News Roundup

Seven men are charged with stealing millions from the homes of six professional athletes across the country, as reported by NPR. Court documents do not identify the victims by name, but the details are consistent with reported burglaries at the homes of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals. CNN adds that the suspects were apprehended after taking a selfie discovered by the FBI. Read on for more criminal law news. NYC Pays Millions to Settle Misconduct Cases. New York City paid $206 million in 2024 to settle cases involving police and prosecutorial misconduct, according to this story from the NYT. The city settled 953 cases last year, with five settlements of at least $15 million each. Those included the cases of James Irons and Thomas Malik, who spent thirty years in prison for murder before they were exonerated by a judge last year; both were awarded about $16.3 million. The NYPD said 64 percent of the cases settled in 2024 involved wrongful convictions, and at least half of the wrongful conviction cases were around twenty years old. Zizians Cult Leader Arrested. Maryland State Police on Sunday arrested Jack Lasota, 34, the apparent leader of a cultlike group known as the Zizians, as reported by the AP. Another member of the group, Michelle Zajko, 33, was also arrested. The Zizians have been implicated in the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in January as well as five other homicides [...]