NEW YORK (AP) — When Daniel Penny wrapped his arm around the neck of a homeless man on a Manhattan subway last year, the 25-year-old veteran appeared to be deploying a non-lethal chokehold long drilled into U.S. Marines.
Done right, the maneuver should knock a person out without killing them, according to Joseph Caballer, a combat instructor in the Marine Corps who trained Penny in several types of holds. But held too long, the technique can restrict the flow of blood to a person's brain, ending their life in a matter of minutes.
“Once the person is rendered unconscious, that’s when you’re supposed to let go,” Caballer told a jury on Thursday.
His testimony came weeks into the trial of Penny, who faces charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide after placing Jordan Neely, a homeless man and Michael Jackson impersonator, in the fatal chokehold last May.
Prosecutors allege that Penny “went way too far" in his attempt to restrain Neely, showing an “indifference” toward his life even after he had lost consciousness and stopped fighting back.
Penny, an architecture student who served four years in the U.S. Marines, told police he was seeking to protect himself and other riders from a man who was acting erratically on the train and frightening riders with distressing comments. His attorneys have emphasized Neely's previous arrests, along with his struggles with mental illness and drug use.
Bystander video of the encounter shows Penny with his bicep pressed across Neely’s neck and his other arm on top of his head, a position he held for close to six minutes, even after the man went limp.
The technique — an apparent “blood choke” — can make a person feel like “trying to breathe through a crushed straw,” Caballer said. In his own training sessions, Caballer recalled telling his fellow Marines: “You don’t want to keep holding on. This can result in actual injury or death.”
Asked by prosecutors whether Penny has used the chokehold in an “improper” manner, Caballer said that he had.
Attorneys for Penny argue their client had sought to restrain Neely by placing him in a headlock, but that he did not apply strong force throughout the interaction. They have raised doubt about the city medical examiner’s finding that Neely died from the chokehold, pointing to his health problems and drug use as possible factors.
Pressed by Penny’s attorney, Caballer acknowledged that he could not “definitively tell from watching the video how much pressure is actually being applied.” But at times, he said, it appeared that Penny was using a hold that may have cut off the flow of blood to Neely's brain.
“He could possibly be cutting off maybe one of the carotid arteries,” the witness added.
Later in the afternoon, Dr. Cynthia Harris, the city medical examiner who inspected Neely’s body, reiterated her finding that he had died from a lack of oxygen caused by the chokehold. Though she did not describe the exact process of asphyxiation, she testified that "blocking both arteries in both veins, could kill a person in a matter of seconds.”
Jurors were also shown video for the first time Thursday of Penny demonstrating the chokehold to detectives during an interview inside the precinct.
“He had his back turned to me and I got him in a hold, got him to the ground, and he’s still squirming around and going crazy,” Penny said, adding: “He gets a burst of energy at one point and I did have to hold him a little more steady.”
Harris is expected to be the final witnesses called by prosecutors in a trial that has divided New Yorkers and cast a national spotlight on the city’s response to crime and disorder in its transit system. It's unclear whether Penny will take the stand.
In the eighteen months since the killing, Penny has been embraced by conservatives as a good Samaritan who used his military training to protect his fellow riders. U.S. Rep. U.S. Matt Gaetz, who President-elect Donald Trump nominated this week as his attorney general, described him as a “Subway Superman.”
But the trial has also drawn near daily protests from Black Lives Matter activists, who've labeled Penny a racist vigilante who overreacted to a Black man in the throes of a mental health episode.
Penny faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted.
In this image from body camera video provided by New York City Police Department, emergency medical personnel in a New York City subway car attempt to revive Jordan Neely after he was placed in a chokehold by Daniel Penny on May 5, 2023. (New York City Police Department via AP)
Daniel Penny arrives at the court after break in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump’s pick of conservative loyalist Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general has Democrats sounding the alarm with Sen. Dick Durbin saying Gaetz “would be a disaster” in part because of Trump’s threat to use the Justice Department “to seek revenge on his political enemies.”
Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.
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Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that there will be “plenty of scrutiny” of the records of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees once it is time to confirm them, but the Senate needs a chance to do its job.
Leaving the Capitol a day after he was elected as Senate Republicans’ next leader, Thune would not comment on Trump’s announcement that he intends to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department or any other potential nominee. “I’m not going to make any judgements about any of these folks at this point,” he said.
“Honestly, the entire nomination process is just getting started,” Thune said. “So let’s give it a chance to see what happens. These names, none of them have been formally submitted yet. So there’s going to be a vetting process, and I think we will do our job under advice and consent and make sure that the process is fair.”
Current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also did not comment on Kennedy’s nomination. There will be “a time for that,” he told reporters.
But Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the No. 3 Democrat, said that Kennedy’s confirmation would be “nothing short of a disaster for the health of millions of families.”
Trump would have Kennedy lead a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid. He said before the election he would give Kennedy free rein over health policy.
Here’s a look at Kennedy and the agency he’ll be tasked with leading:
Read more about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy stuck a deal with Trump to give the now president-elect his endorsement in exchange for a role in health policy in the administration. Here are some of his positions on the subject:
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.
HHS is a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.
He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.
— Jill Colvin
Though it’s not clear if Dimon was interested in a role. The announcement came as Trump has not yet named a Treasury Secretary for his incoming administration or others to fill economic and banking related roles.
Dimon had no plans to join Trump’s administration, according to news reports in recent weeks.
Trump, in a post on his social media network Truth Social on Thursday, said he respects Dimon “greatly” but “he will not be invited to be a part of the Trump Administration.”
“I thank Jamie for his outstanding service to our Country!” Trump added.
In a July interview with Bloomberg, Trump said Dimon was someone he was considering for Treasury Secretary. A few weeks later, he reversed himself, saying in a post on Truth Social that he didn’t know “who said it, or where it came from, perhaps the Radical Left, but I never discussed, or thought of, Jamie Dimon” for Treasury Secretary.
Republicans went to court in Pennsylvania on Thursday amid vote counting in the U.S. Senate election between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick, as the campaigns prepare for a recount and press counties for favorable ballot-counting decisions.
The lawsuits ask courts not to allow counties to count mail-in ballots where the voter didn’t write a date on the return envelope or wrote an incorrect date. The two GOP suits could be among many before the last vote in the Senate race is counted, especially with the contest headed toward a state-mandated recount.
The Associated Press called the race for McCormick last week, concluding that not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead.
After losing the White House and both houses of Congress, Democrats are grappling with how to handle transgender politics and policy following a campaign that featured withering and often misleading GOP attacks on the issue.
There's plenty of second-guessing after President-elect Donald Trump anchored his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris with sweeping promises on the economy and immigration. But Democrats also won't soon forget the punchline in anti-transgender Trump ads that became ubiquitous by Election Day: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”
“Week by week when that ad hit and stuck and we didn’t respond, I think that was the beginning of the end,” former Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said of the 30-second spot that was part of $215 million in anti-transgender advertising by Trump and Republicans, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that he'll lead the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where he intends to immediately take up President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to reinstate a policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.
Paul said he'll be the committee’s new chair after Republicans won control of the Senate in this month’s elections. The new role will put Paul — a limited-government advocate and longtime skeptic of surveillance programs — in charge of a committee with broad jurisdiction over government operations, including the Department of Homeland Security. Paul has been the committee’s ranking Republican during Democratic control of the Senate.
Democrat Janelle Bynum won election to a U.S. House seat representing Oregon on Thursday, defeating Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
The district, which includes the Portland suburbs and stretches through Bend, was a top target for Democrats. Democrats lost this seat in 2022, when Jamie McLeod-Skinner defeated seven-term Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader in the primary but lost the general election. The district took in parts of more conservative central Oregon after 2022 redistricting.
Bynum represents Happy Valley and North Clackamas in the state Legislature. The Associated Press declared Bynum the winner at 12:47 p.m. EST.
Republican and Democratic senators alike on the Judiciary Committee that would review Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination are calling for a House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz to be made available to them.
“I think it’s going to be material in the proceedings,” said Sen. Thomas Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said, “I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democrat who currently chairs the Judiciary Committee, earlier Thursday said in a statement, “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”
Thune did not mention Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard or other Trump picks that have raised deep concerns among several senators.
But he said senators should expect “an aggressive schedule until his nominees are confirmed.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve information it's gathered on former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s intended nominee for attorney general, and also share it with the Senate.
Trump announced Gaetz as his pick for the post Wednesday and Gaetz immediately resigned from Congress, ending the investigation against him. The ethics panel said several months ago that its review included whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. Gaetz has categorically denied all the allegations before the committee.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report,” Durbin said Thursday. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”
The Democrat looking to unseat an incumbent Republican in a close Iowa congressional race, one of a handful yet to be called after Republicans won control of the U.S. House, has asked for a recount.
Democrat Christina Bohannan’s campaign on Thursday requested the recount in her bid against Republican incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks to represent Iowa’s 1st District. The initial tally puts Bohannan fewer than 1,000 votes — less than a percentage point — behind Miller-Meeks.
The contest is a much tighter rematch of 2022, when Miller-Meeks won by 7 percentage points. Miller-Meeks earned a first term in Congress representing Iowa’s 2nd District when she defeated Democrat Rita Hart by just six votes in 2020.
FILE - The speaker's dais is seen in the House of Representatives of the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022. In the 2024 elections, Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party's sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks at meeting of the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022. In the 2024 elections, Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party's sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
