You don’t have time for three hours of doomscrolling, twenty half-baked takes, and some guy online screaming READ THE THREAD. We are Front Page Detectives, this is your morning Drive-By, and here is what is real.
Kevin Reddington is asking Judge William Sullivan to effectively end the case six days after a 12-person jury failed to unanimously acquit Lindsay Clancy.
Lindsay Clancy’s attorney is asking the judge who presided over her murder trial to declare her not guilty by reason of insanity, seeking from the bench the result the defense could not secure unanimously from a jury.
Kevin Reddington filed the request Thursday, six days after Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial following seven days of deliberations. Clancy has admitted strangling Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, but pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder on the grounds that mental illness left her criminally irresponsible. Reddington argues prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence that Clancy understood killing her children was wrong.
The motion follows an increasingly combative end to the trial. Reddington previously tried to have the lone holdout juror removed after the panel reported it could not agree, a request Sullivan rejected. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will retry Clancy.
Reddington wants Sullivan to hear arguments on September 29 and decide the question himself. But the trial ended because twelve jurors could not unanimously reach the verdict the defense wanted. A mistrial is not an acquittal, and the unresolved case now hangs on whether prosecutors seek another jury.
Hot Take: First Reddington wanted the inconvenient juror thrown out. Now he wants the judge to finish the job himself. That is not how justice should end. Three children were killed, the jury could not agree, and Clancy deserves what every defendant does. That being a fair verdict reached in a courtroom, not a shortcut around one.
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A federal judge refused to throw out several claims against attorney Ariel Mitchell, allowing Sean Combs’ lawsuit to move forward.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has won a partial victory in his defamation case against attorney Ariel Mitchell after a Manhattan federal judge ruled that several disputed statements were specific enough to potentially be proven true or false.
Combs sued Mitchell, her former client Courtney Burgess and NewsNation owner Nexstar Media in January 2025 over allegations involving sex tapes, celebrities, minors and drug-laced baby oil. U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan rejected Mitchell’s argument that all her statements were protected opinion or rhetorical hyperbole, though the ruling does not mean the court found that she actually defamed Combs.
Several claims against Nexstar were dismissed because Combs had not adequately alleged actual malice, but one involving an October 2024 NewsNation broadcast survived. Mitchell also failed to secure attorney fees. The parties are due back in court September 17.
Hot Take: Diddy has plenty of legal fires burning, but this one did not go out on command. Surviving dismissal is not vindication. It simply means somebody now has to drag the allegations into the light and test them.
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The former *To Catch a Predator *host says the A24 film darkens his legacy. His own television history was never quite as clean as he suggests.
Chris Hansen is attacking the upcoming Robert Pattinson film Primetime, calling it “completely fictional” and accusing its creators of turning child-protection work into a dark Hollywood horror story.
Hansen told The Hollywood Reporter there would be no movie without To Catch a Predator and branded the project insulting to investigators who work to protect children. He has also compared the film industry’s approach to exploitation by Harvey Weinstein and says he is considering legal action. Hansen complained that A24 would not screen the film for him unless he signed an NDA, though production sources said it was a standard spoiler agreement.
His righteous indignation also skips over the deeply controversial legacy of the franchise itself. In 2006, Texas prosecutor Louis Conradt Jr. died by suicide after police and an NBC camera crew descended on his home during a predator sting. NBC later settled a lawsuit brought by Conradt’s sister.
Hot Take: Hansen built a career walking into rooms and asking men to explain themselves under the glare of a camera. Hollywood has now turned the camera around, and suddenly he dislikes the lighting. Funny how the shadows look different from the other side.
A California appeals court upheld the dismissal of Shawn Carter’s extortion and defamation lawsuit, ruling Buzbee’s demand letters were protected legal communications.
Jay-Z has lost his appeal against attorney Tony Buzbee after a California court upheld the dismissal of the rapper’s extortion and defamation lawsuit arising from allegations that he sexually assaulted minors.
The three-judge panel ruled that letters Buzbee sent to Shawn Carter’s lawyers before litigation were protected prelitigation communications under California law. The court also found Carter had not shown actual malice regarding the defamatory statements at issue and upheld the exclusion of a secretly recorded interview with the woman who had accused him of rape.
That accuser dismissed her lawsuit against Carter with prejudice in February 2025, but later swore that her allegations were true and said she felt intimidated during the recorded encounter. Carter still has other litigation pending against Buzbee and associated lawyers and can seek California Supreme Court review.
Hot Take: Carter wanted the case buried under extortion and defamation claims. Instead, another court has told him the shovel does not work here. The original accusation may be gone, but the legal dirt keeps sticking to everybody involved.
The 19-year-old’s conviction for fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet remains intact after a two-day hearing.
Karmelo Anthony will remain in prison after a Texas judge rejected his request for a new trial in the killing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf.
Anthony, 19, was sentenced to 35 years after a jury convicted him of murder for stabbing Metcalf in the chest during an altercation beneath the bleachers at an April 2025 track meet near Dallas. Anthony claimed self-defense, while prosecutors argued the killing was unjustified. Metcalf died in front of his twin brother and teammates.
Defense lawyers seeking a retrial argued courtroom access restrictions and jury instructions undermined the case. The hearing also revealed an agreement by both sides to keep potentially inflammatory character evidence about the teenagers away from jurors. Prosecutors said Anthony’s phone contained violent messages, including threats involving stabbing and a school shooting. The judge rejected the motion, leaving the conviction standing.
Hot Take: Appeals can expose mistakes, misconduct and bad trials. This one did not erase the verdict. A teenager died in front of his brother, twelve jurors heard the case, and for now the prison door stays shut.
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