Inside look into the E Jean Carroll trial: Courtroom artwork by Elizabeth Williams

 A collection of the images from the E Jean Carroll trial in consecutive order. From the first day of testimony to the final verdict

E Jean Carroll on the witness stand  1st day of testimony, below cover of New York Daily News

 E Jean Carroll on witness stand with photo of her and Donald Trump from the 1980's

E Jean Carroll breaking down on witness stand describing the attack by Donald Trump 

Trump Deposition played for jury where he stated that when questioned if the Access Hollywood statements were true:

"Well, historically, that's true with stars," Trump replied."It's true with stars that they can grab women by the p----?" Trump was asked.   "Well, if you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely true," Trump said. "Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately, or fortunately."    "And you consider yourself to be a star?" Trump was asked. He replied " Yes"

 Joe Tacopina seated at trial watching the cross examination of Dr Leslie Lebowitz by his co counsel. 

E Jean Carroll seated upper left hand corner. 

Note: Carroll was seated deep into the well of the courtroom and barely able to be seen by artists. It was a challenge to draw her during trial when she was not in the witness stand. 

Dr Leslie Lebowtiz on the witness stand on direct examination discussing the effect of trauma from a sexual assault on E Jean Carroll, and other victims. 

Former People Magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff describes the sexual assault made by Donald Trump during a magazine interview at Mara Lago. 

E Jean Carroll's friend, Carol Martin describes the conversation she had with Carroll soon after the attack by Donald Trump. 

Final witness: E Jean Carroll's former boss, Roberta Myers on the witness stand. 

Joe Tacopina addressing Judge Kaplan regarding giving Trump more time to decide to testify after he rested.  

E Jean Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan giving her summation to the jury. The jury was anonymous so no faces were drawn. 

Joe Tacopina gives his summation to the jury, while showing excerpts from the Donald Trump video deposition 

Verdict being read in open court. Jury in foreground, Carroll seated left between her attorneys. 

E Jean Carroll's reaction after the verdict was read. She turned around and smiled at the jury as the courtroom deputy was polling the jury. 

Hermes vs Rothschild: Is it metaverse art or Birkin ripoff? A US jury will decide

Trademark infringement has extended to the metaverse – with luxury brand Hermès of Paris battling digital artist Mason Rothschild in court over the creation and sale of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that depict images resembling its hard-to-get Birkin bags.

Rothschild, a Los Angeles-based artist and entrepreneur, took the stand on Wednesday. 

He was cross examined by Hermes attorney Oren Warshavsky. 

Hermes Birkin Bag on table and Rothchild NFT on screen. 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams 

A trial over the alleged infringement of Hermès’ intellectual property began in Manhattan federal court this week, with the multibillion-US dollar corporation claiming the name of the NFTs – MetaBirkin – misled consumers into incorrectly believing they were affiliated with Hermès.

“Hermès brought the lawsuit because they thought it infringed and thought people would wrongly think Hermès was involved,” Oren Warshavsky told the jury in his opening statement. The sticky situation is made stickier because the company apparently has plans to join the metaverse as well, Warshavsky revealed.

Mason Rothschild on direct examination.
Hermes Birkin bags on table and Rothchild NFT on screen 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams

The Hermès dispute also pits artists’ First Amendment rights against company intellectual property claims.

Rothschild’s lawyer, Rhett Millsaps, told the jury that as long as the product is artistically relevant and doesn’t explicitly mislead consumers, then it’s protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of expression.

Rothschild took the stand on Tuesday afternoon telling the jury he’s worked at various fashion store like Christian Dior and Saint Laurent and has done graphic design for local stores and individuals.

“I’ve been in the art space for awhile doing my own art and going to galleries,” Rothschild told jurors. “It’s always been a main staple of my life.”

He said he respected Hermès, though “maybe a bit less after the lawsuit.”

“I value fashion and art and I appreciate what they do,” he said.

Most of Rothschild’s projects make some kind of social commentary, Millsaps said. The MetaBirken NFT, he said, is about the luxury-consumer culture, and whether people would ascribe the same value to an NFT as they do to the actual product.

That’s unclear so far. Some of the NFTs, which Rothschild initially sold for US$450 each, have resold for tens of thousands of US dollars. The Baby Birkin NFT sold at an auction in May 2021 for US$23,500. That’s more than the US$8,500 Hermès Halzan 25 sells for on Madison Avenue Couture’s website, but still far less than the Hermès Birkin 25 Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Encrusted Hardware – which is listed at US$500,000. The 25-centimetre Hermès bags are also known as Baby Birkins.

Hermes Bags on desk and Rothschild's Baby Birkin NFT on screen 

The Rothschild NFTs are designed with the same shape as the actual Hermès bag, but are covered with fur instead of leather and have some type of visual or pattern on them. The Baby Birkin NFT has a moving picture of a foetus inside the bag. Rothschild also proposed on social media a plan to recreate the designer bag’s famed horse keychain – which the company used as evidence to demonstrate the violation to Hermès’ trademark of not just the Birken name but its configuration, even though the plan was never implemented

The NFTs hurt Hermès’ ability to bring its own digital products into the metaverse, Nicolas Martin, Group General Counsel at Hermès who specializes in intellectual property, told the jury on Tuesday.

“If we want to bring our most iconic handbag to the digital market it’ll always be compared to MetaBirken,” he said. “We lost the opportunity of being first on the market, which is really impactful for Hermès.”

It’s not the first time Rothschild’s creations have landed him in trouble. He printed college logos on apparel and received a cease-and-desist order from one of the schools, Warshavsky said.

                                All artwork is copyright of Elizabeth Williams

Ex-convict who abused college women and men gets 60 years in prison

 NEW YORK — An ex-convict who obtained millions of dollars by subjecting his daughter's ex-college roommates to forced labor and prostitution was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison by a judge who labeled him an "evil genius" who used sadism and psychological torture to control every aspect of his victims' lives.

Lawrence "Larry" Ray, 63, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Lewis J. Liman.

"There is no reason to believe Mr. Ray will age out of criminal behavior," Liman said, noting that the crimes began when Ray moved in late 2010 into his daughter's on-campus housing at Sarah Lawrence College, a small New York liberal arts school.

The judge said Ray charmed his victims with his "exaggerated sense of self" and his intelligence before "robbing them of their relationships, self worth, memories and then their bodies" after convincing them they had poisoned him and owed him for it.

Ray victim Daniel Levin speaking during sentencing hearing. Spoke of the torture he endured while under control of Ray at Sarah Lawrence College. 

"Through psychological terror and manipulation, he convinced them what they knew to be true was in fact false," Liman said. "He beat his victims. He tortured them and at times he starved them. He degraded them sexually to the point where they lost any self worth."

During the trial, one women testified that she became a sex worker to try to pay reparations to Ray after becoming convinced that she had poisoned him. She said that, over four years, she gave Ray $2.5 million in installments that averaged between $10,000 and $50,000 per week.

In a statement read aloud at sentencing Friday by a lawyer, the woman said she had been subjected to "unremitting sadistic torture" by a man who offered a "twisted, empty and broken version of life."

"Experiences I had while being sex trafficked haunt me today," according to her statement. She said Ray had forced "us to hold his evil for him. ... Each time we tried to put it down, he brutalized us."

One victim who spoke said he was living a happy, exciting life as a college sophomore when he met Ray "and all of that went up in smoke." He said he'd attempted suicide more than once.

Another victim said in court that he fears Ray will find a way to harm him from prison.

Lawrence Ray listening to the sentence handed down by Judge Liman of 60 years in prison.

Artwork by Elizabeth Williams  

Columbia ob-gyn Robert Hadden preyed on patients at ‘most vulnerable’: feds

Disgraced Columbia University ob-gyn Robert Hadden preyed on patients who trusted him as a respected doctor when they were at their “most vulnerable,” federal prosecutors charged in their opening statement at his sex crimes trial in Manhattan on Monday. 

Hadden is accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women, some of whom were pregnant at the time, when they were in his care from the 1990s up to 2012. 

“They trusted him to provide this care,” Assistant US Attorney Paul Monteleone told jurors in Manhattan federal court, adding some of the victims visited Hadden for the “health of the babies they were carrying.” 

“All along he was motivated … by his own sexual desires,” Monteleone said. 

Robert Hadden accused of abusing numerous patients seated at defense table surrounded
by his defense team. 

The prosecutor described in excruciating detail the alleged abuse Hadden inflicted, including sexually stimulating his victims, licking them and making crude remarks that had no medical basis. 

"The defendant used his position of power to sexually abuse his patients for years,” Monteleone told jurors. 

The first witness to take the stand, a victim identified in court as Kate Evans, graphically told jurors how Hadden sexually assaulted her during two of her last visits to him at Columbia University’s Herbert Irving Pavilion in Washington Heights in 2010 and 2011.

“I was petrified,” she said. “I knew he sexually assaulted me. It was very clear he was a sexual predator.”

Evans, who had been referred to Hadden by her sister and who said she spoke with the doctor about her home life and kids, said she was “stunned and shocked” by the abuse. 

“I can’t believe someone I trusted and my family trusted would do that to me,” she told the jury.

Hadden is accused of enticing four victims to travel from out of state so he could sexually abuse them in New York. He previously pleaded guilty in state court to abusing a number of patients, as part of a controversial no-jail deal with Manhattan prosecutors. 

Argentine visitors describe Hudson River bike path attack that killed their friends on celebratory NYC trip- NYDN by Molly Crane

 Ten high school friends from Argentina traveled to New York for several

 days of fun — but only five went home after accused terrorist Sayfullo

 Saipov ran them down with a rented truck, witnesses at Saipov’s trial recounted Wednesday.

“We were celebrating 30 years since we graduated, 35 years since we knew each other, and there were some birthdays we were celebrating,” Juan Pablo Trevisan testified. 

Juan Pablo Trevisan testifying about seeing his friends before they were hit by the truck that Sayfullo Saipov was driving at 60 mph down the bike path. Artwork by Elizabeth Williams 

One of the birthdays was his own, Trevisan said.Trevisan and his friends were cycling in pairs on the Hudson River Park bike path between Watts and Vestry Sts. on Oct. 31, 2017, when prosecutors say Saipov sped his rented trick along the bike lane.

Juan Pablo Trevisan describing the attack on the bike path. 

As Trevisan reached an arm out and asked one of his friends to stop and wait up, he heard a loud thumping noise. “At that moment, the pickup truck [hit] my arm and my wrist, and there was a sign that was dragging that came off and hit my arm.”

Another member of the Argentine group, Martin Marro, recalled a fellow surviving friend tending to him as he bled profusely on the sidewalk.

Martin Marro testifying about the injuries he sustained after being hit by the truck while riding a Citibike on the Hudson River Bike Path. 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams

“He said to stay calm, that he was there to take care of me and to protect me and to make sure that I wouldn’t drown in my own blood,” Marro said, adding that among other serious injuries he sustained were fractures to his skull, brain and eye socket.

Trevisan and Marro told their stories on the third day of evidence and arguments at Saipov’s federal death penalty trial.

After the men spoke, federal prosecutors showed the jury photos of the victims’ covered bodies.

Sayfullo Saipov watching witnesses testify 1/11/23

Slaughtered were Hernan Diego Mendoza, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij, Hernan Ferruchi and Diego Enrique Angelini.

Also killed were Darren Drake, a 32-year-old from New Jersey, and 23-year-old Nicholas Cleves of New York.

Jurors on Tuesday heard from the devastated loved ones of a 31-year-old mother of two, Ann-Laure Decadt, of Belgium, killed as she rode with her two sisters and mom.

Harvey Weinstein Los Angeles sentencing on rape and sexual assault charges delayed until 23 February

Harvey Weinstein won a six-week sentencing delay Monday for his Los Angeles rape conviction after his lawyers said he plans to file a motion for a new trial.

The disgraced movie mogul, 70, was due to be sentenced Monday for the 2013 rape and sexual assault of an Italian actress at a Los Angeles hotel, but Judge Lisa Lench postponed the day of reckoning to Feb. 23 to give his defense time to prepare their argument for another trial.

Harvey Weinstein in court  1/9/2023 
artwork by Bill Robles

Judge Lench said Monday she would hear Weinstein’s pitch for a trial at the Feb. 23 sentencing hearing and would move ahead with bestowing her punishment if his motion is denied.

Weinstein, who’s already serving a 23-year prison sentence out of New York after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in Manhattan in 2020, is facing up to 24 years in prison for his Los Angeles conviction.

Weinstein was convicted Dec. 19 of rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual penetration by a foreign object for his February 2013 attack on an Italian actress at the Mr. C hotel on the outskirts of Beverly Hills. Jurors heard during the nearly two-month trial that Weinstein pushed his way into the victim’s hotel room and raped her while she was in town for an annual festival celebrating Italian films.

Real Housewife Jen Shah Sentenced to 6 1/2 Years

 Jen Shah of "Real Housewives" gets 6 1/2 year prison term

Fri, January 6, 2023 at 1:16 PM EST·2 min read

Jen Shah, one of the stars of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City," was sentenced to prison Friday after pleading guilty to a fraud charge earlier this year.

In a Manhattan courtroom, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein announced that the reality star, 49, will serve a sentence of 6½ years in prison, the Associated Press reported. Before her sentencing, Shah was facing 11 to 14 years in prison.

Jen Shah in court with her attorneys during sentencing 
artwork by Elizabeth Williams

“Reality TV has nothing to do with reality,” Shah said during Friday's hearing. "I am deeply sorry for what I’ve done. My actions have hurt innocent people.”

Jen Shah making tearful statement during sentencing 
court sketch by Elizabeth Williams

According to multiple reports, Shah will have to surrender on Feb. 17.

In a statement provided to The Times Friday, Shah's defense lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, said the reality star "deeply regrets the mistakes that she has made and is profoundly sorry to the people she has hurt.

"Jen has faith in our justice system, understands that anyone who breaks the law will be punished, and accepts this sentence as just," Chaudhry added. "Jen will pay her debt to society and when she is a free woman again, she vows to pay her debt to the victims harmed by her mistakes.

In July, Shah pleaded guilty to the count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She told a judge that in 2012 she took part in a massive telemarketing fraud for nearly a decade that prosecutors say cheated thousands of people nationwide.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kiersten Ann Fletcher said during the July hearing that Shah engaged in a fraudulent scheme from 2012 to 2021 that sold bogus services advertised to help people make substantial amounts of money through online businesses.

Shah, who admitted she was aware of the fraud, said, “I knew this was wrong and that many people were harmed, and I’m so sorry."

On Friday, Shah also pledged to pay $6.5 million in restitution and forfeiture when she gets out of prison.

Griner for Bout: WNBA star freed in US-Russia prisoner swap

  Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, American officials said. The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for President Joe Biden, but carried a heavy price — and left behind an American jailed for nearly four years in Russia.

Viktor Bout during his  animated sentencing in 2012 making his statement pointing to FBI agents

Biden's authorization to release a Russian felon once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death" underscored the escalating pressure that his administration faced to get Griner home, particularly after the recent resolution of her criminal case and her subsequent transfer to a penal colony.

The swap was confirmed by U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations who were not authorized to publicly discuss the deal before a White House announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity. Biden spoke with Griner on the phone Thursday while her wife, Cherelle, was in the Oval Office. The president was to address reporters later in the morning.

Viktor Bout watching his defense attorney Albert Dayan during his sentencing in 2021 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams 

In releasing Bout, the U.S. freed a a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the Justice Department once described as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers. Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans.

French Company LaFarge and the Islamic State

 https://www.hjnews.com/nation/french-company-islamic-state/image_4d122757-ca36-520b-98c1-060e8e781319.html

NEW YORK (AP) — French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group to keep a plant operational in Syria — at a time when the militant group was engaged in torturing kidnapped Westerners — and agreed to pay roughly $778 million in penalties.

The Justice Department described it as the first case of its kind, accusing the company of turning a blind eye to the conduct of the Islamic State as the militant group gained new territory and as Syria was mired in a brutal civil war. The company's actions, already investigated by French authorities, occurred before it merged with Swiss company Holcim to form the world’s largest cement maker.

Magali Anderson CEO of LaFarge pleading guilty on behalf of the company. 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams

United States District Judge William Kuntz addressing Magali Anderson 
Courtroom art by Elizabeth Williams 

Justice Department officials described it as the first instance in which a company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Lafarge and a long-defunct Syrian subsidiary entered the plea, agreeing to criminal fines of $90.78 million and a forfeiture of $687 million.

Magali Anderson CEO of LaFarge standing during hearing speaking to Judge Kuntz

Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud: Courtroom Artwork by Elizabeth Williams

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/14/nikola-nkla-founder-trevor-milton-found-guilty-of-fraud-.html

Trevor Milton looking at jury while verdict is read
courtroom sketch by Elizabeth Williams 

Trevor Milton, the founder and former chairman and CEO of electric heavy truck maker Nikola, was found guilty in federal court Friday of three of four counts of fraud relating to false statements he made to drive up the value of Nikola’s stock.

Milton was charged with two counts of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud, all related to statements he made about Nikola’s business while he was chairman and CEO of the company. Jurors found him guilty on one count of securities fraud and both of the wire fraud counts.

Assistant US Attorney Jordan Estes Summation
courtroom sketch by Elizabeth Williams 

“Trevor Milton lied to Nikola’s investors — over and over and over again. That’s fraud, plain and simple,” said Damien Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Williams said that the case against Milton should “serve as a warning” to others who make misrepresentations to investors.

“It won’t end well,” he said.

WIlliams’ office in Manhattan had alleged that Milton lied about “nearly all aspects of the business” he founded in 2014 during his time leading the company. Those lies, prosecutors said, were intended to induce investors to bid up the price of Nikola’s stock.

“On the backs of those innocent investors taken in by his lies, he became a billionaire virtually overnight,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos said in his opening statement in September.

Judge Ramos reading jury instructions before deliberation
courtroom sketch by Elizabeth Williams 

Nikola’s stock price briefly surged to over $90 per share in June 2020, just days after it went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. For a short period, Nikola — a company with no revenue — was more valuable than century-old Ford Motor.

That ambitious valuation didn’t last. Nikola’s shares fell sharply once Milton was forced out of the company in September 2020, after the company’s board of directors found that some of the fraud allegations made by short-seller Hindenburg Research had merit.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission both opened investigations in the months following Milton’s departure. In July 2021, a grand jury indicted Milton on three counts of fraud; a fourth count was added in June 2022.

 Milton will be sentenced on Jan. 27. He faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted on all four counts.

Former OpenSea employee charged in first-ever NFT insider trading case

 U.S. prosecutors in New York’s Southern District have charged and arrested Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at the online marketplace OpenSea.

The 31-year-old faces one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, “using confidential information about what NFTs were going to be featured on OpenSea’s homepage for his personal financial gain.”

Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the Department of Justice wrote in a press release. 

Nathaniel Chastain being arraigned in Manhattan Federal Court by Elizabeth Williams 

U.S. prosecutors are now going after insider trading in the crypto industry.
On Wednesday, prosecutors in New York’s Southern District charged and arrested Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at the online marketplace OpenSea. The 31-year-old faces one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, “using confidential information about what NFTs were going to be featured on OpenSea’s homepage for his personal financial gain.”
Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the Department of Justice wrote in a press release. 
DOJ officials say it is the first time they have pursued an insider trading charge involving digital assets.
Chastain’s alleged scheme was relatively simple.
According to the indictment, Chastain was tasked with selecting NFTs to be featured on OpenSea’s homepage. OpenSea kept those homepage selections confidential until they went live, since a main page listing often translated to a jump in price for both the featured NFT, as well as NFTs made by the same creator.

From roughly June to September of 2021, the indictment says, Chastain would secretly buy an NFT just before OpenSea featured the piece on the front page of its website. Once those NFTs hit the main page, he would allegedly sell them “at profits of two- to five-times his initial purchase price.”

To cover his tracks, he conducted transactions with anonymous digital currency wallets and anonymous accounts on OpenSea, according to the DOJ, which alleges this happened dozens of times.

New York man admits to insider trading, after being linked to reporter's tips: Reuters

 

Jason Peltz Pleading Guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court
Drawing by Elizabeth Williams 

NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - A New York City man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to insider trading and tax evasion charges, a year after prosecutors accused him of using information from a Bloomberg News reporter about certain deals to trade.

Jason Peltz, 39, entered the plea in Brooklyn federal court to two counts of insider trading and tax evasion a year after initially pleading not guilty. He has been engaged in plea negotiations with prosecutors since at least September 2021, court records show. read more

"This office will vigorously prosecute traders who seek to cheat the system, harm the investing public and undermine the integrity of our financial markets," Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.

In March 2021, a federal grand jury indicted Peltz for trading on "material nonpublic information" obtained from a company insider and a financial reporter. read more

The indictment does not name the journalist or the media outlet, but Reuters and other media outlets have identified him as Ed Hammond, a deals reporter with Bloomberg in New York, based on a review of articles mentioned in the indictment. Hammond is not accused of any wrongdoing.

"Ed Hammond is a very accomplished reporter," a Bloomberg News spokesperson said in a statement. "We're not aware of any facts to suggest any wrongdoing on his part."

The scheme ran from November 2015 to October 2020, according to the indictment.

In a statement read to U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in court on Tuesday, Peltz said he purchased securities in chemical manufacturer Ferro Corp based on information, obtained from a friend, that Ferro had received a takeover offer. He said he knew trading off that information was illegal.