2 school-shooting suspects go to court
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- Two students accused of shooting nine classmates, one fatally, in their Colorado charter school appeared in court Wednesday to face dozens of criminal charges that included murder and attempted murder.
Investigators said the suspects, 18-year-old Devon Erickson and 16-year-old Alec McKinney, opened fire with handguns at STEM School Highlands Ranch. They were arrested at the school.
The parents of the teen who was killed in the attack looked on before attending their son's memorial service. Senior Kendrick Castillo was just days from graduating when he was slain while trying to stop one of the gunmen during the May 7 attack.
While court documents are sealed, the charges against Erickson and McKinney listed in electronic court records also included theft and arson. Prosecutors said both will be tried as adults. McKinney's attorney, Ara Ohanian, said she would seek to move McKinney's case back to juvenile court.
Judge Theresa Slade denied the prosecution's request to make some documents public but said she would address the issue at the next hearing on June 7.
District Attorney George Brauchle also revealed that he has asked an outside prosecutor to investigate whether charges should be filed against a private security guard who has been credited with apprehending one of the suspects in a school hallway. A law enforcement official told The Associated Press last week that the guard, a former Marine who has not been named, fired his weapon during the shooting.
96 people indicted in marriage scheme
Nearly 100 people have been indicted in a conspiracy in which foreigners paid as much as $70,000 to briefly marry U.S. citizens and obtain a permanent resident card known as a "Green Card," federal prosecutors said.
The indictment, returned by a grand jury in Texas late last month, accuses 96 people of taking part in the Houston-based criminal organization, which created sham marriages between legal U.S. residents and foreigners, mostly from Vietnam, for years.
Officials said the spouses met only briefly and usually immediately before getting their marriage licenses, but sometimes they didn't meet at all.
The group, led by Ashley Yen Nguyen, 53, would prepare fake wedding albums to make it appear as if the couples had actual wedding ceremonies, and not just courthouse marriages, according to a news release by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which led the yearlong investigation with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The defendants also are accused of filing false tax and employment information to ensure authorities would approve the immigration forms.
Utah prosecutor cool to abortion law
SALT LAKE CITY -- As Utah defends a strict new abortion law against a court challenge, the chief prosecutor overseeing the county with the state's only two clinics has said he won't enforce the measure.
Democratic Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Tuesday that the Utah ban on abortions after 18 weeks appears unconstitutional, so filing felony charges against doctors who perform them as the court challenge plays out could violate their rights.
"I think that's the only legal and ethical thing for me to do, which is not use the power of my office to violate the constitutional rights of my citizens when there is well-established precedent that says it is unconstitutional," he said.
Gill secured a federal order Monday confirming that his office won't have to enforce the measure as the court challenge plays out.
However, if the law is eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, Gill said, he likely would have to enforce it.
Gill's position and a similar stance by the attorney general of Michigan came as more GOP-leaning states pass increasingly restrictive abortion laws.
Most laws have exceptions. The measure in Utah has allowances for cases of rape, fatal fetal deformity and serious detriment to a mother's health.
Like Utah, Arkansas has also passed a ban on abortions after 18 weeks.
Arrests at 24 in Oklahoma heroin sweep
TULSA -- Federal authorities said 24 people have been arrested in a drug-trafficking ring that's tied to a Mexican cartel that authorities believe distributed more than 4 pounds of heroin a week in northeastern Oklahoma.
The Tulsa World reported that the arrests were made Tuesday after federal authorities unsealed a 73-count indictment against 29 people in an investigation dubbed Operation Smack Dragon. Officials said five defendants remain at large in Mexico or elsewhere.
Officials said law enforcement agencies executed search warrants during the arrests and seized 6.6 pounds of heroin, $150,000 in drug proceeds, two firearms and four vehicles.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel-Lyn McCormick said the investigation began in 2017 after investigators learned about the drug-trafficking ring tied to the New Generation Cartel in Mexico.
A Section on 05/16/2019