A California man accused in an antisemitic hate-crime case became agitated at a New York City courthouse after discovering that the Daily Mail was covering his hearing. 

Christopher Husary, 38, is accused of threatening and harassing a Jewish man on the subway in June 2024 by directing antisemitic statements at him.

Several months earlier, Husary allegedly knocked a woman to the ground at a pro-Israel demonstration in California, took her Israeli flag and set it on fire.

He pleaded guilty to robbery with a hate-crime enhancement and was sentenced on October 9, 2024, to 364 days in jail followed by two years of probation.

Public records show that, at the time of the alleged subway incident and the California crime, the then-36-year-old was living with his parents at their $1.8 million home in the Bay Area.

Following his California sentencing, NYPD officers waited outside the courthouse to take Husary to New York. There, he was indicted on charges of attempted coercion as a hate crime and aggravated harassment. He pleaded not guilty and was released under supervision.

Husary appeared in Manhattan criminal court on Wednesday morning. Before the hearing, he approached the Daily Mail in the hallway outside the courtroom, where he used his phone to take photographs and record video.

Asked by the Daily Mail to confirm his identity, Husary denied that he was Christopher Husary. He then became increasingly confrontational and claimed that a Daily Mail photographer had been “compromised” by Israel.

“America first or Israel first?” Husary repeatedly asked the photographer, who declined to respond to the agitated man.

“See, you can’t even say it,” Husary replied. “You’re compromised.”

The aspiring activist was carrying a backpack with a campaign flyer for Mayor Zohran Mamdani visible in a side pocket. He then said, “Free Palestine and stop killing children,” before entering the wrong courtroom.

He came back several minutes later and entered the correct courtroom when it opened.

About six Jewish New Yorkers also entered the room to observe the hearing. One of them wore a T-shirt reading “Fire Mamdani.”

The hearing was expected to determine whether the case would proceed to trial. However, Judge Julieta Lozano said Husary’s attorney could no longer represent him because of medical reasons.

Lozano postponed the hearing until November 10, allowing Husary’s new attorney, Taylor Koss, time to review the evidence and become familiar with the case.

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The Daily Mail has contacted Koss for comment.

Lozano noted that Husary had attended most of his previous hearings virtually from California.

Public records indicate that Husary now lives in a $2,800 per month three-bedroom apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It is unclear whether he works in the city.

According to prosecutors, Husary vandalized a subway car two years ago by drawing an inverted red triangle with a marker on the train door. At the time, he was dressed in a Hezbollah T-shirt and had a scarf wrapped around his face. 

The Anti-Defamation League recognizes the upside-down red triangle as a hate symbol that first appeared in Hamas propaganda videos to mark Israeli military targets. 

The symbol has since been spray-painted on Jewish homes and institutions, often alongside antisemitic and threatening slogans, according to the organization. 

As Husary committed his alleged vandalism, a Jewish lawyer named Joshua Savitt snapped a picture.  

Savitt was on his way home from an exhibit memorializing the victims of the October 7 massacre by Hamas, which had been swarmed by pro-Hamas demonstrators.

Husary noticed when Savitt took the photo and immediately approached him, demanding that he delete it, prosecutors said. 

When Savitt refused, Husary said, ‘Yo, we got a Zionist over here’ and ‘We’ll find you and there will be consequences,’ according to prosecutors. 

Husary also allegedly told Savitt, who was wearing a yarmulke, ‘You’re not a real Jew.’

When Husary was indicted in 2024, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said: ‘Christopher Husary tried to force a Jewish man to comply with his demands by spewing antisemitic comments and threats at him. 

‘We will continue using all the tools at our disposal to hold those accountable who commit acts driven by hate and discrimination.’

A Manhattan neurologist has been accused of sexually abusing two patients during what prosecutors say were unauthorized massages in a closed examination room.

Dr. Tariq Lamki, 51, was indicted this week in connection with the alleged incidents at his practice, 14th Street Medical Arts, near Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

According to prosecutors, the alleged assaults involved two women, ages 32 and 23, and occurred within a little more than a week in August and September.

The first incident allegedly occurred on Aug. 25, after the patient sought treatment for a migraine and dizziness. The indictment says Lamki instructed the 32-year-old woman to lie on her back on the examination table, telling her it would help “relieve physical stress.”

Prosecutors allege that Lamki then touched her body inappropriately, including her intimate areas. The woman eventually managed to overpower him and sit up, according to court documents.

Afterward, Lamki allegedly offered to visit the woman at her home to give her massages outside of his regular work hours, prosecutors said.

A second alleged incident took place Sept. 2. Prosecutors say Lamki brought the 23-year-old patient into an examination room and began massaging her back before touching her buttocks and placing his hands beneath her skirt.

The woman tried to get up but was unable to do so because, prosecutors allege, Lamki’s weight was on top of her.

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The indictment says Lamki then told her to lie on her back, grabbed her breasts and continued touching her intimate areas.

The alleged abuse ended after Lamki helped the patient sit upright and recommended that she consider using a “vaginal wand” to address neurological pain, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say the patient recorded the encounter. In the recording, she can reportedly be heard swatting at Lamki and telling him that her pain was “not there” as the alleged abuse continued.

Lamki faces two counts each of first-degree sexual abuse, forcible touching and third-degree sexual abuse.

He pleaded not guilty before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cori Weston, who set bail at $25,000, according to court records. Prosecutors had requested $100,000 in cash bail.

“A doctor’s appointment should never end in sexual abuse,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. He added that the investigation remains ongoing and urged anyone who believes they were assaulted by a doctor to contact the office’s Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Bureau at 212-335-4308.

Lamki’s attorney, George Vomvolakis, and 14th Street Medical Arts did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

If convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, Lamki could face a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

He is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 20.

The Justice Department on Wednesday unveiled a nationwide tax fraud enforcement operation involving 76 defendants and an estimated $490 million in intended tax losses. The announcement included new charges against 31 people accused of targeting American taxpayers through alleged fraud schemes.

Dubbed the first National Tax Enforcement Surge, the roughly six-week effort brought together 35 U.S. attorneys’ offices and criminal investigators from the IRS. Authorities announced 23 new charging actions tied to more than $350 million in alleged intended losses. The operation also included 45 defendants whose cases involved trials, guilty pleas or sentencings connected to nearly $140 million in additional estimated losses.

“Every dollar stolen through tax fraud is a dollar taken from the American people,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Justice Department news release. “What we uncovered during this concentrated surge is only the tip of the iceberg. The Department of Justice is committed to expanding our investigations and exposing schemes designed to evade accountability, because there is no safe haven for fraudsters.”

At Wednesday’s news conference, Jarod Koopman, chief of IRS Criminal Investigation, said the coordinated operation marked a new direction for federal tax enforcement. He added that similar nationwide efforts are expected to continue.

“The consolidated actions we are announcing today represent an entirely new approach in our enforcement strategy—partnering with DOJ to strategically surge resources around a broad range of tax crimes,” Koopman said. “And although this type of enforcement is the first of its kind, it will not be the last.”

One of the most significant cases involved an alleged fraudulent trust operation in Texas. Prosecutors charged four defendants with promoting tax shelters that allegedly hid more than $1.5 billion in income and produced over $200 million in estimated tax losses.

In Georgia, prosecutors indicted three Mexican citizens over an alleged $74 million tax refund scheme involving more than 16,000 U.S. Treasury checks. Authorities claim the defendants used Mexican identity documents belonging to other people to secure IRS taxpayer identification numbers and submit fraudulent tax returns.

When asked how much money taxpayers might ultimately recover, Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said fraudulent proceeds are often spent before investigators can seize them.

McDonald said the Justice Department is creating an asset forfeiture and recovery team to track property allegedly bought with fraud proceeds, including luxury cars and real estate. He offered no overall recovery estimate, explaining that several investigations are still in their early phases.

The nationwide crackdown comes after the Justice Department launched its National Fraud Enforcement Division in April. All defendants charged in the cases are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

A California engineer whose coworker was convicted of poisoning her water bottle with a toxic metal says the justice system failed her after a judge dismissed the felony case.

Rong Yuan, 50, began suffering severe symptoms in January 2017, shortly after starting work at Berkeley Engineering and Research, a forensic engineering firm also known as BEAR.

Yuan later used a hidden camera to record coworker David Xu, 41, secretly pouring a white substance into her water bottle. Police identified the substance as cadmium, a highly toxic heavy metal.

Xu was charged with felony poisoning in 2019 but never spent a day in jail. The case proceeded under former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, who was later recalled by voters.

On Monday, a judge approved Xu’s petition to dismiss the charge after he completed his probation and fulfilled all court-ordered conditions, according to The Los Angeles Times.

‘We joined the victims to oppose the motion pursuant to Penal Code section 1203.4,’ Alameda District Attorney Ursula Dickson said in a statement Tuesday.

‘The court granted the motion over objections. We hope the survivors are able to continue healing, both emotionally and physically, from this shocking event.’

The dismissal means the conviction will no longer appear on background checks conducted by potential employers. It may only be considered if Xu is charged with another crime—a ruling that prompted Yuan to speak publicly about the case.

‘The system failed me,’ Yuan told the outlet. ‘He didn’t stay in jail.’

‘To come out of my comfort zone, to be interviewed about you, to tell the public what kind of effect it had on my family and how broken the system is,’ she added, according to ABC 7 News.

‘I don’t think he deserves a second chance. A second chance for a lot to hurt other people, to make other people turning into victims.’

Almost 10 years later, Yuan continues to deal with liver and gastrointestinal problems after unknowingly ingesting the toxic chemical for more than a year.

Her parents traveled from China to the United States to help care for her as her health declined. They also consumed the contaminated water and tested positive for cadmium poisoning.

‘Cadmium will stay in the human body for a long time, damaging my health continuously for the rest of my life,’ Yuan told The Times. ‘My father died, my mom and I have health impacts.’

Asked by ABC what she wanted to say to Xu, who is now officially free of the conviction, Yuan said: ‘He’s a nobody. He’s a coward.’

‘Poisoning is not something like you suddenly got angry and lose control,’ she added. ‘It’s planned.’

The shock ruling comes years after Yuan, a highly trained metallurgical engineer, first fell mysteriously ill in 2017, suffering extreme hair loss, relentless nausea and vomiting, and frequent trips to the emergency room. 

Yuan feared she had stomach cancer, but tests ruled it out. Despite consulting doctors and specialists, she was left without answers and began to fear she was dying. 

Her parents, terrified it could be terminal, came to stay with her. But a turning point came when her mother noticed a strange smell coming from the water bottle her daughter kept at work, which lingered despite repeated cleaning.  

Yuan decided to buy a spy camera on Amazon and discreetly mount it on the wall beside her desk. She told ABC: ‘I never expected that I can capture anybody. It’s just an engineer’s routine. If you have some issue, you think about the root cause.’   

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In a chilling discovery, Yuan realized she had been poisoned by Xu, who allegedly resented her arrival at the company because he did not want to share his laboratory. 

In one recording, dated March 4, 2019, Xu can be seen reaching toward the spot where Yuan kept her bottle before tipping the contents of a small white container directly inside.

At the time, she told The San Francisco Standard: ‘My blood was frozen. I almost died. I experienced death so, so close so many times. I cannot let him go.’ The same day, Yuan gave police the footage, prompting an immediate investigation. 

Tests detected cadmium in Yuan’s water bottle and in blood samples from her and her parents, with the concentration in the bottle measuring 3.5 million times the federal government’s safe limit for drinking water. 

‘Shocked. I don’t know why,’ Yuan told ABC after watching the damning footage.

In a research paper published last week, Yuan recalled how a series of alarming symptoms began in 2017, including nausea, dry heaving, migraines, shortness of breath and hair loss.

Violent bouts of vomiting soon began forcing her to take time off work, she said, and the ordeal continued into 2018. That year, she experienced severe vomiting and diarrhea after drinking water at the office.

‘On two occasions in November and December 2018, I brought water home from work, and my mother used that water to cook congee,’ Yuan wrote in the paper.

‘Following each meal, my entire family experienced acute onsets with violent vomiting, watery diarrhea, and profound weakness,’ she added.

Yuan said her father had been able to manage his hypertension and walk six miles a day before ingesting the water. In the years afterward, he suffered a series of strokes and died from heart failure last year, according to The Times. 

In 2019, Xu was charged with premeditated attempted murder, causing great bodily injury under a special circumstance, and two counts of poisoning with an enhancement. He posted his $2 million bail. 

He spent years out of jail as his case stalled in court, initially under house arrest with GPS monitoring until 2021. Over time, he was granted increasing freedom to leave home and spend time with his children.

In 2023, shortly after taking office, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price offered Xu a plea deal on one felony poisoning count, with no additional jail time, despite his initial exposure to a potential life sentence. 

Price, who took office promising criminal justice reform, became the first Alameda County district attorney to be recalled by voters when she was ousted in 2024 after critics accused her of being too lenient with criminals.

Xu pleaded no contest, meaning he accepted the legal consequences of the charge without formally admitting guilt. 

At his 2024 sentencing, the judge described the plea deal as ‘extremely generous, considering everything in this case,’ according to the San Francisco Standard. 

The judge doubled Xu’s probation to two years, making him eligible to seek dismissal of his felony conviction under California law. His petition was granted on Monday. 

‘No company can find the criminal record based on background search, now they also need to do an internet search,’ Yuan told The Times, fearing that Xu could secure a job at another company.

Yuan said she believes the cadmium exposure may have contributed to her father’s death from heart failure at 78, while she continues to suffer long-term health effects herself.

Cadmium has a half-life of 16 to 30 years in the human body, and prolonged exposure can cause cancer, organ damage and bone disease, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health. 

A California actor captured the internet’s attention after secretly filming a couple’s surprise engagement at Point Mugu State Beach in Malibu on Tuesday.

Brandee Evans, widely recognized for her role in the Starz drama series “P-Valley,” is also a full-time caregiver for her mother, who has secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

While standing on a cliff above the beach, Evans noticed Daniel Sanchez and his future bride, Blanca Carcamo, below. Several relatives had concealed themselves behind cars to capture the proposal on video.

“Yesterday in Malibu, as I was leaving the beach, I noticed a whole family hiding behind my car. Now, of course, I needed to know what was going on. The dad tells me his daughter is about to get engaged, and that’s when I realized… WAIT! It was the same couple I had been sitting near on the beach!” Evans said.

Evans posted footage of the romantic moment, showing Sanchez ask Carcamo to face the ocean for a photo before dropping to one knee and presenting her with a ring.

“By the time I made it back to my car, the family had already left, so I didn’t get a chance to share the video with them,” Evans said. She turned to social media for help finding the couple, and the online search ultimately succeeded, reconnecting her with Sanchez and Carcamo.

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“I’m yelling at the end like she’s my cousin. Congratulations, y’all! This was so sweet to witness,” Evans said while describing the proposal she recorded.

The couple’s love story may be even more heartwarming than their Malibu engagement. Sanchez and Carcamo first knew each other as children while attending the same church, but they eventually lost touch.

Years later, after reconnecting and beginning a relationship as adults, Carcamo’s father recognized Sanchez in old family photos.

“A couple years ago, he sent the pictures, and he was like, ‘Do you recognize this guy?’ And I look closer, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Daniel! We came out in the same quinceañera?’” Carcamo told CBS News. She added that she had been anticipating the proposal for nearly seven years.

Sanchez and Carcamo plan to marry in May 2027.

Concerns about a possible serial killer have left Lansing, Michigan, a Big Ten college town, on edge.

Earlier this month, the Lansing Police Department said it was examining whether five recent deaths could be connected to an attacker believed to be targeting people along the Lansing River Trail.

“I definitely think we need to be cautious, but we also need to be rational,” Karen Holt, a criminology professor at Michigan State University, told News Media.

Police said five men were attacked along the popular trail over the past year. One of them was found stabbed to death beneath a bridge.

“As someone who studies violence, the first thing that came to mind was the victims, their vulnerability and the method of the violence,” Holt said.

Police said all five victims were homeless.

“If we have a community where people can be attacked in this way, then I don’t necessarily know that we can call it a safe community,” Holt said.

She said a common pattern among single or serial homicide offenders, as well as other violent offenders, is targeting people who are especially vulnerable.

Holt said homicide offenders may view homeless victims as people who “lack credibility” and may believe that targeting them “decreases the likelihood that they’re going to be caught.”

Edward Joseph Smith, 23, was arrested Sept. 3 in connection with the fatal stabbing of Daniel Lusk, 22.

“I would love to learn more about the relationship between that victim and perpetrator,” Holt said. Police have not announced a motive in Lusk’s killing.

Smith has not been accused of any crime or wrongdoing in the other four deaths.

Holt said Lusk’s killing “stands out” from the other alleged attacks because he was stabbed, while the other four victims suffered head injuries or possible blunt-force trauma.

Police have not confirmed an arrest in connection with the suspected serial killings.

Holt maintains Lansing needs to remain vigilant.

“Don’t walk the trail would be my advice. Maybe walk a different trail.”