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Speaker 1: Crime alert. I mean see grace breaking crime news now.

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Speaker 1: Orange County, California Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson and wife

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Speaker 1: and son enjoy a Mexican restaurant when the couple begins arguing.

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Speaker 1: Ferguson has plenty of drinks during dinner, then heads home.

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Speaker 1: The argument with wife Cheryl escalates. Ferguson says he tries

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Speaker 1: to diffuse the situation, pulling a gun from his ankle

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Speaker 1: holster to put it on the coffee table that it

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Speaker 1: went off accidentally. Prosecutors don't buy his story.

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Speaker 2: Nancy Cheryl Ferguson is fatally shant as her husband puts

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Speaker 2: his gun on the table. The couple's twenty two year

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Speaker 2: old son then tackles Jeffrey Ferguson to the ground, wrestling

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Speaker 2: the gun away before calling nine one one and starting

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Speaker 2: CPR and his mother. Meanwhile, Judge Ferguson Texas clerk and

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Speaker 2: bailiff quote, I lost it. I just shot my wife.

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Speaker 2: I won't be in tomorrow. I will be in custody.

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Speaker 2: I'm so sorry. Ferguson goes to trial on one of

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Speaker 2: felony murder, but the first jury cannot come to a

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Speaker 2: unanimous decision. A second jury decides differently.

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Speaker 1: Former judge Jeffrey Ferguson found guilty, now facing forty years

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Speaker 1: behind bars. Sam Patrick Groft uses his bicycle to get

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Speaker 1: around LA and carry his chainsaw, which he allegedly uses

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Speaker 1: to chop down trees in the middle of the night,

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Speaker 1: at least two confirmed, one twelve midnight, another one twenty am.

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Speaker 1: Two more cut down in broad daylight two pm and

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Speaker 1: three forty pm. Groft spotted on security footage wearing all

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Speaker 1: black during his destructive rides. LA police charging him with

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Speaker 1: felony vandalism. More crime and justice news after this Now

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Speaker 1: with the latest crime and justice breaking news Crime Onlines

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Speaker 1: John Linley.

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Speaker 3: In Wisconsin, prosecutors have reduced a felony charge against former

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Speaker 3: prison Warden Randall Hepp to a misdemeanor as part of

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Speaker 3: a plea agreement. Hepp was originally charged in June twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty four with misconduct in office after the deaths of

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Speaker 3: two inmates, Cameron Williams and Donald Meyer at Woppin Correctional Institution,

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Speaker 3: the state's oldest maximum security prison. Help announced his retirement

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Speaker 3: just days before those charges were filed. The felony misconduct

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Speaker 3: charge carried a possible sentence of up to three and

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Speaker 3: a half years in prison and a ten thousand dollars fine.

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Speaker 3: Under the new deal, Hep faces a misdemeanor count of

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Speaker 3: violating state County institution laws, punishable by a maximum of

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Speaker 3: thirty days in jail and a five hundred thousand dollars fine.

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Speaker 3: Online court record show a plea agreement has now been filed.

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Speaker 3: Hepp was also provided with a guilty plea questionnaire confirming

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Speaker 3: he is pleading guilty knowingly and voluntarily. A major church

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Speaker 3: abuse investigation is now before New Jersey's highest court, As

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Speaker 3: Crime Online Sydney Sumner tells us, the Diocese of Camden

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Speaker 3: is fighting to stop a state grand jury probe.

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Speaker 2: The New Jersey Supreme Court is hearing arguments as the

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Speaker 2: Diocese of Camden tries to block a grand jury investigation

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Speaker 2: into clergy sexual abuse. The state formed a task force

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Speaker 2: after Pennsylvania's twenty eighteen report exposed decades of abuse. New

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Speaker 2: Jersey set up a hotline and received more than five

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty reports, but so far, no specific allegations

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Speaker 2: have been made public. The diocese argues grand juries are

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Speaker 2: meant for public officials not private church matters, and points

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Speaker 2: to a two thousand and two agreement requiring churches to

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Speaker 2: report abuse directly to prosecutors. Lower court sided with the

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Speaker 2: diocese last year, Attorney General Matt Platkin appealed. This comes

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Speaker 2: after New Jersey overhauled its child sex abuse laws and

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Speaker 2: Catholic dioceses named over one hundred and eighty priests credibly accused.

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Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, Loon agreed to an eighty seven

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Speaker 2: point five million dollar settlement with three hundred abuse survivors,

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Speaker 2: one of the largest in US Catholic church history. The

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Speaker 2: state Supreme Court's decision could reshape how clergy abuse cases

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Speaker 2: are handled in New Jersey.

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Speaker 3: A ruling could come later this year.

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Speaker 1: Thanks John Tamra and Iris Perez spotted by neighbors leaving

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Speaker 1: their home hout in Lake, Michigan heading toward the woods.

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Speaker 1: A newer model white Jeep Cherokee seen on surveillance leaving

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Speaker 1: the area same time as the sisters leave their home.

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Speaker 1: Police say the sisters were taken from their residents. Tamra sixteen,

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Speaker 1: black female, five three, one hundred and twenty pounds, black care,

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Speaker 1: brown eyes, Iris, black female, black care brown eyes, a

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Speaker 1: star tattoo on the left side of her neck. She's

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Speaker 1: five feet, one hundred forty pounds. Anyone with information concerning

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Speaker 1: the whereabouts of Tamra and Iris Perez please call Rosscommon

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Speaker 1: County Sheriffs nine eight nine nine two seven five five

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Speaker 1: one zero one. For the latest crime injustice news, go

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Speaker 1: to crimeonline dot com and please join us for our

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Speaker 1: daily podcast, Crime Stories, where we do our best to

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Speaker 1: find missing people, especially children, and solve unsolved homicides. With

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Speaker 1: this crime alert, I Nancy Grace