Opening statements to begin in trial of doctor accused of trying to kill wife on Hawaii hiking trail
Stock image of gavel. (Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images)
(HONOLULU) — Opening statements are expected to begin Thursday in the trial of a doctor accused of trying to kill his wife on a Hawaii hiking trail last year.
Gerhardt Konig has been charged with second-degree attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
The trial is set to get underway at 9 a.m. local time in Honolulu.
The anesthesiologist is accused of beating his wife, Arielle Konig, with a rock on the Pali Puka Trail on Oahu on March 24, 2025.
He allegedly pushed her and hit her in the head with a rock approximately 10 times while grabbing the back of her head and smashing her face into the ground, according to the probable cause statement for his arrest. He also allegedly attempted to use two syringes on her, according to the document.
Arielle Konig suffered injuries, including large lacerations to her face and head and was hospitalized in serious condition following the alleged attack, according to the probable cause document.
Gerhardt Konig has been in jail since his arrest. A judge denied his motion to dismiss the indictment last month.
Arielle Konig’s attorney has previously told reporters that she intends to testify during the trial. She filed for divorce in May 2025, online court records show.
In a petition for a restraining order filed shortly after the arrest, she said Gerhardt Konig had previously accused her of having an affair, “which led to extreme jealousy on his part” and led him to try to “control and monitor all of my communications.”
Konig worked as an anesthesiologist on Maui. Following his arrest, Maui Health said his medical staff privileges at Maui Memorial Medical Center have been suspended pending investigation.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference during moving day at Gracie Mansion on January 12, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A New York City Council employee was detained during a “routine” immigration appointment on Long Island on Monday, according to city officials, who called the incident an “egregious government overreach.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he is “outraged” by the worker’s arrest.
“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values,” he said in a statement on X. “I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”
The Department of Homeland Security defended the arrest late Monday, saying the employee is in the U.S. illegally and has an alleged criminal history that includes an arrest for assault. The agency did not provide additional details on the assault arrest.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin identified the employee in a statement Monday night as Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, whom she alleged is a “criminal illegal alien from Venezuela.”
McLaughlin said Rubio Bohorquez entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa in 2017 that required him to leave the country by Oct. 22, 2017.
“He had no legal right to be in the United States,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Under Secretary Noem, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States. If you come to our country illegally and break our law, we will find you and we will arrest you.”
The employee was detained by federal immigration officials during an appointment in Bethpage in Nassau County earlier Monday, according to NYCCouncil Speaker Julie Menin.
The speaker said the employee has legal authorization to remain in the country until this coming October.
Menin said the employee is a “central staff member working as a data analyst for approximately a year.”
The city council learned of his detainment Monday afternoon, when the employee used his one phone call to contact the council’s human resources department for help and said he had been detained, according to Menin.
“DHS confirmed that this employee had gone in for a routine court appointment and was nevertheless detained. They provided no other basis for his detainment,” Menin said during a press briefing on Monday. “On the contrary, he was a city council employee who is doing everything right. He went to the court when he was asked.”
Menin said the city council is demanding the return of the employee, whom she did not identify, citing privacy concerns.
Democratic New York Congressman Dan Goldman said the employee is of Venezuelan descent and is a “law-abiding immigrant with work authorization.”
“I want to be very clear: There is no indication that there’s anything about this individual other than his immigration status that caused him to be arrested,” he said during Monday’s press briefing.
DHS said the staffer was not authorized to work in the U.S.
The employee has been transferred to a detention center in Manhattan, according to Menin. She said the city council has been unable to reach his family members.
Goldman said his office has reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We will continue to fight this,” he said. “We will continue to push for not only this person’s release, which is so obviously necessary, but for this immigration dragnet to stop.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James also called for the staffer’s immediate release, saying in a statement on X, “We will not stand for attacks on our city, its public servants, and its residents.”
In response to the incident, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “This is exactly what happens when immigration enforcement is weaponized.”
“Detaining people during routine court appearances doesn’t make us safer,” she said in a statement on X. “It erodes trust, spreads fear, and violates basic principles of fairness.”
ICE Police and Immigration & Deportation (Douglas Rissing/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security has now picked another state on which to focus its immigration enforcement action: Maine.
On Wednesday, DHS launched “Operation Catch of the Day” — an operation targeting criminal illegal migrants in the state, according to a DHS spokesperson.
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin singled out Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and “her fellow sanctuary politicians” for prompting the need for the federal immigration crackdown in Maine.
“We have launched Operation Catch of the Day to target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in the state. On the first day of operations, we arrested illegal aliens convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Under President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem, we are no longer allowing criminal illegal aliens to terrorize American citizens.”
It was not immediately clear how long DHS plans to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Maine or if the Customs and Border Protection agents currently operating in Minneapolis will move to Maine.
Mills, who has had previous run-ins with President Donald Trump over the past year, is running for the U.S. Senate.
In a statement released on Monday, Andrew Benson, the U.S. attorney for the District of Maine, said people have the right to protest, but not turn to violence, and seemed to indicate a DHS operation was coming.
“In the coming days, if Maine citizens seek to exercise their rights to assemble and protest, it is vital that these protests remain peaceful,” Benson said. “Anyone who forcibly assaults or impedes a federal law enforcement officer, willfully destroys government property, or unlawfully obstructs federal law enforcement activity commits a federal crime and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
There was no immediate comment from Mills on the ICE operation in Maine. But in a Jan. 14 video statement released on social media, Mills said she and members of her administration had unsuccessfully attempted to glean any information about the federal government’s enforcement plans in her state.
Mills said the state was taking proactive steps to prepare for the immigration crackdown.
“I have directed the Maine State Police to work closely with local law enforcement as necessary, to provide whatever support is needed in advance of and during any potential federal operations,” Mills said.
She said her administration had also been in contact with city officials in Portland and Lewiston, the largest cities in Maine, as well as the state attorney general, “to coordinate our response.”
“If any operations take place, our goal as always will be to protect the safety and the rights of the people of Maine,” Mills said. “Look, Maine knows what good law enforcement looks like because our law enforcement are held to high professional standards, they undergo substantial professional training, and they are accountable to the law. And I’ll tell you this, they don’t wear a mask to shield their identities, and they don’t arrest people in order to fill a quota.”
Mills said she fully supported the right for the people of her state to protest, as long as they do so peacefully.
She also directed a message to the federal government.
“If your plan is to come here to be provocative and to undermine the civil rights of Maine residents, do not be confused. Those tactics are not welcome here,” she said.
Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline slammed ICE in a statement on Wednesday, saying the agency’s “terror and intimidation tactics reflect a complete lack of humanity and concern for basic human welfare.”
“These masked men with no regard for the rule of law are causing long-term damage to our state and to our country,” Sheline said. “Lewiston stands for the dignity of all the people who call Maine home. We will never stop caring for our neighbors.”
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 8, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Yang-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — One year after his arrest on Dec. 9, 2024, the pretrial hearing in the case of accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione is in its fifth day in a lower Manhattan courtroom.
Attorneys for Mangione, who is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk last December, are seeking to exclude from trial critical evidence that they say was illegally seized from his backpack without a warrant after officers apprehended him in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s five days after the shooting.
Tuesday’s first witness, Altoona police officer Stephen Fox, participated in the backpack search and is heard on body camera footage saying it was a “search incident to arrest” — the term that authorizes the search of an individual upon arrest in Pennsylvania.
After officers formally placed Mangione in custody, Fox is heard asking Mangione, “Anything in that bag we need to know about?”
Fox testified that he suspected the backpack contained a weapon.
“We were dealing possibly with the New York shooter,” he said on the witness stand.
Fox said he and his colleagues commenced the search of Mangione, consistent with “every arrest I make.” When asked by the prosecutor, Joel Seidemann, if he ever asked for a search warrant, Fox replied, “No.”
When his colleague, patrolman Christy Wasser, pulls out a loaded magazine wrapped in gray underwear, Fox is heard in the body camera video uttering, “It’s f—— him, dude.”
Fox expressed familiarity with the fatal shooting of Thompson.
“It appeared to be a clear, targeted assassination of an individual in the hierarchy of healthcare,” Fox testified. “I knew it was a violent act of cowardice that targeted a defenseless human being.”
Fox is seen in the footage patting down Mangione, whose back is to the officer with his hands against the wall.
“I felt uneasy based on the way he was sitting there. He wasn’t making eye contact,” Fox testified. “This was most likely the New York shooter we were dealing with. I wanted to make sure he was clear of any weapons.”
Fox read Mangione his Miranda rights and handcuffed him at the restaurant.
Nearly a dozen witnesses have testified in the hearing’s five days so far. Their testimony will help Judge Gregory Carro determine what evidence is allowed at trial and what, if any, evidence should be omitted.
The McDonald’s manager who called 911 said her customers recognized the young man seated in the back corner eating a Steak McMuffin and hash brown because of the distinctive eyebrows, which were visible even as a surgical mask and hood concealed much of his face.
On a slip of paper police said they pulled from his backpack, Mangione had reminded himself on Dec. 5, 2024, to “pluck eyebrows.”
On the reverse side of the paper is a crudely drawn map and a reminder to “check Pittsburgh red eyes, ideally to Columbus or Cincin (get off early).” Another reminder said, “keep momentum, FBI slower overnight.”
The piece of paper had not been seen publicly until it was shown during the ongoing hearing at which Mangione’s attorneys are trying to exclude everything taken from the backpack, including the alleged murder weapon, two loaded magazines, a silencer and a cell phone in a Faraday bag designed to conceal its signal.
They argue that officers from the Altoona Police Department skipped steps and violated Mangione’s constitutional rights against illegal search and seizure because they were eager to help crack a big case.
The district attorney’s office said the officers legitimately feared the backpack could contain something dangerous and their search complied with Pennsylvania law.
