Boyfriend of slain Gabby Petito charged with bank card fraud

BILLINGS, Mont. — The boyfriend of Gabby Petito, whose body was found at a national park in Wyoming after a cross country trip with him, has been charged with unauthorized use of a debit card as searchers continue looking for him in Florida swampland, federal authorities announced Thursday.

A federal grand jury indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Wyoming alleges Brian Laundrie made unauthorized withdrawals or charges worth more than $1,000 during the period in which Petito went missing. It does not say who the card issued by Capitol One Bank belonged to.

In Florida, searchers on Thursday spent a fifth unsuccessful day searching for Laundrie in the forbidding wilderness preserve near his parents’ home.

La. trooper faces charge for hitting Black motorist

A former Louisiana State Police trooper has been charged with a civil rights violation for pummeling a Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight — the first criminal case to emerge from federal investigations into troopers’ beatings of at least three Black men.

A grand jury on Thursday indicted Jacob Brown for the 2019 beating following a traffic stop that left Aaron Larry Bowman with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head. Brown was charged with one count of deprivation of rights under color of law. Brown’s attorney, Scott Wolleson, declined to comment.

Charges for Afghan refugees stoke Wisconsin Republicans

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Republicans on Thursday reiterated their concerns about the vetting of Afghan refugees being housed at an Army post in the state, after two Afghan men were charged with crimes there.

Wisconsin’s Fort McCoy is housing about 12,700 Afghan refugees. When they first arrived in late August, Republicans repeatedly raised concerns about vetting and identification. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called their concerns “dog whistle crap.”

The charges against the two men announced Wednesday by the U.S. attorney in Wisconsin are unrelated to terrorism. One of them, a 20-year-old man, was charged in federal court with three counts of engaging in sexual acts with a minor. The other, a 32-year-old man, was charged with assaulting his wife.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson called the charges “the latest consequence of the Biden administration’s incompetence.”

Britt Cudaback, a spokeswoman for the governor, called the allegations against the two men “disturbing.”