A beloved Pennsylvania pediatrician allegedly told her mother she felt “drugged” in the weeks before her estranged husband is accused of strangling her and setting their home on fire, according to a search warrant.

Dr. Julia Pederson, 41, of Harrisburg, reportedly messaged her mother about feeling groggy and struggling to walk roughly one month before her death, according to a warrant cited by PennLive.com. Her estranged husband, Jonathan Gatto, is accused of setting their home ablaze on Oct. 10 while their 7-year-old daughter was asleep inside.

Pederson also told her mother she had canceled five patient appointments so she could rest, the outlet reported.

She was scheduled to undergo bloodwork on Oct. 10—the day she died—to investigate the unusual symptoms, according to the warrant.

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Investigators were also told by one of Pederson’s co-workers that the doctor’s daughter regularly brought drinks to her mother at work, the warrant said.

Pederson reportedly told the colleague she did not want the drinks, but said her husband would allegedly make their daughter deliver them.

Gatto was charged with Pederson’s murder last week.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (WLS) — A Waukegan woman is asking a judge to dismiss criminal charges against her.

Tafara Williams was shot by a police officer in 2020, while her fiancé, Marcellis Stinnette, was killed.

The officer who fired the shots has since been charged with second-degree murder.

Williams’ attorney said the defense recently learned that another officer had lied in a police report connected to the incident in which Stinnette was shot and killed.

Court records state that Williams and Stinnette were sitting in a parked car in a Waukegan park when Officer James Keating approached them.

Williams eventually began driving away. Keating said the car struck him, prompting a second officer, Dante Salinas, to fire five shots into the vehicle. Williams was wounded, and Stinnette was killed.

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Williams was arrested and charged with a felony for fleeing the scene. Salinas was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter and was later fired by the police department.

On Thursday, Williams’ attorney said the defense recently learned that Keating’s 2022 termination from the Waukegan Police Department involved the discovery that he had repeatedly lied in police reports, including the report in Williams’ case.

Her attorney said the revelation strengthens the defense’s claim that Williams and Stinnette were subjected to racial discrimination. He also argued that Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart should never have filed the charges.

“What we’re saying in the motion to dismiss is that this case began with a grand jury proceeding, and when it began with the grand jury proceeding, somebody besides Officer Keating testified before the grand jury, completely whitewashing this case, ignoring the fact that the chief of police had said the underlying documents, the underlying police report, had false representations, and none of that was presented to the grand jury,” Williams’ attorney, Blake Horowitz, said.

Williams did not speak Thursday, but her attorney said she has shown courage while working to move forward and raise her young children.

A Massachusetts judge ruled Wednesday that the lone juror who favored convicting Lindsay Clancy of murdering her three children will not have his cellphone examined or be subject to an inquiry by Clancy’s defense team.

Judge William Sullivan rejected a motion from Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, seeking an evidentiary hearing.

Sullivan said the potential evidence supporting the juror’s dismissal—identified in court filings as Juror Doe and understood to be Michael Desronvil—surfaced only after the mistrial had been declared. Under legal precedent, he wrote, that timing makes the information irrelevant.

The defense did not argue before the mistrial that Juror Doe had lied on his questionnaire, Sullivan wrote. The allegation first emerged in media reports.

“Because post-trial information potentially affecting Juror Doe’s impartiality cannot be used to challenge the finding that a mistrial was manifestly necessary, Clancy is not entitled to an evidentiary hearing on that issue,” Sullivan ruled. He also noted that Reddington did not raise the allegation that Juror Doe improperly used a cellphone until after the mistrial.

Sullivan said any additional investigation into the holdout juror would be improper because courts cannot examine a juror’s private reasoning, thought process, view of the case or relationships with fellow jurors. The court also may not inquire into the jury’s deliberations, collective reasoning or disagreements, he wrote.

In an interview with Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany last week, Desronvil said he stands by his decision not to agree with the other 11 jurors, who wanted Clancy to be found not criminally responsible because of postpartum psychosis.

Desronvil has referred to the children as “The Three Angels.” They were Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.

He has also denied lying under oath on his juror questionnaire. Desronvil said the jurors used their cellphones only during breaks, not while deliberating, and rejected claims by other jurors that he disregarded reasonable doubts in the case.

Reddington has asked the court to preserve records from all 12 jurors and six alternates. The requested materials include juror questionnaires, surveillance footage from the courthouse hallway outside the deliberation room and cellphone sign-in sheets.

However, he specifically sought an examination of Desronvil’s phone for activity between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on each day of deliberations.

“Everybody had their cellphones and our cellphone was used when we had a break,” the holdout juror said. “So not during deliberation.”

Clancy is scheduled to return to court Nov. 2.

A powerful Virginia Democrat has been indicted on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering tied to her family’s marijuana business.

State Sen. L. Louise Lucas, 82, was charged Thursday with racketeering and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of a sweeping public corruption investigation.

The case centers on The Cannabis Outlet, a cannabis company owned by Lucas and her family. Prosecutors allege the business was used to “disguise the proceeds of illegal marijuana distribution.”

Lucas has been a prominent advocate for marijuana legalization in Virginia. However, prosecutors claim she also pressed for legalization in the state Senate to advance her personal interests, citing text messages in which she allegedly discussed making “a lot of money” from the policy change.

During a February 2026 phone call, Lucas allegedly told a co-conspirator that she had her “last chance at generational wealth” and had “gotten too old not to be greedy.”

According to the indictment, Lucas—who serves as president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate and is among the state’s most influential Democrats—“used her political position” to “insulate” herself and her relatives from prosecution.

Lucas reportedly surrendered to authorities Thursday. She was charged alongside six other alleged co-conspirators, including two of her daughters and a nephew.

At a news conference Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel said Lucas had amassed nearly $5 million “in ill-gotten gains through her criminal enterprise.”

Federal agents searched Lucas’s office and The Cannabis Outlet store in Portsmouth, Virginia, in May.

The indictment alleges that members of the conspiracy “used various business entities” to conduct “illegal marijuana distribution,” with “wealth accumulation” as the ultimate objective.

In a statement posted to social media Thursday, Lucas vowed to resist the charges. She wrote that “the full weight of the federal government have been wielded against an 82-year-old great-grandmother.”

“I grew up under Jim Crow. I’ve seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them. I spent my life fighting back and I’m not stopping now.”

“I’m not new to this. I’m true to this. I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down.”

The investigation into Lucas began before the Trump administration, according to NBC News.

Lucas has long been one of Virginia’s leading supporters of marijuana legalization. She also ranks among the state’s most powerful Democrats in her role as president pro tempore of the Senate.

She chairs the influential Senate Finance Committee, which oversees legislation with budgetary implications. Prosecutors allege Lucas used that position to benefit her family’s growing cannabis business, including by helping secure legalization in 2021 and statewide retail sales scheduled for July 2027.

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Despite helping advance legalization legislation, Lucas allegedly purchased large quantities of marijuana through a co-conspirator from sources outside Virginia’s five licensed cannabis growers.

According to Lucas’s indictment, the Democrat allegedly paid $750,000 to an unindicted co-conspirator in August 2022 for a 100% stake in a shell company called ‘Mama’s Chicken LLC’, which she ‘expected to obtain a Virginia recreational marijuana license.’

When it became apparent that state laws meant licensed marijuana stores wouldn’t open in Virginia until 2027, Lucas then began pressuring the co-conspirator to return the money within months, according to the indictment. 

In November 2025, she allegedly texted that same person telling them she would be pushing forward legislation that would ensure licensed pot stores in Virginia. 

She allegedly sent in the message: ‘You know I will be carrying the legislation as the Chief Co-patron. Yes, we can make a lot of money but, before we start down that road again; how about we begin with you sending at least a good faith payment of the money you owe me with arrangements for the balance. Then we can talk about future business plans.’ 

On February 9, 2026, Lucas allegedly called the person to update them on the pending cannabis legislation, telling them: ‘This is our last chance at generational wealth… I’ve got too old to not be greedy.’ 

On March 9, Lucas also allegedly called another Virginia legislator to ask for a recreational marijuana license, because she ‘got to get the license and I got to get the money rolling in because I want — I want to make generation, create some generational wealth.’

Lucas, who is not up for re-election until 2027, was accused by US Attorney General Todd Blanche of using her influence to put her financial interests above her constituents.

‘The Department of Justice intends to prove that Senator Lucas violated the trust of the people of Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia, and of her state senate colleagues,’ Blanche told a press conference.

‘Her first duty should have been looking out for her constituents before herself.’ 

The case comes as the Justice Department has also brought a high-profile investigation against Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in Minnesota. 

The Justice Department typically does not bring political cases within 60 days of elections to avoid allegations of bias, however Blanche dismissed those concerns when speaking to reporters on Thursday. 

‘It’s not even a rule, it’s a practice,’ Blanche said, noting that while many of Lucas’s fellow Democrats may be facing incoming re-elections, she is not on the ballot again until next year. 

‘The justice manual speaks very clearly about what the Department of Justice can and can’t do, and we cannot bring a charge if our purpose is improper,’ he said, saying he believes this case was correctly brought.  

WASHINGTON — A court battle between federal prosecutors and news organizations suggests that the search warrant executed at “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home may not yet have been fully completed.

Federal agents carried out the warrant at dawn on Oct. 12, raiding Omar’s Washington, DC, residence as part of an investigation into her immigration status. The operation came less than a month before the Nov. 3 election, making it a particularly striking development.

In arguing that records related to the warrant should remain sealed from several media organizations, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro pointed to concerns that the search process was still incomplete.

“[G]ood cause exists to extend these deadlines until after the subject search warrant has been fully executed,” Pirro and her team wrote in a court filing Wednesday.

The filing did not specify which parts of the warrant remained outstanding or indicate when federal authorities expected the search to be finished.

More than a dozen media organizations filed a petition last Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia seeking access to the warrant documents amid heightened interest in the investigation involving Omar.

The court records also offer a potential clue about the government’s interest in Omar’s former marriage. They identify the congresswoman by the alias “Nur Said Elmi,” a name connected to her ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.

Public information about Elmi is limited. A Somali forum previously speculated, without providing verified evidence, that he was Omar’s brother and that the pair married for immigration purposes.

In a 2016 statement, Omar said she had applied for a marriage license with another former partner, Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, in 2002, when she was 19. She said they “never finalized the application and thus were never legally married.”

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Omar later married Hirsi in 2018. The couple divorced the following year.

During the intervening period, Omar was legally married to Elmi, a man some have speculated was her brother, from 2009 through 2017. Omar has said the couple separated “in our faith tradition” in 2011 but took years to complete the legal paperwork.

Omar has repeatedly rejected the unproven allegation that she married her brother. The theory holds that the marriage was intended to help him obtain a green card, though it ultimately did not succeed.

She has described the allegation as “insane” and dismissed it as a right-wing conspiracy.

Asked whether she had any biological relationship with Elmi, Omar gave a qualified response to MS NOW: “Not to my knowledge.”

“I don’t think that [US Attorneys] would make up names,” Blanche told reporters Thursday when questioned about the alias “Nur Said Elmi” appearing in records connected to Omar.

The Post previously reported that federal investigators possess DNA evidence they believe could establish whether Omar committed immigration fraud. One source said the evidence might also address whether Elmi was her brother, though that claim has not been proven publicly.

The search of Omar’s home is believed to relate to documents she submitted while seeking US citizenship. Born in Somalia, Omar arrived in the United States as a refugee in the mid-1990s. Records listed her as 17 when her father became a US citizen in 2000.

Because she was under 18, Omar obtained citizenship through a process that did not require additional complications. The investigation is reportedly examining whether she was actually 18 when the paperwork was filed.

Omar has denied any wrongdoing and accused the Trump administration of using the legal system as a political weapon against her.