VIRGINIA — Prosecutors have dismissed the cases against four members of the Iron Range Hells Angels motorcycle club accused of serious crimes including rape, kidnapping and assault.

Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Chris Florey said the alleged victims “are either unwilling or unable to testify at trial and the state cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt” without their cooperation.

The notices of dismissal were filed late Wednesday, less than two weeks before the first defendant, Paul Anthony Debelak, 39, of Eveleth, was set to face a Virginia jury.

Also charged in the case were Jerand Paul French, 40, of Eveleth; Jake Douglas Novaczyk, 47, of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota; and Eric Anthony Newman, 50, of Gilman, Wisconsin.

Defense attorneys had aggressively challenged the allegations, arguing that witness accounts and physical evidence did not support the claims. They contended investigators were eager to bring charges against the club and also accused agents of intimidating witnesses and eavesdropping on privileged communications between jailed defendants and their attorneys.

The cases stemmed from allegations that a woman was sexually assaulted and a man was abducted and beaten at the Hells Angels’ downtown Eveleth clubhouse.

Authorities previously reported that the man escaped from the group on crutches Nov. 28, 2023, and ran to the safety of police, expressing fear that members could find him.

Investigators said they went on to learn that both victims were visiting an Eveleth residence Nov. 27 when club members arrived. It was reported that the woman was raped there by Debelak and Newman.

The man, meanwhile, was allegedly taken to the clubhouse in a van driven by Novaczyk. He said he continued to be beaten by French, the chapter’s president, as other members recorded video.

Authorities released few details about the alleged motive or relationships between parties, other than to say that French was allegedly upset about the man’s association with the woman.

Defense attorneys, however, alleged that investigators were looking to implicate the club in serious crimes to justify a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigation that had been ongoing since at least June 2023.

The attorneys asserted that the alleged victims had been using drugs, a practice that is not tolerated by the Hells Angels, and that they concocted the narrative. They said other witnesses in the house told agents the rape and kidnapping did not occur, and that there was no DNA evidence to support it.

Judge Robert Friday last month upheld charges against Debelak and Newman, ruling there was no attorney-client breach when Debelak subjected his communications to law enforcement monitoring after failing to use the proper channels to contact his lawyer from jail.

The judge also said interview recordings failed to substantiate claims from three defense witnesses that they were threatened with prosecution if they did not comply with orders of BCA agents.

A similar challenge was still pending from French and Novaczyk before Judge Andrew Peterson.

Testimony at a November hearing centered on authorities learning that Novaczyk planned to surprise the state by demanding a speedy trial — a fact Florey promptly disclosed to defense counsel after learning it from a BCA agent who was privy to the jail communication.

Also highlighted by the defense was a statement from Gilbert Police Chief Ty Techar that he believed BCA Special Agent Cory Skorczewski was “going off the deep end.” Techar later clarified he was advised Skorczewski was “stressed and overworked from this case.” Skorczewski testified that he was on medical leave but denied it had to do with the Hells Angels case.

Three of the defendants had been free on bond while awaiting trial. Newman is still in custody as he faces a probation violation stemming from an earlier offense.

Related Articles

Christopher Harrington: Experiencing the arts transforms the way we see the world

Letters: Stop with the antisemitism

Pair sentenced in human smuggling case that left Indian family dead on Minnesota border

Angry with electrical utility, Iron Range official cuts wire, knocking out power to 3 towns

Wildfire evacuation orders lifted in northern Minnesota

By ILLIA NOVIKOV, Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is ready to resume direct peace talks with Russia in Istanbul on Monday, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, following days of uncertainty over whether Kyiv would attend a further meeting proposed by Moscow.

But Ukrainian officials have insisted that the Kremlin provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the more than three-year war, before the two delegations sit down to negotiate.

“Ukraine is ready to attend the next meeting, but we want to engage in a constructive discussion,” Andrii Yermak said in a statement on the website of Ukraine’s Presidential Office late Thursday.

“This means it is important to receive Russia’s draft. There is enough time – four days are sufficient for preparing and sending the documents,” Yermak said.

Ukraine and its European allies have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of dragging its feet in peace efforts, while it tries to press its bigger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.

Kyiv’s Western partners, including the U.S., are urging Moscow to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, something Kyiv has embraced while the Kremlin has held out for terms more to its liking.

Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, also told reporters on Friday that Kyiv is waiting for Russia to clarify its proposals ahead of a next round of talks.

“We want to end this war this year. We are interested in establishing a ceasefire, whether it is for 30 days, 50 days, or 100 days. Ukraine is open to discussing this directly with Russia,” Sybiha said at a joint news conference in Kyiv with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.

Related Articles

Half of world’s population endured extra month of extreme heat due to climate change, experts say

Russell Brand pleads not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault in London court

Today in History: May 30, Babe Ruth plays last major league game

Swiss glacier collapse renews focus on risks of climate change as glaciers retreat around the world

What would happen if the Amazon rainforest dried out? This decades-long experiment has some answers

Sybiha and Fidan also held the door open to a future meeting between Presidents Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin of Russia, possibly also including U.S. President Donald Trump. Fidan said the ongoing peace push in Istanbul could be “crowned with” such a meeting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday told reporters that a Russian delegation will head to Istanbul and stand ready to take part in the second round of talks on June 2.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday publicly invited Ukraine to hold direct negotiations with Moscow on that date. In a video statement, Lavrov said Russia would use Monday’s meeting to deliver an outline of Moscow’s position on “reliably overcoming” what it calls the root causes of the war. Russian officials have said for weeks that such a document is forthcoming.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on Wednesday said that Ukraine isn’t opposed to further direct talks with Russia, but that they would be “empty” if Moscow were to fail to clarify its terms. Umerov said he had personally handed a document setting out Ukraine’s position to the Russian side.

Low-level delegations from Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years in Istanbul on May 16. The talks, which lasted two hours, brought no significant breakthrough, although both sides agreed to the largest prisoner exchange of the war. It was carried out last weekend and freed 1,000 captives on each side.

Fidan on Friday voiced a belief that the successful swap has “proved that negotiations can yield concrete results.”

“There are two paths in front of us. Either we will turn a blind eye to the continuation of the war, or we will reach a lasting peace within the end of the year,” he told reporters in Kyiv.

Associated Press writers Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press Business Writer

Snack food maker Mondelez International is suing the Aldi supermarket chain, alleging the packaging for Aldi’s store-brand cookies and crackers “blatantly copies” Mondelez products like Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins and Oreos.

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Illinois, Chicago-based Mondelez said Aldi’s packaging was “likely to deceive and confuse customers” and threatened to irreparably harm Mondelez and its brands. The company is seeking monetary damages and a court order that would stop Aldi from selling products that infringe on its trademarks.

This combo of images shows, Mondelez’s Wheat Thins, left, and, Aldi’s Thin Wheat, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Glenview, Ill. (AP Photos/Nam Y. Huh)

A message seeking comment was left Thursday with Aldi.

In the lawsuit, Mondelez displayed side-by-side photos of multiple products. Aldi’s Thin Wheat crackers, for example, come in a gold box very similar to Mondelez’s Wheat Thins. Aldi’s chocolate sandwich cookies and Oreos both have blue packaging. The supermarket’s Golden Round crackers and Mondelez’s Ritz crackers are packaged in red boxes.

Aldi, a German discount chain with U.S. headquarters in Batavia, Illinois, keeps prices low by primarily selling products under its own labels.

Related Articles

Wall Street inches lower in quiet trading as more earnings roll in ahead of fresh inflation data

US inflation gauge cools with little sign of tariff impact, so far

Today in History: May 30, Babe Ruth plays last major league game

NYPD probing detectives who worked security at house where man says he was tortured, AP source says

Wrongful death lawsuit says Big Oil contributed to heat wave and woman’s death

The chain has faced lawsuits over its packaging before. Last year, an Australian court found that Aldi infringed on the copyright of Baby Bellies snack puffs for young children. In that case, Aldi’s packaging featured a cartoon owl and similar colors to the name-brand packaging.

Earlier this year, a U.K. appeals court ruled in favor of Thatchers, a cider company, which sued Aldi over design similarities in the packaging of its lemon cider.

Mondelez said in its lawsuit that the company had contacted Aldi on numerous occasions about “confusingly similar packaging.” Mondelez said Aldi discontinued or changed the packaging on some items but continued to sell others.

The lawsuit also alleges that Aldi infringed on Mondalez’s trade dress rights for the packaging of Nutter Butter and Nilla Wafers cookies, and its Premium cracker brand.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is giving back some of its winning week and month on Friday following a mixed set of profit reports from Gap, Ulta Beauty and other companies navigating the challenges created by President Donald Trump’s on-and-off tariffs.

The S&P 500 was down 0.4% in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 119 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower.

Gap helped drag the market down even though the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company behind Banana Republic and Old Navy fell 19% after saying tariffs on imports from China and other countries could add up to $300 million to its costs this fiscal year. It has strategies set to mitigate up to half of that before it hits its profits.

This week and month on Wall Street have been dominated by questions about what will happen with Trump’s tariffs, which investors worry could grind the economy into a recession, erode companies’ profits and layer even more challenges on households who are already sick of inflation.

Hopes had largely been rising that the worst of such worries had passed, which in turn sent stocks rallying, after Trump paused his tariffs on both China and the European Union. A U.S. court then on Wednesday blocked many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs. That has the S&P 500 on track for its first winning month in four and potentially its best in nearly two years.

But the tariffs remain in place for now while the White House appeals the ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the ultimate outcome is still uncertain. Trump also briefly shook markets shortly before the U.S. stock market opened for trading Friday, when he accused China of not living up to its end of the agreement that paused their tariffs against each other.

“So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The impact was limited though, and futures for U.S. stock indexes quickly pared much of their losses. Since Wednesday’s ruling, analysts and investors have been saying Trump and his administration would likely find new avenues to impose tariffs on trading partners.

Trump has said he’s using tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States and that U.S. households and businesses may feel some pain in the process.

Related Articles

US inflation gauge cools with little sign of tariff impact, so far

Today in History: May 30, Babe Ruth plays last major league game

NYPD probing detectives who worked security at house where man says he was tortured, AP source says

Wrongful death lawsuit says Big Oil contributed to heat wave and woman’s death

US government employee charged with trying to give classified information to a foreign government

American Eagle Outfitters is one of the companies that has withdrawn its financial forecasts for the upcoming year, in part because of uncertainty about the economy. Its stock dropped 5.1% after it reported a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected and said it will keep its outlook for 2025 withdrawn.

On the winning side of Wall Street was Ulta Beauty, which climbed 14.5% after the retailer reported stronger sales and profit than analysts forecast and raised the top end of its forecasted range for revenue this fiscal year. That was even though CEO Kecia Steelman called the operating environment “fluid.”

Red Robin Gourmet Burger soared 75.7% after reporting a profit for the latest quarter, when analysts expected a loss.

Shares of SharpLink Gaming rose another 51% to bring its gain for the week to a whopping 1,680% after the marketing company said it would raise $425 million to buy the cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain. The company delivers leads to U.S. sportsbooks and global casino companies and has been expanding into the global crypto gaming market.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were relatively steady after a report showed that the measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower in April than economists expected.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.42% from 4.43% late Thursday.

The Fed has left its benchmark borrowing rate steady at its last three meetings, in part due to uncertainty about how tariffs will impact inflation.

In stock markets abroad, European indexes rose modestly while Asian markets fell.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Yuri Kageyama contributed.