Crime & Arrests

Henry Ruggs opened up publicly on Tuesday for the first time since he was thrown behind bars for killing a woman and her dog in a horrific 2021 car crash ... and he admitted he would still "love to" play football again once he's out of custody.

The former NFL star got candid with questioners for roughly an hour at a Hope for Prisoners event in Las Vegas ... in an effort to inspire current and former inmates during their journeys to successfully one day reenter society.

Ruggs touched on a bunch of topics in the chat -- including what led up to the November 2021 accident that changed his and so many other lives forever.

We've reached the home stretch in the Diddy criminal trial and on the 25th day of witness testimony, prosecutors tried to lay out for the jury how they say Diddy spent big to transport male prostitutes across the country for sex romps.

DeLeassa Penland, a special agent with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York -- the agency prosecuting the case against Diddy -- was back on the stand and she testified about a bunch of charges Diddy incurred flying sex workers across state lines.

The testimony mostly went towards the Mann Act and some of it to the RICO charge against Diddy.

3:30 PM PT -- The Family of Bryshere Gray tells TMZ ... "Bryshere and the family are still trying to understand everything from this past weekend. Bryshere appreciates all the well wishes as he resumes working on his mental health. Both Bryshere and Chosen (Dustin) are doing fine. Mr. Gray loves all his fans and supporters.

"Their friendship is equivalent to brothers & this was not a payment dispute. This was an issue concerning Bryshere’s safety and health. We kindly ask for privacy as we are all working to find peace and move on from this matter."

Former "Empire" star Bryshere Gray allegedly lunged at a man and punched him at a hotel last Friday before assault charges were filed ... this according to the criminal complaint obtained by TMZ.

The alleged assault went down in Chesapeake, Virginia ... where a man named Dustin Wilkins was trying to help the actor with a payment dispute at the Homewood Suites.

Wilkins says he told Gray he can't just skip out on the bill for his stay -- reasoning he has plenty of other issues to worry about and that he was simply trying to "save" his life -- which seemingly angered Gray. It's unclear if the two men know each other.

An attorney representing Jimmie Ward in his domestic violence case tells TMZ Sports he believes the NFL player is innocent.

Steve Jackson -- the lawyer who Ward hired after the Texans defensive back was hit with an assault charge for allegedly roughing up his fiancée earlier this month -- said in a statement to us on Tuesday he feels his client will ultimately "be vindicated."

"We just ask that the public reserve judgment," Jackson said, "so that we can show everyone that the Jimmie Ward that they all have come to know is the same person and did not do this."

Diddy's defense team isn't backing away from the jury seeing the alleged "freak-off" videos  ... because Diddy's lawyers are now showing jurors even more footage from them.

The viewing went down Tuesday in Day 25 of Diddy's federal trial in Manhattan ... as defense attorney Teny Geragos was cross-examining a Department of Justice special agent.

Geragos cued up a few videos ... and jurors put on headphones and watched the freak-off footage on screens not viewable by lawyers, prosecutors, or those in the gallery.

Shohei Ohtani's Dodgers pitching debut was available to Ippei Mizuhara during his first night in prison, TMZ Sports has learned.

A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson tells us ... at the Federal Correctional Institution Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania -- where Mizuhara was taken into custody this week -- inmates did have access to MLB Network, which broadcast the highly anticipated Dodgers vs. Padres game.

It's unclear, of course, if Mizuhara tuned in ... but the spokesperson told us Ohtani's former interpreter would have certainly had the option to if he wanted, as he "has access to 12 televisions" on a normal day behind bars.

In a dramatic incident this weekend, a "No Kings" protester was run over by a frustrated driver after attempting to block their path in downtown L.A. -- and the whole encounter was caught on video.

Sunday around 7 PM, a woman confronted the car at an intersection, standing in front and placing her hand on the hood ... and when she didn't move as the car rolled slowly forward, the driver speeds up, sending the woman tumbling.

You can clearly see the car's front right wheel roll over her lower leg ... and then it drives off, leaving the woman on the ground, screaming in pain.

Disturbing notebooks found in the vehicle of Vance Boelter -- the man accused of targeting and shooting Minnesota lawmakers this weekend -- reveal just how strategic he was in allegedly planning the brutal killings.

The acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota released images of Boelter's alleged notes ... and they appear to show meticulous planning, including a list of websites offering addresses and other info about the alleged targets' homes -- and even how long the websites' free trials lasted.

Authorities confirmed more than 45 Minnesota individuals -- state and federal officials, many of whom support abortion rights -- were named in these notebooks ... and several had their addresses listed as well.

Luigi Mangione's celebrity status isn't going to his head inside his NYC prison -- according to his former prison mate, who says he's just a regular dude with a cleaning job!

Michael Daddea -- who reportedly spent two days in MDC Brooklyn for federal firearm charges before getting out on a $250,000 bail -- claims he met Luigi as soon as he entered the clink ... and they became fast pals.

Daddea said in a since-deleted social media post first reported by the New York Post that Luigi was a shower cleaner ... though he didn't spend too much time cleaning up, and would often peruse the New York papers to see if he made the news.

The jury in Diddy's trial got a spicy break from the usual testimony Monday with prosecutors playing portions of some alleged "freak-off" videos -- but for the jurors' eyes only.

The viewing went down during the afternoon session of day 24 in the trial ... as a federal prosecutor was questioning a Department of Justice special agent on the witness stand.

The prosecutor asked the special agent to verify a list of hotels where Diddy allegedly hosted his freak-offs with Cassie and male escorts. The agent went down the list, describing the hotels and the freak-off videos pertaining to the corresponding locations.

Vance Boelter -- the suspected killer of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband -- allegedly texted his family, "Dad went to war last night," in the wake of his shooting spree ... according to the feds.

Prosecutors say Boelter fired off the text hours after his alleged deadly rampage across four towns in Minnesota, where law enforcement says he visited the homes of four state lawmakers with the intention of killing them.

The feds say Boelter texted his family around 6:15 AM Saturday ... "Dad went to war last night ... I don't wanna say more because I don't wanna implicate anybody."

Prosecutors are getting closer to resting their case in Diddy's criminal trial and on the 24th day of witness testimony they finally showed jurors what they've been waiting for ... videos from the alleged freak-offs with Diddy and Cassie.

After some drama with the jury -- one juror was dismissed and another was on the hot seat after seemingly blabbing about the cases -- prosecutors showed members of the jury snippets of some sexual encounters between Diddy, Cassie and a hired male escort.

The jury had seen still images earlier in the trial, but prosecutors waited until they got towards the end of their case to break out the actual video footage ... presumably for dramatic effect.

The tragic shooting murders this weekend of a Minnesota politician and her husband, and the attempt on the lives of two others, who both survived -- was apparently pulled off by a police impersonator. Events like this are ratcheting up distrust between the public and law enforcement personnel ... and a former lawman breaks down what this trend means.

Author Steve Lazarus, a retired FBI Special Agent with 22 years on the job, joined us on "TMZ Live" Monday to talk about the effect "guys cosplaying as cops" are having on public trust and safety ... and he's not exactly optimistic.

Lazarus tells us about how destabilizing it is when you don't always know the good guys from the bad guys ... What is the average civilian supposed to do with people impersonating police and other law enforcement officers -- like ICE agents -- in an attempt to get away with crimes ... including murder?

Diddy once had a sick, twisted Christmas gift idea for his then-girlfriend Cassie when they were dating ... a "freak-off."

The jury in Diddy's federal criminal trial was shown text messages in court Monday from January 2013, including one in which Diddy asked Cassie if she wanted to belatedly celebrate Christmas by having a freak-off ... which numerous witnesses in the case have described as essentially sex marathons in hotels with a hired male escort.

The conversation began with Diddy texting Cassie, "You horny" ... to which Cassie responded, "Lol yeah".

Ippei Mizuhara is behind bars -- Shohei Ohtani's former right-hand man and interpreter has surrendered to federal authorities to start his 57-month prison sentence.

A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to TMZ Sports that 40-year-old Mizuhara reported to the Federal Correctional Institution Allenwood Low facility in Pennsylvania on Monday ... hours before the Japanese superstar is slated to make his first pitching start for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in prison this past February for stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani ... and was initially ordered to surrender in March, but the date was pushed back at his attorney's request.

Diddy's trial is on the verge of another jury shakeup due to one of them getting a strange text message that's left the judge with concerns this juror is talking about the case outside of court.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ the juror alerted the court on Friday about the text message, from a phone number he didn't recognize, asking him if HE was Juror No. 6 -- who'd already been in the news as someone Judge Arun Subramanian might dismiss.

We're told this other juror wanted the judge to know about the mystery text and, indeed, Judge Subramanian did have lots of questions for him about the message and the phone number from which it came.