Crime

The man who fatally struck Nicki Minaj's father Robert Maraj with his vehicle 5 years ago has settled the wrongful-death battle over the incident after attempting to drag the rapper into court ... TMZ has learned.

According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, Nicki's mom Carol Maraj and Charles Polevich -- who served time behind bars for 65-year-old Robert's death -- hashed out the deal in early March, which will bring an end to their legal war. In her lawsuit, Carol had asked the court to award her damages for losing out on Robert's companionship.

The settlement comes months after Polevich was working to subpoena Nicki for a deposition.

The man accused of trying to kill President Donald Trump just got something unexpected in court -- an apology.

Yeah, you read that right … a federal judge is sticking up for the alleged would-be assassin and blasting jail officials over how he's been treated behind bars.

Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui didn't hold back Monday ... telling the court he was "disturbed" by the conditions faced by Cole Allen -- the 31-year-old accused of trying to infiltrate the White House Correspondents' Dinner to take out Trump and other top officials.

The woman accusing Stefon Diggs of assaulting her in December 2025 claims they had a sexual relationship before she became his personal chef.

Jamila Adams took the stand minutes ago in a Massachusetts courtroom ... where she detailed her timeline with the NFL superstar.

Adams stated she first linked up with Diggs via Instagram message four and a half years ago when he asked her to cook for him.

An hours-long standoff finally came to an end early Monday morning when a man wanted for attempted murder of a cop was taken into custody following a SWAT team response ... hours after releasing a hostage from his truck.

Watch the video ... police say the standoff started when the suspect refused to get out of his truck Sunday afternoon ... hours after a traffic stop led to a deputy being clipped by a vehicle very early Sunday morning. And the suspect was holding a woman hostage inside the truck.

A SWAT team later responded, and the standoff lasted almost all night ... and you can see cops were shooting off flash-bangs.

The whole thing began around 3 AM Sunday morning ... a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy tried to detain a man during a traffic stop in an area of south L.A. ... that's when the unidentified man took off in his pickup truck and allegedly struck the deputy.

That prompted a warrant for attempted murder ... the deputy sustained minor injuries but was not hospitalized, according to ABC7.

The dad of the ex-JPMorgan Chase banker who sued his female boss is standing by his son amid scandalous allegations.

Last week, the senior VP -- identified only as John Doe in the suit -- accused Lorna Hajdini of allegedly drugging him and pressuring him into "non-consensual and humiliating sex acts."

On Sunday, the plaintiff's dad told The New York Post that he didn't know anything about his son's lawsuit, saying ... "He didn’t talk with us or anything."

ICE agents dragged a man out of a hospital in New York City Saturday night ... all while chaos broke out in the streets outside due to a mob of livid protesters.

The incident took place outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn ... when a pair of men dragged a dude out of the center ... having to physically carry him all the way to a black SUV at one point.

You can see it all in the clip -- Anti-ICE protesters had gathered outside the building ... where they began berating officers and trashing the area. Eventually, protesters got into a physical confrontation with the cops ... with the entire street descending into bedlam.

There won't be a seat saved for Anna Kepner's dad at her upcoming murder trial ... 'cause he says he'll only go if he's forced.

Christopher Kepner revealed he has no plans to attend the trial to watch his stepson, identified as "T.H.", tried for the murder of his daughter, 18-year-old Anna. Anna's 16-year-old stepbrother, T.H., is accused of sexually assaulting and then killing her while they were on a family cruise with Carnival back in November.

Christopher's wife, Shauntel Kepner -- the mother of T.H. -- will also not attend.

He told the Daily Mail ... "Unless they ask for me to be there, neither my wife or I will be attending." He says prosecutors have "everything they need" in terms of evidence and it'll be "too painful to relive it all again."

A pack of unruly teens went wild inside a New York City Scientology building Saturday ... leaving a trail of damage and even injuring an employee in the process.

The terrifying incident went down at the Church's building on W 46th street -- just a few steps away from Times Square -- at around 4:24 PM, the NYPD tells TMZ. Officers responded to a call for a burglary in progress after the mob forced entry into the building through a side door, causing property damage.

Police say the caller -- a 30-year-old male -- was kicked in the leg and injured, but not hospitalized. The hoodlums fled before police arrived, and no arrests have been made. The investigation is still open.

The Church of Scientology tells TMZ the intruders broke a locked door to gain entry and in addition to injuring one of their employees, used a racial slur against another. They say the disruption "endangered staff, parishioners and visitors, including individuals attending a seminar at the time."

Tucker Carlson's fans will have no trouble getting their nicotine fix ... because TMZ has learned the massive stolen shipment has been recovered.

The L.A. County Sheriff's Office tells TMZ ... detectives served a search warrant in Vernon, California -- about five miles from Downtown Los Angeles -- where they found a stolen cargo shipment which included Carlson's nicotine pouches.

The shipment -- which Carlson's company, ALP, previously said is worth millions -- was recovered along with televisions, shoes, printers, data center cooling equipment, speakers and skin care cosmetics. In total, eight companies were robbed in the brazen theft including Footlocker, Medicube, and Ulta Beauty.

4:38 PM PT -- Chris Brown has responded to reports of the shooting ... and he claims they're total BS. He says he's been home the whole time and never heard a gunshot or a police car. He adds people need to stop attaching his name to the story.

To be clear ... law enforcement sources are emphatic that officers responded to reports of a shooting outside Brown's home Friday. Our sources have not said there is any connection between Brown and the shooting besides its alleged location outside

Shots were fired outside Chris Brown's L.A. home Friday afternoon, TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... police were called to Chris' house in Tarzana around 4 PM yesterday after a report of a possible shooting outside the property.

According to our sources, a female caller reported that a shooting had just occurred and described the suspect as a Black male, approximately 35 years old, who allegedly fired at her vehicle during the incident.

In dispatch audio obtained by TMZ ... authorities are heard dispatching officers to his Tarzana address and describing what the suspect was wearing at the time of the incident.

D4vd will head to court this month for his preliminary hearing in Celeste Rivas' murder case.

The singer -- whose legal name is David Anthony Burke -- has been charged with killing the teenager. But you may be wondering when everything went down ... and how they even met in the first place.

This video shows D4vd apologizing to friends about a horrible "smell" in his home, 2 months after he allegedly murdered and dismembered Celeste Rivas Hernandez in that same house.

In the clip, from a July 4, 2025 livestream, the singer is hanging out with his friends Neo and Sukana. At one point, D4vd interrupts them to apologize for the "way his bathroom smells" ... claiming it was because he had "s***" in it 2 hours earlier.

As we reported, D4vd is facing felony charges of first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a minor and mutilation of human remains ... and prosecutors allege he kept Celeste's remains in his rental home for months before they were discovered in September in his Tesla.

Flowers are piling up at Celeste Rivas's gravesite -- a simple but powerful show of love as people continue to honor her memory.

Check out the scene we saw on Friday ... Celeste’s final resting place at Queen of Heaven Cemetery & Mortuary in Rowland Heights in L.A. is currently surrounded by carefully placed bouquets -- bright pink roses, yellow daisies, soft white blooms -- each a reminder that she hasn’t been forgotten.

The polished black granite headstone bearing her name is framed by bursts of color ... surrounding the etched image of Celeste depicted as an angel. The scene provides a sense of warmth in an otherwise heavy place … like each visitor found their own quiet way to say goodbye.

Celeste Rivas' father says he's never even met D4vd, much less received any money from him ... despite rumors floating around the family's home town that the singer was giving funds to the Rivas family.

There's been online speculation, including on Reddit and Facebook, springing up around Lake Elsinore, California -- located about 2 hours southeast of L.A. -- that the disgraced singer and murder suspect gave money to the family.

Jesus Rivas tells TMZ, through his attorney Patrick Steinfeld ... "I never had any contact with this guy and we haven't received any money from him or anyone in his family."

Prosecutors say D4vd disposed of Celeste Rivas' personal items in a remote area of Santa Barbara County after he murdered her in his Hollywood Hills home ... her identification was found off a highway in the area described, and now we know how it was recovered.

Caltrans tells TMZ ... a maintenance worker performing traffic control on SR-154 east of Painted Cave Road on Jan. 7, 2026 looked down in the brush and discovered Celeste's passport card. That's about 100 miles northwest of the Hollywood Hills, in a wooded mountainous region.

We're told the Caltrans worker reported the finding to his supervisor, who contacted the California Highway Patrol.

Chandra Levy -- the slain Federal Bureau of Prisons intern who went missing back in 2001 -- may have been killed because she knew too much about UFOs ... so say her parents.

Robert and Susan Levy talked about their daughter's death on NewsNation's "Jesse Weber Live" ... and they mentioned that Chandra indicated to them she knew information about UFOs because of her relationship with Representative Gary Condit shortly before she went missing.

The pair mentions the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe's drug overdose as more possible examples of people being killed for knowing too much.