Legal news
The Gun Fired by Alec Baldwin’s Rust Set Couldn’t Have Gone Off Without Pulling the Trigger, FBI Says
The gun fired by Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust — killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza — could not have gone off without Baldwin pulling the trigger, according to an FBI forensic report obtained by ABC News. In the incident, which occurred last October in Sante Fe, New Mexico, Baldwin believed he was handling a “cold gun,” or one without live ammunition, when it went off and struck Hutchins in the stomach. Baldwin insisted that he never pulled the trigger, but the FBI’s forensic research says otherwise. Using accidental discharge testing, investigators determined that the .45 Colt caliber F.lli Pietta single-action revolver “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger.” The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator has classifi...
Britney Spears’ Ex-Husband Sentenced to 128 Days in Jail for Crashing Her Wedding
Britney Spears’ ex-husband, Jason Alexander, was sentenced to 128 days in a county jail after pleading no contest to aggravated trespassing and battery, both misdemeanors. The charges stemmed from Alexander’s attempt to crash Spears’ wedding to Sam Asghari back in June. Alexander was initially charged with trespassing, vandalism, and two counts of battery, but struck a deal with Ventura County, California prosecutors for lesser misdemeanor charges. Because Alexander already spent more than two months in a county jail, his sentence will require no additional time before bars. However, he currently remains in custody for an outstanding felony grand theft warrant. Alexander, who was married to Spears for 55 hours following a spur-of-the-moment Las Vegas wedding in 2004, illegally entered Spea...
Michelle Branch Arrested for Misdemeanor Assault After Allegedly Slapping Patrick Carney
Michelle Branch was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic assault after allegedly slapping her estranged husband, Patrick Carney, earlier this week. According to an arrest record reviewed by Consequence, police were called to the couple’s Nashville home around 2:00 a.m. local time on Thursday, after Branch allegedly slapped Carney in the face “one to two times.” Branch was booked on one-count of misdemeanor domestic assault and posted a $1,000 bond. She is due back in court on November 7th. Advertisement Related Video Hours after the arrest, Branch publicly announced that she and Carney were ending their marriage of three years. “To say that I am totally devastated doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel for myself and for my family,” Branch said in a statement. “The rug ...
Anne Heche: Toxicology Report Indicates Presence of Drugs at Time of Crash
Actor Anne Heche, 53, remains in a coma following a high-speed car crash into a Los Angeles home on August 5th. Law enforcement officials conducted a toxicology report from blood drawn at the hospital, and according to TMZ, Heche had cocaine in her system at the time of the accident. The blood sample also showed the presence of fentanyl. It’s unclear at this time if the drug was administered by hospital staff after the crash or taken by Heche beforehand. No evidence of alcohol was found, which is notable because TMZ obtained a photo that appeared to show a bottle of alcohol in the cupholder of her Mini Cooper. As a result of the toxicology report, Heche is being investigated for felony DUI, the Los Angeles Police Department told CNN. Advertisement Related Video Heche was driving throu...
Bob Dylan Calls for “Monetary Sanctions” Against Lawyers of Sexual Assault Accuser
A lawsuit claiming that Bob Dylan repeatedly sexually assaulted an unnamed 12-year-old girl in 1965 was dropped last month, and now attorneys for the singer are calling for “monetary sanctions” against the legal team that filed it (via Billboard). The suit was dated one day before the window closed on New York’s Child Protective Act, which opened the statute of limitations and allowed survivors of decades-old abuses to seek justice. Dylan scholars immediately called into question the filing’s timeline, which did not match the public record of his movements. Then, during the discovery process in July of this year, the woman failed to turn over text messages and emails, with Dylan’s attorneys saying her actions “strongly suggests Plaintiff has destroyed evidence directly relevant to the...
A Timeline of Ezra Miller’s Legal Troubles
Ezra Miller has been in the news a lot lately, and it hasn’t been about The Flash. The embattled actor has been arrested three times this year alone on charges of disorderly conduct, assault, and felony burglary, and they’ve faced accusations of grooming underage children and running a cult. To quote one person on Twitter, “Every time I see the words ‘Ezra Miller’ I know it’s about to be followed by the strangest combination of crime and location.” Needless to say, it’s a lot to keep track of, which is why we’ve compiled a timeline of Miller’s mounting controversies. June 28th, 2011: Teenage Hijinks Miller’s first brush with the law was hardly as serious as their more recent incidents, but it’s worth noting that their legal troubles didn’t begin in 2022. Back in 2011, while filmi...
A$AP Relli Comes Forward as A$AP Rocky Shooting Victim
Back in April, A$AP Rocky was arrested in connection to a November 2021 shooting in which he allegedly shot an unnamed man in the hand. Now, Terell Ephron, aka A$AP Relli, a former member of the A$AP Mob, has come forward as the alleged victim. Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, was coming back from a vacation with his then-pregnant girlfriend, Rihanna, when police detained him at LAX. He has yet to be formally charged with a crime, but has been listed as a person of interest and is due in court on August 17th. Additionally, Ephron has filed a civil lawsuit against Rocky. In statement provided to Rolling Stone, Ephron said Rocky asked him to meet that November night “to discuss a disagreement between the two of them.” Yet, “unbeknownst to Mr. Ephron, A$AP Rocky was not just planning for a conversat...
Ezra Miller Charged with Felony Burglary
Ezra Miller has been charged with felony burglary in Stamford, Vermont, the latest in a string of arrests for the embattled Flash actor. As Variety was first to report, Miller was arrested on Sunday, August 7th on charges stemming from a burglary complaint filed on May 1st. According to Vermont State Police report, officers found that several bottles of alcohol were stolen from an at-the-time unoccupied residence. “As a result of an investigation that included surveillance videos and statements, probable cause was found to charge Ezra M. Miller with the offense of felony burglary into an unoccupied dwelling,” the police report noted. Law enforcement officials issued Miller a citation to appear in Vermont Superior Court for arraignment on September 26th. Advertisement Related Video Miller o...
Kevin Spacey Loses Appeal to Overturn $31 Million House of Cards Damages
Last year, Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay MRC, the producer of Netflix’s House of Cards, $31 million in compensatory damages following his termination from the show. He later petitioned to have the order reversed, but at an August 4th hearing, a judge determined the actor’s appeal had no standing. Spacey was fired from House of Cards in 2017 after eight employees of the show accused him of sexual misconduct. After his termination, MRC was forced to rewrite the show’s sixth and final season to exclude Spacey from the plot, and cut the season down from 13 episodes to eight in order to meet streaming deadlines. After an internal investigation and an evidentiary hearing, a neutral arbitrator concluded Spacey had violated the show’s anti-harassment policy and ordered him to...
Jury Orders Alex Jones to Pay Sandy Hook Parents $4 Million in Damages
A Texas jury has ordered conspiracy theorist and Infowars owner Alex Jones to pay the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim $4 million in compensatory damages in an ongoing defamation lawsuit. Jones has spent almost a decade arguing that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School — which left 28 people, including 20 children, dead — was a hoax, and that the parents of the victims were “crisis actors” upholding the lie. One set of parents, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, sued Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, in 2018 for defamation, and originally asked for $150 million in compensatory damages. In a verdict signed by 10 members of the 12-member jury, the group landed on $4 million, but a separate trial to decide how much Jones will pay in punitive damages is still forthco...
Lady Gaga Dognapper Receives Four-Year Prison Sentence
One of the three men charged with the armed robbery of Lady Gaga’s former dog walker Ryan Fischer has been sentenced to four years in state prison after accepting a surprise plea deal. Jaylin Keyshawn White pleaded “no contest” to second-degree robbery on Wednesday, August 3rd in return for prosecutors dropping two other charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit robbery. Judge Richard Kemalyan sentenced White to three years for the robbery conviction and gave an extra year for gun enhancement because another defendant involved in the case, James Howard Jackson, was armed. Fischer, who was shot during the February 2021 dognapping, suffered from nerve damage and a collapsed lung as a result of the attack. Rolling Stone reports that he gave a tearful speech in court. “You left me b...
Man Who Killed Nicki Minaj’s Father in Hit-and-Run Sentenced to One Year in Jail
Charles Polevich, the man who killed Nicki Minaj’s father Robert Maraj in a February 2021 hit-and-run, has been sentenced to one year in jail. Polevich, now 71, struck Maraj, 64, while he was walking in the village of Mineola on Long Island, New York. Polevich drove off and hid his car, while Maraj was taken to a Nassau County hospital, where he died. Using security footage, Nassau County police were able to track down Polevich’s vehicle. “He’s absolutely aware of what happened,” Nassau Police Homicide Detective Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick told CNN. “He got out of the car and he looked at the deceased, got into his car and made the conscious decision to leave. Instead of dialing 911, instead of calling an ambulance for the man, he went and went home and secreted his vehicle.” Advertisement Rel...
