Pilar Melendez

A month before the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade, millions of women knew the landmark decision establishing the right to an abortion was at risk. Tillie Hall, a 29-year-old from Kansas, was one of them. The grim foreshadowing came in the form of a leaked draft opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito, which detailed how the hard-right majority of the nation’s highest court was intent on demolishing the 1973 ruling that identified a right to privacy in the Constitution. “I was in shock after I saw the draft opinion,” Hall told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “People still said […]

R. Kelly, the disgraced R&B singer convicted of leading a criminal enterprise geared at helping him prey on boys, girls, and adults for his own sexual gratification, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Kelly, 55, was found guilty last September of all charges against him in Brooklyn federal court. They included racketeering based on sexual exploitation of children, kidnapping, forced labor, and violations of the Mann Act, which barred the transport of people across state lines for sex. On Wednesday, Kelly greeted Judge Anna Donnelly “good morning” and appeared to be taking notes as his sentencing hearing began. Wearing […]

The Illinois man facing charges for allegedly drowning his three children in a bathtub left a chilling note for his estranged wife to find, prosecutors said Wednesday. “Mr. Karels left a note in the home, which stated, ‘If I can’t have them, neither can you,’” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said during a Wednesday court hearing for Jason Karels. Karels, 35, has been charged with murder for the Monday deaths of his three young children—5-year-old Bryant, 3-year-old Cassie, and 2-year-old Gideon. On Wednesday, a Lake County judge set the father’s bail at $10 million. Prosecutors allege that after Karels drowned […]

A raging Arizona wildfire that has torched thousands of acres and prompted hundreds of residents to evacuate was allegedly ignited after a camper unsuccessfully tried to burn his “shit paper,” prosecutors revealed on Monday. Matthew Riser, 57, is facing several charges after allegedly starting the Pipeline Fire just six miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona on Sunday. Officials say the Pipeline Fire, which has burned over 5,000 acres, has tripled in size in the last day and is zero percent contained. Smoke has drifted as far as Illinois but the blaze has not destroyed any homes or structures. The Federal Emergency Management […]

Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo has not responded to a request for a follow-up interview for the investigation into last week’s mass-shooting massacre that left 19 children and 2 teachers dead at Robb Elementary, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety. “Uvalde PD and Uvalde CISD are still cooperating; however, the chief of police for CISD has yet to respond to the Rangers’ request for a follow-up interview that was made a couple of days ago,” a spokesperson told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. In another statement to the Statesman, a DPS spokesperson clarified that Arredondo […]

The legal teams for Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have only one more week to prove their respective clients’ former spouses defamed them in what has been an alternately disturbing and surreal civil trial in Virginia. Over the last five weeks, Fairfax County jurors have heard damning allegations of domestic violence and damaged acting careers. Depp, in his $50 million lawsuit, alleged Heard “devastated” his career when she penned a 2018 Washington Post op-ed. In the piece, which did not mention Depp by name but came two years after she sought a restraining order against him, Heard identified herself as a […]

Johnny Depp was “jealous,” “controlling,” and often drunk during his brief relationship with Ellen Barkin in the 1990s, she said in a video played in court on Thursday. “He was drunk a lot of the time,” Barkin said in the November 2019 deposition heard by jurors in Virginia. “A lot of the time. He was a red wine drinker.” Barkin, who dated Depp in the 1990s while the pair were filming Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is among the more high-profile witnesses to appear in the civil defamation trial between the actor and his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Depp has sued […]

Testimony from former members of Johnny Depp’s inner circle was presented to jurors on Thursday, detailing the extent of the actor’s drug and alcohol problems, and how they may have impacted his ability to land roles long before he says Amber Heard tagged him as an abuser. Depp had a habit of “showing up late to set consistently on virtually every movie,” Tracey Jacobs, Depp’s former long-time talent agent, testified via video deposition played in a Virginia courtroom Thursday. “I would get yelled at. I never said to him, ‘You’re a difficult client.’ But I was very honest with him and […]

Jurors in Amber Heard’s defamation war with ex-husband Johnny Depp on Wednesday heard a former friend to the actress describe her prepping for a 2015 appearance on The Late Late Show with a busted lip and a missing clump of hair. Raquel Pennington said in a January 2020 video testimony played in Fairfax County Court on Wednesday that Heard revealed the lip to a makeup artist and the hair fiasco to a stylist prior to her spot that December on James Corden’s show. “I remember her showing the injuries,” Pennginton said, adding that she was with Heard in the hours preceding […]

After mistaking Amber Heard for a body double participating in a sex scene in the movie London Fields, Johnny Depp slapped the actress across the face and punched her jaw in a blind rage, she testified on Monday. “I did not actually film the scene. He demanded that we watch it,” Heard said on the stand, adding, “So I have an incredibly jealous man who is already upset with me for breaking the ‘rule’ about participating in a sex scene. He was irate. He called me a liar and a whore.” Heard said that the incident at a remote French chateau […]

Disgraced celebrity chef Mario Batali surprised a Boston courtroom on Monday when he asked a judge to waive his right to a jury for his sexual-misconduct trial. The former Food Network star confirmed his decision for Boston Municipal Court Judge James Stanton to decide his fate just before jury selection was set to begin. The 61-year-old has pleaded not guilty to several misdemeanor charges, including indecent assault and battery, after allegedly groping and kissing a woman at his Boston restaurant in 2017. More to come… Source link

After sitting silently inside a chilly Fairfax County, Virginia, courtroom for three weeks as Johnny Depp and those closest to her ex-husband described her as an abusive manipulator, Amber Heard took the stand on Wednesday to tell her side of the story. “I am here because my ex-husband is suing me for an op-ed I wrote,” Heard, 36, told Virginia jurors who must resolve a $50 million defamation lawsuit Depp filed against her, and also address at least some claims in a countersuit she filed against him. “I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is.” “This is […]

Over the last three weeks, 12 jurors, a gallery of spectators, and hordes of online sleuths have been watching virtually every moment of the $50 million defamation saga between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in Virginia. Nothing about the trial—which keys on allegations of domestic violence—has been routine. Depp opined on the stand for four days about his lavish, drug-fueled lifestyle, painting himself as a victim despite a British judge concluding there was “overwhelming evidence” he abused Amber Heard and left her in fear for her life. He has also repeatedly indulged in bizarro behavior in court, from coloring in impressionist […]

Lisa Au had her whole life ahead of her. A 19-year-old hairdresser at the Susan Beers Salon in Kailua, a small town on the windward side of the Oahu island in Hawaii, Au was “always a happy girl with big dreams” who went out of her way to help people. “Lisa was a beautiful girl and a very pleasant person to be around,” Roy Chang, a lawyer for the Au family, told The Daily Beast. “I never heard anything negative about it. She seemed like a very nice girl who had a bright future.” But the teenager’s bright future came crashing […]

For almost three weeks, Johnny Depp has been perched in a chilly Fairfax County, Virginia, courtroom just feet away from his ex-wife Amber Heard as part of a heated $50 million civil defamation suit. But rather than maintaining solemnity in a case that centers at least in part on allegations against him of brutal domestic violence, Depp has descended into downright oddball behavior. Depp spent four mostly somber days on the stand insisting to jurors that Heard “devastated” his career with a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she described herself as a domestic violence survivor. But both on the stand […]

Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva hinted Tuesday that a local reporter who has extensively covered allegations he directed a cover-up of an excessive force incident might be under criminal investigation. According to Los Angeles Times reporter Alene Tchekmedyian, Villanueva allegedly launched a cover-up after learning a deputy kneeled on a cuffed inmate’s head for three minutes in March 2021. On Monday, Tchekmedyian reported that a legal claim had been filed against Villanueva, alleging that the sheriff had obstructed justice and retaliated against those who tried to expose him. But in a Tuesday press conference to address “false claims made in a […]

For about 12 months, Colorado law enforcement was steadfast in alleging that Barry Morphew murdered his wife of 26 years after learning she had a torrid extramarital love affair, disposed of her body, and staged a fake bike crash to throw off investigators. Prosecutors last May filed several charges against Morphew, which offered shocking details about how the 53-year-old allegedly planned and covered up Suzanne Morphew’s murder a year earlier, on May 9, 2020. Days after his arrest, the father-of-two was hit with additional charges for allegedly submitting a mail-in ballot on behalf of his missing wife—and casting her vote for […]

Johnny Depp faced a major grilling on his third day on the stand Thursday, answering questions about his recreational drug-use with famous celebrities, disturbingly gruesome text messages about Amber Heard, and about head butting his ex-wife. But in what could prove to be a crucial moment in his $50 million civil defamation trial in Fairfax County, Heard’s lawyers quizzed Depp about how he sustained his now infamous finger injury in 2015. Depp previously testified that he had to undergo surgery after Heard hurled a bottle of vodka at him during an argument in Australia—but jurors were shown a message and heard […]

Johnny Depp detailed the deterioration of his relationship with his ex-wife Amber Heard on Wednesday, claiming that he dealt with constant bullying and abuse from the actress. He went so far as to compare her to his mother, whom he described as a total nightmare. “You start to slowly realize that you are in a relationship with your mother, in a sense. And I know that sounds perverse and obtuse, but the fact is, some people search for weaknesses in people,” the 58-year-old actor said in a Virginia courtroom as part of a $50 million defamation lawsuit he filed against Heard. […]

Johnny Depp was back in front of the cameras on Tuesday, but not for a film project. Instead, he was testifying in the latest and perhaps most dramatic moment yet of a years-long saga involving competing allegations of abuse and defamation with his ex-wife, the actress Amber Heard. “About six years ago, Ms. Heard made some quite heinous and disturbing [allegations of] criminal acts against me that were not based in any species of truth. It was a complete shock,” the 58-year-old actor said in Fairfax County, Virginia, Court as part of a $50 million defamation lawsuit he filed against Heard. […]

A now-former North Carolina professor has been charged with murder after fatally abusing his adopted newborn son, authorities said. Van Erick Custodio, 42, was charged with first-degree murder on Thursday in connection to the death of 6-week-old Lucas Birchim, the Gastonia Police Department said. Custodio was previously hit with child abuse charges, but those charges were upgraded after Birchim died at a local hospital on Wednesday. The baby had sustained several injuries, including a fractured skull and a broken rib. Custodio is being held on a $500,000 bond at Gaston County Jail. On his personal website, Custodio describes himself as a […]

The leader of an alleged polygamist cult who often refers to himself as “3God” and “Nature Boy” is facing several charges this week, including false imprisonment and rape. Eligio Bishop, the 40-year-old leader of the group Carbon Nation, was arrested this week on five charges on April 14—including rape, false imprisonment, and sending sexually explicit electronic transmissions without consent, the Dekalb County Police Department said. The arrest comes after a Wednesday night raid at his Georgia home, which included dozens of officers and a tactical team, according to WSB-TV. He is currently being held at DeKalb County jail after Magistrate Judge […]

New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin surrendered to federal authorities early Tuesday morning to face fraud-related charges in connection with a previous political campaign, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Daily Beast. Benjamin, 45, was arrested on several charges, including bribery, in connection with his alleged participation in a scheme to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for securing a state grant. The indictment, obtained by The Daily Beast, alleges that Benjamin conspired to direct a $50,000 grant of state funds to a Harlem real-estate investor in exchange for thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to his unsuccessful […]

A father accused of murdering his family—and letting their bodies rot inside their rented Florida home—allegedly carried out the heinous crime after making a murder-suicide pact with his wife in order to “pass over” together before the apocalypse, prosecutors argued on Monday. “Everybody needed to die in order to pass over to the other side together because the apocalypse was coming,” Assistant State Attorney Danielle Pinnell told jurors in her opening statement at Anthony Todt’s murder trial Monday in Osceola County Court. Todt, 46, has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of homicide despite allegedly confessing to murdering 42-year-old wife, Megan, […]

An anti-abortion zealot under investigation after five fetuses were found inside her home last week debuted a bizarre explanation for the gruesome discovery on Tuesday: the fetuses, she claimed, were among over 100 others recovered at an abortion clinic in Washington. So far, only five fetuses have actually been recovered by police. And the story was quickly and vigorously disputed by a company ensnared in the controversy, which exploded after the fringe activist, Lauren Handy, was arrested last week for blocking people seeking services at a D.C. abortion clinic. At a crowded Tuesday press conference, activists—including Randall Terry, founder of the […]

The father of Harmony Montgomery, the 7-year-old who was reported missing two years after she was last seen in New Hampshire, was hit with new charges on Monday that accuse him of stealing guns just weeks before she vanished. Prosecutors said the alleged gun crimes were not related to the disappearance of the child, but the timeline fueled longstanding questions about what the father with a rap sheet was up to when she went missing. Adam Montgomery, 32, was charged with eight new crimes related to the theft of a firearm that occurred between Sept. 29, 2019, and Oct. 3, 2019, […]

For the last two years, all Kellie Ball has been wanting is answers. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic pummeled the country, her brother, Anthony Todt, was arrested for murdering his wife, their three children, and the family dog—and letting their bodies rot inside a three-story rental home on the outskirts of Disney World. The arrest came after Ball said she and her other relatives had asked the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department several times to check in on her brother’s home in Celebration, Florida, where the family fell off the grid. It was on Jan. 13, 2020, as Ball was out to […]

Elizabeth “Nikki” Wilhoite just wanted a fresh start. After being diagnosed with breast cancer last fall, the 42-year-old had just completed her last round of chemotherapy—an achievement the mother-of-two documented on social media. “She was such a strong woman!” Mary Smith, one of Elizabeth’s childhood friends, told The Daily Beast on Monday. “She had just finished up chemo last week.” But authorities say the milestone was almost immediately eclipsed when Elizabeth learned the husband she raised livestock with in rural Indiana, Andrew, had been having an affair. Elizabeth hired a lawyer and submitted a petition for legal separation in Boone County […]

A former Sarah Lawrence student who was allegedly forced into prostitution by her roommate’s father testified about emotional and physical abuse at the hands of the accused sex cult leader, including that he threatened to have her kidnapped. “He threatened to kill me on a memorable occasion,” Claudia Drury, 31, said during Lawrence Ray’s sex-crimes trial in Manhattan federal court on Friday. “He threatened to cut my face. He threatened to have me abducted and dropped in the Middle East. He threatened to blackmail people I knew. He threatened to beat up my father.” Those shocking allegations of abuse, however, paled […]

As outrage over Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill continues, advocates for the soon-to-be law that would limit classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender have resorted to an interesting ally to argue their case: a pro-Trump influencer who participated in the Capitol riot. On Monday evening, several Florida officials are set to participate in a Twitter Space town hall hosted by Brandon Straka, who was sentenced to three years of probation in January after admitting in a plea agreement to taking a shield away from a US Capitol Police officer. The event—titled “Don’t Say ‘Don’t Say Gay’” and run by […]

A far-right provocateur running to be Idaho’s next governor was arrested on Saturday morning on misdemeanor trespassing charges—just days before he is set to stand trial on similar charges. Ammon Bundy, the 46-year-old leader of the “People’s Rights” movement and an independent candidate, was arrested on several misdemeanor charges, including trespassing and resisting or obstructing officers, after allegedly refusing to leave an Idaho hospital on Friday night. The Meridian Police Department said Bundy failed to leave the St. Luke’s Meridian Medical center in relation to a child welfare case of a 10-month-old. In a statement posted on Twitter, Bundy said he […]

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City was evacuated on Saturday after police said two people were injured during a stabbing. The New York City Police Department told The Daily Beast two people suffered non-life-threatening injures during the incident that occurred around 4 p.m. They have since been taken to a local hospital where they remain in stable condition. Scores of museum-goers were also forced to evacuate the midtown Manhattan museum, and police have asked all residents to avoid the area. “The incident is under investigation and we don’t know yet the two individuals relationship to the museum,” a […]

“I’m going to break every bone in your body.” That’s one of just dozens of threats and insults accused sex cult leader Lawrence Ray hurled at one of his victims during an 2014 interrogation over allegations he put the 62-year-old’s personal information on the internet. In the hours-long interrogation, which was played in open court on Friday at Ray’s sex-crimes trial and obtained by The Daily Beast, Ray is also heard telling Santos Rosario to jump out his Upper East Side apartment building window, hitting him with a hammer on his legs, and threatening to use a sharp razor on him. […]

A 23-year-old man has confessed to murdering a lover five decades his senior after learning he was HIV positive—before embarking on a twisted cover-up scheme that included pouring cement and coffee grounds over the victim’s body in a bathtub and seizing his car and multi-mullion dollar Hawaii home, police said. Juan Tejedor Baron is charged with murder, theft, and identify theft for the February killing of 73-year-old Gary Ruby, who police say was found encased in cement and coffee-grounds in a standalone soaking tub inside his Hawaii Loa Ridge home. Baron was arrested on Wednesday after authorities found him “hiding in […]

Shortly after his release from a New Jersey prison in 2010, Lawrence Ray had an opportunity to start fresh. Instead, prosecutors alleged, the then-50-year-old father moved into his daughter’s Sarah Lawrence College dorm room and allegedly ran a sex cult for nearly a decade under the guise of “therapy sessions” as a “father figure.” “When [Larry Ray] arrived at Sarah Lawrence in 2010, he was not there to help students improve their lives. He was there to help himself,” Assistant United States Attorney Lindsay Keenan said during opening statements Thursday at Ray’s trial in Manhattan federal court. “He used violence, fear, […]

An armed Texas militia member accused of leading a “vigilante mob” to breach the U.S. Capitol became the first Jan. 6 rioter to get convicted by a jury on Tuesday. Forty-nine-year-old Guy Reffitt was found guilty of all five counts against him, including bringing a gun to the Capitol grounds, as part of a MAGA mob that stormed the seat of the government to stop the electoral certification of President Joe Biden. After the siege, Reffitt came home and threatened his two children to keep quiet about his involvement in the riots. The verdict, which a 12-person jury reached in about […]

An Oath Keeper accused of providing protection to Roger Stone before storming the U.S. Capitol in a stolen golf cart appears to have cut a plea deal with the feds, raising the prospect of a potent witness turning on key players in the violent insurrection. Joshua James, 34, was originally charged last April after allegedly communicating and congregating with several other members of the far-right group before and during the Capitol riot. But he is no run-of-the-mill defendant in the “Stop the Steal” plot to undermine democracy: Last month, the Alabama resident was among 11 individuals to be hit with seditious […]

It seemed like Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin pissed off just about everyone in her state when she delivered a taped speech to a white-nationalist conference in Orlando last Friday. But fellow Republican Gov. Brad Little—with whom she has routinely clashed in cartoonish fashion in recent months—and the state GOP had been notably silent. At least until now. “It is extremely unfortunate anyone in elected office in Idaho must make statements like these, but let me be clear—I fully reject racism in all its forms,” Republican Gov. Brad Little said in a Tuesday statement posted on Twitter. “There is no place […]

Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin is no stranger to controversy. Last May, as the state struggled to combat a surge of COVID-19 cases, McGeachin tried to impose a statewide mask ban while Gov. Brad Little was away on a business trip. Five months later, while the GOP governor was in Texas to critique President Joe Biden’s handling of the Mexican border, McGeachin went rogue again, issuing an executive order to ban vaccine mandates that was almost immediately struck down. Now, the 2022 gubernatorial candidate is under fire over a Friday speech she gave via video to a white nationalist conference in […]

The final chapter of Trayvon Martin’s tragically short life began with a famously innocuous errand: a Sunday evening convenience-store run for some skittles and a drink. But the quick trip for a treat on Feb. 26, 2012, ended in a lethal confrontation with a neighborhood watch volunteer, who fatally shot the 17-year-old on the street. While the killing of a hoodie-wearing Black teenager was not exactly unheard of a decade ago, the vigilante-style shooting helped ignite a racial reckoning that has surged repeatedly over the last decade, culminating in protests against police that defined 2020. The reverberations of his son’s death […]

To prove the three white men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery were not motivated by racism, their defense teams called a collective total of one witness: a random neighbor who did not know the trio. Evelyn Cofer, a 48-year-old resident of Satilla Shores—the Georgia neighborhood where the 25-year-old Black man was chased and shot to death in 2020—was called on behalf of Greg McMichael. Along with his son Travis (who fired the fatal shots) and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan (who joined the chase), McMichael was convicted in state court of murder. Prosecutors successfully convinced a jury that the men wrongly suspected […]

Kim Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright last April after she said she mistook her handgun for a taser, has been sentenced to two years in prison. And almost immediately, family of the slain Black man and local activists took umbrage at the meager sentence. “This is multiple steps backward. This is hurtful and disrespectful for our community and the legal system in general,” Toshira Garraway, a local activist who founded the group Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence after her fiancé was killed by cops, told The Daily Beast. “This sentence is disrespectful to Daunte […]

A New York State trooper who previously accused then Gov. Andrew Cuomo of harassing her while she was assigned to his protective detail filed a lawsuit Thursday, alleging Cuomo violated her rights before his long-time aide tried to cover up the incident. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Eastern District of New York, alleges that Cuomo and top aide Melissa DeRosa “violated federal, state, and civil laws” when they attempted to cover up the sexual harassment the trooper endured in 2019. The woman, who is only identified as “Trooper 1” in the lawsuit, is seeking damages from the pair. More to […]

Hundreds of community members gathered Thursday for the funeral of Amir Rahkare Locke, the 22-year-old Black man who was fatally shot within seconds of Minneapolis police entering an apartment with a no-knock warrant for a case that had nothing to do with him. Meanwhile, even as family, friends, and locals mourned, new details were emerging about the white cop who fired the shots that killed Locke. Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a eulogy while surrounded by Locke’s family at the Shiloh Temple International Ministries, just two miles from the Feb. 2 disaster. The grim occasion attended by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is […]

The former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization will be forced to participate in a “very limited” deposition in connection with a lawsuit over alleged waste of funds and self-dealing by the former president’s inaugural committee, a judge ruled on Thursday. During a Thursday status hearing, Judge Yvonne Williams said she will “allow a limited deposition” of Allen Weisselberg, who is already indicted on unrelated charges in a tax fraud case in New York. Among other things, the D.C. Attorney General’s Office alleges that after a bill for hotel rooms booked by the Trump Organization for the inaugural went to […]

All three of the white men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery two years ago had a history of using racial slurs online and in private conversations, with the man who shot and killed him calling Black people “savages” who “ruin everything,” an FBI agent testified Wednesday. Amy Vaughan walked jurors through an extensive, years-long internet history for Arbery’s killers—Travis McMichael, his father Gregory, and William “Roddie” Bryan—at the federal hate-crimes trial that could add to their already-hefty sentences. The trio appear to have written and spread twisted, racist memes and other posts long before the Feb. 23, 2020, homicide that killed Arbery, […]

Four days before William “Roddie” Bryan chased down Ahmaud Arbery with his neighbors, the Georgia man used a racial slur to describe a Black man his daughter was dating, prosecutors said Monday. That shocking detail was among several instances of Bryan’s racist behavior before Arbery’s Feb. 23, 2020, homicide in Satilla Shores, prosecutors said. Bryan and his neighbors, Travis and Gregory McMichael, have been sentenced to life after being convicted of Arbery’s murder, which has been described as a modern-day lynching under the guise of vigilante law enforcement. Prosecutors are now arguing that the trio’s actions were motivated by racial animus […]

James Bennet, the ousted New York Times editor at the center of a high-stakes defamation lawsuit brought by Sarah Palin, described a frantic struggle on Wednesday in recounting how his “failure” produced a column that wrongly connected the ex-governor to a mass shooting. Bennet, who left the Times in June 2020 amid internal backlash to another column, reiterated during his second day of testimony that he was responsible for a now-infamous 2017 piece entitled “America’s Lethal Politics.” The column erroneously suggested that the former Alaska governor’s political action committee and her rhetoric had incited a 2011 Arizona mass shooting that killed […]

For over two weeks, New Hampshire authorities have been scrambling to find Harmony Montgomery, the 7-year-old who has not been seen for two years. And while authorities have yet to arrest anyone in connection with her disappearance, her father is facing charges for allegedly abusing her and her stepmother is accused of using her for food stamp benefits even though she was not living with the child. Now, according to two local outlets, Adam Montgomery is reportedly suspect in an unsolved murder in Massachusetts. Citing a law enforcement source, Boston25 first reported Wednesday that Montgomery has been identified as a suspect […]

Anita Knutson was born to be a teacher. When she enrolled as a freshman at Minot State University—about an hour from her tiny North Dakota hometown of Butte, where her father was once the mayor—in 2007, Anita was pursuing that calling, her younger sister Anna recalled in an interview with The Daily Beast. Between working two jobs to help support herself and maintaining a healthy social life, the “beautiful, charismatic, and joyful” 18-year-old had done well in her first year as an elementary education major, and was looking forward to summer vacation. “She was enjoying school,” the 30-year-old marketing director said, […]

Over a year after hordes of MAGA rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral win, federal prosecutors hit a handful of people they portrayed as key perpetrators of the riot with a new charge: seditious conspiracy. Stewart Rhodes, the 56-year-old founder of the Oath Keepers, and ten other affiliates of the far-right military group, were charged Thursday with seditious conspiracy in a superseding indictment after prosecutors said they sought to “oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power” from former President Donald Trump to Biden. […]

The father of Harmony Montgomery, a 7-year-old who was reported missing two years after she was last seen in New Hampshire, has been arrested in the latest twist in the investigation. Adam Montgomery, 31, was arrested Tuesday evening on a slew of charges, including felony second-degree assault in connection with 2019 conduct against his daughter, Harmony. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has also charged Montgomery with one misdemeanor charge of interference with custody, and two misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child pertaining to Harmony. Despite the apparent break in an other-wise tight-lipped investigation, the AG’s office revealed […]

The Federal Bureau of Investigations is now assisting in the search for Harmony Montgomery, a 7-year-old who was reported missing two years after she was last seen in New Hampshire. “In keeping with standard protocol, we are assisting the Manchester Police Department with their investigation into the suspicious disappearance of Harmony Montgomery,” an FBI spokesperson told The Daily Beast on Tuesday, noting that local officials are still leading the probe. “We urge anyone with information about Harmony’s current whereabouts to contact law enforcement.” “We need help, and we don’t have many answers to many questions that we have.” — Manchester Police […]

As recently as a year ago, Alex Murdaugh’s life was the stuff of Southern fantasy. A father of two and partner at a successful law firm founded by his great-grandfather over a century ago, the 53-year-old seemed virtually untouchable. The former president of the state trial lawyers association, he was sitting atop a legal dynasty that produced three successive elected solicitors—or local prosecutors—in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The family image wasn’t exactly free of blemishes, even then. Murdaugh’s youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, had been charged with boating under the influence in connection with an accident that killed a teenage girl. But […]

Almost two months after an incident on the set of Rust led to the death of its cinematographer and injured its director, authorities have obtained a search warrant to Alec Baldwin’s phone as part of their investigation. In a Santa Fe police search warrant obtained by The Daily Beast, investigators asked for the “seizure and search of Alec Baldwin’s cell phone to search for any evidence relating to the death investigation of Halyna Hutchins,” the film’s cinematographer. Hutchins, 42, was airlifted from the set of Rust—which began filming at Bonanza Creek Ranch south of Santa Fe in October—to the University of […]

As states scramble to contain a fresh surge of COVID-19 cases that may only worsen with the holiday season and the emergence of the Omicron variant, schools are once again shutting their doors to curtail the spread of the deadly disease. In Maryland, at least three schools announced they were closing their doors early after reporting a COVID-19 outbreak, while several schools in the District of Columbia area have also moved to online learning to contain an ongoing outbreak. A few states away, in New York City, the Department of Education has shuttered over 800 classrooms amid a mass surge of […]

When Jessica Piper heard about Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s demand for schools in the state to pull back from pandemic safety despite surging case numbers and hospitalizations, the mother-of-five and former high school teacher went to the place where outrage is perhaps best expressed in 2021: TikTok. “I think my legislators shouldn’t actively be trying to kill me. But I live in Missouri,” Piper said in a Dec. 8 video to her 111,000 followers. The video went on to critique Schmitt’s scathing letter telling all Missouri school districts and health departments to stop implementing mask orders and other COVD-19 protocols […]

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer already convicted of murdering George Floyd, has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he violated the 46-year-old’s civil rights when he kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes during the notorious May 2020 incident. Chauvin, 45, and three other former officers involved in Floyd’s death were indicted on federal charges—in addition to the state conviction that already has Chauvin serving over 20 years in prison—in May for deprivation of rights while acting as law enforcement officers. The indictment alleged the group violated Floyd’s rights to be “free from unreasonable seizure” and excessive […]

Alex Murdaugh, the embattled South Carolina lawyer accused of a bewildering array of criminal charges, spoke out for the first time on Monday about his infamous, botched assisted-suicide plot in September. “I understand there may be concern I may be a danger to myself,” Murdaugh said during a Monday bond hearing on dozens of new charges over financial crimes. “I made a terrible decision that I regret and frankly I’m embarrassed about. I’m not in that place now.” In an impassioned eight-minute speech to South Carolina Circuit Judge Allison Renee Lee, the scion explained his mindset leading up to the Labor […]

To most people, living in a treehouse with no running water or electricity on a Tennessee farm might seem eccentric. But for David Riemens, a Michigan native who grew up with five siblings, living off-grid in the Volunteer State became his paradise. “David wanted to leave a very small footprint on the earth,” Julie McManus, who was married to Riemens for 10 years, told The Daily Beast. “We never thought of ourselves as ‘hippies’ but everyone called us that. We were just focused on helping—not hurting—the planet.” A “kind and compassionate person” who had an affinity for hitchhiking, Riemens moved to […]

In Pemiscot County, a rural municipality in the southeastern corner of Missouri’s Bootheel, only about 26 percent of the population is fully vaccinated—if not boosted—against COVID-19 despite growing hospital numbers and a rapid increase in cases. The shocking statistic is similar to other counties along the southern border of the state, including New Madrid, which is boasting a rate of just under 35 percent for its 17,560 residents. But even with a surge in cases in the Show-Me state that is virtually certain to increase during the winter and holiday season—not to mention the looming threat of the Omicron variant—Pemiscot and […]

Alex Murdaugh, the suspended South Carolina lawyer already facing a bewildering array of criminal charges, has been indicted on over 20 new criminal financial charges for allegedly defrauding victims out of over $1 million. A South Carolina grand jury slapped Murdaugh, 53, with seven separate indictments, consisting of 21 charges including computer crimes, money laundering, and forgery. The latest charges come just one month after a Colleton County grand jury indicted Murdaugh on 27 similar charges—meaning that Murdaugh now faces almost 50 criminal charges alleging he defrauded and laundered money. Between two rounds of grand jury indictments, prosecutors allege Murdaugh has […]

For Amity Dimock-Heisler, Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd was personal. The viral video of the crime sent shockwaves through social media, and erupted long-simmering anger about racial injustice and police brutality in the United States. For weeks, people took to the streets to protest, Floyd’s final pleas to breathe became a rallying cry, and the world zeroed-in on past police killings, including in the Minneapolis area. That included the August 2019 death of Dimock-Heisler’s 21-year-old son, Kobe. “I had been fighting for months for people to pay attention to Kobe’s case and it was initially frustrating that George Floyd’s […]

For the last month, medical workers across Michigan have slogged toward another holiday season defined by surging COVID-19 cases, an almost surreal descent reminiscent of the pre-vaccine era in which the state emerged as an early pandemic hot spot. Cases have spiked dramatically and hospitals across the state have been pushed to the brink. Looming mass gatherings, lax mask-mandate practices, and stagnating vaccination rates already had doctors and nurses fearing further chaos. Then came the threat of the super-mutated Omicron variant, which—early though it may be—experts fear could be even more contagious and possibly even vaccine-resistant than the Delta strain that […]

Not long after a child became the sixth person to die in connection with the catastrophic attack on a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, prosecutors painted a picture of the sole suspect as driven by a twisted thirst for blood. According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday, 39-year-old Darrell Brooks, who was arrested in the hours after the parade turned into a bloodbath, ignored demands to stop his car that night. He also seemed to weave around vehicles in an attempt to inflict the most damage possible, prosecutors said. “As I continued to watch the SUV, it continued to […]

A person of interest in the SUV attack that killed at least five and injured dozens more at a quaint holiday parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Sunday has been identified as a 39-year-old who recently posted bail on reckless-endangerment charges. Darrell Brooks was taken into custody as a person of interest and was being questioned in connection with the Sunday evening incident involving a red Ford Escape that plowed through barricades and into the crowd, sparking panic and unleashing mass bloodshed, NBC News first reported. The sprawling disaster left members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies among the dead, and at least […]

Alex Murdaugh, the embattled South Carolina lawyer facing a wild array of criminal charges, has been indicted on new financial crimes. A South Carolina grand jury indicted Murdaugh, 53, on more than 20 charges, including money laundering and forgery, The State first reported Friday. According to Eric Bland, who is representing the family of Murdaugh’s former housekeeper and nanny, Gloria Satterfield, some of the “​additional indictments brought today” are “in connection” to his alleged crimes against the family. Murdaugh already faces charges for allegedly orchestrating his own shooting in September, and diverting millions of dollars from a wrongful death settlement meant […]

Travis McMichael, the Georgia man accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, admitted on the stand Thursday that the 25-year-old unarmed Black man never yelled or threatened him before he began pursuing Arbery in a pickup truck—with his shotgun. “He did not threaten me verbally, no,” McMichael said during his second day on the stand at his own trial. He also admitted Arbery did not shout or brandish any kind of weapon as he began chasing him down on Feb. 23, 2020. “He was just running,” he added. McMichael, his father, Gregory, and William “Roddie” Bryan face several charges for allegedly chasing and […]

Travis McMichael, the Georgia man accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery last February, testified on his own behalf on Wednesday. “I want to give my side of the story, explain what happened in the way I see it,” McMichael said on the stand. McMichael, his father, Gregory, and William “Roddie” Bryan face several charges after allegedly chasing and ultimately killing Arbery, who was known to jog in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, on the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2020. Travis McMichael was caught on a video filmed by Bryan firing the fatal shots. The younger McMichael is the first defense […]

A misdemeanor gun charge against Kyle Rittenhouse was dismissed just hours before jurors were expected to begin deliberating the fate of the teenager accused of murdering two people and trying to kill a third during a police-violence protest last August. Rittenhouse, 18, has faced a slew of charges, including first-degree reckless homicide, in relation to the Aug. 25, 2020 shooting amid unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. During two incidents caught on camera, Rittenhouse fired an AR-15 and killed 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum and 26-year-old Anthony Huber. He also severely wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 27. But just […]

Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen accused of murdering two and trying to kill a third during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, took the stand in his homicide trial on Wednesday. Rittenhouse quickly claimed that he did not go to Kenosha during police violence protests last August to look for trouble, and simply wanted to help local businesses. He took to recounting his version of events that during the day, including that he wanted to help remove graffiti and offer his condolences to those impacted by unrest. “I said, ‘If there’s anything I can do, please reach out.’” Rittenhouse said on Wednesday, […]

A South Carolina judge on Wednesday denied Alex Murdaugh, the embattled South Carolina lawyer facing a wild array of criminal charges, denied him bond a second time after reviewing his court-mandated psychiatric evaluation. Murdaugh, 53, was denied bail last month on charges stemming from an alleged scheme to steal millions from the family of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. At the time, South Carolina Judge Clifton Newman said he was worried Murdaugh’s admitted opioid addition and several other legal woes made him a danger to the community. Newman, however, concluded at the Oct. 19 hearing he would reconsider the possibility the […]

Kyle Rittenhouse’s highly anticipated and politically polarizing murder trial began on Monday. And perhaps the biggest question looming over the proceedings—which will inevitably feature caricatures of unhinged racial-justice activists and harrowing stories of loved ones lost to a rogue gunman—is what the teenager himself might say to jurors deciding his fate. Rittenhouse, 18, is accused of murdering two people and injuring a third on Aug. 25, 2020, amid unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Prosecutors allege that the then-17-year-old traveled from Illinois to the Wisconsin city—armed with an AR-15—to co-mingle with other armed vigilantes styling themselves […]

Last May, as the United States grappled with a cascading and increasingly deadly pandemic, a stomach-churning video of three men chasing and shooting down a Black man on a Georgia street went viral. The incident, which had occurred 70 days prior and was caught on camera by one of Ahmaud Arbery’s alleged murderers, prompted protests for racial justice. Anger only grew louder with the knowledge that nobody had been arrested in the 25-year-old’s slaying despite damning video evidence and 911 calls pointing to the trio of alleged perpetrators. But the delay in justice in Arbery’s death somehow kept getting more brazen. […]

Just days before the presidential election, supporters of then-President Donald Trump ambushed a Biden campaign bus on a Texas highway, leaving staffers fearful for their safety and repeatedly calling local law officials for help. But the City of San Marcos “refused to help,” instead privately mocking the Democratic staffers stuck on the bus and calling them “tards,” according to text messages and 911 audio recordings detailed in an amended federal lawsuit. The Oct. 30 “Trump Train” incident sent shockwaves across the country after videos showed cars with MAGA flags seemingly trying to force the bus off the road as it headed […]

A Washington State sheriff, who is facing criminal charges for lying about a confrontation he had with a Black newspaper carrier, has now been blackballed by local prosecutors. But Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer is still, unbelievably, refusing to go. On Friday evening, the Pierce County Prosecutor’s office determined Troyer should be added to a list of witnesses with credibility problems. The decision was made by a 10-person committee that routinely reviews officer honesty affairs—and means that Troyer is officially on the “Brady List” that is often used to identify officers with problematic behavior that would compromise their ability to testify […]

Two days before Alex Murdaugh tried to orchestrate his own murder, he allegedly borrowed $75,000 from his older brother. Now, Randolph Murdaugh IV is coming to collect—joining the chorus of attorneys gunning for the former legal power player’s cash. In a complaint filed Thursday in Hampton County Court, the Randolph Murdaugh alleged that on Sept. 2, his brother asked to borrow cash “to cover an overdrawn bank account,” but failed to disclose he was in “poor financial condition” more generally. Days later, the complaint states, Randolph transported his brother to rehab for his decades-long opioid addiction—and paid the $15,000 tab. Alex […]

Florida’s top medical official is once again under fire for his stance on COVID-19 safety measures—this time for claiming a face mask limits his ability to communicate. Amid controversy over his refusal to wear a mask in a meeting last week with state Sen. Tina Polsky, Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo insisted in a Tuesday statement his decision to flout pandemic safety measures—despite the politician indicating she was sick—stemmed from his inability to “communicate clearly and effectively” with his face covered. “Having a conversation with someone while wearing a mask is not something I find productive, especially when other options exist,” […]

A 25-year veteran of the Capitol Police Department faces charges for allegedly encouraging a Jan. 6 rioter to cover his tracks on social media after the insurrection. Michael Angelo Riley, who joined the force dedicated to protecting the United States Capitol in 1996, has been indicted and arrested on two counts of obstruction of justice after telling one of his Facebook friends to delete incriminating photos that showed the pal inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, federal prosecutors alleged. The indictment unsealed Friday states that Riley, who works in the USCP’s K-9 unit, was on duty during the Jan. 6 insurrection […]

A federal judge on Wednesday slammed D.C. jail officials over the possible mistreatment of accused Capitol rioters in custody, calling for the Justice Department to open a civil rights investigation and holding two officials in contempt of court for delaying medical treatment. “It’s more than just inept and bureaucratic shuffling of papers,” U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth fumed during a contentious hearing Wednesday about medical delays for accused rioter Christopher Worrell. “Does no one care? Does no one follow up?” During the hearing, Lamberth said that jail officials failed to turn over critical information that was needed to approve surgery […]

The ongoing feud between state and local officials in Florida over vaccine mandates escalated on Tuesday when one county was hit with a whopping $3.57 million fine for requiring COVID jabs for all employees. The Florida Department of Health issued the fine against Leon County—home to the state’s capital, Tallahassee—over its “blatant violation” of Florida’s controversial “vaccine passport” law that prohibits governments and businesses from requiring residents to show proof they were vaccinated against the coronavirus. The notice states that the county broke the law 714 times in making all municipal employees show proof they’d been vaccinated. Fourteen workers were fired […]

“Hey TikTok, I need you guys to do your thing, please. My sister is missing.” That’s the heartbreaking plea Katana Curven made to her 31,900 TikTok followers three days ago about her 32-year-old sister Courtney Bryan. An employee at Patagonia, Bryan was last heard from on Sept. 23 at the Shasta National Forest in the Sacramento Valley with her dog, Booch, police said. “No calls and texts have been sent from her phone since,” Curven said in the video that has now been viewed over half a million times. She also showed Bryan’s last Instagram post from the day she went […]

A South Carolina lawyer described in court papers as Alex Murdaugh’s best friend and college roommate has been suspended from practicing law amid allegations he helped the scion steal millions of dollars from a wrongful death lawsuit settlement for his former housekeeper. In a Friday ruling by the South Carolina Supreme Court, Cory Fleming was placed on interim suspension, pending an investigation, under a statute that states “upon receipt of sufficient evidence demonstrating that a lawyer poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the public or to the administration of justice” the court may suspend an attorney. The suspension is […]

A Colorado dad convicted of murdering his son after the 13-year-old discovered photos of him in women’s underwear eating feces from a diaper has been sentenced to 48 years in prison. Mark Redwine, 59, was found guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse in July after he killed his son, Dylan, inside his Durango, Colorado, home on Nov. 18, 2012. The teen was on a court-ordered visit for Thanksgiving when Redwine snapped after him and his older brother for confronted him about the lewd photos of their dad in a red bra and eating feces from a diaper. The lengthy sentence […]

Alex Murdaugh, the once prominent South Carolina lawyer accused of orchestrating his own murder in a twisted insurance plot, allegedly funneled money from his clients and former law firm into a fake bank account for years, according to a new lawsuit. Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, and Detrick (PMPED), the law firm founded a century ago by Murdaugh’s great-grandfather, made the shocking allegation in a suit filed Wednesday in Colleton County court. It alleges that Murdaugh, who was ousted from the firm last month over allegations of theft, “was able to covertly steal these funds by disguising disbursements from settlements as payments” […]

Police were hunting for an 18-year-old student on Wednesday after he allegedly got into a fight at a north Texas high school, then drew a gun and opened fire. The Arlington Police Department said that three students and one adult were injured in an incident that forced hundreds of students and staff at Mansfield Timberview High School into lockdown for at least an hour. “This is not a random act of violence… this is a student that got into a fight and drew a weapon,” Assistant Chief of Arlington Police Kevin Kolbye said during a Wednesday press conference. Timothy George Simpkins, […]

South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh allegedly diverted millions of dollars from a wrongful death settlement meant for the sons of his family’s former housekeeper and nanny, according to new court papers. Court documents, first reported by The State, allege that after Gloria Satterfield died on Murdaugh property in 2018, her sons were supposed to receive upward of $4.3 million in a wrongful death lawsuit from the scion’s insurance company. Instead, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriot have yet to receive a dime of the court-approved 2019 settlement now believed to have been diverted to a bank account set up by Murdaugh himself. […]

A Pennsylvania woman has been arrested for fatally stabbing her elderly father and his girlfriend inside their upscale bayfront home at the Jersey Shore last Wednesday, authorities said. Sherry Lee Heffernan, 55, was charged Tuesday with two counts of murder for the “targeted attack” of her 87-year-old father, John Enders, and his 75-year-old girlfriend, Francoise Pitoy, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors, who have yet to reveal a motive, said Pitoy often stayed with Enders at his six-bedroom, waterfront home on the north end of Long Beach Island in New Jersey. Heffernan, who was also charged with two counts […]

As coronavirus outbreaks plague America’s schools, parents opposed to common-sense safety measures like mask mandates have resorted to bizarre and even violent tactics, perhaps most notoriously threatening to zip-tie an elementary school principal. Now, some parents enraged at a mandate in Ankeny School Community District near Des Moines, Iowa, are dangling a new, legal tactic, albeit one that risks sabotaging their own school system: threatening to pull their kids out of school, and deprive the district of funds. The Iowa Department of Education takes a certified enrollment count on Oct. 1 to determine how much funding each district is allotted for […]

After decades of escaping accountability, R. Kelly is a convicted felon. And those who say they endured physical, mental, and sexual abuse at the hands of the disgraced R&B star are rejoicing. “We got justice today,” Kitti Jones, a former Dallas radio DJ who gave up her career to be with Kelly, told The Daily Beast on Monday after he was found guilty of all nine charges he faced in a federal sex crimes case in Brooklyn. “I wouldn’t say I now have closure, because in the end none of us will get our time back. But this is a small […]

R. Kelly manipulated scores of girls, women and men for decades, also including his employees who dutifully followed the singer’s strict rulebook and were “at his disposal,” prosecutors said in closing arguments in the sex-crimes case against the singer on Wednesday. “For many years, what happened in [R. Kelly’s] world stayed in the defendant’s world,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes told jurors. “But no longer.” Over the last five weeks, the prosecution sought to prove Kelly was the “leader” of a criminal enterprise made up of his bodyguards, assistants, and employees who believed they were helping the singer in his legitimate […]

R. Kelly manipulated scores of girls, women and men for decades, also including his employees who dutifully followed the singer’s strict rulebook and were “at his disposal,” prosecutors said in closing arguments in the sex-crimes case against the singer on Wednesday. “For many years, what happened in [R. Kelly’s] world stayed in the defendant’s world,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes told jurors. “But no longer.” Over the last five weeks, the prosecution sought to prove Kelly was the “leader” of a criminal enterprise made up of his bodyguards, assistants, and employees who believed they were helping the singer in his legitimate […]

Out of jail and back in rehab after botching his own murder in a depraved insurance-fraud scheme, Alex Murdaugh is under new fire for his role in the aftermath of another crime: the fatal 2019 boat crash involving his late son Paul. The disgraced attorney late Monday was named in a new lawsuit, this time for allegedly attempting to “shift the blame” of the 2019 fiasco from Paul, who was charged in the incident prior to his own murder this spring, to another teenager onboard at the time. According to the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Connor Cook—one of the six […]

The alleged drug dealer and accused shooter of Alex Murdaugh, who authorities say conspired with the South Carolina lawyer in a jaw-dropping assisted suicide plot to collect millions in insurance money, is speaking out. In a porch-side interview with the New York Post, Curtis Edward Smith, 61, insists on his innocence and claims he was set up by the prominent legal family that has held sway in the Lowcountry area for decades. Authorities say Murdaugh, 54, admitted to orchestrating the Sept. 4 attack—which involved providing Smith with a gun to shoot him in the head and slashing his own tires—in the […]

A South Carolina judge on Thursday set a $20,000 bond for Alex Murdaugh after the once high-powered attorney admitted to his role in a doomed plot to get himself killed so his son could collect $10 million in insurance money. That allows the attorney, whose wife and son were shot and killed at a family estate this spring and who has seen his sway over the South Carolina Lowcountry collapse spectacularly, to go back to rehab for drug addiction. During a brief Thursday hearing, Hampton County Magistrate Judge Tonja Alexander said the bond was personal recognizance, meaning Murdaugh will be released […]

Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina lawyer who has been embroiled in scandal for months, will turn himself into Hampton County officials on Thursday, his lawyer confirmed to The Daily Beast. “We have been informed that there is a warrant for his arrest for conspiracy to commit insurance fraud,” Murdaugh’s attorney, Jim Griffin, said on Wednesday. “He plans to voluntarily surrender tomorrow and the arraignment and bond hearing will be held at 4 p.m. at the Hampton County magistrate court.” The arrest comes just two days after Murdaugh’s co-defendant and alleged drug dealer, Curtis Edward Smith, was charged with a slew […]

The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) announced Wednesday that the agency has opened an investigation into the 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield, a former housekeeper for the Murdaugh family. It marks just the latest criminal probe associated with the embattled legal dynasty whose patriarch, Alex Murdaugh, conspired with a former drug dealer in a botched assisted-suicide attempt last week, according to police and his own attorneys. Murdaugh, a once high-powered lawyer who along with his relatives also worked as a prosecutor in the South Carolina Lowcountry for decades, has not been charged with any crimes. Still, from the horrific […]

Alex Murdaugh is officially at the center of a state investigation. The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) announced Monday that it has opened a probe into Murdaugh, 53, just days after the legal scion was ousted from his firm over allegations of theft and placed in rehab for drug dependency. In a statement to The Daily Beast, the top law enforcement agency in the state confirmed the criminal investigation into Murdaugh is based on allegations that the father-of-two misappropriated funds from his family’s law firm, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick (PMPED). “I continue to urge the public to […]

A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by R. Kelly when she was a teenager told jurors in Brooklyn federal court on Monday that she also personally witnessed the singer sexually assault underage R&B star Aaliyah in the back of his tour bus in 1992 or 1993. At the time, Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in 2001, would have been 13 or 14 years old. “[I] slightly opened the door and saw Robert and Aaliyah in a sexual situation,” the woman, who identified herself on the stand as “Angela” and said she worked as a backup singer, told […]

Deputies from the Hampton County Sheriff’s Office who responded to the shooting of a renowned South Carolina lawyer over the weekend—months after his son and wife were murdered at their family estate—wrote in their incident report that he had suffered no “visible injury,” a claim that was almost immediately walked back by authorities on Thursday. In a copy of the incident report obtained by The Daily Beast, deputies who responded to the Saturday incident indicated that 53-year-old Alex Murdaugh did not have a “visible injury” and was not under the influence of drugs and alcohol. While the report includes little information […]