New York
Former police detective convicted of lying to FBI to protect Mafia family
NEW YORK (AP) — A former police detective was convicted Wednesday of lying to the FBI in order to protect a Mafia family’s illegal gambling operations in the New York City suburbs.
Hector Rosario, a former detective for the Nassau County police on Long Island, was also acquitted of obstruction of justice, the top charge he had faced. The jury in the case had been deliberating since Tuesday following a seven-day trial in Brooklyn federal court.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York John Durham, whose office prosecuted the case, called the 15-year police veteran a “corrupt detective” who chose loyalty to the mob “over the public he was sworn to protect.”
“Hector Rosario cared more about lining his pockets with Bonanno family money and protecting his own interests than his fidelity to the law,” added Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “He disgracefully compromised the investigative work of his fellow detectives by tipping off a target and lied to federal agents as the walls were closing in on him.”
For years, prosecutors said the 51-year-old Mineola resident accepted thousands of dollars in payments from Bonanno crime family members.
In exchange, they said, he tipped off a mobster that he was under investigation and looked up the home address of a witness he believed was cooperating with authorities.
Rosario even steered law enforcement raids toward competing gambling parlors and conducted his own fake police bust on a shoe repair shop that served as a front for a rival Genovese crime family operation.
Prosecutors said Rosario was interviewed by FBI agents in 2020 as they investigated Bonanno and Genovese criminal activity in the suburbs east of New York City. But they said he falsely stated he had no information about the Mafia or illegal gambling spots.
Rosario, who was fired from the department in 2022, faces up to five years in prison.
The charge of obstruction of justice carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, but Rosario was acquitted after his lawyers argued he wasn’t trying to interfere with the federal investigation because he wasn’t aware they were looking into his criminal associates, Newsday reported.
Lawyers for Rosario, who remains out on bail, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday. Outside court, they said they planned to appeal the conviction, The New York Times reported.
During the trial, Rosario’s lawyers argued the case hinged on the unreliable testimony of mobsters now cooperating with prosecutors as they faced their own criminal charges.
Rosario was among some nine people charged when federal authorities busted what they described as a lucrative racket and throwback to the Mafia’s heyday in New York.
Prosecutors said the other defendants had colorful nicknames like “Joe Fish,” “Sal the Shoemaker” and “Joe Box,” and ran backroom gambling dens from fronts including a coffee bar, a soccer club and the shoe repair shop.
Besides illegal gambling, the mobsters faced racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy charges.
Oregon
Truck driver in crash that killed 7 farmworkers is sentenced to 48 years in prison
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A truck driver who killed seven farmworkers when he crashed into a parked van on Interstate 5 in Oregon was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly 50 years in prison.
Marion County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Wren sentenced Lincoln Smith to 48 years and 3 months, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
He was convicted in February on seven counts of second-degree manslaughter and three counts of assault, as well as reckless driving. Jurors acquitted the 54-year-old Californian of driving under the influence of intoxicants.
Testifying at trial, Smith said the effects of drugs he took the night before the crash had worn off and he nodded off at the wheel. Traces of methamphetamine, fentanyl and morphine were found in his blood after the crash.
The crash, one of the state’s deadliest, happened in May 2023. Smith’s semitruck ran into a van carrying 11 farmworkers that was parked on the side of I-5 near Albany, in an agricultural area of the Willamette Valley.
The victims were identified as Juan Carlos Leyva-Carrillo, 37; Gabriel Juarez-Tovilla, 58; Alejandra Espinoza-Carpio, 39; Eduardo Lopez-Lopez, 31; Luis Enrique Gomez-Reyes, 30; Alejandro Jimenez-Hernandez, 36; and Josue Garcia-Garcia, 30.
Smith apologized in court, saying that if he could trade his life for any of the victims’ lives, he would, KGW-TV reported.
Albany is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Portland. I-5 is the main north-south interstate on the West Coast.
California
Los Angeles County sues Southern California Edison, alleging utility’s equipment sparked wildfire
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County said Wednesday that it’s suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked January’s Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people in the Altadena area.
The lawsuit seeks to recover costs and damages sustained from the blaze that damaged “essential community infrastructure” and “massively impacted the County’s natural resources, harmed the environment and wildlife, and threatened public health,” LA County said in a statement.
Costs and damage estimates were expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars, the county said, adding that assessments were ongoing.
Additional costs have been incurred by county departments for ongoing support in assisting residents recovering from the fire’s destruction, according to the lawsuit.
“The County’s case is essential to the restoration and rebuilding process for the community, including residences and businesses, to recover from the devastation,” the statement said.
Edison was reviewing the lawsuit and “will address it through the appropriate legal process,” utility spokesperson Kathleen Dunleavy said Wednesday.
The fire’s cause is still under investigation.
The utility has said there is no evidence its equipment started the Eaton Fire. But in required filings with state utility regulators, the utility has reported a fault on a power line connected miles away from those located near the fire’s origin and said it’s looking into whether an idle transmission line became energized and possibly sparked the blaze.
It has separately acknowledged that its equipment may have caused a smaller fire that broke out the same day and was quickly handled.
The county’s complaint alleges that witnesses, photos, and videos indicate the fire started directly under Edison transmission lines in Eaton Canyon. Dozens of other lawsuits have been filed against the utility, including by homeowners who saw their properties destroyed.
The county seeks to recoup costs and receive compensation for destroyed infrastructure, recreational areas, parks, road damage, cleanup and recovery efforts, flood and mudslide prevention, workers compensation claims, overtime for workers, lost taxes and more.
“We are committed to seeking justice for the Altadena community and the taxpayers of Los Angeles County,” County Counsel Dawyn R. Harrison said in a statement.
The County, the County Flood Control District, and the County’s Consolidated Fire Protection District are the plaintiffs in the case.
The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre are also filing suits against Edison for damages to taxpayer resources and public infrastructure incurred from the Eaton Fire, according to the county.
Los Angeles County previously won more than $64 million in a settlement with Southern California Edison over the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which killed three people and burned more than 150 square miles (388.50 square kilometers) of land. Investigators determined the utility’s equipment sparked that fire, and the utility also paid more than $2 billion to settle related insurance claims.
Utility equipment has sparked some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in state history in recent years.
Missouri
Charges filed in deaths of 3 Kansas City Chiefs fans whose bodies were found in friend’s backyard
Two men were charged Wednesday in the deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans whose bodies were found in a backyard two days after they got together to watch the final game of the regular season in 2024.
Jordan Willis and Ivory Carson are each charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of delivery of a controlled substance in a case that gained widespread attention on social media. Their bond is set at $100,000 cash only.
Speculation about what happened started after 38-year-old Ricky Johnson, 36-year-old Clayton McGeeney and 37-year-old David Harrington were found dead in Willis’ Kansas City, Missouri, yard on Jan. 9, 2024, after McGeeney’s fiancée went looking for him. A doctor with a forensic lab later determined that the combined toxicity of fentanyl and cocaine killed them, according to the probable cause statement.
Witnesses said the friends were using cocaine when they got together first at Harrington’s home and then Willis’ on Jan. 7, 2024, to watch the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers. The witnesses said Willis had a history of offering cocaine to his friends when they were low on money and that he bought it from Carson, according to the probable cause statement.
But Willis’ lawyer, John Picerno, said there is no evidence that Willis bought the drugs that his friends ingested before their deaths, noting they had been partying all day. And he said Willis didn’t know that they were still in his backyard — or that they needed medical attention — until police showed up.
“It has been a very, very long year for Jordan,” Picerno said. “He’s lost his job. He’s lost his home. He’s lost his friends. The public are pointing at him as someone who essentially killed them. And nothing could be further from the truth.”
Willis told police that he believed that McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson possibly got a hold of some fentanyl at some point on the Sunday the game was played and that he thought they all left his home around 4 a.m. the next morning.
Weather records indicate the low temperature that night was around 33 degrees (1 degree Celsius).
Investigators interviewed Carson, who admitted to selling cocaine to Johnson, Willis, Harrington and McGeeney before Jan. 1, 2024, the probable cause statement says. No attorney is listed for Carson in online court records.
In the weeks and months since the three deaths, the case went viral on TikTok and other social platforms for its true-crime overtones. And family members of the three men have taken their frustrations to Kansas City-area media, questioning when there would be charges.
Former police detective convicted of lying to FBI to protect Mafia family
NEW YORK (AP) — A former police detective was convicted Wednesday of lying to the FBI in order to protect a Mafia family’s illegal gambling operations in the New York City suburbs.
Hector Rosario, a former detective for the Nassau County police on Long Island, was also acquitted of obstruction of justice, the top charge he had faced. The jury in the case had been deliberating since Tuesday following a seven-day trial in Brooklyn federal court.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York John Durham, whose office prosecuted the case, called the 15-year police veteran a “corrupt detective” who chose loyalty to the mob “over the public he was sworn to protect.”
“Hector Rosario cared more about lining his pockets with Bonanno family money and protecting his own interests than his fidelity to the law,” added Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “He disgracefully compromised the investigative work of his fellow detectives by tipping off a target and lied to federal agents as the walls were closing in on him.”
For years, prosecutors said the 51-year-old Mineola resident accepted thousands of dollars in payments from Bonanno crime family members.
In exchange, they said, he tipped off a mobster that he was under investigation and looked up the home address of a witness he believed was cooperating with authorities.
Rosario even steered law enforcement raids toward competing gambling parlors and conducted his own fake police bust on a shoe repair shop that served as a front for a rival Genovese crime family operation.
Prosecutors said Rosario was interviewed by FBI agents in 2020 as they investigated Bonanno and Genovese criminal activity in the suburbs east of New York City. But they said he falsely stated he had no information about the Mafia or illegal gambling spots.
Rosario, who was fired from the department in 2022, faces up to five years in prison.
The charge of obstruction of justice carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, but Rosario was acquitted after his lawyers argued he wasn’t trying to interfere with the federal investigation because he wasn’t aware they were looking into his criminal associates, Newsday reported.
Lawyers for Rosario, who remains out on bail, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday. Outside court, they said they planned to appeal the conviction, The New York Times reported.
During the trial, Rosario’s lawyers argued the case hinged on the unreliable testimony of mobsters now cooperating with prosecutors as they faced their own criminal charges.
Rosario was among some nine people charged when federal authorities busted what they described as a lucrative racket and throwback to the Mafia’s heyday in New York.
Prosecutors said the other defendants had colorful nicknames like “Joe Fish,” “Sal the Shoemaker” and “Joe Box,” and ran backroom gambling dens from fronts including a coffee bar, a soccer club and the shoe repair shop.
Besides illegal gambling, the mobsters faced racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy charges.
Oregon
Truck driver in crash that killed 7 farmworkers is sentenced to 48 years in prison
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A truck driver who killed seven farmworkers when he crashed into a parked van on Interstate 5 in Oregon was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly 50 years in prison.
Marion County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Wren sentenced Lincoln Smith to 48 years and 3 months, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
He was convicted in February on seven counts of second-degree manslaughter and three counts of assault, as well as reckless driving. Jurors acquitted the 54-year-old Californian of driving under the influence of intoxicants.
Testifying at trial, Smith said the effects of drugs he took the night before the crash had worn off and he nodded off at the wheel. Traces of methamphetamine, fentanyl and morphine were found in his blood after the crash.
The crash, one of the state’s deadliest, happened in May 2023. Smith’s semitruck ran into a van carrying 11 farmworkers that was parked on the side of I-5 near Albany, in an agricultural area of the Willamette Valley.
The victims were identified as Juan Carlos Leyva-Carrillo, 37; Gabriel Juarez-Tovilla, 58; Alejandra Espinoza-Carpio, 39; Eduardo Lopez-Lopez, 31; Luis Enrique Gomez-Reyes, 30; Alejandro Jimenez-Hernandez, 36; and Josue Garcia-Garcia, 30.
Smith apologized in court, saying that if he could trade his life for any of the victims’ lives, he would, KGW-TV reported.
Albany is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Portland. I-5 is the main north-south interstate on the West Coast.
California
Los Angeles County sues Southern California Edison, alleging utility’s equipment sparked wildfire
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County said Wednesday that it’s suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked January’s Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people in the Altadena area.
The lawsuit seeks to recover costs and damages sustained from the blaze that damaged “essential community infrastructure” and “massively impacted the County’s natural resources, harmed the environment and wildlife, and threatened public health,” LA County said in a statement.
Costs and damage estimates were expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars, the county said, adding that assessments were ongoing.
Additional costs have been incurred by county departments for ongoing support in assisting residents recovering from the fire’s destruction, according to the lawsuit.
“The County’s case is essential to the restoration and rebuilding process for the community, including residences and businesses, to recover from the devastation,” the statement said.
Edison was reviewing the lawsuit and “will address it through the appropriate legal process,” utility spokesperson Kathleen Dunleavy said Wednesday.
The fire’s cause is still under investigation.
The utility has said there is no evidence its equipment started the Eaton Fire. But in required filings with state utility regulators, the utility has reported a fault on a power line connected miles away from those located near the fire’s origin and said it’s looking into whether an idle transmission line became energized and possibly sparked the blaze.
It has separately acknowledged that its equipment may have caused a smaller fire that broke out the same day and was quickly handled.
The county’s complaint alleges that witnesses, photos, and videos indicate the fire started directly under Edison transmission lines in Eaton Canyon. Dozens of other lawsuits have been filed against the utility, including by homeowners who saw their properties destroyed.
The county seeks to recoup costs and receive compensation for destroyed infrastructure, recreational areas, parks, road damage, cleanup and recovery efforts, flood and mudslide prevention, workers compensation claims, overtime for workers, lost taxes and more.
“We are committed to seeking justice for the Altadena community and the taxpayers of Los Angeles County,” County Counsel Dawyn R. Harrison said in a statement.
The County, the County Flood Control District, and the County’s Consolidated Fire Protection District are the plaintiffs in the case.
The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre are also filing suits against Edison for damages to taxpayer resources and public infrastructure incurred from the Eaton Fire, according to the county.
Los Angeles County previously won more than $64 million in a settlement with Southern California Edison over the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which killed three people and burned more than 150 square miles (388.50 square kilometers) of land. Investigators determined the utility’s equipment sparked that fire, and the utility also paid more than $2 billion to settle related insurance claims.
Utility equipment has sparked some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in state history in recent years.
Missouri
Charges filed in deaths of 3 Kansas City Chiefs fans whose bodies were found in friend’s backyard
Two men were charged Wednesday in the deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans whose bodies were found in a backyard two days after they got together to watch the final game of the regular season in 2024.
Jordan Willis and Ivory Carson are each charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of delivery of a controlled substance in a case that gained widespread attention on social media. Their bond is set at $100,000 cash only.
Speculation about what happened started after 38-year-old Ricky Johnson, 36-year-old Clayton McGeeney and 37-year-old David Harrington were found dead in Willis’ Kansas City, Missouri, yard on Jan. 9, 2024, after McGeeney’s fiancée went looking for him. A doctor with a forensic lab later determined that the combined toxicity of fentanyl and cocaine killed them, according to the probable cause statement.
Witnesses said the friends were using cocaine when they got together first at Harrington’s home and then Willis’ on Jan. 7, 2024, to watch the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers. The witnesses said Willis had a history of offering cocaine to his friends when they were low on money and that he bought it from Carson, according to the probable cause statement.
But Willis’ lawyer, John Picerno, said there is no evidence that Willis bought the drugs that his friends ingested before their deaths, noting they had been partying all day. And he said Willis didn’t know that they were still in his backyard — or that they needed medical attention — until police showed up.
“It has been a very, very long year for Jordan,” Picerno said. “He’s lost his job. He’s lost his home. He’s lost his friends. The public are pointing at him as someone who essentially killed them. And nothing could be further from the truth.”
Willis told police that he believed that McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson possibly got a hold of some fentanyl at some point on the Sunday the game was played and that he thought they all left his home around 4 a.m. the next morning.
Weather records indicate the low temperature that night was around 33 degrees (1 degree Celsius).
Investigators interviewed Carson, who admitted to selling cocaine to Johnson, Willis, Harrington and McGeeney before Jan. 1, 2024, the probable cause statement says. No attorney is listed for Carson in online court records.
In the weeks and months since the three deaths, the case went viral on TikTok and other social platforms for its true-crime overtones. And family members of the three men have taken their frustrations to Kansas City-area media, questioning when there would be charges.
