Author: J.P. Knowles

Actor Kevin Spacey is facing four counts of sexually assaulting three men in the U.K. The Crown Prosecution Service said Thursday that the charges against the actor “follow a review of evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police.” Spacey, 62, was also charged with “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent,” the agency said.

The incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in western England in April 2013. The victims are now in their 30s and 40s. The charges follow a review of evidence gathered by London’s Metropolitan Police, according to Rosemary Ainslie, head of the service’s Special Crime Division,

British police questioned Spacey in 2019 about claims made by several men that he had assaulted them.

The former “House of Cards” star ran London’s Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015. Spacey won a best-supporting actor Academy Award for the 1995 film “The Usual Suspects” and a lead actor Oscar for the 1999 movie “American Beauty.”

In 2017 actor Anthony Rapp accused the star of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s when Rapp was a teenager.

Spacey denies the allegations and is currently trying to have a sex abuse lawsuit from Rapp in New York thrown out. He testified Thursday in a courtroom in New York City in the civil lawsuit filed by Rapp.

Thursday’s court session in New York City was to decide whether the case was better handled in a federal or state U.S. court. Spacey was called to testify about where he lived, not about the truthfulness of the allegations against him.

Spacey testified that his main residence is in Baltimore, where he moved for the filming of “House of Cards.” But he also testified about his time living in London as the artistic director of the Old Vic.

“It was extremely important to me that I endear myself to the British public, that I’m not running away,” he said, noting that his start there was troubled by a “disastrous production” in 2005 of Arthur Miller’s last play.

But, Spacey said, “I’m an American citizen. Once the job was done, I came back to America.”

The actor said he made a trip to London in February 2020 for a possible film, but when the pandemic hit, his U.S. doctor recommended that he stay there, where he resided until the following September when his visa expired, and he flew to Los Angeles for an arbitration proceeding.

Spacey said he has not been back to the U.K. since then.

A separate criminal case brought against Spacey, an indecent assault and battery charge stemming from the alleged groping of an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket resort, was dismissed by Massachusetts prosecutors in 2019.

This year’s annual “go topless” Jeep weekend in Texas resulted in more than 100 arrests and dozens, including a sheriff’s deputy being sent to the hospital during the event attended by tens of thousands.

More than 80,000 Jeep enthusiasts attended the weekend-long event at Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula.

Authorities say Sgt. John Hamm was responding to a minor crash on State Highway 87 near Holiday Drive around 1:30 a.m. when a suspected drunk driver struck him.

Sheriff Henry Trochesset said the deputy nearly went through the vehicle’s windshield as a result of the impact.

Hamm’s suffered two broken legs, as well as an arm and head injury. He was airlifted to a local hospital where he had surgery on Sunday.

The driver, Darius Danzell Gilbert, 22, of Jefferson County Texas was arrested and faces a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer. He was being held on a $100,000 bond.

There were at least 38 individuals transported to area hospitals during the event, including eight that required an airlift transport.

Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset said more than 100 people were arrested over the weekend, as deputies responded to assaults, fights and DWIs.

Galveston County Emergency Services said the influx of people was straining emergency services, noting a large increase in the crowds this year.

A Florida woman was arrested Wednesday after she fled from police, hit several vehicles, and threw a fake snake at police officers.

Ironically, police were not originally after the woman, who does suffer from mental health problems.

“Ironically, the motor unit flipped his blue lights on to stop another vehicle and he saw this truck, who he had not focused on, took off at a high rate of speed,” said Martin County Sheriff William Snyder.

After the suspect noticed police cars nearby, she sped away in her truck and intentionally struck a deputy on a motorcycle, hit a police car and knocked over a truck with three people inside.

“When that deputy was first coming up to the pickup truck, she intentionally swerved into his lane, nearly causing a head-on collision,” Snyder said.

Three people were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. No police officers were injured.

Officers finally had the unidentified woman surrounded after she’d led them on a 5-mile chase. That’s when she threw what first appeared to be a live snake at them but it was actually a rubber snake.

The officers were forced to taser the suspect to subdue her and subsequently took her into custody.

A Black Lives Matter activist leading a Boston anti-violence nonprofit was indicted for fraud and is now demanding a speedy trial to defend the allegations against her.

Monica Cannon-Grant, the head of Violence in Boston, and her husband, Clark Grant, are accused of using the nonprofit “as a vehicle to personally enrich themselves and their designees,” according to a federal indictment unsealed on March 15.

The couple is facing 18 fraud-related charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, and making false statements to a mortgage lending business.

The 38-page indictment says Cannon-Grant and her husband solicited and received millions of dollars for the charity that garnered increased attention following the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Federal prosecutors say the couple has not submitted the appropriate tax documents to the state Attorney General’s nonprofit oversight office since 2019. Cannon-Grant is accused of paying herself a huge salary, despite making publicly claiming she received no salary for her nonprofit work.

According to the indictment, the charity received a $10,400 donation from an unidentified department store for the stated purpose of feeding hungry children, but Cannon-Grant laundered those funds through a church to use to pay her back rent.

Cannon-Grant’s attorney filed a request Wednesday accusing the government of being slow in its discovery process and not communicating details about their timeline for relaying such information to the defense. It also alleges that one $3000 loan supporting the mortgage fraud charge was a gift and was not required to be paid back.

“Ms. Cannon-Grant has been immeasurably prejudiced and punished by the indictment alone, and she seeks a trial on the earliest practical date to challenge the government’s accusations,” the filing says.

The Milwaukee Police Department has released spine chilling video in an effort to get information surrounding a shooting that left 21 injured late last week only blocks from the Fiserv Forum, where the Bucks and Celtics were playing that night in an NBA playoff game.

The incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. Friday at the intersection of Water St and Highland Ave and thus far police have made 10 arrests.

Surveillance video of the shooting shows a group of individuals walking down the sidewalk and then stopping at the corner of the intersection.

As another group approached from the opposite direction, someone in the first group – wearing a blue jacket – pulled out a gun and opened fire.

The people frantically ran for cover and two people in the second group can be seen getting hit by cars while trying to flee.

“This behavior will not be tolerated not only downtown but nowhere in the city. Period. We are not going to accept this behavior as any new normalcy in regards to our community,” Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said Tuesday.

The shooting was one of three that same night in Milwaukee’s broader downtown entertainment district. The other incidents left four people injured and one arrest was made.

There were 11 guns recovered in the wake of the shootings and some of those arrested are prohibited from owning firearms.

“The Milwaukee Police Department will make every effort to hold those who hold violence in our city and those who support violence in our city accountable,” Norman said, adding that it’s unclear whether the shooting was gang-related.

A chihuahua puppy who was found Monday shot through the neck with an arrow in Southern California is expected to survive after veterinarians successfully removed the projectile, authorities said.

A woman called 911 to report she’d found the wounded animal Monday in a neighborhood near the city of Desert Hot Springs after hearing the puppy “screaming,” according to Riverside County Animal Services.

A sheriff’s deputy picked up the 4-month-old female puppy and transferred it to an animal services officer who brought the pup to the Coachella Valley Animal Campus.

Veterinary staff determined that the arrow did not strike the puppy’s vital arteries and it was removed.

“For someone to willfully shoot this poor pup with an arrow is disgusting,” Animal Services Director Erin Gettis said in the statement. “We are shocked and we hope someone can provide us with any information as to who did this.”

Gettis said the agency will continue to treat the puppy and work on finding her a home.

“It’s amazing to see her affection, despite what occurred,” veterinary technician Emily Ellison said.

“She is such a sweet puppy. I cannot imagine why anyone would do something so terrible to such an innocent creature,” she added.

A Tennessee woman was arrested after slicing her brother’s throat for breaking up a fight, according to court documents.

Memphis police arrived in the 20 block of Falls Road on Sunday where they discovered the injured man.

Court documents state the brother was breaking up a fight between his sisters when Jarica Brown, 32, took out a pocket knife and sliced him across the front of his neck.

Officers were speaking to Brown when they noticed the knife inside of her shoe, according to an affidavit.

Brown was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, she is expected in court on May 23, 2022.

Model Kate Moss is expected to testify this week in Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard. Moss, 48, is set to testify via video link on Wednesday in the Fairfax, Virginia, courtroom. Depp’s lawyers were ecstatic when Heard, 36, brought up Moss during her testimony and opened the door for them to dispel a rumor that he had pushed the supermodel down a flight of stairs when they dated in the 1990s.

Heard referenced Moss while testifying on May 5, recounting a March 2015 fight in which she punched Depp in the face out of fear he was going to shove her sister Whitney down a staircase.

Heard said she “instantly” thought about “Kate Moss and the stairs” — prompting Depp’s lawyer Ben Chew to turn and fist-pump.

Moss told Vanity Fair in a 2012 profile, “There’s nobody that’s ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit.

“I believed what he said. Like if I said, ‘What do I do?’ he’d tell me. And that’s what I missed when I left. I really lost that gauge of somebody I could trust.”

Her testimony will come on the third day of the six-week trial, which is set to wrap up Friday.

Depp, 58, is suing ex-wife Heard for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed where she said she was a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” While she did not name Depp, he claims it defamed him, ruining his career and causing him to lose millions in revenue.

Heard countersued Depp for $100 million, saying he defamed her in 2020 when he and his lawyers made statements to the press that she had fabricated her allegations of abuse.

A Wisconsin couple is recovering after a black bear charged into their home and they were forced to defend themselves.

The homeowners noticed the eating from a bird feeder a little past 11:00, according to Taylor County Sheriff Larry Woebbeking. They opened a window to yell for the bear to go away but instead, the beast turned and “charged” at the house, crashed through a window into the home and attacked the couple.

Both the husband and wife suffered “numerous bites and injuries” from the attack. While they fought with the bear the wife somehow managed to get a kitchen knife and stab the animal while her husband got a gun and shot and killed the bear.

The couple’s children were asleep in the house at the time of the attack and were not injured.

The adult female bear had a cub with her at the time, the cub ran away when the mother bear charged the home, according to the sheriff. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources took possession of the bear for testing.

The National Park Service says bear spray is the most effective tool for self-defense against a bear attack. The park service recommends against using a firearm to stop an attack, as it could “worsen” the attack and cause the bear to become more agitated. Bearwise, a program that helps educate people on black bears, suggests removing bird feeders from homes when bears are active in the area.

“Birdseed and grains have lots of calories, so they’re attractive to bears. Removing feeders is the best way to avoid creating conflicts with bears,” the website says.

A California woman working as a school bus driver and on-campus security at a school for special needs children has been arrested for peddling fentanyl to kids on campus.

Melissa Harloam-Garrison, 46, lives in a cottage on the property at Bright Futures Academy in Riverside and was arrested last week on several charges related to the distribution of fentanyl to special needs students at the school.

She was charged with: possession of narcotics for sale, the sale of narcotics to minors, the possession of controlled substances, a drug addict in possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm on the school campus, being a person prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm, and child endangerment. She is being held on $50,000 bail.

Harloam-Garrison’s husband, 58-year-old David Wayne Garrison, was also arrested “on suspicion of possessing a firearm on campus and being a person prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm,” according to a police report. He is being held on $25,000 bail.

Police say Harloam-Garrison was providing fentanyl to students at the private school which “serves K-12 students with… severe behavioral problems, autism and other special needs.

Officers responded to the school Tuesday after receiving a call regarding a student displaying erratic behavior.

Police started an investigation after a student suffered an overdose. While looking into how that student acquired the drugs, police became suspicious of Harloam-Garrison and began looking into her.

“Officers conducted a search of the cottage and found over a hundred suspected Fentanyl pills, two handguns, and various types of ammunition,” officials said in a statement.

Betti Colucci, the President/Principal of Bright Futures Academy, also released a statement following the arrests.

“This event has shaken us to our core. Beyond the shock of the allegations, we are saddened that the health and safety of our students were put at risk. That is completely unacceptable to us! Our staff and administration are communicating with everyone involved to make sure our students are cared for, she continued. We may be taken by surprise by this but we aren’t distracted from providing excellent education.”