Bureau of Prisons employee dies after coming into contact with ‘unknown substance’
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(ATWATER, Calif.) — A Federal Bureau of Prisons employee died after coming into contact with an unknown substance in the mail room at the U.S. penitentiary in Atwater, California, according to a bureau spokesperson.
The employee began to feel unwell on Friday after coming into contact with the substance and was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the BOP. A second employee came into contact with the substance, was observed at the hospital and released.
“Our hearts are heavy as we extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of our fallen Bureau employee,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy and the grief of our Bureau community, we have no further details to share at this time.”
The Council of Prison Locals, the BOP’s largest union that represents employees, has been advocating for more mailroom safety measures, according to the Council President Brandy Moore-White.
A bill was introduced by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebr., in December 2023 that would require the agency to electronically scan all the mail coming into the facilities. It is unclear what the procedures are now.
The bill has yet to make it out of the Judiciary Committee.
(FORT WORTH, Texas.) — An athlete drowned during a swimming event at a CrossFit competition in Texas on Thursday, the organization said.
The death occurred on the first day of the CrossFit Games, being held in Fort Worth through Sunday. The events have been canceled for the rest of the day, CrossFit said.
CrossFit CEO Don Faul said during a press briefing he is “gutted” by the death of the athlete, whose name has not been released.
“We’ll continue to be focused on our community and the family through this tragic set of circumstances,” Faul said.
The incident occurred Thursday morning in Marine Creek Lake. The Fort Worth Fire Department responded around 8 a.m. local time to a call regarding a CrossFit Games participant who went missing in the water, authorities said.
First responders used dive teams and a drone to find the person, who was recovered from the water about an hour after the dive team response, authorities said.
The body of the athlete has been transferred to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner and the name will be released pending family notification, police said.
Faul said CrossFit is cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 03, 2024 in Wilmington, Del. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — More than a year after a plea deal between prosecutors and Hunter Biden collapsed, jury selection in the federal tax trial of President Joe Biden’s son is scheduled to begin this morning in a Los Angeles federal courthouse.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi plans to seat 12 jurors and four alternates for a trial that is expected to throw Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, his struggles with addiction, and his lavish spending into the spotlight.
Prosecutors allege that Hunter Biden engaged in a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on exotic cars, clothing, escorts, drugs, and luxury hotels. He has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that includes six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.
All back taxes and penalties were eventually paid in full by a third party, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden confidant Kevin Morris.
The trial comes three months after Hunter Biden was convicted by a Delaware jury on three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 13.
If convicted in Los Angeles, Hunter Biden faces a maximum combined sentence of up to 17 years in prison.
After two days of jury selection this week, opening statements in the trial are scheduled to begin on Monday. Prosecutors expect to spend six days presenting their case, and Hunter Biden’s team has said it would spend two days on his defense.
Here’s what to know about the proceedings:
How will jury selection work?
Judge Scarsi plans to use a similar process used in Hunter Biden’s Delaware trial — where jury selection took one day — to select the jury in the Los Angeles trial. One hundred and twenty potential jurors from from Los Angeles and six nearby counties are expected to be summoned for jury selection on Thursday.
The jury selection process will center on a lengthy questionnaire that includes 50 questions on topics including prospective jurors’ interactions with law enforcement and their experiences filing taxes.
Four of the questions directly address Hunter Biden’s unique position as a criminal defendant whose father is the president of the United States, including asking if prospective jurors’ thoughts on the upcoming presidential election would impact their decision-making and whether they believe law enforcement agencies make decisions based on politics.
“Do you believe Robert Hunter Biden is being prosecuted in this case or is not being prosecuted in other cases because his father is the President of the United States and was until recently a candidate for President?” one question asks.
Five questions also touch on addiction, including if potential jurors have family members who suffer from substance abuse issues or if they have experience with addiction treatment and counseling.
“Do you believe someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol should not be charged with a crime?” another question asks.
What do prosecutors allege?
In their 56-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden willfully avoided paying taxes by subverting his company’s own payroll system, that he failed to pay his taxes on time despite having the money to do so, and that he included false information in his 2018 tax returns.
“[T]he defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” the indictment alleged.
Prosecutors also highlighted millions of dollars that Hunter Biden received from overseas business in Ukraine, China, and Romania in exchange for “almost no work.”
Although Hunter Biden eventually paid back all his back taxes and penalties with the help of a third party, Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to the jury.
“Evidence of late payment here is irrelevant to Mr. Biden’s state of mind at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes,” Scarsi wrote in an order last week.
Why is this going to trial?
Last June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor offenses, acknowledging that he failed to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. The deal also allowed him to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid criminal charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase.
Had the deal worked out, Hunter Biden would have likely faced probation for the tax offenses and had his gun charge dropped if he adhered to the terms of his diversion agreement.
However, the plea deal fell apart during a contentious hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with the structure of the deal.
By September, special counsel David Weiss had unsealed an indictment in Delaware charging Hunter Biden for lying on a federal form when he purchased a firearm in 2018.
The federal indictment in Los Angeles for the tax crimes followed in December.
(NEW YORK) — Doug and Ashley Benefield seemed to have a fairy tale romance — a beautiful ballerina swept off her feet by a dashing older man, married only 13 days after they started dating. However, less than four years later, Doug would be dead, killed by Ashley in what she claims was self-defense.
The trial is playing out in a Florida courtroom, with prosecutors accusing Ashley of wanting sole custody of the couple’s daughter Emerson.
“This case is about a woman who, very early on in her pregnancy, decided she wanted to be a single mother,” prosecutor Suzanne O’Donnell said. “Her husband and everything she did from that point on was to attain that goal and she would stop at nothing to attain that goal. When there was no other option, she shoots him and kills him and claims self-defense.”
However, Ashley Benefield’s attorney argued that she was trapped in an abusive relationship, stating that Doug Benefield was a manipulative, controlling and abusive man.
Doug and Ashley met in 2016 at a political event. They instantly connected despite their 30-year age difference. Doug was a recently widowed father to a teenage daughter named Eva.
Doug went as far as reversing his vasectomy so he and Ashley could have a child together. However, their whirlwind romance started to crumble as the ballet company they started together failed, and Ashley claiming Doug became abusive.
“Ms. Benefield was alleging that Doug had been violent toward her,” Stephanie Murphy, a former attorney for Doug, said. “She alleged that he had hit the dog, fired a gun into the ceiling. The biggest allegation was that he was poisoning her and their child in utero with heavy metals.”
On May 6, 2020, Ashley filed a restraining order against Doug.
Things came to a head on Sept. 27, 2020. Doug was helping Ashley load a U-Haul at her mother’s house. They were planning on moving to Maryland, with Doug living separately.
According to court documents filed by the defense, Ashley claims Doug struck her, hitting her on the side of her head, and then tried to keep her from leaving the room.
“When I saw her after the incident, there was edema swelling on the side of her face,” Dr. Barbara Russell said.
Ashley claims she feared for her life, shot Doug multiple times in self-defense, and then ran to her neighbor’s house.
But Eva Benefield told ABC News’ 20/20 that she doesn’t believe it was self-defense.
“If it was self-defense, why did she shoot — why shoot multiple times?” Eva said. “If I was defending myself in a situation I would shoot once and I wouldn’t shoot to kill. I wouldn’t take a life away. And she clearly wanted to take my dad’s life away and ruin her own child’s life and ruin my life.”
The high-profile case has been coined “the Black Swan murder trial,” named after the movie starring Natalie Portman. The movie tells the story of a tortured artist whose quest for perfection leads to mental instability. Ashley’s ballet background inspired the title.
“I think what it comes down to is that ‘the black swan’ has a catchy ring and it sensationalizes my life and my situation, and so they ran with it,” Ashley told ABC News before her trial. “And it’s sad to me that people who don’t even know me have this idea of a monster when they think of me.”
She decided to speak exclusively with ABC because she wanted to help other women who had gone through similar experiences.
“I am really doing it for other people because I know I’m not alone in this,” Ashley said. “There are women all over the country, all over the world, who have gone through or are going through hard situations behind closed doors. The statistic is like 1 in 3, 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence of some sort in their lifetime. And until you have been there or it’s someone that you know and care about, it’s not something that you think about.”
During testimony, Ashley alleged that Doug had been violent toward her.
In submitted text messages, Doug admitted to punching their dog and shooting a gun in the home, writing, “I shot the gun… How many times did I tell you I was having a nervous breakdown?”
Outside the court, advocates for survivors of domestic violence have rallied around Ashley, including her mother and 6-year-old daughter, Emerson.
The case is now in the hands of the jury of five women and one man. Ashley Benefield is facing 25 years to life in prison.
“It’s a horrible reality. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” Ashley said. “Emerson’s already been through a lot. I can’t imagine how this would affect her if things were to go poorly at trial.”
