By SEAN MURPHY

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal grand jury indicted the leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in Oklahoma City over allegations that millions of dollars in grant funds were improperly spent on international trips, groceries and personal real estate, prosecutors announced Thursday.

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Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, 52, was indicted earlier this month on 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering, court records show.

Court records do not indicate the name of Dickerson’s attorney, and messages left Thursday at her mobile number and by email were not immediately returned.

According to the indictment, Dickerson served since at least 2016 as the executive director of Black Lives Matter OKC, which accepted charitable donations through its affiliation with the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice.

In total, BLM OKC raised more than $5.6 million dating back to 2020, largely from online donors and national bail funds that were supposed to be used to post bail for individuals arrested in connection with racial justice protests after the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer in 2020, the indictment alleges.

When those bail funds were returned to BLM OKC, the indictment alleges, Dickerson embezzled at least $3.15 million into her personal accounts and then used the money to pay for trips to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, retail shopping, at least $50,000 in food and grocery deliveries for herself and her children, a personal vehicle, and six properties in Oklahoma City deeded to her or to a company she controlled.

The indictment also alleges she submitted false annual reports to the alliance stating that the funds were used only for tax-exempt purposes.

If convicted, Dickerson faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count of wire fraud and 10 years in prison and fines for each count of money laundering.

In a live video posted on her Facebook page Thursday afternoon, Dickerson said she was not in custody and was “fine.”

“I cannot make an official comment about what transpired today,” she said. “I am home. I am safe. I have confidence in our team.”

“A lot of times when people come at you with these types of things … it’s evidence that you are doing the work,” she continued. “That is what I’m standing on.”

The Black Lives Matter movement first emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. But it was the 2014 death of Michael Brown at the hands of police in Ferguson, Missouri, that made the slogan “Black lives matter” a rallying cry for progressives and a favorite target of derision for conservatives.

The Associated Press reported in October that the Justice Department was investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement defrauded donors who contributed tens of millions of dollars during racial justice protests in 2020. There was no immediate indication that Dickerson’s indictment is connected to that probe.

A jury has found an ex-Oakdale police officer guilty of misconduct stemming from repeated calls he made to a man who had known mental health issues and was being surveilled because of a felony arrest warrant.

Charles Anthony Nelson, 44, of Minneapolis, was convicted Wednesday in Washington County District Court of misconduct of a public officer by making false documents, a gross misdemeanor, for omitting the calls in his report of the 2022 incident.

Nelson was acquitted of misdemeanor harassing phone calls.

Nelson’s defense attorneys argued that he called the man, who had a history of mental health issues and was armed, to get him out of his house.

Prosecutors contended Nelson acted with intent to harass the man through the more than 30 calls — noting how the officer didn’t say anything when the man answered — and that they caused him to exit the home with a shotgun, potentially putting himself and others at risk.

“(Nelson) never had intent to harass anybody in this case, and the jury clearly agreed,” his attorney Pete Johnson said Thursday. “He was trying to help out this person in a mental health crisis, based on his own experience with mental health. And he had prior experience with this particular person.”

Nelson was put on paid leave after the Sept. 22, 2022, incident and resigned the following March, according to the city. He’d been an Oakdale officer since Dec. 20, 2006.

Jurors reached the verdict after less than two hours of deliberations following a two-day trial before Judge Gregory Galler. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 13.

Disguised phone number

According to the criminal complaint, Nelson and his partner Andrew Dickman were dispatched to Greystone Avenue to look for the man, who had a felony arrest warrant for allegedly making threats.

The officers were told by command staff “not to engage with the individual, specifically due to his reported mental health issues and potential diagnosis of schizophrenia,” the complaint stated. “His recent actions were escalating, and it was known that he possessed firearms and had recently made threats of violence.”

Shortly after arriving at the home just after midnight, Nelson downloaded a phone app that disguises the phone number of incoming calls. He began making calls over the next three hours.

The man answered several of the calls, but Nelson did not say anything. When the man called Nelson back at 1:25 a.m., the officer denied making the calls.

The man reported the calls to Washington County dispatch, and also called the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and asked who was calling him.

At one point, he came out with a shotgun, before retreating back into the house. Washington County SWAT was called and eventually arrested him.

Nelson worked the remainder of the weekend and, “despite knowing that his phone calls and actions exacerbated the situation” with the man, he did not disclose that he made them, the complaint said.

He omitted the calls in his incident report related to the man’s arrest, “despite the knowledge that the Oakdale Police Department was attempting to determine the veracity of the claims by Victim that he had been getting repeated calls,” the complaint continued.

Five days after the incident, Dickman reported to a sergeant that Nelson was the source of the calls.

BCA investigation

Oakdale Police Chief Nick Newton contacted the BCA, who began an investigation.

The surveillance subject’s wife told a BCA agent that he called her that night and told her about the calls, which she said made him “paranoid,” the complaint said.

In an interview with BCA agents, Nelson admitted to making the calls and “claimed it was to ‘build rapport’ and incredulously stated he did not identify himself because he did not want to scare [the man],” the complaint stated.

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Johnson, Nelson’s attorney, when asked Thursday why the officer did not divulge that he made the calls, said that he believed it was known to others within the police department.

“And he thought, like the normal procedure is, if somebody wanted that to be in there, and thought that was important to this, somebody would talk to him and say, ‘Why don’t you add that to your report before we finalize this?’ That happens routinely,” Johnson said.

During Nelson’s trial, Johnson said, Dickman testified that “he believed everybody knew who made the calls. … So their understanding was that the supervisors knew and this was no secret, there was no scandal.”

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two dozen House Republicans joined Democrats Thursday to pass a bill that would restore collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees, an attempt to overturn an executive order that President Donald Trump issued earlier this year.

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The measure passed 231-195 after reaching the floor through a bipartisan maneuver that bypassed GOP leadership — a so-called “discharge” tactic that is being used with growing frequency as Republicans seethe over dysfunction in the chamber. The bill still needs Senate approval to become law, but 20 Republicans sided with Democrats in a rare break from the president.

The executive order that Trump issued in March aimed to end collective bargaining for employees of agencies with national security missions across the federal government. He said he had the authority to revoke the rights under a 1978 law.

“Reinstating these rights is not a concession — it is a commitment. A commitment to treat federal workers with dignity, to reinforce a resilient public service, and to honor the commitment of the men and women who show up for the American people every single day,” GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a co-sponsor of the bill, said on the floor before passage.

Trump’s order targeted the union rights of roughly 600,000 of the 800,000 federal workers represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, including those at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.

The union is challenging those moves in court, arguing they are illegal and retaliatory. In May, an appeals court said the administration could move forward with the executive order while the lawsuit plays out.

In a statement after Thursday’s vote, the AFGE said it “extends its deep appreciation to every member of Congress who voted for the bill.” The group’s president, Everett Kelley, called it a “seismic victory.”

The bill’s approval was also praised by the AFL-CIO, the biggest labor federation in the U.S.

“We commend the Republicans and Democrats who stood with workers and voted to reverse the single largest act of union-busting in American history,” said Liz Shuler, the group’s president.

The bill reached the floor through a discharge petition led by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine. It’s a tactic that has been used with increasingly frequency this Congress due to frustrations with GOP leadership, including in the high-profile push to force release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Any lawmakers can force a vote on legislation if their petition gains 218 signatures, a majority in the 435-member House.

All House Democrats who voted supported the measure to restore the bargaining rights. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries supported the bill, saying on the floor prior to its passage that it would help “public servants who have been targeted viciously by the Trump administration from the very beginning of his time in office.”

While passage in the Republican-held Senate appears unlikely, the vote represented one of the chamber’s first formal rebukes of the president and the flurry of executive orders he has issued during his second term.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Still, most of the Republicans who backed the bill still held back from directly calling out the president. Speaking on the House floor before voting in favor of the bill, New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler said that “earlier this year, an executive order changed the collective bargaining status.”

“Every American deserves a voice in the workplace, and that includes the people who keep our government running and open,” said Lawler.

Of the 20 Republicans who backed the bill, many, including Fitzpatrick, face tough reelections next year. It comes at a time when some Republicans, following Trump’s lead, have become more supportive of labor unions, long a key part of the Democratic Party’s coalition.

New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who switched parties in Trump’s first term, was among the Republicans to support the bill, but told reporters prior to the vote that he wasn’t trying to send a message to the president with his vote.

“No message here at all,” said Van Drew. “This is a New Jersey message. I got to take care of my people. And I’ve always been supportive of unions.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A Hollywood director was convicted Thursday on charges that he scammed Netflix out of $11 million for a show that never materialized, while he instead used the cash for lavish purchases that included several Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari and about $1 million in mattresses and luxury bedding.

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Carl Erik Rinsch, best known for directing the film “47 Ronin,” was convicted of wire fraud, money laundering and other charges, according to court records and a spokesperson for federal prosecutors in New York.

In a statement, Rinsch’s attorney, Benjamin Zeman, said he thought the verdict was wrong and “could set a dangerous precedent for artists who become embroiled in contractual and creative disputes with their benefactors, in this case one of the largest media companies in the world, finding themselves indicted by the federal government for fraud.”

Prosecutors said Netflix had initially paid Rinsch about $44 million for an unfinished sci-fi show called “White Horse,” and then sent over an another $11 million after he said he needed additional funding to wrap up the production.

But instead of putting the money toward the show, Rinsch steered the cash to a personal account where he made a series of failed investments, losing around half of the $11 million in a couple months, according to prosecutors.

He then put the remaining funds into the cryptocurrency market, netting some profit, though Rinsch then deposited the money into his own bank account.

Then came the lavish purchases, prosecutors said, with Rinsch buying five Rolls-Royces and one Ferrari, along with $652,000 on watches and clothes. He also bought two mattresses for about $638,000 and spent another $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens. In addition, he used some of the money to pay off about $1.8 million in credit card bills, prosecutors said.

Rinsch, 48, never finished the show. His sentencing date is set for April.

Netflix declined to comment.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement, said Rinsch “took $11 million meant for a TV show and gambled it on speculative stock options and crypto transactions.”

“Today’s conviction shows that when someone steals from investors, we will follow the money and hold them accountable,” Clayton said.