Ohio
Doctor waives right to extradition hearing in killings of his ex-wife and her husband
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The ex-husband of an Ohio woman charged this weekend in the killings of her and her husband waived his right to an extradition hearing Monday in Illinois.
Michael David McKee, 39, a doctor from Chicago, has been charged with premeditated aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of 39-year-old Monique Tepe, whom he divorced in 2017, and dentist Dr. Spencer Tepe, 37, in their Columbus home on Dec. 30.
McKee appeared in court in Winnebago County, Illinois, where he has been jailed since his arrest on Saturday. He appeared expressionless while he walked into the courtroom wearing a yellow jumpsuit with shackles around his wrists. Judge Donald Shriver did not say when McKee will be returned to Ohio, but he scheduled a hearing for Jan. 19 to confirm the status of the transfer.
The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office will coordinate McKee’s return to Franklin County, where the trial will take place, according to Tom Jakeway, trial court administrator for the 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois.
His arrest caps off nearly two weeks of speculation surrounding the mysterious killings that attracted national attention. No obvious signs of forced entry were found at the Tepes’ home. Police also said no weapon was found there, and murder-suicide was not suspected. Further, nothing was stolen, and the couple’s two young children and their dog were left unharmed in the home.
Dispatchers first received calls of concern when Spencer Tepe didn’t show up on Dec. 30 at the dental practice where he worked in Athens, a college town about 75 miles (120.70 kilometers) southeast of Columbus. His manager told police his tardiness was “out of character.” It was when Columbus police conducted a wellness check at the home later that day that they discovered the couple’s bullet-stricken bodies on the second floor.
Official reports from the Franklin County Coroner’s Office won’t be completed for several weeks, but a spokesperson said last week that they died in an “apparent homicide by gunshot wounds.”
Police had released security footage on Tuesday of a person of interest dressed in a dark hoodie and light colored pants walking in an alley near the couple’s home between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. — the window of time in which investigators believed the two were attacked. The release generated dozens of tips and took the manhunt across multiple state lines to McKee’s apartment.
McKee and Monique Tepe, then-Monique Sabaturski, married in 2015, according to Franklin County court records. They filed for divorce two years later.
According to the Tepes’ obituaries, Monique married Spencer Tepe in 2020. Family members described the couple as “extraordinary people whose lives were filled with love, joy and deep connection to others.”
Spencer Tepe was a graduate of the Ohio State University. He was a member of the American Dental Association and had been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. Monique Tepe was described as a “loving, patient, and joyful mother,” an avid baker, and a “thoughtful planner.”
New York
Music honcho L.A. Reid settles with ex-recording exec who accused him of sexual assault
NEW YORK (AP) — Grammy award-winning music producer Antonio “L.A.” Reid reached a settlement Monday with a former record company executive who alleged in a lawsuit that he sexually assaulted her and ruined her career.
The terms of Reid’s settlement with Drew Dixon were not made public.
Smiling with her family and lawyers outside court, Dixon said, “I’m excited to get back to making music.” She called the litigation an “arduous process.” Her mother, former Washington, D.C., Mayor Sharon Pratt, called it an “excruciating journey.”
Reid’s lawyer, Imran H. Ansari, said in a statement: “Mr. Reid has amicably resolved this matter with Ms. Dixon without any admission of liability.”
Musicians John Legend and Aku Orraca-Tetteh and recording executive Roy Lott were among the witnesses who had been set to testify on Dixon’s behalf, according to her lawyer, Kenya Davis.
Reid, a 10-time Grammy nominee and three-time winner, and producing partner Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds cofounded LaFace Records, a label responsible for hits from some of the biggest pop acts of the 1990s, including Boyz II Men, Outkast and TLC. He later ran three of the industry’s top labels — Arista, Island Def Jam and Sony’s Epic Records — and is credited with influencing the careers of stars including Usher, Pink and Mariah Carey.
Reid and Dixon, a former executive at Arista, Def Jam and Legend’s HomeSchool Records, resolved the lawsuit the same day jury selection was slated to begin in New York in a trial over her claims.
Dixon worked for Reid when he was Arista’s chief executive. She alleged that he sexually assaulted her twice in 2001 and later cut her budget and sidelined artists when she rebuffed his continuing advances. Dixon left Arista in 2002 and contends that her “meteoric trajectory” in the music business was cut short by Reid’s harassment.
Reid left Epic Records in 2017 after a former female assistant accused him of sexual harassment.
Davis said the settlement will empower Dixon “to move forward with her creative pursuits on her own terms, with her reputation, her voice, and her career reaffirmed.”
Dixon went public with her allegations in 2017 and detailed them in the 2020 documentary “On the Record,” which discussed sexual misconduct in the music industry. She has also accused ex-hip hop mogul Russell Simmons of rape, which he denies, and has a pending defamation lawsuit against him.
Dixon sued Reid in 2023 under New York State’s Adult Survivors Act, which had provided sex abuse accusers a one-year window to sue even if the statute of limitations has passed.
“I hope my work as an advocate for the Adult Survivors Act helps to bring all of us closer to a music business that is safer for everyone,” Dixon told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan. “And in a world where good news is often hard to find, I hope that survivors today see a ray of light peeking through the clouds.”
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.
Dixon expanded on her future plans in a written statement, saying that music has always been her “greatest source of comfort and joy.”
“While I have focused on sexual assault advocacy in recent years, I have never stopped fighting for my place in this industry,” Dixon said. “I have big ideas for future projects that will be guided by creativity and integrity.”
New York
$182M settlement reached in 2015 commuter train crossing crash
VALHALLA, N.Y. (AP) — A more than $182 million settlement has been reached with victims of a deadly 2015 collision between a train and an SUV at a suburban New York crossing.
The majority of the settlement with Metro-North Railroad goes to the families of five passengers killed when an SUV got stuck on the tracks in Valhalla, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of New York City, the Journal News reports.
About $79 million of the settlement will go to one specific passenger, based on their projected lifetime earnings, according to the newspaper. Payouts to the families of other passengers killed in the crash range from $35 million to $4 million.
The Journal News reviewed the settlement last week before it was sealed by a judge and no longer made available to the public.
A jury in 2024 found that Metro-North bore 71% of the liability for the five passengers’ deaths and the injuries of others, and 63% for the death of the SUV driver whose car was on the tracks. The jury specifically faulted the train engineer and the railroad’s oversight of the line’s electrified third rail.
Andrew Maloney, a lawyer for some of the roughly 30 injured passengers, said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the commuter system that also serves parts of Connecticut, should have resolved the litigation sooner.
“This should have never taken 11 years,” he said Monday. “They dragged it out.”
Maloney added that problems identified with the third rail’s design still have not been corrected all these years later.
The MTA declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement. But it said in a statement that it has continued to work with state and federal transportation officials on “material railroad crossing safety enhancements throughout the railroad network over the last decade.”
The Feb. 3, 2015, crash occurred during the evening rush hour as the SUV drove onto the tracks while navigating in backed-up traffic.
The crossing gate arm came down onto the vehicle and the driver ended up driving further onto the tracks.
The train smashed into the SUV at about 50 mph (80 kph) after the engineer hit the emergency brake only three seconds before the fiery collision. Parts of the railroad’s electrified third rail ripped off the ground, piercing the SUV’s gas tank and slicing into the train’s first passenger car.
Colorado
Husband of woman who disappeared in 2020 pleads not guilty to murder
DENVER (AP) — The husband of a Colorado woman who disappeared in 2020 pleaded not guilty to murder in her death for the second time.
Barry Morphew entered his plea in the death of Suzanne Morphew through one of his attorneys, David Beller, during a short hearing in Alamosa, Colorado.
Morphew was first arrested in 2021, almost a year after Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance, and charged with murder and tampering with evidence. But the case was abandoned in 2022 as it neared trial after a judge barred prosecutors from calling key witnesses in response to their repeated failure to follow rules for turning over evidence to the defense.
Suzanne Morphew’s skeletal remains were then found off a dirt road in southern Colorado in 2023. Morphew was charged again with first-degree murder in his wife’s death and arrested last year. He has maintained his innocence.
While Suzanne Morphew’s remains showed no signs of trauma, investigators found in her bone marrow a drug cocktail used to tranquilize wildlife that her husband was the only person, other than wildlife officials, to have a prescription for in their area, according to the indictment.
The coroner’s office determined her cause of death was “homicide by unspecified means” through intoxication of the three drugs — butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine — in the cocktail known as “BAM.”
The mystery surrounding Suzanne Morphew began when the 49-year-old mother of two daughters was reported missing on Mother’s Day 2020.
Her mountain bike and helmet were initially found in separate spots not far from her home near the mountain community of Salida, Colorado, but investigators suspected the bike was purposefully thrown into a ravine because there were no indications of a crash. A week after his wife went missing, Barry Morphew posted a video on Facebook pleading for her safe return and the case quickly drew attention.
This time, Morphew is being prosecuted by a different district attorney for the area where Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found, a rural area about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the Morphews’ home.
Suzanne Morphew had been treated for follicular lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, before she disappeared. Investigators found a port with her remains through which she could receive medicine to treat the cancer. They also found biking clothes similar to what she was known to wear.
Based on the condition of the remains and clothes, a forensic anthropologist theorized that the body likely decomposed elsewhere before being moved, according to the indictment.
Doctor waives right to extradition hearing in killings of his ex-wife and her husband
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The ex-husband of an Ohio woman charged this weekend in the killings of her and her husband waived his right to an extradition hearing Monday in Illinois.
Michael David McKee, 39, a doctor from Chicago, has been charged with premeditated aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of 39-year-old Monique Tepe, whom he divorced in 2017, and dentist Dr. Spencer Tepe, 37, in their Columbus home on Dec. 30.
McKee appeared in court in Winnebago County, Illinois, where he has been jailed since his arrest on Saturday. He appeared expressionless while he walked into the courtroom wearing a yellow jumpsuit with shackles around his wrists. Judge Donald Shriver did not say when McKee will be returned to Ohio, but he scheduled a hearing for Jan. 19 to confirm the status of the transfer.
The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office will coordinate McKee’s return to Franklin County, where the trial will take place, according to Tom Jakeway, trial court administrator for the 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois.
His arrest caps off nearly two weeks of speculation surrounding the mysterious killings that attracted national attention. No obvious signs of forced entry were found at the Tepes’ home. Police also said no weapon was found there, and murder-suicide was not suspected. Further, nothing was stolen, and the couple’s two young children and their dog were left unharmed in the home.
Dispatchers first received calls of concern when Spencer Tepe didn’t show up on Dec. 30 at the dental practice where he worked in Athens, a college town about 75 miles (120.70 kilometers) southeast of Columbus. His manager told police his tardiness was “out of character.” It was when Columbus police conducted a wellness check at the home later that day that they discovered the couple’s bullet-stricken bodies on the second floor.
Official reports from the Franklin County Coroner’s Office won’t be completed for several weeks, but a spokesperson said last week that they died in an “apparent homicide by gunshot wounds.”
Police had released security footage on Tuesday of a person of interest dressed in a dark hoodie and light colored pants walking in an alley near the couple’s home between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. — the window of time in which investigators believed the two were attacked. The release generated dozens of tips and took the manhunt across multiple state lines to McKee’s apartment.
McKee and Monique Tepe, then-Monique Sabaturski, married in 2015, according to Franklin County court records. They filed for divorce two years later.
According to the Tepes’ obituaries, Monique married Spencer Tepe in 2020. Family members described the couple as “extraordinary people whose lives were filled with love, joy and deep connection to others.”
Spencer Tepe was a graduate of the Ohio State University. He was a member of the American Dental Association and had been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. Monique Tepe was described as a “loving, patient, and joyful mother,” an avid baker, and a “thoughtful planner.”
New York
Music honcho L.A. Reid settles with ex-recording exec who accused him of sexual assault
NEW YORK (AP) — Grammy award-winning music producer Antonio “L.A.” Reid reached a settlement Monday with a former record company executive who alleged in a lawsuit that he sexually assaulted her and ruined her career.
The terms of Reid’s settlement with Drew Dixon were not made public.
Smiling with her family and lawyers outside court, Dixon said, “I’m excited to get back to making music.” She called the litigation an “arduous process.” Her mother, former Washington, D.C., Mayor Sharon Pratt, called it an “excruciating journey.”
Reid’s lawyer, Imran H. Ansari, said in a statement: “Mr. Reid has amicably resolved this matter with Ms. Dixon without any admission of liability.”
Musicians John Legend and Aku Orraca-Tetteh and recording executive Roy Lott were among the witnesses who had been set to testify on Dixon’s behalf, according to her lawyer, Kenya Davis.
Reid, a 10-time Grammy nominee and three-time winner, and producing partner Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds cofounded LaFace Records, a label responsible for hits from some of the biggest pop acts of the 1990s, including Boyz II Men, Outkast and TLC. He later ran three of the industry’s top labels — Arista, Island Def Jam and Sony’s Epic Records — and is credited with influencing the careers of stars including Usher, Pink and Mariah Carey.
Reid and Dixon, a former executive at Arista, Def Jam and Legend’s HomeSchool Records, resolved the lawsuit the same day jury selection was slated to begin in New York in a trial over her claims.
Dixon worked for Reid when he was Arista’s chief executive. She alleged that he sexually assaulted her twice in 2001 and later cut her budget and sidelined artists when she rebuffed his continuing advances. Dixon left Arista in 2002 and contends that her “meteoric trajectory” in the music business was cut short by Reid’s harassment.
Reid left Epic Records in 2017 after a former female assistant accused him of sexual harassment.
Davis said the settlement will empower Dixon “to move forward with her creative pursuits on her own terms, with her reputation, her voice, and her career reaffirmed.”
Dixon went public with her allegations in 2017 and detailed them in the 2020 documentary “On the Record,” which discussed sexual misconduct in the music industry. She has also accused ex-hip hop mogul Russell Simmons of rape, which he denies, and has a pending defamation lawsuit against him.
Dixon sued Reid in 2023 under New York State’s Adult Survivors Act, which had provided sex abuse accusers a one-year window to sue even if the statute of limitations has passed.
“I hope my work as an advocate for the Adult Survivors Act helps to bring all of us closer to a music business that is safer for everyone,” Dixon told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan. “And in a world where good news is often hard to find, I hope that survivors today see a ray of light peeking through the clouds.”
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.
Dixon expanded on her future plans in a written statement, saying that music has always been her “greatest source of comfort and joy.”
“While I have focused on sexual assault advocacy in recent years, I have never stopped fighting for my place in this industry,” Dixon said. “I have big ideas for future projects that will be guided by creativity and integrity.”
New York
$182M settlement reached in 2015 commuter train crossing crash
VALHALLA, N.Y. (AP) — A more than $182 million settlement has been reached with victims of a deadly 2015 collision between a train and an SUV at a suburban New York crossing.
The majority of the settlement with Metro-North Railroad goes to the families of five passengers killed when an SUV got stuck on the tracks in Valhalla, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of New York City, the Journal News reports.
About $79 million of the settlement will go to one specific passenger, based on their projected lifetime earnings, according to the newspaper. Payouts to the families of other passengers killed in the crash range from $35 million to $4 million.
The Journal News reviewed the settlement last week before it was sealed by a judge and no longer made available to the public.
A jury in 2024 found that Metro-North bore 71% of the liability for the five passengers’ deaths and the injuries of others, and 63% for the death of the SUV driver whose car was on the tracks. The jury specifically faulted the train engineer and the railroad’s oversight of the line’s electrified third rail.
Andrew Maloney, a lawyer for some of the roughly 30 injured passengers, said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the commuter system that also serves parts of Connecticut, should have resolved the litigation sooner.
“This should have never taken 11 years,” he said Monday. “They dragged it out.”
Maloney added that problems identified with the third rail’s design still have not been corrected all these years later.
The MTA declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement. But it said in a statement that it has continued to work with state and federal transportation officials on “material railroad crossing safety enhancements throughout the railroad network over the last decade.”
The Feb. 3, 2015, crash occurred during the evening rush hour as the SUV drove onto the tracks while navigating in backed-up traffic.
The crossing gate arm came down onto the vehicle and the driver ended up driving further onto the tracks.
The train smashed into the SUV at about 50 mph (80 kph) after the engineer hit the emergency brake only three seconds before the fiery collision. Parts of the railroad’s electrified third rail ripped off the ground, piercing the SUV’s gas tank and slicing into the train’s first passenger car.
Colorado
Husband of woman who disappeared in 2020 pleads not guilty to murder
DENVER (AP) — The husband of a Colorado woman who disappeared in 2020 pleaded not guilty to murder in her death for the second time.
Barry Morphew entered his plea in the death of Suzanne Morphew through one of his attorneys, David Beller, during a short hearing in Alamosa, Colorado.
Morphew was first arrested in 2021, almost a year after Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance, and charged with murder and tampering with evidence. But the case was abandoned in 2022 as it neared trial after a judge barred prosecutors from calling key witnesses in response to their repeated failure to follow rules for turning over evidence to the defense.
Suzanne Morphew’s skeletal remains were then found off a dirt road in southern Colorado in 2023. Morphew was charged again with first-degree murder in his wife’s death and arrested last year. He has maintained his innocence.
While Suzanne Morphew’s remains showed no signs of trauma, investigators found in her bone marrow a drug cocktail used to tranquilize wildlife that her husband was the only person, other than wildlife officials, to have a prescription for in their area, according to the indictment.
The coroner’s office determined her cause of death was “homicide by unspecified means” through intoxication of the three drugs — butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine — in the cocktail known as “BAM.”
The mystery surrounding Suzanne Morphew began when the 49-year-old mother of two daughters was reported missing on Mother’s Day 2020.
Her mountain bike and helmet were initially found in separate spots not far from her home near the mountain community of Salida, Colorado, but investigators suspected the bike was purposefully thrown into a ravine because there were no indications of a crash. A week after his wife went missing, Barry Morphew posted a video on Facebook pleading for her safe return and the case quickly drew attention.
This time, Morphew is being prosecuted by a different district attorney for the area where Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found, a rural area about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the Morphews’ home.
Suzanne Morphew had been treated for follicular lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, before she disappeared. Investigators found a port with her remains through which she could receive medicine to treat the cancer. They also found biking clothes similar to what she was known to wear.
Based on the condition of the remains and clothes, a forensic anthropologist theorized that the body likely decomposed elsewhere before being moved, according to the indictment.
