Mahmoud Khalil’s wife gives birth after ICE denied his request to attend delivery
Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The wife of pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil gave birth to their first child while he remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.
Khalil, who is being held at a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, was denied a request for temporary release to meet their son, according to emails reviewed by ABC News.
Khalil’s lawyers requested a two-week furlough, noting that his wife, Dr. Abdalla, had gone into labor “eight days earlier than expected,” an email addressed to New Orleans ICE ERO Field Office Director Mellissa B. Harper shows.
In the email, the lawyers also recommended that Khalil could be placed in ankle monitor and could do check-ins with ICE.
Harper denied the request, writing in an email, “After consideration of the submitted information and a review of your client’s case, your request for furlough is denied.”
Dr. Noor Abdalla released a statement after the birth, saying, “My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom.”
On April 11, an immigration judge ruled that Khalil is removable after Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a section of the law that deemed him deportable because, the government claimed, his continued presence in the US would have an adverse consequence on foreign policy.
The Louisiana judge has given Khalil’s lawyers a deadline of April 23 to file applications for relief to stop his deportation. The judge said if they failed to make the deadline, she would file an order of removal to either Syria or Algeria.
While a student at Columbia University, Khalil was part of a leadership group protesting the war in Gaza. Khalil took part in negotiations with school administrators demanding the institution cut ties with Israel and divest from Israeli companies. Khalil finished his graduate studies at Columbia in December and is set to graduate in the spring.
He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at his Columbia housing in March.
(ANN ARBOR, MI) — One of the alleged victims in a widespread hacking scandal involving a former University of Michigan football coach said she feels “betrayed” by the school and is fearful that her personal information was further leaked online.
The woman is one of two anonymous plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed a day after the Department of Justice announced Matthew Weiss had been indicted on two dozen federal charges alleging he hacked into thousands of athlete and alumni accounts and downloaded private data, including intimate photos, over eight years.
“It never would have crossed my mind that I could have been involved, and that’s, I think, why there’s so much outrage on our end,” the woman, a former University of Michigan female athlete, told “Good Morning America.”
The Jane Doe said she was at the University of Michigan for six years as a student and employee and does not know Weiss.
“I’ve been a fan of the university my entire life,” she said. “To know that I put so much trust and so much faith into that institution, and they have betrayed me in such a significant way — I mean, it’s terrifying.”
Citing the allegations in the indictment against Weiss, the lawsuit claimed that Weiss was able to gain unauthorized access to the student-athlete databases of more than 100 colleges and universities maintained by Keffer Development Services, LLC, a Pennsylvania-based company, and downloaded the personally identifiable information and medical data of over 150,000 athletes.
The former coach is then accused of unlawfully gaining access to the social media, email and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 3,300 people, including the two plaintiffs, and then downloading personal, intimate photos and videos. Weiss primarily targeted female college athletes, the indictment alleged.
“I don’t think there’s really any way to know exactly what information of mine is out there,” the Jane Doe said. “It’s kind of one of those things that you can’t really shut off.”
Weiss is among the defendants in the lawsuit. ABC News has reached out to his attorney for comment on the lawsuit and federal charges and has not gotten a response.
The University of Michigan and the Regents of the University of Michigan are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which alleged that as a result of their “recklessness and negligence,” Weiss downloaded the women’s “personal, intimate digital photographs and videos.”
“I obviously am afraid of an individual that’s capable of doing something like this, but I’m possibly more afraid of a university that has the opportunity to prevent it from happening and doesn’t,” the Jane Doe said.
In response to the lawsuit, Kay Jarvis, the director of public affairs for the University of Michigan, said in a statement to ABC News, “We have not been served with the complaint and cannot comment on pending litigation.”
Keffer is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which claimed that the company’s alleged “misconduct, negligence, and recklessness also contributed to Weiss invading the privacy of Plaintiffs and their fellow student athletes.” ABC News has reached out to the company for comment and has not gotten a response.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the two plaintiffs and as a potential class action on behalf of other alleged victims. The number of potential class members is unclear but is estimated to exceed 1,000, the lawsuit stated.
Parker Stinar, a managing partner with the Chicago-based firm Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, said he hopes to find out more about what happened to the alleged victims’ information and “to better understand how the university failed these individuals and to hold them accountable.”
“We’re talking about the University of Michigan, one of the largest, most powerful and respected academic institutions in the world, that allowed this to take place by one of their employees,” Stinar told “Good Morning America.”
Stinar said this “isn’t the first time that we have seen the University of Michigan fail their alumni and their athletes,” pointing to the case of the late Dr. Robert Anderson, who served as the school’s sports team physician for decades and was accused of molesting or sexually abusing more than 1,000 victims. In 2022, the university reached a $490 million settlement in connection with the allegations.
“We’re seeing it again, where the university has failed to protect those that give their blood, sweat and tears to the school,” Stinar said.
Weiss, 42, was arraigned Monday on 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf, The Associated Press reported. His attorney, Douglas Mullkoff, declined to comment to the AP following the proceeding. ABC News also reached out to Mulkoff multiple times, but did not receive a response.
Weiss was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond, ESPN reported.
If convicted, Weiss could face up to five years in prison on each count of unauthorized access and two years on each count of aggravated identity theft, according to the attorney’s office.
(TOPSFIELD, Mass.) — A 49-year-old mother of four died on Wednesday after she fell about 50 to 75 feet from a cliff while hiking at Purgatory Chasm in Massachusetts.
The woman, who was from Topsfield, Massachusetts, was hiking at the Purgatory Chasm State Reservation in Sutton just before 2 p.m. when the incident took place, according to local police. She was hiking with three of her children and other family members when she fell, authorities said.
“There were multiple medical professionals in the area hiking the chasm at the same time, and were able to provide medical attention right away,” Sutton police said. “However, she had succumbed to the injuries sustained during the fall, and was pronounced deceased a short time later.”
The chasm, a popular hiking destination about 20 minutes south of Worcester, is closed in the winter due to slippery conditions. However, the weather was warm and dry on Wednesday.
The fall remains under investigation, but appears to be accidental, police said.
The Sutton Fire Department, Massachusetts State Police, Northbridge Police Department, LifeStar and others were involved in the rescue efforts, according to Sutton police.
“There are trails above the chasm you can go along, [and] dangerous overhangs if you’re going to the edge to look down,” hiker Andy Spears told Boston ABC affiliate WCVB. “It’s really sad that it had to happen at a place like this.”
The woman was not identified, out of respect to the family, according to Sutton police.
“Lastly, the Sutton Police Department would like to extend our condolences to the family during this very difficult time,” the department said.
(LOS ANGELES) — Erik and Lyle Menendez’s much-anticipated resentencing hearing will be held Tuesday and Wednesday with lawyers set to battle over whether the brothers should get a lesser sentence, clearing the way for a potential release from prison.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos, who is pushing for their release, said he plans to call seven witnesses.
Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving life without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. They have the support of over 20 family members in their efforts to be freed after 35 years behind bars.
Their resentencing case gained momentum in October when then-Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced he supported a reduced sentence.
Gascón recommended the brothers’ sentences of life without parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they’d be eligible for parole immediately under California law.
Gascón’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the brothers’ conduct in prison, saying they rehabilitated themselves and started programs to help other inmates.
In November, Gascón lost his reelection bid to Nathan Hochman, who in March filed a motion to withdraw the resentencing petition, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.” The judge denied Hochman’s request.
This resentencing hearing will be a face-off between Geragos and Hochman, who is trying to keep the brothers behind bars.
A hearing was held Friday to determine whether the resentencing case should include information from the California Board of Parole’s newly completed risk assessment, which was conducted as a part of a separate clemency path. The risk assessment came at the request of Gov. Gavin Newsom as a part of the brothers’ clemency bid; the brothers are pursuing multiple avenues to freedom, and the clemency path is separate from the resentencing path.
The risk assessment said Erik and Lyle Menendez pose a moderate risk to the community if they’re released.
The assessment revealed the brothers possessed illegal cellphones in prison, among numerous other violations, though many are not recent. However, Erik Menendez had a phone as recently as January of this year, which Hochman stressed was during the resentencing effort when he should have been on his best behavior.
Judge Michael Jesic indicated he will take some of the risk assessment into account for the resentencing case, but he added that the information in the assessment is preliminary and attorneys can’t question the psychologists who performed the examinations.
