.
After his 2022 conviction, Fortenberry announced his resignation from the office that he had held since 2005.
Chagoury, who lived in Paris at the time, made the $30,000 contribution to Fortenberry through middlemen at a 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles, the former congressman’s indictment says. Foreign nationals are prohibited from directly contributing money to candidates for federal offices in the U.S.
Fortenberry’s trial was the first for a sitting member of Congress since Rep. Jim Traficant, an Ohio Democrat, was convicted of bribery and other felony charges in 2002.
Florida
Parents of killed TV reporter claim employer failed to provide for his safety in lawsuit
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The parents of a local TV journalist who was fatally shot while reporting on a killing in central Florida in 2023 have filed a negligence lawsuit against their son’s former employer, claiming the media company didn’t do enough to protect him.
The parents of Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons filed the lawsuit Tuesday in state court in Orlando. It seeks monetary damages against Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, on behalf of the journalist’s estate.
The lawsuit said Lyons wasn’t given any security or protective equipment even though he was at a crime scene where a woman had been shot and the suspect was still at large.
Spectrum said in an email Wednesday that the claims were unfounded and it would seek to have them dismissed.
“Dylan’s murder was an unforeseeable and horrible tragedy,” Spectrum said. “With regards to these specific allegations, Dylan was the victim of a senseless act of violence.”
Lyons and cameraman Jesse Walden were covering the killing of a woman when the suspect approached and shot them. Lyons was killed and Walden was wounded. Just minutes earlier, the suspect had broken into a nearby home and fatally shot a 9-year-old girl and wounded her mother, authorities said.
The suspect, Keith Moses, was later charged with murder in the deaths of Lyons, the woman and the girl. He has pleaded not guilty.
Although Spectrum requires its reporters and videographers to go to high-crime areas, the company doesn’t provide them with personal protection measures or security personnel, according to the lawsuit.
“Journalists face an increasing threat of violence due to their work,” the lawsuit said.
Bruce Shapiro, who edited a 2017 report about journalist safety training, said in an email Wednesday that it was “undeniable” that local reporting has become more dangerous in the United States.
“Not only crime reporters but investigative journalists, local political reporter, even television meteorologists have endured unprecedented abuse, harassment, and violent attacks,” said Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia Journalism School.
The 2017 report was focused on war and crisis reporters, but since that time, “there has been much wider recognition of local newsrooms’ duty of care to the safety of staff, but there’s little consensus on what that looks like,” he said.
Wife of man, 72, beaten to death by cellmate sues three deputies
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The wife of a 72-year-old veteran who was beaten to death by a cellmate in an Alabama jail filed a civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against three deputies working at the jail, alleging that the officers ignored his pleas for help.
Attorneys for the wife of John Reed say the deputies working at the Macon County jail that morning in October were made aware of the assault but ignored his cries and need for medical attention. Reed required a wheelchair and 24-hour oxygen for a lung disease.
The three deputies named as defendants entered the holding cell where Reed was injured and neglected to separate him from the cellmate during the attack, according to the lawsuit.
“This is one of the worst cases of prison neglect that I’ve seen,” said civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, who is representing Reed’s wife, Regene Brantley-Reed.
Court records did not list attorneys representing the three deputies on Wednesday. The Macon County sheriff did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.
Reed’s cellmate, Daniel Pollard, 24, has been charged with murder in Reed’s death. His attorney, Jennifer Tompkins, said he has severe mental health issues.
Pollard pleaded guilty to attempted murder and burglary in 2022 and was sentenced to a 20-year split sentence, with five to be served in jail or prison, according to his arrest records. He was released on probation in May 2024, according to a spokesperson from the Alabama Department of Corrections.
For Brantley-Reed’s Montgomery-based attorney Chuck James, questions remain about why Reed, who had been arrested for alleged drunken driving, was being held with Pollard in the first place.
“These deputies had multiple opportunities to do the right thing and, if they had, John Reed would be alive today,” James said.
Tompkins said the problem goes beyond the Macon County jail.
“The mental health system in Alabama is so broken that we’re not getting the mental health treatment quick enough to prevent crime,” Tompkins said. “We’re creating a bad environment for not only other inmates but for the jailers too.”
Brantley-Reed said she was waiting outside the jail with less than $300 to bail her husband out while the beating was happening. She didn’t know anything was wrong until she saw first responders arrive at the jail, she said. She was told by an administrator her husband was dead shortly after.
Reed’s beating was so severe that his wife had to bring photographs of him to the funeral director so that he could reconstruct his face for the funeral.
Georgia
College WR to serve 12 months probation on charges of assault and battery
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia wide receiver Colbie Young will serve 12 months probation after reaching a plea deal with the Solicitor’s Office in Athens-Clarke County on Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of battery and assault involving his former girlfriend.
Young pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. The resolution of the case came after Young’s ex-girlfriend retracted statements which led to his arrest on Oct. 8.
Though Young returned to practice with the Bulldogs late in the season, coach Kirby Smart continued to withhold Young from games because the legal matter had not been resolved.
There was no update from Smart or Georgia officials on Wednesday concerning Young’s status for the 2025 season.
Young’s attorney, Kim Stephens, told ESPN.com and the Athens Banner-Herald that Young will pay a $500 fine and attend a family violence intervention program in addition to serving the probation.
According to the Athens-Clarke County police report obtained by The Associated Press following the arrest, the pregnant woman told police she went to Young’s apartment and became involved in a “heated” discussion after she found out he was on the phone with another woman.
According to the police report, the woman told police she believed Young “was trying to harm her.” The arresting officer said Young denied being responsible for a bruise, discoloration and redness the officer found on the woman and denied grabbing her.
In a public statement released on Nov. 7, the women retracted “any statements attributed to me that imply or state that Colbie Young attempted to cause any injury to my unborn child or me.”
Young transferred to Georgia following two seasons at Miami. He had 11 receptions for 149 yards and two touchdowns in five games, including two starts, in 2024.
Texas
Man who killed five people gets life in prison
COLDSPRING, Texas (AP) — A man accused of killing five people in Texas in 2023 after a neighbor complained that he was keeping a baby awake by firing a gun in his yard late at night pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder charges and will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a prosecutor said.
Francisco Oropeza, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty to capital murder of multiple persons as part of a deal to avoid a possible death sentence, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon told The Associated Press. Oropeza was offered the deal after prosecutors had lengthy discussions with family members of the victims, he said.
U.S. immigration officials said Oropeza had been deported four times between 2009 and 2016. But Dillon said he will spend the rest of his life behind bars in Texas.
“He is not eligible for deportation. He is not eligible for anything,” Dillon said. “He will stay in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice until he breathes his last breath.”
Oropeza entered the pleas Wednesday after listening to emotional testimony from family members of the victims, Dillon said.
Oropeza’s attorney, Anthony Osso Sr., didn’t immediately respond to a Wednesday phone message seeking comment. He previously said that tension between Oropeza and his neighbors had been building for quite some time.
Police say Oropeza stormed into his neighbor’s house on April 28, 2023, after being asked to stop firing his gun late at night. All five victims, including a 9-year-old boy, were from Honduras. The baby wasn’t harmed.
The shooting happened in the rural town of Cleveland, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Houston. Police say Oropeza fled the neighborhood after the shooting, setting off an intense search. He was eventually arrested near Conroe, roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the crime scene.
Washington
Prosecutors seek dismissal of campaign finance case against ex-congressman
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge to dismiss their case against a former Nebraska congressman charged with lying to authorities about a foreign billionaire’s illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign.
A one-page court filing doesn’t explain why the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., is seeking the dismissal of charges against former U.S. Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry, a Republican who resigned after a related conviction in 2022.
Ed Martin, a conservative activist, has served as the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Martin also has overseen the dismissal of nearly 1,600 cases stemming from the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
A spokesperson for Martin’s office declined to elaborate on its move to end Fortenberry’s case. Attorneys for Fortenberry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A jury trial for Fortenberry in Washington was scheduled to start in July.
In 2022, a Los Angeles jury convicted Fortenberry of lying to the FBI about receiving illicit funds from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent. A person who cooperated with the FBI investigation repeatedly told Fortenberry about the illegal contributions, according to his indictment.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Fortenberry’s conviction, ruling that the case should not have been tried in Los Angeles. Fortenberry was subsequently charged in May with two counts: falsifying and concealing material facts and making false statements.
After his 2022 conviction, Fortenberry announced his resignation from the office that he had held since 2005.
Chagoury, who lived in Paris at the time, made the $30,000 contribution to Fortenberry through middlemen at a 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles, the former congressman’s indictment says. Foreign nationals are prohibited from directly contributing money to candidates for federal offices in the U.S.
Fortenberry’s trial was the first for a sitting member of Congress since Rep. Jim Traficant, an Ohio Democrat, was convicted of bribery and other felony charges in 2002.
Florida
Parents of killed TV reporter claim employer failed to provide for his safety in lawsuit
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The parents of a local TV journalist who was fatally shot while reporting on a killing in central Florida in 2023 have filed a negligence lawsuit against their son’s former employer, claiming the media company didn’t do enough to protect him.
The parents of Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons filed the lawsuit Tuesday in state court in Orlando. It seeks monetary damages against Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, on behalf of the journalist’s estate.
The lawsuit said Lyons wasn’t given any security or protective equipment even though he was at a crime scene where a woman had been shot and the suspect was still at large.
Spectrum said in an email Wednesday that the claims were unfounded and it would seek to have them dismissed.
“Dylan’s murder was an unforeseeable and horrible tragedy,” Spectrum said. “With regards to these specific allegations, Dylan was the victim of a senseless act of violence.”
Lyons and cameraman Jesse Walden were covering the killing of a woman when the suspect approached and shot them. Lyons was killed and Walden was wounded. Just minutes earlier, the suspect had broken into a nearby home and fatally shot a 9-year-old girl and wounded her mother, authorities said.
The suspect, Keith Moses, was later charged with murder in the deaths of Lyons, the woman and the girl. He has pleaded not guilty.
Although Spectrum requires its reporters and videographers to go to high-crime areas, the company doesn’t provide them with personal protection measures or security personnel, according to the lawsuit.
“Journalists face an increasing threat of violence due to their work,” the lawsuit said.
Bruce Shapiro, who edited a 2017 report about journalist safety training, said in an email Wednesday that it was “undeniable” that local reporting has become more dangerous in the United States.
“Not only crime reporters but investigative journalists, local political reporter, even television meteorologists have endured unprecedented abuse, harassment, and violent attacks,” said Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia Journalism School.
The 2017 report was focused on war and crisis reporters, but since that time, “there has been much wider recognition of local newsrooms’ duty of care to the safety of staff, but there’s little consensus on what that looks like,” he said.
