News and reports from the Department of Justice.

News Release: WASHINGTON -Annabelle Liebsch, 38, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for assaulting a Deputy United States Marshal during a court proceeding in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Robert Dixon, U.S. Marshal for the U.S. Marshals Service for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

News Release: NEW ORLEANS - U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that KIDUS AWLACHEW, age 32, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, was charged today in a one-count bill of information with international parental kidnapping, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1204. The charge stems from AWLACHEW allegedly retaining a child in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, with the intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of another person’s parental rights.

News Release: The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with New York-based Lady M Confections Co. Ltd. and its West Coast affiliate, Lady M West Third LLC (together, Lady M), companies that operate bakeries and retail boutiques selling confections under the Lady M brand. The ...

News Release: Davenport, IA - Gerald Brian Hoard, age 49 of Davenport, Iowa, was sentenced today to time-served following his plea of guilty to Attempted Transfer of Obscene Material to a Minor. Hoard went into custody on March 15, 2022. Hoard will serve three years of supervised release including one year at a residential re-entry center.

News Release: PITTSBURGH - A resident of Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court in Pittsburgh to 60 months’ imprisonment and eight years’ supervised release upon his conviction for possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.

News Release: Today, the United States filed a proposal in federal court that - if approved by the court - would appoint an Interim Third Party Manager to stabilize the city of Jackson, Mississippi’s public drinking water system, and build confidence in the system’s ability to supply safe drinking water to the system’s ...

News Release: GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - Matthew Lee Ostrander, 36, of Missouri, was sentenced to fourteen years in federal prison following his conviction for possession of obscene visual depictions of minors. The sentence was announced by Jason R. Coody, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

News Release: COLUMBUS, Ga. - A Columbus resident with a lengthy criminal history who admitted to distributing nearly 500 grams of fentanyl and 265 grams of a fentanyl analogue-which amounts to approximately 380,000 doses-was sentenced to federal prison today.

News Release: Three defendants were arrested today and made their initial court appearances in connection with an indictment, unsealed today, charging them for their roles in a conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a conspiracy to kidnap persons and use weapons of mass destruction in a foreign country.

News Release: Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, and Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida chapter of the organization, were found guilty by a jury today of seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

News Release: Des Moines, IA - An Iowa man was sentenced on Nov. 22, 2022, to 30 years in prison for Production of Child Pornography.

News Release: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Gladstone, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court today for attempting to hire an arsonist to destroy her commercial building in Kansas City, Mo., which contained several businesses.

News Release: SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Joshua Klomp, 48, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty today to possession of child pornography following a prior sex offense conviction, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

News Release: LOS ANGELES - In court documents filed this morning, an Inland Empire man admitted firing BB guns at the Planned Parenthood facility in Pasadena nearly a dozen times and agreed to plead guilty to violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

News Release: PENSACOLA, FLORIDA - James Leroy Smith Jr., 38, of Pensacola, Florida, was sentenced to 134 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle, and multiple violations of his federal supervised release conditions.