GDELTFlorida
Goldstein: 1.8Tone: -4.8
A woman pleaded guilty this week to selling nearly 3,000 fraudulent nursing diplomas through schools she owned and operated in South Florida.
Carleen Noreus, 52, took a plea deal after a two-week trial, during which prosecutors showed the jury dozens of exhibits, including some of the fake diplomas and transcripts given to people who had not completed the training to become registered nurses, per court records reviewed by Fox News Digital.
"Nursing licenses must be earned through education, training, and demonstrated competence, not purchased through fraud," Jason A. Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney in Florida's southern district, said in a statement.
"By selling thousands of fraudulent diplomas and transcripts, the defendant undermined the integrity of the nursing profession and our healthcare system," Quiñones continued. "The Southern District of Florida remains committed to holding accountable those who profit by corrupting professional licensing processes and placing the public at risk."
Noreus, who has been a registered nurse since 2002, sold the phony diplomas from April 2018 to October 2025, prosecutors said. The documents she sold enabled these people to sit for the national nursing board examinations without needing to go to nursing school, according to prosecutors.
Nearly 2,300 people who obtained diplomas or transcripts from Noreus got licenses by passing the board exams and went on to work as nurses across the country, court documents said.
Both of the schools she founded as avenues to sell the diplomas were named after her and were subsequently shut down by state authorities. She was the president of Carleen Home Health School, Inc., in Plantation and vice president of Carleen Home Health School II, Inc., in West Palm Beach.
Prosecutors said Noreus collaborated with others in the wide-ranging, multi-year scheme.
In a statement of fact Noreus signed on Monday, she said Stanton Witherspoon, who was president of Carleen Home Health School II, paid her to falsify diplomas for entry-level nurses, registered nurses and bachelor's-level nurses.
Additionally, Noreus admitted that she backdated transcripts issued to students to make it look as though they had received their degrees before her schools had been terminated by the state.
Noreus pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to money laundering. She faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.
Noreus was one of 13 defendants charged in the second phase of Operation Nightingale, a nationwide investigation to uncover fraudulent nursing diploma mills. The first phase concluded in 2023, resulting in 30 defendants being charged and convicted.
Open article →GDELTIllinois
Goldstein: -3.5Tone: -3.8
A Mexican man who had been on the run for more than a decade before his arrest in his native country last year for allegedly killing his wife on their wedding night in Illinois has been returned to the United States, the FBI said Thursday.
Arnoldo Jimenez was brought back to the U.S. more than a year after he was captured on Jan. 30, 2025, by Mexican authorities working with U.S. law enforcement in Monterrey, Mexico.
Jimenez had been on the FBI's Most Wanted list of fugitives. At the time he was taken into custody, he was the fourth-most wanted fugitive in the U.S.
"Thursday marks an important milestone for [FBI Chicago] — our personnel have successfully brought back FBI Most Wanted fugitive Arnoldo Jimenez from Mexico," the FBI said in a statement posted on X. "No matter how much time has passed or where a criminal may be in the world, the FBI will never stop in our pursuit of justice."
Authorities said Jimenez killed Estrella Carrera, 26, on their wedding night. Her body was found in the bathtub of her Burbank, Illinois, apartment on May 13, 2012, less than 48 hours after the couple married.
Jimenez was charged with first-degree murder, and a state warrant was issued for his arrest on May 15, 2012. A federal warrant was issued two days later after Jimenez was charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the killing or a date for his first court appearance.
Open article →GDELTNew York
Goldstein: -10.0Tone: -2.5
A 15-year veteran of the New York City Police Department (NYPD)’s Emergency Service Unit (ESU) was shot in the leg Friday morning during an hours-long standoff with an armed barricaded man in Brooklyn, authorities said.
Drone footage allegedly captured Simmons wielding a handgun, and at about 8:30 a.m., he hurled large items — including a microwave, lamp and pots and pans — out of a window at officers staged in the backyard below.
While Simmons' wife and son safely escaped the house and told police about his history of mental illness, an elderly couple remained trapped on the floor above, Tisch said.
Police determined the incident initially stemmed from a dispute involving the couple.
At 8:52 a.m., ESU officers entered the home and encountered Simmons at the top of the stairs, Tisch said. He allegedly ignored multiple direct police orders to drop his gun and opened fire on the officers, striking detective Matthew Gale in the left leg.
At least four officers returned fire, striking Simmons, who was later taken to Woodhull Hospital and pronounced dead, police said.
Investigators recovered two weapons at the scene: a Jimenez Arms .380 caliber handgun and a Beretta handgun equipped with an extended magazine, Tisch said.
Simmons did not have prior documented history with the NYPD.
Gale suffered a tibial fracture but remains in stable condition and in "good spirits" at Kings County Hospital, where he is expected to survive, according to authorities.
Tisch praised the wounded detective and the ESU for consistently handling the city's most volatile assignments, saying they "met that danger with uncommon valor."
"What happened this morning is a reminder that the men and women of the NYPD routinely place themselves between danger and the people that they serve. They enter situations that are uncertain and volatile and often life-threatening," Tisch said. "This morning, detective Gale put his life on the line doing exactly that."
"We like to say that when the public needs help, they call the police, and when the police need help, they call ESU," she continued. "Today, once again, they met that danger with uncommon valor."
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited the hospital to thank the medical staff and commend Gale's bravery, noting, "He put on his uniform, he left his house, he said goodbye to his family, and he went to his job to keep our city safe."
"When New Yorkers call 911, they expect someone to show up," Mamdani said. "What this officer, and so many others, [did] today was exactly that. I want to thank the first responders and the officers who acted so swiftly in the aftermath of this shooting, and I know that all New Yorkers will join me in wishing detective Gale a full and speedy recovery."
Open article →GDELTNew York
Goldstein: -5.1Tone: -7.6
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Asa Ellerup, the ex-wife of convicted Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann, said through her attorney Friday that the 62-year-old architect "got what he deserved" when a New York judge hit him with the maximum possible sentence this week for a string of murders between 1993 and 2010.
"She believes the sentence is appropriate for his crimes, and obviously he got what he deserved," said Ellerup's attorney, Bob Macedonio. "You can’t kill eight people. She’d never condone any of that."
Heuermann has not yet been in contact with his ex-wife or children since being transferred out of the Suffolk County Jail Thursday, Macedonio said. He was being processed at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York, but it was not immediately clear where he will serve his sentence.
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Ellerup infamously revealed that she now sleeps in the room where her ex tortured and killed seven of the eight victims in the latest episode of "The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets" docuseries on Peacock.
"The brutal truth is that Rex Heuermann said he dismembered the bodies in this room," she says in the episode. "That is the brutal truth. OK. Now. There's me. I'm in this room. And I'm here because I do feel spiritual. I am trying to say spiritually, in my own way, that I am really sorry for what these victims went through."
Judge Timothy Mazzei ripped into the hulking Heuermann at sentencing Wednesday, calling him a "coward" and "small man" for the "despicable" murders of eight women, all around 100 pounds and 5 feet tall.
"Mr. Heuermann, as Mr. Tierney said, I know that you're sorry you got caught. I assume that you're sorry for what you've done to your wife and children. Are you a little bit sorry for what you did to these poor, innocent women?" Mazzei asked. "Eight women that you strangled to death — at least eight, that we know of. Are you at least a little bit sorry for that? Yes?"
"Yes, I am," Heuermann responded.
"You know what, you've been described as a very big man, but you're a disgusting and despicable small man, if you're a man at all," an audibly emotional Mazzei replied. "And you're a coward."
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He sentenced Heuermann to three consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, to be followed by four consecutive terms of 25 years to life.
After dismissing three lesser charges, Mazzei ordered the bailiffs to "Get him out of here."
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Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said afterward that local authorities expected to be rid of Heuermann before the end of the week. He was gone the following morning.
Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after Heuermann's arrest outside his Manhattan office on July 13, 2023. Police soon descended on the family's Massapequa Park home, the only ramshackle house in an otherwise upscale suburban neighborhood about 35 miles east of New York City.
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Since his 2023 arrest, Heuermann was charged with the murders of seven women, and he confessed to killing an eighth during a change-of-plea hearing on April 8.
Tierney has declined to speculate about whether there are more victims, saying what he thinks "doesn't matter" — and that if investigators obtain more evidence, it would be presented to a grand jury in pursuit of a new indictment.
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