‘Thank you’ cookies sent to North Carolina elections office prompt emergency response
In this photo released by the Raleigh Police Department, a thank-you present of pineapple-shaped cookies delivered to the Wake County Board of Elections is shown that prompted a hazmat response on Oct. 29, 2024, after election workers raised concerns about a suspicious package mailed from Hawaii. Image via Raleigh Police Department
( Raleigh, N.C. ) — No good deed goes unpunished for election workers in North Carolina.
A thank-you present of pineapple-shaped cookies delivered to the Wake County Board of Elections prompted a hazmat response on Tuesday after election workers raised concerns about a suspicious package mailed from Hawaii.
“We are just on high alert with these things automatically,” Wake County elections specialist Danner McCulloh told ABC News, who cited recent incidents of suspicious packages containing powder sent to election offices across the country.
The Raleigh Police and Fire Departments quickly responded to the incident — which was treated as a hazmat situation — and bomb technicians X-rayed the package, according to Lt. Jason Borneo of the Raleigh Police Department.
After the package was deemed to not be a threat, officials opened the package to learn it was full of pineapple-shaped cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company. The package, which was mailed from a Hawaii address, also included a handwritten thank-you note, according to a Raleigh Fire Department spokesperson.
The operations at Wake County Board of Elections were not impacted during the incident, a county spokesperson said. According to McCulloh, a person who heard a radio story about Wake County decided to send the cookies unannounced to thank election workers.
“It was a kind gesture,” McCulloh said, though he recommended against others sending cookies to his office.
(TEMPE, Ariz.) — Police in Tempe, Arizona, are investigating after a Wells Fargo employee was found dead in her cubicle four days after she last scanned into the building.
The Tempe Police Department responded to the office on Aug. 20 after being notified by building security.
Police identified the worker as Denise Prudhomme, 60.
Her cause of death has not yet been determined.
“The preliminary investigation did not show any obvious signs of foul play,” police said.
Prudhomme scanned into the building the morning of Friday, Aug. 16, police said. Her body was found on Aug. 20 in her third-floor cubicle, and she was pronounced dead at 4:55 p.m., according to the authorities.
A spokesperson for Wells Fargo said Prudhomme’s cubicle was in an underpopulated part of the building and that colleagues were informed of her death after her family was notified.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague, Denise Prudhomme,” a spokesperson said. “Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones, and we are in contact to ensure they are well supported during this difficult time.”
The Wells Fargo spokesperson said counselors would be made available to support employees affected by the incident.
“We are committed to the safety and wellness of our workforce,” the spokesperson added.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 03, 2024 in Wilmington, Del. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — More than a year after a plea deal between prosecutors and Hunter Biden collapsed, jury selection in the federal tax trial of President Joe Biden’s son is scheduled to begin this morning in a Los Angeles federal courthouse.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi plans to seat 12 jurors and four alternates for a trial that is expected to throw Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, his struggles with addiction, and his lavish spending into the spotlight.
Prosecutors allege that Hunter Biden engaged in a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on exotic cars, clothing, escorts, drugs, and luxury hotels. He has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that includes six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.
All back taxes and penalties were eventually paid in full by a third party, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden confidant Kevin Morris.
The trial comes three months after Hunter Biden was convicted by a Delaware jury on three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 13.
If convicted in Los Angeles, Hunter Biden faces a maximum combined sentence of up to 17 years in prison.
After two days of jury selection this week, opening statements in the trial are scheduled to begin on Monday. Prosecutors expect to spend six days presenting their case, and Hunter Biden’s team has said it would spend two days on his defense.
Here’s what to know about the proceedings:
How will jury selection work?
Judge Scarsi plans to use a similar process used in Hunter Biden’s Delaware trial — where jury selection took one day — to select the jury in the Los Angeles trial. One hundred and twenty potential jurors from from Los Angeles and six nearby counties are expected to be summoned for jury selection on Thursday.
The jury selection process will center on a lengthy questionnaire that includes 50 questions on topics including prospective jurors’ interactions with law enforcement and their experiences filing taxes.
Four of the questions directly address Hunter Biden’s unique position as a criminal defendant whose father is the president of the United States, including asking if prospective jurors’ thoughts on the upcoming presidential election would impact their decision-making and whether they believe law enforcement agencies make decisions based on politics.
“Do you believe Robert Hunter Biden is being prosecuted in this case or is not being prosecuted in other cases because his father is the President of the United States and was until recently a candidate for President?” one question asks.
Five questions also touch on addiction, including if potential jurors have family members who suffer from substance abuse issues or if they have experience with addiction treatment and counseling.
“Do you believe someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol should not be charged with a crime?” another question asks.
What do prosecutors allege?
In their 56-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden willfully avoided paying taxes by subverting his company’s own payroll system, that he failed to pay his taxes on time despite having the money to do so, and that he included false information in his 2018 tax returns.
“[T]he defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” the indictment alleged.
Prosecutors also highlighted millions of dollars that Hunter Biden received from overseas business in Ukraine, China, and Romania in exchange for “almost no work.”
Although Hunter Biden eventually paid back all his back taxes and penalties with the help of a third party, Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to the jury.
“Evidence of late payment here is irrelevant to Mr. Biden’s state of mind at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes,” Scarsi wrote in an order last week.
Why is this going to trial?
Last June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor offenses, acknowledging that he failed to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. The deal also allowed him to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid criminal charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase.
Had the deal worked out, Hunter Biden would have likely faced probation for the tax offenses and had his gun charge dropped if he adhered to the terms of his diversion agreement.
However, the plea deal fell apart during a contentious hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with the structure of the deal.
By September, special counsel David Weiss had unsealed an indictment in Delaware charging Hunter Biden for lying on a federal form when he purchased a firearm in 2018.
The federal indictment in Los Angeles for the tax crimes followed in December.
(MEMPHIS) — A second former Memphis police officer federally charged in connection with the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols has pleaded guilty, weeks before the trial is set to begin, court filings show.
Emmitt Martin III is one of five former officers indicted last year on federal civil rights, conspiracy and obstruction offenses in connection with Nichols’ death.
After initially pleading not guilty to the charges following the indictment, Martin pleaded guilty to two of them during a change of plea hearing in federal court in Memphis Friday afternoon, online court records show.
Martin pleaded guilty to excessive force and failure to intervene, as well as conspiracy to witness tamper, according to the court records. The other two charges will be dropped at sentencing, which has been scheduled for Dec. 5, according to the online records.
The government said it will recommend a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, according to the plea agreement.
In the plea agreement, Martin admitted that, along with the other defendants, he “unlawfully assaulted” Nichols, and then attempted to “corruptly persuade” his supervisor to make “false and misleading statements” on the incident report to “cover up their use of unreasonable force on Nichols.”
ABC News has reached out to his attorney for comment.
Martin is the second former officer to plead guilty in the case ahead of the federal trial, which is scheduled to start next month.
In November 2023, Desmond Mills Jr. pleaded guilty to two of the four counts in the indictment — excessive force and failing to intervene, as well as conspiring to cover up his use of unlawful force — as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
The government said at the time that it will recommend a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, based on the terms of Mills’ plea agreement.
Nichols, 29, died on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after a violent confrontation with police following a traffic stop. The medical examiner’s official autopsy report showed he died of brain injuries from blunt force trauma.
The federal indictment alleges that Martin and Mills — along with Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith — deprived Nichols of his constitutional rights during the confrontation.
Each of the defendants, according to the indictment, was involved in beating Nichols during the Jan. 7 traffic stop and none relayed information about their assault to the Memphis police dispatcher, their supervisor or the emergency medical technicians and paramedics who were coming to the scene.
The officers allegedly spoke at the scene about how they had struck Nichols, but they also did not relay that information to first responders or their supervisors even as his condition “deteriorated and he became unresponsive,” the indictment alleges.
As part of his plea agreement, Mills admitted to “repeatedly and unjustifiably striking Nichols with a baton and to failing to intervene in other officers’ use of force against Nichols,” the Department of Justice said in a press release following his change of plea hearing.
He also admitted to not providing any medical aid to Nichols afterward, despite knowing he “had a serious medical need,” and not alerting police or EMTs that Nichols had been struck in the head and body, the DOJ stated.
He further admitted to making false statements and accounts about Nichols’ arrest and the use of force used on him to a supervisor and in a Memphis Police Department report, according to the DOJ.
The other three defendants pleaded not guilty to the federal charges. Their trial is scheduled to start on Sept. 9 and is expected to last three weeks.
If convicted, two of the counts in the indictment carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, while the other two each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, according to the DOJ.
All five former officers also face state felony charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping, in connection with Nichols’ death. They pleaded not guilty.
The Memphis Police Department fired the five officers — who were on the department’s now-disbanded SCORPION unit — following an investigation into Nichols’ death.
