All USAO Press Releases

Fort Myers, Florida – United States District Judge Sheri P. Chappell has sentenced Tyler Williams (30, Hendry County) to 33 months in federal prison for violating an individual’s civil rights and obstructing justice. A federal jury found Williams guilty on February 7, 2025.

An Essex County man who claimed to be a pastor of a church in Orange, New Jersey was indicted on April 25, 2025, for sex trafficking, forced labor, and, along with his wife, conspiring to commit forced labor.

The Justice Department and the City of Albuquerque filed a joint motion seeking U.S. District Court approval to terminate the federal consent decree covering the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) since 2015. The joint motion follows a long record of findings that APD has maintained full compliance with the decree.

Joshua M. Rogers of Memphis, Tennessee, pleaded guilty yesterday to a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c) for his role in destroying evidence related to a police officer’s fatal shooting of a man identified by the initials R.H. With the plea, Rogers admitted that he acted to impair the integrity or availability of R.H.’s body for use in an official proceeding and, in so doing, shield his co-defendant from criminal liability.

A Burlington County woman was sentenced to 45 months in prison for forced labor and other crimes related to her coercive scheme to compel two victims to perform domestic labor and childcare in her home.

A New Jersey woman was sentenced on Wednesday to 45 months in prison for forced labor and other crimes related to her coercive scheme to compel two victims to perform domestic labor and childcare in her home.

Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces the  unsealing of an indictment charging Jazzmen La Vone Gaskins (38, Texas) with sex trafficking and transportation of an individual to engage in prostitution. If convicted on all counts, Gaskins faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison. 

A federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee returned an indictment on May 7, charging Regan Darby Prater, 27, with arson for firebombing the Highlander Center, a nonprofit research and education center in New Market, Tennessee; and with carrying an explosive device during the commission of the arson. Prater appeared in court today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill E. McCook and entered a plea of not guilty to the charges in the indictment. He was held pending trial, which has been set for July 15 in United States District Court, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Shronda Covington, 49, was sentenced yesterday for violating the civil rights of an inmate in her custody and control by showing deliberate indifference to the inmate’s serious medical need.

Seattle – Today, the Department of Justice announced the results of Operation Restore Justice, a coordinated enforcement effort to identify, track and arrest child sex predators.  

Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Harmeet K. Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General of the United States; Christopher G. Raia, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”); and Jessica S. Tisch, the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging TAREK BAZROUK with three counts of committing hate crimes in connection with his repeated assaults of Jewish victims in New York City between 2024 and 2025.