LOS ANGELES, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Rapper A$AP Rocky, the romantic partner of recording star Rihanna and father of her two sons, was ordered on Monday to stand trial in Los Angeles on two felony counts of assault with a semi-automatic weapon.

Rocky, 35, whose given name is Rakim Mayers, is accused of pointing a handgun at another hip-hop artist and former friend, Terell Ephron, during a heated argument, then firing twice in Ephron’s direction during a second confrontation. Both encounters occurred on Nov. 6, 2021.

Prosecutors alleged that Ephron suffered a minor injury in the shooting.

Rocky was arrested in connection with the altercation five months later, in April 2022, as he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from Barbados. He was charged in August of that year.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar ruled on Monday that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to proceed to trial on both counts of assault, including allegations that Rocky had personally used a firearm during the incidents in question, according to a spokesperson for the District attorney‘s Office.

The Harlem-born musician, who remains free on bond, has pleaded not guilty in the case.

[1/4]Rakim Mayers, aka A$AP Rocky, sits in the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center for a preliminary hearing in his assault with a semiautomatic firearm case in Los Angeles, California, U.S, November 20, 2023. Allison Dinner/Pool via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights

His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, argued in court that prosecutors failed to present sufficient proof that a shooting had even occurred, relying on various surveillance videos and testimony that the defense said were inconclusive, the Los Angeles City News Service (CNS) reported in its account of the proceedings.

The defense also questioned the veracity of Ephron’s testimony that he believed his left hand had been grazed in the gunfire, CNS reported.

Ephron, who has performed under the stage name as A$AP Relli as part of a hip-hop collective that once included both men, has also filed a civil lawsuit against Rocky, according to CNS.

Since Rocky’s arrest in April of 2022, Rihanna, a native of Barbados, has given birth to two sons fathered by him.

His first and second studio albums, “Long. Live. A$AP,” and “At.Long.Last.A$AP,” both debuted at No. 1 in the Billboard 200 pop charts in 2013 and 2015, respectively. His third album, “Testing,” released in 2018, peaked in the top five.

(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word in paragraph 2)

Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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The exterior of John Jospeh Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., November 28, 2018. REUTERS/Katherine Taylor/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

BOSTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday charged three people with running a high-end brothel network out of apartment complexes in greater Boston and northern Virginia whose customers included elected officials, tech and pharmaceutical executives, lawyers, professors and military officers.

Federal prosecutors in Boston did not identify any of the “wealthy and well-connected clientele” that they say paid up to $600 per hour for sexual encounters with predominantly Asian women who were being exploited through sex trafficking.

The brothels’ alleged operators — Han Lee, 41, and Junmyung Lee, 30, of Massachusetts and James Lee, 68, of California — were arrested and charged with conspiring to coerce and entice women to travel to engage in illegal sexual activity.

Acting U.S. attorney Josh Levy said the probe was “just getting started” and that law enforcement was gathering more evidence after executing search warrants on locations in Massachusetts, Virginia and California.

Those searches included of active brothels and uncovered financial documents, cash and women believed to be engaging in prostitution, according to court records.

“We’re committed to working closely with our federal, state and local partners to hold accountable the people who both ran this ring and the people who fueled the demand for this ring,” Levy said at a press conference.

Han Lee and Junmyung Lee, who are both Korean, were ordered by a judge to be detained following a hearing in Massachusetts. Han Lee’s lawyer declined to comment. Other defense lawyers either did not respond to requests for comment or could not be identified.

According to charging documents, the defendants, led by Han Lee, used high-end apartment complexes as brothels in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, and Fairfax and Tysons, Virginia.

Two websites advertised appointments with Asian women, and customers underwent a vetting process that included providing their driver’s license photos and employers’ names, prosecutors said. The U.S. government has seized those sites’ domains.

Authorities said they believed the brothel network had potentially hundreds of customers, who Levy said “often paid a monthly fee to be part of this illicit club.”

Customers included politicians, pharmaceutical and technology executives, doctors, military officers, professors, lawyers, business executives, scientists and accountants, prosecutors said.

Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi; Editing by David Gregorio and Michael Perry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.

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Jan 29 (Reuters) – The attorney representing the family of Tyre Nichols, the Black man who was fatally beaten by Memphis police officers, called on Sunday for the U.S. Congress to pass police reform legislation, and said Nichols’ mother hoped the tragedy could lead to a “greater good.”

“Shame on us if we don’t use his tragic death to finally get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed,” Ben Crump told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

All five officers are scheduled to appear for a bond arraignment on Feb. 17 at 9 a.m. in front of Judge James Jones of the Shelby County criminal court, court records show.

Crump said he and the Nichols family had spoken with President Joe Biden on Friday and urged him to use Nichols’ death to galvanize support for the act’s passage.

Nichols’ mother was coping with her son’s death by believing he was destined to change the world, Crump said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“She believes in her heart Tyre was sent here for an assignment and that there is going to be greater good that comes from this tragedy.”

The “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” was introduced in 2021 after George Floyd died when a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, sparking worldwide protests over racial injustice.

The bill, which aims to stop aggressive law enforcement tactics, passed the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 but stalled in the Senate. Biden on Thursday called on Congress to send the legislation to his desk.

[1/7] Rodney Wells, a stepfather, and RowVaughn Wells a mother of Tyre Nichols, a young Black man who was killed during a traffic stop by Memphis police officers, take the stage with their attorney Ben Crump, during a news conference at Mt. Olive Cathedral CME Church in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer

Nichols’ death is the latest high-profile example of police using excessive force against Black people and other minorities. Crump said Nichols’ death should finally prompt lawmakers to act.

“It is this culture that says, `It doesn’t matter whether the police officers are Black or Hispanic or white, that it is somehow allowed for you to trample on the constitutional rights of certain citizens from certain ethnicities and certain communities,`” Crump said on CNN.

Republican House of Representatives Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” cautioned against rushing into new legislation to create new mandates for police.

“These five individuals did not have any respect for life. And again, I don’t think these five guys represent the vast, vast majority of law enforcement. But I don’t know if there’s anything you can do to stop the kind of evil we saw in that video,” he said.

Five officers, all Black, are charged with Nichols’ murder after video captured on bodycams and a street surveillance camera showed them violently confronting Nichols on Jan. 7.

Nichols, 29, was hospitalized and died of his injuries three days later in the city where he lived with his mother and stepfather and worked at FedEx.

The Memphis Police Department on Saturday disbanded the SCORPION unit to which the officers belonged, as protests took place in U.S. cities a day after harrowing video of the attack was released.

The officers were charged on Thursday with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression in Nichols’ death and dismissed from the department.

Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by David Lawder, editing by Ross Colvin and Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Ahmed Aboulenein

Thomson Reuters

Washington-based correspondent covering U.S. healthcare and pharmaceutical policy with a focus on the Department of Health and Human Services and the agencies it oversees such as the Food and Drug Administration, previously based in Iraq and Egypt.

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