Sometime before the attack in Boulder in 2021, Moustafa Alissa recalled waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and his son, Ahmad Alissa, telling him to go talk to a man who was in his room. Moustafa Alissa said they walked together to his son’s room and there was no one there.

Moustafa Alissa also said his son would sometimes talk to himself and broke a car key fob he feared was being used to track him, echoing testimony on Monday from his wife. He said he didn’t know exactly what was wrong with his son but that in his native Syria people say someone acting that way is believed to be possessed by an evil spirit, or djin.

“We thought he probably was just possessed by a spirit or something,” Moustafa Alissa said through an Arabic interpreter in court.

Ahmad Alissa was diagnosed after the shooting with a severe case of schizophrenia and only was deemed mentally competent to stand trial last year after a doctor put him on the strongest antipsychotic medication available. No one disputes he was the gunman at the supermarket but he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The defense says he should be found not guilty because he was legally insane and not able to tell the difference between right and wrong at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutors and forensic psychologists who evaluated him for the court say that, despite his mental illness, he did not experience delusions and knew what he was doing when he launched the attack. They point to the planning and research he did to prepare for it and his fear that he could end up in jail afterward to show that Alissa knew what he was doing was wrong. However, the psychologists said they thought the voices played some role in the attack and don’t believe the attack would have happened if he had not been mentally ill.

When District Attorney Michael Dougherty asked why Moustafa Alissa did not seek out treatment for his son, he said it would be very hard for his family to have a reputation for having a “crazy son.”

“It’s shameful in our culture,” he said.

During questioning, Moustafa Alissa, whose family owns several restaurants in the Denver area, also acknowledged that Ahmad Alissa had promised to return a gun he had that had jammed a few days before the shooting and that he went to the shooting range at least once with his brothers. Despite his concerns about his son’s mental state, he said he did not do anything to try take guns away from him.

Given that, Dougherty suggested that his son’s condition may not have been as bad as his family is now portraying it.

“He was not normal but we did not expect him to do what he did,” Moustafa Alissa said.

A two-count criminal information was filed Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk against Matthew Taylor Morris, court records show. The records also indicate the 38-year-old attorney plans to enter a guilty plea in the case on Sept. 24.

Morris resigned from his job as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney Sept. 6, four days before the charges were filed, according to a spokeswoman for the office. He was hired in August 2022, the spokeswoman said. She declined to comment further.

Morris’ attorney James Broccoletti confirmed that Morris plans to plead guilty later this month, but also declined to comment further.

Morris is accused of working with at least three others to possess and distribute large amounts of marijuana, according to the complaint. The crimes are alleged to have occurred between March 2021 and May 2022, which was before Morris began his job with the prosecutor’s office.

The complaint didn’t specify how much marijuana was involved, but indicated it was less than 50 kilograms. The document also stated that Morris and alleged co-conspirators Nicholas Capehart, Donald Rogers and Jeffrey Sines “derived substantial gross proceeds” from the illegal dealings.

The marijuana was stored at locations across Hampton Roads, including a law office Morris maintained before becoming a prosecutor, according to the complaint. The group used encrypted cellphone messaging applications to avoid detection, the document said.

Morris’ legal troubles with the Virginia State Bar and local judges date back to at least early 2022. Over a period of several months that year, his law license was suspended three times, he was caught with a gun in his briefcase at the Virginia Beach courthouse on two separate occasions, was found in civil contempt three times by judges in the region, and was barred from handling criminal cases in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.

Morris’ first known disciplinary incident occurred in March 2022, when he was ordered to appear at a show cause hearing in Virginia Beach Circuit Court for the two incidents in which courthouse security officers found a gun in his briefcase.

Morris told Judge Les Lilley he’d forgotten the gun was there when he went through the building’s metal detectors. Lilley found him in civil contempt, but court documents didn’t indicate whether a punishment was issued.

That same month, the Virginia State Bar suspended his law license for a week for failing to comply with a legal education requirement. It was suspended again shortly after that for unpaid bar dues.

Also in March 2022, Virginia Beach Circuit Judge Stephen Mahan banned Morris from representing clients in criminal cases there after he showed up hours late to a court hearing and made troubling statements about the reason for his tardiness and mistakes he’d made in his client’s case.

In August 2022, the bar suspended his law license again — that time for six months — for a series of threatening texts he was accused of sending to a former client. According to the bar, Morris suspected the man had filed a complaint against him. He was hired by Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales that same month.

In October of that year, Morris pleaded guilty to a civil contempt charge in Northampton Circuit Court and was fined $250, according to the Shore Daily News. In that case, he’d failed to show up for a court hearing two months earlier, when he was still working in private practice.

While serving as a Portsmouth prosecutor, Morris continued to handle dozens of cases during a four-week period when his license was suspended, according to the state bar. He told bar officials he wasn’t aware of the suspension.

In March 2023 — when the bar was considering what action to take against Morris for the threatening texts — Morales submitted a character reference letter in which she described him as knowledgeable, professional and hard-working. She also wrote that she “couldn’t be more pleased” with her decision to hire him.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com

The 26-year-old had married her partner, Haley Crabtree Johnson, in December, and they planned to soon start a family.

After several years in Blacksburg, the Hampton natives decided to return to the Peninsula to be closer to their own families as they began their own. They were set to close on a new home in Newport News in June.

After spending all day packing in Blacksburg on May 26, the Johnsons and several relatives ran a four-vehicle caravan back to Hampton Roads that Memorial Day weekend.

“We were all very excited for them to start their own family,” said Morgan’s mother, Rose Johnson Paul, 59, of Hampton. “I talked to Morgan all throughout the day, not knowing that would be the last time I ever talked to my daughter.”

About 20 minutes from home, Morgan’s 1998 Chevy Silverado pickup was struck from behind by a 2010 Volvo SUV on Interstate 64 near Fort Eustis, in Newport News.

The pickup veered to the right, struck a guardrail and flipped multiple times, landing on its roof. Johnson was wearing a seat belt, but died at the scene.

The Volvo’s driver, Gregory Todd Pugh Jr., 30, was uninjured. The Hampton resident was charged with reckless driving, driving on a suspended license and failing to have insurance.

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Family wants increased charges

Now, Johnson’s relatives want prosecutors to upgrade the misdemeanor reckless driving count to manslaughter. Reckless driving, they contend, amounts to a glorified speeding ticket.

“He killed someone, you know?” said Morgan’s sister, Chelsie Johnson Schrum, 33. “To me it’s black and white. You weren’t supposed to be on the road, and you killed somebody. To me, that’s manslaughter … not a traffic infraction.”

“What I want is accountability,” Morgan’s mother added.

Haley Johnson, 24, said she would be upset if the charges are not upgraded.

“That would be absolutely devastating,” she said, saying keeping the charges as is would make it appear “that they don’t care that a life was lost.”

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, said that every few years in the Virginia General Assembly, a lawmaker puts in a bill to enhance criminal liability for fatal crashes. That typically follows a wreck in which a lawmaker’s constituent has lost a loved one on the road, he said.

But though several states have increased criminal liability for fatal crashes, Virginia has not.

“I think the reason that it hasn’t really caught on in Virginia is that we typically base the punishment on the level of intentional conduct, not necessarily the outcome,” Surovell said. “People make simple mistakes while driving cars all the time.”

Some cars are safer than others, he said, and whether someone lives or dies can turn on such factors as someone’s physical condition or whether or not they wore a seat belt. A healthy teen, for example, might walk away from a wreck that could kill an older person.

“How fair is it to hold a driver at fault for all the different variables that can cause a death?” Surovell asked.

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Manslaughter vs. Reckless Driving

Involuntary manslaughter in Virginia — a felony punishable by up to 10 years — is typically reserved for crashes involving such behavior as racing, driving at high speeds or driving under the influence. The charge can be “aggravated,” and the sentence doubled, when someone shows a “wanton” and “reckless disregard for human life.”

Reckless driving is a lesser crime, defined as operating a motor vehicle “so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person.” It’s a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Standard jail policies, moreover, would cut any resulting jail term in half.

Drivers who cause fatal accidents can also be charged with a rarely used “felony reckless driving” count — but only if their license was already suspended on past moving violations. (That doesn’t apply here, as Pugh’s license was suspended for failing to carry insurance rather than prior driving charges, police have told Johnson’s family).

Pugh could not be reached last week. His attorney, Timothy Clancy, declined to comment — and said his client would have no comment — on the case scheduled for an Oct.22 hearing in Newport News General District Court.

Meantime, Johnson’s family has a Thursday meeting scheduled with Newport News prosecutors where the family plans to press for the upgraded charge.

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Crash report

The State Police report into the May 26 crash estimates Pugh was driving about 75 mph in a 65 mph zone when he struck Johnson, who was driving her loaded pickup about 55 mph.

Paul said investigators weren’t able to salvage black boxes from the vehicles to “confirm the speeds,” but she said police and prosecutors were still considering ways to determine whether those speed estimates are accurate.

Neither drugs nor alcohol were factors in the crash, the State Police report said. A trooper told Johnson’s family that there were no indicators at the scene — such as slurred speech, open containers or the smell of alcohol — to warrant a sobriety or breath test.

Johnson’s family contends sobriety tests should be mandated in all fatal wrecks, given that a driver’s impairment could go undetected by sight and smell.

But Surovell said it’s unconstitutional to require a sobriety check without probable cause — and that a fatal crash alone does not constitute such cause. Though police can ask someone to voluntarily submit to a sobriety test, he said, officers typically don’t request that without evidence of alcohol or drug use.

The State Police report also has boxes checked indicating that “driver distraction” — such as from a cell phone — was not a factor in the crash, but Johnson’s family said police told them that whether or not Pugh was using his cell phone at the time is still under investigation.

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‘Loved her family hard’

Morgan Johnson grew up in Hampton, with a fraternal twin sister, an older sister and an older brother.

She played softball “her whole life,” including two years at Kecoughtan High School. When she didn’t make the team her sophomore year, she went to the coach to say she’d “love to be part of the team somehow,” Haley said. She ended up becoming the team manager.

“If Morgan hadn’t gone and reached out to the coach, we probably would have never met,” Haley said. The two became best friends first and then began dating while still at Kecoughtan.

Morgan also served as Kecoughtan’s “Warrior” mascot for three years, and worked as a trainer at a local YMCA and on the staff of the County Grill & Smokehouse and Harpoon Larry’s.

After Haley went to Virginia Tech for college, Morgan moved to Blacksburg in 2020.

While there, she got certifications in photography, welding and advanced welding. The couple launched a photography business, taking senior pictures for students at Tech and Radford University. Morgan was also a certified personal trainer, rescued animals, and enjoyed fishing, traveling and her Pittsburgh Steelers.

“Morgan worked hard, played hard, and loved her family hard,” Paul said, with the family saying she was outgoing and caring to her many friends.

Haley said Morgan “was meant to be a mother,” and began talking several years ago about wanting a family. After getting married late last year, the couple pegged August as “baby month,” to start planning an in vitro pregnancy in which Haley would carry the baby to term.

“She was excited,” Haley said.

In fact, having a family was what drew the newlyweds back to the Peninsula. “We had a great group of people in Blacksburg, but it wasn’t our parents, right?” Haley said.

While Haley landed a school teaching job in the Williamsburg public schools, Morgan was set to begin a welding job in June that included working on a race car at Langley Speedway, one of her favorite hangouts.

“It felt like everything was just kind of falling into place, kind of perfectly,” Haley said.

The May accident and past four months provided a dramatic, painful shift. Haley is still reeling from the loss of a woman she’s known about half her young life.

“You can be in the worst mood ever, and she knows how to pick you up,” Haley said of Morgan. “I miss her ability to laugh at everything and to make everybody else laugh.”

Haley said she misses Morgan in the small things, too, like going to the grocery store together.

“She was my confidante, my person,” Haley said. “She knew what I was feeling before I felt it. She knew what I needed at all times.”

Morgan’s sister Chelsie said the most difficult part was telling her three children — aged 3, 6 and 9 — that their aunt had died. Two nieces will serve as flower girls when Morgan’s twin sister, Madison Johnson, gets married next May. During the service, the girls will use flower petals from their Aunt Morgan’s funeral a year earlier.

“Making Morgan a part of the wedding,” Paul said of her daughter. “She’s gonna be with us.”

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

TikTok faced off with the U.S. government in federal court on Monday, arguing a law that could ban the platform in a few short months is unconstitutional while the Justice Department said it is needed to eliminate a national security risk posed by the popular social media company.

In a more than two-hour appearance before a panel of three judges at a federal appeals court in Washington, attorneys for the two sides – and content creators – were pressed on their best arguments for and against the law that forces TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance to break ties by mid-January or lose one of their biggest markets in the world.

Andrew Pincus, a veteran attorney representing the two companies, argued in court that the law unfairly targets the company and runs afoul of the First Amendment because TikTok Inc. – the U.S. arm of TikTok – is an American entity. After his remarks, another attorney representing content creators who are also challenging the law argued it violates the rights of U.S. speakers and is akin to prohibiting Americans from publishing on foreign-owned media outlets, such as Politico, Al Jazeera or Spotify.

“The law before this court is unprecedented and its effect would be staggering,” Pincus said, adding the act would impose speech limitations based on future risks.

The measure, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China.

The U.S. has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect.

Daniel Tenny, an attorney for the Justice Department, acknowledged in court that data collection is useful for many companies for commercial purposes, such as target advertisements or tailoring videos to users’ interests.

“The problem is that same data is extremely valuable to a foreign adversary trying to compromise the security of the United States,” he said.

Pincus, the attorney for TikTok, said Congress should have erred on the side of disclosing any potential propaganda on the platform instead of pursuing a divesture-or-ban approach, which the two companies have maintained will only lead to a ban. He also said statements from lawmakers before the law was passed shows they were motivated by the propaganda they perceived to be on TikTok, namely an imbalance between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel content on the platform during the war in Gaza.

But the panel – composed of two Republican and one Democrat appointed judges – expressed some skepticism, pressing the attorneys on TikTok’s side if they believe the government has any leeway to curtail an influential media company controlled by a foreign entity in an adversarial nation. In parts of their questions about TikTok’s foreign ownership, the judges asked if the arguments presented would apply in cases where the U.S. is engaged in war.

Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, said the creators suing over the law could continue speaking on TikTok if the company is sold or if they choose to post content on other platforms. But Jeffrey Fisher, their attorney, argued there are not “interchangeable mediums” for them because TikTok — which has 170 million U.S. users — is unique in its look and feel, and the types of audiences it allows them to reach.

Paul Tran, one of the content creators who is suing the government, told reporters outside the courthouse on Monday that a skincare company him and his wife founded in 2018 was struggling until they started making TikTok videos three years ago. He said they had tried to market their products through traditional advertising and other social media apps. But the TikTok videos were the only thing that drove views, helping them get enough orders to sell out of products and even appear on TV shows.

“TikTok truly invigorated our company and saved it from collapse,” Tran said.

Currently, he noted the company – Love and Pebble – sells more than 90% of its products over TikTok, which is covering the legal fees for the creator lawsuit.

In the second half of the hearing, the panel pressed the Justice Department on First Amendment challenges to the law.

Judge Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge on the court who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said efforts to stem content manipulation through government action does set off alarm bells and impact people who receive speech on TikTok. Tenny, the attorney for the DOJ, responded by saying the law doesn’t target TikTok users or creators and that any impact on them is only indirect.

For its part, TikTok has repeatedly said it does not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government and that concerns the government has raised have never been substantiated. In their lawsuit, TikTok and ByteDance have also claimed divestment is not possible. And even if it was, they say TikTok would be reduced to a shell of its former self because it would be stripped of the technology that powers it.

Though the government’s primary reasoning for the law is public, significant portions of its court filings includes information that’s redacted.

In one of the redacted statements submitted in late July, the Justice Department claimed TikTok took direction from the Chinese government about content on its platform, without disclosing additional details about when or why those incidents occurred. Casey Blackburn, a senior U.S. intelligence official, wrote in a legal statement that ByteDance and TikTok “have taken action in response” to Chinese government demands “to censor content outside of China.” Though the intelligence community had “no information” that this has happened on the platform operated by TikTok in the U.S., Blackburn said it may occur.

But the companies have argued the government could have taken a more tailored approach to resolve its concerns.

During high-stakes negotiations with the Biden administration more than two years ago, TikTok presented the government with a draft 90-page agreement that allows a third party to monitor the platform’s algorithm, content moderation practices and other programming. But it said a deal was not reached because government officials essentially walked away from the negotiating table in August 2022.

Justice officials have argued complying with the draft agreement is impossible, or would require extensive resources, due to the size and the technical complexity of the platform. They say the only thing that would resolve the government’s concerns is severing the ties between TikTok and ByteDance.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Timberlake’s attorney, Edward Burke, declined to comment.

The pop singer is set to appear in person on Friday in Sag Harbor Village Court to enter a plea, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office confirmed Wednesday.

Timberlake was arrested in the village of Sag Harbor, on the eastern end of Long Island, on June 18 after police said he ran a stop sign in the village center, veered out of his lane and got out of his BMW smelling of alcohol. The 43-year-old Tennessee native pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor drunken driving charge.

At a hearing last month, a judge suspended Timberlake’s right to drive in New York.

His lawyer, Burke, has maintained that Timberlake was not drunk and that the case should be dropped.

Timberlake was pulled over after leaving a Sag Harbor hotel around 12:30 a.m., according to police.

“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” police said in a court filing.

Timberlake told the officer he had had one martini and was following some friends home, according to police. He was arrested and spent the night in custody at a police station.

The boy band singer-turned-solo star and actor’s agent and other representatives didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.

A 10-time Grammy winner, Timberlake began performing as a young Disney Mouseketeer, rose to fame as part of the boy band NSYNC and embarked on a solo recording career in the early 2000s.

Sag Harbor is a one-time whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick” that’s nestled amid the Hamptons, around 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City.

Chesapeake, Suffolk, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Hampton have installed speed cameras in local school and work zones to deter speeding and enhance overall public safety.

Though law enforcement leaders tout the equipment as a safety measure to deter speeding, the cameras can also be significant moneymakers — with Chesapeake and Suffolk already raking in millions.

Chesapeake has a dozen cameras that have been active since 2022. The city reports a total of 158,075 violations since then, along with about $9.7 million in revenue.

Another 10 cameras in Suffolk went active in fall 2023 along with one at a work zone. Since then, the city reports roughly 196,000 citations, collecting $14.2 million in revenue. After paying the vendor, net revenue is $10.5 million. Suffolk did not specify whether the citation and revenue figures provided to The Virginian-Pilot were specific to school and work zone speed cameras only. The city also operates red light and school bus cameras.

Both cities previously said net revenue would go toward highway safety improvements and personnel costs.

The school zone speed cameras in Chesapeake and Suffolk are targeted in two lawsuits brought by former Del. Tim Anderson, an attorney who alleges the cities are improperly issuing speeding violations and allowing third party vendors to impersonate local government when collecting fees.

Anderson’s case in Suffolk is awaiting an order from a judge on whether it will move forward. A hearing in the Chesapeake case is scheduled for Sept. 18.

The Virginia General Assembly approved legislation in 2020 that allows state and local police to set up speed cameras at highway work sites and school crossing zones. Under that law, only motorists caught going at least 10 mph over the speed limit are ticketed up to $100.

Hampton is in the process of rolling out a dozen cameras in school zones this fall as part of a pilot program with staggered warning periods.

A 30-day warning period began Aug. 26 for cameras located near Bethel High School, Hampton High School and Hunter B. Andrews Pre-K. A 30-day grace period will begin for cameras at Jones Magnet Middle School, Kecoughtan High School, Lindsay Middle School and Machen Elementary School by Sept. 30. And cameras at another set of schools — Mary W. Jackson Elementary School, Thomas Eaton Middle School, Aberdeen Elementary School, Barron Elementary School and William Mason Cooper Elementary — will have a 30-day grace period beginning no later than Oct. 15.

Hampton city officials said about $3.5 million would be budgeted for the school zone speed camera pilot program.

Norfolk has 19 cameras in place across 10 public school locations. A 60-day warning period was slated to end in May, but a city spokesperson said last week that the cameras are still in an active warning period “until summons language can be resolved with the general district court and our vendor, Verra Mobility.”

Part of Anderson’s complaint in his lawsuits was that officers weren’t issuing an official Virginia summons document consistent with other traffic infractions when making the speeding citations.

Portsmouth has 16 cameras, and police began fining drivers in December. The city reports 28,289 citations and $951,061 of revenue collected between January and June. Of the total revenue, $565,042 will be paid to the third-party vendor.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the latest citations and revenue figures from the city of Portsmouth. The city provided the figures after the article published.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — On a busy Texas highway days before the 2020 election, former Democratic lawmaker Wendy Davis used her phone to record the scene unfolding around their Biden-Harris campaign bus: A convoy of President Donald Trump supporters weaving close while her fellow passengers called 911 for help.

In a federal court in Austin on Monday, a jury watched the video filmed by Davis — who ran for governor in 2014 — on the first day of a civil trial that seeks to hold some of those Trump supporters responsible for what Davis and others on the bus say was an intimidating threat of political violence.

“It was a day that was very different from anything I experienced campaigning,” said Davis, who testified that she felt riddled with fear and anxiety.

In opening statements, a lawyer for Davis and the other plaintiffs argued that the six “Trump Train” drivers participated in an orchestrated attack aimed at intimidating people on the bus and making the campaign cancel its remaining events in Texas.

The defense argued that the drivers did not conspire against the Biden-Harris campaign bus that day, and instead joined the train as if it were a pep rally. They also claimed that the bus had several opportunities to exit the highway on its way from San Antonio to Austin.

“It was a rah-rah group that sought to support and advocate for a candidate of their choice in a very loud way,” attorney Francisco Canseco said.

The civil jury trial over the so-called “Trump Train” comes as Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris race into the final two months of their head-to-head fight for the White House in November.

Democrats on the bus said they feared for their lives as Trump supporters in dozens of trucks and cars nearly caused collisions, rammed a Biden-Harris campaign staffer’s car and forced the bus driver to repeatedly swerve for safety. Videos of the confrontation on Oct. 30, 2020, including some recorded and shared on social media by the Trump supporters themselves, show a group of cars and pickup trucks — many adorned with large Trump flags — crowding the campaign bus, boxing it in, slowing it down and keeping it from exiting the highway.

“For at least 90 minutes, defendants terrorized and menaced the driver and passengers,” the lawsuit alleges. “They played a madcap game of highway ‘chicken’ coming within three to four inches of the bus. They tried to run the bus off the road.”

The highway confrontation prompted an FBI investigation, which led then-President Trump to declare that in his opinion, “these patriots did nothing wrong.”

Davis rose to prominence in 2013 with her 13-hour filibuster of an anti-abortion bill in the state Capitol. The other three plaintiffs are a campaign volunteer, staffer and the bus driver.

“We felt overwhelmed by what was going on and we didn’t have any support,” Davis testified.

Monday’s trial ended with the defense beginning their cross-examination of Davis and will resume Tuesday. The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, accuses the six named defendants of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 federal law to stop political violence and intimidation tactics.

The same law was used in part to indict Trump on federal election interference charges over attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Enacted by Congress during the Reconstruction Era, the law was created to protect the right of Black men to vote by prohibiting political violence.

On the two previous days, Biden-Harris supporters were subjected to death threats, with some Trump supporters displaying weapons, according to the lawsuit. These threats in combination with the highway confrontation led Democrats to cancel an event later in the day.

Canseco said before the trial that his clients acted lawfully, exercising their free speech rights and not infringing on the rights of people on the bus.

“It’s more of a constitutional issue,” Canseco said. “It’s more of who has the greater right to speak behind their candidate.”

The trial judge is Robert Pitman, an appointee of President Barack Obama. He denied the defendants’ pretrial motion for a summary judgment, ruling last month that the KKK Act prohibits the physical intimidation of people traveling to political rallies, even when racial bias isn’t a factor.

While one of the defendants, Eliazar Cisneros, argued his group had a First Amendment right to demonstrate support for their candidate, the judge wrote that “assaulting, intimidating, or imminently threatening others with force is not protected expression.”

“Just as the First Amendment does not protect a driver waving a political flag from running a red light, it does not protect Defendants from allegedly threatening Plaintiffs with reckless driving,” Pitman wrote.

A prior lawsuit filed over the “Trump Train” alleged the San Marcos Police Department violated the Ku Klux Klan Act by failing to send a police escort after multiple 911 calls were made and a bus rider said his life was threatened. It accused officers of privately laughing and joking about the emergency calls. San Marcos settled the lawsuit in 2023 for $175,000 and a requirement that law enforcement get training on responding to political violence.

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Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

WINDER, Ga. (AP) — The 14-year-old suspect in a shooting that killed four people at a Georgia high school and his father, who was arrested for allowing his son to have a weapon, will stay in custody after their lawyers decided not to seek bail Friday.

Colt Gray, who has been charged with four counts of murder, is accused of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two fellow students and two teachers Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta. His father, Colin Gray, faces related charges in the latest attempt by prosecutors to hold parents responsible for their children’s actions in school shootings.

“You don’t have to have been physically injured in this to be a victim,” District Attorney Brad Smith said outside the Barrow County courthouse. “Everyone in this community is a victim. Every child in that school was a victim.”

The father and son appeared in back-to-back hearings Friday morning with about 50 onlookers in the courtroom, where workers had placed boxes of tissues along the benches, in addition to members of the media and sheriff’s deputies. Some victims’ family members in the front row hugged each other and one woman clutched a stuffed animal.

During his hearing, Colt Gray, wearing khaki pants and a green shirt, was advised of his rights as well as the charges and penalties he faced for the shooting at the school where he was a student. He was escorted out in shackles at the wrists and ankles.

The judge then called the teen back to the courtroom to correct an earlier misstatement that his crimes could be punishable by death. Because he’s a juvenile, the maximum penalty he would face is life without parole.

Shortly afterward, Colin Gray was brought into court dressed in a gray-striped jail uniform. Colin Gray, 54, was charged Thursday in connection with the shooting and answered questions in a barely audible croak, giving his age and saying he finished 11th grade, earning a high school equivalency diploma.

Colin Gray has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder related to the shooting. Arrest warrants said he caused the deaths of others “by providing a firearm to Colt Gray with knowledge that he was threat to himself and others.”

The charges come five months after Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting. They were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for not securing a firearm at home and acting indifferently to signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health before he killed four students in 2021. The Georgia shootings have also renewed debate about safe storage laws for guns and have parents wondering how to talk to their children about school shootings and trauma.

The hearings for the father and son came as police in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody said schools there and nationwide have received threats of violence since the Apalachee High School shooting, police said in a statement. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation also noted that numerous threats have been made to schools across the state this week.

Before Colin Gray’s arrest was reported, the AP knocked on the door of a home listed as his address seeking comment about his son’s arrest.

According to arrest warrants obtained by The Associated Press, Colt Gray is accused of using a “black semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle” in the rampage. Authorities have not offered any motive or explained how he obtained the gun or got it into the school.

He was charged as an adult in the deaths of Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. A neighbor remembered Schermerhorn as inquisitive when he was a little boy. Aspinwall and Irimie were both math teachers, and Aspinwall also helped coach the school’s football team. Irimie, who immigrated from Romania, volunteered at a local church, where she taught dance.

Additional charges will be filed against Colt Gray, Smith said. When the teenager was taken into custody Wednesday, authorities did not know the identities or conditions of the nine people injured in the attack, so they weren’t initially able to file charges related to those, he said.

Colt Gray denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when authorities interviewed him last year about a menacing post on social media, according to a sheriff’s report obtained Thursday. Conflicting evidence on the post’s origin left investigators unable to arrest anyone, the report said. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the report from May 2023 and found nothing that would have justified bringing charges at the time.

The attack was the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom killings have set off fervent debates about gun control but there has been little change to national gun laws.

It was the 30th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings, which are defined as events in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

The cases will be presented to a grand jury, which has its next scheduled meeting Oct. 17, Smith said. Grand jury proceedings are not open to the public or news media. If the grand jury issues indictments for Colt and Colin Gray, they will then be scheduled for arraignment. Colt Gray faces another hearing on Dec. 4.

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Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press journalists Charlotte Kramon, Sharon Johnson, Mike Stewart and Erik Verduzco in Winder; Trenton Daniel and Beatrice Dupuy in New York; Eric Tucker in Washington; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Kate Brumback in Atlanta; and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.

They posted on social media, hosted community events and held a rally for the 28-year-old mother and pediatric nurse. Within days of her disappearance, community members began to apply public pressure on her husband, Naresh Bhatt.

“My friend called me and said, ‘What do you think?’ and I said, ‘Let’s talk about it,’ so we initiated a group chat and then the movement was started,” said Bina Khadkalama, a member of the local Nepali community in Northern Virginia.

Bhatt was arrested about three weeks after his wife disappeared and charged with concealing a dead body. A prosecutor later said in court that the amount of blood found in Bhatt’s home indicated injuries that were not survivable.

Though his wife’s body remains missing, Naresh Bhatt waived his right to grand jury proceedings on Thursday, paving the way for him to head to trial by early 2025. The trial date is expected to be set during Bhatt’s next hearing in Prince William Circuit Court on Sept. 16.

Prince William Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Sweet described the waiver as a tactical move by Bhatt’s attorneys that limits prosecutors’ time to build their murder case — a process that typically takes longer than six months.

“We have multiple agencies, multiple witnesses who are out of the state — out of the country — that we have to prepare for,” Sweet said in court.

Chief Public Defender Tracey Lenox argued that Bhatt was still entitled to a speedy trial, despite prosecutors’ wish for more time, adding that his defense couldn’t control whether the arrest was premature.

“They chose to charge in this,” Lenox said, adding: “I understand the inconvenience to the Commonwealth, but this is where we are.”

On Thursday, Manassas Park police said they were searching for evidence in the investigation at a nearby school, multiple parks and other community areas.

The investigation has drawn international attention to the small Northern Virginia community, where homicide cases are rare. In the courtroom, more than a dozen community members sat among the benches, wearing pink pins printed with Bhatt’s face.

“We’re always thinking about her, we’re doing so much here,” Khadkalama said. “The case is a 24-hour topic for us … I go to work, I drive home, I think about Mamta.”

Holly Wirth, a nurse who used to work with Mamta Bhatt, has been vocal in the case, hoping to gain accountability for her friend. She described Naresh Bhatt’s waiver of grand jury proceedings to be “legal gymnastics,” but said she believed prosecutors would still have ample time to prepare this case or other charges that they could be pursuing.

“Mr. Bhatt thinks he is smart, but I guarantee you, the weight of justice is leaning hard on him, and we are going to see this come to fruition,” Wirth said.

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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

More than two years ago, former Rocky Mount Police Sgt. Thomas Robertson originally was sentenced to seven years and three months of imprisonment for joining a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper to preserve the original sentence, but the judge imposed the shorter prison term Wednesday after agreeing to dismiss Robertson’s conviction for obstructing the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

Robertson was the first Capitol riot defendant to be resentenced after the dismissal of a conviction for the obstruction charge at the center of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June, according to Justice Department prosecutors. The high court ruled 6-3 that a charge of obstructing an official proceeding must include proof that a defendant tried to tamper with or destroy documents — a distinction that applies to few Jan. 6 criminal cases.

“I assume I won’t be seeing you a third time,” the judge told Robertson at the end of his second sentencing hearing.

Robertson, who declined to address the court at his first sentencing hearing, told the judge on Wednesday that he looks forward to returning home and rebuilding his life after prison.

“I realize the positions that I was taking on that day were wrong,” he said of Jan. 6. “I’m standing before you very sorry for what occurred on that day.”

A jury convicted Robertson of all six counts in his indictment, including charges that he interfered with police officers during a civil disorder and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick. Robertson’s jury trial was the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.

Robertson traveled to Washington on that morning with another off-duty Rocky Mount police officer, Jacob Fracker, and a third man, a neighbor who wasn’t charged in the case.

Fracker, who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with the government, was sentenced in 2022 to probation and two months of home detention.

Jurors who convicted Robertson saw some of his posts on social media before and after the riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”

“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to become part of one, and a very effective one,” he wrote.

After Jan. 6, Robertson told a friend that he was prepared to fight and die in a civil war and he clung to baseless conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump.

“He’s calling for an open, armed rebellion. He’s prepared to start one,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi told the judge.

Prosecutors said Robertson used his law enforcement and military training to block police officers who were trying to hold off the advancing mob.

Defense attorney Mark Rollins said Robertson made bad choices and engaged in bad behavior on Jan. 6 but wasn’t trying to “overthrow democracy” that day.

“What you find now is a broken man,” Rollins said.

The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Rocky Mount is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Roanoke, Virginia, and has about 5,000 residents.