DNA on beer can helped lead to suspect in brutal campsite killing: Sheriff

(NEW YORK) — A man was nearly electrocuted to death after being hired to hang Christmas lights on a large tree in Massachusetts, police said.

The incident occurred on Wednesday at approximately 10 a.m. when the Wellesley Police Emergency Communications Center received a 911 call reporting a man had possibly been electrocuted on Falmouth Circle in Wellesley, according to a statement from the Wellesley Police Department.

“The victim, a contractor hired by a resident, was installing holiday lights on a large tree using a pole,” authorities said. “It appears that the pole being used came into close proximity, or contact with, a primary electrical line on a utility pole. The victim appears to have then received a life-threatening electrical shock.”

The man who suffered the electric shock immediately fell unconscious, appeared to be having a seizure and had stopped breathing, police said.

The Wellesley Police Dispatcher subsequently provided the person who called the emergency services CPR instructions and the caller administered CPR until officers arrived on scene a few moments later.

“Wellesley Police Officers Tim Gover, Mike Pino, and Scott Whittemore were the first emergency responders to arrive on scene and observed that the victim appeared to be in sudden cardiac arrest,” police said. “A co-worker of the victim was performing chest compressions as instructed by Wellesley Police Dispatchers. Wellesley Police Officers took over CPR and began to clear the area, as the actual cause of the electrocution was unknown at the time.”

Emergency responders then used a defibrillator on the victim while continuing to provide CPR. Multiple shocks were given to the man until he was revived and regained a pulse, police said.

“The victim was transported to Newton Wellesley Hospital by Needham Fire,” according to the Wellesley Police Department. “The victim was initially treated at Newton Wellesley Hospital, and then transferred to the Massachusetts General Hospital.”

Wellesley Police Detectives conducted an investigation and determined that the large pole the man was using to string the holiday lights came into close proximity, or actual contact with, a primary electrical line on the top of the utility pole and he was electrocuted when contact was made.

“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was contacted per departmental policy to investigate,” police said. “OSHA investigators responded to the scene and are working with the WMLP and Wellesley Police. The Wellesley Police, Fire, and WMLP Departments extend our thoughts and prayers to the victim and his family during this tragic incident.”

The incident is currently under investigation and no further information is available at this time.

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(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump’s lawyers are urging the New York judge in his criminal hush money case to throw out his conviction based on unsworn allegations of “grave juror misconduct” that prosecutors have described as vague and “seemingly inaccurate.”

While Trump’s lawyers argued the claims illustrate “the manifest unfairness of these proceedings,” Judge Juan Merchan criticized Trump’s lawyers for making claims consisting “entirely of unsworn allegations” and for opposing a hearing that would allow the allegations to be vetted.

“Allegations of juror misconduct should be thoroughly investigated. However, this Court is prohibited from deciding such claims on the basis of mere hearsay and conjecture,” wrote Merchan, largely rejecting the claims unless Trump’s attorneys provide sworn statements or consent to a hearing on the matter.

Trump’s claims were included in court filings unsealed on Monday, but the specific allegations were redacted.

Defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove — who Trump last month nominated to top positions in the Department of Justice — claimed to have uncovered evidence of juror misconduct that calls into question what they call the “dubious validity of the highly suspect verdicts rendered by the jury.”

Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

Judge Merchan has yet to sentence Trump, who has been seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds of presidential immunity following his reelection last month.

Trump’s lawyers, citing presidential immunity and other ongoing litigation, told Merchan they oppose a hearing examining their claims of juror misconduct, and instead asked the judge to weigh the claims as he considers Trump’s pending motion to throw out the case.

“This behavior is completely unacceptable, and it demonstrates without question that the verdicts in this case are as unreliable as DA Bragg’s promise to protect Manhattanites from violent crime,” the defense lawyers said, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case.

Prosecutors argued in a filing that the jury misconduct claims are vague and untested, and that Trump’s lawyers declined to include a sworn declaration. They wrote that the alleged source of the claims directly told Trump’s lawyers that their summary of the allegations “contains inaccuracies and does not contain additional information that I never shared,” and that they declined to sign a sworn affidavit.

“Defendant cannot short-circuit this process by insisting that this Court treat his unsworn and seemingly inaccurate allegations of jury misconduct as true,” prosecutors said.

Prosecutors alleged that Trump’s lawyers are avoiding the proper mechanism to evaluate the claims by inserting them into the public domain while “opposing any endeavor to properly evaluate them.”

“Defendant does not want to participate in a hearing designed to evaluate these claims. He wants instead to use these unsworn, untested claims by his attorneys to undermine public confidence in the verdict,” their filing said.

Judge Merchan largely sided with prosecutors, declining to consider the claims unless Trump’s lawyers specifically move to vacate the verdict due to allegations of juror misconduct based on sworn allegations or evaluated through a hearing, which they so far have not done. Merchan still allowed both sides to docket their filings with significant redactions.

“This Court finds that to allow the public filing of the letter without redactions and without the benefit of a hearing, would only serve to undermine the integrity of these proceedings while simultaneously placing the safety of the jurors at grave risk,” Merchan wrote.

The exchange comes as the Merchan, on Monday, rejected Trump’s request to vacate the verdict in the case based on the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision.

Trump had sought to dismiss his criminal indictment and vacate the jury verdict on the grounds that prosecutors, during the trial earlier this year, introduced evidence relating to Trump’s official acts as president that was inadmissible based on the Supreme Court’s subsequent ruling that Trump is entitled to presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.

Merchan ruled that the evidence in the case related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and “poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch.”

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(NEW YORK) — As Florida struggles to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Milton, and the lingering effects from Helene two weeks earlier, the long-term health consequences could be devastating, studies suggest.

A recent study published in the journal Nature examining nearly 500 tropical cyclones from 1930 to 2015 in the U.S. suggested that big storms lead to thousands of extra deaths after the storms, and leave lasting impacts on public health.

The reasons for the extra deaths aren’t yet clear, but studies speculate that they may be related to socioeconomics, infectious diseases, and exacerbating effects on chronic health conditions like heart disease and mental stress.

“We find that there are elevated rates of mortality that extend far beyond that immediate aftermath of a storm, and it persists for up to 15 years,” Rachel Young, an environmental economist at University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the study, told ABC News.

“We estimate that these indirect deaths that occur through a number of channels over many, many years are equal to between 7,000 to 11,000 deaths per storm, which is 300 times greater than the official death count,” she continued.

That translates to between 55,280 and 88,080 excess deaths every year. The study also found that hurricanes and their aftereffects are estimated to have caused more deaths in the U.S. than all recorded car accidents, infectious diseases and war fatalities combined, totaling between 3.6 million and 5.2 million deaths.

A 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined the aftermath of 2017’s Hurricane Maria and noted 1,139 additional deaths reported, compared to the official count of 64 deaths officially attributed to the storm.

Other studies have shown that tropical cyclones can increase hospitalizations by up to 10% for older adults, primarily for respiratory and infectious diseases.

Some studies also suggest that people with lower incomes often have less access to healthcare, and communities of color are more likely to be exposed to harmful pollution, making them more vulnerable to a storm’s immediate effects and aftereffects.

Infants and Black communities are particularly at risk after a storm, the Nature study revealed. About 99% of infant deaths happen more than 21 months later, meaning even babies born after the storm are affected. Additionally, those in Black communities face about three times the risk of death compared to white communities.

Although the Nature study doesn’t specifically explore why these differences exist, researchers are still working to better understand the phenomenon.

“We know that the Southeastern portion of the United States has elevated rates of mortality for infant and young populations compared to the rest of the country,” Young said. “And we find that tropical cyclones – that these states are being impacted by tropical cyclones a lot – [are] a major driver of this sort of difference in the mortality rates between the Southeast and the country.”

Storm surges are another phenomenon that could harm health long after a major a weather event is over. After Hurricane Milton, the water surged as high six feet in some areas of Florida. The risk of waterborne diseases can increase as much as 50% after such surges, which in turn can trigger respiratory illnesses due to mold, allergens and contaminated water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to Young, the public health challenges that last far beyond clean-up and recovery are something that needs to be evaluated and considered when determining how to respond to natural disasters.

“We don’t want to see people having significant delays in getting aid,” Young added. “There’s been a push for a more proactive disaster policy and less just responding in the aftermath of the event.”

Dr. Faizah Shareef is an internal medicine resident physician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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