ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta Hawks guard Kobe Bufkin has partially dislocated his right shoulder for the second time, the team announced Thursday.
Bufkin sustained a shoulder subluxation during practice last weekend and didn't play in Atlanta's 120-116 victory over Brooklyn to open the season.
The Hawks said Bufkin is determining his treatment options, but he is likely facing a lengthy absence.
Bufkin, the No. 15 overall pick in the 2023 draft, was not able to take part in Summer League because of a similar injury. He returned to play all four games during the preseason and was expected to serve as the team's main backup point guard behind Trae Young.
With Bufkin out, Vit Krejci and Dyson Daniels are expected to handle point guard duties when Young is off the court.
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Atlanta Hawks guard Kobe Bufkin (4) shoots over Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)
Atlanta Hawks guard Kobe Bufkin, right, pushes past Oklahoma City Thunder guard Aaron Wiggins during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)
Atlanta Hawks guard Kobe Bufkin (4) talks with head coach Quin Snyder during the second half of an NBA preseason basketball game against the Miami Heat, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
DENVER (AP) — Colorado funeral home owners accused of misspending nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds and living lavishly, all while allegedly storing 190 decaying bodies in a building and sending grieving families fake ashes, pleaded guilty Thursday to federal fraud charges centered around defrauding customers.
Jon and Carie Hallford each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The plea agreement, which stipulates that prosecutors will not request over 15 years imprisonment, still has to be approved by the judge.
The owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home, about an hour’s drive south of Denver, had each been charged with 14 other federal offenses related to defrauding the U.S. government and the funeral home’s customers, which would be dismissed under the plea agreement. More than 200 criminal counts are already pending against them in Colorado state court, including for corpse abuse and forgery.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff said after the hearing that the plea agreement includes both Hallfords admitting to COVID-19 fraud and committing fraud against customers, which will play a role in sentencing.
The Hallfords used the pandemic aid and customers’ payments to buy a GMC Yukon and Infiniti that together were worth over $120,000, laser body sculpting, trips to California, Florida and Las Vegas, $31,000 in cryptocurrency and luxury items at stores like Gucci and Tiffany & Co., according to court documents.
Jon Hallford is being represented by the federal public defenders office, which does not comment on cases. Calls and emails to Carie Hallford’s lawyer in the federal case have not been returned, and her attorney in the state case, Michael Stuzynski, declined to comment.
The 190 corpses were discovered in 2023 in a bug-infested building owned by Return to Nature in Penrose, a small town southwest of Colorado Springs. The Hallfords allegedly stashed bodies as as far back as 2019, at times stacking them on top of each other, and in two cases buried the wrong body, according to court documents.
Elisabeth Ostly thought that surely her father’s body wasn’t part of the discovery. Then law enforcement arrived on her doorstep.
Ostly handed over what she had thought for almost a year were her fathers’ ashes. It hit the reset button on her grieving process. In therapy, Ostly now works on “how to be at peace. How to not be furious, how to not let rage just live in my every moment,” she said outside the courtroom Thursday, holding a photo of her father and wiping tears from her eyes.
An investigation by The Associated Press found that the Hallfords likely sent fake ashes and fabricated cremation records to families who did business with them. Court documents allege that the dust inside some of the bags was dry concrete, not the cremated remains of lost loved ones.
The discovery devastated relatives of the deceased, who began learning that their family members' remains weren't in the ashes that they ceremonially spread or held tight but were still languishing in a building. The stories prompted Colorado lawmakers to patch the state's lax funeral home regulations in 2024, requiring routine inspections of facilities and licensing for funeral home roles.
Crystina Page, whose son’s body was left languishing in the funeral home after his death in 2019, spoke in court Thursday, saying she understood the plea deal was as close to justice as she was going to get, but that it “only scratches the surface of the atrocities they committed.”
Page then described the condition of her son's body by the time she learned he was included in the grim discovery.
“He had lost 60% of his bodyweight laying at the bottom of a pile of bodies," she said to the judge. "Rats and maggots ate his face.”
Bedayn is a corps member of The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
FILE - This combination of booking photos provided by the Muskogee County, Okla., Sheriff's Office shows Jon Hallford, left, and Carie Hallford, owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home. (Muskogee County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
FILE - A hearse and debris can be seen at the rear of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, Oct. 5, 2023, in Penrose, Colo. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP, File)
