Connecticut
Ex-police chief arrested over alleged $85,000 theft from department funds
The former police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested Friday on larceny charges following allegations he stole $85,000 from two department accounts.
Karl Jacobson, 56, who abruptly retired from the department in January, turned himself in on an arrest warrant. He was later released on a court-set bond of $150,000, a state prosecutor said in a news release. Jacobson faces two counts of larceny related to defrauding a public community.
“An allegation of embezzlement by a police official is a serious matter and potentially undermines public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Chief State’s Attorney Patrick J. Griffin said in a statement.
Jacobson’s lawyer, Gregory Cerritelli, said he could not respond to the specific allegations yet but reminded the public that “an arrest is not evidence of guilt and allegations are not proof.”
“This is the beginning of a very long process,” he said in an emailed statement. “I urge everyone to keep an open mind and avoid a rush to judgment.”
Last month, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, when announcing Jacobson’s retirement, said the former chief admitted he took money from a city fund that compensates confidential informants for helping police solve crimes.
Elicker said the former chief acknowledged taking the funds for personal use when three of his deputies confronted him over the financial irregularities. According to the arrest warrant, Jacobson told the deputies he was spending too much money on sports betting apps, was seeking help for a gambling addiction and intended to replace the money.
During the recorded conversation, Jacobson apologized and asked the deputies “for an opportunity to save myself” so he could avoid going to prison and losing his pension, according to the warrant.
Investigators determined that Jacobson wagered more than $4.4 million on his DraftKings and FanDuel accounts between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 5, 2026. He won more than $4.2 million but lost more than $214,000. Jacobson earned $180,000 a year as police chief.
The mayor called the allegations “shocking” during a Friday news conference and said Jacobson initially admitted taking $10,000 from only one police account.
“We didn’t know how deep this went,” Elicker said, noting the case remains under investigation.
“It’s a very sad day for the city to see a chief, who was beloved by so many people, arrested for a theft of public money and also money that was intended for children,” Elicker said. Jacobson is accused of also taking money from the police athletic league, which provides a range of programs for the city’s youth.
Jacobson had served for three years as police chief in one of Connecticut’s largest cities, which is home to Yale University. He took office in July 2022, just weeks after a Black man was paralyzed in the back of a police van in an incident that roiled the police department and the city.
The state prosecutor’s office said Friday the city of New Haven first reported the embezzlement allegations on Jan. 5, which prompted an investigation by the Connecticut State Police. The probe revealed $81,500 was unaccounted for or misappropriated from the New Haven Police Department Narcotic Enforcement Fund between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2026. Money from the fund is used to pay confidential informants who help in narcotics investigations.
“The defendant had access to money in that fund,” according to a news release, which said bank records showed checks associated with the fund were deposited into Jacobson’s personal checking account.
Two checks totaling $4,000 were also withdrawn from the New Haven Police Activity League Fund between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2025. The prosecutor’s office said both were found in Jacobson’s personal account. Investigators said no one else at the police department was involved in the matter.
Jacobson had been with the department for 15 years before being named chief. He previously served in the East Providence Police Department in Rhode Island for nine years.
Georgia
Mother testifies she urged school shooter’s father to lock up guns
ATLANTA (AP) — Accused school shooter Colt Gray and his family lived a chaotic life, fighting, arguing and moving frequently due to financial issues, his mother testified in the trial of Colt’s father, Colin Gray.
Marcee Gray said she urged the boy’s father to take the guns in the home northeast of Atlanta and lock them inside his truck so they were not accessible to Colt.
“They need to be locked somewhere,” she told a jury in Winder, Georgia. “Initially he said he would.”
Marcee Gray’s testimony on Monday opened the second week in the trial of Colin Gray, who faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say the father should be accountable for giving his son the weapon used in the shooting as a Christmas gift despite alleged threats and warning signs that the boy was mentally unstable.
Colt, who was 14 years old at the time of the shooting, faces 55 counts, including murder in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of aggravated assault. He’s accused of carefully planning the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder that left two teachers and two students dead and several others wounded.
In dramatic testimony last week, several Georgia high school students last week testified in court about the horrors of being shot during their algebra class. They recounted through tears seeing a classmate in a pool of blood, then seeing blood on their own bodies and fearing they might die. There has also been testimony about what prosecutors describe as a “shrine” to a Florida school shooter that Colt kept on a wall next to his computer at home.
This is one of several cases around the nation where prosecutors are trying to hold parents responsible after their children are accused in fatal shootings.
Colt’s parents were separated in the months leading up to the shooting, and Colt lived mostly with his father during that time. Marcee Gray is not charged in connection to the school shooting.
She said Colt had an interest in Nikolas Cruz, convicted of the 2018 shooting that left 14 students and three staff members dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. But Marcee Gray said she thought Colt’s interest in Cruz was similar to her own interest in true crime documentaries, she said.
When he made a comment about using a tactical vest his dad had brought him to complete his own “school shooter outfit,” he claimed he was joking when he told her that.
“He was talking about a vest, his dad buying him a vest, and he said it in what I thought was a joking manner because he was laughing,” she testified. “He was talking about getting the vest and he said ‘yeah, I’ve got to finish my school shooter outfit,’ or something like that or ‘dad’s going to finish my finish my school shooter outfit.’”
Brian Hobbs, an attorney for Colin Gray, has said the shooting’s planning and timing “were hidden by Colt Gray from his father.”
“That’s the difference between tragedy and criminal liability,” he said previously. “You cannot hold someone criminally responsible for failing to predict what was intentionally hidden from them.”
With a semiautomatic rifle in his book bag, the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, Colt Gray boarded the school bus, investigators said. He left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the gun and then shot people in a classroom and hallways, they said.
Colin Gray had given his son the gun as a Christmas gift and continued to buy accessories after that, including “a lot of ammunition,” Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said in his opening statement.
Colin Gray was also aware his son’s mental health had deteriorated and had sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, an investigator testified.
“We have had a very difficult past couple of years and he needs help. Anger, anxiety, quick to be volatile. I don’t know what to do,” Colin Gray wrote about his son.
But Smith said Colin Gray never followed through on concerns about getting his son admitted to an inpatient facility.
California
Rob Reiner’s son pleads not guilty to murder in the killing of parents
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nick Reiner, the 32-year-old son of acclaimed director Rob Reiner, pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his parents in December.
Reiner’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene, entered the plea on his behalf as he stood behind glass in an enclosed custody area of the packed Los Angeles courtroom.
The third of Rob Reiner’s four children, Nick Reiner has been held without bail since his arrest hours after the actor-director and Michele Singer Reiner, his wife of 36 years, were found dead on Dec. 14 at their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles.
Reiner appeared in court with his head shaved and wearing brown jail clothes. He talked to his lawyer briefly before the judge began the hearing and spoke only to answer yes to a question from the judge. He was not wearing the suicide prevention smock he wore in his first court appearance in December.
The judge told Reiner to return to court April 29 for the scheduling of a preliminary hearing where prosecutors will present evidence and a judge will decide if it’s enough for Reiner to go to trial.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside court that his office still hasn’t decided whether it will seek the death penalty for Reiner.
Reiner’s not guilty plea is common for criminal defendants at this stage of the case, whatever their longer-term plan might be.
Reiner’s previous attorney, the high-profile private lawyer Alan Jackson, had to quit the case at the hearing in January because of what he called circumstances beyond his and his client’s control. He said legal ethics would not allow him to say why, but in parting he adamantly declared that “pursuant to the laws of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”
Jackson did not elaborate but said the conclusion came after weeks of intensive investigation before his team had to hand the case off. He said he wanted to push back against false reporting on the case.
It’s not clear who hired Jackson to represent Reiner or who was paying the bill. Generally, defendants use public defenders when they can’t afford a private attorney.
Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said Monday that his office is still awaiting a full autopsy report in the case, but all other evidence has been turned over to the defense.
Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, died from “multiple sharp force injuries,” the LA County Medical Examiner said in initial findings. Authorities said they were killed hours before the bodies were discovered. A court order has prevented the release of more details and authorities have said nothing about possible motives.
Rob Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ‘90s. His credits included “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men,” and “When Harry Met Sally… ,” during whose production he met photographer Michele Singer and married her soon after.
Ex-police chief arrested over alleged $85,000 theft from department funds
The former police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested Friday on larceny charges following allegations he stole $85,000 from two department accounts.
Karl Jacobson, 56, who abruptly retired from the department in January, turned himself in on an arrest warrant. He was later released on a court-set bond of $150,000, a state prosecutor said in a news release. Jacobson faces two counts of larceny related to defrauding a public community.
“An allegation of embezzlement by a police official is a serious matter and potentially undermines public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Chief State’s Attorney Patrick J. Griffin said in a statement.
Jacobson’s lawyer, Gregory Cerritelli, said he could not respond to the specific allegations yet but reminded the public that “an arrest is not evidence of guilt and allegations are not proof.”
“This is the beginning of a very long process,” he said in an emailed statement. “I urge everyone to keep an open mind and avoid a rush to judgment.”
Last month, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, when announcing Jacobson’s retirement, said the former chief admitted he took money from a city fund that compensates confidential informants for helping police solve crimes.
Elicker said the former chief acknowledged taking the funds for personal use when three of his deputies confronted him over the financial irregularities. According to the arrest warrant, Jacobson told the deputies he was spending too much money on sports betting apps, was seeking help for a gambling addiction and intended to replace the money.
During the recorded conversation, Jacobson apologized and asked the deputies “for an opportunity to save myself” so he could avoid going to prison and losing his pension, according to the warrant.
Investigators determined that Jacobson wagered more than $4.4 million on his DraftKings and FanDuel accounts between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 5, 2026. He won more than $4.2 million but lost more than $214,000. Jacobson earned $180,000 a year as police chief.
The mayor called the allegations “shocking” during a Friday news conference and said Jacobson initially admitted taking $10,000 from only one police account.
“We didn’t know how deep this went,” Elicker said, noting the case remains under investigation.
“It’s a very sad day for the city to see a chief, who was beloved by so many people, arrested for a theft of public money and also money that was intended for children,” Elicker said. Jacobson is accused of also taking money from the police athletic league, which provides a range of programs for the city’s youth.
Jacobson had served for three years as police chief in one of Connecticut’s largest cities, which is home to Yale University. He took office in July 2022, just weeks after a Black man was paralyzed in the back of a police van in an incident that roiled the police department and the city.
The state prosecutor’s office said Friday the city of New Haven first reported the embezzlement allegations on Jan. 5, which prompted an investigation by the Connecticut State Police. The probe revealed $81,500 was unaccounted for or misappropriated from the New Haven Police Department Narcotic Enforcement Fund between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2026. Money from the fund is used to pay confidential informants who help in narcotics investigations.
“The defendant had access to money in that fund,” according to a news release, which said bank records showed checks associated with the fund were deposited into Jacobson’s personal checking account.
Two checks totaling $4,000 were also withdrawn from the New Haven Police Activity League Fund between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2025. The prosecutor’s office said both were found in Jacobson’s personal account. Investigators said no one else at the police department was involved in the matter.
Jacobson had been with the department for 15 years before being named chief. He previously served in the East Providence Police Department in Rhode Island for nine years.
Georgia
Mother testifies she urged school shooter’s father to lock up guns
ATLANTA (AP) — Accused school shooter Colt Gray and his family lived a chaotic life, fighting, arguing and moving frequently due to financial issues, his mother testified in the trial of Colt’s father, Colin Gray.
Marcee Gray said she urged the boy’s father to take the guns in the home northeast of Atlanta and lock them inside his truck so they were not accessible to Colt.
“They need to be locked somewhere,” she told a jury in Winder, Georgia. “Initially he said he would.”
Marcee Gray’s testimony on Monday opened the second week in the trial of Colin Gray, who faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say the father should be accountable for giving his son the weapon used in the shooting as a Christmas gift despite alleged threats and warning signs that the boy was mentally unstable.
Colt, who was 14 years old at the time of the shooting, faces 55 counts, including murder in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of aggravated assault. He’s accused of carefully planning the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder that left two teachers and two students dead and several others wounded.
In dramatic testimony last week, several Georgia high school students last week testified in court about the horrors of being shot during their algebra class. They recounted through tears seeing a classmate in a pool of blood, then seeing blood on their own bodies and fearing they might die. There has also been testimony about what prosecutors describe as a “shrine” to a Florida school shooter that Colt kept on a wall next to his computer at home.
This is one of several cases around the nation where prosecutors are trying to hold parents responsible after their children are accused in fatal shootings.
Colt’s parents were separated in the months leading up to the shooting, and Colt lived mostly with his father during that time. Marcee Gray is not charged in connection to the school shooting.
She said Colt had an interest in Nikolas Cruz, convicted of the 2018 shooting that left 14 students and three staff members dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. But Marcee Gray said she thought Colt’s interest in Cruz was similar to her own interest in true crime documentaries, she said.
When he made a comment about using a tactical vest his dad had brought him to complete his own “school shooter outfit,” he claimed he was joking when he told her that.
“He was talking about a vest, his dad buying him a vest, and he said it in what I thought was a joking manner because he was laughing,” she testified. “He was talking about getting the vest and he said ‘yeah, I’ve got to finish my school shooter outfit,’ or something like that or ‘dad’s going to finish my finish my school shooter outfit.’”
Brian Hobbs, an attorney for Colin Gray, has said the shooting’s planning and timing “were hidden by Colt Gray from his father.”
“That’s the difference between tragedy and criminal liability,” he said previously. “You cannot hold someone criminally responsible for failing to predict what was intentionally hidden from them.”
With a semiautomatic rifle in his book bag, the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, Colt Gray boarded the school bus, investigators said. He left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the gun and then shot people in a classroom and hallways, they said.
Colin Gray had given his son the gun as a Christmas gift and continued to buy accessories after that, including “a lot of ammunition,” Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said in his opening statement.
Colin Gray was also aware his son’s mental health had deteriorated and had sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, an investigator testified.
“We have had a very difficult past couple of years and he needs help. Anger, anxiety, quick to be volatile. I don’t know what to do,” Colin Gray wrote about his son.
But Smith said Colin Gray never followed through on concerns about getting his son admitted to an inpatient facility.
California
Rob Reiner’s son pleads not guilty to murder in the killing of parents
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nick Reiner, the 32-year-old son of acclaimed director Rob Reiner, pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his parents in December.
Reiner’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene, entered the plea on his behalf as he stood behind glass in an enclosed custody area of the packed Los Angeles courtroom.
The third of Rob Reiner’s four children, Nick Reiner has been held without bail since his arrest hours after the actor-director and Michele Singer Reiner, his wife of 36 years, were found dead on Dec. 14 at their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles.
Reiner appeared in court with his head shaved and wearing brown jail clothes. He talked to his lawyer briefly before the judge began the hearing and spoke only to answer yes to a question from the judge. He was not wearing the suicide prevention smock he wore in his first court appearance in December.
The judge told Reiner to return to court April 29 for the scheduling of a preliminary hearing where prosecutors will present evidence and a judge will decide if it’s enough for Reiner to go to trial.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside court that his office still hasn’t decided whether it will seek the death penalty for Reiner.
Reiner’s not guilty plea is common for criminal defendants at this stage of the case, whatever their longer-term plan might be.
Reiner’s previous attorney, the high-profile private lawyer Alan Jackson, had to quit the case at the hearing in January because of what he called circumstances beyond his and his client’s control. He said legal ethics would not allow him to say why, but in parting he adamantly declared that “pursuant to the laws of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”
Jackson did not elaborate but said the conclusion came after weeks of intensive investigation before his team had to hand the case off. He said he wanted to push back against false reporting on the case.
It’s not clear who hired Jackson to represent Reiner or who was paying the bill. Generally, defendants use public defenders when they can’t afford a private attorney.
Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said Monday that his office is still awaiting a full autopsy report in the case, but all other evidence has been turned over to the defense.
Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, died from “multiple sharp force injuries,” the LA County Medical Examiner said in initial findings. Authorities said they were killed hours before the bodies were discovered. A court order has prevented the release of more details and authorities have said nothing about possible motives.
Rob Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ‘90s. His credits included “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men,” and “When Harry Met Sally… ,” during whose production he met photographer Michele Singer and married her soon after.
