Murder case against Schofield soldier advances toward trial
On Wednesday the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel referred five charges and 19 specifications against Dewayne Johnson. In a news release the Army said 'the general nature of the charges are for the murder of Mischa Johnson, intentionally killing her unborn child, obstruction of justice, providing false official statements, possession of child pornography and the production and distribution of child pornography.'
Dewayne Johnson is being held in pretrial confinement and waived his right to an Article 32 preliminary hearing. Now that charges are referred, the case will be assigned to a military judge who will schedule dates for an arraignment, pretrial hearings and the trial itself.
Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson, 19, was last seen at her home at Schofield Barracks on July 31. She has not been found but the Army says she is 'presumed deceased.' After initially searching for her for more than two weeks, Army officials arrested her husband, Dewayne Johnson, on Aug. 19.
Johnson, who hails from Maryland, enlisted in 2022 and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks as a cavalry scout in June 2023.
Mischa Johnson was born and raised on Oahu and grew up in Ewa Beach. At the time of her disappearance, she was six months pregnant with a baby girl.
Shortly after Dewayne Johnson's arrest, Mischa Johnson's family spoke about the investigation during an appearance on an Instagram livestream by podcast Always Always Support Local on Aug. 22 and asked the public to help Army investigators. The family said Army investigators told them they were investigating Dewayne Johnson engaging in extramarital sexual relationships with several local teenage minors, as well as producing and distributing pornography depicting minors.
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During the podcast appearance Mischa Johnson's mother, Frances Tapiz-Andrian, broke into tears, telling those who tuned in, 'I can't even bury my daughter. … Please don't fail Mi scha. I'm asking, I'm pleading. Please, please come out. I hurt every day.'
Though the case is moving toward trial the Army said the 'case remains an ongoing investigation ' and urged anyone with information regarding the case and Mischa Johnson's whereabouts to contact the Army Criminal Investigation Division Pacific Field Office at 808-208-0559, or via cid.army.mil /tip For information about court-martial proceedings, the Army facilitates public access to its docketing information online through the Army's eDocket system at : .
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Miami Herald
23 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Trump boasts of deporting the ‘worst of the worst.' LA raids tell a far different story
LOS ANGELES - They called them the 'worst of the worst.' For more than a month and a half, the Trump administration has posted a barrage of mugshots of L.A. undocumented immigrants with long rap sheets. Officials have spotlighted Cuong Chanh Phan, a 49-year-old Vietnamese man convicted in 1997 of second-degree murder for his role in slaying two teens at a high school graduation party. They have shared blurry photos on Instagram of a slew of convicted criminals such as Rolando Veneracion-Enriquez, a 55-year-old Filipino man convicted in 1996 of sexual penetration with a foreign object with force and assault with intent to commit a felony. And Eswin Uriel Castro, a Mexican convicted in 2002 of child molestation and in 2021 of assault with a deadly weapon. But the immigrants that the Department of Homeland Security showcase in X posts and news releases do not represent the majority of immigrants swept up across Los Angeles. As the number of immigration arrests in the L.A. region quadrupled from 540 in April to 2,185 in June, seven out of 10 immigrants arrested in June had no criminal conviction - a trend that immigrant advocates say belies administration claims that they are targeting 'heinous illegal alien criminals' who represent a threat to public safety. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis of ICE data from the Deportation Data Project, the proportion of immigrants without criminal convictions arrested in seven counties in and around L.A. has skyrocketed from 35% in April, to 46% in May, and to 69% from June 1 to June 26. Austin Kocher, a geographer and research assistant professor at Syracuse University who specializes in immigration enforcement, said the Trump administration was not being entirely honest about the criminal status of those they were arresting. Officials, he said, followed a strategy of focusing on the minority of violent convicted criminals so they could justify enforcement policies that are proving to be less popular. 'I think they know that if they were honest with the American public that they're arresting people who cook our food, wash dishes in the kitchen, take care of people in nursing homes, people who are just living in part of the community … there's a large segment of the public, including a large segment of Trump's own supporters, who would be uncomfortable and might even oppose those kinds of immigration practices.' In Los Angeles, the raids swept up garment worker Jose Ortiz, who worked 18 years at the Ambiance Apparel clothing warehouse in downtown L.A., before being nabbed in a June 6 raid; car wash worker Jesus Cruz, a 52-year-old father who was snatched on June 8 - just before his daughter's graduation - from Westchester Hand Wash; and Emma De Paz, a recent widow and tamale vendor from Guatemala who was arrested June 19 outside a Hollywood Home Depot. Such arrests may be influencing the public's perception of the raids. Multiple polls show support for Trump's immigration agenda slipping as masked federal agents increasingly swoop up undocumented immigrants from workplaces and streets. ICE data shows that about 31% of the immigrants arrested across the L.A. region from June 1 to June 26 had criminal convictions, 11% had pending criminal charges and 58% were classified as 'other immigration violator,' which ICE defines as 'individuals without any known criminal convictions or pending charges in ICE's system of record at the time of the enforcement action.' The L.A. region's surge in arrests of noncriminals has been more dramatic than the U.S. as a whole: Arrests of immigrants with no criminal convictions climbed nationally from 57% in April to 69% in June. Federal raids here have also been more fiercely contested in Southern California - particularly in L.A. County, where more than 2 million residents are undocumented or living with undocumented family members. 'A core component of their messaging is that this is about public safety, that the people that they are arresting are threats to their communities,' said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank. 'But it's hard to maintain that this is all about public safety when you're going out and arresting people who are just going about their lives and working.' Trump never said he would arrest only criminals. Almost as soon as he retook office on Jan. 20, Trump signed a stack of executive orders aimed at drastically curbing immigration. The administration then moved to expand arrests from immigrants who posed a security threat to anyone who entered the country illegally. Yet while officials kept insisting they were focused on violent criminals, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a warning: 'That doesn't mean that the other illegal criminals who entered our nation's borders are off the table.' As White House chief adviser on border policy Tom Homan put it: 'If you're in the country illegally, you got a problem.' Still, things did not really pick up until May, when White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered ICE's top field officials to shift to more aggressive tactics: arresting undocumented immigrants, whether or not they had a criminal record. Miller set a new goal: arresting 3,000 undocumented people a day, a quota that immigration experts say is impossible to reach by focusing only on criminals. 'There aren't enough criminal immigrants in the United States to fill their arrest quotas and to get millions and millions of deportations, which is what the president has explicitly promised,' Bier said. 'Immigration and Customs Enforcement says there's half a million removable noncitizens who have criminal convictions in the United States. Most of those are nonviolent: traffic, immigration offenses. It's not millions and millions.' By the time Trump celebrated six months in office, DHS boasted that the Trump administration had already arrested more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants. '70% of ICE arrests,' the agency said in a news release, 'are individuals with criminal convictions or charges.' But that claim no longer appeared to be true. While 78% of undocumented immigrants arrested across the U.S. in April had a criminal conviction or faced a pending charge, that number had plummeted to 57% in June. In L.A., the difference between what Trump officials said and the reality on the ground was more stark: Only 43% of those arrested across the L.A. region had criminal convictions or faced a pending charge. Still, ICE kept insisting it was 'putting the worst first.' As stories circulate across communities about the arrests of law-abiding immigrants, there are signs that support for Trump's deportation agenda is falling. A CBS/YouGov poll published July 20 shows about 56% of those surveyed approved of Trump's handling of immigration in March, but that dropped to 50% in June and 46% in July. About 52% of poll respondents said the Trump administration is trying to deport more people than expected. When asked who the Trump administration is prioritizing for deporting, only 44% said 'dangerous criminals.' California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass have repeatedly accused Trump of conducting a national experiment in Los Angeles. 'The federal government is using California as a playground to test their indiscriminate actions that fulfill unsafe arrest quotas and mass detention goals,' Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Newsom told The Times. 'They are going after every single immigrant, regardless of whether they have a criminal background and without care that they are American citizens, legal status holders and foreign-born, and even targeting native-born U.S. citizens.' When pressed on why ICE is arresting immigrants who have not been convicted or are not facing pending criminal charges, Trump administration officials tend to argue that many of those people have violated immigration law. 'ICE agents are going to arrest people for being in the country illegally,' Homan told CBS News earlier this month. 'We still focus on public safety threats and national security threats, but if we find an illegal alien in the process of doing that, they're going to be arrested too.' Immigration experts say that undermines their message that they are ridding communities of people who threaten public safety. 'It's a big backtracking from 'These people are out killing people, raping people, harming them in demonstrable ways,' to 'This person broke immigration law in this way or that way,'' Bier said. The Trump administration is also trying to find new ways to target criminals in California. It has threatened to withhold federal funds to California due to its 'sanctuary state' law, which limits county jails from coordinating with ICE except in cases involving immigrants convicted of a serious crime or felonies such as murder, rape, robbery or arson. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department requested California counties, including L.A., provide data on all jail inmates who are not U.S. citizens in an effort to help federal immigration agents prioritize those who have committed crimes. 'Although every illegal alien by definition violates federal law,' the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release, 'those who go on to commit crimes after doing so show that they pose a heightened risk to our Nation's safety and security.' As Americans are bombarded with dueling narratives of good vs. bad immigrants, Kocher believes the question we have to grapple with is not 'What does the data say?' Instead, we should ask: 'How do we meaningfully distinguish between immigrants with serious criminal convictions and immigrants who are peacefully living their lives?' 'I don't think it's reasonable, or helpful, to represent everyone as criminals - or everyone as saints,' Kocher said. 'Probably the fundamental question, which is also a question that plagues our criminal justice system, is whether our legal system is capable of distinguishing between people who are genuine public safety threats and people who are simply caught up in the bureaucracy.' The data, Kocher said, show that ICE is currently unable or unwilling to make that distinction. 'If we don't like the way that the system is working, we might want to rethink whether we want a system where people who are simply living in the country following laws, working in their economy, should actually have a pathway to stay,' Kocher said. 'And the only way to do that is actually to change the laws.' In the rush to blast out mugshots of some of the most criminal L.A. immigrants, the Trump administration left out a key part of the story. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, its staff notified ICE on May 5 of Veneracion's pending release after he had served nearly 30 years in prison for the crimes of assault with intent to commit rape and sexual penetration with a foreign object with force. But ICE failed to pick up Veneracion and canceled its hold on him May 19, a day before he was released on parole. A few weeks later, as ICE amped up its raids, federal agents arrested Veneracion on June 7 at the ICE office in L.A. The very next day, DHS shared his mugshot in a news release titled 'President Trump is Stepping Up Where Democrats Won't.' The same document celebrated the capture of Phan, who served nearly 25 years in prison after he was convicted of second-degree murder. CDCR said the Board of Parole Hearings coordinated with ICE after Phan was granted parole in 2022. Phan was released that year to ICE custody. But those details did not stop Trump officials from taking credit for his arrest and blaming California leaders for letting Phan loose. 'It is sickening that Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass continue to protect violent criminal illegal aliens at the expense of the safety of American citizens and communities,' DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Chicago Tribune
8 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Family of Korean War MIA from Aurora gather for road dedication and to fill in missing pieces of longtime mystery
The family of Army Sgt. First Class Ogden Neil Thompson descended on Aurora this weekend from across the country – South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi, Washington – to pay tribute to this local hero, but also to tackle a mystery. On Saturday morning, a portion of Route 25 from Sullivan Road to Ashland Avenue was dedicated in honor of Thompson, the second of four such events to keep alive the memories of those from the Fox Valley who paid the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Thompson served in the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, and was stationed near Unsan, North Korea, when, on Nov. 1, 1950, during a surprise Chinese offensive, his unit was overrun in one of the most intense battles of the Korean War. Thompson's body was never recovered and he was officially declared presumed dead on Dec. 31, 1953, making him one of 394 Illinois service members still missing from this war. According to state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, who sponsored legislation for these road signs, the 20-year-old Aurora soldier 'went missing during the ensuing chaos and was never recovered, with eyewitness accounts suggesting he was killed while attempting to evade enemy forces.' The fact there is not even a grave to visit had to make his death even tougher for Thompson's hard-working parents, Freeda and Homer, who worked at Burgess-Norton in Geneva, as well as their eight surviving children. Because Thompson died so young, many of those descendants, including Ogden's nieces and nephews who were born long after their uncle was killed, knew little about him. 'Our mother didn't say a whole lot … just that he was killed in the Korean War,' said Tammy Kitchen, who drove to Aurora from South Carolina with her cousin Sherry Waddell for the Saturday ceremony. 'It's the way it was back then. They didn't talk about the hard stuff. They just soldiered on.' Most everyone in the family, however, knew one compelling fact which has led to a 'mystery' they hope to one day solve. While he was serving overseas, Ogden Thompson fell in love with a Japanese woman he nicknamed Tiny and the couple, who married in a civil ceremony there, had a baby boy named Michael. From the accounts of Ogden's mother, and then a treasure trove of loving letters that were found after her death in 1999, the family knew that the written permission she and her husband had to give to their underage son so he could bring Tiny to this country and marry her here were returned unopened. Eleven days earlier, he was reported missing. 'That's the real mystery,' said Kathy Asbill, who made the trip from Virginia with her father Irvin Thompson, Ogden's last surviving brother. Despite plenty of attempts to locate the fallen soldier's family in Japan – letters to politicians and other officials, contact with embassies, documentation searches and Korean War internet postings – all efforts came up short. But Thompson's family is hoping this weekend's activities, which have brought close to a couple dozen together with North Aurora nephew Bill Perrin hosting, will provide the incentive to keep searching. 'The story is to be continued,' insisted Kitchen. Certainly sifting through a table filled with photos, letters and other memorabilia has helped ignite the desire to keep the fallen hero's memory and legacy alive. Particularly compelling is the loving correspondence between Ogden and his parents as they shared bits of news about life in Aurora and about his siblings, including oldest brother Arthur, who was serving in the Navy during the same war. Fortunately, the two brothers managed to meet in Japan on a mutual leave at one point. The fact those later letters never reached Ogden – one was written by his mother the day before they were notified he was missing – only adds to the emotional narrative that has come to mean so much for his family. 'I cannot even imagine how hard it must have been' to get those returned letters, especially the one giving consent to have their son's wife and child come to the United States,' noted Asbill. 'What a difference one letter could have made in everyone's life, especially Mike.' Now 88 years old, Irvin Thompson – a Navy veteran like three of his brothers – still recalls that day his parents received word his big brother was not coming home. Nearly 14 at the time, he climbed alone into the attic of the family's home on North Sumner Avenue. 'And I just cried,' he told me. 'It was the first time I'd cried in a long time. 'It was like an emptiness.' Irvin remembers his brother, who never graduated from high school but was determined to join the military, as 'very outgoing' and who 'could do a lot of things.' That included starting to build a cabin when he was only 12 years old with the goal of finishing the project when he returned from the war. Kathy Asbill said her dad talked about his missing brother at least several times a year – usually on patriotic holidays. And the family 'spent hours and hours writing letters trying to find out what they could' about him after he left Aurora. Her father 'instilled in us that American military pride,' she added, noting that last week the family attended an event in Greenville, South Carolina, where the remains of World War II Army airman Clarence Gibbs were brought home from Germany after being missing for 81 years. Ogden's loved ones do not give up hope. Nor do they take for granted the road sign memorial on Route 25 that will keep Ogden Neil Thompson's name in the public eye, thanks in large part to North Aurora Gold Star father Bob Patterson and the memorial foundation for his son U.S. Army Spc. Christopher Patterson, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2012. In May, U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Ted Katsoolias of St. Charles, who was reported MIA on Thanksgiving Eve in 1950 during the Korean War, was honored with a sign on a portion of Route 59. Upcoming dedications include another Korean War MIA, Army Pvt. First Class Wayne Wilder Hill Jr., and Army Staff Sgt. Robert Herreid, a star athlete from Mooseheart who is one of 63 Vietnam War MIA from Illinois. The Thompson family's gratitude was evident in the words they shared at Saturday morning's road dedication, which rain moved inside the Batavia VFW post. 'For almost 75 years, our family has carried the weight' of Ogden's 'absence, the unanswered questions, the grief and the hope that one day his remains will be returned to the United States,' Asbill told the crowd of around 60 or so who gathered for the event. 'Naming this road in his honor will serve as a lasting reminder of his heroism and courage, and of the sacrifice borne not only by him but also all who love and remember him,' she continued. 'We represent military families with enduring strength who wait, hope and remember. 'Thank you for standing with us today to ensure his name and story live on.'
Black America Web
20 hours ago
- Black America Web
LeBron James Takes Legal Action Against Deepfakes Of Him Being Pregnant
Source: MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images / Getty Fighting misinformation has been an ongoing battle for years and has begun to hilariously overtake the NBA players, thanks to NBA Centel. But now with the random advancements of AI, you can do more than tweet out a made-up statement about an athlete, you can dream up a video about it— and that's where LeBron James draws the line. Legally, at least. According to 404 Media , James' team of lawyers has sent out cease-and-desist letters to Flick Up, the company behind an AI tool and Discord community that allowed people to create random AI-generated videos of NBA stars. Of course, given too much freedom, some NBA fans took it too far with deepfake content that featured James and even Steph Curry in unusual predicaments involving Diddy. 'These included videos where an AI-generated James stood by as an AI-generated Diddy sexually assaulted Steph Curry in prison, videos of James imagined as a homeless person, videos of James on his knees with his tongue out, and videos of James pregnant,' writes 404 Media . Then a change came to the platform in June when the Discord community's moderators stopped using realistic people as models because they wanted to avoid any further complications with a 'highly valued basketball player.' Now, weeks later, Flick Up Founder Jason Stacks confirmed with 404 Media that the player was indeed LeBron James, and on his behalf, law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks sent him a request to quit it. 'The letter came from Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks on behalf of LeBron James, and we took it seriously,' Stacks said. 'We removed the models immediately and have since updated our approach to likeness and public figure policies. That's really the full story on our end.' In a video posted to Instagram, Stacks revealed the moment he received the letter, admitting he was 'so f-cked.' He continued, explaining that he didn't know the video would become so popular and that posting it on YouTube led to it gaining more attention than he ever imagined. 'Two months ago, I launched the YouTube of AI video. It was a fun idea to help creators make some more money,' he said in the video. 'But then people started noticing. Like, really noticing. Like this guy, yeah, the LeBron James. And he wasn't happy, because I got this cease and desist from his team.' Well, apparently, James isn't with the jokes, at least one of him being pregnant. See reactions to the league move below. LeBron James Takes Legal Action Against Deepfakes Of Him Being Pregnant was originally published on
