News

FRESNO - Gary Lee Briggs, 66, of Fresno, pleaded guilty today to receiving and distributing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, on Jan. 3, 2020, a concerned citizen reported to law enforcement that Briggs appeared to be trying to lure an eight-year-old boy into Briggs’s apartment in Fresno.

When officers confronted Briggs, he reported that he planned to test his ability to withstand urges that attracted him to the boy. Briggs also admitted that Facebook recently terminated his account for transmitting sexually explicit material on that platform. Facebook separately had notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children that Briggs’s Facebook account had been used to transmit sexually explicit images of minors from August through December 2019.

FRESNO - The Fresno man who was shot and killed after allegedly attacking a Fresno County Sheriff’s deputy Friday afternoon has been identified as 30-year-old Tyler Kennedy Deel. The Fresno Police Department is assisting the Fresno County Sheriff's Office with the investigation.

Around 4:00 pm on Friday, deputies were dispatched to a home on the 5600 block of South Waverly Lane in southeast Fresno. There was a report of a man named Tyler Deel, who was armed with a knife, trying to attack his family members. While en route, dispatchers notified deputies that the suspect had fled the house. About 10 minutes after the initial call, a deputy in the area spotted a man matching the suspect's description walking toward a shopping center on the northeast corner of Kings Canyon Road & Clovis Avenue.

EL SEGUNDO -The nation's largest local broadcaster, Nexstar Media Group, is forcing the temporary loss of more than 200 stations for DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, and U-verse customers in more than 100 metro areas following the recent contract expiration. After denying Nexstar's demands for DIRECTV to pay more than double the previous fees for the same content, DIRECTV lost the rights to offer Nexstar-controlled ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW stations in select markets, as well as NewsNation.

Since the end of 2022 alone, Nexstar has threatened or removed stations it owns or controls from DIRECTV (Oct. 2022), Verizon FIOS (Oct. 2022), Comcast Xfinity (Dec. 2022), DISH Network (Jan. 2023), FuboTV (Feb.-March 2023) and Altice USA-Optimum (March 2023).

FRESNO - Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville, and Sheridan, Montana, was sentenced today to six years and nine months in prison for running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme where he purported to turn cow manure into green energy, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court records, from March 2014 through December 2019, Brewer stole $8,750,000 from investors by claiming to build anaerobic digesters on dairies in Fresno, Kern, Kings, and Tulare Counties, as well as other counties in California and Idaho. Anaerobic digesters are large machines that use microorganisms to break down biodegradable material and turn it into methane. The methane can then be sold on the open market as green energy.

MADERA – The Internet went wild this last weekend when the Madera Tribune falsely published an editorial comment about a public hearing at an upcoming Madera County Board of Supervisors meeting regarding a fee increase in the Assessors Office.

The post appeared on the newspaper’s Instagram page inviting the general public to comment on the fee increase with the hashtag #NoMore. It caused several homeowners to believe that either their property taxes were increasing or fee increases would affect their properties in the county. In reality, the assessor’s fees that will be discussed at the July 11^th meeting have nothing to do with property taxes and will not cost the county property owners one dime.

SQUAW VALLEY - Saturday afternoon, dispatchers with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a property owner on Mistletoe Lane, near Ennis Road in Squaw Valley. The caller said a man was trespassing, acting strange, and refusing to leave. The suspect attempted to contact two other property owners who saw his behavior as erratic, making them feel as though he presented a danger to them and possibly himself.

A deputy arrived on the scene and saw the suspect speaking to a woman holding a shovel in case she needed to defend herself. As the deputy tried to contact the suspect, he kept his hands inside his sweatshirt pockets. The deputy gave him commands to show his hands, but he would not. Instead, he charged the deputy, running straight toward him. The deputy fired multiple shots at the suspect, striking him. The deputy then approached to detain and provide medical aid to the suspect. At this time, the suspect told him he had a gun.