Crime and Punishment
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Corey Harris, a Michigan man due in court virtually for a hearing, certainly didn’t do himself any favors earlier this month before the meeting with the judge. Mr. Harris, who has a suspended license, called into the hearing while driving which sparked the judge to react with disbelief.
Corey Harris, 44, was slated to speak to Washtenaw County Judge Cedric Simpson and called into the hearing via Zoom while driving a vehicle. As reported by Detroit outlet WXYZ, Harris was charged with driving with a suspended license in October 2023. Assistant Public Defender Natalie Pate introduced the case to the judge, and the Zoom call began with Harris simply driving along without any concern for the optics.
Harris caused Judge Simpson to become flabbergasted after he asked the judge for a moment to park his vehicle after he explained he was heading to his doctor’s office. After a moment, Judge Simpson couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.
“No, I’m looking at his record. He doesn’t have a license. He’s suspended and he’s just driving,” Simpson says, trying to maintain his composure. Simpson added, “I don’t even know why he would do that.”
Instead of proceeding with the hearing, Judge Simpson revoked Harris’ bond and ordered Harris to turn himself in by 6 PM that day. As the Detroit News added in its reporting, Harris was set to appear before the court in connection to his suspended license case.
Corey Harris is due back in court on June 5, hopefully taking Uber or getting a lift from a friend.
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Photo: Zinkevych / Getty
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Source: Robin L Marshall / Getty
A former diversity manager for both Facebook and Nike just learned that crime doesn’t pay and that freedom is indeed priceless. Barbara Furlow-Smiles was just sentenced to five years in prison for robbing both companies of millions of dollars.
According to CNBC, Furlow-Smiles pleaded guilty to wire fraud back in December of 2023 after being accused of stealing $4.9 million from Facebook by using fake invoices, fraudulent vendors and even cash kickbacks while working for the company. Interestingly enough she continued to partake in such practices when she got herself a new gig over at Nike as their DEI but only made off with a little more than $100,000. Chicken feed when compared to the millions she syphoned off of Facebook but still a lot of money.
Prosecutors in the case asked the judge to sentence her to 6 and a half years as she used the money to fund a pretty lavish lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon, but “luckily” for Smiles, the judge overseeing the case decided to cut the sentence down to five years for her transgressions and ordered her to repay Facebook $4.8 million and Nike $121,000.
CNBC reports:
Prosecutors in their sentencing memo said that in addition to the money Furlow-Smiles stole from the company, Meta lost more than $4.5 million “in addition to other expenses, such as attorney’s fees, which were incurred as a result of Meta having to uncover and investigate her fraud scheme.”
“As Meta notes, ‘the harm from [Furlow-Smiles’] criminal conduct cannot be measured purely in financial terms,‘” prosecutors recounted in their memo. “Her ‘crimes also resulted in anguish amongst those employees that worked closely with her.’”
Nike told prosecutors that she was “entrusted as a leader for [the] company, that she would embody the value of ‘Doing the Right Thing’ which is one of NIKE’s key maxims,” the prosecutor said in their memo. “As Nike explains, ‘[t]o say that Ms. Furlow-Smiles violated our trust would be an understatement. The fraud committed by Ms. Furlow-Smiles violated the trust of and devastated the employees who managed and worked with her.’ ”
We’re just surprised that she continued her scheme at Nike after getting fired from Facebook. Did they not call her past employers for references or anything?
What do y’all think of this multi-million dollar scheme? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Diddy, real name Sean Combs, is already scrambling from a personal image standpoint based on the leak of the video showing Combs violently assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. Amid the chatter surrounding those images, another accuser has filed a lawsuit alleging that Diddy sexually assaulted her in 2003.
As reported by CNN, Crystal McKinney, a winner of MTV’s Model Mission series, was 22 at the time she met Diddy during a Men’s Fashion Week dinner in 2003. McKinney wrote in her complaint that Combs invited her to his nearby recording studio where she claims he allegedly drugged her with marijuana laced with a stronger narcotic.
The details of McKinney’s accounts of the events might be disturbing to some so we urge caution from this point forward. McKinney added that she was already under the influence of alcohol when she was handed the marijuana joint and says she was then led to a bathroom by Combs and forced to perform oral sex on him.
McKinney says she lost consciousness while at the studio and woke up in a cab heading to the home of a designer she was working with at the time and realized that she was sexually assaulted.
Bad Boy Records, Sean John Clothing LLC, and Universal Music Group Inc. are all named as defendants in McKinney’s lawsuit and according to CNN, none of them made any public inference to the filing. The lawsuit was filed over violations noted in the New York Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. It is the sixth such lawsuit, all of which make mention of sexual assault
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The Feds have reportedly raided multiple homes of Sean “Diddy” Combs. The Bad Boy Records founder’s homes in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami were all seemingly raided simultaneously.
TMZ initially reported that law enforcement rolled up into Diddy’s Beverly Hills home. FOX 11 Los Angeles noted that the raid was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.
Allegedly the raids are in connection with a federal sex trafficking investigation. That would explain the reasoning behind an execution of warrants across multiple states at the same time.
Footage of authorities holding rifles and taking people who were in the homes into custody have started making the social media rounds.
Unsubstantiated word is that King Combs and Justin Combs were detained.
Reports SkyFOX:
SkyFOX flew over Combs’ home Monday afternoon and showed federal agents conducting their investigation at his home.
FOX 11’s ground crew at the scene said the home was registered to Bad Boys Films, which is a division of Bad Boy Entertainment, along with one of Combs’ daughters.
SkyFOX also captured images of a few people coming out of the home who were subsequently detained.
Per Homeland Security, “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available.”
Check out reactions on X, formerly know as Twitter, in the gallery.
This story is developing.
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Troy Ave has finally faced a judge for his crimes. Last week, he turned himself in for his role in the 2016 shooting at Irving Plaza.
As reported by XXL, the Brooklyn, New York, rapper was summoned to Brooklyn Federal Court Building Friday (Feb. 9). In a video he shared out on social media he detailed his predicament. “About to run up in the court,” he explained. “They might cheat me, you might not see me for a while. But just know the streets is a myth. All them people that was in the car with me, I ended up taking the guns. Somebody shot at me, and instead of me laying down and dying, I’d have been a hero, a martyr, I took the gun and bust back.”
He went on to ask his friends and family for support. “There you have it, here come the consequences. But we don’t cry over spilled milk. You take the lemons and you make lemonade. God is great and paper straight. Y’all keep supporting and keep running it up. And send prayers; prayers count more than anything.” Since then his social media account has been inactive prompting questions on his freedom.
The publication reached out to Troy Ave’s lawyer for clarification and he confirmed that the “All About The Money” rapper is indeed behind bars. “Roland was sentenced on 2/9/24 to one year in jail on his plea to attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the 2nd degree,” the response allegedly said. “Under the law he must serve eight months to satisfy that sentence. Since he previously spent almost two months in jail before he made bail, the remaining balance of time he must serve is a little over six months.”
Troy Ave was charged with attempted murder in connection to the shooting at Irving Plaza where his friend, Ronald “Banga” McPhatter, was killed. In March 2023, media personality Taxstone was convicted on manslaughter, assault and weapon possession charges. He continues to plead his innocence in the murder.
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Nicole Fegan, a defense attorney whose client was connected to the Young Stoner Life list of codefendants, was arrested on unrelated gang charges on Friday (Feb. 16) in Georgia. Fegan, who has several videos online of her discussing her career and connection to clients, is facing multiple gang-related charges that is not connected to the YSL matter despite the chatter online.
The arrest of Nicole Fegan is a fast-developing story so we’ll try to pack in as much as we know currently. Fegan was charged back in February of last year after making contact with the suspect of a Sept. 27, 2022 shooting case that left one man dead.
As local outlet WSB-TV reports, Fegan was arrested for contacting the male suspect in the aforementioned shooting, which contained two victims, in Northwest Atlanta. Fegan was arrested in Gwinnett County and will be transported to Fulton County based on warrants that highlighted she was facing charges of participating in criminal street gang activity and criminal solicitation to commit the offense of tampering with evidence.
Police told WSB-TV that Fegan contacted the suspect by phone but was not part of their legal team thus sparking the warrants for arrest. Fegan alerted the man that there were warrants out for his arrest and that she found out about the warrants during a hearing while instructing the suspect to rid himself of his phone so he couldn’t be tracked digitally.
Fegan did not represent Young Thug in the YSL RICO case. Her client, Tenquarius Mender, had his case split from the wider YSL trial. That said, the arrest of Fegan has caused a stir online with some believing it will have some impact on the YSL RICO trial.
On X, formerly Twitter, the reactions have been pouring in. We’ve got them listed below.
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Photo: @feganlaw / Instagram
11. Just in case there are any mixups.
14. Getting the important questions out of the way.
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Source: SNKRS / NIke
Once again authorities have recovered millions of dollars worth of stolen Nike sneakers as the war on sneaker thieves seems to be heating up out on these streets, and we’re not even mad at it.
According to KTLA, 37-year-old Roy Lee Harvey Jr. was taken into custody in Los Angeles County after he was accused of being a part of a massive organized retail theft ring that specialized in receiving, redistributing and reselling top shelf sneaker silhouettes on the secondary market.
KTLA reports:
The LAPD says it executed two search warrants, one in Hollywood and one in Hawthorne. Police say the suspect was delivering stolen goods to a warehouse in Hawthorne.
Detectives teamed with Nike’s Global Security Director and other supply chain investigators to find the stolen goods. When they gained access to the warehouse in Hawthorne, they found thousands of pairs of stolen Nike shoes, clothing, accessories, and unique prototypes.
We’re not gonna lie, that man had some heat! From the scarce Air Jordan 8 “Kobe”‘s to the yellow “Lobster” SB Dunks, he was sitting on a damn sneaker gold mine. Now that they have these sneakers in their possession, will they be sold at auction? If they are what’s their authentication process? Sneaker heads want answers!
Don’t be surprised if the man goes Tekashi 6ix9ine and gives up the goods on his partners when it’s all said and done.
Check out the news reports on the bust below and let us know your thoughts on the situation in the comments section.
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A Pennsylvania man was taken into custody after uploading a YouTube showing his father’s decapitated head. Police were able to arrest the man without incident after tracking his cell phone some 100 miles away from the scene of the murder. We must warn that the details within are disturbing so proceed with caution.
Justin Mohn, 32, carried out the gruesome crime on Tuesday (Jan. 30) at the home of Michael Mohn, 68, in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pa. According to the report made by local outlet WGAL, Mohn was arrested in Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County, Pa.
“We didn’t know where he was going and what his intentions were when he left here,” Capt. Pete Feeney of the Middletown Township Police Department said. “Fortunately, we were able to get a location based on his cellphone.”
The outlet adds that police were able to determine that Mohn lived in the home with his father but they are still trying to determine a motive as the investigation is still underway. The YouTube video made its rounds on social media before takedowns began to occur. In the clip, Mohn does not appear to be distressed or disturbed by the crime he carried out.
Mohn is being charged with murder of the first degree, abuse of corpse, and possession of an instrument of crime with intent. He is due in court on Feb. 8 for a preliminary hearing and will be held until then as his bail was denied.
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Roda Osman, a Texas woman largely referred to as “Brick Lady” on social media, has been charged with making a false assault claim where she said she was hit in the face with a brick. Osman went viral after sharing a video of injuries that were linked to the assault, raising over $40,000 on GoFundMe in the process.
Local outlet KPRC 2 reports that Roda Osman, 33, was charged with felony theft by deception after investigators discovered that Osman’s story didn’t add up. According to the report, Houston police responded to the scene of the alleged assault on Sept. 3 of last year, meeting with Osman and another woman. According to the officers, Osman was reportedly under the influence and hostile.
Osman told police that she was walking in the city when a man threw a brick at her for not giving up her phone number, according to findings from the court documents. Adding to this, Osman claimed that the driver of an Uber car service she ordered was the man who assaulted her and said that the man was part of a human trafficking scheme.
Almost two weeks later on Sept. 15, detectives attempted to contact Osman by phone but the number belonged to the woman that was on the scene of the alleged assault. The woman said she was not a native of Houston and went out drinking with Osman that night and added that Osman called male friends to provide transportation.
The woman said that when the pair entered the vehicle, Osman yelled out “why you hit me” but said she didn’t hear any sort of argument or discussion beforehand. Off the record, the woman said she didn’t think Osman was hit by a brick. The woman then said that the man suspected of hitting Osman exited the car and entered another vehicle before driving off. It was then that Osman decided to go live on Instagram with the woman suggesting she contact the authorities.
Days later on Sept. 20, Houston detectives obtained surveillance video footage and located Olan Douglas, the man Osman claimed hit her. Charging documents say that Douglas and Osman were arguing with Douglas reportedly swinging his right hand and striking Osman in the face with what appeared to be a plastic water bottle. This information has some supporters of Osman saying she was indeed assaulted but there was also an alleged account that Osman struck Douglas first.
As it stands, the issue is that the story Osman gave police neglected to reveal that she knew the man who allegedly struck her instead of it being a random person who was harassing her during her night out. This prompted Daphne Sutton, a popular TikTok user, to call Houston police and suggest that Osman made everything up because of an incident that allegedly place in Minnesota in 2020.
Sutton gave Houston police the GoFundMe link from 2020 that shared a similar bent to the Houston attack story and also obtained statements from Osman’s former roommate and friends. Minneapolis police said to Houston officials that Osman never reported the alleged assault despite launching the GoFundMe page. The roommate that Sutton spoke with also reached out to Houston police and said that Osman was scamming people out of money.
Roda Osman, who had prior criminal charges in the Virgin Islands, Minnesota, and across Texas, is currently out on bail for felony assault and domestic violence connected to an incident in Minnesota.
On X, formerly Twitter, many are reacting to the news. We’ve captured comments from all sides below.
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A$AP Rocky appeared in court in Los Angeles to plead not guilty to the shooting of A$AP Relli ahead of an upcoming trial date.
On Monday (January 8), A$AP Rocky appeared before Judge Karla Kerlin in a Los Angeles courtroom to enter a plea of not guilty in the shooting of his former friend and collaborator, A$AP Relli which took place in Hollywood in November 2021. The rapper, also known as Rakim Myers, was accompanied by his legal team of Joe Tacopina and Sarah Cohen. After entering the plea, A$AP Rocky left the court and had no comment for reporters waiting outside. “We have a lot of evidence that we have a strong suspicion the prosecutors don’t know about,” Tacopina said to the press outside of the courthouse.
A$AP Rocky had been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in April 2022 in connection to the criminal incident. A$AP Relli, also known as Terrell Ephron, alleges that A$AP Rocky fired a gun in his direction twice, injuring him when the bullet hit him in his left hand. Surveillance video of the incident which included timestamps of the gun being fired off camera, along with testimony admitted to the court last November compelled another judge to rule that there was sufficient evidence for a trial to proceed. A pre-trial hearing has been ordered to take place on March 6.
A$AP Rocky is facing two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm and one count of personal use of a firearm. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Tacopina defended his client and said of A$AP Relli: “He’s a failed associate — ex-associate — of Rocky’s, and he’s jealous. He was trying to get money from Rocky. He wanted Rocky to support him. He made it clear. There were repeated attempts where he tried to ask for money in lieu of not causing problems for Rocky. That’s what he said. We have all this memorialized in text messages and otherwise, so it’s an extortion.”