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Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook parents more than $4M

Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook parents more than $4M

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas jury Thursday ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than $4 million — significantly less than the $150 million being sought — in compensatory damages to the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, marking the first time the Infowars host has been held financially liable for repeatedly claiming the deadliest school shooting in US history was a hoax.

The Austin jury must still decide how much the Infowars host should pay in punitive damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewiswhose son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 children and six educators who were killed in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut.

The parents had sought at least $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Jones’ attorney asked the jury to limit damages to $8 — one dollar for each of the compensation charges they considered — and Jones himself said any award over $2 million “would sink us.”

It likely won’t be the last judgment against Jones — who was not in the courtroom — over his claims that the attack was staged in the interests of increasing gun controls. A Connecticut judge has ruled against him in a similar lawsuit brought by other victims’ families and an FBI agent who worked on the case. He also faces another trial in Austin.

Jones’ lead attorney, Andino Reynal, winked at his co-counsel before leaving the courtroom. He declined to comment on the verdict.

Outside the courthouse, the plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Bankston insisted that the $4.11 million amount wasn’t a disappointment, noting it was only part of the damages Jones will have to pay.

The jury returns Friday to hear more evidence about Jones and his company’s finances.

In a video posted on his website Thursday night, Jones called the reduced award a major victory.

“I admitted I was wrong. I admitted it was a mistake. I admitted that I followed disinformation but not on purpose. I apologized to the families. And the jury understood that. What I did to those families was wrong. But I didn’t do it on purpose,” he said.

The award was “more money than my company and I personally have, but we are going to work on trying to make restitution on that,” Jones said.

Bankston suggested any victory declarations might be premature.

“We aren’t done folks,” Bankston said. “We knew coming into this case it was necessary to shoot for the moon to get the jury to understand we were serious and passionate. After tomorrow, he’s going to owe a lot more.”

The total amount awarded in this case could set a marker for the other lawsuits against Jones and underlines the financial threat he’s facing. It also raises new questions about the ability of Infowars — which has been banned from YouTube, Spotify and Twitter for hate speech — to continue operating, although the company’s finances remain unclear.

Jones, who has portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rightsgranted during the trial that the attack was “100% real” and that he was wrong to have lied about it. But Heslin and Lewis told jurors that an apology wouldn’t suffice and called on them to make Jones pay for the years of suffering he has put them and other Sandy Hook families through.

The parents testified Tuesday about how they’ve endured a decade of trauma, first inflicted by the murder of their son and what followed: gun shots fired at a home, online and phone threats, and harassment on the street by strangers. They said the threats and harassment were all fueled by Jones and his conspiracy theory spread to his followers via his website Infowars.

A forensic psychiatrist testified that the parents suffer from “complex post-traumatic stress disorder” inflicted by ongoing trauma, similar to what might be experienced by a soldier at war or a child abuse victim.

At one point in her testimony, Lewis looked directly at Jones, who was sitting barely 10 feet away.

“It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this — that we have to implore you, to punish you — to get you to stop lying,” Lewis told Jones.

Barry Covert, a Buffalo, New York, First Amendment lawyer who is not involved in the Jones case, said the $4 million in compensatory damages was lower than he would have expected given the evidence and testimony.

“But I don’t think Jones can take this as a victory,” he added. “The fact is, $4 million is significant even if we might have thought it would be a little higher.”

Jurors often decline to award any punitive damages after deciding on a compensation figure. But when they choose to, the punitive amount is often higher, Covert said. He said he expects the parents’ attorneys to argue that jurors should send the message that no one should profit off defamation.

“They will want jurors to send the message that you can’t make a quarter of a billion in profit off harming someone and say you’ll just take the damages loss in court,” Covert said.

Jones was the only witness to testify in his defense, and he only attended the trial sporadically while still appearing on his show. And he came under withering attack from the plaintiffs attorneys under cross-examination, as they reviewed Jones’ own video claims about Sandy Hook over the years, and accused him of lying and trying to hide evidence, including text messages and emails about the attack. It also included internal emails sent by an Infowars employee that said “this Sandy Hook stuff is killing us.”

At one point, Jones was told that his attorneys had mistakenly sent Bankston the last two years’ worth of texts from Jones’ cellphone. Bankston said in court Thursday that the US House Jan. 6 committee investigating the 2021 attack on the US Capitol has requested the records and that he intends to comply.

And shortly after Jones declared “I don’t use email,” Jones was shown one that came from his address, and another one from an Infowars business officer telling Jones that the company had earned $800,000 gross in selling its products in a single day, which would amount to nearly $300 million in a year.

Jones’ media company Free Speech Systems, which is Infowars’ parent company, filed for bankruptcy during the two-week trial.

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Associated Press writer Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this report.

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For more of the AP’s coverage of school shootings: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings

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Texas ‘Honor Killing’ Dad Yaser Said Molested Girls Years Before Allegedly Shooting Them, Mom Testifies

Texas 'Honor Killing' Dad Yaser Said Molested Girls Years Before Allegedly Shooting Them, Mom Testifies

The Texas father accused of fatally shooting his daughters in the back of his taxi in an “honor killing” allegedly sexually assaulted the two girls years prior—and then threatened to kill their mother if they didn’t recant their claims to police.

The shocking accusation against Yaser Said came during testimony by his ex-wife, Patricia Owen, in Dallas County Court on Thursday during his capital murder trial. Breaking down several times on the stand, Owens testified that her daughters, Sarah and Amina, told her in 1998 that Said had touched them.

After learning about the allegations, Owens said that she went with the daughters to the Hill County Sheriff’s Department “to make a report” before moving to another town to be near her sister. At the time, Amina would have been around 8 years old and Sarah would have been 7.

The charges were ultimately dropped after the girls recanted out of fear of their father, she said.

“He wanted me to go back to him and if I didn’t go back to him, he threatened to kill me and my family,” Owens said, adding that Said stated he wanted to kill her after she filed the charges. “He said nothing would happen to him.”

As Owens testified, Said sat emotionally across the room.

Years later, on New Year’s Day in 2008, prosecutors allege that Said shot his daughters in an “honor killing” outside Dallas after learning they had begun dating and could no longer “control them.” The grisly execution came days after Owens and her daughters de ella had escaped from Said, even successfully relocating to Oklahoma before returning to Texas after he reported them missing.

Prosecutors allege that after the murders, Said evaded authorities for 12 years, landing him on the FBI’s Most Wanted List before he was ultimately found in 2020 hiding about 40 minutes away from the crime scene in Justin, Texas. Said, 64, has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder charge for the crime that his lawyers have insisted was only pinned on him because he is Muslim.

Owens’ appearance marked the third day of testimony in the prosecution’s presentation against Said, whom they allege was “obsessed with possession and control.” That control, Owens said, included choosing where the family would live and who they would communicate with.

“She’s asking for help and she names her killer, her father, Yaser Said.”

“I have controlled what they did, who they talked to, who they could be friends with, if they—and who they—could date. And he controlled everything in his household, ”prosecutor Lauren Black said during opening statements on Tuesday.

While she left Said several times throughout their marriage, Owens said she always returned out of fear.

One of those times, she said, was in 1998 after her daughters accused him of abuse. After leaving for Garland, Texas, Owens said that she ultimately had to file another report with local police after Said Ella and his brother repeatedly called her and threatened harm if she did n’t obey them and return.

While she dropped the Garland charges, Owens said that in October 1998 she applied for a protective order against Said on behalf of her girls. She never went through with the protective order, however, because she and her daughters de ella “went back” to Said.

Shortly after, her daughters recanted their sexual abuse allegations to the police.

“I was scared not to go back,” she told jurors. “Yaser was abusive.”

In the weeks leading up to the murders, prosecutors allege Said had grown “angrier” after feeling he had lost control of his wife and daughters, who had been dating non-Muslim men. Owens said that while she knew about her daughter’s boyfriends, the trio kept the information from her husband out of fear of her reaction.

It wasn’t until December 2007, however, when prosecutors allege Said put a gun to Amina’s head and threatened to kill her, that the teenagers and their mother began to hatch their plan to escape shortly before Christmas.

Owens said that on Christmas Day, after Said went to work, she and her daughters escaped to Oklahoma with their clothes “in trash bags.” The next day, however, Said reported them missing to the Lewisville Police Department—forcing Owens to call an officer to insist she was “alive and well” but she was fearful of her husband.

Amina and Sarah would eventually return to the Dallas area on New Year’s Eve, after Owens said that Said and his brother repeatedly called begging her to return. She said that Said left messages that he had changed and that he would leave the house if they didn’t want him there.

The mother added that part of her decision to bring the girls back to Dallas was so Amina could finish high school and not jeopardize her college scholarship. Prosecutors allege that Said eventually lured his daughters into his taxi, where Amina was sitting in the front passenger seat and Sarah was in the back.

Owens was told “to stay home” as her husband drove around her daughters to talk. Authorities believe that the daughters were shot before 7:30 pm near the Omni Hotel. Around the time, Sarah Said called 911 twice, stressing she was “dying” after her father shot her.

“She’s asking for help and she names her killer, her father, Yaser Said,” Black said about Sarah’s 911 call.

A defense attorney for Said, however, insisted in opening arguments that his client was targeted because of his faith—and that the calls to police only indicate that Sarah was in an extreme moment of trauma. Attorney Joel Patton also repeatedly called into question Owens’ ability to answer questions, accusing prosecutors of leading her and stressing that some of the mother’s allegations of her were false.

“It is wrong for the government to generalize an entire culture, criminalize an entire culture, to fit their narrative, and to fit their objective,” Patton said on Tuesday. “The state wants to convict Yaser for being Muslim in 2008.”

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US

Alex Jones concedes Sandy Hook attack was ‘100% real’

Alex Jones concedes Sandy Hook attack was '100% real'

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones testified Wednesday that he now understands it was irresponsible of him to declare the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax and that he now believes it was “100% real.”

Speaking a day after the parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the 2012 attack testified about the suffering, death threats and harassment they’ve endured Because of what Jones has trumpeted on his media platforms, the Infowars host told a Texas courtroom that he definitely thinks the attack happened.

“Especially since I’ve met the parents. It’s 100% real,” Jones said at his trial to determine how much he and his media company, Free Speech Systems, owe for defaming Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis. Their son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 students and six educators who were killed in the attack in Newtown, Connecticut, which was the deadliest school shooting in American history.

But Heslin and Lewis said Tuesday that an apology wouldn’t suffice and that Jones needed to be held accountable for repeatedly spreading falsehoods about the attack. They are seeking at least $150 million.

Closing arguments are expected to begin later Wednesday after more testimony from Jones, who has portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rights.

Jones is the only person testifying in his own defense. His attorney asked him if he now understands it was “absolutely irresponsible” to push the false claims that the massacre didn’t happen and no one died.

Jones said he does, but added, “They (the media) won’t let me take it back.”

He also complained that he’s been “typecast as someone that runs around talking about Sandy Hook, makes money off Sandy Hook, is obsessed by Sandy Hook.”

Jones’ testimony came a day after Heslin and Lewis told the courtroom in Austin, where Jones and his companies are based, that Jones and the false hoax claims he and Infowars pushed made their lives a “living hell” of death threats, online abuse and harassment.

They led a day of charged testimony Tuesday that included the judge scolding the bombastic Jones for not being truthful with some of what he said under oath.

In a gripping exchange, Lewis spoke directly to Jones, who was sitting about 10 feet away. Earlier that day, Jones was on his broadcast program telling his audience that Heslin is “slow” and being manipulated by bad people.

“I am a mother first and foremost and I know you are a father. My son existed,” Lewis said to Jones. “I am not deep state … I know you know that … And yet you’re going to leave this courthouse and say it again on your show.”

At one point, Lewis asked Jones: “Do you think I’m an actor?”

“No, I don’t think you’re an actor,” Jones responded before the judge admonished him to be quiet until called to testify.

Heslin and Lewis are among several Sandy Hook families who have filed several lawsuits alleging that the Sandy Hook hoax claims pushed by Jones have led to years of abuse by him and his followers.

Heslin and Lewis both said they fear for their lives and have been confronted by strangers at home and on the street. Heslin said his home and car had been shot at. The jury heard a death threat sent via telephone message to another Sandy Hook family.

“I can’t even describe the last nine and a half years, the living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones,” Heslin said.

Scarlett Lewis also described threatening emails that seemed to have uncovered deep details of her personal life.

“It’s fear for your life,” Scarlett Lewis said. “You don’t know what they were going to do.”

Heslin said he didn’t know if the Sandy Hook hoax conspiracy theory originated with Jones, but it was Jones who “lit the match and started the fire” with an online platform and broadcast that reached millions worldwide.

“What was said about me and Sandy Hook itself resonates around the world,” Heslin said. “As time went on, I truly realized how dangerous it was.”

Jones skipped Heslin’s Tuesday morning testimony while he was on his show — a move Heslin dismissed as “cowardly” — but arrived in the courtroom for part of Scarlett Lewis’ testimony. He was accompanied by several private security guards.

“Today is very important to me and it’s been a long time coming… to face Alex Jones for what he said and did to me. To restore the honor and legacy of my son,” Heslin said when Jones wasn’t there.

Heslin told the jury about holding his son with a bullet hole through his head, even describing the extent of the damage to his son’s body. A key segment of the case is a 2017 Infowars broadcast that said Heslin did not hold his son.

The jury was shown a school picture of a smiling Jesse taken two weeks before he was killed. The parents didn’t receive the photo until after the shooting. They described how Jesse was known for telling classmates to “run!” which likely saved lives.

An apology from Jones wouldn’t be good enough, the parents said.

“Alex started this fight,” Heslin said, “and I’ll finish this fight.”

Jones later took the stand and was initially combative with the judge, who had asked him to answer his own attorney’s question. Jones testified he had long wanted to apologize to the plaintiffs.

Later, the judge sent the jury out of the room and strongly scolded Jones for telling the jury he had complied with pretrial evidence gathering even though he didn’t and that he is bankrupt, which has not been determined. The plaintiffs’ attorneys were furious about Jones mentioning he is bankrupt, which they worry will taint the jury’s decisions about damages.

“This is not your show,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble told Jones. “Your beliefs do not make something true. You are under oath.”

Last September, the judge admonished Jones in her default judgment over his failure to turn over documents requested by the Sandy Hook families. A court in Connecticut issued a similar default judgment against Jones for the same reasons in a separate lawsuit brought by other Sandy Hook parents.

At stake in the trial is how much Jones will pay. The parents have asked the jury to award $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The jury will then consider whether Jones and his company will pay punitive damages.

Jones has already tried to protect Free Speech Systems financially. The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection last week. Sandy Hook families have separately sued Jones over his financial claims from him, arguing that the company is trying to protect millions owned by Jones and his family from him through shell entities.

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Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber contributed to this report.

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For more of the AP’s coverage of school shootings: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings

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Sandy Hook parents: Alex Jones claims created ‘living hell’

Sandy Hook parents: Alex Jones claims created 'living hell'

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Fighting back tears and finally given the chance to confront conspiracy theorist Alex Jonesthe parents of a 6-year-old killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting described being put through a “living hell” of death threats, harassment and ongoing trauma over the last decade caused by Jones using his media platforms to push claims that it was all a hoax.

The parents led a day of charged testimony that included the judge scolding the bombastic Jones for not being truthful with some of what he said under oath.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse was killed at Sandy Hook, took the witness stand Tuesday on the final day of testimony in the two-week defamation damages trial against Jones and his media company Free Speech Systems. They are seeking at least $150 million in damages.

In a gripping exchange, Lewis spoke directly to Jones, who was sitting about 10 feet away. Earlier that day, Jones was on his broadcast program telling his audience that Heslin is “slow” and being manipulated by bad people.

“I am a mother first and foremost and I know you are a father. My son existed,” Lewis said to Jones. “I am not deep state… I know you know that… And yet you’re going to leave this courthouse and say it again on your show.”

At one point, Lewis asked Jones: “Do you think I’m an actor?”

“No, I don’t think you’re an actor,” Jones responded before the judge admonished him to be quiet until called to testify.

Lewis continued trying to impress on Jones that the Sandy Hook shooting and trauma inflicted in the decade since then were real.

“It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this — that we have to implore you, to punish you — to get you to stop lying,” Lewis said. “I am so glad this day is here. I’m actually relieved. And grateful… that I got to say all this to you.”

Jones visibly shook his head several times while Scarlett Lewis was addressing him.

Heslin and Lewis are among several Sandy Hook families who have filed several lawsuits alleging that Sandy Hook hoax claims pushed by Jones have led to years of abuse by Jones and his followers.

Heslin and Lewis both said they fear for their lives and have been confronted by strangers at home and on the street. Heslin said his home and car had been shot at. The jury heard a death threat sent via telephone message to another Sandy Hook family.

“I can’t even describe the last nine and a half years, the living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones,” Heslin said.

Scarlett Lewis also described threatening emails that seemed to have uncovered deep details of her personal life.

“It’s fear for your life,” Scarlett Lewis said. “You don’t know what they were going to do.”

Heslin said he didn’t know if the Sandy Hook hoax conspiracy theory originated with Jones, but it was Jones who “lit the match and started the fire” with an online platform and broadcast that reached millions worldwide.

“What was said about me and Sandy Hook itself resonates around the world,” Heslin said. “As time went on, I truly realized how dangerous it was.”

Jones skipped Heslin’s morning testimony while he was on his show — a move Heslin dismissed as “cowardly” — but arrived in the courtroom for part of Scarlett Lewis’ testimony. He was accompanied by several private security guards.

“Today is very important to me and it’s been a long time coming… to face Alex Jones for what he said and did to me. To restore the honor and legacy of my son,” Heslin said when Jones wasn’t there.

Heslin told the jury about holding his son with a bullet hole through his head, even describing the extent of the damage to his son’s body. A key segment of the case is a 2017 Infowars broadcast that said Heslin did not hold his son.

The jury was shown a school picture of a smiling Jesse taken two weeks before he was killed. The parents didn’t receive the photo until after the shooting. They described how Jesse was known for telling classmates to “run!” which likely saved lives.

An apology from Jones wouldn’t be good enough, the parents said.

“Alex started this fight,” Heslin said, “and I’ll finish this fight.”

Jones later took the stand himself, initially being combative with the judge, who had asked him to answer his own attorney’s question. Jones testified he had long wanted to apologize to the plaintiffs.

“I never intentionally tried to hurt you. I never said your name until this came to court,” Jones said. “The internet had questions, I had questions.”

Later, the judge sent the jury out of the room and strongly scolded Jones for telling the jury he complied with pretrial evidence gathering even though he didn’t, and that he is bankrupt, which has not been determined. Plaintiff’s attorneys were furious about Jones mentioning he is bankrupt, which they worry will taint a jury decision about damages.

“This is not your show,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble told Jones. “Your beliefs do not make something true. You are under oath.”

Last September, Guerra admonished Jones in her default judgment over his failure to turn over documents requested by the Sandy Hook families. A court in Connecticut issued a similar default judgment against Jones for the same reasons in a separate lawsuit brought by other Sandy Hook parents.

Heslin and Lewis suffer from a form of post-traumatic stress disorder that comes from constant trauma, similar to that endured by soldiers in war zones or child abuse victims, a forensic psychologist who studied their cases and met with them testified Monday.

Jones has portrayed the lawsuit against him as an attack on his First Amendment rights.

At stake in the trial is how much Jones will pay. The parents have asked the jury to award $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The jury will then consider whether Jones and his company will pay punitive damages.

The trial is just one of several Jones faces.

Courts in Texas and Connecticut have already found Jones liable for defamation for his portrayal of the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax. In both states, judges issued default judgments against Jones without trials because he failed to respond to court orders and turn over documents.

Jones has already tried to protect Free Speech Systems financially. The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection last week. Sandy Hook families have separately sued Jones over his financial claims from him, arguing that the company is trying to protect millions owned by Jones and his family from him through shell entities.

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Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber contributed to this report.

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For more of the AP’s coverage of school shootings: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings

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US

Man shoots woman, but bullet hits and kills him, TX cops say

A Texas man is dead after he shot a woman and himself with one bullet, according to the Dallas Police Department.

A Texas man is dead after he shot a woman and himself with one bullet, according to the Dallas Police Department.

File photo

A Texas man is dead after he shot a woman and himself with the same bullet, Dallas police say.

Byron Redmon, 26, is accused of shooting a woman in the neck at an apartment along the 2200 block of the Medical District — and the bullet hit him too, the Dallas Police Department said in a release.

Officers responded to a call regarding the shooting at 11:39 am on Saturday, July 30. They arrived to find an empty apartment, with a trail of blood leading out from the front door, police said.

A short time later, a man and woman with gunshot wounds were found in a vehicle outside of a hospital nearby, according to the release.

When Redmon shot the woman, the bullet exited, striking him in the leg, investigators said. He died at the hospital.

Police did not comment on the condition of the woman.

An investigation is underway.

This story was originally published July 31, 2022 1:12 PM.

Mitchell Willetts is a real-time news reporter covering the central US for McClatchy. He is a University of Oklahoma graduate and outdoors enthusiast living in Texas.

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Sports

UFC 2022: Julianna Pena plastic surgery after defeating Amanda Nunes, photos, video

UFC 2022: Julianna Pena plastic surgery after defeating Amanda Nunes, photos, video

UFC star Julianna Pena was rushed to hospital to see a plastic surgeon after losing a “big chunk” of her forehead in a horrific injury.

The horrific injury could prove to be the end of a heroic MMA career for the Venezuelan Vixen, The Sun reports.

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The Washington star, 32, took on Amanda Nunes at UFC 277 in Texas on Sunday (AEST). But she took several thick blows to her head and ended up looking like something out of a horror movie as blood poured down her face.

UFC chief Dana White confirmed she was immediately taken to see specialists as soon as her defeat was confirmed by the judges after lasting the distance.

“Julianna’s got a big chunk missing from her forehead,” White said.

“She’s going to see a plastic surgeon right now.”

He then admitted it could prove the end of Pena’s incredible career, which saw her crowned UFC bantamweight world champ by beating Nunes in a major shock last December.

“It takes some time to heal and then I don’t know,” he added.

“She got pretty banged up tonight, she got five or six knockdowns in the first two rounds.

“She was hurt. She needs to take some time off, relax, spend some time with her daughter de ella and then we will go from there. ”

Nunes is widely regarded as one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time. And she proved exactly why with a superb performance to regain her status as the two-weight queen at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

The Brazilian won with a comfortable unanimous decision – 50-45, 50-44 and 50-43 – and was carried out of the cage on one of her team’s shoulders.

And then to top it off, Nunes brilliantly downed a pint of beer that she’d been desperate to drink.

The 34-year-old roared in her post-fight interview: “We are here making history again. Double champion again baby. Let’s go.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.

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Categories
Sports

Trans cheerleader kicked out of cheerleading camp over alleged altercation

Trans cheerleader kicked out of cheerleading camp over alleged altercation

A transgender cheerleader in the United States was kicked out of a cheerleading camp after she allegedly attacked a teammate who made a transphobic remark.

Last week Averie Chanel Medlock, 25, was expelled from Ranger College cheerleading camp in Texas after she was alleged to have choked a 17-year-old female teammate, identified only as Karleigh.

The girl and other cheerleaders reportedly locked themselves inside a room to hide from an angry Ms Medlock.

Police were called to the scene and Ms Medlock was booted from the camp.

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Ms Medlock took to Facebook to explain the incident and said she “stood up” for herself.

“Well guys I’m officially retired as a cheerleader as of last night at 5:30am. A girl on the team was being very disrespectful and told me I am a MAN with a PENIS and that [guys] should not be on the team,” she wrote.

“I stood up for myself and she called her mom and dad because she was scared because I [stood] up for myself.

“Her father said, ‘She still has testosterone and a penis and I will kill anyone who comes after my daughter.’”

Karleigh’s father Mike Jones was also called to the scene by his daughter, and denied attacking Ms Medlock’s gender or race.

“I ask you what you would have done when receiving a phone call at 1am in the morning from your daughter stating they had locked themselves in the room with other girls,” he wrote on Facebook.

“At no time did I ever say anything about your race or your gender.”

He has begun pushing for police to release body camera and CCTV footage of the incident.

Ranger College said in a statement that the school will investigate the incident.

“Ranger College takes all allegations of this nature seriously and is committed to providing a learning environment free from discrimination,” the school said.

The incident comes as debate continues to rage about transgender participation in female athletics, most recently in the case of University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas.

Ms Thomas competed for the school’s male swim team between 2017 and 2020, but transitioned to compete with females for the 2021 season.

She became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division 1 national championship in 2022, and has since been at the center of debate around transgender participation in sports.

The controversy has led to 18 US states passing legislation that bans or limits transgender participation to the athlete’s birth sex.

– with The New York Post

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Entertainment

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck won’t last, first husband Ojani Noa says

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck won't last, first husband Ojani Noa says

Bennifer 2.0 is destined for divorce, Jennifer Lopez’s first husband has said.

Ojani Noa, 48, claims his ex-wife “loves being in love” but loses interest after the passion in her marriages fizzle, The Daily Mailreported.

Mr Noa — who met J-Lo when he was a Cuban refugee waiting tables in Miami — has kept a low profile since his one-year union with Jenny from the Block dissolved in 1998, reported the new york post.

He told the outlet her recent nuptials with Ben Affleck brought back a rush of old memories.

“Ben is husband number four. I was husband number one and she told me I was the love of her life. When we lay in bed on our wedding night, she said we would be together forever,” he said.

In addition to being married four times, Lopez, 53, has been engaged six times, including twice to the Good Will Hunting actor, some 20 years apart.

Mr Noa fled Cuba on an inflatable boat when he was 15 and survived the 150km journey to the US. I found working washing dishes at Gloria Estefan’s Ocean Drive restaurant Lario’s On The Beach by the age of 22.

“Miami was buzzing. I did some modelling. I hustled. I wanted the American dream – and I found it when Jen walked into Lario’s,” he reportedly said.

“I had no idea who she was. Our eyes glanced at each other and I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”

The next night Lopez came back to the bar and Mr Noa served her another customer’s French fries after she said they looked “yummy”, according to the report.

“I was smitten. She was wearing a white top and trousers, and I remember thinking she had the best body I’d ever seen. She later told me she knew that first night she was going to marry me, ”Mr Noa reportedly recalled.

Later that night, the duo partied at a club called Commune, according to Mr Noa.

“When we got to the club my friend Leo took Jen to the dance floor, and I thought, ‘Oh man, you’re a lucky guy.’ Then she (her friend of her) said, ‘When they get back, take Jen out there. It’s you she’s interested in.’

“They get back and I take her hand and lead her on to the floor, and a slow song comes on. It was electric. She was shaking and said, ‘You make me nervous’.

“We could both feel the romantic energy. It was instant and intense. Like it was surging through our bodies. I said, ‘I feel the same way you’re feeling’. I lifted her chin and gave her a kiss – it was a kiss like we’d known each other forever.”

While the two shared a goodnight kiss, a passer-by exclaimed “Oh my God, that’s Jennifer Lopez from ‘Money Train’,” Mr Noa remembered. “That’s when I realized maybe she was somebody.”

“The next morning my pager goes off. Jen had to see me before her flight from her. The door goes and I open it and she falls into my arms. We kissed, and as she drove off in her limo, she looked back like in the movies and I thought, ‘This is it. This is crazy’,” Mr Noa told the Email.

While Lopez was in Los Angeles, Mr Noa talked to her frequently from the payphone at the restaurant, according to the Email. When she returned to Florida, the actor invited him to be her date de ella for the blood and wine premiere.

“I rented a cheap suit. We got to the red carpet, there were all these flashing lights and screaming fans. I started to feel sick. I walked down the carpet holding her hand then stood to the side while she gave interviews.

“I heard her say, ‘Jack, I want you to meet my date, Ojani.’ I turned around and she was introducing me to Jack Nicholson. Then she said, ‘This is Michael’ – and it was Michael Caine. I felt like I was in a movie. A few years earlier I was on a dinghy in the ocean running away from Fidel Castro, and now I’m on a red carpet. Michael Caine was lovely. He said, ‘Don’t worry, you will get used to it’.”

After the premiere the couple consummated their relationship, Mr Noa told the outlet.

“That was the first time we made love. It was perfect. She was perfect. We lay there afterwards and she said, ‘I want you to always be in my life. I love you’. I felt like Mr. Cinderella,” he reportedly said.

Noa said he believed the relationship worked because he wasn’t impressed by her celebrity.

“She’s a traditional girl. She comes from a humble Puerto Rican family. She wanted someone to protect her, someone who would stand up for her. We fell totally in love,” he said, according to the article.

“I quit my job and moved to LA. We lived in a nice apartment. But soon we moved into our first house and then the houses kept getting bigger. She loved that I was a balseros (rafter) from Cuba. I never wanted anything from her. I always worked and had my own money,” he said about life with the Bronx native.

“We’d been together about six months when she got Selena. We went to San Antonio, Texas, for the shoot and every night we’d come back to the hotel and she’d collapse in my arms filled with insecurity. She didn’t think she was good enough. In the middle of the night she would burst into tears. I comforted her and said she was the best, that she was killing it.

“She loves shopping, and when she wasn’t filming we went to the local mall. One day we went into a jewelery store and she started looking at rings. She pointed at one and said, ‘I love that one’.

“She left and I pretended I needed to go to the rest room. I snuck back in the store and told the girl to put it to one side. I had money saved up. I’d been working as her personal trainer but also had modeling money. The ring was US$15,000 (A$21,400) – a fortune back then. I hid the ring in a plastic bag behind the sink.”

Mr Noa proposed to Lopez at the wrap party for the critically acclaimed film, according to the report.

“Everyone was cheering. I went down on one knee and gave her the ring. She was crying and laughing and said ‘Yes!’,” he reportedly recalled.

Tensions developed when Lopez’s mother chastised her for deciding to get married in Florida instead of the Bronx, according to the article.

“Jen would be in tears all the time. Her mum de ella was calling and yelling at her, trying to get her to change the venue. So I called (Jen’s mother Guadalupe Lopez) Lupe and said, ‘You need to stop this’. That was a big mistake. From then on there was tension between me and Lupe.”

Lopez soon started to change with increasing money and fame, the jilted lover reportedly said.

“She went from Jen to being J-Lo, this big business bringing in millions. She had all these new people around her, all wanting to make money off her. I would call and an assistant would say, ‘Sorry, she’s not available’. ”

When Mr Noa was tasked with launching Lopez’s LA nightclub, he would see published pictures of his wife with Puff Daddy, who was producing some of her music in New York, according to the article.

“I rang Jen and asked why she was going out with him on dates and she said, ‘It’s just business. This is what I’m being told I have to do’. I was jealous and would scream, ‘But you are married!’”

“We wanted kids, we discussed having kids. Then she told me she could not have a baby because it would interfere with her career, ”he lamented.

Mr Noa and Lopez went on Oprah, where she denied the marriage was in trouble.

“Our whole life became a lie,” Mr Noa said, remembering he lost 17kg due to the stress of the facade.

“We went to the Golden Globes and sat with Jack (Nicholson). He said, “You guys look so happy.” I told him, ‘It’s not what it seems’. He told me to hang in there. I never thought I would be getting relationship advice from Jack Nicholson.”

After 11 months, the couple divorced and Lopez dated Puff Daddy publicly soon after.

Mr Noa was left with $50,000 in a settlement agreement and continued to wear his ring as the two remained close, according to the report.

“There were times she told me she wanted to get back together. In quiet moments she would say, ‘I need you in my life. I don’t want to lose you’,” Mr Noa reportedly remembered.

Lopez’s brief marriage with Chris Rudd dissolved and Affleck popped the question for the first time before she had officially split from her backup dancer.

Two years later, in 2004, Lopez would get hitched to Marc Anthony. The pair stayed together for 10 years.

The actress hired Mr Noa to manage a Los Angeles restaurant around 2002 but fired him three years later. He sued her, settled, and moved back to Florida where he has not remarried, according to the article.

Mr Noa said he believes he could have made it last with Lopez if it were not for “parasites who feed off celebrities” and media reports that characterized him as a “penniless waiter,” the report said.

“I wish her and Ben the best, but I’m not convinced it will last,” Mr Noa said.

“I think she’s someone who will be married seven or eight times. I can’t see her ever settling down with one person. She pushes herself to constantly go forward in her professional life, which is why she’s had a three-decade career, but she also moves on in her private life.

“If Ben has Lupe on his side then maybe he’s got a chance,” Mr Noa told the Emailsmiling.

This article was published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission

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