CHICAGO (WLS) — Supporters of Father Michael Pfleger from Saint Sabina are rallying behind him following the Archdiocese’s request for him to temporarily step down from his ministerial duties.

This development comes as the Archdiocese of Chicago conducts an investigation into a fresh allegation of sexual abuse involving a minor.

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During the Sunday service, parishioners rose to their feet, showing their support with applause for Pfleger after a letter from the Archdiocese was read aloud. In the letter, it was shared that Pfleger adamantly refutes the accusation.

The accusation comes from a woman who alleges the abuse occurred during her childhood, more than three decades ago.

This marks the fifth such accusation against Pfleger, who has been exonerated in previous investigations into similar allegations.

In the letter released Saturday by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich said the alleged abuse was reported to have occurred more than 30 years ago at Saint Sabina Parish, 1210 W. 78th Pl., in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

“In keeping with our child protection policies, I have asked Father Pfleger to step aside from ministry and live away from the parish while the allegation is investigated,” the letter read in part. “Yet, you should know that Father Pfleger strongly denied the allegation.”

Father Thulani Magwaza will continue to serve as pastor of St. Sabina, the letter said.

Pfleger released his own statement Saturday evening, saying in part, “On Thursday, July 9th, I received a call from the Vicar for Priests saying a woman who said she went to school at St. Sabina made an accusation that she was sexually abused by me at some time between 1993-1995. First, this is an absolute lie. For the 51 years of my ministry I have been threatened, slandered, and attacked…”

“Let me be clear, sexual abuse is wrong and I realize that the Catholic Church has a long history of not dealing with accusations and has spent a number of years putting strong policies in place, but I have said countless times I believe the current policy is wrong and unfair to the accused priest,” Pfleger’s statement continued. “Before an investigation or even a conversation has taken place a priest is removed and told to remain silent during their process. The presumption of innocence does not exist for priests. But at this point, I will no longer be quiet. I have no memory of this girl nor do countless others who have been at St. Sabina for those years. The statement she has supposedly made is absolutely not true, and the facts will show that this is just an attempt by someone who is either being unfairly manipulated by others to hurt my reputation, or who is simply trying to make money by making false accusations.

“I believe this is another attempt and another attack by those who have sought to destroy me for years and another attempt by someone to get money from the Archdiocese and to silence me.

“I will not stand by and allow my name, my ministry, and the church I pastor to be slandered or defamed.”

Pfleger has faced multiple similar allegations in recent years. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in each of the investigations and was later reinstated by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Saturday night, parishioners attending Mass at St. Sabina said it’s frustrating to see these accusations as they stand by Father Pfleger.

“It hasn’t changed anything about him,” parishioner David Jackson Jr. said. “I think this is really false.”

Pfleger will remain away from St. Sabina as this investigation continues.

The Archdiocese of Chicago says it takes all accusations seriously as well as the welfare of children entrusted in their care.

On Saturday night, emergency dispatch audio reviewed by News Media revealed a swift response to Senator Lindsey Graham’s residence in Washington, D.C. First responders were sent to the scene due to a call reporting cardiac arrest. The next morning, the senator’s office announced his death.

The radio traffic from District of Columbia Fire and EMS detailed the initial dispatch arriving just after 8 p.m. local time. Initial reports specified the reason for the call as cardiac arrest at Graham’s address.

As emergency units made their way to the location, dispatchers informed them that the caller had stated the front door would be unlocked. However, upon arrival, they found the door was firmly locked and no one answered from inside. Consequently, the first responders requested backup from the Metropolitan Police Department to assist in gaining entry.

Approximately 20 to 25 minutes following the initial dispatch, radio communications confirmed that CPR was being administered by the emergency crew members working inside the senator’s home. Notably, the audio recordings did not mention Graham by name nor did they provide any specifics regarding the patient’s condition.

In subsequent radio traffic, authorities classified the situation as a “Capitol Police matter only,” reflecting its sensitive nature. The final relevant update over the radio was logged shortly after 9:30 p.m.

The dispatch recordings provide few additional details about what responders encountered inside the residence or what medical care, if any, was provided before Graham’s death.

Graham’s office later announced the 71-year-old senator died Saturday evening following a “brief and sudden” illness.

“On the evening of Saturday, July 11, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away from a brief and sudden illness,” his office wrote in a statement.

“Senator Graham’s family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period,” the statement continued.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia released preliminary findings on Sunday suggesting Graham died from an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

“The preliminary examination findings were: Aortic Dissection due to Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease,” according to the medical examiner’s office.

Officials added Graham’s death certificate will remain pending until toxicology and microscopic testing are complete. 

“The death certificate will be PENDING until all the toxicological and microscopic testing are finalized and at that point the death certificate will be updated to reflect the cause of death and appropriately classify the manner of death,” the medical examiner’s office said.

News Media has reached out to DC Fire and EMS and the U.S. Capitol Police for additional information about the emergency response.

President Donald Trump paid tribute to Graham in a Truth Social post Saturday night, calling the longtime South Carolina lawmaker “a true American Patriot.”

“Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!” Trump wrote. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!”

Graham was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002 and took office in 2003 after serving four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won re-election three times and was seeking a fifth Senate term after winning the Republican primary last month.

He served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and sat on the Appropriations, Judiciary, and Environment and Public Works committees.

The longtime lawmaker had just met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday and was scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning.

Beyond Congress, Graham served for 33 years in the U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, retiring as a colonel in 2015. 

An Air Force lawyer, he served in Germany during the Cold War, was called to active duty during the Gulf War and later completed multiple Reserve deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan during congressional recesses.

Despite not being aligned with an NFL team just yet, Stefon Diggs maintains an unwavering sense of self-assurance.

With NFL training camps on the horizon, Diggs remains a free agent following his release from the Patriots in March.

Addressing any doubters, Diggs shared a video on his YouTube channel last week, delivering a compelling message about his skills.

“In my view, I can compete with anyone,” he declared in the video. “Consider those [top wide receivers] as your first choice, but you won’t find a number two better than me.”

Diggs extended his challenge to NFL teams, daring them to match their second-best receiver against his talent.

“There’s not a No. 2 on a team — let’s presumably give people the credit and just say, ‘OK, you want to take the No. 1 spot away,’” Diggs said. “Name your No. 2 receiver right now, and tell me how much he makes, and then my last question is: Is he better than me?”

Diggs is coming off a year where he had 85 catches for 1,013 yards and four touchdowns during the regular season and another 14 catches for 110 yards and a touchdown during the Pats’ run to the Super Bowl. 

But Diggs has dealt with off-the-field drama, which included his relationship with music artist Cardi B as well as a criminal case involving allegations of assault by a private chef. 

Diggs was found not guilty in May of assaulting the private chef over a pay dispute after a two-day trial. 

The NFL also closed its probe into whether he violated the league’s personal conduct policy. 

There will likely be a team that gives Diggs a chance before training camps open. 

The 2026 season will be Diggs’ 12th in the NFL, which has included stops in Minnesota, Buffalo, Houston and New England.

She once attracted the moniker ‘too pretty for prison’ and became one of the pioneers among teachers embroiled in sex scandals to capture worldwide headlines.

In 2005, Debra Lafave, a middle school teacher in Florida, was convicted of sexually abusing a 14-year-old student at her school.

The scandal intensified after her attorney argued, with success, that her physical attractiveness would make her an easy target in prison, a claim that led the judge to withhold a jail sentence.

Now 45, she appears committed to moving forward and leaving her troubled history behind.

She has taken on a new identity, embraced a religious path, stepped away from social media, and shunned the spotlight. Her appearance, too, is different, adorned with over a dozen tattoos.

The Daily Mail has tracked down Lafave, who now goes by Debra Jean Williams, and found that her reinvention appears to be working, at least among the Florida neighbors who now know her.

Several residents told the Daily Mail she is a friendly, quiet neighbor who causes no issues, insisting they ‘don’t care’ about what happened more than 20 years ago.

When we visited Debra last month she looked markedly different from the pin-up-model-turned teacher many will remember from her trial.

In 2004, Debra was a popular young English teacher at Angelo L Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, Florida.

Newly married to her husband Owen, the 24-year-old appeared to be at the start of a promising career when she struck up a sexual relationship with a teen student from another class.

The boy, referred to as M.M. in court documents, told police that he had sex with Debra three times in four days. One encounter allegedly took place in a car while his 15-year-old cousin drove them around.

He also told investigators Debra performed a sex act on him multiple times, including once at her home in her marital bed.

After being tipped off by the boy’s relative, investigators recorded conversations between Debra and the victim before arresting her in June 2004.

After she pleaded guilty the following year, her lawyer argued that sending a woman as attractive as her to prison would be like throwing ‘raw meat’ to the lions.

The judge seemed to agree. She was sentenced to three years under house arrest in 2005 and the press quickly labeled her ‘too pretty for prison.’

Now, 22 years later, the Daily Mail has learned Debra is living in a $400,000 home in Ruskin, Florida, which is owned by her parents and is located around 20 miles from the school where she taught.

As a registered sex offender, Debra is not allowed to live within 1,000 feet (about a fifth of a mile) of schools.

She resides at the Ruskin property with her three children and a mystery husband, who appears to be keeping an even lower profile than her.

Neighbors said he rarely appears and there are no public records confirming when they married.

The Daily Mail attempted to contact Debra at her home over two days, and her husband was not seen.

Debra’s twin sons, born in 2011, are from a previous relationship, while her youngest daughter was born in 2019. 

Williams was spotted going fishing with her boys on June 24 wearing an all-black outfit with a sleeveless top that revealed tattoos covering both arms, including floral and geometric designs, stars and what appears to be foreign lettering.

She also has the Celtic Motherhood Knot inked on her right forearm, which features two hearts intertwined in a continuous knot with no beginning or end, symbolizing an unbreakable maternal bond.

According to her most recent sex offender registry entry dated April 2026, Williams now has more than a dozen tattoos across her arms, hips and left hand.

The Daily Mail understands that in recent years, Williams has become deeply religious and has accepted responsibility for the crimes that catapulted her into the national spotlight 22 years ago.

Over the last five years, Williams has completed her required sex offender treatment, community service and paid more than $13,000 in court fees. She has worked in restaurants and bars and kept a small social circle.

But despite trying to move on, sources said Williams still struggles when reports of teacher abuse cases make headlines, fearing her own case will be dragged back into the spotlight. She also continues to receive hate mail over the conviction.

Yet none of that appears to bother her current neighbors.

‘We don’t really care what she did. She is a good neighbor, she’s quiet, her kids are well behaved, she doesn’t throw any wild parties. She’s friendly and waves. I don’t think she’s a big danger,’ neighbor Stu Thomason told the Daily Mail.

Another neighbor, Doreen Webber, said Williams’ past is known but should remain in the past.

‘Oh we know, but honestly as things go, that was a long time ago. Considering where she is now, all I see is a mom trying to make it in this world. I don’t have any issues with her,’ Webber said.

‘I don’t lock up my kids around her. But she’s not the type to spend any time with any kids other than hers. I don’t see a scenario where she’d be around my kids without supervision.’

Debra began teaching at Angelo L Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace in 2002. She met Owen shortly after and they married in 2003.

The following year, she became close with M.M. during a school trip to SeaWorld.

Their relationship escalated from sneaking around school hallways to being driven around by M.M.’s cousin on dates.

The relationship was eventually exposed after M.M.’s aunt spotted them together in a parking lot and alerted his mother.

When confronted, M.M. admitted the relationship to his mother, who worked with police to arrange a sting operation.

Debra was arrested when she arrived at M.M.’s home believing she was meeting the student.

Mental health became a central part of her defense. Debra disclosed she suffered from bipolar disorder and had been undergoing psychiatric treatment. Her attorney, John Fitzgibbons, argued her illness substantially impaired her judgment.

Fitzgibbons later leaned heavily on her appearance as part of his argument.

‘To place Debbie into a Florida state women’s penitentiary, to place an attractive young woman in that kind of hellhole, is like putting a piece of raw meat in with the lions,’ he said.

Debra pleaded guilty in November 2005 to two counts of lewd or lascivious battery involving a child between the ages of 12 and 15.

She was sentenced to three years under house arrest and seven years of probation as a sex offender. She was also required to register as a sex offender with the state of Florida for life.

Her now-ex husband was shocked by the sentence.

‘I think all of us need to keep in mind that she is a sexual offender and, if it were a male, she would have definitely gotten some jail time. And in this case she didn’t,’ Owen Lafave said in 2009.

Owen did not respond to the Daily Mail’s requests for comment and has declined to be interviewed several times in the past.

After completing treatment, Debra finished house arrest and remained on probation before a judge modified the terms in 2009.

She gave birth to twin sons in 2011, and her probation was terminated early after a lengthy legal battle that ended with a 2014 Florida Supreme Court ruling allowing the decision to stand.

She later won primary custody of her sons in 2016 and cooperated with a 2017 biography about her life after the case.

She also tried her hand at music. In 2017, she and her friend Joe Zuniga released the song On This Side of The Door on YouTube.

‘A place to wipe your shoes, and a single yellow light,’ Debra sang in the opening riff.

Meanwhile, M.M. has never revealed himself to the public. Now 36, he has yet to be interviewed about the case.