California
Smokey Robinson was investigated for sexual assault allegation in 2015
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities investigated a previous sexual assault allegation against Smokey Robinson in 2015, but no charges were filed because of insufficient evidence, prosecutors said Friday.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office confirmed the decade-old investigation and its decision to decline charges in a statement on Friday. The office said no details could be provided because of the current investigation of Robinson.
Four former housekeepers of the singer-songwriter and Motown music luminary have alleged that he raped and sexually assaulted them between 2007 and 2024. The women filed a lawsuit on May 6, then the following week the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department revealed that its Special Victims Bureau was “actively investigating criminal allegations” against Robinson.
Robinson’s attorney Christopher Frost said in a statement Friday that they are “pleased” that the district attorney “confirmed there was no basis to file charges a decade ago.”
Frost previously called the housekeepers’ allegations “vile” and “false.”
The 2015 case was first reported by TMZ.
On Wednesday, Robinson and his wife, Frances, who was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, sued the women for defamation, saying their allegations were “fabricated in an extortionate scheme.”
A statement Friday from the housekeepers’ lawyers, John Harris and Herbert Hayden, emphasized that there were no charges in the 2015 case “due to insufficient evidence — not because the claims lacked merit.”
They said “this latest development further affirms that at least five women have now come forward with allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Robinson. Together, they are united in their pursuit of justice.”
The housekeepers are seeking at least $50 million in the lawsuit. They have not publicly revealed their names.
They allege Robinson raped and sexually assaulted them after isolating them, usually in his home. One woman said she was assaulted at least 20 times while working for Robinson from 2012 until 2024. Another said she worked for him from 2014 until 2020 and was assaulted at least 23 times.
They said Frances Robinson enabled him and created an abusive workplace.
The Robinsons’ defamation lawsuit says the women “stayed with the Robinsons year after year,” vacationed with them, celebrated holidays with them, exchanged gifts with them, asked for tickets to his concerts, and sought and received help from them including money for dental surgery, financial support for a disabled family member, and “even a car.”
The court filing says that despite the couple’s generosity, the women “secretly harbored resentment for the Robinsons and sought to enrich themselves through the Robinsons’ wealth.”
Kentucky
Lawsuit challenging state’s near-total ban on abortions is withdrawn
Attorneys for a woman who sued Kentucky seeking to restore the right to an abortion have dropped their challenge to the state’s near-total ban on the procedure.
The attorneys filed a motion Friday to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit, but did not give a reason for seeking to drop the case. The lawsuit had been filed last year in state court in Louisville on behalf of a woman who was seven weeks pregnant at the time and identified only by the pseudonym Mary Poe to protect her privacy.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which had represented the woman, said in a statement it would not give additional details about the dismissal.
“People have the right to control their own bodies without government interference, and we will never stop fighting to restore abortion access in Kentucky,” said Amber Duke, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky. “We are strategizing our next steps in this fight.”
The lawsuit was challenging Kentucky’s near-total trigger law ban and a separate six-week ban, both of which were passed by Republican legislative majorities. The trigger law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Kentuckians can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today and innocent lives will continue to be saved as a result,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, posted on X.
The trigger law bans abortions except to save the life of the patient or to prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Republican lawmakers earlier this year inserted several new medical exceptions, though abortion-rights supporters said the exceptions don’t add clarity and in fact undermine the judgment of doctors by remaining silent on other situations.
New Hampshire
Ex-CEO of drug treatment centers charged in scheme to vandalize journalists’ homes
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The founder and former CEO of New Hampshire’s largest network of addiction treatment centers has been charged with orchestrating threats and vandalism targeting New Hampshire Public Radio journalists who published sexual misconduct allegations about him.
Eric Spofford, 40, who lives in both Salem, New Hampshire, and Miami, was arrested Friday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on three counts of stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit stalking. The man he is accused of paying to carry out the 2022 attacks and three others who were involved have already been convicted.
According to prosecutors, the homes of an NHPR editor, reporter and the reporter’s parents were hit with bricks, rocks and red spray paint in six incidents in April and May 2022. In one incident, a brick was thrown through reporter Lauren Chooljian’s window in Massachusetts, and the phrase “JUST THE BEGINNING!” was spray-painted on the front of her home.
The attacks came after Choolijian published a story describing sexual assault and harassment allegations against Spofford, who founded Granite Recovery Centers in 2008 and sold the business in 2021. He denied the allegations and later sued the journalists, alleging defamation, but the case was dismissed.
Court documents do not list an attorney for Spofford, who was scheduled to make an initial court appearance in Boston on Monday. A lawyer who had previously represented him did not respond to a phone message or email.
Prosecutors say Spofford paid his friend, Eric Labarge, $20,000 to vandalize the homes and provided the addresses and specific instructions. Labarge is serving 46 months in prison; three other men who helped carry out the attacks were given sentences ranging from 21 to 30 months.
Washington
Supreme Court will consider reviving challenge to Illinois law on mail ballots
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider reviving a Republican challenge to an Illinois law that allows mail ballots to be counted if they are received up to two weeks after Election Day.
The justices will hear arguments in the fall over whether Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and two former presidential electors have the legal right, or standing, to sue over the law in federal court. Lower federal courts ruled they lack standing.
But the case could serve to amplify claims made by President Donald Trump that late-arriving ballots and drawn out electoral counts undermine confidence in elections.
Illinois is among 18 states and the District of Columbia that accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long they are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In March, Trump signed a sweeping executive order on elections that aims to require votes to be “cast and received” by Election Day and says federal funding should be conditional on state compliance.
In their appeal to the court, the Illinois Republicans said the justices should make clear that candidates have the right to challenge state regulations of federal elections.
Maryland
Baltimore schools sued for failing to protect students from a teacher
BALTIMORE (AP) — Three women are suing Baltimore’s public school system, alleging they were sexually abused by a special education teacher decades ago while administrators failed to protect students from his predatory behavior.
One of the plaintiffs was 14 when she alleges the teacher, whom the lawsuit names as Alvin Hunt, raped and impregnated her, according to the complaint.
At a news conference Monday morning, attorneys for the women said school officials knew about the abuse and allowed it to continue. They said Hunt would lure students to his house under the pretense of after-school tutoring. The allegations contained in the lawsuits occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Attempts to reach Hunt were unsuccessful. A message seeking comment was left for a spokesperson for Baltimore City Public Schools.
The lawsuits add to a growing pile of child sexual abuse claims filed in Maryland since the state eliminated its statute of limitations for such cases. Lawmakers approved the Child Victims Act in 2023 with abuse findings against the Catholic Church in mind, but its impacts have extended well beyond religious institutions. The state’s juvenile justice system in particular is facing widespread reckoning after thousands of victims came forward.
Pamela Coleman said she gave birth to Hunt’s daughter after he drugged and raped her. Hunt offered the teen a ride home from school and gave her a cigarette laced with an illicit substance that caused her to lose consciousness, her complaint says.
“My childhood and teen years was just ripped from me,” Coleman said at the news conference. She said her mother reported the abuse and administrators transferred her to another school after learning she was pregnant.
The AP doesn’t typically identify victims of abuse unless they want to be named.
Attorneys said Hunt, who was also a sports coach, never faced prosecution or accountability for his actions. Instead, he retired from the school system after a long career. He is not named as a defendant in the lawsuits, which were filed against the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners.
“This abuse was not just known, it was normalized,” said attorney Janai Woodhouse with the Baltimore law firm Murphy, Falcon & Murphy. “This wasn’t hidden. It was tolerated.”
She said the Child Victims Act allows abuse survivors the time they need to come forward, often decades later. Before its passage, victims couldn’t sue after they turned 38.
The three plaintiffs were young and vulnerable when they were abused by someone they trusted, their attorneys said.
“You can imagine the amount of psychological trauma that was inflicted here. So it took some time,” Woodhouse said. “But they gathered the courage to come to us and they’re ready to seek justice now.”
According to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Collette Lee, she went to Hunt’s house for tutoring with another special education student. He cornered her and tried to assault her, but she says she managed to escape.
“I was able to run,” she said during the news conference. “I’ve been running for a long time. I’m tired. I want justice.”
The lawsuits were filed Friday in state court. The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages.
Smokey Robinson was investigated for sexual assault allegation in 2015
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities investigated a previous sexual assault allegation against Smokey Robinson in 2015, but no charges were filed because of insufficient evidence, prosecutors said Friday.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office confirmed the decade-old investigation and its decision to decline charges in a statement on Friday. The office said no details could be provided because of the current investigation of Robinson.
Four former housekeepers of the singer-songwriter and Motown music luminary have alleged that he raped and sexually assaulted them between 2007 and 2024. The women filed a lawsuit on May 6, then the following week the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department revealed that its Special Victims Bureau was “actively investigating criminal allegations” against Robinson.
Robinson’s attorney Christopher Frost said in a statement Friday that they are “pleased” that the district attorney “confirmed there was no basis to file charges a decade ago.”
Frost previously called the housekeepers’ allegations “vile” and “false.”
The 2015 case was first reported by TMZ.
On Wednesday, Robinson and his wife, Frances, who was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, sued the women for defamation, saying their allegations were “fabricated in an extortionate scheme.”
A statement Friday from the housekeepers’ lawyers, John Harris and Herbert Hayden, emphasized that there were no charges in the 2015 case “due to insufficient evidence — not because the claims lacked merit.”
They said “this latest development further affirms that at least five women have now come forward with allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Robinson. Together, they are united in their pursuit of justice.”
The housekeepers are seeking at least $50 million in the lawsuit. They have not publicly revealed their names.
They allege Robinson raped and sexually assaulted them after isolating them, usually in his home. One woman said she was assaulted at least 20 times while working for Robinson from 2012 until 2024. Another said she worked for him from 2014 until 2020 and was assaulted at least 23 times.
They said Frances Robinson enabled him and created an abusive workplace.
The Robinsons’ defamation lawsuit says the women “stayed with the Robinsons year after year,” vacationed with them, celebrated holidays with them, exchanged gifts with them, asked for tickets to his concerts, and sought and received help from them including money for dental surgery, financial support for a disabled family member, and “even a car.”
The court filing says that despite the couple’s generosity, the women “secretly harbored resentment for the Robinsons and sought to enrich themselves through the Robinsons’ wealth.”
Kentucky
Lawsuit challenging state’s near-total ban on abortions is withdrawn
Attorneys for a woman who sued Kentucky seeking to restore the right to an abortion have dropped their challenge to the state’s near-total ban on the procedure.
The attorneys filed a motion Friday to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit, but did not give a reason for seeking to drop the case. The lawsuit had been filed last year in state court in Louisville on behalf of a woman who was seven weeks pregnant at the time and identified only by the pseudonym Mary Poe to protect her privacy.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which had represented the woman, said in a statement it would not give additional details about the dismissal.
“People have the right to control their own bodies without government interference, and we will never stop fighting to restore abortion access in Kentucky,” said Amber Duke, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky. “We are strategizing our next steps in this fight.”
The lawsuit was challenging Kentucky’s near-total trigger law ban and a separate six-week ban, both of which were passed by Republican legislative majorities. The trigger law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Kentuckians can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today and innocent lives will continue to be saved as a result,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, posted on X.
The trigger law bans abortions except to save the life of the patient or to prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Republican lawmakers earlier this year inserted several new medical exceptions, though abortion-rights supporters said the exceptions don’t add clarity and in fact undermine the judgment of doctors by remaining silent on other situations.
New Hampshire
Ex-CEO of drug treatment centers charged in scheme to vandalize journalists’ homes
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The founder and former CEO of New Hampshire’s largest network of addiction treatment centers has been charged with orchestrating threats and vandalism targeting New Hampshire Public Radio journalists who published sexual misconduct allegations about him.
Eric Spofford, 40, who lives in both Salem, New Hampshire, and Miami, was arrested Friday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on three counts of stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit stalking. The man he is accused of paying to carry out the 2022 attacks and three others who were involved have already been convicted.
According to prosecutors, the homes of an NHPR editor, reporter and the reporter’s parents were hit with bricks, rocks and red spray paint in six incidents in April and May 2022. In one incident, a brick was thrown through reporter Lauren Chooljian’s window in Massachusetts, and the phrase “JUST THE BEGINNING!” was spray-painted on the front of her home.
The attacks came after Choolijian published a story describing sexual assault and harassment allegations against Spofford, who founded Granite Recovery Centers in 2008 and sold the business in 2021. He denied the allegations and later sued the journalists, alleging defamation, but the case was dismissed.
Court documents do not list an attorney for Spofford, who was scheduled to make an initial court appearance in Boston on Monday. A lawyer who had previously represented him did not respond to a phone message or email.
Prosecutors say Spofford paid his friend, Eric Labarge, $20,000 to vandalize the homes and provided the addresses and specific instructions. Labarge is serving 46 months in prison; three other men who helped carry out the attacks were given sentences ranging from 21 to 30 months.
Washington
Supreme Court will consider reviving challenge to Illinois law on mail ballots
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider reviving a Republican challenge to an Illinois law that allows mail ballots to be counted if they are received up to two weeks after Election Day.
The justices will hear arguments in the fall over whether Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and two former presidential electors have the legal right, or standing, to sue over the law in federal court. Lower federal courts ruled they lack standing.
But the case could serve to amplify claims made by President Donald Trump that late-arriving ballots and drawn out electoral counts undermine confidence in elections.
Illinois is among 18 states and the District of Columbia that accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long they are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In March, Trump signed a sweeping executive order on elections that aims to require votes to be “cast and received” by Election Day and says federal funding should be conditional on state compliance.
In their appeal to the court, the Illinois Republicans said the justices should make clear that candidates have the right to challenge state regulations of federal elections.
Maryland
Baltimore schools sued for failing to protect students from a teacher
BALTIMORE (AP) — Three women are suing Baltimore’s public school system, alleging they were sexually abused by a special education teacher decades ago while administrators failed to protect students from his predatory behavior.
One of the plaintiffs was 14 when she alleges the teacher, whom the lawsuit names as Alvin Hunt, raped and impregnated her, according to the complaint.
At a news conference Monday morning, attorneys for the women said school officials knew about the abuse and allowed it to continue. They said Hunt would lure students to his house under the pretense of after-school tutoring. The allegations contained in the lawsuits occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Attempts to reach Hunt were unsuccessful. A message seeking comment was left for a spokesperson for Baltimore City Public Schools.
The lawsuits add to a growing pile of child sexual abuse claims filed in Maryland since the state eliminated its statute of limitations for such cases. Lawmakers approved the Child Victims Act in 2023 with abuse findings against the Catholic Church in mind, but its impacts have extended well beyond religious institutions. The state’s juvenile justice system in particular is facing widespread reckoning after thousands of victims came forward.
Pamela Coleman said she gave birth to Hunt’s daughter after he drugged and raped her. Hunt offered the teen a ride home from school and gave her a cigarette laced with an illicit substance that caused her to lose consciousness, her complaint says.
“My childhood and teen years was just ripped from me,” Coleman said at the news conference. She said her mother reported the abuse and administrators transferred her to another school after learning she was pregnant.
The AP doesn’t typically identify victims of abuse unless they want to be named.
Attorneys said Hunt, who was also a sports coach, never faced prosecution or accountability for his actions. Instead, he retired from the school system after a long career. He is not named as a defendant in the lawsuits, which were filed against the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners.
“This abuse was not just known, it was normalized,” said attorney Janai Woodhouse with the Baltimore law firm Murphy, Falcon & Murphy. “This wasn’t hidden. It was tolerated.”
She said the Child Victims Act allows abuse survivors the time they need to come forward, often decades later. Before its passage, victims couldn’t sue after they turned 38.
The three plaintiffs were young and vulnerable when they were abused by someone they trusted, their attorneys said.
“You can imagine the amount of psychological trauma that was inflicted here. So it took some time,” Woodhouse said. “But they gathered the courage to come to us and they’re ready to seek justice now.”
According to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Collette Lee, she went to Hunt’s house for tutoring with another special education student. He cornered her and tried to assault her, but she says she managed to escape.
“I was able to run,” she said during the news conference. “I’ve been running for a long time. I’m tired. I want justice.”
The lawsuits were filed Friday in state court. The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages.
