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Trial date set for Karen Read, Mansfield woman accused of killing boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

The Karen Read case finally has a trial date, which was set for March 12.The swell of support for Read, of Mansfield, has become so huge that Massachusetts State Police troopers and local police were in place at the court in Dedham this morning to direct traffic, erect temporary barriers along the sidewalk and even close out access to the court well before today’s hearing would begin because, as a trooper said, “we’re at capacity.”It was no less intense inside the Norfolk Superior courtroom, where Read’s three attorneys delivered impassioned arguments for a medley of requests, chief among them from David Yannetti, Read’s original attorney who appeared at her Stoughton District Court arraignment 19 months ago, who argued that Read have her bail returned and be released on personal recognizance as “expenses continue to mount and indeed would skyrocket” as the case moves forward.“My client is one of the most recognizable defendants ...

Wisconsin impeachment review panel includes former GOP speaker, conservative justice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — One of the former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices tapped to investigate impeaching newly elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz for taking Democratic Party money accepted donations from the state Republican Party when he was on the court. The former justice, Republican David Prosser, gave $500 to the conservative candidate who lost to Protasiewicz, did not recuse from cases involving a law he helped pass as a lawmaker and was investigated after a physical altercation with a liberal justice.Prosser is one of three former justices tapped by the Republican Assembly speaker to investigate the criteria for taking the unprecedented step of impeaching a current justice. Speaker Robin Vos has floated impeachment because Protasiewicz accepted nearly $10 million from the Wisconsin Democratic Party and said during the campaign that heavily gerrymandered GOP-drawn legislative electoral maps were “unfair” and “rigged.”The impeachment threat comes after Protasiewicz’s win this s...

Video appears to show Rep. Lauren Boebert vaping at ‘Beetlejuice’ show before she was ejected

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Newly released surveillance video from a Denver theater appears to show Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert vaping during a “Beetlejuice” musical play — the one thing she denied doing while acknowledging earlier this week that she had been kicked out for being disruptive.Boebert and her guest were escorted out of the play Sunday after audience members accused two guests of vaping, singing, using phones and causing a disturbance, according to theater representatives and video from the publicly owned Buell Theater.When the lights were still on and as people were taking their seats around Boebert, she can be seen in the surveillance video talking with her companion. Boebert then reaches beneath her seat and puts an object up to her mouth for a moment before blowing out a cloud of vapor or smoke, the footage first reported by KUSA-TV shows.The footage also shows flashes from Boebert’s phone as she holds it up and appears to take photos of herself during the performance.Bo...

Environment Canada extends hurricane watch to Halifax as Lee creeps closer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

HALIFAX — Boats were being pulled out of the water in Nova Scotia Friday as forecasters warned hurricane Lee could soon bring damaging winds, large waves, flooding and power outages.Jennifer Chandler, commodore at the Chester Yacht Club, said she and her team have been working for days to prepare for what she anticipates will be a “significant storm.” Chester is in Lunenburg County, which with neighbouring Halifax County was added Friday to the list of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick communities under a hurricane watch.“When we get a direct impact, it hits us pretty hard here,” Chandler said in an interview. “Over the last five days, most people have been taking their boats out if they can …. We’ll be lashing down a lot of the gear. We’ve already taken all the furniture off our deck.”Hurricane Lee is expected to move into western Nova Scotia and southern New Brunswick on Saturday, bringing heavy rains, high winds, and powerful wave...

RCMP team ‘between contracts,’ unavailable at first for Saskatchewan killings: emails

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

SASKATOON — A specialized RCMP team that deals with high-risk situations was not immediately available to respond to a stabbing rampage and hunt for a mass killer in Saskatchewan because it was “in between contracts,” internal emails show.Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show Ottawa’s Emergency Response Team-Special Activities Group, also known as ERT-SAG, was initially offered to help as Mounties responded the stabbing attacks on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon on Sept. 4, 2022.Chaos descended on the community as Myles Sanderson, 32, moved from home to home, busting down doors and attacking people. Eleven were killed and 17 were injured.Sanderson was arrested four days later and died in police custody.Emails between Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, the commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP, and other high-ranking Mounties show officers were working to catch up to Sanderson’s erratic movements. His brother...

Jury finds officer not liable in civil trial over shooting death

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee police officer who fatally shot a man in 2019 is not at fault or liable for the death, a federal jury found in a civil trial.A U.S. District Court jury in Greeneville reached the verdict Thursday in a lawsuit filed by the family of 33-year-old Channara Tom Pheap, who was fatally shot in 2019 by Knoxville police Officer Dylan Williams.Attorneys for Pheap’s family told the jury he was running away from the officer after a scuffle when he was shot in the back. Williams testified during the trial and said he feared for his life after Pheap wrestled away his Taser and shocked him with it.Claims against the city and former police chief alleging failure to train and supervise, wrongful death and negligence were dismissed shortly before the trial began.Knox County District Attorney Charme Allen ruled Williams’ use of deadly force was appropriate and legal in the months after the shooting. At the time, police said Pheap, who was of Cambodian descent, was...

Toronto police looking for sex assault suspect on TTC subway train

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

Toronto police are searching for a suspect in a sexual assault on board a TTC subway train.It was reported on Aug. 20 at approximately 11 p.m., the victim boarded a TTC subway train headed westbound at Victoria Park Station towards Dundas West.While the victim was seated on the train, they were sexually assaulted by a man who sat next to them.The victim is described as a man, five foot four inches to six inches, unshaven and was wearing a grey long-sleeve shirt, grey baseball cap, black shoes with a white sole.A picture of the suspect has been released.

Employers must use caution amid workplace power dynamics, experts say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

TORONTO — NHL coach Mike Babcock thought he was just trying to get to know his players better, but experts say he may have crossed a line that’s sometimes hard to see.After joining the Columbus Blue Jackets, Babcock was called out this week for allegedly asking some players to show family photos off their phones — raising questions of privacy and misusing his position as a head coach.Experts say it is important for senior-level employers to remember that positional power is a real thing.“From a positional power perspective, because it is someone in a higher position asking you a question, you worry about your job security or how you’re going to be treated at work,” said Muneeza Sheikh, an employment lawyer with Levitt Sheikh LLP.“You might be inclined to say, ‘Sure, go ahead and look at my phone,’ even though you’re completely uncomfortable with it.”Sheikh said employees face a genuine dilemma when they find themselves responding...

Former Spanish soccer federation chief Rubiales given a restraining order, denies wrongdoing to Spanish judge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish soccer federation, has been given a restraining order and is prohibited from contacting the player he kissed on the lips last month at the Women’s World Cup, Spain’s National Court said Friday.Rubiales appeared in front of Judge Francisco de Jorge and denied any wrongdoing when questioned about kissing Spain player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the awards ceremony, the state prosecutors’ office said.After hearing Rubiales, the judge issued the restraining order that prohibits Rubiales from being within 200 metres of Hermoso. The state prosecutors had asked for that ban to reach 500 metres.The judge rejected the prosecutors’ request to also oblige Rubiales to check in with a court every 15 days as well as the request by Hermoso’s lawyer to freeze assets belonging to Rubiales.Rubiales kissed Hermoso on the lips after Spain beat England to win the Women’s World Cup title Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia. He sai...

Searchers look for more than 10,000 missing in flooded Libyan city where death toll eclipsed 11,000

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:46:04 GMT

DERNA, Libya (AP) — Libyan authorities limited access to the flooded city of Derna on Friday to make it easier for searchers to dig through the mud and hollowed-out buildings for the more than 10,000 people still missing and presumed dead following a disaster that has already claimed more than 11,000 lives.The staggering death toll could grow further due to the spread of waterborne diseases and shifting of explosive ordnance that was swept up when two dams collapsed early Monday and sent a wall of water gushing through the city, officials warned. The disaster has brought some rare unity to oil-rich Libya, which after years of war and civil strife is divided between rival governments in the country’s east and west that are backed by various militia forces and international patrons. But the opposing governments have struggled to respond to the crisis, and recovery efforts have been hampered by confusion, difficulty getting aid to the hardest-hit areas, and the destruction of DernaR...