Officials: 26 people treated for ammonia exposure after commercial building gas leak in Virginia
(STERLING, Va.) — Twenty-six patients were transported to area hospitals late Wednesday evening for ammonia exposure after a leak occurred at a commercial building in Sterling, Virginia.
At approximately 8:36 p.m., Loudoun County Fire Rescue responded to the 22400 block of Sous Vide Lane in Sterling for reports of a gas leak. Officials later confirmed the leak was ammonia.
A representative for Cuisine Soultions Inc. told ABC News that employees were immediately relocated outside of the plant and that the leak was contained.
Four of the 26 patients were experiencing significant symptoms, according to officials.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The suspect in the murder of four University of Idaho students, Bryan Kohberger, is in court Thursday as the judge weighs whether to change the venue for his trial.
Kohberger’s lawyers hope to move the trial to a different county, arguing the local jury pool in Latah County, which encompasses the college town of Moscow, was tainted by pretrial publicity.
Defense lawyers surveyed Latah County residents and said their results found that the “pressure to convict” Kohberger was shown to be “so severe” the venue couldn’t possibly be impartial.
The defense said one respondent answered they would “burn the courthouse down” if he were not convicted. The same survey, according to the defense, found “much less emotional” responses from people living closer to Boise, where Kohberger’s lawyers suggested the trial be moved.
“The traumatized town of Moscow is understandably filled with deeply held prejudgment opinions of guilt,” defense attorney Elisa Massoth said in a filing this month.
The prosecution has said the case has national and international interest, and that the case has been covered plenty in Boise, so a change of venue would not solve any problem.
Prosecutors argued in a filing this month that the defense “failed to establish that a fair and impartial trial cannot be held in Latah County.”
Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said in a statement last week that, if the case stayed in Latah County, “I firmly believe people would be able to set aside any personal feelings they have … set aside any information they may have read or heard … and make a determination of guilt or not guilty based on the evidence presented in the courtroom and deliberate according to the instructions provided to them.”
The trial is scheduled to start on June 2, 2025, and run until Aug. 29, 2025. Judge John Judge said in June that if the venue changes, the trial date would still hold.
Kohberger is accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were all brutally murdered during the break-in.
Kohberger, who was a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the crime, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
A not guilty plea was entered on Kohberger’s behalf. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik and Julie Scott contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — George Santos is expected to plead guilty in his fraud case during a hearing Monday in federal court on Long Island, sources familiar with the case told ABC News, while cautioning the erratic former Republican congressman could always change his mind.
A guilty plea would avoid a trial that is scheduled to begin next month. Hundreds of potential jurors had already been summoned.
Calls seeking comment to Santos, his attorney and federal prosecutors with the Eastern District of New York were not returned.
Santos, who was expelled from the House of Representatives, faces 23 felony charges that accuse him of defrauding donors, lying about his finances and needlessly accepting unemployment benefits among other things.
It was not immediately clear to which charges Santos is expected to plea or what sentence would be imposed.
Santos allegedly misrepresented elements of his background and biography during his campaign to represent parts of Queen’s and Nassau County, but the criminal charges to which he has pleaded not guilty to mainly involve money.
Two associates, including Santos’ former campaign treasurer, have pleaded guilty to charges over their role in his alleged fraud.
(WILMINGTON, Del.) — The federal judge overseeing the case of the former FBI informant charged with lying about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business ties has rejected an effort to challenge the legitimacy of special counsel David Weiss’ appointment, according to court records.
The challenge from Alexander Smirnov’s attorneys was filed just hours after Judge Aileen Cannon unexpectedly dismissed former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case last month on the grounds that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed — which is currently being appealed.
Judge Otis Wright’s ruling in the Smirnov case is yet another indication of how Cannon’s controversial dismissal of Trump’s classified documents case – which ran contrary to decades of precedent set by other courts — is not holding water with other judges weighing similar challenges to special counsels.
A separate judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case in Los Angeles rejected a similar challenge to Weiss’ appointment earlier this month.
Cannon’s ruling centered around arguments that Smith’s prosecution of Trump was illegitimate because, in her determination, Smith was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to his position as special counsel because he was never confirmed to his post by the U.S. Senate.
Special counsels have typically served previously as U.S. attorneys, who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Smith was previously the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee and was working for the International Criminal Court at the Hague prosecuting war crimes when he was tapped by Garland in November 2022 to lead both the classified documents probe and the federal election interference investigation.
Smith, in a filing on Monday, urged the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Cannon’s decision.