Bernadette Greene-Placentia, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Arizona, says she was attacked and sexually assaulted in August while attempting to repair one of her campaign signs.

Greene-Placentia, the Democratic nominee in the 8th Congressional District, told The Phoenix New Times on Wednesday that she was knocked unconscious in a Sun City parking lot as she worked on the damaged sign late at night.

She said she regained consciousness with her pants partially pulled down and a man raping her.

According to Greene-Placentia, a second man approached and attempted to assault her. She kicked at him, prompting him to walk away while muttering, “not even worth it.”

The long-haul trucker also said she heard the first attacker call her a “bitch” and tell her she was “not a very good f–k.”

Greene-Placentia, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Abraham Hamadeh (R-Ariz.), said she often repaired campaign signs at night to avoid the extreme daytime heat. Her husband sometimes accompanied her.

Because she was wearing a campaign shirt, Greene-Placentia said the attacker may have referred to her as a “Democratic bitch,” although she cannot confirm that. She said she remembers little about what happened after the assault, including how she returned home.

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“It’s just these little tiny flashes of things that I do remember,” she told the outlet. “As much as I don’t want to remember, I’ve tried very, very hard to remember more stuff. But that’s where I’m at.”

Greene-Placentia told her staff and husband about the attack two days later, after isolating herself in her apartment and effectively going “missing in action,” according to the New Times. She waited another two weeks before reporting it to police, saying she felt “embarrassed.”

“I just wanted to forget it,” she told the outlet.

Her campaign told The Guardian that the attack occurred early on Aug. 14.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Greene-Placentia filed a report on Aug. 31 but declined to release additional information, citing an “ongoing investigation.”

Greene-Placentia’s campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

A police report reviewed by the New Times stated that Greene-Placentia experienced vaginal bleeding for three days following the attack. She told the outlet that she endured periods of “crying times and angry times.”

Greene-Placentia said she decided to speak publicly to encourage other women to discuss their experiences. “I need to let women know that it’s okay to talk about it,” she said. “We’re asking people to stand up and donate or volunteer. We’re asking those folks to be uncomfortable … then I have to be willing to be uncomfortable too.”

Human traffickers are exploiting children’s hunger, vulnerability and desire for connection, an Aurora police sergeant said after the department’s specialized unit spent its first year helping dozens of survivors reach safety.

In its first year, the Aurora Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit launched 53 investigations, arrested 28 suspects and recovered 29 survivors, 15 of them minors.

Sgt. Joseph Sullivan told News Media that the unit’s work has revealed exploitation taking place in situations many Aurora residents would never think to question.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as using “force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.”

“It is happening in our backyard, not just in those other places,” Sullivan said.

One teenager’s story continues to represent both the urgency of the Aurora police trafficking unit’s mission and the painful challenges survivors can face even after investigators intervene.

The 16-year-old was brought to Aurora, a city of slightly more than 400,000 people outside Denver, by her boyfriend, who later abandoned her there, Sullivan said.

Without a safe place to turn, she was sexually exploited by people near an apartment complex in exchange for shelter, drugs or food.

While speaking with investigators, the girl asked a detective to track down the people responsible.

“I really hope that you can find the people that are doing this, because it really hurts what I’m having to do just to survive,” Sullivan recalled her saying.

Sullivan said the teenager died from an overdose several months later.

Her plea has remained with him.

“It really is satisfying being able to contact these survivors and then identify who’s exploiting them and holding them accountable,” Sullivan said.

Yet identifying a survivor does not always lead to an immediate or permanent escape. Sullivan said victims may require repeated outreach, practical resources and consistent offers of support before they are ready or able to leave.

That long-term approach is one reason a specialized investigative team is so important.

Established in September 2025, the unit includes three detectives and a supervising sergeant. Its work centers on sex trafficking cases involving people age 21 and younger, giving the small team a specific area of focus.

The cases often require extensive time to collect evidence, develop prosecutions and build enough trust for survivors to feel safe participating as witnesses.

“Having a dedicated unit helps lower their overall caseload and allows them to apply the time and effort that these cases deserve,” Sullivan said.

APD Investigations Bureau Cmdr. Marc Paolino said the unit was built to put survivors at the center of investigations while targeting those exploiting them.

“The work they’ve done has made our community safer and sent a clear message that the Aurora Police Department will aggressively pursue anyone who exploits others for this type of heinous, criminal activity,” Paolino said in a department release.

Among those arrested is Marshae Wheelock, 24, of Aurora, whom police linked to multiple cases allegedly involving the exploitation of children over several years.

“Marshae Wheelock represents the type of offender the Human Trafficking Unit was created to investigate; someone who repeatedly preys on vulnerable children,” APD Deputy Chief Mark Hildebrand said in the release.

The department also detailed a February undercover operation in which investigators recovered a 16-year-old girl and later identified three suspects accused of sexually exploiting her for financial gain.

Sullivan cautioned that trafficking often looks very different from the abductions portrayed in movies. Someone does not have to be snatched off the street by another person to exploit their vulnerability.

“There is some kind of need that a trafficker identifies to exploit, and that’s how they get in,” Sullivan said.

That need could be housing, food, money or affection. Filling it through legitimate support is a central part of helping survivors, he said.

The APD works with human services officials, nonprofit organizations and victim advocates. Sullivan pointed to a local group, From Silence to Saved, which helps victims from the beginning of an investigation through court proceedings and afterward.

He also credited support from police leadership and organizations that provide tools to help detectives identify victims online.

Sullivan oversees Aurora’s Internet Crimes Against Children team, as well as its trafficking detectives. The teams investigate distinct crimes, including sextortion, but their work can overlap.

The department said the trafficking unit draws on local, state and federal partnerships, and investigative resources through the Colorado Cyber Guardian Task Force.

The threats also cross geographic and economic boundaries.

Asked whether Tren de Aragua (TdA) had been involved in the trafficking his team investigated, Sullivan said his unit had not encountered that connection.

His broader point was that exploitation can affect people across backgrounds.

Sullivan described another high school student who came from a wealthier background but became vulnerable after her mother suffered a disabling medical crisis and her father was absent. The girl became addicted to drugs and was exploited by someone else, he said.

“There really is no boundary on where we see victims,” Sullivan said.

Investigators regularly work with other agencies, including when victims travel between states.

“This is a problem in every community around the country, whether it’s a big city or small,” he added.

For parents, Sullivan’s advice begins with staying involved and asking questions about what their children are doing online.

Warning signs can include unexplained cash, new clothes or paid-for manicures, as well as disappearing for a weekend and returning with things they did not have before. He encouraged families to use educational resources from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Some investigations remain stalled while detectives await additional information, Sullivan said. Survivors may not be ready to come forward or may not recognize themselves as victims, making it harder to advance a case.

As the unit enters its second year, its priorities remain identifying victims and building cases against those exploiting them.

Public tips can help detectives reach people sooner, he said.

“We don’t turn away any kind of tips,” Sullivan said.

He also urged people experiencing exploitation to seek support even if they are not ready to participate in a criminal investigation. Advocacy organizations can help without involving police, he said.

For the detectives, the mission continues beyond an arrest: working with partners to meet the needs traffickers used to gain control in the first place.

“Using a group of people to help identify those needs and provide those needs is kind of the goal and the key to us being successful,” Sullivan said.

Lily Mo Sheen comes from one of Britain’s best-known acting families, as the daughter of screen stars Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsale.

But on Wednesday evening, the 27-year-old stepped into the spotlight in her own right at the Los Angeles premiere of Sense and Sensibility, held at The United Theater.

She made a refined entrance in a strapless slip dress, completing the look with £820 Maison Margiela Tabi split-toe shoes—a distinctive style that has long divided fashion opinion.

With her blonde hair swept away from her face, Lily kept her red-carpet styling understated and polished as she celebrated the release of the new period drama.

Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsale were in a relationship from 1995 until 2003. They welcomed Lily in 1999.

Lily was joined at the premiere by her fellow cast members, including Daisy Edgar-Jones, Caitriona Balfe and Esme Creed-Miles.

Adapted from Jane Austen’s first published novel, released in 1811, the film follows two sisters as they experience romance, disappointment and heartbreak within the rigid social expectations of 18th-century England.

The latest adaptation has received a mixed critical response, with Daily Mail reviewer Brian Viner and The Times critic Kevin Maher each awarding it two stars.

Maher described the film as “Austen by numbers,” criticising it as “emotionally flat, dramatically uneven and bizarrely, bafflingly, conventional.”

The Telegraph offered a far more enthusiastic assessment, awarding the movie five stars. Reviewer Robbie Collins praised its “historically appropriate poise” while saying the performances also felt “fresh and unrehearsed,” calling it “Austen with the bonnets blown off.”

Lily’s appearance comes amid reports that she is keen to move beyond the “nepo baby” label associated with her famous family background.

Her showbusiness heritage extends beyond her parents, with grandparents Judy Loe and the late Richard Beckinsale also celebrated figures in British television.

Earlier this year, reports suggested that Lily is determined to build a career on her own terms and establish an identity separate from her parents.

A source told the Daily Mail: “She loves her parents, but she’s definitely leading an independent life and has done so for a long time.”

“She doesn’t want to depend on her parents. At the same time, it’s undeniable that their connections could give her a head start, so she wants to work hard and earn her career. She even takes acting classes.”

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Alongside distancing herself from her family’s Hollywood legacy, Lily has also chosen to avoid a heavy party lifestyle. Earlier this year, she marked two years of sobriety.

In April, she shared an Instagram post showing an image of herself holding a tray of cupcakes with the caption: ‘Two years sober’. A friend of the actress replied under the picture: ‘So proud of you, Lily.’

Despite having found Hollywood fame in the 1990s, mum Kate, 53, was never one for wild partying, as she once admitted that she’s intolerant to alcohol.

In 2016, the British actress told Shape magazine that having a drink has a negative effect on her, so she goes out of her way to avoid it.

‘I don’t drink alcohol,’ she told the publication, ‘I feel [its effects] very quickly, so I’ve never actually had an entire glass of anything alcoholic.’

The actress explained that she would rather exercise first thing: ‘I basically wake up, eat breakfast, and then work out. I prefer to get it done in the morning.

‘That said I don’t naturally get up early. It would be much better for me if the entire world went to bed at 4 am and woke up at noon. But it doesn’t, so I’m usually staggering around first thing.’

Kate has also spoken about the obvious resemblances she and her daughter share.

‘Sometimes I’ll send her a text saying ‘get your own face!’ She’s like a better version. She’s got something that I don’t,’ she said in 2023.

‘She looks like this gorgeous Disney animal — she’s got these giant eyes. I think probably [Michael] helped with that a bit — but she’s very much herself.’

Lily has two half-siblings on her dad’s side from his marriage to Swedish actress Anna Lundberg.

A 16-year-old Missouri girl was fatally struck by a sheriff’s vehicle, while her family says authorities initially told them she had died in a hit-and-run.

Persephone Berger was lying in a roadway when a St. Francois County Sheriff’s Office vehicle hit her at approximately 3:45 a.m. Saturday, according to KMOV.

Berger had been making her way back to her home in Park Hills after reportedly sneaking out to a party the night before. A witness discovered her in the road and alerted police.

“While approaching [the scene], the Deputy did not see the [girl] in the roadway and subsequently struck [her],” Sheriff Jeff Crites said in a statement.

The circumstances that left Berger in the road remain unclear. Her father, Jarred Berger, was initially informed by law enforcement that his daughter had been killed in a hit-and-run, according to her aunt, Kimberly Cabuchola.

A preliminary autopsy determined that Berger’s injuries were “consistent with those sustained from the responding Deputy’s vehicle,” authorities said.

Cabuchola said she understood that “accidents happen” and would not have blamed the driver—who is about 23 years old and had been with the department for roughly three months—had the sheriff’s office been forthcoming from the start.

“All they had to do was say ‘Our officer accidentally ran over your child and she died,’” the grieving relative told KMOV. “That’s all they had to do. But no.”

“To try and cover it up and to lie to our family? Why? Why would they need to do that? We could have forgiven that officer.”

Cabuchola also condemned the sheriff’s office for waiting to contact Berger’s father.

“The lies… not calling the right people in,” she said. “Not reaching out to my brother for three days. That wasn’t an accident.

“The only [person] that contacted him within that three-day [period] was the coroner, to tell us that she was so badly mangled that we needed to have a closed coffin for her.”

“I want to go over to that county jail and tell them, you know. I want to scream and I want to cuss at them. But I know I can’t. I know I can’t. Just tell us the truth.”

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Crites has offered few comments about the family’s claim that Berger was initially described as a hit-and-run victim, noting that he was not the deputy who responded to the scene.

Toxicology results are still pending, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol is expected to conduct an independent investigation.

Investigators are also awaiting the final autopsy findings. In the meantime, friends and relatives have paid tribute to Berger, whom her family remembered as an “avid Harry Potter fan.”

“Throughout her years, Persephone blossomed into a caring and compassionate young woman, always ready with a smile and a kind word for everyone she met,” her family wrote in an obituary.

“A passionate member of her school choir since fifth grade, she filled the halls with her beautiful voice and infectious enthusiasm.

“She had an outgoing spirit and was affectionately known as a social butterfly, radiating warmth and kindness to those around her. In her free time, Persephone loved to embark on hikes and engage with nature, cherishing the adventures she shared with her friends and family.”

Her sister, Allison Berger, described the Harry Potter fan as someone who was “exciting” and “so full of life.”

“I love you so much Persephone and we miss you more than you would ever even imagine,” she wrote online on Saturday.

Students at Berger’s school, West County High School, wore pink on Monday and hundreds of mourners attended a vigil. 

“She was just a really lively, understanding person. She never judged a soul. Like, she was just a really sweet person,” Emma Houser said, revealing the atmosphere in school was “so dull” following her death.

“She felt kind of like an older sister and like someone you can lean on and talk to about anything,” she said.

Riley Skaggs, one of Berger’s pals, described her as someone who was “fun, loving [and] very smart.”