Neighbor pleads innocent in Paul attack
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s longtime neighbor pleaded innocent Thursday to charges that he assaulted the Kentucky Republican while the senator was mowing his lawn.
Rene Boucher only spoke to reply “yes sir” to a judge during a brief arraignment. He showed no emotion and kept his head down. Boucher faces up to a year in jail if convicted of fourth-degree assault.
Paul, who was not at the hearing, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that he suffered six broken ribs and has excess fluid around his lungs. The injuries have sidelined Paul from the Senate as he recovers at his home.
Warren County prosecutor Amy Milliken didn’t provide more details but said her office was working with Kentucky State Police and the FBI. Milliken declined to discuss what could have caused the attack.
Boucher’s lawyer, Matt Baker, said he’s still investigating the cause of the attack, but “it has nothing to do with politics. It’s a property dispute between two neighbors.”
However, a member of Paul’s staff disputed media reports that the two men had a “long-standing dispute.”
FBI unit chief under review after thefts
WASHINGTON — An FBI counterterrorism supervisor is under internal investigation after a woman stole his gun following a night of heavy drinking in a North Carolina hotel, according to documents and government officials.
In July, Robert Manson, a unit chief in the FBI’s international terrorism section, had his Glock .40-caliber handgun, a $6,000 Rolex watch and $60 in cash stolen from his room at the Westin hotel in Charlotte, N.C., according to a police report.
As a unit chief assigned to the bureau’s headquarters, Manson oversees terrorism investigations in the Midwest and the Carolinas. An FBI spokesman, Michael Kortan, said the incident was the subject of an internal investigation and declined to give additional comment.
Manson and other senior agents were in Charlotte for training, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the episode. The agents later told police that they had been drinking with women who said they were exotic dancers, according to a second person who was briefed on the investigation but, like the first, was not authorized to discuss it publicly. Investigators reportedly determined that Manson took one of the women back to his room.
No arrests have been made, and police have not recovered the firearm.
R.I. I-95 police chase, gunfire kill man
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A midmorning chase and shootout involving several police officers on busy Interstate 95 in Providence left one person dead and one injured Thursday.
The shootout came less than two hours after a suspect being taken to court was left in a state police cruiser alone and stole it, driving it to a Providence neighborhood where he abandoned it. Authorities still are searching for Donald Morgan, who is wanted for stealing the cruiser.
Police initially said the shooting and theft were related, but then said later Thursday that the man who stole the police cruiser is not the same man who got into the shootout.
One man was killed and a woman was injured in the gunfire that happened around 10:45 a.m. No officers were hurt.
Innocent, says Benghazi-attack suspect
WASHINGTON — A second Libyan militant brought to the United States to face charges in the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans pleaded innocent Thursday in Washington.
Mustafa al-Imam, 46, captured by U.S. special operations forces in Misurata, Libya, on Oct. 29, was ordered to remain in custody by U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson.
Al-Imam was indicted Thursday and faces up to life in prison if convicted on one count of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to terrorists resulting in death in the Sept. 11-12, 2012, attacks on a U.S. diplomatic compound and nearby CIA post. He was initially charged by sealed complaint on May 19, 2015.
Al-Imam’s court-appointed defense lawyer, Matthew Peed, said al-Imam was at most guilty of helping to loot the burning U.S. consulate in Benghazi long after the attacks.