In a shocking twist of legal drama, federal charges have been filed against a man accused of employing a forged signature of Chief Justice John Roberts in a fraudulent Supreme Court order. The order allegedly aimed to dismiss his own criminal case in Indiana, as revealed by court documents.

The man, identified as Joshua M. Culver, allegedly used the alias “Maverick A. Young” and was apprehended in Colorado last Friday. His arrest followed an indictment by a federal grand jury in Indiana, which charged him with four counts of impersonating a U.S. officer or employee. Additionally, he faces charges related to the use of a forged signature of a federal judge and a counterfeit court seal.

Federal prosecutors claim that on September 24, 2025, Culver filed a deceptive document, labeled “Order of Dismissal With Prejudice,” in an ongoing criminal case against him at the Grant County Superior Court in Indiana.

SUPREME COURT REJECTS MICHIGAN FAMILY’S CLAIM THAT COUNTY COMMITTED ‘HOME EQUITY THEFT’ OVER $2,200 TAX DEBT

According to the indictment, the document used a forged signature of Roberts and a counterfeit U.S. Supreme Court seal in an effort to authenticate the purported dismissal order.

The alleged scheme involving the nation’s highest court was not Culver’s first attempt to pass himself off as a federal official, prosecutors say.

Five days before the alleged Roberts forgery, Culver allegedly posed as a National Security Agency agent while contacting the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the indictment, Culver used his purported authority as an NSA agent to make requests that prosecutors say the sheriff’s office otherwise would not have fulfilled, including asking deputies to conduct a welfare check on his biological daughter and provide information about her location.

Culver also allegedly sought the names and information of sheriff’s office employees and claimed he could take “adverse action” against the department in his purported capacity as an NSA agent.

The following day, on Sept. 20, 2025, Culver allegedly called the workplace of an individual identified in the indictment only as “Individual A.”

Prosecutors say he falsely identified himself as a federal agent, claimed the person was “obstructing a federal investigation of a child kidnapping” and represented that he could have the individual arrested for committing a federal felony.

He also allegedly asked the person’s employer to intervene to obtain the individual’s cooperation.

RELATED: Viral Professor Fired After Claiming Malays Inspired Chinese Kung-Fu Masters

Months later, in January 2026, Culver allegedly portrayed himself as a “Special Master enforcing orders of the United States Supreme Court” in a communication sent to the Lake County clerk and directed to a Superior Court judge.

Prosecutors allege Culver claimed he had the authority to issue orders and warrants while demanding that the judge and court personnel take several actions, including making changes to vital records and dismissing cases and judgments against him.

The indictment alleges Culver also warned that if officials failed to comply, he and U.S. Marshals would make arrests for “impeding a federal agent, lying to a federal agent, and conspiracy.”

Then, in February, Culver allegedly assumed yet another federal identity, this time portraying himself as the “Director of Tailored Access Operations,” which the indictment describes as a purported intelligence agency.

Prosecutors allege Culver filed a document titled “OFFICIAL SENSITIVE: TAILORED ACCESS OPERATIONS (TAO) COMPLIANCE DIRECTIVE” in Lake County Superior Court in a case pending against him.

The document, which purported to bear official letterhead, allegedly described Culver as a “federal asset” involved in multiple investigations and demanded that officials take a series of actions under a purported “federal directive.”

Those demands included dismissing the case against Culver with prejudice, quashing warrants and requiring Lake County officials to cooperate with a purported “federal audit,” according to the indictment.

Bloomberg Law reported that Culver was arrested Aug. 21 and that the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Colorado was appointed to represent him.

News Media has reached out to the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office, the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Colorado and the Justice Department for comment.

A professor from Malaysia, who gained notoriety for disseminating an array of outlandish pseudo-historical ideas, has been relieved of her duties. Her controversial theories included the claim that ancient Malays imparted their flying kung-fu skills to the Chinese.

Linguist Solehah Yaacob was officially removed from her role as an Arabic linguistics instructor at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) on April 27. The university’s officials confirmed this decision on Sunday.

“She is no longer affiliated with our university as a professor,” stated a spokesperson, who did not disclose the specific reasons behind her dismissal.

The spokesperson further emphasized that Solehah Yaacob is prohibited from using any titles or positions associated with IIUM in promotional activities, media coverage, written works, advertisements, social media, or any form of publicity, whether directly or indirectly.

Yaacob first caught significant online attention in November last year when a video from her 2022 lecture reemerged. In this lecture, she made the bold assertion that ancient Malays were responsible for teaching the Romans the art of shipbuilding.

She doubled down on claims and became the target of intense criticism and mockery as other wild theories emerged, including iron ore deposits being the product of meteor strikes.

An infuriated Yaacob has vowed to challenge her dismissal in court.

“I was dismissed within 24 hours and not given the opportunity to appeal,” she told Free Malaysia Today. 

She also revealed she had turned down the university’s compensation offer that was “equivalent to six months’ salary.”

Yaacob was fired just one day after receiving a Malaysian Research Assessment (MyRA) award from the university.

She was dismissed from her professorship – just five months after IIUM was forced to speak out in response to her shipbuilding claims.

“IIUM upholds academic freedom, but such freedom must be exercised responsibly and grounded in academic accuracy,” the university said, without naming the academic.

Yaacob has come under heavy criticism for the wild claims she has peddled. One theory she peddled came on a podcast, hosted by non-governmental organizations, where she claimed the ancient Malays possessed some sort of supernatural ability and taught flying kung-fu to the Chinese. 

Her theory claiming the Malays taught shipbuilding to the Romans was emphatically debunked by historians. 

Yaacob claimed the ancient Malays had a “superior nautical knowledge” compared to their European counterparts.

Online, she was ridiculed and dubbed “Prof. Sambal Belcan,” the shrimp paste professor, after trying to present the claims as fact, Sinar Daily reported.

James Chin, a political commentator and professor, branded her theory as “pure pseudoscience” and warned that those who try to challenge her thoughts are labeled “anti-Malay, anti-Islam, or worse, a tool of colonial erasure.”

Wan Ramli Wan Daud, a historian, said there was no evidence to support the Yaacob claims, adding any similarities in shipbuilding methods adopted by the civilizations were coincidental, the Strait Times reported.

Despite the heat, the prof defended her remarks, claiming on social media, “My hypothesis, grounded in classical Arabic sources, proposes that the Romans acquired aspects of the art of shipbuilding from the peoples of the Malay Archipelago.”

She also claimed that iron ore deposits came from meteor strikes.

Internet sleuths also appeared to uncover she cited the satirical website “The Onion” in a 2018 journal article. The article has since been edited, with the reference removed.

In a harrowing moment of courage, a 12-year-old girl attempted to rescue her loved ones by placing a frantic 911 call after gunfire erupted during the family’s regular Sunday dinner.

Young Charlotte Ghekiere reached out to emergency services from her residence in Billings, Montana, mere minutes after 6 p.m. on Sunday, reporting that 44-year-old Alan Smith had started shooting during their family gathering.

Amidst her call, gunshots echoed ominously in the background. In less than three minutes, the situation escalated as flames engulfed the house, according to Interim Yellowstone County Sheriff Kent O’Donnell.

Jennifer Mercer, a close friend of the family, lauded Charlotte’s extraordinary bravery during the terrifying ordeal.

“She tried to save her family,” Mercer recounted emotionally to the Billings Gazette, her voice breaking with tears.

‘And her mom and dad both agreed she lived by her favorite quote: “I love you more.”‘

Charlotte died in the mass shooting, alongside with her brother, Landon Ghekiere, 15, their step-mother, Megan Ghekiere, and their step-siblings Owen Ireland, 13, and Chloe Ireland, seven.

Smith also killed his own mother, Barbara ‘Barb’ Smith, 69, and father, Dana Smith, 72, as well as his elderly grandmother Evelyn Smith, 92, before taking his own life. 

It is now believed Smith engaged in the rampage after he was kicked out of his parents’ home. 

Alan had followed his parents to Billings after they moved to Montana from Seattle. Public records show the family has been in the state since 2020. 

‘He was like a hermit,’ Adam Ghekiere, the father of the two older children, told the US Sun. ‘It got to the point where his mom didn’t enjoy living in her own house with how he was acting towards them.’

The parents finally kicked Alan out of the house a few weeks ago, Ghekiere said, and they had thought he was staying with another family member out of town.

‘So up until last week, we thought he was out of state because he said, “You know, I’m gonna go somewhere warmer.”‘ 

But when the family had their weekly dinner at his parents’ house on Sunday, police say he barged in at around 5.49pm.

About 11 minutes later, neighbors said they heard what they thought were firework, and at 6.02pm dispatchers received a call from what they described as a ‘female’ voice inside the house. 

When officers arrived on scene just 10 minutes later, they found the residence already ‘fully engulfed’ in flames, Billings police said. They also heard gunfire coming from inside the home.

Officers quickly spotted Alan outside in the back of the burning house and at around 6.13pm, a deputy ‘heard a final shot, which was broken away from the rest of the shots,’ Sheriff O’Donnell said.

When police officers and sheriff’s deputies entered the backyard at around 6.22pm, they found Alan with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and began CPR.

He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital as firefighters continued to battle the blaze at the home until around 1am on Monday. 

They had been hampered in their efforts as the house sits outside Billings city limits on county land where fire hydrants are not mandatory.

‘They had to haul in truckloads of water, set up a temporary tank and pump out of that tank,’ O’Donnell recounted.

‘So the fire suppression portion of this was very, very difficult.’

Meanwhile, Ghekiere, who works as an airport rescue firefighter, heard about the active shooting over the dispatch radio while at work.

‘I checked my kids’ locations, both Landon and Charlotte, and no one answered. I called Megan’s cellphone too,’ he recounted.

RELATED: Devastation Unveiled: Nepal Floods’ Grim Impact on British Families as Waters Recede

Without getting any response, Ghekiere said he raced over to his in-laws house – and was able to see the flames from a mile away.

‘I feared the worst right then,’ Ghekiere said. 

Emergency crews then prevented him from getting too close to the house, saying it was still considered an active-shooter scene.

He finally learned two hours later that his wife and children were killed. 

His children were not even supposed to be at the Smith’s house that night, Ghekiere said, noting that the family normally had their get-togethers on Friday nights – but decided to postpone it to Sunday last week due to his work schedule and one of the children’s scheduled sleepovers.

‘I don’t think he expected my kids to be there,’ the grieving father said of his brother-in-law, whom he branded as a ‘monster.’

Brad Ireland, who is grieving the heartbreaking loss of his 13-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, has also claimed that there were warning signs of Alan’s troubles.

‘There were many red flags and many people spoke out,’ Brad told the New York Post. ‘No one listened.’

Alan lived at home with his parents but spent his days holed up alone in his room on the computer, Brad said. 

‘No one knew what he did in there 24/7,’ he said, adding that Alan had been unable to hold down a job despite getting a degree from Eastern Washington University.

He had also been verbally abusive, Brad claimed, though he said to his knowledge Alan had never been violent, and records show Alan had no previous arrests and was never previously charged with any other crime.

Ireland had divorced Megan six years ago, after which she moved to Montana with their children.

There, she met Adam Ghekiere, and the couple tied the knot last year.

Megan’s parents soon decided to follow their daughter, buying the house in Billings near her home while her grandmother, Evelyn, lived in a nearby retirement community.

Family friend Mercer has since described the family as ‘very loving and close,’ saying the children all got along and that their parents remained amicable even after divorcing.

‘I feel like our entire community is devastated, even people that never knew any of them,’ she told CBS News.

As family members now struggle to accept the devastating losses, separate online fundraisers have been set up to support Ireland as well as the Ghekiere siblings’ mother and stepfather. 

A third GoFundMe was also created to support Adam, who it said ‘dedicated his career to helping others on their worst days.

‘Now, he needs our help on his,’ reads the fundraiser, which is raising money to support the grieving father with funeral and memorial expenses, time away from work and counseling.

‘No amount of money can lessen this loss. Not even close,’ friend Michael Solberg wrote. ‘Our hope is simply to give Adam the time and financial security to grieve without having to worry about returning to work or paying the bills.’

As of Thursday morning, the fundraiser had netted $110,845, while the fundraiser to help the Ghekiere siblings’ mother and stepfather stood at $77,813 and the Owen and Chloe Memorial Fund received over $35,000 in donations.