Ohio high school student dies following injury in lacrosse match
Photo by Grant Halverson/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
(BAY VILLAGE, Ohio) — A sophomore at a high school in Ohio has died after sustaining an injury during a lacrosse match, according to Bay High School, where he played.
Dylan Veselic was playing in a game for the school, located in Bay Village, against Olmsted Falls on Tuesday when he was injured.
The school did not release what injuries Veselic suffered during the game, but Veselic was taken into surgery Tuesday evening and he died on Thursday morning, a district official confirmed to ABC News.
“With heavy hearts, the Veselic Family shares the news that Dylan has passed away from injuries suffered during a lacrosse game,” the school said in a statement on its website.
“Dylan was a well-liked and respected young man who touched the lives of many with his kindness, character and spirit. We extend our deepest condolences to his family during this unimaginably difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and we hope they find comfort in the love and support of our community,” Bay High School Principal Jason Martin said in a statement on Thursday.
“We are also deeply grateful to our neighboring communities for their outpouring of compassion and support. The response and comments throughout the day from his teachers, coaches, teammates and classmates have been a powerful reminder of the positive impact he had on those around him and the enduring mark he has left on all of us,” Martin said.
Matt Spellman, the athletic director of Bay Village Schools, said the team and coaches are grateful for the support they have been shown by surrounding teams and communities.
“Dylan was an amazing student, always wearing a smile on his face while supporting his fellow teammates. He was kind, hardworking, and dedicated, consistently showing leadership, empathy, and a positive attitude both on the field and in the classroom. Dylan’s enthusiasm, determination, and willingness to help others made him a role model for his peers,” Spellman said.
The school district posted photos of tributes that had popped up around campus for Veselic, including a rock painted with his number and signs created by younger students.
(LA QUINTA, Calif.) — Former NFL star John Elway’s longtime business partner and former agent died Wednesday after reportedly falling from a golf cart.
Jeff Sperbeck, 62, died Wednesday after an accident Saturday evening in La Quinta, California, the Riverside County Coroner confirmed to ABC News.
It was not confirmed yet who was driving the golf cart.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL Fire) responded to a 911 call about a person falling from a golf cart on the 53200 block of Humboldt Blvd in La Quinta. Emergency personnel transported the injured person to a nearby trauma center with serious injuries, officials said.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident, though sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News the investigation is in its preliminary stages. Because the incident occurred in a private community and involved a golf cart rather than a regular vehicle, standard traffic laws may not apply.
Elway, a Hall of Fame quarterback, spent his entire 16-year NFL career with the Denver Broncos, leading the team to two Super Bowl victories.
The NFL star later served as the Broncos’ general manager and executive vice president before transitioning to a consultant role, which ended in March 2023.
Sperbeck had represented over 100 football players in his 30-year career as an NFL agent.
Andy Alfaro/The Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — After investigating the case for more than a year, the Los Angeles Innocence Project has filed voluminous evidence it says shows Scott Peterson did not murder his wife and unborn son in 2002.
In a nearly 400-page petition to the California Court of Appeals, filed Friday night, the LA Innocence Project argued Scott Peterson is innocent and his conviction should be overturned.
Laci Peterson, who was 27 years old and eight months pregnant, disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002. Her body was found in San Francisco Bay in April 2003.
Scott Peterson, now 52, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son. A jury found him guilty following a six-month trial in 2004.
The Los Angeles Innocence Project claims Scott Peterson was denied his rights to due process and a fair trial because jurors did not hear evidence over two decades ago that they argue could have affected the outcome of the trial, and police and prosecutors did not fairly investigate the case, and even destroyed possibly critical evidence.
“In my opinion, once the police locked onto Mr. Peterson as the prime suspect, they had no interest in finding evidence showing that someone other than Scott may have abducted Laci Peterson because that evidence did not fit with their working theory of the case,” LA Innocence Project director Paula Mitchell stated in the filing. “In addition to ignoring the eyewitness reports, the police turned a blind eye to other exculpatory evidence that would have exonerated Mr. Peterson.”
She said she believes police press releases included information “indicating to the public that police did not believe Mr. Peterson’s alibi, almost from day one.”
“This created a domino effect and ultimately created a tidal wave of media attention focused on Mr. Peterson as the prime suspect in the case,” she continued.
In their filing, the LA Innocence Project claims they have new scientific evidence that shows the date of the death of the Petersons’ unborn child was later than claimed at trial, and that an expert in water movement can prove that Laci Peterson’s body was not dumped where police said it was in December 2004 — two points they say would undermine the prosecution’s case.
“This new evidence undermines the prosecution’s entire circumstantial case against Petitioner, and shows that the jury relied on false evidence, including false scientific evidence, to convict him,” the petition states. One of the attorneys on the case said that in her entire career, she has never seen exculpatory evidence this strong.
The filing also makes multiple claims of new evidence and witnesses involving two crimes they say happened around the same time as Laci Peterson’s disappearance near the Petersons’ home — a burglary at a neighbor’s home and a burned van in Modesto’s Airport District.
Last year, a judge did not let them test for Laci Peterson’s DNA on a bloodstained mattress found in the van, so his attorneys do not know if her DNA is on that mattress. Prosecutors have argued that testing on one of the mattress cloths found male DNA, so no further testing would be required. The LA Innocence Project said it has sought “more precise DNA testing to determine if there is a link to the crimes in this case.”
A judge did grant them access to review some discovery in the case from the trial in 2004, including police interview transcripts and case files.
“Every aspect of the prosecution’s theory as to how the crimes in this case were committed has now been shown to be false,” the petition states.
The petition also includes a 126-page declaration from Scott Peterson, who did not testify during his trial, in which he maintains his innocence and says he was wrongfully convicted of murder.
“It is important to me that whoever killed my wife and son be found and held accountable,” he stated. “If whoever committed such violence against Laci and Conner is still at large they are a danger to public safety. It is also important to me that I clear my name and my family’s name because I did not and could never harm or kill my family.”
The filing asks the court to vacate the judgment and sentences, among other possible forms of relief.
The LA Innocence Project also submitted an application seeking permission from the court to file the oversized petition, as it is in excess of the allowed 25,500 words.
The Court of Appeal said Monday that a decision on the application may take several days. If the application is granted, the court said it will then file the petition and lodge the exhibits. If the application is denied, it will reject the petition but may allow a shorter one to be filed.
The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, said it won’t comment on the petition until it is filed by the court and they read it.
Scott Peterson has previously appealed his conviction, claiming he received an unfair trial based on possible jury misconduct.
A judge denied him a new trial in 2022 following his appeal on stealth juror accusations.
Prosecutors and police who were involved in the original trial have stood behind the 2004 conviction.
Scott Peterson was initially sentenced to death for the murders. In 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned his death sentence, citing that his jury was improperly screened for bias against the death penalty, according to court documents. He was later resentenced to life in prison without parole.
(BALTIMORE) — A federal judge is defending her decision to order the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from a notorious El Salvador prison by Monday and has denied the government’s request to stay her order while it appeals her decision.
In a new court filing, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis called the government’s decision to send the 29-year-old Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s CECOT prison a “grievous error.”
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official admitted in a sworn declaration on March 31 that an “administrative error” led to Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, being sent to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring the government from deporting him to his home country.
“As Defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador – let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere,” Xinis wrote in the court document, filed Sunday.
In 2019, an immigration judge issued a withholding of removal order for Abrego Garcia, prohibiting the government from sending him back to his home country because he feared persecution there from gangs.
Judge Xinis argued that Abrego Garcia’s placement in the El Salvadorian mega-jail despite the “risk of harm shocks the conscience.”
“Defendants have forcibly put him in a facility that intentionally mixes rival gang members without any regard for protecting the detainees from ‘harm at the hands of the gangs,'” the judge wrote.
“Defendants have claimed – without any evidence – that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 and then housed him among the chief rival gang, Barrio 18. Not to mention that Barrio 18 is the very gang whose years-long persecution of Abrego Garcia resulted in his withholding from removal to El Salvador,” Xinis further wrote.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have maintained that he is neither a member of nor has any affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang. They also argue that the U.S. government “has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.”
In Sunday’s filing, Xinis wrote that the government has not produced any evidence to suggest they cannot secure Abrego Garcia’s return and said that the court retains jurisdiction in the case because Abrego Garcia challenges his removal to El Salvador, “not the fact of confinement.”
“They do indeed cling to the stunning proposition that they can forcibly remove any person – migrant and U.S. citizen alike – to prisons outside the United States, and then baldly assert they have no way to effectuate return because they are no longer the ‘custodian,’ and the Court thus lacks jurisdiction,” Xinis wrote.
“As a practical matter, the facts say otherwise,” Xinis added.
Citing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s own words from a video posted March 26 on X that the CECOT prison is “one of the tools in our toolkits that we will use,” Xinis said the record reflects that the defendants have “outsourced part of the U.S. prison system.”
“Just as in any other contract facility, Defendants can and do maintain the power to secure and transport their detainees, Abrego Garcia included,” Xinis wrote.
Xinis also included some of the arguments made by Erez Reuveni, the U.S. Department of Justice attorney who argued on behalf of the government on Friday in a lawsuit brought by Garcia’s family. Reuveni was placed on administrative leave by the DOJ over what the department alleged was a “failure to zealously advocate” for the government’s interests during the hearing.
“As their counsel suggested at the hearing, this is not about Defendants’ inability to return Abrego Garcia, but their lack of desire,” Xinis wrote.
During Friday’s hearing, Xinis asked Reuveni, “Can we talk about, then, just very practically, why can’t the United States get Mr. Abrego Garcia back?”
“Your Honor, I will say, for the Court’s awareness, that when this case landed on my desk, the first thing I did was ask my clients that very question. I’ve not received, to date, an answer that I find satisfactory,” Reuveni responded.
Xinis claimed in Sunday’s filing that, while the legal basis for the Trump administration’s decision to deport over 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador “remains disturbingly unclear,” there is no legal grounds for Abrego Garcia to be among them.
“Nor does any evidence suggest that Abrego Garcia is being held in CECOT at the behest of Salvadoran authorities to answer for crimes in that country. Rather, his detention appears wholly lawless,” Xinis wrote.
On Saturday, the Trump administration filed an emergency motion to stay Judge Xinis’ order. The appellate court has given Abrego Garcia’s legal team until 2 p.m. Sunday to respond.
In March, Abrego Garcia was stopped by ICE officers who “informed him that his immigration status had changed,” according to his attorneys. After being detained over alleged gang affiliations, he was transferred to a detention center in Texas. He was then sent to El Salvador on March 15, according to a complaint his lawyers filed last month in a U.S. District Court in Maryland.
During a news conference on Friday, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Vasquez Sura, demanded that the Trump administration return her husband to the United States.
“If I had all the money in the world, I would spend it all just to buy one thing: a phone call to hear Kilmar’s voice again,” Vasquez Sura said. “Kilmar, if you can hear me, I miss you so much, and I’m doing the best to fight for you and our children.”
