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Teenager Pleads Not Guilty in Hate Crime Killing of Gay Dancer

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Teenager Pleads Not Guilty in Hate Crime Killing of Gay Dancer

The 17-year-old charged with murder as a hate crime in the fatal stabbing last month of a gay Black dancer at a Brooklyn gas station pleaded not guilty at an arraignment on Friday.

The teenager, Dmitriy Popov, entered the plea in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, where he will be tried as an adult. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder. The hate crime count could increase any minimum sentence to 20 years from 15.

The killing Mr. Popov is accused of committing occurred on July 29, when the dancer, O’Shae Sibley, and a group of friends stopped for gas at a filling station in the Midwood section of Brooklyn while on their way home from the beach, prosecutors said.

As Mr. Sibley, 28, and his friends danced to a Beyoncé song, another group of people began to yell homophobic and anti-Black slurs at them, prosecutors said. A witness told the authorities he saw Mr. Popov stab Mr. Sibley. Mr. Popov, who lives in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, was arrested several days later.

Justice Craig S. Walker ordered that Mr. Popov, in a bright blue hoodie, black jogging pants and white sneakers, continue to be held without bail at a juvenile detention center and he warned the teenager to stay out of trouble. Mr. Popov is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 10.

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After the arraignment, Mr. Popov’s lawyer, Mark Pollard, said he might pursue a self-defense argument at trial. Surveillance video of the fatal altercation, he said, showed Mr. Popov recording what was happening and moving backward as he was approached by people who were older and bigger than him.

“He regrets what happens, he certainly does,” Mr. Pollard said. “But that doesn’t mean that he’s guilty of a crime. It’s two different things.”

Mr. Popov’s mother and grandmother were in court but declined to speak to reporters.

Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, noted at a news conference on Thursday that Mr. Sibley’s death had prompted an outpouring of grief among people across, and outside, New York.

“This crime, while clearly impacting his family and loved ones, has impacted the entirety of Brooklyn, the entirety of the city and I dare say the entire nation,” Mr. Gonzalez said.

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Hate crimes endanger the targeted group’s “sense of safety and security,” the district attorney said, adding that L.G.B.T.Q. people were already feeling “particularly vulnerable” because of state laws directed at them that are being adopted across the country.

Originally from Philadelphia, Mr. Sibley had moved to New York to advance his dance career. Friends said he was preparing to audition for “The Lion King,” one of his favorite Broadway musicals.

Mr. Sibley’s friends described him as determined to pursue his dreams. He was part of a tight-knit group of dancers who worked together on videos, competitions and performances, and who would gather to vogue at Pier 46 on the Hudson River.

After he was killed, Beyoncé’s website displayed the message “Rest in Power O’Shae Sibley,” and mourners gathered at the Stonewall Inn, the Greenwich Village bar that is synonymous with the gay rights movement, to pay tribute to the slain dancer. At a separate memorial, “Vogue as an Act of Resistance,” mourners cried, chanted and danced at the gas station where the killing occurred.

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New York

Who Are Key Players in the Menendez Case?

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Who Are Key Players in the Menendez Case?

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, are accused of taking part in a wide-ranging, international bribery scheme. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged them with accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from several New Jersey businessmen in exchange for political favors.

Mr. Menendez goes to trial on May 13 with two of the businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana. Ms. Menendez’s trial was postponed after her lawyers said she had a serious medical condition requiring surgery and a recovery period; it is now expected to start in July. All four have pleaded not guilty.

Defendants

Senator Robert Menendez

New Jersey Senator

First elected to Congress in 1992, Mr. Menendez is now charged with taking bribes of gold, cash and a luxury car in exchange for trying to aid the governments of Egypt and Qatar, and seeking to disrupt separate criminal investigations involving his allies in New Jersey.

After his arrest, he stepped down, as required, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he has refused calls to resign and left open the possibility that he will run for re-election in November if he is exonerated at trial. This is his second federal bribery trial in seven years. In the earlier case, a jury was unable to reach a verdict and the charges were later dismissed.

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Fred Daibes

New Jersey Real Estate Developer

Mr. Daibes is accused of giving Mr. Menendez furniture, gold and cash. These were bribes, prosecutors say, for Mr. Menendez’s efforts to have unrelated federal bank fraud charges Mr. Daibes faces in New Jersey quashed and for the senator’s help in lining up financing for a stalled real estate project.

Wael Hana

Founder of the IS EG Halal company

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Prosecutors say that Mr. Hana, a United States citizen born in Egypt, helped to arrange meetings with the senator and Egyptian officials that led to a lucrative monopoly for Mr. Hana’s company, IS EG Halal. The company, which certifies that products shipped to Egypt are prepared according to Islamic law, was used to funnel bribes to the Menendezes in exchange for the senator’s s efforts to steer U.S. weapons and aid to Egypt, according to the indictment.

Nadine Menendez

Mr. Menendez’s Wife

Ms. Menendez served as a go-between for Mr. Menendez, Egyptian intelligence officials and men who were seeking political favors from the senator, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say that bribes and messages went through Ms. Menendez to the senator.

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The Co-Operator

Jose Uribe

Former New Jersey insurance broker

Mr. Uribe had been charged with seeking the senator’s help to scuttle state insurance fraud investigations that involved Mr. Uribe’s associates. He pleaded guilty in March and agreed to cooperate with the government, admitting in court that he had given a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz to Ms. Menendez to influence the senator.

The Court

Judge Sidney H. Stein

Presiding Judge

He was appointed by former President Bill Clinton to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1995. Among the more prominent defendants whose cases he has overseen are Jennifer Shah, a “Real Housewives” star sentenced to 78 months in prison in connection with a telemarketing fraud scheme, and Hassan Nemazee, a major donor to Democratic political causes, who was sentenced to 12 years in a bank fraud case.

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Prosecution Team

Damian Williams

U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York

Mr. Williams joined the U.S. attorney’s office in 2012 and was named by President Biden to the top post in 2021. He leads an office of 220 assistant U.S. attorneys and executives. He has overseen the prosecutions of defendants like Sam Bankman-Fried, convicted of stealing billions of dollars from his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, and Juan Orlando Hernández, the ex-Honduran president convicted in a cocaine importation case.

Christina Clark

Trial Attorney, Justice Department

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She works in the department’s national security division. Ms. Clark helped to prosecute the former high-ranking F.B.I. official Charles McGonigal, who pleaded guilty in a money-laundering case in connection with his work for a Russian oligarch under sanctions.

Catherine Ghosh

Assistant U.S. Attorney, Southern District, Public Corruption Unit

She helped prosecute 70 current and former employees of the New York City Housing Authority in what the authorities called the “largest single-day bribery takedown in the history of the Justice Department.”

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Eli Mark

Assistant U.S. Attorney, Public Corruption Unit

He helped to prosecute defendants in an N.C.A.A. basketball recruiting scandal, as well as a former State Supreme Court justice in an obstruction case.

Paul Monteleoni

Assistant U.S. Attorney, Public Corruption Unit

He helped to prosecute a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney in a bribery case and Robert Hadden, a former Columbia gynecologist who lured patients to his office and abused them.

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Lara Pomerantz

Assistant U.S. Attorney, Public Corruption Unit

She helped to prosecute Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion to Jeffrey Epstein, in a sex trafficking case and Norman Seabrook, the former longtime president of New York City’s correction officers’ union, in a bribery case.

Daniel Richenthal

Deputy Chief of the Southern District’s Criminal Division

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He helped to win the convictions of Sheldon Silver, the former Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly, and Michael Avenatti, the once high-flying lawyer who tried to extort more than $20 million from the apparel giant Nike.

Defense Lawyers

Adam Fee

Lawyer for Robert Menendez

He previously spent five years as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District — the same office prosecuting Mr. Menendez. Based in California, Mr. Fee focuses on white-collar criminal defense work.

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Avi Weitzman

Lawyer for Mr. Menendez

He spent nearly seven years as a Southern District prosecutor and is now a New York City based partner at the same law firm as Mr. Fee, with an emphasis on complex civil and criminal cases.

Lawrence Lustberg

Lawyer for Wael Hana

A prominent New Jersey defense attorney, he was previously a federal public defender. He also represents Mr. Daibes in the pending bank fraud case in New Jersey.

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César de Castro

Lawyer for Fred Daibes

Previously a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, he now runs his own New York City-based law firm. Last year, he represented Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former top security official who, after a high-profile federal trial in Brooklyn, was convicted of taking millions of dollars from the Sinaloa drug cartel.

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Video: Judge Says Michael Cohen Must Stop Taunting Trump

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Video: Judge Says Michael Cohen Must Stop Taunting Trump

Ahead of what could be the most explosive testimony in Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial, the judge on Friday told prosecutors that he was personally asking that Michael D. Cohen stop taunting the former president. Jonah Bromwich, a criminal justice reporter at The New York Times, gives his takeaways.

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New York

Live Updates: Quiet End of Week for Trump Trial as Cohen Looms as Witness

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Prosecutors said they could rest their case as soon as Thursday, and the judge asked them to keep Michael D. Cohen, expected to take the stand on Monday, from attacking Donald J. Trump in the meantime. Five witnesses testified Friday in rapid succession.

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