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A Texas court has ruled that embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton’s long-delayed trial on securities fraud charges from 2015 will take place in Houston AUSTIN, Texas -- Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's long-delayed trial on securities fraud charges from 2015 will take place in Houston, a court ruled Wednesday, dealing the Republican another setback as he awaits a separate impeachment trial . It remains unclear, however, when Paxton might finally have his day in court on felony charges of defrauding investors in a tech startup. For now, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a decision by a judge who originally oversaw the case to move the proceedings out of Paxton's hometown near Dallas. Paxton has spent years fighting to keep the trial in Collin County, where he maintains wide support among GOP activists and his wife, Angela Paxton, is a state senator. The ruling by Texas' highest criminal court comes as Paxton faces removal from office following h...

The city of Phoenix is going to court to prove it has met a deadline to clear a large homeless encampment, an action that has drawn pushback from civil rights advocates PHOENIX -- The city of Phoenix will go to court Monday to prove it has met a deadline to clear a large homeless encampment, an action that has drawn pushback from civil rights advocates. As part of a civil lawsuit, city officials will have a three-day trial to show they have complied with a judge's order and cleaned up the area known as “The Zone.” Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney sided with business owners and residents in June and declared the tent city in south Phoenix a public nuisance. He also found that while the city was following a law against criminalizing public camping, it arbitrarily enforced others despite Health and safety risks. The plaintiffs described having to witness drug activity, lewd acts and other criminal activity in front of their door or steps away from their property. Li...

Andrew Lester, the Missouri man who is charged in the shooting of teenager Ralph Yarl, is set to appear in a Kansas City courtroom on Thursday for a preliminary hearing. Andrew Lester, the Missouri man who is charged in the shooting of teenager Ralph Yarl, is set to appear in a Kansas City court room on Thursday morning for a preliminary hearing after the judge ordered the evidence in this case to be partially sealed. Yarl, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after the shooting, is expected to testify in the case during a hearing on Friday, his family confirmed to ABC News. Lester – a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri – shot Yarl in the head and in the right arm on the evening of April 13, according to police, after the teenager mistakenly arrived at the wrong address – Lester's home – to pick up his twin siblings. Lester, 84, was charged with one count of felony assault in the first degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, Clay County prosecuting attorney...

Attorneys for former President Trump have notified Georgia state court in Fulton County that they may seek to remove his case to federal court, according to a new filing. Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have notified Georgia state court in Fulton County that they may seek to remove his election interference case to federal court , according to a court filing. If Trump seeks removal to federal court, he would be the sixth defendant in District Attorney Fani Willis' sweeping racketeering case to do so, joining former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham, current Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still, and former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer. Meadows' motion for removal, filed on Aug. 15 by his attorney George Terwilliger and Atlanta-based attorney Joseph Englert, is based on a federal law that they argue requires the removal of criminal proceedings brought in state court to the federal cour...

Melvin Emde was arrested for faking his death one day before he was to appear in court on charges of indecent liberties with a child and statutory rape of a child. A missing kayaker from Louisiana has been arrested for faking his own death by drowning in an apparent bid to dodge rape charges, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office. Melvin Phillip Emde, 41, was arrested by authorities in Georgia over a month after his son, Seth, allegedly reported him missing. Emde's son allegedly told police his father fell out of a kayak and drowned while on the Mississippi River in Hahnville, Louisiana, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office. MORE: Delivery driver bitten by venomous rattlesnake, hospitalized in very serious condition After he was reported missing, detectives learned that Emde had pending charges of indecent liberties with a child and statutory rape of a child by an adult in North Carolina. He was due in court just one day after being repo...

Hunter Biden is expected to enter a plea of not guilty when he is arraigned on federal gun charges, his attorney wrote in court filings Tuesday. President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden is expected to enter a plea of not guilty when he is arraigned on federal gun charges, his attorney wrote in court filings Tuesday. It's the first official indication of the younger Biden's plans to fight the charges against him following his indictment last week, though his attorney has publicly suggested he would fight the charges. The president's only living son was indicted last Thursday by special counsel David Weiss on charges that he lied on a federal form when he said he was drug-free at the time that he purchased a Colt revolver in October 2018. MORE: Hunter Biden indicted by special counsel on felony gun charges Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, has previously suggested they would push back on the gun charges , telling ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interv...

Lawyers for three Georgia Republicans who falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the state and that they were “duly elected and qualified” electors are set to argue that their criminal charges should be moved from state to federal court ATLANTA -- Lawyers for three Georgia Republicans who falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the state and that they were “duly elected and qualified” electors are set to argue Wednesday that criminal charges against them should be moved from state to federal court. David Shafer, Shawn Still and Cathy Latham were among the 18 people indicted last month along with Trump on charges they participated in a wide-ranging scheme to keep the Republican president in power after his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones is set to hear arguments Wednesday on why Shafer, Still and Latham believe the case against them should be tried in federal court rather than in Fulton County Superior Cou...

Hunter Biden is expected to plead not guilty Tuesday when he is arraigned on three gun charges that were originally part of a federal plea deal that fell apart in July. Hunter Biden returns Tuesday to the same Delaware courthouse where his federal plea deal fell apart more than two months ago -- this time to face three felony gun charges leveled by the special counsel who negotiated that ill-fated agreement. Attorneys for Hunter Biden have signaled he will enter a plea of not guilty to the charges, which include allegations that he lied on a federal form when he said he was drug-free at the time that he purchased a Colt revolver in October 2018. Special counsel David Weiss indicted President Joe Biden's son last month after a yearslong investigation. That probe appeared on the cusp of completion in June, when Weiss' office brokered a two-pronged plea agreement with Hunter Biden's legal team. MORE: Judge orders Hunter Biden to appear in person at arraignment on federal gun...

Sen. Bob Menendez, his wife and two business associates appeared Wednesday in Manhattan federal court to be arraigned on bribery and extortion charges. Sen. Bob Menendez, his wife and two Business associates all pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Manhattan federal court on bribery and extortion charges. "We ask you to enter a plea of not guilty," Menendez's attorney, Seth Farber, said in court. Menendez, D-N.J., was escorted into court by U.S. Marshals and took a seat at the defense table separate from his wife Nadine, who sat with her own lawyers. Menendez, in a gray pinstriped suit, slouched in his seat with his hands folded on his chest. Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife Nadine Menendez arrive to the federal courthouse in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. Jeenah Moon/AP The senator was released on $100,000 bond and ordered to have no contact with his co-defendants besides his wife. He was also told to have no contact with Senate staff ...

An attorney for the mother of an Alabama teen who disappeared in Aruba said that a possible plea deal with a suspect in an extortion case is contingent upon his disclosing details about her death BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- An attorney for the mother of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba, said a possible plea deal with a suspect in an extortion case is contingent upon his disclosing details about her death. Joran van der Sloot, long considered the chief suspect in Holloway's 2005 disappearance, is scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday morning in Birmingham, Alabama, for a plea and sentencing hearing for a case in which he is accused of trying to extort $250,000 from Holloway's mother in 2010 to reveal the location of her body. John Q. Kelly, an attorney who represented Holloway's mother during the alleged extort ion, told The Associated Press Tuesday that a potential plea deal is contingent upon him revealing information about what happened to Hollow...

The Washington County Sheriff's Office in Maryland has confirmed that Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson, 52, was fatally shot on Thursday night. The Washington County Sheriff's Office in Maryland has confirmed that Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson, 52, was fatally shot on Thursday night. At approximately 8 p.m., deputies responded to the 19100 block of Olde Waterford Road in Hagerstown, Maryland -- some 80 miles northwest of Baltimore -- for a reported shooting. MORE: Nearly 200 decomposing bodies removed from funeral home "The victim, an adult male, was located in the driveway of a residence. The victim was suffering from what appeared to be gunshot wounds. He was transported to Meritus Medical Center, where he later succumbed to his injuries," authorities said in a press statement following the incident. No additional information was provided about a potential suspect and the case remains an active homicide investigation. MORE: Former nurse sentenced to 30 y...

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey is returning to a New York City federal court to enter a not guilty plea to a conspiracy charge alleging he acted as an agent of the Egyptian government NEW YORK -- U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez returns to court Monday to enter an expected not guilty plea to a conspiracy charge alleging that he acted as an agent of the Egyptian government even as he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez, 69, was scheduled to appear in the afternoon before Judge Sidney H. Stein at federal court in Manhattan. The Democrat stepped down from his powerful post leading the Senate committee after he was charge d last month. Prosecutors said the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car over the past five years from three New Jersey Business men in exchange for a variety of corrupt acts. The other defendants enter ed not guilty charge s to a superseding indictment last week. The senator was permitted to delay his...

A Hong Kong court has dismissed a gun charge against a Washington state senator arrested after he carried a gun into the Chinese territory HONG KONG -- A Hong Kong court dismissed a gun charge Monday against a Washington state senator who had been arrested after he carried a gun into the Chinese territory in what he called an “honest mistake.” Republican Jeff Wilson self-declared he was carrying the gun at the airport Oct. 21, has a clear criminal record in Hong Kong and made his admission in an open manner, the prosecution said at the court hearing. Principal Magistrate Don So approved the arrangement for a bind-over order rather than a plea to possessing an unlicensed firearm, saying he was inclined to believe Wilson was innocent. The bind-over order requires Wilson to keep the peace and avoid committing further firearms offenses for two years. The magistrate said Wilson would be fined 2,000 Hong Kong dollars ($255) for breaching the order if he doesn't comply. With the case...