Author: CNN

WCBS

By Jenna DeAngelis

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — A Long Island travel agent is accused of defrauding people out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Tavia Thomas, who police say operated as the sole travel agent of Destiny Travel, was recently charged with grand larceny and scheme to defraud.

Investigators say in three different instances, Thomas is accused of collecting money but never booking trips and not giving refunds, allegedly defrauding multiple people of a total of $53,448.14.

According to a police report, on July 8, 2024, Thomas allegedly received a total of $35,753.98 from nine people who believed they were purchasing tickets for a Royal Caribbean cruise departing from Bayonne.

Police said when the victims arrived at the port, an employee told them their tickets were fake and that the cruise they booked did not exist. About a week later, on July 16, 2024, Thomas allegedly received a total of $7,660 from several people for a destination wedding, but never booked the venues and did not provide refunds.

Later that year, in September, police said Thomas received $10,034.16 from 51 people who were booking a 75th birthday trip to the Dominican Republic, but she did not pay for the accommodations and did not provide refunds.

In court Tuesday, Thomas pleaded not guilty. Her defense attorney described the 47-year-old as a social worker who has two children, cares for her mother who is blind, and is in the process of adopting a baby. Prosecutors, however, pointed out a criminal history.

Her next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.

West Babylon resident Rosalind Gross-Hall said her family used Thomas as a travel agent to book flights for about three to four years and never had any issues, but when Gross-Hall tried to plan a cruise for her daughter’s graduation in July 2024, what was supposed to be a dream trip turned into a vacation nightmare.

She said Thomas provided trip confirmation for their party of 34, along with an itinerary via email.

Upon arrival to the port in New Jersey, however, Gross-Hall said the cruise line couldn’t find any of their information.

“The employees of Royal Caribbean was doing the best that they could to help us, to do anything to make this easier because they kind of knew after a while that this was a scam,” Gross-Hall said. “[Thomas] blamed it on everybody else but her, saying that it was their fault.”

The family immediately filed a police report.

“It was just unbelievable. My daughters were so heartbroken,” Gross-Hall said.

She was able to get some of her money back from her credit card company; however, she said her mother-in-law sent her deposit through Zelle.

“So she never saw that money again,” Gross-Hall said.

Gross-Hall said she has since connected with other people who say they had a similar experience with Destiny Travel.

Now, a year and a half later, she said Thomas’ arrest is a relief.

“We just didn’t want her to hurt anybody else,” she said.

Destiny Travel is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, which says it began receiving complaints about the agency in July 2023. A total of three complaints were filed.

“At that time, if anyone had looked on BBB.org about them, they would have seen it was a D+, which quickly fell to an F in September of 2023,” said Claire Rosenzweig, president and CEO of BBB Metropolitan New York

The BBB stresses doing your research when booking trips.

“What you want to be cautious about is companies without a track record that just came to you through some website that you saw online, or some social media text or ad that you got,” Rosenzweig said.

She added to look out for red flags, like requesting payment through peer-to-peer platforms, cash, gift cards or by wiring money.

“If you choose to work with a company and you’re going to pay, we always say consider using credit cards because credit cards do have the most protection,” she said. “But even with a credit card, you have to be careful, because if you’re getting the runaround from someone, they know that there are time limits on chargebacks.”

Nassau County Police are asking anyone who believes they may be a victim to contact Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS or call 911.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

WFOR

By Marybel Rodriguez

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    MIAMI (WFOR) — A Venezuelan artist is expressing himself through art. Soon after Nicolas Maduro was captured, he grabbed his spray paint and left his mark in Wynwood.

Pedro Martin, better known as Marthi, proudly stands before his most recent work of art in Wynwood. The mural features the famous picture of Nicolas Maduro after he was captured.

“This mural is for all the Venezuelan people,” said Pedro “Marthi” Martin.

Martin, who was born in Caracas, has been living in Miami for the past four years and is now doing what he loves freely — something he says would never be possible in his homeland of Venezuela.

He says that right now, he would be in danger for doing so, and that what he misses most about his country is the freedom of expression.

After hearing the news of Maduro’s capture, Martin expressed himself the best way he knows how: through art. Next to Maduro is Martin’s trademark angel painted in the colors of Venezuela, along with the anthem of freedom, “abajo cadenas,” which means “down with the chains.”

Hours later, someone painted over the mural. But Martin, who came to this country in search of a better life, repainted the slogan of freedom for all Venezuelans — including his family, who still live there.

“My mother, my father, my brother live there. I miss him very much,” said Martin.

Through his art, Martin says he is hopeful that change will soon come and he will be reunited with his family. He says he will come back as many times as needed if his mural needs to be fixed.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

WBZ

By Juli McDonald

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — Investigators revealed the man who opened fire at Brown University and killed an MIT professor days later, recorded a series of videos confessing to the shootings before he took his own life. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente said he had planned the attack for six semesters.

Survivor Jacob Spears, who is recovering at his home in Georgia, spoke with WBZ-TV after reading the transcripts from the videos.

“I’m like six semesters? That’s a long time. That’s before I even was there,” Spears said. “This was my first semester. I’m a freshman. So this was like, before I was even there you were planning this.”

Spears was shot in the back in a Brown engineering building in Providence, Rhode Island on Dec. 13. Students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov were killed and nine others were wounded.

“Mukhammad, he was my friend,” Spears said. “That was my friend, so reading it I tried to keep him out of my mind because I knew that would make it even harder. But I couldn’t.”

Transcripts of the chilling reflections by Neves Valente were released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday.

“I am not going to apologize, because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me,” Neves Valente said in the video discovered in the Salem, New Hampshire storage unit where his body was found.

No motive revealed for shootings He did not reveal a motive for the campus shooting, or the murder of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro two days later in Brookline, Massachusetts. Neves Valente attended school in Portugal decades ago with Loureiro.

Neves Valente did mention his interaction with a witness, which ultimately led to police identifying him.

“I was almost confronted by a guy there that day… Not almost, I actually was confronted and he knew my… my… my license plate, I honestly never thought it would take them so long to find me,” Neves Valente said.

In an interview with WBZ-TV, security expert Todd McGhee stressed the importance of reporting suspicious behavior.

“Brown University was the target, and so that just indicates to me, that all the phrasing of ‘see something say something,’ that’s what we need to do,” McGhee said. “We don’t need to look for people conducting criminal actions, we need to look for people that are acting suspicious.”

McGhee, who had a career in law enforcement and now specializes in security analysis, says even without a clear motive, the videos provide an opportunity for police to tap into his mindset and could lead to former colleagues or friends coming forward with key information.

As Brown University continues efforts to transform security across campus, Spears says it’s only there that he’ll be able to find some healing.

“I love the community. I love my friends,” Spears said. “I want to go back, and I want see them and I just want to like try and get back to something kind of normal even though I know for a long time nothing, nothing there will be normal.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

KDKA

By Shelley Bortz

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    UNIONTOWN, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — For nearly a month, the city of Uniontown operated without a permanent police chief, raising concerns about leadership and accountability inside the department.

City leaders finally filled that vacancy on Monday, swearing in a new chief and making history in the process.

For the first time, the department is being led by a woman, Chief Alexis Metros, who is stepping into the role amid scrutiny and high expectations.

“This will be 15 years now that I’ve been involved in law enforcement. I worked hard over the years, and like anything else, you have goals, and at the end game, that was my goal one day when the chance arrived, and it arrived,” Chief Metros said.

Metros told KDKA-TV that law enforcement has always been a part of her life.

She comes from a family of law enforcement officers and says that serving the community was ingrained in her at a young age, but she also understands the significance of this moment.

As the first woman to lead this department, Metros says she hopes her appointment sends a message, especially to young girls, that they belong in leadership roles, too.

“I hope it gives little girls or teenage girls something to look up to,” Chief Metros said. “I’ve always felt like one of the team, so to me, one of us taking over a position, we’re one big family.”

Metros is no stranger to Uniontown. She is from the area and has spent her career policing the communities she knows.

Since graduating from the police academy, she worked in Brownsville and Masontown boroughs before joining the Uniontown Police Department three years ago.

The experience, she says, has prepared her for this role.

“Over those years, I have had the chance to network with a lot of the community throughout Fayette County,” she said. “I feel like I have a great working nature with a lot of them.”

It’s no secret, though, that Metros takes over a department emerging from weeks without a chief, facing challenges that include morale, staffing concerns, and public expectations.

She said her focus moving forward couldn’t be clearer, with the safety of the city as her top priority.

“This past year was a big year for us. We didn’t have any violent homicides, and we can thank that to the men and women who are out here day and night sweeping these streets, getting the guns and drugs and keeping the violence down,” she said.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

KCNC

By Austen Erblat, Ashley Portillo

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    LITTLETON, Colorado (KCNC) — A former school bus aide in Colorado pleaded guilty on Monday to 12 out of 13 charges related to allegations that she assaulted three students with autism in 2024.

Kiarra Jones, 29, was arrested in April 2024 and later charged with 10 counts of third-degree assault of an at-risk person, two counts of child abuse causing injury, and one count of child abuse causing serious bodily injury related to the incidents when she worked for Littleton Public Schools. She initially pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

She pleaded guilty on Monday, the day her trial was supposed to start. Attorneys for the victims’ families say the victims were three 10-year-old non-verbal boys with autism. At least one of the incidents was caught on video.

“Today marks a step toward accountability and a step closer to justice and safety for our community. Ms. Jones’ actions weren’t just criminal, they were cruel,” Ciara Anderson, an attorney representing some of the victims’ families, said at a news conference after the hearing ended.

Anderson, who works for the law firm Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, said the families are seeking the maximum prison sentence of 15 years. Anderson estimates a prison sentence of 5 to 7 years, but said it could be more, depending on whether the judge issues consecutive or concurrent sentences for each charge.

When asked for his reaction to the plea, Kevin Yarborough, whose son, Hunter, was one of the victims, said, “mixed emotions to say the least.”

“It’s frustrating. My son is not able to speak, so I feel my job as a father is to represent him in court, so it is frustrating,” he said. “That being said, I am happy that the next step in this process is going forward. I’m happy that after 2 years of delays, she was finally able to take some accountability for what she did to our kids.”

“It is frustrating that we don’t get that day in court to display what our kids had to go through for everyone to see,” said Jessica Vestal, whose son Dax was also one of the victims.

“Between the things that the kids have all experienced with the abuse, today was their first day back at school from winter break,” Vestal continued. “Most people have to prep their kids’ teachers, like, ‘he doesn’t like carrots’ or ‘he didn’t sleep well this morning,’ we have to let our kids’ teachers know what we noticed that’s triggering them lately and what things seem to be on the forefront of their minds in terms of the trauma they experienced.”

Vestal and her attorneys say they’re pursuing legal action against Littleton Public Schools and The Joshua School, and the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an inquiry into the school and school district.

Christopher Gallo, chief deputy district attorney in Arapahoe County, said he was “very happy” with the outcome of the case.

“Any time someone’s in a position of trust, in regard to our children, takes accountability and we find justice in that situation, we’re always pretty gratified that that’s the resolution it comes to,” he said. “Any time someone endangers children, when they are charged with keeping those children safe, especially children who have special needs, children who cannot look after themselves, that’s always particularly concerning.”

Jones is set to be sentenced on March 18. She was represented by the Public Defender’s Office.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.