Washington
Jenner & Block sues over Trump executive order, becoming second law firm to do so
WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent Washington law firm targeted by President Donald Trump has sued to block an executive order that threatens its federal contracts and the security clearances of its employees.
Jenner & Block said Friday that the executive order is unconstitutional and that it expects to “prevail quickly.” The order is one in a series of White House decrees over the last month meant to punish the legal community.
The firm said it had no interest in “capitulating to unconstitutional government coercion,” a perhaps veiled reference to a deal struck last week with the White House by another targeted firm.
Oklahoma
Nearly 200 dogs seized from ex-NFL player in dogfighting case
BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) — Former NFL player LeShon Johnson has been indicted for allegedly operating a large dogfighting venture that resulted in authorities seizing 190 dogs — considered the most ever taken from one person in a federal dogfighting investigation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Johnson, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, has been charged with possessing the pit bull-type dogs for use in an animal fighting venture and for selling, transporting, and delivering a dog for use in an animal fighting venture, the department said Tuesday.
The dogs were taken from Johnson in October 2024. He allegedly ran the dogfighting operation “Mal Kant Kennels” in Broken Arrow and Haskell, Oklahoma, according to court documents.
“Animal abuse is cruel, depraved, and deserves severe punishment,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law and will remain committed to protecting innocent animals from those who would do them harm.”
Johnson previously pleaded guilty to state animal fighting charges in 2004 in Oklahoma. He was given a five-year deferred sentence, according to court documents.
Johnson’s lawyer, Courtney R. Jordan, declined to comment on the case.
Johnson allegedly bred dogs that had won as many as five fights and then sold “stud rights” and their offspring to other dogfighters. The trafficking took place across the U.S. and helped to grow the dogfighting industry, while resulting in Johnson profiting financially, according to the Justice Department.
If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison on each count and a $250,000 fine.
“The FBI will not tolerate criminals that harm innocent animals for their twisted form of entertainment,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “The FBI views animal cruelty investigations as a precursor to larger, organized crime efforts, similar to trafficking and homicides. This is yet another push in the FBI’s crackdown of violent offenders harming our most innocent.”
Johnson was a running back who played for the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants from 1994-1999.
New York
Rapper who joined Trump in campaign rally pleads guilty to attempted murder
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City rapper who joined President Donald Trump during a campaign rally last year has pleaded guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy charges after prosecutors say he used earnings from his music career to fuel gang violence in Brooklyn.
Sheff G, whose legal name is Michael Williams, agreed to serve five years in prison as part of the plea entered in a Brooklyn court Wednesday, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.
“Notoriety could not shield this defendant from justice,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “He used his fame to fund and direct violence, terrorizing our streets.”
The 26-year-old rapper, whose songs and videos have millions of YouTube views and Spotify streams, was among those arrested in connection with a long-term investigation into gang-related shootings in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
More than 30 purported members of the 8 Trey Crips and the street gang’s affiliate, the 9 Ways gang, have so far been indicted.
Among them is Tegan Chambers, a rapper known as Sleepy Hallow who also appeared on stage with Trump and Sheff G during the May 23, 2024, rally in the Bronx.
Prosecutors say Sheff G showered money and jewelry on gang members as they battled rivals in Brooklyn.
They say the rapper even acted as a getaway driver on at least one occasion, chauffeuring three codefendants to and from a 2021 shooting that targeted a rival but instead hit two bystanders.
Sheff G also treated Sleepy Hallow and others to a lavish dinner at a Manhattan steakhouse to celebrate a 2020 shooting that killed a purported rival gang member and injured five others, according to prosecutors.
Surveillance videos, social media posts, text messages and more document the criminal activities, and the two rappers also boasted about their misdeeds in their songs, Gonzalez’s office said.
Sheff G’s lawyer Arthur Aidala said Thursday that his client decided the plea deal was in the “best interest of everyone involved” after “careful review of the evidence and hard consideration.”
The rapper is due to be sentenced Aug. 13. Sleepy Hallow, whose layer didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment, is due in court April 11.
The two were among the notable names Trump touted during his campaign stops as he worked to woo Black voters by comparing his legal challenges to racial prejudice in the criminal justice system.
“One thing I want to say: They are always going to whisper your accomplishments and shout your failures,” Sheff G told the Bronx crowd last May after being invited on stage by the Republican candidate. “Trump is going to shout the wins for all of us.”
New York
$90 million settlement ends lawsuit over a deadly 2018 helicopter crash
NEW YORK (AP) — Relatives of a man who died when a sightseeing helicopter crashed and sank in a New York City river have settled a lawsuit for $90 million, agreeing to reduce a jury award in order to foreclose appeals and end the case.
Court records show a Manhattan judge approved the settlement Wednesday in the wrongful death case of Trevor Cadigan, seven years after he died at age 26.
Last fall a Manhattan jury awarded $116 million to Cadigan’s relatives, but defendants later took steps to challenge the award. The settlement stops those challenges, and Cadigan family lawyer Gary C. Robb said Thursday that his clients felt it was time to close the case.
“Their primary objective was twofold, and that is, one, to ensure accountability for what happened to Trevor, and also to shine a bright light on dangerous helicopter operator practices and induce them to do a better, safer job,” Robb said by phone. “And they accomplished both objectives, we believe.”
Messages seeking comment were sent to lawyers for defendants FlyNYON, which arranged the flight, and Liberty Helicopters, which owned the helicopter and supplied the pilot. Another defendant, flotation device maker Dart Aerospace, declined to comment.
The aircraft, which had no doors, plunged into the East River after a passenger restraint tether snagged on a floor-mounted fuel shutoff switch, stopping the engine, a the National Transportation Safety Board investigation found. The pilot was able to release his seatbelt and escape the sinking aircraft, but the five passengers were trapped in safety harnesses.
Killed were Cadigan; his friend Brian McDaniel, 26; Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29; Tristan Hill, 29; and Daniel Thompson, 34.
Cadigan, a journalist, had recently moved to New York from Dallas.
After the crash the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded doors-off flights with tight seat restraints. Such flights later resumed with requirements for restraints that can be released with a single action.
Colorado
Lawsuit: Man died after being hurt then neglected for a week in a jail
DENVER (AP) — A 69-year-old man slowly suffocated to death in a rural Colorado jail after his ribs were broken in an altercation with a deputy and he languished in a cell for a week without medical care, according to a lawsuit announced Thursday.
Michael Burch’s 2023 death was ruled a homicide. Prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against the deputy who used a Taser on Burch and wrestled with him in a Huerfano County jail cell. In making the decision, District Attorney Henry Solano cited self-defense laws.
An autopsy found six of Burch’s right ribs had broken and his right lung collapsed. He wasn’t taken to a hospital but instead was transferred to another cell where he was found dead seven days later.
“The simple act of breathing became so painful as Mr. Burch’s shattered ribs continued to pierce and tear through his organs that his body stopped using his right lung, which shrank to half the normal size,” lawyers for Burch’s estate said in the federal lawsuit.
Defendants in the case include the Huerfano County commissioners, sheriff’s office, individual sheriff’s officials, paramedics and the hospital they worked for, as well as nurses and the nonprofit company contracted to provide health care to inmates.
The lawsuit accuses them of causing Burch’s fatal injuries and not doing anything to treat them, violating his constitutional rights.
A lawyer representing the county and sheriff’s office, Eric Ziporin, declined to comment. Representatives of the hospital and the health care company declined comment.
One of the family’s lawyers, Qusair Mohamedbhai, said Burch’s relationship with his children had been strained by his mental health problems, but they had hoped he would have a relationship with his grandchildren. Now they have nightmares about how painful their father’s final days must have been.
“This is Gulag-type behavior that simply should not exist anywhere,” he said.
Burch was tackled after he refused to drop a pencil he had been given. A deputy warned him “Drop it or we’ll drop you,” according to body camera footage. Once the Taser was used, Burch rushed toward the deputy and the video, which becomes obscured, shows him going to the ground near a steel bench with his arms held by the deputy. The lawsuit says Burch was tackled into the bench, which broke his ribs.
Burch, a former California prison guard, was arrested on March 25, 2023, after a series of erratic acts, including driving to the home of two strangers and swinging a rubber mallet.
According to the lawsuit, his mental health was not evaluated when he arrived at the jail, although video shows sheriff’s official signaling he was mentally unstable by stirring her finger next to her head after he was hit with the Taser and tackled on March 28, 2023.
The inmate screamed and moaned as the deputy used a knee to keep Burch on the ground when he was accused of resisting. Later he appeared calmer as paramedics evaluated him. He said his ribs had been crushed and he wanted to go to the hospital, but family members allege in their lawsuit that the paramedics did not evaluate his chest.
Body camera footage shows one paramedic briefly lifting up Burch’s shirt, but the lawsuit said no one listened to his lungs with a stethoscope or took vital signs.
After Burch told a sheriff’s captain that he barely survived the night on April 1, 2023, he was seen over video by a contracted nurse in Mississippi, who did not ask to see Burch’s chest, the lawsuit said. Instead, it described the interaction as focused on Burch’s mental health.
Three days later, he was found dead on the concrete floor of his cell.
Jenner & Block sues over Trump executive order, becoming second law firm to do so
WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent Washington law firm targeted by President Donald Trump has sued to block an executive order that threatens its federal contracts and the security clearances of its employees.
Jenner & Block said Friday that the executive order is unconstitutional and that it expects to “prevail quickly.” The order is one in a series of White House decrees over the last month meant to punish the legal community.
The firm said it had no interest in “capitulating to unconstitutional government coercion,” a perhaps veiled reference to a deal struck last week with the White House by another targeted firm.
Oklahoma
Nearly 200 dogs seized from ex-NFL player in dogfighting case
BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) — Former NFL player LeShon Johnson has been indicted for allegedly operating a large dogfighting venture that resulted in authorities seizing 190 dogs — considered the most ever taken from one person in a federal dogfighting investigation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Johnson, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, has been charged with possessing the pit bull-type dogs for use in an animal fighting venture and for selling, transporting, and delivering a dog for use in an animal fighting venture, the department said Tuesday.
The dogs were taken from Johnson in October 2024. He allegedly ran the dogfighting operation “Mal Kant Kennels” in Broken Arrow and Haskell, Oklahoma, according to court documents.
“Animal abuse is cruel, depraved, and deserves severe punishment,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law and will remain committed to protecting innocent animals from those who would do them harm.”
Johnson previously pleaded guilty to state animal fighting charges in 2004 in Oklahoma. He was given a five-year deferred sentence, according to court documents.
Johnson’s lawyer, Courtney R. Jordan, declined to comment on the case.
Johnson allegedly bred dogs that had won as many as five fights and then sold “stud rights” and their offspring to other dogfighters. The trafficking took place across the U.S. and helped to grow the dogfighting industry, while resulting in Johnson profiting financially, according to the Justice Department.
If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison on each count and a $250,000 fine.
“The FBI will not tolerate criminals that harm innocent animals for their twisted form of entertainment,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “The FBI views animal cruelty investigations as a precursor to larger, organized crime efforts, similar to trafficking and homicides. This is yet another push in the FBI’s crackdown of violent offenders harming our most innocent.”
Johnson was a running back who played for the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants from 1994-1999.
New York
Rapper who joined Trump in campaign rally pleads guilty to attempted murder
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City rapper who joined President Donald Trump during a campaign rally last year has pleaded guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy charges after prosecutors say he used earnings from his music career to fuel gang violence in Brooklyn.
Sheff G, whose legal name is Michael Williams, agreed to serve five years in prison as part of the plea entered in a Brooklyn court Wednesday, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.
“Notoriety could not shield this defendant from justice,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “He used his fame to fund and direct violence, terrorizing our streets.”
The 26-year-old rapper, whose songs and videos have millions of YouTube views and Spotify streams, was among those arrested in connection with a long-term investigation into gang-related shootings in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
More than 30 purported members of the 8 Trey Crips and the street gang’s affiliate, the 9 Ways gang, have so far been indicted.
Among them is Tegan Chambers, a rapper known as Sleepy Hallow who also appeared on stage with Trump and Sheff G during the May 23, 2024, rally in the Bronx.
Prosecutors say Sheff G showered money and jewelry on gang members as they battled rivals in Brooklyn.
They say the rapper even acted as a getaway driver on at least one occasion, chauffeuring three codefendants to and from a 2021 shooting that targeted a rival but instead hit two bystanders.
Sheff G also treated Sleepy Hallow and others to a lavish dinner at a Manhattan steakhouse to celebrate a 2020 shooting that killed a purported rival gang member and injured five others, according to prosecutors.
Surveillance videos, social media posts, text messages and more document the criminal activities, and the two rappers also boasted about their misdeeds in their songs, Gonzalez’s office said.
Sheff G’s lawyer Arthur Aidala said Thursday that his client decided the plea deal was in the “best interest of everyone involved” after “careful review of the evidence and hard consideration.”
The rapper is due to be sentenced Aug. 13. Sleepy Hallow, whose layer didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment, is due in court April 11.
The two were among the notable names Trump touted during his campaign stops as he worked to woo Black voters by comparing his legal challenges to racial prejudice in the criminal justice system.
“One thing I want to say: They are always going to whisper your accomplishments and shout your failures,” Sheff G told the Bronx crowd last May after being invited on stage by the Republican candidate. “Trump is going to shout the wins for all of us.”
New York
$90 million settlement ends lawsuit over a deadly 2018 helicopter crash
NEW YORK (AP) — Relatives of a man who died when a sightseeing helicopter crashed and sank in a New York City river have settled a lawsuit for $90 million, agreeing to reduce a jury award in order to foreclose appeals and end the case.
Court records show a Manhattan judge approved the settlement Wednesday in the wrongful death case of Trevor Cadigan, seven years after he died at age 26.
Last fall a Manhattan jury awarded $116 million to Cadigan’s relatives, but defendants later took steps to challenge the award. The settlement stops those challenges, and Cadigan family lawyer Gary C. Robb said Thursday that his clients felt it was time to close the case.
“Their primary objective was twofold, and that is, one, to ensure accountability for what happened to Trevor, and also to shine a bright light on dangerous helicopter operator practices and induce them to do a better, safer job,” Robb said by phone. “And they accomplished both objectives, we believe.”
Messages seeking comment were sent to lawyers for defendants FlyNYON, which arranged the flight, and Liberty Helicopters, which owned the helicopter and supplied the pilot. Another defendant, flotation device maker Dart Aerospace, declined to comment.
The aircraft, which had no doors, plunged into the East River after a passenger restraint tether snagged on a floor-mounted fuel shutoff switch, stopping the engine, a the National Transportation Safety Board investigation found. The pilot was able to release his seatbelt and escape the sinking aircraft, but the five passengers were trapped in safety harnesses.
Killed were Cadigan; his friend Brian McDaniel, 26; Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29; Tristan Hill, 29; and Daniel Thompson, 34.
Cadigan, a journalist, had recently moved to New York from Dallas.
After the crash the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded doors-off flights with tight seat restraints. Such flights later resumed with requirements for restraints that can be released with a single action.
Colorado
Lawsuit: Man died after being hurt then neglected for a week in a jail
DENVER (AP) — A 69-year-old man slowly suffocated to death in a rural Colorado jail after his ribs were broken in an altercation with a deputy and he languished in a cell for a week without medical care, according to a lawsuit announced Thursday.
Michael Burch’s 2023 death was ruled a homicide. Prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against the deputy who used a Taser on Burch and wrestled with him in a Huerfano County jail cell. In making the decision, District Attorney Henry Solano cited self-defense laws.
An autopsy found six of Burch’s right ribs had broken and his right lung collapsed. He wasn’t taken to a hospital but instead was transferred to another cell where he was found dead seven days later.
“The simple act of breathing became so painful as Mr. Burch’s shattered ribs continued to pierce and tear through his organs that his body stopped using his right lung, which shrank to half the normal size,” lawyers for Burch’s estate said in the federal lawsuit.
Defendants in the case include the Huerfano County commissioners, sheriff’s office, individual sheriff’s officials, paramedics and the hospital they worked for, as well as nurses and the nonprofit company contracted to provide health care to inmates.
The lawsuit accuses them of causing Burch’s fatal injuries and not doing anything to treat them, violating his constitutional rights.
A lawyer representing the county and sheriff’s office, Eric Ziporin, declined to comment. Representatives of the hospital and the health care company declined comment.
One of the family’s lawyers, Qusair Mohamedbhai, said Burch’s relationship with his children had been strained by his mental health problems, but they had hoped he would have a relationship with his grandchildren. Now they have nightmares about how painful their father’s final days must have been.
“This is Gulag-type behavior that simply should not exist anywhere,” he said.
Burch was tackled after he refused to drop a pencil he had been given. A deputy warned him “Drop it or we’ll drop you,” according to body camera footage. Once the Taser was used, Burch rushed toward the deputy and the video, which becomes obscured, shows him going to the ground near a steel bench with his arms held by the deputy. The lawsuit says Burch was tackled into the bench, which broke his ribs.
Burch, a former California prison guard, was arrested on March 25, 2023, after a series of erratic acts, including driving to the home of two strangers and swinging a rubber mallet.
According to the lawsuit, his mental health was not evaluated when he arrived at the jail, although video shows sheriff’s official signaling he was mentally unstable by stirring her finger next to her head after he was hit with the Taser and tackled on March 28, 2023.
The inmate screamed and moaned as the deputy used a knee to keep Burch on the ground when he was accused of resisting. Later he appeared calmer as paramedics evaluated him. He said his ribs had been crushed and he wanted to go to the hospital, but family members allege in their lawsuit that the paramedics did not evaluate his chest.
Body camera footage shows one paramedic briefly lifting up Burch’s shirt, but the lawsuit said no one listened to his lungs with a stethoscope or took vital signs.
After Burch told a sheriff’s captain that he barely survived the night on April 1, 2023, he was seen over video by a contracted nurse in Mississippi, who did not ask to see Burch’s chest, the lawsuit said. Instead, it described the interaction as focused on Burch’s mental health.
Three days later, he was found dead on the concrete floor of his cell.
