Tag: alabama

HORROR: 3-Year-Old Boy Dies in Hot Car While with Child Services — Government Took Him From Father, Then Left Him to Die

A horrifying failure of state “oversight” led to the death of a 3-year-old boy after he was abandoned for five hours inside a sweltering vehicle by a child welfare contractor hired by the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR).

Ke’Torrius “KJ” Starks Jr. was taken from his family and placed into the care of a foster system that was supposed to protect him.

He was picked up from daycare at 9:00 a.m. for a court-ordered supervised visit with his biological father, which ended at 11:30 a.m., according to People.

Instead of returning him to daycare, he was allegedly abandoned in a hot car for five hours while a DHR contract worker ran errands for herself—including picking up food for her family and shopping at a tobacco store, according to the family’s attorney.

The incident took place Tuesday in Birmingham as temperatures soared above 100 degrees.

The heat index reached 108°F, meaning the temperature inside the vehicle likely exceeded a deadly 150°F, according to attorney Courtney French.

More from People:

French says that the worker, who was employed to do transport through Covenant Services Inc., went Tuesday morning to pick KJ up from a child care center to bring him for a supervised visit with his dad.

Afterward, however, the worker did not bring the boy back to his center and instead decided “to run numerous personal errands with KJ still in a car seat in the back,” French claims. The stops including getting food and going to a tobacco shop.

The employee then went home but KJ was left in the car, according to French.

“The safety net that should have been in place to protect KJ and others like him is what caused his death,” French says. “So the very system that is in place for his protection was the system that led to his death — and that’s what’s so tragic about this.”

DHR says, “A child in DHR custody was being transported by a contract provider,” and confirmed the provider has fired the employee—yet refuses to disclose identity, safety protocols, or any meaningful accountability, citing confidentiality laws.

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Federal Judge Sanctions Alabama Lawyers for Submitting Fake AI‑Generated Case Citations, Highlighting Systemic, Ongoing AI Problems Making up Facts

OpenAI founder Sam Altman says that soon, everything everywhere will start using Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models for entire professions, causing them to “disappear.”

Meanwhile, people actually using these services, including attorneys in Alabama, are being sanctioned for the pervasive AI/LLM flaw of ‘hallucinating’ fake citations and fake references.

A federal judge in Birmingham, Alabama, Judge Anna Manasco, issued formal sanctions this week against three attorneys from the law firm Butler Snow after they submitted legal filings containing fabricated case citations generated by ChatGPT.

Manasco, appointed to the court by President Trump, described the citations as “completely made up” and removed the attorneys from the case.

The filings were part of a lawsuit brought by an inmate who alleged repeated stabbings at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility. Manasco referred the case to the Alabama State Bar and ordered the attorneys to share the sanctions order with all current and future clients, as well as all opposing counsel and courts where they are actively involved.

Even the attorneys overseeing the ones who made the mistake of using ChatGPT were also sanctioned. The supervisors claimed they ‘skimmed’ the filings and did not notice the fabricated legal authorities used to support their written arguments.

The lawsuit centers on claims by inmate Frankie Johnson, who alleges that prison officials failed to prevent multiple assaults despite prior warnings. Johnson is housed at Donaldson Correctional Facility, one of the state’s most overcrowded and violent prisons. The firm representing the Alabama Department of Corrections, Butler Snow, filed motions in the case that included five legal citations meant to support its arguments on scheduling and discovery disputes. Upon review, none of the referenced decisions existed.

News in the past month also suggests that, when measured, heavy AI/LLM reliance stunts the cognitive growth in its users, effectively making them dumber.

The judge investigated the filings further in this case and determined that the cases cited had never been published, logged, or recorded in any known legal database. They were simply made up out of thin air.

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Authorities: 7 arrested after at least 10 kids, some as young as 2, sexually tortured with shock collars in Alabama sex-trafficking ring

Seven people have been arrested after at least 10 children, as young as 2 years old, were held captive in an Alabama storm bunker for three years and sexually tortured through the use of tools like animal shock collars as part of a sex-trafficking ring.

According to Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade, seven suspects have been arrested as part of the roundup of the ring, including three family members and two mothers whose children were also trapped and abused in the basement.

“I know God’s forgiveness is boundless, but if there is a limit, we’ve reached it,” Wade said. 

The suspects have been identified as Rebecca Brewer, 29, Sara Louise Terrell, 41, Ricky Terrell, 44, Dalton Terrell, 21, William Chase McElroy, 21, Andres Velazquez-Trejo, 29, and Timothy St. John, 23. 

All of the suspects are currently facing a list of charges ranging from sodomy and rape to sexual torture and human trafficking.

According to investigators, all the suspects played a specific role in the ring. 

Bibb County Assistant District Attorney Bryan Jones said Velazquez-Trejo would allegedly drug the victims by putting a white powder in their drinks before bringing in clients who would pay up to $1,000 to have sex with them. 

He continued stating that the children would be tied up during the act, often to the limited furniture in the room, including a grimy mattress, a chair, and a support pole.

Jones said that two of the victims were forced to perform sexual acts on each other and told authorities that McElroy was the one who had both taught them the process and performed it on them himself. 

According to public court documents, Sara Louise Terrell allegedly placed animal shock collars on the children, which the suspects would use on the victim’s genitals as a form of punishment and self-serving sexual gratification.

Wade stated that the victims included both her children and Velazquez-Trejo and Brewer’s three children. Brewer also has a fourth child from a separate relationship.

Authorities stated that it is unclear how many children belonging to Sara Louise Terrell were involved, or who their fathers were.

Court records stated that other suspects arrested were allegedly responsible for selling and purchasing the children, and Velazquez-Trejo would additionally sell nude pictures of the victims.

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Alabama Judge Will Hear Lawsuit From Parents Over State’s Medical Marijuana Delays

A judge will hold a hearing later this month in a lawsuit filed by parents of children potentially eligible to receive medical cannabis under Alabama’s long-delayed program.

The five parents—Dustin Chandler, Cristina Cain, Catherine Hall, Megan Jackson and Kari Forsyth—want the court to require the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) to establish a patient registry for medical cannabis, citing delays in access to the program.

“Plaintiffs also bring this petition in their individual capacities because they have suffered specific injuries as a result of the Commissioner’s failure to establish the patient and caregiver registry and seek to vindicate their own private rights,” the parents claimed in the lawsuit. The are also suing “in the name of the State of Alabama to uphold the Compassion Act’s requirement.”

The commission argued in a motion to dismiss filed in May that the lawsuit lacks standing and asks the AMCC to take steps already taken or beyond its control.

“The Commission applauds the early advocacy of those among the Petitioners who supported passage of the [Compassion Act]. Regretfully, it appears the Petitioners have been misinformed about the status of the Patient Registry and why it has not yet been populated with the names of eligible patients,” counsel for AMCC wrote in the motion.

The plaintiffs said in their filing that each child “has a condition that is treatable with medical cannabis” but does not provide any further details.

The AMCC states in the motion that a patient registry has, in fact, been established and is being maintained at a significant expense. But according to the motion to dismiss, no patients are currently registered because physicians cannot be certified until certain licensing requirements for cultivators, processors, transporters and dispensaries are met.

According to the AMCC’s filing, rules established by the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners (BME) dictate that physician certification is dependent on issuing at least one license in each of the licensing categories, or to one integrated facility.

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‘Snooping Around’: Government Officials Under Fire for Bypassing State Constitution

‘It makes it very dangerous when you’re hunting with rifles and people aren’t wearing colors that make them easy to see.’

A court is being asked to act against state officials who bypass the requirements of their own state constitution.

The situation is that while the Alabama Constitution “makes it clear that if the government wants to come searching on your property, they need a warrant based on probable cause,” agents from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources simply cite a statute to ignore that requirement.

The Institute for Justice now is working with three Alabama residents to sue over the practice that has agents invading and searching private property not only without a warrant, but without consent.

The plaintiffs are Killen residents Dalton Boley and Regina Williams and Muscle Shoals resident Dale Liles, who all took action after facing “multiple” privacy intrusions by game wardens.

None ever has been charged with hunting violations, “yet game wardens have snooped around on their properties without warrants on multiple occasions. That’s because of an Alabama statute that allows game wardens to ‘enter upon any land … in the performance of their duty.’ Whether it’s a posted field or residential yard, the statute gives wardens broad power to roam around private property without any warrant,” the IJ said.

But, IJ lawyer Suranjan Sen explained, “The Alabama Constitution makes it clear that if the government wants to come searching on your property, they need a warrant based on probable cause, and game wardens are not exempt from the Constitution.”

Williams owns 10 acres in Killen and had used it for decades, but as she aged she gave her neighbor, Boley, and his family permission to use it.

Then the game wardens arrived.

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Alabama Governor Faces Contrasting Calls To Sign Or Veto Hemp Regulation Bill On Her Desk

A bill aimed at regulating consumable hemp products has landed on Gov. Kay Ivey’s (R) desk, but its future is uncertain.

HB 445, sponsored by Rep. Andy Whitt (R-Harvest), would establish regulations for consumable hemp products in Alabama, but the bill’s language and potential consequences have led the hemp industry to suggest the possibility of litigation and led to uncertainty among lawmakers, business owners, patients and lobbyists.

“It is my hope that the governor signs the bill this week. I think it’s a good piece of legislation. I think it’s a bipartisan piece of legislation, and certainly, we have to get the guardrails up on this industry,” Whitt said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Key provisions of the bill include:

  • Testing and labeling requirements for all consumable hemp products.
  • Caps of 10 milligrams per individually wrapped product, with a cap of 40 milligrams per package.
  • Authorization for the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board to license retailers of these products.
  • Restrictions on retail establishments selling hemp products.
  • Prohibition of sales to minors.
  • Prohibition of smokable hemp products and restrictions on online sales and direct delivery.
  • Imposition of an excise tax on consumable hemp products.

The bill defines “consumable hemp product” broadly as any finished product intended for human or animal consumption that contains any part of the hemp plant or its derivatives, but explicitly bans smokable hemp products and certain psychoactive cannabinoids.

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Grand jury recommends Alabama police department be ‘immediately abolished’

An Alabama grand jury has recommended that a city’s police department be “immediately abolished,” finding there is a “rampant culture of corruption,” officials said Wednesday while announcing the indictment of five of the agency’s officers, including its police chief.

Five Hanceville police officers were arrested and charged amid a probe into the department, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said. The spouse of one of the officers was also charged, he said.

“This is a sad day for law enforcement, but at the same time, it is a good day for the rule of law,” Crocker said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

Crocker provided limited details on the case. Though the investigation encompassed the department’s evidence room and the death of a Hanceville dispatcher, 49-year-old Christopher Michael Willingham, who was found dead from a toxic drug combination at work, officials said.

The Cullman County grand jury found that the Hanceville Police Department has “failed to account for, preserve and maintain evidence and in doing so has failed crime victims and the public at large,” making the evidence “unusable,” Crocker said.

The grand jury further found that Willingham’s death was “the direct result of the Hanceville Police Department’s negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence and disregard for human life,” Crocker said.

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Alabama Teen Killed During ‘No-Knock’ Drug Raid Had His Hands Raised, Lawsuit Says

A 16-year-old teenager had his hands raised when he was fatally shot by police during an unauthorized “no-knock” drug raid in Mobile, Alabama, last year, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed by his mother in federal court earlier this month.

The lawsuit against the City of Mobile and several anonymous Mobile police officers says Randall Adjessom came out of his room holding a gun when he heard someone break down the front door of the house where he lived with his mother, grandmother, aunt, and sisters. When he realized the intruders were police, he put his hands in the air and stepped back, but a Mobile Police Department (MPD) SWAT officer shot him four times.

“The complaint is replete with revelations from our pre-suit investigation,” civil rights attorneys representing Adjessom’s mother said in a press release accompanying the suit, “perhaps none more repulsive than the fact that MPD body-worn camera (BWC) video of the shooting clearly shows Randall begin to retreat after realizing the intruders into his family home were members of the police force when he was repeatedly shot and killed in cold blood.”

And after he was shot, the suit says, police left Adjessom to bleed out on the floor for four minutes before half-heartedly rendering medical aid.

If true, the lawsuit’s narrative—which purports to be backed by video evidence, internal affairs reviews, and a recent independent audit of the Mobile Police Department—is another tragic example of what happens when the drug war, unregulated SWAT teams, and the Second Amendment right to self-defense mix.

An MPD SWAT team executed a “no-knock” search warrant on November 18, 2023, as part of an investigation into Adjessom’s older adult brother for suspected marijuana sales. However, the lawsuit says Adjessom’s brother did not live at the residence the MPD acquired a search warrant for—only Adjessom, who was a minor, and several women in his family.  

The lawsuit says there were numerous problems with the raid besides the absence of its only articulated target: MPD officers intentionally didn’t evaluate the risk to civilians in its pre-warrant threat assessment or note the presence of civilians in its search warrant affidavit; didn’t obtain authorization for a nighttime raid from a judge, supervisor, or prosecutor; and failed to announce themselves until after they had breached the front door and entered the house. 

All those errors became a force that swept together—like a malevolent current—the MPD SWAT officers and Randall Adjessom, who came out of his bedroom and turned into the hallway holding a gun with a laser sight.

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Radical Leftist Who Detonated Bomb Outside Republican Alabama AG’s Office Sentenced to Prison – DOJ Resisted Charges Because Bomber is Transgender: Whistleblower

As previously reported, an explosive device was detonated outside of the Alabama Attorney General’s office earlier this year in February.

According to reports, the explosive device was detonated early in the morning on February 24.

The bomber, Kyle Calvert, was arrested on April 10, 2024.

No one was injured in the explosion.

“In the early hours of Saturday, February 24, an explosive device was detonated outside of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office building in Montgomery. Thankfully, no staff or personnel were injured by the explosion. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency will be leading the investigation, and we are urging anyone with information to contact them immediately,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) said in a statement.

According to the plea agreement, Kyle Calvert admitted to manufacturing the explosive device and using nails and screws as shrapnel.

Calvert also supported Antifa and placed stickers that read “Support your local Antifa” on downtown buildings. Law enforcement said Calvert claimed he has no affiliation with Antifa.

The FBI/DOJ on Thursday announced Kyle Calvert was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

“Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 27, of Irondale, Alabama, was sentenced today to nine years in prison for the malicious use of an explosive device outside of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office in Montgomery,” the Justice Department said in a press release on Thursday.

“Kyle Calvert attacked the Alabama Attorney General’s Office with a shrapnel-filled explosive and then fled the scene, but this sentence ensures he will not escape accountability for his crime,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Acts of violence like this one against our public institutions endanger public servants and entire communities, and they must not be tolerated. I am grateful to the FBI, ATF, and our state and local law enforcement partners for ensuring accountability for this attack, and for the work they do every day to protect our communities.”

“Today’s sentencing is the final step holding Kyle Calvert accountable for detonating a shrapnel-filled explosive device outside a public office in downtown Montgomery,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “This case demonstrates the FBI’s continued commitment to working with our partners to bring to justice anyone who attempts violence to injure or intimidate members of our community.”

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Overrun By Haitian Migrants, These Alabama Towns Could Be The Next Springfield

As van loads of Haitian migrants began arriving over the summer, residents in Alabama started to wonder whether their already-swelling community could handle the influx. 

Not satisfied with the answers they were getting from local officials, Jarrod and Amanda Schulte started investigating for themselves. They soon found themselves walking around north Athens, a run-down part of the city where migrants from all over the world live in dilapidated homes.

“What we found was not very pretty,” Jarrod Schulte told The Daily Wire. “The city of Athens, our politicians, they all need to do better.”

The Schultes and others in Alabama worry that their cities will become the next Springfield, Ohio, where a large influx of Haitian migrants was accompanied by a surge in crime and traffic accidents. Springfield made national headlines after former President Donald Trump mentioned the city during the September presidential debate, during a discussion of the impacts of mass migration on small cities across the country, not just in border states. Similar problems have arisen in Pennsylvania and Indiana, where residents worry their small cities don’t have enough resources to handle the influx.

The Daily Wire traveled to Athens and spoke to more than a dozen current residents, consisting of both longtime residents and migrants. The concern is not only that migrants are impacting the lives of those who were already there, straining already scarce resources in the town, but also the lives that migrants lead upon arrival.

Pierre-Marc, a 44-year-old Haitian migrant in Athens whom the Schultes befriended, is currently living alongside four other Haitian adults and two children in a rundown home in north Athens. 

When Pierre-Marc first met the Schultes, the facade of his home was covered in peeling paint and dotted with cracked windows. There was no furniture in the home, and residents washed their clothes in the sink they shared.

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