Tag Archives: Assault and battery

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Man dies following brawl at middle school basketball game

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CNN
 — 

A 60-year-old man died following a brawl that broke out on Tuesday night in the town of Alburgh during a middle school basketball game, Vermont State Police (VST) said in a statement Wednesday.

Russell Giroux was taken by ambulance to Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans where he was pronounced dead, VST said.

“The circumstances of his death are under active investigation,” the statement read.

“Mr. Giroux’s body will be brought to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of his death,” it added.

The statement from VST indicated Giroux participated in a large fight that involved multiple spectators during a 7th-8th grade boys basketball game between Alburgh and St. Albans. Alburgh is located approximately one hour north of Burlington.

Troopers were called at around 7 p.m. to the Alburgh Community Education Center. By the time they arrived, the brawl was over and some of the participants left the school, VST said.

“This investigation is in its earliest stages and involves members of the Vermont State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations, Field Force Division and Victim Services Unit,” VST added.

“The state police is working with Grand Isle County State’s Attorney Doug DiSabito on this case.”

According to CNN affiliate WCAX, Grand Isle State’s Attorney Doug DiSabito said police are gathering video footage and information about who was there.

“In some respects, I’m at a loss for words. This should never happen,” said DiSabito, according to WCAX.

“Very sad. And it’s because of adults and I’m sad for my community.”

School officials released statements on Wednesday expressing their shock over Giroux’s death and condemned the violence that took place.

“The Maple Run Unified School District condemns the violence that occurred during the basketball game,” Maple Run Unified School District said in a Wednesday statement.

“We expect better from our communities. Fighting and violence are wholly inconsistent with the behaviors we encourage and support.

“We always seek to foster a positive learning environment in school and at school events for our students.

“The tragic events that preceded Mr. Giroux’s death have caused our schools to evaluate school programs and community involvement.”

The district said it informed school staff of the incident and is working to support students and families, “dealing with the consequences of the altercation and Mr. Giroux’s death.”

The district said it urges the Agency of Education and the Vermont Principal’s Association to consider how to best respond to unruly spectators following a spate of bad behavior.

In a letter addressed to the Alburgh community on Wednesday, the Grand Isle Supervisory Union said its “immediate goal is to remind and educate our students and families that our school culture is one of family, community, and kindness.”

“In order to best support the students and staff of the Alburgh Community Education Center, the GISU has arranged for additional support, if needed, with our regional partners to be available throughout the day.”

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Report: Man accused of kidnapping, torturing Oregon woman dies from self-inflicted gunshot wound following police standoff

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CNN
 — 

A week after authorities discovered a woman bound and beaten in a southwest Oregon home, the kidnapping suspect has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a CNN affiliate reports.

Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, died in a hospital after an hourslong standoff with law enforcement Tuesday evening in Grants Pass, Oregon, CNN affiliate KTVL reported, citing a police spokesperson.

The standoff concluded after authorities had surrounded the home – under which they believed Foster was hiding – and were trying to convince the suspect to surrender, KTVL reported.

In a statement Tuesday night, Grants Pass police said Foster was “in custody” after the standoff but provided no additional details. The department said it will hold a press conference Wednesday.

Foster was wanted on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping and assault after officers found a woman restrained and beaten until she was unconscious in a Grants Pass home on January 24, police said.

Prosecutors have accused Foster of torturing the woman with the intention of killing her, according to charging documents.

The victim was still hospitalized in critical condition as of Sunday, according to Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman.

Foster knew his victim before the attack, Hensman told CNN, saying the two had a “prior relationship.” He did not elaborate but said, “This was not a random attack.”

The suspect had already fled by the time officers arrived at the scene last week, prompting a sweeping multi-day search for Foster which drew a flood of tips from the public and included federal, state and local agencies, police said.

As they searched for Foster, police warned he was “extremely dangerous” and potentially armed. Hensman said he was “definitely a threat to others,” particularly those who might try to befriend him.

Investigators said Foster likely received help fleeing law enforcement. They also warned he could be may have been using dating apps to find potential new victims or lure people into aiding his escape.

When officers responded to a 911 call from a friend of the victim, they were confronted with “an absolutely disgusting scene,” Hensman told CNN. The victim had been suffering the alleged abuses for a “protracted amount of time” before she was discovered, he said.

“This will stay stained in my memory for many years to come,” the police chief said, describing images of the scene as “horrific.”

At least two women who have had relationships with Foster have accused him of attacking and abusing them, according to Clark County court records from cases in Las Vegas.

In the first case, his ex-girlfriend testified that in 2017 Foster flew into a rage and strangled her after seeing that another man had texted her. Foster was charged with felony battery constituting domestic violence, the records show.

While that case was still pending, he was charged with felony assault, battery and kidnapping after his then-girlfriend told police that he had strangled her multiple times and kept her tied up for most of a two-week period, according to the documents.

The woman was finally able to escape by convincing Foster they needed to go shop for food and fleeing through a store, a Las Vegas police report said. When she reached a hospital, she had seven broken ribs, two black eyes and abrasions to her wrists and ankles from being tied up, the report said.

Foster accepted plea deals in both cases. In the first case, he was sentenced to a maximum of 30 months in prison but given credit for 729 days served.

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Tyre Nichols’ death: First police report in Tyre Nichols case does not match video of deadly beating

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Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic descriptions of violence.



CNN
 — 

An initial police report filed in the hours after the Tyre Nichols traffic stop suggested he was violent and made claims that were contradicted by video later released by police.

Nichols was subdued on the ground yet continuously beaten after the stop by Memphis police on January 7. He died three days later.

The initial police report said Nichols “started to fight” with officers and at one point grabbed the gun of one of the detectives. But neither claim was substantiated by police videos released last week.

And despite the fact that the videos don’t appear to show Nichols fighting back, the report identified Nichols as a suspect in an aggravated assault.

The police report did not mention the officers punching and kicking Nichols.

One of the officers at the scene – who has since been charged with second-degree murder – was described in the report as a “victim.”

The report also claimed Nichols, who was Black, was pulled over for reckless driving at a high speed – another claim that is not substantiated by video of the encounter.

While authorities have not released the police report, a photo of a police report was posted by a controversial Memphis radio talk show host. The police report account was first reported by The New York Times.

Shelby County District Attorney spokesperson Erica Williams told CNN “the DA does have a report that has that same account of events.”

The report said Nichols was irate and sweating profusely when he got out of his vehicle and refused lawful detention by law enforcement. The use of pepper spray and a Taser stun gun had no effect on Nichols, the report stated.

The report also listed E. Martin as a “victim.” One of the five officers charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’ death is Emmitt Martin III.

It’s not clear who wrote the police report, which references both the Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

CNN’s calls to Memphis police have not been returned.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office refused to comment on the statements in the police report or the sheriff department’s role in it.

“The release of reports in connection with the investigation is unauthorized and the Sheriff’s Office cannot comment,” spokesperson John Morris told CNN.

While the report doesn’t reflect what is shown on the police body cam footage and Skycop street camera footage of the encounter. it does seem to reflect what the officers were discussing after Nichols was subdued and handcuffed by police the night of the incident.

CNN has previously reported that the initial public statement from police was also contradicted by the videos.

For the first time since Nichols was fatally beaten, his brother Jamal Dupree is speaking publicly about the horror and anguish his family lives with every day.

“It’s like a never-ending nightmare,” Dupree told “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday.

Dupree has not watched the video of his 29-year-old brother getting beaten with a baton and kicked in the head. He said he doesn’t need to see it.

“As soon as I seen them photos from him in the hospital, I already knew that they treated my brother like an animal,” Dupree said. “They beat on him like he was nothing. I don’t have to watch the video to know that.”

After public outrage over the gruesome video, officials have announced more firings or disciplinary action against public servants at the scene.

In addition to the firings of five Black Memphis police officers – all of whom face murder charges – officials have announced the firings of three Memphis Fire Department personnel.

Two sheriff’s deputies have been put on leave. And the police department acknowledged Monday that two more police officers had been put on leave.

“We are looking at everybody who had any kind of involvement in this incident,” from the officers and paramedics on scene to those who filed the paperwork, Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy said Monday.

Prosecutors moved “extraordinarily quick” with charges against the five officers “primarily responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols,” the prosecutor said. “As to everybody else, it’s going to take some time as we do that investigation. But I assure you the investigation’s ongoing.”

The release of gruesome footage of the attack on Nichols again horrified a nation that’s faced a steady stream of videos of police violence, especially against people of color.

The deadly encounter started with police pulling Nichols over for what they initially said was suspected reckless driving and unfolds at two locations.

Video released Friday shows Nichols running away after officers yanked him out of a car and used pepper spray and a Taser to try to make him lie prone; and then officers catching up to him at a second location, where he is repeatedly kicked and beaten.

After his hands are restrained and he’s left slumped to the ground, roughly 23 minutes pass before a gurney arrives at the scene. Nichols died at a hospital of his injuries three days later, authorities said.

Dupree said he felt it was his duty to protect his little brother. Now, he says he’s racked with guilt because he couldn’t save him.

“My brother was trying to cooperate with them,” Dupree said.

“If I was there, they would have had to kill me, too. Because I would have fought all of them.”

He said he wants everyone to remember how much joy Nichols brought to the world.

“My brother’s legacy is everywhere right now. Everybody knows that my brother was an innocent person. … He cared about people. He put people before he put himself. He was very selfless. He was just, all-around, a great person to be around,” Dupree said.

“It should never happen to anybody, but at the same time, when you see a person like that, and you know a person like that, it just takes a toll. … The world is going to miss a person like that.”

Five Memphis police officers were fired January 20 and then indicted last week. They face seven counts, including: second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping in possession of a deadly weapon, official misconduct and official oppression.

The five officers – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. – are expected to be arraigned February 17.

Martin’s attorney, William Massey, said “no one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die.”

Mills’ attorney, Blake Ballin, said Mills arrived later than other officers and his vision was impaired by the pepper spray used during the traffic stop.

“Some of the questions that remain will require a focus on Desmond Mills’ individual actions,” and “on whether Desmond’s actions crossed the lines that were crossed by other officers during this incident,” Ballin said.

Attorneys for the other former officers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Monday, police said a sixth and a seventh officer were placed on leave with the other five on January 8 – and those two officers still are the subjects of an internal investigation.

Police identified one of the two officers as Preston Hemphill, who is White. Police spokesperson Kimberly Elder declined to say whether Hemphill is being paid.

The city has released body-camera and pole-camera surveillance footage of the initial traffic stop, as well as the beating at the second site. One of the body-cam videos reveals Hemphill – at the site of the initial traffic stop – fired a Taser at Nichols and eventually said after Nichols ran: “One of them prongs hit the bastard.”

Hemphill twice says to an officer who was with him: “I hope they stomp his ass.”

That body-cam video does not show Hemphill at the second site, where the county’s district attorney has said Nichols was beaten and suffered his serious injuries.

Hemphill’s attorney, Lee Gerald, said his client – who hasn’t been charged – “was never present at the second scene.”

The seventh officer has not been publicly identified.

“Officer Preston Hemphill and other officer’s actions and inactions have been and continue to be the subject of this investigation,” Memphis police said Monday.

“There are numerous charges still developing that are impending.”

The Memphis Fire Department announced three employees were fired over their response to the incident.

Emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker have been terminated, the fire department said Monday.

The three were responding to a report of “a person pepper sprayed” when they arrived at the scene of the deadly beating and found Nichols on the ground, the fire department said.

The department’s investigation found that “the two EMTs responded based on the initial nature of the call and information they were told on the scene and failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr. Nichols,” the fire chief said.

Whitaker had remained in the fire truck, the department said.

Pole-camera video released Friday showed that after the EMTs arrived and before the ambulance arrived, first responders repeatedly walked away from Nichols, with Nichols intermittently falling onto his side.

Additionally, two deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office were put on leave last week pending an investigation, after video of the incident was released.

“I have concerns about two deputies who appeared on scene following the physical confrontation between police and Tyre Nichols,” Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said Friday.

After the fire department firings were announced Monday, an attorney for Tyre Nichols’ family, Antonio Romanucci said, “everybody on that scene was complicit in this man’s death, in one way, shape, form, or another, somebody failed Tyre Nichols.”

“They either failed by using excessive force; they failed him by severely beating him; they failed him by not intervening; they failed him by not rendering aid,” the attorney said Monday.

He said Nichols’ family still is trying to absorb the breadth of this multi-agency investigation, while also dealing with the loss of their loved one.

“This is just such a gross collapse of the system that we are supposed to trust, that it really is unspeakable,” Romanucci said.

A Memphis city council member said much more work needs to be done.

“We need to make sure that we go through our police department and see where we were weak, what happened with our procedures, what happened with our oversight,” council member Jeff Warren said.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it. And I think we’re going to find there’s more to this as we go into the trial,” he said. “I don’t think we’re on top of this yet.”



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Memphis releases video showing Tyre Nichols calling for his mother, beaten by officers now charged in his death

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Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic videos and descriptions of violence.



CNN
 — 

Tyre Nichols screamed for his mother and Memphis police officers struck him multiple times – including in the face while his hands were restrained – toward the end of the Black man’s deadly encounter with the officers this month, video released by the city shows.

And although paramedics arrive minutes after officers disengage, Nichols appears to be left multiple times on the pavement without assistance before an ambulance comes.

The city on Friday night released body camera and surveillance video of the January 7 traffic stop and beating that led to the 29-year-old’s death in hospital from his injuries three days later. The release comes a day after five Memphis police officers, who also are Black and have been fired, were charged with murder.

The footage drew stunned reaction from law enforcement experts and outrage from officials including President Joe Biden, who said it was “yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”

Live updates: Memphis releases Tyre Nichols arrest videos

Protesters in Memphis took to Interstate 55 Friday night after the videos’ release, blocking both lanes of the highway’s bridge connecting the western Tennessee city to Arkansas.

The basics of Nichols’ encounter were this: Police pulled Nichols over in Memphis in what they initially said was on suspicion of reckless driving. After officers pulled him out of his car, a struggle ensued and he ran away; minutes later, officers would catch up with him and hit or kick him numerous times, video shows.

Moments from the videos include:

During the first encounter after the traffic stop, at around 8:24 p.m., Nichols sounded calm, body cam video from an officer arriving at the scene shows.

As the officer approaches the scene, an officer is yelling at Nichols to “Get the fuck out of the car.”

Officers pull Nichols out of the vehicle and someone is heard saying, “Get the fuck on the ground and turn his ass around.” Nichols responds by saying, “I didn’t do anything,” and, “Alright, I’m on the ground.”

Officers yell at him to lie down and threaten to tase him. One officer tells him, “Bitch put your (hands) behind your back before I break them.”

Nichols can be heard telling them, “You guys are doing a lot right now. … I’m just trying to go home. I am on the ground!”

At 8:25 p.m., one officer sprays Nichols in the face with pepper spray. Nichols then struggles to his feet and begins running from the officer as one another shoots a taser at him that apparently didn’t make contact.

A struggle ensues. Nichols gets up and runs, and the officers chase him.

A different body camera video shows some of what happens when officers catch Nichols on a neighborhood street minutes later, around 8:34 p.m.

Nichols screams for his mom as the video shows an officer arriving at this scene.

– Source:
CNN
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Video: Lawyer shares Nichols called out for his mom 3 times

Officers tell Nichols to “give them his hand,” as a struggle ensues on the ground. An officer asks Nichols, “Do you want to get sprayed again?”

Two officers hit and kick Nichols as he is on the ground.

Nichols screams: “Mooooom!” and continues to call for his mom for a while.

An officer is eventually heard yelling at Nichols: “I’m going to baton the fuck out of you. Give me your fucking hands.”

A remotely operated pole-mounted police surveillance video in the neighborhood gives the clearest view of the blows. This shows officers hitting Nichols at least nine times without visible provocation.

When the camera first turns toward the scene, an officer shoves Nichols hard to the pavement with a knee or leg. Nichols is pulled up by his shoulders and then kicked in the face twice.

After being pulled up into a sitting position, Nichols is hit in the back with what appears to be a nightstick. After being pulled to his knees, Nichols is hit again.

Once pulled to his feet, the video shows officers hitting Nichols in the face multiple times while his hands are restrained behind his body, after which he falls to his knees. Less than a minute later, an officer appears to kick Nichols. More than three minutes after the encounter is first seen on this camera, officers let go of Nichols, and he rolls on his back.

One minute later, Nichols is dragged along the pavement and propped up in a sitting position against the side of a car, where he is largely ignored by officers for the next three-and-a-half minutes.

In a body-camera video, officers can be heard talking about the encounter.

“He swung – pow – almost hit me,” one officer says. “Then he reached for (inaudible) gun,” a second officer says.

One officer says Nichols “had his hand on my gun,” and “motherfucker was holding it.”

An officer later describes the traffic stop involving Nichols: “We tried to get him stopped. He didn’t stop.”

An officer says: “He drove around, swerved, nearly hit my car.”

Van Jones, a former special adviser to President Barack Obama, put it this way to CNN after seeing the videos: “(Nichols) goes from a voice from calm (during the initial encounter) to panic … to agony.”

“It’s clearly excessive force,” former New York City police Lt. Darrin Porcher told CNN. “What’s even more troubling is, no officer was wiling to intervene and say, ‘Stop.’ “

Ten minutes into the pole-camera video – a few minutes after officers disengaged – a person who appears to be a paramedic engages Nichols for the first time, around 8:41 p.m. But responders would repeatedly walk away from Nichols before an ambulance arrives.

Two minutes after paramedics started attending to Nichols, he is seen falling over to the side and seeming to hit his head hard against a piece of equipment after a bright light was shone in his face. No one appears to help Nichols as he tries to sit up, only to fall over again.

About a minute later, officers are seen crowding around Nichols, only to step away as he again falls onto his side.

First responders then spend nearly five minutes standing over Nichols, and occasionally shining a light toward his face, before walking away.

Read stepfather’s description of video: ‘No one rendered aid to him’

Nichols twists on the ground, unhelped. Medical equipment is finally brought back to Nichols’ side about three minutes later, the pole-camera video shows.

Footage shows that 21 minutes pass from when paramedics first appeared to arrive to when an ambulance finally pulls into view of the camera at 9:02 p.m.

Two deputies with the Shelby County sheriff’s office have been put on leave pending an investigation after the sheriff viewed the videos Friday.

“I have concerns about two deputies who appeared on scene following the physical confrontation between police and Tyre Nichols,” Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said.

“I have launched an internal investigation into the conduct of these deputies to determine what occurred and if any policies were violated. Both of these deputies have been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the administrative investigation.”

Earlier, two fire department employees who were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care” were put on leave “while an internal investigation is being conducted,” department spokesperson Qwanesha Ward told CNN’s Nadia Romero.

The US Department of Justice has said it is conducting a federal civil rights investigation of Nichols’ death.

Earlier Friday, Memphis’ police chief said the video would show “acts that defy humanity.”

Police have not been able to find anything to substantiate the probable cause for reckless driving by Nichols before his fatal encounter, Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis told CNN’s Don Lemon ahead of the videos’ release.

Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, told CNN on Friday before the videos were released: “It’s still like a nightmare right now.”

“I’m still trying to understand all of this and trying to wrap my head around all of this,” Wells said. “I don’t have my baby. I’ll never have my baby again.”

Police officials in a number of major cities nationwide have said they are monitoring for any possible public outcry this weekend over what will be seen in the video footage.

Police nationwide have been under scrutiny for how they treat Black people, particularly since the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the mass protest movement known as Black Lives Matter.

Before the videos’ were made public, Wells asked for supporters to be peaceful during demonstrations, saying at a vigil in Memphis on Thursday she wants “each and every one of you to protest in peace.”

“I don’t want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” Wells said. “And if you guys are here for me and Tyre, then you will protest peacefully.”

A Memphis church is scheduled to hold Nichols’ funeral Wednesday.

The five Memphis police officers identified – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. – were fired January 20 for violating police policies including on use of excessive force, police said.

They were then charged this week. Each has been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression, Mulroy, the Shelby County district attorney, said.

Martin and Haley were released from jail on a $350,000 bond, according to Shelby County Jail records, while Smith, Bean and Mills Jr. have been released after each posting a $250,000 bond.

The five former officers are scheduled for arraignment on February 17.

Blake Ballin, an attorney for Mills Jr., one of the officers, said he doesn’t believe his client “is capable of” the accusations, and his client is “remorseful” to be “connected to the death” of Nichols.

Ballin told CNN he has not yet seen the video, but has spoken to people who have. He urged those who watch the video to “treat each of these officers as individuals.”

“The levels of culpability amongst these five officers are different, and I expect that you’re going to see in this video that my client Desmond Mills is not, in fact, guilty of the crimes he’s been charged with,” Ballin said.



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Tyre Nichols: Memphis releases video showing police stop that led to Nichols’ death

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Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic descriptions of violence.



CNN
 — 

[Breaking news alert, published at 8:05 p.m. ET]

The city of Memphis has released police body camera and surveillance video showing the January 7 traffic stop and violent police confrontation that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.

In one of the bodycam videos, a Memphis police officer is heard yelling at Nichols: “I’m going to baton the fuck out of you. Give me your fucking hands.”

Nichols screams for his mom as the video shows an officer arriving at a second location, in a residential neighborhood.

Officers tell Nichols to “give them his hand,” as a struggle ensues on the ground. An officer asks Nichols, “Do you want to get sprayed again?”

Two officers hit and kick Nichols as he is on the ground.

Nichols screams: “Mooooom!”

An officer then appears to pepper spray Nichols.

Nichols continued to scream for his mother during the incident.

Officers continue to tell Nichols to give him their hands as Nichols continues to scream for his mother.

[Breaking news alert, published at 7:50 p.m. ET]

During the initial encounter between Nichols and Memphis police, an officer can be seen driving to the scene of a traffic stop, video shows. The officer gets out of the car with his gun drawn.

As the officer approaches the scene, an officer is yelling at Nichols to “Get the fuck out of the car.”

Officers pull Nichols out of the vehicle and you can hear someone saying, “Get the fuck on the ground and turn his ass around.” Nichols responds by saying, “I didn’t do anything,” and, “Alright, I’m on the ground.”

Officers yell at him to lie down and threaten to tase him.

One officer tells him, “Bitch put your (hands) behind your back before I break them.”

Nichols can be heard telling them, “You guys are doing a lot right now. I am on the ground.”

A struggle ensues. Nichols gets up and runs, and the officers begin to chase him.

The officer can be heard reporting on his radio a suspect is on the run and gives a description of what Nichols was wearing.

The officer returns to the scene, where other officers are coughing, and one says he can’t see anything. An officer finds a bottle of water and they begin pouring it into their eyes.

[Original story, published at 7:20 p.m. ET]

The city of Memphis has released police body camera and surveillance video showing the January 7 traffic stop and violent police confrontation that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.

CNN is reviewing the video.

The video clips released by the city include three police bodycams and an overhead angle from a pole-based police camera, city officials have said.

Five Memphis officers were fired this month and then charged Thursday over Nichols’ death, which happened days after the traffic stop police initially said was on suspicion of reckless driving. Nichols was Black, as are the five officers.

Two Memphis Fire Department employees who were part of Nichols’ initial care have been relieved of duty, pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

Live updates: Memphis to release Tyre Nichols arrest videos

Earlier Friday, Memphis’ police chief said the video would show “acts that defy humanity,”

“You’re going to see a disregard for life, duty of care that we’re all sworn to and a level of physical interaction that is above and beyond what is required in law enforcement,” Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis told Don Lemon of the video.

Ahead of the video release, officials were urging any demonstrations Friday to be civil.

“Individuals watching will feel what the family felt,” Davis said. “And if you don’t, then you’re not a human being. … There will be a measure of sadness, as well.”

Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, told CNN on Friday, “It’s still like a nightmare right now.”

“I’m still trying to understand all of this and trying to wrap my head around all of this,” Wells said. “I don’t have my baby. I’ll never have my baby again.”

In describing what she heard in the video, Davis said she heard Nichols “call out for his mother, for his mom.”

– Source:
CNN
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Video: Lawyer shares Nichols called out for his mom 3 times

“Just the disregard for humanity … That’s what really pulls at your heartstrings and makes you wonder: Why was a sense of care and concern for this individual just absent from the situation by all who went to the scene?”

Police nationwide have been under scrutiny for how they treat Black people, particularly since the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the mass protest movement known as Black Lives Matter. Davis likened the video to the 1991 Los Angeles police beating that sparked outrage across the country.

“I was in law enforcement during the Rodney King incident, and it’s very much aligned with that same type of behavior,” she said.

In Nichols’ case, the encounter began with a traffic stop police initially said was on suspicion of reckless driving. An initial altercation happened between Nichols and several officers, and pepper spray was used, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Thursday.

Nichols then fled on foot, and a second altercation happened – and that’s when Nichols suffered his serious injuries, Mulroy said. Nichols required hospitalization after the arrest and died on January 10.

Davis said police have not been able to find anything that substantiated the probable cause for reckless driving by Nichols before his fatal encounter with police.

Police officials in a number of major cities nationwide have said they are monitoring for any possible public outcry this weekend over the video footage.

Before the videos’ release, Nichols’ mother asked for supporters to be peaceful during demonstrations, saying at a vigil in Memphis on Thursday she wants “each and every one of you to protest in peace.”

“I don’t want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” Wells said. “And if you guys are here for me and Tyre, then you will protest peacefully.”

Memphis police officers arrived at Wells’ home between 8 and 9 p.m. on January 7 to tell her Nichols had been arrested, she told CNN.

Officers told her that her son was arrested for a DUI, pepper sprayed and tased, she said. Because of that, he was going to the hospital and would later be taken to booking at the police station, she said.

“They then asked me (if) was he on any type of drugs or anything of that nature because they were saying it was so difficult to put the handcuffs on him and he had this amount of energy, superhuman energy,” Wells said. “What they were describing was not my son, so I was very confused.”

Wells said officers told her Nichols was “nearby” but would not tell her exactly where. They also told her she could not go to the hospital, she said.

– Source:
CNN
” data-fave-thumbnails=”{“big”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230127132909-tyre-nichols-mother.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”},”small”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230127132909-tyre-nichols-mother.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”}}” data-vr-video=”” data-show-name=”” data-show-url=”” data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-network-id=”” data-details=””>

‘Beat him to a pulp’: Mom shares immediate reaction when arriving at hospital

However, at about 4 a.m., she said, she received a call from a doctor asking her to see Nichols.

“The doctor proceeded to tell me that my son had went into cardiac arrest and that his kidneys were failing,” she said, adding it didn’t “sound consistent” with what police had described as Nichols being tased and pepper-sprayed.

– Source:
CNN
” data-fave-thumbnails=”{“big”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230126235636-ben-crump-tyre-nichols.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”},”small”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230126235636-ben-crump-tyre-nichols.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”}}” data-vr-video=”” data-show-name=”” data-show-url=”” data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-network-id=”” data-details=””>

Crump: Nichols video will ‘remind you of Rodney King’

“When my husband and I got to the hospital and I saw my son, he was already gone,” Wells said. “They had beat him to a pulp.”

Wells described the horrific injuries her son had when she saw him in the hospital.

Read stepfather’s description of video: ‘No one rendered aid to him’

“He had bruises all over him. His head was swollen like a watermelon. His neck was busting because of the swelling. They broke his neck. My son’s nose look like a S,” she said. “They actually just beat the crap out of him. And so when I saw that, I knew my son was gone, the end. Even if he did live, he would have been a vegetable.”

A Memphis church is scheduled to hold Nichols’ funeral Wednesday.

The five Memphis police officers identified – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. – were fired January 20 for violating police policies including on use of excessive force, police said.

They were then charged this week. Each has been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression, Mulroy, the Shelby County district attorney, said.

Martin and Haley were released from jail on a $350,000 bond, according to Shelby County Jail records, while Smith, Bean and Mills Jr. have been released after each posting a $250,000 bond.

The five former officers are scheduled for arraignment on February 17.

Two fire department employees who were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care” were relieved of duty “while an internal investigation is being conducted,” department Public Information Officer Qwanesha Ward told CNN’s Nadia Romero.

The US Department of Justice has said it is conducting a federal civil rights investigation of Nichols’ death.

Crump, in a news conference Friday in Memphis, called Memphis’ rapid criminal charges – compared to other cities and states that have waited months or years in similar cases – a “blueprint” moving forward.

“We have a precedent that has been set here in Memphis, and we intend to hold this blueprint for all America from this day forward,” Crump said.

He called for Tennessee to enact what he called “Tyre’s Law”: A proposed measure which would require police officers to intervene when they see crimes being committed, including by fellow officers.

Blake Ballin, an attorney for Mills Jr., one of the officers, said he doesn’t believe his client “is capable of” the accusations, and his client is “remorseful” to be “connected to the death” of Nichols.

Ballin told CNN he has not yet seen the video, but has spoken to people who have. He urged those who watch the video to “treat each of these officers as individuals.”

“The levels of culpability amongst these five officers are different, and I expect that you’re going to see in this video that my client Desmond Mills is not, in fact, guilty of the crimes he’s been charged with,” Ballin said.

Police departments in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, Milwaukee, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, New York and Atlanta told CNN they are either monitoring the events in Memphis closely or already have plans in place in case of large-scale protests or unrest.

– Source:
CNN
” data-fave-thumbnails=”{“big”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230126191237-bennie-cobb-valencia-pkg.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”},”small”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230126191237-bennie-cobb-valencia-pkg.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”}}” data-vr-video=”” data-show-name=”Situation Room” data-show-url=”https://www.cnn.com/shows/situation-room” data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-network-id=”” data-details=””>

Friend of charged officer describes conversation they had about Nichols’ death

Memphis will continue to work with community leaders and organizers ahead of the video release, in hopes of quelling any potentially dangerous protests, City Council Vice Chair JB Smiley Jr. said.

“You will see protests, but it will be peaceful because the Memphis Police Department, the sheriff’s department, the district attorney and the Memphis City Council, along with the city administration, has took all the necessary steps to quell any potential of rioting in our city,” Smiley said.

President Joe Biden is echoing Nichols’ family’s call for peaceful protests, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on “CNN This Morning.”

“We certainly don’t want to see anyone else hurt by this terrible, terrible tragedy, and we’ll stay in close touch with the local and state authorities,” Kirby said.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Friday it is coordinating with partners across the United States ahead of the expected release of the video.

Read original article here

Entertainment

How WWE’s Vince McMahon ruthlessly got his job back despite allegations of sexual assault and misuse of company funds

Leave a comment


Washington
CNN
 — 

Professional wrestling is known for its outlandish, dramatic stories that have captivated generations. It’s an athletic soap opera built on emotional drama with wrestlers sometimes scheming in the background for months only to make their move at the opportune moment, drawing crazed reactions from arenas packed with fans who have followed every beat.

But the real-life saga playing out in World Wrestling Entertainment’s corporate office over the last several weeks surpasses even what most of what those performers and their backstage colleagues could dream up.

Vince McMahon, the longtime force behind WWE at the corporate and creative levels, made a shocking return to the company on January 10, nearly six months after announcing his retirement. McMahon was alleged to have used company funds to pay millions to multiple women in order to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct.

But over a series of just a few days last week, McMahon engineered his return to the company’s board of directors, reshaped it by forcing out some members, replaced them with his own allies, and used that new boardroom power to install himself in his old job as executive chairman. His own daughter – the heir apparent to the company who had appeared groomed to take the job for years – resigned.

The stunning and swift developments have the wrestling world reeling, with rumors of a sale burning up Wrestling Twitter and people inside and outside the company wondering what it all means for the future of WWE and professional wrestling itself.

In July, Vince McMahon – an ever-present force in WWE and professional wrestling, the man who remade the business in service of a vision that upended generations of tradition, creating his own hegemony – retired. Or he resigned, depending on who you ask.

It was a moment many wrestling fans and observers never thought would come. The longtime chairman and CEO of WWE was such an intense micromanager that he barely slept, rarely took vacations and almost never stopped putting his own spin on every single aspect of the company’s output. Many longtime followers of the company simply assumed he’d die in the role rather than retire.

But a series of revelations first reported in The Wall Street Journal about hush money payments to multiple women to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct seemed to bring McMahon’s legendary run as the head of wrestling’s most important company to an end. Additional reporting came in December, with additional women accusing McMahon of sexual assault, seemed to cement his status as being permanently gone from WWE.

WWE has always been a family business – Vince McMahon, Sr., handed over the reins to his son in the 1980s – and it seemed set to continue that way. Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, who only weeks before had taken a leave of absence from the company, stepped into the role of co-CEO with Nick Khan, a longtime executive in the entertainment and media industry.

And Paul Levesque – Stephanie McMahon’s husband and a Hall of Fame professional wrestler himself and better known by his ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, or Triple H – assumed the job as the head of creative, putting him in charge of WWE’s storylines and in-ring action, which his father-in-law had long managed.

That moment last summer signaled a sea change in the professional wrestling industry.

Vince McMahon was more akin to a king than a business executive in the world of WWE, his fingerprints on everything. Through his ruthless business practices, he had molded the industry in his image, running most of his competition out of business and turning his company into the destination for pro wrestling. For most of two decades, he had a monopoly on the business.

But his creative output cratered in recent years. Stars who left WWE described a frustrating creative process dominated by McMahon that stifled their visions and led to a homogenized product that felt miles away from the company’s peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

With the vast majority of company revenue coming from TV rights, instead of fans spending money on tickets or pay-per-view events, the need to give the people what they want was replaced by content production. Sometimes it seemed as if Vince McMahon’s creative decisions were meant to antagonize and annoy his audience, appearing to ram home his vision of “sports entertainment” whether they liked it or not.

A turning point for many was the 2015 Royal Rumble event. Fans were clamoring for their favorite Daniel Bryan, one of the most gifted wrestlers on the planet, to win the event’s namesake. To many fans, Bryan’s run symbolized hope that the company would promote their favorite wrestlers instead of McMahon’s chosen ones.

But Bryan was unceremoniously eliminated in the first half of the match. The crowd in Philadelphia booed throughout the second half, chanting Bryan’s name and refusing to celebrate when Roman Reigns – widely seen as McMahon’s choice to be the future of the company despite fan apathy – won.

Shrinking viewership numbers reflected that loss of hope. While TV ratings overall have dropped in the last several years, with some exceptions, WWE’s drop outpaced the general decline in overall viewership and in the key 18-49 demographic, according to Wrestlenomics, a website that tracks the business side of the industry.

Once considered a wrestling genius, critics have more recently come to consider Vince McMahon a creative liability. The elevation of Levesque and the Stephanie McMahon-Khan duo appeared to signal hope that a new era was dawning over the WWE and that its creative system would finally get the long-needed injection of new ideas, new faces and new energy.

In December, The Wall Street Journal reported McMahon was eying a comeback – the first rumblings that the new era might be on shaky ground.

According to the Journal’s reporting, McMahon was telling people around him that he had received bad advice to step aside after the paper reported he used company funds to pay more than $12 million in hush money settlements to women to cover up “allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.”

The WSJ also reported McMahon believed the controversy would have blown over if he had just stayed on as head of creative and chairman of the company’s board of directors.

Then, in early January, McMahon made his move.

As revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McMahon said he had to return to the company because negotiations over media rights and a “strategic alternatives review” required his “direct participation, leadership and support.” He told the SEC he was putting himself back on the company’s board of directors, along with two longtime allies – both of whom McMahon had fired from the company in 2020.

How could he do this, despite retiring in disgrace and ostensibly being away from the company for months? McMahon never sold his stock in the company and remained WWE’s controlling shareholder.

“The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as Executive Chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review of strategic alternatives,” McMahon said in a news release. “My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder.”

Over the course of just a few days, he had gone from ostracized former wrestling executive to once again running the company that he had taken from a regional player to a global power. It just was the kind of swerve one might have expected from “Mr. McMahon,” Vince McMahon’s devious on-screen character, who served as wrestling’s greatest heel for years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Just days after reinstalling himself on the company’s board, WWE’s board of directors unanimously returned him to his old job as executive chairman.

Not only that, his daughter, Stephanie McMahon – who had seemed groomed to take over the company for years and played prominent roles on screen and off – resigned as chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE, leaving it all together.

Nick Khan was left as the company’s lone CEO. But the corporate machinations over the last week showed that, once again, McMahon was the real power in WWE.

There are reports that McMahon is exploring selling the company, but it’s not clear if there’s any truth to them.

So far, all of McMahon’s statements about his intentions pertain to business negotiations. But Stephanie McMahon’s departure has cast a cloud over her husband’s future with the company.

As his father-in-law forced his way back into the company, Levesque was gearing up for his first major period in charge of WWE’s storytelling heading into its most important time of year. WrestleMania season kicks off with January 28’s Royal Rumble event and continues through the first weekend of April, when WWE runs a two-night WrestleMania event – its biggest shows of the year – at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. This was likely to be the first major test for Levesque’s creative vision for WWE and had been hotly anticipated by wrestling fans.

McMahon’s reemergence now leads to questions over how much influence the chairman will seek to exercise over the creative direction of the company, and how it might clash with Levesque’s own vision.

Upon taking control of creative, the WWE Hall of Famer re-signed scores of wrestlers who McMahon had released in recent years, including stars like Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman, and given priority to other wrestlers who don’t fit McMahon’s typical vision of a professional wrestler – someone taller than 6-foot-3 inches, muscular, good looking and with actual wrestling ability considered optional.

The futures of those Levesque favorites now seem less certain than they did just a few weeks ago.

There are real questions over how fans will receive the news of McMahon’s return. A man once seen as a legend in the business is accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, then using the levers of corporate power to escape accountability. Fans have already tuned out from the company in droves in recent years and some may decide not to spend their money, time and attention on a product helmed by McMahon.

And then there’s the question of how McMahon’s return affects the pro wrestling industry as a whole.

All Elite Wrestling (AEW), an upstart promotion begun in 2019 by Tony Khan – the son of auto parts billionaire Shahid Khan and no relation to the WWE CEO – and several of independent wrestling’s biggest stars, has become the second-biggest wrestling company in the world by simply being what WWE is not.

Its focus on long-term storytelling, great matches, charismatic stars and less sanitized production has allowed AEW to break WWE’s monopoly on the wrestling industry and become a verified player in the business.

As such, it had become a home for some of the highest profile wrestlers in the industry who had been burnt out on WWE’s corporate culture and bending to McMahon’s whims. His departure back in July and Levesque’s ascension to the WWE creative throne led many observers to wonder if AEW stars would be looking to jump ship and head to WWE.

There were some hopes among WWE diehards that Levesque’s new regime might be successful enough to snuff out AEW’s rise. McMahon’s return may toss some doubt into the minds of AEW wrestlers who were thinking about moving to WWE in the future.

Read original article here

Entertainment

How WWE’s Vince McMahon ruthlessly got his job back despite allegations of sexual assault and misuse of company funds

Leave a comment


Washington
CNN
 — 

Professional wrestling is known for its outlandish, dramatic stories that have captivated generations. It’s an athletic soap opera built on emotional drama with wrestlers sometimes scheming in the background for months only to make their move at the opportune moment, drawing crazed reactions from arenas packed with fans who have followed every beat.

But the real-life saga playing out in World Wrestling Entertainment’s corporate office over the last several weeks surpasses even what most of what those performers and their backstage colleagues could dream up.

Vince McMahon, the longtime force behind WWE at the corporate and creative levels, made a shocking return to the company on January 10, nearly six months after announcing his retirement. McMahon was alleged to have used company funds to pay millions to multiple women in order to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct.

But over a series of just a few days last week, McMahon engineered his return to the company’s board of directors, reshaped it by forcing out some members, replaced them with his own allies, and used that new boardroom power to install himself in his old job as executive chairman. His own daughter – the heir apparent to the company who had appeared groomed to take the job for years – resigned.

The stunning and swift developments have the wrestling world reeling, with rumors of a sale burning up Wrestling Twitter and people inside and outside the company wondering what it all means for the future of WWE and professional wrestling itself.

In July, Vince McMahon – an ever-present force in WWE and professional wrestling, the man who remade the business in service of a vision that upended generations of tradition, creating his own hegemony – retired. Or he resigned, depending on who you ask.

It was a moment many wrestling fans and observers never thought would come. The longtime chairman and CEO of WWE was such an intense micromanager that he barely slept, rarely took vacations and almost never stopped putting his own spin on every single aspect of the company’s output. Many longtime followers of the company simply assumed he’d die in the role rather than retire.

But a series of revelations first reported in The Wall Street Journal about hush money payments to multiple women to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct seemed to bring McMahon’s legendary run as the head of wrestling’s most important company to an end. Additional reporting came in December, with additional women accusing McMahon of sexual assault, seemed to cement his status as being permanently gone from WWE.

WWE has always been a family business – Vince McMahon, Sr., handed over the reins to his son in the 1980s – and it seemed set to continue that way. Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, who only weeks before had taken a leave of absence from the company, stepped into the role of co-CEO with Nick Khan, a longtime executive in the entertainment and media industry.

And Paul Levesque – Stephanie McMahon’s husband and a Hall of Fame professional wrestler himself and better known by his ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, or Triple H – assumed the job as the head of creative, putting him in charge of WWE’s storylines and in-ring action, which his father-in-law had long managed.

That moment last summer signaled a sea change in the professional wrestling industry.

Vince McMahon was more akin to a king than a business executive in the world of WWE, his fingerprints on everything. Through his ruthless business practices, he had molded the industry in his image, running most of his competition out of business and turning his company into the destination for pro wrestling. For most of two decades, he had a monopoly on the business.

But his creative output cratered in recent years. Stars who left WWE described a frustrating creative process dominated by McMahon that stifled their visions and led to a homogenized product that felt miles away from the company’s peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

With the vast majority of company revenue coming from TV rights, instead of fans spending money on tickets or pay-per-view events, the need to give the people what they want was replaced by content production. Sometimes it seemed as if Vince McMahon’s creative decisions were meant to antagonize and annoy his audience, appearing to ram home his vision of “sports entertainment” whether they liked it or not.

A turning point for many was the 2015 Royal Rumble event. Fans were clamoring for their favorite Daniel Bryan, one of the most gifted wrestlers on the planet, to win the event’s namesake. To many fans, Bryan’s run symbolized hope that the company would promote their favorite wrestlers instead of McMahon’s chosen ones.

But Bryan was unceremoniously eliminated in the first half of the match. The crowd in Philadelphia booed throughout the second half, chanting Bryan’s name and refusing to celebrate when Roman Reigns – widely seen as McMahon’s choice to be the future of the company despite fan apathy – won.

Shrinking viewership numbers reflected that loss of hope. While TV ratings overall have dropped in the last several years, with some exceptions, WWE’s drop outpaced the general decline in overall viewership and in the key 18-49 demographic, according to Wrestlenomics, a website that tracks the business side of the industry.

Once considered a wrestling genius, critics have more recently come to consider Vince McMahon a creative liability. The elevation of Levesque and the Stephanie McMahon-Khan duo appeared to signal hope that a new era was dawning over the WWE and that its creative system would finally get the long-needed injection of new ideas, new faces and new energy.

In December, The Wall Street Journal reported McMahon was eying a comeback – the first rumblings that the new era might be on shaky ground.

According to the Journal’s reporting, McMahon was telling people around him that he had received bad advice to step aside after the paper reported he used company funds to pay more than $12 million in hush money settlements to women to cover up “allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.”

The WSJ also reported McMahon believed the controversy would have blown over if he had just stayed on as head of creative and chairman of the company’s board of directors.

Then, in early January, McMahon made his move.

As revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McMahon said he had to return to the company because negotiations over media rights and a “strategic alternatives review” required his “direct participation, leadership and support.” He told the SEC he was putting himself back on the company’s board of directors, along with two longtime allies – both of whom McMahon had fired from the company in 2020.

How could he do this, despite retiring in disgrace and ostensibly being away from the company for months? McMahon never sold his stock in the company and remained WWE’s controlling shareholder.

“The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as Executive Chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review of strategic alternatives,” McMahon said in a news release. “My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder.”

Over the course of just a few days, he had gone from ostracized former wrestling executive to once again running the company that he had taken from a regional player to a global power. It just was the kind of swerve one might have expected from “Mr. McMahon,” Vince McMahon’s devious on-screen character, who served as wrestling’s greatest heel for years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Just days after reinstalling himself on the company’s board, WWE’s board of directors unanimously returned him to his old job as executive chairman.

Not only that, his daughter, Stephanie McMahon – who had seemed groomed to take over the company for years and played prominent roles on screen and off – resigned as chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE, leaving it all together.

Nick Khan was left as the company’s lone CEO. But the corporate machinations over the last week showed that, once again, McMahon was the real power in WWE.

There are reports that McMahon is exploring selling the company, but it’s not clear if there’s any truth to them.

So far, all of McMahon’s statements about his intentions pertain to business negotiations. But Stephanie McMahon’s departure has cast a cloud over her husband’s future with the company.

As his father-in-law forced his way back into the company, Levesque was gearing up for his first major period in charge of WWE’s storytelling heading into its most important time of year. WrestleMania season kicks off with January 28’s Royal Rumble event and continues through the first weekend of April, when WWE runs a two-night WrestleMania event – its biggest shows of the year – at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. This was likely to be the first major test for Levesque’s creative vision for WWE and had been hotly anticipated by wrestling fans.

McMahon’s reemergence now leads to questions over how much influence the chairman will seek to exercise over the creative direction of the company, and how it might clash with Levesque’s own vision.

Upon taking control of creative, the WWE Hall of Famer re-signed scores of wrestlers who McMahon had released in recent years, including stars like Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman, and given priority to other wrestlers who don’t fit McMahon’s typical vision of a professional wrestler – someone taller than 6-foot-3 inches, muscular, good looking and with actual wrestling ability considered optional.

The futures of those Levesque favorites now seem less certain than they did just a few weeks ago.

There are real questions over how fans will receive the news of McMahon’s return. A man once seen as a legend in the business is accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, then using the levers of corporate power to escape accountability. Fans have already tuned out from the company in droves in recent years and some may decide not to spend their money, time and attention on a product helmed by McMahon.

And then there’s the question of how McMahon’s return affects the pro wrestling industry as a whole.

All Elite Wrestling (AEW), an upstart promotion begun in 2019 by Tony Khan – the son of auto parts billionaire Shahid Khan and no relation to the WWE CEO – and several of independent wrestling’s biggest stars, has become the second-biggest wrestling company in the world by simply being what WWE is not.

Its focus on long-term storytelling, great matches, charismatic stars and less sanitized production has allowed AEW to break WWE’s monopoly on the wrestling industry and become a verified player in the business.

As such, it had become a home for some of the highest profile wrestlers in the industry who had been burnt out on WWE’s corporate culture and bending to McMahon’s whims. His departure back in July and Levesque’s ascension to the WWE creative throne led many observers to wonder if AEW stars would be looking to jump ship and head to WWE.

There were some hopes among WWE diehards that Levesque’s new regime might be successful enough to snuff out AEW’s rise. McMahon’s return may toss some doubt into the minds of AEW wrestlers who were thinking about moving to WWE in the future.

Read original article here

Entertainment

Harvey Weinstein: Jury reaches verdict in sexual assault trial

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CNN
 — 

[Breaking news update, published at 6:05 p.m. ET]

A Los Angeles jury reached a verdict Monday in the sexual assault trial of Harvey Weinstein, the former movie producer who is accused of using his Hollywood influence to lure women into private meetings and assault them. The verdict will be announced shortly.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to seven charges in all: two counts each of forcible rape, sexual battery by restraint and forcible oral copulation, and one count of sexual penetration by foreign object.

If found guilty, Weinstein could face 60 years to life in prison, plus an additional five years.

The verdict was reached as jurors entered their third week of deliberations, meeting for a total of 41 hours over a period of 10 days.

Weinstein was convicted of similar charges in New York in 2020 and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

[Original story, published at 2:02 p.m. ET]

A Los Angeles jury resumed deliberations Monday in Harvey Weinstein’s second sexual assault trial, meeting for a tenth day to decide on a verdict after weeks of testimony.

The disgraced movie mogul, who is accused of using his Hollywood influence to lure women into private meetings and assault them, awaits a decision from behind bars.

Weinstein faces two counts of forcible rape and five counts of sexual assault related to accusations from four women, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who alleged Weinstein raped her in a hotel room in 2005.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to all seven charges against him. He initially faced 11 charges, but four counts connected to an unnamed woman were dropped after she did not testify.

The jury had already deliberated for about 37 total hours when they adjourned last Wednesday, without a verdict reached.

The former film producer is already serving a 23-year sentence for a New York sexual assault conviction. His attorneys have appealed that conviction, which has placed more attention on the outcome of the trial in Los Angeles.

If the jury in Los Angeles finds him guilty, Weinstein could face 60 years to life in prison, plus an additional five years.

The Los Angeles jury has deliberated longer than the New York jury in Weinstein’s first criminal trial, in which he was convicted of criminal sex act and third-degree rape after 26 hours of deliberations.

As deliberations went on in Los Angeles, the jury asked the court a question and at least twice asked for testimony to be read back. Los Angeles Superior Court officials have not provided specifics on those requests.

The weekslong Los Angeles trial saw emotional testimony from Weinstein’s accusers – a model, a dancer, a massage therapist and Siebel Newsom – all of whom were asked to recount the details of their allegations against him, provide details of meetings with the producer from years ago, and explain their reactions to the alleged assaults.

In closing arguments, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez called Weinstein a “titan” who used his power in Hollywood to prey on and silence women.

“Rapists rape. You can look at the pattern,” fellow prosecutor Paul Thompson told jurors.

“You have irrefutable, overwhelming evidence about the nature of this man and what he did to these women,” Thompson said.

Meanwhile, Weinstein’s attorneys have maintained the allegations are either fabricated or occurred consensually as part of a “transactional relationship” with the movie producer, repeatedly saying there is no evidence of assault.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson called the accusers “fame and fortune seekers.”

The trial in Los Angeles included testimony from the four accusers identified as Jane Does in court, and other witnesses, including experts, law enforcement, friends of accusers and former aides to Weinstein.

Additionally, four women testified they were subjected to similar behavior by Weinstein in other jurisdictions.

Each morning at trial, Weinstein was brought from a correctional facility and wheeled into the Los Angeles courtroom wearing a suit and tie and holding a composition notebook.

His accusers all began their oftentimes emotional testimonies by identifying him in the courtroom as he looked on.

“He’s wearing a suit, and a blue tie and he’s staring at me,” Siebel Newsom said last month, before what was one of the most emotional moments of the trial.

On Thursday of last week, defense attorney Jackson asked jurors if they could “accept what (the Jane Does) say as gospel,” arguing what they said was a lack of forensic evidence supporting their claim.

“Five words that sum up the entirety of the prosecution’s case: ‘Take my word for it,’” Jackson said. “‘Take my word for it that he showed up at my hotel room unannounced. Take my word for it that I showed up at his hotel room. Take my word for it that I didn’t consent. Take my word for it, that I said no.’ “

Siebel Newsom described an hourslong “cat-and-mouse period,” which preceded her alleged assault. She, like other accusers, described feeling “frozen” that day.

Attorneys for Weinstein do not deny the incident occurred, but said he believed it was consensual.

Jackson called the incident “consensual, transactional sex,” adding: “Regret is not the same thing as rape. And it’s important we make that distinction in this courtroom.”

Women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred, who is representing Jane Doe 2 in the case, told CNN she hopes the jury sees her client “has no motive at all to do anything but tell the truth.”

“She never sought or received any compensation … She doesn’t live in California anymore. But she is testifying because she’s been asked to testify and I hope that they see her as the young woman that she was when she met Harvey Weinstein, and the woman that she is today approximately nine to 10 years later. Her life has changed,” Allred said.

“To be willing to subject yourself to what could be a very brutal cross-examination. That takes a very special person to do that. And she is a special person. I’m very proud,” Allred said.

In her closing arguments, Martinez also highlighted the women who testified chose to do so despite knowing they would face tough conditions in court.

“The truth is that, as you sit here, we know the despicable behavior the defendant engaged in. He thought he was so powerful that people would … excuse his behavior,” Martinez said. “That’s just Harvey being Harvey. That’s just Hollywood. And for so long that’s what everyone did. Everyone just turned their heads.”

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Sports

Seven Michigan St football players charged in tunnel melee

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FILE – Security and police break up a scuffle between players from Michigan and Michigan State football teams in the Michigan Stadium tunnel after an NCAA college football game on Oct. 29, 2022 in Ann Arbor, Mich. Seven Michigan State football players were charged in the postgame melee in Michigan Stadium’s tunnel last month, according to a statement Wednesday, Nov. 23, from the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office. (Kyle Austin/MLive Media Group via AP, File)

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FILE – Security and police break up a scuffle between players from Michigan and Michigan State football teams in the Michigan Stadium tunnel after an NCAA college football game on Oct. 29, 2022 in Ann Arbor, Mich. Seven Michigan State football players were charged in the postgame melee in Michigan Stadium’s tunnel last month, according to a statement Wednesday, Nov. 23, from the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office. (Kyle Austin/MLive Media Group via AP, File)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Seven Michigan State football players have been charged for their actions during the postgame melee in Michigan Stadium’s tunnel last month, according to a statement Wednesday from the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office.

The most serious charge is against cornerback Khary Crump, who faces one count of felonious assault. The charges against the six others are misdemeanors. Linebacker Itayvion “Tank” Brown, safety Angelo Grose, cornerback Justin White, defensive end Brandon Wright and defensive end Zion Young are each charged with one count of aggravated assault, and linebacker Jacoby Windmon faces one count of assault and battery.

No Michigan players are facing charges, which were announced ahead of the teams’ final regular-season games. No. 3 Michigan plays rival No. 2 Ohio State on the road Saturday with the Big Ten East Division title at stake. A few hours later, the Spartans close out the season at No. 11 Penn State, needing a win to become bowl eligible.

Scuffles broke out in the Michigan Stadium tunnel on Oct. 29 after the Wolverines beat the Spartans 29-7. Social media posts showed Michigan State players pushing, punching and kicking Michigan’s Ja’Den McBurrows in and near a hallway that doesn’t lead to either locker room. Brown, Grose and Young are seen on video getting physical with McBurrows.

McBurrows and defensive back Gemon Green went up the tunnel, walking alongside the Spartans, after the game while much of Michigan’s team was waving the Spartans off the field after beating their in-state rivals for the first time in three years.

Green, in another post, is seen surrounded by police while shouting across the tunnel at Michigan State players.

Crump in one video appears to swing his helmet at a Michigan player. That could account for the more serious charge, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. The state law describes felonious assault as an attack “using knife, iron bar, club, brass knuckles or other dangerous weapon without intending to commit murder or to inflict great bodily harm.”

A conviction for a misdemeanor count of assault carries a prison term of up to one year, while misdemeanor assault and battery carries a maximum sentence of 93 days behind bars.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has said one of the players, whom he did not identify, might have had a broken nose. He also said Green was punched by a Spartans player and McBurrows was attacked when he tried to help.

The statement from the prosecutor’s office provided no detail on the allegations, including who is accused of hitting whom. It added that the office will have no further comment as the case proceeds. It was not clear when the charged players will make initial appearances in court.

Michigan State’s athletic director and football coach did not immediately return requests for comment.

Michigan president Santa J. Ono said Wednesday in a statement that the school appreciated “the thoughtful, deliberate approach from the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office to this unfortunate incident.”

“We also want to express our concern for all the players involved, especially those who were injured,” Ono said. “The University of Michigan will continue to cooperate fully with any additional reviews of this matter.”

An attorney representing Green, Tom Mars, said after the charges were filed that he was “not at all surprised by the prosecutor’s decision.”

Asked if his client might sue over the melee, Mars said that after conferring with Green and his father, they agreed with his recommendation “not to take any action about the tunnel incident until the season is over.”

“I don’t want any of this to be a distraction to Michigan football and neither does Gemon,” Mars said.

Michigan State coach Mel Tucker suspended eight players — including Malcolm Jones, who was not charged — for their roles in the melee.

After the Oct. 29 incident, then-Michigan State President Samuel Stanley publicly apologized for the “violent” skirmish. His departure wasn’t related to the brawl in Ann Arbor last month.

“I’m extremely saddened by this incident and the unacceptable behavior depicted by members of our football program,” Stanley said then in a statement. “On behalf of Michigan State University, my heartfelt apology to the University of Michigan and the student-athletes who were injured.”

After charges were announced Wednesday, Michigan State Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff released a statement that said the school would “continue to evaluate this matter and cooperate with any investigative reviews.”

“While we do not condone the actions taken by some football players on Oct. 29, we will support our student-athletes through this process,” she said. “MSU believes strongly in restorative justice practices and the education around harmful actions.”

She added that universities “must make our respective environments safe places for competition.” She said she was committed to making “meaningful changes” to that end and would report back by the end of the year. Woodruff didn’t elaborate on what those changes could be.

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Tarm reported from Chicago.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://bit.ly/3pqZVaF



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US

University of Kentucky student who repeatedly hurled racist slur banned from campus

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CNN
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The student facing assault charges after she repeatedly hurled a racial slur at a Black student on campus early Sunday morning has been permanently banned from campus and could face additional charges, the University of Kentucky president said.

Sophia Rosing – who is no longer a student – was initially suspended on an interim basis, and is now no longer a student, permanently banned from campus, and will not be eligible to re-enroll as a student, the message from University of Kentucky (UK) President Eli Capilouto to the UK community said.

“Although she is no longer a student, we must continue our investigations,” Capilouto continued.

“That includes our cooperation with an investigation into criminal charges filed; our Code of Student Conduct disciplinary proceedings and racial harassment misconduct being reviewed by our Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity.”

“As a community working wholeheartedly to prevent racist violence, we also must be committed to holding people accountable for their actions. The processes we have in place are essential,” he continued.

On Tuesday, Rosing’s attorney, Fred Peters, told CNN that she plans to withdraw from UK in the next couple of days and that she is “very embarrassed, very remorseful, very humiliated.”

Rosing has been charged with alcohol intoxication in a public place, fourth-degree assault without visible injury, second-degree disorderly conduct, and third-degree assault on a police officer or probation officer, according to Kimberly Baird, the Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney.

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