Man, woman charged with roles in posting monkey abuse videos
June 11 (UPI) -- A Tennessee woman and a North Carolina man have been indicted on federal charges that they were involved with online groups that created and distributed videos online depicting extreme violence and sexual abuse against monkeys.
In the Southern District of Ohio, a grand jury indictment, which was unsealed Wednesday, charges Katrina Favret of Tennessee and Robert Craig of North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Justice said. In October, Ronald Bedra, of Ohio, was sentenced to 54 months in prison for conspiracy of the postings.
Craig is charged with creating and distributing the videos and Favret with conspiracy.
They conspired to produce "animal crush videos," according to the indictment.
The videos depict sadistic violence against juvenile and adult monkeys, prosecutors said. They included monkeys sodomized with a heated screwdriver and a monkey's genitals cut with scissors.
They allegedly used encrypted chat applications to direct money to individuals in Indonesia willing to commit the requested acts of torture on camera.
"We will punish participants of sadistic conspiracies like this one no matter their role in the crime," said U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker of the Southern District of Ohio said after Bedra was sentenced. "As this case shows, even if you do not commit the torture first-hand, you will be held accountable for promoting this obscene animal abuse."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement and the FBI were involved in the investigation.
In 2019, President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan bill into law that makes animal cruelty a federal crime. The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which was unanimously passed in the House and Senate, revises and expands earlier legislation against making and distributing videos of animal cruelty.
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Virginia man's conviction under a federal law banning videos of animal cruelty, saying they were protected speech. The 8-1 ruling, with Justice Samuel Alito dissenting, said the government lacked the power to ban expressions of animal cruelty when that is done in videotapes and other commercial media. The opinion said wasn't curbing government's power to punish acts of animal cruelty, but the portrayals of such acts.
Depictions of animal torture should be reported to authorities.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
DOJ requests Colorado's 2024, 2020 voting records: ‘Highly unusual and concerning'
DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado's Secretary of State revealed Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Justice asked Colorado to turn over all records that relate to the 2024 federal elections and preserve all records from the 2020 election. The election official sent an email highlighting reporting by NPR, which said the DOJ request was made on May 12. Colorado elections official: Executive order amounts to voter suppression, poll tax 'What they're going to do with all this data, I don't know,' Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, told NPR and shared with FOX31 via email. 'But I'm sure they will use it to push their ridiculous disinformation and lies to the American public.' Colorado's elections have been heralded by Griswold and other officials as being the 'gold standard' of elections for the nation. The news comes on the heels of the Justice Department trying to insert itself into the case of former Mesa County election clerk Tina Peters. Peters has asked to be released from prison while she appeals her conviction, citing her physical and mental health condition, all while trying to capture a pardon from President Donald Trump. Peters was convicted of allowing Trump supporters access to election equipment after his 2020 defeat. She was sentenced to nine years behind bars in October after continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines, even alleging that the secretary of state ordered an illegal deletion of records, but those claims have never been found credible. Jurors found Peters guilty in August for using someone else's security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa County election system and deceiving other officials about that person's identity. Lindell is a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump and is currently standing trial in Denver. Additionally, in October 2024, the Colorado Republican Party revealed that the Secretary of State's website showed partial passwords for election systems in 63 of Colorado's 64 counties. The passwords were posted for months in a hidden tab on the website, according to an investigation, but posed no risk to the election. After the leak, the passwords were updated and the security of voting machines was verified. However, the GOP accused Griswold of quietly trying to fix the matter and called for her resignation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
UPI
4 hours ago
- UPI
Federal judge weighs National Guard, Marine Corps deployments in LA
California National Guard troops and protesters face off at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids continued for a sixth day. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo June 12 (UPI) -- A federal judge on Thursday might rule on whether or not the Trump administration lawfully deployed National Guard and Marine Corps troops to Los Angeles. U.S. District Court for Northern California Judge Charles Breyer is hearing arguments for and against the federal government deploying troops to quell violence amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in Los Angeles. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday sought the federal court's intervention to stop the deployments and remove the troops from Los Angeles. Breyer denied Newsom's motion for a temporary restraining order and scheduled Thursday's hearing regarding the governor's motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the troop deployments. More than 4,000 National Guardsmen and about 700 Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles to prevent violence while protecting federal buildings and ICE agents as they enforce unpopular and controversial federal immigration laws. Newsom did not call up the National Guard and said the Trump administration did not ask him to do so. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday announced an ongoing curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. PDT in a downtown area that is bordered by interstates 5, 10 and 110. The Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday arrested 71 people for failure to disperse, seven for violating the curfew, two for assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon and one for resisting arrest. Also on Thursday, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was removed from a late-morning news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Padilla interrupted the news conference and demanded that Noem answer questions, but event security removed him. Noem said Padilla's interruption was "inappropriate" and said she would speak with him after concluding the news conference. Meanwhile, protests continue with several scheduled in California and 28 in total in locales across the nation, NBC News reported. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday announced he called up 5,000 National Guardsmen and deployed 2,000 Texas Public Safety troopers to maintain peace and arrest those engaged in criminal acts as anti-ICE protests are expected to continue at least through the weekend. "Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be arrested and held accountable to the full extent of the law," Abbott said in a news release. "Don't mess with Texas -- and don't mess with Texas law enforcement," he added.
Miami Herald
7 hours ago
- Miami Herald
RFK Jr. names 8 new CDC vaccine advisory members, including skeptics
June 11 (UPI) -- Two days after disbanding the entire 17-member independent vaccine advisory committee, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday appointed eight new members, including prominent vaccine skeptics and pandemic response critics. CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, is scheduled to meet next on June 25. The new panel included seven men and one woman. "The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America's most accomplished physicians," Kennedy said in a post on X. "All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense. They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations. The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well." On Monday, Kennedy said the former members had conflicts of interest on a panel that "wields the grave responsibility of adding new vaccines to the recommended childhood schedule." He pointed ties to Big Pharma. Kennedy, a long-time vaccine critic, said the "most outrageous example of ACIP's malevolent malpractice has been its stubborn unwillingness to demand adequate safety trials before recommending new vaccines for our children. ... ACIP has recommended each of these additional jabs without requiring placebo-controlled trials for any of them. This means that no one can scientifically ascertain whether these products are averting more problems than they are causing." CDC has narrowed its recommendations for mRNA Covid-19 shots, including by children and pregnant women. DHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told NBC News that "all newly appointed ACIP members were thoroughly vetted" but declined to offer specifics. ACIP normally includes pediatricians, geriatricians and other vaccine experts but the new panel includes a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, epidemiologist and biostatistician, and professor of operations management. Kennedy released information on the new members. Dr. Robert Malone, a physician-scientist and biochemist, has been a vocal critic of mRNA technology in COVID-19 vaccines after making early innovations in the field of messenger RNA. He suggested this year, without evidence, that pediatric deaths from measles were due to medical error. He has served in advisory roles for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. "His expertise spans molecular biology, immunology, and vaccine development," Kennedy said. Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist, co-authored an October 2020 strategy on herd immunity known as the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, now director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He formerly was at Harvard Medical School, and served on Food and Drug Administration and CDC panels. "He has also been an influential voice in public health policy, advocating for evidence-based approaches to pandemic response," Kennedy said. Dr. Cody Meissner, a Dartmouth professor of pediatrics who also signed the Great Barrington Declaration, has served on ACIP and on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. "His expertise spans vaccine development, immunization safety, and pediatric infectious disease epidemiology," Kennedy said. Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, is former acting chief of the U.S. National Institutes of Health section on nutritional neurosciences. "His work has informed U.S. public health guidelines, particularly in maternal and child health," Kennedy said. "Dr. Hibbeln brings expertise in immune-related outcomes, psychiatric conditions, and evidence-based public health strategies." Dr. Retsef Levi, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of operations management, has published studies on mRNA vaccines and cardiovascular events. "His research has contributed to discussions on vaccine manufacturing processes, safety surveillance, and public health policy," Kennedy said. He has been involved in healthcare systems optimization, epidemiologic modeling, and the application of AI and data science in public health. Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician with 40 years of clinical experience from "Level 1 trauma centers to small community hospitals, caring for patients across all age groups," Kennedy said in describing him as a "strong advocate for evidence-based medicine." He has served on hospital committees, including utilization review, and medical executive boards. Dr. Vicky Pebsworth, a pediatric professor at Dartmouth, is the Pacific region director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses. She has served on the FDA committee, as well as a national panel reviewing the 2009 H1N1 swine flu vaccine. "She has worked in the healthcare field for more than 45 years, serving in various capacities," Kennedy said. NBC News reported she is a leading source of misinformation about vaccines. Dr. Michael Ross, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, has served on the CDC's Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Breast and Cervical Cancer. "His continued service on biotech and healthcare boards reflects his commitment to advancing innovation in immunology, reproductive medicine and public health," Kennedy said. Dr. Noel Brewer, an ACIP member who was fired this week, told MSNBC on Wednesday: "The new panel is missing all of the expertise that has come before them. They don't know how to go about looking at the evidence, how to think about the volumes of data that will be coming their way." Brewer, who said members should be replaced on a rolling basis, is a professor in the department of health behavior at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. "Being a vaccine skeptic is not a bad thing if you follow the science," Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told NBC News. "I'm concerned that the names he's put out so far aren't ideologically balanced. I think he got the slate he was looking for." Benjamin said Kennedy's policies are a danger to public health. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
