The defense attorney who asked a Louisiana judge to ban pink from the courtroom in the Madison Brooks rape case was held in contempt Monday.
Caitlin Fowlkes, who represents 21-year-old Desmond Carter, used Brooks’ full name in a court filing attached to her July motion seeking to ban trial spectators from wearing pink. Under Louisiana law, sex crime victims must be identified only by their initials in court filings, and attorneys are required to redact their full names.
Brooks, a 19-year-old Louisiana State University student at the time, was allegedly gang-raped by a group of men after a night out in 2023, then struck and killed by a car.
Judge Gail Horne Ray had ruled in August that Brooks' supporters could wear pink in the courtroom, but on Monday she found Fowlkes in contempt for failing to redact Brooks' full name from the filing. Fowlkes received no punishment.
While Brooks' name has received significant public attention and has been discussed by the governor of Louisiana, Ray wrote "the law is clear that an attorney's failure to comply with the provisions of this law 'shall be punishable as contempt of court."
Carter was 17 years old when he was taken into custody at the time of the incident. Brooks left Reggie's Bar in Tigerland alongside three men — Carter, Casen Carver, Kaivon Washington and Everett Lee, according to officials. Authorities say Carver drove the group to a parking lot where Carter and Washington allegedly raped Brooks.
The men told police that Brooks asked to be taken home after the incident, providing multiple incorrect addresses before requesting to be let out near a subdivision, where they said she wandered into the street and was struck by a car.
"Maddie felt safe that night, she thought these were her friends and I think a lot of selfish choices were made that night, and ultimately it led in a horrific ending," Brooks' mother, Ashley Baustert, previously told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reached out to Fowlkes for comment.
Suspect arrested after being detained by Jewish security volunteers who quickly arrived on scene; victims, including mother with baby, believe they were assaulted due to their faith
HRF alleges that Sean Glass likely gave the order to open fire. His alleged responsibility extends across Gaza: attacks on Al-Shifa Hospital, destruction of UNRWA headquarters, and the razing of entire neighbourhoods—devastation he publicly celebrated.
Iran’s Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN has urged the world body’s Security Council to hold an emergency meeting and condemn threats by the United States and the Israeli regime against the Islamic Republic’s territory and critical infrastructure.
Gholamhossein Darzi made the remarks in a letter dated Monday and addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the president of the Security Council.
The letter cited recent US media reports that the White House and the US Department of War had prepared fresh military options, including the possible use of the GBU-43/B, known as the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) or so-called “Mother of All Bombs,” against Iran.
Darzi noted that US President Donald Trump had discussed the weapon in a televised interview and threatened further attacks.
The diplomat also cited remarks by Israeli minister for military affairs Israel Katz that the regime was prepared to attack the Islamic Republic and would target “all energy targets” in any renewed aggression.
The letter also pointed out how Katz had threatened to return Iran to the “Stone Age”, besides claiming that the United States and the regime had dropped a total of 35,000 bombs on Iran and that their military campaign was not over.
Darzi further denounced Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for openly declaring an intention to launch another unprovoked war against the Islamic Republic, adding that the silence and explicit support of certain Security Council members had emboldened him.
He called for immediate action against “brazen existential threats” issued by Trump and renewed Israeli threats of military aggression.
“These unabated threats, in the context of the U.S.-Israeli wars of aggression launched on 13 June 2025 and 28 February 2026 against Iran, and the deliberate attacks against Iranian civilians and critical infrastructure, pose a grave risk of further violation of international law with catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences, and serious threats to regional and international peace and security,” he wrote.
The diplomat argued that threats to destroy Iran’s civilian and energy infrastructure could cause severe and potentially long-term humanitarian and environmental damage.
He also condemned Washington and Tel Aviv for disregarding obligations under the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and customary international humanitarian law.
Darzi requested an emergency Security Council meeting, unequivocal condemnation of threats against Iran’s civilian infrastructure, and accountability and full reparation for damage resulting from Washington’s and Tel Aviv’s internationally wrongful acts.
“The Security Council cannot remain silent in the face of explicit threats of renewed aggression and the destruction of essential civilian infrastructure,” he stated.
The letter, meanwhile, reaffirmed Iran’s right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
He warned that the United States and the Israeli regime would bear responsibility for the consequences of further aggression, including “the risk of unpredictable and uncontrollable escalation.”
In a letter, the former student said she felt “unsupported” after hearing about an exchange between the school president and her sorority sister. Officials disputed her account of the conversation.
A former Cornell University student who said she was raped at a fraternity in 2024 penned a letter to faculty leaders last week, saying that she did not feel supported by the school’s president, Michael I. Kotlikoff.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said Russia struck the operating room of the Strazheska Institute of the National Academy of Medical Sciences in Kyiv, injuring one patient.
Six people were killed in a Russian strike in the settlement of Nova Vodolaha in Kharkiv Oblast, including girls aged 1 and 11. Another 15 people were injured, including seven children, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on 20 October. Russian forces struck a park with a drone while families with children were there, Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Vyhivskyi said.
Russian forces continue to attack Ukrainian cities, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure. The Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office has opened a war-crime investigation into the strike. The strike was aimed at people, Yurii Yurchenko, head of a police department in Kharkiv Oblast, said in a comment to Suspilne.
The 14-month-old girl was named Anhelina
The Russian drone circled the park several times before crashing, Yurchenko said. He said the drone struck a tree near a café, and the blast wave and shrapnel hit people at the establishment. The attack came at around 16:30, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that Russian forces had preliminarily used a Geran-3 drone.
The café damaged in a Russian strike on a park in the settlement of Nova Vodolaha, Kharkiv Oblast, on 19 October 2026. Photo: Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration
The Russian strike killed three women, aged 28, 34 and 36, a man around 40 years old, and two girls, aged 14 months and 11 years, Syniehubov said in his statement.
The youngest girl, named Anhelina, was born in August 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Her mother, Inna, died in the hospital, he added.
Zelenskyy shows US senators photos of the aftermath the same day
Zelenskyy met with US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Thom Tillis, along with their colleagues from both parties and both chambers of Congress, according to a 19 October post on his social media accounts. During the meeting, he discussed the Russian attack in Kharkiv Oblast and showed lawmakers photographs from the scene, including one of the infant who was killed in a stroller.
“This is how Russia responds to the lifting of sanctions and the easing of pressure,” he said in the post.
The stroller in which 1-year-old Anhelina was killed, Nova Vodolaha, 19 October 2026. Photo: Suspilne Kharkiv/Viacheslav Mavrychev
Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs air defense and that no one should think about making money with Russia while it continues its war. He asked that sanctions on Russia stay in place until the killing stops, urged the US to “be strong” and apply Lindsey Graham’s law, and called on Europe to keep supporting Ukraine.
A school security official at an elite Boston school has been charged with the rape of a woman visiting from Ireland after police say they found her naked on the side of the road outside the Massachusetts State Police barracks on Martha's Vineyard.
The suspect was allegedly a guest at the barracks visiting a state trooper friend from college, prosecutors said in court at his arraignment.
Edward Brown, 27, pleaded not guilty in connection with the alleged Aug. 15 attack, which prosecutors said took place inside the barracks.
He allegedly met the victim at The Ritz, a bar in Oak Bluffs — the upscale waterfront community where former President Barack Obama owns a home.
Police say they received two 911 calls around 1 a.m. and arrived to find a naked woman in distress. She said she had been approached by a man at the bar before blacking out.
Assistant District Attorney Courtney Scalice presented a graphic account of what happened in court, telling the judge the victim told investigators she had been followed around the bar by a Black man in a white hat, before she awoke face down and naked.
She told investigators he held her down despite her kicking and screaming. Eventually, she asked for water, and when her attacker left, she said she "ran for her life" out of the building.
She told police she ran down two flights of stairs and out of the building and had been on the road for a few minutes before someone stopped to help.
The responding Oak Bluffs police officers saw bruises on her legs and a red mark on her neck, Scalice said.
Brown had allegedly been staying at the barracks as a guest of a trooper stationed there for the summer. Prosecutors identified the trooper as Ryan Costello and said they found Brown with help from a bouncer at The Ritz, the bar where the victim allegedly met her attacker.
The bouncer didn't know his name but knew he was friends with state troopers and had a photo. Oak Bluffs police sent the picture to Costello on Aug. 29, two weeks after the alleged assault, Scalice said. He identified the man shown as Brown and said they'd been friends since college.
Then on Sept. 11, Costello's attorney gave investigators screenshots of a text conversation between the trooper and Brown, Scalice said.
Brown allegedly gave shifting accounts of the night to Costello, Scalice told the judge: First he denied bringing a female to the barracks, then he said she'd come inside but left on her own, and then he claimed he left her in the Uber and she never came in.
At one point, he allegedly texted Costello, "I'm at the barracks with this chick, is that okay?"
Costello, who prosecutors said was not there at the time, replied, "okay." Brown then allegedly asked him where to find condoms and added, "Beers after I slam."
Once detectives identified a suspect and obtained a search warrant for Brown's Uber account, detectives also found a ride from about a half hour before the 911 calls.
"Officers interviewed the Uber driver who confirmed picking up a Black male matching the defendant's description and a very young looking White female and driving them to the State Police barracks," Scalice said. "The Uber driver described the female as appearing very intoxicated while the Black male was not."
Brown is listed in jail records as 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 260 pounds. Prosecutors said that they learned from Boston police that he had been the subject of four police reports from two ex-girlfriends claiming he had been harassing them between March and August of this year.
The victim is from Ireland and has returned home. Scalice said she had been swabbed for DNA and that male samples suitable for comparison had been recovered.
Oak Bluffs police, working with the Boston Police Department's anti-corruption division, arrested Brown at Boston Latin Academy, where he worked in school security, on Oct. 9. Police allegedly found suspected cocaine in his wallet during the arrest.
"The Massachusetts State Police has had no involvement in the Oak Bluffs Police Department’s investigation," Oak Bluffs Police Chief Jonathan Searle said in a Sept. 10 statement, a month before Brown's arrest. "As part of its investigation, Oak Bluffs Police developed probable cause and applied for and received court-authorized search warrants related to the investigation, including warrants executed at the State Police barracks."
"These allegations are deeply troubling," Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble said. "The Massachusetts State Police are fully cooperating with the ongoing criminal investigation and conducting an internal review of applicable policies, visitor authorization procedures and compliance with established requirements. I am committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety, security and accountability at all State Police facilities and ensuring that any identified deficiencies are addressed with appropriate corrective action."
MSP no longer allows guests to stay at police housing on Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket as a result of this case.
Brown was released on $10,000 cash bail after his arraignment on Oct. 13. Prosecutors had requested $50,000 bail.
The judge ordered him to stay away from the victim and any witnesses. He's due back in court on Dec. 11.
"Mr. Brown has entered a plea of not guilty and denies the allegations," his defense lawyer, Anthony Ellison, told Fox News Digital Monday. "He maintains full faith in the legal process and looks forward to presenting his case in court. A zealous defense will be mounted on his behalf, as there are always two sides to every story."
US envoy Steve Witkoff is joining negotiations in Norway before an expected visit to Moscow, but American pressure on Ukraine, uncertainty over military assistance and renewed economic dealings with Russia raise questions about Washington’s approach to ending the war.
The latest American diplomatic initiative on Ukraine comes at a particularly difficult moment in relations between Washington and Kyiv. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is taking part in talks in Oslo on Tuesday, 20 October, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, before an anticipated visit to Moscow for discussions with Vladimir Putin.
The Norwegian government has confirmed that the meetings will include Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will participate remotely. The meeting was requested by Zelenskyy, with Norway and Finland providing the diplomatic setting.
Yet the significance of the Oslo discussions lies less in the gathering itself than in the political circumstances surrounding it. Washington is seeking an agreement with Moscow while simultaneously becoming more confrontational towards Kyiv. Recent American decisions affecting military assistance, intelligence cooperation and Russian energy exports have introduced serious doubts about how the administration intends to use its considerable negotiating leverage.
Washington’s pressure on Kyiv
The immediate difficulty concerns the growing discrepancy between American diplomatic assurances and the practical conditions under which Ukraine is expected to negotiate.
Among the disputed deliveries are Patriot air-defence interceptors purchased by European NATO members through the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List programme. Zelenskyy has indicated that shipments remain subject to authorisation by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
These are operational matters with immediate consequences. Ukraine relies on American intelligence, communications infrastructure and air-defence equipment to counter Russian missile attacks. Any interruption affects Kyiv’s military calculations, irrespective of whether Washington formally acknowledges a change in policy.
The political message is equally consequential. Trump has publicly questioned Zelenskyy’s willingness to negotiate and suggested that Ukraine might need somebody else to conduct talks with Russia. Such remarks place additional pressure on the Ukrainian leadership while leaving Moscow’s territorial demands largely untouched.
Russia’s incentives remain unchanged
The central weakness in the American diplomatic approach is the assumption that renewed engagement with Putin will necessarily produce meaningful Russian concessions.
Moscow has repeatedly treated negotiations as an opportunity to pursue political objectives that its armed forces have not achieved on the battlefield. Russian demands concerning Ukrainian territory and restrictions on Kyiv’s future security arrangements remain incompatible with Ukraine’s sovereignty.
An agreement reached under these conditions could suspend hostilities without resolving the underlying conflict. Russia would retain the capacity to rebuild its forces, while Ukraine could find its military options constrained by commitments made in exchange for an uncertain ceasefire.
The Trump administration’s recent economic dealings with Moscow further complicate the negotiations. Washington’s arrangements concerning Russian diesel have attracted criticism from Kyiv and European governments, particularly because Russian energy revenues remain an important source of financing for the war.
Trump has also pressed Ukraine to curtail attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, reflecting American concerns about fuel prices. For Moscow, relief from attacks on refineries would preserve economically important facilities that Ukraine has demonstrated an increasing ability to reach.
Any arrangement limiting such operations without corresponding Russian concessions would alter the military and economic balance in Moscow’s favour.
The broader American proposals reportedly include possible post-war economic cooperation with Russia. Their implications extend beyond Ukraine: commercial normalisation could offer the Kremlin substantial benefits before the conditions for a stable European security settlement have been established.
Europe’s influence depends on its willingness to use it
European participation in the Oslo process is therefore more substantial than a question of diplomatic representation.
Britain, France, Germany and Poland, alongside the European Union and NATO, are expected to be involved in the wider discussions. European governments would almost certainly bear much of the financial and military responsibility for implementing any settlement, including Ukraine’s reconstruction and long-term security.
They also possess considerable economic leverage through sanctions, financial restrictions and decisions concerning frozen Russian assets. Those instruments would form part of any serious negotiation over Moscow’s future relations with Europe.
However, European influence remains constrained by continuing dependence on American military technology and equipment. The controversy surrounding Patriot deliveries illustrates the problem: European governments can finance weapons for Ukraine without necessarily controlling when those weapons are released.
As EU Today previously examined, Washington’s negotiations with Moscow have consequences for European security that cannot be separated from the future of Ukraine.
European governments consequently face a difficult calculation. They wish to preserve American involvement, but excessive accommodation of Washington’s demands could leave them financing security arrangements over which they exercise limited control.
Norway and Finland have helped bring the Ukrainian and American delegations together at a moment when their relationship is deteriorating. Whether that produces progress will depend partly on Moscow’s response, but also on whether Washington is prepared to maintain the military and economic pressure necessary to make Russian concessions possible.
Witkoff’s anticipated journey from Oslo to Moscow will offer an early indication of the administration’s priorities. Putin will be assessing the terms Washington is prepared to offer, while Kyiv remains concerned about restrictions affecting equipment it needs to defend its cities.
For the Ukrainian leadership, the danger is that negotiations intended to end Russia’s invasion could become a process in which the country resisting that invasion is asked to make the most immediate concessions.
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