Man who leaped over bench and attacked judge heading to trial
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(LAS VEGAS) — The man who went viral in January for leaping over a Las Vegas, Nevada, courtroom bench and attacking the presiding judge is set to return to court for trial this week, with jury selection beginning Tuesday.
Deobra Redden, 31, is facing nine charges for assaulting Judge Mary Kay Holthus, including battery on a protected person resulting in substantial bodily harm and attempted murder of a victim 60 years of age or older, according to Clark County records.
At the time of the attack, Holthus was preparing to deliver Redden’s sentence in his attempted battery case when he leaped over the bench and tackled her off her chair.
Video from the incident shows Redden repeatedly punching the judge while yelling expletives.
Holthus stated in the arrest report that Redden slammed her head against the wall and pulled some of her hair out.
Additionally, two marshals who were alerted to the incident by a panic alarm were sent to the wrong courtroom, prolonging the attack, according to the report.
In an interview with “Good Morning America” in January, Michael Lasso, the then 27-year-old law clerk who stepped in to help Holthus, said “this was something you usually don’t see in court.”
“I was just in shock and just reacted,” Lasso, who was hailed as a “hero” for jumping into action, said at the time.
“I don’t even want to think about what could have happened if I wasn’t there,” Lasso added.
During his arraignment in August, Redden pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity with his defense arguing he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was in a “delusional state,” his attorney, Carl Arnold, said during the hearing.
Arnold alleged that Redden was not taking medication leading up to the day of the hearing. “So basically, he was out of his mind and not in control of what he was doing,” Arnold said at the time.
Redden has three prior felony convictions and is currently serving a prison sentence for the original attempted battery charge that led to January’s hearing, according to records.
(NEW YORK) — A New Mexico judge has declined to dismiss the case against “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, after previously dismissing the case against Alec Baldwin for evidence suppression.
Her attorneys argued in court filings that she was entitled to a new trial or dismissal of the case for “egregious prosecutorial misconduct” and “severe and ongoing discovery violations by the State.”
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied the motion Monday following arguments during a virtual hearing Thursday. She also denied a separate motion from the defense seeking immediate release from detention.
In her ruling, Marlowe Sommer stated the issues raised by the defense did not justify a new trial or dismissal, and that in Gutierrez’s case the state did not suppress the ammunition evidence that was at the heart of Baldwin’s dismissal.
Marlowe Sommer dismissed Baldwin’s case with prejudice on day three of the actor’s July trial after his attorneys claimed live ammunition that came into the hands of local law enforcement related to the investigation into the deadly on-set shooting was “concealed” from them.
The judge said in court on July 12 while issuing her ruling that the state’s discovery violation regarding the late disclosure of a supplemental report on the ammunition evidence “injected needless delay into the proceedings,” approached “bad faith” and was “highly prejudicial to the defendant.”
During Thursday’s hearing, defense attorney Jason Bowles said the “significance of the items that were suppressed were favorable and material” to Gutierrez.
Bowles told the judge that he became aware of the ammunition — which had been brought forward by his witness, Troy Teske, during Gutierrez’s trial — but directed Teske to bring it to the sheriff’s office because he “didn’t want to be in the chain of custody.”
“We weren’t told what happened” after that, Bowles said. “We weren’t able to utilize those rounds.”
He also argued the state suppressed additional evidence, including one of firearm expert Luke Haag’s reports on the revolver involved in the shooting, and an interview with Seth Kenney, the owner of the prop firearms supplier for “Rust.”
“This pattern of discovery abuse occurred in Miss [Gutierrez’s] case in the same manner that it occurred in Mr. Baldwin’s case,” Bowles said, saying they are “asking for dismissal on the same basis that this court dismissed Mr. Baldwin’s case.”
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued Gutierrez and Bowles can’t rely on the dismissal of Baldwin’s case over the rounds because they were in the possession of his witness, Teske.
“She and her lawyer had them during trial and chose not to use them,” she said. “That is exactly what happened,”
“They don’t get to now come and say we made a strategic error, so give us a new trial,” she continued.
Morrissey argued the other evidence raised by Bowles was not material and said the state did not intentionally withhold evidence.
“Nothing was intentionally buried,” she said, adding that the case had a “terabyte of discovery” with new discovery “coming in constantly.”
In her order, Marlowe Sommer found that the state did suppress the Kenney interview and the Haag report, but that the defense failed to establish that either piece of evidence is material.
Regarding the Teske-supplied ammunition, the judge found that the state did not suppress or fail to provide her with evidence that could be favorable to her case because the live rounds were available to her and her defense in advance of and during her trial.
Marlowe Sommer also found that the state could not have suppressed other evidence related to the ammunition, including the sheriff’s office’s supplemental report and lapel footage of Teske at the sheriff’s office, before or during the trial because those items were not created until on or after the final day of Gutierrez’s trial.
Teske, a retired officer who lives in Arizona and is a friend of Gutierrez’s father, famed Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, brought the live ammunition to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office at the end of Gutierrez’s trial. He said the ammunition, which was owned by Reed and from a different set, was suspected of being connected to the “Rust” set and that Gutierrez’s defense did not want the ammunition, according to lapel footage of his sheriff’s office interview played during Baldwin’s trial.
Morrissey said during Baldwin’s trial that the ammunition did not have any evidentiary value in either Gutierrez’s or Baldwin’s case. Baldwin defense attorney Luke Nikas charged that the ammunition evidence was ultimately “concealed” by being placed under a different case number and said it was “critical” evidence that was required to be disclosed.
A jury found Gutierrez guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Hutchins, who was fatally shot by Baldwin on the Santa Fe set of the Western in October 2021 when his revolver fired a live round.
Prosecutors argued during the March trial that the armorer was the source of the live bullet that killed Hutchins and had failed to follow safety protocols meant to protect the crew while handling the firearms.
Gutierrez was sentenced in April to 18 months in prison, the maximum for the offense.
(PHILADELPHIA) — Members of the “Central Park Five” filed a defamation suit against former President Donald Trump on Monday, accusing him of spreading “false, misleading and defamatory” statements about their 1989 case during the Sept. 10 ABC News presidential debate, according to a new court filing.
Attorneys representing the five men — Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise — filed their civil suit against Trump in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking monetary damages over his statements, which they say have caused them “severe emotional distress and reputational damage.”
The five men, then teenagers, were accused of the violent rape of a female jogger in Central Park in April 1989. The five, who always maintained their innocence, were convicted and served years in prison. A decade after the attack, a different man confessed to the crime, which was confirmed through DNA analysis.
During the debate, Trump was responding to a statement from Vice President Kamala Harris in which she revisited his full-page ad in The New York Times in the wake of the incident that called for the execution of the Central Park Five when he said the following: “[T]hey come up with things like what she just said going back many, many years when a lot of people including Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five. They admitted — they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty — then they pled we’re not guilty.”
The lawsuit points out that Trump’s statements were false in multiple respects — noting none of the members of the Central Park Five ever entered guilty pleas in the case, none of the victims of the Central Park assaults were killed, and the mayor at the time of the assaults was Ed Koch — who did not agree with Trump’s position in the full-page ad.
“Defendant Trump’s conduct at the September 10 debate was extreme and outrageous, and it was intended to cause severe emotional distress to Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit stated.
Trump’s attorneys have not yet entered an appearance on the court docket as of Monday morning.
“This is just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists,” a Trump campaign spokesperson said in response to an inquiry about the lawsuit.
According to the court filing, one of the Central Park Five members, Salaam, was actually present at the debate and sought to confront Trump over his statements in the spin room afterward.
Salaam says he repeatedly shouted questions to Trump, saying, “Will you apologize to the Exonerated Five?” and, “Sir, what do you say to a member of the Central Park Five, sir?”
Trump reportedly responded to him at one point, “Ah, you’re on my side then,” to which Salaam responded, “No, no, no, I’m not on your side.”
“Plaintiff Salaam was attempting to politely dialogue with Defendant Trump about the false and defamatory statements that Defendant Trump had made about Plaintiffs less than an hour earlier, but Defendant Trump refused to engage with him in dialogue,” the lawsuit stated.
The five men’s convictions were vacated in 2002 and Wise, who was still in prison at the time, was released early. The group sued New York City in 2003 and after a decadelong standstill, the lawsuit was settled for $41 million. The city did not admit to any misconduct by its police department or prosecutors.
Salaam was elected to the New York City Council last year, representing northern Manhattan, including Harlem, East Harlem, parts of the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights.
(SALIDA, Colo.) — An insurance underwriter who was rescued on a central Colorado mountain after allegedly being left behind by his co-workers was hiking to raise money for World Central Kitchen, according to his company.
The hiker, 46-year-old Steve Stephanides, was rescued on Saturday after enduring a night stuck on 14,230-foot Mt. Shavano during a freezing rain storm, officials said.
Contacted by ABC News on Wednesday, Stephanides said his company, the Beazley global insurance firm, was still gathering facts about the expedition and referred all questions to his company’s spokesperson.
Breazley CEO Adrian Cox, who is based in London, released a statement Thursday morning to ABC News, praising the Chaffee County Search and Rescue — South, an all volunteer rescue team in Colorado, for saving his employee’s life.
“We are very grateful to the Chaffee County Search and Rescue South who came to the aid of one of our employees after he encountered difficulties during a charity hike. Chaffee County SAR’s swift response and brave actions, during adverse weather conditions, ensured that our colleague was rescued and returned safely,” Cox said.
A spokesperson for Beazely confirmed to ABC News that company employees were on Mt. Shavano as a part of an annual charity hiking trip to raise money for World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit humanitarian organization founded in 2010 by celebrity chef José Andrés to deliver meals in disaster areas around the globe, including war zones in Ukraine and Gaza.
“This charity hike has been running for over a decade and many individuals have participated on multiple occasions,” Cox said. “We are proud of their commitment to their fundraising efforts and will continue to work with those involved to ensure they fully recover from this incident and get the support they need.”
Cox did not provide additional details on how the near-tragedy occurred on the annual office charity hike.
“In what might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks, one member of their party was left to complete his final summit push alone,” Chaffee County Search and Rescue — South said in a statement.
Previous online posts and photos from Beazely colleagues indicate that this was at least the second year in a row Stephanides has participated in the charity hike.
The office outing gone wrong unfolded Friday on Mt. Shavano in central Colorado’s San Isabel National Forest, according to Danny Andres, president of the volunteer rescue group.
“Our subject was getting close to the summit and took a break, and some of the people who were in his group were starting to head down,” Danny Andres told ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday. “He decided to carry on up the summit.”
While 14 employees made it down the mountain safely, rescue officials said one was left to complete the summit solo. Andres said the worker made it to the summit at 11:30 a.m., but when he tried to descend, he became “disoriented as to where the trail was.”
The hiker used his cellphone to pin-drop his location to his co-workers, who informed him that he was on the wrong route and instructed him to hike back up to the summit to get to the correct trail down, rescue officials said in a statement.
“In his initial attempts to descend, he found himself in the steep boulder and scree field on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake,” according to officials.
Just before 4 p.m. local time on Friday, Stephanides sent another location pin-drop to his colleagues that he was near the correct trail. Shortly after that message, a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, rescue officials said in a statement.
“Being in those kind of cold, freezing rain, winds it takes a toll on you,” Andres said.
At least seven different rescue teams from across Colorado were involved in the search for Stephanides.
Stephanides also lost his cellphone reception on the way down the mountain, and following his rescue, told lifesavers he had fallen at least 20 times on the steep slopes and was unable to get up the last time he fell.
Making matters worse, Stephanides’ colleagues had inexplicably collected belongings left in a boulder field to mark the path down, officials said.
When his colleagues didn’t hear from him, they reported Stephanides missing at 9 p.m., some eight-and-a-half hours after he started his descent, officials said.
Rescue teams found Stephanides in a gully near a drainage creek and carried him down the mountain on a gurney, officials said. He was and taken to a hospital in stable condition, officials said.
Rescuers said Stephanides was “phenomenally lucky” that the weather cleared on Saturday and he regained enough cellphone service to call 911.
“All of the teams that were involved are all volunteer rescuers,” Andres said. “It’s tiring, but it’s rewarding when we go out and find people and are able to reunite them with their loved ones. It’s fantastic.”
ABC News’ Laryssa Demkiw and Emme Marchese contributed to this report.
