Nebraska governor recovering from serious injuries after being bucked off a horse
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(NEBRASKA) — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen is recovering from serious but non-life-threatening injuries after being bucked off a horse, his office said Monday.
The incident happened when the Republican leader was riding on horseback with family members near Columbus on Sunday.
The governor was thrown from a new horse, his office said. His injuries included “minor lacerations to his spleen and kidney, seven broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung resulting from the rib damage, and a minor fracture in one of his vertebrae,” his office said in an update on Monday.
“In summary, the Governor’s injuries were serious but not life-threatening and could have been much worse,” the statement added.
Pillen, 68, was initially transported to Columbus Community Hospital before being sent to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha “out of an abundance of caution,” his office previously said.
The governor is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days for observation and plans to work from his hospital room, his office said Monday.
“The Governor looks forward to returning to his office soon after Christmas and wishes a blessed and safe holiday to all Nebraskans,” his office said in the statement.
Pillen, who played football at the University of Nebraska under legendary coach and former Rep. Tom Osborne, took office in January 2023.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office in New York lacks the resources to meet “ambitious” deadlines imposed by the judge overseeing the Gilgo Beach serial killing case, DA Ray Tierney said Wednesday.
Tierney called on the Justice Department to release some money tied up in an ongoing investigation into the office to help defray the cost of a prosecution that he said presents “a singularly unique strain on our budget.”
Heuermann is charged in the murders of six women: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Costello, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla. The first victim was found in 1993 and the last victims were found in 2010.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Judge Timothy Mazzei said he wants to set a trial date at the next hearing, which is scheduled for Dec. 17.
Tierney called the schedule “ambitious” because of the large amount of evidence amassed in the case against Heuermann.
“I think the timeline right now is very ambitious and very compressed given the ridiculous nature of our discovery laws, where I have to provide every single piece of paper that was generated in a case that started in 1993,” Tierney said.
Tierney is asking for millions in federal asset forfeiture proceeds frozen by the Justice Department as part of an ongoing investigation into a previous district attorney. He estimated about $13 million is tied up in that investigation.
(NEW YORK) — Fingerprints taken from Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, appear to match fingerprints recovered from items found near the shooting scene, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The prints recovered from a water bottle and a cellphone were smudged, but the sources said they appear to match the prints sent from Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested on Monday.
If confirmed by detectives, it would represent the first forensic tie between the murder and 26-year-old Mangione.
Mangione also allegedly had a spiral notebook detailing plans about how to eventually kill the CEO, according to law enforcement officials.
One passage allegedly said, “What do you do? You whack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention,” the officials said.
The writings said using explosives in the attack could “risk innocents,” according to the officials.
Detectives are still examining Mangione’s writings but are considering the contents of the notebook to represent a confession, sources said.
Investigators have started interviewing members of Mangione’s family, according to sources.
Mangione plans to challenge his extradition from Pennsylvania to New York, where he faces a charge of second-degree murder in connection with Thompson’s Dec. 4 shooting death outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel.
“He has constitutional rights and that’s what he’s doing” in challenging the interstate transfer, defense attorney Thomas Dickey told reporters on Tuesday.
Mangione is “taking it as well as he can,” Dickey added.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said it will seek a governor’s warrant to try to force Mangione’s extradition. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she’ll sign a request for the governor’s warrant “to ensure this individual is tried and held accountable.”
A judge in Pennsylvania ordered Mangione held without bail on Tuesday.
The Ivy League graduate was arrested on Monday in Altoona and charged in Pennsylvania for allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun.
New York police have not said whether the gun recovered in Pennsylvania is considered a match for the one used in the Midtown killing, but said it looks similar and that it would undergo ballistic testing.
Mangione’s attorney told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that he had “not been made aware of any evidence that links the gun that was found on his person to the crime.”
“A lot of guns look the same,” Dickey said. “If you brought a gun in and said, ‘Well, it looks like that,’ I don’t even know if that evidence would be admissible. And if so, I would argue that it wouldn’t be given much weight.”
Dickey also cautioned that anyone speculating on the case should take the potential evidence “in its entirety,” not taking pieces of writing or other evidence “out of context.”
“People put out certain things, parts of different things,” he said. “I think any lawyer involved in this situation would want to see it all.”
Mangione plans to plead not guilty to the charges in Pennsylvania, Dickey said. Dickey said he anticipates Mangione would also plead not guilty to the second-degree murder charge in New York.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik, Mark Crudele, Luke Barr, Peter Charalambous and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Police are investigating the murder of a woman at a high-end resort in the Hamptons.
A staff member at the Shou Sugi Ban House found the victim dead in a guest room on Monday afternoon, Suffolk County police said. The resort is in Water Mill, located between Southhampton and Bridgehampton.
The woman hasn’t been identified, police said, adding that her cause of death will be determined after an autopsy.
No one has been taken into custody.
Police ask anyone with information to call the department at 631-852-6392 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.
