Ex-EMT in Texas pleads not guilty to charges

WACO, Texas (AP) — A first responder who helped evacuate people ahead of a deadly explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a charge he possessed bomb-making materials.

Bryce Reed was arrested last week and indicted Tuesday on a charge of possessing an unregistered firearm. Authorities have not announced any link between Reed and the April 17 blast in West, Texas, which killed 14 people.

Federal investigators allege Reed had materials for a pipe bomb that he gave to someone else. An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in a court filing that other investigators told him Reed admitted to having the bomb parts.

Reed's attorney, Jonathan Sibley, said that he agreed with prosecutors to postpone a previously scheduled detention hearing, but would not comment on why. Reed remains in custody.

"We dispute the allegations against him," Sibley told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Waco, about 15 miles south of West.

He also called on federal authorities either to present evidence connecting Reed to the explosion or to say he wasn't connected. The McLennan County Sheriff's Office said Friday that no evidence suggesting a link has been found so far.

"If they have something, let's hear it," Sibley said. "If they don't, let's hear it."

ATF and the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office are scheduled to release findings of their month-long investigation Thursday afternoon.

"The investigation is ongoing and it would be premature to speculate at this time," ATF spokeswoman Franceska Perot said Wednesday.

Reed's trial was scheduled to begin July 15.

Reed became a well-known media figure after the explosion, talking at length about his relationship with Cyrus Reed, a first responder killed in the blast. Although the two weren't related, Bryce Reed frequently referred to Cyrus as his "brother" during interviews and an emotional video played during the memorial for dead first responders at Baylor University.

"My brother and all those who lay with him are heroes now and forever," Bryce Reed said.

However, Cyrus Reed's family members have since said they believe that Bryce Reed wasn't as close to Cyrus as he let on and may have been using the similarity in their names to increase his public profile.

In brief comments to The Associated Press on Tuesday, Cyrus Reed's mother, Lucy Reed, said the family met Bryce for the first time at the April 25 memorial.

"No comment except Bryce is not my son," she said.

Although Reed portrayed himself as a West EMT in the Baylor video and other public appearances after the explosion, he was in fact dismissed two days after the blast, records show.

Questions also have arisen about Bryce Reed's academic credentials and work history.

At least two of the educational institutions listed by Reed on his LinkedIn profile page — the University of Phoenix and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center — say they have no records of him being enrolled.

In an email to the Texas Department of State Health Services last Friday, Christine Reeves of the Heart of Texas Regional Advisory Council wrote that the West EMS administrator, Tom Marek, "asked that I contact you guys that Bryce Reed does not volunteer for West EMS" and was "let go" on April 19.

Marek declined to comment Wednesday. Reeves told the AP she wasn't informed of a reason for the dismissal.

Reed has been a licensed EMT since 2005 and has worked for at least one other agency, an air ambulance service, state records show. No complaints have been lodged against him, and no disciplinary action has been taken, the records show.

Carrie Williams, the spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the agency initiated an investigation into Reed's license as a result of his arrest. Such investigations are standard procedure when the department learns that an EMT is charged with a felony, she said.

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Robbins reported from Dallas.

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Student Arrested For Science Experiment Won't Face Charges After All

Kiera Wilmot, a 16-year-old Florida high school student who was arrested last month for what was essentially a failed science experiment, won't face criminal charges. Wilmot, whose case drew national media attention and an angry response, was originally charged with two felonies — possession or discharge of a weapon on school property, and discharging a destructive device — after she mixed household chemicals on school grounds, causing a small explosion. But she's not off the hook entirely: Wilmot, who by all accounts was a model student, could still face expulsion. 

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At Bartow High School in Polk County, Wilmot apparently earned good grades, had no discipline problems ( "She has never been in trouble before, ever," principal Ron Pritchard said), and was well-liked by students and administrators. So it's not that surprising that the State Attorney's Office was able to find way to avoid criminalizing her after others began to pay attention to her case (for instance: one Change.org petition asking prosecutors to drop the charges gained nearly 200,000 signatures). Prosecutors eventually offered Wilmont something called "an offer of diversion of prosecution," which will allow her to avoid a criminal record by serving community service, or meeting other, undisclosed conditions, according to the Orlando Sentinel. As they explain, Wilmont is still fighting to avoid expulsion and return to Bartow High next year. Right now, she's taking classes at an alternative school to finish out the year. 

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Nationally, Wilmot's case quickly took on deep meaning for a multitude of reasons. For some, Wilmot's arrest represented a racial bias in the criminal prosecution of teenagers — the prosecutor who, according to the police report, originally recommended to police that Wilmot be charged with felonies, as an adult, had just days before declined to prosecute a white, 13-year-old boy in the county who accidentally shot and killed his brother with a BB gun. For others, the case represented a dangerous trend of criminalizing curious, bright students when they make mistakes. And many noted that Wilmot was just one of many students arrested in Florida under the state's strict zero-tolerance policy, which, some argue, has replaced detention with arrest for relatively minor infractions.  

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In any case, Wilmot's school district previously stood by their decision to expel the student as the story blew up in the news cycle. Now that she's no longer facing charges, the district has released a non-committal statement indicating that they'll at least consider letting Wilmot avoid expulsion: "The Polk County School District will take the State Attorney's decision into consideration in determining what, if any, further disciplinary action is appropriate."

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Photo: by Alexander Raths via Shutterstock. 

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Obama denounces Benghazi cover-up charges as ‘political circus’

President Barack Obama gestures during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Monday, …
President Barack Obama on Monday furiously dismissed as a "political circus" Republican charges that his administration had misled Americans about the Benghazi, Libya. Obama said the suggestion dishonors the memory of the four U.S. citizens killed last September.

"There’s no there there,” Obama said during a joint question-and-answer session with British Prime Minister David Cameraon at the White House. "And the fact that this keeps on getting churned out, frankly, has a lot to do with political motivations."

The president’s angry words came after news reports surfaced Friday that the White House had overseen a process that repeatedly watered down Administration talking points on the attack, removing references to possible involvement by al-Qaida and to prior warnings about threats in Benghazi. Republicans have charged that the White House was worried about the potential political fallout from the spectacular terrorist attack in Obama's re-election campaign. The White House has repeatedly denied that it deliberately misled the public.

"The whole issue of talking points frankly throughout this process has been a sideshow," Obama said.

The talking points, which portrayed the attack as evolving from a demonstration of anger at an Internet video that mocked Islam, "pretty much matched the assessments that I was receiving at that time in my presidential daily briefing," he added, referring to his top-secret morning intelligence review with the CIA.

While protests against the video in Egypt led to an assault on the American embassy in Cairo, officials in Libya never reported a demonstration outside the compound in Benghazi before the assault that claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Obama aides have said that the decision to scrub references in the talking points to al-Qaida and another extremist group, Ansar al-Sharia, reflected the intelligence community's uncertainty about the role they played.

"Immediately after this event happened, we were not clear who exactly had carried it out, how it had occurred, what the motivations were," Obama said. "It happened at the same time as we had seen attacks on US embassies in Cairo as a consequence of this film. And nobody understood exactly what was taking place during the course of those first few days."

The president also pointed to his first public remarks on the attack, in the Rose Garden on Sept. 12, 2012, when he lumped the events in Benghazi in with the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes as "acts of terror."

But he and other senior officials declined in subsequent days to label the attack the work of terrorists. And U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice linked the Benghazi assault to the Internet video when she appeared on morning news shows the first Sunday after the attack.

"I’ve just got to say, here’s what we know: Americans died in Benghazi," Obama said. "What we also know is clearly they were not in a position where they were adequately protected.

"The day after it happened, I acknowledged that this was an act of terrorism and what I pledged to the American people was we would find out what happened we would make sure that it did not happen again and we would make sure that we held accountable those who had perpetrated this terrible crime. And that’s exactly what we’ve been trying to do," he said.

Obama praised the work of envoys like Stevens and diplomats and other personnel serving overseas today, and declared: "We dishonor them when we turn things like this into a political circus."

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Pa. jurors turn to murder charges in abortion case

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia abortion provider will spend another weekend in custody after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his murder case.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell is accused of killing four babies born alive. He's also charged in the 2009 overdose of a patient.

Jurors deliberated for more than three days before leaving Friday without a verdict. They are to return Monday.

They must weigh hundreds of counts against the 72-year-old Gosnell, many of them allegations he performed illegal, third-trimester abortions.

Jurors asked questions Friday about the murder, racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Gosnell's lawyer insists there were no live births at the clinic.

His former employee and unlicensed doctor Eileen O'Neill of Phoenixville is also on trial, charged with fraudulently billing as a doctor. Eight other former employees have pleaded guilty.

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Fugitive arrested on confidence game charges

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — San Antonio police have arrested a fugitive accused of running a long-term confidence scheme with victims in Ohio, Florida and Texas.

A department spokesman said Friday that officers captured 45-year-old David Scott Srail at a small municipal airport in San Antonio.

Austin police have been searching for Srail since 2007. An arrest warrant says he repeatedly befriended his victims, convinced them to give him thousands of dollars and then absconded with the money.

One woman identified in court documents as the mother of a victim in Florida has maintained a website detailing the accusations. She says she was recently contacted by a man whose company hired Srail. She says that man passed the information to police.

The Austin police did not respond to requests for information Friday.

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Four face manslaughter charges for Brazil nightclub fire

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Prosecutors charged four people with manslaughter on Tuesday for their roles in the January 27 nightclub fire that killed 241 people in southern Brazil, saying they overlooked grave safety irregularities.

The Kiss club's two owners, as well as two members of a band who lit a flare that ignited a soundproofing ceiling foam, will stand trial for manslaughter while four others face lesser charges, including for false testimony.

"They ignored what could have happened to these people for financial reasons," prosecutor Joel Dutra said of the accused.

He said the band knowingly used a cheap firework for a risky special-effects show. Police have said the crowd was over capacity and the club, in the wealthy college town of Santa Maria, should have had more exits. Most of the deaths were caused when victims inhaled toxic fumes trying to escape from the building.

Lawyers for the club owners and band members have maintained their innocence.

Brazil is facing sharp international scrutiny over safety and security issues as it prepares to host the World Cup soccer tournament in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016.

(Reporting by Tatiana Ramil; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Defense Dept. employee arrested on bribery charges

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A Department of Defense employee who oversaw construction contracts at Camp Pendleton used his position to extort bribes from businesses seeking to work on the California Marine Corps base, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Natividad Lara Cervantes was arrested Thursday after authorities say he accepted $10,000 of a $40,000 bribe offered by a witness working with federal agents, said Daphne Hearn, the special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego office.

Cervantes believed he was receiving the money in exchange for helping the witness secure a $4 million flooring contract, according to a federal complaint.

Prosecutors say Cervantes referred to himself as the "Godfather at Camp Pendleton," and, dating back to September 2008, he accepted thousands of dollars in cash payments and remodeling work on his condominium in exchange for helping contractors get business on the Marine Corps base north of San Diego.

Cervantes is a Department of Defense employee and a supervisor for construction and service contracts at Camp Pendleton.

Neither Cervantes nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

According to the complaint, the witness working with the FBI met with Cervantes on March 26 and agreed to pay the $40,000 bribe. The first payment of $20,000 was to be paid Thursday, and the remainder was to be paid when the contract was awarded, prosecutors say. The meeting was monitored by federal agents.

Cervantes was arrested at a business in San Diego after the witness met him there to discuss the bribe payments and handed him an envelope containing $10,000, according to the complaint.

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Teen who was set on fire arrested on drug charges

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a South Florida teenager who was set on fire by classmates when he was 15 has been arrested on multiple drug charges.

Palm Beach County Jail records show 18-year-old Michael Brewer was booked into jail early Thursday on multiple charges, including possession of cocaine, marijuana and a controlled substance without a prescription.

Brewer was severely burned in 2009 when three teens doused him with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire. Brewer survived by leaping into an apartment complex swimming pool.

The teens were sentenced to prison time.

Testimony showed the attack stemmed from Brewer's refusal to buy a marijuana pipe from a teen, who then tried to steal a bicycle from the Brewer home. The teen was arrested.

The teens attacked Brewer the next day after school.

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Mexico arrests head of teacher's union on fraud charges

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Tuesday arrested Elba Esther Gordillo, the powerful head of the country's teachers' union, on suspicion of embezzling the union's funds, the Mexican attorney general said.

Authorities accuse Gordillo, who is viewed as one of the key obstacles to education reform in Mexico, of siphoning off millions of pesos of union money into private accounts, Jesus Murillo told reporters at a news conference.

"Clearly, we're facing a case in which the money of education workers has been misused illegally for the benefit of various people, including Elba Esther Gordillo," Murillo said. "Under this government nobody is above the law."

The arrest of Gordillo, who critics have for years accused of corruption, came a day after the Mexican government signed a broad education reform into law.

The Mexican teachers' union fought against the law, which limits union control over hiring and teaching standards, and aims to improve Mexico's failing school system.

(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; editing by Jackie Frank)

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