Drunken and Reckless Driving

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    Seattle’s ‘Belltown Hellcat’ Is Arrested and Barred From Instagram

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    After months of roaring around the city in a souped-up Dodge Charger, drawing furious complaints and unpaid fines, Miles Hudson was led out of court on Monday in handcuffs.A man who for months has infuriated Seattle residents with his raucous driving and late-night social media escapades was ordered into custody on Monday and prohibited from posting to his vast following on Instagram.Miles Hudson, 21, known in Seattle as the “Belltown Hellcat,” has faced a series of escalating legal troubles after spending many nights roaring through downtown streets, the explosive backfires from his Dodge Charger Hellcat SRT shaking windows and rattling nerves. Separately, a woman accused him of stalking her and sending explicit images of her to other people.At a hearing on Monday where Mr. Hudson appeared wearing a facial covering, Magistrate Judge Seth Niesen ordered him taken into custody, setting bail at $5,000 for the domestic stalking case and $2,500 for the reckless driving case.He also barred Mr. Hudson from posting on his Twitch and Instagram accounts.“If there are any posts from those accounts, it’s a violation of this court’s order,” the judge said, before a court marshal placed handcuffs on Mr. Hudson and led him out of the courtroom.Mr. Hudson has built a following of more than 750,000 on Instagram. Many of his videos show him driving Seattle’s streets at nights, the car revving and backfiring. At least one video shows Mr. Hudson exceeding 100 miles per hour on downtown streets. Residents have repeatedly complained, saying the noise, which often sounds like gun shots, is keeping them awake at night.City officials at first responded with citations, fines and a lawsuit.But Mr. Hudson seemed to relish his growing notoriety. In a video interview posted in recent days, he says that those bothered by the noise should consider relocating to higher units. And he has an answer for people who complain that his vehicle is waking their pets or children.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Long Island Man Charged in Crash That Killed Four People at Nail Salon

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      The police say the man was driving while intoxicated and ran his S.U.V. into the salon, killing four people and injuring 10. His own injuries were not life-threatening.A Long Island man was charged with driving while intoxicated after driving an S.U.V. through a nail salon on Friday afternoon, leaving four people dead and 10 injured, according to the Suffolk County police.The driver, Steven Schwally, 64, crashed through the front window of Hawaii Nail and Spa in Deer Park, a hamlet in the town of Babylon, N.Y., around 4:30 p.m. Friday, the police said. The police identified the people who were killed as Jiancai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens; Yan Xu, 41, of Flushing, Queens; Meizi Zhang, 51, also of Flushing; and Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park. They were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical workers.Ms. Rennhack was an off-duty Queens police officer. She had been a member of the police force for more than five years and served in the 102nd Precinct in Central Queens. Her husband is a detective in the same precinct.Mr. Schwally, who lived in Dix Hills, N.Y., suffered injuries that were not life-threatening and was taken to a hospital in West Islip, N.Y. He remained hospitalized Saturday evening. The nine other people injured included a 12-year-old girl, seven women and one man, according to police.One of the people who was injured was taken by helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital to be treated at its trauma center, according to Mark Stone, a spokesman for the Deer Park Fire Department. Others with injuries were taken to South Shore University Hospital and Good Samaritan University Hospital by ambulance. On Saturday, the police said that four people in addition to Mr. Schwally were still hospitalized with injuries that were serious but not life-threatening, and the rest had been discharged.The salon was open at the time of the crash, and Mr. Stone said it appeared that most of those hurt were inside the salon at the time. According to a police statement released Saturday morning, Mr. Schwally was driving a 2020 Chevy Traverse. He drove through the parking lot of a strip mall before crossing Grand Boulevard and smashing through the front of the salon.Nine agencies responded to the crash, including fire departments from surrounding towns, and there were 150 firefighters and emergency medical responders on the scene, Mr. Stone said. Authorities closed Grand Boulevard to traffic for hours after the crash.The police said Saturday that the investigation into the crash was continuing.Hurubie Meko More

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      Justin Timberlake Arrested for Drunken Driving in Sag Harbor

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      Police in the Hamptons community gave few details about the arrest of the singer, who was once among the most prominent stars in American popular music.The singer and actor Justin Timberlake was arrested in Sag Harbor, N.Y., for charges related to driving while intoxicated, the police said.Mr. Timberlake was expected to be arraigned on Tuesday morning.Officials declined to provide further details about the arrest, why Mr. Timberlake was stopped or what kind of car he was driving.Mr. Timberlake was once among the most prominent male stars in American music, but his most recent solo album, “Everything I Thought It Was,” was met with criticism and weaker than usual sales when it was released in March, becoming his first solo release to miss No. 1 since “Justified” in 2002.This is a developing story and will be updated. More

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      J.R. Majewski’s Claims About His Military Record Unravel Further

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      The political tailspin of J.R. Majewski, a Republican House candidate in northern Ohio, appears to be worsening one week after the Air Force said it could not corroborate his repeated claims that he served in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the Air Force demoted Mr. Majewski in September 2001 for driving drunk at Kadena Air Base in Japan. Mr. Majewski’s campaign had previously told the news organization that involvement in a “brawl” was the reason he could not re-enlist in the Air Force after his initial four years. The A.P. cited military records it had obtained since its initial reporting last week on Mr. Majewski’s inconsistencies about his service, including where he served.A campaign spokeswoman for Mr. Majewski, 42, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday about his demotion. In a statement to The A.P., Mr. Majewski acknowledged that he was punished for drunken driving, though he did not address why his campaign previously said his demotion was the result of a fight.“This mistake is now more than 20 years old,” Mr. Majewski said in the statement. “I’m sure we’ve all done something as young adults that we look back on and wonder, ‘What was I thinking?’ And I’m sure our parents and grandparents share these sentiments.”The drip of revelations has sent Mr. Majewski, who has been heralded by former President Donald J. Trump, into damage-control mode.The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsWith the primaries over, both parties are shifting their focus to the general election on Nov. 8.Sensing a Shift: As November approaches, there are a few signs that the political winds may have begun to blow in a different direction — one that might help Republicans over the final stretch.Focusing on Crime: Across the country, Republicans are attacking Democrats as soft on crime to rally midterm voters. Pennsylvania’s Senate contest offers an especially pointed example of this strategy.Arizona Senate Race: Blake Masters, a Republican, appears to be struggling to win over independent voters, who make up about a third of the state’s electorate.Pennsylvania Governor’s Race: Doug Mastriano, the Trump-backed G.O.P. nominee, is being heavily outspent and trails badly in polling. National Republicans are showing little desire to help him.On Sept. 22, not long after Mr. Majewski was accused of misrepresenting himself as a combat veteran, the National Republican Congressional Committee canceled television ads it had booked to support him in the final six weeks of the campaign, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks campaign advertising.The following day, Mr. Majewski insisted that he was staying in his race against longtime Representative Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat. He said that records of his deployment to Afghanistan were “classified” and posted a photo on Twitter of an undated document that he claimed supported this contention, but military experts have pointed out to The A.P. that there are several other steps that Mr. Majewski could take to back up his claims, including having a supervisor or peer vouch for him.According to a record of punishment proceedings obtained by The A.P., Mr. Majewski was demoted from the rank of airman first class to basic airman after being stopped for drunken driving on Sept. 8, 2001, at the gate of the Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. It made no reference to a fight as contributing to Mr. Majewski’s demotion.Mr. Majewski’s disciplinary report was not immediately available on Thursday from the National Archives.Mr. Majewski was deployed for six months in 2002 to Qatar, the Persian Gulf nation that is now home to the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, according to Air Force records The New York Times examined last week.The A.P. noted that he worked as a “passenger operations specialist” while he was in Qatar, helping to load and unload planes. In addition to Air Force records, the news organization used information that it had obtained through a public records request from the National Archives, which provided Mr. Majewski’s record to The Times on Wednesday. Those records made no mention of Afghanistan.The inconsistencies in Mr. Majewski’s public accounts of his military service brought renewed scrutiny to the candidate, who had already faced questions about his presence at the U.S. Capitol on the day of the Jan. 6 siege and sympathies for the QAnon conspiracy movement.The role detailed in Mr. Majewski’s military records contrasted sharply with his repeated claims on social media and right-wing podcasts that he was in Afghanistan.After the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan last year, Mr. Majewski chided President Biden over the chaotic exit of forces there, saying in a tweet, “I’d gladly suit up and go back to Afghanistan tonight and give my best to save those Americans who were abandoned.”He also mentioned Afghanistan during a February 2021 appearance on a podcast platform that has drawn scrutiny for promoting conspiracy theories and misinformation.“I lost my grandmother when I was in Afghanistan, and I didn’t get to see her funeral,” he said. 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