DOJ’s pardon attorney Ed Martin hit with ethics charges

(CHICAGO) — A Chicago teen who fought for her father’s release from immigration detention while she was battling stage 4 cancer, has died, a representative for her family says.

Ofelia Torres died Friday at age 16, according to the family representative. The cause of death was metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

Torres grabbed the national spotlight last fall after her undocumented father, Ruben Torres-Maldonado, was detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” Torres posted a video on social media calling for his release, and was also interviewed on ABC News’ “Nightline.”

A representative for Torres’ family said that just three days before she died, an immigration judge ruled that her father was conditionally entitled to receive cancellation of removal, which could provide a pathway to a green card. Torres watched the hearing virtually, the family said.

In the “Nightline” interview last fall, Torres said she initially tried to keep her cancer diagnosis private, but said she was speaking out to defend her father. 

“I need the world to know my dad’s story and if that means letting the world know I have cancer, so be it. I don’t care,” she said. “I need my dad.”

In a statement, Kalman Resnick, the attorney representing Torres’ father, said: “Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father. We mourn Ofelia’s passing, and we hope that she will serve as a model for us all for how to be courageous and to fight for what’s right to our last breaths.”

Torres-Maldonado was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a Home Depot in Niles, Illinois, outside Chicago on Oct. 18 before being released on bond about two weeks later.

Resnick, who represented Torres-Maldonado, told reporters at a press conference last fall that federal agents surrounded Torres-Maldonado’s truck, smashed a window and dragged him into a vehicle at gunpoint. 

At the time, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin alleged that Torres-Maldonado had backed into a government vehicle while attempting to flee. 

DHS maintained Torres-Maldonado was a “criminal illegal alien” with a history of  driving without insurance, driving without a valid license and speeding.

In the “Nightline” interview Torres said that despite how her father was treated, she had “nothing but love” for the federal agents who arrested her father.

“To the ICE agents who smashed my dad’s window, to the ICE agent who pointed a gun at my dad, I’m not mad at you … I just want you to know that that was not the right thing to do,” she told ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos.

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(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione returns on Friday to Manhattan federal court, where prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if he’s convicted of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in 2024. 

The appearance follows a three-week hearing in state court during which Mangione tried to convince the judge to exclude some of the critical evidence police said they found in his backpack, including writings and the alleged murder weapon. 

Prosecutors said in a letter Thursday no such hearing is necessary in the federal case.

“The Government searched the contents of the defendant’s notebook pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant that expressly covered, among other things, handwritten materials, including notebook entries, contained within the defendant’s backpack,” prosecutor Sean Buckley wrote.

“To the extent that the defendant now seeks to challenge the validity of the Government’s warrant — an argument the defendant similarly did not make in either his moving or reply papers — that argument would also fail on the merits because the warrant, which disclosed the initial search of the defendant’s backpack by the Altoona Police Department, was supported by ample probable cause,” wrote Buckley.

Earlier this week, prosecutors disputed a defense claim that Mangione should not face the death penalty because of a purported conflict of interest by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The defense said Bondi is continuing to benefit from a 401k established while she worked at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, which represents UnitedHealthcare.

Prosecutors said Ballard has made no contributions to her retirement plan since her Senate confirmation as attorney general, and argued that she stands to gain nothing from a “capital outcome” in the Mangione case.

“There is simply no factual basis for the assertion that outside corporate interests influenced the Attorney General’s charging decision in any fashion. The defendant’s insinuations otherwise rest on an inaccurate financial narrative,” Buckley wrote.

Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, is also trying to fight the possibility of the death penalty by challenging one of the aggravating factors that makes him eligible.

Paresh Patel, an expert on the federal stalking statute who Mangione has added to his legal team, is expected to argue that stalking is not a crime of violence and, therefore, an improper predicate to making the case death penalty eligible.

Prosecutors say the defense is wrong.

“Volitional conduct by the defendant that simultaneously places the victim in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury and that proximately causes the victim’s death necessarily involves the ‘use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another,’ thereby making the offenses charged in Counts Three and Four crimes of violence,” Buckley argued.

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(SUMTER COUNTY, Ga.) — Authorities are continuing the search for two murder suspects who escaped from a Georgia jail on Sunday.

Rickey Martin, 20, and Kentravious Holmes, 21, escaped Sumter County Jail at around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, according to the sheriff’s office.

The two inmates were also in custody on charges including aggravated assault and aggravated battery, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. 

Martin is 5 foot 4 inches and weighs 120 pounds. He is a Black male with un-twisted dreads, according to the sheriff’s office.

Holmes is 5 foot 8 inches in height and weighs 155 pounds. Holmes is a Black male with un-twisted dreads and multiple tattoos on his face and neck, including a “$” sign, a broken heart and “Baby Kay” over his right eye, according to the sheriff’s office. 

Anyone who sees either individual or has any information on their whereabouts, is asked to call 911 or the Sheriff’s Office directly at 229-924-4094.

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