By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A DEA agent was sentenced to two years in prison Monday after using fraudulently issued government credit cards to steal more than $113,000 from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Keenya Meshell Banks, 41, of Maryland, was earlier convicted of wire fraud. Banks was a program manager for the DEA and was responsible…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A Border Patrol tactical team shot and killed one of two murderers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in upstate New York following a massive three-week manhunt, CNN reports. Richard Matt was killed Friday in Malone, N.Y. On Sunday, a New York State trooper shot and wounded the second fugitive, David…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com An FBI investigation into a private prison in Idaho uncovered no criminal wrongdoing, but agents did find plenty of incompetence among the staff, the Associated Press reports. Investigators also found that state and federal officials failed to properly communicate and monitor prison activities. Following a 15-month public corruption investigation, the Justice…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces two likely, grim possibility – the death sentence or life in one of the most destructive prisons in America, “a place so isolating that it has been called a clean version of hell,” NBC News reports. The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Colorado, also…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Federal prosecutors handled fewer drug prosecutions last year because of a new approach to handling smaller non-violent offenders, the Los Angeles Times reports. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a National Press Club address that prosecutions for drug cases fell 6% last year. Holder said the feds are placing more focus…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com An activist tied to the hacking group Anonymous was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of threatening an FBI agent and spreading stolen data. The Business Insider reports that Barrett Brown, who had faced more than 100 years behind bars, read from a lengthy statement before sentencing, saying…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A former college student imprisoned since a jury convicted him of eco-terrorism in 2007 was freed Thursday after it was discovered the FBI and prosecutors withheld thousands of pages of evidence that could have been used for his defense, the Sacramento Bee reports. Federal prosecutors realized they had little choice but…
