KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Missouri man is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening for sexually assaulting and strangling a 9-year-old girl whose body was thrown into a sinkhole.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-date-set-christopher-collings-e81def9fe66d34cab516b7945be057b5">Christopher Collings</a>, 49, is set to receive a single injection of the sedative pentobarbital at 6 p.m. CST for the 2007 murder of fourth-grader Rowan Ford.

The girl was assaulted and strangled with a length of rope in the tiny southwestern Missouri town of Stella, on Nov. 3, 2007, and her body was discovered six days later in the sinkhole outside town.

Collings' fate appeared to be sealed on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal and Republican Gov. Mike Parson turned aside a clemency request. Parson, a former sheriff, has overseen 12 previous executions and never granted clemency.

Collings’ execution would be the 23rd in the U.S. this year and the fourth in Missouri —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-brian-dorsey-1a7801bb6fc42e666d95daa68a2b2ce1">Brian Dorsey</a>&nbsp;was executed on April 9,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/david-hosier-execution-missouri-angela-gilpin-901d8028e3b1f2ddd46b7503b9775966">David Hosier</a>&nbsp;on June 11 and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-williams-8be20e2f252992610a30fa0cfef4185a">Marcellus Williams</a>&nbsp;on Sept. 24. Only Alabama with six and Texas with five have performed more executions in 2024.

Rowan was a fourth-grader described by teachers at Collings' trial as a hard-working and happy student, a lover of Barbie dolls who had her room painted pink. Collings was a friend of Rowan's stepfather, David Spears, and lived for several months in 2007 at the home Rowan shared with Spears and Rowan's mother, Colleen Spears. The child called Collings “Uncle Chris.”

Collings told authorities that he drank heavily and smoked marijuana with Spears and another man in the hours before the attack on Rowan, according to court records. Collings said he picked up the still-sleeping child from her bed, took her to the camper where he lived, and assaulted her there.

Collings told police that he planned to take Rowan back home, leading her outside the camper facing away from him so that she couldn't identify who assaulted her. But when moonlight lit up the darkness, Rowan was able to see him, Collings told police. He said he “freaked out,” grabbed a rope from a nearby pickup truck and killed her.

Colleen Spears returned home from work at 9 a.m. on Nov. 3 and was alarmed when she couldn’t find Rowan. Court records said Spears insisted Rowan was at a friend’s house. But when Rowan failed to return home by the afternoon, Colleen Spears called police, prompting a massive search.

Collings, Spears and a third man became the focus of police attention because they were the last people seen at Rowan's home. Collings told police that after killing Rowan, he took the body to a sinkhole. He burned the rope used in the attack, along with the clothes he was wearing and his bloodstained mattress, prosecutors said.

Court documents and the clemency petition said Spears also implicated himself in the crimes. A transcript of Spears’ statement to police, cited in the clemency petition, said Spears told officers that Collings handed him a cord and Spears killed Rowan.

“I choke her with it. I realize she’s gone. She’s ... she’s really gone,” Spears said, according to the transcript. Meanwhile, court documents said it was Spears who led authorities to the sinkhole where the body was found.

But Spears was allowed to plead to lesser charges. It wasn't clear why. Prosecutors at the original trial didn't respond to messages seeking comment.

Spears served more than seven years in prison before being released in 2015. No phone listing could be found for Spears.

The clemency petition said Collings suffered from a brain abnormality that created "functional deficits in awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition, and emotional regulation.” It also noted that he was frequently abused and sexually abused as a child.

“The result was a damaged human being with no guidance on how to grow into a functioning adult,” the petition stated.

The clemency petition and the Supreme Court appeal both challenged the reliability of the key law enforcement witness at Collings’ trial, a police chief from a neighboring town who had four AWOL convictions while serving in the Army. Failure to disclose details about that criminal history at trial violated Collings’ right to due process, Collings' attorney, Jeremy Weis, contended.

“His credibility was really at the heart of the entire case against Mr. Collings,” Weis said in an interview.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Missouri’s governor on Monday denied clemency for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-date-set-christopher-collings-e81def9fe66d34cab516b7945be057b5">Christopher Collings</a>, a death row inmate facing execution for sexually assaulting and killing a 9-year-old girl and leaving her body in a sinkhole.

Collings, 49, is scheduled to receive a single injection of pentobarbital at 6 p.m. CST Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, for the 2007 killing of fourth-grader Rowan Ford. It would be the 23rd execution in the U.S. this year and the fourth in Missouri.

“Mr. Collings has received every protection afforded by the Missouri and United States Constitutions, and Mr. Collings’ conviction and sentence remain for his horrendous and callous crime,” Republican Gov. Mike Parson said in a statement.

Parson’s decision likely sealed Collings’ fate. Earlier Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal on behalf of Collings, without comment. No additional appeals are planned, Collings' attorney, Jeremy Weis, said.

Parson's decision was not unexpected — a former sheriff, Parson has overseen 12 previous executions without granting clemency. Weis said Parson has allowed other executions to proceed for inmates with innocence claims, intellectual disabilities and for men who were “reformed and remorseful” for their crimes.

“In each case of redemption, the Governor has ignored the evidence and sought vengeance,” Weis said in a statement.

Collings confessed to killing Rowan, a child who referred to him as “Uncle Chris” after Collings lived for several months with the girl’s family in tiny Stella, Missouri. Rowan was killed on Nov. 3, 2007. Her body was found in a sinkhole outside of town six days later. She had been strangled.

The clemency petition said an abnormality of Collings’ brain causes him to suffer from “functional deficits in awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition, and emotional regulation.” It also noted that he suffered from frequent and often violent abuse as a child.

The petition also challenged the fairness of executing Collings when another man charged in the crime, Rowan’s stepfather, David Spears, also confessed but was allowed to plead to lesser crimes. Spears served more than seven years in prison before his release in 2015.

Collings told authorities that he drank heavily and smoked marijuana with Spears and another man in the hours before the attack on Rowan, according to court records. Collings said he picked up the sleeping child from her bed, took her to the camper where he lived and assaulted her there. He said he strangled the child with a rope when he realized she recognized him.

Collings told investigators that he took the girl's body to a sinkhole. He burned the rope used in the attack, along with the clothes he was wearing and his bloodstained mattress, prosecutors said.

Spears also implicated himself in the crimes, according to court documents and the clemency petition. A transcript of Spears’ statement to police, cited in the petition, said he told police that Collings handed him a cord and that he killed Rowan.

“I choke her with it. I realize she’s gone. She’s ... she’s really gone,” Spears said, according to the transcript. It was Spears who led authorities to the sinkhole where her body was found, according to court documents.

No phone listing could be found for Spears.

The Supreme Court appeal challenged the reliability of the key law enforcement witness at Collings’ trial, a police chief from a neighboring town who had four AWOL convictions while serving in the Army. Failure to disclose details about that criminal history at trial violated Collings’ right to due process, Weis contended.

“His credibility was really at the heart of the entire case against Mr. Collings," Weis said in an interview.

Three men have been executed in Missouri this year —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-brian-dorsey-1a7801bb6fc42e666d95daa68a2b2ce1">Brian Dorsey</a>&nbsp;on April 9,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/david-hosier-execution-missouri-angela-gilpin-901d8028e3b1f2ddd46b7503b9775966">David Hosier</a>&nbsp;on June 11 and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-williams-8be20e2f252992610a30fa0cfef4185a">Marcellus Williams</a>&nbsp;on Sept. 24. Only Alabama, with six, and Texas, with five, have performed more executions than Missouri in 2024.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/8/1723583895173.png" alt="Collings photo MODOC" />
 <figcaption>Collings photo MODOC</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Missouri man is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening for sexually assaulting and strangling a 9-year-old girl whose body was thrown into a sinkhole.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-date-set-christopher-collings-e81def9fe66d34cab516b7945be057b5">Christopher Collings</a>, 49, is set to receive a single injection of the sedative pentobarbital at 6 p.m. CST for the 2007 murder of fourth-grader Rowan Ford.The girl was assaulted and strangled with a length of rope in the tiny southwestern Missouri town of Stella, on Nov. 3, 2007, and her body was discovered six days later in the sinkhole outside town.Collings' fate appeared to be sealed on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal and Republican Gov. Mike Parson turned aside a clemency request. Parson, a former sheriff, has overseen 12 previous executions and never granted clemency.Collings’ execution would be the 23rd in the U.S. this year and the fourth in Missouri —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-brian-dorsey-1a7801bb6fc42e666d95daa68a2b2ce1">Brian Dorsey</a>&nbsp;was executed on April 9,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/david-hosier-execution-missouri-angela-gilpin-901d8028e3b1f2ddd46b7503b9775966">David Hosier</a>&nbsp;on June 11 and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-williams-8be20e2f252992610a30fa0cfef4185a">Marcellus Williams</a>&nbsp;on Sept. 24. Only Alabama with six and Texas with five have performed more executions in 2024.Rowan was a fourth-grader described by teachers at Collings' trial as a hard-working and happy student, a lover of Barbie dolls who had her room painted pink. Collings was a friend of Rowan's stepfather, David Spears, and lived for several months in 2007 at the home Rowan shared with Spears and Rowan's mother, Colleen Spears. The child called Collings “Uncle Chris.”Collings told authorities that he drank heavily and smoked marijuana with Spears and another man in the hours before the attack on Rowan, according to court records. Collings said he picked up the still-sleeping child from her bed, took her to the camper where he lived, and assaulted her there.Collings told police that he planned to take Rowan back home, leading her outside the camper facing away from him so that she couldn't identify who assaulted her. But when moonlight lit up the darkness, Rowan was able to see him, Collings told police. He said he “freaked out,” grabbed a rope from a nearby pickup truck and killed her.Colleen Spears returned home from work at 9 a.m. on Nov. 3 and was alarmed when she couldn’t find Rowan. Court records said Spears insisted Rowan was at a friend’s house. But when Rowan failed to return home by the afternoon, Colleen Spears called police, prompting a massive search.Collings, Spears and a third man became the focus of police attention because they were the last people seen at Rowan's home. Collings told police that after killing Rowan, he took the body to a sinkhole. He burned the rope used in the attack, along with the clothes he was wearing and his bloodstained mattress, prosecutors said.Court documents and the clemency petition said Spears also implicated himself in the crimes. A transcript of Spears’ statement to police, cited in the clemency petition, said Spears told officers that Collings handed him a cord and Spears killed Rowan.“I choke her with it. I realize she’s gone. She’s ... she’s really gone,” Spears said, according to the transcript. Meanwhile, court documents said it was Spears who led authorities to the sinkhole where the body was found.But Spears was allowed to plead to lesser charges. It wasn't clear why. Prosecutors at the original trial didn't respond to messages seeking comment.Spears served more than seven years in prison before being released in 2015. No phone listing could be found for Spears.The clemency petition said Collings suffered from a brain abnormality that created "functional deficits in awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition, and emotional regulation.” It also noted that he was frequently abused and sexually abused as a child.“The result was a damaged human being with no guidance on how to grow into a functioning adult,” the petition stated.The clemency petition and the Supreme Court appeal both challenged the reliability of the key law enforcement witness at Collings’ trial, a police chief from a neighboring town who had four AWOL convictions while serving in the Army. Failure to disclose details about that criminal history at trial violated Collings’ right to due process, Collings' attorney, Jeremy Weis, contended.“His credibility was really at the heart of the entire case against Mr. Collings,” Weis said in an interview.-----------------KANSAS CITY (AP) — Missouri’s governor on Monday denied clemency for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-date-set-christopher-collings-e81def9fe66d34cab516b7945be057b5">Christopher Collings</a>, a death row inmate facing execution for sexually assaulting and killing a 9-year-old girl and leaving her body in a sinkhole.Collings, 49, is scheduled to receive a single injection of pentobarbital at 6 p.m. CST Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, for the 2007 killing of fourth-grader Rowan Ford. It would be the 23rd execution in the U.S. this year and the fourth in Missouri.“Mr. Collings has received every protection afforded by the Missouri and United States Constitutions, and Mr. Collings’ conviction and sentence remain for his horrendous and callous crime,” Republican Gov. Mike Parson said in a statement.Parson’s decision likely sealed Collings’ fate. Earlier Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal on behalf of Collings, without comment. No additional appeals are planned, Collings' attorney, Jeremy Weis, said.Parson's decision was not unexpected — a former sheriff, Parson has overseen 12 previous executions without granting clemency. Weis said Parson has allowed other executions to proceed for inmates with innocence claims, intellectual disabilities and for men who were “reformed and remorseful” for their crimes.“In each case of redemption, the Governor has ignored the evidence and sought vengeance,” Weis said in a statement.Collings confessed to killing Rowan, a child who referred to him as “Uncle Chris” after Collings lived for several months with the girl’s family in tiny Stella, Missouri. Rowan was killed on Nov. 3, 2007. Her body was found in a sinkhole outside of town six days later. She had been strangled.The clemency petition said an abnormality of Collings’ brain causes him to suffer from “functional deficits in awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition, and emotional regulation.” It also noted that he suffered from frequent and often violent abuse as a child.“The result was a damaged human being with no guidance on how to grow into a functioning adult,” the petition stated.The petition also challenged the fairness of executing Collings when another man charged in the crime, Rowan’s stepfather, David Spears, also confessed but was allowed to plead to lesser crimes. Spears served more than seven years in prison before his release in 2015.Collings told authorities that he drank heavily and smoked marijuana with Spears and another man in the hours before the attack on Rowan, according to court records. Collings said he picked up the sleeping child from her bed, took her to the camper where he lived and assaulted her there. He said he strangled the child with a rope when he realized she recognized him.Collings told investigators that he took the girl's body to a sinkhole. He burned the rope used in the attack, along with the clothes he was wearing and his bloodstained mattress, prosecutors said.Spears also implicated himself in the crimes, according to court documents and the clemency petition. A transcript of Spears’ statement to police, cited in the petition, said he told police that Collings handed him a cord and that he killed Rowan.“I choke her with it. I realize she’s gone. She’s ... she’s really gone,” Spears said, according to the transcript. It was Spears who led authorities to the sinkhole where her body was found, according to court documents.No phone listing could be found for Spears.The Supreme Court appeal challenged the reliability of the key law enforcement witness at Collings’ trial, a police chief from a neighboring town who had four AWOL convictions while serving in the Army. Failure to disclose details about that criminal history at trial violated Collings’ right to due process, Weis contended.“His credibility was really at the heart of the entire case against Mr. Collings," Weis said in an interview.Three men have been executed in Missouri this year —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-brian-dorsey-1a7801bb6fc42e666d95daa68a2b2ce1">Brian Dorsey</a>&nbsp;on April 9,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/david-hosier-execution-missouri-angela-gilpin-901d8028e3b1f2ddd46b7503b9775966">David Hosier</a>&nbsp;on June 11 and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-williams-8be20e2f252992610a30fa0cfef4185a">Marcellus Williams</a>&nbsp;on Sept. 24. Only Alabama, with six, and Texas, with five, have performed more executions than Missouri in 2024.

Execution day for sexual assault, strangling of 9-year-old girl

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement are investigating a Kansas teen on multiple allegations in connection an incident involving a gun.

Just before 3p.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of the 1700 block of SE 29th street in Topeka in reference to a subject possibly threatening others with a firearm.

Upon arrival officers developed information that 18-year-old&nbsp; Jairus Lyles Jr., had been armed with a firearm and had threatened several people in the area.&nbsp;

Police found Lyles at his home in the area arrested him and booked him into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges Three counts of Aggravated Assault, Aggravated Criminal Threat and&nbsp;&nbsp;Aggravated Endangerment of a child.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/12/1733151513424.png" alt="Lyles photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Lyles photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement are investigating a Kansas teen on multiple allegations in connection an incident involving a gun.Just before 3p.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of the 1700 block of SE 29th street in Topeka in reference to a subject possibly threatening others with a firearm.Upon arrival officers developed information that 18-year-old&nbsp; Jairus Lyles Jr., had been armed with a firearm and had threatened several people in the area.&nbsp;Police found Lyles at his home in the area arrested him and booked him into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges Three counts of Aggravated Assault, Aggravated Criminal Threat and&nbsp;&nbsp;Aggravated Endangerment of a child.

Kan. teen accused of threatening victims with a gun

JACKSON COUNTY, Kan.—Law enforcement are investigating two women on multiple allegations after a traffic stop.

Just after 10:30p.m. Saturday, a sheriff's deputy arrested two women following a traffic stop near 142nd&nbsp;and U.S. Hwy 75, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.

 Deputies arrested the driver of the vehicle, Janis Ann Myrick 49, of Topeka, and the passenger, Lori Price, 58 of Topeka on drug charges.

Myrick booked into the Jackson County Jail on requested charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and for an outstanding warrant from Jewell County, Kansas.

Price was&nbsp; booked into the Jackson County Jail on requested charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and felony interference with law enforcement. The Kansas Highway Patrol assisted with the incident.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/12/1733174594082.png" alt="Myrick-photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Myrick-photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>JACKSON COUNTY, Kan.—Law enforcement are investigating two women on multiple allegations after a traffic stop.Just after 10:30p.m. Saturday, a sheriff's deputy arrested two women following a traffic stop near 142nd&nbsp;and U.S. Hwy 75, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/12/1733174701797.png" alt="Price-photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Price-photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure> Deputies arrested the driver of the vehicle, Janis Ann Myrick 49, of Topeka, and the passenger, Lori Price, 58 of Topeka on drug charges.Myrick booked into the Jackson County Jail on requested charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and for an outstanding warrant from Jewell County, Kansas.Price was&nbsp; booked into the Jackson County Jail on requested charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and felony interference with law enforcement. The Kansas Highway Patrol assisted with the incident.

Two Kansas women accused of transporting meth

WASHINGTON (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-son-hunter-charges-pardon-pledge-24f3007c2d2f467fa48e21bbc7262525">President Joe Biden’s decision to go back</a>&nbsp;on his word and issue a categorical pardon for his son,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/hunter-biden">Hunter</a>, just weeks before his scheduled sentencing on gun and tax convictions was a surprise that wasn't all that surprising.

Not to those who had witnessed the president’s shared anguish over his two sons after the boys survived a car crash that killed Biden's first wife and a daughter more than a half-century ago. Or to those who heard the president regularly lament the death&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-beau-cancer-knock-ireland-0b52c7f9fa4e4c135dd49f0c00bdc473">of his older son, Beau</a>, from cancer or voice concerns — largely in private — about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-hunter-laptop-ba96537a686d04dc3773552cfa13deeb">Hunter’s sobriety and health after years of deep addiction.</a>

But by choosing to put his family first, the 82-year-old president — who had pledged to restore a fractured public’s trust in the nation’s institutions and respect for the rule of law — has raised new questions about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-presidential-election-2024-49f2146c848656c9588986e83812b6d8">his already teetering legacy.</a>

“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” Colorado's Democratic Gov.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/jared-polis">Jared Polis</a>&nbsp;wrote in a post on X. He added that while he could sympathize with Hunter Biden’s struggles, “no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”

Biden aides and allies had been resigned to the prospect of the president using his extraordinary power in the waning days of his presidency to ensure his son wouldn't see time behind bars, especially after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;’s win. The president's supporters have long viewed Biden's commitment to his family as an asset overall, even if Hunter's personal conduct&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-irs-joe-biden-election-2024-69cc61586da9f624375e25b0c00c74f4">and tangled business dealings</a>&nbsp;were seen as a persistent liability.

But the pardon comes as Biden has become increasingly isolated since&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-day-trump-harris-white-house-83c8e246ab97f5b97be45cdc156af4e2">the loss to Trump by Vice President Kamala Harris</a>, who jumped in to the race after the president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-panic-performance-democrats-debate-trump-cnn-fe6546f2c9762e80e6067ba10abedea8">catastrophic debate against Trump in June</a>&nbsp;forced his exit from the election.

He is still struggling to resolve thorny foreign policy issues in the Middle East and Europe. And he must reckon with his decision to seek reelection despite his advanced age, which helped return the Oval Office to Trump, a man he had warned time and again was a threat to democratic norms.

Trump has gleefully planned to undo Biden’s signature achievements on climate change and reverse the Democrat's efforts to reinvigorate the country’s alliances, all while standing poised to take credit for a strengthening economy and billions in infrastructure investments that are in the pipeline for the coming years.

And now, Biden has handed the Republican a pretext to carry through with sweeping plans to upend the Department of Justice as the Republican vows to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-harris-wisconsin-election-economy-a6923d6c5758dabb6d959417ea9d7d12">seek retribution against supposed adversaries.</a>

“This pardon is just deflating for those of us who’ve been out there for a few years yelling about what a threat Trump is,” Republican Joe Walsh, a vocal Trump critic, said on MSNBC. “‘Nobody’s above the law,’ we’ve been screaming. Well, Joe Biden just made clear his son Hunter is above the law.”

Jean-Pierre said Monday from Air Force One that the president wrestled with the decision but ultimately felt his son’s case had been tainted by politics, though she tried to thread the needle — insisting he had faith in the Justice Department.

“He believes in the justice system, but he also believes that politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” she said.

But Trump has already made very clear his intent to disrupt federal law enforcement with his initial nomination of outspoken critics like&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/matt-gaetz-attorney-general-trump-congress-9718a3de53c1e3436a52a14a8e17775a">former Rep. Matt Gaetz</a>&nbsp;to be attorney general&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-fbi-kash-patel-what-happens-next-6b2678baba229362d25b468ed2f61f87">and Kash Patel to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray</a>, who nominally still has more than two years left in his term. (Gaetz ended up quickly withdrawing his name amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations.)

Reacting to the pardon, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement: “That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people."

In a social media post, the president-elect himself called the pardon “such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice.”

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump asked. He was referring to those convicted in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters aiming to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.

Biden and his spokespeople had repeatedly and flatly ruled out the president granting his son a pardon.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/president-joe-biden-hunter-biden-18efb958a5365eebda5bb3da411c4326">In June,</a>&nbsp;Biden told reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”

In July, press secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/karine-jean-pierre">Karine Jean-Pierre</a>&nbsp;told reporters: “It's still a no. It will be a no. It is a no. And I don’t have anything else to add. Will he pardon his son? No."

In November, days after Trump's victory, Jean-Pierre reiterated that message: “Our answer stands, which is no."

Neither Biden nor the White House explained the shift in the president's thinking, and it was his broken promise as much as his act of clemency that was a lightning rod.

He is hardly the first president to pardon a family member or friend entangled in political dealings.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/bill-clinton">Bill Clinton</a>&nbsp;pardoned his brother Roger for drug charges after he had served his sentence roughly a decade earlier. In his final weeks in office,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-charles-kushner-new-jersey-elections-crime-0155d15fa31108fd2c0e6360a3b597dd">Trump pardoned Charles Kushner</a>, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Yet Biden held himself up as placing his respect for the American judicial system and rule of law over his own personal concerns — trying to draw a deliberate contrast with Trump, who tested the bounds of his authority like few predecessors.

Inside the White House, the timing of the pardon was surprising to some who believed Biden would put it off as long as possible, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. It came just after Biden spent extended time over the past week with Hunter and other family members on Nantucket in Massachusetts, a family tradition for Thanksgiving.

“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon.

Some in the administration have privately expressed anguish that the substance of Biden’s statement, including his claim of an unfair politically-tinged prosecution of his son resembled complaints Trump — who faced now-abandoned indictments over his role in trying to subvert the 2020 election — has been making for years about the Justice Department.

Biden said the charges in his son's cases "came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.” Many legal experts agreed that the charges against the younger Biden were somewhat unusual, but the facts of the offenses were hardly in dispute, as Hunter wrote about his gun purchase while addicted to illegal drugs in his memoir and ultimately pleaded guilty to the tax charges.

The pardon too was unusual, coming before Hunter Biden was even sentenced and covering not just the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-hunter-biden-pardon-son-9307d6bade834df77c265cae7d3b7c25">gun and tax offenses against his son,</a>&nbsp;but also anything else he might have done going back to the start of 2014.

It's a move that could limit the ability of the Trump Justice Department to investigate the younger Biden's unsavory foreign business dealings, or to find new ground on which to bring criminal charges related to that time period.

Biden, in his statement, asked for consideration: “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."

WASHINGTON (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-son-hunter-charges-pardon-pledge-24f3007c2d2f467fa48e21bbc7262525">President Joe Biden’s decision to go back</a>&nbsp;on his word and issue a categorical pardon for his son,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/hunter-biden">Hunter</a>, just weeks before his scheduled sentencing on gun and tax convictions was a surprise that wasn't all that surprising.Not to those who had witnessed the president’s shared anguish over his two sons after the boys survived a car crash that killed Biden's first wife and a daughter more than a half-century ago. Or to those who heard the president regularly lament the death&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-beau-cancer-knock-ireland-0b52c7f9fa4e4c135dd49f0c00bdc473">of his older son, Beau</a>, from cancer or voice concerns — largely in private — about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-hunter-laptop-ba96537a686d04dc3773552cfa13deeb">Hunter’s sobriety and health after years of deep addiction.</a><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Q: &quot;Dr. Biden, do you support the Pardon of Hunter?&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/FLOTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FLOTUS</a> Dr. Jill Biden: “Of course I support the pardon of my son.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/H9qzM0wMp3">pic.twitter.com/H9qzM0wMp3</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1863662683196723290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>But by choosing to put his family first, the 82-year-old president — who had pledged to restore a fractured public’s trust in the nation’s institutions and respect for the rule of law — has raised new questions about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-presidential-election-2024-49f2146c848656c9588986e83812b6d8">his already teetering legacy.</a><figure>
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 </figure>“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” Colorado's Democratic Gov.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/jared-polis">Jared Polis</a>&nbsp;wrote in a post on X. He added that while he could sympathize with Hunter Biden’s struggles, “no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”Biden aides and allies had been resigned to the prospect of the president using his extraordinary power in the waning days of his presidency to ensure his son wouldn't see time behind bars, especially after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;’s win. The president's supporters have long viewed Biden's commitment to his family as an asset overall, even if Hunter's personal conduct&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-irs-joe-biden-election-2024-69cc61586da9f624375e25b0c00c74f4">and tangled business dealings</a>&nbsp;were seen as a persistent liability.<figure>
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 </figure>But the pardon comes as Biden has become increasingly isolated since&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-day-trump-harris-white-house-83c8e246ab97f5b97be45cdc156af4e2">the loss to Trump by Vice President Kamala Harris</a>, who jumped in to the race after the president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-panic-performance-democrats-debate-trump-cnn-fe6546f2c9762e80e6067ba10abedea8">catastrophic debate against Trump in June</a>&nbsp;forced his exit from the election.He is still struggling to resolve thorny foreign policy issues in the Middle East and Europe. And he must reckon with his decision to seek reelection despite his advanced age, which helped return the Oval Office to Trump, a man he had warned time and again was a threat to democratic norms.Trump has gleefully planned to undo Biden’s signature achievements on climate change and reverse the Democrat's efforts to reinvigorate the country’s alliances, all while standing poised to take credit for a strengthening economy and billions in infrastructure investments that are in the pipeline for the coming years.And now, Biden has handed the Republican a pretext to carry through with sweeping plans to upend the Department of Justice as the Republican vows to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-harris-wisconsin-election-economy-a6923d6c5758dabb6d959417ea9d7d12">seek retribution against supposed adversaries.</a>“This pardon is just deflating for those of us who’ve been out there for a few years yelling about what a threat Trump is,” Republican Joe Walsh, a vocal Trump critic, said on MSNBC. “‘Nobody’s above the law,’ we’ve been screaming. Well, Joe Biden just made clear his son Hunter is above the law.”Jean-Pierre said Monday from Air Force One that the president wrestled with the decision but ultimately felt his son’s case had been tainted by politics, though she tried to thread the needle — insisting he had faith in the Justice Department.“He believes in the justice system, but he also believes that politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” she said.But Trump has already made very clear his intent to disrupt federal law enforcement with his initial nomination of outspoken critics like&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/matt-gaetz-attorney-general-trump-congress-9718a3de53c1e3436a52a14a8e17775a">former Rep. Matt Gaetz</a>&nbsp;to be attorney general&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-fbi-kash-patel-what-happens-next-6b2678baba229362d25b468ed2f61f87">and Kash Patel to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray</a>, who nominally still has more than two years left in his term. (Gaetz ended up quickly withdrawing his name amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations.)Reacting to the pardon, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement: “That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people."In a social media post, the president-elect himself called the pardon “such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice.”“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump asked. He was referring to those convicted in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters aiming to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.Biden and his spokespeople had repeatedly and flatly ruled out the president granting his son a pardon.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/president-joe-biden-hunter-biden-18efb958a5365eebda5bb3da411c4326">In June,</a>&nbsp;Biden told reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”In July, press secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/karine-jean-pierre">Karine Jean-Pierre</a>&nbsp;told reporters: “It's still a no. It will be a no. It is a no. And I don’t have anything else to add. Will he pardon his son? No."In November, days after Trump's victory, Jean-Pierre reiterated that message: “Our answer stands, which is no."Neither Biden nor the White House explained the shift in the president's thinking, and it was his broken promise as much as his act of clemency that was a lightning rod.He is hardly the first president to pardon a family member or friend entangled in political dealings.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/bill-clinton">Bill Clinton</a>&nbsp;pardoned his brother Roger for drug charges after he had served his sentence roughly a decade earlier. In his final weeks in office,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-charles-kushner-new-jersey-elections-crime-0155d15fa31108fd2c0e6360a3b597dd">Trump pardoned Charles Kushner</a>, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.Yet Biden held himself up as placing his respect for the American judicial system and rule of law over his own personal concerns — trying to draw a deliberate contrast with Trump, who tested the bounds of his authority like few predecessors.Inside the White House, the timing of the pardon was surprising to some who believed Biden would put it off as long as possible, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. It came just after Biden spent extended time over the past week with Hunter and other family members on Nantucket in Massachusetts, a family tradition for Thanksgiving.“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said in a statement announcing the pardon.Some in the administration have privately expressed anguish that the substance of Biden’s statement, including his claim of an unfair politically-tinged prosecution of his son resembled complaints Trump — who faced now-abandoned indictments over his role in trying to subvert the 2020 election — has been making for years about the Justice Department.Biden said the charges in his son's cases "came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.” Many legal experts agreed that the charges against the younger Biden were somewhat unusual, but the facts of the offenses were hardly in dispute, as Hunter wrote about his gun purchase while addicted to illegal drugs in his memoir and ultimately pleaded guilty to the tax charges.The pardon too was unusual, coming before Hunter Biden was even sentenced and covering not just the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-hunter-biden-pardon-son-9307d6bade834df77c265cae7d3b7c25">gun and tax offenses against his son,</a>&nbsp;but also anything else he might have done going back to the start of 2014.It's a move that could limit the ability of the Trump Justice Department to investigate the younger Biden's unsavory foreign business dealings, or to find new ground on which to bring criminal charges related to that time period.Biden, in his statement, asked for consideration: “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."___

🎥First lady responds to questions on Hunter Biden's pardon

LABETTE COUNTY —&nbsp;Authorities are investigating a fatal house fire in Labette County.

On Sunday, the Labette County Sheriff's office requested the Kansas&nbsp;State Fire Marshal (KSFM) Investigation Division to assist with a fatality fire at 630 Iowa Street in Oswego, Kansas. The Fire Marshal's office sent two Special Agents to assist with the investigation.

&nbsp;The single-family residence was occupied by two adult victims who were pulled from the structure by emergency responders. 

Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and both victims died because of their injuries. Identification of the victims is still ongoing, and autopsies are pending as part of the investigation.

There is nothing suspicious about the fire. The cause is still under investigation.&nbsp; It is unknown if there were smoke detectors in the home.

LABETTE COUNTY —&nbsp;Authorities are investigating a fatal house fire in Labette County.On Sunday, the Labette County Sheriff's office requested the Kansas&nbsp;State Fire Marshal (KSFM) Investigation Division to assist with a fatality fire at 630 Iowa Street in Oswego, Kansas. The Fire Marshal's office sent two Special Agents to assist with the investigation.&nbsp;The single-family residence was occupied by two adult victims who were pulled from the structure by emergency responders. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and both victims died because of their injuries. Identification of the victims is still ongoing, and autopsies are pending as part of the investigation.There is nothing suspicious about the fire. The cause is still under investigation.&nbsp; It is unknown if there were smoke detectors in the home.

Fire Marshal: 2 dead after fire at Kansas home

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's ambassador to the United States said Sunday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was successful in getting President-elect Donald Trump and key Cabinet nominees to understand that lumping Canada in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S. is unfair.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador in Washington, told The Associated Press in an interview that Trudeau's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/canada-us-trudeau-trump-tariffs-4129d793d8e1a60fd6d1f45697901a21">dinner with Trump</a>&nbsp;on Friday was a very important step in trying to get Trump to back away from&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trudeau-trump-canada-tariffs-mexico-border-e0ee7f9b3dddc80d1260585c11869fff">threatened tariffs</a>&nbsp;on all products from the major American trading partner.

Hillman was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump.

<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Trump</a>&nbsp;threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said in a social media post last Monday he would impose a 25% tax on all products&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-trump-trade-policy-economy-0fb9740a4b42c734c75b64ba09c901d5">entering the U.S.</a>&nbsp;from Canada and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-tariffs-trump-retaliate-sheinbaum-fac0b0c6ee8c425a928418de7332b74a">Mexico</a>&nbsp;as one of his first executive orders.

Hillman said Trudeau asked to see Trump in person in a phone call Monday and Trump invited him to dinner on Friday.

At the dinner, Hillman said the case was made to Trump that there is no comparison between the Canada-U.S. border and Mexico-U.S. border.

“The message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood,” Hillman said.

Hillman said the bulk of Friday night's dinner centered around Trump's border concerns. The ambassador said a priority of Trudeau's was to point out the degree of difference.

Hillman said there really is no comparison, noting there is essentially zero trafficking of fentanyl from Canada to the United States. She said there are seizures but authorities say those are personal use seizures and not criminal trafficking. She said that 99.8% of the fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities in the U.S. comes from Mexico.

“Also with respect to individuals, illegal individuals crossing illegally, Canada last year was less than one percent, 0.6 percent were of total interceptions from Canada,” Hillman said.

U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Hillman said the migrant numbers are coming down since the summer.

“The facts are hard to deny,” Hillman said.

But Hillman said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.

She also noted an agreement between Canada and the United States that allows for migrants caught crossing illegally into the United States to be sent back to Canada. She said that was talked about. She said Mexico and the U.S. do not have a similar agreement.

At the dinner that lasted three hours, Hillman said America's trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Hillman said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. are energy exports and prices have been high.

“Trade balances are something that he focuses so it’s important to engage in that conversation but to put it into context," Hillman said.

“We are one tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the U.S. than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that."

Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser, and the three men’s wives.

Also at the dinner were David McCormick, just elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser under Trump, as well as Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff.

Hillman said Canadian and incoming Trump administration officials will work on Trump's concerns in the coming weeks. Trump called the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trudeau-trump-canada-tariffs-mexico-border-e0ee7f9b3dddc80d1260585c11869fff">talks “productive”</a>&nbsp;on Sunday in a social media post but signaled no retreat from his tariff pledge.

Hillman said Trump and Trudeau "get along well" and the dinner was also a chance to socialize. She said Trump used his iPad to play music and she said Trump told Trudeau he's a big fan of Canadian singer Celine Dion.

“I don’t think it could have been better to be frank. Okay, I’ll take that back, I’ll change that. If he obviously said there would be no tariffs that would have been better but there was no realistic expectation of that,” Hillman said.

Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.

Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.

<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Trump</a>&nbsp;threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-trump-trade-policy-economy-0fb9740a4b42c734c75b64ba09c901d5">entering the U.S.</a>&nbsp;from Canada and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-tariffs-trump-retaliate-sheinbaum-fac0b0c6ee8c425a928418de7332b74a">Mexico</a>&nbsp;as one of his first executive orders.

A person familiar with the details called it a "positive wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.” The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said topics included trade, border security, fentanyl, defense, Ukraine, NATO, China and pipelines, as well as the the Group of Seven meeting in Canada next year.

Although Trump once called Trudeau&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/5131817a9cd449ff964b221a75eafe02">“weak” and “dishonest”</a>&nbsp;during his first term, ties between the two countries have remained among the closest in the world. Trudeau is the first leader from the G7 countries to visit Trump since the Nov. 5 election.

Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump's pick to lead the Interior Department, Mike Waltz, Trump's choice to be his national security adviser, and the three men's wives.

Also at the dinner were David McCormick, just elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser under Trump, as well as Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Trudeau's chief of staff.

McCormick posted a photo on X of the group seated at a round table on the patio of Mar-a-Lago. At the table behind the president-elect a boy can be seen mugging for the camera.

Trump’s transition did not respond to questions about what they had discussed or whether the conversation alleviated Trump’s concerns about the border.

A smiling Trudeau declined comment upon returning to his West Palm Beach hotel late Friday.

Trudeau said earlier Friday that he would resolve the tariffs issue by talking to Trump. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday after speaking with Trump that she is confident&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-china-mexico-canada-fentanyl-inflation-cf905e75e863511baef959a80ee2eea2">a tariff war with the United States</a>&nbsp;will be averted.

“We’re going to work together to meet some of the concerns,” Trudeau told reporters in Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada. “But ultimately it is through lots of real constructive conversations with President Trump that I am going to have, that will keep us moving forward on the right track for all Canadians.”

Trudeau said Trump got elected because he promised to bring down the cost of groceries but now he's talking about adding 25% to the cost of all kinds of products including potatoes from Prince Edward Island.

“It is important to understand that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” Trudeau said.

“Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for Americans citizens as well and hurting American industry and business,” he added.

Those tariffs could essentially blow up the North American trade pact that Trump’s team negotiated during his initial term. Trudeau noted they were able to successfully re-negotiate the deal, which he calls a “win win” for both countries.

“We can work together as we did previously,” Trudeau said.

Trump made the tariff threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.

The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.

Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border are few in comparison to the Mexican border. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.

Canadian officials say lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but say they are ready to make new investments in border security.

Trudeau called Trump after he made his social media posts on the border.

When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-04e38d60b85349c4bbf5cb084b35bdd0">billions of new duties in 2018</a>&nbsp;against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Canada is already&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/canada-trump-tariffs-trudeau-c741393c2f7c7545e9714839cfbbda45">examining possible retaliatory</a>&nbsp;tariffs on certain items from the U.S. should Trump follow through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a senior official told The Associated Press this week.

A government official said Canada is preparing for every eventuality and has started thinking about what items to target with tariffs in retaliation. The official stressed no decision has been made. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

“Canada has reason to fear because Trump is impulsive, often influenced by the last thing he sees on Fox News,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “He can leverage that by catering to what he thinks will sound and look good to the public rather than to what happens or will happen.”

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's ambassador to the United States said Sunday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was successful in getting President-elect Donald Trump and key Cabinet nominees to understand that lumping Canada in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S. is unfair.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Thanks for dinner last night, President Trump. I look forward to the work we can do together, again. <a href="https://t.co/lAWFMTtQt7">pic.twitter.com/lAWFMTtQt7</a>&mdash; Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) <a href="https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1862952145550475414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador in Washington, told The Associated Press in an interview that Trudeau's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/canada-us-trudeau-trump-tariffs-4129d793d8e1a60fd6d1f45697901a21">dinner with Trump</a>&nbsp;on Friday was a very important step in trying to get Trump to back away from&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trudeau-trump-canada-tariffs-mexico-border-e0ee7f9b3dddc80d1260585c11869fff">threatened tariffs</a>&nbsp;on all products from the major American trading partner.Hillman was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump.<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Trump</a>&nbsp;threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said in a social media post last Monday he would impose a 25% tax on all products&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-trump-trade-policy-economy-0fb9740a4b42c734c75b64ba09c901d5">entering the U.S.</a>&nbsp;from Canada and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-tariffs-trump-retaliate-sheinbaum-fac0b0c6ee8c425a928418de7332b74a">Mexico</a>&nbsp;as one of his first executive orders.Hillman said Trudeau asked to see Trump in person in a phone call Monday and Trump invited him to dinner on Friday.At the dinner, Hillman said the case was made to Trump that there is no comparison between the Canada-U.S. border and Mexico-U.S. border.“The message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood,” Hillman said.Hillman said the bulk of Friday night's dinner centered around Trump's border concerns. The ambassador said a priority of Trudeau's was to point out the degree of difference.Hillman said there really is no comparison, noting there is essentially zero trafficking of fentanyl from Canada to the United States. She said there are seizures but authorities say those are personal use seizures and not criminal trafficking. She said that 99.8% of the fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities in the U.S. comes from Mexico.“Also with respect to individuals, illegal individuals crossing illegally, Canada last year was less than one percent, 0.6 percent were of total interceptions from Canada,” Hillman said.U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Hillman said the migrant numbers are coming down since the summer.“The facts are hard to deny,” Hillman said.But Hillman said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.She also noted an agreement between Canada and the United States that allows for migrants caught crossing illegally into the United States to be sent back to Canada. She said that was talked about. She said Mexico and the U.S. do not have a similar agreement.At the dinner that lasted three hours, Hillman said America's trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Hillman said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. are energy exports and prices have been high.“Trade balances are something that he focuses so it’s important to engage in that conversation but to put it into context," Hillman said.“We are one tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the U.S. than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that."Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser, and the three men’s wives.Also at the dinner were David McCormick, just elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser under Trump, as well as Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff.Hillman said Canadian and incoming Trump administration officials will work on Trump's concerns in the coming weeks. Trump called the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trudeau-trump-canada-tariffs-mexico-border-e0ee7f9b3dddc80d1260585c11869fff">talks “productive”</a>&nbsp;on Sunday in a social media post but signaled no retreat from his tariff pledge.Hillman said Trump and Trudeau "get along well" and the dinner was also a chance to socialize. She said Trump used his iPad to play music and she said Trump told Trudeau he's a big fan of Canadian singer Celine Dion.“I don’t think it could have been better to be frank. Okay, I’ll take that back, I’ll change that. If he obviously said there would be no tariffs that would have been better but there was no realistic expectation of that,” Hillman said.Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.-----WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Trump</a>&nbsp;threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-trump-trade-policy-economy-0fb9740a4b42c734c75b64ba09c901d5">entering the U.S.</a>&nbsp;from Canada and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-tariffs-trump-retaliate-sheinbaum-fac0b0c6ee8c425a928418de7332b74a">Mexico</a>&nbsp;as one of his first executive orders.A person familiar with the details called it a "positive wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.” The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said topics included trade, border security, fentanyl, defense, Ukraine, NATO, China and pipelines, as well as the the Group of Seven meeting in Canada next year.Although Trump once called Trudeau&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/5131817a9cd449ff964b221a75eafe02">“weak” and “dishonest”</a>&nbsp;during his first term, ties between the two countries have remained among the closest in the world. Trudeau is the first leader from the G7 countries to visit Trump since the Nov. 5 election.Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump's pick to lead the Interior Department, Mike Waltz, Trump's choice to be his national security adviser, and the three men's wives.Also at the dinner were David McCormick, just elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser under Trump, as well as Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Trudeau's chief of staff.McCormick posted a photo on X of the group seated at a round table on the patio of Mar-a-Lago. At the table behind the president-elect a boy can be seen mugging for the camera.Trump’s transition did not respond to questions about what they had discussed or whether the conversation alleviated Trump’s concerns about the border.A smiling Trudeau declined comment upon returning to his West Palm Beach hotel late Friday.Trudeau said earlier Friday that he would resolve the tariffs issue by talking to Trump. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday after speaking with Trump that she is confident&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-china-mexico-canada-fentanyl-inflation-cf905e75e863511baef959a80ee2eea2">a tariff war with the United States</a>&nbsp;will be averted.“We’re going to work together to meet some of the concerns,” Trudeau told reporters in Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada. “But ultimately it is through lots of real constructive conversations with President Trump that I am going to have, that will keep us moving forward on the right track for all Canadians.”Trudeau said Trump got elected because he promised to bring down the cost of groceries but now he's talking about adding 25% to the cost of all kinds of products including potatoes from Prince Edward Island.“It is important to understand that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” Trudeau said.“Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for Americans citizens as well and hurting American industry and business,” he added.Those tariffs could essentially blow up the North American trade pact that Trump’s team negotiated during his initial term. Trudeau noted they were able to successfully re-negotiate the deal, which he calls a “win win” for both countries.“We can work together as we did previously,” Trudeau said.Trump made the tariff threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border are few in comparison to the Mexican border. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.Canadian officials say lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but say they are ready to make new investments in border security.Trudeau called Trump after he made his social media posts on the border.When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-04e38d60b85349c4bbf5cb084b35bdd0">billions of new duties in 2018</a>&nbsp;against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.Canada is already&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/canada-trump-tariffs-trudeau-c741393c2f7c7545e9714839cfbbda45">examining possible retaliatory</a>&nbsp;tariffs on certain items from the U.S. should Trump follow through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a senior official told The Associated Press this week.A government official said Canada is preparing for every eventuality and has started thinking about what items to target with tariffs in retaliation. The official stressed no decision has been made. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.“Canada has reason to fear because Trump is impulsive, often influenced by the last thing he sees on Fox News,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “He can leverage that by catering to what he thinks will sound and look good to the public rather than to what happens or will happen.”___

What Canadian Prime Minister, Trump discussed in Florida 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls — and terrorizing those who tried to fight back — is dead, prosecutors said as his trial was set to begin Monday.

Prosecutors say female residents of poor neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas, feared that if they crossed paths with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-civil-rights-violations-c465a1483c9295eb465847fb8c3463eb">Roger Golubski,</a>&nbsp;he’d demand sexual favors and threaten to harm or jail their relatives.

Golubski, 71, was facing six felony counts of violating women’s civil rights. But he did not appear in court Monday morning for the start of jury selection. Prosecutors later confirmed in court that Golubski has died. They did not say how or when he died.

His attorney, Christopher Joseph, said his client “was despondent about the media coverage.” He did not elaborate.

U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse dismissed the case against Golubski at prosecutors’ request. Joseph called the death “truly unexpected.”

“I don’t know the details,” he told reporters as he walked away from the courtroom where jury selection had been set to begin.

The case has outraged the community and deepened the historical distrust of law enforcement.

The prosecution follows earlier&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-fd1d4d05e561462a85abe50e7eaed4ec">reports of similar abuse</a>&nbsp;allegations across the country where hundreds of officers have lost their badges after allegations of sexual assaults.

Golubski was accused of sexually assaulting one woman starting when she was barely a teenager and another after her sons were arrested.

About 50 people rallied outside the federal courthouse Monday morning in freezing temperatures to show their support for women who’ve said they were victimized by Golubski. They held signs that said, “Justice now!”

The trial is the latest in a string of lawsuits and criminal allegations that has led the county prosecutor’s office to begin a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-bd0898c8649b1ede27e2c3749547bbed">$1.7 million</a>&nbsp;effort to reexamine cases Golubski worked on during his 35 years on the force. One double murder case Golubski investigated already has resulted in an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-03a51b0fe56481f586ef8e031d2ffc2c">exoneration</a>, and an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-arts-and-entertainment-crime-police-54f4c7a47df11cd937aacdb180b4b25e">organization run by rapper Jay-Z</a>&nbsp;is suing to obtain police records.

Golubski had pleaded not guilty, and his attorney said that lawsuits over the allegations were an “inspiration for fabrication” by his accusers. But prosecutors said that, along with the two women whose accounts are the heart of the criminal case, seven others were going to testify that Golubski abused or harassed them.

“Every time I turn around, I’m looking," said Jermeka Hobbs, who has filed a separate lawsuit against Golubski and was not going to be a witness in the trial. Her lawsuit says she was groomed to be one of “Golubski’s girls” and submitted to sexual advances fearing that he would bust her for drugs. “I’m thinking somebody is after me. I have no peace at all."

A veteran detective patrolling poor neighborhoods

Fellow officers once revered Golubski for his ability to clear cases, and he rose to the rank of captain in Kansas City, Kansas, before retiring there in 2010 and then working on a suburban police force for six more years. His former partner served a stint as police chief.

Prior to his death, Golubski had been under&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/police-kansas-city-civil-rights-violations-ae8bc840668af84d343f444bf8aef79a">house arrest</a>&nbsp;and undergoing kidney dialysis treatments three times a week.

Joseph said in a statement that some of the allegations against Golubski are 20 to 30 years old, adding, “In public filings, the prosecution has acknowledged that the verdict will turn entirely on the accusers’ credibility.”

But Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurion, a New Jersey nonprofit working to free innocent people, described Golubski in a court hearing as the “dirtiest cop I’ve ever encountered.”

Stories about Golubski remained just whispers in the neighborhoods near Kansas City's former cattle stockyards partly because of the extreme poverty of a place where some homes are boarded up. One neighborhood where Golubski worked is part of Kansas' second-poorest zip code.

Crime was abundant there, as were drug dealers and prostitutes, said Max Seifert, a former Kansas City, Kansas, police officer who graduated from the police academy with Golubski in 1975.

A fellow officer: ‘A boys will be boys type of thing’

Seifert said police misconduct was tolerated in the department. He described how informants and Golubski’s ex-wife complained that Golubski was soliciting prostitutes. Golubski also was caught having sex with a woman in his office, he said.

“It’s kind of like a boys will be boys type thing,” said Seifert, who was forced into early retirement for refusing to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/f877f311412b422caa4d3c230c388dc3">conceal a motorist’s beating</a>&nbsp;by a federal agent in 2003.

McCloskey said in an interview that Golubski had women "at his mercy.”

The inquiry into Golubski stems from the case of Lamonte McIntyre, who started writing to McCloskey’s nonprofit nearly two decades ago.

McIntyre was just 17 in 1994 when he was arrested and charged in connection with a double homicide, within hours of the crimes. He had an alibi; no physical evidence linked him to the killings; and an eyewitness believed the killer was an underling of a local drug dealer. Golubski and the dealer have since been charged in a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-337f9df63faf6c5ff8d3d50623b902c2">separate federal case</a>&nbsp;of running a violent sex trafficking operation.

The eyewitness only testified that McIntyre was the killer after Golubski and a now disbarred&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/michael-brown-kansas-3dba779f0276b5821294377938677246">attorney</a>&nbsp;threatened to take her children away, she alleged in a lawsuit.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/3e379716ed9e4dba83412311eaadfd08">McIntyre's mother</a>&nbsp;said in a 2014 affidavit that she wonders whether her refusal to grant regular sexual favors to Golubski prompted him to retaliate against her son.

“She, like many people in the community, just viewed the police as all-powerful,” said Cheryl Pilate, an attorney who helped&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/f0aeacf5fd0e4297a8d7b0ca4cda363e">free McIntyre</a>&nbsp;in 2017.

In 2022, the local government agreed to pay $12.5 million to McIntyre and his mother to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-kansas-city-96f163ee13c721c0ab53899dcad05897">settle a lawsuit</a>&nbsp;after a deposition in which Golubski invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent 555 times. The state also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-03a51b0fe56481f586ef8e031d2ffc2c">paid McIntyre</a>&nbsp;$1.5 million.

“That was the thread that gave people some courage,” said Lindsay Runnels, who serves on the board of the Midwest Innocence Project.

Women say they were threatened and mocked

Prosecutors say Golubski drove one of the women at the center of their criminal case to a cemetery and told her to find a spot to dig her own grave. He sexually assaulted her repeatedly, starting when she was just in middle school, leading her to suffer a miscarriage, court filings say.

Once, prosecutors say, he forced her to crawl on the ground with a dog leash around her neck in a remote spot near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. With no one around, he is accused of chanting, “Down by the river, said a hank a pank; Where they won’t find her until she stank."

Golubski introduced himself to Ophelia Williams, the other woman at the center of the case, by complimenting her legs and nightgown as police searched her home, prosecutors said.

Williams was terrified at the time because her 14-year-old twins had just been arrested in a double homicide. They ultimately admitted to the crime so police would free their 13-year-old brother, Williams said in a separate&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-kansas-police-abuse-lawsuit-golubski-ae4d10549994de555df22b40546642d8">lawsuit</a>.

Golubski began sexually assaulting her, alternating between threatening her and claiming he could help her sons, according to court records in the criminal case. The twins are now 40 and remain behind bars. The lawsuit she is part of questions their confessions.

The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Williams has told her story publicly.

Williams said in her lawsuit that she once mentioned making a complaint. She claims Golubski told her: “Report me to who, the police? I am the police."

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls did not appear for his trial Monday, prompting authorities to issue an arrest warrant.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-civil-rights-violations-c465a1483c9295eb465847fb8c3463eb">Roger Golubski</a>, 71, failed to appear in federal court Monday as jury selection was about to begin. Craig Beam, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Marshal’s Service, confirmed that an arrest warrant has been issued.

Golubski faces six felony counts of violating women’s civil rights. Prosecutors say Golubski demanded sexual favors from female residents of poor neighborhoods and would sometimes threaten to jail their relatives if they turned him down.

When Golubski failed to show up in court on Monday, his attorney, Christopher Joseph, said his client “was despondent about the media coverage.” He did not elaborate.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls and terrorizing those who tried to fight back is about to go on federal trial, part of a tangle of cases tied to decades of alleged abuse.

Prosecutors say female residents of poor neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas, feared that if they crossed paths with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-civil-rights-violations-c465a1483c9295eb465847fb8c3463eb">Roger Golubski,</a>&nbsp;he'd demand sexual favors and threaten to harm or jail their relatives. He is charged with six felony counts of violating women's civil rights, and jury selection in his trial is set to begin Monday in a federal courthouse in Topeka.

The case has outraged the community and deepened the historical distrust of law enforcement, often seen as being more heavy-handed in predominately Black neighborhoods.

Golubski, now 71, is accused of sexually assaulting one woman starting when she was barely a teenager and another after her sons were arrested. If a jury convicts him, he could die in prison.

Golubski has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney has said that lawsuits over the allegations are an “inspiration for fabrication” by his accusers. But prosecutors said that, along with the two women whose accounts are the heart of the criminal case, seven others will testify that Golubski abused or harassed them.

“Every time I turn around, I’m looking," said Jermeka Hobbs, who has filed a separate lawsuit against Golubski and is not a witness in the trial. Her lawsuit says she was groomed to be one of “Golubski’s girls” and submitted to sexual advances fearing that he would bust her for drugs. “I’m thinking somebody is after me. I have no peace at all."

Golubski now looks nothing like the influential officer he was. He is under&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/police-kansas-city-civil-rights-violations-ae8bc840668af84d343f444bf8aef79a">house arrest</a>&nbsp;and undergoing kidney dialysis treatments three times a week. That will limit his trial to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

His attorney, Chris Joseph, said in a statement that some of the allegations against Golubski are 20 to 30 years old, adding, “In public filings, the prosecution has acknowledged that the verdict will turn entirely on the accusers’ credibility.”

Williams was terrified at the time because her 14-year-old twins had just been arrested in a double homicide. They ultimately admitted to the crime so police would free their 13-year-old brother, Williams said in a separate&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-kansas-police-abuse-lawsuit-golubski-ae4d10549994de555df22b40546642d8">lawsuit.</a>

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663616484786.png" alt="Golubski-photo Shawnee Co. Jail" />
 <figcaption>Golubski-photo Shawnee Co. Jail</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls — and terrorizing those who tried to fight back — is dead, prosecutors said as his trial was set to begin Monday.Prosecutors say female residents of poor neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas, feared that if they crossed paths with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-civil-rights-violations-c465a1483c9295eb465847fb8c3463eb">Roger Golubski,</a>&nbsp;he’d demand sexual favors and threaten to harm or jail their relatives.Golubski, 71, was facing six felony counts of violating women’s civil rights. But he did not appear in court Monday morning for the start of jury selection. Prosecutors later confirmed in court that Golubski has died. They did not say how or when he died.His attorney, Christopher Joseph, said his client “was despondent about the media coverage.” He did not elaborate.U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse dismissed the case against Golubski at prosecutors’ request. Joseph called the death “truly unexpected.”“I don’t know the details,” he told reporters as he walked away from the courtroom where jury selection had been set to begin.The case has outraged the community and deepened the historical distrust of law enforcement.The prosecution follows earlier&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-fd1d4d05e561462a85abe50e7eaed4ec">reports of similar abuse</a>&nbsp;allegations across the country where hundreds of officers have lost their badges after allegations of sexual assaults.Golubski was accused of sexually assaulting one woman starting when she was barely a teenager and another after her sons were arrested.About 50 people rallied outside the federal courthouse Monday morning in freezing temperatures to show their support for women who’ve said they were victimized by Golubski. They held signs that said, “Justice now!”The trial is the latest in a string of lawsuits and criminal allegations that has led the county prosecutor’s office to begin a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-bd0898c8649b1ede27e2c3749547bbed">$1.7 million</a>&nbsp;effort to reexamine cases Golubski worked on during his 35 years on the force. One double murder case Golubski investigated already has resulted in an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-03a51b0fe56481f586ef8e031d2ffc2c">exoneration</a>, and an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-arts-and-entertainment-crime-police-54f4c7a47df11cd937aacdb180b4b25e">organization run by rapper Jay-Z</a>&nbsp;is suing to obtain police records.Golubski had pleaded not guilty, and his attorney said that lawsuits over the allegations were an “inspiration for fabrication” by his accusers. But prosecutors said that, along with the two women whose accounts are the heart of the criminal case, seven others were going to testify that Golubski abused or harassed them.“Every time I turn around, I’m looking," said Jermeka Hobbs, who has filed a separate lawsuit against Golubski and was not going to be a witness in the trial. Her lawsuit says she was groomed to be one of “Golubski’s girls” and submitted to sexual advances fearing that he would bust her for drugs. “I’m thinking somebody is after me. I have no peace at all."<h2>A veteran detective patrolling poor neighborhoods</h2>Fellow officers once revered Golubski for his ability to clear cases, and he rose to the rank of captain in Kansas City, Kansas, before retiring there in 2010 and then working on a suburban police force for six more years. His former partner served a stint as police chief.Prior to his death, Golubski had been under&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/police-kansas-city-civil-rights-violations-ae8bc840668af84d343f444bf8aef79a">house arrest</a>&nbsp;and undergoing kidney dialysis treatments three times a week.Joseph said in a statement that some of the allegations against Golubski are 20 to 30 years old, adding, “In public filings, the prosecution has acknowledged that the verdict will turn entirely on the accusers’ credibility.”But Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurion, a New Jersey nonprofit working to free innocent people, described Golubski in a court hearing as the “dirtiest cop I’ve ever encountered.”Stories about Golubski remained just whispers in the neighborhoods near Kansas City's former cattle stockyards partly because of the extreme poverty of a place where some homes are boarded up. One neighborhood where Golubski worked is part of Kansas' second-poorest zip code.Crime was abundant there, as were drug dealers and prostitutes, said Max Seifert, a former Kansas City, Kansas, police officer who graduated from the police academy with Golubski in 1975.<h2>A fellow officer: ‘A boys will be boys type of thing’</h2>Seifert said police misconduct was tolerated in the department. He described how informants and Golubski’s ex-wife complained that Golubski was soliciting prostitutes. Golubski also was caught having sex with a woman in his office, he said.“It’s kind of like a boys will be boys type thing,” said Seifert, who was forced into early retirement for refusing to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/f877f311412b422caa4d3c230c388dc3">conceal a motorist’s beating</a>&nbsp;by a federal agent in 2003.McCloskey said in an interview that Golubski had women "at his mercy.”The inquiry into Golubski stems from the case of Lamonte McIntyre, who started writing to McCloskey’s nonprofit nearly two decades ago.McIntyre was just 17 in 1994 when he was arrested and charged in connection with a double homicide, within hours of the crimes. He had an alibi; no physical evidence linked him to the killings; and an eyewitness believed the killer was an underling of a local drug dealer. Golubski and the dealer have since been charged in a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-337f9df63faf6c5ff8d3d50623b902c2">separate federal case</a>&nbsp;of running a violent sex trafficking operation.The eyewitness only testified that McIntyre was the killer after Golubski and a now disbarred&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/michael-brown-kansas-3dba779f0276b5821294377938677246">attorney</a>&nbsp;threatened to take her children away, she alleged in a lawsuit.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/3e379716ed9e4dba83412311eaadfd08">McIntyre's mother</a>&nbsp;said in a 2014 affidavit that she wonders whether her refusal to grant regular sexual favors to Golubski prompted him to retaliate against her son.“She, like many people in the community, just viewed the police as all-powerful,” said Cheryl Pilate, an attorney who helped&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/f0aeacf5fd0e4297a8d7b0ca4cda363e">free McIntyre</a>&nbsp;in 2017.In 2022, the local government agreed to pay $12.5 million to McIntyre and his mother to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-kansas-city-96f163ee13c721c0ab53899dcad05897">settle a lawsuit</a>&nbsp;after a deposition in which Golubski invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent 555 times. The state also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-03a51b0fe56481f586ef8e031d2ffc2c">paid McIntyre</a>&nbsp;$1.5 million.“That was the thread that gave people some courage,” said Lindsay Runnels, who serves on the board of the Midwest Innocence Project.<h2>Women say they were threatened and mocked</h2>Prosecutors say Golubski drove one of the women at the center of their criminal case to a cemetery and told her to find a spot to dig her own grave. He sexually assaulted her repeatedly, starting when she was just in middle school, leading her to suffer a miscarriage, court filings say.Once, prosecutors say, he forced her to crawl on the ground with a dog leash around her neck in a remote spot near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. With no one around, he is accused of chanting, “Down by the river, said a hank a pank; Where they won’t find her until she stank."Golubski introduced himself to Ophelia Williams, the other woman at the center of the case, by complimenting her legs and nightgown as police searched her home, prosecutors said.Williams was terrified at the time because her 14-year-old twins had just been arrested in a double homicide. They ultimately admitted to the crime so police would free their 13-year-old brother, Williams said in a separate&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-kansas-police-abuse-lawsuit-golubski-ae4d10549994de555df22b40546642d8">lawsuit</a>.Golubski began sexually assaulting her, alternating between threatening her and claiming he could help her sons, according to court records in the criminal case. The twins are now 40 and remain behind bars. The lawsuit she is part of questions their confessions.The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Williams has told her story publicly.Williams said in her lawsuit that she once mentioned making a complaint. She claims Golubski told her: “Report me to who, the police? I am the police."___-------------KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls did not appear for his trial Monday, prompting authorities to issue an arrest warrant.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-civil-rights-violations-c465a1483c9295eb465847fb8c3463eb">Roger Golubski</a>, 71, failed to appear in federal court Monday as jury selection was about to begin. Craig Beam, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Marshal’s Service, confirmed that an arrest warrant has been issued.Golubski faces six felony counts of violating women’s civil rights. Prosecutors say Golubski demanded sexual favors from female residents of poor neighborhoods and would sometimes threaten to jail their relatives if they turned him down.When Golubski failed to show up in court on Monday, his attorney, Christopher Joseph, said his client “was despondent about the media coverage.” He did not elaborate.----------KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls and terrorizing those who tried to fight back is about to go on federal trial, part of a tangle of cases tied to decades of alleged abuse.Prosecutors say female residents of poor neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas, feared that if they crossed paths with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-civil-rights-violations-c465a1483c9295eb465847fb8c3463eb">Roger Golubski,</a>&nbsp;he'd demand sexual favors and threaten to harm or jail their relatives. He is charged with six felony counts of violating women's civil rights, and jury selection in his trial is set to begin Monday in a federal courthouse in Topeka.The case has outraged the community and deepened the historical distrust of law enforcement, often seen as being more heavy-handed in predominately Black neighborhoods.Golubski, now 71, is accused of sexually assaulting one woman starting when she was barely a teenager and another after her sons were arrested. If a jury convicts him, he could die in prison.The trial is the latest in a string of lawsuits and criminal allegations that has led the county prosecutor’s office to begin a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-bd0898c8649b1ede27e2c3749547bbed">$1.7 million</a>&nbsp;effort to reexamine cases Golubski worked on during his 35 years on the force. One double murder case Golubski investigated already has resulted in an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-03a51b0fe56481f586ef8e031d2ffc2c">exoneration</a>, and an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-arts-and-entertainment-crime-police-54f4c7a47df11cd937aacdb180b4b25e">organization run by rapper Jay-Z</a>&nbsp;is suing to obtain police records.Golubski has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney has said that lawsuits over the allegations are an “inspiration for fabrication” by his accusers. But prosecutors said that, along with the two women whose accounts are the heart of the criminal case, seven others will testify that Golubski abused or harassed them.“Every time I turn around, I’m looking," said Jermeka Hobbs, who has filed a separate lawsuit against Golubski and is not a witness in the trial. Her lawsuit says she was groomed to be one of “Golubski’s girls” and submitted to sexual advances fearing that he would bust her for drugs. “I’m thinking somebody is after me. I have no peace at all."<h2>A veteran detective patrolling poor neighborhoods</h2>Fellow officers once revered Golubski for his ability to clear cases, and he rose to the rank of captain in Kansas City, Kansas, before retiring there in 2010 and then working on a suburban police force for six more years. His former partner served a stint as police chief.Golubski now looks nothing like the influential officer he was. He is under&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/police-kansas-city-civil-rights-violations-ae8bc840668af84d343f444bf8aef79a">house arrest</a>&nbsp;and undergoing kidney dialysis treatments three times a week. That will limit his trial to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.His attorney, Chris Joseph, said in a statement that some of the allegations against Golubski are 20 to 30 years old, adding, “In public filings, the prosecution has acknowledged that the verdict will turn entirely on the accusers’ credibility.”But Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurion, a New Jersey nonprofit working to free innocent people, described Golubski in a court hearing as the “dirtiest cop I’ve ever encountered.”Stories about Golubski remained just whispers in the neighborhoods near Kansas City's former cattle stockyards partly because of the extreme poverty of a place where some homes are boarded up. One neighborhood where Golubski worked is part of Kansas' second-poorest zip code.Crime was abundant there, as were drug dealers and prostitutes, said Max Seifert, a former Kansas City, Kansas, police officer who graduated from the police academy with Golubski in 1975.<h2>A fellow officer: ‘A boys will be boys type of thing’</h2>Seifert said police misconduct was tolerated in the department. He described how informants and Golubski’s ex-wife complained that Golubski was soliciting prostitutes. Golubski also was caught having sex with a woman in his office, he said.“It’s kind of like a boys will be boys type thing,” said Seifert, who was forced into early retirement for refusing to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/f877f311412b422caa4d3c230c388dc3">conceal a motorist’s beating</a>&nbsp;by a federal agent in 2003.McCloskey said in an interview that Golubski had women "at his mercy.”The inquiry into Golubski stems from the case of Lamonte McIntyre, who started writing to McCloskey’s nonprofit nearly two decades ago.McIntyre was just 17 in 1994 when he was arrested and charged in connection with a double homicide, within hours of the crimes. He had an alibi; no physical evidence linked him to the killings; and an eyewitness believed the killer was an underling of a local drug dealer. Golubski and the dealer have since been charged in a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-kansas-city-indictments-337f9df63faf6c5ff8d3d50623b902c2">separate federal case</a>&nbsp;of running a violent sex trafficking operation.The eyewitness only testified that McIntyre was the killer after Golubski and a now disbarred&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/michael-brown-kansas-3dba779f0276b5821294377938677246">attorney</a>&nbsp;threatened to take her children away, she alleged in a lawsuit.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/3e379716ed9e4dba83412311eaadfd08">McIntyre's mother</a>&nbsp;said in a 2014 affidavit that she wonders whether her refusal to grant regular sexual favors to Golubski prompted him to retaliate against her son.“She, like many people in the community, just viewed the police as all-powerful,” said Cheryl Pilate, an attorney who helped&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/f0aeacf5fd0e4297a8d7b0ca4cda363e">free McIntyre</a>&nbsp;in 2017.In 2022, the local government agreed to pay $12.5 million to McIntyre and his mother to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-kansas-city-96f163ee13c721c0ab53899dcad05897">settle a lawsuit</a>&nbsp;after a deposition in which Golubski invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent 555 times. The state also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-03a51b0fe56481f586ef8e031d2ffc2c">paid McIntyre</a>&nbsp;$1.5 million.“That was the thread that gave people some courage,” said Lindsay Runnels, who serves on the board of the Midwest Innocence Project.<h2>Women say they were threatened and mocked</h2>Prosecutors say Golubski drove one of the women at the center of their criminal case to a cemetery and told her to find a spot to dig her own grave. He sexually assaulted her repeatedly, starting when she was just in middle school, leading her to suffer a miscarriage, court filings say.Once, prosecutors say, he forced her to crawl on the ground with a dog leash around her neck in a remote spot near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. With no one around, he is accused of chanting, “Down by the river, said a hank a pank; Where they won’t find her until she stank."Golubski introduced himself to Ophelia Williams, the other woman at the center of the case, by complimenting her legs and nightgown as police searched her home, prosecutors said.Williams was terrified at the time because her 14-year-old twins had just been arrested in a double homicide. They ultimately admitted to the crime so police would free their 13-year-old brother, Williams said in a separate&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-kansas-police-abuse-lawsuit-golubski-ae4d10549994de555df22b40546642d8">lawsuit.</a>Golubski began sexually assaulting her, alternating between threatening her and claiming he could help her sons, according to court records in the criminal case. The twins are now 40 and remain behind bars. The lawsuit she is part of questions their confessions.The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Williams has told her story publicly.Williams said in her lawsuit that she once mentioned making a complaint. She claims Golubski told her: “Report me to who, the police? I am the police."___Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.

Kan. detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women is dead

JOHNSON COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 11:30p.m. Sunday in Johnson County.

According to a social media report from Overland Park Police, a vehicle was southbound in the northbound lanes of U.S. 69 just north of west 95th Street.&nbsp; The southbound vehicle struck a northbound vehicle.&nbsp;

The wrong-way driver was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp;EMS transported the driver of the northbound vehicle to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. The accident remains under investigation. Police have not released the name of the driver.

JOHNSON COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 11:30p.m. Sunday in Johnson County.According to a social media report from Overland Park Police, a vehicle was southbound in the northbound lanes of U.S. 69 just north of west 95th Street.&nbsp; The southbound vehicle struck a northbound vehicle.&nbsp;The wrong-way driver was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp;EMS transported the driver of the northbound vehicle to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. The accident remains under investigation. Police have not released the name of the driver.