Crime

The grand jury has indicted just one officer, Brett Hankison, on charges of wanton endangerment. Hankison was not charged for the shooting of Breonna Taylor ... he was charged with shooting into a neighboring apartment. The other 2 officers who fired shots the night Breonna Taylor was killed were not charged. In other words, no one was charged for killing Breonna.

Hankison has been indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree -- for firing recklessly and without due regard for life. His bail has been set at $15,000. Wanton endangerment carries a maximum penalty of 5 years if convicted.

The indictment has already sparked anger. Rev. Al Sharpton called it "grossly insufficient."

AG Daniel Cameron called Breonna's death a "gut-wrenching" tragedy but said his job is to follow the law. He said for civil rights violations, the federal government can charge officers who cross the line. But, civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt told us on "TMZ Live" a few minutes ago ... he believes the fix was in between Cameron and Trump, and Trump is not going to tolerate federal charges.

Merritt noted the medical examiner ruled Breonna's death a homicide, yet that seemed lost on the grand jury. Merritt mentioned an old legal joke -- that grand juries would indict a ham sandwich -- meaning prosecutors have an easy time securing criminal charges. The question ... did the AG press for a homicide indictment? We don't know, because the proceedings are secret.

A few key takeaways from Cameron's comments -- he says the 3 officers who executed the warrant had no prior knowledge of how it was obtained or the background of the case up 'til then. Cameron says they were brought in as extra personnel, and were briefed with basics. He also makes clear ... it was NOT a no-knock warrant, as has been widely reported.

Cameron assured the public -- the officers claimed they did knock and announce themselves, and says that was backed up by a civilian witness who was in one of the neighboring apartments. A journalist asked Cameron if one witness coming forward to say they heard the police announcing themselves was enough when no other neighbors could confirm it.

Cameron skirted that question and said it was clearly enough for the grand jury. There's more ... he goes on to say that after officers received no response at the door, they entered. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was the first one in, and apparently saw Breonna and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, standing at the end of the hall. He claims Walker was in a shooting stance with a gun in hand, and that he fired at Mattingly first, who was struck in the thigh.

Cameron says Mattingly returned fire -- shooting six times -- while another officer behind him, Myles Cosgrove, also returned fire ... unloading 16 rounds. As for Hankison, Cameron says he fired 10 rounds from outside, which went everywhere ... including into another unit.

Cameron says Breonna was struck 6 times, and that the forensic reports indicate the one fatal bullet that killed her likely came from Cosgrove's weapon. He stressed that there wasn't conclusive evidence that Hankison's bullets hit her -- it was just Mattingly and Cosgrove's, and because of that ... Cameron said his office couldn't look into any criminality around her death, as he says the 2 officers inside were authorized and justified in their use of force, under Kentucky law.

Cameron also noted that justice is not easy and not meant to appease what the public wants -- under the letter of law, it can only answer to the facts. He also pled with Kentucky residents not to allow outside influences and voices to tell them out to feel about this.

Of course, Breonna's family's own legal team -- led by Ben Crump -- feel very differently about the results here. Crump said the fact that Hankison was charged for wanton endangerment of OTHER people besides Breonna is "outrageous and offensive."

He also made a pretty good point ... that if Hankison was charged for endangering others while firing recklessly, how is it possible he wasn't charged for endangering Breonna herself? While the AG did not specifically touch on that, presumably ... Hankison, too, was found to be justified, at least in part, when he fired from the outside in.

Crump emphasized that point by writing, "How ironic and typical that the only charges brought in this case were for shots fired into the apartment of a white neighbor, while no charges were brought for shots fired into the Black neighbor's apartment or into Breonna's residence."

He goes on to call the decision an utter travesty of justice, but goes on to hold out hope that the pending federal investigation into possible civil rights violations might bring about some actual closure the family and the Black community is looking for.

It's been a long road up to this point, which Cameron also touched on ... saying he and his team wanted to turn over every stone and conduct their investigation from scratch.

Comedian Bryan Callen claims his rape accuser's husband is waging a war to destroy his livelihood as an actor and stand-up comedian through intimidation ... so he claims in a new lawsuit.

Callen -- best known for roles in "The Hangover" and "The Goldbergs" -- is suing Gabriel Tigerman, the husband of Kathryn Fiore Tigerman, who recently publicly accused Callen of raping her back in 1999. Callen claims since the accusations came to light, Gabriel's been on the warpath to destroy his career through threats, harassment and intimidation of anyone who dares to hire him.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Callen claims Gabriel contacted his reps at talent agency CAA and asked whether they still represented Callen in light of the allegations ... suggesting doing so would send a "message to victims that this behavior is okay." Callen says the email went on to say, "Do you and CAA still represent this serial sexual predator? I hope the answer is no."

What's more ... Callen claims Gabriel went as far as contacting comedy clubs and attempted to get them to drop him. He claims some comedy clubs have cut ties with him after Gabriel reached out to them.

The Jacob Blake investigation is nearing its end, but before it crosses the finish line, a neutral third party has been looped in -- a former cop -- something a Blake family member is none too pleased about.

Jacob's uncle, Justin Blake, tells TMZ ... he feels the news about DOJ investigators bringing in former the Madison, WI police chief as a consultant in the probe is an open-palmed slap in the face.

Fact is ... he believes the so-called impartial second set of eyes announced this week, Noble Wray, can't be impartial. Justin believes he simply can't help but be biased against Jacob.

Wray is a retired chief who was on the force in Madison for years, a Wisconsin native ... and even has experience in legal consulting on the biggest stage. He served as a police reform specialist for the U.S. Department of Justice. But, Justin doesn't think Wray's accomplishments matter, because he says it's simply impossible for ANY law enforcement officer -- especially a former police chief -- to objectively reach conclusions about police brutality.

Justin favors putting a judge or even a politician in place of Wray.

ICYMI ... Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul and Kenosha County D.A. Michael Gravely said Monday they were going to have Wray -- who's African-American -- give a thorough review of the feds' DCI unit's findings in the case, offer up his analysis ... and then kick all of that back to Graveley's office for consideration on possible charges against Rusten Sheskey, and maybe others.

The process has dragged on for a month now -- the timeline the AG first gave to the public initially -- and now, it might be even longer before a final decision is made. The fact it's taken this long also irks Justin, who tells us he's been wanting more consistent updates.

The FBI's not done building its case against Jerry Harris -- federal agents in Chicago are asking for any individuals under the age of 18 who may have been victimized by the disgraced "Cheer" star to come forward.

The feds have launched a "Seeking Victim Information" webpage related to the investigation of Harris, who was arrested last week and is facing a federal child pornography charge for allegedly enticing 2 underage teen boys to send him sexually explicit images of themselves.

The FBI says it's seeking the public’s help in identifying any additional minors who may have been contacted by Harris and asked to produce or view graphic images or engage in sexual contact.

Victims may have communicated with Harris via Snapchat or Instagram ... according to the feds.

As we reported ... the feds claim Harris admitted to many of the allegations against him, including soliciting and receiving child pornography on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 other individuals he knew were minors.

R. Kelly's renewed plea to get sprung from jail is getting push back from Uncle Sam, who says his most recent concern -- getting attacked behind bars -- has been neutralized.

Federal prosecutors just filed a reply to R. Kelly's latest request to be released on bail after he was ambushed and beaten by a fellow Chicago MCC inmate ... a guy Kelly says could've cost him his life. The government's response? Relax, it was a one-and-done.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, the feds say the attack on R. Kelly was a one-time, isolated event -- and that it can't happen again, at least not with the same guy ... because he's been moved to a new facility in Michigan.

So, in their eyes, the threat has left the building.

The feds also dispute R. Kelly's claim the attacker allegedly told a doctor on site that he needed to attack the singer for attention on his own case -- claiming the doctor denied that convo ever happened. That said, they also point out that if R. Kelly's still sour about his injuries ... he can take it up in civil court.

Kodak Black's life has been a living hell at a federal prison in Kentucky due to beatings at the hands of guards, mental abuse and religious suppression ... so claims the rapper in a new suit.

Kodak's going after the Federal Bureau of prisons along with its director and the warden of the Big Sandy maximum security prison, claiming he's been tortured and had his rights violated ever since he was transferred there in October 2019.

According to the docs ... the rapper's transfer was a result of an altercation with another inmate while he was incarcerated at a Miami prison, in which an officer was injured.

Kodak claims Big Sandy guards put a "gang beating" on him shortly after he arrived, allegedly as retaliation for the injured Miami prison guard. He claims the guards "flicked" his testicles during the beatdown.

Since then, the rapper claims he's routinely punished and mistreated for no legitimate law enforcement reason, including being placed by guards in a backless paper gown on a 4-point restraint for more than 6 hours ... with no access to a bathroom.

According to the docs ... this has forced Kodak to urinate and defecate on himself while the guards make jokes. He claims medical records show that this treatment also resulted in his mouth bleeding, lacerations and vomiting.

There's more -- the Big Sandy prison guards are accused of placing Kodak on his knees execution-style in just his underwear while soaking wet, which he claims has caused him physical harm along with emotional distress and humiliation.

Finally, Kodak's legal team of attorneys Bradford Cohen, Robert Buschel and Jonathan Schwartz are following up on their threat to sue because the rapper is also allegedly being denied access to a rabbi.

According to the lawsuit, Kodak is a practicing Hebrew Israelite, but his requests to meet with a rabbi in order to faithfully practice his religion have fallen on deaf ears ... while he claims other inmates are granted access to clergy.

Here's the straight poop -- an Oklahoma woman really had to go number two when she got pulled over by a cop, an excuse that resulted in a high-speed chase and her in handcuffs ... and we've got the raw vid.

28-year-old Emily Owings led an Enid PD officer on a wild ride last week after he stopped her for not wearing a seatbelt, and immediately got a laundry list of excuses once he realized she had other legal troubles that might've required he bring her in.

By that, we mean she told him it was her birthday, but much more urgently ... she claimed she had to take a dump, and BAD. The cop wasn't buying it though, and did what he needed to do ... namely, check to see if there were outstanding warrants.

Turns out, Enid PD says there was ... not to mention her license was suspended. When the officer informed her of all this, Ms. Owing started bawling and pleading with the guy ... again telling him she had to drop one. It's sad ... but so funny too.

Anyway, when they finally tell her she is, in fact, wanted in another county and they gotta take her into custody -- the lady speeds off, before eventually being stopped and arrested. As they're hauling her off, she once again asks to defecate ... in the cop's car, no less.

New York's Attorney General is indignant local authorities in the Daniel Prude and other cases have kept body cam video under wraps for months, and she's changing that in a big way.

Letitia James just announced her office will release body cam video in excessive force cases early ... way earlier than the months delay in the Prude case. She made it clear ... she's not going to wait for local authorities to act ... James wants the video released quickly so the public can evaluate what happened by the footage, and not hearsay or speculation.

She would not discuss the Prude case, saying it's before a Grand Jury and she will not get in the way of the hearing. She did say this should have been a case where health care professionals, not police, should have been the ones to intervene to help Prude.

The Grand Jury is deciding whether to indict the officers. She did express what she called "righteous indignation" over the deaths of Prude, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

As we reported ... seven officers were initially suspended after an investigation was launched. A couple weeks ago, James announced she was kicking the case over to a grand jury to review ... placing the decision on whether to bring charges on NY citizens.

The city of Rochester has been dealing with lots of changes lately -- namely, the top leadership at the police department was given walking papers ... this after the mayor slammed their handling of the case from the get-go. Mayor Lovely Warren even cut the Police Chief's time short and fired him before he could retire ... while admonishing some of her own staff.

Protests have been ongoing in the weeks since body cam footage of Prude's arrest and subsequent death surfaced ... showing him being handcuffed naked in the freezing streets and eventually restrained with a spit sack over his head, which led to him losing his life.

"90 Day Fiance" star Larissa Lima has been arrested by ICE ... TMZ has confirmed.

Larissa was taken into custody Saturday at her and her boyfriend, Eric Nichols' Las Vegas home, apparently as they were getting ready to hop in the car and take their U-Haul on a road trip to Colorado Springs ... where they bought a home after selling their Vegas pad.

Her rep, Lindsay Feldman, tells us ... "Larissa's legal team is working meticulously on her release and clearing up this misunderstanding."

The couple has been documenting their real estate journey well on social media, and seemed poised to be making the big move this weekend. That came to an abrupt halt, however, as ICE agents showed up to their doorstep and hauled Larissa off.

It's unclear exactly why she was taken in -- her good friend, Carmen Nys, sent an update on her IG story saying she and Eric just saw Larissa being taken away. Carmen says the two of them are on their way to an ICE detention center now to figure out what's going on.

It should be noted ... Larissa's had trouble with the law over the past few years here in the U.S. -- she's reportedly been arrested several times over ... and was trying to avoid deportation as a result, something that was covered on the show and explored further on another series she was featured in afterward called 'Happily Ever After.'

We're trying to get in touch with ICE to find out more details.

As we reported ... Larissa made a splash with CamSoda after a very successful one-hour lingerie show she put on, with a brand spanking new bod emulated after Kylie Jenner, no less. The site cleaned up, and presumably ... so did she. Hence, getting outta Dodge.

Clearly, law enforcement had other plans.

Somebody tried sending ricin to the White House, with the intent of having it received by President Trump ... this according to several reports.

The NYT, CNN and WSJ reported Saturday that, recently, federal authorities intercepted a package addressed to the White House with Trump as the target. Two different tests were reportedly done to confirm it was ricin ... a poisonous substance that can be lethal.

The package -- which is said to have arrived in an envelope of some sort -- was reportedly caught early at an off-site mail facility ... some outlets are saying it was sent from a Canadian address. No arrests have been made -- the FBI and the Secret Service are investigating.

This isn't the first time someone has tried sending the natural poison to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. -- in fact, a Navy vet admitted to doing it in 2018, only that time,  castor beans (from which ricin is derived) were shipped and he ended up getting caught and arrested for it.

Someone also tried sending ricin-laced letters to Barack Obama when he was in office, and got sentenced to 25 years in prison for it back in 2014. Ricin can kill someone by inhaling it, injecting or ingesting it. It was recently made famous and well-known in "Breaking Bad."

Jerry Harris' cheerleading coach, Monica Aldama, says her "heart is shattered into a million pieces" following Jerry's arrest for child pornography.

Monica -- the head coach of the Navarro College squad featured on the Netflix docuseries, "Cheer" -- has broken her silence on the arrest of her popular "mat talk" leader, saying ... "I am devastated by this shocking, unexpected news."

She adds ... "Our children must be protected from abuse and exploitation, and I'm praying hard for the victims and everyone affected."

As we reported ... Jerry was arrested Thursday morning in Illinois and has been hit with a charge of production of child pornography. According to the feds, he allegedly contacted 2 teenage boys online, and repeatedly asked them to send nude images of themselves.

Harris allegedly began contacting the boys in December 2018 when he was 19 and they were 13.

The feds claim Jerry has admitted to engaging in continuous social media conversations with the minors that were sexual in nature and attempting to entice them into performing sex acts with him in person ... including at cheerleading events.

As we reported, the FBI had launched an investigation into the matter -- and Jerry's 2 alleged victims have also sued him.

United front from Conor McGregor and fiancee Dee Devlin in the wake of some serious criminal allegations in Corsica ... posing together in a waiting room in Italy.

Neither Conor nor Dee look bothered in the pics -- they still seem to be in vacation mode, despite the police investigation over an alleged attempted sexual assault earlier this month.

Worth noting ... the sign above the couple says (in Italian) they're in a waiting room at a doctor's office (an ear specialist). Hopefully, everyone's okay.

The McGregor family has been busy over the past few weeks -- French officials say the UFC star was detained and questioned over the alleged Sept. 6 incident.

Just the other day, Conor declared in a social media message that the allegations against him are "bullish*t" and that he refuses to pay a dime "to anyone coming at me with vicious lies."

Conor and his family -- including his children and his parents -- have been sailing around the Mediterranean on his yacht.

He was supposed to participate in a water bike race with the Princess of Monaco this past weekend but backed out due to his legal issues.

A pizza delivery man got a double whammy -- getting fired over his Black Lives Matter mask and then getting cited by cops over what happened when he was fired.

The incident went down in Milwaukee, where Patrick McVey says he got fired for wearing his BLM mask while delivering for Rosati's. Patrick, who is white, got pulled outside for a chat with the joint's owner, who told him the rules -- no politics, no religion and no cursing.

In the video, the owner says, for him, the BLM mask intersects with politics -- and he tells Patrick it's far too controversial to wear while making deliveries.

The September 10 exchange was actually pretty calm up until the owner asked Patrick, "Will you adhere to my rules or not?" When Patrick replied, "No," the owner said he's fired and turned to walk back inside. That's when he realized Patrick was recording him with his phone ... and the owner wasn't having it.

He lunged at Patrick and grabbed his phone -- but you can hear Patrick get pissed off, saying call the cops.

Heidi Klum had the bejesus scared out of her ... after a strange man allegedly showed up to her place claiming Jesus told him to pay her home a visit.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the incident went down last weekend at the supermodel's L.A. crib, when a man showed up at her front door and started pounding on it. Our sources say the man was yelling about how Jesus told him to come to the house.

We're told Heidi was home but never actually saw the man because someone else answered the door ... though still easy to see why she got scared.

We're told cops were called but by the time LAPD rushed to Heidi's home, the man had left. But, get this ... cops say they did a quick search of the area and found the man walking down the street. We're told when cops stopped him to have a chat, they determined he suffered from mental health issues and placed him on a 5150 psychiatric hold.

Conor McGregor says he will dig in and fight the "bullsh*t" allegations against him in Corsica -- and refuses to pay a dime "to anyone coming at me with vicious lies."

The UFC superstar unleashed on his private Facebook page (which a source close to Conor confirmed to us is legit) ... addressing several allegations that have made against him over the years, including the most recent situation in Corsica.

"Try set me up all yous f*cking want over and over and over the truth will always set me free! Be it baby father claims, rape, indecent exposure, bullsh*t WhatsApp group sh*t. You f*cking name it. Never will I fold!"

He continued, "The truth is the truth and it gives me wings. I know my character!"

"God bless DNA! God bless Cctv! God bless Eye witness! God bless the truth! The truth is power! I am free!"

"Never will a dime be paid to anyone coming at me with vicious lies! Not now not f*cking ever! I will fight! And I am only beginning my fight!"

"All these past incidents you will see! They will not be forgotten! I will not allow these people to just accuse me and then disappear into the dark to attempt to ruin someone else life! No f*cking way!”

He also added this line -- "I will never kill myself no matter how many wish for it."

As we previously reported, McGregor is facing allegations of attempted sexual assault and indecent exposure in Corsica. Reports out of France say he's accused of exposing himself to a woman at a bar on Sept. 6.

Additionally, McGregor has reportedly been questioned over two alleged sexual assault incidents in Dublin ... but not much is publicly known about those cases.

What we do know ... Conor has been captured on camera breaking the law multiple times -- from throwing a steel dolly at a UFC bus to punching an older man at a pub in Ireland.

Two teens are taking "Cheer" star Jerry Harris to court for grooming them into sending nude photos and demanding sexual favors ... those are the allegations in a new lawsuit filed on their behalf.

The plaintiffs are minor twin brothers who are part of the cheerleading community in Fort Worth, TX -- where they say they first encountered Harris around 2018 at high-level competitions and became acquainted. From there, things allegedly turned sexual fast.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, the brothers were starstruck by Harris when first getting to know him, as he was already a well-respected cheerleader on the champion Navarro college team, and had also filmed for Netflix's "Cheer" documentary.

In the lawsuit, they claim Harris almost immediately began taking them into his inner circle, befriending them on different social media platforms ... and, eventually, soliciting "booty pics" from them -- exploiting the fact they were both gay.

The docs say the boys reluctantly complied at times with Harris' requests, but go on to claim his requests became more frequent and more offline ... meaning he would allegedly solicit sexual acts from them in person, while also allegedly sending sexually explicit photos and video to them too.

In one alleged instance in 2019, one of the brothers claims Harris led him to a bathroom during a cheer competition and cornered him in a stall, where he allegedly begged the kid for oral sex. The boy says he managed to take off when his bro and teammates blew up his phone.

Mind you, at the time during these interactions ... the boys say they were just 13 and 14 years old, and that Harris was over 18. They also claim they've discovered other minors Harris has allegedly harassed, while adding he's been allowed to remain as a high-level coach and mentor at several different cheer organizations despite his alleged "past and ongoing sexual abuse of children." Some of these organizations, including United States All Star Federation and Varsity Spirit, are also defendants in the lawsuit.