Southeast
Florida fraternity brother with brain damage from hazing sends lifesaving warning to future Greeks
A Florida judge last week sentenced a former Florida college student to 30 days in prison and a year of probation after he punched his peer during a fraternity hazing incident in 2018.
Oliver Walker, 26, was charged with culpable negligence inflicting harm after he sucker punched fraternity pledge Nicholas Mauricio during a tradition called “Scumbag of the Week” organized by members of FSU’s since-dissolved Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter, according to a lawsuit previously filed against the fraternity.
“Not only am I lucky to be alive, but I’m lucky to … be in a good condition upstairs,” Mauricio told Fox News Digital. “It’s taken a lot of hard work and a lot of struggling and a lot of low points.”
He said the “hardest part about” his brain injury “is that it’s not a visible injury like a broken arm or a torn ACL that takes physical rehab.” It can be difficult for his friends and family to understand that he was severely injured and has been fighting every day since the “Scumbag of the Week” incident.
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Mauricio, who was 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds at the time of the punch, fell and hit his head after Walker’s punch and has spent the last six years recovering from a debilitating brain injury that included two different hematomas and frontal lobe damage.
The incident came just months after FSU student Andrew Coffey died of alcohol poisoning after his fraternity brothers did not immediately call for help.
The longstanding “Scumbag of the Week” tradition required members to select a pledge to be punched in the face in front of the entire fraternity, according to the lawsuit.
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“It’s affecting my whole family,” Mauricio said, adding that they “like the word survivor because it’s an extension of being a victim, but you were able to persevere.”
His mother, Michelle Mauricio, told Fox News Digital waiting six years to get justice has been “atrocious.”
“I’m still so emotionally exhausted. … I’m just tired of fighting a battle we’re never going to win.”
“The stories keep going out, and every year another student is injured or dies,” Michelle said. “This is friends hurting friends.”
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David Bianchi, a renowned hazing attorney who represented Mauricio in both cases, told Fox News Digital he is glad the Mauricio family is finally seeing a resolution to the criminal case.
“Most people would be amazed at the number of fraternity hazing incidents that happen every year in the United States, and that’s despite the fact that almost every state has an anti-hazing law, every major university has an anti-hazing policy and every major fraternity and sorority has an anti-hazing policy,” Bianchi said.
“These incidents are happening all the time throughout the United States, and the message isn’t getting through to the guys that do these things.”
Bianchi added that “perhaps jail time” will show fraternity members that if they put pledges or existing members into situations where they can be seriously injured or die, suspension, expulsion and even jail time are plausible consequences.
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Mauricio wants other college-aged men who are considering joining a fraternity to speak up if they are exposed to any kind of physical harm or alcohol if they are underage.
“You can tell them no, and you should tell them no.”
“At the end of the day, even though it may seem like they have all the power, you have more power than them. You can tell them no, and you should tell them no,” Mauricio said. “We should all be leaders more than we should be followers. You’ll be able to prevent something bad from happening to you and keep your dignity intact.”
Mauricio added that universities also have “a lot of skin in this game,” rather than just Greek organizations and their members. He and his mother are hoping their story educates other college students and fraternity members about the potential dangers of hazing.
Mauricio hopes to be an advocate for college hazing and others who suffer from brain damage.
Attorney Gannon Coens of Bodiford Law, which represented Walker, declined to comment at the time of publication.
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Southeast
Fani Willis' reputation 'damaged' after disqualification from Trump case: Georgia reporter
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein told MSNBC on Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s reputation was “damaged” after a court disqualified her and her office from prosecuting President-elect Donald Trump in the election interference case against him.
“Her reputation is damaged, right? This was an unforced error as we said earlier, and, you know, this was all of her own doing, and now it unravels or might unravel one of the signature cases, not just of her career, but in Georgia. It leaves her damaged and it will be interesting to see what case she tries to make when she is expected to appeal this to the Georgia Supreme Court,” Bluestein told MSNBC’s Ana Caberra when asked about what was next for Willis.
The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday disqualified Willis and her team from prosecuting Trump and co-defendants in her election interference case. The court did not toss the indictment but declared that Willis and her team now have “no authority to proceed.”
Bluestein noted that Willis had just won re-election in Georgia and that it wasn’t a surprise because Fulton County is a Democratic stronghold.
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“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” the filing states. “The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring.”
Bluestein said, “It is expected to be appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, but this is a really decisive order against Fani Willis being able to continue this case.”
Willis, who was spearheading the sweeping prosection case against Trump, came under fire after she was accused in February of having an “improper” affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to help prosecute the case.
Wade was ultimately forced to step down from the prosecution team.
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In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said the “whole case has been a disgrace to justice.”
Trump additionally said that the case “should not be allowed to go any further.”
Catherine Christian, a former assistant Manhattan district attorney, also weighed in on the disqualification on MSNBC.
“But usually appellate courts defer to the lower court, the trial judge, who fashioned a remedy. He said Nathan Wade, the man she was having an affair with, had to leave so the office could stay, and this court has said, nope. This court said that Judge MacAfee did not really appreciate that her decision-making wasn’t just the indictment. It was who to charge, how to charge it, and that’s at the time when this alleged romantic relationship was going on, and they said that also was one of the reasons why they think it’s more than an appearance of impropriety. It’s a conflict of interest, and not just her, the entire office is disqualified,” Christian said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Fani Willis’ office for comment.
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Southeast
Navy wife goes viral for surprising husband with hunting trip after his 3-year deployment
A Navy aviator was in for a surprise after returning home ahead of Christmas from his third deployment in three years.
Patrick Brennan of western Kentucky has been stationed in Japan since the spring of 2022, serving as a weapon systems officer in an F/A-18 fighter aircraft.
His wife, Cecilia Brennan, told Fox News Digital that her husband often shares with her how he misses his friends and hobbies, specifically hunting.
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Brennan said her husband even mentioned planning a hunting trip sometime next year or in 2026 but that he never expected to take one this year.
“I was catching up with his best friends and keeping them in the loop. They told me they were going on their yearly duck hunting trip to Fowl Plains Outfitter. They were thinking about driving from their home in Virginia to Kansas, and I asked if they would want to stop by in Kentucky,” Brennan said.
Fowl Plains Outfitters is located in Great Bend, Kansas, offering duck and goose hunts.
“Turns out, the same time they would be driving through Kentucky happened to be the same time my husband would be back from deployment. I asked if they could make room for one more. It was God’s perfect timing,” Brennan said.
She packed all of his clothes and hunting gear and “gifted” his belongings to him for Christmas.
In a video posted to her Instagram, which reached 1.5 million views, Brennan captured the moment she tricked Patrick and told him his friends were stopping at their home to “drop something off.”
The serviceman’s friends are seen entering the house decked out in their hunting gear.
After catching up with the men, Cecilia Brennan takes out her husband’s suitcase to reveal that he is also going on the trip.
“Having his best friends knock on the door was a surprise enough, but to actually be going with him, he was in shock. I still can’t believe we pulled it off,” she said.
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Patrick embarked on a five-day trip with his best friends for duck hunting.
Cecilia and Patrick Brennan have a 6-month-old daughter, and Cecila said that for the majority of the year, she and her husband had been apart due to his service to America.
“After all he has sacrificed, he more than deserves a chance to relax and recharge before he dives head-first into family life,” she said.
She added that she is her husband’s biggest fan, and that includes supporting his hobbies.
“Nothing brings me more joy than knowing he’s happy. And now, we will be having duck for Christmas.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Fowl Plains Outfitters for comment.
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Southeast
Watchdog seeks to halt 11th-hour Biden DOJ effort to ‘handcuff’ Kentucky police over Breonna Taylor incident
EXCLUSIVE: A conservative legal watchdog is expected to file a brief with a Kentucky court to urge a judge against blessing a consent decree forged by Attorney General Merrick Garland and the city of Louisville and Jefferson County, Ky., that would reform police practices after the controversial 2020 death of Breonna Taylor.
The Oversight Project is placing its amicus brief on the docket of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on Friday morning as a judge prepares a schedule to rule on activating the agreement.
Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell said the consent decree includes a “laundry list of BLM-type standards that have been argued for over the years since George Floyd[‘s death in 2020]” and the riots that followed.
“Louisville would be a sanctuary city for gangbangers,” Howell warned, adding he hopes Friday’s addition to the docket gives the court pause before agreeing to any accelerated timeline for approval.
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Taylor was killed in a hail of police gunfire after Louisville officers sought to serve a drug warrant at her boyfriend Kenneth Walker’s house, when her beau fired a “warning shot” through the door and struck Officer Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.
A hail of return fire followed, fatally wounding Taylor, and five officers were later involved in legal cases where one was found guilty of deprivation of rights under the color of law for reportedly firing blindly through a window amid the chaos.
Walker later alleged he mistook the police for intruders and did not hear them announce themselves. Louisville wound up paying Taylor’s family $12 million in a wrongful death settlement.
Last week, Garland announced the consent decree with Louisville, saying it will bring about needed systemic reforms to policing to prevent a repeat of what happened to Taylor.
Howell said, however, that the decree will only hamstring the police department and also defy the will of Kentucky voters who elected new Republicans on the Louisville council on the issue of law and order.
“[The decree] basically limits the ability for officers to react quickly and in a strong way. It’s very heavy on the de-escalation techniques, particularly as it relates to this category of people who they call ‘behaviorally impaired’ or something to that effect,” Howell said.
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Howell said there is concern over the spiking teenage murder rate – violence committed by suspects aged 11-17 – and that the decree wrongly imposes new standards for dealing with youth offenders as well as stop-and-frisk restrictions.
One of the most glaring issues with the agreement is the fact Louisville councilmen, Kentucky lawmakers and the general public will all be prevented from making further adjustments to policing policies for five years, if the judge signs the decree.
In a consent decree system, an official monitor appointed by the judge, and not the relevant legislature, is the arbiter of policies that fall under said agreement unless both parties that forged it agree to change them.
Howell said, in that regard, the Biden Justice Department and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat, appear to be rushing through the legal process to head off the likelihood a Trump Justice Department will balk at the agreement.
“The most basic responsibility of government is to keep our people safe while protecting constitutional rights and treating everyone fairly,” Greenberg said in a statement about the decree. “As mayor, I promised to uphold that responsibility, and I have.”
“The Department of Justice saw the action we’ve already taken and our commitment to aggressively implement police reform. As a result of these improvements, we have a consent decree unlike any other city in America.”
Greenberg said any decree must build on reforms made in recent years, cannot “handcuff police as they work to prevent crime” and also be financially responsible and have a clear sunset date.
“I felt comfortable signing this because our officers will have clear guidance and goals to meet, the DOJ can’t move the goalposts, and our officers can focus on good police work, not paperwork,” added Louisville Police Chief Paul Humphrey.
The Oversight Project’s amicus brief is backed by law enforcement advocacy leaders like Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
Johnson, whose group promotes constitutional policing and studies similar consent decrees, told Fox News Digital it’s clear the Biden DOJ realizes such an agreement would be “D.O.A.” when President-elect Donald Trump assumes the Oval Office.
“Most of these police consent decrees are more of an activist wish list than effective means to remedy constitutional violations by police agencies. The Justice Department is trying to impose burdensome rules that far exceed their authority under law,” Johnson said.
He suggested that technical assistance letters, which aim to encourage reforms without imposing a judicial arbiter, are generally preferred in most cases.
“But, the activist lawyers in the Biden administration prefer to use a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel. This approach has proven counterproductive time and again — hurting public safety, police morale, and police-community relations more than it helps.”
Meanwhile, Howell said he hopes the Kentucky judge will see that Greenberg and Garland are trying to “turn him into a legislature” when it comes to law enforcement practices.
Under the consent decree system, the policy changes will be untouchable by a more hawkish Trump DOJ for up to five years, rendering the new administration’s predicted actions in the law enforcement realm moot in Louisville.
Criminals will likely endorse the decree, he said, as they will use the encyclopedia of new policing standards to their benefit.
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