Halle Berry and her former husband Olivier Martinez had previously turned to co-parenting therapy to address disagreements over raising their son, before Martinez later accused the actress of abuse.

On Thursday, it emerged that the French actor had been awarded temporary primary custody of their son after alleging that Berry had physically abused him. Berry has rejected the claims, calling them “entirely meritless.”

A judge also issued Martinez a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Berry, covering both him and their son. Under the order, Berry must remain at least 100 yards from Martinez.

The former couple had reportedly completed six joint parenting-therapy sessions as they tried to reach common ground on how to raise their son.

Berry and Martinez’s volatile separation unfolded over seven years and included a protracted divorce battle. A source previously claimed that Martinez’s “explosive temper” played a role in the breakdown of their three-year marriage.

Court documents obtained by PEOPLE state that Berry and Martinez had previously attempted to “resolve disputes and conflicts between them in an effort to successfully co-parent” through specialized therapy.

The process began with individual coaching sessions before moving to six sessions attended by both parents. Berry’s fiancé, Van Hunt, was also permitted to take part.

However, the therapy did not produce a lasting resolution. In August 2024, Berry accused Martinez of attempting to step away from the arrangement and asked the court to require him to continue participating.

A judge ruled in Berry’s favor in October, while acknowledging that Martinez had already resumed complying with her request after she brought the matter before the court.

A source told PEOPLE that the pair “have very different parenting styles” and that co-parenting had been challenging. “Still, they both love Maceo and he’s amazing,” the source said, describing him as a “very focused student” and adding that Berry works hard to protect his privacy.

Berry and Martinez separated in 2016, but their divorce was not officially completed until 2023, following years of legal disputes.

After the split, sources said Martinez’s temper was among the factors that contributed to the end of the marriage. One source told PEOPLE that he had never been physically abusive toward Berry, describing him as possessive in a “caveman” way but not abusive toward her or their family.

“He had an explosive temper in a way that was profoundly frightening,” the source added. “You never knew when he would explode.”

Martinez had previously been involved in another public altercation. In 2012, he fought Berry’s former partner Gabriel Aubry, the father of her daughter Nahla, who is now 16.

The confrontation occurred when Aubry arrived at Berry’s Los Angeles home to drop off their daughter and became involved in a physical clash with Martinez.

Both men were treated at a hospital for injuries sustained in the incident.

According to court documents, Aubry said he was preparing to leave after dropping off his daughter when Martinez told him they needed to have a conversation.

‘All of a sudden, Mr. Martinez jumped on me on the side of my body, and punched me such that he had taken me down to the ground. 

‘He continued to punch me at least two or three times, kicked me in the ribs with his knee or foot, and took my head in his hands and slammed it to the concrete driveway,’ he said.

‘While he was attacking me physically, Mr. Martinez said to me in an aggressive and threatening voice, ‘You cost us 3 million dollars. When you see the judge, you’re going to tell him you’re going to Paris or I’m going to kill you. You’re going to Paris, you’re going to get your 20 grand a month in child support. 

‘From now on you’re going to do drop offs on the street. I’m not just some [expletive] actor, you don’t know me.’

Gabriel was arrested and issued a restraining order as a result of the incident.

A source told PEOPLE: ‘Gabriel attacked Olivier and Olivier defended himself.’

Gabriel ‘was booked for a private persons arrest for battery,’ LAPD spokesperson Andrew Smith told the publication.

An emergency protective order was granted requiring Gabriel to stay 100 yards away from Halle, Olivier and Nahla. 

Olivier was also the subject of a battery investigation after pushing an LAX employee in 2015.

In video footage of the scuffle, Martinez is seen holding up an empty child car seat to use as a barricade between himself and photographers as he and Halle made their way through the airport.

As they come through a set of double doors, the airport employee is seen holding up a digital camera taking pictures of Martinez, before falling to the ground after he collides with the car seat.

TMZ reported that amid the scuffle an airport employee was pushed to the ground, after Martinez allegedly shoved an empty car seat towards him, making him fall backwards.

The employee is then said to have been taken to a hospital where he complained of abdominal pains.

While Olivier did not face prosecution, the employee involved in the clash sued him and Halle for $5 million in compensation. The case was later settled.

Halle and Olivier finalised their divorce in 2023, seven years after they first announced their split.

It was agreed that Halle would pay Olivier a whopping $8,000 a month with expenses for Maceo’s health insurance, therapy and school on top of that. 

She was also ordered to write a check for an additional 4.3 percent of all income she receives above $2 million, while covering Maceo’s private school tuition and all of his other activities, like his soccer expenses. 

Despite hopes this would bring an end to their disputes, in 2024 Halle began a legal battle for sole custody of their son.

Halle claimed she has spent over $200,000 in legal fees including ‘voluntarily’ contributing $80,000 towards Martinez’s own legal expenses.

She also claimed the actor was supporting himself financially using her child support payments.

Berry was seeking sole custody of their child as she claimed Maceo was struggling in school and that he is, ‘grade levels behind,’ adding he’d been diagnosed with ADHD and mild dyslexia.

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Berry added that Martinez was, ‘either oblivious’ to his difficulties or, ‘carelessly disregards them,’ which she said proves he’s unfit for custody.

On Thursday, court documents obtained by The Daily Mail showed Olivier had been granted temporary primary custody of their 12-year-old son Maceo after accusing the actress of physically abusing him.

Olivier alleged Halle ‘physically abused our son by jumping on him and choking him’ during a September 26, 2026, incident.

The actor was also granted a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Berry, which protects both him and their son from the actress. The order required Halle to stay 100 yards away from Olivier. 

Halle has also lost 50/50 custody, and will be allowed to see their son only during court-ordered visitation two days a week and every other weekend until a hearing on October 16. 

Berry’s attorney Marina Beck told the Daily Mail the filing is ‘entirely meritless’ and added that Berry is ‘used to this kind of outrageous conduct’ from Martinez. 

The actress is ‘deeply saddened’ by the situation, though she will ‘not allow it to deter her from fighting for Maceo’s best interests and providing him with the love and support he needs.’ 

The filing lays bare a series of alleged disputes between Berry, Martinez, and their son over the past few years – with the most recent one prompting him to take legal action against her. 

‘Throughout the last year-and-a-half, Ms. Berry has wrestled Maceo to the ground and forced him to ‘tap out,” Martinez alleged. 

The documents allege Berry has ‘grabbed our son’s neck from the back when he is not looking and forced him to tap out’ multiple times previously – instances that she allegedly insisted were done in jest, but which their son disliked.  

Berry and Martinez have also been ordered to participate in confidential mediation to discuss custody, according to legal documents obtained by TMZ. 

The incident which triggered the restraining order allegedly all began after Berry told Maceo he looked ‘so stupid’ and was ‘an idiot’ while playing a virtual reality game and wearing specialized goggles. 

According to Martinez, Maceo told him his mother ‘came into Maceo’s bedroom and began pushing Maceo. From what I can tell, the initial contact appeared to be intended to be in a joking manner. Maceo told Petitioner [Berry], ‘Stop. Let me finish the game first.’ This sent Petitioner into a rage.’

The actor further alleged in the court document: ‘Petitioner told Maceo that he looks ‘so stupid’ and is ‘such an idiot’ for playing this game with the VR goggle.

‘The situation escalated from there. Petitioner jumped on Maceo and started physically fighting with him. She grabbed Maceo by the neck and started choking him while shouting, ‘Who is dominant now?! Who is dominant?”

‘Maceo told me he had to fight back,’ Martinez wrote in the filing. ‘Through his efforts, he managed to escape Petitioner’s grip. He started screaming, at which point, Petitioner’s boyfriend came into the room.

According to Martinez, Maceo claimed that Berry’s fiance, Van Hunt, treated him ‘fair.’

The document states that Hunt ‘defended Maceo as he was packing his clothes to leave when Petitioner tried to tell him that he could not take his clothes because Petitioner had bought them for him.’

‘When Maceo said that the clothes had been given to him so he could take them with him, Petitioner’s boyfriend agreed with him and convinced Petitioner to allow him to pack his clothes.’

Martinez claimed that on the night of the alleged incident, he received a ‘frantic call’ from his son asking him to pick him up ”right now.”

Martinez said he then contacted Berry over text message about picking Maceo up, asking if she was ‘OK with it.’

Text messages included in the filing show the correspondence between Martinez and Berry, with the actress allegedly responding to Martinez’s pick up request: ‘No I’m not ok with it. He wants to fight his mother?? What kind of kid are we raising.”

Martinez alleged he had several more calls with his son and could hear Berry’s voice in one of the conversations. He claims to have heard his son telling Berry that he is going to ‘leave forever’, with Berry ‘yelling’ to their son, ‘Good. Good. I don’t want to see anymore.’

He alleges to have received several more urgent-sounding text messages from Maceo asking when he will arrive.

When he arrived to the house, Maceo emerged with Hunt, who was carrying bags of Maceo’s clothing and ‘had a shocked look on his face’ when asked by Martinez about what had happened. He alleged Hunt ‘did not respond to my question.’

Martinez said he was unaware of the alleged physical confrontation between his son and Berry and did not push him for details during the car ride home. Maceo ended up sharing what had allegedly transpired later that night. 

The following morning, Martinez allegedly received a text message from Berry which read: ‘Oliver, I’ve reached out to Maceo and asked to speak with him. I know you very much think he makes his own decisions but I would really appreciate it if you would encourage him to speak with me today. I feel terrible about what happened last night as I know he does as well.’

Martinez alleges Maceo no longer wishes to spend time at Berry’s home. ‘I believe he may be traumatized from the incident. My peace was disturbed by the fact that Petitioner physically abused our son,’ he wrote. 

The September incident is allegedly not the first time Berry has physically abused Maceo.

‘Both our son and Petitioner have spoken to me about past attacks. Both have confirmed that Petitioner has unprovokedly attacked our son and has put him in choke holds that she learned while training in mixed martial arts. 

‘Our son has repeatedly explained how much he hates this, while Petitioner has downplayed the incidents, claiming she was just joking or playing with him.’  

It allegedly escalated to the point that Maceo told his father, ”The next time she does that, I’m going to kick her a**.” 

Martinez further alleged: ‘While the September 26, 2026 incident in which Petitioner choked our son is the latest incident of abuse, I contend there have been other instances of abuse over the course of the last few years. 

‘These other incidents involve additional physical attacks against our son, as well as verbal and emotional abuse from Petitioner to me. 

‘All of these incidents have disturbed my peace and is conduct that falls within the scope of the Domestic Violence Protection Act. I have significant concerns about Petitioner’s mental health, as well as her alcohol abuse, which I believe have contributed to her abusive conduct.’  

Martinez also accused Berry of slapping Maceo in the face twice around five years ago.

‘I am aware of the fact that Petitioner has struck Maceo in the face before,’ he says. ‘Specifically, she slapped him in the face twice, approximately 5 years ago. While I don’t have personal knowledge of this incident, I believe that Maceo would testify to this if he were asked by the Court or a Court appointed evaluator.’

In his filing, Martinez requested that Berry remain 100 yards away from them, attend a 52-week batterer intervention program, and be ordered to remain sober while caring for Maceo. 

‘An Order that Ms. Berry must not drink or be under the influence of alcohol or other substances while exercising visitation with or custody of Maceo. Ms. Berry shall complete Sober Link testing before, during, and after visitation with Maceo at intervals the Court deems appropriate. Ms. Berry shall complete any other test the Court deems appropriate for protecting Maceo.’ 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is heading toward the end of his tenure with only tepid support at home — a warning sign that could complicate the Democrat’s potential 2028 presidential campaign.

In a poll released by NBCUniversal Local and the Telemundo Station Group, 45% of 625 registered California voters approved of Newsom’s performance, while 46% disapproved.

The survey, conducted Sept. 21-24, revealed a sharp partisan divide. Roughly 93% of Republican respondents said Newsom was doing a poor job, while 56% of independents also gave him negative marks.

Matt Rexroad, a political consultant, told The Post that Newsom’s greatest challenge may be his weak standing outside California’s two dominant metropolitan areas: Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

In largely rural Northern California — excluding Sacramento and the Bay Area — just 28% of voters approved of Newsom’s job performance, compared with 60% who disapproved.

“This does not impact his Presidential campaign directly, but it does indicate that he does not know how to communicate with rural voters,” Rexroad said.

“The people of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina will not be impressed with a politician from California who wants to talk about being from 1) California 2) San Francisco and 3) now lives in Marin County,” he added.

Rexroad pointed to a recent Republican Governors Association advertisement linking a Democratic candidate for governor in Kansas to California as evidence of the Golden State’s deeply polarizing national image.

The survey also found a pronounced gender divide. Most men disapproved of Newsom’s performance, while most women approved. By race, a majority of white Californians viewed him negatively, whereas Hispanic and Asian respondents generally offered positive assessments.

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Approximately 74% of California Democrats approved of Newsom’s job performance. But Morris Levy, an associate professor of political science at the University of Southern California, said that level of support may not be sufficient for a national campaign in an increasingly polarized political climate.

“In short, Democrats mostly support Newsom, and Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed,” Levy said.

“Some Democrats are also lukewarm on Newsom, or dissatisfied with his performance, and this could become an issue if he seeks the nomination.”

Levy said the divide is driven in large part by partisanship, noting that President Donald Trump’s approval-rating breakdown appears to be a “mirror image” of Newsom’s.

The poll found that 66% of California Democrats would be inclined to support Newsom for the Democratic presidential nomination, compared with 15% who would not. Levy cautioned, however, that the question did not ask voters to choose between Newsom and competing candidates.

Newsom’s approval remained relatively consistent across age groups, but Levy said the results may not fully capture the challenges he would face in a presidential bid.

“Newsom has sought to position himself as a mainstream Democrat — tussling with Trump but also tacking toward the center on issues such as transgender athletes’ participation in female sports,” he said. “That probably masks the opposition Newsom or Harris would face from the surging younger portion of their base that has shifted far to the left on economic issues, Israel, and more.”

In recent months, Newsom has visited early primary states, including Michigan and South Carolina, as he gauges his appeal beyond California.

The governor has also announced policies and adopted positions that analysts view as efforts to connect with the left-leaning voters who could shape a Democratic presidential primary. This year, for instance, Newsom endorsed a national tax on billionaires despite having long opposed a similar proposal in California.

The Post contacted Newsom’s office for comment on the poll.

The owner of a Mississippi gas station where investigators believe Robert Strang purchased synthetic kratom says the pills discovered near the student’s body did not come from his business.

Court records state that Ole Miss students Robert Strang, 20, and Aidan Hamilton, 18, were found dead Sept. 21, with similar synthetic kratom packages located near both bodies. Authorities said Hamilton “could have died due to a Pulmonary Edema,” a finding considered consistent with a fatal drug overdose. Dispatch audio indicated that emergency responders who went to Strang’s residence near campus found him “cold to the touch.”

According to an affidavit filed by a narcotics agent, the packages recovered near the students contained Smax Pseudo-DHM. The package found near Hamilton listed pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15(DHM) as ingredients. The Drug Enforcement Administration temporarily classified mitragynine pseudoindoxyl as a Schedule I substance on Aug. 26, making its sale illegal.

A Mississippi law enforcement officer investigating the deaths wrote that he believed the term “pseudoindoxyl” referred to mitragynine pseudoindoxyl. Laboratory testing to verify the pills’ contents was still pending, court documents said.

Investigators who interviewed Strang’s roommates learned that he had reportedly bought “Smax” pills from Express Mart #7, a gas station in Water Valley, Mississippi, located just over 20 minutes from the University of Mississippi. An undercover agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics later purchased a similar Smax Pseudo product at the store. Its packaging identified pseudoindoxyl as an ingredient, which the agent said he believed was an abbreviated reference to mitragynine pseudoindoxyl.

Ibrahim Aydah, who owns the gas station, told News Media that he does not think the Smax package recovered near Strang was sold at his store. Aydah said his business does not place price stickers on its products and that the package found near Strang displayed a price. He also said he did not stock the 200-milligram version.

“The package that I see on the news… it wasn’t from my store,” Aydah said. “The package… the Smax is 200. I never carry 200. And it has different ingredients in it than mine.”

Court documents say a clerk at Express Mart told the undercover agent that the store was sold out of the 200-milligram product.

Aydah said federal agents removed all of the kratom products from his store during a Friday search. He said he wished the federal government had warned him that the products he was selling were prohibited.

“Yes, they took all my stuff. I lost everything, and it’s a law,” Aydah said. “The federal law bans it. I was shocked.”

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Aydah described seeing about 15 police and undercover vehicles at the location. He said he was initially at home before arriving at the station and opening the office for investigators, whom he identified as DEA agents. “I’m a businessman. I’m not a drug dealer,” he said.

When asked what message he had for the families of the two students, Aydah expressed his sympathy.

“I feel sorry for the young kids who lost their lives to an overdose. You know, it hurts. I feel them. Their friends, their classmates, and everyone…you know, he’s a young kid,” Aydah said.

A DEA spokeswoman told News Media that the agency searched the gas station Friday under a warrant and said the action was connected to an “ongoing investigation.”

“The Aug. 26 scheduling order does cover products that list ‘pseudoindoxyl’ on the label,” the spokeswoman said.

Authorities have not charged Aydah or accused him of wrongdoing.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics, a division of the sheriff’s office, stopped short of saying that investigators had confirmed kratom itself was found near either student.

“During the investigations, packaging associated with kratom-related products was discovered at both locations,” part of the statement read. The Sept. 25 affidavit reported toxicology results from the medical examiner were still pending.

American Kratom Association Senior Fellow on Public Policy Mac Haddow said Wednesday during a news conference that the specific drug found near both students is illegal.

Haddow pointed out the sale and possession of some synthetic kratom has been illegal federally as of August and illegal to sell or possess in Oxford, Mississippi since 2019, and illegal in Lafayette County, where Oxford is located, since 2021.

News Media reached out to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the DEA for comment.

An October 7 survivor was booed from the stage during a protest at the premiere of an anti-IDF documentary, with members of the audience reportedly shouting, “It’s too bad the Germans didn’t finish you off.”

Sabine Taasa travelled to Delft in the Netherlands to challenge the portrayal of the Gaza conflict in the documentary NAZA.

The French-Israeli national was met with jeers inside the cinema, where audience members also told her, “We don’t care.”

The award-winning film contains interviews with two dozen Israeli military and intelligence sources, who discuss IDF tactics used against Hamas targets, as well as policies surrounding collateral damage and civilian casualties.

Some interviewees describe killing hundreds of civilians in order to strike a single military target.

Others say the Israeli military would wait until targets were at home with their families before launching attacks—a tactic referred to in the film as “Where’s Daddy?”

Ms Taasa attended the screening to protest what she described as the documentary’s depiction of the war, despite having survived the October 7 attacks herself.

Her husband died that day after throwing himself onto a grenade to shield their sons. Their 17-year-old son was also killed in the massacre.

Video footage shows Ms Taasa interrupting the screening midway through to confront directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. She accused them of minimising the massacre of Israeli civilians nearly three years earlier.

The grieving mother’s appeal was met with boos from the audience, along with demands that she leave the stage.

As Ms Taasa tried to explain that her husband and teenage son had been killed on October 7, some attendees were heard laughing and shouting, “We don’t care.”

After walking onto the stage, she told the audience: “My name is Sabine Taasa. I am a mother of four boys.

“I survived October 7. I came here to tell my story… I came from Israel to tell you the truth.”

She went on to describe the deaths of her husband and son, but members of the audience could be heard laughing and repeating, “We don’t care.”

Near the end of the footage, the crowd chants “Go away” and “Shame on you” at Ms Taasa before applauding.

She reportedly also urged the filmmakers to “look her in the eyes” before asking: “You’re talking about collateral damage?

‘My husband and my son were murdered by Hamas. Where does this appear in your film?’ 

The footage was shared online by the Israeli group Ad Kan, founded by a group of IDF officers and former intelligence soldiers to ‘fight anti-Israeli organisations whose funding comes from foreign countries and other antisemitic bodies’. 

The organisation had travelled with Ms Taasa to the Netherlands and attempted to project images of October 7 atrocities on the screen. 

Oded Nir, an Israeli musician who lives in the Netherlands and claims to have been involved in the planning of the protest, said in a post on X last night: ‘I was at the cinema with the friends and with Sabine Tascha, a survivor of October 7. 

‘I filmed, I listened, and it hurt me deeply. In the last two days, we prepared for this moment together with a group of brave and strong people. 

‘Sabine is a brave woman and a true hero, with strengths that are hard to describe. The shouts directed at her in the auditorium as she tried to tell her story from the seventh were horrific. 

‘They yelled at her, “We don’t care” and “Too bad the Germans didn’t finish you off”. It’s hard for me to describe what I felt when I heard those things directed at a bereaved mother.’

Ad Kan said in a post on X: ‘Watch the outcry of the bereaved mother Sabine Taasa at the screening of the film NZA: ‘You’re talking about collateral damage? My husband and my son were murdered by Hamas. Where does that appear in your film?’ 

‘We arrived today in the Netherlands, for the European premiere screening of the film NZA, together with the heroic bereaved mother Sabine Taasa, who lost her son and husband on 7.10. We will not allow antisemites to spread lies! That’s it.’

• Do YOU have a story? Email William.G.Hallowell@dailymail.co.uk 

Matthew Ammel, a former bodyguard and romantic partner of ex-Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, has been arrested after allegedly threatening to “take down” the former politician. The arrest came about a month after he was accused of causing roughly $200,000 in damage to her home.

Ammel, 39, was taken into custody Tuesday in a Cheesecake Factory parking lot in Phoenix after police were alerted by his GPS monitoring device, The Arizona Republic reported.

Officers arrested him near a gun shop after he dropped off a knife described by authorities as a “large, military style” blade. He had reportedly brought it in to be engraved as a gift for his nephew’s Marine Corps boot camp graduation.

Court documents reviewed by KPHO allege that Ammel, who is involved in a custody battle with his former wife, attempted to buy a firearm, threatened to kill a judge in North Carolina and warned that he would “take down” Sinema, the former independent senator.

Ammel served in the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining Sinema’s security detail in 2022. After his Sept. 17 arrest over the alleged destruction of Sinema’s Cave Creek property, he was released under a no-contact order.

Authorities say he violated that order just two days later by attempting to have an acquaintance contact the former senator on his behalf.

Sinema, 50, reported the alleged violation to police on Sept. 22, but Maricopa County prosecutors said she declined to assist with the case.

A judge initially set Ammel’s bond at $25,000. Prosecutors are seeking to raise it to $100,000 in cash, citing the alleged death threats.

“The state fears [Ammel] will escalate his retaliation if released,” Maricopa County Deputy Attorney Bryn Barasha wrote in a court filing.

Prosecutors also alleged that Ammel contacted military acquaintances to build a rifle, bought tactical equipment and discussed funeral arrangements. The filing did not provide additional context about those claims.

Ammel declined to appear in court for his arraignment Thursday. The hearing has been rescheduled for Oct. 15.

He also faces a felony criminal-damage charge stemming from the alleged destruction of Sinema’s Cave Creek home on Aug. 30. Authorities estimate the damage at approximately $200,000.

Ammel has said he vandalized the property because he had become disillusioned with the state of American politics.

“I was p—-d at the system,” he told The Arizona Republic. “I took it out on her art.”

“The American people have no idea how [f–ked] up our government is, and, like what our politicians spend their time doing.”

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Ammel, who says he is dealing with the effects of brain injuries, insisted that he is not dangerous.

“I’m not crazy. I’m just really smart, and I have seen behind the curtains,” he said.

He claimed he damaged Sinema’s home after she refused to share a video showing soldiers assisting a wounded man in Iraq.

Ammel said he wanted Sinema to use her connections at the Pentagon to investigate why his military unit had not received the Presidential Unit Citation.

He also alleged, without identifying any companies, that Sinema “works for some of the companies that financially benefit from the genocide in Gaza.”

Ammel, who admitted he had been drinking, allegedly threatened to destroy a piece of her artwork every 10 minutes if she didn’t comply.

She refused, and he allegedly threw 22 paintings into her swimming pool, with the estimated damage coming to around $123,000.

Ammel also allegedly shattered several expensive alcohol bottles and destroyed one mirror, bringing damages to more than $200,000.

Sinema’s relationship with her former bodyguard became public after Ammel’s ex-wife of 14 years sued the former politician under North Carolina’s “homewrecker law.”

Heather Ammel accused Sinema of destroying her marriage with her ex-husband by sustaining an affair with him during their trips together around the world.

The affair broke out a little over a year after Ammel was hired to Sinema’s protection detail in 2022.

Sinema allegedly bought Ammel gifts and paid for him to receive psychedelic treatment during the home-wrecking relationship.

She invited him as a guest to a wedding and a Taylor Swift concert.

Sinema, the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress, admitted to having repeated sex with Ammel in cities across America beginning around Memorial Day 2024.

Sinema didn’t seek election in 2024.

Tennessee’s failed attempt to lethally inject Christa Pike, a 30-year death row inmate, on Wednesday evening has placed her execution in doubt and could ultimately prompt the state to abandon capital punishment, according to the former Knoxville police chief who supervised her arrest in the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

“I’ll be surprised if there are any executions in Tennessee in the near term, if again, ever,” Phil Keith, who headed the Knoxville Police Department from 1988 to 2004, told News Media.

Pike drew national attention in the days leading up to her scheduled Sept. 30 execution after filing a last-minute appeal, seeking clemency and requesting alternative execution methods, including a team of all-female executioners. The failed attempts to administer the lethal injection soon overshadowed everything else.

That focus, Keith said, also diverted attention from Slemmer, the teenager who was killed.

“Why don’t we talk about Colleen’s potential future, about her life, you know, do a deep dive on her family, talk about what she was trying to do?” he asked in an interview with News Media on Thursday.

Pike and Slemmer met at the Job Corps Center, a vocational school serving young people from difficult backgrounds, Keith said. While Pike displayed signs of what he described as a developing criminal career, Slemmer was a teenager who avoided trouble and was working to improve her life.

“She was a bright young woman,” Keith said. “She had interest in computers. She was applying herself there. She was clearly an innocent party in this; she was not involved in any of the violence that went on at Job Corps.”

Keith described Slemmer as shy and committed to her education.

“She was just a child that was trying to, that had been through a troubled early life and was trying to get her life on track,” the former chief said. “Her mom was, was clearly a big supporter of her, but there were some limitations there.”

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, did not respond to News Media’s requests for comment Thursday.

Pike and two others — her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and a friend, Shadolla Peterson — lured Slemmer to a park, where they beat, slashed and tortured her for as long as an hour.

“Pike was the catalyst,” Keith said. “She was the one that was planning out all the events, the luring, all that sort of thing.”

Keith said Pike showed “no remorse” during police questioning after the attack, which a psychiatrist later testified at trial had involved “satanic elements.”

Pike kept a fragment of Slemmer’s fractured skull as a trophy and showed it to other classmates before her arrest. Shipp, who prevented Slemmer from escaping and held her down, later carved pentagrams into the victim’s chest and face.

“She represents pure evil,” Keith said of Pike.

Disgraced former Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been removed from Michigan’s sex offender registry.

Nassar served as the national gymnastics team’s doctor from 1996 to 2014, using his position to sexually abuse hundreds of young athletes, including Olympic medalists Simone Biles and Aly Raisman.

He is serving multiple decades-long prison sentences after convictions in federal and state courts for sexual abuse and possessing child pornography.

The 63-year-old is among more than 20,000 people removed from Michigan’s sex offender registry after the Michigan State Police purged individuals whose offenses occurred before July 1, 2011, according to the Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office.

The removal followed a September 9 ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court, which found that amendments to the Sex Offender Registration Act enacted in 2021 could not be applied retroactively to crimes committed before that date. The decision prompted a large-scale purge of the registry.

The Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office criticized the ruling in a social media statement, saying: “The Michigan Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate SORA requirements for these offenders is deeply concerning. Our community, along with the victims of these crimes, expected the registry to provide a measure of protection and awareness—assurances that have now been removed by the Court’s ruling.”

Michigan State Police says the registry is intended to “assist the public” in preventing future criminal sexual acts by convicted sex offenders. It generally includes a person’s legal name, photograph, primary and work addresses, age, physical description, court information and records related to the conviction.

“His conduct occurred before 2011 despite his convictions coming after,” the Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office said in confirming Nassar’s removal, according to CBS News.

The prosecutor’s office said the Supreme Court could have adopted a different interpretation that would have allowed certain sex offenders to remain on the registry.

More than 150 gymnasts were abused by Nassar during his three-decade career. He admitted sexually assaulting athletes while working at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics.

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Nassar also admitted possessing child pornography. More than 100 women later sought more than $1 billion from the federal government, alleging that the FBI failed to act on allegations against him.

In 2017, a federal court sentenced Nassar to 60 years in prison for possessing child sexual abuse material. The following year, two Michigan courts sentenced him to up to 175 years and up to 125 years, respectively, for molesting female gymnasts under his care.

After the federal sentencing, U.S. Attorney Birge said: “Today was a day of reckoning for Larry Nassar. He more than deserves this punishment for what he did.

“He consumed child pornography on a massive scale. We found 37,000 images of child pornography on his computers. Insatiable hunger of that nature simply encourages those who produce such images to continue to sexually exploit children. Compounding his danger to the public,

“Nassar was an insidious hands-on child predator in his own right. He took advantage of family friendships. And he treated his license to practice medicine as a license to sexually molest children. Thanks to the brave victims who came forward, we learned the full scope of his depravity. The breadth and dark depth of his heinous acts are extraordinary.”

In April 2024, the U.S. Justice Department announced a $138.7 million settlement with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling sexual assault allegations against Nassar in 2015 and 2016. The delay allowed the sports doctor to continue abusing victims before his arrest.

When combined with other settlements, $1billion now has been set aside by various organizations to compensate hundreds of women who said Nassar assaulted them under the guise of treatment for sports injuries. 

Simone Biles publicly broke her silence in January 2018, revealing in a powerful tweet that she was one of Nassar’s victims.

‘It took me a long time to write that, probably a couple of days, because every time I would go to write, I would start balling, and I couldn’t get through it,’ she said.

Biles also noted that she was heartbroken over having to continue to train at the ranch, the former USA Gymnastics national training center where she and her teammates were abused by the disgraced doctor.