Vermont
Judge releases on bail the Turkish Tufts University student who was detained by ICE
A federal judge in Vermont on Friday released on bail a Turkish Tufts University student detained in a Louisiana immigration center more than six weeks after she was arrested while walking along a street in a Boston suburb.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington released Rumeysa Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she’s been illegally detained.
Ozturk, detailing her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate degree focusing on children and social media, appeared at a bail hearing remotely from the Louisiana center.
Lawyers for Ozturk, 30, said her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
Ozturk was to be released Friday on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions, Sessions said. He said she is not a danger to the community or a flight risk, but that he might amend his release order to consider any specific conditions by ICE.
He said he didn’t think electronic monitoring would be in order, and that she would also check in with a staffer of the Burlington Community Justice Center for supervisory checks.
Ozturk and her lawyer hugged after the judge ruled. Sessions told Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher he wants to know immediately when she is released.
Sessions said Ozturk raised serious concerns about her First Amendment and due process rights, as well as her health.
Ozturk on Friday said the first of 12 asthma attacks came on at the Atlanta airport while she was waiting to be taken to Louisiana. The attack was severe, and she did not have all her medications.
“I was afraid, and I was crying,” she said.
The U.S. Justice Department said an immigration court in Louisiana, which is conducting separate removal proceedings regarding Ozturk, has jurisdiction over her case.
Sessions ordered Ozturk’s transfer to Vermont, where she was last confined before she was taken to Louisiana. The government requested a delay, but a federal appeals court upheld his decision Wednesday, ordering Ozturk to be transferred to ICE custody in Vermont no later than May 14.
Sessions decided not to wait for the transfer, going ahead with the bail hearing.
Ozturk waived her right to appear at the hearing in person, agreeing to participate remotely.
Immigration officials surrounded Ozturk in Massachusetts on March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said.
Ozturk’s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Ozturk said Friday that if she is released, Tufts would offer her housing and her lawyers and friends would drive her to future court hearings.
“I will follow all the rules,” she said.
A State Department memo said Ozturk’s visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions “‘may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization’ including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
Colorado
Charges dropped against 3 officers after they make a training video about fatal shooting
DENVER (AP) — Charges have been dropped against all but one Colorado law enforcement officer accused of not stepping in and possibly preventing the fatal 2022 shooting of a man in distress who had called 911 for help.
The misdemeanor charges of failing to intervene were dismissed against Tim Collins, Brittany Morrow and Ryan Bennie under a deal that required them to record a training video about what went wrong in the standoff with Christian Glass in a small mountain community, Fifth Judicial District Attorney Heidi McCollum confirmed Friday.
They were among six officers charged in 2023 with failing to intervene to stop the actions of former Clear Creek Sheriff’s Office Deputy Andrew Buen, who shot and killed Glass. The shooting drew national attention and prompted calls to reform how authorities respond to people with mental health problems.
Prosecutors tried twice to convince jurors to convict Buen of second-degree murder. The first time the jury convicted Buen of a misdemeanor for recklessly putting other officers in danger by opening fire. In his second trial, jurors convicted Buen of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide for the shooting itself in February. He was sentenced to three years in prison, the maximum sentence he faced.
That verdict and the effect three more trials could have on Glass’s family as well as the county of about 10,000 people led prosecutors to enter a deal to dismiss the charges, McCollum said. Under the agreement, Collins, Morrow and Bennie all received additional training, including on de-escalation, and participated in making the training video, she said.
The hope is that their video will be used by law enforcement agencies across the country that are already using body camera footage of the Glass shooting to teach how not to respond to people in crisis.
“If we can save one life, if we can prevent one law enforcement officer from killing someone, then the dismissal of these three cases is worth it,” McCollum said.
Another officer is still charged with failing to intervene and third-degree assault. McCollum said she cannot comment on possible plea deals with him or any defendant.
Siddhartha Rathod, a lawyer representing Glass’s parents, Simon and Sally Glass, praised McCollum for trying a different approach.
“This is the type of prosecutors we want, who are being creative, who want to create solutions that result in a safer community,” he said.
Duty to intervene charges were also dropped against two other officers who work for the state’s gaming division in December. A judge ruled they were not covered by the law passed in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd.
Buen’s supervisor pleaded guilty to failing to intervene.
New York
Defense begins quizzing ex-model who accuses Harvey Weinstein of sex assaults during her teens
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ‘s lawyers sought Friday to raise doubts about a former model’s allegations that he repeatedly sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager.
As defense lawyer Mike Cibella began what’s likely to be lengthy questioning of Kaja Sokola, he pointed to differences in some details of her testimony this week and what she told a grand jury last year.
Cibella also noted that although documents have indicated that Weinstein and Sokola knew each other by 2006, no witnesses or documents corroborate her account of meeting the then-influential movie producer four years earlier at a Manhattan nightclub. She was 16 at the time and alleges he first sexually assaulted her days after they met.
Sokola is the second of three accusers to testify at Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault retrial, and she’s the only one who wasn’t part of the onetime Hollywood honcho’s first trial in 2020.
Weinstein is being retried because an appeals court overturned his landmark #MeToo 2020 conviction, saying the judge at the time allowed prejudicial testimony. After the reversal, prosecutors added Sokola’s allegation to the case.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies ever sexually assaulting anyone.
The Polish-born Sokola, 39, is a psychotherapist who had a jet-setting modeling career as a teen. She testified earlier this week that Weinstein exploited her youthful interest in an acting career to subject her to unwanted sexual advances, starting days after they met in 2002, while she was on a modeling trip to New York.
Another alleged incident, in 2006, is the basis for a criminal sex act charge against Weinstein. Sokola, who was 19 at the time, says he lured her to a hotel room by saying he had a script for her to see, then pinned her down on a bed and performed oral sex on her as she implored him not to.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted, but Haley, Mann and Sokola have given their permission to be identified.
London
Art expert pleads guilty to selling works to suspected Hezbollah financier
LONDON (AP) — An art expert who appeared on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt show pleaded guilty Friday to failing to report that he sold pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, was charged with failing to disclose art sales between October 2020 and December 2021. He pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates’ Court to eight offences under a section of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Ojiri sold about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) of artworks to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the U.K. and U.S. as a Hezbollah financier. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the U.K. or U.S. from doing business with Ahmad or his businesses.
U.S. prosecutors said Ahmad acquired more than $160 million (120 million pounds) in artwork and diamond services by using a complex web of companies to evade sanctions.
Prosecutor Lyndon Harris said Ojiri knew about the sanctions against Ahmad because he had searched for news reports about his status and discussed it with others.
“There is one discussion where Mr. Ojiri is party to a conversation where it is apparent a lot of people have known for years about his terrorism links,” Harris said.
Ahmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the U.S. Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.
Two years ago, the U.K. Treasury froze Ahmad’s assets because he financed the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group.
Ojiri, who also appeared on the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced June 6 in the Central Criminal Court.
Judge releases on bail the Turkish Tufts University student who was detained by ICE
A federal judge in Vermont on Friday released on bail a Turkish Tufts University student detained in a Louisiana immigration center more than six weeks after she was arrested while walking along a street in a Boston suburb.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington released Rumeysa Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she’s been illegally detained.
Ozturk, detailing her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate degree focusing on children and social media, appeared at a bail hearing remotely from the Louisiana center.
Lawyers for Ozturk, 30, said her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
Ozturk was to be released Friday on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions, Sessions said. He said she is not a danger to the community or a flight risk, but that he might amend his release order to consider any specific conditions by ICE.
He said he didn’t think electronic monitoring would be in order, and that she would also check in with a staffer of the Burlington Community Justice Center for supervisory checks.
Ozturk and her lawyer hugged after the judge ruled. Sessions told Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher he wants to know immediately when she is released.
Sessions said Ozturk raised serious concerns about her First Amendment and due process rights, as well as her health.
Ozturk on Friday said the first of 12 asthma attacks came on at the Atlanta airport while she was waiting to be taken to Louisiana. The attack was severe, and she did not have all her medications.
“I was afraid, and I was crying,” she said.
The U.S. Justice Department said an immigration court in Louisiana, which is conducting separate removal proceedings regarding Ozturk, has jurisdiction over her case.
Sessions ordered Ozturk’s transfer to Vermont, where she was last confined before she was taken to Louisiana. The government requested a delay, but a federal appeals court upheld his decision Wednesday, ordering Ozturk to be transferred to ICE custody in Vermont no later than May 14.
Sessions decided not to wait for the transfer, going ahead with the bail hearing.
Ozturk waived her right to appear at the hearing in person, agreeing to participate remotely.
Immigration officials surrounded Ozturk in Massachusetts on March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said.
Ozturk’s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Ozturk said Friday that if she is released, Tufts would offer her housing and her lawyers and friends would drive her to future court hearings.
“I will follow all the rules,” she said.
A State Department memo said Ozturk’s visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions “‘may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization’ including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
Colorado
Charges dropped against 3 officers after they make a training video about fatal shooting
DENVER (AP) — Charges have been dropped against all but one Colorado law enforcement officer accused of not stepping in and possibly preventing the fatal 2022 shooting of a man in distress who had called 911 for help.
The misdemeanor charges of failing to intervene were dismissed against Tim Collins, Brittany Morrow and Ryan Bennie under a deal that required them to record a training video about what went wrong in the standoff with Christian Glass in a small mountain community, Fifth Judicial District Attorney Heidi McCollum confirmed Friday.
They were among six officers charged in 2023 with failing to intervene to stop the actions of former Clear Creek Sheriff’s Office Deputy Andrew Buen, who shot and killed Glass. The shooting drew national attention and prompted calls to reform how authorities respond to people with mental health problems.
Prosecutors tried twice to convince jurors to convict Buen of second-degree murder. The first time the jury convicted Buen of a misdemeanor for recklessly putting other officers in danger by opening fire. In his second trial, jurors convicted Buen of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide for the shooting itself in February. He was sentenced to three years in prison, the maximum sentence he faced.
That verdict and the effect three more trials could have on Glass’s family as well as the county of about 10,000 people led prosecutors to enter a deal to dismiss the charges, McCollum said. Under the agreement, Collins, Morrow and Bennie all received additional training, including on de-escalation, and participated in making the training video, she said.
The hope is that their video will be used by law enforcement agencies across the country that are already using body camera footage of the Glass shooting to teach how not to respond to people in crisis.
“If we can save one life, if we can prevent one law enforcement officer from killing someone, then the dismissal of these three cases is worth it,” McCollum said.
Another officer is still charged with failing to intervene and third-degree assault. McCollum said she cannot comment on possible plea deals with him or any defendant.
Siddhartha Rathod, a lawyer representing Glass’s parents, Simon and Sally Glass, praised McCollum for trying a different approach.
“This is the type of prosecutors we want, who are being creative, who want to create solutions that result in a safer community,” he said.
Duty to intervene charges were also dropped against two other officers who work for the state’s gaming division in December. A judge ruled they were not covered by the law passed in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd.
Buen’s supervisor pleaded guilty to failing to intervene.
New York
Defense begins quizzing ex-model who accuses Harvey Weinstein of sex assaults during her teens
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ‘s lawyers sought Friday to raise doubts about a former model’s allegations that he repeatedly sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager.
As defense lawyer Mike Cibella began what’s likely to be lengthy questioning of Kaja Sokola, he pointed to differences in some details of her testimony this week and what she told a grand jury last year.
Cibella also noted that although documents have indicated that Weinstein and Sokola knew each other by 2006, no witnesses or documents corroborate her account of meeting the then-influential movie producer four years earlier at a Manhattan nightclub. She was 16 at the time and alleges he first sexually assaulted her days after they met.
Sokola is the second of three accusers to testify at Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault retrial, and she’s the only one who wasn’t part of the onetime Hollywood honcho’s first trial in 2020.
Weinstein is being retried because an appeals court overturned his landmark #MeToo 2020 conviction, saying the judge at the time allowed prejudicial testimony. After the reversal, prosecutors added Sokola’s allegation to the case.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies ever sexually assaulting anyone.
The Polish-born Sokola, 39, is a psychotherapist who had a jet-setting modeling career as a teen. She testified earlier this week that Weinstein exploited her youthful interest in an acting career to subject her to unwanted sexual advances, starting days after they met in 2002, while she was on a modeling trip to New York.
Another alleged incident, in 2006, is the basis for a criminal sex act charge against Weinstein. Sokola, who was 19 at the time, says he lured her to a hotel room by saying he had a script for her to see, then pinned her down on a bed and performed oral sex on her as she implored him not to.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted, but Haley, Mann and Sokola have given their permission to be identified.
London
Art expert pleads guilty to selling works to suspected Hezbollah financier
LONDON (AP) — An art expert who appeared on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt show pleaded guilty Friday to failing to report that he sold pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, was charged with failing to disclose art sales between October 2020 and December 2021. He pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates’ Court to eight offences under a section of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Ojiri sold about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) of artworks to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the U.K. and U.S. as a Hezbollah financier. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the U.K. or U.S. from doing business with Ahmad or his businesses.
U.S. prosecutors said Ahmad acquired more than $160 million (120 million pounds) in artwork and diamond services by using a complex web of companies to evade sanctions.
Prosecutor Lyndon Harris said Ojiri knew about the sanctions against Ahmad because he had searched for news reports about his status and discussed it with others.
“There is one discussion where Mr. Ojiri is party to a conversation where it is apparent a lot of people have known for years about his terrorism links,” Harris said.
Ahmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the U.S. Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.
Two years ago, the U.K. Treasury froze Ahmad’s assets because he financed the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group.
Ojiri, who also appeared on the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced June 6 in the Central Criminal Court.
