Criminal Justice
The jury now will decide Trump’s fate in hush money trial, after lengthy closing arguments
WASHINGTON — Closing arguments in the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president concluded Tuesday, leaving the jury to now decide if Donald Trump is guilty of faking reimbursement to his personal lawyer for hush money paid to a porn star just before the 2016 presidential election. Just outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse during […]
Crime victims may get fewer services as federal aid drops. States weigh how to help
Groups that assist crime victims across the United States are bracing for significant financial pain after the amount available from a major federal victim services fund plunged $700 million this year. Congress recently lowered spending to $1.2 billion from the fund, which provides grants to nonprofit and local programs across the country. This latest round […]
Trump declines witness stand as testimony in his first trial concludes
WASHINGTON — The end of the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president is in sight as Donald Trump’s defense team rested its case Tuesday in Manhattan, where jurors have heard weeks of testimony from nearly two dozen witnesses about Trump’s alleged reimbursement of hush money meant to silence a porn star before the […]
Prosecution rests in Trump hush money trial, after former fixer Cohen is grilled
NEW YORK — New York state prosecutors rested their case against Donald Trump Monday after four days of testimony from their key witness, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, who says the former president was well aware of a hush money cover-up. The defense paints Cohen as a liar. The Manhattan criminal trial, the first ever […]
GOP politicians rush to Manhattan to line up behind Trump as hush money trial continues
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers are taking turns supporting former president and presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in his trial in Manhattan criminal court, where he is charged with covering up payments intended to silence porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Dressed alike in navy blue suits and red ties, North […]
Missouri attorney general opposes St. Louis prosecutor’s push to free Christopher Dunn
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey will oppose efforts by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore to vacate the murder conviction of Christopher Dunn, who Gore believes has spent 33 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. In February, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore announced he filed a motion with the court to […]
‘Transformative’: More college programs are slowly coming into prisons
When the U.S. Department of Education announced last summer that federal Pell Grants would become available to incarcerated college students, lawmakers and state corrections agencies scrambled to adjust statutes and step up potential partnerships with universities. But nearly a year later, colleges and agencies are recognizing the steep administrative challenge to winning approval from the […]
KC police jump-started missing persons unit. Now they need to build trust with Black families
T’Montez Hurt had just started working at a Price Chopper in Grain Valley to save money after a semester away from Missouri Western State University. Then in the early hours of Feb. 1, the 19-year-old placed an anxious phone call to his grandmother, Tecona Donald-Sullivan, saying he thought he’d been drugged. The day before he’d […]
How do you repurpose a closed jail? Competing visions clash in St. Louis
Inez Bordeaux had heard horror stories about the St. Louis jail commonly known as the Workhouse — named so for prisoners held there in the 1800s who were forced to labor for their freedom — but it was only once she was sent there herself in 2016 that she realized: “Everything I’ve heard about the […]
They were shot at the Kansas City Super Bowl parade. They may have bullets in their bodies forever
James Lemons, 39, wants the bullet removed from his thigh so he can go back to work. Sarai Holguin, a 71-year-old woman originally from Mexico, has accepted the bullet lodged near her knee as her “compa” — a close friend. Mireya Nelson, 15, was hit by a bullet that went through her jaw and broke […]
Missouri joins five other states in federal lawsuit over Title IX transgender protections
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin on Tuesday filed a lawsuit with five other states, including Missouri, against the U.S. Department of Education’s change to Title IX that codifies protections for LGBTQ students. The federal rule, announced in April, protects students and employees from sex-based discrimination, requires schools to offer support for people who make complaints, […]
Plummeting balance in federal crime victims fund sparks alarm among states, advocates
WASHINGTON — States and local organizations that aid victims of sexual assault and other crimes are raising the alarm about a multi-year plunge in funds, a major problem they say Congress must fix soon or programs will be forced to set up wait lists or turn victims away altogether. Affected are rape crisis centers, domestic […]