Judge to rule on whether Rudy Giuliani must give up World Series rings, condo in defamation case
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(NEW YORK) — Rudy Giuliani’s New York Yankees World Series rings must be stored in a closet in his son’s apartment until a judge decides whether the former New York mayor must relinquish them as part of a defamation judgment he owes to two Georgia election workers, the judge ordered Tuesday.
“The point was to ensure the security of the rings,” Judge Lewis Liman said during the final hearing before trial begins Thursday.
The trial will determine whether Giuliani, 80, must turn over three World Series rings and his Florida condominium to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who won a $148 million defamation award against him.
The former mayor’s son, Andrew, has possession of the rings and agreed to keep them “secreted in a bedroom closet” pending the outcome. Giuliani has asserted the Florida condo is his permanent residence and exempt from the judgment.
Giuliani, once Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, has already given up a New York City apartment, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by actress Lauren Bacall and several luxury watches. He has been disbarred and held in contempt in New York and in Washington.
Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani in 2021 after he repeatedly made false claims they corrupted the 2020 Georgia vote.
On Tuesday, Giuliani’s attorney sought unsuccessfully to call as witnesses Giuliani’s spokesman, Ted Goodman, and Monsignor Alan Placa, a retired priest. Both men have “intimate knowledge of his intent and the homestead,” Giuliani’s attorney said.
Placa “answers to a higher power than this court,” defense attorney Joseph Cammarata added.
“What do you mean?” Judge Liman interjected.
“He answers to God, your honor,” Cammarata responded.
Liman denied the defense request to reconsider allowing the priest to testify.
Giuliani himself is the primary witness at trial and is expected to testify first.
(NEW YORK) — Righteous Torrance “Chevy” Hill had great plans for his future, cut short by a fatal shooting in front of his own home in February.
Hill, a transgender man, left behind a budding legacy of activism as the founder of an LGBTQ-focused salon and barber shop called Evollusion. The salon was born out of his desire for a space where he and other clients weren’t faced with uncomfortable or disparaging comments.
“There’s a need for this,” said Terri Wilson, Hill’s partner of six years. Their relationship began at the salon when Wilson herself came to get her hair done.
The two stayed talking for hours, a common occurrence at Evollusion. Clients often made themselves comfortable in the salon well after the end of their appointments to discuss politics, society and life in the shop — the salon was abuzz with laughter or chatter.
“He wanted to make sure that the trans community had the resources that they need,” Wilson told ABC News.
Wilson told ABC News that Hill believed Atlanta, often touted for having a large and inclusive LGBTQ+ community, was the perfect place to create such a space. Wilson has vowed to continue his work following his passing.
“Grief just hits out of nowhere, like the day can be going wonderful, and then I can just think of something or read something or see something online that I want to share with him, and I know that I’m not able to share it with him,” Wilson said.
Hill is one of at least 36 transgender and gender non-conforming victims of fatal violence from last year’s Transgender Remembrance Day to this year’s, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the vast majority of whom were killed by a gun. Some anti-gun violence advocates told ABC News that growing anti-transgender sentiment in the U.S. is a major cause for concern for the trans community.
“No matter what gender they are, what socioeconomic class they’re from, what race or ethnicity they are — those lives mattered and a lot of the policies that we have in place and even the way that we investigate these homicides send a message about the disposability of these lives,” Sarah Burd-Sharps, Senior Director of Research of gun safety advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, told ABC News.
New research from Everytown published in honor of Transgender Remembrance Day on Wednesday aims to highlight the impact gun violence has had on the trans community. Everytown found that roughly 7 in 10 transgender victims are killed with a gun, which is similar to the national rate. Black transgender residents — particularly Black transgender women — face the brunt of this gun violence, according to Everytown.
More than half of all transgender gun homicides took place in the South, according to Everytown. Burd-Sharps also notes these deaths happen predominantly in Southern states with more lenient gun laws.
Hill was shot outside his home in the Atlanta suburb of East Point, Georgia on Feb. 28, 2024, and pronounced dead the following day. In Georgia, about 95% of the trans or gender-expansive victims since 2013 — when the Human Rights Campaign began tracking these deaths — were killed with a gun.
Some researchers argue that violence toward trans people cannot be considered without the context of anti-transgender legislation and rhetoric.
“What it does is it sows further division. It creates an environment where even more hatred exists, which in turn creates more violence against trans folks,” Tori Cooper, the Human Rights Campaign’s director of community engagement, told ABC News.
Federal, state and local agencies across the country have warned about increases in anti-LGBTQ+ violence in recent years as state legislatures break records, introducing more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills nationwide.
“Words matter, policies matter,” Moms Demand Action Executive Director Angela Ferrell-Zabala told ABC News in an interview on the Everytown report. “When we go down this road of dehumanizing and taking away rights from folks … it’s hard for folks to access health care and other things and just kind of live full lives, then that’s contributing to the problem of violence in this country.”
Both the HRC and Everytown note in their research that there may be other cases of fatal violence against transgender or gender-expansive people that have gone unreported or misreported and, therefore, not recorded in the official count.
Researchers and advocates say deadnaming, misgendering and bias in policing or reporting may hinder efforts to track and solve these cases properly.
“Every life is important, and we need to make sure that we’re protecting everybody,” Ferrell-Zabala said. “Media and law enforcement have a duty to make sure they’re correctly reporting people’s names and genders. It’s not only out of respect for victims and their loved ones and communities, but also so that the research on the ongoing violence against transgender people is accurately understood and represented.”
According to Wilson, Hill was misgendered by law enforcement after his death, despite having the correct gender markers on his ID.
“It’s frustrating because a person who respectfully asks you to address them in a certain way, their request should be accepted. Their request should be recognized. It’s not hurting anyone else,” Wilson said. “It’s frustrating for me, so I can only understand how frustrating it was for him. It’s just from going from medical professionals, going through TSA, law enforcement.”
However, she said East Point’s LGBTQ liaison reached out to her following his death: “They have an LGBT Task Force, and they did have one of the representatives who was over this task force reach out to me, which I did appreciate,” Wilson said.
East Point didn’t respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Everytown researchers also found that clearances of trans homicides — “incidents where a perpetrator is arrested, charged, and given to the court for prosecution, or is otherwise identified” — are lower than among homicides overall nationally. Hill’s loved ones waited more than six months for the suspect — Hill’s cousin Jaylen Hill — turned himself police, and hope the arrest can finally bring some relief in the fight for justice.
Jaylen Hill is in pre-indictment hearings on potential charges of murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm. Jaylen Hill’s legal team has not yet responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
“I can’t be consumed with Jaylen and what his punishment is, because all of this revolves around [Hill]. [Hill] lost his life,” Wilson said. “So continuing what he was doing is definitely at the forefront of receiving justice for [Hill].”
Some researchers hope the new data can help law enforcement agencies and city officials nationwide to address growing concerns about anti-LGBTQ+ violence and the role gun violence plays in these deaths.
Officials in neighboring Atlanta — which has LGBTQ+ liaisons on the city and public safety levels — said it’s working to implement programs to improve the safety and concerns of the LGBTQ+ community in the region. Chief Equity Officer Candace M. Stanciel pointed to the city’s Human Relations Commission which investigates reports of discrimination or the revision of standard operating procedures for local public safety officials on how to engage with the transgender community.
“We look forward to even growing the partnership and the work that we continue to do with all of our public safety teams around supporting LGBTQ communities as a whole,” Stanciel told ABC News.
Wilson hopes Hill can be remembered for his “unconditional love.”
“He didn’t have any enemies,” said Wilson. “He had a forgiving heart. He was selfless, he was genuine. He always wanted everyone to succeed. He could see in you what you couldn’t see in yourself.”
(NEW YORK) — Actor Jonathan Majors and his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari have agreed to resolve her civil claims that followed his misdemeanor assault conviction in New York, according to a court filing.
Majors and Jabbari stipulated to a dismissal of her lawsuit for defamation and assault that she brought against him in March, the filing said. A reason was not given.
Jabbari sued Majors about the same time he was sentenced to domestic violence intervention classes in April. She alleged he physically abused her and then defamed her by denying the assault in an interview with ABC News.
Majors was found guilty of one count of misdemeanor third-degree assault and one count of second-degree harassment, but acquitted of two other counts of assault and aggravated harassment in a split verdict.
Since the verdict, Majors has been dropped from his management and PR firms. In addition, he was cut from future Marvel films and his role as Kang in “Avengers: Kang Dynasty.”
As part of his sentencing, Majors was ordered to complete 52-week in-person batterers intervention program in Los Angeles, continue mental health counseling and stay away from Jabbari.
(LANDOVER, Md.) — Daniel Penny, the former Marine who was charged but acquitted in killing Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man, in a New York City subway, shared the spotlight with President-elect Donald Trump and his entourage on Saturday at the Army-Navy game in Landover, Maryland.
Penny, who has received praise in conservative circles and jeers from others for his actions in May 2023, was seen chatting with Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, who invited the 25-year-old to the game.
He did not speak to the press.
Trump, who attended the same game in 2016 after winning the election, did not make any speeches but saluted during the national anthem and gave a fist pump and wave to a crowd.
In addition to the president and vice-president elect, Penny joined Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense; former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s selection to be director of national intelligence; House Speaker Mike Johnson; incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Pennsylvania Sen.-elect David McCormick at the game.
Penny’s invitation came days after a Manhattan jury acquitted him of criminal charges for the incident on the F train on May 1, 2023. Neely, who was homeless at the time, boarded a subway car at the Second Avenue stop and was described by witnesses as yelling and moving erratically when Penny put Neely in a chokehold, which prosecutors alleged lasted for six minutes, according to officials.
Some of the incident was captured on video.
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely and ruled he died due to compression of the neck.
Neely, a 30-year-old former street performer who would impersonate Michael Jackson, had a history of homelessness and schizophrenia.
He had been convicted of assaulting people at subway stations, according to police. However, passengers on the train the day Neely died said he did not touch anyone during the incident.
However, Neely had expressed a willingness to die or even kill while on the train, according to investigators.
Penny was charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide but received praise from some conservative leaders, right-wing media pundits and others for what they claimed was an act of self-defense.
“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance posted on X this week.
Others, however, criticized the former Marine for taking the life of a homeless Black man in need of mental health services.
The Manhattan jury deliberated for 24 hours over five days and was deadlocked on the manslaughter charge, which carried a 15-year prison sentence, forcing the judge to dismiss it. The jury delivered a verdict of not guilty on the negligent homicide charge on Monday.
In an interview with Fox Nation, Penny described himself as being in a “vulnerable” position.
“He was just threatening to kill people,” Penny told host Jeanine Pirro about Neely. “He was threatening to go to jail forever, to go to jail for the rest of his life.”
Penny has been named in a lawsuit by Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, for negligent contact, assault and battery that led to Neely’s death.
“I promised this family justice — we are still going to do that,” Donte Mills, the attorney representing Zachery, said following Penny’s conviction. “The district attorney did a good job, but the jury in this case let us down.”
