Richard Heen and his wife, Mayumi, of Fort Collins, Colo., who were convicted after the 2009 “balloon boy” hoax in which they falsely reported that their 6-year-old son had floated away in a homemade UFO-shaped balloon, were pardoned by Gov. Jared Polis.
Allen Bloodworth, a tow truck operator in Kansas City, Mo., is no longer facing forgery charges after his attorney uncovered a recording in which a police union official appears to threaten legal problems for Bloodworth if he didn’t release the towed vehicle of the official’s relative, leading prosecutors to dismiss the case.
Terrica Williams, the city constable of Baton Rouge, said she was “overwhelmed and overjoyed” to learn that the Baton Rouge Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Foundation started a project to outfit all 46 officers in the constable’s office with new bullet-resistant vests.
Eddie Garcia, the former police chief of San Jose, Calif., has been selected to become the first Hispanic police chief of Dallas, replacing the city’s first female chief, in what Mayor Eric Johnson called a “historic moment for Dallas.”
Tim Guffey, the commission chairman in Jackson County, Ala., resigned without giving a reason after the county’s four other commissioners issued a statement saying the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency was investigating “inappropriate surveillance” of a courthouse worker.
Elijah Bertrand, 19, a UPS employee in Watertown, Conn., was taken into custody after the death of his co-worker, who was found injured in the vehicle that he and Bertrand had previously been riding in, according to police.
David Bernhard, a judge in Fairfax County, Va., ruled that a Black defendant’s right to a fair trial would be harmed if the jury heard the case in a courtroom lined with portraits of mostly white jurists and allowed having the portraits removed.
Gary Mitchell of Joplin, Mo., who was sentenced to 15 years in prison without parole in 2013 on a nonviolent drug offense and later argued that a change in state law should have made him eligible for parole, was pardoned by Gov. Mike Parson.
Katelyn Jones, 23, was charged with making a threat of violence in a series of phone and social media messages that referred to the chairman of the Wayne County, Mich., board of canvassers as a terrorist and racist, according to an FBI court filing.