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Speaker 1: Crime Alert I Nancy Grace Breaking crime news Now. Franklin

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Speaker 1: Mendez gets in a car accident. After the other driver leaves,

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Speaker 1: Mendez hangs around to take pictures of his car's damage.

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Speaker 1: A gray Honda Civic speeds passed hits Mendez. His body

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Speaker 1: gets lodged in the Civics windshield. The Civic drives two miles,

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Speaker 1: then the driver calmly gets out and dislodges his body.

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Speaker 1: The driver smokes a cigarette, gets back in his car,

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Speaker 1: and drives off Nancy.

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Speaker 2: After hitting Mendes, the Civic went into a residential area,

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Speaker 2: and a homeowner's doorbell camera captured the unidentified suspect dislodging

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Speaker 2: Mendes's body from the car and dragging him into a ditch.

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Speaker 2: When passers by discovered Mendes, he was naked from the

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Speaker 2: waist down. Locals believe the suspect knew the area well

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Speaker 2: as he spent so much time at the scene.

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Speaker 1: Marilyn Cops still looking for the hit and run killer

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Speaker 1: and asks the public to help locate the gray Honda Civic,

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Speaker 1: damage to the passenger side bumper and a shattered windshield.

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Speaker 1: A Memphis driver lucky to be alive after getting in

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Speaker 1: the middle of a drive by shooting. The driver headed

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Speaker 1: down Poplar Avenue when he hears what he thinks is a

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Speaker 1: car backfiring. He notices his glasses are not on his face.

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Speaker 1: Then he spots a bullet hole in his windshield. The

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Speaker 1: driver pulls into a parking lot finds the bullet went

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Speaker 1: straight through the car, knocking off his glasses and shattering

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Speaker 1: his back window. Wow, he still says, the whole incident

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Speaker 1: is a blur. More Crime and Justice news after this.

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Speaker 1: Now with the latest crime in Justice, breaking news Crime

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Speaker 1: Onlines John Limley.

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Speaker 3: We begin in Tennessee, where a judge has ruled that

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Speaker 3: the writings of the individual responsible for last year's tragic

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Speaker 3: shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville cannot

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Speaker 3: be made public. With details here's Sidney Sumner of Crime Online.

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Speaker 2: Chancery Court judge La Sea Miles determined that the Covenant

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Speaker 2: School children and their parents parants hold the copyright to

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Speaker 2: any works created by Audrey Hale, the former student who

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Speaker 2: carried out the attack. Hale's parents had transferred ownership of

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Speaker 2: Hale's property to the victim's families, who then argued in

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Speaker 2: court for the right to control access to these materials.

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Speaker 2: Judge Miles acknowledged that using copyright as an exception to

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Speaker 2: the Tennessee Public Records Act is unprecedented. Ultimately, she agreed

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Speaker 2: with the parents, stating that Hale's original writings, journals, art, photos,

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Speaker 2: and videos fall under the protection of the Federal Copyright Act.

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Speaker 2: This ruling comes over a year after multiple groups file

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Speaker 2: on public records requests for document sees by Metro Nashville

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Speaker 2: Police during their investigation into the March twenty twenty three shooting.

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Speaker 2: The case has drawn significant interests, partly due to reports

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Speaker 2: that Hale, who was assigned female at birth, may have

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Speaker 2: identified as a transgender man. Hale left behind at least

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Speaker 2: twenty journals, a suicide note, and a memoir, according to

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Speaker 2: court documents. The denial of records requests led to lawsuits

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Speaker 2: in a complex legal battle. In addition to copyright claims,

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Speaker 2: the parents of Covenant School argued that releasing the documents

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Speaker 2: could traumatize families and potentially inspire copycat attacks. Judge Miles agreed,

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Speaker 2: noting that the risk of such attacks was quote of

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Speaker 2: grave concern. While many of Hale's documents will remain protected,

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Speaker 2: other materials in the police file may be released once

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Speaker 2: the case is closed, provided that they comply with Tennessee's

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Speaker 2: open records law.

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Speaker 3: Judge Miles' order is expected to be appealed now to

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Speaker 3: New York State as the man charged with stabbing author

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Speaker 3: Salmon Rushti has rejected a plea deal that would have

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Speaker 3: reduced his state prison term but introduced a federal terrorism

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Speaker 3: related charge. This according to his lawyer, once Again Crime

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Speaker 3: Online Sydney Sumner, Twenty six.

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Speaker 2: Year old Hadi Matar has been held without bail since

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Speaker 2: the twenty twenty two attack. Matar is accused of stabbing

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Speaker 2: Rushtie over a dozen times and blinding him in one

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Speaker 2: eye while the acclaimed writer was on stage about to

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Speaker 2: give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York.

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Speaker 2: Matar's attorney, Nathaniel Barone, confirmed that Matar, who lived in Fairview, Newton, Jersey,

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Speaker 2: turned down the agreement this week in Mayville, New York.

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Speaker 2: The proposed deal required Matar to plead guilty to attempted

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Speaker 2: murder in Chautauqua County, reducing his maximum state prison sentence

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Speaker 2: from twenty five years to twenty years. Additionally, Matar would

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Speaker 2: have needed to plead guilty to a federal charge of

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Speaker 2: attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization,

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Speaker 2: potentially adding another twenty years to his sentence. Rushti, who

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Speaker 2: has documented the attack in his recovery in a memoir,

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Speaker 2: spent years in hiding after Ayatola Komeni issued a fatwat

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty nine calling for his death over his

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Speaker 2: novel The Satanic Verses, considered blasphemous by some Muslims. Rushti

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Speaker 2: re emerged in the late nineteen nineties and has traveled

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Speaker 2: freely over the past two decades. Matar was born in

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Speaker 2: the US and holds dual citizenship in Lebanon, where his

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Speaker 2: parents were born. His mother noted that Matar became withdrawn

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Speaker 2: in moody after visiting his father in Lebanon in twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 2: In his memoir, Rushti described seeing a man running towards

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Speaker 2: him in the Amphitheater just before the attack, where he

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Speaker 2: was about to speak on the important of protecting writers

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Speaker 2: from harm.

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Speaker 3: Rushti is listed as a witness for Matar's upcoming trial.

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Speaker 1: Teen sisters, Tamra and Iris Perez, moved to Michigan with

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Speaker 1: their adoptive parents after repeat harassment by their bio mom.

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Speaker 1: The girls settle in over the summer enjoy walks around

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Speaker 1: a wooded area near the new home. One day, the

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Speaker 1: girls go for one of their walks and never return.

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Speaker 1: A neighbor reports watching the teens head into the woods,

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Speaker 1: then seeing a white jeep Cherokee leaving shortly after. The

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Speaker 1: FBI believes Tamra and Iris were taken. They're investigating whether

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Speaker 1: their bio family may be involved. No one has heard

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Speaker 1: from the two girls since they disappeared, now over a year.

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Speaker 1: They have ties to Port Saint Lucy and Lake Worth, Florida,

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Speaker 1: and Winchester, Tennessee. If you have info on Tamra and

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Speaker 1: Iris Perez fifteen and fourteen, contact ross Common County Sheriffs

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Speaker 1: nine eight, nine, two seven, five five one zero one.

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Speaker 1: For the late discriming justice news, go to crimeonline dot

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Speaker 1: com with this crime alert. I'm Nancy Grace