A DUI arrest in Rockmart, Georgia, triggered an investigation into the officer who made it because tests later showed the driver's blood alcohol was well below the legal limit. When Officer Thomas Maguire pulled him over, Allen Wehunt asked for a breathalyzer test. Maguire said, "No, Rockmart don't do breathalyzers anymore." The police chief said breathalyzers are always available, and an investigation found Maguire had made several other DUI arrests of people later cleared by blood tests. Maguire, who was previously terminated from the Georgia State Patrol during training, resigned from the Rockmart Police Department instead of being fired, but he was soon hired by another department because the Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council put him on probation rather than revoking his certification. Meanwhile, the mistaken DUI cost Wehunt over $5,000 in attorney fees.
A new bill in California would let the inspector general for the state's troubled high-speed rail project keep records secret from the public if officials think they could reveal weaknesses, like security risks or pending lawsuits. This has drawn criticism from people who say the project is already too far over budget and behind schedule. The rail system was originally approved to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles, cost $45 billion, and be completed by 2020. The project is still far from complete, with a new timeline stretching into the 2030s and the estimated cost ranging from $88 billion to $128 billion. Opponents of the bill argue taxpayers deserve transparency about how billions of dollars are being spent, and shielding information could hide more problems on a project that has faced rising costs and long delays.
In nine years as a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri, Blayne Newton fatally shot three people and injured others, costing the city millions of dollars to settle lawsuits resulting from his actions. He has now agreed to resign from the city police department under a settlement agreement that will pay him $50,000. In June 2023, Newton fired 16 shots into a minivan, killing two people and wounding a third, even though he was not supposed to be on duty in that area at the time; the city later paid $3.5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit as a result of the incident.
Georgia state Rep. Joseph Gullett (R–Dallas) has sponsored a bill that would limit police body camera and dashcam videos from open records laws when they capture someone's death. Gullet says the bill is meant to protect the dignity of people's final moments and stop others from using the videos to get web traffic or views on social media. But critics worry it could reduce public transparency, keeping important evidence from the public and making it harder to hold police accountable when there are questions about their actions.
The British Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of Courtsdesk, the country's largest archive of court records, which is regularly used by journalists to track magistrates' court cases. According to Courtsdesk, the official court systems are often slow, with inaccurate or missing data, and reporters were not told about 1.6 million hearings in advance. As a result, more than 1,500 journalists from 39 media organizations used the service regularly to cover legal news. The ministry said it ordered the deletion because of concerns about data privacy, but press advocates worry about a lack of transparency in the justice system.
Devon Horton resigned as school superintendent in DeKalb County, Georgia, after being indicted on 17 federal counts over an alleged kickback scheme in a previous job. Prosecutors say that from 2020 to 2023, while serving as superintendent in Illinois, Horton steered more than $280,000 in contracts to friends in exchange for $80,000 in kickbacks.
Enforcement officers in London fined Burcu Yesilyurt 150 pounds ($200) for pouring the last of her coffee into a storm drain. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 prohibits the disposal of waste in a manner that could pollute land or water. Yesilyurt said she wasn't aware the act applied to a beverage poured into a drain and called the penalty "not proportionate." The local council later canceled the fine after public backlash.
Two firefighters in Aurora, Colorado, drove a fire engine at high speed, activated spotlights, and swerved into oncoming traffic, which forced a police vehicle off the road. The fire department demoted them and the assistant district attorney called their actions "childish and foolish," but prosecutors declined to file criminal charges.
Adrian Poulton, a man in England with Down syndrome, was admitted to a National Health Service hospital for a broken hip. While his hip healed, doctors listed him "nil by mouth," meaning he was given nothing to eat, but they never provided an alternative source of nutrition. He died after nine days without food, during which time his family believed he was being fed.
Illustration: Peter Bagge
Laurent Lant was charged with stealing over $500,000 in government funds while he oversaw the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation program for the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM). Lant allegedly made 18 monetary transfers from Army accounts into a new company account he formed. IMCOM flagged the transactions, and Lant attempted to flee, booking a same-day flight to Paris. Investigators arrested him before he departed. Lant's arrest came just over a year after another IMCOM employee was sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing $108 million.
Canada's proposed Bill C-8 would let the industry minister secretly order telecoms to cut phone and internet service to any person or institution if the government claims there are "reasonable grounds" to believe they pose a threat of "interference, manipulation, disruption or degradation" to the national networks. For anyone subject to such an order, the government may prohibit "the disclosure of its existence," and the bill provides "no compensation" for any financial losses.
Illustration: Peter Bagge
Lawrence Smith, a Baltimore City Schools police officer of 22 years, pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and tax evasion. Smith admitted to stealing roughly $215,000 in taxpayer funds by logging overtime when he was not actually working. He faces as much as 25 years in prison and must forfeit at least $261,000, but he will still draw a pension: Under current rules, Baltimore lacks a clause to strip pensions for misconduct not involving elected officials.
Illustration: Peter Bagge
An Alabama state audit found Greene County Sheriff Jonathan Benison improperly spent nearly $5 million from a county bingo fund. A county ordinance allows nonprofits to raise money through bingo games, with the sheriff administering the program. From 2018 to 2024, the audit says, Benison collected $16.9 million in proceeds from bingo, but it claims he lacked adequate documentation for millions of dollars in expenditures, including $3.16 million paid to employees outside of their salaries. It further noted his office failed to follow state laws for bookkeeping, such as reconciling bank accounts. Benison was ordered to repay the funds, and the matter has been turned over to the district attorney and the state attorney general.
Christopher Anderson, a former county clerk in Elkhart County, Indiana, pleaded guilty to official misconduct, and former deputy clerk Carol Smith was found guilty of official misconduct and misdemeanor conversion. Investigators found that for several years, Anderson and Smith approved payments to employees for hours they didn't actually work—allowing them to work 72 hours while getting paid for 80. Each received a suspended two-year prison sentence plus two years of probation.
Criminal courts in England and Wales face a huge backlog of more than 79,600 cases waiting to be tried. That number is expected to reach 100,000 by 2028, according to government figures. This means people charged with serious crimes today might not go to trial until after 2030, leaving victims, witnesses, and suspects waiting years for justice. The problem started growing in 2010 after budget cuts reduced funding, closed many courts, and limited judges' working days, leaving courtrooms empty. The COVID-19 pandemic made the problem worse by shutting courts for months and forcing social distancing rules that slowed trials when they reopened.
In Missouri, Pariss Brown keeps getting surprise visits from law enforcement because her home was the last known address for a wanted felon. The man lived there years ago, and Brown says she doesn't know him. She explains that to cops every time they show up, and she has called the local police department to get her home out of the database. But her address is still connected to the fugitive in police databases, and officers keep showing up looking for him.
Two security professionals who were hired by the Iowa Judicial Branch to do a security assessment have received a $600,000 settlement after the county wrongly arrested them and fought them for years. In 2019, Gary DeMercurio and Justin Wynn were working at the Dallas County Courthouse and triggered an alarm as part of a penetration test. When deputies showed up, the testers showed their authorization papers, and that seemed to be the end of it. But when Sheriff Chad Leonard arrived, he had them charged with felony burglary. Leonard insisted he controls the courthouse and is the only one who can authorize such work. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanors and eventually dropped even as Leonard still insisted the testers' actions were illegal.
(Illustration: New York Post/AFP via Getty Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In Indonesia's Aceh province, which enforces strict Islamic sharia law, a woman and her partner were each publicly caned 140 times in a town square for having sex outside of marriage and drinking alcohol. They received 100 lashes for the premarital sex and 40 for the alcohol, marking one of the harshest sentences in the 25 years since sharia was introduced in 2001. The woman collapsed during the flogging and had to be carried on a stretcher to an ambulance afterward. They were among six people punished that day, including a sharia police officer and his female partner who were each caned 23 times for being close to each other in a private place.
A grand jury in Bexar County, Texas, has indicted Judge Rosie Speedlin-Gonzalez on charges of felony unlawful restraint by a judicial officer and misdemeanor official oppression. During a probation revocation hearing in December 2024, Speedlin-Gonzalez asked if the defendant had failed to report to his probation officer, to which he responded, "true." Defense attorney Elizabeth Russell then conferred with the defendant, who retracted his answer. Speedlin-Gonzalez accused the attorney of coaching her client and being argumentative, and she ordered bailiffs to handcuff Russell and place her in the jury box until she agreed to "behave professionally."
Carl McCain won $800 on a lottery ticket, but when he went to claim his prize, North Carolina officials told him the money was being taken to pay debts he owed to Lenoir County and Wayne County. North Carolina law allows the state to seize winnings to cover state or local debts, but McCain said the debts weren't his and that he had never been to those counties. He called county officials and found the debt belonged to someone with a similar name, but their records listed McCain's Social Security number, causing the mix-up. Still, nothing happened for over a month. Finally, after he reached out to a TV reporter, officials corrected the error and McCain received his winnings in the mail.
Former Atlanta Housing Authority senior vice president Tracy Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft of government funds, wire fraud, and credit application fraud, for misusing her position to fraudulently collect more than $300,000 in federal funds. Prosecutors say Jones falsified documents to approve her son's girlfriend for Section 8 housing vouchers, which were then used to pay rent on a home that Jones herself owned. She also submitted false paperwork to get a Federal Housing Administration mortgage on the same property, and she used a fake name and business to net $36,000 in pandemic relief funds. She faces more than 20 years in federal prison when she is sentenced in May.
New York City sent "warming buses" to help the homeless stay warm and get food during a recent cold snap. But at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, a well-known homeless gathering spot, nobody knew the buses were there—including the homeless, a police officer on patrol, and terminal workers. The city issued no announcements, and though the buses had "warming center" signs, they were barely noticeable. No one knew the buses were there until a volunteer group showed up to direct the homeless to them.
Police in London used public order laws to block a planned U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) march through Tower Hamlets because they were worried the demonstration—which was framed around immigration and deportations—could lead to serious violence from residents in the mostly Bangladeshi community. Officials claimed they were not banning the march because it could take place in other parts of the city.
A homeowner in British Columbia, Canada, who found what might be Indigenous human remains on their land, now faces huge legal, archaeological, and monitoring costs—well over $100,000 ($73,000 U.S.) and counting. Under Canadian provincial law, private landowners must pay to protect and investigate heritage sites with no government help or compensation. The Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc nation is not only claiming the property as a heritage site but also a surrounding buffer zone that affects other properties. Meanwhile, it isn't even clear the remains are Indigenous: One archaeological firm said the bones could have been brought to the site by a previous owner as part of a sand fill deposit.
California's Franchise Tax Board says a family who moved to Florida in 2021 may still owe state income taxes. Hari Raghavan and Mitali Gala received a letter in January 2026 asking for receipts, canceled checks, and a "narrative of the circumstances" of their move to show they actually left the state when they say they did. The couple said they put their California house on the market but couldn't sell it right away, and even though it didn't sell until 2022, they insist Florida became their home in 2021. On social media, Raghavan says he's frustrated by demands like providing a moving inventory list. The board says it audits residency cases to enforce rules that people who live and earn money in California for at least nine months a year must pay state taxes, and these reviews usually take 18 to 24 months.
A former employee of the U.S. House of Representatives was arrested and indicted in federal court for stealing government-issued cellphones worth more than $150,000 while he worked as a system administrator for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Prosecutors say Christopher Southerland ordered 240 extra phones to be shipped to his home and sold most of them to a pawn shop, even telling a pawn shop employee to break the phones down into parts to avoid detection. The theft was uncovered when he sold a phone on eBay, and the buyer called a number preloaded in the phone, which went to Congress' tech support desk. That call sparked an investigation by the FBI and U.S. Capitol Police.
A recent snow storm left long stretches of New York City's public sidewalks covered in snow and ice, making them more difficult for people to walk on safely, because the city doesn't automatically clear its own walkways—even though it requires private property owners to shovel the sidewalks in front of their buildings within a set time or face fines. City officials say they'll monitor and respond to complaints and sometimes send crews to clear trouble spots, but they note that government workers aren't fined or forced to clear their own snow.
A British government–funded video game aimed at students aged 11 to 18 is warning teenagers that questioning mass migration or even researching immigration statistics online could lead to a referral to the U.K.'s counterterrorism program, Prevent. The game, titled Pathways, guides white teenage characters through scenarios in which they must avoid being flagged for "extreme right-wing ideology," portraying certain political activity or even searches for information as potential warning signs. Within the game, characters are told they risk referral if they interact with groups said to spread "harmful ideological messages" or attend protests opposing what is described as the "erosion of British values."
Under a draft Crown Prosecution Service document in England and Wales, male circumcision could be treated as a possible form of child abuse, placing it in the same category as other "harmful practices" including exorcisms. The proposal has alarmed Jewish and Muslim leaders who say circumcision is an important and generally safe religious tradition.
Groups including the ACLU and the Sierra Club are backing Oak Park, Illinois, as it defends in federal court its ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings. A lawsuit from natural gas and construction industry groups argues the ban breaks federal laws limiting how state and local governments can limit federally regulated energy sources. Oak Park officials say the policy is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of its plan to make the city carbon neutral by 2050.
(Aaron Schwartz-Pool via CNP/CNP/ Polaris/Newscom/Midjourney)
Officials at England's Henley College, a public school equivalent to junior and senior years in U.S. high schools, reported a politics teacher to authoriites after he showed videos of U.S. President Donald Trump to his 17- and 18-year-old students during a lesson on the 2024 election. Officials said the videos could have caused "emotional harm" and might be seen as a "hate crime." The school refused to discuss the matter, but the teacher, who asked not to be identified, claimed he was essentially forced from his job as a result of the complaint.
Federal prosecutors in Georgia have charged Attallah Williams with conspiracy to defraud the government. Officials say Williams stole more than $3.5 million in fraudulent COVID-19 relief funds while working first at the Small Business Administration and later at the IRS. According to prosecutors, she approved fake loan and tax credit applications, recruiting people on Instagram to take part in the scheme in exchange for kickbacks.
Former Durham, North Carolina, police officer Rayshawn Taylor was sentenced to three years and one month in prison plus two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a man while on duty. Taylor responded to a welfare check at the victim's home around 4:30 a.m. After a superior officer left the scene, Taylor frisked the victim and sexually assaulted him for several minutes. He used a translation app on his phone to ask if the victim "liked it" and threatened to arrest him if he told anyone. When the victim's wife called 911, Taylor returned to the house in uniform, denying everything, but the wife insisted on speaking to a supervisor. The supervisor asked if Taylor had recorded the interaction on his body camera, but Taylor said he didn't turn the camera on—a violation of department policy—because he didn't plan to arrest the victim. Investigators later found footage from Taylor's patrol car that corroborated the victim's story and evidence that he deleted the translation app from his personal phone.
A Spotlight PAinvestigation revealed that police in State College, Pennsylvania, underreported hundreds of rapes in its public crime statistics over nearly a decade, from 2013 to 2021. The department only reported 67 rapes to state and federal authorities during that time, but after reviewing the cases, it admitted there were actually 321—an undercount of 254, or nearly 80 percent. Officials said this happened because the police kept using an old, narrower definition of rape even after the FBI updated it in 2013 to include more types of sexual assault, and the department didn't learn about the change until a supervisor was trained in 2022. Police officials said the mistake was not intentional, but even after updating its reporting, the department did not reveal the yearslong undercounting until the news story came out. Spotlight PA said it cannot say if other factors led to the undercount since the police department refused to give it access to investigative files.
(Illustration: Thomas Lukassek/Dreamstime/Midjourney)
Lawmakers in Germany have approved the Political Advertising Transparency Act. Supporters say it will make political ads more honest and follow new European Union rules on disclosing the financing for political ads. But critics note that the bill gives the nation's telecom regulator the power to search media offices, newsrooms, and digital platform offices without a warrant if it suspects someone isn't following the paperwork rules for political advertising. This could let officials enter without warning, look at files, and possibly see confidential sources or protected information. The bill is waiting for final approval in Parliament.
A Massachusetts bill, sponsored by state Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem (D–Newton), would require transportation officials to set statewide goals for cutting vehicle miles traveled starting in 2030 and every five years after that. Creem says her goal is to help the state meet its climate goals by reducing the total number of miles people drive across the whole state. She insists the bill will not limit the number of miles anyone can drive but will spur planners to invest more in public transit, biking, and walking. Critics, including some Republicans, say it could negatively affect people who rely on cars, especially in rural parts of the state. The bill advanced in November and is now being considered by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
In Australia, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon extended restrictions on public assemblies and protest marches in Sydney's central, southwest, and northwest metropolitan areas for another two weeks. The restrictions started on Christmas Eve after a major terrorist attack at Bondi that killed 15 people and injured many others. Lanyon says the goal is to give the community time to grieve and feel safe. While peaceful gatherings are still allowed, they cannot get official police approval, and officers can order people to move on if they block traffic or pedestrians, or act in intimidating ways. Critics, including the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, argue the measures limit free speech and create fear in the community. The restrictions can be further renewed every two weeks for up to three months.
Australia now requires internet search engines to blur violent and sexual images to reduce the chances that minors can see them. By June, they must also determine whether account holders are at least 18 years old using a range of methods, such as digital ID, facial age estimation, credit card checks, parental verification, or AI inference. For minors and those who are not signed in, explicit material must be filtered from results, and autocomplete suggestions must avoid sexual or violent language. The law also requires content related to suicide or self-harm to be downranked, while crisis resources are placed high in the results. These obligations also apply to AI-generated search outputs, including systems like Google's Gemini. Opponents say these requirements raise concerns about accuracy and privacy, and even supporters admit they face challenges in defining and detecting harmful content without also blocking legitimate information.
In Madera County, California, federal authorities arrested former welfare benefits worker Leticia Mariscal for using her position to steal food assistance funds. Prosecutors say Mariscal accessed county databases through her job to steal the identities of more than 15 elderly or deceased people and then secretly approved them for food benefits through CalFresh, the state's food stamp program. She then printed cards and spent the funds herself, stealing over $40,000 between 2020 and 2025. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison.
(Illustration: Eddie Marshall | Midjourney | Nano Banana)
Former Littleton, Colorado, school bus aide Kiarra Jones pleaded guilty to multiple charges after video and bus camera footage showed her assaulting three nonverbal students with autism while she worked on their bus. Parents of the students said their injuries included bruises, scratches, a black eye, and a broken bone. Jones pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts of third-degree assault of an at-risk person and two misdemeanor child-abuse counts. She will be sentenced in March.
William White Jr., a U.S. Postal Service carrier in Florida, was arrested for trying to run over a 10-year-old boy with his postal truck because he thought the child was stealing a package. In fact, White had left the package at the wrong house, and the boy was taking it to the right house. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, when White saw the boy riding his scooter with the package, he drove toward him and ran over the scooter, only narrowly missing the boy. He then put the scooter in his postal truck and drove off. White has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, petit theft, and criminal mischief.
A police officer in Leicestershire, England, was found to have committed gross misconduct for how he handled a case involving a woman accused of illegally foraging mushrooms in a protected park. Instead of speaking to her directly, as he was required to do, Police Constable Christopher Vickers gave paperwork to her partner, then falsely claimed she had signed a form admitting guilt. That form would have come up every time she underwent a background check. A misconduct panel ruled Vickers' actions were dishonest and improper, and he is now barred from serving as a police officer.
(Illustration: Eddie Marshall | Midjourney Nano Banana)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Luis Uribe has been indicted on 10 counts of deprivation of civil rights under color of law and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. Prosecutors said Uribe sexually assaulted and robbed multiple women while acting under the authority of his job in the Chicago suburbs.
(Illustration: Eddie Marshall | Sanford Police Department)
Ronny Neal, a police officer in Sanford, Florida, has been charged with 79 counts of official misconduct and organized fraud after investigators say he falsely reported 79 off-duty work shifts he never actually worked, for which he was paid more than $12,000 by the city. Neal is accused of stealing taxpayer money by creating fake off-duty details and submitting them for payment even though there was no real work done. Neal served in the department's Professional Standards unit, which investigates other officers for wrongdoing.
A report by the Austin City Auditor's Office in Austin, Texas, found two former city employees defrauded the city government out of $980,000. Auditors found that while working for Austin Energy, Mark Ybarra made payments to 22 "fictitious vendors" that he had created, with addresses linked to himself or his relatives, and submitted fake invoices to cover it up. The report also mentioned Ybarra's wife, Ambrosia Ybarra, who previously worked for the city's Watershed Protection Department, and it singled out two Austin Energy managers for approving payments based on invoices they "should have identified as questionable or illegitimate." The couple have each been indicted by grand juries for felony theft, while the managers have not been charged.
Ireland Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris says that when his country holds the presidency of the European Union next year, it will lead a push for new rules that would require people to verify their identity before using social media across the E.U. Harris says this will reduce anonymous online abuse, bots, and the spread of false information. He said it could also include age checks to keep young users from viewing content regulators say they shouldn't. Critics say the plan could deal a big blow to user privacy.
In 2025, the United Kingdom paid a record cost of nearly £1.5 billion ($2 billion) to keep wind farms from producing more energy than the nation's outdated power grid can handle. When high winds cause turbines to produce more energy than power lines can safely carry, the government must pay wind farms to shut down turbines in remote areas to prevent an overload; it must then pay other sources, such as gas plants, to turn on in order to meet demand. Last year, the government spent £380 million paying wind farms to shut off, and it paid power plants £1.08 billion ($1.46 billion) to make up the difference. Without urgent infrastructure upgrades, experts warn these "constraint payments" will continue to rise, adding to customers' electric bills.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has finalized rules requiring natural gas utilities to significantly reduce carbon emissions from homes and other buildings. The rules mandate a 41 percent cut in these emissions over the next 10 years, with the goal of full decarbonization by 2050. To meet those targets, officials will have to push customers to replace gas furnaces and appliances with electric alternatives and upgrade home insulation, despite concerns about the cost to consumers.
Melvin McClain, a teacher at Conyers Middle School in Georgia, faces one count of simple battery and three counts of cruelty to children after allegedly beating a 13-year-old student more than 20 times in the head and stomach. School surveillance video shows McClain grabbing the boy by the neck, clearing other students from the classroom, and carrying out the attack. A former "Teacher of the Year," McClain described the actions as "horseplay."
The Florida Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a South Florida woman fined more than $100,000 for parking on her own driveway. Sandy Martinez racked up $250 in daily fines for nearly a year because two of her car's tires touched the grass next to her driveway, violating local codes. She was also cited for cracks in her driveway and a storm-damaged fence. These fines grew to a massive six-figure sum because the town claimed she did not properly fix the issues, while Martinez says her attempts to schedule an inspection were ignored.
(Illustration: Adani Samat | Midjourney | Nano Banana)
Eva Benedelova and Pavel Benedela face possible deportation after an Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) error wrongly registered them to vote in 2022, even though they are not U.S. citizens and had opted out. When they updated their driver's licenses online, the DMV system automatically created voter registration forms using their digital signatures and falsely listed them as citizens without their knowledge or consent. The error surfaced during their citizenship applications, causing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to delay their approval and warn that falsely claiming citizenship could lead to deportation. The couple, who have never voted and quickly canceled their voter registrations, sued USCIS to force a decision on their citizenship. The Alaska Division of Elections admitted the mistake was the state's fault and says "less than 50" people may have been wrongly registered to vote.
Hawaii's Department of the Attorney General says it will not file criminal charges against the police officer whose K-9 partner died after being left in a patrol car outside a police station, citing insufficient evidence of a crime. Officer Sidra Brown was not placed on leave but was reassigned while the police department conducts its own internal review. In response to the incident, the police department says it will add heat sensors to K-9 patrol cars and use special collars that connect to the handlers' phones to monitor the dogs' health and send alerts if something goes wrong.
New Jersey corrections officer Anthony Nelson has been charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact for assaulting two inmates he supervised on December 1. Nelson has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of his case. The assaults occurred at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, a state prison that houses and treats repetitive, compulsive sex offenders.
Former Clayton County, Georgia, jailer Jabin Bethea pleaded guilty in federal court to violating a pretrial detainee's civil rights. While transferring detainees between housing units, Bethea argued with a man who cursed at him, then slammed the detainee's head into a wall, threw him on the floor, and ordered him to put his hands behind his back. Surveillance and body-camera footage show the detainee lying on the floor, obeying orders, yet Bethea tased him at least six times. Bethea is scheduled for sentencing in 2026.
Lawton Chiles Middle School in Oviedo, Florida, briefly went into a "Code Red" lockdown after an AI-powered weapon detection system called ZeroEyes flagged what it believed was a man carrying a gun. Human reviewers confirmed the potential threat and alerted the police, sending officers rushing to the school. Authorities quickly determined that the "gun" was in fact a clarinet carried by a band student.
