Tag: crime

Ruthless J6 prosecutor (who persecuted “Lectern Guy”) just got a triple dose of karma and now finds himself behind bars…

A ruthless former January 6 prosecutor just got a triple dose of karma and now finds himself behind bars. The bizarre incident unfolded on the Howard Franklin bridge in Tampa as rush hour was finishing up last Tuesday. It’s not clear at this point exactly what happened, but local media is calling it a “road rage” incident. Patrick Douglas Scruggs, the former J6 prosecutor, allegedly stabbed a driver who hit his car and then attempted to stab Good Samaritans that stopped to offer help. He was arrested on aggravated battery, aggravated assault and armed burglary charges.

The “burglary” charge  is interesting. We’re assuming Mr. Scruggs is also accused of stealing from the driver–what he allegedly stole is not known at this point.

Tampa Bay Times:

According to a news release issued Tuesday by the Florida Highway Patrol, a 40-year-old Tampa man was driving a sedan south on Interstate 275 when he and his 43-year-old wife noticed a vehicle that was stopped in the travel lanes of the bridge shortly before 9:24 a.m. The 35-year-old driver, also of Tampa, was slumped over inside his sedan, troopers said, so the couple pulled over in front of the car to help.

The 40-year-old man was unable to get inside the other sedan, so he walked back to his car to get something that could break the window. While he was doing that, the 35-year-old man woke up and accelerated forward, crashing into the couple’s sedan. He shifted into reverse and then tried to get around the couple’s sedan, according to troopers, but at that point, he struck Scruggs’ sedan as he was driving by the scene.

Scruggs pulled over, got out and walked up to the driver of the vehicle that hit his car. According to the Highway Patrol, Scruggs broke a window and started stabbing the 35-year-old man with a pocketknife.

The couple returned to the vehicle to help the man being stabbed, but Scruggs then tried to stab them and they fled, troopers said.

And in an interesting twist, Adam Johnson, better known as “Lectern Guy” for swiping Pelosi’s lectern on that fateful day, was prosecuted by Mr. Scruggs.

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Baltimore police warn suspect at large in female CEO slaying will ‘kill’ and ‘rape’

Baltimore police say that tech CEO Pava Marie LaPere was found dead in her apartment on Monday morning shortly after a missing-persons report was received.

LaPere, 26, was found dead Monday at 11:34 a.m. in the 300 block of West Franklin Street in Baltimore, police said. Officers found that LaPere had signs of blunt-force trauma.

Shortly before officers arrived at the apartment, a missing-person’s call was made, an investigation revealed. Homicide detectives are investigating her death.

During a press conference, officials revealed that Jason Deans Billingsley, 32, is a suspect in the case and wanted for first-degree murder, assault and other charges.

Police don’t believe Billingsley had any relationship with LaPere.

Billingsley was convicted of attempted rape and other violent crimes in 2011 and received a sentence of 30 years, but he was paroled in October 2022.

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Bloodthirsty female kingpins of nationwide sex trafficking ring circulated videos showing brutal torture of rivals

The depraved ringleaders of a Queens-based, nationwide sex-trafficking and prostitution ring with “significant” ties to “China” posed for cheery selfies hours after a victim they targeted was “viciously beaten by a rolling pin,” prosecutors said.

The doe-eyed duo —  manager Yuan Yuan Chen and her boss Rong Rong Xu —  were part of a Flushing-based sex ring that extended all the way to Oregon and included hundreds of sex workers, most of whom were migrants from China forced to hand over their passports, according to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.

Prosecutors said both women made numerous trips from Flushing’s Chinatown to China.

Yuan Yuan Chen, 30, was indicted on September 15 after Xu, 31, was arrested last year.

The selfie they took together — just hours after allegedly siccing enforcers on rival sex workers at a Kansas hotel in 2020 — was included in paperwork prosecutors filed to deny Chen bail

In “complete disregard for the victim,” the two women “posed for nearly a dozen ‘selfies,’  smiling and having fun, hours after the victim . . . had been viciously beaten with a rolling pin,” prosecutors wrote.

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These Are The Most Prevalent Forms Of Cyber Crime

Owed in part to the pandemic-induced increased shift from offline to online, cyber attacks have become a lucrative avenue for criminals in recent years. 

As Florian Zandt reports, Statista experts estimate global losses of $7.1 trillion in 2022 compared to 2019’s $1.2 trillion, with crypto exchange and protocol hacks by prolific groups like the state-affiliated North Korean hacking team Lazarus dramatically increasing in the years 2021 and 2022 according to Chainalysis. While the number of hacks and the damage caused has been on a constant uptick, the types of cyber attacks have shifted dramatically in the past five years.

In 2017, roughly 42 percent of recorded cyber crimes were connected to non-payment or non-delivery.

This category includes purchases made via fraudulent online stores that never materialize and promised payments never arriving.

Personal data breaches and phishing scams constituted an additional 28 percent, while identity theft, credit card fraud and other cyber attacks had a relatively low share in all reported cyber crimes.

Five years later, phishing has become the most prevalent cyber attack. This past year, more than half of criminal online activity was connected to this long-running type of cyber crime.

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Leader in Richmond Democrat Party group posted bomb threat against Andy Ngo Virginia talk

An official member of the Democrat Party in Richmond, Virginia, posted a bomb threat against journalist Andy Ngo on Friday. 

Jimmie Lee Jarvis, the owner of Mission Control Research and Consulting in Richmond, posted the bomb threat on X ahead of Ngo’s speaking event organized by The Virginia Council and Common Sense Society at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, Virginia.

The post included an image of dynamite with Jarvis writing in the description box, “On my way to the Andy Ngo event!”

According to the official website of Richmond Democrats, Jimmie Lee Jarvis is listed as an official member of the Richmond City Democratic Committee.

Jarvis’ threat was one of many that came from radical leftists ahead of Ngo’s speaking event, which resulted in two venues pulling out at the last minute.

While Ngo, senior editor of The Post Millennial, explained that the event was ultimately a success after the third venue refused to cave to the coordinated campaign attack of threats issued by Antifa and other far-left activists, Marriott forced the Westin to cancel the venue just hours before it was set to kick off on Friday. Earlier in the week, the Commonwealth Club pulled out from allowing its venue to be used for the event following harassment and threats of violence.

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Sam Bankman-Fried’s dad allegedly had advisory role at top Democratic ‘dark money network’

Joseph Bankman, the father of troubled former crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, allegedly held an advisory role at a top Democratic dark money network, an arrangement a watchdog says “deserves serious scrutiny.”

The allegation appeared in a lawsuit Bankman-Fried’s former company, FTX, filed against his parents Monday after they allegedly “exploited their access and influence within the FTX enterprise to enrich themselves, directly and indirectly, by millions of dollars,” the company’s lawyers wrote. FTX is seeking to recoup money to pay owed debts.

Bankman-Fried’s father, a Stanford University law professor, “sat on the advisory board of Arabella Advisors,” according to the complaint. 

Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, manages a nonprofit network that provides fiscal sponsorship to dozens of left-wing groups.

The funds it manages, which include the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund and Hopewell Fund, collectively raise over a billion dollars in anonymous cash annually and, in turn, also shower liberal causes and initiatives with money nationwide.

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LEADING DEMOCRAT IN MARYLAND SENATE RACE ONCE BLAMED MURDERS ON DECRIMINALIZED POT

EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE Maryland voters will cast their ballots in a rare U.S. Senate primary, the bulk of the state’s Democratic machine has already consolidated behind one candidate. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks emerged as a front-runner shortly after announcing her candidacy, garnering endorsements from major Democratic officials and organizations before her campaign had any issue platforms listed on its website. 

The race presents a unique opportunity to fill a safely blue seat with a new candidate for the first time in 16 years. If Alsobrooks is successful, she would become Maryland’s first Black senator. While Democrats have embraced Alsobrooks’s historic campaign with enthusiasm, however, her record on criminal justice has largely gone overlooked.

During past campaigns for Prince George’s state’s attorney, Alsobrooks positioned herself as staunchly “tough-on-crime.” In addition to pushing the notion that cannabis decriminalization led to drug dealers murdering each other, she has supported DNA collection of people without criminal convictions, putting police in schools, and harsh penalties in a variety of situations, among other positions opposed by justice system reformers. 

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House Democrats File Marijuana Legalization And Expungements Bill

A top House Democrat has reintroduced a bill to federally legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, with provisions to expunge prior cannabis convictions.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, refiled the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act on Wednesday. There are 33 initial cosponsors—all Democrats.

The comprehensive legalization legislation has passed the House twice in recent sessions—but this marks the first time it’s being introduced with Republicans in control of the chamber, raising serious questions about whether it will move. The Judiciary Committee, which is the primary panel of jurisdiction, is chaired by anti-cannabis Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

Even the prospects of a modest marijuana banking bill that’s set for committee action in the Senate next week are uncertain in the House under the GOP majority. That said, a GOP-led House panel did advance legislation on Wednesday to prevent the denial of federal employment or security clearances based on a candidate’s past cannabis use.

In any case, advocates have long touted the MORE Act as an example of the type of wide-ranging cannabis reform legislation that would not only end prohibition but take steps to right the wrongs of prohibition and promote social equity.

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Seattle Leaders Pass Law To Prosecute Drug Possession And Public Use

The Seattle City Council voted 6–3 Tuesday to align the city’s municipal code with a 2023 state law making public drug use and possession a gross misdemeanor and give the City Attorney’s Office authority to prosecute those crimes.

Councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Andrew Lewis, Debora Juarez, Sara Nelson, Alex Pedersen and Dan Strauss voted in support. Councilmembers Tammy Morales, Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant voted against.

Supporters argue the legislation is a critical tool for addressing a worsening drug crisis and that language in the bill is meant to push people with substance use disorders to treatment. Opponents say it’s a return to a failed drug war tactic that will incarcerate drug users and disproportionately impact Black and brown residents rather than provide people the help they need.

Tuesday was the Council’s second attempt to align city municipal code with state drug possession laws. In June, a bill co-sponsored by Councilmembers Sara Nelson and Alex Pedersen at the behest of City Attorney Ann Davison was voted down 5–4. In a last-minute turn that killed the June bill, Councilmember Andrew Lewis said that while he supported aligning state and city law, he could not support a bill without a stronger plan for treatment.

In the intervening months, Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Lewis co-sponsored a new version of the bill that places greater emphasis on diversion and treatment and attempts to outline the “last resort” conditions under which officers should arrest drug users.

In its simplest terms, the passage of the Council bill puts the state drug possession law into Seattle’s Municipal Code. The law states that public drug possession or use is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in prison and a maximum fine of $1,000. For someone with two prior convictions for drug possession, the maximum penalty can increase to 364 days.

By adopting the language of the state law into city code, the council granted the Seattle City Attorney’s Office authority to prosecute drug possession charges. When drug possession was a felony in Washington, that authority resided with the King County Prosecutor.

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Jury finds Florida black nationalist guilty of lesser manslaughter charge for killing officer execution-style

Black nationalist Othal Wallace, who shot Florida police officer Jason Raynor in the head in 2021, which ultimately killed him, was found guilty of manslaughter for his actions.

The verdict came shortly before 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, per Fox News.

Wallace was promptly put in handcuffs and taken into custody following the guilty verdict, and did not appear to have any reaction. 

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood issued a statement following the verdict, saying, “The message I take away from this jury is that it’s open season on law enforcement.”

He added, “A lesser charge of Manslaughter for the MURDER of Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor is a slap in the face of everyone who puts on a uniform.”

Chitwood continued, “The same Othal Wallace who posted ‘1 Day I Will Take Great Pride And Honor In Getting Me Some Pigs Blood On My Hands And Boots’ may just get the chance to walk free one day.”

“Jason Raynor doesn’t get that chance. His family only gets to hold onto his memory. His life may not matter to the jury, but it mattered to us. My faith in the American jury has been shaken before. I have seen juries ignore video evidence and disregard victims. I have never been more disgusted by a verdict than I am today. My heart goes out to the family and friends of Officer Raynor who must feel many magnitudes of pain all over again. All I can say is I agree and share your anger.”

Originally, the 29-year-old Othal “O’Zone” Wallace was slapped with a charge for attempted first-degree murder after he had shot Raynor in the head. Raynor had been taken to the hospital, and later died from the gunshot wound.

Days later, Wallace was captured while hiding in a tree house located in DeKalb County, Georgia. The three-acre property where he was discovered was tied with the Not F—ing Around Coalition (NFAC), a black nationalist paramilitary organization. Aside from Wallace himself, numerous flash bangs, rifle plates, body armor, two rifles, two handguns, and several boxes of ammunition were discovered in the treehouse. 

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