The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba, for his role in ordering the 1996 downing of two planes. The planes were flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a humanitarian group searching for Cuban migrants at sea. The attack killed four people, including three U.S. citizens. Castro and five other former senior Cuban military officials are charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder. The DOJ alleges that on Feb. 24, 1996, following orders from Raúl and his brother Fidel Castro, Cuban fighter pilots shot down the planes. Cuba claimed at the time the aircraft violated its airspace and posed a security threat, but the International Civil Aviation Organization concluded the planes were in international airspace. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the indictment a political move with no legal grounding and defended Castro as a “hero” acting in “legitimate self-defense.” An arrest warrant has been issued, though Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche provided no details on extradition plans beyond saying, “We expect he will show up here, either by his own will, or another way, and go to prison.” Read on for more criminal law news.
Juvenile justice reform in Hawaii. Hawaii is poised to become one of the first states to require judges to consider a child’s exposure to trauma before charging the youth as an adult. Senate Bill 2108 would also bar minor victims of trafficking or sexual assault from being charged as adults for crimes committed against their abusers. The legislation is the state’s latest juvenile justice reform and reflects research showing most youth in the criminal justice system have experienced significant trauma. Experts say trauma can be better addressed through rehabilitative approaches in the juvenile system rather than punitive measures in adult facilities. Studies indicate that incarcerating youth in restrictive adult facilities for lengthy sentences is rarely effective at reducing recidivism. “We send young people to adult court because we think it’s going to make us safer. In fact, it is probably making us less safe,” said Jessica Feierman, chief legal officer at the Juvenile Law Center, a national advocacy group. “The adult court is not set up to provide the kinds of services and supports that will help young people to thrive.”
New charge in school child abuse case. WRAL reports a former Durham Public Schools administrator is facing a new obstruction charge after prosecutors say she attempted to block the investigation into alleged child abuse at an elementary school. A Durham County grand jury on Monday indicted Tanya Giovanni on six felony counts of obstruction of justice. Giovanni, who served as deputy superintendent of administrative, legal and compliance services, was fired by the school board in March. The charges stem from a 2024 incident at Eno Valley Elementary in which a kindergartener with autism was allegedly tied to a chair. According to the new indictment, Giovanni prevented an HR employee from interviewing the former principal, Tounya Wright, who is also charged in the case, knowing the interview was ordered by the superintendent. Wright faces three felony obstruction counts and one perjury count. A third administrator, former senior executive director of employee relations Ayesha Hunter, faces six obstruction counts and two perjury counts. The family of the student has also filed a lawsuit over the incident.
Receipts don’t lie. A Spanish court acquitted pop star Shakira in a tax fraud case and ordered the government to return more than $60 million in wrongly imposed fines. The ruling relates to a dispute over the 2011 tax year, in which Spanish authorities failed to prove the Colombian singer was a tax resident of Spain. Under Spanish law, a person must spend more than 183 days in the country to qualify as a tax resident, and prosecutors could only prove Shakira spent 163 days in Spain that year. The tax agency had argued Shakira was tied to Spain through her relationship with now-retired soccer player Gerard Piqué and that she based her main economic activities in the country, but the High Court ruled the tie to Spain could not be legally equated via marriage and found no proof that the main center of her activities or economic interests were in Spain in 2011.
Your own worst enemy. A New York teenager learned an important lesson about abandoned buildings after breaking into a shuttered correctional facility to take photographs and accidentally locking himself inside a cell. Police responded just after midnight to the former Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill after receiving a report of a trespasser who turned out to be the person calling for help. Police discovered Cody M. Mallon, 19, trapped inside one of the facility’s cells after crawling through a hole in the perimeter fence to explore and photograph the unused prison. The Glenham Fire Department assisted troopers in extracting Mallon from the cell, after which he was arrested and charged with third-degree criminal trespass, a Class B misdemeanor.
