Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann and estranged wife reach divorce settlement
James Carbone/Pool/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann and his estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, have reached a divorce settlement, according to court records.
Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after Heuermann was arrested in July 2023.
The terms of the divorce settlement, filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court Thursday night, are not public. A judge will review the settlement and must sign off on the divorce to make it final.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the murders of seven women whose remains were found discarded on Long Island between 1993 and 2011.
Prosecutors with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office have said Ellerup and the couple’s children were out of town when the victims were killed.
Heuermann is expected back in court Friday as his lawyers ask a judge to disqualify some of the DNA evidence pertaining to nuclear DNA results obtained from hairs recovered from six victims: Maureen Brainard Barnes, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
The new DNA technique is whole genome sequencing of the DNA within a hair; scientists take all the fragments of DNA and assemble them on the human genome.
Traditional DNA sequencing looks at 15 to 24 points of comparison, while whole genome sequencing looks at 100,000 or more points and the methodology yields only one possible donor.
Heuermann’s defense argued the new DNA methodology has never been tested in New York courts, but prosecutors have said the technique is already used in the medical community and is consistent with what the court system has allowed.
(NEW YORK) — The Trump administration has extended the deadline it gave New York City to end its congestion pricing program, the first of its kind in the nation, as New York officials vowed to keep the tolls on.
The Federal Highway Administration initially instructed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to stop collecting tolls by this Friday to allow for an “orderly cessation.”
A day before that deadline, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on social media that the Department of Transportation is granting New York a “30-day extension as discussions continue.”
“Know that the billions of dollars the federal government sends to New York are not a blank check. Continued noncompliance will not be taken lightly,” he said Thursday.
Duffy also warned New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that President Donald Trump and the federal government are “putting New York on notice.”
“Your refusal to end cordon pricing and your open disrespect towards the federal government is unacceptable,” he said.
In response, Hochul highlighted her statement on social media after the U.S. Department of Transportation pulled federal approval of the congestion pricing plan last month, in which she said, “The cameras are staying on.”
The approval was pulled on Feb. 19 following a review requested by Trump. Duffy said at the time that the “scope of this pilot project as approved exceeds the authority authorized by Congress” under the Federal Highway Administration’s Value Pricing Pilot Program while calling it “backwards and unfair.”
The MTA has said it is challenging the Trump administration’s reversal in federal court, seeking a declaratory judgment that the DOT’s move is not proper. Hochul and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber have said they will not turn off the tolls without a court order.
Lieber reiterated that stance during remarks at an unrelated press briefing on Tuesday while contending that this is “not a test of wills” but normal litigation procedure.
“We’re just proceeding with the dispute as you would normally in any litigation setting,” he said. “This is not a test of wills. It’s just the reality of when you have a dispute, things don’t change until a court orders it, and that has not yet taken place.”
“We don’t expect it will, because we’re on pretty strong legal footing,” he added.
Lieber said the federal government has not yet responded to the MTA’s initial complaint, and that there is still more time for them to do so.
“The good news is that the program, which has had such amazing benefits for New Yorkers — faster travel, cleaner air, fewer crashes, less honking, quieter, better environment for all, and also great economic benefits — all that is going to continue,” Lieber said.
“The program is underway now for 10 weeks, and it’s been successful by every standard,” he continued. “And it’s the right thing to do for New York to continue it.”
The congestion pricing plan, which launched on Jan. 5, charges passenger vehicles $9 to access Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours as part of an effort to ease congestion and raise funds for the city’s public transit system. During peak hours, small trucks and charter buses are charged $14.40 and large trucks and tour buses pay $21.60.
The toll generated nearly $50 million in revenue in its first month and is on track to generate $500 million in net revenue by the end of this year, as initially projected, the MTA said.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday will consider whether to continue blocking Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment systems as part of the Trump’s administration’s efforts to cut federal spending.
The attorneys general of 19 states have argued that allowing Musk’s associates to access the payment system would be a “huge cybersecurity risk” and potentially allow the Trump administration to unlawfully “block federal funds from reaching beneficiaries who do not align with the President’s political agenda.”
“All of the States’ residents whose [personal identifiable information] and sensitive financial information is stored in the payment files that reside within the payment systems are at risk of having that information compromised and used against them,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit comes as Musk’s cost-cutting troops have gained access to at least 16 federal agencies, with Trump recently signing an executive order giving DOGE additional authority to help carry out massive layoffs across the government as part of his campaign pledge to trim the federal bureaucracy.
The lawsuit — filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other state attorneys general — raised particular concern about unvetted DOGE employees accessing sensitive government records including social security numbers, bank information, and federal tax returns. According to the lawsuit, Musk being able to access the Bureau of Fiscal Services — which serves as the country’s checkbook by dispersing trillions in funding — could allow Musk to cut off government spending from the source.
In a court order last weekend, a federal judge in New York temporarily blocked the Trump administration from allowing individuals associated with DOGE to access the Treasury department records and payment systems.
“The Court’s firm assessment is that, for the reasons stated by the States, they will face irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief. That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking,” U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote, prompting a Mush to blast the judge and Vice President JD Vance to question the legality of the order.
While the Trump administration challenged the temporary order, U.S. District Judge Jeanette Vargas — a Biden-nominated judge who will hear the case going forward — reiterated that there was “sound factual basis” for the temporary restraining order when it was imposed late last week.
Judge Vargas will consider granting a preliminary injunction to block DOGE’s access to the systems at Friday’s hearing.
Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin have signed onto the lawsuit.
(WASHINGTON) — A group of nonprofits suing the Trump administration over its 90-day foreign aid freeze is accusing government officials of “accelerating their terminations of contracts and suspensions of grants of USAID and State Department partners,” according to court documents filed Wednesday.
The aid groups, who filed their suit Tuesday, said many of them “received new purported termination notices, including yesterday and this morning” and suggested that government officials “may be doing so specifically in response to this lawsuit.”
The groups asked a federal judge to either issue a temporary restraining order to prevent further terminations, or schedule an emergency hearing on Wednesday to address the matter.
Defendants in the suit include President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Acting USAID Administrator Peter Marocco, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, the State Department, USAID, and OMB.
The plaintiffs claim that Trump’s aid freeze amounts to an “unlawful and unconstitutional exercise of executive power that has created chaos” around the globe, according to the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that the foreign aid freeze is unlawful, exceeds Trump’s authority as president, and is causing havoc.
“One cannot overstate the impact of that unlawful course of conduct: on businesses large and small forced to shut down their programs and let employees go; on hungry children across the globe who will go without; on populations around the world facing deadly disease; and on our constitutional order,” the lawsuit says.
