FBI special agent charged with sexually assaulting 2 women
ABC News
(BETHESDA, MD) — An FBI special agent has been arrested in Montgomery County, Maryland, and stands accused of sexually assaulting two women, according to police.
Special Agent Eduardo Valdivia, 40, is charged with 10 counts, including two counts of second-degree rape.
According to court records, the alleged attacks took place in May 2024 and September 2024.
Valdivia is in custody in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility and is scheduled to appear for a bond hearing in district court on Tuesday.
“The FBI takes allegations of criminal violations and misconduct very seriously. We are aware of the matter involving the recent arrest of an FBI employee and are fully cooperating with the Montgomery County Police Department,” the FBI’s Washington Field Office said in a statement to ABC News.
“Regarding the employment of Eduardo Valdivia, he is currently suspended pending the conclusion of the Montgomery County Police Department investigation,” the statement said.
Valdivia was previously charged with attempted murder in a 2020 off-duty shooting after a verbal exchange on a Metro train car. The incident was captured by security cameras.
A jury in Montgomery County found Valdivia not guilty in that case after a trial in 2022.
(NEW YORK) — A rideshare driver has been arrested for allegedly murdering his female passenger, who was found shot to death near a wooded area after she was reported missing, police announced Tuesday.
The victim, 30-year-old Chanti Dixon, was reported missing on Monday, according to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Chris Bailey. She had ordered an Uber around 3:30 a.m. Sunday to take her home from work, but she had not been heard from since then, according to the probable cause affidavit.
On Monday, police received a report of a dead person found near woods in a residential area of Indianapolis who was ultimately identified as Dixon, police said. She had an injury consistent with a gunshot wound, Bailey said.
The investigation led detectives to 29-year-old Francisco Valadez, who has been arrested on a murder charge, police said.
Police believe that Valadez, a rideshare driver, had picked Dixon up “just prior to her murder,” Bailey said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“This is disgusting, it’s disturbing,” Bailey said. “No one deserves to be treated this way in our community.”
Valadez is in custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, according to online jail records. It is unclear if he has an attorney at this time.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office will make final charging decisions. Bailey said he anticipates there will be additional charges in the case.
Dixon was found at a dead end with a possible gunshot wound to the left side of her head, according to the probable cause affidavit. Two cell phones belonging to her were also found nearby, according to the affidavit.
Detectives traced the Uber information to Valadez, according to the affidavit. Valadez allegedly told police that after he dropped her off a man attempted to rob her and shot her in the leg, according to the affidavit. After being brought to the homicide office for an interview, Valadez told two different stories before allegedly admitting to shooting Dixon in his car while trying to have sex with her, according to the affidavit.
Valadez has been banned from Uber, the company said.
“Our hearts break for Ms. Dixon’s family and loved ones,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. “The details of this act of violence are atrocious and we will assist Indianapolis police however we can as they continue to investigate.”
Assistant Chief of Police Catherine Cummings said this is believed to be an isolated incident.
“As a woman, this hits differently for me,” she said during Tuesday’s press briefing. “Women, girls, mothers have a right to exist freely in our community without fear of something heinous happening to them. They have a right to walk, bike, order, rideshare without fearing something bad will happen to them. This is a family’s worst nightmare, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to her family during this trying time.”
Cummings and Bailey stressed to the community that rideshares continue to be a safe option.
“This woman is gone from the world unnecessarily by an evil act,” Bailey said. “I’m glad that we were able to find this individual as quickly as we did, so that he didn’t have an opportunity to perpetuate violence further in our community.”
(ASHE COUNTY, N.C.) — There have been threats against Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees responding to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, according to a local sheriff.
“Recently in the mountain region, there have been threats made against them,” Ashe County Sheriff Phil Howell posted on Facebook regarding the alleged threats against FEMA employees. “This has not happened in Ashe County or the surrounding counties,” Howell added. “Out of an abundance of caution, they have paused their process as they are assessing the threats.”
Ashe County is located about three hours northeast of Asheville, NC, which was hard-hit by Helene. Sheriff Howell did not specify in his post who allegedly made the threats.
Threats to FEMA employees have been consistent during the Hurricane response, along with misinformation, federal authorities told ABC News.
Search and rescue efforts in the affected areas continue, a federal source told ABC News. However, while FEMA assesses potential threat information, disaster survivor assistance teams are currently working at fixed locations and secure areas instead of going door to door, out of an abundance of caution, the source said, adding that FEMA will monitor threat information and make adjustments to this posture on a regular basis in coordination with local officials.
A FEMA spokesperson told ABC News that the agency continues to support communities impacted by Helene and to help survivors apply for assistance.
“For the safety of our dedicated staff and the disaster survivors we are helping, FEMA has made some operational adjustments,” the spokesperson said. “Disaster Recovery Centers will continue to be open as scheduled, survivors continue to register for assistance, and we continue to help the people of North Carolina with their recovery.”
Sheriff Howell said that FEMA locations in Ashe County are open this week.
“Stay calm and steady during our recovery, help folks and please don’t stir the pot,” he said.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told ABC News Friday during a press briefing that threats to FEMA employees are a “shame” and a “distraction.”
“We continuously monitor the social media, channels, other outlets where we’re seeing this information, because we want to make sure we’re providing for the safest environment for our employees, and making sure that they know that their safety is first and foremost for us as they go out into these communities,” Criswell said in response to a question from ABC News.
FEMA hires people from local communities when disaster hits, Criswell said, noting that “many” leave their families behind to go and help communities who are impacted by disaster.
(STARR COUNTY, Texas) — A Texas official, who this week offered the incoming Trump administration a 1,402-acre plot of land to build “deportation facilities,” says other parts of Texas near the border could be offered up in a similar fashion.
“Absolutely — I have 13 million acres, if any of them can be of help in this process, we’re happy to have that discussion,” Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham told ABC’s Mireya Villarreal in an interview.
The Texas General Land Office purchased the plot of land from a farmer in October originally to facilitate Texas’ efforts to build a border wall. Together with this land, the state office owns about 4,000 acres in Starr County, about 35 miles from McAllen, Texas.
“My office is fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history,” Buckingham wrote in a letter addressed to President-elect DonaldTrump, earlier this week.
In an interview via Zoom, Buckingham claimed authorities were frequently “getting reports from the community” that crimes were happening on the property.
“There was a significant mass of humanity and terrible things happening on this property. We heard it again and again and again,” she said.
Buckingham placed the blame squarely on what she called the Biden administration’s “open border policies” and said the county voted Republican for the first time in a century because residents there felt those policies are “directly harming their communities” and jeopardizing their safety.
During the interview, Villarreal noted she had been speaking with residents and community leaders in the region who paint a different picture of the area, one of a safe community that does not have the violent crime that Buckingham has described.
When asked by Villareal to provide details of where those crimes are occurring, Buckingham said most of the migrants are passing through and, using some of the same rhetoric about migrants and crime used by President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail, said they “unleash some of their violent criminal habits” in other states across the country.
“Well, a lot of it is migrant-migrant crime, but you’re right, the communities along the border are lovely,” she said. “The people who live there are lovely. Obviously, most of the migrants who come across aren’t interested in sticking around too long. They go to other parts of the country, as we have seen in faraway states — people who came across the Texas border — and then tend to unleash some of their violent criminal habits in other states.”
She added, “But the bottom line is, until we have complete operational control of the border, until we have these violent criminals off of our soil that continue to hurt our sons and daughters, we need to keep working on it and get it done.”
In 2023, in the same county where the Texas commission recently bought the 1,402-acre plot of land, the Biden administration announced it had authorized building about 20 miles of southern border wall using money that was already appropriated under the first Trump administration.
President Joe Biden at the time claimed he had no choice to build the wall, which directly contradicted a promise he made during his 2020 presidential run.
“I tried to get them to reappropriate — to redirect the money,” Biden told reporters at the time. “They didn’t, they wouldn’t. And in the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what is appropriated. I can’t stop that.”
After that announcement, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there was an “immediate need to construct physical barriers” in the area.
Buckingham said she’s confident she’ll hear back from the incoming Trump administration about her offer of land.
“We have heard through back channels that they’re aware of our letter and they are definitely looking at it,” she said.
Incoming “border czar” Tom Homan, in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, indicated the incoming administration would be open to using the land Texas is offering.
“Absolutely we will,” he said, adding that when they arrest a migrant, they’ll need a place to detain them.
Democratic governors of border states — such as Arizona and California — have said they will not aid the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs told ABC News Live earlier this week that she would not use state police or the National Guard to help with mass deportation.
ABC News’ Mireya Villareal contributed to this report.
