Crime
Questions and sadness remain at the door of the apartment where a deputy killed an American airman
WASHINGTON (AP) – At the doorway of the apartment where Florida’s deputy president shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson, a small shrine grows, containing tributes from an Air Force unit struggling to manage along with his loss.
There is a long picket board, anchored by two pairs of aviator’s wings, and a black marker where mourners can leave prayers and memories for the 23-year-old.
One of the guests left an open Stella Artois beer. Others left combat boots, bouquets and an American flag. On either side of the door are 105mm and 30mm shell casings, like the ones Fortson used as a gunner on the unit’s AC-130J special operations aircraft – the empty 105mm cartridge is stuffed with flowers.
Then there’s the quarter.
In keeping with military tradition, quarters are left quietly and often anonymously if one other service member was there at the time of death.
The 1st Special Operations Wing, Florida Panhandle, where Fortson served, took a break from normal duties on Monday to process his death and “reflect members’ attention inward, lead small group discussions, enable voices to be heard and engage with teammates.” the statement reads. Wing said in a statement.
In the week since Fortson was shot, a heated debate has erupted on multiple online forums: Did the police have adequate housing? The caller reported a domestic disturbance, but Fortson was alone. Why would the deputy shoot so quickly? Why would police kill a service member?
There are also questions on whether race played a role in Fortson being black and echoes of the police killing of George Floyd.
Fortson was holding a legally owned gun when he opened the front door, nevertheless it was pointed at the floor. Based on body camera footage released by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, the sheriff’s deputy only ordered Fortson to drop his gun when he shot him. The sheriff didn’t disclose the deputy’s race.
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“We know our air commandos are receiving increasing media attention and conversation about what happened,” Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, head of Air Force Special Operations Command, said last week in a message to unit commanders.
He urged these leaders to listen and seek to grasp their soldiers: “We have grieving teammates who have been through various adventures.”
In 2020, after Floyd’s death, then-Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Kaleth O. Wright wrote an emotional note to his troops about police killings of black men and children: “I’m a black man and I occur to be an Air Force master sergeant. “I’m George Floyd… I’m Philando Castile, I’m Michael Brown, I’m Alton Sterling, I’m Tamir Rice.”
At the time, Wright was one of the few black military leaders, including now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who said they needed to handle the assassination and its impact on them.
“My best fear is just not that I will probably be killed by a white policeman (imagine me, my heart starts racing like most other black men in America after I see those blue lights behind me)… but that I’ll get up and discover that one of our black airmen was killed at the hands of a white policeman,” Wright wrote at the time.
Wright, who’s now retired, posted a photo on his personal Facebook page Thursday of Fortson standing in matching flight suits along with his younger sister.
“Who am I… My name is SrA Roger Fortson,” Wright wrote. “That’s what I used to be all the time afraid of. She prays for his family. The young king of RIH.
On Friday, many members of Fortson’s unit will travel to Georgia to attend his funeral, with a planned flyover of AC-130 special operations aircraft.
“You were taken too soon,” one other senior airman wrote on a picket board outside Fortson’s front door. “Without justice there is no peace.”
Crime
Sean “Diddy” Combs faces five new sexual assault trials
Several more plaintiffs got here forward this week accusing rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual abuse. On November 19, three men and two women filed separate complaints against the Bad Boy Records founder through Tony Buzbee, a lawyer who previously said he would represent greater than 100 clients accusing Combs of misconduct.
“For years, Combs and his companies have engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of violence against women, men and minors,” the entire complaints read: in keeping with People magazine. “This abuse was at times verbal, emotional, physical and sexual. As part of his pattern of molestation, Combs manipulated both men and women into participating in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity, with both prostitutes and unsuspecting partygoers.”
The new plaintiffs include an unidentified man who claims the rapper sexually assaulted him when he was 39 years old. At a house party in New York in 2022, the plaintiff alleged that he was given a drink that left him feeling disoriented and uncontrolled. his body, which ultimately caused him to lose consciousness.
When he regained consciousness, he recalls being in a “dark bedroom with black walls, on a bed with black sheets”, where he realized that Combs was “sodomizing him”. The plaintiff claims he fought with the rapper before leaving the party.
Other male plaintiffs, including an unnamed former actor, remember feeling disoriented, passing out and waking up as Combs sexually assaulted them. With allegations dating back to 2001, all five complaints said Combs’ alleged abuse was “shockingly typical” since the star believed he was “above the law.”
“That said, Mr. Combs vehemently and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors,” attorney Erica Wolff added in a press release. “He looks forward to proving his innocence and defending himself in court where the truth will be determined by evidence, not speculation.”
Combs is currently in federal custody awaiting trial on criminal charges including sex trafficking and racketeering. The star’s trial is scheduled to happen in May 2025.
Crime
Founder of an AI Tech startup accused of fraud and combining numbers with investors
Joanna Smith-Griffin, 33, CEO of startup AllHere Education, Inc. dealing with AI education accused of defrauding investors.
The Southern District of New York prosecuted Smith-Griffin securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The grand jury indictment alleged that Smith-Griffin lied concerning the education platform’s funds and posed as a financial consultant to supply false information to investors. While acting as a financial consultant for AllHere Education, Smith-Griffin is accused of falsifying the corporate’s financial records mislead potential investors and inflate the worth of her company and its revenues.
AllHere Education is an AI-powered learning platform utilized in primary and secondary schools. Smith-Griffin has had little success integrating the K-12 platform into individual school districts in California and Georgia. However, the principal didn’t secure long-term contracts with school districts. She used these short-term partnerships to misrepresent to investors the reach and financial success of AllHere Education.
Smith-Griffin told potential AllHere investors that AllHere generated about $3.7 million in revenue in 2020, about $2.5 million in money and has major school district customers similar to New York City Department of Education (“NYC DOE”) and Atlanta Public Schools. In fact, AllHere generated roughly $11,000 in revenue in 2020, had roughly $494,000 in money, and had no contracts with many of the clients it represented, including the NYC DOE and Atlanta Public Schools.
Smith-Griffin continued to boost capital to support the startup, raising one other $10 million in funding. When the corporate collapsed financially, Smith-Griffin allegedly used the money injection to pay for an extravagant three-day wedding in Florida and a residence in North Carolina.
FBI Deputy Director James E. Dennehy commented on Smith-Griffin’s decision to prioritize her personal aspirations over the needs of an educational platform.
“Her alleged actions impacted the potential to improve the learning environment in core school districts by selfishly prioritizing personal expenses,” he said.
Smith-Griffin faces a compulsory two years in prison for the identity theft charge and a maximum of 20 years for every fraud charge. AllHere Education is currently in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Crime
Prosecutors say Sean “Diddy” Combs is trying to obstruct justice by heading to prison
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was trying to reach potential witnesses and influence public opinion while in prison in a bid to influence potential jurors in an upcoming sex trafficking trial, prosecutors said in a court filing during which they urged a judge to deny his latest bail request.
The government charges were filed Friday evening in federal court in Manhattan, which opposed the music mogul’s latest offer of $50 million bail. A bail hearing is scheduled for next week.
Prosecutors wrote that a review of recorded phone calls Combs made while in prison shows that he asked relations to contact potential victims and witnesses and urged them to create a “narrative” to influence the jury pool. They say he also encouraged the use of promoting strategies to influence public opinion.
“The defendant has demonstrated time and time again – even while in custody – that he’ll flagrantly and repeatedly disregard the foundations so as to improperly influence the consequence of his case. In other words, the defendant has demonstrated that he can’t be trusted to abide by the terms and conditions,” prosecutors wrote in a press release containing redactions.
Prosecutors wrote that from his behavior it might be inferred that Combs wanted to blackmail victims and witnesses into remaining silent or providing testimony helpful to his defense.
Combs’ lawyers didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prosecutors said Combs, 55, began breaking the foundations almost immediately after being taken into custody Metropolitan Prison Center in Brooklyn after his September arrest.
He pleaded not guilty to the costs brought against him he abused and molested women for years with the assistance of a network of collaborators and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Two judges found he was a danger to the community and a flight risk.
His lawyers recently filed a 3rd bail application after rejecting two previous attempts, including a $50 million bail offer.
In their motion, they cited modified circumstances, including latest evidence, that they believed justified Combs’ release so he could higher prepare for his May 5 trial.
However, prosecutors said defense lawyers created the most recent bail proposal based on evidence provided to them by prosecutors, and the brand new material was already known to defense lawyers after they submitted previous bail applications.
In their presentation to the judge, prosecutors said Combs’ behavior in prison shows he must remain locked up.
For example, they said, Combs asked relations to plan and execute a social media campaign around his birthday “with the intent of influencing a potential jury in this criminal proceeding.”
He encouraged his children to post a video on their social media accounts of them gathering to have a good time his birthday, he added.
He then monitored statistics on the jail, including audience engagement, and “explicitly discussed with the family how to ensure the film would have the desired impact on potential jury members in this case,” they said.
The government also alleged that Combs made clear in other conversations that he intended to anonymously publish information that he believed would help him defend against the costs.
“Defendant’s efforts to impede the fairness of these proceedings also include his persistent efforts to contact potential witnesses, including victims of violence, who could provide strong testimony against him,” prosecutors wrote.
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