California woman pleads guilty to threatening judge in abortion pill case
May 19 (Reuters) - A California woman pleaded guilty on Monday to threatening to injure a federal judge in Texas and warning him to "watch his back" after he suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone in 2023.
Dolly Kay Patterson entered her plea in Dallas federal court on the same day she was scheduled to go on trial on charges related to a threat that, according to court papers, had been directed at U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo.
According to court papers, opens new tab, she admitted that on April 16, 2023, she sent a message through an online form on the district court's website stating: "Tell this antiabortion judge he needs to watch his back--and that of his kids--the rest of his life!"
That message was sent a little over a week after Kacsmaryk, who was appointed to the bench by Republican President Donald Trump during his first term, suspended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's two-decade-old approval of mifepristone.
The U.S. Supreme Court later in June 2024 overturned an appeals court's decision that had partially upheld Kacsmaryk's ruling, preserving, for now, access to a medication used in more than 60% of U.S. abortions.
The abortion pill case was originally brought by anti-abortion groups and doctors. While the Supreme Court concluded they lacked standing to pursue the case, the Republican-led states of Idaho, Missouri and Kansas are now seeking to litigate the case in their place.
Prior to Monday's plea, Patterson had disputed government claims that she confessed to sending the message when the U.S. Marshals Service subsequently visited her home and argued that no evidence existed tying her to the message.
As part of a plea deal, opens new tab, Patterson, a retired former employee of Stanford University, agreed to plead guilty to just one of the two charges against her. That charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Lawyers for Patterson did not respond to requests for comment.
The case against Patterson was filed amid a surge in threats to judges nationally, prompting the federal judiciary to push Congress for increased security funding to help it ensure the safety of judges and their families.
A Reuters investigation this month identified at least 11 federal judges whose families have recently faced threats of violence or harassment after they ruled against the Trump administration. Pizzas have also been sent anonymously to the homes of several judges and their relatives.
During a hearing in March 2023 in the abortion pill case, Kacsmaryk, a former Christian legal activist, said his division had received a "barrage" of death threats and harassing phone calls and voicemails since the lawsuit began.
A Florida woman, Alice Marie Pence, in June pleaded guilty to threatening Kacsmaryk in March 2023 that he should "watch out for the red dot on your forehead" and make "the right decision." She was sentenced in November to 10 months in prison.
The case is U.S. v. Patterson, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, No. 2:24-cr-00070.
For the United States: Tiffany Eggers and Jongwoo Chung of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas
For Patterson: Paul Herrmann of The Herrmann and Archer Law Firm
Read more:
US judges warn of threats, ask Congress for more security funding
US Supreme Court preserves access to abortion pill mifepristone
Woman arrested for threatening to kill Texas federal judge in abortion pill case
Texas judge in abortion pill lawsuit often rules for conservatives
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Police officer, 36, killed after colleague ‘accidentally shot her in back during chase' as tributes paid to ‘tough' cop
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Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
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EXCLUSIVE Inside story of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's friendship after Elon Musk suggested the President appeared in FBI files. So what's the truth about claims of topless girls?
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And any possibility of a truce, Washington and Silicon Valley insiders predicted yesterday, has disappeared after Musk effectively pressed the nuclear button. Although he didn't precisely spell out the accusation, Musk was clearly implying that the US government was concealing the truth about Trump's dealings with the notorious late financier and paedophile. It is no secret that Trump associated with Epstein, even if he has been reluctant to admit it. They moved in the same moneyed social circles in Palm Beach, Florida, from the late 1980s until 2004, when they fell out spectacularly over a property deal. Along with the likes of Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton, Trump is one among many powerful people known to have associated with Epstein and who have been mentioned in court documents related to the financier's decades of sexual abuse. Before he was re-elected President last November, Trump said he would have 'no problem' releasing the so-called Epstein Files, the remaining documents from the major FBI investigation into the multi-millionaire, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 ahead of his trial on sex-trafficking charges. While critics have challenged Trump's initial insistence that he barely knew Epstein – pointing out that they were most certainly friends (a fact Trump has since acknowledged) – there has been no evidence that the future President was complicit in Epstein's crimes. However, that hasn't prevented Trump's name being mentioned in some of the conspiracy theories swirling for months over why the US government has still not released the files. Predictably, within hours of Musk dropping his 'really big bomb', some of his 220 million followers on X were dutifully stirring the pot by circulating old evidence of the pre-scandal Trump-Epstein friendship. 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Eventually, they fell out in 2004 when they both tried to snap up the same Palm Beach property, a mansion called Maison de l'Amitie (ironically, the House of Friendship) which was being sold cheap in a bankruptcy sale. Both of them attempted to lobby the trustee handling the sale before the auction. 'It was something like, Donald saying, "You don't want to do a deal with him, he doesn't have the money," while Epstein was saying: "Donald is all talk. He doesn't have the money",' recalled the trustee, Joseph Luzinski. The break-up was well-timed for Trump, as just a few months later, Palm Beach police started investigating claims that Epstein was sexually abusing local schoolgirls. In 2008, Epstein served 13 months behind bars in Florida after admitting 'solicitation of a minor for prostitution', so by the time Trump was running for president in 2016, he would have been keen to downplay this connection. In 2016, his lawyer insisted Trump had 'no relationship' with Epstein, adding: 'They were not friends and they did not socialise together.' A day after Epstein was arrested in New York three years later, Trump – by now President – announced that he hadn't spoken to him for 15 years and that: 'I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.' Trump staff stressed that he had once kicked Epstein out of his Palm Beach golf club. But others countered that, at one time, he most certainly had been a fan. Sam Nunberg, a former Trump campaign aide, claimed his boss 'would hang out with Epstein because he was rich'. He said he warned Trump about his Epstein links before his first White House run against Hillary Clinton. However, the aide alleged, Trump was confident that thanks to a close friend who owned the tabloid National Enquirer and who claimed to have compromising pictures of Bill Clinton on Epstein's Caribbean island, Epstein would cause more problems for the Clintons than he would for him. Trump has insisted he never visited Epstein's so-called 'orgy island' – the alleged location of some of his worst offences – in the US Virgin Islands, saying: 'I was never on Epstein's Plane, or at his 'stupid' island.' However, in February this year, US attorney general, Pam Bondi, released Epstein's flight logs which showed the president's name appearing seven times. The first flight on the financier's private jet was in October 1993 and on at least two journeys, Trump was joined not only by Epstein but by his then-wife Marla Maples, along with their daughter Tiffany and a nanny. Epstein owned several planes and it's possible Trump was specifically denying flying on the one dubbed the 'Lolita Express' for the sordid sex that reportedly occurred on board. When Musk notoriously called a British expat cave diver a 'paedo guy' after they clashed online over the 2018 cave rescue in Thailand, he ended up having to defend himself in a US libel trial (which he eventually won). Time will tell how Trump will take revenge on his former 'First Buddy' and his 'big bomb' claim that the President of the United States of America has something unsettling to hide over Jeffrey Epstein.
The Sun
an hour ago
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‘Fame-hungry' Titan sub boss Stockton Rush ‘wanted to die at world's most famous shipwreck in high-profile disaster'
TITAN sub boss Stockton Rush intended to die at the wreck of the Titanic, his friend has claimed. The bombshell allegation suggests the OceanGate CEO wasn't simply chasing deep-sea glory, but allegedly orchestrating a high-profile mission designed to etch himself into Titanic legend. 8 8 8 Karl Stanley, a veteran submersible expert and longtime friend of Rush, made the explosive claim in a new book called Submersed: Wonder, Obsession and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines. He told author Matthew Gavin Frank: 'Rush's ego was so big, he was willing to die and kill to be pivotal to the character of this story. 'He wanted to go [die] at the wreck [of the Titanic]. 'The more high-profile, the better. He didn't just murder four wealthy people and get paid a cool mill to do it — they are all part of the Titanic mythology now.' According to Stanley, Rush meticulously planned the doomed voyage as a one-way trip. The pal described it as a "death dive" in a "futile" submarine that was never intended to return, The Daily Mail reported. Twelve days after the Titan's catastrophic implosion in June 2023, Stanley messaged Frank via WhatsApp, alleging Rush knew exactly what would happen - and intended for it to. The friend further claimed the OceanGate boss deliberately named the sub after the fictional British liner Titan — the ship in the 1898 novella Futility, which famously sank in eerily similar circumstances to the Titanic. The implication, according to Stanley, is that this was no coincidence, but allegedly part of a calculated bid to tie himself to maritime legends. 8 In Frank's telling, Stanley claimed Rush 'needed to compel more than just his own death, and he needed to knowingly fabricate a 'futile' vessel, costumed in a titanic name, as his murder weapon.' He even described the Titan as a 'mousetrap for billionaires.' Asked point-blank if he believed Rush had knowingly killed the other four passengers, Stanley said: 'I know this is what happened.' Those passengers — British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and renowned Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet — were all killed instantly when the Titan imploded just 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent. This isn't the first time concerns have been raised about Rush's approach to safety. In 2019, Stanley himself reportedly warned Rush about serious structural issues after a deep test dive in the Bahamas. During that mission, Stanley recalled hearing ominous 'gunshot-like' sounds every few minutes — noises he believed were the sub's carbon fiber hull buckling under pressure. 'The sounds we observed yesterday sounded like a flaw/defect… being crushed/damaged,' he wrote in an email to Rush. He urged OceanGate to pause operations until the problem could be investigated. But Rush allegedly dismissed the warnings. In an icy reply, he reportedly wrote: 'I value your experience and advice on many things, but not on the assessment of carbon fiber pressure hulls… 'I hope you, of all people, will think twice before expressing opinions on subjects in which you are not fully versed.' 8 8 In response, Stanley painted a chilling picture of what could happen: 'The worst-case scenario of pushing ahead… involves [Triton Submarines CEO] Patrick Lahey and some Russian oligarch tooling around a Russian nesting dolls version of a wreck site in a made-for-TV special, telling his version of how things went wrong. 'I hope you see option B as unacceptable as I do.' The boss of the ill-fated submersible was also branded a 'psychopath' obsessed with fame by former OceanGate staff, according to a new Netflix documentary exposing the lead-up to the 2023 disaster. He had reportedly dismissed safety concerns raised by his team, accusing critics of stifling innovation. Veteran Titanic expedition leader Rob McCallum, who last year told The Sun that the disaster had been 'unavoidable,' is featured in the documentary. 8 8 McCallum said he repeatedly warned OceanGate that the Titan was unsafe. The sub had never been certified or classed, and McCallum urged Rush to allow independent testing — advice he claims was ignored. He said: 'I run an expedition company that had delivered over 1,500 expeditions — we are not cavalier, we manage risk as far as we can. 'So when OceanGate say things like exploration involves risk, yes it does, but that doesn't give you carte blanche to ignore obvious danger.' Rush, for his part, reportedly accused those voicing safety concerns of attempting to block technological progress. How the Titan tragedy unfolded By Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital) FIVE men plunged beneath the surface of the North Atlantic in a homemade sub in a bid to explore the Titanic wreckage. Four passengers paid £195,000 each to go on the sub, with the fifth member of the trip being a crew member. But what was supposed to be a short trip spiralled into days of agony as the doomed Titan vanished without a trace on June 18, 2023. The daring mission had been months in the making - and almost didn't happen at the hands of harsh weather conditions in Newfoundland, Canada. In a now chilling Facebook post, passenger Hamish Harding wrote: "Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. "A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow." It would be his final Facebook post. The following morning, he and four others - led by Stockton Rush - began the 12,5000ft descent towards the bottom of the Atlantic. But as it made its way down into the depths, the vessel lost all contact with its mother ship on the surface, the Polar Prince. It sparked a frantic four-day search for signs of life, with the hunt gripping the entire world. There was hope that by some miracle, the crew was alive and desperately waiting to be saved. But that sparked fears rescue teams faced a race against time as the passengers only had a 96-hour oxygen supply when they set out, which would be quickly dwindling. Then, when audio of banging sounds was detected under the water, it inspired hope that the victims were trapped and signalling to be rescued. It heartbreakingly turned out that the banging noises were likely either ocean noises or from other search ships, the US Navy determined. Countries around the world deployed their resources to aid the search, and within days the Odysseus remote-operated vehicle (ROV) was sent down to where the ghostly wreck of the Titanic sits. The plan was for the ROV to hook onto the sub and bring it up 10,000ft, where it would meet another ROV before heading to the surface. But any hopes of a phenomenal rescue were dashed when Odysseus came across a piece of debris from the sub around 1,600ft from the Titanic. The rescue mission tragically turned into a salvage task, and the heartbroken families of those on board were told the devastating news. It was confirmed by the US Coast Guard that the sub had suffered a "catastrophic implosion".
