Paradise News

Category: Metro

  • Man arrested for allegedly beating 88-year-old woman to death in 2003

    SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. (TCN) — Prosecutors recently announced charges against a 51-year-old man accused of killing an elderly woman over two decades ago.

    According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, on Dec. 12, 2003, a neighbor noticed that the door to 88-year-old Edna Schubert’s home was ajar, and a window was broken with papers blowing out. The neighbor went into the residence and discovered Schubert had been beaten to death before calling 911.

    Investigators collected and preserved evidence from the scene. However, despite their efforts, authorities were unable to identify a suspect at the time, and the case went cold.

    A retired detective called the homicide unit in 2023 to discuss advancements in DNA technology and re-examining the case. District Attorney Ray Tierney said the detective “never forgot Edna and never gave up.”

    Investigators tested fingerprints, blood, and other DNA evidence from the scene, and it matched with Raul Ayala, who lived in the neighborhood at the time. He was 29 when Schubert died.

    According to prosecutors, in August 2024, police traveled to Ayala’s new home state of Georgia to conduct surveillance on him. Authorities recovered items he threw away, obtained DNA from him, and compared it to DNA found at the scene. As a result, police identified Ayala as the primary suspect and arrested him on Jan. 16. He was later extradited back to New York.

    On Feb. 7, prosecutors announced that Ayala was indicted for first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

    Schubert was reportedly a retired widow with no children, but she was known as the “grandma of her neighborhood.”

    MORE:

    • DA Tierney Announced Arrest in 2003 Cold Case – Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office

    Source: True Crime Daily

  • Con men’s escalating crimes unravel after murder of millionaire art dealer – TCNPOD

    This Week on True Crime News The Podcast: The escalating crimes of con men Kaushal Niroula and Danny Garcia left a trail of victims in their wake until their final criminal act, the murder of millionaire art dealer Cliff Lambert, exposed their web of deceit.

    Julie Golden and Kim Kantner of “True Crime News Presents: American Hustlers” join host Ana Garcia.

    Subscribe to “True Crime News Presents: American Hustlers” here.

    YouTube: Con men’s escalating crimes unravel after murder of millionaire art dealer

    Source: True Crime Daily

  • The Disappearing Act: Man on the run for years after allegedly killing estranged wife

    Janina Jefferson was working her dream job and fell in love with the man of her dreams, Eric Jones. Janina and Eric’s marriage became rocky, and not long after their divorce was finalized, Janina ended up dead. Eric has been on the run ever since, and law enforcement is turning to the public to help find the man they allege killed his estranged wife.

    Source: True Crime Daily

  • Bar regulator warns barristers to ‘think carefully’ about social media usage

    Blog post follows BSB’s battle with Charlotte Proudman

    The director general of the bar’s regulator has reflected on the often tricky balance between free speech and barristers’ professional obligations in a new blog post.

    Mark Neale, who has headed up the Bar Standards Board (BSB) since 2020, has posted the piece a matter of months after the regulator controversially brought disciplinary action against barrister Charlotte Proudman.

    The regulator took Proudman to a regulatory tribunal after she tweeted about a “boys club” at the bar, following a judgment on domestic abuse that she disagreed with.

    Whilst the BSB described the action as “seriously offensive” and containing “derogatory language which was designed to demean and/or insult the judge”, the case was thrown out by the tribunal with no case to answer.

    After the ruling Proudman commented that she “would be willing to work with the BSB to promote change, but not under the current leadership, that is simply not possible”.

    In his post, Neale begins by noting that he places a “high value on free speech as a guarantor of free enquiry and as a constraint on arbitrary power. But I also think that professional people are bound by higher standards than the general public”.

    “I see no intrinsic problem with individual barristers making public statements about controversial public policy matters,” he write. “But that does not mean that barristers, and indeed other professionals, have complete license.”

    He goes on to say that “professionals must take care not to undermine public confidence in their own profession”, using the analogy of doctors making unfounded claims about the safety of medicines.

    “Similarly”, he says “barristers should think carefully about statements which might compromise the integrity of the justice system”.

    Whilst this “certainly” does not mean that barristers cannot express “views with which some (or even many) clients may disagree or which they may even find offensive”, it does mean that “barristers should not express views in such a way as to give citizens of particular backgrounds or views legitimate grounds for doubting their or the profession’s ability to represent them effectively and dispassionately”.

    “Whether a line has been crossed into a potential breach of the BSB Handbook will always be matters of judgement for the regulator taking into account the law, including caselaw developments in this area,” he said. “But barristers too must exercise judgment when speaking or writing publicly on controversial matters.”

    “Professionalism carries responsibilities as well as rights,” Neal concluded.

    The piece didn’t go unnoticed by Proudman, who responded on X:

    The post Bar regulator warns barristers to ‘think carefully’ about social media usage appeared first on Legal Cheek.

    Source: Legal Cheek

  • Former 'Teacher of the Year' pleads guilty to sex crimes with 12-year-old student

    SAN DIEGO (TCN) — A 35-year-old former award-winning teacher entered a plea last week to sex crimes involving juvenile students at the school where she worked.

    The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Jacqueline Ma pleaded guilty Wednesday, Feb. 5, to two counts of lewd acts with a child under 14 with duress and lewd acts with a child under 14. She faces 30 years to life in prison and will be sentenced in May.

    Her victims were reportedly 12 and 11 years old.

    On March 6, 2023, a parent contacted the National City Police Department and said they believed their 13-year-old child was “possibly having an inappropriate relationship with a former teacher.” Detectives and School Resource Officers began investigating and arrested Ma the next day.

    Ma worked as an elementary school teacher in the National City area and was one of five people awarded “Teacher of the Year” just months prior to the investigation. She bailed out of jail following her arrest, but National City Police took her into custody a second time after finding enough evidence to present more felony charges.

    According to KUSI-TV, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Drew Hart said at a court hearing following Ma’s second arrest that she “had a photograph of the victim in her wallet, she had jewelry with his initials, love letters were discovered in her classroom.” Ma reportedly “expressed frustration at the child for not responding to the situation quicker” and even “expressed jealousy when the victim was talking to other girls.”

    Hart described Ma as “obsessive, possessive, controlling, and dangerous.”

    Ma faced 15 felony charges, including possession of child sexual abuse material and child sex abuse.

    KUSI reports Ma could have been sentenced to 180 years in prison if she went to trial and was convicted on all counts.

    Hart said following the plea hearing, “From our office’s perspective, it was very important that these be charged as not just sex offenses, but sex offenses done under duress and that’s what she pled to.”

    He went on, “This was very significant to us, not just because she won an award, but because of who she was in the community. We think this plea deal sends a message to the community, not just about sex offenses on children, but when you leverage a position of trust, when you leverage good faith with parents in the community and you do this to their children, there will be significant penalties to pay.”

    MORE:

    • Former San Diego County Teacher of the Year pleads guilty to sex crimes with sixth-grader – San Diego Union-Tribune
    • Former ‘Teacher of the Year’ accused of sexual abuse changes plea to guilty – KUSI
    • Lewd and Lascivious Acts Investigation, 3/9/2023 – National City Police Department
    • National City teacher pleads not guilty to over a dozen felony charges, including sex abuse charges, 3/13/2023 – KUSI
    • San Diego ‘Teacher of the Year’ accused of having ‘inappropriate relationship’ with student, 3/10/2023 – TCN

    Source: True Crime Daily

  • Milbank’s revenues surge 23% to £1.5 billion

    PEP rises by 33%

    Milbank has announced its 2024 financial results, revealing impressive growth across the board.

    Figures show that revenue at the US heavyweight rose by 23% to $1.86 billion (£1.5 billion). This significant increase came as a result of a whopping 15.2% growth in revenue per lawyer, despite the firm’s 6.6% increase in total lawyer head count last year.

    These results spell good news for the firm’s partnership as profits per equity partner reached a whopping $6.8 million (over £5.5 million) after a 33% surge. Net income for equity partners grew by an impressive 36.5% to $1.16 billion.

     The 2025 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

    Speaking to the American Lawyer, Milbank chair Scott Edelman commented on the firm’s impressive performance:

    “Every office did well, and every practice group did well. Our strategy of focusing on excellence in lawyering and being in practices where we sit at the top of the market is what caused us to have significant demand across the whole firm.”

    Edelman went on to speak about top compensation for junior lawyers as a core part of Milbank’s strategy. “We are seeing the very best students competing to come here,” he said. “This helps us now but also in the future. We are focused on recruiting the very best, investing in them, and training and retaining them. It has become more and more competitive to get a job here. But the people who make it are superb.”

    Milbank sits comfortably among the top payers in the London market, with newly qualified lawyers receiving salaries of £170,455, and has recently attracted attention for its generous Christmas bonuses. The firm recruits up to 8 trainees in London each year.

    The post Milbank’s revenues surge 23% to £1.5 billion appeared first on Legal Cheek.

    Source: Legal Cheek

  • Mom arrested after daughter dies in bathtub while 'baptizing' her

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. (TCN) — A 26-year-old woman faces charges after she allegedly held her daughter down in a filled bathtub last week while “baptizing” her.

    According to WNBC-TV, on Friday, Feb. 7, at 1:30 p.m., NYPD officers responded to a call near Elton Street and Ridgewood Avenue in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn regarding an unconscious juvenile. Police went to the home and transported the 6-year-old victim to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced deceased.

    WPIX-TV reports investigators arrested the girl’s mom, Karla Espinal, the next day for assault, endangering a child, and reckless endangerment. Espinal reportedly told police she was “baptizing” her daughter in the tub, though the victim’s cause of death has not been released yet.

    Espinal appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the charges. She could face other counts following the medical examiner’s autopsy report.

    The girl reportedly had blood clots in her eyes when police got there, which could indicate a struggle, according to the New York Times. The victim’s father reportedly texted his work manager and said he would not be able to come in because his daughter was killed.

    He said in a message to the manager, “I’m going crazy. I’m here until God gives a miracle. I don’t know what to do.”

    Court records show a judge denied Espinal bail.

    MORE:

    • 6-year-old girl dies after found in tub of water in Brooklyn home – WNBC
    • Mom accused in child’s death says why she was in the bathtub – WPIX
    • Mother Is Charged in Death of Girl, 6, Who Was Found in Bathtub – The New York Times
    • Kings County court case search

    Source: True Crime Daily

  • ‘Silly examples of bad practice’ are no reason to shun AI, says top judge

    Master of the Rolls backs artificial intelligence in latest speech

    Lawyers should embrace AI, despite horror stories of hallucinations in ChatGPT-created court filings, the Master of the Rolls has said.

    In a speech delivered at LawtechUK’s generative AI event, Sir Geoffrey Vos claimed that lawyers and judges have “no real choice” but to embrace AI and set out what, in his view, are three “very good reasons why they should do so.”

    Firstly, he mentioned the widespread uptake of AI tools among businesses. “All other industrial, financial and consumer sectors” will use AI “at every level,” the master of the rolls said. If lawyers are to serve these businesses, “there is simply no way” they can set themselves apart and reject AI as dangerous or imprecise.

    Secondly, lawyers should be “adept at the understanding the capabilities and weaknesses of generative AI” in order to cope with the influx of “AI liability disputes” that this new technology is likely to cause. Familiarity with the technology will allow lawyers to advise their clients effectively on this issue.

    Finally, Vos invoked the efficiency argument, stating simply that embracing AI “will save time and money.” He restated his commitment to creating the Digital Justice System, which would allow civil, family and tribunal disputes to be resolved online, “using AI where appropriate”, without entering the “expensive and time-consuming” court process.

    However, Vos did assure AI sceptics that he advocated for implementing AI tools “cautiously and responsibly”, making a tongue-in-cheek jab at the perceived conservatism of the profession: “taking the time that lawyers always like to take before they accept any radical change.”

     The 2025 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

    This speech forms part of an ongoing debate about how AI is best used in the legal system. Vos spoke of the need to “build bridges” between the “enthusiasts” and “sceptics” of AI, seeming to suggest that too many lawyers fall into the latter category.

    Speaking of the incidents in which lawyers have used GenAI to write submissions which included fictitious “hallucinated” case references and quotations, Vos said, “We should not be using silly examples of bad practice as a reason to shun the entirety of a new technology.” He mentioned “the hapless Steven Schwartz in New York”, the first of several lawyers to be caught using ChatGPT to create court documents which included such inaccuracies. A lawyer was disciplined just last week in Australia for similar misconduct.

    Since his appointment as Master of the Rolls, Vos has become known for his interest in artificial intelligence and innovation, having made several speeches encouraging the use of AI in the justice system including telling lawyers and judges to “get with the programme” on AI back in 2023.

    The post ‘Silly examples of bad practice’ are no reason to shun AI, says top judge appeared first on Legal Cheek.

    Source: Legal Cheek

  • Millionaire real estate brothers accused of assaulting dozens of women denied bond

    “True Crime News The Sidebar Podcast” host Joshua Ritter sits down with Ana Garcia to discuss the ongoing case involving Oren Alexander, Alon Alexander, and Tal Alexander, three brothers who face state and federal charges for allegedly sexually assaulting several women over the course of more than a decade.

    Source: True Crime Daily

  • Stay safe. Stay stylish. Stay in control with NightCap: The ultimate drink protection

    A night out should be about fun, laughter, and making memories, not worrying about the safety of your drink. This week’s True Crime News Safety Deals product, NightCap, allows you to enjoy your drink with an extra layer of protection.

    Whether you’re at a party, a concert, or your favorite bar, NightCap gives you peace of mind with a simple yet powerful solution: a reusable, stylish drink cover designed to help deter drink tampering.

    Focus on the fun, not the worry.

    NightCap Drink Covers create a barrier between your beverage and any potential tampering. Lightweight, convenient, and easy to use, NightCap Drink Covers fit seamlessly into your everyday routine. With a variety of styles, including a discreet scrunchie design and a keychain option, NightCap ensures you stay protected without compromising style.

    NightCap is a must-have for several reasons. It fits a wide array of drinkware thanks to its nylon and Spandex material. Plus, it’s machine washable, making it eco-friendly and built to last. NightCap is also easy to carry and designed for on-the-go protection.

    The NightCap Scrunchie Drink Cover doubles as a fashionable hair accessory. Wear it on your wrist or in your hair, and when needed, pull out the hidden drink cover to safeguard your beverage. Check out some of their products below!

    Make NightCap your go-to companion for every night out. Stay safe, stay stylish, and stay in control.

    And remember, always buy your own drinks, and do not leave any beverage unattended.

    Shop True Crime News Safety Deals here!

    Each product has been selected by our team. We may receive commissions from purchases made via links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms of use. 

    Source: True Crime Daily