Data from SUV shows deadly wreck may have been intentional
April 2, 2018 by admin
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An SUV carrying a large, free-spirited family from Washington state accelerated straight off a scenic California cliff and authorities said the deadly wreck may have been intentional.
Information pulled from the vehicle’s software shows it was stopped at a flat, dirt pull-off area before it sped off the steep rocky face and plunged 100 feet, said Capt. Greg Baarts with the California Highway Patrol Northern Division. Speaking at an evening news conference Sunday night, Baarts said the electronic information combined with the lack of skid marks or signs the driver braked led authorities to believe the crash was purposeful.
Five members of the Hart family were found dead. The search continued for three more children believed to have been in the vehicle when it went over a coastal overlook and landed on rocks in the Pacific Ocean below. The missing children may have been washed out to sea, authorities say.
“This specific location is very difficult to search because the ocean currents and tides are strong, it’s unpredictable, and the murkiness of the water makes it difficult to see,” said Capt. Greg Van Patten, a spokesman for the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
Known as the Hart Tribe, the multiracial family of two married women — Sarah and Jennifer Hart — and six adopted children often took spontaneous road trips to camp and hike and traveled to festivals and other events, offering hugs and promoting unity.
Authorities don’t know exactly when the wreck took place. A passing motorist discovered the vehicle on March 26, three days after social service authorities in Washington state opened an investigation apparently prompted by a neighbor’s complaint that the children were being deprived of food. Authorities believe at least one felony was committed but Van Patten declined to specify.
Well before the wreck, Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Douglas County, Minnesota, telling authorities “she let her anger get out of control” while spanking her 6-year-old adopted daughter, court records show.
The two women, both 38, were found dead inside the SUV, while three of their children — Markis Hart, 19, Jeremiah Hart, 14, and Abigail Hart, 14 — were discovered outside the vehicle. Searchers were looking for Hannah Hart, 16; Sierra Hart, 12; and Devonte Hart, 15.
Devonte drew national attention after the black youngster was photographed in tears, hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest in Portland, Oregon, over the deadly police shooting of a black man in Ferguson, Missouri. Devonte was holding a “Free Hugs” sign.
Two weeks ago, Bruce and Dana DeKalb, next-door neighbors of the Harts in Woodland, Washington, called state Child Protective Services because Devonte had been coming over to their house almost every day for a week, asking for food.
Dana DeKalb said Devonte told her his parents were “punishing them by withholding food.” The boy asked her to leave food in a box by the fence for him, she said.
Social service authorities opened an investigation, and a state caseworker went to the house on March 23 but didn’t find anyone home. The agency had no prior history with the family, said Norah West, a spokeswoman with the Washington Department of Social and Health Services.
On Thursday, authorities in Washington state combed through the family’s home for information. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were looking for bills, receipts or anything else to shed light on why the family left and other circumstances related to the trip, KGW-TV reported.
“To the best of my knowledge, there was not a suicide note found at the residence,” said Baarts, who added that authorities have been interviewing friends and family members of the Harts.
“There have been red flags,” he said, but did not elaborate.
Van Patten said he was not aware of any other evidence of abuse.
Family friend Max Ribner last week took issue with the notion it was something other than a tragic accident. The couple adopted the six children, many of whom came from “hard backgrounds,” he said. “They transformed these kids’ lives.”
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Associated Press writer Michelle A. Monroe contributed to this report.
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Venting on Immigration, Trump Vows ‘No More DACA Deal’ and Threatens Nafta
April 2, 2018 by admin
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As he walked into church in Palm Beach on Sunday morning, Mr. Trump did not respond to a question from reporters about whether his tweets meant that he would no longer support any deal for the young immigrants protected by the DACA program. But he said that “Mexico has got to help us at the border, and a lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA.”
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, gave protected status to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The program requires immigrants to have resided in the United States since 2007, meaning any crossing the border now would not be eligible.
Mr. Trump announced last year that he was ending the program, but courts have blocked his decision. He has said he is open to negotiating with Democrats on it, but has repeatedly backed away from potential deals that he argues do not include immigration changes that are tough enough.
Outside the church on Sunday, the president said the Democrats “blew it” after having “had a great chance.”
“But we’ll have to take a look,” he added.
Several Democrats challenged the idea that they were at fault for a breakdown in negotiations.
“‘NO MORE DACA DEAL’?!!” Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota wrote on Twitter. “You were never doing a DACA deal. Your actions gave you away: cancelling DACA with no plan, making racist comments about Black/Brown immigrants, ejecting several by bipartisan deals. You didn’t fool anybody.”
Representative Dwight Evans, Democrat of Pennsylvania, said on Twitter that DACA recipients were “students, military service members, teachers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers — they are integral members of our community.”
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Mr. Evans said the president’s comments were “simply unacceptable.”
The president’s remarks also drew a rebuke from a high-profile member of his own party. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio wrote on Twitter: “A true leader preserves offers hope, doesn’t take hope from innocent children who call America home.”
Mr. Trump directed an equal measure of anger at Mexico, saying the country was “doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S.” He said Mexican leaders “must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA.”
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“NEED WALL!” he added.
It was far from the first time that Mr. Trump has threatened to scrap Nafta as he pushes to change American trade policies that he says have hurt the United States economy and cost the country large numbers of jobs. The United States, Mexico and Canada are locked in difficult negotiations over a revamping of the trade pact.
The president’s tweets seemed at odds with some unifying steps taken last week by members of his administration: The homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, met with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico to discuss ways to work together on security and trade issues, according to a description of the conversation released by the Department of Homeland Security.
But Mr. Trump may have been hearing a harder-line administration voice over the weekend. He was accompanied to his Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago, by Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser who has shaped much of the administration’s tough stance on immigration.
The president, in his tweets, criticized what he called “Catch Release,” a practice in which detained undocumented immigrants are sometimes released as they wait for a hearing before an immigration judge. In some cases, they are released because the government has nowhere to house them.
Critics say the practice — which, contrary to the president’s tweet, is not enshrined in law — gives the immigrants an opening to skip their hearing and settle undetected in the country. The Trump administration has declared an end to the practice, though it may take a while before significant changes are carried out.
Mr. Trump’s tweets on Sunday echoed remarks on “Fox and Friends” by Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, whom the president has praised in the past.
“Our legislators actually have to stand up, and the Republicans control the House and the Senate, they do not need the Democrat support to pass any laws they want,” Mr. Judd said on the program. “They can go the nuclear option, just like what they did on the confirmation. They need to pass laws to end the catch-and-release program that’ll allow us to hold them for a long time.”
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Mr. Judd also said that the “catch and release” policy was helping to lure the caravan of Central Americans to the United States.
A representative for a group called Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which organized the caravan, said that it would take four to six weeks before it reached the United States-Mexico border, and that the number of participants would be significantly smaller by then.
Most people are likely to drop out of the caravan in Mexico, rather than journey all the way to the border, the representative said, because they know they would be turned back by American border officials.
“Many of them know they won’t qualify for asylum. They are afraid of being detained,” said Roberto Corona, the group’s communications director, adding that most of them just wanted to reach Mexico, where they plan to speak with members of that country’s Congress.
Migrants who cannot prove that they face persecution or that their lives are endangered in their home country are unlikely to be allowed to remain in the United States. The Trump administration has also sought to increase detentions to deter would-be migrants.
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