Pastor Ted Haggard accused of inappropriate male touching and drug use in new ministry

Some 12 years after starting Colorado-based St. James Church in a defiant comeback from a 2006 sex scandal involving illicit drug use and a male prostitute, former National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard has been accused of inappropriately touching at least two young men and illicit drug use during his new ministry.

“People are scared and worried and don’t want to be connected to him anymore,” the Rev. Kirk “Seth” Sethman, who was ordained as a minister by St. James Church in October 2012, told The Colorado Springs Gazette.

St. James Church did not immediately respond to questions about the allegations when contacted by The Christian Post on Wednesday. But Sethman, a reformed drug addict who served time in prison as a young adult for burglary, insists that Haggard has not been delivered from his wayward proclivities.

He told The Gazette that in the spring of 2012, just under two years after Haggard and his wife, Gayle, started St. James Church, the former megachurch pastor asked a young male church member to whom he was providing counseling to buy him methamphetamine.

Sethman said the young member, who was recovering from heroin addiction, told him what happened. He asked another member who is a medical doctor to help him confront Haggard. He said when they confronted Haggard, the pastor admitted to having the methamphetamine and said he was planning to use it to celebrate his upcoming birthday.

The St. James Church pastor then asked the two men to help him remove the drug from his house so he would not be tempted to use it.

Sethman said when they got to Haggard’s house, Haggard gave him a briefcase to throw away.

“He asked us to conceal the matter and said he would be accountable to us in the future,” Sethman said. “Which never happened.”

Sethman said after he left Haggard’s home, he opened the briefcase and found a bag containing a small amount of the nearly 1 gram of methamphetamine the young church member had bought for the pastor. There was also reportedly a “well-used” glass meth pipe, several sex toys, a DVD with two young males on the cover and a credit card with Ted Haggard’s name.

Sethman, who went blind in 2015 due to a medical condition, said he didn’t call the police because he wanted to protect Haggard, the church and the young man. He said he chose to smoke the remaining methamphetamine instead and waited about a year before disposing of the briefcase.

“I was protecting the young man, the church and Ted,” Sethman said. “My choice I made was wrong, but I thought I was doing right.”

The report said Sethman relapsed into drug use and drinking until 2017 when he rejoined St. James Church.

Around that time, Sethman said a young man told him that “‘it was really weird that Ted kept pushing him to go four-wheeling in the woods with him.'”

In 2006, Haggard was forced to resign as pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after confessing to “sexual immorality” with Denver male escort Mike Jones. Haggard, who said he would classify himself as bisexual if he weren’t a Christian pastor, said he didn’t have sex with the prostitute.

“We never had sex sex. I bought drugs and a massage from him, and he masturbated me at the end of it. That’s it,” he told GQ in 2011.

Haggard initially denied using methamphetamine he allegedly bought from Jones but later admitted to using the drug.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-ted-haggard-accused-of-inappropriate-male-touching.html

Exclusive: Ron DeSantis’ Florida Files Complaint Against Bar that Held Lewd Drag Show for Children

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) served a complaint Tuesday on a bar in Miami that offers drag shows to children, and which was recently featured in viral videos showing a topless drag queen attempting to entertain a young girl.

The R House bar, located in the Wynwood area of Miami, has 21 days to respond to the administrative complaint. If the bar is found to be in violation of local laws and codes, it could then lose its liquor license, effectively putting it out of business.

Video posted earlier this month by the “Libs of Tik Tok,” a Twitter account that brings notoriety to far-left activists, showed a drag queen with exposed breasts and a thong stuffed with money leading a little girl by the hand around a bar during a show.

As the UK Daily Mail reported:

That performer – who appears to be a transgender woman – proudly displays gigantic boobs, with her nipples covered with pasties while wearing lingerie stuffed with dollar bills.
She parades around the R House Wynwood in a TikTok video shared by a user called nononoie, who wrote: ‘Children belong at drag shows!!!! Children deserve to see fun & expression & freedom.’
It’s unclear when the clip was shot, who the performer is – and how nononoie is related to the girl being filmed.

menu for the “R House Drag Brunch” includes a special “kids brunch” for children up to 12 years old, with a discounted meal price that includes “of course our fabulous show.”

The DBPR complaint cites several examples of lewd shows portrayed on social media, but also includes first-hand observations such as a performer in a suggestive outfit allegedly dancing “mere steps” from a child during a drag show.

In another incident, the DBPR claims that a child “between the ages of ten and twelve” was “seen recoiling and turning away in her seat as a Brunch performer climbed on the back of the child’s bench, squatted, and gyrated a couple of feet above the child’s head.”

Florida’s state government, under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), has expressed opposition to exposing young children to material about sexuality and gender. Earlier this year, DeSantis signed a bill, maligned by critics (including President Joe Biden’s White House) as the “don’t say gay” bill, to bar the teaching of material about sexuality and gender to children in K-3 grades.

Left-wing Salon.com recently published an op-ed titled: “Drag is not dangerous: How exposing your kids to drag performance can be a good thing.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/07/26/exclusive-ron-desantis-florida-files-complaint-against-bar-that-held-lewd-drag-show-for-kids/

NYC cult bought $925K upstate retreat, uses ‘forced labor’ to dig ditches: source

A Manhattan cult that preys upon wealthy New Yorkers is expanding upstate, and putting new recruits to work on round-the-clock renovations and landscaping, according to public records and a source close to the group.

On June 29, 2021, a private company linked to members of Odyssey Study Group bought a sprawling compound on 100 wooded acres in the outskirts of Margaretville, a village of 700 nestled in the Catskill Mountains. The property was purchased six months after the death of OSG’s longtime leader, Sharon Gans Horn, an erstwhile actor who had a small part in the 1972 film “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

Also known as The Work and A Fourth Way School, the group under Gans Horn’s leadership has long been accused of sexual and child abuse as well as siphoning cash from its members to pay for its leaders’ extravagant lifestyles in Manhattan, Boston, the Hamptons and Mexico.

Beginning in February, a group of some 15 new recruits, who pay $400 a month to participate in twice weekly “study” sessions in Manhattan, was driven to the Margaretville property and put to work digging ditches for the construction of a pavilion, the source told The Post. The local municipality approved a permit on May 27 to build a 2,880 square foot pavilion on the property, according to public records.

https://nypost.com/2022/07/23/manhattan-cult-osg-bought-compound-upstate-uses-forced-labor/

Violent Child Rapist, Murderer Now a Featured ‘Feminist, LGBTQ Advocate’

A trans-identified male who raped two 9-year-old girls before torturing and murdering his developmentally disabled cellmate has been “offering” his “expertise” to policymakers on the issue of transgender inmate rights.

On June 3, Patricia Elaine Trimble, penned an article for the Prison Journalism Project (PJP), a non-profit organization that claims its aim is to empower “incarcerated journalists” by providing them a platform. Trimble, a regular contributor for PJP, wrote about preparing a presentation for a class at a Missouri University after having been contacted by a Professor of Criminology there.

“It is not unusual for me to be asked to write an article or story about things in my wheelhouse. I am, after all, a transgender woman, feminist, activist and advocate for the incarcerated LGBTQ+ community,” wrote Trimble, adding that one of his papers on discrimination against Queer inmates was published by the LGBTQ Policy Journal at Harvard University in 2019. That same year, Trimble was sympathetically profiled by Vice in an article on being incarcerated while transgender.

While Trimble has been featured in multiple recent news articles, and has written plenty of his own work, there is often no mention of why he is in prison to begin with.

Born Patrick, Trimble was convicted in 1978 of the brutal rape of two 9-year-old girls in the city of St. Charles, Missouri. Trimble came upon the two girls playing near a marshy area, and earned their trust by helping them retrieve a rope they had been trying to grab out of a tree to play with. Initially acting friendly towards the girls, he then showed them some “tricks” with the rope, ultimately using his control of the cord to tie it around each girl’s wrist under the pretense of showing them a knot, and using the leverage to drag them to his car. The girls were then taken to a remote, wooded area where Trimble proceeded to orally and vaginally rape them.

1983 digitized Court of Appeals decision provides disturbing testimony from the investigation, in which both victims describe their ordeals in graphic detail.

But while in prison awaiting the final verdict on his case, Trimble would commit another heinous crime, making what the court would later describe as a “slave” out of his developmentally disabled cellmate before murdering him.

Jerry James Everett was in jail awaiting trial for stealing a van. After being placed with Trimble, Everett was subjected to routine “physical and sexual humiliation” and torture.

According to a court document, Trimble “… forced the victim to have both oral and anal intercourse with him, compelled him to wear a “bra” around the jail for the entertainment of the other inmates, and forced him at one point to display to the other inmates a rag that had been stuffed into his anus.” Trimble prostituted Everett to other inmates, and even offered to sell him to a member of the prison staff for a carton of cigarettes. Trimble also tortured Everett, making deep gashes in his flesh using burnt shampoo bottles.

The court noted that Everett was significantly smaller than Trimble, standing 5’10 and weighing 145lbs, while Trimble was 6’1 and weighed 210lbs.

A few weeks after beginning the sadistic abuse, Trimble advised other inmates he was planning on murdering Everett to prevent him from ever informing anyone outside of the prison of what had happened. He also stated that he was worried about being sent to prison if convicted solely of raping the two young girls, and wanted to “catch something much bigger” by committing a murder.

On November 12, Trimble forced Everett to pen a suicide note, and strangled him to death using towels. At one point, Trimble twisted the fabric so hard that he “fractured” Everett’s neck. After murdering him, Trimble hung his corpse using the towels so as to stage that he had killed himself.

The court document states that Everett was “slow, and may never have fully comprehended what was happening to him.”

Former Missouri Fiji pledge Danny Santulli is back home but ‘blind’ and ‘unable to walk or communicate,’ attorney says

Danny Santulli is back in his parents’ home in Minnesota after several months in a rehabilitation hospital in Colorado, said attorney David Bianchi.

Santulli is in the care of his parents, but his condition hasn’t changed, Bianchi said.

“He has massive brain damage,” Bianchi said. “He’s blind. He’s unable to walk or communicate.”

The brain damage resulted from alcohol poisoning Santulli experienced at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house on the University of Missouri campus in October. He was a freshman pledge at the frat, known commonly as Fiji.

The university has ousted the fraternity from campus for repeated violations. MU also has sanctioned 13 fraternity members, though it hasn’t revealed the sanctions.

Bianchi, representing Santulli’s parents, settled a lawsuit he had filed against the fraternity and 22 other defendants.

More:Former Missouri student in Colorado rehab hospital after alcohol poisoning: ‘Life as he knew it is gone’

In a hearing Monday, Bianchi sought in a motion to add fraternity brothers Samuel Gandhi and Alec Wetzler to the lawsuit in an amended petition.

“We didn’t know about them when we filed the original lawsuit,” Bianchi said.

Judge Joshua Devine approved Bianchi’s motion.

The petition alleges negligence against the two. It alleges Wetzler coerced Santulli to drink excessive amounts of alcohol by putting a tube into Santulli’s mouth and pouring beer down his throat.

https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/2022/07/23/danny-santulli-felony-charges-fiji-hazing-missouri-mizzou-fraternity-brothers-alcohol-poisoning/10133743002/

Eight additional men were charged with felony hazing Friday for their alleged roles in an alcohol poisoning incident last fall at a University of Missouri fraternity house that resulted in significant brain damage to a freshman pledge.

The total number of people charged by the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office in the case now stands at 11.

Danny Santulli, who was in the process of joining Phi Gamma Delta, also known as Fiji, is back home with his family in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, nine months after the Oct. 19 “pledge dad reveal night” drinking party hosted by the fraternity where his blood alcohol content reached 0.486 — six times the legal limit — and he became unresponsive.

Santulli remains unable to see, walk or talk and requires around-the-clock care, family attorney David Bianchi has said.

https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/2022/07/23/danny-santulli-felony-charges-fiji-hazing-missouri-mizzou-fraternity-brothers-alcohol-poisoning/10133743002/

Man charged with threatening to kill ‘all of the Black people’ at a Tops market in Buffalo

A Washington state man was arrested for allegedly calling a Buffalo supermarket and threatening to kill Black people there and at a nearby store where a white gunman killed 10 Black people in May, authorities said Friday.

Joey David George, 37, is accused of calling a Tops grocery store on July 19 and asking how many black people were inside. He then asked if he would “make the news if he shot and killed all of the Black people, including all of the women, children, and babies,” according to a federal criminal complaint.

George went on to say that he had assault rifles, was a “really good shot” and “could pick off people from the parking lot,” the complaint says.

The suspect also said that if he didn’t see anyone at the store, he would go to the nearby Tops store on Jefferson Avenue, the site of the mass shooting in May, according to the complaint.

The next day, George called back and ranted about a “race war.”

“This is what happens in a blue state,” he said, according to the complaint. 

The caller tried to mask his phone number by using *67, but the FBI was able to trace the calls to George’s phone, the complaint says.

The calls to the Buffalo Tops stores were the latest in a series of racist threats made by George, the FBI says in the complaint. 

On May 12, he called a Shari’s Restaurant and Pies in San Bruno, California, and threatened to shoot any Black or Hispanic customers in the restaurant if it didn’t close in 20 minutes, the complaint says. 

And last year, he made similar calls to stores and restaurants in Maryland and Connecticut, the complaint says. 

George, of Lynnwood, Washington, was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of interstate threats. His arraignment was scheduled for Friday afternoon.

A lawyer was not listed in court records.

“The Buffalo community is trying to heal from the horrific shooting at a Tops grocery store,” U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a statement. “I cannot imagine the type of fear such hate fueled threats engendered in those just trying to go about their daily lives.”

The Tops grocery store where the mass shooting took place reopened earlier this month. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/man-charged-threatening-kill-black-people-tops-market-buffalo-rcna39614

Anne Frank Trust Invited Islamist Who Called for Murder of Jews

The real lesson of the Holocaust is killing Jews.

Nasima Begum, who used to work as the spokeswoman for the Muslim Council of Britain, does not like Jews very much. Past tweets include heartfelt thoughts such as “Death to you Zionist scum”.

This didn’t stop her from getting work with the BBC or being brought on board by the Anne Frank Trust UK to train the “youth” in the arts of tolerance.

Despite the name of the murdered Jewish girl, the Anne Frank Trust UK was seeking trustees with “lived experiences” of “anti-black racism, disabilism, homophobia and transphobia” and was “particularly keen to address anti-black racism as a priority” as “highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement”. Those merely concerned about matter of anti-semitism need not apply.

Organizations with Anne Frank’s name, but having nothing to do with her, Holocaust victims or the Jewish community have proliferated around the world. These organizations, generally not even Jewish, have instead served as incubators of antisemitism in exactly this sort of way.

The Anne Frank Foundation in Switzerland funds BDS hate groups. An Anne Frank center in Frankfurt Germany compared ISIS terrorists to Jews. At the Anne Frank Center in Berlin, a Muslim guide compared Israel to Nazi Germany. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam removed references to Anne’s Jewishness, banned a guide from wearing Jewish clothing and attacked Israel. An exhibit placed a photo of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon side by side with one of Hitler.

And yet this may be the first time an Anne Frank organization invited a speaker who had called for the murder of Jews. So many Anne Frank groups had tiptoed around it, but the Anne Frank Trust UK actually went out and did it.

“We are excited to welcome performance poet, producer and creative practitioner, Nasima Begum, to our special workshop this evening.” the Anne Frank Trust UK announced.

Begum’s job was “youth empowerment”.

Not surprising when the Assistant Director for Youth Empowerment at the Anne Frank Trust is Amna Abdullatif who tweets enthusiastic support for antisemitic politician Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Under pressure, the British organization announced that Begum “may have views that are not consistent with our values” and promised that it would launch an investigation even though  controversies over Begum had already been aired in the past and would have been known to it.

There is a reason that this keeps happening at organizations named after Anne Frank.

Anne’s story was hijacked early on with a play, The Diary of Anne Frank, by Lillan Hellman, a Hollywood Stalinist, who turned it over to Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, the Communist-linked married couple who purged most of the Jewish references.

Since then, Anne Frank has been reinvented in the form of various races, most recently as an illegal alien hiding from ICE, and another production which sought a “multi-racial cast representing many heritages.” The elimination of Anne’s Jewishness, much like the universalization of the Holocaust, presages antisemitism. Once the Jews have been replaced in their historical role, it becomes all too easy for antisemites to turn Jews into the new Nazis.

And their killers, whether the PLO, Hamas or ISIS, into the new Jews.

Nasima Begum claimed that Israel’s resistance to Islamic terrorism was “the Holocaust all over again” with “Palestinians” as the victims and “Zionism scum” as the perpetrators.

The Anne Frank Trust UK may find this sort of explicit wording vulgar, but it’s no coincidence that the same ideas have manifested themselves at the Anne Frank centers in Berlin and Frankfurt, at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, and now in the UK. It’s what happens when the story of the Holocaust is reframed in terms of general principles detached from the Jews.

Or as the Communists who rewrote Anne’s story had her say in the play, “We’re not the only people that’ve had to suffer.” The fictionalized version of a dead Jewish girl declares to applause. “Sometimes one race, sometimes another.”

Transforming the Holocaust into a general story about intolerance and prejudice all too easily becomes a partisan story whose broader lesson is the moral supremacy of leftist virtues.

And those virtues are routinely used to call for the death of Israel and the murder of Jews.

Rewriting the Holocaust as a struggle between the Left and the Right is itself Holocaust revisionism because it ignores the Soviet mass murder of Jews, the Hitler-Stalin pact and the collaboration of western Communists, including Lillian Hellman, in that Communist crime.

Hellman, had defended the Hitler-Stalin Pact and participated in the Communist-front “Keep America Out of War Committee”, making her a Nazi collaborator, and yet was allowed to play a role in transforming the story of a murdered Jewish girl into leftist agitprop.

While Hellman was suppressing Anne’s Jewishness, the Soviet Union was suppressing the Jewish elements of the Holocaust. True Jewish commemorations of the Holocaust were banned in the Soviet Union. Any discussion about the mass murder of Jews was tightly controlled. Even while it was covering up the Holocaust, the Soviet Union launched a propaganda campaign against the newly reborn State of Israel whose key elements, including the apartheid smear, are still widely in use among leftists, including those operating at Anne Frank centers, today.

Before Islamists were shouting, “Death to you Zionist scum”, Communists were shouting it.

The Soviet regime’s favorite taunt though was slurring Zionists as “fascists” or “Nazis”. A Communist regime that had massacred Jews and collaborated with the Nazis originated the smearing of Israel, of Zionists, and of Jews as Nazis.  The latest such incident at an Anne Frank Center is the long legacy of the leftist hijacking of the Holocaust to justify the murder of Jews.

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https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/07/anne-frank-trust-invited-islamist-who-called-daniel-greenfield/

Illegal Alien Charged With Raping and Impregnating 10-Year-Old in Ohio

Ann Coulter remarks that now we know why the media weren’t identifying the predator involved in this headline-making atrocity:

A Columbus man has been charged with impregnating a 10-year-old Ohio girl, whose travel to Indiana to seek an abortion led to international attention following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade and activation of Ohio’s abortion law.

(“A Columbus man.” Gotcha.)

Gershon Fuentes, 27, whose last known address was an apartment on Columbus’ Northwest Side, was arrested Tuesday after police say he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions. He’s since been charged with rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio.
Columbus police were made aware of the girl’s pregnancy through a referral by Franklin County Children Services that was made by her mother on June 22, Det. Jeffrey Huhn testified Wednesday morning at Fuentes’ arraignment. On June 30, the girl underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis, Huhn said.

(My apologies for suspecting that this story was entirely made-up, but pregnant 10-year-olds are very rare in the United States, and the lack of corroborating detail in the media accounts led me to think this was like the “hate crime” hoax perpetrated by Jussie Smollett.)

Huhn also testified that DNA from the clinic in Indianapolis is being tested against samples from Fuentes, as well as the child’s siblings, to confirm contribution to the aborted fetus.
Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Cynthia Ebner said the case did not warrant Fuentes — who is believed to be undocumented — to be held without bond.

(Don’t you love the euphemism “believed to be undocumented” as a substitute for the plain English phrase “illegal alien”?)

Ebner said a high bond was necessary, however, due to Fuentes being a possible flight risk and for the safety of the child involved. Before being arrested, Huhn and Det. David Phillips collected a saliva sample from Fuentes, according to a probable cause statement.
Ebner set a $2 million bond for Fuentes, who is being held in the Franklin County jail.

So now the liberals who elected Joe Biden, to support a policy of open borders, will raise money to bail out the child rapist Fuentes, who will then flee back to his miserable Third World homeland where pregnant 10-year-olds are significantly more common for obvious reasons. And the only “moral of the story” that the media will allow us to conclude is that ABORTION SHOULD ALWAYS BE LEGAL BECAUSE ZOMG! A WOMAN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE! NO UTERUS, NO OPINION!

UPDATE: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) source has confirmed to Fox News that Fuentes is an illegal alien from Guatemala.

Trans-Identified Male Arrested After “Manipulating” Minors Into Sexual Abuse

A trans-identified male who “manipulated” children into sexual activities was arrested last Wednesday in Citrus County, Florida. According to police, 33-year-old Diana Elizabeth Guevara fostered a relationship with one child in order to “identify [his] next victims.”

Guevara sent multiple explicit photos and videos on social media to children between the ages of 12 to 17, law enforcement officials said, adding that he also had sexual relations with a number of the children at his home in Inverness.

Police were tipped off by the mother of a youth victim on June 30 after she overheard the minor talking about the second victim having sexual contact with Guevara.

An investigation conducted by Tony Ricci, a detective at the sheriff’s office Special Victim’s Unit, revealed that during the month of July, Guevara had been sending videos and texts via Snapchat to one of the victims, stating that he had a crush on the minor and “wanted to kiss” him. Guevara then sent a follow-up video of himself stripping to his underwear.

A second victim reported that he was sexually abused after he visited Guevara’s home. A sworn testimony provided by the second victim on July 8 includes details of the assault, noting that both the teen and his friend had been regularly visiting Guevara’s home to play video games. It was on this occasion that Guevara performed oral sex on the victim, even after he told Guevara he was 16 years old.

A third teenage boy, who was 14 years old at the time of the incidents, told investigators that Guevara had sexual contact with him on four separate occasions during the months of November and December of 2021. Guevara continually requested a relationship with the boy and performed sex acts on the victim on three occasions, which escalated to intercourse. Guevara then instructed the boy not to inform law enforcement.

Two of the teens who were sexually abused said Guevara told them he was 23 years old, which was ten years younger than his actual age.

#StopAsianHate Chinese man accused of exploiting children for racist videos extradited to Malawi

A Chinese man accused of exploiting Malawian children for racist videos to be sold in China has been extradited to Malawi, according to reports.

Lu Ke, known to the children as Susu, fled to neighboring Zambia last month after a BBC Africa Eye documentary exposed his alleged money-making scheme.

Lu Ke allegedly paid each child half a dollar to perform in his videos, which he sold for up to $70 each on Chinese social media. Reports say he made up to 380 videos a day, raking in about 77 million kwacha (approximately $75,300).

In one of the videos, children in matching shirts are seen chanting phrases such as “I am a Black monster” and “My IQ is low” in Chinese. One child alleged that Lu Ke would beat them if they disobeyed his orders.

On June 20, Malawi’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services confirmed that the Chinese national was arrested in the Zambian town of Chipata. Four days later, Chipata Resident Magistrate Mercy Chibo reportedly ordered Lu Ke to pay 13,000 Zambian kwacha (approximately $790) for illegal entry and illegal stay.

Malawi’s Homeland Security, Justice and Foreign Affairs ministries have since worked together to request Lu Ke’s extradition. The process was eventually completed and Zambia handed him over on Saturday, July 16.

NYC judge drops murder charge against bodega worker after Manhattan DA backtracks

Charges were dropped Tuesday against a New York City bodega worker arrested for the murder of man seen on surveillance video first coming behind the cashier’s desk and attacking the employee. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office faced harsh criticism for bringing the charge against Jose Alba earlier this month despite footage suggesting the deadly stabbing was justified as self-defense. 

Jennifer Sigall, assistant district attorney under Bragg, issued a motion Tuesday morning to dismiss the second-degree murder charge against Alba and provided a copy to his attorney, Michelle Villasenor-Grant. 

Fox News confirmed that a judge dismissed the charge against Alba by Tuesday afternoon. 

MANHATTAN BODEGA WORKER CHARGED WITH MURDER WANTED TO AVOID CONFRONTATION, VIDEO SHOWS 

“Following an investigation, the People have determined that we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force. As such, the People will not be presenting the case to a Grand Jury and for the reasons provided in the attached memorandum, hereby move to dismiss the complaint,” Bragg’s office wrote in court documents obtained by Fox News. 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/manhattan-da-moves-drop-murder-charge-nyc-bodega-worker-deadly-stabbing