By PHILIP MARCELO

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer was convicted Friday of second-degree manslaughter after he tossed a picnic cooler filled with drinks at a fleeing suspect, causing the man to fatally crash his motorized scooter.

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Judge Guy Mitchell handed down the guilty verdict Friday in Bronx criminal court in the case against Sgt. Erik Duran in the 2023 death of Eric Duprey.

“The fact that the defendant is a police officer has no bearing,” the judge said before reading out his verdict in a brief hearing. “He’s a person and will be treated as any other defendant.”

Members of Duprey’s family sobbed as the decision was read out. Orlyanis Velez, Duprey’s wife, said after that she was happy but also surprised.

“I was waiting for justice just like everybody, but when the moment happens, you can’t believe it’s happening,” she said outside of the courthouse. “It’s been a lot of time. These people been killing citizens, been killing everybody. They don’t give no reason.”

Duran didn’t appear to react when the decision was handed down, and his lawyer and spokespersons for his police union didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Duran had been suspended with pay pending the trial, but the department confirmed Friday he was dismissed following his conviction, as state law mandates. Duran now faces up to 15 years in prison when he’s sentenced March 19.

State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office prosecuted the case, offered her condolences to Duprey’s family.

“Though it cannot return Eric to his loved ones, today’s decision gives justice to his memory,” she said in a statement.

The 38-year-old Duran, who was the first New York Police Department officer in years to be tried for killing someone while on duty, also faced charges of criminally negligent homicide and assault.

But Mitchell dismissed the assault count earlier, saying prosecutors failed to show he intended to hurt Duprey. He also didn’t deliver a verdict on the criminally negligent homicide charge as he’d already found Duran guilty of the more serious manslaughter charge.

Duran had pleaded not guilty and opted for a bench trial, meaning the judge, not a jury, would render the verdict.

Authorities say that on Aug. 23, 2023, Duprey sold drugs to an undercover officer in the Bronx and then fled.

Duran, who had been part of a narcotics unit conducting the operation, is seen in security footage grabbing a nearby red cooler and quickly hurling it at Duprey in an attempt to stop him.

The container full of ice, water and sodas struck Duprey, who lost control of the scooter, slammed into a tree and crashed onto the pavement before landing under a parked car.

Prosecutors said the 30-year-old, who was not wearing a helmet, sustained fatal head injuries and died almost instantaneously.

Duran, testifying in his own defense this week, said he only had seconds to react and was trying to protect other officers from Duprey as he sped toward them. He told the court he immediately tried to render aid after seeing the extent of Duprey’s injuries.

“He was gonna crash into us,” Duran said in court. “I didn’t have time. All I had time for was to try again to stop or to try to get him to change directions. That’s all I had the time to think of.”

But prosecutors maintained Duprey didn’t pose a threat and that his death wasn’t accidental but the result of Duran’s reckless, negligent and intentional actions.

They suggested the officer had enough time to warn others to move, but instead tossed the cooler in anger and frustration.

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

A third-party audit assessing Minnesota Medicaid programs at high risk for fraud found the state could safeguard $1 billion in the next four years by changing its policies on payment reviews. But the changes that could result in those savings for now remain hidden from public view.

Minnesota’s Department of Human Services on Friday released an initial report on fraud vulnerabilities in 14 programs it considers high risk. It reviewed more than $9.4 billion in payments between January 2022 and October 2025. Portions of the report regarding vulnerabilities are redacted.

Gov. Tim Walz in October ordered an audit and a 90-day payment pause for the programs as scrutiny continued to build on fraud in federally-funded programs run by his administration. The pause would help the state detect “suspicious billing activity and scrutinize the use of public funds,” the governor’s office said at the time.

However, the audit released Friday focused more on procedure for fraud prevention than finding actual fraud. The independent report from health care company Optum leaves questions unanswered for the public.

Redactions in report

Sections of the report released to the media on weaknesses in Medicaid programs and recommendations for fixing them are covered with large black bars and boxes, citing Minnesota law protecting “trade secret information.”

Minnesota Medicaid Director John Connolly said the redactions were made in accordance with state law to protect information on vulnerabilities from people who might use it to exploit the state.

“We don’t want to share information with bad actors, with fraudsters that will tip them off to how we’re looking at fraud and looking at risk or vulnerability to fraud,” he told reporters during a Friday media briefing. “We’re trying to balance transparency and provide as much up-to-date information as transparently as we can with you all and with the public, but also protect information that could present more risk.”

Connolly said some of the changes Optum recommended could require action by the Legislature, and that the state Department of Human Services would share more information with lawmakers during the upcoming session, which starts Feb. 17.

‘First phase’

State officials described the report as the “first phase” of developing a payment review process for the high-risk programs.

Those include Housing Stabilization Services, which it shut down last fall as federal prosecutors filed charges in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, and autism support services, which have also seen schemes now facing federal prosecution.

In autism programs alone, the audit flagged 90% of claims in the past four years “that didn’t match clear policies and procedures,” according to Human Services officials. The suspicious claims don’t necessarily indicate waste, fraud or abuse, according to the report, which Connolly said was not a “forensic investigation of program integrity.”

“We may need to clarify policies so claims that deserve to be approved are not unnecessarily flagged, and providers may not have the training they need to file claims properly,” Connolly said.

“Optum was looking at, perhaps filling trends that might have raised some questions, things that may not have seemed clinically appropriate,”  he later explained. “And did that, of course, by looking not only at their own frameworks and analytics, but looking at our own policies in our provider manual.”

Payment policy

Optum estimated the state could have avoided $1 billion in fraud risk over a four-year period by making “refinements ” to the payment policy. More than $700 million of that was in autism service programs, where federal investigators have uncovered fraud schemes, though again, the report noted those savings don’t necessarily imply there was fraud.

Optum also found that in the same period, the state could have directly recovered more than $52 million from instances where providers of Medicaid-funded services clearly violated state policies.

Human Services will continue to work with Optum over the next nine months to develop a “pre-payment strategy” for Medicaid programs, according to agency officials.

The three-month mark report accomplished a few things, DHS officials said. It established an analytics process before payments, did 192 target analytics across the 14 high-risk programs and started a pre-claim analysis process in each payment cycle.

Programs deemed high risk by Minnesota include: Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention Services for Autism; Integrated Community Supports; Nonemergency Medical Transportation; Peer Recovery Services; Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services; Adult Day Services; Personal Care Assistance/Community First Services and Supports; Recuperative Care; Individualized Home Supports; Adult Companion Services; Night Supervision; Assertive Community Treatment; Intensive Residential Treatment Services; and Housing Stabilization Services.

One of the 14 programs, Housing Stabilization Services, is no longer operating. Human Services ended the program in October after learning of a federal investigation into allegations of significant fraud.

What else is happening with fraud issue?

On Monday, Human Services announced a new push to scrutinize providers in state-run Medicaid programs at high risk for fraud, including a significant expansion of unannounced site visits.

The plan to significantly expand on-site validations comes as federal officials threaten to cut off Medicaid funding amid accusations of significant, widespread fraud in programs administered by the agency.

The state is currently appealing a January decision by the administration of President Donald Trump to withhold more than $2 billion in Medicaid funding from the 14 high-risk programs. Funding remains in place as the appeals process continues.

Human Services is making a call out to Minnesota’s tens of thousands of state employees seeking individuals to fill 168 temporary positions to visit providers in all 87 counties. There are currently only six dedicated site visit staff.

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By JAIMIE DING

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury has found former major league outfielder Yasiel Puig guilty of obstruction of justice and lying to federal officials investigating an illegal gambling operation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Friday.

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The verdict came after a multiweek trial that featured testimony from Major League Baseball officials and Donny Kadokawa, a Hawaii baseball coach that Puig placed bets through. Puig now faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

Puig initially pled guilty to a felony charge of lying to federal agents investigating an illegal gambling operation. He acknowledged in an August 2022 plea agreement that he wracked up more than $280,000 in losses over a few months in 2019 while wagering on tennis, football and basketball games through a third party who worked for an illegal gambling operation run by Wayne Nix, a former minor league baseball player.

Nix pled guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and subscribing to a false tax return. He is still awaiting sentencing.

Authorities said Puig placed at least 900 bets through Nix-controlled betting websites and through a man who worked for Nix.

Prosecutors said that during a January 2022 interview with federal investigators, he denied knowing about the nature of his bets, who he was betting with, and the circumstances of paying his gambling debts.

But he changed his tune months later, announcing that he was switching his plea to not guilty because of “significant new evidence,” according to a statement from his attorneys in Los Angeles.

“I want to clear my name,” Puig said in the statement. “I never should have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit.”

The government argued that he intentionally misled the federal investigators. They played in court audio clips of Puig speaking English and brought expert witnesses to testify on Puig’s cognitive abilities, the New York Times reported.

His attorneys said that Puig, who has a third-grade education, had untreated mental-health issues and did not have his own interpreter or criminal legal counsel with him during the interview with federal investigators where he purportedly lied.

Puig’s former attorney Steven Gebelin testified that during the January 2022 interview, Puig tried to be helpful in answering the investigators’ questions and the interpreter struggled with Puig’s Spanish language dialect, according to the New York Times.

Puig batted .277 with 132 home runs and 415 RBIs while appearing in seven major league seasons, the first six with the Dodgers, where he earned an All-Star selection in 2014.

Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully called Puig the “wild horse” for his on-field antics and talent at a young age, joining MLB at 22, a year after escaping his home country of Cuba.

He played for the Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Indians in 2019 before becoming a free agent. He then played in the Mexican League and last year he signed a one-year, $1 million contact with South Korea’s Kiwoom Heroes.

MILTON, Ga. (AP) — A person believed to be the son of rapper Lil Jon has been found dead in a pond north of Atlanta, police said Friday.

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Nathan Smith, known professionally as D.J. Young Slade, left his home in Milton “under unusual circumstances” early Tuesday morning, police said.

Lil Jon said in a statement posted to his Instagram page that he and Smith’s mother, Nicole Smith, are “extremely heartbroken for the tragic loss of our son.”

“Nathan was the kindest human being you would ever meet,” the statement reads. “He was immensely caring, thoughtful, polite, passionate, and warmhearted — he loved his family and the friends in his life to the fullest.”

Nathan Smith, 27, “ran out of his house and has been missing since,” police said in a missing person poster they circulated on social media.

He “left on foot and does not possess a phone,” police said. “He may be disoriented and in need of assistance. Family and friends are concerned for his safety.”

Milton police immediately began searching for Smith, police said. After being unable to locate him, police and other agencies expanded the search include a pond near Smith’s residence. Shortly before noon Friday, Cherokee County Fire Department divers found a body in the pond.

“The individual is believed to be Nathan Smith, pending official confirmation by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office,” police said in a statement. The medical examiner did not immediately respond to inquiries about the case on Friday.

“Based on the investigation to date, there is no indication of foul play,” police said. “However, the Milton Police Department Criminal Investigations Division will continue to treat this as an open and active investigation.”

Police said no further details would be released until the cause and manner of death are determined by the medical examiner.

Milton is a suburban town about 30 miles north of Atlanta.

Lil Jon, born Jonathan Smith, is an Atlanta rapper and producer who was a central figure in the crunk subgenre of hip-hop. He’s known for songs including 2002’s “Get Low” with his group the East Side Boyz and 2013’s “Turn Down For What” with DJ Snake.

He also has a daughter, Nahara, who was born in 2024.