New York
DNA from discarded cup leads to man’s arrest in 1990s sexual assaults
NEW YORK (AP) — A Georgia man accused of sexually assaulting five women during a New York City crime spree in the early 1990s was linked to the cases by DNA authorities obtained from a discarded cup, prosecutors said.
Michael Benjamin, 57, of Conyers, was arraigned Thursday after being extradited to New York and was ordered held without bail due to his high flight risk, prosecutors said.
While officers escorted Benjamin from a New York police station Thursday he told reporters he was innocent of the allegations.
“I didn’t do this! I didn’t do none of this!” he screamed. “What witness? What fingerprints? I didn’t do this!”
The assaults occurred between July 1995 and February 1997, with the attacker entering the residences through a window, prosecutors said. The victims ranged in age from 21 to 42 — including one woman who was assaulted on two separate occasions. Each victim was also robbed of money and valuables.
Benjamin was linked to the assaults by DNA obtained last year from a discarded cup he had used inside the Rockdale County Sheriff’s office, prosecutors said. It was submitted for testing and matched DNA retrieved at the time the assaults occurred.
Benjamin was arrested in Georgia on Sept. 22 and extradited to New York on Tuesday. He faces 17 counts, including sexual assault and burglary charges.
“Although decades have passed, these cold cases were not forgotten,” Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “It is never too late for justice.”
Benjamin’s lawyer, Joseph Amsel, said his client “vigorously, vehemently and vociferously” denies the charges. “Most of these charges are outside of the statute of limitations,” Amsel said.
Vermont
State senator resigns after taking part in Young Republicans group chats
A Vermont state senator who took part in a Young Republicans group chat on Telegram in which members made racist comments and joked about rape and gas chambers has resigned.
State Sen. Sam Douglass was revealed last week to have participated in the chat, which was first reported on by Politico. The exchanges on the messaging app spanned more than seven months and involved leaders and lower ranking members of the Young Republican National Federation and some of its affiliates in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont. Douglass was the only elected official involved.
Vermont’s top Republican leaders, including Gov. Phil Scott, quickly called for Douglass to resign. A joint statement from the GOP lawmakers described the comments “unacceptable and deeply disturbing.”
Douglass, who was in his first year of representing a conservative district near the Canadian border, said in a statement Friday that he and his wife had received multiple hateful messages and “nasty items” in the mail since news of the group chat broke.
“I know that this decision will upset many, and delight others, but in this political climate I must keep my family safe,” Douglass said in explaining his decision to resign. “And if my Governor asks me to do something, I will act, because I believe in what he’s trying to do for the state of Vermont.”
Douglass also said he had served in a “moderate fashion,” and touted his efforts to improve Vermont’s welfare system,
“Since the story broke, I have reached out to the majority of my Jewish and BIPOC friends and colleagues to ensure that they can be honest and upfront with me, and I know that as a young person I have a duty to set a good example for others,” Douglas wrote, referencing the acronym Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Other participants in the group chat have faced repercussions, including a New York Young Republicans organization that was suspended Friday.
California
Lawsuit says makers of plastic bags lied about products being recyclable
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California ramped up its efforts to curb plastic pollution Friday — suing three plastic-bag makers, alleging the companies falsely claimed their products were recyclable.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said companies Novolex Holdings, Inteplast Group and Mettler Packaging violated a state law passed in 2014 that banned plastic bags at grocery store checkouts that weren’t recyclable.
Under the law, shoppers could pay 10 cents for thicker plastic bags that needed to be reusable and recyclable. But the makers of the bags labeled them as recyclable even though they were not — recycling facilities cannot process them and they end up dumped in landfills, incinerated, or in the state’s waterways, Bonta said.
“In California, we’re making it clear,” he said at a news conference. “Truth matters. Public trust matters. Environmental protection matters.”
The companies did not respond to email and phone requests for comment.
The state filed a similar lawsuit against ExxonMobil about a year ago over the oil giant’s plastic products. The lawsuit said the company deceived the public by falsely promising that its plastic products would be recycled. The oil giant said California’s recycling system was ineffective and that the state should have worked with the company to keep plastics out of landfills.
California lawmakers later decided the 2014 law didn’t go far enough. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law last year that will ban all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores starting next year.
At least a dozen states have some type of statewide plastic bag ban, according to the environmental advocacy group Environment America Research and Policy Center. Hundreds of cities also have their own bans.
Bonta announced Friday the state reached settlements with four other companies California alleged violated the 2014 law: Revolution Sustainable Solutions, Metro Poly, PreZero US Packaging and Advance Polybag. The businesses agreed to collectively pay the state nearly $1.8 million and halt plastic bag sales in California after selling the rest of their existing stock.
The lawsuit and settlements hold companies accountable for mislabeling their products as recyclable, said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for environmental group Californians Against Waste.
“Plastic bags are a uniquely wasteful product,” he said in an email. “Nothing we use for minutes should pollute our environment for centuries, especially something so lightweight that it’s practically designed to become litter.”
DNA from discarded cup leads to man’s arrest in 1990s sexual assaults
NEW YORK (AP) — A Georgia man accused of sexually assaulting five women during a New York City crime spree in the early 1990s was linked to the cases by DNA authorities obtained from a discarded cup, prosecutors said.
Michael Benjamin, 57, of Conyers, was arraigned Thursday after being extradited to New York and was ordered held without bail due to his high flight risk, prosecutors said.
While officers escorted Benjamin from a New York police station Thursday he told reporters he was innocent of the allegations.
“I didn’t do this! I didn’t do none of this!” he screamed. “What witness? What fingerprints? I didn’t do this!”
The assaults occurred between July 1995 and February 1997, with the attacker entering the residences through a window, prosecutors said. The victims ranged in age from 21 to 42 — including one woman who was assaulted on two separate occasions. Each victim was also robbed of money and valuables.
Benjamin was linked to the assaults by DNA obtained last year from a discarded cup he had used inside the Rockdale County Sheriff’s office, prosecutors said. It was submitted for testing and matched DNA retrieved at the time the assaults occurred.
Benjamin was arrested in Georgia on Sept. 22 and extradited to New York on Tuesday. He faces 17 counts, including sexual assault and burglary charges.
“Although decades have passed, these cold cases were not forgotten,” Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “It is never too late for justice.”
Benjamin’s lawyer, Joseph Amsel, said his client “vigorously, vehemently and vociferously” denies the charges. “Most of these charges are outside of the statute of limitations,” Amsel said.
Vermont
State senator resigns after taking part in Young Republicans group chats
A Vermont state senator who took part in a Young Republicans group chat on Telegram in which members made racist comments and joked about rape and gas chambers has resigned.
State Sen. Sam Douglass was revealed last week to have participated in the chat, which was first reported on by Politico. The exchanges on the messaging app spanned more than seven months and involved leaders and lower ranking members of the Young Republican National Federation and some of its affiliates in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont. Douglass was the only elected official involved.
Vermont’s top Republican leaders, including Gov. Phil Scott, quickly called for Douglass to resign. A joint statement from the GOP lawmakers described the comments “unacceptable and deeply disturbing.”
Douglass, who was in his first year of representing a conservative district near the Canadian border, said in a statement Friday that he and his wife had received multiple hateful messages and “nasty items” in the mail since news of the group chat broke.
“I know that this decision will upset many, and delight others, but in this political climate I must keep my family safe,” Douglass said in explaining his decision to resign. “And if my Governor asks me to do something, I will act, because I believe in what he’s trying to do for the state of Vermont.”
Douglass also said he had served in a “moderate fashion,” and touted his efforts to improve Vermont’s welfare system,
“Since the story broke, I have reached out to the majority of my Jewish and BIPOC friends and colleagues to ensure that they can be honest and upfront with me, and I know that as a young person I have a duty to set a good example for others,” Douglas wrote, referencing the acronym Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Other participants in the group chat have faced repercussions, including a New York Young Republicans organization that was suspended Friday.
California
Lawsuit says makers of plastic bags lied about products being recyclable
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California ramped up its efforts to curb plastic pollution Friday — suing three plastic-bag makers, alleging the companies falsely claimed their products were recyclable.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said companies Novolex Holdings, Inteplast Group and Mettler Packaging violated a state law passed in 2014 that banned plastic bags at grocery store checkouts that weren’t recyclable.
Under the law, shoppers could pay 10 cents for thicker plastic bags that needed to be reusable and recyclable. But the makers of the bags labeled them as recyclable even though they were not — recycling facilities cannot process them and they end up dumped in landfills, incinerated, or in the state’s waterways, Bonta said.
“In California, we’re making it clear,” he said at a news conference. “Truth matters. Public trust matters. Environmental protection matters.”
The companies did not respond to email and phone requests for comment.
The state filed a similar lawsuit against ExxonMobil about a year ago over the oil giant’s plastic products. The lawsuit said the company deceived the public by falsely promising that its plastic products would be recycled. The oil giant said California’s recycling system was ineffective and that the state should have worked with the company to keep plastics out of landfills.
California lawmakers later decided the 2014 law didn’t go far enough. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law last year that will ban all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores starting next year.
At least a dozen states have some type of statewide plastic bag ban, according to the environmental advocacy group Environment America Research and Policy Center. Hundreds of cities also have their own bans.
Bonta announced Friday the state reached settlements with four other companies California alleged violated the 2014 law: Revolution Sustainable Solutions, Metro Poly, PreZero US Packaging and Advance Polybag. The businesses agreed to collectively pay the state nearly $1.8 million and halt plastic bag sales in California after selling the rest of their existing stock.
The lawsuit and settlements hold companies accountable for mislabeling their products as recyclable, said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for environmental group Californians Against Waste.
“Plastic bags are a uniquely wasteful product,” he said in an email. “Nothing we use for minutes should pollute our environment for centuries, especially something so lightweight that it’s practically designed to become litter.”
