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Tag Archives: assaulting
Jury quickly convicts man for kidnapping, sexually assaulting a 77-year-old great-grandmother following bizarre closing argument where he denied being a ‘creep’ – Law & Crime
- Jury quickly convicts man for kidnapping, sexually assaulting a 77-year-old great-grandmother following bizarre closing argument where he denied being a ‘creep’ Law & Crime
- YOHN GUILTY: Jury finds Springfield man guilty on all six counts in sexual assault trial – Muddy River News Muddy River News
- Yohn guilty on all charges in 2021 home invasion, attack Herald-Whig
- ‘We’ll never understand why this happened:’ Jury finds Yohn guilty on all 6 counts WGEM
- Bradley Yohn GUILTY on all counts khqa.com
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Kevin Spacey Alleged Victim ‘Woke Up to Actor Sexually Assaulting Him,’ U.K. Court Hears – Variety
- Kevin Spacey Alleged Victim ‘Woke Up to Actor Sexually Assaulting Him,’ U.K. Court Hears Variety
- Kevin Spacey Alleged Victim Says He Woke Up to Find Actor “Performing Oral Sex” on Him, U.K. Jury Hears Hollywood Reporter
- Accuser says Kevin Spacey only came out as gay to “disguise” his past sexual misconduct LGBTQ Nation
- Aspiring actor warned about Spacey but unaware he was ‘predator’ – court told Bridport and Lyme Regis News
- Kevin Spacey Trial Latest: Alleged Victim “Woke To Find Actor Performing Sex Act On Him,” Court Hears Deadline
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Community reacts to officer assaulting 19-year-old in Macomb County; official placed on unpaid leave – WDIV ClickOnDetroit
- Community reacts to officer assaulting 19-year-old in Macomb County; official placed on unpaid leave WDIV ClickOnDetroit
- Warren police officer punches, tackles jail inmate, slams his head on floor Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV
- Detroit-area officer charged with assault after video shows him punching man The Washington Post
- Warren police officer charged with punching, assaulting suspect inside city jail Detroit Free Press
- ‘He’ll pay that price’: Warren officer charged for punching jail inmate, slamming head on ground WDIV ClickOnDetroit
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Steven Tyler Accused of Sexually Assaulting a Minor in New Lawsuit
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler has been accused of sexual assaulting a minor in a new lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend, Julia Holcomb.
Tyler, then 27, began dating Holcomb shortly after her 16th birthday in 1975. Holcomb’s mother signed over her guardianship to Tyler, and the two moved in together at Tyler’s Boston home. She soon became pregnant, but then their relationship went south. Their apartment caught on fire, and she ended up in a hospital, during which time Tyler allegedly forced her to have an abortion. “When I returned home to my mother, I was a broken spirit,” Holcomb recounted in a 2011 essay. “I could not sleep at night without nightmares of the abortion and the fire. The world seemed like a dark place.”
For his part, Tyler contends that the couple jointly decided to abort the fetus. “It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives,” he wrote in his 2012 memoir. He added that the experience sent him on a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse.
In her lawsuit (via Page Six), Holcomb says she first met Tyler — who is identified as Defendant Doe — at an Aerosmith concert in Portland. Holcomb claims that Tyler was aware of her age prior to inviting her back to his hotel, where he “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon” her. Holcomb had a second encounter with Tyler following an Aerosmith concert in Seattle, after which Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to appoint him as her legal guardian.
Holcomb further claims that Tyler repeatedly assaulted her, and provided her with alcohol and drugs, and once she became pregnant threatened to stop supporting her if she did not get an abortion.
In her lawsuit, Holcomb also accuses Tyler of subjecting her to “involuntary infamy” by discussing their relationship in his memoir and depicting it as a “romantic, loving relationship.”
The lawsuit comes in the final days of California’s Child Victims Act, which temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to come forward with their allegations. The deadline to file a lawsuit is December 31st, 2022.
Tyler has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Capitol rioter gets 34-month term for assaulting police and journalist
“Regretfully, I let my emotions get the best of me, and I’m very disappointed,” the defendant, Alan W. Byerly, 55, told Judge Randolph D. Moss in U.S. District Court in Washington. “But make no mistake: This was no excuse for me to put my hands on anyone. … I was being an antagonistic jerk, and I still can’t understand why I was like that.”
Byerly, a divorced father and grandfather who had lost his carpentry job during the pandemic, said he was experiencing “depression, frustration and isolation” when he traveled to Washington to attend President Donald Trump’s incendiary rally Jan. 6 on the Ellipse, at which Trump repeated his debunked claim that rampant voter fraud had led to his defeat in the 2020 election.
Carrying an electric stun device “for protection,” Byerly said, he then joined thousands of Trump supporters as the mob stormed the Capitol while Congress was meeting to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Later, in the months before his July 2021 arrest, Byerly said, “I felt so bad” about the riot that “I wouldn’t even tell the closest people in my life about January 6th.”
In court filings, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington said Byerly, who was not accused of entering the Capitol, was present on the building’s Lower West Terrace when rioters accosted an Associated Press photographer and hauled him down a flight of stairs.
“At the bottom of the stairs, [Byerly] and three other individuals grabbed the journalist and pushed, shoved and dragged him,” the office said in a statement. “Byerly grabbed the journalist with both hands and pushed him backward. He then continued to push and drag him away from the stairs.”
The journalist “was not injured and advised the government that he did not wish to participate in the investigation of this matter,” according to a court filing. Shortly after that assault, Byerly became involved in a melee on the Lower West Terrace with police officers who were trying to prevent the mob from breaching the building, prosecutors said.
In return for Byerly’s guilty pleas to two charges — assaulting police officers and assaulting the photojournalist — Moss on Friday dismissed six other counts in an indictment, at the request of the U.S. attorney’s office. Those charges involved Byerly’s unauthorized presence and disorderly conduct on restricted grounds at the Capitol.
Federal sentencing guidelines, which are not compulsory, called for a prison term in the range of 37 to 46 months. While defense lawyers asked for a sentence of less than 37 months, Assistant U.S. attorney Anita Eve recommended a 46-month term, saying: “The court should send a message: This behavior is not going to be treated lightly. … This defendant needs to feel the consequences of his actions.”
In siding with the defense and imposing a 34-month term, Moss said he was “enormously impressed” by Byerly’s statement of contrition. “It struck me as sincere,” the judge said. With credit for the 15 months that Byerly has been in jail since his arrest, he has 19 months still to serve.
Much of Friday’s courtroom debate focused on the stun device that Byerly carried that day, whether it was “dangerous weapon” and whether it should factor heavily in his sentencing. Although the device is referred to in court papers as a “stun gun,” it was shaped more like a flashlight with two prongs at the end and had to be pressed against someone’s the skin to inflict an electrical charge.
Byerly, who admitted brandishing the device during the mayhem but was not accused of stunning anyone, said he bought it for $25 in a store before traveling to Washington.
Defense attorneys depicted the device as fairly harmless, emitting only a slight jolt. “The stun gun he had on January 6th could not have caused serious harm and therefore was not a deadly or dangerous weapon,” lawyer Hunter S. Labovitz argued in court. “You would feel something on your skin like a little tingle … but it’s not going to incapacitate you.”
Eve, the prosecutor, acknowledged that it was “a low-energy” device but said Byerly “clearly created the impression in the police officers’ minds that they were capable of being stunned and incapacitated.”
Byerly, from Fleetwood, Pa., about 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia, said he never participated in a public protest before Jan. 6 and looks forward to a quiet, law-abiding life after his prison stint.
“What I’ve learned in these 15 months in jail is that disagreements about politics should never, ever result in riots or violence,” he told the judge.
Kyle Fitzsimons TKTKTK of assaulting policeon Jan. 6
Sgt. Phuson Nguyen, a 19-year veteran of the D.C. police, said he had already been hit once with some sort of chemical spray; he moved to the back of the tunnel and cleared his eyes, then returned to the front line with a gas mask on. Surveillance and police body-cam video played in court showed Fitzsimons reaching to pull Nguyen’s mask off while another man sprayed what Nguyen thought was bear spray directly into his face. Then Fitzsimons released the mask back onto Nguyen’s face, trapping the chemical irritant inside, the officer said.
“At that point I was choking under the mask,” Nguyen testified. “I also got knocked down at the same time. … In my head, I thought that was it for me. I thought that’s where I’m going to die. … In my head, I told myself, ‘If you want to see your family again, you need to gather yourself.’” He said he broke the seal on his mask and a colleague dragged him to safety.
After three days of testimony, and dozens of videos and photographs capturing Fitzsimons throughout the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, the judge hearing the case decided Friday not to issue a verdict on six felony counts, including assaulting police officers and obstructing an official proceeding, and five misdemeanors. Instead, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said he would first consider a defense motion to dismiss some charges, and issue a ruling after Labor Day.
Fitzsimons, 38, from Lebanon, Maine, has been held in jail since February and is currently in the D.C. jail. He chose a bench trial rather than a jury trial, and Thursday he elected not to testify in the case.
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who has testified before Congress about his ordeal, said Fitzsimons grabbed his left arm and tried to yank him out of the tunnel while he was leaning in the opposite direction, and video showed the two men struggling. Pain shot through his left shoulder, “one of the worst pains I felt in my life,” Gonell said. He said he suffered a partially torn rotator cuff and labrum, underwent surgery, and now faces a forced medical retirement from the Capitol Police.
D.C. Officer Sarah Beaver was also in the tunnel, after retreating from an earlier lost skirmish on the Capitol’s perimeter. Video showed Fitzsimons hurling an unstrung archery bow, which he told a reporter he brought to the District as a sign of peace, into the tunnel and hitting Beaver in the head. She was wearing a helmet and was unhurt, though briefly staggered. But spending hours in the small tunnel, Beaver said, “I couldn’t breathe and I was afraid if I passed out, I was going to die.”
Fitzsimons’s attorney, Natasha Taylor-Smith, a federal public defender from Philadelphia, said video evidence did not clearly show Fitzsimons grabbing Nguyen’s gas mask or Gonell’s shield. She said that Nguyen was “simply mistaken” about which rioter grabbed the mask, and that Fitzsimons was severely stunned by chemical spray coming from both sides when he allegedly snagged Gonell’s arm or shield.
Because the photo of a bloodied Fitzsimons was widely published, Taylor-Smith said, he “has become the poster child for January 6.” She said he did not bring any weapons to the Capitol, though prosecutors counted his bow as a weapon, and she criticized Gonell, saying he wrote a book, conducted multiple interviews and tried to profit from his experience. Gonell denied that.
Though the assault and obstruction charges carry maximum sentences of 20 years, federal sentencing guidelines suggest a possible range of 63 to 78 months in prison for Fitzsimons if he is convicted. The range could rise to 87 to 108 months if Gonell’s shoulder injury is classified as “permanent.”
Fitzsimons did not attempt to conceal his distrust of the results of the 2020 election or his desire to be heard in Washington. In December 2020, he posted a request on the “Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers” Facebook page trying to organize a caravan to D.C. on Jan. 6, the page’s administrator said. He got no takers.
Fitzsimons also left three voice-mail messages for Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) that month, Golden’s chief of staff testified, one of which started, “So what’s going on with the election fraud?” Fitzsimons continued, according to the voice mail played in court: “I will be down in D.C. on the 6th. I don’t think I’ll see you there. Maybe I will. Maybe I will.”
When Fitzsimons returned to Maine after Jan. 6, he called into the Lebanon Select Board meeting and regaled the board with his experience. “I couldn’t imagine a more peaceful revolution,” Fitzsimons said. He also gave an interview to the Rochester Voice, based in New Hampshire, and provided pictures of himself at the Capitol but neglected to mention his hand-to-hand combat with police, according to prosecutors.
Fitzsimons, a butcher by trade, told the Voice’s Harrison Thorp that after he attended President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, he went to his car and put on his white butcher’s coat, with his name embroidered on the chest, along with his rubber apron and a fur pelt. He also said he carried an unstrung archery bow “to signify his peaceful intent.”
He was soon captured on video climbing the stage set up for the pending inauguration of Joe Biden and holding the bow. Fitzsimons was seen on video shouting “Freedom” before winding up at the West Terrace tunnel. During his confrontation with Nguyen, the video shows an unidentified man reaching over Fitzsimons’s shoulder with a powerful spray and unleashing it near Fitzsimons’s face. At the same time, a police officer was also aiming spray at Fitzsimons, the officer’s body-cam video showed.
The encounter with Gonell occurred as he was holding his circular shield with his left arm and leaning down to help someone else who had fallen. Gonell said he had never been involved in an altercation with a protester, through hundreds of demonstrations, in his 16 years on the Capitol Police force.
Another protester who attacked Gonell, Mark Ponder, smashed a pole into the officer’s shield, shattering the pole and the shield. Gonell spoke at Ponder’s sentencing in July, when Ponder received a 63-month prison term.
Beaver said that all manner of police equipment had been ripped off officers and then hurled back into the tunnel at the police. “I was hit with police batons,” she said. “I saw a gun flying into the tunnel. Fire extinguishers. I got a whole can of bear spray.”
After Fitzsimons struggled with both Nguyen and Gonell, a surveillance video showed, he stood up, then ran headfirst into the line of officers with his fists flailing. He was quickly repulsed. During that foray, prosecutors said, another rioter swinging a metal crutch struck Fitzsimons in the top of the head, opening the bloody wound, which needed six staples to close.
Beaver and Gonell both said they thought their hours-long stand inside the tunnel was blocking the only way rioters could enter the Capitol, and only later did they learn that rioters had forced entry elsewhere.
“No one ever got through the West Terrace tunnel that day,” Beaver said. “We made sure that didn’t happen.”
Nick Kyrgios: Wimbledon quarterfinalist charged with assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Australian media reports
When asked about the charge on Tuesday, Australian police told CNN in a statement: “ACT Policing can confirm a 27-year-old Watson man is scheduled to face the ACT Magistrates court on the 2nd of August in relation to one charge of common assault following an incident in December 2021.”
Barrister Jason Moffett, who is reportedly representing Kyrgios, told The Canberra Times, who first reported the news, that he had been briefed on the matter, which was “in the context of a domestic relationship.” Moffett said his client is aware of the charge.
CNN has reached out to Moffett for comment.
“The nature of the allegation is serious, and Mr. Kyrgios takes the allegation very seriously,” Moffett told The Canberra Times.
“Given the matter is before the court … he doesn’t have a comment at this stage, but in the fullness of time, we’ll issue a media release,” Moffett added.
Kyrgios, who is due to play Chile’s Cristian Garín on Wednesday at Wimbledon, has reached his first grand slam quarterfinal in seven years.
CNN has reached out to Wimbledon for comment on whether these allegations will affect his participation in the tournament.
Vyvianna Quinonez to serve 15 months in prison for assaulting Southwest flight attendant
The unruly Southwest Airlines passenger who attacked a flight attendant and knocked out two of her teeth last year was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Vyvianna Quinonez, 29, was also ordered by a federal judge on Tuesday to pay some $33,000 in restitution and fines and was banned from flying for three years upon her release from a federal lockup.
The California woman had pleaded guilty to interfering with a flight crew last year.
On May 23, 2021, Quinonez was asked to buckle her seat belt, stow her tray table, and put on her facemask properly as a Southwest flight from Sacramento approached San Diego.
Instead of complying, the woman began recording the flight attendant on her phone before pushing and punching her and grabbing her hair. The attack was recorded by another passenger.
The flight attendant suffered three chipped teeth, two of which required crowns. She also needed stitches for a cut under her eye, according to Quinonez’s plea deal.
“Attacks on flight crew members, who perform vital jobs to ensure passenger safety, will not be tolerated,” US Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement
Reports of unruly airline passengers saw a sky-high increase during the pandemic, as thousands of fliers refused to comply with COVID-19 safety precautions.
Of the 5,981 incidents recorded by the FAA last year, 4,290 were mask related.
The Federal Aviation Administration said last month its “zero-tolerance policy” for dealing with unruly passengers will become permanent.
With AP wires
Celebrity chef Mario Batali acquitted of sexually assaulting woman in Boston
BOSTON, May 10 (Reuters) – Chef Mario Batali was acquitted on Tuesday of sexually assaulting a woman at a Boston bar in 2017 while posing with her for fan “selfie” photos, with the judge doubting the credibility of the accuser in the latest #MeToo era trial involving a U.S. celebrity accused of misconduct toward women.
In the non-jury trial, Judge James Stanton of Boston Municipal Court found Batali, 61, not guilty of a charge of indecent assault and battery brought in 2019.
Natali Tene, 32, had testified that Batali groped her breasts, buttocks and crotch area and forcibly kissed her while drunkenly posing for selfies with her at a bar near Boston’s Eataly, the Italian market and restaurant he at the time part owned.
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In announcing his verdict, the judge said he concluded that Tene had “significant credibility issues.”
Stanton said that while Batali “did not cover himself in glory on the night in question,” the photos themselves created reasonable doubt that an assault had occurred given the length of time Tene spent posing for them and the visible gaps between the two individuals.
“Pictures tell a thousands words,” Stanton said.
Batali showed no visible reaction as the verdict was announced and left the courtroom surrounded by reporters without making a comment. If convicted, Batali could have faced up to 2-1/2 years in jail and registration as a sex offender.
“While we’re disappointed in the judge’s verdict, my office will not waiver in our support for the victim in this case,” District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “It can be incredibly difficult for a victim to disclose a sexual assault.”
The trial was the only criminal case brought against Batali, once a fixture of the popular Food Network and a star of the ABC cooking and talk show “The Chew,” from among multiple #MeToo-era accusations made by women against the celebrity chef.
Celebrity chef Mario Batali listens during the second day of his trial on a criminal charge that he forcibly groped and kissed a woman at a restaurant in 2017, at Boston Municipal Court, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., May 10, 2022. Stuart Cahill/Pool via REUTERS
Tene said she was initially “embarrassed” about the incident and came forward only after the website Eater.com in December 2017 detailed allegations by four other women who said Batali had touched them inappropriately over at least two decades.
“I want to be able to take control of what happened and come forward, say my piece, get the truth out there – and everybody be accountable for their actions,” Tene testified.
Batali’s lawyer, Anthony Fuller, countered that the assault never occurred and said that Tene had lied to “cash in” through her pending civil lawsuit against the chef seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
“She lied for fun and she lied for money,” Fuller told the judge in closing arguments.
Stanton also cited Tene’s “egregious” misconduct in an unrelated assault case as contributing to his doubts about her credibility. When filling out a questionnaire for jury duty in that other case, rather than choose the option of identifying as a crime victim to get out of jury service, Tene falsely claimed to be “clairvoyant,” according to Batali’s lawyers.
After text messages that Batali’s lawyers obtained showed Tene discussed the case with a friend and conducted outside research in violation of court orders, prosecutors in nearby Middlesex County charged her with contempt. Tene resolved that case last week.
Soon after the website Eater.com report, Batali was fired from “The Chew” and later cut ties with restaurants including New York’s Babbo and Del Posto that he partly owned. He denied allegations of sexual assault but apologized for “deeply inappropriate” behavior.
Batali and his business partner in July agreed to pay $600,000 to at least 20 former employees to resolve claims by New York’s attorney general that their Manhattan restaurants were rife with sexual harassment. read more
The 2017 explosion of the #MeToo movement exposed patterns of sexual harassment or abuse of women in multiple spheres of American life. U.S. celebrities convicted in #MeToo-era criminal trials have included film producer Harvey Weinstein and comedian Bill Cosby, though Cosby’s conviction was overturned on appeal. read more
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Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.