Suspects in Joe Burrow’s home burglary face additional charges
One of the suspects is seen with a watch that prosecutors say was stolen from Joe Burrow’s home in a photo released by the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office. Image via Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office
(CINCINNATI) — Three men now face state charges in connection with last year’s burglary at the Ohio home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
The suspects were indicted on charges of first-degree felony engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and second-degree felony burglary, Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said.
The prosecutor’s office released photos of the stolen items — including jewelry, cash and commemorative memorabilia — including some showing the suspects posing with the NFL star’s jewelry, Pillich said.
The defendants — Jordan Francisco Quiroga Sanchez, Bastian Alejandro Orellana Morales and Sergio Andres Ortega Cabello — already faced federal charges in connection with the burglary at Burrow’s home: interstate transportation of stolen property and falsification of records.
The three men are believed to be citizens of Chile who arrived in the United States legally under a visa-free program, according to Pillich.
“They appear to be involved in multiple thefts and burglaries in many jurisdictions, and they are far from the only individuals who do this sort of work,” she said during a press briefing Wednesday.
Pillich suggested that other members of the alleged crime ring may still be at large.
“I think it’s very possible they have connections,” she warned. “People should be concerned.”
A fourth man seen in a photo posing with the burglary suspects and the stolen items was not present at Burrow’s home at the time of the burglary and was not charged in the indictment, Pillich said.
Burrow was playing in a Monday Night Football game in Dallas when his Anderson Township home was burglarized on Dec. 9, 2024.
Burrow had security personnel at the home, but the men avoided them by entering through the woods, according to federal prosecutors.
Approximately $300,000 worth of designer luggage, glasses, wristwatches and jewelry were stolen from the residence, according to federal prosecutors.
Authorities had tracked a cellphone number and license plate believed to be tied to the burglary to a hotel in Fairborn, Ohio. They surveilled the rented vehicle linked to the license plate before pulling it over for a traffic violation on Jan. 10 in Clark County, Ohio, according to federal prosecutors.
An old LSU shirt and Bengals hat believed to have been stolen from Burrow’s home were also found in the vehicle, federal prosecutors said.
An analysis of one of the suspect’s phone “revealed multiple photographs that had been taken of items believed to be stolen” from Burrow’s residence, according to the federal complaint. Many of these photographs were deleted during the traffic stop, according to the federal complaint.
It is unclear if the suspects have attorneys at this time.
Pillich said there is a. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer on the suspects, “so even if they post bail they’re not going anywhere.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is planning to attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Sunday, sources confirmed to ABC News.
The Super Bowl 59 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles comes one month after a terrorist drove a truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more.
There will be over 2,700 state, federal and local law enforcement members securing the game, according to officials.
The game gets a SEAR 1 rating — meaning there is a federal coordinator that is in charge of the security; in this case, it’s the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations’ New Orleans field office. Drones are not allowed anywhere near the stadium.
“We have reviewed and re-reviewed all the details of what happened on Jan. 1,” NFL Chief of Security Cathy Lanier said. “We have reviewed and re-reviewed each of our roles within the overarching security plan, and we have reassessed and stressed tested — our timing, our communication protocols, our contingency measures and our emergency response plans multiple times over, over the past several weeks.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(MADISON, N.J.) — The FBI is now involved in the investigation into a suspected arson earlier this month at the New Jersey home of a Bayer pharmaceutical executive, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
At approximately 7:30 a.m. on March 4, a fire was reported at an occupied, private residence in Madison, New Jersey, according to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
The Madison Fire Department was able to quickly extinguish the flames and the structure “sustained no significant damage and there were no reported injuries,” according to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
“The safety and security of our employees are of utmost importance to Bayer. The incident is under active investigation. We appreciate the quick response of local law enforcement,” Bayer said in a statement.
There have been no arrests related to the incident, officials said.
Bayer’s headquarters is located in nearby Hanover Township, New Jersey. The pharmaceutical company is known for products like Aleve and Alka-Seltzer.
The New York Police Department, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police and New Jersey Transit Police are also part of the investigation.
The FBI’s Newark office declined to comment about its role in investigating the fire.
This suspected arson comes at a time of heightened concern in the health care industry following the December murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Individuals mobilized by economic grievances are taking Thompson’s murder as inspiration for threats and attack plotting, expanding their target set to include government and public safety officials, according to a Homeland Security report obtained by ABC News.
“Within days of the late December murder of a health insurance CEO, we observed online threats targeting high-profile executives. In the past several weeks, some threats citing similar grievances and referencing the CEO’s murder as inspiration are now targeting federal, state and local government officials,” the document said.
A growing amount of Americans feel hostility toward prominent chief executives, with a 2023 Ipsos survey finding that more than two-thirds of Americans think the nation’s economy is rigged to the advantage of the rich and powerful.
Similarly, a 2022 Pew survey found that only 1 in 4 adults believed large businesses have a positive effect on the way things are going in the country.
Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — Late at night on Jan. 6, Los Angeles Emergency Management Department General Manager Carol Parks sent a text message wishing Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley a happy new year.
“It’s my first opportunity to send this Public Safety leadership text,” Parks wrote. “Wishing it could have been on a blue sky day, but duty now calls.”
The following day, Los Angeles would witness the start of what would become the worst wildfire in city history, destroying large swaths of the Pacific Palisades area.
“Not good,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Tony Marrone texted at 11:18 a.m.
“No,” Crowley responded.
Almost immediately after the Palisades fire began spreading through the Westside of Los Angeles in January, questions were raised about how city leaders prepared for the disaster.
Early on, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass faced scrutiny over her decision to continue with a diplomatic trip to Ghana before the fires broke out, while Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley told local TV station KTTV that previous municipal budget cuts “did impact our ability to provide [firefighting] service.”
“It was a mistake to travel, but I will tell you that we need to evaluate everything,” Bass later told KABC-TV. “Because, honest and truly, if I had all of the information that I needed to have, the last thing I would have done was to be out of town.”
ABC News previously reported that although the LAFD’s budget saw a $17.5 million budget cut in May 2024, the measure occurred while fire employee union contract negotiations were underway. Once the contract was approved, the department’s budget increased from $819.6 million to $895.6 million. The exact impact of the 2024 budget matters remains unclear.
Last month, Bass announced she was removing Crowley as fire chief, criticizing decisions she said the department made under Crowley’s leadership, including not keeping some 1,000 firefighters on extra duty as their shift ended in the hours before the Palisades fire broke out.
Crowley subsequently issued a statement defending her lengthy career with the LAFD, noting in part that “as the Fire Chief, I based my actions and decisions on taking care of our firefighters so that they could take care of our communities.”
Now, hundreds of files linked to the Palisades fire response released by the EMD and LAFD to KABC-TV and ABC News this week through public records requests are providing new insight about what local officials were discussing before, during and after the blaze tore through neighborhoods.
The records, which include text messages from Crowley’s phone and city government reports, show how officials first started to realize how bad things were getting and that the windswept blazes had the upper hand.
‘Potentially life-threatening and destructive impacts’
During the text exchange on Jan. 6, Parks, the Emergency Management Department director, informed Crowley that Los Angeles Emergency Operations Center would be “activated at Level 3 (lowest level with EMD staff)” the next day.
“Should conditions necessitate us elevating the EOC status, the three of us will need to remain in close contact,” Parks wrote, an apparent reference to Crowley and Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell.
Crowley responded in part, “I’ll be available to discuss any necessary actions with the both of you if the need arises.”
An EMD city leadership briefing dated Jan. 6 commented on the next day’s weather forecast for Los Angeles: “This windstorm event could lead to potentially life-threatening and destructive impacts similar in magnitude to the 2011 Pasadena windstorm.”
“Any fires that develop during this period may experience rapid growth and extreme behavior,” the briefing added, noting that the LAFD was expected to pre-deploy resources on Jan. 7 and that community emergency response teams would be activated.
‘Anything else you can send us, we will take it’
The next morning, in the hours after sunrise, text messages show that Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s office had reached out to the LAFD “about the weather event.”
Harris-Dawson had been serving as acting mayor since Bass traveled to Ghana.
“I briefed him on our deployment in our preparation efforts. Also our needs for additional resources,” LAFD Deputy Chief Jason Hing told Crowley in a text message.
In another text, sent to Battalion Chief Patrick Leonard at 9:04 a.m., Crowley asks him to direct another staff member to “reach out to the appropriate Council Offices to ensure that they are proper[ly] informed about our preparedness for the weather event.”
As fires started to break out in Los Angeles just under an hour and a half later, the text messages showed concerns growing.
At 10:33 a.m., Chief Deputy Orin Saunders texted Crowley an LAFD alert showing that a brush fire had broken out in the Pacific Palisades area.
“Two brush fires in the city. Palisades and Hollywood,” Crowley wrote to someone at 10:35 a.m.
“Sending over staff now,” she texted Parks minutes later. “I would recommend level 2,” indicating an increase in resources.
Parks responded, “EOC staff have some concerns now that we have two fires.”
By 10:58 a.m., videos posted on social media already showed plumes of smoke dangerously close to residential blocks.
At 11:27 a.m., Crowley sent a message to an individual asking for “Harris-Dawson’s number please.”
“I just asked him for his phone number and he said he will call you,” the recipient responded.
Six minutes later, Parks wrote to Crowley, “The EOC is in need of leadership. Pls advise who from your department can respond to the EOC asap,” with Crowley responding that a chief was en route.
Voluntary evacuation orders in the Palisades area were issued at 11:44 a.m.
“Anything else you can send us, we will take it,” Crowley wrote to fire officials in neighboring counties at 12:02 p.m. “Star[t]ing to [lose] home[s] and people trapped.”
At 2:27 p.m., Crowley texted a fire official, “Can you send me the number … of resources and type assigned to the palisades incident?”
At the same time, according to videos posted to social media, cars had already been abandoned alongside busy roads.
At 3 p.m., Crowley received a text stating, “Marqueece here Chief. At command post, eager to connect.”
Hours later at 5:54 p.m., California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on social media that he had declared a state of emergency to support communities impacted by the Palisades fire.
At 6:18 p.m. in Altadena, which is across Los Angeles County from the Pacific Palisades area and outside of city limits, the Eaton fire began, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Eight minutes later, the LAFD posted on social media that all off-duty LAFD members needed to call the Department Operations Center “with their availability for recall.”
At 7:19 p.m., Parks, the emergency manager, texted, “EOC Directors are recommending that we move to Level 1,” adding that the Level 1 status — the highest level of emergency management — would start the next morning.
At 7:22 p.m., Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Chief Executive Officer Janisse Quiñones asked Crowley if “we can safely access this point,” adding that “we got evacuated before installing a reg station” and that otherwise “we will run out of water in about 2 hours.”
The Department of Water and Power is currently facing a lawsuit from Pacific Palisades residents alleging that it was unprepared for a fire of this sort. The agency previously told ABC News that it does not comment on pending litigation, but issued a statement before the lawsuit was filed.
“The water system serving the Pacific Palisades area and all of Los Angeles meets all federal and state fire codes for urban development and housing,” the statement said. “LADWP built the Pacific Palisades water system beyond the requirements to support the community’s typical needs.”
‘I have not been fired’
The Palisades fire would not be fully contained until the end of the month. By that time, it had burned more than 23,000 acres. The Eaton Fire had torn through 14,000 acres. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble and 29 people were dead.
In the days after the Palisades fire first broke out, Crowley received numerous messages of support.
“Getting mixed news reports about your future employment. If you need expert testimony in the future or simply a Jersey Guy to come out there and straighten things out with the pols, you have my number,” an unidentified individual texted on Jan. 11.
“Good to hear from you,” Crowley responded. “I have not been fired. Thanks for looking out for me.”
Bass went on to fire Crowley on Feb. 21. Crowley, who opted to take a civil service demotion to a lower rank, is appealing her dismissal. The Los Angeles City Council is expected to discuss the personnel matter on Tuesday. The council can override Bass’ move to terminate the chief.
