Latest news with #hoax
The Guardian
a day ago
- General
- The Guardian
US man charged for framing immigrant in fake plot to kill Trump
Prosecutors in Milwaukee have charged a man with four felonies for attempting to frame an undocumented immigrant he is accused of assaulting, by sending forged letters in the immigrant's name with a threat to kill Donald Trump. The handwritten, forged letters were mailed to Wisconsin's attorney general, Milwaukee police and US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (Ice). The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump's allies, but appears to have been a hoax. WISN-TV, an ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, reported on Monday that a criminal complaint alleges Demetric Scott admitted to investigators he wrote the letters threatening to kill the president in the name of Ramon Morales-Reyes, whom he was previously charged with assaulting. Among those who fell for the hoax were Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who released a statement praising immigration officers for arresting Morales-Reyes on 22 May, one day after the forged letter was received by an Ice field intelligence officer. 'Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars,' Noem said in a press release. Her department also released to news agencies an image of the handwritten note in light blue ink, expressing anger over Trump's deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales-Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. 'We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans – we have done more for this country than you white people – you have been deporting my family and I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him,' the letter said. 'I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in the head – I will see him at one of his big ralleys.' But the claim soon began to unravel. Last week, one of Morales-Reyes' children told an immigrant rights group that he could not have written the letters since he cannot read or write in Spanish, let alone English. As part of the investigation, officials asked Morales-Reyes for a handwriting sample and concluded his handwriting and the threatening letter didn't match and that the threat was not credible, a source familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press. Scott is currently in Milwaukee county jail, charged with armed robbery and aggravated battery. Prosecutors said Morales-Reyes is the victim in that case; he was allegedly assaulted in September 2023 with a box cutter during an attempted theft of his bike. As the case prepared to go to trial, Ice this month received the letter threatening to assassinate Trump. According to a transcript of a phone call prosecutors say Scott made while awaiting trial for assaulting Morales-Reyes, Scott framed Morales-Reyes to keep him from testifying against him. 'If he gets picked up by Ice,' Scott allegedly said in the call, 'there won't be a jury trial, so they will probably dismiss it that day. That's my plan.' Morales-Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is carved out for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, according to his attorney. Morales-Reyes remains in Ice detention at a facility in Juneau, Wisconsin. José Olivares and Associated Press contributed reporting
Reuters
a day ago
- General
- Reuters
Romanian pleads guilty to 'swatting' US lawmakers and top officials
WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - A Romanian man has pleaded guilty to participating in a years-long series of dangerous hoax phone calls and bomb threats targeting American legislators, law enforcement leaders, and government officials, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday. In a statement, opens new tab, the department said that Thomasz Szabo, 26, who was extradited to the United States last year, admitted targeting more than 75 officials, four religious institutions, and multiple journalists in his campaign of intimidation. Officials said Szabo targeted private residences, including the homes and families of senior government officials. Authorities say Szabo routinely phoned in bomb threats and reports of ongoing violence or hostage situations at his targets' homes or places of work, a technique called 'swatting' because it is meant to elicit the emergency deployment of heavily armed police officers. Emails seeking comment from Szabo's lawyers were not immediately returned. Justice officials described Szabo as the leader of a group that made a series of false reports to U.S. law enforcement, including a December 2020 threat to commit a mass-shooting at New York City synagogues and a January 2021 threat to detonate explosives at the U.S. Capitol and kill then-President-elect Joe Biden. The department said that, in a two-month period alone, members of Szabo's gang targeted at least 25 members of Congress or their family members, six then-current or former senior U.S. federal officials, "including multiple cabinet-level officials," at least 13 then-current or former senior federal law enforcement officials, including the heads of multiple federal law enforcement agencies. Others targeted included members of the federal judiciary, state government officials, and members of the media. It was during that time that one of Szabo's subordinates boasted of "creating massive havoc" in the United States, the department said.
CTV News
a day ago
- General
- CTV News
Arrest made in Guelph swatting incident
A 33-year-old man has been arrested for faking an emergency call to police. On Dec. 27, 2024, officers with the Guelph Police Service were dispatched to a home on Cole Road after they received a call from someone who said they were being held at gunpoint. The force's tactical team approached the property with their gun drawn, only to find that the woman living there was alone. It was then determined that the caller had been her former partner and it was all a hoax. Guelph Police said the man, who has not been named, was arrested on May 31 in Northern Ontario and charged with public mischief. The 33-year-old was released from custody with a promise to appear in a Guelph court on July 11.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
What Actually Happened to Sherri Papini? Inside the Twists and Turns of Her 2016 Kidnapping Hoax
Sherri Papini disappeared on Nov. 2, 2016, from Redding, Calif., and reappeared 22 days later Six years after the disappearance, she was arrested for faking her own kidnapping and admitted to the hoax In the May 2025 docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, Sherri changed her story and claimed that her ex-boyfriend abducted her, claims he declined to comment onSherri Papini made national headlines when she disappeared on Nov. 2, 2016. She was allegedly on a run near her home in Redding, Calif., when she claimed to have been abducted. Her then-husband, Keith Papini, reported her missing that evening, and a subsequent three-week statewide search for her took place. After 22 days, Sherri was found walking on the side of a highway. At the time, she claimed that she was kidnapped by two armed, masked Hispanic women and that they had branded and tortured her while she was chained in a bedroom. Authorities investigated the case for six years and later determined that Sherri had fabricated the abduction and had been hiding out at her ex-boyfriend James Reyes' apartment in Costa Mesa, Calif. In 2022, Sherri was arrested for making false statements to a federal agent and mail fraud. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She was released in August 2023. However, upon getting released from prison, Sherri changed her story again and claimed that Reyes "abducted" her without her consent. "The injuries that occurred ... the bites on my thigh, the footprint on my back, the brand, the melting of my skin — I am telling you there was no consent," she alleged in the four-part docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, which premiered May 26. Reyes declined to comment on her new allegations. Here's everything to know about Sherri Papini, her 2016 disappearance and everything she's said since. Sherri, born in 1982, was living in Redding, Calif., with her husband, Keith, and their two children — son Tyler and daughter Violet — when she disappeared on Nov. 2, 2016. She was 34 years old at the time of her vanishing. Sherri's then-husband, Keith, reported her missing on Nov. 2, 2016, after he came home and found that she and their young children were not there. He later found her phone and headphones about a mile down the road and learned that Sherri never picked up their kids from daycare. After filing a missing persons report, Keith joined their friends, family and dozens of volunteers over the next few weeks to try and find Sherri. Keith also helped raise thousands of dollars in reward money for anyone who had a substantial lead on his wife's location. Sherri's disappearance made national headlines and caused a statewide search for her. On Nov. 24, 2016, 22 days after she vanished, Sherri was seen walking along the side of a road in Yolo County, Calif. — around 150 miles from her home. Her sister, Sheila Koester, previously told PEOPLE, "I feel like it was a whole world effort, just with everyone posting on Facebook and the news coverage we got. It was an amazing Thanksgiving." Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told PEOPLE at the time, "She was able to walk to a nearby church but nobody was there at 4:30 in the morning, and then she walked back and was able to flag down a motorist near Interstate 5 and Yolo County Road 17." Sheriff Bosenko revealed that Sherri was immediately hospitalized for her injuries and was able to give authorities "some limited amount of information." Keith saw his wife for the first time at the hospital later that day. "My first sight was my wife in a hospital bed," Keith told PEOPLE in a statement at the time. "Her face covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of her repeated beatings. The bridge of her nose broken. She has been branded and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers." Keith further claimed that she weighed just 87 lbs. and that her long blond hair had been chopped off. Shortly after Sherri resurfaced, she told authorities that she was abducted by two Hispanic women who were armed and masked and forced her into an SUV. "These Hispanic females are armed, considered dangerous and they have a handgun, at least a handgun with them," Bosenko told reporters during a press conference at the time. Sherri alleged that the women tortured and branded her while holding her hostage, chained in a bedroom for weeks. She claimed that she escaped after one woman let her leave with a chain around her waist, zip ties tying her hands and clamps around her ankles. At the time, authorities believed her and chalked up any inaccuracies in her story to her feeling traumatized. "We don't have any reason not to believe her. She was abducted, held captive for three weeks and then released," Bosenko said at the time. "Traumatized from the experience and then of course very emotional about being released and then being reunited with her husband ... Sometimes people who have been in a traumatic event, their mind shields them from some of the trauma so they do have limited recollection." However, authorities were never able to identify the women who allegedly kidnapped Sherri, and they soon began to think that there was a different version of events than the ones Sherri concocted. Police continued investigating Sherri's disappearance for years after her return. Shortly after she resurfaced, authorities discovered both male and female DNA on the clothing Sherri was wearing when she was found. In 2020, they matched the DNA to Sherri's ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, per KCRA. In August of that year, police brought in Reyes for questioning, and he claimed that Sherri was actually hiding with him in his apartment in Costa Mesa, Calif. He alleged that Sherri reached out to him to try to "run away" from Keith, whom she claimed was sexually and physically abusive (he denied the allegations). Reyes further claimed that it was Sherri's idea to injure and brand herself and lose weight, and that he never physically hurt her. After 22 days together, Reyes alleged that Sherri missed her kids and asked him to drop her off on the side of a road. On March 3, 2022, Sherri was arrested for faking her own kidnapping. She was charged with one count of lying to a federal officer and one count of mail fraud. One month later, she admitted that her kidnapping was a hoax and pleaded guilty. "[I am] so sorry for the pain I've caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story and those who worked so hard to try to help me," she said in a statement at the time. "I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done." In September 2022, Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution, which was spent trying to find her. She reported to prison in November 2022 and was released in August 2023. Just days after Sherri's guilty plea, Keith filed for divorce and requested custody of their two children. "I wish to make it clear that my goal is to provide a loving, safe, stable environment for [his and Sherri's children] and I believe the requested orders are consistent with that goal and the best interests of the children," Keith told PEOPLE in a statement at the time. "I do not want to say anything in the pleadings connected to this matter that would inflame the situation or attract media attention." Nearly two years after she was released from prison, Sherri spoke about the abduction for the first time and changed her story. In the May 2025 docuseries, Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, she denied that she had anything to do with her disappearance and alleged that it was not consensual. Instead, Sherri claimed that Reyes abducted her after she asked him to come to Redding, so she could end their long-distance affair (he was allegedly unaware of her intentions at the time). She claimed that Reyes somehow got her into a car and drove her to his apartment in Costa Mesa, Calif., where he held her for over three weeks. 'I remember waking up briefly in the back of the vehicle and not being able to even keep my eyes open," she claimed in the documentary, out May 26. "And then the next time I woke up was when he was getting me out of the vehicle to go inside, and it was dark ... the bites on my thigh, the footprint on my back, the brand, the melting of my skin — I am telling you there was no consent.' Sherri claimed that she woke up naked in a room in his apartment. 'I wanted to leave. So I tried to pull one of the boards off the window and James came in and hit me in the face. And that's the first bruise that I got," Sherri claimed in Caught in the Lie. "And after being knocked out and waking up, that's when the chain was around my waist, secured with a padlock attached to a cable that was attached to a pole in the closet.' After 22 days, Sherri claimed that Reyes "let me off the chain" and set her free. "I said, my husband's going to find me. He's never going to stop looking for you ... You need to let me go. He was like, 'Well, there's too much has happened.' So it all came down to me. It all came down to my coverup, and that's [when] I agreed to ... make up that someone else did it," she claimed. Sherri further alleged that she agreed to lie about the two women abducting her because she didn't want Keith to discover the affair. 'The truth is, I was concealing an affair from my husband, who [was] threatening to take everything from me if he found out that I was having any involvement [with another man]," she said. Reyes declined to comment on the allegations. After being released from prison in August 2023, Sherri was transferred to a halfway house in Sacramento County, Calif., for two months. She is under supervised release until late 2026. Before appearing in the 2025 docuseries Caught in the Lie, Sherri had stayed silent about her life since the abduction. However, Keith told PEOPLE in 2024 that they were still working on mediating their divorce, and added that he did not keep in contact with her. "I don't make contact with her at all. And I don't even allow it," he said. "She's tried but I just can't. That is her power, her voice, and her manipulation." In the midst of their proceedings, Keith was granted full custody of their children, and Sherri was allowed visitation rights. Keith also claimed to Good Morning America in June 2024 that Sherri had a new boyfriend, but he didn't share his name. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
Here's What Sherri Papini's Therapist Thinks Happened During Kidnapping Incident
Sherri Papini went missing in 2016 and originally claimed she was abducted by two Hispanic women — now, she claims that she was actually abducted by her ex-boyfriend Papini is making her new claims in an explosive new four-part docuseries, Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, premiering on Investigation Discovery on May 26 and streaming on Max Papini's longtime therapist, Dr. Stephen Diggs, told filmmakers he "absolutely" believes his client's new version of events Despite serving time for lying to federal agents about her abduction, California mom Sherri Papini now claims she really was kidnapped — just by someone else — and her longtime therapist says he "absolutely" believes her, adding a new twist to an already infamous hoax. Papini made national headlines in 2016 after disappearing on her afternoon jog near her home in Redding, California. Twenty-two days later, she reappeared, bruised and battered, claiming that she had been kidnapped, starved, beaten and branded by two masked Hispanic women. Investigators were suspicious from the beginning; six years later, after male DNA found in Papini's underwear was traced back to her ex-boyfriend, Papini was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for lying to federal investigators. But now, Papini is back, saying that her story was altered but not entirely fabricated. In an upcoming four-part Investigation Discovery docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, the 42-year-old divorced mother-of-two claims that ex-boyfriend James Reyes carried out the kidnapping, rather than helping her stage a fraud as prosecutors alleged. The ordeal began as a consensual emotional affair with Reyes that turned into a nightmare after she "led him on," Papini claims. A combination of shame and a fear that she would lose her children led her to lie about his identity after he released her, she Papini was caught in an earlier emotional affair, her ex-husband Keith Papini had her sign a post-nuptial agreement that would give him full custody of their children and leave her without assets if she was involved with another man."Yes, I lied about my ex-boyfriend's identity. No, I did not lie about a fake kidnapping," she told filmmakers. "I lied about the man who abducted me to keep him a secret. Everything else I said was true." Reyes, who did not return PEOPLE's requests for comment, told investigators that Papini starved herself, and that he administered the various injuries to her body at her direction. He passed a polygraph when he was interviewed by police in 2020. However, in the docuseries, Papini also passed a polygraph when she answered "no" to an examiner who asked her whether she was free to leave during her 22 days with Reyes and whether she asked Reyes to brand her. Papini's longtime therapist, Dr. Stephen Diggs, said he "absolutely [believes] she was abducted." "To think of this as a conscious hoax concocted by Sherri just doesn't fit the facts we have here," he said. Diggs, a licensed psychologist, believes Papini has Self-Defeating Personality Disorder, which is not currently recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. SDPD is characterized by a pattern of self-sabotaging behavior, generally in relationships, and manifests in those who are "passive" and eager to please those around them. "They get into relationships in which they're not fulfilled and then they create a second secret life to get their needs met," Diggs said. "She gets in touch with James so she can have a fleeting moment of getting her needs met and then return to her subservient role [with her husband]," he told filmmakers. "She wanted something short and that's not how it turned out." "I believe that he abducted her and there were details of her torture that she was humiliated and embarrassed to talk about," he continued. "I absolutely believe that Sherri did not ask for this. She did not want this to happen." Diggs believes that his client exhibits genuine signs of trauma — and that, after her work in therapy since 2016, she will never tell a "big lie to the public" again. "I believe what Sherri is telling us now is the truth," Diggs said. "I believe that she has broken through a very difficult defense mechanism of lying, and she is now, most of the time, quite honest. Between our therapy — which she has worked very hard at, and the prison — she has stopped telling the big lies." Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie will premiere across two nights on Monday, May 26, and Tuesday, May 27, from 9 to 11 p.m. ET/PT on ID. Episodes will be available to stream on Max. Read the original article on People
