Free Republic

Kristen Robertson had expected Dec. 16 to be an especially good day. It was her birthday, and among the things she was looking forward to was a birthday call from her father, 71-year-old Michael Shamrock Robertson Sr.

People I spoke to traced the current level of anger and resentment to a horrific accident in August 2023 in which a Haitian driver veered his car into oncoming traffic, causing a school bus that was transporting 52 children to flip over. An 11-year-old boy, Aiden Clark, was killed, and many more were hospitalized. (The driver, Hermanio Joseph, said he was blinded by the sun; police said there was no evidence drugs or alcohol were involved. A jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and he’ll spend at least nine years in prison. The boy’s parents have begged people not...

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (WDTN) — Wednesday evening in Springfield, community members gathered in peaceful protest of the false claims about Haitians. On Park Road in Springfield, there was a parade of residents showing that hate has no home in the city. Signs displayed messages to the Haitian community that they have support. “Especially us as Haitians… we need unity here. We need a Springfield united. So this sends out a big message. For those who have been spreading false information, now they can see we are not bad people,” said Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance spokesperson. That support is reaching the...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A jury has awarded $485 million in damages in a civil case brought on behalf of an 8-year-old girl who was repeatedly sexually assaulted in a New Mexico foster care program. The verdict came late Friday after Rio Arriba County jurors heard nearly two weeks of testimony that focused in part on allegations of corporate negligence. The program allegedly placed the girl in the home of a foster parent despite knowing that he had been accused of sexual assault, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in 2019. It was one of more than a half-dozen...

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is an immigration designation available to Haitians and foreign nationals from 15 other countries that allows them to live and work in the U.S. for up to 18 months, subject to extension or redesignation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Many Haitians in Springfield are eligible to apply for TPS status and once approved for TPS they can immediately apply for a work permit. Immigrants who have the TPS designation or are applying for it may also apply for asylum, but face long waits for consideration of their asylum claims. Congress created TPS in 1990,...

hile Donald Trump made baseless, dangerous claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets in front of millions of viewers at Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Johnson Salomon, a Haitian man who moved to Springfield in 2020, was watching cartoons with his kids before putting them to bed. He got a text from a friend telling him to turn on the debate. When he saw the headlines about what the former president and Republican nominee in November’s election had said, he was in total shock. “This was a false claim. I couldn’t believe that such a high official could make...

The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday. Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed near their childhood home in South Jersey on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding. The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open...

Former President Donald Trump, during Tuesday’s presidential debate, repeated a baseless and sensationalist claim about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating dogs and other pets. "They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats," Trump said during an answer to a question about immigration. "They're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame." Trump's answer was among the most extraordinary of the first 30 minutes of the debate: a former U.S. president spreading an internet rumor — one labeled by some of his critics...

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer has reached a $175,000 settlement with the city in a lawsuit that illuminated the use of the “courtesy cards” that officers dole out to friends and relatives to get out of traffic stops and other minor infractions, according to an agreement filed in Manhattan federal court Monday. The deal brings an end to a lawsuit brought last year by Officer Mathew Bianchi that claimed he’d been punished by his superiors for failing to honor the cards, though the settlement itself makes no substantive changes to how the cards are used...

A woman accused of driving under the influence used a partially automated driving system when she struck and killed two people on a Philadelphia highway in March, authorities said. Dimple Patel, 23, faces multiple criminal charges, including DUI homicide and involuntary manslaughter, Pennsylvania State Police announced in a release. Patel turned herself in to police on Tuesday. The crash occurred around 3 a.m. on March 3 on I-95, police said. Two cars had pulled over to the left side of the highway, with one presumably assisting the other. As one driver exited his vehicle and the other stood nearby, Patel...

A hearing for the motorist accused of killing hockey star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother that was scheduled for Thursday morning has been rescheduled for next week. Sean M. Higgins, 43, of Pilesgrove Township — who was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the Salem County crash — is charged with two counts of second-degree death by auto in the crash that killed Gaudreau, 31, and Matthew R. Gaudreau, 29. The brothers were riding bikes north on Route 551/Pennsville-Auburn Road in Oldmans Township when they were hit on the evening of Aug. 29. Higgins appeared via video for his detention...

OLDMANS TWP., New Jersey (WPVI) -- The suspected drunk driver accused of killing NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, in Salem County, New Jersey, remains behind bars on a slew of charges, including vehicular homicide. Action News has learned that Higgins, 43, of Woodstown, is a field artillery officer assigned to the New Jersey Army National Guard, Joint Force Headquarters. He is a part-time traditional drill status guardsman and was not on duty at the time of the incident. READ MORE: Johnny Gaudreau's widow pays tribute to him in social media posts: 'You were perfect' The New Jersey...

A federal judge just upheld a $350,000 punitive damages judgment against a General Motors dealership in Michigan in a spot delivery and wrongful repossession case. The U.S. district judge rejected the argument from Suburban Chevrolet Cadillac of Ann Arbor that the award was excessive. Here’s how this all came to be. In July of 2020, a bad time for everyone, Tina McPherson made a $2,000 down payment on a 2017 Dodge Durango and applied for financing from two lenders, according to Automotive News. The following day, she completed the paperwork and took delivery of the SUV. Everything was OK for...

As Minnesota Governor Tim Walz vies for the U.S. vice presidency, new details are surfacing about his teaching career, including the impact he made as faculty advisor for a high school Gay-Straight Alliance club. However, sources say the Walz family were LGBTQ+ community boosters even before then, as especially evidenced by one extracurricular Indigo Girls concert where the Walzes taught in Nebraska. ,,, Jacob Reitan — a former student of both Walz and his wife Gwen Walz (nee Whipple), both teachers at Mankato West High School in the 1990s — described feeling stunned when Ms. Walz announced her husband would...

Rapper Juvenile stormed off his plane in fury after American Airlines crew tried to bump him from first class to coach. The 'Back That A** Up' hit star was furious when crew members asked him and his wife to move to economy on a Dallas-bound flight, sparking a heated confrontation caught on camera. In video footage, Juvenile, whose real name is Terius Gray, can be heard yelling at flight attendants and refusing to move to the back of the plane. 'I'm a celebrity. I'm telling you this is going to be repercussions,' the 48-year-old New Orleans native said. 'It's going...

MILWAUKEE - A 22-year-old Milwaukee woman is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of a 14-year-old boy near 39th and Vliet. The accused is Zariah Johnson. According to the criminal complaint, Milwaukee police were dispatched to the area near 39th and Vliet on Thursday, Aug. 15. Citizens had gathered and administered two doses of Narcan to the victim, thinking this was an overdose. But once medical personnel arrived on the scene, it was learned the victim had been shot in the back. Five .380 casings were located in the area. A witness to what happened told police the...

Marion County Prosecutor Jeffrey Freeman has dropped the charges against Beth Delloma, 45, after a traffic stop Thursday went viral due to the actions of Monongah Police Chief Nathan Lanham. Delloma was stopped Thursday for an expired registration sticker by Lanham, who was not in a typical uniform or a marked cruiser. The interaction spiraled out of control when Delloma asked for identification and Lanham refused. Lanham pointed his service weapon at Delloma several times and wrestled her to the ground as she attempted to flee the scene for help. “He filed a motion to dismiss the case,” Delloma’s attorney...

ave you checked your CFI's credentials? How do you know they are legal to provide instruction? This question is being asked at flight schools across the country as the CFI world and the nonaviation media are sharing the story of 36-year-old Philip Everton McPherson II, from Haddon Township, New Jersey. McPherson faces one count of involuntary manslaughter for the crash of the Piper PA-28-140 on September 28, 2022, that killed student pilot Keith Kozel, 49. A federal grand jury indicted McPherson on August 1. He was arrested at his home on August 5. McPherson’s commercial and CFI certificates were surrendered...

Three men from the Dominican Republic have been extradited to New Jersey to face charges related to a massive "grandparents' scam” that stole millions from elderly Americans in the Northeast, the U.S. attorney announced. Juan Rafael Parra Arias, 41, Miguel Angel Vasquez, 24, and Jose Ismael Dilone Rodriguez, 34, of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, made their initial appearances in federal court in Newark on Monday and were ordered detained while awaiting trial. The three men are among 11 from the Dominican and 16 overall who were charged in a 19-count indictment on April 29 by U.S. Attorney Philip...

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned social media companies that they must uphold laws that prohibit the incitement of violence online after misinformation around a fatal mass stabbing earlier in the week sparked violent scenes. A 17-year-old boy appeared in an English court on Thursday charged with the murder of three young girls in a knife attack at a summer dance class in Southport that has shocked the nation and sparked two nights of violent protests. The disturbances followed the rapid spread of false information on social media that the suspect in the stabbings was...