15 injured after Brightline train collides with fire truck in Florida
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(DELRAY BEACH, Fla.) — A Brightline train collided with a fire truck on Saturday morning in Delray Beach, Florida, injuring three firefighters and 12 train passengers, city officials said.
The three injured Delray Beach firefighters were transported to a local hospital, where they are currently in stable condition. Two of the firefighters were initially listed in critical condition, but their status has since been updated.
In addition to the firefighters, 12 individuals from the train were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, assisted by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. There have been no reported fatalities.
The accident occurred at around 10:45 a.m. on the East Atlantic Avenue tracks near Railroad Avenue, according to authorities.
According to Delray Beach Fire Rescue, the firefighters were en route to a call when the accident took place.
An active investigation into the cause of the collision is being led by the Delray Beach Police Department, Brightline officials and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Authorities are looking into whether the crossing gates were functioning properly at the time of the incident and have not yet confirmed details regarding the specific cause of the crash.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Presidential immunity does not protect Donald Trump from having to pay tens of millions of dollars in damages after being held liable for defaming magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, a lawyer for Carroll told a federal appeals court in a filing Monday.
After being awarded an $83.3 million defamation judgment from a jury last year, Carroll on Monday urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to uphold the judgment against Trump, after Trump asked the court to toss out the verdict because he had immunity as president.
“Dissatisfied with the outcome of the judicial process, Trump now asks this Court to set aside that jury verdict on the theory that he was actually immune from judicial review all along,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote in the filing.
In 2023, a jury held Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, awarding Carroll $5 million in damages. A year later, a different jury in a separate trial ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83 million in damages for defaming her in a 2022 social media post in which he called her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and said “This woman is not my type!”
A federal appeals court upheld the $5 million judgment in December, and Trump’s appeal of the $83 million judgement is ongoing.
In September, Trump attorney D. John Sauer — who Trump nominated in November to serve as the new solicitor general — told a federal appeals court that the $83 million judgment should be thrown out based on a flawed jury instruction, a series of “highly prejudicial errors” during the trial, and because presidential immunity protects Trump from liability for public statements made as president.
“Presidential immunity forecloses any liability here and requires the complete dismissal of all claims,” Sauer wrote.
In her reply brief filed Monday, Kaplan pushed back against Trump’s assertion of immunity, arguing that statements Trump made about Carroll as president would clearly fall outside of his official responsibilities.
“If there were ever a case where immunity does not shield a President’s speech, this one is it,” Kaplan wrote. “Donald Trump was not speaking here about a governmental policy or a function of his responsibilities as President. He was defaming Carroll because of her revelation that many years before he assumed office, he sexually assaulted her.”
Carroll’s attorney argued that the $83 million judgement was justified to deter Trump from further defamatory statements, a risk that Kaplan said the jury saw firsthand. Trump attended most days of the 2024 trial, criticizing Carroll as a liar from his seat in the courtroom and sparring with the judge who oversaw the case.
“Throughout the trial, the jury had a front-row seat to Trump’s relentless campaign of malice, including his repeated defamation of Carroll at press conferences he held and in statements he posted on social media while the trial was ongoing,” Kaplan wrote.
(SMITHFIELD, VA)– A Virginia man allegedly had a cache of weapons, a “go box” and used a photo of President Joe Biden for target practice, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors this week.
Brad Spafford was charged earlier in the month on a gun violation, but in a detention memo filed on Monday, prosecutors in Virginia outlined something allegedly more alarming.
When FBI agents raided Spafford’s home, they allegedly found 150 IEDs which were assessed by authorities as pipe bombs, with some marked “lethal,” a “go-bag” in the event something happened, and more pipe bombs in his room “unsecured.”
The court documents point out that Spafford had his two young children living in the house with him.
The government also found a jar with potentially explosive material kept in the fridge labeled “do not touch,” documents said.
Spafford came on the government’s radar in 2023 when a confidential source told investigators that he blew off parts of his hand while allegedly making a homemade IED in 2021, according to court documents.
The detention memo was filed to prevent Spafford from being released pending trial, which was granted, according to court records.
The Justice Department also found that he allegedly supported political assassinations.
“The defendant has used pictures of the President for target practice, expressed support for political assassinations, and recently sought qualifications in sniper-rifle shooting at a local range,” prosecutors wrote. “His release poses an extreme danger to those he lives with, the general community, and also the pretrial officers who will be tasked with periodically inspecting his residence for firearms including dangerous and unstable explosives.”
Spafford is on bond pending trial but DOJ is moving to have him locked up.
E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — Highland Park, Illinois, mass shooting suspect Robert Crimo III changed his plea to guilty on Monday as opening arguments in his trial were set to begin, according to Chicago ABC station WLS.
Crimo is accused of killing seven people and injuring dozens of others in the mass shooting at a 2022 Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. He pleaded guilty to 21 counts of first-degree murder, three counts of each person killed, and dozens of attempted murder charges, according to WLS.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 23.
Jury selection wrapped up in the trial on Wednesday with opening statements planned for Monday. The trial was expected to take a few weeks.
Crimo told police he wore women’s clothing during the shooting and used makeup to hide his facial tattoos and blend in with the crowd during the chaos, prosecutors said. Crimo was apprehended hours later and prosecutors said he confessed to the shooting.
Crimo appeared ready to accept a guilty plea last June during a hearing, only to reject the deal in front of devastated members of the victims’ families. He was expected to plead guilty to seven counts of murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm at the hearing at the time, according to The Associated Press.
“We have Fourth of July coming up and it will be two years,” Leah Sundheim, whose mother, Jacquelyn Sundheim, was killed in the shooting, said at a news conference at the time. “All I wanted was to be able to fully grieve my mom without the looming trial, knowing that he was going to spend the rest of his life in jail. And instead, we were yet again shown [Crimo’s] complete and blatant disregard for humans.”
Crimo’s father, Robert Crimo Jr., who was present during jury selection and again on Monday, pleaded guilty last year to reckless conduct, admitting to signing the Firearm Owner’s Identification card for his son to apply for gun ownership. He did not answer questions while leaving court Monday.
The younger Crimo was 19 at the time and and too young to get a FOID card on his own. Illinois at the time required people ages 18, 19 or 20 to have parent or guardian authorization.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
