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Chinese National Indicted for Money Laundering Conspiracy Connected to Scam That Impersonated Federal Officers and Employees

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 03 May 2025 03:00:26 +0000

Binghui Liu, a citizen of China formerly residing in San Jose, has been charged with a money laundering conspiracy.

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Man who grabbed officer’s pepper spray on Jan. 6 sentenced

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 06:01:16 +0000

Troy Weeks (U.S. Attorney’s Office).

A New York man who grabbed an officer’s pepper spray canister in a tunnel at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots will spend more than a year in federal prison for the offense.

Troy Weeks, 38, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution by Barack Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release.

Weeks pleaded guilty to charges of civil disorder, assaulting officers, trespassing, and disorderly conduct.

The defendant was on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol grounds near an area known as the Tunnel, the scene of some of the most violent attacks against officers that day, prosecutors said.

Like many defendants in the Jan. 6 cases, Weeks was caught on Capitol building surveillance and police body cameras that day. His actions were recorded and highlighted in court documents.

Authorities noted in court documents that a camera at the Tunnel entrance that day recorded the rioting. In that video, the documents said that law enforcement identified Weeks as “BOLO #85” wearing a gray jacket, a backpack and a red, white and blue scarf flecked with stars.

At 3:02 p.m. that day, he entered the Tunnel as rioters battled with police and worked his way through the crowd up to the police line.

“Alright! Get ready to push! C’mon!” he called out to the crowd as he and rioters pressed in closer to officers.

He then reached his arm past another rioter, through a broken window of a door, and grabbed a can of “OC” spray from the hands of a police officer, court documents said.

Weeks couldn’t get that can, though, as the officer prevented him from doing that.

Seconds later, Weeks came around the door and came into contact with the police on the other side. He then pressed his body up against officers and their shields.

At one point, Weeks told officers he could not turn around after they ordered him back, court documents said.

Weeks was eventually sprayed with mace when he grabbed onto an officer’s riot shield.

“Please! We’re gonna die! Let us through! I can’t breathe! I have asthma!” he told officers as he rubbed his eyes before being pushed away from the front line and then pushed out of the Tunnel by the rioting mob at 3:05 p.m.

About an hour later, outside the Capitol building, he was caught on police camera telling cops, “why don’t we have f—— police protecting the ballots? Why don’t we have this s— when we have elections?”

Weeks returned later and joined other rioters in a coordinated “heave-ho” push and rocking movement against an established police line defending the Tunnel, authorities said.

He was arrested four days after the insurrection in New York after federal authorities issued a “be on the lookout” alert for him.

A coworker later told FBI agents that Weeks usually worked 10-hour shifts from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m., but he did not work on Jan. 6, 2021, court documents said.

In the 45 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,532 people have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol breach, authorities said.

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Probation and Pretrial Officers Help Bring Positive Change in the Community

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 23:28:27 +0000

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U.S. probation and pretrial officers must balance two very important goals: protecting public safety and helping people they oversee make positive changes in their lives.

In recognition of National Pretrial, Probation, and Parole Supervision (PPPS) Week, a new video explains the work of officers and their unique roles in the administration of justice, providing insight into how they do their jobs effectively.

Video of In Their Own Words: U.S. Probation and Pretrial Officers

“It’s the probation officer’s job to help assess the person under supervision and find out what their needs are. And once we know what their needs are, it’s our job to help motivate them and to … help collaboratively come up with that road map to get them to where they need to be,” said Justin Adams, a special offender specialist for the Western District of North Carolina U.S. Probation Office.

Officers work hard to help individuals who have been convicted of federal crimes to fully reintegrate themselves into society. Many face a wide range of needs, including employment, mental health treatment and even getting a driver’s license after spending time in incarceration.

“Not only am I working to help preserve community safety and looking out for the public, but I’m also working every day to help people make positive changes in their lives,” said Amanda Knox, a sentencing guideline specialist for the District of Arizona U.S. Probation Office.

PPPS Week is honored annually during the third calendar week of July to recognize the public service of community corrections professionals.

Learn more about the federal probation and pretrial services system.

Related Topics: Probation and Pretrial Services

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Hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants accused of assaulting police officers

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 07:12:23 +0000

Hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants accused of assaulting police officers – CBS News

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A CBS News review has found that hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants have been accused of assaulting members of law enforcement during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Former President Trump’s comments praising them as “patriots” and calling them “hostages” have some police officers and Homeland Security analysts concerned. Scott MacFarlane reports.

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Man sprayed officers with mace during Jan. 6 riots: Docs

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 02:18:16 +0000

Thomas Andrew Casselman pleaded guilty to a felony offense of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots. (Photos from court documents)

A man from South Carolina whose post-rioting online searches included, “What is the definition of a domestic terrorist,” admitted to assaulting officers during the Capitol breach by spraying them with “bear mace.”

Thomas Andrew Casselman, 30, entered his guilty plea to a felony offense of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. He is set to be sentenced on July 18.

Casselman was among a crowd of rioters gathered on the West Plaza of the Capitol grounds that day for Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally.

In addition to searching domestic terrorist definitions online, he also sought out legal information such as “The statute of limitations for assault on a police officer,” “The statute of limitations for assault on a federal officer,” “assaulting a federal officer punishment,” and “How long does Verizon keep text messages” before the FBI arrested him on March 28, 2023.

Like many of the rioters, he came onto the FBI’s radar through social media after images were published online. He was designated on FBI BOLO #363-AFO as a white male with light brown facial hair wearing a dark gray cap, black face mask, American flag gaiter or scarf around the neck, black jacket, and backpack.

He was captured on camera spraying law enforcement officers with an orange-colored chemical irritant colloquially known as “bear spray” or “bear mace.” The substance is marketed and designed to be used against bears, not humans.

Officers reported being sprayed with it. In one interview, a Washington, D.C. Metropolitan police officer said rioters sprayed him multiple times with chemical agents, including “bear mace.” He wasn’t wearing a gas mask to help defeat the irritant, so the effects hurt him badly. He reported his lungs seized up, he experienced convulsions, and he could hardly breathe, court documents said.

Another DC cop said rioters sprayed him twice. He said the spraying he received in police academy training with oleoresin capsicum spray — or “OC spray” — was nothing compared to the bear spray he believed he was hit with on Jan. 6.

Tipsters who identified Casselman to the feds said he bragged about going to Washington, telling them he had been hit with tear gas while there, and shared photographs and videos from his time there that day.

One witness said Casselman had cut his hair and deleted his Facebook account after the events.

In an interview with FBI agents on Dec. 28, 2021, Casselman admitted to being in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. He said his father even bought him a train ticket.

He also told agents he had post-traumatic stress disorder from the riots and had deleted his photographs and social media accounts, adding, “I don’t know if that falls under destruction of evidence,” court documents said.

When an agent showed him a picture of FBI BOLO #363-AFO and asked if it was him, he declined to answer further questions without a lawyer present.

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Man who hit officers with hockey stick on Jan. 6 sentenced

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:21:26 +0000

Michael Joseph Foy was sentenced for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Photos from court documents)

A Marine Corps veteran from Michigan who assaulted officers with a “TRUMP 2020” flag attached to a hockey stick at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 learned his fate this week.

Michael Joseph Foy, 32, was sentenced to 40 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. Foy was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, both felonies, on June 22.

Foy apologized to the officers and “to my country” and thanked the judge for releasing him from pretrial custody in 2021, which allowed him to get a job, The Associated Press reported.

“You allowed me to build the life that I so desperately needed after I got out of the Marine Corps,” he said, the AP reported.

Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee, who oversees former President Donald Trump’s election interference case, gave Foy less time than the prosecution’s recommended sentence of eight years and one month “with a heavy heart,” noting his positive turnaround. But she also said what he did was violent.

“You took an oath to serve your country, and you knew better,” she said, the AP reported. “What you did there on January 6th was not serving your country.”

Foy’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime. His defense attorneys sought no prison time.

Foy traveled from Michigan to Washington for Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally that day, planning to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election and to urge members of Congress to raise objections to or delay the official certification of electoral votes, authorities said.

Carrying a TRUMP 2020 flag attached to a hockey stick, he headed to the Capitol building at 2 p.m. with a large crowd. The group moved to “AREA CLOSED” signs and overturned metal bike rack barricades, then went to the Inaugural stage’s scaffolding before climbing to the Lower West Terrace.

At 4:25 p.m., Foy made his way through the mob of rioters in front of the Lower West Terrace tunnel, picked up a sharp metal pole and threw it over the head of rioters into the body of an officer, knocking the officer into the tunnel archway. Police body camera footage captured Foy using the hockey stick to attack police, swinging at officers at least 11 times. Court documents describe Foy swinging the stick over his head and down at officers as if he were “chopping wood with an ax,” court documents said.

One video from a police officer on the ground shows Foy attacking the officer in the face, head, neck, and body. Then he shouted at other rioters, “LET’S GO!” while pointing at the Capitol before climbing inside through a shattered window at 4:29 p.m.

The FBI arrested Foy on Jan. 21, 2021, in Michigan after he came to the attention of agents from a tip on the agency’s official Twitter account showing a photo of a man carrying a hockey stick.

“This is the man that killed the police officer. He hit him with a hockey stick over and over in the head,” the tweet read, which the FBI said they had no evidence that he killed an officer, saying they included the tweet in court documents to explain the investigative steps they took from that point forward.

As Law&Crime reported, the FBI identified a video on Jan. 16, 2021, from a New York Times article of the same man aggressively swinging the hockey stick at an individual lying on the ground and eventually identified him as Foy through his father’s Facebook page.

Foy was in the Marines from 2015 to 2020, when he was honorably discharged. The corporal was a supervisor on base in North Carolina and had been a heavy equipment mechanic in the U.S. and abroad.

Law&Crime’s Jerry Lambe and Matt Naham contributed to this report.

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National Guardsman admits to assaulting officers on Jan. 6

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 06:08:47 +0000

Matthew Honigford pleaded guilty to a felony offense of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks. (Photos from court documents)

A former Ohio Army National Guardsman who went AWOL after Joe Biden won the election admitted to assaulting officers during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, court documents said.

Matthew Honigford, 31, pleaded guilty to a felony offense of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. He is set to be sentenced on Aug. 19 by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee.

He was among thousands attending Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally that day before entering Capitol grounds, and his actions were caught on camera, officials said.

At 2:30 p.m., while Honigford was positioned at the front of a crowd of rioters that breached a police line of officers on the southwest plaza, he pushed a flagpole into an officer’s chest area, then struggled with the officer for the pole for about 20 seconds before advancing with the crowd to the upper west terrace, authorities said.

Later, he repeatedly touched or tried to touch officers with his hands, saying he was praying for them, authorities claim. When he didn’t stop reaching his hands toward officers, rioters told him to stop.

“I’m trying to f–––––– pray, guys,” he told them, according to court documents.

At another point, Honigford allegedly kicked a metal bike rack barrier toward an officer as rioters broke through a police line.

Honigford is a former specialist with the Ohio Army National Guard who was honorably discharged after he completed his enlistment commitment in March 2022, court documents said.

Authorities said a staff sergeant with the Ohio Army National Guard identified Honigford and said he had been a specialist in the Aviation Battalion that the staff sergeant had overseen beginning in 2019.

That witness told agents that shortly after the presidential election in November 2020, Honigford stopped attending drill weekends, saying his sister was sick and he needed to be available to help her.

The witness also said Honigford told him he did not trust the current state of the country following the election of Joe Biden as president. Honigford was reported Absent Without Leave but permitted to remain in the Ohio Army National Guard until his service ended on March 14, 2022.

Honigford’s public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime.

In the 37 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,313 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the Capitol breach, including more than 469 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, authorities said.

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Judge orders return of photographed legal documents taken by officers in raid of BLM attorney’s home

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 22:31:59 +0000

Criminal Justice

Judge orders return of photographed legal documents taken by officers in raid of BLM attorney’s home

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 30, 2024, 10:48 am CST

A Los Angeles judge has ordered police to return or destroy photographs that they took of legal documents in a search last week of the home of an attorney representing a leader of Black Lives Matter. (Image from Shutterstock)

A Los Angeles judge has ordered police to return or destroy photographs that they took of legal documents in a search last week of the home of an attorney representing a leader of Black Lives Matter.

Judge Rupert Byrdsong issued the order Friday, report the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times.

Lawyer Dermot Givens, 67, said about a dozen Los Angeles police officers in tactical gear surrounded his townhouse Jan. 23, showed him a partial warrant that had his address but no name, and proceeded to ransack the home.

Givens was at first ousted from his home, but when he returned, he saw police photographing documents from the case of Melina Abdullah, the co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter. She has sued police for allegedly mishandling a response to a false report of an emergency at her home in 2020.

The documents were on Givens’ kitchen table.

The warrant sought guns, ammunition, identity theft materials, cameras, lock-picking equipment and electronic devices, according to the Los Angeles Times. Police told Givens that they were looking for a younger man named “Tyler,” and an Apple AirTag near his home led to the police response.

Givens does not know anyone by that name, and he has lived in the home for more than 20 years. He told the AP that police “know exactly who I am and where I live,” and this is the latest instance of police harassment for his lawsuits against the Los Angeles Police Department.

A Los Angeles police spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times and the AP that it could not comment because of open criminal and internal-affairs investigations.

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Trump supporter arrested for assaulting officers on Jan. 6

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 03:03:46 +0000

James Weeks (Images from court documents)

A 55-year-old New York man was arrested for assaulting police during the 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, officials said.

James Weeks, 55, faces felony charges of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers during the riots that disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress counting the electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election during a “Stop the Steal” rally, authorities said.

Weeks was also charged with several less-serious misdemeanor offenses, including the destruction of government property and aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and engaging in physical violence on grounds or buildings, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Weeks was identified in U.S. Capitol building CCTV footage and body-worn camera video on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, during former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, prosecutors said.

In one video, the purple baseball cap-wearing Weeks identified himself, authorities said.

At 3:02 p.m., Weeks entered the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, the location of some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement that day, officials said.

At one point inside, he allegedly reached through a shattered window of a door, gestured at an officer, and yelled, “I’m gonna shove it up your a —! I’m gonna shove that up your a —, you fat f —! I’m gonna f — you up!”

Weeks then moved around the door frame and struck a Metropolitan Police Department officer before officers shot him with pepper spray, authorities said. He left and went to the Senate Wing Door. There, he stood in front of a man kicking a barricaded window and called out, “We need volunteers to keep pushing!”

A second man climbed onto the windowsill and began hitting it. Then, a woman began striking the window with the end of a flagpole before a rioter eventually kicked a hole in the windows as rioters cheered and cried, “Traitors!”

Weeks shook what appeared to be a can of pepper spray in the hole in the window several times and banged the can against the edge. He then struck the window with a stick or pole as another rioter joined him, eventually shattering the glass.

He’s expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

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Man bit off officer’s finger then ‘spit’ it out: Police

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 05:40:47 +0000

Tyron Brooks (Denver Police Department)

A 48-year-old man in Colorado allegedly bit off a police officer’s finger and spit it back out as authorities were attempting to arrest him over the weekend.

Tyron Brooks was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with one count of felony second-degree assault on a police officer, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.

Brooks was also charged on outstanding warrants for extortion and obstructing police.

According to a copy of the probable cause affidavit obtained by Denver Fox affiliate KDVR, officers with the Denver Police Department responded to an alley at about 1 p.m. on Saturday behind The Pioneer Bar in the 2400 block of South University Boulevard near East Wesley Avenue about a domestic violence incident.

Once there, first responders said they observed a man — later identified as Brooks — who was in a “fight stance” and yelling at a “terrified” woman who appeared to be “paralyzed with fear,” police wrote, the Sacramento Bee reported. When police attempted to step in and speak to the woman, Brooks allegedly told them she “could not talk to them.”

Officers then tried to call the victim over so they could speak to her, but Brooks allegedly would not allow that to happen, Denver CBS affiliate KCNC reported. When they asked if she needed assistance, Brooks reportedly forcefully placed his hand over her mouth to prevent her from responding.

The officers then decided they had to detain Brooks for the safety of the woman and tried to place him under arrest.

The officers reportedly moved in on Brooks and brought him down to the floor face down. He allegedly resisted and was able to flip onto his back. At that point, he allegedly turned toward one of the arresting officers and “opened his mouth,” then “intentionally bit through [the officer’s] left ring finger between the last knuckle and the fingernail completely amputating the distal portion of the officer’s finger,” police wrote in the affidavit. He then allegedly “turned his head and spit the amputated portion of [the officer’s] finger out of his mouth.”

Following the oral amputation of the officer’s finger, police were able to get Brooks under control and place him under arrest. The officer was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was treated and released, KCNC reported.

Police said Brooks was “not cooperative with the investigation” and taken to the Downtown Detention Center, where he was booked.

In addition to the assault charge, records show that Brooks was also charged with two counts of disturbing the peace and one count of threats to injure a person or property.

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